"Estélla Goldwyn! Estélla! Has anyone seen her?"

A fourteen year old Tony frowned when the school gymnasium seemingly ground to a halt, silence filling the tall-ceilinged room for a few moments before a low mumble of chattering began to whisper from student's lips.

He peered over his classmates and craned his neck in sight, eyes narrowed as he tried to spot his best friend, though to no avail.

Her absence struck a chord of worry inside Tony, the boy having heard nothing else all week apart from how excited Esté was to perform in the gymnastics competition that afternoon.

Always organised and on time, it was undeniably out of character for Esté to not be waiting already by the balance beam in her leotard with a perfectly slicked back bun lifting her cheeks.

"We'll move on for the time being, I suppose." The teacher called out, clearing her throat after a prolonged silence that Estélla didn't fill.

With a spark of curiosity mixed with a pit of worry, Tony quickly shuffled to the end of the row of seats and pushed open the door, heading out of the gymnasium into the fresh air.

Students walked by in groups carrying piles of books and sports equipment, laughing and talking amongst themselves as Tony dismissed each and every girl with blond hair that passed him, none of them being the one he was looking for.

On the verge of defeat and hoping that Esté had stumbled into the gymnasium just a few minutes late, Tony was almost about to turn on his heels and head back inside, if only it hadn't been for the sound of a soft cry catching his attention.

Walking just a few feet around the corner, Tony's heart sank when he saw Esté crouched on the ground with her face hidden in her hands. She was dressed in a baby pink leotard and just like he'd expected, her golden hair was tied up out of her face, though there was no smile on her lips.

"Esté? What's wrong? You're supposed to be inside."

Crouching down beside her, Tony placed his hands on Esté's small shoulders, his soft voice coaxing her to look up from the ground. Her blue eyes were drowning in tears and her cheeks were stained with salt, her bottom lip quivering as she met his gaze.

"I'm scared," she sniffled, wiping her nose with the back of her hand, "I saw the other girls practicing earlier, I'm nowhere near as good as them."

Tony furrowed his brows and sank down with his back against the wall, pulling Esté down with him while he held his arm across her shoulders, her head falling comfortably against the crook of his neck.

"Are you kidding me? You're the best gymnast in the whole school, not just our grade. What happened? You've been so excited all week."

Esté coughed quietly as she wrapped her arms around Tony's torso, finding comfort in his warm embrace and the familiarity of his scent and his touch.

"I'm just so nervous, I don't want anybody to laugh at me if I fall or mess up."

"You won't mess up, you never could," Tony said, running his hand up and down her arm, "But even if you did, I'll be there to pick you up. I'd never laugh at you for anything and I'll always be there to support you, no matter what."

"You promise?" Esté looked up at him meekly, her eyes dryer than they had been a few moments ago.

His bright smile gave her a flash of hope and as he placed his hand across his chest, Esté knew that even if she didn't have it herself, Tony would always give her the strength she needed.

"Hand on heart," he nodded, "You ready to go in there and win that damn competition?"

With a deep breath, Estélla let Tony pull her to her feet and guide her inside. Later that afternoon, she walked home with nothing less than a gold medal.

"Are you sure you're OK to walk today, Esté? Nobody would think badly of you if you-"

"I'm walking, end of discussion. And please, can we just not talk about this anymore?"

Chaos had exhumed backstage at the Victoria's Secret fashion show. Models were running around all over the place in search of their lingerie pieces while hair and makeup artists worked their magic at an unbelievable speed, winging eyeliner and staining lips a pretty pink.

There was barely room to breathe back there but that didn't bother Esté. The chaos kept her mind occupied and she liked it that way, only Katy and Alicia were unfortunately making it difficult for Esté to keep a certain somebody out of her head.

Her best friends were understudies for the show that day which as delighted as Esté was to have them both backstage with her, it meant two less familiar faces to look for in the crowd when she headed down the runway.

With her parents not being able to make it to New York and presumably an empty seat where a superhero should've been sat, Esté had spent far too long that morning worrying about who was going to applaud for her like the families and boyfriends of the other models would surely have. The notion that she'd be alone on the runway was terrifying, rarely ever having to do a walk where there was nobody she loved sat in the audience watching her with a proud smile on their faces.

Regardless, Esté had the fire inside of her to do her job no matter what, whether she owned a heart in the crowd or not.

It had been exactly one week since Esté walked out of Tony's home with tears streaming down her cheeks and a trail of shattered pieces of her heart behind her. Pictures of the after party had somehow leaked and now it seemed like the whole world was wondering why Tony Stark had spent his evening with his arms around two women that weren't his girlfriend while she watched from across the room.

There had been nothing but radio silence from Tony, which only hurt Esté more. She'd hoped to receive a call from him the next day or to hear a knock at the door and see him fall to his knees and apologise, begging to forget the whole thing had ever even happened and own up to his stupidity, only the phone never rang and the knock never came.

