Archive of Our Own

A month before Fearless releases, Obie sits him down in a room full of people Tony has never met and tells him, “It’s time to start talking about the tour.”

This is a very ominous statement for what should objectively be something very exciting. Tony exchanges a nervous look with Jarvis, who had insisted on being present as Tony’s advocate since he’s still very young. He might be nineteen now, but he doesn’t have the experience to avoid being taken advantage of, according to both Jarvis and Ana. Obie would never take advantage of Tony like that, but he appreciates the advocacy.

“I am getting one, right?” he checks. His first album hadn’t had a headlining tour, though he’d opened for a few people with stops in Nashville and, of course, he’d spent some time performing with Peter. Obie hadn’t thought he was ready to be a headliner with only one album and fourteen songs under his belt, but Fearless will add almost twenty songs to his repertoire.

Obie smiles indulgently. “Of course, my boy. We wouldn’t dare deny you an album at this point.”

Tony grins back at him, relieved and excited and nervous all at once. He’s going on tour. And not just tour, but his own tour. People will be paying to see him this time. He starts thinking about costumes and openers and—

“This is Nakia Aldana,” Obie introduces, gesturing to a black alpha woman with a regal expression sitting next to him. “She’ll be taking over as your publicist from that point on.”

“Do I need a publicist?” Tony wonders aloud.

Nakia smiles at him, warm and friendly. “If you want to maintain your good boy image on tour, you do.”

“I am a good boy,” he informs her.

“And I’m here to make sure it stays that way.” She places her hand on the arm of the male alpha next to her. “This is my husband, T’Challa Udaku. He’s managing your tour.”

They introduce Tony to several more people who’ll be working with him on the tour, choreographers and sound technicians and set designers, the names and faces whirling together in his mind. He’ll ask Obie for a dossier on them later so he can learn them all tonight.

“We’re looking at a year-long tour,” T’Challa tells him once the introductions are over. “We’ve been negotiating with venues for several months, and we think we’ve nailed down every location we’re going to get.” He slides a schedule across the table to Tony, whose eyes widen as he takes it all in. That’s… a lot of tour dates.

“That’s a lot of bouncing from one country to the next,” he observes, trying not to sound overwhelmed. He’s a professional now. He should be able to handle this. He doesn’t need to sound like a newbie, letting things happen to him instead of taking the reins himself.

T’Challa nods gravely. “It is, but we work within the constraints of other tours, sporting events, and conferences. I assure you, Mr. Stark, there will be enough downtime for you to spend time working on your next album.”

“Oh, please, call me Tony,” Tony says. “I have the feeling we’ll be working together for a long time.”

T’Challa doesn’t smile back at him—Tony gets the impression he isn’t really one for smiling—but his face does seem to soften a bit. “Then, you may call me T’Challa.”

“Great,” Obie says, “now that we’re all acquainted with each other, let’s start talking scents. I want to get this knocked out of the way before we move on to discussing sets and costumes.”

“Scents?” Jarvis asks, suddenly looking wary.

“Yes, scents,” Obie replies. “It’s standard practice for omega singers to enhance their scents during performances, and it plays into their images, as well as making the concerts more intimate. We did a little of that while Tony was opening for Ms. Fujikawa, but I want to play it up even more. Our boy here is lucky. Vanilla and blackberries are easy scents to manipulate to give off certain effects. Tony is adamant that he wants to maintain a good omega image for now. Vanilla is a sultrier scent. Blackberries are very clean. With effective scent therapy, we can put Tony’s image into his audience’s mind.”

Jarvis opens his mouth to respond, but Tony puts a hand on his arm. “I want to do it,” he says stoutly. If Obie says it’s an industry practice, then that’s what they’ll do.

“We can do that,” T’Challa agrees. “If that’s what you want.” Tony nods, and he makes a note on his folder. “We’ll announce the show on your website—Nakia is handling the announcement.”

“Oh, but shouldn’t I write it?” Tony asks worriedly. “I feel like my brand is so personal. I engage with the fans so directly. It doesn’t feel right if I don’t write it.”

T’Challa and Nakia have a silent conversation that Tony doesn’t have a chance of following before Nakia eventually agrees, “I can work with you on designing the press release, yes.”

Obie abruptly stands, drawing everyone’s attention. “I hate to cut this short,” he says, genuinely regretful, “but I do have another meeting to get to. We’ll pick this up tomorrow morning, alright? Tony, I want you to think about the setlist tonight and get back to us tomorrow on what you want to include.”

Tony nods, barely able to focus through his excitement. Designing his own setlist for his first tour! Getting to pick and choose what he’ll use and maybe picking a few songs to trade out throughout the tour and—oh, maybe he’ll be able to get permission to perform with his openers a couple of times and—

“I can tell we’ve lost you,” Jarvis says amusedly.

Tony blinks, realizing that the room has emptied out while he was busy thinking about the setlist. He shrugs and offers a sheepish, “Oops?”

Jarvis smiles fondly at him and stands. “Are you ready to leave?”

“Yeah,” he says, pulling out his phone to send a message to the band’s group chat. “Can we invite everyone over tonight? I want their inputs on the setlist.”

“Hi, Gillian, nice to see you again,” Tony says warmly, shaking the choreographer’s hand.

“Good to see you too, Tony,” she says, turning to lead him back through the warren of dance studios. “We’re auditioning a little over a hundred dancers today, with a decent range of both male and female dancers and alpha, betas, and omegas. We’re a little light on the betas—Kellie Granger is on tour too, and she’s only working with beta dancers—but I think we’ll be able to find twelve that you like.”

“Great!” he chirps, bouncing a bit on the balls of his feet. He’s beyond excited for this bit. He and Gillian have been discussing the choreography for the last week, in between his discussions with the costumer and the set designer. He doesn’t want to go too heavy on the choreography and spectacle—his opinion is that the emphasis should be more on the music—but there are a couple songs that would just have more oomph with dancers.

“Most performers aren’t usually this involved in the auditions process,” Gillian informs him. He must look worried because she smiles reassuringly at him. “It’s not a complaint, don’t worry. I wish more performers cared this much about who they’re working with. I think it’ll be good for the auditions too, seeing how they interact with you.”

“Right,” he says, still a little uncertain but more reassured that he’s not breaking the mold too much.

“Look alive, dancers!” Gillian orders sharply as they turn the corner into the auditorium. The hundred or so performers, most of whom are in some stage of stretching or sitting, hastily climb to their feet, straightening up.

Tony looks them all over. They’re wearing numbers to distinguish them from each other, with alphas having a blue number, betas having gold, and omegas having red. They’re all on the young side, none of them older than about thirty, but that’s where the similarities stop. They’re tall and short; fat and thin; long hair, short hair, natural hair. He nods to himself. He shouldn’t have any problems finding twelve dancers from this group.

“We’re starting in groups of ten,” Gillian tells him when they take their seat at the front of the auditorium. “I’ve choreographed a number to your song, ‘Our Song.’ I know it won’t be one of the songs the dancers perform on the tour, but I want you to get an idea of my style before we start rehearsals.”

And, Tony adds to himself, if it’s one of his songs, he won’t be so focused on the music rather than the dancers.

“So I just write down whichever numbers I like from each group?” he asks. She nods. “Okay.” He shuffles the papers in front of him. Gillian is very organized. She has a table for him, with the list of dancers’ numbers in the first column, their first and secondary genders in the next two columns, and then each round of auditions in the remaining columns. He can just check off whoever he likes for each round.

“Let’s get started with Group 1!” Gillian calls, and the auditions begin.

Tony makes notes next to the dancers he likes. The ones who move a little more fluid, who seem to be getting more into the music, the ones who are clearly enjoying themselves and don’t seem like they’re only deigning to be there. Gillian has a list of her own, and occasionally she’ll lean over to him and tell him what she likes about one of the dancers he wasn’t interested in keeping or what she doesn’t about one that he was. They dismiss about thirty dancers right off the bat, and then Gillian has him get up there and sing while the dancers move around him, and they cross off another twenty because neither of them like how they interact with Tony in their space.

That takes about half of the morning, and then Gillian spends an hour with the remaining dancers, teaching them new choreography to “Hey Stephen,” so that he can get a feeling of how each dancer’s personality when they’re not on stage. He will, after all, be living with them in very close quarters for over a year. It’s surprisingly helpful, and he’s able to whittle down another six performers and that’s before Gillian has them perform the new choreography, this time in groups of five. By the end of that round, they’ve gotten rid of a total of fifteen additional dancers, leaving them with just a little over thirty-five.

They break for lunch. Gillian spends some time telling him about the remaining dancers in more detail. Given the lower numbers of beta dancers who auditioned in the first place, it’s unsurprising that they have fewer of them now at the end, and Tony makes a mental note to keep an eye on that. He wants to have an even mix of all genders for his tour: four alphas, four betas, and four omegas with an equally even mix of male and female. He doesn’t want to wind up dismissing all of the betas accidentally.

When they come back, Gillian does one more round of teaching the dancers new choreography, this time for a pairs dance to “Tim McGraw.” This, Gillian had informed him during lunch, will probably be one of the last rounds of auditions, if not the last round. She says there’s something about pairs auditions that bring out either the best or the worst in dancers.

Tony does see what she means once they get started. All of the performers are professionals, but some of them work better in group settings than one-on-one dances, and Tony needs people who can do both. They’re able to get dismiss all but twenty dancers, leaving them with eight more than they need.

“Do you think you need another round?” Gillian asks after she dismisses the dancers for another break.

Tony nibbles thoughtfully on the end of his pencil. “No,” he says eventually, erasing one of the checkmarks. “I think I have enough to go off of.”

He erases another with a very final air.

"Take a break, everyone!" T’Challa shouts, and Tony puts the mic down on the stool with a sigh. It doesn't matter how many times they practice this sequence, T’Challa and Gillian, sharing directorial duties, still aren’t happy with it, and the first concert is two weeks. Tony's about ready to tell him and Gillian that it doesn't matter if they think he still isn't pulling off the America's Sweetheart effect well enough, Fearless isn't supposed to be about that anyway. It's supposed to be about taking the next, terrifying step.

T'Challa takes a few step towards him—probably to tell him yet again that he’s not acting sweet enough—but Obie reaches him first. "Tony, my boy, come here," Obie urges him, slinging his arm around Tony's shoulders. "I want to talk to you about that part in the chorus, with the—”

Tony tunes him out, already thinking about the next album he's supposed to be recording once the tour is over. He's got a few songs already penned, but he's stuck on his current one.

When Obie is finally done listening to his own voice, Tony ducks out from under his arm and grabs his guitar from the stand. It's a pretty thing with that mahogany red sheen that Tony adores for the wood-paneling that gives it an almost striped effect. It had been a gift given to him by one of the local music shops that he frequents in Nashville not long after his first album came out, and he recorded most of Fearless on it, but this is the first time he'll be debuting it to the public.

He drops onto the edge of the stage, dangling one leg over the edge as he starts picking out chords. "The way you move is like a full on rainstorm, and I'm a house of cards," he sings quietly, trying not to disturb any of his resting band members--or catch T’Challa and Gillian's attentions, who'll definitely urge them back to work.

"Hey, what are you working on?" someone asks, dropping down to sit next to him.

Tony flashes Steve a quick grin. Steve has been amazing throughout this whole thing, the only one to never get frustrated when rehearsals drag on and on, constantly there with a smile and telling him he’s doing better than he thinks and the only reason T’Challa and Gillian and Obie are so hard on him is because they want him to be the best that he can be.

