Chapter 2
“Careful. Careful. Careful!”
“You know what, Erik? For the rest of our lives, I will be careful, until told otherwise.” Charles raised an eyebrow, as he looked down at his husband from the top of the stairs.
“Give me a break, my heart almost stops every time you try to get down the stairs.” Erik sighed nervously, while he pinched the bridge of his nose.
“That’s comforting really. Don’t let me get in the way of your overwhelming confidence and optimism, darling.”
“I didn’t know getting your legs back will make you this snarky.” Castiel smiled in amusement, as he watched intently as the telepath started to, carefully, get down the stairs, preparing to interfere in case Charles’ legs wobbled or something.
“I have always been snarky, Castiel. The wheelchair just made it look cute.” Charles rolled his eyes, finally reaching the bottom of the stairs towards Erik, who breathed a sigh of relief, as he took him into his arms.
“Yeah, right now? Not so cute.” Raven snorted, before making her way towards the main door. “Now, if you will excuse me, I need to get my and Charlie’s bridesmaids’ dresses, before Natasha reminds me for the tenth time.”
When she finally left, Erik turned to Charles with a soft smile.
“You will always be cute to me, even in your snarkiest moments.” He murmured sweetly, leaning down to give him a quick kiss.
“Thank you, darling.” Charles grinned up at him, as he leaned up to steal another kiss. Being able to do that again will never get old.
“Come on, I made you pancakes for breakfast.” The metal bender announced, as he started to pull the telepath towards the kitchen.
“How about-“ Charles stopped him and pulled him closer to look up at him from under his lashes. “-I let you cover me up with syrup and gobble me up instead?”
“Please, don’t do that.” Castiel’s deadpan voice made both of them flinch and look up at him with wide eyes. “I like syrup. Please, don’t ruin it for me.”
“Not being able to hear anything from your mind makes me sometimes not notice you are still in the room.” Charles winced apologetically at the angel.
“Use your eyes instead, then.” Castiel raised an eyebrow, his lips twitching a little in amusement, as he turned and made his way towards the kitchen, hearing them following him.
Apparently, Charles became way hornier and kinkier, since he was able to walk around properly again. Sadly, Castiel knew that from the amount of times he accidently walked on them around the tower and the bunker, since Charles sometimes didn’t notice him in the room or coming their way. Erik never complained and seemed to be more than happy to indulge Charles no matter where they were. Thankfully, this never happened in the mansion, since there were children around.
It was really nice to see the two of them being this cute and happy around each other. It’s like their relationship was renewed with no pain, guilt or sadness between them anymore. It was affecting everyone around them, especially the students, who were still thrilled about seeing their professor walking around like that.
A few minutes later, they were sitting in the kitchen eating Erik’s pancakes. It was empty save for the three of them. The students were all in the backyard, enjoying a day in the sun, Charles’ orders, and being supervised by Hank and Logan, so it was just the three of them inside.
He was supposed to return to the Tower today. Mainly, because Dean was bitching at him to come back, thinking that just because Castiel wasn’t constantly in his line of sight, he will combust into flames or something, and Natasha was nagging at him to help out with some wedding related stuff.
His phone didn’t stop ringing in the past three days and it was driving him insane.
On cue, his phone started to ring again and he finally lost his shit.
Without bothering to see the caller id, he grabbed his phone and stood up to shove it inside a pot, covered it, then slammed it inside the oven with a growl.
“Now, you know, those are a delicacy in India.” Charles’ amused voice said from behind him.
“Then I hope you are craving Indian food.” He retorted, as he sat heavily again at the table.
“You are increasingly frustrated lately.” Erik commented, adding a few pancakes to both Castiel and Charles’ plates.
“Can’t help but feeling something is about to happen.” Castiel frowned down at his food. It’s a feeling he was having for a while now the closer the wedding gets, putting him constantly on edge.
“I thought I was the morbid one in this family.” Erik stated with a raised eyebrow.
“I spent too much time with you, it seems.”
