Work Text:
It’s three days before his birthday, and Tony is still waffling on whether to have a party.
Everyone expects him to; his parties are legendary. But after Afghanistan, and everything that followed, he’s not really in a celebratory mood. Everyone else seems to have moved on—it has been months, after all—but it’s not that easy for Tony. Not to mention that Stephen can’t make it. Tony had flown him out last year, but this year he took so much time off to be with Tony after Afghanistan that he’s basically chained to the hospital.
Tony is slumped over his workbench, staring at blueprints but not really seeing them, when his phone rings. He perks up; it’s Stephen. “Stephen! What’s up?”
“Are you free?” Stephen asks.
It’s an audio-only call, but Tony detects an edge of excitement that piques his curiosity. “Yes, just puttering around.”
“Go to your front door.”
“Okaaaaaay,” Tony says, dragging the word out, but Stephen doesn’t elaborate. Tony jogs up the stairs, keeping the call active while he makes his way to the door.
When he opens it, Stephen is on his doorstep.
“Surprise,” Stephen says, grinning.
Tony’s jaw actually drops. Stephen is here. How?
“I can’t stay until your actual birthday,” Stephen sounds apologetic. “But I thought you might like this present, anyway.”
Tony can’t remember the last time someone went to this much trouble to do something nice for him. Tony’s the one with resources; everyone expects him to do the string pulling. But Stephen… God knows what kind of favors he’d had to trade to get more time off work. Tony can’t find the words for how this feels, so he just hauls Stephen into a kiss and hopes it gets the idea across.
From the way Stephen holds him, he thinks it does.