Chapter Text
The spiders are amazing and the Avengers are back on track although there's been nothing but petty theft for anyone since repairs require everyone working.
Tony spends his days arguing over building procedures, building help and talking to the press.
Fury comes round to gather people for repair jobs and commission a bunch of the spiders.
"Good job, Stark," he tells Tony.
"Thanks old man," Tony laughs, "they're almost as great as the suit," he beams.
"Speaking of the suit, the Legion needs to be more spread out to be effective," Fury tells him.
"They don't like being apart really, especially after all the death and rebuilding, they can be but they're a hive mind so prefer to be close," the mechanic explains.
"Then send them to different places every couple of days or something,"
Steve seems to actively avoid Tony and Bruce together, Bruce most of all but seems positively delighted to get Tony alone. He does however have Bucky as a show that always turns up quickly after these awkward moments.
All of the Avengers can't do conferences together due to space provided but teams and friends go together. SHIELD or SI tell them where to go.
Tony does a press conference with only Hope and Rhodey by his side two months after rebuilding started.
"Mr Stark, you're married to Doctor Bruce Banner, correct?" Christine Everhart asks as the last question and his heart stops for a second. The marriage became public knowledge easily, Tony doesn't mind as there was too much other stuff going on for the public to focus on them.
"Yes," he starts, uncertain, Rhodes puts a hand on his shoulder.
"Since things have calmed down since the marriage, would you consider having a second ceremony for the public," she asks sweetly and Tony really hopes this is sincere and not a ploy to harm him.
"You'll have to speak to Pepper," is still what he manages to choke out. And talk to Pepper she does.
Tony's team and all the rogue Avengers are in the kitchen, breakfast with them when Pepper marches in, Happy on her heels. The baby's approaching and Tony knows it's an inconvenience to travel to the compound.
"You're getting married again," she tells him, slamming a pink folder in front of him. He chokes on his food and Bruce hands him a glass of water.
"What?" He asks, so eloquent a voice in his mind states.
"A second ceremony, outside and open to the public," she states.
"Shit really? Why?" He asks.
"Morale, people have been worried and nervous since before the invasion, you're going to show them two genuinely happy people," Tony's brain stops.
"Okay," Bruce agrees, Natasha has taken up the folder.
"That's plans, add anything and I'll organise it, you have a week," she tells them and takes a seat, smiling.
"What?" Tony repeats.
"Well done, Boss," FRIDAY laughs from above.
Tony changes the flower colour scheme from lilac to blue and the location to the Malibu house. Bruce changes some things but ' It's a surprise, Tony'. Tony huffs in response and let's it go.
Pepper appoints Tony as SI CEO while she's on maternity leave, the baby and the wedding taking up her time. Tony grabs Bruce and the kids and they go to the tower, Pepper greets them. The Bartons go back to their apartment, Clint follows them this time.
The wedding will be in August, ten weeks after the baby is born.
Tony puts his and Laura's kids back into school, one close to the tower that they can all get to easily, Happy agrees to drive Harley and Emily when Tony can't, Bruce doesn't like cars at all.
The wedding is planned quickly and the original Avengers go on a talk show to tell the public. Tony's nervous of Steve's reaction but he hasn't seen the blonde since the wedding was announced.
Tony knows Bucky's coming too though. Harley and Emily come with them, Emily bouncing in Tony's arms and Harley sweating with nervousness, Bruce kisses both their heads then Tony before they go on stage. They have their rings on and are in a different room to the others. Tony's fine with all them but Steve, Barnes loves cars, Clint's moving on and he forgive Natasha because she showed she cared. She was the only one who asked how he felt throughout the whole Civil War incident.
Thor is completely unaware of how these things work. And Tony's looking forward to his answers to unexpected questions.
The family come on first.
"So do we call you the Stark's or the Banner's?" The host, Margo Green, asks.
"We keep our own names, these two are Keeners," Tony answers laughing.
"I think the majority of the media has been calling it the Stark Wedding," Bruce tells her.
"We could adopt a whole new name?" Tony asks.
"What would you be?" The lady asks.
"We could take Stephanie's name and become the Keeners?" Tony asks.
"What about your mother?" Bruce suggests, "we could be the Carbonell's," he suggests.
"Or steal Pepper's, after all she's going to be a Hogan," Harley pipes in, Emily laughs and holds her brother's hand in between the children, boxed in by the parents.
The others are welcomed in, Steve is scouling.
"Sergeant Barnes, such a lovely piece of tech attached to you," Miss Green admires.
"Tony built it," he replies.
"As sleek as the suit and connected to his nerves," Tony gushes.
"So the wedding," Margo finally brings up.
"Such a marvellous event!" Thor booms, "it is a highly celebrated occasion in my realm, the bonding of two souls,"
"Yeah, we're happy," Bruce states.
