Science And Magic Miracles
Summary: Oneshots about Stephen and Toni's relationship that led to their happy ending in (Not so) Little Miracles, featuring all their friends and family!
"Hot dogs! Come and get your hot dogs while they're still hot!" Toni grinned as she called out, laughing at the whoop from her two pseudo sons and the resulting grunts as they started wrestling none other than Wade Wilson, AKA Deadpool, for the first bite. It was hilarious to see Wong simply use magic to dump the three of them into the pool, much to Hope's and Pepper's dismay as the resulting splash soaked them where they were using the chance to sunbathe, just so the Asian sorcerer would have first dibs. Joke's on him, as Hank had already secured himself the best weeny through the use of his ants and they were now bringing it to him where he and Stephen were calmly reading their books and being the bores that they were. Such party poppers. Carol at least had a good laugh at the boys' misfortune and MJ just snorted. Ned was still a bit starstruck to react beyond reverently staring at everything and May looked torn between trying to help Maria with the salad or keeping out of it, seeing as she had no useful skills for the kitchen. Rhodey's head had snapped up at the call from where he'd fallen asleep and Happy gave a not so happy grumble, unwilling to get out of his floating chair in the pool, even with the disturbance going on or the promise of delicious hot dogs. He was more of a burger person, like Toni herself, and was willing to wait for the good stuff.
Vision looked up from where he was making the sauce, catching his creator's attention. "Do you think this needs more mayonnaise? Or some more seasoning?"
"Don't put any more in there if you value my blood vessels!" The biggest surprise of this pool party called out from the bar, sipping a nice, refreshing cocktail, watching the heroes from behind black shades. "With you mother fuckers around, I'm bound to pop a vein any day now."
"Don't be so dramatic, Popeye!" Stark snickered, turning over a few burgers before putting all the hot dogs next to their buns in front of May. The woman looked grateful to get something to do as she began putting them together and passing them along to vision to put in some of the secret Stark family recipe sauce that Maria had taught only Howard and Toni. Toni herself had only ever showed it to JARVIS and FRIDAY and Vision had looked so heartbreakingly honored and touched when she decided to teach him herself instead of just letting him leech the knowledge from JARVIS' files that he still has somewhere in his coding. "Live a little! The Stark sauce never killed anyone!"
"It nearly did, once, actually," Hank Pym commented as Nick Fury snorted. "Then again, you probably shouldn't give that much calories to a person of 134 kilos. Maria nearly had a panic attack when that good gentleman keeled over at that one BBQ lunch meeting."
"Howard secretly thought it was hilarious." The director of New SHIELD snorted again into his drink, probably recalling the event. "Then again, he never did like Mr Simmons."
"No one did," Pym was the one to snort this time, thanking the ant that had brought the hot dog to him. "He was a waste of air and space. And matter. So much matter was wasted on that man. If he was made of Uranium, we could have made a new nuke out of him. I think Howard was tempted."
Toni laughed. That definitely sounded like her dad. She sighed a bit sadly at the thought of both him and her mother and wondered if she will feel this pain for the rest of her life, knowing their fate as she did. Finding out what she did had reopened a wound that had never healed right and it was still fresh. Looking around at her friends and at the source of a comforting weight on her ring finger had her thinking she might finally have a chance to let it heal right this time around. She just needed more time.
More than the half a month she had until the man who had lied to her so returned into her life without her consent.
T'Challa had finally managed to push the Rogues' pardons through, with some heavy input on Toni's and the Accords Council's part. The Rogues would be returning to the States but they won't be on active duty or put on the regular roster ever again, with the exception if they sign the Accords. If they do so, they will receive a probation period where they will go out into the field only if the New Avengers can't deal with something. They have many restrictions in place and a lot of regulations that they must follow, but they weren't being hunted by the law anymore. The US government, who had pushed the most to support T'Challa and the pardons, was currently doing damage control that that had made in the international diplomatic waters, which was a blessing as it kept Rogers and his merry band of idiots off of her back for a couple more weeks. Their delayed arrival didn't lessen the pressure and the stress that all of that brought Toni, which was why they were having this party in the first place. Toni needed to unwind.
