Blue Shoelace
Steve didn't exactly remember making the decision, but he assumed it happened this morning. He didn't exactly remember driving to the jewellers but he assumed it happened this morning. He didn't exactly remember buying the sparkly diamond ring, but he assumed it happened this morning. Because the date on the receipt was for this morning.
At least that's what he thought it said, that memory wasn't the clearest.
He vaguely remembered deciding to propose at home, he didn't have time to make a reservation at a fancy restaurant, he was anxious to propose tonight. And anyway Toni would prefer it to be something not so extravagant. He vaguely remembered slipping the velvet box into the pocket of his sweats, his normal attire when it was his turn to cook for the two on his floor. He vaguely remembered eating the pesto gnocchi with Toni as the two talked over dinner at they usually did. He vaguely remembered inviting Toni up for a dance as he put a record into his player, claiming that he just wanted to dance because they hadn't in a while.
The only memory that was clear was the several seconds previous to the present, the memory of, as while Toni swayed oblivious as to what the arm not wrapped around her waist was doing. It was reaching into the pocket of the sweats with the little velvet box in it and skilfully opening it with one hand.
All of Steve's thoughts up until this point had been had been slightly scrambled, but his thoughts were now scarily clear, it was time to say 'will you marry me?', but it wouldn't be that simple, she could say anything, she was unpredictable, and Steve was so nervous.
He stopped her swaying, she looked up to him in confusion, but he didn't see it, he was looking down at the box he now had open at waist level facing Toni. He waited for her to notice his gaze, to follow it down to the little box, when he knew she did, he looked up.
"Will you marry me, Toni?"
The startled gasp he was expecting came through her lips, she pushed herself away from him and backed her way into the bathroom that connected to the living room of Steve's floor on the tower, just as he expected.
As Steve heard the lock click, he merely sighed, and perched himself nervously on the edge of the couch. Toni had done this before, all of the times she was asked a big question by him, he would just have to wait for her to come out with her answer.
~*~*~*
Toni had her arms wrapped around her knees, back pressed against the wall beside the basin, just like the other three times she had pulled this stunt.
The first time she had pulled this had been a little over a year and a half ago. Steve and Toni had been arguing on the group's community floor as they usually did, none of the other Avengers were there, and that was kind of what they were yelling about.
The whole group had just came back from a mission and were meant to be in the S.H.E.I.L.D. Medical ward, all except Bruce and Steve had be badly injured, Banner was passed out on a bed after being dosed with tranquilliser after starting to get angry again when seeing the state of his fellow group members and Steve's super-soldier healing had already fixed most of the minor bumps and bruises and had been sent back to the tower.
No less than half an hour after they were emitted to the ward Toni snuck out with her serious concussion but not before being dosed with the proper medication. She hated the S.H.E.I.L.D. Med ward, the nurses thought they were being quite but she heard them talking about giving the area around her arc reactor a look for burns which she was not impressed by. His arc reactor was a sensitive area. She would have gotten away with it too, making her way down to her lab and locking the door so no one could come and haul her away to Med again.
Would've gotten away with it if she hadn't stopped for coffee.
The look of surprise on Steve's face as he looked up from the book he was reading on the couch as the elevator doors of the community level dinged Toni found hilarious. Until it turned to a look of anger and annoyance as he realised that she had snuck out of the Med Ward was when she realised her fatal mistake.
She tried to fix it by backing her way into the elevator, but the doors had already closed and Steve's long legs were already taking the strides towards her. So she sucked it up, stood straighter, raised her chin and put on a look of indifference.
They really let it at each other on that one, neither of them really thinking any of their words, though, both disclosing thoughts and feeling they shouldn't have. Steve accidentally told her he cared, though he acted like he didn't, that he always worried when she did something stupid or sacrificed herself to injury. Toni accidentally told him what she thought of herself, that she was the least important of the group, that nobody would care if she died, not even her, that she was a horrible person that everyone was too good to even care about her.