"New song," he says.

Steve bumps his shoulder companionably. "What's it about, dumbass?"

"You know how when you're first falling in love with someone and then you kiss them, and it's like there's fireworks going off behind your closed eyes? It's about that."

"Sure, that sparks flying moment, right?"

"...Yeah," Tony agrees, mind starting to race. That's a good way to describe it... That's actually a really good way to describe it. He starts to strum again.

"Drop everything now, meet me in the pouring rain
Kiss me on the sidewalk, take away the pain
Cause I see sparks fly whenever you smile
Get me with those green eyes, baby, as the lights go down—"

He stops short as his brain stalls again. He knows what the next lyric should be, but he can’t figure out the chords to go with it. He sings the last line again, hoping that something will connect, but it doesn't. He makes an irritated sound and thumps his hand lightly on the guitar.

"Hey, you mind if I try?" Steve asks. He doesn't hold his hand out like he's expecting Tony to just pass it over, and he appreciates that. Too many people in this industry are pushy assholes.

"Yeah, go right ahead," he says, passing him the guitar. Steve appreciates the value of a good guitar, and Tony trusts him with this one.

“What’s the next line?” Steve asks, strumming on the guitar a couple times to get the feel of it.

“Give me something that’ll haunt me when you’re not around.”

"Alright, got it. Get me with those brown eyes, baby—" Steve begins, cutting off when Tony starts to laugh. "What? What'd I say?"

"Brown eyes?" Tony teases. "Thinking about someone in particular, Steve-o?" Not that he can judge. He'd written in the green eyes because it fit the lyrics best since the song isn’t about any one person in particular but he’d still wanted to bring in the specificity that a lot of other performers his age miss when they sing their little love songs about their partners and their greenish/brownish/blueish eyes. But when he’d been writing it, he hadn't been able to stop blue eyes from flashing into his mind when he'd written the lyric. Now if he could just figure out who the blue eyes belonged to.

Steve rolls his eyes, but chuckles at him, reaching over to flick his forehead. "Call it a Freudian slip and let's move on. Get me with those green eyes, baby, as the lights go down..." He taps his fingers along the neck from a moment and then continues, "Give me something that'll haunt me when you're not around..."

And it’s perfect, exactly what Tony hadn’t even known that he was looking for. "Cause I see sparks fly whenever you smile," he finishes quietly. "Yeah, that'll work." He scribbles down the note progression in the little notebook he keeps in his pocket so that he doesn’t look track of his ideas. “Thanks, Steve. You’re a lifesaver, seriously.”

Steve passes him back the guitar, smiling at him. “Happy to help,” he says softly.

“Alright, let’s get back to work!” Gillian shouts. “We’re not paying you all to stand around talking.”

Tony groans softly and takes the hand Steve offers to pull him up. “Think it’ll go better this time?”

“Well, it can hardly go any worse,” Steve says wryly and dodges the swat Tony sends his way. “I’m kidding, I’m kidding. It was great last time. They’re just—”

“Harsh, yeah, I know. What do you think, see you in about ten minutes when they get frustrated again?”

Steve laughs and heads back towards the rest of the band.

Tony takes his seat back on his stool as Gillian shouts for them to take it from the top. “Say you’re sorry, that face of an angel comes out just when you need it to…”

The day before the tour starts, Tony goes out to dinner with Happy, Rhodey, and Pepper. It’ll be the last chance he has to see them before the mid-tour break in the summer, but he’ll be filming scenes for The Willow Storm Movie and New Year’s Eve then, his first film appearances, so it’s not a given that he’ll be able to see them then.

“I want to know about all of you,” he says as soon as they take their seats at the old diner Tony loves so much. “I’ve been doing interviews about the tour all week, and I’m tired of talking about myself.”

“Wow, you’re tired of talking about yourself?” Rhodey gasps, pretending to be surprised. “Did hell freeze over when I wasn’t looking?”

Tony throws his straw at him. “Hardy-har. You should quit your day job and take up comedy.”

“Boys, boys,” Pepper says idly. “Let’s not scandalize the waitress before we’ve even ordered.”

“The waitress is already scandalized,” Tony dismisses, shooting Angie a quick grin. “We’ve been coming here too long.”

“I don’t know about scandalized,” Angie teases, reaching over to ruffle Tony’s hair. He squawks and tries to duck by climbing half into Happy’s lap. Happy shoves him back. “But I’m certainly used to your antics by this point.” She takes their drink orders, confirms that they want their usual food orders, and heads into the back.

“I’m unappreciated in my time,” Tony grumbles once she’s gone, settling for trying to get his hair back into place. It’s probably a lost cause, but it’s still worth a shot. He spent a lot of time styling it earlier.

“Yes, that’s why you have the most popular album of your age group,” Pepper observes.

“I said I don’t want to talk about myself.”

“I’ll talk,” Happy declares, bulldozing over their bickering. “I’m pretty sure my Nonverbal Communication professor has it out for me.”

“You think every professor has it out for you,” Rhodey points out. “I keep telling you, man, I don’t think higher education is the place for you.”

“I didn’t know this was a conversation we were having,” Tony says interestedly, propping his head on his chin. “Hap, you’re not enjoying college?”

“I like it just fine,” Happy says stubbornly, shooting a glare at Rhodey that says he is very clearly not enjoying college, no matter how well he thinks he’s hiding it. “I just don’t like the classes.”

“Happy, that’s what college is.”

Happy shoots him a glare now. Tony just waits him out. Happy doesn’t like being vulnerable in front of anyone, even his closest friends, but if Tony is patient—always a challenge, but he’ll do it—he’ll eventually spill the beans.

Sure enough, Happy sighs. “I want to own my own business, but I don’t know enough about it to just start without getting the degree.”

“What kind of business?” Pepper asks curiously.

“Private security,” Happy says, exchanging a look with Rhodey that Tony doesn’t quite understand. He’s delighted that his friends have hit it off with each other. He’d been worried introducing them all last year, but it’s nice to know that they have conversations and inside jokes with each other and aren’t just using him as a centerpoint with a friend of a friend relationship for the rest of the group.

Pepper says kindly, “You’ll get there, Happy. And I’d be happy to talk to the security Julianna hires for the shows to see if they have any recommendations.”

Happy crosses his arms, disgruntled. “I can do it.”

“I know you can, but asking for help is never a bad thing.”

Happy doesn’t look very appeased. Tony senses that the conversation needs to come to an end before he feels like he’s been embarrassed, so he switches his focus to Pepper, asking after her shows. Pepper has been modeling since she was thirteen, and now, ten years later, she’s one of the most famous models in the world. She’s in almost constant demand, and Tony always tries to watch her shows when he can. She tells them about the upcoming Fashion Weeks she’s participating in and about the offer from the Met Gala she received as part of the committee this year. She’s downplaying it, but he can tell how thrilled she is to receive such an invitation.

Their food and drinks arrive while she’s describing this year’s theme, which has to do with superheroes, and that gets Rhodey talking about the filming that just wrapped up for the Cyborg movie he’s starring in for the DC film universe. And before Tony knows it, their plates are clean and the diner is closing and it’s time for them to leave.

“Wait, wait!” he says when Happy starts to get out of the booth. He fishes the polaroid camera out of his bag and flags Angie down. “Can you take our picture?”

“Oh, tell me you’re not gonna become one of those people, Tones,” Rhodey groans, rolling his eyes.

Tony laughs. “Don’t worry, honeybear, it’s just for the tour.” He thinks about Rumiko’s pictures hanging above her bunk, wondering if she still has pictures of him floating around somewhere or if she threw them all out after his first album came out. Her career is basically over at this point. She released an album at the beginning of 2008, but the sales hadn’t done well, and the last he heard, she was planning on moving back to Japan. He wonders if she ever thinks about him or if he’s barely a blip in her memory.

“Everyone smile!” Angie says, beaming at them like she’s in the picture herself.

Click.

Tony bounds into the parking lot where the tour buses are with an apologetic, “Sorry, I’m late!”

“It’s fine, we were just getting ready to leave without you!” Clint shouts back from where he’s helping Thor load Natasha and Sharon’s bags onto the bus. Without hesitating, Natasha reaches over and swats the back of his head.

“Traffic, you know how it is,” Tony says blithely, ignoring the fact that it’s six in the morning and there’s no traffic to speak of.

“Uh-huh,” Steve says knowingly, grinning at him. “And what did you forget?”

Tony wordlessly holds up the little plush robot Bruce had given him for Christmas last year. He’s brought it to every performance they’ve had so far and they’ve done great every time, so clearly it’s his good luck charm (and if it makes him feel better when they’re on the road and he’s missing home, well, that’s for him to know).

“Tony, my boy!” Obie says genially, walking over to him. Two young women are trailing behind him, one about average height with blonde curls with a sharp ozone scent that makes him think alpha, the other a few inches shorter with dark red hair and smelling more like an omega with a scent that reminds him of candy apples. He waves at them, relieved when they wave back. The tour hasn’t even started yet and it’s already going better than the last one. “I’d like you to meet your two opening acts, Carol Danvers and Wanda Maximoff. Ladies, this is my golden goose, Tony Stark.”

“I don’t know if we’d go that far,” Tony says, smiling to lessen any awkwardness. He learned his lesson after the last tour. It’s nice that Obie wants to talk him up, but it makes everyone else feel uncomfortable. “But yeah, I’m Tony.” He jerks his thumb over his shoulder. “Those clowns over there are my band—”

“I heard that, Anthony!” Thor calls.

“You were meant to!” he replies and turns back to Carol and Wanda. “But they’re great people to hang around, trust me.”

“Sounds like you’ve got a good group of friends,” Carol says, eyes twinkling. She gestures to a group of people clustered around the other bus. “Those are our bands.”

“We’re not special, so we don’t get our own separate buses,” Wanda adds teasingly. She has a thick Eastern European accent that he can’t quite place.

“Where are you from originally?” he asks curiously, but before Wanda can answer, T’Challa calls for everyone to get on the buses, they’re already running late, and traffic is only going to get worse from here on out.

“Sokovia,” she tells him before they separate.

He spends some time googling Sokovia on the bus, ignoring Clint and Thor’s antics like everyone else is. Shang-Chi is studying for a test for his elective in Renaissance Music and occasionally lobbing questions Tony’s way since Tony had taken a similar class last semester. Bruce and Scott are talking to each other about something to do with the sound equipment; if there’s a problem, they’ll let Tony know. Natasha is doing both her and Sharon’s nails, demonstrating a remarkably steady hand given the bumpiness of the road, while Sharon has a conversation with Steve about a movie that came out a few weeks ago.

Tony puts his phone away and closes his eyes, letting the noise wash over him in waves of contentment. There’s something magical about being on tour, something that makes him feel at peace and excited and nervous all at the same time. He can’t think of a better way to be.

“Stop being all deep and songwritery,” Clint says, plunking down on the bunk next to him and making the blankets shift.

“Songwritery?” Steve asks incredulously. “Is that a technical term?”

Tony opens his eyes, exchanging an amused look with Natasha as Clint tries to defend himself and his unusual word choice. He really can’t think of anywhere he’d rather be than right here with the people he loves, traveling to their first concert of a year-long tour.

Clint swings his arm over Tony’s shoulder and guides him up toward the front to play Mario Kart on the Wii Obie had gotten installed in the bus on his request. Tony is terrible at Mario Kart, which is why Clint likes to make him play it so much since he’s good at that game. The rest of the band gets roped into playing with them, except for Natasha and Sharon who declare them to be silly boys and stay in the back to gossip instead.

