Chapter 5
It was the wedding of the century, everyone claimed. Those who were lucky enough to get invitations thanked their lucky stars, and those that didn't, tried their best to get added to the former list. The invitation list being revealed a year before the event only served to add to the hype.
And it wasn't only that way for the civilian population. Getting his plus one invitation, Colonel James Rhodes finally got the guts to ask his preferred plus one.
“Carol?” He asked his fellow air force officer.
“Jim. Hey.”
“I have a plus one invitation to Tony's wedding. Do you want to come with me as my date?”
“Whoa, you got an invite to the event of the decade? Sure, yeah, it's a date.” She smiled, and he nodded a bit awkwardly. He had never had Tony's talent with the enigma that were women outside of a professional setting. He got on with female coworkers just as well as the male in a professional setting, but with romance? He was horrible.
He was about to leave when she said, “Wait… We have to match. When do you have a day to go shopping?” Carol Danvers wasn't so much a girly girl Barbie style, but she still understood the importance of looking good in formal situations.
“Next Saturday?”
“I have it off too. Great.” She said, and, slinging her bag over her shoulder, departed to go tell Maria the news.
The news circling the Internet was mostly curiosity as to who was leading the bride down the aisle, and the feminist movement celebrated when it was revealed she would be walking herself down the aisle.
President Matthew Ellis decided it was worth all of everything that came with being president for the precious invite.
Hope Van Dyne and Hank Pym were very surprised at the invitations, but Darcy Lewis was not.
Her classmates at Culver were all questioning on why a freshman was getting invited while they weren't.
Then at lunchtime she made a show of proving her claim of having an invite. She pulled the gold-embossed envelope from her backpack, as she set aside her lunch, and carefully opened it, pulling out the invitation.
“Darcy Jade Lewis, invitation to the wedding of Anthony Edward Stark and Lilith Rose Evans. Dress Code, Luxury Formal, dress provided for all bridesmaids. Invitation status: Maid of Honor.”
Jaws were dropped by everyone within earshot.
“Maid of Honor?!” Came a bevy of exclamations from around the room.
“Well yeah, duh. That's my half-sister getting married.”
“Your what? You have a half-sister?”
“Yeah. I mean, her mom died years before I was born, and our dad just poofed and disappeared when I was one, and she was 10, but of course I'm the Maid of Honor. Who else?”
“Do you have extra spots?” Asked Jerkface McDouchebag, AKA Carlos Velazquez, the self-proclaimed King of the campus, who everyone tolerated for his great success at basketball and soccer for the university's teams.
“Yeah, I have half a dozen spots available. Why?”
“I can come with you and make that a date. You on?”
“Dude, if that's your idea of smooth talking, you've got another thing coming. I have 6 extra invites but you can be sure none of them are for you.”
He slunk away, embarrassed.
“Well, look who's Miss Smoothtongue around here.” Her best friend Jane Foster said. Jane was 6 years older and studying under Doctor Erik Selvig, but Darcy was besties with her all the same.
Darcy slid an envelope towards Jame. “I made sure that one has your name on it. Plus one, as per standard. Front row seats.”
“Thanks.” Jane smiled, then squealed and hugged Darcy as tightly as she could.
The other much coveted invites, she held over her classmates heads for two months, before settling and inviting her three favorite classmates, her sorta friends that she met that year at Culver, her old best friend from High School, and a nice guy that was cute arm candy and smart enough to keep up with her, and who had yet to try and ask her out to the wedding in obnoxious gold digger style. There weren't actually that many left to choose from.
The feminists of the world had a ball when they saw Lilith leading herself down the red carpeted walkway to the altar, although she had drawn a line at that, they were getting married by the head justice of the Supreme Court instead of the Pope like Tony had considered. She was half Norse god, she would not be married Catholic.
On May 18th, 2008, millions watched on live TV as Anthony Edward Stark and Lilith Rose Evans were wed, with (as the world's population of fangirls decided that day) future teen heartthrob Teddy Stark as their ring-bearer for rings that cost more than the average first world citizen would make in a decade of normal work.
