The End of the Beginning
Day 500
Curled up in front of the TV with Steve and Peter, Tony feels the most peaceful he’s been in months. They’ve put Obadiah in prison for double dealing, and launched an investigation into Stane Hospitals for illegal human experimentation and malpractice, and half of the Board has been replaced. Stark Industries took a major hit, but with Tony’s patents finally being put into production without too many obstacles, it wasn’t long before they rebounded.
Today’s the first day Tony’s allowed himself to rest with everything wrapped up as neat as such a scandal could be wrapped. Peggy had ordered Steve to take a day off to take care of Tony, the tension of the past months having been hard on all of them.
“Dad, Pops, what’s an ITSY?”
Tony turns away from the screen, wide eyes incredulously assessing Peter. “You solved it?”
“Solved what?” Steve asks, pausing the screen to properly look at Peter, whose watch – the watch that was Tony’s gift to him – is lighting up his face with a red glow, a small hologram shining from the watch’s glass face. There are the words ‘To activate I.T.S.Y, please describe Bitsy.’
Tony sits up straighter, turning a sheepish grin at Steve. “In my defence, I thought it would take him more time to find out, and I put a Training Wheels Protocol so it’d be harmless.”
“Tony, what did you do?”
“Intelligent Tech for Snarky Youngsters,” Tony quickly explains, and Peter hangs on to every word, “it was meant to protect him in case anyone unsavoury made the link between me and Peter. Also to serve as a friend who understands the college level stuff Peter knows.”
Steve’s honestly torn between sighing in despair that his boyfriend thinks it is perfectly alright to give a highly advanced, powerful AI to an eight-year-old and laughing because he’s stuck with two crazy genius now and he’s been conditioned by them to actually revel in their madness.
He eventually settles on the second as Peter cheers in delight, asking Tony a million and one questions that Tony struggles to keep up with.
“Well,” Steve chimes in, amused and adoring, “your son’s got your genius genes, can’t blame me for that one.”
When Tony meets Steve’s gaze, Steve finds that Tony looks equally fond and adoring. Here, between Tony and their son, Steve feels a desperate yearning to hold onto them and never let go. The rough edges of their laughter clashing and mingling sends Steve laughing too, unable to stop himself from basking in their joy.
And he doesn’t have to stop himself, because miraculously, impossibly, wondrously, this is his life, and he gets to have them, to hold them, to be with them.
Steve takes in the sight of Tony’s smile as it as it grows from wide to small, the slight curve of his lips, his raised cheeks and his shining eyes somehow truer than his grin, and Steve watches as Peter clambers eagerly onto Tony’s lap, chattering breathlessly with excitement and turning Tony’s smile softer and deeper.
Shifting to move closer to them, Steve thinks of what he said to Tony, about anniversaries and birthdays and so many more years ahead, and as Tony turns again to glance at Steve, stealing a quick kiss before he answers Peter’s next question, Steve thinks of his Ma’s ring tucked away beneath the bed.
It feels too fast, it feels to slow. They’ve known each other less than two years, and yet, Steve is entirely sure in a way he never thought he’d be.
He thinks of his Ma’s last wish for him and Peter to have a joyful life, and he knows his Ma would have loved Tony to bits. The smile tugging on Steve’s own lips grows bigger, his body helpless to contain the force of his happiness.
He knows they’ll fight countless times, they wouldn’t be themselves if their stubbornness and wilfulness and beliefs didn’t clash and bruise, but Steve also knows that they’ll fight for each other, too, and that’s what matters in the end.
Before Peter can ask his next question, Tony tickles Peter, their son giggling and calling for mercy, and Steve decides, sure and ready and unwavering, to get the family’s blessing, find a date, buy some flowers, and brew some coffee.
And then, it’ll be Steve’s turn to ask Tony his question.
After all, adding another anniversary to celebrate wouldn’t be so bad, especially when his fiancée – husband – will be this wonderful, amazing, brilliant man.
But of course, Steve has to beat Tony to the question, and who wins is another story for another time entirely.