Notes: Here, have some heartwarming fluff before I end you.
Chapter Fifteen
Six Months Later
Leigh takes off her winter coat to hand to the coat attendant, checking at the last minute to make sure her phone isn't in the pocket. She takes the offered claim ticket and heads over to where she can see Bruce in the waiting area. Today he's wearing an actual suit, and he looks uncomfortable, but his hug in greeting is anything but.
"Promise me you won't take pictures of this to show Tony," Bruce says, slipping a finger between his collar and the expensive-looking tie he's got on.
"Is that because you are going to someone else for funding, or because you're dressed like you care what other people might think of you?" Leigh asks, teasing.
"Sir, follow me to your table?"
"Nah, it's just that he'll give me shit if he finds out I wore it to the restaurant before the gathering tonight." Once they're seated, he nods at her clothing. "Thanks for thinking of me."
Leigh's dress is green, the same color as the one she'd worn when she'd spoken with Rhodey about the Avengers, though this one has lacy sleeves and a pleated skirt.
"Well, you know, I wanted to send in a picture so they could swatch the fabric to match perfectly, but wouldn't you know, all the news pictures of Hulk vary in color quality so much that I gave up," Leigh tells him.
"You joke, but with Tony's money, you probably could actually do that."
Leigh tries to think of a quip in response, but a waiter with some kind of fish dish walks past their table, and the smell instantly turns her stomach. She goes with deflection, instead- both from the undoubtedly disgusted look on her face, and the favorite running gibe from Tony's former teammates: that she hates to waste (honestly, sometimes even just spend) Tony's money.
"So you got the funding, then?"
Bruce looks down at the table, a pleased smile on his face. "Yeah. The thing is-" he cuts off, his lips twisting the smile into a rueful one. "Did I tell you I went over to New Asgard right after Christmas?"
The server comes and gets their drink order, informing them of the specials. Bruce's face retains its regretful expression, and Leigh starts to realize what he's going to tell her. She sits forward in her chair, her ankles crossing tightly, hand in her lap bunched in the napkin she'd grabbed to protect the fabric of her dress from the condensation on her water goblet.
"He wouldn't even let me in, this time."
Leigh lets out a sad sigh. "I still think you guys should let me try. This has been like a kind of talisman, seems like. It unlocks all the Avengers." She holds up her wrist, covered by a new gadget that Tony had made for her, for Christmas. It's a bracelet made of nanoparticles that senses the soulmark on her inner wrist and covers it intuitively. The rest of its structure holds to one of a various number of delicate, beautiful structures, so it looks like Leigh's just wearing an expensive metalwork bracelet that happens to hide the word on her wrist.
Right now, she's not referring to the bracelet as her talisman, but the word underneath.
"I know you can only go on what Nat and I have told you about what Thor's like lately, but, I don't think it'll work on him," Bruce says. "Honestly, out of anyone in the universe, he may have had the farthest fall." He clears his throat, sits straighter in his chair. "That's why I-"
"Please don't," Leigh says swiftly, desperately.
Their server has impeccable timing. He starts taking their orders for the main meal. The entire time Bruce is ordering, Leigh stares at Bruce, knowing it's rude, not caring, begging him with her expression to change his mind.
She knows he won't.
Bruce is a true gentleman. He sits still while she gives her order, doesn't stare at her like he doesn't trust her judgment. Leigh feels a bit convicted by that.
As soon as the server leaves, Leigh rushes to speak.
"We don't even know if you'll ever need to do it. This is- this is a crazy thing to change your life so drastically over!"
"Leigh, the gauntlet is only a very small part of my reasoning for this," Bruce says patiently. "The truth is, I'm torn in half. You haven't known me for long, all right? When this thing happened to me, I thought of the Other Guy as a parasite, a toxic infection, something that I should be able to figure out how to slough off." He picks up his goblet to take a drink, then holds it up. "The balance between us used to be more delicate than this. It's better now, but that's… that's from trauma."
"From what Tony said about what you're planning, you'd- I mean, I don't mean to be crass, Bruce, but you'd be different. Look different. Irreversibly so." Leigh doesn't let herself think about the implications for Nat, who she's seen react to this nuclear option for Bruce with stoic unhappiness. Their orbit around each other has been so wide that Leigh's still not sure there's gravity there, but she thinks there is. It might well be as fragile as Bruce's glass goblet though, easily shattered by his plan.
