Tony met Stephen Strange shortly after the so-called Civil War.
He heard of him before though, he read his studies, he spoke about that very some studies with Bruce. Tony didn’t quite care about medicine, but Banner did and their ‘whatever it was’ kind of relationship had him more and more involved in all the medical community.
And after what happened with Rhodey, the interest became personal. He wanted to hire the man for the SI medical division, but a pretty doctor who knew Strange told him he lost the use of his hands and wasn’t in the US any longer. The short story of how Christine Palmer ended up in the Stark Industries medical research team.
Tony met Strange a couple of days after. Christine kind of appeared in his office telling him he had to meet someone and there he was. Conscious carpet and all.
The Cloak was around Tony’s shoulders as a shock blanket. Tony tightened his grip over the helm of it, feeling the comfortable weight he grew used to after having lived for two years with its owner.
“Cloakie,” He whispered to the fabric, caressing it slightly while his right hand was running on the orange dust of Titan. He didn’t dare to wipe the ashes from his left one because they were everything he had left of Peter. “I’m sorry. It shouldn’t have been him.”
“Stark!” Nebula called him, but Tony didn’t care about the woman android. Not now. “We gotta go. I won’t wait a minute longer there. It’s either with or without you.”
Tony saw his hand trembling in the dust.
They dated for a couple of months before Tony proposed. It was stupid and sappy, and beautiful.
A “faresti l’onore di rendermi l’uomo più felice del mondo e diventare mio marito” whispered during a dinner on the private terrace of the Florentine hotel where they were staying. He forgot, entirely, that his boyfriend knew Latin and was learning Italian.
Maybe he didn’t understand the exact meaning of all Tony’s words, though “marito”, husband, was a simple one.
“Mi hai just asked me to sposare te?” He tried, receiving back a heart lightened laugh.
“Only if the answer is yes. If it’s not, I was speaking about the view on Palazzo Vecchio.” The kiss he received was enough as an answer.
He had to find it. After everything that happened, it was the only thing who would remind him the last two years weren’t a dream but really happened. He looked at his own finger ring, the slightly pale skin there was his wedding ring was supposed to be, lost in Central Park while he was fighting for his husband’s life.
He needed to find Stephen’s. He was sure the ring didn’t disappear with the man, it had to be there, it must be there.
“Stark, the fuck are you doing?” Nebula’s voice reached him again, this time, he could also hear her words. This time his ears weren’t numbed by the realisation that the ring might not be there.
“Stephen’s wedding ring,” He tried to explain. But he couldn’t, there were no ways she could understand. There were no ways anyone but Rhodey and Wong could understand. And he didn’t even know where they were. Where everyone was. He just saw the two more important persons in his life turn into dust and disappear in front of him, and he could do anything but witness powerless and tell them that everything was going to be fine. It was a lie. He had lost everything that made him a better person. “It must be there… It must…”
They married in Malibu, where his old house used to be, years before, on the ruin of a place he learned to call home, a place Tony used to love and were he dreamt to build his future, his legacy. They married with only Rhodey and Wong as best men and no-one else at their side. Because it was safer because they want to keep it a secret.
“I love you,” Stephen whispered his vows at the sea, his shaking hands curled around Tony’s, holding his as if he was holding the entire world as if Tony was his entire world. “I love you because of your brilliant mind, and I love you because of the beautiful shade of red you turn when I catch you staring at me, I love you because you are always looking for a way to make people’s lives better and because you made my life better. I love you when you drink too much coffee for your own good and stay up all night long, and I love you when you fall asleep in my arms,” He was doing everything to keep back his tears, and only Tony was aware of that, he found it terribly cute. “I fall for you every day more but what I love the most about you is that despite everything, you are the bravest, beautiful and sweet person in this dimension and in all the others I’ve seen. I want to spend my entire life with you, I want to be at your side at every moment, because when you are so lucky to meet someone like you, Tony, you’re a madman if you let him go”
“Though you let me go,” He whispered, at the void. He knew he didn’t, he knew Stephen sacrifice half of the universe to save him, but he was both furious and scared, and it never was a good cocktail of emotions, when it came to Tony Stark. He didn’t care, though. “You promise you wouldn’t, and I don’t care if it was the only way.”
