“I’m a sucker for a happy ending.”
March 20
“Hey, hey, be gentle with that!” Tony cried. “It’s an antique!”
“It’s garbage,” Clint scoffed. He turned his body sideways to fit himself and Tony’s favorite charred chair in the world through the front door. “Where do you want it?”
“Upstairs, my room,” Tony said, his attention already on where Natasha was looking at Tony’s motherboards with a little too much interest.
“Aht! Bad psycho!” Tony yelled at her. “No touchy my tech with your sticky little spy fingers!”
Natasha rolled her eyes at the nickname Tony’s kid gave her that stuck around but she also scooped up Tony’s equipment gently.
“Lab is in the back half of the garage,” Tony told her. “Don’t break anything!”
“If you were worried about us breaking things then perhaps you would have hired actual movers.” Pietro, who was mostly showing off as he ran inside with box after box after box, scoffed with good-natured intent.
“I did hire movers,” Tony said. “I’m paying you, right?”
Natasha, Clint, Pietro, and Bruce all answered as one, “No.”
“No?” Tony stroked his chin thoughtfully before snapping his fingers and grinning. “No, that’s right. I’m housing you, which is a hell of a lot more expensive than paying you would be.”
The others complained playfully and Tony resumed bossing them around while they helped him finally get moved. The house was perfect, it was everything Tony dreamed it would be.
Pepper was already inside, hard at work arranging the furniture just how she liked it. Harry was inside somewhere too with his geek. Tony saw Peter arrive an hour or so ago with two cans of paint and kept his lips zipped when the boys promptly disappeared.
Tony told Harry that he would have his rooms painted any colors that Harry wanted, but nooo, Harry wanted to exhaust himself by doing his own painting.
Sirius was also around somewhere… Tony assumed that Sirius was hiding away in his house off on the corner of the property until he saw a black dog lying beneath the shade of a tree. Even as a dog, Sirius was breaking Tony’s heart with his big sad eyes and general lack of cheer. Even the red cape that covered Sirius seemed sad with its drooping edges.
Tony wished he could do something for Sirius, but there was just nothing to do. Sirius had been miserable for the last month and Tony doubted that he’d ever forget the way Sirius broke down at Stephen Strange’s memorial service.
Everyone tried to be there for Sirius, the team really fell together and closed in ranks, but Sirius seemed to be carrying all his grief alone. It was even harder since everyone knew that Tony was so damned relieved that it had been Stephen instead of Sirius who took a nosedive off a cliff. Tony knew Sirius would have too… Sirius would do anything for Harry, even making the sacrifice play. Tony couldn’t imagine Harry’s heartache if Sirius pulled a stunt like that when they both knew it was one of Harry’s worst fears.
Even with the soul piece finally gone from Harry’s head, the kid would have rather died than lose his godfather. Harry had been devastated enough to lose the man that had been a mentor to him, Tony thought it was a wound only balmed by knowing it had been either Sirius or Stephen. And Tony would rather die himself than lose Sirius or Harry.
If it made Sirius feel better to hide away as a dog, minimize how much he has to talk with anyone, then so be it.
Pietro could move Sirius’ stuff for him.
Tony bossed his friends around for a while before Happy called him with an ETA on when Tony’s collection of motorcycles and cars would be delivered that day. Tony kept half a dozen cars at the Tower for his friends who still lived there to use, but he took his favorites home with him.
Home.
It was a simple word that made Tony giddy every time he thought it.
Tony had a house he once shared with his parents. Tony had a dorm in college he started with Rhodey. Tony had a house he lived in alone. Tony had a tower he filled with his friends.
Tony had never truly had a home, but that’s what their new place was.
It was a home that Tony would share with his soon-to-be wife, his son, and as many kids as Pepper would give him. They were going to be so damn happy there, Tony just knew it.
It was when Tony confessed his super sappy feelings about the new house to Pepper that she decided they would spend spring break moving instead of doing it over the summer as originally planned. Tony wanted to take Harry to see Aruba, but Harry said it hadn’t been a good time for him to go on a vacation anyway.
Apparently being the Sorcerer Supreme came with a middle-aged Asian man who summoned Harry at odd hours with even odder requests.
Tony was whistling when he found Pepper in her office on the main floor of the house. Tony grabbed her around the waist and pressed a kiss to the side of her neck.
