Chapter 31
Sam was staring at himself in the mirror, effectively freaking out.
Today was his wedding. His wedding was today. In fact, it was fucking now.
They were all in the small venue they choose for the wedding, where he and Natasha insisted to get married at, completely ignoring Tony’s suggestions of booking them something fancier or more expensive.
It was a lovely venue, surrounded by a nice garden and suited them just fine, they didn’t want anything fancy or overly flashy anyway.
Right now, he was staring hard at his reflection in the mirror in his room. Managing to make himself go into a full-blown panic attack.
“My hair is all wrong!” He repeated frantically for the hundredth time. Convinced that his hair looked like a hobo’s hair.
“Your hair is fine! I have been telling you this a hundred times in the past hour!” Dean was on the verge of ripping his own hair off by now from frustration, having to deal with Sam’s freak out all morning.
“Then if it is not my hair, then a dragon! A dragon will crash the wedding and burn us alive!”
“Sure, because you and Nat are getting married in freaking Hogwarts!”
“Are you sure your doppelganger is dead dead? Not Winchester dead? Did you make sure to burn his body?!”
“Oh, God.” Dean groaned as he covered his face with his hands, feeling a headache starting to make itself known. “Yes, I burned the bastard’s body. There will be no dragons or doppelgangers! Just please, relax!”
“Then it is my hair! I need to fix my hair!” Sam turned to grab an electric razor, just when the door opened to reveal Tony and Erik.
Before either Dean or Tony could react, Sam had effectively shaved his head from the middle in his panic, with Dean and Tony’s horrified screams sounding behind him.
***
“How do you think Sam is doing?” Natasha asked from behind the partition in her room, where she was putting on her dress.
She was directing the question at the occupants of the room, including Steve, Clint, Charlie and Raven. Pepper was walking around the entire venue, making sure that everything was in place and ready.
“I will go check on him, but I am sure he is doing just fine.” Steve shrugged as he made his way towards the door.
But before he could leave, Natasha emerged fully dressed in her wedding dress, making everyone in the room stop and stare at her breathlessly.
“Wow.” Steve’s eyes widened as he stared at her in awe like everyone else, from how stunning she looked.
“I know.” Natasha grinned at him, as she turned to a mirror, obviously liking what she was seeing. “I never thought I will look good in white!”
“I never thought I will see you in white.” Clint snorted, making her turn a sharp glare at him, while Steve just chuckled as he turned to leave to check on Sam.
On his way, he ran into Charles, so they walked together to Sam’s room. But when they approached, they heard the panicked yelling inside that made the both of them frown.
After exchanging a confused look, they opened the door to find the weirdest sight they ever laid eyes on.
A panicked Sam, with his hair half shaved. Dean and Tony frantically moving around the room, trying to find a way to hide his hair, while Erik stood in a corner, staring at Sam’s head with an obvious grimace.
“That can’t be good.” Charles winced at the scene, as everyone turned to look at them with wide eyes.
“What the hell happened?!” Steve exclaimed in horror, unable to take his eyes off of Sam’s hair, knowing that it was not a good time to burst out laughing.
“Uhm, just a slight panic attack that went horribly wrong.” Tony sighed, while pinching the bridge of his nose nervously.
“How are we going to fix this? I can’t go out there like this?!” Sam practically yelled, as he stared at a mirror in panic.
“Well, you were expecting a disaster, so here you go.” Erik commented helpfully, making every eye in the room turn to him with a sharp glare. “What? Just pointing out the irony.”
“Timing, Darling. Know your timing.” Charles sighed with a shake of his head.
“Cas! Cas will be able to fix it!” Dean announced suddenly, with renewed hope.
“You think he will be able to grow back hair?” Tony raised a skeptic eyebrow at that.
“No, you are right, the guy managed to grow back an entire arm, but he won’t be able to grow back some hair.” Dean rolled his eyes so hard, that they almost fell out of his head.
Tony frowned at him, while Erik watched on in amusement, as Sam started to look more hopeful.