When Steve heard that he kissed her.
That wasn't when she first locked herself in the bathroom; after he kissed her, even Steve seem shocked by it. After they pulled away, they both stood there like fish, their mouths hanging open slightly, looking startled. Numbly the two of them continued what they were previously doing. Steve moved over to the couch and opened his book again, but he didn't really take in the words. Toni made herself a coffee, but it was left to go cold on the bench in her workshop as she worked on some petty project and distractingly burning herself many times.
The first time she locked herself in the bathroom was three days later. The other four team members had been rather confused for those three days, Steve and Toni hadn't argued like they usually did; in fact they hadn't even looked at each other.
It was mid-afternoon and Toni was for once on her own floor of the tower, heading towards the elevator to head down to her workshop when it dinged in arrival. She barely had time to furrow her brow in confusion before Steve barged out, his eyes sweeping the room until they landed on her. He took several tentative steps forward until he was directly in front of her.
As he looked down at her and Toni looked up at him she hoped he didn't notice that her right hand was shaking slightly, though knowing him he probably did. Toni waited for him to talk, but when he did, the question startled her.
"Can I kiss you again?" Steve forced out, trying to sound confident but kind of failing. Toni made a sound similar to that of a dying parrot in her shock and backed her way into the bathroom that connected to her floors living room.
As Toni pressed her back against the wall next to the basin, she didn't hear Steve awkwardly clear his throat, and taking that as a rejection moved to push the elevator down button to get to his floor one below Toni's, though the elevator was currently occupied on another floor.
Toni was in the bathroom for no more then a minute and a half, she exited to find Steve rocking back and forward on the balls of his feet still waiting for the elevator and starting to contemplate just taking the stairs he wondered the building had.
Toni cleared her throat, making Steve turn, the two of them, seemingly out of instinct moved to meet at the centre of the room, Toni was %83 sure her answer was yes, she just needed to be certain.
"Ask me again."
Steve's brow crinkled in confusion for a moment, but he didn't ask her to repeat herself,
"Can I kiss you again?"
"Yes"
And without another moment pause Steve moved forwards to kiss her, And for a man who had only ever kissed one girl in the middle of the Second World War, she found him surprisingly good at it.
The second time Toni had dramatically locked herself in the bathroom was three weeks after that time. They had this time been on Steve's floor, doing a great job of sucking each other's faces off. Kissing hadn't been all they had been doing, they had been talking, getting to know each other beyond screaming at each other and the files S.H.E.I.L.D. provided. They arranged to still have at least one yelling match a day -often about petty things like changing the settings on the coffee machine- to elude the team. It was all going well, they could proudly say not even Natasha guessed it.
Steve pulled away from Toni and asked the question he had spent hours the night before thinking about,
"Will you be my girlfriend?"
This time Toni squeaked like a mouse, and backed her way into Steve's bathroom and sank to the floor against the wall by the basin, though she wasn't there long, 33 seconds in fact.
Steve decided hovering for a minute or two might be a good idea after last time. The door the bathroom opened and Toni told him what she did before,
"Ask me again."
"Will you be my girlfriend?"
"Yes" as Steve started to smile she cut him off, "But I have several conditions"
There were three conditions, the first was even though they had gone past the point of merely making out, the team couldn't know, no one could know (though Pepper walked in on them making out in Toni's workshop four days later).
The second was that even though they were dating, if you could call it that, it would not compromise what he had to do during missions, if he needed to make out with some chick during a mission or go undercover as someone's husband, don't let it bother him, if they tortured her in front of him for information, to make him break, to stay strong and not give up everything, even if they were to go as far as kill her. Steve cringed at that one.
The third was, if he wanted to break up with her, just do it, don't feel guilty, and if she was dating herself she would probably break up with herself too. When she put herself down again as he noticed she did a lot over the last three weeks, he smiled slightly told her that was unlikely for him to break up with someone as good as her, and met her lips in a kiss.
