Archive of Our Own

“Don’t you dare tell Happy he was right,” Tony looked at Pepper as they were driving to the courthouse. “Seriously, he’ll never live it down if you mention it.”

“Mention what? That he was right to suggest we elope?” Pepper teased, reaching over to squeeze his thigh. “Don’t worry, I won’t mention anything to him. But I can’t promise you that he won’t bring it up. He is a witness you know.” 

It’d been almost six months since the snap. The world was still in shambles, but everyone was beginning to pick up the pieces to start living life again. This had been their second attempt at going to the courthouse to sign the marriage paperwork. They’d pushed it off once a couple months ago while they were working hard with the Stark Relief Foundation, looking to help those displaced by the snap. But today was the day and they weren’t pushing it off again. 

Pulling up the courthouse, Tony parked the car and looked at Pepper. “It’s not like I wanted to cancel our actual wedding,” he told her. “I wanted you to be able to have the big celebration and to wear the fancy white dress and toss the bouquet…”

“Hey…” Pepper interrupted his thoughts. “You and I both agreed to this. I want to be married to you and this is absolutely fine for me. To be honest… this really isn’t a bad choice. At least now we can actually sign the paperwork to say we’re married, considering I feel like we’ve been married for years now.” 

She was teasing of course, but there was some truth to the statement. They’d known each other for almost two decades now, almost half of it as a couple. Sure, there were plenty of rough patches during that time, but they still came out of this together. Taking his hand, she gave it a gentle squeeze. “Look, we’re getting married. It’ll be you and me, a judge, and our two very best friends. This is going to be a great time.”

Tony leaned over to kiss Pepper, resting his forehead against hers. “This is why I love you,” he said, kissing her again. “Well… you ready for this?” He asked. When Pepper nodded, Tony got out of the car and quickly went to her side to help Pepper out of her side. 

This was it. They’re getting married. 

Heading inside, they met up with Rhodey and Happy before making their way to the courtroom where the honorable judge was going to sign the paperwork. 

It was a relatively simple process. Tony signed his name, then Pepper signed hers. The judge had the witnesses sign and before they knew it, he was telling him their marriage was now recognized by the State of New York and it was signed and dated and they were married. 

They shared a quick kiss, which was actually a little more embarrassing when there wasn’t a typical crowd there, but the couple didn’t care. They were married now.

Heading back home, Pepper squeezed Tony’s hand while he drove back to their place. She thought about how long it had taken them to get to this point. Sure, there were the couple times when they weren’t sure any of this was going to work. She had made a million compromises the first few years they were together, but when they realized this wasn’t going to keep working if they couldn’t compromise together, then they knew something had to change. 

Sure, Pepper knew that Iron Man would always be at the back of Tony’s mind, but she accepted that. As long as they could continue to work together, then this marriage was going to work. 

Arriving back at their penthouse apartment, Tony was going to carry Pepper through the door, but he still wasn’t quite the same since his recovering from his time in space. Instead they held hands as they went into their home. They had a little time before they were going to meet Rhodey and Happy for a nice dinner, so Tony wanted to take advantage of the time they had.

“So, how’s it feel to be married, Mrs. Stark?” Tony asked, wrapping his arms around Pepper from behind. 

“Potts-Stark,” Pepper corrected him, but was smiling as she leaned into his embrace. “It feels strangely the same as before. Maybe we’ve just been secretly married this whole time. How do you feel, Mr. Stark?”

“I feel great… I think we should celebrate this moment,” Tony said, eyebrows suggesting some fun activities.

“Tony, we only have a little bit before we’re supposed to meet up for dinner,” she told her husband. Not that she didn’t think they couldn’t accomplish what he was thinking before they left, but she was hoping to wait until later, just so they wouldn’t have to be interrupted with anything.

Tony laughed, kissing Pepper’s cheek before letting her go. “I’m going to pretend you didn’t say that, but I was actually thinking about something else.” 

“Oh?” Pepper turned around to look at him. “And what would that be?”

Reaching to take her hand, Tony pulled her in for another hug and kiss. “Your wedding present, silly,” he chuckled. “And don’t tell me that you didn’t get me one even when we agreed not to get each other anything.” 

Pepper made a face, because he was right. She did get him something, how could she not? “I’m listening…”

Tony grinned and pulled her over to the couch. “Okay, so you know how after the whole Ultron thing, we hit kind of a rough patch?” He paused, gauging the look on Pepper’s face to see if he was going in the right direction with this. “And that I promised things would slow down and they didn’t… and then Berlin happened and things were even crappier…”

“Tony… why are you telling me the bad things that happened?” Pepper looked at him. She knew this was part of their history, their love story included all of the good and all of the bad.

“Just wait…” Tony said, taking her hand with a gentle squeeze. “But you know I promised you that one day I was going to leave all of this so we could focus on us? Well… I’ve been working on something that I think you’ll like. Well, I hope you’ll like.”

Reaching behind one of the couch cushions, Tony pulled out a little white box and offered it to Pepper. 

Curiously taking the box, Pepper raised a brow as she lifted the lid to reveal a set of house keys. They had talked about moving out of the city for a long time. Tony had moved into the Avengers Compound for a short amount of time, but after the whole rift in Berlin, he came back to the city with Pepper for a little while. “What’s this?” 

“The keys to our new house… I’ve been working on it for a couple years now. I think you’re going to love it,” Tony smiled at her. “It’s hidden in the woods, far away from Manhattan. Nearest town is about twenty minutes away. We have a little lake out back… and I’ve been working on a few surprises there for you too. Don’t worry, there’s still plenty of Internet access for you to work remotely."

Smiling, Pepper gently traced the keys before looking at him. “Our house?” 

Tony leaned in to kiss her. “Our house,” he nodded. “A place that can be truly ours… a house that can become our home.” Resting his forehead against hers, Tony smiled. He had never really had a home before, but he knew that when he was with Pepper, he was home. “And maybe in that home, we can finally start that family we’ve been talking about.”

“Yeah?” Pepper grinned, forehead resting against his before leaning in to kiss him back. “I think that sounds like a great idea.” It was tempting to start working on that family now, but they had to make it to dinner. Kissing him again, she smiled. “You’ll have to wait for your wedding present,” she told him, chuckling when she saw the look Tony gave her. “Don’t worry… I think you’ll love it just as much.”

“Oh, fine… I guess I can wait a little longer,” Tony laughed, kissing her back. Standing up, he offered his hand to her. "Mrs. Potts-Stark…”

“Mr. Stark,” she grinned, kissing his cheek.