Chapter Text
“Will you marry me?”
Tony let out a silent sigh of relief when those words left his mouth. He was so happy, so relieved, that he had finally asked the question. It had been something that Tony had been thinking about for a long time. He’d been working up the courage for the last couple of months, constantly talking himself out of talking himself out of proposing; it had been a confusing time and he was glad it was over now.
But now he’d done it; Tony was actually proposing to Steve. Tony was finally convinced that Steve would say yes, for the most part, anyway. Both of them had been dropping hints that were very well received recently, little comments here and there and Steve had had a sudden obsession with placing kisses on Tony’s ring fingers.
Tony was 99% confident that Steve was going to say ‘yes’.
Okay, so 95%.
Maybe 80%... at least 50%.
Definitely 35%.
The point was that Tony was perfectly content for the first time in a long time. He was being brave. He was happy. He was–
“No.”
He was confused. What? Had someone switched the scripts? Steve wasn’t meant to say no; he was meant to say yes. It’s not like Tony could blame Steve for saying no, but it wasn’t exactly what he’d been hoping for.
Tony couldn’t breathe. He felt as though the weight of the world was crushing him, straight on his chest. Steve was Tony’s everything and Tony wasn’t sure what he was going to do now. Of course, he could stay with Steve, rejection and all, but would Steve want that? Surely if he didn’t want to marry Tony then he didn’t want to be with him anymore. Or maybe he just didn’t think that Tony was marriage material, just good for a causal relationship with an end date.
Tony’s eyes began to burn with treacherous tears and he swallowed around a large lump in his throat, closing his eyes for a quick moment. He opened them again and forced himself to look up at Steve, hands clenching into fists as he dropped the ring box as though it was on fire. At least he wasn’t on one knee and had chosen to pop the question over a romantic meal at their dining room table in their own apartment instead of in a crowded restaurant so that hundreds of people could see him being rejected.
God, this hurt. Tony had known heartbreak before, but this was worse. It was a lot worse and Tony really wasn’t sure how he was going to come back from it. Could he come back from it?
Did he want to come back from it?