"Tony, son, would you go find Estélla please? Her mother wants to light the candles on the cake soon."

George Goldwyn grabbed a fourteen year old Tony Stark by the shoulders, smiling down at him with a sparkle in his blue eyes. It was Esté's birthday and the family had spared no expense in decorating their house in the Hamptons to celebrate their only child's special day, golden ribbons and streamers hanging from every wall and around every door while the pile of presents seemed to keep on growing.

Estélla loved parties and while she always insisted she hated being the centre of attention, she never shied away from receiving all the love people showered her in on August 18th.

There wasn't a particular theme that year since she'd outgrown princesses and cartoons, instead having her favourite music playing over speakers and a huge chocolate fountain with all the strawberries and marshmallows she could've ever wished for waiting to be dipped.

There were almost sixty people present that day with only twenty of them being children from Esté and Tony's class at school, the rest of the guests being family-friends of the Goldwyn's. Esté didn't mind though, not really caring at all about who was there so long as Tony was around.

At least, that's what she'd told him.

"Sure, I'll go find her now."

"Good kid, off you go." George said, patting Tony on the back and giving him a gentle push outside.

Adults were drinking champagne and children were running across the lawn barefoot, some down by the beach on the edge of the water and some sitting on the side of the pool with their feet dipped beneath the surface. Tony smiled and waved at his friends, saying hello to people that called his name as he wandered down the garden in search of Esté.

He hadn't seen her in a while after getting caught up talking to his mother in the kitchen and felt guilty about being gone for so long, only as he looked up at the treehouse, he frowned when he realised she wasn't where he'd left her.

"Your hand is so small compared to mine, it's adorable."

"Shut up, it's not that small."

An unmistakably recognisable laugh pulled Tony's eyes further down the garden, squinting in the glare of the summer sun when he saw Estélla and a boy from school sitting together beneath a cherry blossom tree.

The blond haired boy had his arm around Esté's shoulders and their faces were rather close together, so Tony thought, anyway. He watched from a safe distance as they continued to talk, wondering why Esté was laughing at things that definitely weren't funny and why her cheeks went so red whenever he looked at her.

"Can I give you another birthday present?"

Esté went quiet, tilting her head with a shy smile and a gentle nod instead of answering with her voice. The boy grinned and placed a hand on her cheek, leaning painfully close to her lips with his eyes falling closed at the last second.

Tony decided instantly he didn't want to see anything more. The proximity of Esté and the other boy had made his blood boil, a seething anger making him burn and a jealousy twisting his stomach with agonising strength. He knew what was happening as he turned his back, but Tony wasn't sure his heart would've been able to take seeing it with his own two eyes and so, he walked away.

"Did you find her, son?" George asked when Tony walked back into the house with his head down.

"No," Tony mumbled, "I didn't."

Estélla and Tony left the hospital through a back door in separate cars, unseen by the world's press crowded outside the front entrance. There had been a part of Esté that had thought fuck it after Tony had been discharged, considering walking out into the flashes of the cameras with her hand secured inside his own, only the blissful silence of a private kiss before they left made them both want to cling onto their own world for a little bit longer while they still could.

And so grasping onto the small threads of denial that to the world that they were in fact still just friends, Esté made light work of heading to Tony's place unseen every day after she'd finished working to take care of him.

While Tony insisted he was absolutely fine and more than capable of looking after himself after an escape from injury, Estélla didn't listen. She cooked him dinner and helped with the laundry, straightened up the place and helped him clear out of his closet which was most definitely not still on his todo list because of a few cuts and bruises, though she did it anyway.

Tony knew that Estélla thrived off of helping people and so he let her help him even though he didn't need it, enjoying the way it felt to have her around every day when their schedules would usually keep them apart.

That being said, her ear was to her mobile phone a lot of the time while she cooked him dinner over the rest of that week, desperately tying up any remaining loose ends before her birthday party that Saturday, or as she called it, a charity dinner.

Held at the St. Regis in midtown Manhattan, there was a stellar guest list of attendees that arrived on the steps of the famous hotel on the night of August 18th, and Tony was one of them. Sportsmen and actors, musicians and socialites jumped out of cabs and cars with tinted windows, giving singular waves to paparazzi before quickly disappearing through the golden doors guarded by thick-set men dressed in all black.

The sun was still shining as evening fell and champagne was served in the bar while the guests arrived, every single one of them pledging a generous donation to the list of charities hand-picked by Estélla. Charity work was something she felt incredibly passionate about and spent a lot of her free time doing before her return to New York, and so she saw her birthday as the perfect opportunity to turn a party into something more.

Steve and Katy had arrived together as well as Bucky and Alicia, the latter couple finally deciding to go public after keeping their relationship under wraps for long enough. Tony, however, arrived alone, though not without presence. Deciding to pick a red Audi that night, he pulled up outside the hotel and handed his car keys to a valet attendant before posing on the steps in a pristine Tom Ford tuxedo, smiling with sleek eyes and charming smirk before heading inside in search of the birthday girl and a glass of champagne.

