Disclaimer - I own nothing you recognise.

Challenges listed at the bottom.

Word Count - 3780

Fic Detail - TonyThor / Soulmate!AU

The Most Magnificent Storms

Tony didn't ever think he had a reason to lie to Thor. They weren't of the same world, they couldn't be soulmates. There was no real point to testing a connection that couldn't be there.

For Tony, Thor was the only person he could be entirely honest with all the time. And he was.

Thor seemed to appreciate Tony's honesty. Tony didn't think he was imagining the way Thor seemed to migrate to Tony's side whenever he was around. The two of them spent a lot of time together, certainly more so that Tony spent with anyone else on the team outside of missions.

He thought maybe that was why it hurt so much when Tony actually needed the Demi-God, only for him to be off planet, probably living it up in Asgard, though of course Tony had no way to verify his thoughts. He was probably being harsh, but his bitterness was stronger than his logic for a long time following the mess the team made of the accords and the following fights.

The Civil War, as the media had so dramatically dubbed it. Tony thought it was ridiculous, but who ever listed to him?

He'd lied to so many people over the years, and it had been easy. Rhodey had been first, and Tony had never been more disappointed than when the words slid easily past his lips without effort. The same thing happened when he met Pepper, and then Happy.

He tried it again and again, and every time, with every person, the lies came easily; more easily than the truth often did.

He tried it on every member of the team, except for Thor, of course, and every time, the words came without a problem. Tony had been most disappointed when he lied to Bruce, though there had been a twinge in his chest when he lied to Steve too.

He supposed that his father's words had sunk deeper than he'd thought, and brushed it away.

So, the team fell apart, and Tony was left alone, but it wasn't really anything more than he'd been expecting anyway. Nobody ever stayed for Tony, and if he could lie to them, it wasn't like they really had a reason to stay anyway, right?

Tony wasn't sad with his life. He had Pepper, and Rhodey, and Happy, and he was keeping a close eye on Peter. He had his bots, he had J.A.R.V.I.S, rebooted from a backup because Tony couldn't allow his brightest son to die forever, not when he had the power to bring him back.

He had Vision, who'd stuck by his side despite Wanda opposing him. Tony remembered the hurt in Vision's voice when he quietly told him of the lies Wanda had told him, the words falling easily from her lips. Tony wasn't sure if Vision would even have a soulmate, but he refused to tell him that.

If Vision had hope, then Tony certainly wouldn't be the one to take it away from him.

So despite the fact that he hadn't found his soulmate, Tony wasn't unhappy. In fact, he considered himself content.

That was, until Strange appeared to pull him through a portal and Bruce was there having fallen through the roof with a warning of a big purple monster heading their way.

Then he wasn't content… he was furious.

…

Being stuck on an abandoned planet with only a blue robot woman for company wasn't Tony's idea of a party. Worse, was that he couldn't get the vision of Peter turning to ash and scattering to the wind out of his mind. Worse, was that he didn't know what was happening down on earth, other than that they'd obviously failed as badly as Tony had.

Vision… Tony couldn't think about Vision, because to think about Vision would be to admit that he knew the being was no longer alive. He couldn't be, if Thanos had the mind stone.

Was Pepper okay? Rhodey, Happy… the team? Who had survived the decimation? Tony wasn't sure he wanted answers to that question, but he knew he needed them. And to get them, he needed to get home.

"Do you know how this thing works?" he asked Nebula, nodding at the ship Star Lord and his team rode in on.

"I can steer it, if that is what you are asking," Nebula replied.

"Good enough," Tony muttered. "Time to fix this up then."

"Where are we going?"

"Home."

"Why?" Nebula asked, his head tilting to the side. "Thanos will not have lingered there. He'll have gone home, to the Garden."

"And you're not stupid enough to think that just the two of us can take him out," Tony replied flatly. "To defeat him, we need more people, and hopefully, we'll find them on Earth. Are you with me, or not?"

She regarded him for a long moment. "Very well. If you can fix the Benatar, then we shall head for Earth."

"Consider it done."

…

In all seriousness, Tony wasn't sure he'd even make it to Earth. Wounded, starving, and tired, he didn't know if he had the willpower to keep going.

You had to want to live to defeat odds like the ones stacked against him and Tony… Tony wasn't sure if he wanted it enough. The idea of just lying down and admitting defeat was a tempting one.

Almost too tempting.

The only thing driving him forwards was knowing there was a slight, almost impossible chance, that he could bring Peter back. Strange had said there was a way to defeat Thanos, and Tony clung to idealism because it was all he had left to hold on too.

Besides, Tony was many things, but a martyr wasn't one of them. He'd leave that to Steve.