At that moment, his hand wrapped around something thin and cold while the Cloak hugged him more tightly. He let turn the ring in his hand, in the pale sunlight of Titan which was shining on the platinum surface.
”Doctor Stephen Strange-Stark,” Stephen said, looking at Tony and kissing his neck. “I like the sound of it.”
“Tony Stark-Strange sounds cooler, though.” He said, smiling back at the man, his husband, and letting the ring turn in his hand, reading their names on the smooth superficies of the jewel.
“Do you really want to argue about that, Mr Stark-Strange?”
“Of course I want to, Doc.” Tony kissed him and then decided he won just because he had the last word.
Tony looked at the small jewel. That ring meant everything to him. It meant he had someone who loved him, no matter what, it meant that there was someone waiting and cheering for him. It meant he wasn’t alone, not any longer.
And it meant that now the love of his life was gone.
“What’s up, Stark?” Nebula asked to him, she wasn’t trying to sound pitiful, her voice was cold, steady, something that Tony needed, even if he had no idea of that before.
“My husband gave up the Time Stone for me,” He said, and it sounded flat. His body was shaking, he could see his hand shaking while he was holding the ring, and Tony felt so useless. Titan dust was everywhere, even inside his thought, by now.
The genius squeezed the ring inside the palm of his right hand until the pain was the only thing he could feel.
”Does it hurt?” Stephen asked, looking at him, standing against the door frame of the bathroom. Tony’s t-shirt was lifted, showing all the scars that mapped his chest. He guessed he could keep them secret from his husband if they kept the lights off during the night, but Stephen knew of them the moment they had sex for the first time. Tony didn’t care, he was the only person who saw them all.
“Just my pride,” Stark smirked at his own reflexion on the mirror. Stephen came closer, hugging him from behind. “‘Had a nightmare.”
“I know,” Stephen placed a small kiss against Tony’s neck. “It’s fine, I’m here if you want to speak about it. Or if you want a hug.”
“How are you even real?” Tony asked, and he saw the sad light in Stephen’s eyes. He also knew which was the reason for it: he shouldn’t be surprised by that, by people wanting to take care of him.
“I just know something about nightmares, y’know?”
Tony woke up screaming and sweating. He tried not to fall asleep after that Nebula kind of dragged him on the spaceship, but tiredness had taken over his body, and he simply passed out at some point, dreaming of Stephen. It wasn’t an unpleasant dream. His husband was smiling, they were in Nepal and Stephen was trying to explain to him something about magic.
Tony didn’t remember exactly if it was just a dream of a memory, but they were together, and that was good.
Which also meant that his brain had to suggest him that Stephen wasn’t good at all, that he died, and that every prove he had left of his existence was the wedding ring he was wearing as a necklace.
He woke up feeling the air leaving his lungs.
Nebula looked at him and tried to smile to Tony, but nothing could help him. His mind was numbed, and he just couldn’t think. It was like they took away his brain from him. And without his brain, Tony Stark was nothing.
“I located Earth within seventeen jumps,” The android said to him. Probably she was speaking with him only because she couldn’t bear the silence. “Take the command, I need to sleep. If someone is going to kill me, it’ll be Thanos while I try to kill him, not a crash against an asteroid in the middle of the fucking nowhere.”
She rose from the chair and passed past Tony’s while he took the command of the spaceship. After a couple of days, Tony understood the scheme behind Nebula’s behaviour. She tried not to be awake when Tony was so that they weren't forced to speak to each other.
They both were trying to keep it together, but it was clear they couldn’t and none of them was going to break in front of the other. Stark closed his eyes, opening them a moment later, once that his heart-beat settled, and approached to the following jump point, shining on the map of the Milano.
Stephen’s back was pushed against the passenger seat, his knuckles white with the strength he was using to grasp at the seat itself, steel blue eyes fixed on the road in front of them. Tony was driving way lower the limit which was something new for him, but no ways he was going to trigger a panic attack in his husband just because he was Tony Stark.
“Honey,” He said, looking at him and receiving a slap from the Cloak as an answer which meant that he had to focus on the road in front of him. He could easily leave the driving to Friday from that very specific car, but he didn’t know if it would have been better for Stephen and he always loved to drive anyway. “I can pull over, we can wait for you to feel better or I don’t know, portal there. Just tell me. I hate seeing you like this.”