The party was perhaps the best way for that outside the bedroom and the battlefield. She needed to let out some steam and what better way than to relax and have some fun with good food, good friends, good music and good weather on top of the Stark Tower. Don't ask how or why she has an outside pool up there. It's her business alone. Organizing the party got rid of some of her frustration and the party itself was more than enough to get rid of the stress. Though, maybe having Hank and Wade around at the same time was the furthest thing from a relaxing atmosphere, now that she thought about it. Add in Fury to the mix ... Yeah, definitely not the wisest idea for a relaxing day in the sun.
Too bad Coulson couldn't join them. He had other, more pressing issues to attend to. Like his heavily pregnant wife and expecting the baby any day now. Oh, well. There will be other chances. It had been surprising enough that he openly - well, as openly as a super secretly secretive organization of secret spies could afford while keeping their secrecy - admitted to being alive, since not even the spy twins knew about that. Tough luck for them. Toni was just glad to have some form of contact with her supposed-to-be-dead-but-isn't friend. She had mourned him, as all the Avengers mourned him, even if Banner and Rogers knew the man only a handful of hours. And out of all of them, Agent had decided to reveal himself only to Toni. Then again, she had no doubt that New SHIELD was perfectly aware that she now actively monitored their activities and missions and ranks, to prevent a second SHIELDRA. HYDRA may have fallen, but the same was thought back in the forties and just a couple of years ago. They'd quite aptly named themselves.
Toni shook off those thoughts, unwilling to waste this rare day off on HYDRA and her former team. Her new team and additional guests had thought up this party as a way to get her to relax. Probably because she'd been having difficulties keeping Extremis under control these past few days, her eyes an almost constant glowing, Arc Reactor blue due to how tense she was, as if she was expecting the Rogues to jump out of nowhere and attack her. Or, even worse, talk to her. She had a good idea of how a conversation between them would go these days. FRIDAY had to all but lock her out of her workshop to stop her from creating an even more powerful Bleeding Edge armor, like a Hulkbuster version or something. It was probably for the best. She might have chosen to add some features that were just not meant to be revisited again.
The sizzling of the hamburgers drew her fully back into the present and she smiled in satisfaction when she saw they were ready. "Burgers are up! Come and get your hamburgers before I eat them all!"
"Is there anything there that won't require for me to run five miles just so I can fit in my clothes tomorrow?" Hope asked as she and Pepper came over, stuffing their plates with more salad than the hamburger or hot dog respectively. Toni knew that Pepper knew that Toni liked hamburgers the best and that Toni needed to eat more, so she wasn't really surprised by Pepper's choice. Then again, the strawberry blond had never been a burger person. "I still need to be able to put on the suit if I want to be Wasp in the field."
"The perks of being your own inventor and engineer is that you usually work off the calories and then some. Also the perks of having Extremis." Toni grinned as she felt Stephen come up behind her before an arm is wrapped around her waist and a chin came to rest on her temple. The bastard was too tall for him to comfortably rest on her shoulder. He'd probably have an aching neck after half a minute. "Actually, I should probably eat more calories with Extremis burning in my veins, now that I think about it. Oh well." She shrugged, batting Stephen away so she could take a burger for herself. "Even if that didn't work, I still have the Bleeding Edge armor. It molds to my body, so I have no problem there."
"Yeah, rub it in our faces, Tones, since none of us will be able to fit one of your suits tomorrow!" Rhodey teased and she stuck her tongue out at him.
"Not my fault you need to be super fit to get into one of my marvelous, gorgeous suits."
Carol surprised everyone when she took both a hot dog and a burger. Happy took one look at her slim figure and arched an eyebrow. Carol just shrugged. "I'm used to food with more calories and more proteins than what your average Earth meal has to offer. Skrulls and Kree both have very different food than Earth does, although Earth's is by far the most delicious."