“I’m sweaty,” Pepper complained even as she tilted her head to allow Tony to cover her skin with kisses.
“Mmm, the sweat of a hard-working woman,” Tony murmured. He licked a stripe up Pepper’s neck just to hear her squeal. “I like it.”
Pepper turned in Tony’s arms so he could see the dirt smudged on her cheek and the strands of her hair that fell from her bun.
“You’re not sweaty at all,” she said accusingly. “Have you moved anything?”
“Have I…?” Tony feigned hurt. “Miss Potts, I moved all the clothes, if you recall.”
“You had your son drop all the clothes through a portal if you recall,” Pepper reminded Tony sarcastically. “You haven’t touched a single box.”
That was entirely true. It was a close save though, Harry thought he was going to be responsible for moving his own belongings that morning and he tried to drop them all through a portal. Tony wasn’t quick enough to save Harry’s desk, but he did save the rest of the furniture and other breakable belongings.
“Delegation is hard work,” Tony told her seriously. “You’ll need to take some lessons from me, Pep. You can’t run our company, run our family, and be barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen.”
“Then I delegate you to be pregnant,” Pepper said. She kissed Tony entirely too briefly before pushing him away. “Go see what Harry’s up to.”
“Ma’am, yes, ma’am!” Tony saluted Pepper with a wink. “If you change your mind about those lessons, let me know. I think I can find my naughty teacher outfit somewhere.”
With Pepper’s laugh following Tony to the hallway, he whistled his way down to Harry’s floor of the house. The elevator was a little too quiet without Jarvis installed yet, but Tony amused himself by looking at the red droplets of what was either blood or paint already staining the floor.
Tony was already guessing paint and it was confirmed as soon as the elevator doors opened and Tony saw Harry’s floor. The floor plan itself was set up as a mimicry of their place in the tower, Tony wanted it to be familiar and accessible enough for Harry that he never got any crazy ideas about moving out, but the color was entirely Harry.
“This is a lot of red,” Tony whistled as he looked around. It seemed as if Peter had done Harry a favor by moving the furniture into one tarp-covered lump in the center of the floor, but neither of the teenagers were safe from the paint everything else was covered in.
Harry turned and gave Tony a guilty smile when he realized they had been caught - literally - red-handed. There was a lightness in Harry’s body that Tony liked to see. Even with the Eye of Agamotto dangling off Harry’s neck, with a silver dog tag attached to the same necklace, Harry looked more light and free than he had in a long time.
“Peter said he’d clean everything,” Harry swore.
“Hey!” Peter flicked his paintbrush at Harry, explaining why everything was a wreck. “I did not!”
“I’ve only got one leg, prat!”
“Better hop to it then, Bright Eyes.”
Tony could spend an eternity just listening to the easy banter that Harry delivered with a grin. Everything was so different than it had been when father and son were first introduced.
Though… Tony sighed when his phone rang and he recognized his VP of Developments… some things never changed.
“Dinner party at five,” Tony reminded the two of them before answering his phone and walking away. “Mark, what can I do for you?”
Mark hesitantly described a glitch that the handicapped accessible version of the StarkCar’s were experiencing and Tony helped troubleshoot it while he wandered aimlessly around his home.
Damn. Tony would never get sick of using that word.
By a quarter after five that evening, the Stark home was mostly put together and overflowing with people. Tony’s friends were mingling with Harry’s friends from the VA. There were teenagers on the back porch that everyone pretended not to notice sharing a flask. Tony’s favorite intern was wandering around, interrogating guests under the guise of being friendly, and Peter was capturing every moment on his camera for Harry.
Sirius sat in the living room with Thor, listening to stories about Asgard with a vacant look in his eyes. Rhodey was in there as well, telling some story to Private First Class Booker that had the young woman laughing so hard she had to oh so casually hold on to Rhodey’s shoulder to stay upright.
Tony winked at Rhodey when he caught his eye and then left to go check on the other guests.
And then he paused and turned around to stare at Sirius with his jaw open.
“You’ve got to be kidding me!” Tony cried as it sank in his brain what he was looking at. “What the hell?”
Sirius and Thor both turned to look at Tony and Tony flapped an incredulous hand toward Sirius.
“I’m calling bullshit,” Tony declared.