Clint kicks his ass, of course, but he kicks everyone else’s too, so it’s hard to feel too bad about his skills, especially when Scott is much, much worse. Tony loses to Thor and Steve by a mile, but he almost beats Shang-Chi and he does beat Bruce as well as Scott, so that puts him pretty solidly middle of the road.

They pull over for gas just outside of Nashville, watching as Thor fails to flirt with the completely oblivious girl at the register when they all pile into the convenience store to grab snacks. Their first concert isn’t until tomorrow, so Tony feels no shame in grabbing a pack of mini donuts and a Heath bar. Sure, they’re terrible for him, but that’s the entire point of road trips, eating terrible food and singing at the top of your lungs with your best friends. He can’t sing at the top of his lungs since he has to do that tomorrow and doesn’t want to risk completely ruining his voice, but he can at least have the terrible food.

I said, “Remember this moment,” floats through his mind as they climb back into the bus, and he reaches for a pen.

They can hear the crowd from where they’re all clustered together backstage. It’s almost deafening. They’re all nervous. Clint has stolen Thor’s drumsticks and keeps twirling them around his hands. Sharon is playing an invisible keyboard against her thighs; Tony recognizes the chord progression for Love Story. Bruce had been meditating but now he’s joined the huddle around Tony and is looking slightly green. Tony doesn’t remember everyone being this nervous before their first night on the Sakura Street tour, but then again, he supposes that makes sense. With the exception of the dancers, this is everyone’s first headlining tour. None of the singers that anyone in his band have ever worked with ever made it to their first tour. This is as new to them as it is to him.

“I just want to say,” he says into the silence, his arms around Steve and Natasha’s shoulders and theirs around his, “that you guys have been the best part of this. You’ve all put in so much work, turning this tour into everything I imagined it would be when I was a kid dreaming about being on stage. I am so proud of everything that we’ve accomplished up to this point and so excited for everything we’re going to do next. Now, I’m not gonna make this a long speech; Socrates made long speeches and his friends killed him.” The tension breaks as everyone laughs. “So I’m just gonna say this instead: this had better be the best performance of your life or I’ll sell all of your instruments.” That gets another laugh, no one taking him seriously. He lets a grin shine through. “Alright, hands in. Let’s go out there and be—”

“Fearless!” everyone shouts.

Tony takes his place on top of the lift as the music starts to play, an immediate upswing in the noise from the crowd as their excitement reaches a fever pitch. He turns on his in-ear, the noise instantly dying down to a manageable level and the music taking its place, just as the lift starts to rise. He pictures the dancers in his mind, in their cheerleader costumes, and the band in their marching band costumes. Tony himself is dressed in a drum major’s costume with a sparkly gold romper underneath. He has two versions of this costume actually, the sparkly gold romper and another gold one that fades to white at the hemline of the shorts. He thinks it makes each concert feel unique to have variations on each outfit. There are only twenty-four total variations for costumes and over a hundred shows, but when he factors in special guest appearances and setlist changes throughout the tour, he thinks there’s enough there to make every single concert special.

He's so caught up in thinking about the costumes and imagining what’s happening on stage that it takes him a moment to realize that he’s on stage now, the crowd screaming his name at him. He’s lucky he was already smiling when the lift started moving or he probably would have looked like a deer in the headlights.

Muscle memory kicks in right as his in-ear finishes counting down, and he opens his mouth as the guitar cuts out.

Can't you see that I'm the one who understands you
Been here all along, so why can't you see?
You belong with me

Ho. Ly. Shit.

He has a moment to actually take in the crowd before the verse starts, and it’s… oh god, it’s so incredible. The entire arena is packed full of people. He remembers Obie telling him that the tickets for this show had sold out in less than thirty seconds, and he feels so incredibly blessed that all these people actually want to see him.

You’re on the phone with your girlfriend, she's upset
She's going off about something that you said
'Cause she doesn't get your humor like I do

His brain completely blanks on the choreography here, so caught up in the moment, but that’s okay because Gillian had drilled it in his head over and over what he’s supposed to do if he forgets. He looks dramatically to the side, expression taking a wistful, lonesome air, and then he’s back for the rest of the verse.

I'm in the room, it's a typical Tuesday night
I'm listening to the kind of music she doesn't like
And she'll never know your story like I do

He tosses in a cheeky wink, thinking it’ll land well with this crowd, and someone screams his name so loud that he’s worried for their vocal chords.

But she wears short skirts, I wear T-shirts
She's Cheer Captain and I'm on the bleachers
Dreaming 'bout the day when you wake up and find
That what you're looking for has been here the whole time

The choreography for that bit is fun. He gets to make fun of his outfit and do one of those little one-leg stands that cheerleaders are so famous for. He doubts anyone is laughing when they’re too busy dancing, but he hopes that anyone who’s recording this will get to look back later and think how funny that little bit is.

If you could see that I'm the one who understands you
Been here all along, so why can't you see?
You belong with me, you belong with me

He whips his hat off and tosses it backstage where one of the stagehands catches it. This would probably be more dramatic if he had long hair, but he’s let his curls grow out a bit anyway, and he shakes his hair out, letting it catch the light. He grabs the microphone off the stand as he moves into the next verse, dancing around the top stage before making his way over to the stairs and slowly moving down them while he finishes the verse. He’s on the main stage by the time the chorus starts, skipping across to the t-stage and singing to the people sitting on the sides. He comes back center stage during the instrumental break, giving high fives to the people crowding the stage, exhilarated by their own excitement. The microphone stand has been moved forward, and he fixes the microphone to it as they move into the bridge.

Oh, I remember you driving to my house
I n the middle of the night
I'm the one who makes you laugh
When you know you're 'bout to cry

I know your favorite songs
And you tell me 'bout your dreams
Think I know where you belong
Think I know it's with me

Three of the dancers come up alongside him as he finishes the bridge. He holds out his hands, and they rip the drum major costume off, revealing the gold romper underneath. The crowd goes wild, the music pausing for them to take in the costume change. He smiles smugly. He’d told Obie and T’Challa this would be a good idea, that it wasn’t too dramatic.

Can't you see that I'm the one who understands you
Been here all along, so why can't you see?
You belong with me
Standing by and waiting at your back door
All this time, how could you not know, baby?
You belong with me, you belong with me

He grabs his guitar from one of the stagehands. It’s bedazzled, handmade by Rhodey and Pepper and Happy as a gift for his first tour, and he adores it. It’s perfect for the first set. He plays as they sing the outro, rocking out with the head tosses and everything. There was a part of him that worried it might be a little silly, but the crowd seems to love it, jamming out with him.

You belong with me

He raises the guitar up, holding it with one hand at the neck while the audience screams and cheers and applauds. He has a moment here, to pause, to take it all in before they move into Our Song, and he seizes it, reaching up to turn his in-ear off to fully take in the noise level.

“Oh my god,” he whispers, stunned by how incredible this is. He can hardly believe he’s here, that everyone is as excited for this as he is, that this is as magical as he’d dreamed it would be. “Wow.”

He’s flushed with the high off of a successful performance and first night by the time they’re completely done and he gets to bound out to the bus. Just about everyone else has already left. Just him and Steve stuck around after the auditorium had cleared out so they could thank the road crew for staying so late to clean up, Tony because it feels like the least he can do and Steve because he’s a fundamentally decent guy.

The adrenaline is starting to drain out of him, though, and he’s glad that he let T’Challa talk him out of doing the meet and greet for the first night. T’Challa had said it might be too much on his first night when it’s not just the successful performance that he’s coming down from but the kickoff to the tour too. He should give himself one night completely to himself before he starts pushing for later and later nights.

“Did you see their faces during Love Story?” he asks eagerly, practically bouncing next to Steve’s more sedate pace.

“Yeah, I saw them,” Steve says, grinning at him.

“I almost forgot what I was supposed to sing, I was too busy looking at them. They were so stunned at the costume change! I know the white dress didn’t fit in with the time period, but it was so pretty. I just had to go with it.”

“You looked great, Tony.”

“And then The Way I Loved You! Did you see them, then?”

“Yep, saw them then too.”

“Do you think they think we’re a couple?”

Steve chokes on his own spit.

“Bless you,” Tony says absently, patting him on the back. “I’m not dating anyone at the moment. Maybe they think it’s a secret relationship.”

They’ve reached the bus. Tony reaches for the handle, but then stops, doubt suddenly flooding his mind. What if it wasn’t as good as he thought it was? Sure the audience looked like they were having fun, but he’d been so nervous. What if his voice hadn’t sounded as good as it should have? What if they regretted spending all that money on him?

“Hey,” Steve says softly, nudging him. “What’s going on in that big brain of yours?”

He bites his lip, not sure if he should share his doubts. Steve hasn’t asked for all of that to be dumped on him. And Tony’s the main performer anyway. Shouldn’t he be able to handle this by himself by this point? He should have more self-confidence instead of putting it all on Steve. He—

“Hey, hey, hey. Whatever you’re thinking, I promise you, you’re completely wrong with it,” Steve says gently, hugging him. “Is it just the adrenaline crash? Something else?”

Before Tony can stop himself, he asks, in a very small voice, “You really thought it was good? You’re not just lying to me to make me feel better?”

“Where’s this doubt coming from?” Steve teases good-naturedly. “Where’s the confident Tony who won’t let anyone tell him an omega can’t be the world’s best country singer? Tony, you were amazing out there. You had them wrapped around your finger all night, dying to know what was coming next.”

“Really?” he sniffles.

“Really. You just proved why no one should ever doubt the name Tony Stark.”

“Even if the reviews aren’t overwhelmingly positive?”

“Especially then. Every single one of your shows are sold out, and if the critics can’t see that that’s the kind of lasting star power to build a career on, then fuck ‘em.”

Tony can’t help but giggle. Steve swears so rarely (though so effectively when he does) that it’s always a little funny to hear it.

“Alright,” he says. “Fuck whatever the critics say.” He squeezes Steve’s middle. “Unless they’re nice. Then they’re the best people ever and we never doubted them for a second.”

“Exactly,” Steve agrees. “You ready to go in? I’ll bet you that Sharon prepared some kind of party for you.”

“That’s a sucker’s bet,” Tony says and opens the door.

“Congratulations!” everyone shouts. Tony can’t help grinning as half a dozen pairs of hands reach to pull him inside, Steve following behind him. Everyone is talking over each other about how well the concert went and their favorite moments from the night and did he see that person with that sign and they can’t wait for tomorrow’s concert in Jonesboro. Ana and Jarvis are sitting in the back, next to an enormous cake that’s decorated to look like the stage with fondant performers.

“You guys shouldn’t have,” he says, even as he’s gathering everyone around for a picture. Their bus driver winds up being the one to take the picture, but Tony immediately insists on another one with her included and Ana taking the picture.

They have another few hours before they get on the road—no point in leaving before the stage is packed up and ready to go, and Jonesboro isn’t that far away anyway—so they take their time on the cake (his favorite flavor, cinnamon). Tony spends some time going over the concert with Ana and Jarvis since they were the ones actually in the audience who could hear what his fans were saying. It does sound like just about everyone loved it, which makes him feel a little more relaxed about whatever the reviews might say. Even if the critics hate it, his fans clearly love it, and that’s really all that matters.

Eventually, though, his eyelids start to droop and Kelsey, their bus driver, lets them know that they’re ready to get on the road, so Jarvis shuts down the party and reminds them all that they have another long night tomorrow, so they need to get some sleep.