Esté didn't know what to do. She'd desperately wanted to reach out to him but the thought of being rejected by him for a second time hurt her enough to leave her with no tears left to cry, and so she didn't. Instead, she wanted to give Tony the space and time she thought he needed, desperately dreaming that he'd come to his senses.

Part of Esté hoped that Tony would turn up for her show that day. She'd practically talked about nothing but how excited she was to finally walk the show and how much of a career defining moment it had the potential to be for her, and so a small piece of naïvety within her willed to see his face in the crowd, for them to leave the show together hand in hand and go back to how things had been before.

He had embarrassed her and humiliated her perhaps even more so than Giovanni had tried to do with his rumours, but the pain of losing Tony was far worse to Estélla than the pain of his actions. It sounded absurd that she still longed for him after his behaviour, but there was nothing Estélla could do to shake away the feeling of love that she had for him inside of her.

She had fallen head over heels in love with Tony Stark, and although he'd shattered every ounce of hope and desire that their relationship had beautifully blossomed in the blink of an eye, her heart loved him anyway.  

"I'm going to the bathroom, I'll be back in a second."

"You're walking in like five minutes, you'd better hurry!" Alicia said, glancing down at her watch.

Esté just nodded, grabbing her phone and walking over to the bathrooms. She locked herself in a stall and stared down at her phone, scrolling past the text messages of support and missed calls from friends close and distant, feeling her heart sink when the name she wanted to see never appeared.

There was a moment of doubt that plagued Estélla then, an overwhelming sense of insecurity and inept, a disbelief in herself and who she was. She'd never pinned her worth on a man before and she had no intentions of starting then, though as she snapped herself out of the fleeting nightmare, the weight of sadness lingered.

"Four minutes still stage!"

Esté drew in a deep breath and walked out of the stall after hearing a runner call into the bathroom. She glanced at herself in the mirror, nodding once at her reflection in reassurance and pushing every single thought to the back of her mind, clearing room for nothing but focus.

She looked beautiful with her signature Hollywood blowout and pink lips, sporting a daring white lace lingerie set with jaw-dropping high heels and a pair of sparkling wings waiting for her backstage.

After thirty seconds of deep breathing, Estélla felt her heart rate settle and watched her eyes shine, a small yet assured smile spreading across her face and a surge of confidence making her calm enough to leave the bathroom with her head held high, tossing her phone back down onto her vanity.

She frowned when she noticed backstage had suddenly lost the chaos she'd left it in. Two stylists approached her with her tailored wings and helped to slip them over her shoulders, fixing them into place while she held her hair out of the way, wondering why a hostile silence had taken over the inaudible mayhem that had been there just a few minutes before.

Ready for the stage, Esté followed a runner in the direction of the runway to wait in the wings, only for a group of girls stood huddled together by the curtain to stop her dead in her tracks.

"There you all are, what's going on?"

The girls looked up with wide eyes and some whispered to each other while Esté stood non the wiser waiting for an explanation. Katy and Alicia exchanged a quick glance before stepping forward, plastering false smiles on their faces.

"Nothing, are you ready? You look fantastic-" Alicia said, though was quickly interrupted.

"What were you doing?" She frowned, peering around their shoulders to see one of the other models clutching a phone, "What were you looking at?"

"Esté don't-"

Unable to stop her, the girls watched with tight chests as Esté grabbed the phone from one of the other models who did nothing to stand in her way, the entire cast falling deathly silent as Estélla looked down at the screen.

It was sickness that hit Esté first. She felt her stomach rise and her heart flutter up into her throat, her head starting to spin and her vision blur. She blinked once and hoped to see something different on the phone in her hand, only it was a haunting realisation to see the same image in front of her.

A photograph of Tony Stark leaving a bar the evening before with a blonde girl who looked strikingly similar to Estélla was what had dropped the silence on the Victoria's Secret angels that afternoon. All of them knew what had happened one week before but nobody apart from Katy and Alicia had been close enough with Esté to even dare to mention Tony's name, though she'd felt the stares and heard the whispers nonetheless.

Estélla felt herself crumble inside. She stared at the picture and felt disgusted at the way the girl was clinging to Tony's side, broken at the way his hand held hers as he led her to his car. She could feel so vividly what it felt like for Tony to hold her hand, how warm his skin was and how he'd always squeeze it so tightly, how such a small interaction could make Esté forget that the world was even turning at all. The thought of anybody else knowing what that sensation was like was almost enough to make her fall to the floor and weep, but her eyes remained dry.

"Esté, I'm so sorry..." Katy said quietly, placing a frail hand on her shoulder with a solemn shake of her head.

Esté just cleared her throat, inhaling sharply before handing the phone back to the girl. She licked her lips once and fluffed up her hair before shrugging her shoulders.

"Whatever. We have a job to do, girls, it's showtime."