Chapter Text
“Yes,” Toni breathes her answer into the air between them. "Yes.”
James stares at her for a split second before wonder breaks across his face, joy lighting his eyes up like flames.
He lunges up to his feet then and reaches down to snatch Toni up before she can say or do anything else.
But even then his hands are gentle where they span her waist, careful not to hurt her as she’s given him the power to do in more ways than one now.
Instead James just lifts her up above his head and spins the two of them in a wide circle, joyous laughter spilling out of him and her both.
“I love you,” James tells her again as he brings her down so that she can wrap her legs around his waist even though he takes her weight with ease. “God, Toni, I love you so much.”
“I love you too,” Toni tells him, face flushed and heart pounding in her chest.
She has never felt so joyous, so light and easy.
“We’re gonna get married,” James rasps then, wonder back in his face as his eyes widen. “You’re gonna be my wife.”
A shiver traces down Toni’s spine.
Wife.
She’d thought … she’d never expected this to happen.
Not truly.
Hadn’t let herself think about the possibility with real seriousness. Hadn’t let herself hope quite that far yet.
Of all the titles she’s ever worn Toni had never expected wife to be one she’d get to carry again.
But there’s no one else in all of existence that she’d want to carry it for now except for James.
“Yeah,” Toni says as she brings her hands up to cup his face in her palms. The kiss she presses against his lips is soft and achingly sweet. “I am. And you’re gonna be my husband.”
James shivers, hands flexing against her waist as his eyes blow wide with want.
“Say that again,” he half pleads, half demands.
Toni grins and leans forward.
“Husband,” Toni whispers against his ear before she nips lightly at his earlobe.
And when James shudders against her again and then hits his knees, tipping forward to lay her out on top of the carpet of orange blossoms, all Toni can do is laugh.
Because she’s in love.
And she’s getting married.
Against all odds and despite every fire Toni has had to walk through to get right here to this moment, she’s finally made it.
Toni is happy.
~~~
That night, the fireflies thick in the air of the garden, Toni smiles as she sits, hands buried in the orange blossoms below her, and watches James run through forms on the edge of the pond.
He’s wearing only his pants, unbuttoned and hanging low on his waist, but he hardly seems to notice.
The moonlight glints off of his bare chest and shoulders, off the black and gold of his arm. The shadows swirl lovingly around his bare feet whenever he transitions into a flurry of kicks and around his wrists when he throws punches.
He’s beautiful, like all deadly things inevitably are.
Toni loves him so.
“Congratulations, Miss,” JARVIS whispers into her ear then, voice soft. “I am happy for you.”
“Oh baby boy,” Toni breathes. “Thank you.”
JARVIS’ approval means so much to her in this as with everything else.
“I admit to being rather eager to see your Sergeant Barnes’ expression when you explain to the bots what your marriage means,” JARVIS starts then, tone dry but playful. “Butterfingers, at least, is sure to have … strong opinions. I believe it will be, as you say, priceless.”
Toni erupts into breathless, joyful laughter that captures James’ attention even though all he does is smile, shake his head, and go back to his forms.
“Oh god, J,” Toni finally wheezes as she wipes her tears away with the sleeve of James’ stolen Henley, “I will give you anything you want if you wait until Rhodey’s around and James is drinking something to call him Daddy.”
“For you, Miss? I suppose I could muster a Father at the appropriate time,” JARVIS says. “Consider it an early wedding present.”
Toni grins, delighted as always with JARVIS’ willingness to indulge her.
Especially since they both know that there’s only one man who might ever be able to claim the title of father where JARVIS and the bots are concerned.
And, as much as she loves him, that isn’t James.
~~~
Rhodey cries when she tells him.
But there’s a smile on his face and joy in his eyes so Toni knows them for the happy tears that they are.
“So,” Toni manages to say as she pulls back just a bit from his chest, “you gonna be my Man of Honor?”
“Oh baby girl,” Rhodey grins down at her, eyes red rimmed but bright, “you couldn’t stop me if you tried.”
~~~
Vision looks slightly bemused when Toni tells him but there’s no denying the joy that blossoms to life in his face when Toni asks him to stand with Rhodey on her side.
“You’re my family,” Toni tells him softly. “It’s where you belong.”
“There is nowhere else I would rather be,” Vision says.
His smile is slow and soft but so very bright.
~~~
Pepper doesn’t cry when Toni video calls her but Happy does.
“I’m so happy for you, Toni,” Pepper tells her, eyes bright as she rubs soothing circles on Happy’s back. “He’s a good man and he makes you happy. And you deserve to be happy, Toni.”
