"Are you sure this is really okay for me to wear?" Oliviana asked, needing to be absolutely sure.
Alessandra rolled her eyes, being unusually patient with her. Less didn't usually tolerate insecurities or people who needed constant reassurance. It sometimes baffled Oliviana why Less wanted to be in fashion, given the notoriously difficult-to-please clientele. "No, I put you in a dress that I expect to make you a target for cultural appropriation because I expect you to fall flat on your face."
"Less!"
Running a finger around an edge, Less walked around and stood in front of her. "Yes, it's fine. For the last time. You told me I could put you in anything I could reasonably fit within the theme. I know it's not obvious, but this is part of my heritage. It's part of me. I wanted to make something that shows the world who I am. You're just the model, and the flowers are always appropriate in memorial." She gave Oliviana a final once over with a critical eye before adding, "And you look amazing in those colors."
Gold and orange weren't colors that Oliviana would usually choose for herself, but she could admit that they set off her skin and hair beautifully. The ballgown was like a rain of marigold blossoms, wrapping around her as though her skin were the canvas, complete with the flowers woven into her hair. The flower most associated with Día de los Muertos, which made it very suited for a Life and Death theme.
Oliviana twisted, feeling the skirt swoosh around her. It was heavy, though not quite a ballgown. She'd worn bigger, more elaborate gowns, but this felt more right. Her makeup was toned down, very natural, letting the dress and flowers be her ornaments. She took a deep breath, reminding herself that she had given Less free rein, and if this is what she made for Oliviana, it was honestly an honor to wear it.
"Feel better?" Less asked, watching her carefully.
"Yes," Oliviana agreed.
"Well, then. Let's go show your darling fiancé. I want to watch his jaw drop when he sees you. If he doesn't go down on his knee to ask you to marry him again, you should kick him to the curb."
"You're exaggerating," Oliviana said, but the mental image of it was a delightful one.
It took the two of them to get down the stairs, Less holding the end of the dress carefully while Oliviana made her way down cautiously. When she got to the bottom of the stairs, she got to watch Heero's eyes widen, the surprise take over his features. She did a little spin, showing off how the overlay rose as if it were really made of petals, before facing him.
"What do you think?" she asked.
Watching Heero's jaw work without saying anything for a long minute might was definitely going to go on her list of all-time favorite memories.
"You look… amazing. Beautiful. I… I don't have words…"
Trying to fight down the blush that undoubtedly was coloring her cheeks and would probably be more intense with all the gold and orange around her face, Oliviana said, "You're not too bad yourself."
His own suit was in extremely modern cut, long lapels, minimal pockets, fit him like a damn glove, and had subtle marigolds embroidered into the lapels and along the pants themselves, golden piping all along the seams. His shoes were wingtips with the overlay in the same golden marigold color as her dress, and an orange ascot completed the outfit. The orange shouldn't have been a good color for his skin, but it did make his eyes—always his best feature—nearly glow. Heero's hair was tamed for once, slicked back, away from his face, making his eyes stand out even more. He was enough to make her own breath catch, and she had a definite sympathy for how overwhelmed he seemed by her.
"Yes, yes, you're both absolutely stunning—you're going to the MET Gala. It's like a requirement," Less said, apparently done with them being besotted with tone another. She checked her watch and said, "The car should be here, so let's get you both in there and go." She insisted, pushing them toward the door, while picking up the end of Oliviana's dress in her arms with practiced care, giving Heero explicit instructions on how to help her handle it when they got to the red carpet. She grabbed a matching handbag she'd made—one that mimicked the inlay of Heero's shoes—and handed it to Oliviana on the way out before stuffing her into the car. "All right, gorgeous. Go make me proud, okay?"
Oliviana smiled at her. "As if I would do anything less," she said.
Pointing at Heero, Less asked, "Are you sure you want her? Because if not, I can take her off your hands—"
Heero put a careful arm around her shoulder, minding the flower motifs there, and said, "I'm rather taken with her."
With an exaggerated sigh, Less handed her the train of the dress, laying it carefully across her lap. "You're both beautiful," she said, less sarcastic and more honest. "Make sure to pose pretty for me. And you—" She shook a finger at Heero. "—No scowling."