Leigh can still kind of smell that fish, and the uneasiness from that is mixing with her dread over Bruce's plan to integrate himself with his alter ego. She hopes she can stand to eat anything.
"You're asking if I'll be okay if I don't 'pass' in public anymore? Realistically, what happens when I don't? Total strangers aren't afraid of me right now, but in my heart, I know they ought to be, at least a little. When I'm done-"
"You don't even know for sure it'll succeed! Isn't your work, the things that only your unique mind is capable of understanding, more important than risking your life if you fail?"
"Is it going to remain worth it, if I'm still so miserable?" Bruce asks her with a textbook polite smile.
Leigh's slapped by this.
"Fuck, Bruce, really?" she whispers, conscious of the fancy restaurant they're in.
"Really. You're a fierce, kind advocate for me, Leigh, but not only have I made my peace with this, I've spent more time questioning it than I really wanted to, because of my friends. It's been… actually very affirming," Bruce says, his smile shining in his eyes, as it hardly ever does. He presses down on a water droplet on the bright white tablecloth. "Who cares if I don't pass in public? What's anyone going to do, try to beat me up?"
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Outside the restaurant, as they wait for a cab, a young man that gives off a really strong 'probably a journalist' vibe walks up to them.
"You're Leigh Balci, aren't you?" he says, as if that's an appropriate way to greet a person. Leigh doesn't really mind that Bruce drifts backward and away from her, into a cluster of large potted plants probably designed to prevent anyone from accidentally driving into the historic facade of the restaurant they just left.
"What is it that you want?" Leigh asks, pulling her coat closer. She hadn't fastened the front of it, because it is usually too warm inside the cab. It's the wrong move, though.
The journalist asshat reaches out and grabs her right wrist, still covered by her coat sleeve. Leigh pulls back immediately, violently, and the man's left with her coat, but no arm. With a swift move, she cuts down with her right arm to dislodge her coat from his grip.
"Don't mess with a woman's Christmas present, okay? She's liable to get a little cranky," Leigh tells the man.
"What do you say to the reports that you and Stark's little mind games with magic marker soulmarks are hiding the fact that you're not soulmates?" the man says, holding out the audiorecorder he'd had hidden in his coat pocket before.
"It was never about soulmates for us in the first place, so that lie is a complete waste of ink to print. Get out of here before I show you what's really on my wrist- a panic button that'll bring Iron Man down on your ass!" Leigh shouts at him, turning away from him and shoving through the small crowd that has gathered.
"Thank you, Miss Balci!" the man yells after her.
He sounds smug, and Leigh internally freezes, trying to think of what she might have said that would make the man so gleeful. The panic button? That the panic button is on her wrist? It can't be that the press as a whole is convinced she has a soulmark on her wrist, because with the number of times she and Tony have been photographed over the past months, the difference in skin color and texture at that area is obvious, in high-res photographs.
Leigh's inability to think of what might have pleased the asshat who'd accosted her is starting to make her really upset. Her minor celebrity status as Tony Stark's live-in girlfriend has been going on for many months, and the onset of winter in NYC has actually lessened the number of times she's been confronted.
"I'm sorry about that," Bruce says in a stage whisper, as he comes up behind her.
"You did exactly what I would have wanted you to," Leigh says. To her horror, she feels herself getting even more emotional, tipped over by how grateful she is that Bruce didn't get recognized. "If you're worried about being trailed, you might want to come back with me and we can send Chuck to your hotel room for anything."
Bruce is perceptive enough to catch the little edge to her voice on 'hotel room.' He doesn't stay at the tower when he visits (which, honestly, has only been twice, but still). "I promised Tony I'd stay out of his hair for the most part, and I meant it."
"He meant the lab, and he was lying through his teeth, you know that, right?" Leigh tells Bruce. Her wrist hurts, but she doesn't think the guy touched it, so it's psychosomatic, like she needs that right now. It's hard not to wonder what might have happened if it had been fall, not winter, if she hadn't had a coat on, if he'd have taken her bracelet. She loves it, Tony outdid himself, the thing can be programmed into many different beautiful shapes and colors. If the journalist had gotten it off-
"Hey," Bruce says, jogging to get in front of her and stopping. "You okay?"