Toni thinks that’s an opinion she might actually be beginning to believe.
~~~
The Spiderling lights up at the news, face aglow with joy and mouth moving at about a hundred miles per hour.
Toni still catches James with a wry but amused look on his face as he picks web from his hair a few hours later though.
~~~
Harley demands to speak to James alone when she video calls him with the news.
Toni comes back into the room ten minutes later to a vaguely shell shocked James and a smug Harley beaming at her from the other end of the line.
“That kid’s got fire,” James tells her once Harley finally ends the call.
“Yeah,” Toni smiles, “he does. He’s a good kid though and I’d know. We’ve got a connection after all.”
~~~
To Toni’s eternal delight Pepper agrees to hold off on announcing the engagement to the press for a while, far too happy for Toni to even contemplate outing her new status to the media at the moment. James is appreciative too, all too aware by now over how quickly the press can turn anything into a three-ring circus.
They all know it’ll have to be done sooner or later for a number of reasons but for now they’re all content to wait.
And then Pepper practically bombards her with messages, information about everything from venues to caterers. Happy’s not far behind her with gown after designer gown ideas crashing over her like a wave.
JARVIS helps by separating and organizing all of the data into a new series of folders even if Toni is far from oblivious to the few suggestions that he and Rhodey both slips in there as well. Or Vision’s newfound fascination with craft books and various how-to articles and videos revolving around wedding decorations.
Between that and the scrap book the bots have been working on since Toni and James had sat them down and explained marriage to them, Toni hasn’t had to look at a single bridal magazine or blog yet.
She wouldn’t have it any other way.
~~~
Toni spends more than a few hours working on a special project.
It’s small but delicate and important to her.
Something she hopes that, when the time comes, James will like it as much as she does.
~~~
“You know,” Toni sighs, head tipped back to stare up at the stars as she runs her fingers through James’ hair, “this is going to be big. Us getting married. The amount of attention we’re gonna get for the engagement announcement is already going to be massive. So triple that, at least, and that’ll be for the actual wedding.”
“You think so?” James tilts his head back further in her lap so he can stare up at her.
Toni shoots him a baleful look because, again, they both know he’s nowhere near uniformed enough to have not already realized this by now.
The grin he shoots her a second later is all the confirmation she needs.
“Ass,” Toni says fondly as she tugs at his hair.
“Does it bother you, lepestok?” James asks her softly a few minutes later. “All of the attention on us getting married?”
Toni’s pretty sure she’s imagining the slight hint of insecurity in his voice.
She has to be.
“No,” Toni answers automatically before she grimaces slightly, “yes. I just … I want this to be about us, not about putting on a show, about giving a crowd what they expect from Toni Stark or James Barnes. I want it to be … honest.”
“So let’s make it about us,” James says easily enough as he tugs her free hand down so he can press a kiss against the tips of her fingers and then the inside of her wrist.
“Not gonna be that easy,” Toni admits with a sigh. “The press would be good for SI and the Avengers both and we can’t just ignore that. Plus if we don’t do something public there’s gonna be a lot people who try and call any announcement fake, just a publicity stunt. Hell there’s going to be people saying it’s a publicity stunt even if we throw the wedding to end all weddings.”
“You think too much, you know that right?” James asks her teasingly. “Get all lost in that big, beautiful brain of yours that sometimes you miss the simple solution.”
“Enlighten me then, Soldier,” Toni flicks his nose gently.
“We’re gods, petal, and rich as sin, the both of us. So let’s have it both ways,” James says simple, eyes half lidded but bright as he shifts her hand around and presses another kiss against the back of her ring finger. “Marry me twice, moy tsvetok. Once for us, for our family, and once for the rest of the world. We can have something honest and true and then, well then we can throw a wedding so big it’ll go down in history.”
Toni’s breath catches as her mind begins to whirl.
Two weddings.
Marrying James twice.
Once in private and once for the world to see.
She smiles.
Perfect.
~~~
Toni isn’t there when James tell Rogers about their engagement.
She wants to be but it’s something James wants to do on his own. And as much as she wants to stand at his side, to protect him as he protects her, she understands his reasoning.
JARVIS watches over him of course but Toni still feels anxiety twining down her spine as she waits for James to come back to her.
There’s sadness and a dark kind of rage in his eyes when he finally does.
Toni sees the blood in the corner of his mouth before he licks it away but she doesn’t say anything.
Instead she just opens her arms and holds him as he’s held her so many times before.
~~~
“You have me, James,” Toni whispers to him some time later, hand buried in his hair and lips pressed against his temple. “You have all of me.”
James shudders in her arms and pulls her closer.