Tony curls up in his tiny bunk, unsurprised when Natasha crawls in next to him. It’s too small for both of them to fit unless they get as close as possible, so he throws an arm and a leg over her, their noses practically touching. The bus rumbles, the bed swaying gently, as it pulls out onto the road.

“Good night?” Natasha asks him.

He nods, contentment washing over him. “The best.”

If someone were to ask Tony to rank his favorite performances on this tour, he isn’t sure that Forever & Always would be at the very top (that honor would probably belong to either Love Story or You Belong With Me) but it would probably be in the top five. He loves the theatricality of it, the drama of the mock-interview while he’s doing his quick costume change, of throwing the chair off the stage, of crumpling to the ground during the extended bridge. The way the fans closest to the stage hold onto his hands during that part always brings genuine tears to his eyes.

They’ve been on the road for almost a month now, which means it’s time to start changing things up. Tony has a spreadsheet of all the ways he can make each and every concert a truly unique experience for his fans, and right now, that means inviting a special guest to perform with him. To Tony’s surprise, when T’Challa had floated the idea of a special guest to perform a few shows at the end of February with him to the industry at large, there’d been a surprising number of people interested—including Sunset Bain.

Tony hasn’t heard from her since the AMAs. Frankly, he’d figured that she’d forgotten all about him, that her offer had been born out of politeness rather than any real desire to collaborate with him. It’s a surprise, to say the least, to find out that she’s still interested in performing with him.

“Hmm, don’t you look lovely,” she purrs when Tony emerges from the tiny changing room he’s been allotted for mid-concert costume changes. T’Challa had originally hired a whole team to get him through the switches as quickly as possible, but—call him a prude or whatever—Tony had felt uncomfortable with that entire concept and insisted that only Jarvis could be back there to help him. T’Challa had been wary of it, but they’d practiced the changes over and over at the Nashville house until they could get them done in only a few seconds.

Tony beams at her, cocking his hip to one side to show off the full sparkly red jumpsuit. “Isn’t it amazing?” he enthuses.

Sunset chuckles and trails her fingers along his cheek, leaving a line of fire in her wake. Tony shivers under the heat in her eyes. “It’s gorgeous, but I was talking about you, baby boy.”

“Oh,” Tony mouths, startled at the realization that maybe she also wants to collaborate with him for him and not just his music.

“Tony,” one of the stagehands, “on stage in ten!”

Right. The show. He has to—he jerks his thumb in the direction of the stage, trying to pretend like he isn’t fleeing from Sunset’s amused laughter. It’s not that he doesn’t have any self-confidence. He’s well-aware of how amazing he is, thank you very much. Any alpha would be lucky to have him. But Sunset is… Sunset. She’s an amazing performer and so much older and worldly than he is. He can hardly believe that there’s even a possibility she might be interested in him.

He gets into his seat right as the stage starts to rise. The dancer pretending to be the interviewer grins at him. “Having fun over there?” she teases gently.

“Yeah, yeah, laugh it up,” he grouses, but he’s unable to hide the slight flush on his cheeks.

Once upon a time
I believe it was a Tuesday when I caught your eye
And we caught onto something
I hold onto the night
You looked me in the eye and told me you loved me
Were you just kidding?

The song seems to go by even faster than it usually does, only half of Tony’s mind on the performance. The other half is on Sunset’s inviting smile and sparkling eyes. She can’t possibly be serious, right? She can’t possibly actually want… him. That would be absurd and asinine and—and—amazing.

Oh, back up, baby, back up
Did you forget everything?
Back up, baby, back up
Did you forget everything?

A young fan, not older than ten years old, shyly whispers to him while he’s singing out his heartbreak, “Are you okay, Mister Tony?”

Somehow, he actually manages to hear her, despite everything else going on and his in-ear keeping the beat and his band playing and everyone else yelling the lyrics at him. His heart melts, and he takes a moment to smile at her and reassure her, “I’m doing great. Thanks for checking on me,” before he’s singing again.

'Cause it rains in your bedroom
Everything is wrong
It rains when you're here and it rains when you're gone
'Cause I was there when you said, "Forever and always"

Oh, I stare at the phone, he still hasn't called
And then you feel so low you can't feel nothing at all
And you flashback to when we said, "Forever and always"

And it rains in your bedroom
Everything is wrong
It rains when you're here and it rains when you're gone
'Cause I was there when you said, "Forever and always"

He’s back up on the top stage again, sitting back in his interview chair like he’d never left, like the entire song had been inside his head, railing out at the world while he calmly answered the dancer’s questions and aspersions against his character.

You didn't mean it, baby
You said, "Forever and always", yeah

Sunset is waiting for him again when the lift comes back down. She congratulates him, running her hand along the top of his shoulder, and then asks, “Have you given any more thought to what I proposed last year?”

“About collaborating together?” Tony asks, as Jarvis tries to hustle back into his dressing room for the acoustic songs. “Yeah, I thought about it, and I’d really, really love to, but I’m just not sure that’s where my career is at. And I still haven’t talked to Obie about it.”

Sunset’s smile freezes on her face, and she takes a step back, making him feel the loss of her heat against his side. He’s disappointed her. He hates that. But he just thinks that they’re in such different places in their careers. He doesn’t want to bring her down because he’s so much younger than her.

“Of course,” she says. “I understand. You’d best get changed. Wouldn’t want to disappoint anyone, after all.”

She disappears into the depths of the backstage. Tony sighs. He can’t seem to do anything right around her, can he?

They hit up a bakery before leaving Seattle. It’s one of the oldest bakeries in the Pacific Northwest, which probably means that it’s really good, and half the band has a sweet tooth and the other half is willing to put up with it.

The world’s most beautiful omega is working behind the counter when they pile in at five in the morning, right as the bakery opens. She seems vaguely amused to see a bunch of young adults there at that hour of the day, then realizes that one of them is Tony Stark. Her eyes widen, which Tony finds very funny. He’s not used to being recognized yet, though it’s happened with increasing frequency.

“Oh my god, you’re—” She points at him, then at Natasha, then back at him. “And—”

“Yeah,” he says sheepishly, shoving his hands in his pockets.

“I loved Fearless.”

“Thanks,” he chirps, perking up. He loves hearing that people like his work. It makes him feel like he’s doing something right.

“I wasn’t able to get tickets for last night, but I’m driving down for the show in Nampa tomorrow.”

“Oh,” Tony says, taken aback. “That’s a hell of a drive.” Far enough that he wouldn’t have expected that anyone would make it. He’s not that popular. Tickets aren’t that in demand. Yeah, all of his shows are sold out but to drive seven hours to see him? He can’t imagine.

“Yeah, but it’s worth it, so. No spoilers!”

“No spoilers,” he promises her, touched by her excitement. They order, the baker trying to wave off their payment. Tony insists on it anyway, and then, while she’s not looking, writes out a check for five thousand dollars and stuffs it into the tip jar. He has more than enough money to spare, and she’s so nice, he just wants to share what he can.

“I think I’m in love,” Shang-Chi moans once they’re all sitting around one of the tables with their pastries. The cookie that Tony had gotten is amazing, soft with perfectly melted chocolate chips that he licks off his fingers.

“With the croissants?” Sharon asks.

“With her.”

“You barely even know her!”

“But she’s so gorgeous.”

“And is that all there is to a woman?” Natasha asks dangerously, crossing her arms.

“No! She likes Tony’s music, so she’s got good taste—”

“Hear hear!” everyone chimes in, raising their glasses of assorted milk, tea, and coffee.

“She makes the most amazing pastries, and she seems really sweet! I think I should go make a move.”

“She’s working,” Sharon points out.

“So I’ll give her my number instead of asking for hers.” He gets up and heads back towards the counter.

“Oh, this isn’t going to end well,” Bruce says and gets up as well, grabbing the trash from around the table. “I’m going back to the bus so I don’t have to watch this trainwreck. Anyone else going to join me?”

Everyone does. The enthusiasm is cute, but Bruce is right. There’s no way this is going to end well, even if it’s just because they’re on the road almost every day for the next year. Sure enough, a few minutes later, when Shang-Chi climbs onto the bus, he’s frowning instead of grinning from ear to ear.

“What? She didn’t accept your phone number?” Natasha asks innocently.

He flops facedown onto his bed. “I’m an embarrassment to everyone everywhere,” he groans. “You wanna know what my best line was?”

“Sure,” Tony says when it doesn’t seem like anyone else is going to ask.

“’Excuse me.’ What the hell was I thinking?”

It takes a moment for that to sink in, and then everyone bursts into laughter.

By March, they’ve pretty much got the whole thing down pat. There are a few nerves before each show, but for the most part, they goof around backstage and play games with each other before circling up for the pre-show huddle and taking their places.

Tonight’s game is a high stakes round of Monopoly that they’ve been playing for the last several shows, taking pictures in between songs so they don’t lose their place (and so Scott doesn’t cheat, which he’s notorious for doing).

“Three-minute warning, Tony!” one of the stagehands calls, right as Thor lands on Park Place and owes Tony a truly ridiculous amount of money.

“Alright, thanks, Dylan!” Tony calls back. He snaps a quick picture of the board and of Thor’s face before calling for the huddle. “Okay, it’s Scott’s turn to give the speech, so take it away, my man.”

“Oh man,” Scott says. “I’m so bad at speeches. Tony told me about this this morning, and I’ve spent all day coming up with what I wanted to say, but then I forgot it all. So I just wanted to say that you guys have all been great, I’m looking forward to another great concert with you, but even if it’s not, today will still be the best day of my life because yesterday, I asked Maggie to marry me, and she said yes!”

The huddle breaks out into congratulations and what does the ring look like and when’s the wedding, and in the middle of it all, Tony throws his arms around Scott and says, “Congratulations! Anything you need for the wedding, just let me know, and I am there.”

“Thanks, Tony,” Scott says, hugging him back. “Alright, alright, we’ve got a show to perform, so hands in. Let’s go out there and be—”

“Fearless!” everyone shouts.

The first part of the show speeds by so quickly, and before he knows it, one of the stagehands is passing him his guitar. Tony feels like he’s walking on Cloud Nine. Sure, he’s not engaged, but they’ve all become so close over the last few years and especially in the last two months. Scott has become like family to him, and getting to see his relationship with Maggie blossom like this has been so incredible. Scott is the first of them to get engaged, though he thinks Clint won’t be far behind, and it really feels like they’re starting a new chapter.

“So I write a lot of songs about love,” he says once he finishes adjusting the microphone. “And there’s a lot of speculation about why I do that, but I think, to me, it’s because love seems like this huge, complicated thing that we can’t possibly comprehend. But it seems like every once in a while, two people get it figured out, and today, those two people are named Scott and Maggie. There he is, there’s Scott right back there. Scott and Maggie got engaged last night, and I am so, so happy for them.” He has to pause here for the cheers to die down, grinning at everyone’s excitement for these two people that none of them know but love anyway because one of them is up here on stage with him. “But it makes me walk around, daydreaming about what it might be like, to get it right, to find that one great love, where suddenly, it’s not so complicated anymore. It’s actually really simple. I think it must be like feeling completely, absolutely fearless!”

There's something 'bout the way
The street looks when it's just rained
There's a glow off the pavement, you walk me to the car
And you know I wanna ask you to dance right there
In the middle of the parking lot, yeah

And he’s twirling around, just like he always does, the sparkles on his romper catching the light and reflecting off, leaving dizzying trails of gold at the corners of his eyes.

