To The Stars and Back

    Tony was pacing back and forth in the room as Rhodey and Maria tried to get him to calm down. Nothing was working, but it was still worth a shot. They all knew that the only thing that would be able to get Tony to calm down was seeing either Peter or Stephen. Since Peter was currently with Stephen, Tony would have to wait a little while longer to see them. 

    “Anthony, come sit down. There is no need for you to be wearing a hole in the floor,” Maria said from her spot on the couch.

    “Mamma, you and I both know that I have a perfectly good reason to wear a hole in the floor. In a little over an hour I’m getting married to the love of my life after waiting too damn long,” Tony took a seat on the couch anyways, immediately leaning his head on Rhodey’s shoulder. “What if he decides he doesn’t want to marry me anymore?”

    “You two have been together for forever and he hasn’t left you. I’m pretty confident when I say that he wants to marry you,” Rhodey looked down at his brother. “He stood by your side after Afghanistan, after the Avengers broke up, and so much more. You two adopted Peter before you realized he was deaf and the second that you found out, he was immediately learning ASL with you. He’s committed to you, Tony. You have nothing to worry about.”

    “Thank you, honeybear. Jesus, I don’t know what I would do without him,” Tony sat back up as someone knocked on the door. “Come in.”

    No one walked in, so there was only one person who it could be. Tony got up to open the door, excited to see his son on the other side of it, just like he expected.

    “Hey, Pete. How’s pops?” Tony knew that his son had just come from Stephen’s room.

    “He’s nervous, but good. How are you, dad?”

    “Nervous as hell, honestly. But I have Nonna and Uncle Rhodey to pester,” Tony signed, laughing as he did so. Peter followed suit and smiled. “And your pops has your Nana and Aunt Donna to annoy the hell out of.”

    “Tony, stop cursing around your son,” Maria said as she stood up from the couch. She signed the words too, not wanting her grandson to be left out. “Hello, Peter. How are you?”

    “I’m good, Nonna. How annoying has dad been?” Peter smiled as Tony gaped at his son. Maria started laughing.

    “Exactly as you expected him to be,” Maria signed as she laughed at her son, who was still gaping at his son. She turned to Tony, not signing anymore, but she knew that Peter would still read her lips. “Finish getting ready, Anthony. I’m going to try and find something to drink.”

    “Okay, mamma, ti amo,” Tony kissed his mom on the cheek before turning back to his son and signing, “Are you going to wear your hearing aids during the ceremony?”

    “Yeah, I will. They’re in my pocket right now, I’ll probably put them on as we head out there,” Tony knew that even though Peter had top of the line hearing aids, made by Tony himself, of course, Peter only liked to wear them when he needed to. Which was fine, everyone in his life knew ASL for this reason.

    “Sound’s good, Pete,” Tony pulled his son into a hug, kissing his temple as he did. He pulled back a bit, both hands resting on his shoulders. Neither of them had to say or sign anything to know what the other meant. They pulled away from each other, Tony going to sit with Rhodey and Peter walking towards the door again. Peter turned and waved at his dad before walking out the door, heading back to his pops room.

    “You and Stephen have done a good job raising him. I don’t tell you that enough,” Rhodey said, breaking the silence that had settled between the pair. 

    “Thanks, honeybear. It helps that he was easy to raise, honestly. I don’t know what we would’ve done if he had been a monster child,” Tony laughed, looking at Rhodey before laying his head on his shoulder. 

    “It definitely would’ve been a challenge.” They sat there in a comfortable silence, enjoying the other’s company for a while. Neither of them are sure how much time had passed, but eventually Maria walked back in the room with a bottle of water for each of them. She placed Tony’s on the dresser, seeing as her son had fallen asleep against his brother’s shoulder. They all knew that they would have to wake him up eventually, but they silently decided to let him rest for a few minutes. 

    Rhodey nodded his head in thanks as Maria handed him the water, opening it and taking a sip before just holding it. Maria sat on the other side of her son, kissing his temple before succumbing to the comfortable silence in the room. 

    That same comfortable silence was not found in Stephen’s room. Well, it was mostly silent for Peter. He could just barely hear the muddled together voices as he sat on the bed, Levi wrapped around his shoulders comfortingly. 

    Peter watched as his Aunt Donna raced around his pops, his Nana right behind her. He wasn’t quite sure what they were doing since he couldn’t hear their words, but it seemed like they were practically yelling. His pops on the other hand, stood there and watched as his mom and sister scrambled around him. Peter knew that his calm exterior was nothing more than that, a calm mask to hide the panic he felt inside. Peter stood and walked over to him, arms open out in front of him. Stephen smiled, instantly pulling his son into a hug, a shaking hand coming to rest at the base of his neck to pull him into his Pops’ chest. 

    “Thank you, spiderling,” Stephen whispered in his hair, knowing that he wouldn’t be able to hear it. Either way, he had to thank his son, imagining that he would know what he said nonetheless. Peter nodded against his  chest, indicating that he at least sort of understood. At the very least, he understood the emotion that Stephen put into the simple gesture of running his hand through his curls some. 

