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The dust swirled in the air around him, sparkling little motes dancing in the beams of sunlight as Tony stared at the destruction around him without any comprehension. There were soldiers scattered about, tired and hurt, victorious and relieved. One would think there would be shouting and hollering with the miracle that had just been performed but it was quiet.
Tony wiped at the grit in his eyes, peered through the cloak of dirt only to see smiling, tearful faces, tugging and pulling loved ones into embraces they’d waited nearly five years to feel. The sight made his heart swell painfully and Tony knew there would be no standing from where he kneeled among the debris.
“Tony?” A voice cracked, a very familiar voice.
Pepper collapsed next to him; eyes shiny with tears as she yanked him close. Tony fell gratefully into the embrace, aching all over and reveling in the feeling of cool metal against his cheek. The air between them was charged, as it tended to do when you faced death and somehow found yourself standing on the other side.
Tony should have been able to collapse right then and there but he didn’t. Something was missing, profound and distressing, a hole that they had waited so long to fill. He stared over her shoulder, searching the shadowed forms that moved back in forth for a familiar flash of red.
He spotted it not too far from them. Stephen Strange’s arms were up and maintaining the blockade of water, though he was quickly being joined by other sorcerers, efficiently rebuilding a dam of sorts.
Stephen’s arms dropped, exhaustion making itself known in slumping shoulders and Tony urged him to turn around and look, to see them huddled there and to quickly come and join them. Instead, Stephen turned to face Wong, speaking quickly and nodding to whatever the man said.
It was unthinkable, heartbreaking, maddening.
“Pepper…Stephen.”
She pulled back, already nodding and moving to stand. Pepper was smiling just a little, an eager glint in her eye and he knew it was taking her considerable self-control not to turn and sprint to their other half right then.
She helped Tony stand, an arm sliding around his waist to brace him, even as the suit adjusted itself to support his teetering weight. The distance between them and Stephen wasn’t far, not at all, but it felt huge after the first step, when pain reverberated through his skull, making him groan in pain.
“Tony?” Pepper’s voice was low, worried.
Tony shook his head. He needed her and Stephen by his side before he even considered a hospital.
“Tony?”
They both looked up at the sound of a familiar deep baritone. Stephen stood in front of them, eyes sad and painfully hesitant. Stephen was a mess, his robes wet and dripping from the spray of water, dirt clinging to the hem, and a cut, sustained five years ago on Titan, still sluggishly bleeding from his temple.
It didn’t matter, none of it did.
“Stephen,” Pepper murmured, her eyes wide with remembered grief and a soul shattering happiness.
“Come here,” Tony grunted, incapable of any eloquence at the moment.
That seemed to be all they needed, however. Stephen surged forward and now they were all on their knees in the dirt, arms squeezing each other tightly. Tony inhaled the metallic, sweaty scent from Stephen’s neck, where he’d buried his face, and just felt.
They were crying because of course they were.
It had been five years, five long, painfully empty years.
Returning to Pepper without Stephen by his side at been Tony’s greatest failure after losing Peter.
He nearly killed himself in the aftermath as the guilt ate him alive.
Pepper suffered sleepless nights beside him as the nightmares manifested.
Their memories of Stephen began to fade and the hole in their hearts gaped.
Then there was Morgan. A gift from Stephen and the future he chose for them.
They still felt empty.
A space that wasn’t filled, a family only half complete.
Now. Here they were.
Tony didn’t bother holding back a sob, trying desperately to remind himself that this was real, that it was Stephen’s heart beating beneath his fingers and Stephen’s breath in his ear, and Stephen’s voice whispering incoherent reassurances.
Pepper pulled back first and only because there were sirens in the background, a strangely mundane sound among the fantastical landscape they found themselves in. Tony found himself chuckling, a strained and exhausted sound.
Green eyes landed on him with an understanding that was incredibly refreshing. Neither of them had let go of Stephen’s hands. The sorcerer in question, now that they could look at him properly, looked as though he’d aged those five years right along with them, as though he’d never been suspended in time at all.
“I’m sorry,” Stephen murmured.
Pepper was already shaking her head and that was why Tony loved her so god damn much, “don’t you dare apologize,” she whispered vehemently, a hand coming up to wipe at the dirt on forehead. “None of this is your fault except for saving us.”
Stephen’s entire form slumped as though he’d just been offered absolution.
Tony knew what that felt like. Had heard words said in that very same tone, under that very same sincere gaze after weeks of self-loathing. Pepper was special like that.
“I love you.”
The words, when they dragged themselves from Tony’s parched throat, burned. They weren’t directed to anyone in particular, though his eyes were locked on Stephen as much as his grip was. It was a statement of fact, that these two people in front of him had made it all worth the years of pain and loss.
“Thank you.”
Stephen blinked back tears. Pepper raised Stephen’s hand to her lips and brushed her lips across the damaged limb, “thank you.”
They ignored the way Stephen was shaking his head, as though those words caused him physical pain to hear. Instead they pulled him close, one last time, before they’d be expected to get up.
There would be lots to do.
Buildings to fix. Stories to be told. A world suddenly weighted with too many mouths and too much confusion. But at least it was their world, their old problems, for them to either fix or fail at. Their destiny rested in no hands but their own, never again at the mercy of a man playing God.
Then of course, there was Morgan. Tony couldn’t wait for Stephen to meet her and he couldn’t wait for her to meet the man whose story she fell asleep to every night.