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The green trees rustled with the warm breath of air that flowed through them on this summer evening. Birds sang on and off in the distance, as street lights slowly came on up and down the street as the sun sank lower in the sky. As the light to the left of the park bench flickered to life, it cast a gentle yellow-orange glow onto the side of Stephen’s face. He glanced over to Tony, who was relaxing on the bench next to him. He smiled faintly, watching the sunset through the trees in front of them. Stephen would have rathered look at him instead though. They were close, legs touching, but not too close as they were still cooling down from their jog around the small park they sat in. It was how they killed time waiting for their dinner guests to arrive. There was a lovely little cafe behind them, right on the edge of the main road in this small town in upstate New York. They had decided to take a break from the city and were waiting for Christine and Pepper to arrive. It was funny, how just a few short months ago, Tony and Pepper had been married and Stephen and Christine were starting to talk as friends again after Stephen had pushed her away. After what had happened with Thanos, even though the world had been saved, it had still felt like everything was ending for the four of them. No one really knew what they had been feeling, as it all happened so fast. Tony and Stephen felt so strongly for each other after their camaraderie in the first fight against Thanos. Then shortly after, Pepper had fallen hard in love with the doctor who treated her wounds from the battle on Titan. One or two tear-filled and emotional nights later, a conclusion was reached. Now, finally, everything had been settled and the papers had gone through. Tony and Pepper weren’t married anymore but were still close as ever. With things finally feeling normal again, they had decided it would be nice to get to know each other. Now, they were here. Tony seemed to feel Stephen’s gaze on him, as he glanced over to him, meeting his eyes. Tony smiled a little wider and leaned his head back. He murmured a quiet “What?”, keeping his voice down to fit the soft and relaxing mood surrounding them. Stephen smiled, it was nice to hear Tony sound so calm, to know he was finally okay, and safe after everything that had happened to him. Reaching up, Stephen gently put his hand on the back of Tony’s head. He pulled him forward, planting a soft kiss on Tony’s forehead. Tony sighed and leaned his head on Stephen’s chest, looking forward at the sunset again. With his arm now around Tony’s shoulder, he leaned his own head to rest on his boyfriend’s, enjoying the soft hair on his face. “Just enjoying the view,” Stephen said soft and low. He felt Tony give out a small chuff, who then turned and burrowed his face into Stephen. “You sure know how to make a girl blush, wizard.”, Tony said into him, he was muffled, but Stephen could hear an obvious smile on his lips playing into the words. They sat in peace for a few minutes more, before they heard a voice a small ways behind them. Tony sat up, and they both glanced behind them. The girls had arrived, and Christine waved as they walked towards the men. They wore casual clothes, a rare sight for the hard-working women. Tony almost never saw Pepper outside of her professional attire, and Christine practically lived in her scrubs. Christine looked a little tired, no doubt from the hours she put into the E.R. That didn’t stop her from smiling and just looking happy to finally have some personal time. “Hey there, ladies.” Tony said with a smirk, “We were starting to wonder if you had decided to stand us up.”, he said with a laugh. Pepper rolled her eyes with a smile, as Christine wrapped her arm around Pepper’s waist and pulled her close. “Normally, I would blame work, but there was another woman in desperate need of my attention today.”. She said with a sly smile as she kissed Pepper’s cheek. Pepper flushed, but wrapped her own arm around Christine and gave her a quick kiss in return, smiling into it. Stephen and Tony paused for only a moment before both letting out a chuckle. Tony stood, with Stephen following seconds after. “Well,” Tony chirped as he clapped his hands together “we gonna stand around looking pretty, or can we go in? I’m starved.”