And I don't know how it gets better than this
You take my hand and drag me head first, fearless
And I don't know why but with you, I'd dance
In a storm in my best dress, fearless

He winks at one of the boys standing close by the stage, blows a kiss to a girl on the opposite side. The girl gets her camera raised just in time, snapping a picture of him looking right at her. He wonders how long she’ll keep the picture, if it’ll go in an album to show her kids or if one day, she’ll laugh and wonder why she ever kept it and toss it out.

Well, you stood there with me in the doorway
My hands shake, I'm not usually this way but
You pull me in and I'm a little more brave
It's the first kiss, it's flawless, really something
It's fearless

He raises his hands above his head, putting them together in the shape of a heart. And it’s amazing, honestly incredible, looking out over the audience as almost eighteen thousand people lift their hands too, reflecting that heart back at him. He says this about a lot of moments in the show, he knows that, but this is one of his favorite parts. He shoots an awed grin at Steve as his band joins him at the front of the stage, remembering that day so long ago when Steve convinced him to go outside and dance in the rain after shooting a music video. Who would have ever thought that would lead to this?

'Cause I don't know how it gets better than this
You take my hand and drag me head first, fearless
And I don't know why but with you, I'd dance
In a storm in my best dress, fearless

They have a day off in Maryland before they have to be back on the road to South Carolina, so they take the day to go to the beach. Tony hasn’t been to a beach since he lived in New York, and he didn’t particularly enjoy the ones in New York either (though he has fond memories of the ones he saw in Florida when he and his mom were visiting his grandparents when he was very young), but he’s excited to go. It’s a little early in the season, maybe, but he thinks doing something just for fun like this will be good for them.

The beach isn’t overly crowded when they get there, which Tony will admit he’s a little glad about. He loves signing autographs and taking pictures with his fans, but he wants today to spend with just the people he loves and not have to stress about being recognized.

Steve insists on sunscreen for everyone once they get towels and umbrellas set up. And he’s definitely right, Tony doesn’t want to go out on stage with a sunburn, but they have to heckle him and call him the Mom Friend just on principle. Steve rolls his eyes at them and reminds them not to go in the water until the sunscreen has dried and cuts them all loose.

Tony does spend some time out in the water, but he spends a lot of it on the towels too, sunbathing with Natasha and Sharon. Not too far away, Clint is burying a sleeping Bruce in sand. That’s not going to end well, and Tony had told him so, but Clint had just waved him off and said it would be fine and Tony hadn’t kept arguing. Closer to the waves, Scott and Thor are building a sand castle together, and Steve and Shang-Chi have gotten roped into a volleyball game with a group of spring breakers.

It's wonderful and idyllic, and lyrics are drifting through Tony’s mind for a song about childhood and the desire to never grow up because that’s how he feels right now in this moment. If time could freeze right here with Thor’s delighted laughter on the breeze, Natasha and Sharon talking about one of the fans Sharon had spent flirting with at last night’s meet and greet, and the sand shifting under his body, it would be perfect.

“What are you thinking about?” Natasha asks, cutting into his peaceful daydreams. Her eyes are still closed, so he must be thinking very hard for her to pick up on it.

“A song,” he says honestly.

Sharon snorts, rolling onto her stomach so she can better look at him instead of having to contort her neck weirdly. “You’re always thinking about a song.”

“Yeah, crazy how that works,” he says dryly. “It’s almost like it’s my job or something.”

“It’s not your job, it’s your passion,” Clint teases, drawing the last word out into a ridiculous parody of itself.

“Sure is,” he agrees. “Still my job, though.”

“What’s it about?” Natasha asks.

“Growing up and the lack of interest in it.”

“Very fitting for your first tour,” Sharon agrees.

Tony hums thoughtfully and props himself up on his elbows, looking for Ana and Jarvis. They’re taking a walk further down the beach, arm in arm. He smiles fondly at them and lays back down. He’s been thinking about moving out once this tour is over. He’s nineteen, he’s already a millionaire, and he’s gotten much better at taking care of himself. It might be time to get his own place and let Ana and Jarvis enjoy their retirement. He’s sure they’ll keep coming along on his tours—he would love it if that’s what they decide—but making them have to keep picking up after them? That feels like too much.

“What are you bumps on a log doing over here?” Shang-Chi asks, poking Natasha with his foot.

Without opening her eyes, Natasha grips his ankle and threatens, “Poke me again and I’ll flip you onto the sand.”

“Point taken,” Shang-Chi says, taking a few steps back once she releases his foot. “But seriously, it’s a gorgeous day. What are you guys doing laying out on a towel?”

“Sunbathing,” Natasha says.

“Tanning,” Tony adds.

“He’s lying,” Sharon says. “He’s writing music again.”

“Sounds boring. Stop writing music and come play with us. The college guys left.”

“Oh, if we must,” Natasha sighs, climbing to her feet. “Come on, everyone. Shang-Chi is apparently incapable of entertaining himself.”

“I never said that!” he yelps.

Tony laughs and gets up, heading for the net still strung up. They organize into two teams, except for Bruce, who’s still asleep (and buried up to his neck anyway): Natasha, Tony, Sharon, and Steve versus Shang-Chi, Clint, Thor, and Scott. Shang-Chi and Thor are both very good, and Clint probably would be good if he were less clumsy, but he is clumsy and Scott is just plain bad, so it really winds up being Natasha, Tony, Sharon, and Steve versus Shang-Chi, Thor, and very, very occasionally Clint when he has a singular moment of brilliance. The outcome was practically decided before it began, but that doesn’t make it any less fun to play, shouting good-natured insults at each other, getting sand in ill-advised places, and piling on top of Thor at the end of the game. He manages to lift all of them, ridiculously strong as he is, and Tony rests there for a moment, content and happy in a way that he can never remember being as a child. He hopes every day for the rest of his life can be like this, and even though he knows it can’t be, that still makes today special.

Hopefully, Tony still has a very long career to go. Hopefully, he will have many career-defining songs to create in his future. Hopefully, this tour isn’t the end of his life in Nashville before it really gets off the ground.

But no matter what happens, he’s pretty sure that Love Story will always be one of those songs that when people hear the name Tony Stark, they immediately think of this song.

They’re in Winnipeg tonight. When T’Challa had approached him with the schedule, he’d made sure to warn Tony that different cultures have different approaches to concerts. They’re not all going to dress up and grab onto his hands when he’s kneeling on the ground and sing at the top of their lungs. And Tony believes him. T’Challa has more than two decades of experience in this industry to Tony’s handful of years; if he says it won’t always be like this, then it won’t be. But tonight, in Winnipeg, Canada, the crowd is singing so loud it almost drowns him out, and he has to fight to keep a delighted smile from his face when he comes out in the red and gold ballgown, the brightest spot on that stage, to sing Love Story.

We were both young when I first saw you
I close my eyes and the flashback starts
I'm standing there
On a balcony in summer air

See the lights, see the party, the ball gowns
See you make your way through the crowd
And say, "Hello"
Little did I know

He’s honestly really proud of the concept behind this song for the tour. He’d had a hand in designing the stage, putting his engineering degree to good use, and from the start, he’d been working from a design that would let the stage emulate a castle for this one particular song. He could work everything else around whatever design they finalized, but if he couldn’t get the castle for Love Story, then none of it mattered. This was the first song they finalized for this tour, from the number of dancers to the costumes to the set and the choreography. He loves it to pieces, and it might be one of the numbers he’s most proud of on this entire tour.

That you were Romeo, you were throwing pebbles
And my daddy said, "Stay away from Juliet"
And I was crying on the staircase
Begging you, "Please don't go," and I said

Romeo, take me somewhere we can be alone
I'll be waiting, all there's left to do is run
You'll be the prince and I'll be the princess
It's a love story, baby, just say, "Yes"

He comes down off the top stage for the second verse and chorus, getting up close and personal with the fans again, thinking about the forum Clint had shown him last night about all the fan theories for why he doesn’t have a dance partner for this song like he does for The Way I Loved You or Teardrops On my Guitar. Tony’s favorite theory is that he didn’t write this song about any one person in particular and he’s letting them all know that by performing this song alone. That one’s his favorite because he’s pretty sure that it's fairly obvious the song is about Indries Moomji, who he had a brief fling with before he started dating Peter after they worked on a couple songs together.

He's back on the main stage for the bridge, the dancers performing something that looks vaguely courtly behind him. He’d been worried about historical accuracy when Gillian first choreographed it, but she’d told him not to stress, no one would care if it was truly accurate as long as it looked accurate enough.

But I got tired of waiting
Wondering if you were ever coming around
My faith in you was fading
When I met you on the outskirts of town and I said

"Romeo, save me, I've been feeling so alone
I keep waiting for you, but you never come
Is this in my head? I don't know what to think"
He knelt to the ground and pulled out a ring

The dancers gather around him and the lights go down for the costume change, the other one he’d insisted on for the show. This one isn’t as simple as the change for You Belong With Me since the costumers had told him they couldn’t make the ballgown work as a tearaway, and that had nearly gotten the idea nixed by T’Challa. But Tony had insisted on it, saying that the final chorus wasn’t nearly as powerful if he stayed in the same red and gold ballgown instead of switching it out for the pure white gown.

He crouches down so the dancers can get the ballgown up and over his head without making it obvious that that’s what they’re doing. Most of the fans already know that he has the costume change during this song, but he still wants it to be a big deal for them instead of treating it like it’s nothing.

One of the dancers gives him a split second onceover to double check that the white gown is in place and unwrinkled, nothing caught on his ear or anything. She grins and mouths, “You look great,” before spinning away with the rest of the dancers as the lights come back up.

"Marry me, Juliet, you'll never have to be alone
I love you and that's all I really know
I talked to your dad, go pick out a white dress
It's a love story, baby, just say 'Yes'"
'Cause we were both young when I first saw you

The last few seconds of the song are probably his favorite bit of the whole song, when he gets to kneel down in front of whichever small child Ana has picked out from the crowd and brought forward for him to give the jeweled headband he’s wearing to. The little boy beams at him and reaches up to give him a hug in return.

It’s the little moments like these that make the whole thing worth it to him. Yeah, he’s losing sleep and constantly traveling and he feels like he doesn’t know whether he’s coming or going, but getting to see this boy’s eyes light up when Tony hugs him back?

That’s priceless.

As one of the few decent things he’s ever done in his entire life, Howard had lent them the use of Stark Industries’ private jet for their international dates. Truth be told, they probably could have taken the bus for the dates in Canada, but Tony is in the middle of studying for his finals and finds it a lot easier to study on the jet than he does on the bus. They’d rented a bus to get them to each of their concerts in Canada itself but taken the jet to get to and from the country.

It's very early in the morning when they fly back from Winnipeg. The concert had ended at about nine that evening, but they’d gotten held up at the airport because of a storm, so it had been close to three by the time they took off. Tony had dozed in his seat while they waited—he’d been offered a place in one of the lounges if he wanted, but only him; they wouldn’t even let Ana and Jarvis come with him, and just turning away his band had been enough, but turning away his family too had earned the airport staff a very firm no. He’d woken up once they’d taken off, though, and been unable to go back to sleep, so he'd pulled out one of his textbooks to go through.

“Hey,” a voice says quietly, startling him out of his studious haze. Looking up, he sees Steve crouching down next to him, so he pulls out his earbud.

“Hey,” he says softly. “Did I wake you?”

Steve shakes his head. “That turbulence a few minutes ago.”

“Oh, okay,” Tony says.

“You mind if I sit next to you?”

“Free country, isn’t it?” Tony replies, moving his books so Steve can sit down. “What brings you to my side of the airplane?”