Her dress itself, couture stunning white silk and glittering with diamonds, cost many millions, not to mention the diamonds in her hair, her ears, and her decorative tiara. The tiara was a story in itself. It was from the ancient Black Family jewels, and as Sirius had left everything to her, she had worn it as a tribute to him. Her engagement ring, still on her hand, was a 23 carat wonder, and left no doubts about Tony Stark's tax bracket.
As for the tiara, and it's history, Rose had also finally has the paperwork to have Sirius’ will validated so that she could take up the House of Nobles seat the Black Family, for all they were blood supremacists, had guarded the seat of muggle nobility jealously, the blood supremacists excuse being that it was gifted by King Arthur himself, the last wizard King on England.
And though she had kept the seat quiet, she hadn't hidden it.
So when it came her time for the vows, and the judge said, “Do you, Lilith Rose Evans, Duchess of Blackshire, take Anthony Edward Stark, to be your husband?”
“I do.” She said, and as they slipped the rings onto each other's fingers, the judge finished the ceremony.
“You may now kiss your spouse.”
In the end, when signing the paperwork, they had agreed to share all assets including her title, Stark Industries, and guardianship of Teddy, but she nevertheless took his last name. It was a spur of the moment decision but for all she had started advancing their relationship for strategic advantages, she really did love him, as he did her.
As per celebrity tradition, before the party, they had a press conference.
After quick congratulations, the reporters began their questions.
“Are you taking his last name?”
“Yes, I am. Mrs. Stark has a certain ring to it.”
“What's the age gap between you two?”
“Nine years.”
“Why was nobody walking Mrs. Stark down the aisle?”
“It was both a symbol and because my father has been missing, assumed dead, since I was 10.”
“Will Mr. Stark become Duke Stark?”
“Duke Consort since it is her title and yes.”
“Have you officially adopted Teddy?”
“Yes.”
“What do you think your parents would say?”
“No comment.”
“Are you planning on children?”
“We're uncertain about that and like with Teddy, that will be kept out of the spotlight for as long as possible.”
“What are your honeymoon plans?”
“A month on a private island I inherited along with the Duchess of Blackshire title and Black family estates.”
The press conference continued with reporters throwing questions and the couple answering a majority of them.
The photographers took a lot of photos, and the wedding buffet feast and ball was sighed over by everyone both there and watching. The couple looked every inch the rich and elegant upper class newlyweds they were.
After their first dance, there was some dancing to classical music, during which the couple circulated talking with the guests.
Phil Coulson couldn't believe the luxury of the wedding. He had grown up well adjusted and in a middle class household, but there was luxury just dripping off the place, and he smiled when he heard the swelling cello music of his girlfriend, Audrey Nathan, who was hired to play her best cello music, known further than her hometown of Portland, and then he could dance with her for the evening.
The newly dubbed Mrs. Stark split from her husband's arm as he talked with the president. She walked around the hall, getting a nod and a smile from Darcy until the latter departed for whoever her new dance partner was. She passed Dudley in a lovely discussion with Hope van Dyne, and gave him a small thumbs up. She got her first autograph request of the evening from Peter Parker, the son of two extremely talented Stark Industries scientists that Tony often worked with personally, and also a Stark fanboy.
“Mrs. Stark, can I get an autograph?” The eight year old kid piped up.
“Sure, kid. What's your name?” She said, as she took the pen he offered her.
When he replied, “Peter Parker, M’am.”
She wrote, To Peter Parker,
Thank you for attending my wedding, and congratulations on receiving my first autograph as Mrs. Stark.
Signed,
Duchess Lilith Rose Stark
He gave her a bright and innocent smile full of sunshine only such a young child could create and, hugging both autograph and pen to his chest, running off to find his parents.
She saw, out of the corner of her eye, a photographer getting the exchange, and she gave him a nod, allowing the candid photo.
She reviewed a couple more congratulations from people she didn't really know, and headed back to Tony.
Shortly afterwards, the ball changed from classical music to Tony Stark style music, which was basically the best of Rock, but live, featuring mostly bands such as AC/DC as well as Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin. This was, after all, still Tony Stark.