“Okay, I will go look for Cas. You stay here and make sure that he doesn’t do any other disaster.” Steve said, giving Sam a very pointed look, that made the taller man look down in shame. “Try not to kill each other, until I come back.”
***
Castiel stared dumbly at Sam, trying to understand what he was looking at.
He was in the middle of a conversation with Bobby and Judy, who were practically jittering in excitement for the wedding, when Steve came up to him with a too big smile.
The moment he saw that smile, he immediately knew that something was wrong. As Steve excused them smoothly, Castiel’s mind reeled from the possibilities.
Did one of the doppelgangers survived? Was there a new threat? Alien invasion? Demon attack? The place was haunted by a vengeful spirit?
What he did not expect was to find himself staring at a half bald Sam Winchester, staring at him sheepishly with crazy, panicked eyes.
He tried. He really, really tried to keep it in, but after a few seconds of stunned silence, he burst out laughing.
The sound startled everyone in the room, but he couldn’t stop even if he wanted to. He just laughed as he stared at the miserable Winchester in front of him.
After a few seconds of the others staring at him in shock, Dean started laughing as well, body bent over from the force of his laughter, apparently a dam had broken inside him.
Soon, Steve and Tony joined in helplessly, while Charles chuckled softly, trying not make it worse. Erik just grinned in deep amusement.
Sam was staring at all of them with a betrayed look, that only lasted for a few minutes, before bursting out in laughter as well, getting infected with their own uncontrollable laughter.
“The only day I manage to make Castiel laugh this hard is today. Just my luck.” Sam let out between his laughter with a shake of his head.
“I am sorry. I am sorry.” Castiel apologized, but still kept laughing away. “It’s just I came here expecting world domination, only to-“ he couldn’t finish as another bout of laughter hit him.
“Oh, God, I can’t breathe.” Dean wheezed, as he fell to his knees from the force of his glee.
“Please, tell me you can fix this.” Steve said while he was trying to control his laughter, while Tony just sat to try to calm himself.
“No.” Castiel answered easily, successfully managing to make the entire room freeze and turn to him with wide panicked eyes, before he snorted, “Sorry, I couldn’t resist seeing this look in your eyes. Yes, I can fix it.”
“God, being around Dean made you mean. I like it.” Erik grinned at him, while the others sagged in relief with nervous chuckles.
“I want to be mad, but I am too busy being so proud.” Dean wiggled his eyebrows at his husband, giving him a wink.
“Thank you.” Castiel just smiled at him, before turning to the emotionally abused Sam. “Now give me your head, let’s see what I can do.”
***
“Don’t you think that Steve took a little too long to come back?” Natasha wondered with a frown, finally noticing that no one of the married couples were seen for a while.
“Relax, it’s not like Sam will suddenly decide to run away.” Raven tried to reassure her mindlessly, realizing too late that her words only managed to make it worse.
“Why? Do you think he will decide to run away? Maybe this is too much for him. Marrying a Russian Assassin is too much for him.” Natasha started to ramble under her breath, making everyone stare at her in shock.
“Are you freaking out? You?!” Clint stared at her in pure shock, not knowing what to do in this rare occasion.
“I am not freaking out. Why? Do you think I should freak out?” Natasha’s too wide eyes stared at him, making Clint fear for his life.
“Do you need a drink? I will get you a drink.” With that he stood up, ready to bolt.
“Check on Sam on your way!” he heard Natasha call out behind him.
He made his way down the hall with a sigh, deciding to just pacify her and check on her groom.
He opened the door to Sam’s room without knocking, then stood there as he watched the too crowded room filled with the three married couples, surrounding a half bald Sam, while Castiel was trying to use his grace to fix his hair.
Without making any indication to his appearance, he left the room just as quietly. Deciding that he too needed a drink to be able to tell Natasha that everything was fine, without giving away anything.
***
An hour later, with only a few minutes before the wedding starts, Sam was finally looking proper with a head full of hair and dressed to the tenth.