It predictably made Heero do exactly that, and Oliviana had to laugh as Less closed the door.
Tony fidgeted, waiting for Duo to come back. He'd left hours ago, not giving them any real information about where was going and with whom, but a promise to be delivered back to the Tower—discretely—before they needed to leave for the Gala. Which they really needed to be leaving for… like now. Okay, twenty more minutes and they'd be fashionably late. Tony usually didn't make it a point to be on time for… anything, really, but one only revealed their long-lost son to the world once, and this time, at least, Tony didn't want to be late.
"He's going to come," Cap assured him for probably the fourth time.
"I know," Tony snapped, then winced. They were trying to present a united front. Natasha was Steve's date for the event, but Tony was 83% she wasn't his date-date. She just was the more-or-less most acceptable date for Captain America to bring with that wasn't Wilson. Though Tony would honestly have paid good money to watch the tabloids speculate on their relationship and Cap's sexuality. Watching Cap squirm was usually fun.
The garage door opened and a short obligatory black limo pulled in, the door closing behind it. They all tensed until someone got out.
Even as well as he knew Duo's face, it took Tony a few seconds to register that it was, in fact, Duo at all. Something about the way his suit was cut made him seem taller than he actually was, or maybe it was the marigold crown woven in his hair. His face was painted in the relief of a skull, and Tony knew just by looking at it that it would thwart any facial recognition program shy of his own. The shirt beneath the suit was a perfect shade of indigo to contrast and make the marigolds really glow. Between the two of them, Duo's eyes were haunting.
Coughing to clear his throat, Tony said, "Decided to go with the 'Death' part of 'Life and Death,' I see?"
Duo grinned, and it looked entirely too sinister on a face that was usually almost too young. "Death walks with me," he reminded.
"The Merchant of Death's son shows up at the MET Gala as Death?" Natasha pointed out, for which Tony was honestly grateful. "That's going to be all over the headlines."
Shrugging, Duo appeared unconcerned. "I needed to be able to hide my face. It's too recognizable and I'll be useless for work if it gets around."
Tony opened his mouth to ask Duo exactly how long he thought it would really take people to figure out that he was, in fact, the son of Tony Stark, and then closed it. Duo was far from stupid; he knew this was a delaying tactic at best.
From inside the car, a voice came. "Really, Maxwell, are you going to help us out or not?"
He turned back to the car, putting his hand out even as he said, "There's no actual reason for you to come out, you know."
A woman dressed in a gown that looked like it might have been carved from ice stood from the car, letting Duo help pull her to her feet. Blonde hair that was longer than Duo's and extremely distinctive eyebrows… Tony felt like he should know who she was, but he was completely drawing a blank.
"Miss Catalonia," Natasha greeted. Tony clapped his fist into a palm as the name clicked.
"Dorothy Catalonia!" he said, then tucked his hands in his pockets while Duo helped another woman out. He wasn't surprised when the second was none other than Relena Darlian-Peacecraft herself. "Minister Darlian-Peacecraft," he greeted. Where Catalonia was in a gown that looked like it might have been ice, the foreign minister's looked like it was made of flowing water. "Delighted to make your acquaintances—Duo, why did you not tell us you knew these lovely ladies?"
"I'm equally pleased to make your acquaintance, Mr. Stark. Please call me Relena," she replied with all the grace and aplomb that Tony would expect from someone known for those qualities. "Agent Romanov, Captain Rogers, pleased to meet you both as well."
"Call me Tony," he interjected with a smirk, taking her hand, and flirting more in habit than desire.
He did catch Duo roll his eyes. "Is it a compulsion for you or something? Besides, she's taken."
Releasing her hand, Tony turned to fully face Duo. "She is?" he asked before it clicked and he turned to look at Catalonia, who didn't appear especially pleased with Tony's greeting. "Ah, so she is."
"Quite," Catalonia agreed.
Aside from being two renowned young women, it was clear that they were close friends of Duo's, but Tony couldn't resist. "The literal ice queen? Really?"