Stephen nodded, but he was probably on the verge of an episode because he looked everything but responsive, and Tony stopped the car a moment later on the emergency lane. When he managed to free his husband from the seat belt and helped him out the car, Stephen was a shivering mess.
Tony gave him a water bottle and kept repeating to him that he was fine. The truth was that Tony hated himself because he underestimated Stephen’s trauma and believed in the other man when he said it wasn’t a big deal going by car. Stephen had said it because he knew of Tony’s problems with portals, but Tony already walked through some of them and knew that Stephen’s ones didn’t open on the alien-filled void.
Tony looked at Stephen until the latter fell against the genius’s shoulder, hugging him tightly. His breath calmed down, but it wasn’t still stabilized. “Shhhh,” Tony whispered in his ear. “I’m here, you are fine, I’m here with you.”
“I’m sorry,” Stephen said, after some moments.
Tony had never gone through a galactical jump and he hardly doubts he could take sixteen more in the near future, as in that very same day, but they didn’t have sixteen days. They lost enough time on Titan, trying to bring back to life the doughnut spaceship using the control system of Nebula’s destroyed one before giving up to it for the Milano, which was smaller, but more comfortable and more human-like suited.
Anyway, the tech of the thing was a mess, and despite Tony and Nebula’s combined skills, there were things which still were a mystery. Possibly, the one who allowed to reduce for the passengers inside the cabin the effects of the pressure difference in different zones of the galaxy during the jumps was one of those gadgets.
Trying to fighting against the persistent whistle in his ears and the sensation of his body being pushed and pulled against the chair, Tony looked at the screen where the location of the next jump was flashing. It wasn’t far from where they were and Tony settled the coordinates. How to activate the autopilot was the first thing they figure out, though it wasn’t like they had a lot to do, which was the reason why they still cared about who had to take the commands every now and then. That and the fact that none of them wanted to be knocked out by an asteroid.
Tony used to take the commands when his thoughts became too hunting. Paying attention to something different helped a lot not to think about Stephen and Peter. Now, though, the jump nausea still lingered at the back of his stomach and his head was a mess at the point that Stark didn’t trust his own hands. And that was the worse state of mind as possible. He wasn’t forced to do anything, and the fucking dream was still in his mind.
His left hand curled around the ring. Cloakie didn’t leave his shoulders since the moment it placed there, though Tony couldn’t say who needed the other’s support the most. The cape was almost unresponsive most of the times. They were friends, but it belonged to Stephen, Stephen was the one it had to protect, just like Tony. And they failed, the both of them.
Cloakie’s helm wrapped around Tony’s hand, and a moment later its collar was caressing Tony’s cheek.
“Thank you, pretty carpet,” Tony said, softly, but there was no happiness in his voice.
Tony took his head in his hands, still holding the ring and kissed it, madly hoping that Stephen could, somehow, feel it. He had no idea why Cloakie stayed back, with him, though he was sure it would have protected him.
The first time Cloakie wrapped around Tony’s body, the latter was having a nightmare. His hands were gasping around his chest, there where Cap’s shield kept falling every time he closed his eyes. He was sure Steve didn’t want to kill him, as well as Tony didn’t want to kill Bucky, just knock him out, but Rogers had no idea about his own strength, or of what Tony could take. And, despite knowing it wasn’t Steve’s intention to kill him, the pain was there, the pain and the betrayal, which was even more burning than the pain itself.
He was gasping for air, he was trying to breathe while the shield kept falling on the Arc Reactor. Steve didn’t even know he didn’t need the thing to live any longer, Tony never said it to the team, mostly because he never liked to speak about his health with anyone, and the only person who knew was Rhodey. That realization hit him, and he opened his eyes, hoping that seeing his bedroom could help him, but everything was too dark and too similar to Siberia.
And then something soft and warm wrapped around his shoulders, a comforting weight which was trying to make him remember how to breathe. He didn’t recognize it, at first, then he saw something red on his cheek and understood what it was. His husband’s conscious Cloak.
Stephen was by his side, trying to help him to get rid of the fabric. Tony wanted to speak, to tell him it was fine if Cloakie decided to hug him, but the words didn’t come, and he still couldn’t breathe properly. Since that moment, every time Tony had an anxiety attack, the Cloak had left everything it was doing -when it wasn't protecting Stephen- to comfort Tony.