“It’s really happening.” Sam whispered as he stared into the mirror, looking more awed than panicked now.
“Yeah, Sammy, it’s happening.” Dean was smiling softly at him. Only he, Tony and Castiel remained in the room. The others already left to get ready for the ceremony. “You are getting married, Bitch. I am going to miss your third wheeling days though. It was hilarious.” Castiel just nudged Dean with his elbow with a raised eyebrow that failed to hide his amusement.
“Oh, wow.” Sam blinked at his reflection, feeling a grin overtaking his face. “I can’t believe this is actually happening.”
“Sorry to interrupt the sweet moment of realization, but I still have no idea what’s my part in the wedding is.” Tony grumbled impatiently, looking to be genuinely upset now about being left out.
Sam’s smile softened as he exchanged a look with Dean and Castiel, but didn’t comment on Tony’s sentence.
Before Tony got aggravated, a knock on the door sounded before it opened to reveal Bucky and Bruce, who were Sam’s other groomsmen.
“Hey, Big Tree, it’s time.” Bucky smiled at him gently, then his eyes trailed towards Tony. “And Tin Man, the bride wants to see you.”
“I hope she isn’t sending for me to help her run away.” Tony rolled his eyes as he got up, making Dean cuff him on the back of his head, while Castiel snorted.
“Try not to jump into helping her right away, maybe try talking to her out of it first.” Sam chuckled nervously, as they all moved to get out of the room.
“No promises, dude.”
***
Tony entered Natasha’s room, after he knocked once.
When he got inside, he found her alone, sitting on the couch and looking expectantly up at him.
He couldn’t help but stare at how absolutely gorgeous she looked, her dress, her hair, her soft make up. The gentle smile on her face.
“Wow, now that what I call beautiful in white.” Tony murmured, not trying to hide the soft smile on his face. “Never thought I will see you in a long flowy dress, Nat.”
“Don’t get used to it. It’s just for the occasion.” Natasha rolled her eyes, before gesturing for him to sit down next to her.
“Why did you ask for me anyway? Getting the jitters?” he asked teasingly as he sat anyway, looking expectantly at her.
“No, I had a slight freak out earlier that ended with Charlie yelling in my face, so I am fine now.” She winced at that, before giving him a small smile. “I asked you here to tell you about your part in the wedding.”
“Finally! I seriously thought you forgot about my existence. Not to mention that all the good spots are already taken.” He rolled his eyes, but couldn’t help the feeling of excitement that hit him, eager to now his part.
“I just wanted to torture you a little. And not all the spots are taken. There is an important one that still needs to be filled.” She raised an eyebrow at him, before taking his hand gently, Tony blinked at her in surprise and confusion, before she looked at him with the softest look he had ever seen on her face. “Tony, will you walk me down the aisle?”
Tony’s eyes widened as he stared back at her, for a moment he thought that he heard wrong.
“What?” he asked dumbly, trying to make sure that he heard right.
Natasha rolled her eyes fondly, before taking both his hands in hers, as she looked directly into his eyes.
“Will you walk me down the aisle and give me away?” she repeated softly, making sure that he understands every word.
“Really?” he breathed out in disbelieve. His heart beating loudly in his chest in excitement and glee.
“Well, yeah.” She chuckled with a shake of his head. “I don’t have a father. I never did.” Then her face got solemn as she stared down at their hands. “But I have you. Obviously, so you won’t get too cocky, you are not a father figure to me, but you are like an obnoxious big brother.” Her gaze lift to meet his, a soft look in her eyes. “And I would love it if my brother walked me down the aisle.”
Tony felt a dangerous wetness behind his eyes and he blinked hard to try and not cry like an idiot. Feeling warm all over from Natasha’s words and he couldn’t help the smile that took over his face.
“Okay.” He murmured, looking up at Natasha’s eyes softly.
“Okay?” Natasha’s smile widened at that.
“Okay.” He confirmed again, squeezing her hands in his.