The third time she locked herself in the bathroom was on his floor again, they had been together for five months and over a cup of coffee on his couch before the two had to go their separate ways, Steve to the gym, Toni being forced to a meeting for the first time in forever. The question was said so casually by Steve that it didn't seem like it was that big of a deal, but it was.
"Move in with me?"
Toni choked on her coffee, having to spit her mouthful back into her cup, before jumping up and running to Steve's bathroom, doing surprisingly well in the heels Pepper forced her into for the meeting. She sat herself down forcefully on the floor by the basin, no doubt wrinkling the jacket of her pantsuit and messing up her ponytail.
Steve stayed seated on the sofa, though sitting up slightly straighter, he sat for the 15 minutes. This time when Toni came out, he didn't need to be told what to do,
"Can you please move onto my floor with me?"
Toni breathed in deeply before answering,
"No" she almost whimpered as Steve's expression moved from one of hope to something along the lines of defeat.
"But, every second night I'll come sleep in your bed, and every other night you'll come sleep in my bed. On the nights you come sleep in my bed, I'll cook dinner and we'll eat it up there, the same with breakfast the next morning, and you will do the same on the nights I'm here with you" she caught herself for a second, looking down awkwardly, "if that's okay with you" her voice going from bold and confident to almost a cowardly whisper.
Her answer was a kiss to the lips and being told that was a perfect idea.
But those three other times that she had locked herself in the bathroom had been with things that could be easily reversed, she could just break up with him and the last of the situations in which she did this was over a year ago, she was out of practice at dealing with hard questions. You couldn't reverse marriage.
She almost snorted when she realised that figures she got asked her hardest question when she was out of practice of locking herself in bathrooms to think through tough questions. Granted there had been other hard questions apart from the three she hid from, one stuck out to her, when Steve questioned her about sex.
They had had the alternative room things going on for several months and it was at the point of Toni even having makeup in Steve's bathroom.
He had asked the question several minutes after she wandered from his room, woken by the smell of French toast.
The night before it had almost happened, they were having an intense make out session that got a little out of hand, they were somehow nearing the bed and for someone who had never had sex before, Steve seemed to peel Toni's shirt off rather well. She was halfway through unbuttoning his shirt when she realised what was happening through the fog on her thoughts her sex drive was creating. She had suddenly pushed Steve away, she could see he looked confused and slightly hurt, but all she said was a lame 'let's just go to bed'.
So the next morning as Steve was putting her plate of golden French Toast down in front of her he asked,
"Why don't you want to have sex with me?" He asked it quietly, she could tell he was expecting her to run off to the bathroom, but all she did was stiffen. She didn't need to run to the bathroom, she knew the answer to this question; she didn't need to think about it. Though she did wish she could run to avoid answering, but that wouldn't be fair on Steve.
So she told him her answer, "I was the type of teenager who slept around a lot" she pretended not to notice Steve's slight frown at that "when my parents were alive it was to rebel, to get my father to notice me, after they died it was to... to well, to feel something. I'm a bitchy, slutty, horrible person, and you, you're just-" at this she exhaled deeply "You're first time shouldn't be with someone like me, it should be with someone more like that cute girl in Tech Nat's been trying to hook you up with-" Toni couldn't deny that she was feeling kinda jealous about it, and annoyed whenever Nat brought it up, but didn't show it because the group still didn't know, only Pepper did, "-someone who doesn't have the potential to hurt you as horribly as I could, and you will remember your first time, everyone does."
After her answer, after her harsh self-put downs, Steve felt somehow foolish, she kept insisting he was too good for her, but when she said things like this, he felt she was too good for him. He went to her, giving her a big hug, a peck on the lips and then told her that it was his decision, that it had to happen at some point and that he was a big boy who could take care of himself. He then stole a slice of her French toast, which she slapped him lightly on the arm for.
They had sex five nights later.
