Saw same sex marriage legalized in the US and I couldn't help myself. What happens with the Avengers.
First part is a bit of crack but the rest is very triggering, please be cautious. Addresses certain racist acts. I wrote this in memory of both the victims of those racist acts and the queer people who didn't get to be here for this day.
My heart goes to you all. We're still not in the clear yet, but this is one big step forward. Let us look at the future more brightly.
It was a week later when Tony held a press conference concerning the new law passed down, apparently Pepper had been bombarded with emails complaining about the SCOTUS decision. He really wanted Pepper to get regular complaints about him and not queerphobic speculations on his views of the law. So here he was, putting on cocky smile, waving at the cameras and just being his sassy him. On one side were people supporting gay rights and on the other were people against it. Most of them holding banners representing their views.
"Mr. Stark!" one of the queerphobics said, "What are your opinions on this terrible matter?"
"Surely this must be an outrage!" said another.
"Do you believe this country is losing its values?"
As usual they felt the need to voice their opinions for him, did they really think he was queerphobic.
"My opinion is a question. A question that I've been asking myself from the moment this law was passed down." he stood silent for a minute. God he loved dramatic pauses, he barely caught a glimpse of Pepper rolling her eyes at said pause, "Guess who's going to be Cap's best man when he marries Bucky Barnes!?"
He exclaimed as loud as he could and his enthusiasm showed to the LGBT community. He waved and threw kisses at them, he had Happy standing nearby with a ton of roses which he took and threw them all at them. He kept showing them his love until his moment was ruined by Sam. He knew he shouldn't have brought the rest of the Avengers.
"Yeah, no, no, no." Sam argued picking up one of the microphones, "You are not gonna be Steve's best man. I'm going to be Steve's best man."
Tony was offended by the statement, "Excuse me!" he took another microphone, "But I've known Steve longer than you! I fought with him during the battle of New York!"
"And all you did was argue with him before that."
"It was just friendly banter."
"Really? Cause' he told me that you said everything special about him-."
"AH-TAH-TUT-DAH-TAH-GAH!" Tony was sure that was supposed to sound like something coherent but who cared. If what he had said got out, people would throw rotten food at him. It wouldn't matter if he was in favor of Same-Sex Marriage legalization, "That was just us having a friendly argument."
"Uh-huh." Sam sounded skeptical.
"In any case." Clint interrupted taking another microphone, "I think you both are forgetting that the best man will most likely be me."
He sounded so smug about it, "Oh really?" Sam asked.
"Oh totally."
"When's his birthday?" Tony asked a smug smirk on his face.
"...1945?"
The two rolled their eyes.
"Anyways." Thor intervened taking another microphone, "I believe I'm the most likely candidate."
"Oh now you think you're the most likely one." Sam complained, "Alright, please explain your reasoning."
"I was one of the first to get along with him, we're the ones who have had time to better coordinate our attacks and by extension get along oh and I'm the God of Thunder!"
"The hell does that have to do with anything?" Clint argued.
"Alright that's enough!" Wanda scolded, taking another microphone. How many microphones were one there, "Does anyone have some paper?" A young girl, with a shirt saying "I love my daddies!" handed her one.
"Thank you sweety." she said kindly making the girl smile, then she started ripping the paper in different pieces, "Now I'm going to punch a hole in one of the papers. And whoever gets it, is going to be his best man."
"Can I get in on that too." Pietro said, suddenly appearing.
"Where the hell were you?" Sam asked.
"I was just messing with some of the queerphobic signs." he said with a smug grin pointing to them. Some now read, "Whiney bitch!", "Drink my tears!", "Secretly loves dudes!" and "I kissed a girl and I liked it!". They all put their signs down in shame while the LGBT community laughed at them.
"Nice one bro!" Clint exclaimed high-fiving Pietro.
Wanda began shuffling the papers.
"Just a sec." Rhodey intervened, "How come no one is fighting over being Bucky's best man?"
"Oh that's cause Natasha already took the position." Bruce put in.
"Which is why no one has argued against it." Wanda explained.
They heard a lot of "a woman being a best man?" which annoyed everyone especially Clint and Thor.
"You got a problem with that!?" Clint yelled.