    Peter took a step back, Stephen’s hands still resting on his shoulders as he reached into his pocket for his hearing aids. He knew it was going to be loud, and probably slightly overstimulating until he got used to it, but he wanted to try and make it easier on his pops to have a conversation. As he was about to put them in, he could tell that his Nana and Aunt Donna had stopped yelling. Peter looked up at his pops, who was telling them to shut up so they didn’t send Peter into sensory overload the second he had them in. He shot a grateful smile as he turned them on, the low hum of the devices immediately present in his ears, followed shortly by Stephen’s voice. 

    “Welcome back to the land of the hearing, spiderling,” Stephen laughed, pulling Peter close to press a kiss to his forehead. “I guarantee that you’ll regret that in a few minutes.”

    “Hey,” Donna said with a teasing smile, “be nice to me, I’m your sister.”

    “Exactly, you’re my sister. It’s literally my job as your older brother to be a pain in the ass,” Stephen teases, a big smile on his face. Donna just rolls her eyes, turning to continue whatever task she was doing as Stephen turned back towards his son. “How’s your dad? Is he as much of a mess as we expected him to be?”

    “Yeah, yeah he is,” Peter cleared his throat with a slight laugh. His voice was hoarse from not using it a bunch recently, and Stephen’s heart melted a little bit at it. “Nonna is trying to get him to sit and take a breather and Uncle Rhodey is just trying to breathe. So yeah, exactly what you predicted.”

    Stephen smiled and shook his head, heart swelling at the thought of his almost-husband anxiously pacing around the room like he knew he was doing. “It’s going to be nice to finally call him my husband,” Stephen said, more under his breath than anything. 

    “Pops, you’ve been calling each other ‘husband’ since before I can even remember,” Peter pointed out, a smile wide on his face. 

    “Sure, we call each other husband all the time, but that doesn’t change the fact that now I’ll be able to call him my husband without it just being a pet name for each other. I don’t know how to explain it, but I think it’s because we’re making a new chapter together, even if this chapter’s already been written for us. That probably doesn’t make any sense,” Stephen shook his head and looked up at Peter, eyes glowing with how happy he was and a soft smile mirroring that as well. Peter knew what he meant in that moment, his smile explaining it all. 

    “It doesn’t make complete sense, but I get what you’re saying. I think I just don’t get it because I’ve never been in love, but I get it at the same time.” Peter walked up to Stephen, hugging him and resting his head on his chest. “I love you, pops.”

    Stephen immediately wrapped his arms around Peter, kissing the top of his head and whispering into his curls, “I love you too, Pete.”

    Both Donna and Beverly stopped what they were doing to watch the scene in front of them, smiles on their faces at how happy Stephen was in the moment. Donna snuck out her phone, getting a picture of the two while they were unaware. 

    That’s when there was a knock on the door, startling Peter as Beverly opened it. Happy was on the other side, here to let Stephen know that Tony was about to walk towards where they would walk down the aisle together. The only thought that was going through Stephen’s head as he followed Happy out of the room was “holy shit, we’re actually about to get married.”

    Before he knew it, Stephen was waiting for the cue to walk out of the little hallway where he would finally be reunited with Tony. After a few seconds of waiting, he heard the cue. 

    Stephen slowly walked out, looking across to see Tony doing the exact same thing. They each broke out in wide smiles, tearing up a little bit as they saw their soon-to-be-husband. It took everything Stephen had in him not to break out in a run towards the other man, making himself take his time and walk to the middle where they would meet. 

    “You look absolutely gorgeous,” Tony whispered once they were close enough. He wanted nothing more than to reach out and hold Stephen, but held back.

    “You look stunning, darlin’. How did I get so lucky as to end up with a man like you?” Stephen smiled down at him as they turned to walk down the aisle. Wong and Rhodey were waiting for each of them at the end, each of them also having a soft smile. Happy stood in between them, waiting to officially marry them. Tony and Stephen had talked about it, ultimately deciding that it would be best to get married by a friend than find a pastor. They also agreed on the fact that they couldn’t see it being anyone other than Happy. 

    Once they got to the end, Rhodey clapped a hand on Tony’s shoulder while Wong just nodded at Stephen. Happy started to talk, but Stephen more or less tuned it out as he stared into Tony’s big doe eyes. He tuned back in once he heard something about the vows though, knowing that he would have to pay attention to actually be able to give his. Happy turned to Tony first, asking if he would like to start. He nodded, taking a deep breath in before he started to speak.

    “Stephen, I’ve known that I’m in love with you since high school. We were hanging out together with Rhodey, all of us sitting on the floor and just talking about whatever came to mind. Somehow the topic of Nebraska came up, and with that the topic of how much you missed looking at the stars after moving away. You went on for a little while about how it just wasn’t the same, how it didn’t have the same feeling, and I listened to you talk,” Tony’s eyes shone bright with love as he stopped to take a breath. 