"Do not tell Tony I'm crying over the thought of losing this bracelet. It's a frivolous waste of expensive technology and I love it with the power of a thousand suns and he'll never let me live it down if he knows," Leigh says, furiously wiping away the two tears that have managed to escape her moratorium.
Bruce pins her with a look, and says, "You mean I shouldn't let Tony know you actually like expensive jewelry? Seems like a timely thing to tell him."
It's a proposal joke.
Bruce just made a proposal joke.
On New Years' Eve.
"If you ruin some sort of a surprise for him I'll hold it over your head for the rest of eternity, just see if I don't," Leigh says, but now she's actually crying. "He wouldn't, would he?" she whispers.
Bruce reaches out and holds her coat steady so she can put her freezing arm back into it. "The part I like about this conversation is where I can't tell if you're asking if Tony would ask you to marry him, or if he'd risk your ire by doing it with an expensive engagement ring."
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Leigh heads to the closet as soon as she gets home. She takes off the green dress and puts on her favorite skirt with a soft cornflower blue sweatshirt. The hood is usable today because her hair's up in the crown braids she often wore for the soup kitchen, even though she hasn't been able to volunteer there for a while. The press attention has outlived its usefulness, and unfortunately it's disruptive, at this point.
She walks over to the couch and drops onto it, sighing. The unsettled stomach is still lingering, and she's a bit worried about how that could impact their gathering. Rhodey's going to bring his fiance Aleshia, who hasn't had a chance to meet Bruce or Nat yet. The last thing Leigh wants to do is to steal Rhodes' thunder. He and Aleshia got engaged on Christmas, and this will be their first chance to 'step out' in public afterwards.
The only thunder Leigh's planning tonight is related to her dress. It's red. She's going to wear her hair down with some clips she'd ordered for probably too much money online. They're custom-made red flowers with small arc reactors in the center.
The funny part is that when ordering them, Leigh had used Nat's address, because she didn't really want to tell the etsy shop owner that she was making them for Tony Stark's girlfriend.
"Miss Balci, the party organizers are here," FRIDAY informs her.
"Thanks!" After letting in the team that were about to transform Tony's penhouse into an intimate New Years Eve gathering, Leigh heads down to her old apartment. FRIDAY can tell her if the crew needs her.
Besides, it's hard to keep an outfit hidden from your boyfriend when you share a closet.
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Leigh's almost finished drying her hair when Nat shows up. She looks fantastic, and all Leigh can see of the dress so far is the knees down. It's a black evening gown with two angled cutouts that reveal her legs.
"I didn't know if the black you'd said you were going to wear would clash with your two-toned hair, but that, uh, really works," Leigh says. Nat's face is not completely devoid of makeup, but Leigh can tell she's not put her 'game face' on for the evening.
When Nat takes off her coat, Leigh's even more appreciative. The neckline is asymmetrical to the extreme, leaving her right arm completely bare and dipping down over her right breast. It angles up to cover her left shoulder and arm with a half sleeve whose cut mirrors those from the front of the dress.
"Convenient to find a dress that covers your left shoulder," Leigh remarks as she brushes her hair.
"You are just desperate to see it, aren't you?" Nat sighs.
"I mean, the level at which you hide your soulmark is completely unsurprising, given who you are," Leigh tells her. "I just feel like you're overselling it unless there's a swear word or two in there. I mean, it's not like I'm going to rat you out to the papers."
"You think it's about trust?" Nat says, seeming to be surprised. She pulls out some heavy duty makeup supplies and sets them down on Leigh's coffee table. "It isn't. They're-" she lets out a long breath. "You're not the only person who spent time hiding from their soulmate, Leigh. I don't even know if he'll remember saying them, to be honest."
"So it's from before the Snap," Leigh realizes aloud. "You already know them!"
"Him. Where's the dress?" Nat asks pointedly.