Because what didn’t even register in Tony’s brain at first glance toward Sirius sure as hell did on the second glance. Sirius sat on the couch, a drink in one hand and Thor’s hammer swinging idly in his other hand.
The same damn hammer that Tony never managed to lift even an inch.
“It is wondrous news!” Thor boomed with a wide smile. “The stars gifted their child with the power of worthiness!”
“But Sirius is an asshole,” Tony whined, enviously looking at that hammer. “Mjolnir has terrible taste!”
“Don’t hate the hammer for liking me better,” Sirius said with an obviously fake smile. “You get our kid, I get a bloody hammer.”
And since that was obviously the booze and grief talking, Tony made a quick retreat and sent Pietro to go take care of his bestie. Then, before Tony could try and get a turn holding Staff Sergeant Godwin’s adorable little girl, he was waylaid by his very tipsy son.
“Dad, Dad!” Harry grabbed Tony’s shoulder and Tony put a steadying hand on Harry’s back when he nearly tripped and face planted. “Look at Mum, hurry.”
Tony looked to where Harry and the goth chick he was friends with were looking and sighed in patient amusement when he found his fiancée.
“Is she drunk?” Tony asked Harry with a grin. Pepper had to have been sneaking her own drinks because otherwise Tony’s very prim and professional love was just sober and wobbling precariously on Harry’s broomstick while Wong guided some sort of bubble around her to keep her from crashing into people or walls.
“I hope she isn’t.” Peter joined them and Tony was grateful he paused his laughter long enough to click a few photos of Pepper flying. “I doubt you want the baby to have fetal alcohol syndrome. It’s going to be short enough already.”
Tony and Harry both turned as one to stare at Harry’s entirely too casual looking boyfriend.
“Peter… what?” Harry asked, suddenly stone cold sober.
“Hm?” Peter lowered his camera and glanced between the two Starks as his face slowly drained of color. “Fuck. You totally already knew that, right?”
“You bloody prat!” Harry howled with a wide smile. “How long have you known?!”
“And how long have you known??” Tony yelled across the room to Pepper, too stunned to be happy just yet.
It would come, it would come and put Tony’s perfect happiness with life on levels that even the best tech couldn’t read.
Everyone in the dining room where they’d been mingling went quiet as they tried to puzzle out what Tony was talking about.
Peter was actually frantically apologizing in whispers to Harry, using something about ‘spider senses’ excusing how he noticed Pepper’s recently elevated heart rate and minute changes to her body.
Pepper met Tony’s eyes and smiled, clearly knowing exactly what Tony was asking her.
“I’ve known for two weeks,” she said. “And I mean it, the next one is yours, I’m sick of being sick.”
Tony let out a whoop of laughter and ran from one side of the room to the other so he could carefully swing Pepper off Harry’s broom and into his arms. All of Pepper’s recent insistence that they get moved and the way that she had been complaining about constant ‘unhealthy’ takeout finally made sense. As did the way that Pepper had woke up sick recently, grossing Tony out.
“I thought you were stressed about Harry and that whole ‘battle with evil’ that Wong keeps involving him in!” Tony cried between fast and furious kisses on every inch of Pepper’s perfect face.
They weren’t being subtle at all, not in front of all their closest friends, and the chorus of congratulations filled their home while Wong muttered about ‘helicopter parents’.
Tony was already trying to guide Pepper to a chair so she could rest while Harry was so excited for a sibling that he let Natasha hug him. Rhodey laughed and shook Sirius’ hand, congratulating the godfather on his next Stark he’d have to protect.
“Grandpa!”
Tony looked over his shoulder and saw that Loki has materialized in the center of the packed room before he was promptly hugged by an intoxicated fifteen year old.
“I’m going to be a brother!” Harry told him with a smile that eased every fear Tony had that Harry would resent a sibling.
Loki looked around the room, raising an eyebrow at the mess of cheering amputees, and then patted Harry on the head like a dog.
“A terrible curse,” Loki drawled, eyeing his brother with just a bit too much warmth for his words to have any impact.
“Brother!” Thor approached Loki and slapped him on the back with a hearty smile, jolting Loki and Harry both. “You are here for a merry occasion, indeed! What brings you to Midgard?”
“You know me, brother,” Loki shrugged a shoulder up and continued to study the room that was filled with smiles, laughter, teasing jokes, and love.
“I’m a sucker for a happy ending.”