“I noticed you’ve been staring at the same page for about ten minutes now,” Steve says, grinning at him. “I thought I’d check in on you, find out if you were ready to admit defeat and go to sleep.”

Tony blinks at him and then down at the page. Damn. He’d thought those words looked familiar, but he’d just assumed he was remembering them from an earlier study session.

“I should study,” he protests weakly, but Steve ignores him and takes the book out of his hands, saving the place with a napkin before putting it in his bag.

“Tony, you are the smartest person I’ve ever met and you would be even if you were only studying one of your two majors. And I heard Clint trying to trip you up on this yesterday. Believe me when I tell you that you already know this. You don’t need to sacrifice what little bit of time you have to sleep to study some more.”

The words warm him from the inside out. Tony has always heard that he’s smart. Howard had told him multiple times before finally conceding and letting him move to Nashville that he was wasting his brilliance by choosing to go into music instead of taking over Stark Industries. He graduated early so that he could focus on his career. The only reason it’s taken him this long to get his bachelor’s degrees is because he’s touring, not because he’s touring at the same time, and he’s still on track to graduate next spring regardless of his packed schedule.

But there’s still a part of him that thinks he should be doing more. He should have a third major, he should be thinking about grad school, he should already have another album ready to go even though he’s still touring for Fearless.

“What’s going through that head of yours?” Steve murmurs, running his thumb soothingly over the hand he’s still holding.

Ruefully, Tony admits, “I’m not sure if I can sleep yet.”

“Do you want to try?” Steve offers. “I’ve been told I make a pretty good pillow.”

“You’d let me fall asleep on you?”

“If it’ll mean you actually asleep instead of working yourself to the bone running through the setlist or studying or writing songs for your next album? Yeah, Tony, I’d let you use me as a pillow.”

The offer is tempting. Tony is so tired. He would love to just shut his brain off and sleep for the remaining three hours of the flight. But he doesn’t want to make Steve uncomfortable. That’s the last thing he wants to do to him.

“You’re sure?” he checks. “I don’t want to keep you up or anything.”

“Tony,” Steve says. “I wouldn’t have offered if I wasn’t okay with it, okay? I promise you it’s fine. I’m still gonna respect you in the morning.”

He grins despite himself and says, “Alright, fine. But if Natasha gets blackmail photos of us, I’m blaming you.”

“Damn, and here I was, going to say the same thing to you. Alright, come here,” Steve beckons, lifting up the armrest. The seats on the jet are more like small couches, so it’s easy for Tony to scoot over and rest his head against Steve’s shoulder, kicking his feet up next to him so he can curl up easier. Steve’s fingers card through his hair, soothing him to sleep, and as he lets himself drift off, he feels Steve’s head come down on top of his, his own breathing evening out.

There’s something comforting about it, he thinks to himself and smiles as sleep pulls him under.

They’re getting ready for the concert in New York when Jarvis knocks on the door of Tony’s dressing room, where he’s doing his makeup with Natasha, Sharon, Clint, and Scott. He’s wearing a curiously excited smile, which Tony quirks his head at, trying to puzzle out what has him more excited than usual.

“Tony, there’s someone here to see you,” he says and then stands aside so Maria Stark can sweep into the room.

“Oh my god, Mom!” Tony shrieks, immediately dropping his eyeliner pencil so he can jump up and hug her. Distantly, he hears Natasha usher everyone else out of the room.

“Hello, bambino,” Maria croons, stroking his curls. He hugs her tighter, feeling tears prickle at the corners of his eyes. He can’t remember the last time his mom called him that. Ana has told him many, many times that she did, but he has no memories of that.

“You’re here for the concert?” he asks. He doesn’t bother asking her if Howard is here. If he were here, he’d be standing in this room with them.

“I couldn’t miss my son’s first headlining tour now, could I?” she asks, and Tony’s so happy to see her that he doesn’t point out she had no problems missing the tours where he was opening.

“I’m so glad you’re here,” he confesses. It means so much to him to have her here watching and supporting him. He knows a lot of it probably just comes down to this concert being in New York, but it still means the world to him.

“Of course, bambino. I wouldn’t miss this,” Maria tells him and kisses the top of his head. And suddenly, he has an idea for the acoustic set.

The acoustic set is one of his favorite sets in the show. It takes place right in the middle of the show, immediately following Forever & Always. The Crimes of Passion skit gives him enough time to change and get to the B-stage on the floor level. This thing—popping up in the middle of the audience—isn’t something he’ll be able to do forever. If his success continues the way it’s been going, eventually he’ll get too famous to take risks like this, but for now, he’s still a small enough name that he can walk through the arena and perform half of a song up close and personal with his friends without worrying about it.

Today, they emerge from the backstage area into one of the snack bars. None of his fans seem to have picked up on this as where he would come out, so it’s empty. They get about halfway to one of the arena entrances before someone notices him, and then he’s practically mobbed with people clamoring around him. Most of the time, he just gives them canned greetings because he can’t actually hear what’s being said over everyone talking all at once, but this time, he manages to hear someone ask him how his day is going.

“My day’s going great, actually!” he says. “My mom’s at the concert tonight, so that’s really cool for me.”

The noise quiets down as his fans look uncertainly at Ana walking next to him.

“Isn’t… isn’t your mom always here?” someone finally asks.

Tony laughs brightly. “You mean Ana? She’s not my mom. She might as well be, but—”

“I’m his glorified babysitter,” Ana tells them, winking at Tony teasingly. “Tony’s mom runs several very well-known charities and wasn’t able to move to Nashville with him. My husband and I have worked for the Stark family for many years, so when Tony decided he wanted to pursue music instead of business, we came with him.”

“Wait,” someone says. “Oh my god, your dad is Howard Stark?”

Tony blinks at her, confused. “Yeah. Y’all never knew that?”

They don’t get the chance to answer before they’re at the arena entrance and he has to take his guitar from one of his security team members. He sets aside the confusion he’s feeling over his family name to get through Hey Stephen and then he’s at the B-stage, sitting down on the stool. Normally, Hey Stephen is followed by Fifteen, but he has an idea for tonight that he hopes everyone will love.

“So as you might have noticed,” he says, propping his foot up on the stool’s rung, “today is Mother’s Day. And today, for Mother’s Day, my mom gave me the best present in the entire world by being here for tonight’s concert. She’s sitting right there.” He points at his mom, who’d been given a special seat by the soundboard away from the crowd in case anyone recognized her (though apparently, his fans have never realized that Ana and Jarvis aren’t his actual parents). “And tonight, since she’s here and today’s Mother’s Day, I thought I would play a special song just for her. See, my mom came along when we were filming the music video for Picture to Burn, and I wrote a song inspired by that day and all the best times spending time with her that I remembered from my childhood. So tonight, I thought I would play you all The Best Day.”

I'm five years old, it's getting cold, I've got my big coat on
I hear your laugh and look up smiling at you, I run and run
Past the pumpkin patch and the tractor rides
Look now, the sky is gold
I hug your legs and fall asleep on the way home

He looks up as he’s transitioning into the chorus to see Maria’s hands clasped to her mouth, tears sparkling in her eyes. He smiles at her, looking just at her as he sings the next lines.

I don't know why all the trees change in the fall
But I know you're not scared of anything at all
Don't know if Snow White's house is near or far away
But I know I had the best day with you today

To his surprise, she mouths the words along with him. He’d had no idea that she’d even listened to the album, let alone this one particular song. After she hadn’t known what Picture to Burn was about, he’d just kind of assumed that she didn’t listen to his songs. They are, after all, very different from the opera and classical and big band jazz that she normally listens to. But she knows this song, she’s singing along, and his heart feels so full, it could burst.

There is a video I found from back when I was three
You set up a paint set in the kitchen and you're talking to me
It's the age of princesses and pirate ships and the seven dwarfs
And Daddy's smart
And you're the prettiest lady in the whole wide world

He can’t help but chuckle through the tears in his own eyes as he notices her laugh. He still thinks Howard is smart and his mom is the most beautiful woman in the entire world, but it’s different now, and he hopes that she knows that. He hopes she knows how much he loves her.

And now I know why all the trees change in the fall
I know you were on my side even when I was wrong
And I love you for giving me your eyes
For staying back and watching me shine
And I didn't know if you knew, so I'm taking this chance to say
That I had the best day with you today

He doesn’t immediately notice it while he’s standing up and passing the stool off to one of the stagehands, but suddenly, Maria is there with him on the stage, hugging him tight again. He hugs her back, wishing that he never had to let go, wishing that she could live in Nashville or he could live in New York with her.

“Good present?” he asks her.

“Tony, baby, the song is wonderful, but you’re the best present I could ever ask for,” she tells him, and he hugs her tighter.

Sharon’s birthday is in May, same as Tony’s, but a few days before his. Just like they will be for his, they’re on the road for it, but unlike for his, he plans something special for hers (to be fair, Scott has made enough hints that his band is making plans for his birthday that he doesn’t feel the need to plan something himself). He contacts the convention center they’ll be performing at later that night and asks if they can make use of the center’s kitchen for the rest of the day.

“Sharon’s birthday is today,” he tells the camera following him into the kitchen where Natasha and Steve are waiting. Obie wants to release a documentary about the making of the tour once it’s concluded, so Tony has gotten very used to a camera following him around. “She’s not a big cake person, so we’ve decided to make her a cookie cake instead. Now, I’m not really much of a baker—I can burn water, even when I’m not trying—but fortunately, Ana is a great cook, so she’s going to boss us around.”

Ana does indeed boss them around. Tony has never really been in the kitchen while she’s working, and he suddenly finds himself very glad that he hasn’t. She whips the three of them into shape like a TV show drill sergeant, and under her tutelage, the cookie cakes (three of them since it’ll be a big party) slowly come together.

“So, Tony,” the cameraperson (whose name Tony has, unfortunately, forgotten since they rarely interact with him) asks, “where’s everyone else today?”

“Wanda and Carol are doing their soundchecks,” Tony explains. He’s become good friends with both women, bringing both of them up on stage to perform with him at one point or another in addition to the encore, trading off between singing Hot n Cold with Wanda and Hope Has Wings with Carol, so he’s added them to his litany of people to keep track of. “Thor, Shang-Chi, and Bruce are getting the T-party room set up for later today because that’s where we’re gonna have Sharon’s birthday party. Scott is supervising some thing that’s going on with the electrical equipment, don’t ask me to explain it. And Clint is on heat leave until tonight.”

Given a few minutes with a textbook, he could probably figure out what’s going on with the electrical equipment, but Scott actually has a Master’s in electrical engineering for reasons that he always dodges explaining, and obviously, Tony has Sharon’s birthday to worry about, so he’s decided to leave this one up to the pros instead of handling it personally like he handles almost every other problem on this tour.

“So who’s keeping track of Sharon?”

“The dancers,” Tony says. And Jarvis, but he doesn’t say that one out loud. “They took her out to a shooting range.”

“A shooting range?”

“Yep,” Natasha cuts in. “Sharon’s extended family are old money back in England. She spent a lot of her summers there going on hunts.”

“I didn’t even know fox hunting was still a thing until she told me about it,” Tony informs the camera while he mixes the dough for their last cookie. “I always wanted a fox.”

“Really?” Steve asks, surprised.

He shrugs. “I think they’re cute. And then Jarvis made me watch The Fox and the Hound—”

“Made you?” Ana repeats. “Bambi, there was no making you do anything. You cried until we put it on.”