That memory for Toni brought up the scarier one of the time Steve walked in to see her sobbing in her bed. He hadn't been meant to find her, but he did, not only crying, but with a positive pregnancy test laid on the bed in front of her.
They had had sex more times since the first time, but they were always careful, except on New Year's when Toni had a bit too much to drink, afterwards in the privacy of Steve's bedroom coming right onto him, they were all out of condoms.
When Steve had first found her crying he didn't quite understand, he just gave her an enormous hug and when he asked her what was wrong she motioned to the pregnancy test, then he certainly had no idea what was wrong. He didn't recognise what it was, but when she told him he seemed shocked.
He hugged her again, not letting go as he talked to her, asking her how that was a bad thing, why she was so upset.
She recalled to him what he had said to her several weeks when it appropriately came up in conversation, how he wanted to get married before he had kids, how even after that he would wait a couple of months maybe a year. She cried and told him she was ruining his plans, his perfect life he wanted with his perfect woman.
He had laughed then and called her foolish, how she was perfect and that it wasn't that big of a deal, when that didn't seem to help, he asked her if she was sure.
She told him she had done two, one positive, one negative, and she guilty remembered that she sent him down to the nearby drugstore to buy more, remembering with amusement that he over did it and came back with six. When she had them all lined up on the counter of her bathroom, she made him go check them, collapsing against him in relief when he told her they were all negative. It was just the one positive test, but at the time that was enough to upset her.
It was easy to say they didn't have sex again for another couple of weeks.
As she sat next to the sink for the fourth time, she realised that if she said yes, she would be that perfect woman in the perfect life he hoped for, but she wasn't perfect, if he married her, his life wouldn't be perfect either, but she briefly wondered if it ever was, her's never was.
She would have to be a mother, that though scared her, she would have to go through nine agonising months of mood swings and cravings, the pain of labour and then she would actually need to know how to be a mother, how to be good at it, she would have a little life in her hands forever, and how many times would she have to do it.
But then she remembered hearing from other mothers that is was all worth it, remembered the reasons Pepper gave for wanting to be a mother.
But there was also that before any of that even happened she would have to leave the bathroom and give Steve an answer. That if she did say yes, they would have to finally tell the team.
But she stopped her thoughts; those were all the cons, what were the pros.
She would be married to him, which was definitely a pro; she would have his last name, his love, his devotion, his ring on her finger, just as he would have hers.
She gulped and continued to think.
It was 23 minutes after Toni first went into the bathroom that Steve heard the lock unlock, since then he had run his hand through his hair 37 times, tapped his finger against his leg 2,392 times and gotten up and started pacing twice, but he hadn't dared open the little velvet box.
As he heard the lock unlock he stood from the sofa and stood more directly in front of the door, he knew what he had to do, he had to ask her again.
Toni exited the dark bathroom, looking as radiant as ever to him though he could tell she had been running her hand through her hair. So he got down on one knee, and asked her again,
"Antoinette Stark, will you marry me?"
For a second she just stood there, before a small smile graced her lips and tears came to her eyes,
"Yes" she whispered "yes I will"
A smile exploded across Steve's face and the two met in a kiss as he slipped the sparkly diamond ring onto her finger, when he finally got a look at the ring her couldn't really remember buying, he decided he made a choice that suited her perfectly.
~*~*~*
Toni was making breakfast for all the members of the team like she had been for the last four and a half months. She had broken the deal where she and Steve had breakfast on consecutive floors on consecutive mornings, every morning making it for all six of them.
The night before she and Steve had talked about how to tell the team, he could tell she was nervous to, so they decided it was best for the team to spot the ring, question her and introduce Steve at the right time, which was why he we in the room right across from the kitchen doorway with JARVIS giving him direct feed from the kitchen.
No one was down yet, so the diamond on her left hand continued to sparkle unappreciated by anyone but her (she had grown addicted to looking at it every couple of seconds) as she made the usual breakfasts; Thor: bacon, eggs, sausage and toast Clint: waffles Natasha: pancakes Bruce: scrambled eggs on toast Steve: French Toast and herself some oatmeal.