"Thank you so much for coming, I'll see you later on!"

Tony's head turned at the sound of Esté's voice, his eyes landing on the woman in the stunning midnight blue floor length gown and perfectly blown out curls. Her smile lit up the place and even though she was only talking to one man who he recognised as being a baseball player, it seemed like Esté had the attention of everybody in the room.

When she saw Tony, however, it didn't matter who called her name next or grabbed her hand to kiss, she was heading to him, and him alone.

Standing with a breath taken smile on his lips, Tony's eyes sparkled at the sight of his girlfriend. She was ethereal as she walked towards him, dress trailing lightly on the floor behind her as she held the hem with one hand and a glass of champagne in the other, her smile endless and her heart beating hard.

"You're here," she said, one hand on the side of his neck as Tony pressed a long kiss to her cheek, resisting the urge to turn her head and kiss her red lips instead.

"Of course I'm here," he shrugged, smiling as he looked her up and down for the millionth time, "You are beautiful, so beautiful, Stella."

She blushed then, her smile turning shy at his words and her eyes narrowing as her shoulders cowered inwards.

"Those bruises do make you look tough, you know," she teased, scanning his face with sultry eyes, "It's quite hot, actually."

"Yeah?" Tony raised a brow, hand lingering on her waist as he gave her a gentle squeeze, "Wait till you see the scar by my-"

"Anthony! Estélla told us you'd be here. God, it's so good to see you, son. Come here."

Esté almost spat out her champagne when her father's voice interrupted the narrowing of Tony's suggestive gaze and the playfulness of his deep voice, swiping wide eyes and a welcoming grin in it's place instead.

"George, it's so great to see you, how are you?" Tony said while embracing him before turning to Esté's mother, "Leonie, gosh you look beautiful. It's a pleasure, sincerely."

Leonie blushed as Tony kissed her cheeks, pulling the boy in for a hug as she struggled to comprehend where the years had gone. The teenage boy she remembered with messy dark hair and youthful eyes was now a man, and a dashingly handsome one at that, though his charm and warmth had stayed the same.

"We're so glad you're here, I'm sorry it's been so long since we've seen you, we have so much to catch up on. We're so proud of you, Tony." Leonie spoke with wildly kind eyes and a hand on his cheek, the smile she gave him reminding Tony of the motherly love he'd always felt from her.

"I'm sure we'll have plenty of time to catch up tonight, I saw the seating chart and I think we're sat on the same table. Is that right, darling?" George said, looking at his daughter.

"Yes," she smiled, resting a hand on Tony's shoulder as he touched her waist again, holding her against him, "In fact we're all-"

"Esté! There's the birthday girl, I've been looking all over for you!"

Shouting over top of the bustling bar came another familiar voice, though one that Tony was admittedly less happy to see. Brad was making his way over in an expensive black suit and bow tie, hair slicked back and champagne in one hand.

Esté let out a quiet sigh, an uncomfortable look flashing across her eyes for just a split second, though she quickly covered it up with a smile before anybody noticed. She cleared her throat and gave Tony's shoulder a squeeze before letting go of him, finishing the rest of her champagne and handing the glass to a passing waiter.

"If you'll excuse me, sorry," Esté said with a nod.

The Goldwyn's and Tony stayed quiet for a moment as they watched Estélla walk through the crowd towards Brad. Tony felt his fists tighten when she embraced him, swallowing thickly as he watched Brad kiss her cheeks and hold her by the waist.

Tony had never felt jealous over a woman before. The revolving door from his past made it easy for him to leave feelings aside and not care about the girls he slept with since as soon as one left, he could quite easily let another one in. The thing about Estélla however, was that Tony knew there wasn't another her.

He cared about her and perhaps was teetering on the edge of something more, too. He loved to touch her and kiss her, hold her hand and listen to her talk, things he'd never thought twice about with any other woman before. The fact that another man was kissing her cheek and holding her in his arms made Tony's insides twist in anguish, and the fact it was somebody he knew had been with Esté, had seen Esté, had felt her, was enough to make him almost lose his mind.

"Can I get you another drink, Tony? You finished that one pretty quickly."

Tony hadn't noticed he'd been staring, though he quickly snapped out of his trance when George nudged him with his elbow, a genuine smile on the man's face. It was then that Tony pulled the glass from his lips and saw it was empty, realising he'd drank the entire thing in a matter of short minutes.

He looked over at Esté and Brad for a few seconds longer, biting his tongue at way the film star looked down at her with bright eyes and a fetching smile. Estélla had told Tony that she absolutely did not have any feelings for Brad anymore, so he really didn't have a single thing to worry about. The new feeling of scalding jealousy, though, was melting away the rationality and calmness that Tony usually held.

He cleared his throat and plastered a smile on his face, putting an arm around Leonie's waist and following George over to the bar.

"Great idea, I think I need one."