“Okay, yeah, fair enough,” he concedes. “But I always thought it would be cool to have a pet fox. But then I found out how stinky they are and how loud they get and decided that was a bad idea.”

“You could get a fennec fox,” Natasha says. “They’re not as bad, and they’re legal to own unlike most exotic animals.”

“Ana! I’m getting a fennec fox!”

Ana laughs. “No, you’re not.”

He sulks all the way through decorating the cookies and up until they’re getting ready for the concert when Sharon informs him that she knows he was up to something today.

“Yeah, but did you have fun?” he asks, perking up.

She kisses his cheek and then frowns at the lipstick mark she left and scrubs it off. “Yeah, Tony, best birthday ever.”

“Just you wait,” he enthuses. “It’s not over yet.”

She grins and chucks him under the chin. “I’m sure it’ll be perfect.”

“Once upon a time,” he says when they’re finishing Tell Me Why, “there was this girl.”

Jessica Drew is in the audience tonight, he knows. She’d texted him a few days earlier to tell him she was coming to the Nashville concert, which he’s so excited for. She knows all the songs he wrote about her, and she loves them, and he’s so excited for her to get to hear this speech. He hasn’t been able to spot her; she hadn’t told him her seat number, so for all he knows, she’s in the back of the audience.

“And this girl used to sit next to me in class,” he says. “Okay, it’s confession time: I had the biggest crush on this girl, and, well, at the time, she didn’t even know I existed.” He slowly walks up the stairs to the top stage. “But everyday, just like clockwork, this girl would come into geometry class.” He reaches the top stage, the dancer sitting at the table looking up and smiling at him. “And everyday, just like clockwork, this girl would sit down next to me. And sometimes! She would even talk to me—

“About her boyfriend.”

Amidst all the sympathetic groans, he hears someone, somewhere out there in that huge mass, bark out a familiar laugh. He has to bite back a grin. That’s Jess, alright. Irreverent and amused by that rinky-dink little freshman’s attempts to get her to notice him.

He keeps going, saying, “So I didn’t tell this girl that I liked her. But I did write a song about her—” The music cuts out entirely for the punchline—"so I think she knows now.”

Drew looks at me
I fake a smile so she won't see
That I want and I'm needing
Everything that we should be
I'll bet he's wonderful, that boy she talks about
And he's got everything that I have to live without

He wonders if Jess is singing along, if she knows all the words to this song that he wrote about her. He knows she knows a lot of them, Our Song and Beautiful Eyes and I’m Only Me When I’m With You, but he doesn’t know if she ever learned this one.

Drew talks to me
I laugh 'cause it's just so funny
That I can't even see
Anyone when she's with me
She says she's so in love, she's finally got it right
I wonder if she knows she's all I think about at night

She's the reason for the teardrops on my guitar
The only thing that keeps me wishin' on a wishing star
She's the song in the car I keep singing, don't know why I do

When he looks down, he sees Natasha on the violin, playing to Bruce on the bass. Shang-Chi and Steve are sharing a microphone, providing the most gorgeous backup vocals for him. There’s something about this song that brings out the melancholy in all of them, making them want to group together for each performance.

While he sings the second verse, the dancer gets up from the table. She makes her way down the stairs to another dancer, playing Jess’s boyfriend. The two of them ignores his angst and heartbreak on the top stage as they dance together, never letting go of each other for more than a second.

He gets up after the chorus, walking down to t-stage, past the two dancers. He’s not as close with the dancers as he is with his band and Carol and Wanda, but he’s pretty sure that they’re actually dating in real life, and the chemistry stands out in stark contrast. “Jess” stops to pretend to talk to him when they pass each other on the ramp, introducing him to her boyfriend, not even noticing that he’s pining for her. Tony walks to one end of the t-stage, “Jess” and her boyfriend on the other end, sharing a slow dance together. Tony has seen the panorama pictures from this tableau, and they’re honestly incredible. He looks just as lonely and heartbroken as he remembers feeling back then. Gillian did an amazing job with the choreography for this number.

So I'll drive home alone as I turn off the light
I'll put her picture down and maybe get some sleep tonight

He bends backward as he hits the high note, belting it to the heavens. He’s seen some people call it his signature move, but he can’t help it. It helps him get the power he needs for these notes, helps it sell the emotion that he’s feeling so much he has to put his whole body into it.

'Cause she's the reason for the teardrops on my guitar
The only one who's got enough of me to break my heart
She's the song in the car I keep singing, don't know why I do

He returns to the center of the t-stage as he sings. “Jess” and her boyfriend finish their slow dance as he approaches and walk back towards him, both of them giving him a friendly wave when they pass him before continuing on their way, wrapped up in their own happy little bubble where everything is beautiful because they’re in love. He’s left alone on the stage, his voice echoing over the audience, lonely and devastated.

She's the time taken up, but there's never enough
And she's all that I need to fall into
Drew looks at me
I fake a smile, so she won't see

He reaches out toward the audience as he finishes as though he’s hoping for someone to reach back, someone to remind him that he’s loved, that he’s wanted, that he’s not just invisible to the people he pines for. He isn’t truly that lonely, not anymore, not now that he has his band and his friends, but he remembers the high of loving Jess and Rumiko and Peter and wishes that just one of them could have stuck around. There’s something about being the center of someone’s world that he misses, that he wants to feel again. That’s what this song is really about, about wanting someone to see you—that’s what he wants.

To his surprise and utter delight, Jess is waiting for him just outside the T-party room when he gets there after changing back into a pair of jeans and t-shirt and blow-drying his hair. The synthetic rain is a great visual for the end of the concert, and he likes the callback to Fearless, but it’s absolute murder on his curls if he doesn’t take the time to dry them before heading to the meet and greet.

“So I want to talk about the runs in You’re Not Sorry,” he’s telling Sharon as they round the corner towards the party. “Because I feel right now, they’re too dramatic.”

“It’s a dramatic show,” Sharon argues.

“Yeah, and that’s why I think they’re too much. Maybe tomorrow during soundcheck, we can—”

“Hey there, Teardrops On My Guitar,” someone says. It’s such a strange greeting that he stops talking, glances around, and abruptly realizes that Jess is standing right outside the door, one cowboy booted foot propped up against the wall.

“Jess!” he exclaims, rushing forward to throw his arms around her. “It’s so good to see you! I can’t believe they found you!”

“I can’t believe they found me either,” she says dryly. “I didn’t even know you were keeping an eye out for me, and then, right in the middle of the acoustic set, Ana sits down next to me and asks me if I want to come to the meet and greet afterwards because you’d apparently love to see me.”

“Yeah,” he says sheepishly. “When you told me you were coming, I asked security to keep an eye out for you. Looks like they did since they sent Ana your way and all.”

“I’m glad you did,” Jess says, hugging him again. “I’ve been following you since the first album. I’ve got both CDs and the deluxe versions and Beautiful Eyes.”

“What, no Sounds of the Season?” he teases.

“I can’t find one! They sold out so quickly and every time they get restocked, they sell out again! But, seriously, Tony, I’m so proud of you. And me too! You know how cool it is to get to say Tony Stark wrote a song about me?”

“More than just one,” he says, grinning as he opens the door into the party.

By this point, he’s grown used to the shrieked Tonys that greet him, but Jess actually takes a couple steps back, bumping into Steve, who steadies her with a hand on her elbow.

“Hi, guys!” he greets everyone cheerfully. “I’m Tony!”

He’s used to the inevitable “Yeah, no shit,” that one of the alphas whose omega had dragged them to the concert and are now sulking on the couch because their omega got picked for the T-party mutters too. Everyone else seems to find his greeting charming and endearing, however, and he’s not catering to the sulking alphas on the couch anyway, so he ignores them.

“I’ve got a special guest with me today,” he tells everyone while he’s signing autographs. “Right over there, hiding in that corner, is Jessica Drew. I wrote Teardrops On My Guitar about her.”

That earns him another couple of shrieks and Jess calling over the din, “Thanks a lot, Stark.”

“Was it a big surprise when you listened to the album and heard that song?” someone asks her, looking torn between staying in line to get Tony’s autograph or heading over to get Jess’s.

“Nope,” Jess says, emerging from her corner to come stand next to Tony. “What Tony doesn’t tell you in his whole big speech about me ignoring him during geometry class is that we actually dated the following year. I know all about the songs Tony wrote about me, usually because I was his first audience.”

“Guilty as charged,” he admits, bumping her hip. “That was originally a story that was going into the documentary, but sharing it during the speech just undercuts the emotional tension, you know? I wrote that song while I was pining for her. I don’t want to ruin the emotions that Past Me was going through by giving it a happy ending.”

“Did you break up because you cheated on Tony too?” someone else asks.

Tony cringes—it’s never nice to get accused of cheating on someone—but, luckily, Jess just throws her head back and laughs. “Nah,” she says. “We broke up because I was going off to college and he had just signed his record deal with Bad Stain. Neither of us felt like we were ready to try to deal with a long-distance relationship on top of how busy our lives were about to get.”

“Yeah, it was all very mature of us,” Tony agrees.

“And then you ruined it by writing Tim McGraw.”

“Rude!” he gasps, then shrugs. “But true.”

“It probably didn’t help that during my first year in the dorms, I realized I was more into alphas than I am omegas,” Jess adds, eyeing Carol on the other side of the room with her own little knot of fans around her.

“I didn’t know that,” Tony says curiously, glancing between her and Carol. He’s got to see if he can get Carol’s phone number for Jess. They’d be so good together.

“And how would you? We didn’t stay in contact until a couple days ago. It’s a minor miracle you hadn’t changed your number.”

“Fair,” he says and, upon seeing a number of his fans’ eyes light up, promptly resolves to change it as soon as he can. He likes being accessible to his fans, but he doesn’t want to encourage stalkers.

The rest of the meet and greet flies by and all too soon, he’s having to say goodbye to his fans and Jess. He’d made sure to slip a sticky note with Carol’s phone number into Jess’s back pocket at one point (Carol had been just as intrigued by Jess as the other way around, and he is delighted for that).

“Don’t wait too long to call me again, okay?” he tells her, giving her one more hug before he climbs into the bus. “Bye, y’all!”

“I won’t, promise.”

“I’ll hold you to that, Drew!”

“You’d better, Stark!”

He climbs up onto the b-stage and accepts his guitar back from one of the security guards, thanking him with a smile.

They're dimming the street lights, you're perfect for me
Why aren't you here tonight?
I'm waiting alone now, so come on and come out
And pull me near and shine, shine, shine

There’s a little boy at the front of the b-stage, holding up the sparkly bracelet that Tony had just given him while he was walking through the crowd. Tony winks at him and sings the next verse just to him.

Hey, Stephen, I could give you fifty reasons
Why I should be the one you choose
All those other girls, well, they're beautiful
But would they write a song for you?

The cool thing about the b-stage is that it actually rotates, and just in time for the chorus, it rotates back towards the main stage. Steve is up there playing with a knowing little grin that Tony can’t help but return. There’s been a lot of debate over who Stephen in the song is, but no one has ever once guessed that Stephen doesn’t actually exist and Tony just used his guitarist’s name in the song instead. It’s their little secret, and Tony loves it.

I can't help it if you look like an angel
Can't help it if I wanna kiss you in the rain so
Come feel this magic I've been feeling since I met you
Can't help it if there's no one else
Mmm, I can't help myself

The song comes to an end, and Tony moves away from the microphone so that one of the stagehands can place the stool next to it. He sits down, adjusting the guitar so it rests properly on his knee, and then lowers the microphone.