Leigh accepts the subject change with reluctance. After she gets the simple, elegant red dress on, she sits down on her couch and readies herself to submit to Natasha's makeup expertise. The dress is floor-length, with her favorite style of pleated, voluminous skirt. This particular skirt has a scandalously high slit in it, not that Leigh will probably reveal just how high it is if she can help it, tonight. While they have company, anyway. The neckline is low, V-shaped but with an extra little curl of depth to create interest, and the sleeves are wrist-length. The redness of the dress and her unfettered, honey blonde hair are really the stars of her outfit, tonight. She'd loved some of the options she'd seen for red dresses, ones with lace detailing, or sequins and embroidery, but all of those would have caught on her hair, maybe been too busy for what she'd envisioned.
Knowing that she should hold still, Leigh simply sits and listens to Nat talk about various things, barely paying attention, until she pulls out a tube of mascara and unscrews it.
"Oh, wow, those come scented these days? That's... Nat, I'm not sure I can wear that," Leigh says, leaning back away from the other woman. The smell of the mascara isn't distasteful, like the fish earlier in the day had, but it's strong, far too strong for her.
Natasha lifts the tube to her nose and frowns. "Leigh, I can barely smell this."
"That just tells me you've gotten kicked in the face and gassed too many times in your storied career," Leigh says with conviction. "It's really strong. Did you have a cold recently or something? Reduced sense of smell?"
Nat rescrews the tube and looks at her for a long minute. "Have you had a heightened sense of smell lately?"
Leigh thinks back. "No, I don't think so? I mean, there was a ghastly, stinking fish thing at the restaurant today, but I think I can safely say I'll always think that's disgusting, no change there."
"You were there with Bruce?" Nat asks.
Leigh holds her expression, certain that Natasha is information gathering. "Yeah, kind of a tradition now, every three months. You're welcome to join. I bet he'd love that."
Except, if Bruce does what he's planning, he'll be incommunicado. For months. Maybe over a year.
Natasha shrugs. "He wasn't bothered by the fish?"
"Not that he said, but we were, you know, chatting."
Their conversation shifts back to other things as Nat brings out another mascara and uses it, instead. It's only when they're completely finished and Leigh goes to admire Nat's handiwork in her bathroom mirror that the other woman asks her something else.
"There's this app I heard about, it was designed to go through and delete all reminders, calendar entries, and contacts for people and services that no longer exist after the Snap. Cross-referenced all of the missing people and business closures, people were swearing by it about a year ago. Any chance you've run that on your phone?"
Leigh nods. "Yeah, it was really convenient. One of the most comforting things I've ever done, honestly, because I didn't have to constantly get hit with the enormity of how much changed when I just wanted to call for pizza or something."
Nat leans against the bathroom doorway, tipping her head to the side. "Think your OBGYN was one of them?" she asks in a light, friendly tone.
Leigh catches Nat's eye in the mirror, and time seems to completely halt. She casts back, using this seeming pause in the time-space continuum to search her mind for the needed information. Yes, her OB was one of the people Snapped. The practice itself had lost 65% of its staff, as it was a small office. It had closed. Leigh's habit of meticulous calendar entries for appointments, especially those scheduled long in advance, such as IUD removal and replacement had undoubtedly been influenced by the app Natasha had mentioned.
"You think I'm pregnant?" Leigh gasps. Her lungs are clogged with debris, it seems like, as if she's an engine seized up with self-doubt and fear.
"Hey, let's go sit down, all right?"
"I swear to God, Natasha, if you treat me like a china doll-"
"I'm not, but you turned white as a sheet right there. You should be sitting down, that's it, I promise." As if to prove her promise, Nat practically drags Leigh back into the living room and shoves her into a seat.
"To-" Leigh can't even finish his name, much less the sentence.
"I think he'll be happy. If I'm right, which I think I am."
Leigh thinks of her sister in law and bursts into tears. She flails her hands out. "Shit, Natasha your makeup-"
"Waterproof, dearest, you think I'm an amateur?"
"This is the second time today I've cried. Natasha, I am not really a crier." Leigh can't say it out loud twice, but this is as close as she can get. Pregnant. A chance to have more family in the world, her family, Tony's family. Their family. She wants that. "I can't believe I didn't realize…" she whispers. "It's been six years since the IUD. I just got so used to not having to worry-"
"I imagine that's probably contributing to some kind of absent-minded baby boom, at this point," Nat laughs.