Tony was crying, and he hated himself for that. But he couldn’t help. He wanted to think about everything else, but all that occurred in his mind was Stephen. Something on the map beeped, and Tony was almost grateful for the distraction. A moment later, the radar signalled to him that they were no longer alone.
“Fuck!” He half yelled, deactivating the autopilot and looking at where the next jump was. He didn’t trust the spaceship weapons, and he didn’t want to shoot if he could avoid it. The genius turned toward the Cloak, whispering to it: “Hold Nebula, we are going to dance a bit.”
He just had to reach the jump and hoping whoever was driving the other spaceship wasn’t going to follow them. Another beep alerted Stark that the others were shooting to them. He mentally calculated how long it would take to be hit by the missile, and then turned the Milano upside down an instant before the impact, starting to spiralling toward the jump avoiding the following attempts to destroy their spaceship.
The pression pulled him down against the seat and only when the buzzing in his ears was quieter he could hear Nebula swearing.
“What the fuck, Stark? That thing was trying to kill me, you bastard!”
“That thing,” Tony snapped, turning at her and neglecting the steering wheel for the time being. “Was keeping your body still while I was saving our asses! And it is a Cloak who has more self-control than you, and even more feelings.”
The glance the android returned to him was surprised, and Tony understood it was the first time ever he let some emotion spill from the mask he had worn since the moment everyone started to turn into dust on Titan. Nebula nodded, seating on another chair. None of them spoke for the rest of the day, and Stark couldn’t bear the idea of having shown his own weaknesses to someone he knew he couldn’t trust.
“Gamora wanted to kill him since the first moment,” Nebula said, after what looked ages of perfect silence. Tony suspected she had fallen asleep again. "When he wanted her to collect the Power Stone. She understood what it was, and what he wanted to do with it. I should have tried to help.”
Tony didn’t know how to reply to her, so he stayed silent, looking at the next jump on the map which wasn’t so close as the previous one had been. “I could have killed him so many times, and everything I wanted to do was to please him.”
“I know something about pleasing an unloving father,” Tony said, his tone was bitter, the memories of his own father lingering at the back of his mind. “I made him bleed, but I wasn’t enough to kill him, and I had been a prideful pick. I should have called the only man who could beat him.”
Tony wasn’t ready to that conversation, though he knew he could share his thought with Nebula. “No man can kill him.”
“And yet I gave him the Time Stone.”
“Strange did it.”
Tony shook his head. “He did it to save me.” He wasn’t going to let his husband take the guilt of their losses. “He wanted to go back on the Earth, to find the others, and protect there the Stones. I forced him on Titan, I forced him and the kid on Titan.”
“He could have portrayed him and the Spider-boy on Earth if he thought you became a nut.” And a part of Tony knew the woman was right, but how could he stop to blame himself for the death of both Stephen and Peter?
“No, he couldn’t,” Tony whispered. “Would you have left Gamora being alone with him if you had the opportunity to go with them?”
“I loved my sister.” She said, and Tony didn’t expect any different answer.
“Yeah, that’s why Stephen couldn’t just portal himself away.” He rose from the chair, unable to bear more of Nebula’s glances. “I want to reach Earth as soon as possible.”
“We’ll be within seven or six jumps from Earth on the end of the day.” Nebula answered and Tony didn’t want to ask if she understood what he implied with his last sentence. Probably she did.
Thor discovered about them almost a year after their wedding. Stephen sensed a new threat on the Earth and portalled the black-haired man in the Sanctum. Tony was there because he didn’t have nothing more interesting to do at the Stark Tower and he could work at the new magic-resistant shields on Peter’s suit better from a place where he could test if they actually worked.
“Steph, why is Loki there?” He asked, trying not to show the discomfort of having the man who led an alien invasion against his city in the middle of his husband’s living room.
“You know HIM?” The question was both from Stephen and Loki. Tony glared at the latter, hoping that was enough to shut the Asgardian up. A moment later, that very same Asgardian was portalled somewhere else. Tony didn’t care where.
“Our paths crossed, in New York,” Tony explained, and it took half a second to Stephen to understand what he didn’t tell. When Stephen nodded gravely, Tony realized there was something else.
“I don’t know why he and his brother are there, but I don’t trust the God of Mischief.”