"You know if we were in Asgard, Lady Sif would make you eat your own words. And if my mother were still alive, she would make you fear for your lives." Thor argued.
"Alright ready." Wanda finally said holding out her hands.
"Excuse me but," Vision interrupted, "Ms. Romanoff told me she was serving as the Captain's best man."
"WHAT?!"
"Hey guys!" Natasha called, eating some ice-cream as she made her way to the podium, "Sorry I'm late. I went to get some ice-cream."
"NATALIA!" they all yelled, making her look to them in confusion mid spoon full.
"Wha!?" she mumbled.
"You can't be best man to both Bucky and Steve!" Tony argued.
"Well, when Bucky asked me I said yes. But then Steve asked me and I didn't want to hurt his feelings so I said yes too!" she explained, remembering how hopeless she was when faced with them, "They both just have these puppy dog eyes."
"ENOUGH!" Wanda yelled using her magic to get another paper and fold the edges then make it fly into her hand, where she shuffled the papers again, "Now the one that gets the whole will be Steve's best man and the one with the edges will be Bucky's."
"That won't be necessary." Fury walked in followed by Coulson.
"What now!?" Tony yelled.
"They already got married you morons!" Fury scolded.
"WHAT?!"
"Yeah when they saw you guys arguing they just went to the courthouse." Coulson explained, "They got tired of waiting for you guys, Romanoff wasn't anywhere so...they got married."
"So who were the best men?" Sam asked.
"We were." Fury stated then left, "Press is over."
Without anything else to do Wanda threw the papers away as they all started leaving the podium. She did go back and kiss Vision before addressing the audience.
"He's asexual so, his day even if he's marrying a woman!" she explained.
"Bi!" Pietro said pointing at himself then winking at both men and women, "I got my eyes on you!"
Wanda rolled her eyes then pulled him by the hair, ignoring his protests. Vision waved back at them all with a smile. Natasha addressed them as well.
"I'm pan!" she said finishing her ice-cream.
"I am...not caring. Cause' I'm tapping that." Clint said motioning to Natasha, "And we're getting married too, cause' we said we'd do it until Same-Sex was legalized. Cause' we love our friends too much to marry without them."
"So to quote 'How I Met Your Mother'." Natasha began, "That's love bitch!"
And the two high-fived before exiting, but then Clint darted back, "Up next is equal pay for women! Come on people, there's nothing I can do better than my gorgeous future wife!"
"Damn right." Natasha said, "He can't even open a pickle jar, he's got these butter fingers."
"That's enough Nat."
"And seriously ten letter word for making a condition or consequence less severe? You took Vision's advanced vocabulary program!"
"Alright let's go!"
Pepper and Jane stood smiling to the side rolling their eyes, before going to their respective lovers. Darcy had been filming the whole thing.
"This is so going on my Twitter." she laughed then turned to the audience, "Be gay!"
The LGBT community cheered.
00000
Bucky couldn't stop looking at the golden band on his finger. Seventy years. Seventy years and finally it was on his hand. He leaned on the rail overlooking the city, the Pride flag was everywhere and people were cheering. They were all so happy, he couldn't help but think it might not last and this time he looked at his ring in sadness.
"Not coming back to bed?" Steve asked, yawning tiredly before wrapping his arms around Bucky's belly and placing his chin on his shoulder. Bucky leaned into the touch, letting it comfort him.
"Not tired." he muttered.
"Who said anything about sleeping?" Bucky chuckled when Steve kissed a sensitive part of his neck rubbing his penis against him, while Bucky was dressed in at least some underwear Steve was not.
"You should put some clothes on, someone will see you."
"Then they'll just see how much I love you." He kissed Bucky's head before taking hold of Bucky's ring hand, with his own and gazing fondly at the bands, "You know these look beautiful on us." when Bucky didn't respond Steve noticed a slight change in his demeanor, "Something wrong?"
"...There's just still so far to go." Bucky whispered caressing Steve's hand, "Now that it's legal there could be a rise in violence against the community. I bet people have even started saying things against Nat, Pietro and Vision for 'not being queer enough'. Not to mention all the other shit going around."