Thor was the first down; she placed his massive plate of food, a hot chocolate and a small side plate of strawberry pop tarts that he wasn't always allowed down in front of him.
Bruce came down just as she put his green tea bag in the cup of boiling water she had in hand. He looked around confused that Steve wasn't usually down as he always was as she placed his cup of tea and plate of eggs and toast down in front of him.
Nat and Clint came down together last as always, which she was thankful for, they would notice straight away. The fact that they weren't dating had shocked Toni, but once she heard that Natasha and Maria Hill were dating, she found that the most adorable idea ever. Now she had a true belief in getting Clint and Sam "falcon" Wilson together, even if Clint claimed he wasn't gay whenever she brought it up.
As they sat down in front of their plates, Toni turned with their two cups of strong coffee, double shot for Natasha. She took great purpose in passing Clint's his with her left hand, for Natasha, though more bleary in the morning, was more observant then Clint, though they both noticed at the same time.
"Is that an engagement ring?!" Natasha chocked out, her eyes wide, her hand clasped tightly around the handle of her cup as it sat on the bench. Clint wasn't so good at holding in his shock, his eyes like dinner plates, his jaw hanging limply from his face, a forkful of waffles halfway to his mouth.
Toni had to swallow slightly as she felt Bruce and Thor's gazes too move to her left hand, then her face in shock. She decided then that acting indifferent was the best way to go about is.
"Yes" she answered casually as she picked up Steve's plate of French toast and cup of coffee, if he was watching the feed like he was supposed to, he would find now would be a good time to enter. And true to his word, in waltzed Steve (maybe acting a little too casual) making his way over to Toni, landing a quick peck on her lips as he took the dinnerware full of food and coffee from her hands and plopping himself down in the nearest bar stool.
Clint's mouth somehow dropped further, his waffle falling off his fork, as he looked exaggeratedly back and forth between the two; the other three people just looked at them with wide eyes and raised eyebrows.
It was then that Pepper flounced in for the morning, a set of diamond stud earrings Toni had never seen before stuck in her ears, she assumed Rhodey gave them to her; they had been dating a while now. Poor Pepper didn't know we she had coming as Clint verbally pounced on her,
"Did you know Toni and Steve were dating?!" He squawked out, Pepper looked a little lost for a moment before a smile found its way onto her face,
"Why yes I did, though it was by complete accident, I walked in on them snogging sometime early last year, though I was sadly sworn to secrecy. How do you lot know, did they finally decide to tell you?"
"Um, how about Toni's engagement ring?" Natasha dead panned as she readied a forkful of pancake. Pepper answered with high pitched 'finally' before rushing over to Toni to stare admirably at the ring, babbling congratulations and giving her a huge hug.
That was how Rhodey found his girlfriend, not quite understanding why she was squealing at one of his long-time friends.
"What's going on...?"
"Toni's engaged." Pepper sighed happily, Rhodey's face didn't change as he stared at the ring on Toni's hand, before he started ranting,
"Engaged! I didn't even know you were dating! Were you dating, do you barely know this guy, are you pregnant?! He better not be some real asshole, I better meet with him and make sure he treats you damn right, how come I had no idea about this! So who is this guy!?" He managed out in one huge breath.
This was the point where Steve very awkwardly raised his hand like a first grader and coughed out a strangled 'me'. Rhodey seemed shocked for a second before a small smile graced his face and he moved forward to give Steve one of those weird man-hug things. This was when everyone finally broke from their shocked states -or in Natasha's case indifferent while eating pancakes- to say congratulations and give them both hugs.
As Toni thought about it she really should have been expecting a reaction like that from Rhodey, he had always been almost fatherly towards her. She was young, Howard had had her old, she was only a year younger then Steve and she pushed away the memories of what Rhodey was like after they found her in Afghanistan.