Leigh covers her face with her hands, careful not to smudge her makeup, even though she should probably be more concerned that she'll need some kind of special chemical to get it back off, knowing Nat. "What if he isn't happy? It's soon, Nat, I only moved into the penthouse three months ago. The press is going to think-"
Nat makes a loud, rude rebuttal noise. She's on her phone, scrolling through google images, Leigh can tell. "Солнышко, you meant this when you wrote it, didn't you?" Natasha asks her. It's the picture, zoomed in, of the obscured letters from her 'fuck the press' Leigh had written on her leg, leaving the bunker. "And if they say you trapped him, you go public with the name on your arm. Tony trapped you first, don't forget that."
Leigh laughs, the absurdity of that argument being the absolute truth catching her in the exact right place. "Stars, you're right, aren't you? That's as documented as anything else!"
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Nat makes Leigh promise to come up to the penthouse no earlier than ten minutes late. Leigh spends the time waiting fiddling with her bracelet to find the exact right design (to wear on her left wrist, today), and stressing out. She'll have to get a pregnancy test somehow, but the press attention has been unreal lately. TMZ has essentially declared war on her hidden soulmark, offering ridiculous amounts of money to anyone who can confirm it. Charriotte has an actual legal injunction against two separate journalists who keep using friends and family members to pose as clients, similar to what 'Marteau' had done, trying to get close to her.
Leigh wouldn't put it past the press to pay off someone at the grocery store, even if they were on the lookout for Chuck or Nat, not necessarily orders for the tower.
She goes into the bathroom to make sure her makeup is all right, and to check on her hair clips. Leigh smiles at her reflection; she looks beautiful, even if she does say that herself. The color red isn't her favorite, but it's Tony's favorite, and that makes it worth it.
It's time to head up, and Leigh puts on her high heels, another concession to something Tony enjoys.
"Miss Balci, the boss wants to know if you're on your way, or if you would like him to, and I quote under duress, 'Come down and help you christen the dress, first.'"
"I'm coming, FRIDAY, thank you," Leigh laughs.
The walk to the elevator goes well. Leigh's been practicing with the heels, and not just because she's heard that Pepper Potts practically wore them in her sleep. Tony's extraordinary first love is not much of a specter in their relationship, she's found, mostly because Leigh knows there wouldn't be a relationship to be had were it not for Potts' loss. It's hard to resent a woman for giving you the greatest gift you never knew you wanted.
Leigh's been planning this for a month, the moment when she walks into this little gathering wearing Tony's favorite color, in shoes that he's confessed to having fantasies about her wearing for him, hair down, wrist bare and proudly displaying his name.
She just didn't think she'd be possibly bearing his child at the time.
When the elevator doors open, Leigh takes her first step with her left leg, where the slit is. She can see everyone has turned to see her, but can't see Tony at first. Finally she spots him, all the way across the room, and Leigh laughs.
He'd seen the shoes. Tony's going to make her cross the room in them, because he's a selfish, predictable asshole that she loves so much it feels like it should be unhealthy.
Steve walks over to greet her, and Tony yells at him.
"Back off Steve, this is a Thing."
"Don't be rude, Tony," Leigh admonishes. "Hi, Steve," she says, still walking.
"Red, huh?"
"Apparently it's important enough to rekindle his rivalry with you," she says.
"Far be it from me to stand between Tony Stark and what he wants," Steve tells her, bowing his head in a farewell, and stepping back.
"I can see you backing up, Tony. If I trip in these I'll never wear them again. I miss being a bohemian girl," Leigh calls out, mock frowning.
"I have no idea what you're talking about," Tony says, taking a blatant step backwards towards their bedroom.
Leigh stops and puts her hands on her hips. "We have guests!"
"All of whom love us anyway!"
"I don't!" Nat calls out.
"I've only met you twice," Aleshia says, leaning over past Rhodey to grin at Leigh.
"Pretty sure I almost destroyed your ARC reactor with my shield, once," Steve adds.
"Fine, I'll do it right here," Tony says, and he stalks forward, pulls Leigh close, and kisses her, starting with an obvious swipe of his tongue that she knows everyone in the room can see. It's a filthy, sexual kiss, complete with one of her favorite moves, when Tony winds her hair around his hand to hold her still. He lifts his head thirty seconds later and wipes his mouth off with the back of his hand. "Don't taunt me in my own house, Avengers," Tony says loudly.