"Your son is literally going as Death. It seems to me that the choice of attire is entirely appropriate, if perhaps a bit on-the-nose," Catalonia replied. Her eyes ran over Tony's suit, which was glowing white with brilliant hot blue accents meant to allude to an arc reactor—clean energy—with a clinical eye before moving to take in Natasha and Cap. "Though, all things considered, I think 'on-the-nose' appears the correct level of literalness given this group."
"What can I say? Red and black are my colors," Natasha replied to the unsolicited criticism. Tony might have thought Natasha's black widow-inspired dress may also have been a bit much, but he—despite claims to the contrary—wasn't actually stupid or suicidal enough to say that to her face.
Catalonia's grin sharpened.
"As much fun as it could be to watch the two of you come up with new and exciting ways to verbally flay one another, I feel like we have a big to-do to be getting to," Duo interrupted. The words were a little teasing, borderline cheerful, even though when Tony looked at where he had sat himself on the roof of the car, he looked beautiful if frightening. Something about the juxtaposition of the skeletal makeup and the brightness of the marigolds in his hair, especially the ones woven into otherwise loose strands so they trailed over his shoulders, made Tony think of the old adage: Live fast, die young, leave a beautiful corpse.
A beautiful corpse draped in the marigolds that decorated Day of the Dead altars.
"We do," Natasha agreed, looking at Tony with an eyebrow raised. "Though I have to say, the choice of Death?" she added to Duo.
Pepper probably wouldn't be pleased, but it wasn't as if Tony had any actual say in what Duo wore to the event. The headlines would basically write themselves, but, well, Tony had always dealt with that. In a way, even aside from Duo's personal history and the way he seemed to revere death, almost as if it were some kind of god, it did seem appropriate that the son of the once proclaimed Merchant of Death would ally with death. It almost felt like it could be a choosing of sides, a declaration of standing with Tony. He was sure that Duo didn't mean it that way, but Tony could pretend.
"We considered dressing him up as Mother Earth, but somehow it just didn't seem appropriate," Catalonia said. "Green just isn't your color, I'm afraid."
Duo made an exaggerated snap. "Oh, darn," he said, about as disingenuously as Tony thought he was probably capable of being.
Relena raised her hand when Duo jumped off the hood of the car. "We do have one important thing to decide before we leave."
Turning a pleading expression on her that Tony was sure was far more effective when he wasn't wearing extremely well-done Halloween makeup, Duo said, "Do we have to?"
"What do we need to do?" Cap asked, stepping forward, clearly going on alert. Tony tried to ignore the way that dress uniform fit him, but Cap was a strikingly attractive man, and putting him in a damned uniform should be illegal.
"It's really—"
"What name do you want to introduce yourself as?" Relena asked, her attention focused on Duo to the exclusion of the rest of them.
"If you say 'it doesn't matter,' I'm going to call you a liar to your face," Catalonia added before Duo could open his mouth to dispute or refute Relena's statement. He visibly winced at the admonition.
Shoving his hands into his y, Tony asked, "What do you mean 'what name'? Duo Reyes-Maxwell, isn't it?"
Duo crossed his arms, looking less than pleased, which definitely looked more intimidating with the makeup. well
"It could be that simple," Relena agreed. "But using his real name, as recently updated as it was, could risk his position with Preventers." She turned to Duo. "Are you willing to disclose your status as an agent? Risk being recognized? Risk people digging into your past?"
Raising a hand as though he wanted to run it down his face, only to stop at the last moment, Duo sighed. "Does it really matter?"
"You're declaring to the world that you're the long-lost biological offspring of one of the most rich and famous men in the entire earthsphere," Catalonia said with the kind of impatience that suggested she was telling Duo something she felt he should already be well aware of. "Everyone, and I mean everyone, is going to want to know who you are, where you came from, going to want to dig into your past." She frowned. "You have a lot of skeletons in your close," she added in a slightly softer tone. "More than most."
"More than St—Tony himself?" Duo asked. Tony tried not to wince at Duo still nearly calling him Stark, but he could hardly expect Duo to change how he addressed Tony overnight.