    “The more you talked, the harder I fell. By the end of your mini rant, I remember thinking, ‘I need to go on a date with this man.’ So, that night, I spent hours talking to Rhodey, planning what our first date was going to be. Now, it may have taken me six years to finally get the courage to ask, but eventually I got around to it,” he laughed nervously, shifting his weight some before continuing again. “After our date, when we got back to the apartment we shared, I once again made Rhodey plan with me for hours. The only difference being that I was planning on how to propose to you. And in my true fashion, it took me way too long to ask you. I love you mio stella, and I am so damn sorry that it took me so long to finally ask,” Tony laughed lightly, a smile on his face that showed how every ounce of his love was poured into those words. Stephen matched his smile as Happy looked at him, asking him the same thing he asked Tony.

    “Well my vows are nowhere near as good as that and now I feel underprepared,” Stephen chuckled, as did some of their family members, before he took a breath and started. “Anthony, I didn’t get the chance to realize that I was in love with you. Donna told me, and then got mad at me for not telling her that we were dating, even though we weren’t yet. But later that night, I laid in bed thinking about everything that Donna told me and I realized she was right. I knew then that I would do anything I could to have you next to me for the rest of our lives,” Stephen stopped to take a breath, watching Tony as he teared up a little bit.

    “We have some pretty crazy lives, filled with superheroes and a bunch of unpredictability. But one thing that I always want to be predictable is the fact that I’m going to wake up next to you. I know that that’s not always going to be possible because of both of our jobs, but anything is more than enough for me. But that means you have to actually come out of the lab and sleep first,” Stephen smiled at him widely, everyone laughing as Tony gently grabbed Stephen’s hands.

    “As long as you’re there with me, mio stella,” Tony whispered so that only the two of them could hear. He brought Stephen’s hands to his lip’s kissing his scars before bringing their joined hands back down. They stared into each other’s eyes for a second, soft smiles on their faces as they blocked out the rest of the world. They were the only thing that mattered to the other right now, everything else was just too unimportant to matter. 

    “Peter, do you have the rings?” Happy broke them out of their trance as he looked at Peter, prompting him to hand the rings to the former bodyguard. Peter’s eyes widened ever so slightly as he reached into his pocket, relief flooding his face as he pulled the rings out. He handed them over to Happy with a sheepish smile before smiling brightly at his dads, turning to walk back towards his seat as he did. Happy handed the opposite rings to each of them before making a “go on” motion as he took a step back. 

    Tony brought Stephen’s left hand up, kissing his ring finger lightly before sliding the ring on. The ring was silver with the arc reactor design engraved into it, a blue sapphire embedded in the middle of the design. Stephen didn’t have to see the inside to know that there was an engraving on the inside, already having the words memorized. The one thing they knew about their rings was the engraving, agreeing that it was necessary since it was an important part of their relationship. 

    Stephen brought Tony’s hand up next, slipping the gold-bronze metal on his finger, making sure that the engraving of the Eye of Agamotto was facing up, the green sapphire in the middle sparkling in the light. The pair returned to how they were, hands together and hanging between them. The pair were smiling brightly at each other, knowing that there was only one more thing before they were finally husbands. 

    Happy saw the anticipation in their eyes, huffing out a small laugh as he stepped forward again. “I now pronounce you husband and husband.”

    Tony and Stephen didn’t wait for him to say that they could kiss, immediately launching towards each other into a kiss over-flowing with every emotion that they felt. Tony grabbed the sides of Stephen’s face, bringing him closer as Stephen wrapped one arm around his back, his other hand resting on the side of Tony’s face. They broke apart slightly, staring into each other’s eyes as Tony whispered against his lips, “To the stars and back, mio stella.”

    “To the stars and back, darlin’,” Stephen agreed, bringing him into another gentle kiss as he did. They could hear the whoops of their families, but nothing except the feeling of the other’s body and lips pressed against theirs mattered. 

    They eventually separated, hugging each other tightly and swaying slightly. Tony pulled back from his husband slightly, opening his arm just as their son barreled into them, hiding his face in their chests as the small family hugged. Tony pressed a kiss to Peter’s curls before pressing one to Stephen’s lips, humming softly as he did.

    This was everything Tony could ever ask for. He had the perfect husband, the perfect son, the perfect life. There was nothing about it that he would change, not even the fact that he took forever to actually propose. If they had done anything different, who knew where they would be now. Sure, they might already have been married, but they may not have raised Peter together. 

    Later that night, as they were getting ready to leave for their honeymoon in Italy the next day, Stephen would end up telling him that he’s glad the way things happened the way that they did too, agreeing that this was the perfect life for them, glad to have found each other when they did. Before they fell asleep wrapped in each other’s arms, Tony kissed Stephen one more time, once again whispering against his lips, “alle stelle e ritorno, mio marito [to the stars and back, my husband].”

    Stephen laughed lightly, melting at Tony calling him husband, even if they already had for years. “To the stars and back, my darling Anthony.”

    They each slept calmly that night, wrapped in each other’s arms where the rest of the world didn’t matter, safe from anything that could be thrown at them. As they dreamed, they dreamt of their lives together and everything that’s happened between the pair. For the final time that night, they realized that everything was absolutely perfect.