Honeymoon

"Honeymoon Suite?" Stephen asked as Tony tried the key card a couple of times before he handed it off to him. "I hope you didn't have to - oh." Stephen's breath caught as he opened the door easily to see that it was covered in sunflowers. Without a word Tony swept him into his arms and carried him over the threshold and didn't stop until he settled him onto the biggest bed Stephen had ever seen.

"I hope the wait was worth it," Tony whispered as he dropped onto the bed next to him and closed his eyes.

Stephen rolled onto his side and studied his husband of less than twelve hours, wondering if there was anything fundamentally different about him, about them, now that they were legally and every other way attached to one another, more or less as permanently as two people could be.

"What?" Tony asked gently as he opened his eyes and found he was being so studied. "And no, I didn't have to toss anyone out so I could get this room for you. Getting married at Christmas has its advantages." He paused, then finally asked, "Did I do something wrong? Too many sunflowers?"

"No. No, I was just trying to determine if there was anything different about you now, I mean since -" Stephen watched as Tony looked down at the ring that now adorned his finger.

"I don't know," he answered cautiously, before he looked back into Stephen's glittering eyes. "I was kinda waiting for something to happen, you know, something to stop it from happening? But it happened, and the world didn't end, and you were there, looking beautiful, and happy, and I felt like I had done something clever, which I had, since I managed to put a ring on your finger." He reached over and lifted Stephen's hand that was resting on the bed, and spent a few moments just holding it, then muttered, "sorry," under his breath, and almost let it go.

"Why?"

"I could do this all day."

"Hold my hand?" Stephen asked with surprise. There was a look of disbelief in his eyes at first, then as Tony looked over at him again, it had become something like contentment. "I don't mind."

"Really?" Tony smiled at him then finally relaxed and rolled onto his side, still holding onto his hand.

"There is something different about you." Stephen said after a few moments.

"Yeah? And what would that be?" Tony asked, as he looked up at him shyly.

"You finally believe I'm going to stay."

Tony drew in a breath sharply, but found himself nodding. "How do you know?"

"I see it in how you look at me, you aren't trying to memorize my face anymore. So, no, I don't mind if you hold my hand all day, as long as you don't mind if I watch over you as you sleep."

"It's that simple." Tony said with a sigh as he closed his eyes again and drifted off to sleep. It wasn't a question, more of an arrival, an answer to a question he'd been trying to find an answer to, from the moment they had seen each other across the bookshop.

"It's that simple," Stephen answered anyway. He gave a thought to getting up and taking off Tony's shoes and then his own, but he knew they had all the time in the world, for the next week, at least, and he smiled as Tony threaded their fingers together and kicked his shoes off. He almost laughed, but instead, kicked off his own shoes and spent the next six hours watching Tony sleep until he too, finally gave in to his exhaustion and fell asleep as the sun was setting.