It was then that Rhodey asked a question that was obviously rather on his mind,
"You got any left?"
Toni chuckled lightly
"Yes there's enough eggs and bacon for you and Pepper, even Maria if she decides to turn up" Toni directed that part of the sentence at Natasha, who answered with an nod, "though if Sam decides to show up I won't, he has eating habits worse than Thor's"
This turned everyone to turn to Thor just in time to see him shove one of his many Pop-tarts whole into his mouth,
"Maybe not quite as bad."
It was two weeks later and Toni and Steve hadn't even spoken about the wedding, they had both been so busy, but Toni was the first to make some decision on it as she snuggled into Steve's side for the night,
"I want lace on the wedding dress" Steve stared down at her in shock up bringing up the actual wedding between them for the first time, but she didn't notice it, she just kept talking. "Not an extravagant dress, just simple one with lace detailing, I don't want it to have a train, I want the veil to be the train." She breathed deeply for a second, "that's what I want."
He nodded down at her.
~*~*~*
"I want the theme to be white and green."
"Okay, Steve"
~*~*~*
"Make it simple, just a small wedding, only close friends, let's just go to a restaurant for the reception." Toni said to Steve one random day, it had been seven weeks since they had been engaged and they had only figured out her dress (which she purchased and kept stashed in her workshop so Steve couldn't peek) and the colour theme of white and green.
"How about the shawarma place?" Steve suggested, a small smile gracing his features. Toni's head snapped to him,
"Steve that's an adorable idea!"
"I know, isn't he just the cutest." Clint sarcastically drawled as he entered ready for movie night.
Toni stuck her tongue out at him before she shoved a handful of popcorn into her mouth.
In the last three weeks Toni and Steve had really gotten their shit together and finished planning the wedding. So now everyone was sitting on the community level of the tower to receive their invitations.
"Why are we here?!" Clint grumbled, crossing his arms moodily, slouching further into the couch, "I was halfway through my sandwich!" Nat slapped him upside the head before slipping her arm back around Maria.
"Calm your tits Legolas, just your invitations." Toni drawled. Toni generally enjoyed Clint's company, she found him fun when he was in a good mood, fun (though lethal) when in a bad mood, and hilarious when in a snarky, sassy mood. Clint was a good friend, though sometimes he insisted on being a lil' bitch.
"To what?!" Clint snapped, throwing his head back and arms up, it was a good sandwich obviously.
"Our wedding." Steve grumbled, entering the room with a handful of envelopes.
After the invitations were handed, Toni finished with 'You are now dismissed, Clint stop bitching about your sandwich!'. It almost broke Toni's heart to see Phil Coulson- leave looking so deflated at not receiving an invitation, but she had something different planned for him.
"Hey Agent!" She called just as he was about to close the door behind him, she smiled to herself as he responded at the name she called him.
"Sorry we didn't give you your invitation before-" she started as she produced his invitation out of her backpack on the floor next to the ottoman she was situated on, Steve coming to sit beside her. She giggled lightly as a smile filled Phil's face as he tucked the invitation into the pocket of his suit jacket "But there was something I needed to talk to you about." The smile dropped, "oh god no! Nothing bad, I just, I - umm"
She hesitated, not sure how to ask him, she was never good at asking these things, but a small smile and a reassuring arm bump from Steve put her back on track,
"I want you to walk me down the aisle." She stated, this time the smile that filled Phil's face was so big it looked like it hurt "That is if you chose to except, of course you only have to if you want t-"
"Of course I accept." He answered soothingly, opening his arms in the suggestion of a hug.
The only time Toni had hugged him was when he walked in, over a year after he had 'died'. The avengers had all been having breakfast on the community floors together, one of the first times yet, this was still several months before Steve would kiss her.
The elevator had dinged and the whole group had turned to face a sad-smiling Phil Coulson, someone's cup slipped from their hand and smashed against the tiles, Toni never really clarified whose it was.