Nat comes over after everyone settles back into socializing. "Damn, Tony, you might as well have just posted an ad for a trophy wife, if that's how you were going to treat her! Tell her she looks pretty or I'll flip you upside down by your shoelaces."
"I believe I expressly forbade you to let them like you more than me," Tony frowns at Leigh.
"That condition was violated before I ever met you, my love," Leigh tells him. "Honestly, if this is the mood you're in, I need a drink. Preferably a cute, fruity one." She starts toward the bar, getting about five steps before she stops. Tony had started walking beside her, and when she stops, he does too, looking over quizzically. "Actually, I think I'd prefer that you didn't end up hanging by your shoelaces today. Do go on?" Leigh says, adrenaline racing through her system at her near-miss.
'Pregnant woman shouldn't be drinking' was not how she intended on telling him. Especially not when she just had a vague feeling and no confirmation.
"Close one," Nat says to the two of them, grinning.
She probably doesn't mean the shoelaces.
"You are devious as fuck. Did you hide that dress in your old apartment? Did you let me see the shoes so I thought I knew your secret?" Tony says. He leans back and looks at her intently. "Are you hiding anything else?"
Leigh covers her mouth with her hand. Tony takes this to mean he'll really like the next thing she has hidden, she can see that by the look on his face.
Thinking fast, she reaches out for his hand, then pulls him close. It looks like their small group of close friends are engaged in their plan of watching the fireworks being set off at 10:30 PM. "Look at me at first, okay?" she says to Tony. He nods, obviously curious and possibly turned on, but that might just be the shoes.
Leigh pulls his hand down to the skirt of her dress, then pushes her knee forward to find the slit. Tony figures out what's happening about fifteen seconds in, and his warm approval sets the fire going in her gut. He leans down on his own accord and runs his hand along her leg, not too far up, but enough.
"I love when dresses come with Easy Open," he says, grinning. "Hold that thought for later?"
"Absolutely," she tells him.
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"-with their soulmarks in indecent or not easily accessed areas, you know?" Aleshia is saying. "I'm grateful, that's all." She lifts her dress to show them the words 'Excuse me, but it was nice to meet you' written in a neat line along her shin, in Rhodey's handwriting.
"Fatal mistake," Nat says to Rhodey. "You tried to get out of there but you still addressed the words to her, didn't you?"
"In my defense, I still don't know what I'm doing when it comes to soulmates."
"Well you didn't commit felony kidnapping in the space of five minutes, so you're doing better than I am," Tony says, tightening his arm around Leigh on the couch.
"Is it true you didn't talk to him for two months?" Aleshia asks Leigh.
"That's easier to do when you're not in contact," Leigh says, trying to play it off.
"Um, sorry, no, you're leaving out the part where we were camping out for 36 plus hours right after I spoke to you the first time," Tony objects.
"I still can't believe you fell for the laryngitis line," Bruce says, pulling everyone's attention. "What? It's soothing, these soulmate stories." His face is reddening, and Leigh hasn't spent much time around him in person, but she can recognize the tension in his voice. "People who are surprised by their words, that's interesting to me. It's a whole different dynamic," he says.
Then, he looks straight at Natasha. Leigh catches her breath, and so, it seems, does the rest of the guests.
"Five minutes until twelve, boss. You asked me to warn you."
"Yeah, thanks FRIDAY," Tony says. Leigh looks over at him, and sees that he's looking between Nat and Bruce in a really obvious way, a way that everyone else in the room is too polite to do. She sets a hand on his leg, and Tony snaps out of it. "Hey, right, so: I wasted my hard-earned money on a frivolous display that my girlfriend is going to bitch at me about, come over to the windows and watch. I'll be right back. All of you, stand about… there," he says, pointing to a specific place in the room.
Leigh isn't able to stop him to ask if he's kidding before he bounds off to the bedroom, so she drifts over to the windows next to Nat. Without looking over, she squeezes Natasha's hand. She squeezes back.
"Ah, there you are. Go big or go home, right?" Tony says from behind her, pointing past her head toward a specific spot in the sky.