"It was nice having it small and intimate but Pepper especially thought it would be great to have one seen," Tony states, the host nods, "for morale after all the destruction," he finishes.
"People are very excited to be able to witness it," Clint notes.
"That's because we haven't got any personal info on you all for so long," Miss Green laughs. Steve is becoming more silent.
"What do you have to say, Captain Rogers?" Is asked and Tony freezes. Harley grabs his hand with his free one.
"Does it faze no one that they aren't soulmates?" The captain asks.
"It's not as uncommon now as it was in your days, divorce rates are up and people die, move on or have platonic soulmates. It's widely accepted now," the host replies.
Steve doesn't speak again and they continue discussing the wedding, themes and ideas behind the location, who will walk down the aisle? Tony tells her it will be simple but public, hopefully there won't be a riot and yes, there will be people from many countries attending.
Everything Tony feared happens a week later when Steve, Bucky and Sam are outside. They're approached by some photographers and one films the whole thing.
"You seem very hostile about the wedding," one reporter comments to Steve and the man seems to snap.
"That's because Tony belongs with me!" The man shouts, "he's my soulmate and I love him," Steve growls at the man as Bucky holds onto his arm.
"This is a development," someone out of shot whispers.
Tony is shoved into a crowd of reporters at a press conference the next day.
"Soulmates usually stay together," someone tells him.
"What's wrong with Steve?" Another asks.
"He left me broken and dying in an abandoned Hydra base. He never trusted me and was always disappointed. After he preached about honesty he kept the truth from me," he lists.
"He seems to want to fight for you," someone states.
"While I'd like to see him try to take the Hulk, some things just aren't worth fighting for," Tony replies and wow, that's what goes viral? The media shouts either in defence of Steve or Tony until very close to the wedding.
People are very firm in their stance and it gets heated quickly. FRIDAY monitors and trolls the internet forums and occasionally prints the best things out to stick on the fridge. The most firmly 'science husbands' stance comments keep ending up in Steve's room and while Tony thinks it's Rhodey he doesn't say anything. Bruce looks a bit green whenever Steve is around and tends to stand between him and Steve. Tony thinks it's cute really but Bruce is embarrassed, saying the Hulk takes much less kindly in trying such an underhanded method to get Tony.
"Soulmates are a perfect match," one of the younger, less close to Tony, Avengers tells him. The kid looks confused. Tony's never spoke to the young man, hasn't many of the newest recruits with how many of them there are, Rhodey and Natasha deal with lots of people. (Vision when he was here but that's just painful and makes Tony and the electricity flare).
"Have you met you're soulmate?" He asks the guy.
"Yeah, she's lovely and I'm looking to propose as soon as I have a ring," the boy stands defiantly.
"I'd love to meet her and I'm sure your relationship is wonderful. She's probably a great match but tell me, do you argue?" Tony asks, swirling his smoothie.
"Everyone does, just stupid stuff we get over quick enough," the boy laughs.
"Not like Rogers and I. Not everyone has betrayal written over their heart and a shadow hung over their head all from their soulmate," Tony states. The other looks confused.
"Listen, lots of this is public knowledge but more of it is speculation. The name Rogers was written on my chest but Captain America was what my father compared me to. I wasn't strong and I got sick. I wasn't good enough. I always thought the accusation I would say was little, an average argument and my soulmate would love me forever, unconditionally. Steve's writing on my chest was a pain but a rope to hold to. In 2008 that changed. I was getting older, tired of what I was doing. 2008 and my soulmark was gone and the man I thought of as a father tried to kill me," Tony tells the kid, "do you see where I'm going with this?" He asks.
"Not really. I'm guessing the argument wasn't small," Tony nods.
"It was three years of Steve and his teamwork stuff when they all fought and I tried to provide what SHIELD would have. Bruce was the only thing that held me up and I didn't want Steve at all. Then after Ultron and the importance of honesty Steve had known about my parents murder for the whole time, capishe?" Tony asks.
"You can't forgive betrayal that was also a hypocrites words. So you're saying that even though Steve's your perfect match, he's not trustworthy?" The boy asks.
"Pretty much," Tony nods.
"But you'd have all your extended lives to move on, forgive him.
"Wouldn't it be worth it, couldn't you try?" The kid sounded like Tony was tearing his world view down.
"In another time, when the Captain wasn't a figure before he was a man to me, if I hadn't had my heart moved, torn, stolen and crushed, if I didn't need someone to protect it. Maybe," Tony shrugs, "I give lots to those I love and gods, I could have given him everything," Tony tells the boy who nods and quickly leaves.
Little does Tony know that the whole conversation was being streamed to not only Rhodey but Steve too. The former just pleased Tony was strong enough to deal with Captain America and the latter trying to repress the shudder of guilt and the feeling it was over.