It’s one of the things she loves about him.
Even in his hurt James alway pulls her closer.
~~~
The Compound is a permanent riot of colors now, plants and vines spilling out over every free inch of space, all of them full to bursting with blossoms and sweet fruits.
The grounds outside of the garden are much the same, perfectly manicured grass long replaced with thick carpets of clover and flowers as far as the eye can see.
Toni’s joy written across the landscape for all to see.
~~~
So, Toni is happy.
She is in love and getting married and is incandescently happy.
But the world, the universe, doesn’t seem to truly care.
Or, at least, it has no intention of slowing down for her and James.
But then she never really expected it to.
After all that he has suffered in his life plus everything Toni’s told him about, James is of a similar opinion.
So, goddess or not, happy or not, Toni knows better than to let herself forget that there’s someone out there intent on having a repeat of the New York invasion one day, only on a far larger scale.
But that doesn’t mean she’s entirely prepared for what ends up happening either.
Because having Bruce show up at the Compound was beyond even her far reaching sort of foresight.
Especially since he shows up with Thor, Loki, and a few hundred Asgardian refugees in tow.
~~~
It’s hard in a way Toni’s not able to truly identify to see Thor again.
The way they’d last parted, his disdain and anger over Ultron clouding their normally almost sweet sort of friendship, still hangs like a heavy cloud in the back of Toni’s mind.
Thor had been, perhaps not so surprisingly, the Avenger she’d grown closest to in some ways.
One of the divine to another.
One of the few to truly know who and what she was.
To have him turn from her as he had …
It had hurt, a dull sort of ache that Toni had pushed down and away like she had so many times before in the past with other wounds.
But now, seeing him as he is, down an eye and looking older, more worn than she’s ever seen him before with an almost somber Loki at his side, Toni doesn’t have the heart to turn from him.
Instead she takes a deep breath, squares her shoulders, and reaches up to place a comforting hand on James’ shoulder.
And then she does what has to be done to keep an entire race of people from being turned away from earth and back out into the cold of space.
The warning Thor gives out about their near miss with Thanos is reward enough as far as she’s concerned because people outside of her family are finally listening.
~~~
“I did you a disservice,” Thor tells her the first time they’re alone together. “In more ways than one. And I see now that so much has changed in my absence. If I had been wiser perhaps ...”
“Thor,” Toni cuts him off. “It’s … fine. So just leave it. We’ve got more important things to worry about, Thunderstruck.”
There’s a moment of long silence between them and then Thor reaches over and slowly, carefully, takes her hand in his own.
The kiss he presses against her knuckles is soft, almost reverent.
Apologetic.
It’s not fine.
They both know it isn’t. There are fractures in the slow sort of friendship they’d been building.
But they are both divine enough, royal enough in their own ways, to know that now is not the time to truly try and mend anything between them.
Besides, if they live through Thanos and the horrors he’s sure to bring with him, then time is one thing that both of them should have plenty of.
Their hurts, the wounds between them both large and small, can wait.
~~~
It only takes a few more days before the full reality of the changes that have happened in their absence seems to truly hit Bruce and Thor.
There’s an anger in both of them, and in Loki too surprisingly enough, when the three of them realize just how deep the divide is between Toni and the others.
The first time Thor walks in on Toni and James kissing he looks so thrown and upset that for a split second Toni’s almost sure he’s going to cry.
Toni remembers the way he’d spoke once of the story of Hades and Persephone and how even in Asgard the legend had been loved.
Thor reigns it in though, takes a long, hard look at James, and with realization dawning across his face eventually offers the both of them his congratulations.
Especially when James, seemingly unable to help himself, makes sure to tell him that they’re getting married.
Toni can only watch, slightly bemused, as he manages to work it into conversation with both Loki and Bruce soon after that as well.
~~~
It takes a day or two more after that before Toni is alone with Bruce but the first thing she notices is that he’s … softer, more at ease with himself than she’s ever seen him before.
It’s obvious just from looking at him that he’s found at least a modicum of the peace she’d wanted to help him achieve way back at the beginning. That whatever he and Thor have been through has helped him find an evenness that had always been missing before.
Despite the way Bruce had shied away from her, hadn’t felt comfortable around her once her divinity had been outed even if her identity had been misstated, Toni’s happy for him.
They hadn’t grown as close as she’d once thought they possibly could but Bruce had also had no part in what had come after Ultron.
He’d been gone then and, despite popular opinion to the contrary, Toni has enough mercy in her not to punish him for other people’s mistakes.
So while the welcome she extends to him isn’t exactly one of friendship like it was back on the helicarrier, or even one of agreeing to set certain issues aside like she has with Thor, it is one of acceptance of a sort.