The ship touched down not quite smoothly on the sweeping lawns of the compound, and when the doors opened, Tony had quite the welcoming committee waiting for him. His eyes drifted over Steve, and Natasha and Clint, and Bruce.

"Where's Thor?" he asked, almost scared of the answer.

"Grieving," Natasha replied quietly. "Tony, we thought—"

"Well, you thought wrong. Take more than a purple peanut with an extravagant glove to take me out, you should know that by now."

He limped down the ramp to the grass and had to fight the urge to fall to his knees and kiss the ground. Instead, he looked back at Natasha. "Pepper? Rhodey?"

"Both fine," she confirmed, and Tony nodded, a wave of relief overflowing him.

"Good. That's good. Give me the rundown."

"Don't you think you should rest, Tony?" Steve asked, hesitantly stepping forwards towards Tony.

"I'll rest when I'm dead," Tony replied flatly, ignoring the winces. "For the moment, we've got work to do and we need to get on with it. So. Rundown."

…

The reunion with Pepper and Rhodey was tearful, and for almost a full hour, Tony allowed himself the time to just hold them both close and thank every deity he could think of that the two of them were still there, that they were okay.

The team joined them eventually, Thor lingering on the edge as he stared at Tony like he couldn't believe he was there, like he was struggling to believe he was even alive.

Tony wanted to hug him, but after everything that had happened, after the amount of time they'd been apart, he didn't even know if his touch would be welcome.

"You need time to heal, before anything else," Natasha said, her eyes on Tony's side. He'd showered and applied more nanites to the wound, but it wasn't healing as well as it could be and Tony was frustrated because he didn't want to be lying around waiting.

He wanted to get it done. He wondered, not for the first time, if Extremis would be a good idea. He hadn't wanted to use it before, but knowing what they were up against, another advantage wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing.

"Is Helen okay?" he asked, raising his eyebrow at Rhodey in question.

"She's on her way," Rhodey confirmed. "I had a feeling we'd need her."

Tony took a moment to appreciate the way Rhodey had never doubted that he'd make it back. It was a mark of their friendship that even when it all seemed hopeless, Rhodey had known in his heart that Tony was on his way.

"Okay, then we'll shelve any action until I've spoken to her," Tony agreed. "In the meantime, there's a way to defeat him and undo what he did. Strange, before he… what are we calling that? Dusted? Gross. Okay, before he dusted, he said there was a way. Useless fucker didn't tell me how but… there's a way, and I'll understand if any of you decide that you're not in this but… I'm going to beat him.

"One way or another, Thanos is going down, and the people he took are going to be brought back. There's no… there's no other option."

"Who… who was up there with you, Tones?" Pepper asked, her eyes wide and pleading with him not to tell her what she already knew.

"Peter."

…

With Helen's help, Tony healed and with her help and serious objections, he injected himself with Extremis. It was painful, but when it was over, Tony didn't doubt that he'd made the right decision. Immediately he set to work on a new, stronger, better suit, all the while he mulled over what he knew about Thanos, and planned hundreds of different ways to reverse the snap, each less likely to work than the last.

It was four in the morning when he finally had a breakthrough, and he immediately got to work, only stopping when J.A.R.V.I.S told him that the team were up and gathered in the kitchen.

Tony left his workshop and strode into the kitchen. "I know how to beat him."

He laid the plan out for them, every minute detail he'd managed to come up with, and when he was done, he sat back and looked at them all. The plan hinged on them all agreeing to it, and his heart thumped painfully in his chest as they all contemplated his plan.

"I'm in," Clint said first, grinning at Tony. "It's… really good to have you back, Tones."

Tony arched his eyebrow, but looked at the others.

Thor nodded firmly, and Tony was sure that the inaction, the waiting, was killing him as much as it was Tony. Nat nodded at him next, a small smile lifting her lips, and Bruce shrugged.

"It's a good plan," he agreed. "It's better than anything anyone else has come up with. Count me in."

Tony met Steve's eyes and after a long moment, Steve nodded. "We can do this."

Tony narrowed his eyes slightly. "Together?"

"Together."

…

The night air was colder than Tony had expected it to be when he stepped out onto the balcony. He leant against the railing and looked up at the stars. He'd be amongst them again soon. Nebula was certain that Thanos would be in his Garden, patting himself on the back for a job well done, and since they needed both him and the gauntlet, they'd have to go to him.

It wasn't like they could summon him.

There was a lot riding on chance with the plan, but Tony was still confident that they could pull it off. Admittedly, even if he thought they didn't have a chance, he knew he'd still throw himself into it, because doing nothing was a torture he couldn't withstand.

He heard footsteps behind him, but he knew it was Thor before the man joined him against the railing. Since Tony had come back, he'd noticed that there was a certain… charge coming off of Thor, almost like he couldn't contain the lightning entirely anymore.