"But how do you keep your figure?" May asked, having taken the smallest hot dog available. Peter had taken two hot dogs, his enhanced metabolism needing it to better maintain and utilize his body's strength. Ugh, Queens folks! They know nothing of what a great delight a hamburger is. "Do you exercise really hard or are there some pills to eliminate the fat from your body? Or something else?"
"Yes, Carol, please share your secret." Hope said with half amusement, half curiosity. Said blond only shrugged, picking up the hamburger first.
"The power in my body regulates it well enough on its own, although my military way of life tends to help. You know, training every day, usually twice a day, active duty and all that. Id does wonders for my figure."
May sagged in disappointment, making her nephew chuckle until she elbowed him in the ribs. Grunting and rubbing his side, Peter opted to stay quiet and just eat his food. Smart boy. It was always for the best when men didn't interfere in women's business. They didn't exactly understand, which always sort of led to misunderstandings and then maybe to fights. God only knows how many times Toni herself had gotten into a fight with Steve over the smallest of things-
She shook her head, berating herself for even thinking of the man. She had just started completely and fully ignoring Rogers' existence when those damned pardons were brought up by T'Challa in one of the UN meetings. She should probably sue T'Challa for emotional damage after all of this is over. He owes her for all of this shit. It wasn't her fault that he had decided to house the Rogues in his country and now his people were getting sick of housing terrorists. Although, soon enough, they won't be terrorists anymore, at least not officially. At least this shitty US president won't be getting a second mandate, as his popularity had hit an all time low after he held his speech about welcoming the Rogues back. Talk about public discontent. No one wanted the Rogues back.
Hell, she wondered if there were three countries whose people wouldn't mind having the people who could care less about their safety roaming freely aroundtheir country. At the very least, parents would protest. Or grandparents. What the US government was thinking was beyond even Toni and her magnificent understanding of this fucked up field of human activity, so she didn't even try to understand how they had decided it would be a good idea to just bring them back. There were actually protests all over the States already.
"Are you really that bad at relaxing, darling? I thought you were a party animal." Toni nearly jumped, even though this voice never seemed to warrant an activation of Extremis, not even from the first day, when his magic had still set her ill at ease. The words were teasing, but when she turned around to look at the sorcerer, those gray-green-blue eyes were full of concern for her, the doctor side and the boyfriend side fighting for dominance. Toni was touched and a bit annoyed with the fretting.
"Those days are long since gone. Since after Afghanistan. And my mind just ... can't help itself but bring up the things I need to worry about." She sighed, leaning into his side. "It's very annoying, since I'm actually enjoying myself a great deal. Well, I would if Wade wasn't edging Levi on." The two geniuses grimaced and looked over to where said mercenary anti-hero and part-time X-man was annoying the above mentioned magical artifact. The red cloth looked aggravated and on the verge of trying to strangle Wade to death, which wasn't going to happen, given his very strange mutation of an enhanced healing factor that rivaled Logan's, if not surpassed it. Levi was still willing to try and you really shouldn't piss the Cloak of Levitation off. It's as vindictive as it is fickle.
Stephen's grimace deepened. "If he doesn't stop provoking the Cloak, I am seriously going to send him to another dimension and forget about him there."
"Usually, I'd agree, but Peter actually likes the guy and he'll pout if Deadpool disappears. Well, that and he actually helps Spider-Man in his patrols. I think Peter's a good influence on him-"
"Fuck! Let go of me, you stinking, fucked up, deranged, shitty, ass-wipe blanket of death!"
Stark winced at the screech. "And Charles kind of, sort of promised to support the Accords and sign them in the name of the Mutant Society if I kept Deadpool off of his hands for a day, every once in a while."
Stephen hummed, watching in amusement as a pissed off Levi started banging Wade all over the place, not worried about the man one bit. The guy was practically immortal, as long as his mutation powers weren't restrained. "Why do I get the feeling that Xavier gets more out of this deal than we do?"
