Work Text:
“Marriage.”
Steve startled awake at the sudden noise from his partner. At his jolt, Steve’s book fell off the edge of the bed and clattered to the floor. He nearly shot out of his skin at the loud bang and he blinked up at Tony, a sleepy-haze clouding his brain. “What?”
Tony was looking at him with an extremely judgemental expression on his face, which Steve didn’t think was fair in the slightest. “I’m sorry, but are you going to have a mini heart attack every time I bring up something serious?”
Steve rolled his eyes as he recovered from his shock. When his heart was beating a little slower and he’d blinked a few times to clear the drowsiness, he leant over the edge of the bed to pick his book up from the floor. Inspecting it for bent corners before dropping it into his lap, Steve turned back to Tony. “Every time that you drop a bomb at a completely inappropriate time, yes.”
“How is this an inopportune moment?”
“I was asleep!”
“No, you weren’t,” Tony said. In lieu of a verbal answer, Steve just raised an eyebrow at his partner and Tony winced. “Oh, whoops. Sorry. Thought you were reading.”
“Yeah.” Steve scrubbed a hand down his face and yawned widely, rolling his neck from side to side as he settled back down. He’d not been sleeping all that well for a couple of weeks and he knew he had another few days of meetings ahead of him that would wear him down constantly. “You will be sorry.”
There was a long pause and Steve had just started to drift back off again, even with the lights still on and his book in his lap, when he heard Tony clear his throat.
“What?” Steve asked, eyes firmly shut.
“Marriage,” Tony said slowly as though he actually afraid that Steve had actually lost it. Steve let out a slow, deep breath and opened his eyes.
“What about it?” Steve asked, confusion colouring his voice. Maybe he was more tired than he thought – or Tony had finally lost it.
Tony was still staring at him, so much judgement on his face that it was literally radiating off his body. “We should do it.”
Steve didn’t say anything, just gawked back at Tony with wide eyes and an open mouth.
“Oh, come on.” Tony narrowed his eyes and held Steve’s gaze. “This cannot come as a surprise to you.”
And it wasn’t. Steve wasn’t surprised by this. Of course the thought of getting married wasn’t something that Steve was surprised by; he had thought of little else in the last few months. They’d been together for just over three years and their relationship was more solid than ever. They had moved in together after only six months and Steve still felt the same as he had done back then, his love for Tony only growing each day. He knew – had known since almost their first month – that he didn’t want anyone else; and that he would never want anyone else. Tony was his first thought each morning and his last thought each night and he wanted nothing more than to slide his ring onto Tony’s finger.
“Or maybe it can,” Tony said in a dejected voice when Steve let the silence drag on for too long.
In his defence, it was nearing midnight and he’d been mentally checked out since at least 9pm, but Steve also knew what Tony was like without reassurance. So when Tony rolled over and stretched out to flick off his bedside lamp, Steve reached out to touch his arm gently, thumb stroking over soft skin.
“No,” he said simply. He waited until Tony turned back to look at him in surprise, head twisted over his shoulder and his arm still poised to switch off the lamp. Steve shuffled down the bed, finally placing his book onto his own bedside table before lying down. He made himself comfortable, smacking his pillow a couple of times and pulling the comforter up to his chin. “No,” he repeated, “it’s not a surprise.”
Tony smiled and relaxed once more, barely looking away for long enough to turn off the light before he too shimmied down the bed. He lay on his side and reached out a hand to hold Steve’s, their fingers twisting together in a familiar way. “So, what do you think about marriage?”
Steve huffed a laugh. “I like it.”
“Yeah?” Tony said, hope in his voice. There was a very brief moment of silence before his fingers flexed around Steve’s. “Think we should do it?”
Steve couldn’t help but let out another soft laugh. Typical Tony. There was a ring not ten feet away from Steve hidden in his sock drawer – the old, classic cliché – and he had had a lot of plans for how to bring it out. There was going to be a meal in a fancy restaurant with suits and reservations, or possibly a walk through the park that would end in a picnic and a dozen roses. Steve had even contemplated just organising a few drinks in the bar that they had had their very first date and then heading back to their shared apartment for a takeaway and a film.
But whatever he was going to do, it was sure as hell going to be more romantic than lying in bed when he had been asleep not more than five minutes ago and Tony’s question being phrased more like a survey than a life-altering request. He needed a little romance, a little something to set the mood rather than mismatched pyjamas and an alarm set for half past six the next morning.
“Yeah.”
For fuck’s sake, Steve, he thought to himself, cursing the words that fell from his mouth without his own brain’s permission, it’s okay to say ‘no’ to Tony just one time in your life.
But even as he chastised himself, Steve saw Tony’s bright, beautiful smile and realised that he didn’t want to say ‘no’. Not about anything. Not to Tony.
“Yeah, sweetheart. I think we should.”