“So, back when I moved to Nashville,” he says, strumming the intro to Fifteen, “I was a pretty lonely kid. None of my friends from New York were there, I was one in a million kids who wanted to make music, and I was just going into high school. But then—I sat down in my first class and there was this guy who sat next to me who reached across the aisle and said, ‘Hi.’ And from that moment on, we were best friends. But the thing about being friends in high school is—you never know where life is going to take you. You never know what’s going to happen next because you can’t! You can’t possibly imagine what your life is going to look like when you’re only fifteen.”

You take a deep breath and you walk through the doors
It's the mornin' of your very first day
You say "hi" to your friends you ain't seen in a while
Try and stay out of everybody's way

It's your freshman year and you're gonna be here
For the next four years in this town
Hopin' one of those senior boys will wink at you and say
"You know, I haven't seen you around before"

He remembers that first day, being so terrified of a new school, terrified of what the future would hold, and sitting down next to Happy, who smiled at him and made him feel like he belonged. He misses him more than he’d realized he would when he started this tour, and he wishes that Happy could be here with him.

'Cause when you're fifteen and somebody tells you they love you
You're gonna believe them
And when you're fifteen, feelin' like there's nothin' to figure out
Well, count to ten, take it in
This is life before you know who you're gonna be
At fifteen

He’d performed this song with Willow Storm earlier this year at the VMAs and it had been so cool, but he’d wished so badly that Happy had been the one on that stage with him.

When all you wanted was to be wanted
Wish you could go back and tell yourself what you know now

Back then, I swore I was gonna marry him someday
But I realized some bigger dreams of mine
And Harold gave everything he had
To a girl who changed her mind
And we both cried

He has to pause for a moment. Everyone always loves the I realized some bigger dreams of mine part, a clear uptick in the cheering when he sings that, and it’s a good moment to pause and breathe and let the moment sink in.

'Cause when you're fifteen and somebody tells you they love you
You're gonna believe them
And when you're fifteen, don't forget to look before you fall

I've found time can heal most anything
And you just might find who you're supposed to be
I didn't know who I was supposed to be
At fifteen

Sometimes, he’s not sure he knows who he is at twenty any more than he knew it at fifteen. But then he looks out over a sea of people singing along with him, some of them crying because they feel this song so much, and thinks to himself that he knows exactly who he is and what he’s doing up here: he’s providing a voice to these people who have never felt so heard before—and that’s pretty amazing.

There’s something, Tony reflects on the bus as they leave Rosemont for Minneapolis, very special about the midnight hours when no one else is awake. He’s a bit of an insomniac at the best of times, staying up all night to work on new songs or plan appearances or do some tinkering on whatever small around-the-house project he’s working on.

“Summer went away, still, the yearning stays,” he sings to himself, earbuds playing the tune he’s tapping out on the computer keyboard. He hears someone shift, and he pauses, listening to the sound of the kettle in the little kitchenette at the front of the bus until that person’s footsteps come closer, stopping in front of his bunk.

“Hey,” Steve says softly, pushing aside the curtain blocking Tony’s bed off from the walkway.

“Hey,” Tony says quietly, blinking up at him in the low overhead lights. “Am I keeping you up?”

Steve shakes his head. “Nah. Just one of those nights when my brain can’t seem to stop working long enough to let me sleep. You mind if I join you? I’ve got hot chocolate. It’s water, not milk, but at midnight, who cares?” He holds up two travel mugs.

Tony shifts aside, giving Steve enough space to crawl onto the bunk next to him. Steve is careful about it, but still winds up knocking his head against the roof of the small bunk. He winces, rubbing the top of his head, and the curtain falls closed again, submerging them in darkness.

“Hmm,” Steve says after a moment. “Kind of hard to drink hot chocolate like this. I probably should’ve thought this through better.”

Tony snickers and reaches across him towards the headboard, groping around until he finds the light switch for the fairy lights he’d strung up not long into the tour. The curtain is a blackout curtain and hung so that it goes across the top of the bunk and along the wall , so he won’t disturb Clint in the bunk above him.

“Much better,” Steve says, smiling at him. He passes Tony one of the mugs. “You’re working on a new song?”

“Yeah, but I don’t know. I don’t feel like this is the right time for it.”

“No?”

He shrugs. “I was feeling nostalgic about Fifteen, so I was writing something similar but from the perspective of looking back instead of looking forward, but I’ve already got a couple of nostalgic songs set aside for the new album, and yeah, I don’t know. I just don’t think it’s a good fit for this one. Maybe later down the road.”

“No shame in that,” Steve remarks. “Might even be kind of fun, making an album out of all the discarded songs from your past.”

“Hmm that could be fun,” Tony agrees and takes a sip from his hot chocolate. Steve is right, it would have been better with milk, but it’s still warm and tasty, and Steve does some kind of magic with it to make it feel like home, even though Ana makes hers in a completely different way.

They sit in a companionable silence for a while until Steve says, “Only two concerts left.”

“Until the break? Yeah,” Tony says thoughtfully. “Feels like just yesterday we were starting out.”

“You excited?”

“Nervous,” Tony says immediately, laughing. “I mean, what am I thinking? I’m not an actor; I’m a singer. Who thought it was a good idea to cast me in a movie?”

“Garry Marshall, apparently,” Steve says dryly. Tony grins. “Relax. You’re going to do great. He wouldn’t have cast you if he didn’t think you couldn’t do it. There’s a lot of big names in that movie. He could have found someone else for the part if you were really that bad. Besides, Bucky’s going to be right there with you. He won’t let you look bad.”

Tony smiles fondly to himself. “I’m excited to get to see him again. We’ve been texting about maybe getting an apartment together for the month that we’re filming, but I think Ana wants to come with me.”

“She does?”

“Yeah. You know how she is. She’s very protective.”

“Do you want her to be there?”

Tony shrugs. Part of him wants to say no, he’s ready to spread his wings and see how he does on his own. But the other part of him has had her at his side for so long that he’s terrified of trying to fly without her. “I don’t not want her there,” he says instead.

Steve hums thoughtfully. That’s what Tony likes about him so much; he doesn’t just barge ahead and tell him what he should do without thinking about what Tony would like to do. “I didn’t think your filming schedule was a whole month,” he says instead.

“It is when I add the Willow Storm movie,” Tony explains. “Bucky was cast as the romantic lead.”

“I didn’t know that.” Steve sounds very put-out by that fact, and Tony giggles. “Jerk. He’s supposed to tell me these things.”

“Careful there, or you’ll wind up living in each other’s pockets.”

“What, like this band does?”

Tony laughs again. “Exactly. You don’t want to end up like us, do you?”

Steve smiles at him, soft and fond and handsome in the twinkling lights. “I don’t know. I kind of like how we work.”

He ducks his head, suddenly bashful for reasons he doesn’t understand. “Well, good,” he mumbles. “It’s too late to change things at this stage of the game.”

Steve laughs so loud that Clint wakes up and tells them to be quiet, and Tony feels like he’s won the biggest prize in the world.

The last show of this half of the tour is in London. It’s not the first time they’ve been overseas for this tour or even the first time they’ve been in England, but Tony can’t help but feel like there’s something special about London. Maybe it’s that it’s close to the largest show they’ve had on the entire tour or just that Tony actually recognizes the name London, but it feels more magical than ever.

The show speeds by just as it always does and before he’s ready for it, they’re performing the encore, Tony grabbing his black and gold electric guitar for the last song.

“This is a song that I wrote about a girl who made the decision to cheat on me,” he says, still amazed years later by the fact that Rumiko had done that without even once considering what would happen when he found out. “And she probably shouldn’t have because, you know, I like to write songs about people who cheat on me. She should’ve said no.”

And they’re launching into the intro, rock-driven and pulsing, tossing his head forward while he plays before stepping back up to the mic.

It's strange to think the songs we used to sing
The smiles, the flowers, everything is gone
Yesterday, I found out about you
Even now, just lookin' at you feels wrong

He loves every single song on this tour, every single one of them brings something special to the table from You Belong With Me and its costume change to the hand hearts of Fearless to the acoustic set and Fifteen to time-traveling with Love Story to playing the piano for You’re Not Sorry to having fun with Wanda and Carol during I’m Only Me When I’m With You. This one he loves because he gets to bring a little attitude towards the performance, bring his continued annoyance at Rumiko and Danny out on stage with him, his distaste and anger and even a little bit of hatred, and it just sells the performance that little bit more.

You say that you'd take it all back
Given one chance
It was a moment of weakness
And you said yes

He shakes his head, letting his frustration flow through him, until he’s almost screaming the next line.

You should've said no, you should've gone home
You should've thought twice 'fore you let it all go
You should've known that word
'Bout what you did with him'd get back to me

Steve, Clint, and Bruce sing the last bit of that line back to him, reminding him of when he was on tour with Peter and his brothers. They sang that back to him too, and Tony had thought it was a fun collaboration between them. He hadn’t thought that Peter would cheat on him too, would betray him the way Rumiko had, and he can’t help but think that they should’ve said no, but he should’ve known better.

And I should've been there in the back of your mind
I shouldn't be asking myself why
You shouldn't be begging for forgiveness at my feet
You should've said no
Baby, and you might still have me

He plays at Clint during the instrumental break before the next verse, the two electric guitars screaming at each other, trading off measures and chords. He can see the same vicious pleasure in Clint’s face that Tony feels. He’s never asked Clint what his history is, but they’re both omegas. There’s something about this song that just speaks to them.

He tosses the guitar pick into the audience before the bridge, winking at the teenage boy who catches it and almost faints. He signs all of his guitar picks—well, he initials them anyway; they’re a bit small for a full signature—and he knows that there’s a growing trade for his picks among his fanbase.

Clint takes over the main electric guitar line while Tony tosses the guitar offstage to a stagehand, hamming it up at the front of the t-stage. Tony grins viciously at him, grabs his microphone off the stand, and trades places with him, singing a modified version of the last two lines of the chorus before cutting out the music entirely.

He takes a moment to pause, still as amazed at the size and noise and enthusiasm of the crowd as he had been all the way back in January at his very first concert.

“Wow,” he breathes to himself, too soft for the microphone to pick up, and then launches into the bridge.

I can't resist
Before you go, tell me this
Was it worth it?
Was he worth this?
No, no
No, no, no, no

He retreats back to the main stage as he sings the Nos all over again, artificial rain pouring down from the ceiling. He stops just before the curtain of rain, turns back to the audience, sings the Nos one more time—

And steps backward into the rain.

He throws his head back, spreads his arms out wide, and welcomes the rain, feeling it pound down onto his skin, soaking him to the bone.

You should've said no, you should've gone home
You should've thought twice 'fore you let it all go
You should've known that word
'Bout what you did with her’d get back to me

And I should've been there, in the back of your mind
I shouldn't be asking myself why
You shouldn't be begging for forgiveness at my feet
You should've said no
Baby, and you might still have me

He collapses onto his knees, drawing out that last word, and then further still onto his front, letting the moment sink in before Clint starts playing that electric guitar again. He gets back up to his knees as the water stops and climbs to his feet, pumping his feet three times in the air in time with the music. On the screen behind him, his name lights up in flames. He does one more hand heart, the audience raising their own hands for him, and then raises the microphone back to his mouth.

“Please give it up for the dancers!” he shouts, stepping aside as they run onto the stage to take their bows.

“And now for my amazing band behind me!”

And finally, he takes his own bow before linking hands with the dancers and bowing with them one more time. He waves as he steps back onto the stairs, blowing kisses until the curtain falls.