Chapter Text
"The bastard kicked you, didn't he?"
Tony carefully traced his left side, lingering on the spot where he'd flinched so long ago.
It took Stephen a moment to make the connection. "Hmm," he finally agreed. "I think so, yes. I was unconscious when it happened." He hadn't thought about that one in ages.
"I was so afraid for you back then."
Stephen smiled at that. "No, you weren't. You didn't know me, you were busy worrying about Peter and the world. There was no place for me back then."
"There is now. You are my world, Stephen." Tony carefully arranged him on his right side and Stephen followed the wordless command willingly. He'd learned the hard way that it was better to let Tony have his way when he was in a mood like this. Tony bent down to kiss his side, just over the scars of the drainage tubes from after his accident.
"I'm sorry that you got hurt and that that filthy animal got his hands on you."
Stephen turned to lie on his back and invited Tony to rest on his chest. It was an unusual pose for them, normally it was the other way round with him cradled in the safety of Tony's arms. "It was nothing," he said, not for the first time, and put his left arm around Tony.
"He touched and hurt you. That's not nothing."
Stephen sighed. It was an old argument that would probably never be resolved. "You saved me before worse could happen." In more ways than one, he didn't add.
It was Tony who had found him months after Thanos' defeat, hurting in body and soul, drinking too much and on his way to once again being addicted to painkillers. It had been Tony, himself hurting from losing Pepper, who had taken him in and refused to give up on him.
It had been Tony and Morgan who showed him that he was still worthy of love and care. He tried to repay their kindness and love by trying to get better and be worthy of their affections. It was an ongoing fight but by now there were nights he could sleep through without nightmares. There were nights Tony could sleep through without waking up screaming, begging Pepper to put the damn gauntlet down and let him do it instead. There wasn't a drop of alcohol here, in their house, or in the Sanctum and painkillers where for the really bad days.
There was a little girl that had accepted him as some kind of second father figure, who loved him and who had learned to be careful with his damaged hands after only one small mishap.
"We saved each other." Tony's quiet words, full of love and conviction, broke him out of his reminiscing. "No wallowing in the past, my love."
"You began."
"Yeah. Sorry about that. I just saw the scars and…"
He didn't finish, didn't have to. Stephen tightened his hold around his lover and tried to convey his feelings without having to speak about them. "They're from my accident, not that day."
"I figured that one out ages ago, actually."
"Of course you did."
"I hacked into your medical history after I found you." Stephen shuddered at the reminder of his lowest point, when Tony had found him after he'd overdosed on painkillers and alcohol. The day Tony had stopped accepting his excuses and had taken him home to detox and recover while Morgan spent a few weeks with Happy and May. "I read the reports, I saw the pictures…"
"Not a pretty sight."
"No," Tony agreed. "You made an amazing recovery, Stephen. You are amazing." He kissed Stephen's left cheekbone, exactly where it had been broken in the accident. It was a wonder that he hadn't lost the eye; a miracle that he could still see.
With his left hand busy holding Tony in place he held up his right. It shook, more than it had eight years ago. Age and health hadn't been kind to him. "I know," he finally said. "I should have died that day, in the water." Or on other occasions, but he didn't say that out loud.
"I'm glad you didn't. Morgan would miss you terribly and so would I." Tony pressed a kiss against his chest, near his heart. Stephen put his hand down to hold him as tightly as possible. He didn't even try to fight against the tears the quiet words had evoked.
"So am I," he whispered against Tony's almost completely grey hair and closed his eyes. "So am I."
I love you, hung in the air between them. Seldom spoken, but even more precious for that.