“What makes you feel like this anyway?” Charles asked curiously, as he added way too much syrup on his pancakes. Practically drowning the poor breakfast food.
“It’s been quiet for months now. No alien invasions. No demon activity. No Apocalypse. It’s making me nervous and edgy.” His frown deepened then. “Sam and Natasha deserves to have their big day. I don’t want anything to ruin it for them.”
“You have nothing to worry about. If something did happen on the wedding day, Natasha will bury it, before it even starts. She is ruthless like that.” Charles chuckled softly, then gave the angel a kind smile. “It’s going to be fine, Castiel. We will all be there. What can happen in a room filled with superheroes?”
“Hopefully, nothing we can’t handle.” Castiel muttered into his food.
Erik’s phone rang then and he answered immediately.
“Hello? Wait.” The mutant threw his phone at Castiel then. “It’s for you.”
“Dammit!” the angel groaned loudly and Charles let out a laugh at his distress.
***
Dean and Tony entered the living room, only to see Clint holding a dress and was placing it in front of his body, inspecting it curiously.
They both stopped in the doorway, watching the scene with barley contained glee.
The Archer finally noticed their presence and looked up like a deer in headlights.
They stared at each other silently for exactly two seconds.
“You look just like your son, Mrs. Barton.” Tony grinned gleefully, while Dean burst out laughing.
“It’s not what you think.” Clint rolled his eyes then sighed, knowing that the two men will never stop, until they get all the jokes stuck in their throats at the moment.
“You finally decided to wear a dress, Maid of honor?” Dean guffawed, as he didn’t even bother to control his laughter. “Oh, I hope this color will match your lipstick.”
“Seriously, what is happening to the men in this place? trying to steal Natasha’s thunder? Next thing I will see, is Thor deciding to try on Natasha’s wedding dress.”
“You two would make high school bullies very proud.” Clint scowled at them, before dropping on the couch and crossing his arms petulantly.
“Okay, okay, sorry. Please, Clintrella tell us why do you have a bridesmaid dress?” Dean asked with barley contained grin, as he flopped on another couch.
“Natasha wants me to wear a tie the same color as the bridesmaids’ dress, so I borrowed Pepper’s until I could find a tie like that.” Clint frowned down at the offending red dress.
“I have one. You can take it.” Tony shrugged and took a seat next to Dean.
“You have a fiery red tie?” Dean raised an eyebrow at him.
“have you met me?” Tony gave him a blank look, before turning back to Clint. “Take it. I have several ones.”
“Thanks, dude. You just saved me from going shopping again.” Clint shuddered visibly with a grimace. “Natasha dragged me around to an unholy amount of shopping. From buying her wedding shoes to the lingerie specific for the wedding night, I think I am actually turning into a woman- Don’t!”
Tony and Dean snorted and was about to open their mouths, if not for Clint’s warning yell. They snapped their mouths shut with matching grins on their faces.
“Anyway, do you have a date for the wedding, or you will still maintain the ‘Forever Single’ statues?” Dean asked curiously, while standing up to get a beer from the kitchen.
“Well, the choice is hard! Ladies are lining up to be my date.” The archer scoffed, as he avoided looking at them. “In fact, a few of them were making eyes at me in the coffee shop this morning.”
“Dude, don’t rub our faces with your crazy single life.” Tony deadpanned with a blank face, accepting the beer Dean was handing him.
“No, really! Also there was a woman in the subway, who ‘accidentally’ sat on my hand.”
“Why did we get married?” Dean wailed dramatically, before giving Clint a bitchface as he handed him a beer.
“Okay, so maybe my love life is nonexistent for too long now.” The Archer sighed miserably.
“Oh, really? We didn’t notice.” Steve announced his presence, smirking over at Clint as he gave the top of Tony’s head a kiss, who grinned up at him like the lovesick idiot he was, before flopping on the couch next to him.
“Thanks for showing up and make this entire situation worse, Cap.” Clint glared at the grinning man, but it was physically painful to even try to be mad at that guy.
“I will go make a cup of coffee. You want a cup, Ken doll?” Tony asked Dean while standing up.