“I can understand why, babe,” Tony smirked at him before pointing toward the stairs that led on the upper floor. “I’ll go back working on those Protego shields.”
“I’m coming with you,” Stephen said, smiling and ignoring the Harry Potter reference. They seated silently for a while, Stephen reading and occasionally trying to attack the Spider-Man’s suit and Tony tinkering with it.
He had no idea how long passed before someone knocked at the door of the Sanctum. Though, once both of them walked downstairs and Stephen let the door open itself, the genius knew his face was the portrait of surprise. Thor Odinson stood in front of his husband, blonde hair tied up in a ponytail and a black umbrella hold as he did with his own hammer. Definitely not the best disguise ever, if Tony could say something.
The God of Thunder’s sapphire eyes went on the men in front of him, lingering for a little bit longer on Tony. “Man of Iron!” He screamed, receiving a small smile from Stephen. “What is this place?”
“This is the New York Sanctum,” Stephen answered for Tony, while the three of them were portalled on the armchairs in the living room. It was weird, Tony had never seen this kind of magic, and he was sure it wasn't the way Stephen's portals worked, though it wasn’t the best moment to question his husband. “Tea?”
Stark had to suppress the urge to roll his eyes at the ceiling. Stephen devoted his life to tea and seemed not to realize people could actually prefer other kinds of drinks. He waited patiently that Steph and Thor were done with their conversation, listening to his friend’s words, and then lose half of it when whatever weird thing Strange was doing started to portal them in every corner of the Sanctum. Again, just when he was starting to try to give magic a shot.
He had no idea how long it took, but, in the end, they seemed to agree on a room, and only then, after having asked about his brother, Thor approached the billionaire.
“So, Stark, how do you know infinite beer wizard?” Tony smiled a tired smile. It was the first time he met someone who didn’t know what happened in Berlin, and everything was weird. He didn’t want to go public with his marriage because he knew it both meant the end of his and Stephen’s freedom, and also that magic would have been exposed to the world, but he couldn’t either lie to Thor.
“Things with Pepper went down pretty bad, and Stephen was there for me,” He decided to give him the short version. “We are together.”
The Asgardian nodded and clapped Tony’s shoulders way too strong before following Stephen down the stairs to the foyer where he was waiting.
The Earth across the borders of the jump was beautiful. It wasn’t like the pictures from the satellites and it was just like those at the same time. The Blue Planet wasn’t alone in the pitch-black sky crossed by billions of small lights, it wasn’t even so blue, not when Tony could see even bluer planet lingering at the limit of his sight field. But it was beautiful, it was home.
“What are you waiting for?” Nebula asked him, moving toward the other steering wheel as to advert him that she was going to drive them through the jump if he didn’t. Though, she waited for him to nod and move the spaceship closer to that last intergalactic gate instead of taking the lead of the Milano. Tony appreciated it.
They didn’t speak a lot, while they were travelling through the galaxies, but, somehow, that bonding moment they had some days before helped the both of them to realize where boundaries stood. Tony couldn’t wait to be on his planet again, to see who survived the Snap, even if he was shit scared to be the only one.
“Neither of them knows, neither of them can understand,” He whispered. It was his greatest fear. His teammates judging Stephen for his gesture. He had a clue that Cap, to say a name, wouldn’t even understand despite having sacrificed himself and his relationship with the woman he once loved for saving billions of lives, and Stephen gave up half of the universe for Tony. Tony, who knew he didn’t deserve it, Tony who knew he wasn’t worth it.
“You don’t have to tell them, your secret is safe with me.” Nebula said while the pressure pushed them both against their chairs once that they eventually crossed the jump. A moment later, they were flying toward the Solar System, nearer and nearer to the Earth.
They were almost inside the Earth atmosphere when a voice came from a forgotten radio. “You are entering the Earth atmosphere, please, identify yourself.”
Tony didn’t hope for that much: he knew that voice, he knew the man at whom that voice belonged. “Rhodeybear,” He let out in a whisper that he hoped the other man heard through the obsolete radio system. “It’s me, Tony, Tony Stark.”
He heard something at the other side, sounds he couldn’t place, and then Rhodey repeating his name to someone else. He didn’t care about that, not in that moment. He was just happy about the idea of his best friend being alive. Possibly, he wasn’t the only person who was still there with Tony.