Toni just snorted. "Of course he gets more out of it than we do. He gets the occasional Wade-free day and better mutant rights all around the world while we get support and Wade-sitting duty. Sure, the support is awesome and well needed, but having to put up with Wilson for an entire day is almost not worth it."
"Almost?"
The genius engineer just shrugged. "He brings comic relief and great entertainment value."
Stephen had to concede to that. Most days, Deadpool and his craziness was funny as hell, but other times, a more cynical side showed its face and both Stephen and Toni dreaded those days. They kept Harley, Vision and especially Peter away on those days. They often bloked all contact with Hank those days and had Pepper keep Hope busy. Rhodey knew well enough on his own not to stick around when Wade was in one of those moods. Hell, Toni did her best to keep Stephen away on those days. She didn't need Deadpool dragging up his hands and reopening old wounds and insecurities. As for Toni herself, she was well used to that. No one ever let her wounds completely close up or fade away. It was just a blessing no one but Stephen and her AIs know about Yinsen to ever let it slip just how important that man had been, her friend for only three months but a friend that had caused a change that would effect the whole world. Everything else Wade could throw at her - not that he was making an effort to be mean or cruel; Wade lived his life as though he were narrating his own movie and his comments were usually confusing as hell or hilarious. On these bad days, they were cynical and hurtful and it was like he didn't even realize it, like he didn't realize they could hear him. He was always confused when someone reacted badly to something he had said - she could take it with ease. It was a part of being Toni Stark, genius, billionaire, playgirl, philanthropist, a mask she had made for the world and never quite lost. A self defense mechanism. A suit of armor sturdier than even the Hulkbuster or her Mark L.
Not even Wade could penetrate it.
Only a Vibranium shield had once managed to chip that armor, but it was self-repairing and had come out even stronger in the end. Now, not even Adamantium could breach it.
"I guess that is true and would be good for team morale, to have someone who can always make light of a situation." The Sorcerer Supreme commented with a hum, welcoming the Cloak back when it finished with Wade by throwing him back into the pool. Wong simply put up a shield around the rest of them to protect them from the splash or any retaliation Wade might resort to. Toni snickered along with most of their group as Wade grumbled about needed to get rid of the pool smell from his costume now.
"Yeah. I tried that for the old team, even tried teaming up with Barton a few times, but I rarely ever managed to get a laugh out of any of them." She had always thought it was because they didn't know each other well enough, or because they were so different to each other, but seeing how well this even weirder group was getting along made her change her mind. If Pym can laugh at silly or dirty jokes, why couldn't, why shouldn't the Rouges? Because Rogers was a perfect forties boy? Because the others were kissing his ass? Because they thought if Rogers found them good, they would be absolved of all of their sins? Toni knew she had once thought that, thought that if Steve liked her, then surely she wasn't a hopeless case, that there had to be something good in her. She didn't need his approval now to know she was good. She was flawed and she had made quite a number of mistakes in her past, but she was only human and even Asgardians fucked up every now and then and they were practically demigods. If Rogers thought he was sinless because he wore the American flag or because he had been injected by some super steroids, then he was fucking delusional. "I guess they were all just sticks in the mud. No good taste whatsoever. Huh. No wonder the atmosphere was always so tense."
Stephen just shook his head. "How you managed to survive the lot of them remains a mystery but I swear you deserve a medal."
"I deserve my name and picture in the Hall of Fame for that."
"I thought you've already been in the Hall of Fame for the past fifteen years as Toni Stark and then got another spot for Iron Maiden?"
"Well, I obviously deserve another one."
Stephen had only rolled his eyes then, but a few weeks later, after meeting the Rogues in person, he had agreed with her and said he suggested that, if not the Hall of Fame, then Kamar-Taj's library will gladly house the picture and name and acknowledgment for this incredible feat.
Toni really loved her boyfriend.