They had decided to get married in a garden. Despite what people would have thought, this wasn't settling for Tony. Tony didn't want to be married while skydiving or on a parade with the rest of the world watching. He had wanted something small, simple. He wanted his wedding to be about him and Steve and no one else.
Their wedding party had been an easy decision. Rhodey and Bruce had both agreed to stand with Tony while Pepper preferred to stay in the pew, her role of wedding planner and 'family' to a groom to go no further. Steve had asked Natasha, their resident assassin, first and foremost to stand with him. Since his awakening in the 21st century, she had taken care of him like an older sister would her little brother; taught him it was okay to love again, and that it was okay to love a man. Thor stood up with him as well, a brother in arms as the Asgardian would say.
Tony would have though Clint would be upset not getting invited to participate. Instead he was determined to make the best wedding video ever. Tony didn't know whether to be happy or worried. Steve was convinced that Clint wanted to give it his all for them. But when Tony looked at the Hawk's perch and saw the mischievous grin on his face, he wasn't so sure.
The SHIELD director cleared his throat.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, we are gathered here to celebrate one of life's greatest moments in the lives of some of our closest friends; to celebrate the joy and beauty of love through a couple united," Fury began, his gaze not filled with the discomfort Tony would have thought their officiant to have, a smile upon his lips as he spoke the ceremonial words.
Tony looked over at Steve, a smile dancing across his face. Steve must have felt Tony looking at him, for he met Tony's gaze with a small blush before turning back to their officiant. He was perfect, Tony thought, if a little stiff. He gave Steve's hand a quick, knowing squeeze before turning his attention back to the ceremony. It was their wedding day—here they were proclaiming their love in front of all of their friends and family. Who wouldn't be nervous? Surprisingly, Tony wasn't.
"Steve, Tony: I ask that you two remember to hold each other with honor and respect and to remind yourself of what has brought you here today. You two have been through enough challenges in your life and marriage is yet another. When hardships come, as they do in any relationship, focus on the love you have here, and shall it guide you through. You two have a love unlike any I've ever seen before and it would be a shame to see it shattered by misspoken words. This is both an order as your superior…" he gave Tony a swift, harsh glance, as if reprimanding him already for the troubles he might bring upon a marriage, before softening just as quickly, "… and a request as your friend.
"I understand you have written your own vows." They both nodded. "Then you may proceed."
Tony turned to face Steve. All fears and doubts he could have ever had were washed away, and Tony spoke unshakingly.
"Where do I even start?" he asked himself. He wasn't any good at these whole speech things, but he had written one just the same. "To think, when me and you first met, Steve, you hated me. At least, that's what I thought. The truth was you didn't and you refused to let me think so. You invited me to movie night and hung out with me in the lab, even when I asked you to leave.
He laughed quietly. "Especially when I asked you to leave.
"But somewhere down the line, I got used to it. I started to enjoy it. It just became natural. You know, I think that's why I fell in love with you. I just…. It was nice not to have to pull it all off." Tony stopped for a minute, almost stopping himself. He knew that the wedding was going to be personal but he didn't realize he was this willing to pour out his heart, the heart that only Steve got to see, to speak words that were meant only for him.
"When I was with you, I wasn't Tony Stark, genius billionaire playboy philanthropist. I was just Tony, who spent too much time in the lab and preferred a greased up tank top and his classic rock t-shirts; who likes his coffee black and refuses to eat vanilla pudding because it is an abomination. But the most amazing thing was that you just accepted it, preferred it. You wanted the Tony Stark that was covered in oil grease and sweat, not the dolled up, billionaire celebrity playboy that everyone else saw.
"Let's be honest, I never thought that someone as perfect as you could have ever been able to love someone as messed up as me," Tony explained. "I didn't deserve it. I still don't. But I know that you do and I guess that's just going to have to be good enough for me.
"I can't promise you that I'll start sleeping like a regular human being or that I'll actually remember to come out of the lab. I can't promise that I'll be on time or that I won't lose my temper. I can't promise that we won't fight or that I won't ever hurt you. All I can really say is that I will love you for the rest of my life, and there isn't anything in this world that's ever going to change that."
Steve couldn't help the giant smile that crossed his face. Every word Tony said was true and it warmed his heart to hear Tony admit all those feeling that Steve knew were there but were heard not so often. And it wasn't that Tony didn't feel them. It was just Tony being Tony—and it was one of the things Steve loved about him. It made moments like this, moments where he looked in Tony's eyes and saw love overflowed with words of unbound devotion that made it special.
Fury looked at him expectantly and a small blush rose to his face as he began to speak.
"There were a lot of things I didn't expect out of life: to ever be admitted into the U.S. Army; to becoming Captain America and saving the world; to be brought to the 21st century; to save the world yet again from aliens. Love isn't always fireworks. Sometimes it happens so softly, that we don't even realize it's there until you turn around one day and it's like 'Hello. Where have you been my whole life?'"