“Tony…? Is that really you?” The man asked.
“Yeah… I… It’s… a long story…”
“You can tell me about later, we are waiting for you, bud.” And Tony’s brain registered he was crying only when he heard the characteristic clack once Nebula took control of the Milano.
”How is Peter?” Tony asked, jogging his way down his jet stairs, his brown and worried eyes meeting his husband’s steel blue ones.
“He’s with Nat, she’s back for a while,” Stephen said, his hand running toward Tony’s messy hair. “And he’s better. I told you that you didn’t need to come back.”
Tony knew, but it didn’t mean that he could just ignore the fact that his kid put his life in danger, again. He nodded anyway, he trusted Natasha enough to take care of him. The spy texted him a week or so after Siberia. At first, Tony had been suspicious, then, when Romanov called him explaining she went with Steve just to keep an eye on him and started to update him on Rogers’s moves he understood he could trust her. Probably he was wrong because that was just the proof that she would always be a spy, but he did anyway.
“I wanted to ground him looking in his eyes,” He answered.
“So you’ll probably update the suit instead of taking it from him.” Stephen joked, taking Tony’s hand. Useless to say, both of them knew the Sorcerer Supreme was right.
There was not Stephen waiting for him, once the Milano landed on the green field outside the Avengers Compound, and the ones waiting for him were a small party. Rhodey, Nat, Bruce and a woman he was sure he met before but whose name didn’t come in his mind.
Bruce and Rhodey were the first to approach him and Nebula. The android stayed a little bit back, studying all those faces with a suspicious glance. For Tony that was home, and seeing his best friend and his two close friends alive would have made him happier in every other occasion, but for her, it was just another foreign planet full of potential threats.
“Tony!” Bruce grasped at him and when Tony returned his hug he could feel bones piercing through the t-shirt Banner was wearing. He didn’t want to know how malnourished he was. The moment Bruce let him go, Rhodey wrapped his own arms around Tony.
“We thought…” That was Nat, Tony nodded.
“The others?” He asked before some of them could ask him. He knew Bruce recognized the Cloak.
“Clint is with Coulson, SHIELD is helping people all over the world. Steve is in Wakanda with Shuri.”
“Couls…?” He asked, looking at them, but Rhodey shook his head promising him further explanations.
“Wong and Thor are looking in every other dimension and planet they can reach, they debrief every couple of days in Kamar-Taj,” Nat continued.
“I need to contact Wong,” Tony stated, and Cloakie wrapped him tighter when he said it. “May Parker?”
That was a question to which Tony didn’t really want to know the answer. It was a lose/lose one, didn't matter what they were going to tell him, even if the billionaire hoped for the woman to still be… in their world - he didn't really want to think about the one he lost as dead-. The woman who stayed silent until now stepped closer to the group inside the Milano. “I’ll check. We tried to contact whoever was related to you, but we didn’t know…”
“Tones, you both need medical assistance,” Rhodey said, and Stark was really glad to have the possibility to run away from whatever that conversation was about. He never liked doctors, when said doctors weren’t his husband, but everything was better than explaining to them what happened on Titan, or the excruciating travel back on Earth.
Tony walked past Bruce and Nat, following Rhodey and hearing Nebula’s steps at his back. Only when his feet were on the asphalt, he realized Cloakie was holding almost all of his weight.
“Do you have some good news for me, Rhodey bear?” He asked, knowing that, probably, the answer wasn’t going to be positive. He just needed to anticipate every question that could come back from the man, though, so everything could work.
“I wouldn’t call it good news, but we have two more resident teenagers,” He said while they entered the building. It was far different from what Tony remember it to be, but it didn’t surprise the genius. They probably didn’t need all the rooms they used to, and someone moved some racks in front of certain doors, as to keep them locked. Tony guessed that it was because it was easier to keep everyone closer. “I think you know them or, better, the boy told me so. Harley Ke…”
“Keener.” Tony finished for him, and there was exhaustion in his voice, which wasn’t related to the presence of the kid in the Compound. “He’s a friend of mine.”
Rhodey nodded, possibly used to this kind of statement and they continued to walk perfectly in silence. Not even Nebula was willing to talk which wasn’t anything new if you ask Tony. At least until they passed in front of one of the labs, and the woman saw who was inside of it.