But what Toni did next was triggered by a side of her the group had never really seen before and didn't see again for a while.
From where Toni was standing by the island counter of the kitchen, she sprinted full force at Phil Coulson, launching herself into his arms. Her arms were wrapped tightly around his neck, for a second he looked shocked, before a small smile graced his features and he too wrapped his arms around her, just not as tightly.
That memory was only at the forefront of Toni's mind for a mere second before she stepped into his embrace. They stood there for a second before she felt Phil's arms open again behind her, obviously inviting Steve in for the hug. There was several seconds before Steve too wrapped his arms around Toni and Phil.
Toni vaguely wondered, a few short months later as Pepper twisted her hair into something wedding appropriate, how Steve was feeling at this moment. Sam was probably helping in his own way, giving a pep weak talk, telling a lame joke, maybe giving him a drink, though with Steve's super-soldier-ness it wouldn't do much.
She bounced her leg up and down; she had no reason to be worried everything was perfect. Pepper looked gorgeous in the pale green bridesmaid dress, her hair in some intricate bun she somehow managed to do herself. Toni had her 'something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue'.
Her something old was her garter, Pepper's mother's to be exact and Toni didn't know whether to cry or pitch a fit when Pepper gave it her. Toni had no mother to receive an old from herself.
Her dress and the pale green sash she had tied around her waist were definitely new.
The something borrowed was Maria Hill's. It was go over the clip of Toni's long veil to hide it. A headband of intricate silver woven around each other to look like branches, some springing away, at the end holding a glittering crystal. When asked by Toni where she attained such a thing, Maria just smiled lightly and said it was from her previous attempt down the aisle. Toni would have felt sorry for if she hadn't immediately walked off, hand in hand with Natasha.
Her something blue was her shoelace on her left foot. It had taken a while to find a blue shoelace long enough to accommodate the many eyelets of her white Jeffery Campbell damsels, a style of shoe that with platform and heel added eight inches to her height, closing in on Steve. Though Toni suspected he would have to lean down considerably for their kiss at the altar.
The location of the alter was another thing entirely. They had chosen a specific time of a Monday (heavily researched by the team who had to spend several long Mondays documenting population numbers) that there was barely anyone in a certain area of Central Park. She didn't care who saw, the public had not even been notified of the engagement and the whole wedding affair would probably be over before the paparazzi could arrive. For the shortest of times there was a silly notion they could maybe have the wedding in Germany, where they first met taking down Loki (though at the time Steve though he was meeting Tio Potts, the alias she used for her Iron Man S.H.I.E.L.D file). That had been shot down for the reception had already been planned for the Shawarma place. Anyway, Central Park would give cute wedding photos.
So really, everything was perfect, Toni had no reason to be nervous. But she was.
Isn't every bride.
~*~*~*
The ceremony went great, she walked down the aisle; arm in arm with Phil his emerald green tie standing out against his black suit, her emotions running high. Steve' face had broken into one of the brightest smiles she had ever seen on him. It had all run smoothly, she suspected Loki's magic was a contributing factor as to why there was nobody around, though she did think she spotted Nick Fury standing a bit back from the group, she couldn't tell for her eyes were glued to Steve the entire time.
The reception was fun, they got odd looks from the staff, but the place was empty apart from them (she suspected Loki had something to do with that as well). The bouquet was caught by Jane and the shade Steve's face went when he had to remove the garter made Toni laugh too hard to be embarrassed.
The two were now sitting on the plane on the way to their honeymoon in Germany, since the ceremony couldn't be there. They were ready for take-off, and Toni was nervous, she hated planes, but Steve was worse. She knew he hated planes, after how he went down in the 40's. So she held onto Steve's hand as the turbulence kicked in. to Steve something felt odd about Toni's hand, and when he looked down to see the blue shoelace from her left Damsel, he looked at her lovingly, landing a peck on her lips.