. Stephen nodded enthusiastically, “I researched this place pretty well, and the reviews say that their shrimp scampi is to die for.” he said, his voice a deep rumble of anticipation. The group moved to the cafe, which was mostly empty since it was a Tuesday. They decided on the outdoor seating, which had a stunning view of the park and sunset. The eating area was beautiful, with vines and flowers almost completely enclosing the patio. It smelled like flowers and night air that was cooling, but not so much it was chilly. Tony ordered a personal pizza that was made with authentic Italian mozzarella, and handmade house sauce. He claimed he wanted to see if the mozzarella was as authentic as they said, but really deep down he was hoping it would taste similar to the kind his mother used to make with him, even if he didn’t realize it. He had never been able to find anything that came close. Stephen ordered the shrimp scampi he mentioned, and Christine and Pepper ordered a sample platter to share. The food came fast, not allowing the conversation to get much deeper than how their days and weeks had been. Which had been pretty good for all of them, aside from Stephen’s minor kerfluffle with a few dozen invisible interdimensional giant leeches. Apparently, they had only been passing through, but that didn’t mean they could snack on whoever they wanted. When they were about done, Christine began to laugh a little to herself, seemingly at nothing. Tony and Stephen glanced up quizzically, before glancing at each other, a little confused. “What are you giggling at?” Pepper inquired between bites of the garlic bread they had split. Christine calmed herself and took a deep breath. “I was just watching Stephen eat that shrimp, and it reminded me of the Great Shrimp Escape.” Stephen’s eyes blew wide open as he set down his fork and sat up stock straight, with a concerned look on his face. “Don’t you dare bring that up.” He said to her, half-joking but also half-serious. There was a pause as Pepper and Tony exchanged a confused look. The confusion didn’t last long, as Tony immediately smiled, mischief written across his face. Tony wiped his mouth with a napkin and leaned back, crossing his arms and turning towards Stephen. “Well now, what’s this shrimp fiasco I haven’t heard about?” Tony said playfully as he raised an eyebrow. Stephen tilted his head back and let out a slow sigh, eyes closed, before leaning forward again to take the last bite of his scampi. He wiped his mouth and said plainly “I used to try to farm shrimp in my home so that I wouldn’t have to buy any. Some escaped. That’s all.”. He looked between the three, waiting for someone to object. “You know that doesn’t sound near as interesting as dear Christine here made it out to be.”. Tony said. Pepper spoke up “Yeah, it certainly seems to me that we might be missing part of the story here.”. Christine waggled her fork at him, “I’m going to tell them.”, she added mischievously. For a moment it looked like Stephen was going to argue before looking down and waving his hand dismissively. “Alright, fine.” he resigned “I figured you were going to.”. He proceeded to lean forward and rest his elbow on the table, head in his hand. Christine sat up, arms folded on the table. “So, back in our college days, we were all a little short on money. Stephen, of course, had the idea of raising and selling his own shrimp in his dorm. Which he absolutely was not allowed to do. This was fine for a few months, until his roommate’s cat, which they weren’t supposed to even have, knocks the whole twenty-gallon tank on the floor. One hundred and fifty live shrimp and twenty gallons of water are now all over the floor of this poor kid’s apartment. No one was home when this happened, and shrimp can only survive about 2 hours out of water. So over half of them had crawled away and hidden in his room. Some crawled under the door and were flowing down the hallway with the water that was draining. This was a floor above mine, and I heard the screams, but I didn’t know about what had happened until hours later.”. Tony had begun to chuckle and Stephen was turning redder and redder. “Sounds like you really know how to start a party.” Tony snickered. Stephen was silent, so Tony wrapped an arm around his shoulder and held him close. Stephen stayed stiff, clearly embarrassed. “Come on babe, it’s not that bad.” Tony offered, giving a wry smile. “Just wait.”. Stephen monotoned. “It gets worse.”. Pepper raised her eyebrows in surprise, “It gets worse?” Pepper added. “Much worse.” Stephen says with a groan and finally leans into Tony. Christine continued. “About an hour later, Stephen arrives to find the RA outside his door. Poor guy had to clean the whole mess up, catch the shrimp in the hall, and apologize to everyone on his floor. Everything was cleaned, disaster was forgotten, until a few days later. When the smell begins. The shrimp that had crawled away and not been found had died. And had begun to rot. His roommate is angry, he’s panicking, the other dorms begin to complain, and for the next few days, his roommate and he have to skip classes to take everything out of their room piece by piece to try to find all the bodies. At this point, everyone in the entire building knows about the shrimp incident and I don’t think he stopped getting called “shrimp boy” until graduation.”