At first, Leigh thinks he's pointing at fireworks, but the closer she looks at them, the more she realizes they're too precise for that. The colors are too bright, they're too well balanced, the image of a starburst a little too expertly displayed to have the vagaries of fireworks. Letters start to appear as the lights coalesce, and Leigh's figured out what they say about a third of the way into the sequence.
MARRY ME, SOULMATE?
"Tony, this has to be visible to at least half of the city!" Leigh gasps out. "How-" She stops herself from asking the obvious question at the last minute.
"Pay up!" Nat whispers to Steve. Steve reaches for his wallet.
Leigh stares at the white and cornflower blue colors of the words in the sky. She can barely see them because she's already crying. Her heart is so full it hurts, and she both wishes she could be alone and wishes she could show this moment to the whole world, especially the ones who have been so derogatory to Tony. Leigh turns around, and Tony's standing behind her, one hand stuffed into his pocket, casual as a man can be when he's standing there holding a ring box.
"Close the box," Leigh says.
Everyone in the room makes a shocked noise.
"Leigh," Tony says, and the trust in his voice undoes her. He knows she's not trying to say no.
"I don't want to see it, that's not what's important right now," she says, walking over to him. "Yes. Yes. Are you sure?"
Tony pulls her to him, and she's almost the same height because of her ridiculous shoes. "You are still impossible to predict," he says, his voice shaky. "What the hell do you mean, 'am I sure?'"
"The soulmate thing, that's- I mean, Stars, Tony, that's quite a lean in," she sniffs, laughing, crying. "I thought you thought they're bullshit?"
"If they're bullshit, I still win," Tony says, in a voice as happy as she's ever heard from him. "No, hear me on this," he says, pulling back, putting a hand on each shoulder, one with only a few fingers, as he's still holding the ring box. "I win. I have you. Whatever his purpose was, whatever the fucking justification, he's dead. Death of the author, we interpret it our way, now. Marry me. Marry me as that guy you almost shot for sneaking up on you, marry me as your kidnapper, marry me as the guy bankrolling your ridiculous architect lifestyle, marry me because I love you. Pick one. Pick all of them."
Leigh's sobbing, she's nodding, and Tony holds out the ring box.
"Look at the damned ring, and if you say one thing about how much it costs, I'll take it back and make them double the size of the stone."
Leigh opens the box and gasps. The stone is her favorite color or just a bit darker, a gorgeous sapphire blue. It's surrounded by a silver metal filigree scattered with smaller blue stones, and edging them is a rich gold line of blue stones. It's stunning, perfect, and he couldn't have chosen better for her if he'd taken her to whichever overpriced jewelry store he'd bought it from.
"This is-" she starts to say, hearing the stunned shock in her own voice.
"Leigh, so help me," Nat calls out from the group of people huddled behind them, watching.
"-absolutely perfect, yes, I would love to marry you," Leigh finishes, glaring over her shoulder.
"Good," Tony says. He takes the box and pulls out the ring.
Leigh gasps again, wheeling around before Tony can put it on her finger. "Oh no! Rhodey, please tell me he asked you if it was okay before he-"
"Woman! This moment is about you!"
To her complete surprise, Tony picks her up by hefting her over his shoulder. The voluminous skirt splays out from the slit, her hair going everywhere.
"He asked me!" Rhodey calls out.
"Congratulations!" Aleshia adds.
That's all Leigh hears before Tony crosses into their bedroom and unceremoniously dumps her on the bed. He shuts the door, and Leigh's still struggling out from under her hair and half of her skirt by the time he comes back.
"I cannot believe you just did that!" she says, her face still wet from her tears of joy.
"Do you think they bought it?" Tony asks, grinning.
Leigh stares at him. "That was an act!?"
"I'm excited, selfish, horny, and you said yes. I did what was necessary."
"They're going to know, Tony!" Leigh hisses, her hands flying up to her face. The worst part is that she's tempted, because Tony has absolutely corrupted her.
"There's a back elevator, and there's still a made-up bed in your old apartment." Tony smiles. "There are also any number of walls and floors across countless floors in the building. I know, I built it." He kneels down in front of her and pulls the ring off of his pinky finger, where it barely fits. "Hand?" he says, imperiously.
She gives him her hand, and he slides the gorgeous ring onto her ring finger.
"Now, can we go do things while you wear this that render it morally and ethically impossible to return?"
Leigh grins. "Please."