He'd wondered if it was the effect of grief, but he didn't want to ask. Thor hadn't barely said two words to him in the time they'd been at the compound.

"I was sorry to hear about Loki," he said, when Thor didn't speak.

"Really?"

"Well, he did try to kill me—"

"Yes, me too, on many occasions," Thor interjected, almost defensively.

"But,"Tony continued, as though he hadn't been interrupted. "He was your brother and I know how much you loved him. So, I'm sorry for your loss."

There was a pause and then, "Thank you, Tony."

Tony nodded.

"Are you ready to rejoin them?" Thor asked, nodding up at the stars.

Tony chuckled. "Not even slightly. But I'll do what I need to do to bring Peter back… to fix this mess that we're in."

Thor turned to him, and surprised him by taking Tony's hand between his own two larger ones. "Promise me that you'll only do as much as you're able. It will not be a win, if we succeed only to have you lost."

Tony met Thor's eyes. "I can't."

…

It was a simple plan, but Tony knew that often, the simple plans were the ones that worked best. Each of them wore new suits that would allow them to survive in space, and built into those suits, were gauntlets made by Tony's own hands.

Each gauntlet had only one hole, but together… together they would be joined and together, they would win.

Before any of that mattered, they had a titan to kill. Thor took the lead on that, his anger overtaking him the moment they laid eyes on Thanos. He was clearly not at his best, and it made Tony wonder, for a moment, what the effect of wielding the stones would take on them afterwards.

It was a curiosity that wouldn't stop him.

With pinpoint precision, Thor took Thanos' head off in one swift sweep of Stormbreaker.

"We're going to need to move quickly, before the stones disappear," he said, nodding at the gauntlet.

Tony stepped forwards first and with a deep breath, he tugged the soul stone from the Gauntlet and put it into his own. Steve took the time stone, and Bruce took the power stone. Thor grasped at the space stone, and finally, Nat plucked the reality stone and Clint the remaining mind stone. The six of them stood in a circle and as one, the joined hands.

Tony gasped as he felt the power swirling around them, and as the wind picked up, each of them glowed the colour of the stone they were holding.

"Three, two one," Steve counted them in, and together, they thought about what they wanted. They pushed their belief that it was the right thing to do, their need for it to happen, and their strength into the prayer.

Tony closed his eyes against the whipping wind, and only opened them when he heard a loud bang to his left. Opening his eyes, he stared when he realised they were in Wakanda, Thanos standing in front of them.

"Holy fuck it worked," Clint gasped out.

"Not yet," Steve muttered. "We've got to beat him again, and remember, he's stronger now than he was in his Garden."

Tony nodded, but with grim determination, said, "He is. But so are we."

…

Peter fell into Tony's arms. Strange stood to the side, watching with a small smile as Tony gripped the young man tightly in his arms, tears pouring unashamedly down his face.

"Congratulations," Strange said, nodding at Tony. "I knew you would do it."

"Even with fourteen million chances that I wouldn't?" Tony asked over Peter's head. "Are you serious?"

Strange nodded. "I'm serious. I never doubted you for a second."

"Thanks for bringing him back," Tony said, nodding at Peter. "I really didn't want to have to go back to Titan."

"But you would have done," Strange said with a small smile.

"Is this going to cause problems in the… time continuum or anything?" Tony asked, genuinely curious. Whatever problem they caused, if any, they'd deal with it. Regardless, with Peter still resting in his arms, it had been worth it to Tony.

""You took the places of yourselves," Strange said, an odd smile on his face. "All will be well. Goodbye, Tony."

"Later, Dumbledore."

Rolling his eyes, Strange stepped back into a portal and disappeared. All around them, the Avengers were hugging their once lost companions tightly, while others looked at the six of them in utter confusion.

"How did… I am very confused," T'challa said, looking at each of them.

"It's gonna be okay, Big Cat," Tony replied. "For now… that's all you need to know."

"We'll explain later," Steve agreed, even as he hugged first Bucky and then Sam, tightly. "When everyone has had some rest."

…

"It's strange to hear you talk of a battle and not be saying 'it was such a wonderful adventure' after it," Tony said to Thor a few days later.

The Avengers had been questioned and questioned and questioned again for good measure about how they had managed to take out the greatest threat the world has ever seen, and Tony was so tired of the questions. They'd done it, they'd saved the world… wasn't that enough?

Thor shook his head. "The losses were personal and deep this time," he admitted. "It was not so much an adventure as a war torn battlefield, and those are never wonderful."

Tony couldn't disagree with that.

"Everything reminds me of that day. Most of the universe doesn't even remember it, but I can't stop seeing Peter turning into ash right in front of me. I don't… how do we move on from this?"