. Stephen had turned about as red as the shrimp which he had been so fond of, while Tony and Pepper laughed. “Well well well, look at that, the great Doctor Stephen Strange stinking up his dorms. Why am I not surprised?” Tony rubbed Stephen’s shoulder with the hand he had wrapped around him. “Shrimp boy, huh?” With a dramatic sigh, Stephen pulled away from Tony and looked him in the eye. “Don’t you dare start that. I swear I will curse you so every time you call me that, your shoes fill with fish. Don’t try me.” he said seriously. Clearly unphased by this threat, since he received similar ones all the time but they were never followed through, Tony tilted his chin up and said back smugly “Whatever you say, shrimp lad.”. Stephen pointed a finger at Christine. “That’s a dirty trick you pulled. Now it’s my turn.”. The smile Christine had dropped quickly. Seeing this, Stephen began to smile and nod. “Oh yeah, that’s what I thought. So, let’s see, what story will it be tonight?” Pepper laughed at Christine’s face, who only side-eyed her with a playful glare. Tony, now encouraged by the suggestion of telling more embarrassing stories, raised his eyebrows at Pepper. “Laugh it up Pep, you’re next on the chopping block. I’ve got a good one to spill about you.”. Pepper, however, after years of dealing with Tony’s shenanigans, had expected this and already had the perfect story to share about him. “Not so fast, Tony. This might be one battle you’ll have to lose.”. Tony scoffed. “Bring it, Red.” he jeered, full of confidence. Stephen cleared his throat. “I think I’ve got a pretty good one.”. With the attention once again on him, Stephen said with a sly smile “When I was still an up and coming neurosurgeon, I was invited to one of my first galas.I could bring a guest, so of course, I invited Christine. Is this ringing a bell yet? You’ll love this one Pepper. Anyway, most of the night goes off without a hitch. Unfortunately, we were young and excited so we were swept up with some of the less behaved individuals. Several drinks and uncontrolled substances later, we find ourselves right in the center of the main floor when Christine slips and smacks her face on a table. Her nose begins to bleed, which our gracious host was kind enough to point out. She goes ‘Blood? Is it white? Don’t tell anyone.’. After that, she threw up and passed out. I got her home immediately but not before concerning the entire room about what the younger crowd had been up to and who this woman was that wasn’t sure what color her blood was supposed to be.”. Christine grumbled “I didn’t go to another one of those things for months. That was awful.”. Pepper smiled “You know, I was expecting worse.”. Christine leaned into her shoulder. “Yeah, well being surrounded by a bunch of old men looking down at you while you throw up isn’t that bad. Tony, didn’t you say you had something to spill about Pepper?”. Tony barked out a laugh, sitting up. “You bet I do. What do you think Pep? Remember your first day on the job? When you spilled my coffee all over me and then dropped the entire forty-page contact on the front step? Which proceeded to blow away in the wind and we had to push back the entire deal a month to re-finalize all the papers? ”. Pepper laughed. “I was expecting worse, Tony.”. She said cautiously. Tony gave her a wink, “Well I don’t want to embarrass you in front of your new girlfriend too much yet.”. Pepper gave a devilish grin. “At least it wasn’t as weird as you calling a senator ‘Dad’ live on national T.V.”. Tony’s eyes bulged and his mouth dropped open, just a little bit. Apparently Pepper had shocked Tony into a rare silence, even if only for a second. The others at the table, of course, began to laugh. It was a good laugh, full of joy and revelry and love. It was the kind of summer night that dreamers dream about, and they laughed and chatted the evening away, thoroughly enjoying each other's company.