Tony talks to a PR representative and as she tells him there's no way of getting over this. America, unsurprisingly is mostly on Steve's side, just like the public were on the accords. Iron Man however, is an international hero so most of the world agrees with him.
Tony is there at the birth of Pepper's daughter, trying not to laugh as she almost breaks Happy's hand. He sees the baby first as she's born, she's tiny and pale, adorable. Pepper gives birth in the tower because she feels safe and general security. Tony hires the best midwife he can fine and Helen Cho helps.
"I've got no experience," the doctor exclaims.
"But you know what to do and both Pepper, Happy and I would love someone we trust completely there," Tony replies and Happy mirrors the sentiment. Helen gives in.
The midwife hands Pepper the baby and they name her Natasha for Tony, he told them once that if he had been a girl that would have been his name.
Natasha Sasha Hogan is born in June with the weather getting better and all the other kids getting excited for the wedding. Laura and Emily take over planning the rest of the wedding while Pepper recovers and spends the days cuddling with Happy and Nat. The larger Natasha loves the kid just as much as she loves Tony's and Laura's kids. Tony is named godfather and he spends half the time coming up to the wedding cooing over the baby. Emily takes to carrying Nat around when she's asleep, replacing Nathaniel with another baby it seems. Everyone amassed dozens of photos of the kids together and Tony starts to think he's gone completely crazy in the domesticity.
An Avengers call comes in and Tony does far too many unnecessary loops. There's there's strange glob things crawling around some tiny towns in Asia. They send more teams than necessary to keep an eye on the many civilians. The blobs are different colours, around five feet square and seem to be venomous, the plants they sear over die quickly, the people seemed to have realised this and managed to avoid the things by staying indoors. The blobs seem to fall apart when disturbed, repulsors work fine but Spiderman's webs don't. He takes to throwing handfuls of rocks at the things which is better. Unfortunately when the blobs fall apart, they tend to spread, when they're hit with multiple fast flying rocks, those bits spread further as Tony discovers when some of the bits hit him, turning a part of his forearm a nasty black colour as the acidic like substance burns through the suit. He carries on, extremis focused on healing the spot.
"Dude, calm down you're making me ill just looking at at you," Rhodey groans over the comms while Tony flies haphazardly in circles.
"Domestication is making me ill man, live a little," he laughs at his friend.
"Nice to know I make you ill dad," Harley comments over the comms.
"FRIDAY," Tony asks slowly, blasting a purple blob in the face, "why does Harley have a comm unit again?"
"I have one too!" Emily shouts, Tony flicks an eye to his HUD, pictures of them appear.
"And me," Cooper laughs.
"You never took the devices from them Boss," FRIDAY informs him.
"Hmmm," Tony narrows his eyes.
"Uncle Rhodey gave me mine," Cooper adds.
"Right well Ima let you keep them as long as you don't distract me," Tony tells them and focuses back on his fight. Not because he's a pushover but because they aren't rely harming anything he tells them.
Everyone involved is fitted for their suits or dresses for the wedding and a week before the event Tony grabs his family, the Hogans, Natasha and the Bartons and they head out to Malibu.
They're going to have the ceremony outside so more people can see it, FRIDAY and whoever else are filming, the reception will be inside.
They order dozens of blue ribbons and flowers, table toppers and so many other decorations, Natasha and Pepper start to get very OCD about it while Emily, Cooper and Lila start to get very squealy. Tony and Harley get caught up in their cooing while Bruce laughs from behind him.
The night before the wedding Tony and Bruce sleep alone, Tony is woken at eight in the morning by Natasha pushing him out of bed.
"Ow!" he groans, rubbing his shoulder where it hit a bedside table. He glares pointlessly at Natasha's raised eyebrow.
"Up," she orders and he follows her to breakfast.
"I thought you were assigned to Bruce," he grumbles as she hands him cereal.
"It was felt you would need to be pushed out of bed with more force," she replies. She leaves to tend to Bruce while Pepper comes to get Tony ready. Natasha's in her arms but is put in a portable play pen. Pepper looks good, Happy with her baby and family, getting active again after giving birth. She's had her hair and makeup done, she isn't dressed though, instead walking around in a dressing gown.
He's quickly shoved into his suit, red tie, dear gods he hopes Bruce's is green. He giggles to himself. He's ready quickly and is pushed aside to check on the guests who have started to arrive, the ceremony isn't until midday.
He sees T'Chaka and T'Challa who tell him about his vastly inadequate security detail.
"Happy's the head but he's a bit preoccupied," Tony laughs.
"Well it is good my head of security is also in attendance," T'Chaka informs him and as soon as Tony looks he can see a few inconspicuous Wakandan ladies lurking in corners, sipping their drinks and glaring at the other guests.
Thor and the Warriors are already on their way to tipsy and when Tony tries to tell them it isn't socially appropriate here, they laugh at him.