"I wish I had answers for you, Tony. If only because then, I'd have answers to that same question for myself. Are you okay? Physically, are you okay?"

Tony tried to say yes, because he mostly was, but he choked on the word. He tried again, only to find himself unable to spit it out past his lips.

"Tell me the truth," Thor said gently, and Tony stared at him in shock.

"This… isn't happening," he murmured, shaking his head in denial. "This isn't… you're not… it can't be that easy!"

"Tony… tell me the truth."

"I… I took a hit to the ribs," Tony whispered, head spinning. "It's alright, Thor. It'll heal in a week or so."

Thor nodded and then tugged Tony into his arms. "I have known for a long time that you were meant for me, and it humbles me to know that you are honest with me almost all the time."

"I didn't… I didn't think it was possible," Tony admitted. "You were… there was no point lying to you."

"I've been drawn to you like a moth to a flame since I met you," Thor said quietly. "I knew there was a reason for that, and so, I… attempted to embellish a tale. A simple lie, but one that would not pass my lips."

"You… that was the day you choked and we all thought the bubbles in the champagne—"

Thor chuckled and nodded. "The very same."

"I can't believe you've known for that long and you didn't… why didn't you tell me?"

"I should have," Thor murmured. "But I enjoyed having such… an innocent relationship between us, one free of lies. That you were always honest with me, even about the little things… I cherished it, Tony. I have loved you for so very long."

"You don't love me!" Tony gasped, stepping back out of Thor's grasp. "That's not… it's not… that's a terrible idea, Thor!"

"I do not believe it is," Thor replied. "And one day, you'll believe that I love you, as you know that I cannot lie to you. It is but as the fates decided."

Stumbling back, Tony fled.

…

"You know you're allowed to be happy, right?"

Tony looked up from the bee he'd been watching flying amongst the flowers on the ground to see Pepper standing above him.

"Was that just a random sentiment, or…?"

"Don't be a jackass. Thor is worried about you. You've been avoiding him for almost a week, Tony."

"I've been busy."

"Bullshit. You're hiding because you're under the impression that you don't deserve what he's offering you, but you're wrong."

"When did you become such an expert on my motivations?" Tony snapped, and then sighed apologetically when she arched her eyebrows at him.

"When have I not been?" she replied. "Come on, just… talk to him. You love him, Tony, I've heard you waxing poetic about him at three in the morning enough times to know that."

"That was before."

"Before what?"

"Before he left," Tony admitted, running a hand through his already messy hair. "Everyone leaves, Pep. I don't know if I can handle my soulmate leaving me too."

"He won't."

"Know that for sure, do you?"

Pepper stared at him for a long moment. "Yeah. I do."

She walked away and Tony contemplated moving before he could be ambushed. He knew he couldn't keep putting it off though, and so he stayed, lying back in the grass. Sure enough, not even an hour passed and Thor sat down beside him.

"I cannot promise that I will never make mistakes, Tony," he started, looking down at the genius. "But I promise I will always love you. I will always stand by your side, and if it is within my power, I'll never let anyone hurt you."

"What about Asgard?" Tony asked. "I'm not saying you'll leave by choice, Thor. I'm saying that one day, you'll leave because you have too, because your planet needs you too."

"Are you saying that you won't join me there?" Thor asked.

"Are you—"

"Tony, I do not ever want to be without you. You are mine, mine to love and cherish and protect. If that means I must remain on Midgard, then so shall it be, but Tony, you will be as welcomed on my planet as I am."

"That… is not what I expected," Tony admitted.

"Just give me a chance," Thor asked, almost pleadingly. "A chance to show you that you are all I will ever need in this life."

Tony stared at him for a long moment and then, he nodded. When offered such acceptance and love, especially a love he returned with all of his being, how could he possibly say no?

Thor leant down and covered Tony's lips with his own. In the distance, a rumble of thunder sounded.

Tony chuckled, cupping Thor's cheek gently. "If that was you, the world is going to hate us when we start having sex."

Thor laughed, strong and boisterous. "We will make the most magnificent storms, my love."

"I look forward to it."

Written for:

Disney - D5. "It was such a wonderful adventure."

Trope - 5. Denial

Showtime - 5. "Tell me the truth."

Press Play - "It's gonna be okay, Big Cat."

Liza Loves - 7. Flame

Basement - 20. Bee

Film Festival - 29. "Everything reminds me of that day."

Marvel Appreciation - 5. "He did try to kill me." / "Yes, me too, on many occasions."

Galleon - 64. "I'm serious."

Romance Awareness, Day 11 - You can't lie to your soulmate.

Romance Awareness, Extra - 2. "One day, you're believe that I love you."

365. 169. Martyr