“Yeah, sure. I need to wash the taste of Sam’s sissy wine from my mouth.” The hunter grimaced, as he took a big gulp from his beer, like he was washing the taste.
“Do you want anything, Baby Doll?” the genius turned to his husband with a grin.
“I am fine, thanks.” Steve answered with a raised eyebrow at the new nickname.
“I can’t pull off ‘Baby Doll’, can I?”
“No. I think we learned that from the ‘Sugar Lips’ incident.”
“Noted.” Tony winced, turning lastly to the archer. “Clintrella?”
“Yeah. Make it black like my future as I die sad and alone.” Clint whined dramatically, as he pressed his face into his hands.
“Aren’t you a ray of sunshine.” Tony snorted, making his way towards the kitchen.
“I think I lost my touch with the ladies.” Clint announced miserably, voice muffled into his hands. “I really am going to die alone, aren’t I?”
“Oh, don’t say that. Just because you didn’t have a decent date in almost six months and you flirt like a pre-teen on a sugar rush, doesn’t mean you will die alone.” Dean tried to cheer him up, but from the look Steve was giving him, he didn’t do a great job.
“Thanks, Dean. Really helpful.” Clint scowled at him with narrowed eyes.
“Why are you focusing on women? I know for a fact that you are not exactly as straight as an arrow.” Steve grinned a little at his own pun, making the other two men roll their eyes at him.
“Yeah, that’s true, but all the guys that gets my attention are either straight or gay married.” Clint raised an eyebrow at them pointedly. They blinked back at him, playing dumb. “Besides, I don’t really know how to flirt with guys. It was only a handful of encounters in my life.”
“I could help with that.” Dean grinned smugly, as he leaned forward. “My flirting got me Cas. That’s a huge score by the way.”
“Oh, yeah! You met. You flirted. And five years later, you got him!” Clint rolled his eyes with a snort.
Dean blinked dumbly a few times, exchanged a look with Steve, who shrugged with an awkward smile.
“Fair enough.” The hunter sighed, as he leaned back in his chair.
“Okay, obviously, I am doing something wrong. So you both tell me what do you do while flirting that effectively repel people from you?” Clint asked curiously, as he looked at them expectantly.
“Seriously? I only really flirted with two people in my life and I married one of them, only because he did all the flirting after I failed miserably.” Steve deadpanned with a blank face and a raised eyebrow.
“That’s the point! Why did you fail miserably? You too, Dean.”
The two light haired men exchanged a quick look, before sighing in defeat.
“Well, people don’t like it when I correct their grammar.” Steve stated with a shrug.
“Or explain why my jokes are funny.” Dean added helpfully.
“Or talk about random, unrelated topics when I get awkward.”
“Or when I blurt out inappropriate things in the middle of a normal conversation.”
They both stopped and blinked at each other dumbly for a few seconds. Meanwhile, Clint was trying so hard not to burst out laughing.
“I am so lucky I have Tony.”
“If Cas left me, I will die alone.”
At that moment, Tony came back to the room, carrying a tray with three mugs of coffee, which he almost dropped when a red ball of rage stormed inside the room loudly.
“Clinton Francis Barton!” Natasha yelled the moment she laid eyes on the Archer.
“Whoa, what are you middle naming me for?” Clint exclaimed in panic, while the others watched nervously, afraid to even make a move.
“Did you take one of the bridesmaids’ dresses without telling me?”
“No?” he threw the dress behind his back towards Dean, who caught it then frantically hid it with Steve, as subtly as they could.
Natasha’s glare intensified, making Dean wince in sympathy for Clint for being on its receiving end.
“Get that dress to Pepper, or I swear I will castrate you, so you could wear that dress yourself!” with that, she turned on her heels and left the room as suddenly as she appeared.
They stayed frozen, looking at each other. Poor Clint looking like he was two seconds away from shitting himself.
Tony turned towards the frozen Dean with a nervous smile.
“Have I told you how lucky Sam is? He is marrying a delicate, pretty flower. He will never get bored!”