"It is a merry occasion, my friend!" Thor shouts, swinging Mjolnir and Darcy laughs and films him.
He's walking around the mansion, loving being home and talking to people when he spots Steve and company. Technically they're allowed there, at this point the whole thing is more of an open gala with more choice, stupid puns and fighting between the Captain and Bruce supporters.
Bucky isn't with them, he's elsewhere, trying to be sociable instead of scary. Clint had roped Natasha into helping him scare the press coverage. But Steve, Scott, Sam and Wanda walk around dressed smartly and looking righteous. People seem to flinch away from Wanda still and it brings no small amount of glee for Tony to show them you can't just get away with these things. Tony decides to go with surveillance.
He's surrounded by people congratulating him, he doesn't see a way to escape.
"Clint," he grabs his friend, "I need a distraction,"
"How big and why?" Clint nods, pulling a nerd gun from behind a plant pot, Tony decides not to question it.
"People can't see me because the merry bunch of righteousness is here," Clint manages to get Rhodey to position something for him to shoot and when glass scatters everywhere in front of the room leading to the workshop staircase he jumps onto a chair and shouts his apologies. Tony runs through the glass to his safety net.
"FRIDAY load up the legion," he orders, standing in front of the six deactivated bots.
"Sir," one of them intones.
"Work time boys, I want surveillance and security work that Happy's people can't do done. I want nothing to explode and I want no one to bleed. Keep Rogers away from me and away from the press. I want no objections in the ceremony and I don't want to be kidnapped, got that?" He asks, walking in front of his bots, smoothing his suit jacket. They go out the Iron Man runway to come up outside while Tony goes back up the stairs. It's nearing Showtime when an immaculately dressed Pepper drags him back into his bedroom.
"Everyone's gathering, sitting down and Bruce is near the alter and you've got to make an entrance," she says, smiling. Tony knows Happy has the baby so Pep could be on Tony herding duty.
"Now with this being a hive international event with even the king of Wakanda being present there was a bit of difficulty with the gay marriage aspect, even though the majority are accepting nowadays. So Bruce, Nat and I tweaked the ceremony a bit from what I gave you to keep some of the traditional wedding aspects," and dear gods if Tony thought domesticity was bad, the press were going to tear him apart from this. He groaned and dragged a hand down his face.
"Fuck it all, who's walking me down the aisle?" He asks and both Pepper and FRIDAY laugh at him. Tony feels horrified, a feeling which only grows when Nick Fury walks in.
"I was asked," the Director I forms him.
"Not by me," Tony states.
"I know,"
So Tony is walked down the aisle to the flashing lights of many cameras and he sees Bruce waiting at the end, green tie on and smiling. And Tony was scouling until he saw the tie but he smiles when he does. All the kids run around throwing blue green and red petals because now Nathaniel can walk well nothing was going to stop him. They keep the same rings and mAke their promises public.
"I was scared until I had you," Bruce tells him.
"You never stopped loving me and when I needed you, you came back," Tony states. They promise to love and cherish each other.
"I'll give you forever," Tony promises
"I love you," Bruce replies and they kiss to the screaming support of hundreds of people, so many more watching on TV. Tony doesn't see Steve at all.
"We've got a get away," Bruce tells him when they dance.
"Who's got the kids?" Tony asks.
"Rhodey and Laura's going to help," Bruce tells him, "we need some alone time," he smiles.
"We can get all science-y and cuddle," Tony laughs, putting their foreheads together.
Tony thinks Rhodey's enjoying the event all too much, constantly laughing and clapping him on the back.
"What're you taking because so want some," Tony pokes his friend as he is pulled into another hug away from a particularly vastly Steve supporter, he's not particularly enjoying people asking him how it feels to leave his soulmate behind.
"Lighten up, the great playboy Tony Stark has been taken!" The War Machine shouts.
"And you're not only drunk but disorderly, the great babysitter has fallen," Tony laughs.
"You've got an army of babysitters now," Rhodey tells him.
They leave early and take the jet to the secret house, planning to stay for two weeks.
The next day Tony gets an update from FRIDAY because these are just the things his paranoia calls for. He's sent pictures of Sam holding onto Steve throughout the ceremony, footage Bucky arm wrestling one of the Wakandan bodyguards (with his flesh arm) and very nearly losing and a picture of the puppy pile of children his friends have acquired, Kam and Peter with the rest as the Hogans, Bartons and May sit supervising.
Bruce walking into the kitchen as he reviews it and laughs at his disgusted face.
"We've become adults," Tony wonders and Bruce hands him more coffee.
"I think saving the world twice and seeing the things we have would make anyone grow up,"
"Geez, until Manhattan I didn't have to worry about any of this," Tony shakes his head, calm and enjoying himself. Tony decides he wants a new suit out of this vacation and Bruce is happy to entertain him.