At Tony’s eyes, it looked like a Racoon, but he saw enough weird shit in his life not to jump at the conclusion. Nebula’s mouth opened almost comically, and a moment later they both were screaming against each other. Despite the harsh words, though, Tony could say with certainty that they both were happy with not being alone.
Christine was at the Sanctum which wasn’t a weird occurrence, truth to be told; what was odd was the fact that she was seating on one of the armchairs with a gossip magazine in her hands.
“Hey, Mrs Grey,” Tony said, moving toward the kitchen as if he owned the place. Yeah, maybe not his best nickname ever, but it was too early in the morning to think about a good one. “Looking for Stephen?”
“I was waiting for the both of you, actually,” She answered, smiling at him softly. Or, better, softly for someone who didn’t know the doctor. For him, that smile looked wicked. “I need to discuss something with you, about a patient of mine which you and Steph can help, I guess.”
“Oh, yeah, sure! I’m going to call him.”
Some instant after, the three of them were in the Sanctum main room, Christine still seated on the armchair, Tony wearing an annoyed expression, and Stephen’s eyes shining at the sole idea of being a doctor again. Tony knew that his husband loved to be a wizard, but he missed his old life, he missed what he was born to be.
“So, how can we help you?” Stephen asked, before seeing Christine pushing something toward them, with a shocked glance Tony realised it was the magazine. Once he saw the article Christine was probably reading before, Tony froze.
It was a photo taken near the Stark Tower, in a small park where Stephen and he liked to spend their afternoons if they didn’t have anything to do with their superheroes’ agendas. Tony was wearing a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt and his sunglasses, at his side there was a man in a huge jumper and a pair of worn jeans. Tony knew who he was, and he also knew when those photos came from.
Christine smiled again, looking at Stephen’s blushing cheeks, and Tony was sure the only reason why she wasn’t looking at him was that his darker complexion hid the blushing better. “Tony Stark’s latest flame,” She literally purred. “How long?”
And Stark knew he looked extremely guilty while he lowered his glance on his left ring finger. He knew Stephen trusted Christine enough to tell her the truth, and if they were on that magazine, they probably were on every other magazine. “He’s not my latest flame,” He answered, looking at the Sorcerer Supreme who was trying to hide a small smile. “It’s been two years by now, but that’s not the point…”
“We’re married,” Stephen confessed. Christine’s hazel eyes widened even more.
“You what…?”
“We married, almost two years ago, by now,” Tony repeated. Christine stood and literally threw herself between them, wrapping both the heroes in a bones crushing hug.
“Congratulations, guys!” She smiled, and there was a part of Tony who always suspected she guessed it way before knowing it. Though he was even more surprised when the day after his wedding wasn’t public.
Christine turned the moment she heard the doors of the medical wing swung open. It didn’t take long for Tony to find himself wrapped in the woman’s arms, the Cloak spreading also over Christine’s shoulder.
She didn’t ask him nothing, though it didn’t take either long for both of them being crying messes. Asking wasn’t necessary: Christine knew that the only reason why Cloakie was on Tony’s shoulders was that it couldn’t protect Stephen any longer.
“I lost my ring…” He confessed her, without even knowing the reason, and he realized that was the first time he said something about Stephen without being questioned. Christine brushed his hair with her fingers, holding him close.
“Look at me,” She said, and for Tony was a big struggle because he could hear the explosion in his ears, but it was also the awful sound of the Moon that Thanos throw at him crushing against his armour, and the orange dust from Titan went to mix with the sand of Afghanistan, and… “Tony, Tony, it’s me, it’s Christine, you’re safe.”
Tony knew he was shaking, he could feel it in his own bones, and it took longer than he hoped for Christine’s silhouette to become less blurred in front of him. Her hands were steady on his shoulders and was clear that she was exaggerating her breathing. Breathe with me, her body language said, and Tony really tried to.
He had no idea how long it took for him to start to breathe again as a functioning human being, but Christine was there, her hazel eyes kind and soft. Tony tried not to think about Rhodey and Nebula being in the room with them. He knew Rhodey already witnessed his attacks, and he also knew that he kind of freaked out in front of the android, but he still felt stupid and useless.
“We will take him back,” Christine whispered in his ears. “I don’t care if I have to face Thanos himself, we are going to bring him back.”