It was as he spoke that the blush slowly began to ebb away as Steve gazed into those deep brown eyes.
"And that's how it was with you. One day I was so frustrated at you, with all the small things you did that drove me up a wall but I realized I couldn't change them. More importantly, I realized that I wouldn't change them because they were the things that made you, you. And that's what I had grown to love.
"I was confused about everything; the 21st century, our little Avengers family, what I was supposed to do with my life. But you, you knew how to help me when no one else did. You took the time to teach me the internet, letting me discover the world at my own pace, you were the one who took me out whenever I was feeling low and taught me how to dance. You were the one who put a smile on my face, even when I didn't want one there.
"I'm not going to lie, when I first realized how I felt, I was terrified. I kept telling myself, it was wrong for me to be gay, for me to want to love a man like I would have loved a woman—to feel love again after everything that had happened. I had everyone's support, everyone telling me that what I was feeling was natural, but I never felt like everything was going to be okay until the day you said that you loved me."
He paused for a moment, a sheepish smile appearing on his face. "I realize that it's not going to be easy, that there's so much more to this life that I don't understand, but when I realize that you're going to be there with me, I don't feel so afraid anymore.
"Life, I've learned, has more planned for us than we have for ourselves. And I've never been more grateful that it has lead me to you.
"I can't guarantee that it won't be hard, that we won't fight or that we won't shed any tears," he spoke quietly, as if he was letting someone down by not being able to promise perfection. "But I know, that whatever we come across, we can get through it, so long as we're together."
Tony wanted to just reach out and hold him in his arms, to kiss him, to tell him that he didn't need a serum-perfect enhanced Captain America, that he just needed Steve. His Steve—the one that the rest of the world didn't see, too busy looking at the shield and suit. To tell him that they didn't need a life without hardships, or else the happiness they shared now wouldn't mean anything.
Fury's voice broke his thoughts, the ceremony continuing. "Now, for the rings."
"The ring forms a perfect circle, without a beginning or an end, symbolizing eternity. The gold signifies the purity and value of the relationship in which you enter." He looked over at Steve. "Steve, if you will repeat after me."
A small, knowing smile formed as he received the ring from Natasha. They were simple bands, a traditional yellow gold. But what made them special wasn't the design or its beauty. Steve glanced down at the engraving. 'For all the little things you do.' To a stranger, it meant nothing. To Steve, it meant everything.
As he placed the ring on Tony's fingers, he spoke. "I give you this ring, as a symbol of my vow, with all that I am, and all that I have, I will honor and love you." Steve couldn't hold back the beaming smile as he looked down at the golden ring.
The one thing Steve had never expected of Tony was such a low self-doubt. For some reason, Tony was worried not about Steve's feelings, but about himself. He claimed he was going to ruin everything because he wasn't good enough and that Steve deserved so much better—someone who wasn't as broken as him. Someone that would show him and tell him every day how much they loved him, not the love that Tony so brokenly showed.
But Steve had reminded him: it wasn't about declarations of love. It was about everything else; patience with Steve's ignorance of technology or taking him to his favorite family-diner whenever he felt the world on his shoulders, about seeing past the fake smile and finding the small kid from Brooklyn who was just as insecure as Tony was smart.
…That it was the little things that meant the most.
As Tony took the ring from Rhodey, he began to smirk, holding back a laugh. The words in the ring that he held were so simple. 'I love you. End of story.' Many would find this just a simple declaration of Tony's love—which it was. But it meant so much more.
To him, it was a declaration of love unlike any other. Everyone looked at them and saw polar opposites. Even their rag-tag group of superheroes, who saw the strange and unlikely every day, wouldn't have thought this would be possible. Tony hadn't even dreamed it could be. When it came down to it, Tony had demanded an explanation behind these irrational feeling, a reason to this illogical thing in his world of facts and equations.
But when it came down to it there was no reason. Love wasn't an equation that only certain variables can answer. It simply came down to an 'I love you'… and that, Tony began to realize, was enough.
"I give you this ring," Tony repeated, locking his gaze to those ocean blue eyes and never looking away, "as a symbol of my vow, with all that I am, and all that I have, I will honor and love you."
As they said their "I Do's", Steve could already hear the crying of their friends. He was tempted to look, but he simply could not look away from Tony. They say that a woman looks more beautiful when in love, and Steve had never witnessed anything more beautiful than Tony as he was now. Tony had been trying, but he simply could no hold back a beaming smile as Fury spoke.
"By the power invested in me by the District of New York, in witness of all assembled here today, I now pronounce you husbands," Fury announced before looking towards Tony. "Okay Stark, you can finally kiss him now."
A/N: Those rings, you all have no idea how much I want them. Besides the fact that they are adorable as hell, the stories behind them are actual RPs that I've had with my Wife/Steve. So I have emotional fan girl feeling attachments to them.
