It was just a little past sunup when Pepper had just taken the last bite of the star apple that was a part of her breakfast when they heard a knock on the door. She looked over at Tony, who was busy with peeling an orange for Eva. Neither of them had any time to do anything more than exchange looks before their AI spoke up.
"Doctor Banner is at the door, Boss."
"Who does he want to-"
Another knock at the door cut off the question, and which was quickly followed by Bruce's familiar voice, "Hey! Tony?"
"Well that answers that question. Tell Bruce I'll be outside in a second, BRUTUS. I need to finish peeling Eva's orange for her."
"Will do, Boss."
Wiping her hands, Pepper held out her hand, "Here I can finish doing that. You go see what Bruce needs."
With a nod, Tony handed up the fruit to his wife before looking at his daughter, "Mommy's going to finish your orange, princess. I'll be back inside as quickly as I can, honey."
"Okay, we'll be finishing up here."
With one last look at his family, Tony went out the front door of their bungalow.
"Side porch, Boss," BRUTUS supplied before he had to ask.
"Thank, Broo."
"No problem, Boss."
He rounded the corner, and found Bruce sitting in one of the lounge chairs.
"And how's the Jolly Green Giant this morning?" Tony boomed, announcing his presence.
Bruce jumped a little, being unaware previously that he had come outside. He stood up, and came over, "Tony, hey! Good morning!"
"Morning, Big Guy! Ready to settle down and tie the knot with the lovely Doctor Betty Ross?
Bruce nodded, rubbing the back of his neck, nervously, "Yeah, I am even if I still can't believe this really happening. I can't believe that I'm not dreaming or that I'm actually going to get to marry Betty today."
"Hey, I thought the same thing when on the day I married Pepper, only I kept expecting her to come to her senses and dump me at the proverbial altar."
"Yeah, she was a bit crazy to go through with marrying you, wasn't she?"
Tony grabbed his chest, as dramatically he possibly as could just short of falling over onto the ground since he didn't want to alarm his friend after all, "Touché, Banner, touché."
"Hey, you said it first, Tony!" Bruce reminded him, shaking his head and smiling before he cleared his throat, "Tony, there's um... there's something I came to ask you."
Although he had a good suspicion that he knew what Bruce wanted to ask him, he still replied with, "Ask away, Big Kahuna!"
"I uh... would you do me the honor… oh no! That's not the right word! We're not getting married!"
"We are indeed not, Doctor Banner! Besides, I'm already a very happily married man!" Thankfully his friend started turning red instead of green with the last part of his remark.
"Um yeah, sorry, that's not what I meant to say. I meant to ask if um you would be... could be my Best Man today?"
"You want me to be your Best Man, hmm?"
The shy scientist gave a nod, then while rubbing the back of his still red neck he went on, "Yes, I do unless you rathered not. It's okay if you don't, I guess I could ask Steve or Clint. I guess there's also Rhodey or Sam… even though I don't really don't Sam well enough to really consider him to be my best friend. I mean aren't you supposed to have your best friend to be your Best Man at your wedding? Isn't that the tradition or something?"
If Bruce had noticed the billionaire beside him first smiling at him in amusement, then rolling his eyes in exasperation, he might have shut up a lot sooner. As he was, he didn't, and he would have kept on rambling if Tony hadn't reached a point where he couldn't take it anymore.
"I'll do it! I'll do it!"
"You'll do it?"
"Don't sound so surprised, Bruce! Of course, I'll be one of my best friends' Best Man at his wedding!"
"Oh thank you, Tony!" Banner exclaimed, grabbing his hand, and began shaking it, "Thank you!"
Tony allowed the handshake to go one for about five seconds before he pulled the other man into a decidedly awkward half hug, murmuring, "No problem."
The scientist copied him, allowing the half hug to last for a very short time before pulling back and looking more embarrassed than ever before. He cleared his throat and gestured in the direction of the bungalow he was staying in, "Well, I guess I should um you know, go get ready."
They had considered having a sunset ceremony, but then they'd decided against it. They'd waited long enough to be together, and since their friends had suggested that they have their wedding here, they decided that couldn't wait long enough for sunset to arrive.
With a nod, Tony inquired, "You want me to come with you now or do you want to have some time alone? 'Cause if you do, I'll just go tell Pepper what's up and-" He stopped when Bruce held up a hand.
"No, it's okay, Tony. I think I want just a little more time alone before I take the dive with Betty. Since we're shooting for a ceremony at eleven, how about you and the other guys come over like an hour before?"
"Sounds like a plan."
Pepper emerged from their bungalow, Eva in her arms and Ethan following just behind her. She went over to her husband, kissed him, then said good morning to Bruce.
"How did you sleep?" she asked.
"Better than I thought I would the night before I'm supposed to be getting married."
"That's good to hear. I'm glad you were able to sleep." She looked at her man, "Honey, Betty has invited us girls over to her bungalow for a girl talk powwow, and that's where Eva and I were heading."
Tony had noted that his son was looking a little on the sulky side, and he guessed that the boy didn't like the idea of being excluded because he was a boy.
Pepper could see what he was thinking so she supplied, "Betty said it was okay if Ethan and the other boys wanted to come over too, but I thought he'd and they'd have more fun hanging around with the guys than they would with us girls."
"Yeah, probably," he muttered in agreement before turning his attention to his son, "Hey, E-man, want us to get the guys together and go hang out on the beach for a little while while your Mom and sister go do girl stuff with your aunties and cousins?"
The boy gave a sullen shrug in response.
"Aw, come on, Ethan! It'll be a lot of fun!" Bruce piped in.