Steve knew he was right, because really: slavery may be over but blacks were still being discriminated, women had more rights but were still being treated with misogyny and sexism. So far to go, but looking down at all the queer people celebrating and marrying the people they loved, looking at how his bi, pan and asexual friends and straight allies were getting married because they waited until it was legal, looking at the new health care program, looking how some were fighting for having the Confederate Flag being taken down.
"I know this isn't over." Steve whispered, "But look at all those people. Look how they're celebrating. It's not just being able to marry, it's having the same rights as an opposite-sex couple. It's being able to get better financial benefits, it's being better able to adopt a child. And the Obamacare program, that was something we couldn't even dream of when I was skinny and sick all the time. And women's right have come a long way from what they used to be."
Steve paused for a while, remembering the recent shootings and murders, remembering Sam weeping over them, he couldn't bring himself to speak of it. He couldn't bear the thought of it, of how Sam cried over how he risked his life for their country, how Riley died for their country, only to come back to that.
But he also remembered how happy he was when people started to take down the Confederate flag. He remembered how happy he got when people got together saying that black lives mattered.
"I know the future seems bleak, I know this won't fix everything. But I look at it all with a newfound hope."
Tears slipped from his eyes, as well as Bucky's.
"The war isn't over, but if we keep on fighting eventually, one day, kids will hear about the hatred and say: That couldn't have happened. Was there really a time when there was so much hate?"
Bucky smiled, he smiled because he believed in that future. He saw it this day, the day love won. And Steve believed in it. They believed love would continue to win. He saw that bright and hopeful future in their wedding bands.
"I love you." Bucky whispered.
"I love you too."
00000
Sam called, he was angry about not being his first choice for a best man but eventually got over it. Instead he chatted about ideas for a party they were throwing them later.
Rhodey was back at the White House, happy to serve his president and occasionally having conversations with his daughters.
Tony and Bruce got some work done at the lab, Pepper dropping by to make sure they ate. Tony kissed her every chance he got; he was really feeling the rainbow. It made Bruce laugh a lot. Unbeknownst to them Bruce had called Betty, recent event made him realize he didn't want to waste another oportunity.
Thor was hanging out with Darcy and Jane as they both saw the comments on the video she took. Some of them were hilariously pathetic.
Natasha and Wanda were discussing wedding plans with each other, they didn't want anything fancy but they did want to make it special. They were just going to go and get a marriage certificate the next day but they were not about to pass up an opportunity to throw a ceremony, especially since they had Steve and Bucky's to think about now. Clint and Pietro were nearby in case they were needed, they were only told not to screw anything up. Vision was put on ceremony places search, he found too many so they told him to narrow his search.
Coulson was back at SHIELD headquarters along with his boss. The man looked stern as ever but Coulson had known him long enough to know he was content with the change. It showed especially when Maria would come by and say that a few employees wanted to get married. Something about Fury was that he was an ordained minister, from those internet pages. He wasn't sure how it worked but Fury said it did so Coulson didn't question it, only tried to hide his giggles along with Maria whenever he presided over a wedding.
00000
"Hey Peg." Peggy heard someone say, snapping her out of her daze, "English."
She looked around her surroundings, not sure where she was. She turned and found her, Angie.
"Angie, w-where are we?" she asked looking around her.
"We're at the courthouse."
"What for, did I destroy a building again?"
Angie chuckled, "No Peg. We're getting married, remember."
Peggy turned to the woman as if she had grown two heads, "But, w-we can't. We're not allowed."
"We are now." Angie said taking a paper offered to her by a woman at the desk in front of her. It was a marriage certificate, "It's legal English. It took about seventy years, but now we can get married."
"We can?!" Peggy's eyes visibly brightened with tears and a smile found her way to her lips, daring to hope.
"Yeah see?" Angie said signing the paper and turning it to her, "Just sign and we'll be married."
Peggy smiled at the paper as if it were the most beautiful thing in the world, her shaky fingers took the pen offered and she signed it as quickly as she could.
"We're married." she said looking at the paper, "We're married!"
"Yes English, we're married."
Angie knew she would forget about this at some point, but it was so satisfying to be able to show her this paper and see that smile again.
My heart and prayers go to the victims of racist and queerphobic crimes. Most recently Charleston shooting. And to the people who were not able to be here during this day in which love won. We are still far from erasing hatred, but we'll get there. Love will keep on winning.