Relena seemed undeterred. "The makeup will keep them from looking for your image and identifying it for at least a little bit, but this isn't a step you can undo. Once you're out there, you'll be out there. There's no putting the genie back in the bottle."
Duo's shoulders rose and fell with a silent sigh. "I know that," he said. "And sooner or later, people are going to figure it out, and I'd rather tell them on my terms than be caught off-guard and unprepared."
Would you? Tony had to wonder. Would you really prefer to tell them on your terms? Or do you just think you don't have any choice?
Much as it might gall him, Relena was right about this. Tony had tried to mention it to Duo a few times in the past weeks leading up to the Gala, but Duo had gone from masterful deflections to simply walking away when Tony tried. He still stumbled over calling Tony by his name, so Tony wasn't eager to push the issue. It didn't mean that there wasn't truth to what Relena was saying. To be acknowledged as Tony Stark's Son™ was to give up most of his anonymity. Tony had never known what it was to not be in the spotlight, but he knew that Duo much preferred the shadows to the bright lights. Being instantly recognizable wasn't going to be comfortable for him. At least he wouldn't be socially intimidated. With friends like Quatre Winner and now Relena Darlian-Peacecraft, Duo wasn't exactly a stranger to rubbing elbows with the rich and powerful.
Tony had assumed that Duo would just want to use his own name, but he didn't have to, and his official past was spotty enough to make backtracking a lie or false name difficult.
Or it would, except Duo worked in an international organization, was one of their best and probably had a reputation. People were going to see him and recognize him, and at least his history with the Preventers was almost certain to come to light.
After a long minute of Catalonia staring pointedly at him and Relena looking at him with genuine concern nearly dripping from her pores, Duo said, "What other name would I use?"
"I don't know. I do think Maximillian Stark has a nice ring to it," Catalonia said, looking up at the ceiling and pretending to consider it.
"There's also the question of if you'd prefer to use Duo Maxwell or even Duo Reyes instead," Relena reminded more sincerely.
He shook his head. "I'm not disavowing Jesus. I don't have to talk about him, I don't have to say anything about being married. They can chase their tails and think my mom's name was Reyes or something, if they want to. Might be a good distraction, honestly. But no." He shook his head again. "I'm not going to use a fake name like Maximillian Stark." He shot a slightly cautious look at Tony. "Stark isn't my name, and I'm not sure it ever will be."
Relena smiled, almost as if relieved. "I didn't think you would, but I had to ask. We needed to be sure."
"Is there any risk of Duo Maxwell coming up in connection with the pilots?" Natasha asked.
"Nah," Duo said, waving a hand dismissively. "If the world hasn't figured out that Lena spent most of the Eve Wars tracking down Gundam pilots, they're not going to figure out I was one."
"She did what?" Tony gaped.
Duo continued on as if he hadn't been interrupted. "At least, it's very unlikely. Not a lot of people during the war saw me up close and personal and lived to talk about it."
"Most of the veterans who did seem quite reluctant to identify the pilots publicly," Catalonia said, directing the information at them.
"You might find that changes when you're talking about Tony Stark's son," Cap warned, and Tony had to agree with the caution.
Shrugging again, Duo said, "The genie is already out of the bottle. It's only a matter of time before someone tracks me down and I make earthsphere-wide news. Honestly, that seems more likely to hurt you than me. Being a known face makes it harder for me to do covert things, yeah, but I still know how to blend in and disappear pretty damn well. As far as how it'll affect my job? I'll make that jump when I have to."
Part of Tony wanted to tell Duo to take this more seriously, to consider it more carefully, but he didn't know how to make Duo understand what the press of the press really felt like. He may have watched it from close-up at Relena or Winner's sides before, but it would be the first time the crush would be focused on him, and Tony knew there was truly no preparing for that. S
"So, Duo Reyes-Maxwell, then?" Natasha asked, but when he glanced over, she looked as though she maybe approved.
Meeting her eyes and giving her a firm nod, Duo said, "Yeah. That's me."
"If that's decided then," Relena said, "I think we all have an event we should be getting to."
They most certainly did. Tony wasn't sure he was ready to share his son with the vultures of the press and high society, but he'd set these gears in motion, now all he could do was hold on for the ride.