"Yeah, what he said. Come on, buddy, cheer up! Let the girls go off and have their fun while we guys have ours, okay?"
The boy gave a slow nod, "Okay."
Pepper smiled, very happy that had a positive resolution. She gave her husband a quick peck on the cheek, "I guess we'll see each other right before the wedding?"
"Yeah, I guess we will."
"Have a good time, fellas!" Pepper said, then started off towards Betty's.
Eva waved over her mother's shoulder, "Bye, Daddy, Eta, Unca Bruce!"
The three of them waved to her.
"Bye, Princess! You have fun with Mommy and yours aunties!" Tony called back, and then waited a few seconds until they were out of earshot to turn to his friend, "So Banner, what happened to all of that bull-" He stopped himself from completing that word when Bruce pointed to the boy standing between them, listening to every word they were saying, "Uh... bullooooney about wanting to have some time alone before you say I do?"
"I changed my mind? I know Betty's the bride and changing her mind is a woman's prerogative but in this case I am going to say it's mine too. Besides being alone probably means I have a bigger chance of getting cold feet."
"I think instead of probably, that'd be a more like a roger wilco and all that. You will get cold feet!"
"Thanks for the vote of confidence!"
"Hey, I'm just speaking from experience," the billionaire replied, slinging an arm around his shoulders along with Ethan's, and started to pull them towards the beach.
"Wait a second," Bruce said, stopping when his friend's words had absorbed into his brain, "You got cold feet before you married Pepper?"
It soon became clear that Tony didn't want to answer or elaborate on the question, by the fact he changed the subject.
"Aww Brucie, you know with this whole affair being so last second, I'm not going to have the time to come up with something to totally embarrass you with in my Best Man's speech!"
The mild-mannered scientist gave the billionaire a smile, "I know! That's exactly what I'm counting on!"
"Awww! Spoilsport!"
They arrived at the beach, and of course they were the only three there.
"Uh, I guess we kinda forgot to ask the guys to come here," Bruce said, looking around at the shore.
"Have no fear, Jolly Green Man, I can fix that very easily!" Tony informed him, holding up his watch and giving it a tap, "BRUTUS, do me a favor and tells the guys where we are. Ask them all if they'd like to join the groom and me on the beach for some fun while the girls engage in their hen festivities."
"Will do, Boss."
"Thanks, BRUTUS. In the meantime, gentlemen, while we're waiting for the guys to arrive why don't we warm up the old volleyball court?" He went over to the area and picked up the ball where Clint had left it after the end of the last game, "Come on, Bruce!"
Bruce walked towards the court with Ethan but stayed on the side when they reached it. Rubbing the back of his neck he said, "I uh don't really play volleyball, Tony."
"Yeah I have kinda noticed, Banner. In any case I wasn't asking for a game! I just want to warm up the court by us hitting the ball back and forth across the net."
"Ah you and Ethan go ahead. I'll watch," he replied, taking a seat on one of the beach blankets.
"Aww, Uncle Bruce!" Ethan whined, "Come play with us!"
Bruce had his mouth opened to respond to the boy but Tony beat him to it.
"No, that's okay, sport. If Uncle Bruce doesn't want to hit the ball back and forth with us, he doesn't have to. Now go get on the other side of the net and I'll hit the ball over to you, okay?"
Ethan nodded, and walked around the net.
"Ready, champ?"
"Uh huh ready, Daddy!"
Tossing the ball up, Tony gently hit it over the net and then watched to see what his son did. Ethan got under the ball, and he hit the ball back up into the air. But as it turned out, he wasn't tall enough to get the ball back over the net. When he hit the ball, it went straight into the net and bounced right back him, hitting him on the side of his face.
"Oh my..." Tony exclaimed before crossing over to his side of the court where the boy was holding his face, "Are you okay, Ethan?"
The look on Ethan's face was one of stunned surprise but to his relief, Tony didn't see any pain there. He reached out to place a hand on the boy's shoulder, "Ethan?"
Finally Ethan blinked, and looked at him, "I'm okay, Daddy. It didn't really hurt or anything. The ball coming back at me like that, it just surprised me is all.
"Whew, I'm so glad that it didn't hurt you!" he said, giving the little boy a relieved hug.
"Me too!"
When Bruce appeared in the corner of his eye, Tony his head.
"Hey, are you okay, bud?"
"Yeah, I'm okay."
"That's-"
"Hey! Hey! Hey!" Clint's voice came from behind, "We've only got a few hours to throw you a bachelor party!"
Bruce might have been about to say something against the idea, but his words died in his throat because of course they'd all brought their sons with them too. This wouldn't be a bachelor party in the traditional sense of the word, and not just because the kids were here. No, this was a bit of a last minute thing which made it impossible for anyone to have planned out.
It was especially a too minute of a last minute thing for Tony, as Best Man, to have planned the bachelor party since he only minutes ago accepted Bruce's request. As he watched Sam uncap and hand the man he would stand by today as married the woman he loved a... wait was that a root beer? His question was answered not two seconds later when Steve opened and handed the bottle to his son Jamie. Yes, it was definitely root beer!
Shrugging mentally, he decided to just go along with the flow since he definitely had not been on the planning of this little get together.
Rhodey's voice broke through his thoughts, and he looked over at his oldest friend in the world.
"Want one?" Rhodey asked, holding up one of the root beers.
With a nod, he accepted the beverage, and clinked his against Rhodey's when his was held out just for that.
"So what did you have in mind, fellas? How can we get wild and crazy while keeping it G rated?"