Then, it was dark and cool. The sun had been gone for about an hour, and the moon smiled down lighting the tops of trees as fireflies floated all around. The four of them stood beside the car the women had arrived in, saying their goodbyes. “Thank you, ladies, for such a lovely evening. You will be careful driving home, won’t you?” Tony said to them, his arm around Stephen’s waist. Pepper nodded, before glancing around. “Speaking of, where is your car?” she asked. With a proud smile, Tony patted Stephen’s back. “I actually took the wizard express. Faster, and better on the environment.”. Stephen rolled his eyes “Don’t call me that.” he said, hiding a smile. Christine yawned, before saying “Alrighty boys. See you in a bit, we need to head off if we’re going to be home before it’s too late and the Little Miss gets too upset with us.”. With that, it seemed as if a lightbulb went off in Tony’s head. He looked at Stephen and said “You know, there’s no need to make them drive all that way. Might as well give them a lift.”. Stephen seemed to understand immediately. He nodded, motioning for Christine and Pepper to get in their car while Tony backed to the side. The women seemed a little confused, but they caught on as soon as Stephen pulled out that little piece of metal and stuck it on his trembling fingers. With that, he opened a portal large enough for them to drive through right into the executive parking lot of Avenger’s tower, that had long been once again revamped to be the home/office of Pepper and Christine. The girls pulled through, with Tony and Stephen walking through after. “I’m still not used to that,” Pepper said as she stepped out of the car. “It still doesn’t make sense to me,” Tony said “I start to get irritated the harder I think about it so I’ve just come to accept that it is what it is. Even though it really doesn’t make sense because if-”. Stephen cut him off “Don’t we have a little Princess to bring home, Tony?”. This was one of the ways Stephen had found to keep Tony from getting stuck in a loop of trying to solve something. Just bring up something much more important to him. The group took to the elevator up to the living room, where Morgan lay asleep against Peter, who also happened to be asleep on the couch. A movie played on the T.V., they obviously had fallen asleep watching whatever it was. The sight received a few chuckles. Christine strode forward and carefully scooped up Morgan, bringing her over for Stephen to hold. It had taken a lot of patience and practice, but Stephen finally trusted himself to safely hold her and now took every opportunity to hold her close to him. Peter was still deeply asleep, his homework spread out in front of him that he had clearly intended on finishing but it was likely Morgan had seen to that not happening. Tony crouched in front of him, a warm smile on his face. Peter may not be his biological son, but it was impossible for him to not view Peter that way anymore. He gently reached out to pat Peter on his face, but Peter jolted awake seconds before contact was even made, likely from his spider-senses. Peter looked bewildered for a second, before settling his eyes on Tony. He relaxed, yawned, and stretched. “Hey there, Mr. Stark. Morgan and I fell asleep again huh?” He said through the yawn. “You sure did, buddy. What kinda babysitter are you? C’mon kid.” Tony teased. Peter got up and gathered his things, and made his way to the door with Stephen and Tony. Last goodbyes were given, kisses were planted on a half-sleeping Morgan and they were off and out of the Tower. Tony now carried Morgan, to give Stephen’s hands a break before he would actually need one. Tony lived in the Sanctum now, since he was basically retired. Nights like this were common now, Tony walking home with the love his life, and his two children by his side. It came for their paths to split, and as usual Tony made Peter promise to let him know when he was home. Even though they both knew Tony would be checking the suit in Peter’s backpack’s GPS and would likely know he was home before Peter even got the chance to message him. It was still nice having that last exchange and goodnight for the night anyway though. The strolled the rest of the way home in silence, enjoying each other’s company and allowing Morgan to stay asleep. It was these nights they were most grateful for. The nights that infinite other versions of themselves in other dimensions wouldn’t get the chance to experience. It was in these moments that Tony knew he was lucky, lucky for the life he had the world he had saved, The world he had offered his life in exchange for so many times was finally repaying its debt to him. The stars smiled down on him and his own, and as he walked up the steps and to the front door of his home and stopped at the threshold, he gazed up into those grateful cosmos and smiled. At that moment, he knew that it smiled back on him.