And judging by the slightly sad but understanding quirk to his smile Toni thinks that Bruce truly does understand the difference.
“I should’ve seen it,” Bruce’s voice is soft and his hands are pressed deep into his pockets when he steps up beside her. “I’ve got a hundred different excuses for why I didn’t, for why I took it all at face value and did what I did, but in the end they’re all shit.”
Toni doesn’t say anything, just keeps her attention focused on the massive ship and Thor and Loki’s figures in the distance as they motion refugee after refugee down the ramp.
“Thor knew, Loki too I expect,” Bruce keeps going. “Puts a lot of things they’ve both said into perspective now that I think about it. And it really is kind of obvious now that I’m … well it’s kind of obvious. I should have … I should have looked deeper, been less of a coward. And I’m … I’m sorry for that Toni. For not trying harder even after you were so good to me. To all of us.”
Toni keeps her hands loose at her sides and can’t help the small, barely there smile that creeps across her face when a tendril of shadow squeezes gently at her ankle. It slides up her leg and rib cage teasingly and then down her shoulder to twine around her wrist a few seconds later, then it slips between her fingers like a incorporeal hand holding her own.
Even now, occupied as he is with helping Rhodey and Vision coordinate with Thor, James is still with her.
Offering her protection and comfort.
The security of his love.
“I might not deserve a second chance but I hope that I’ll be able to earn one someday,” Bruce says. “Because I don’t know exactly what went on while I was gone, or what happened between you and Steve, but I do know that it doesn’t matter what you’re the goddess of. Life, Death, or anything in between. All that matters is that you’re a good person. That you always did the best for us, even when we didn’t deserve it. And I was too busy running scared to let myself see that before, to really understand what that meant.”
Toni feels something tight in her chest loosen just a bit, an old hurt losing just a bit of its sting.
“I hope you’re happy Toni,” Bruce tells her softly. “I hope Barnes makes you happy. I know I don’t know the full story but he seems good for you. You two seem good for each other.”
“He is,” Toni finally speaks up then because she can’t not. “We are.”
“Good,” Bruce sighs with a small smile, “good.”
~~~
Loki is, for the most part, much like Bruce in some ways.
Calmer and steadier than she’s ever seen him before.
But there’s also a fire to him that’s different from the fever bright burn he’d had back in New York.
Now when Toni looks at him she can easily see the mischievous and clever little brother that Thor used to tell her stories about.
And, much to Rhodey’s horror and James’ amused exasperation, Toni and Loki get on worryingly well, snipping at each other with a rapid fire sort of ease that brings a delighted smile to Thor’s face.
Hell even James seems to accept him to a certain degree if the knife throwing contest they end up in is anything to go by.
There’s an irony there that Toni doesn’t really feel like exploring. A bittersweet sort of tinge to the fact that she gets on so well with Loki when she’s always had so many issues forming any sort of bond with people outside of her family and James.
Or maybe it’s only natural.
Maybe it makes a strange sort of sense.
Toni and Loki are, as Loki had once pointed out to her, creatures of a similar nature.
Chaos bringers, the both of them.
~~~
The Compound is suddenly filled to bursting with people but with her family at her back, with Rhodey and Vision on either side, with JARVIS in her ear, and James curled around her heart, Toni takes it in stride.
These people are traumatized, hurt and terrified. They deserve peace and safety and somewhere to call home again.
And Toni means to give it to them.
There are, after all, more unknown places in the world than humanity could ever dream. Secret places claimed by no country, by no tribe of people still living. Places forgotten by time, lost cities and mythical islands alive only in stories and legends or in the memories of the creatures and beings who belong in both.
And Toni is a goddess, is Life and all things growing and green.
Is myth and legend personified.
She knows where each and every one of them are.
One of them will, she knows, be perfect for Thor and Loki’s people.
~~~
“Let’s not wait anymore,” Toni tells James one night almost two weeks later once they’re secluded in the quiet of their room, the hustle and bustle of the now packed Compound having finally died down a bit for the night.
“For what?” James asks as he pulls his shirt over his head and tosses it into the basket for one of the laundry bots to get later.
“Getting married.” Toni says as she shimmies out of her skirt and then her panties, leaving her stocking on because she knows how much James loves them.
On the other side of the bed James goes still, hands on the buttons of his pants as he stares at her.
“I just,” Toni falters for a moment before she swallows and presses forward, love beating a steady tempo in her chest, “I don’t want to wait anymore. Not with everything that’s happening. The big ceremony can wait at least a year after we make the announcement like we planned, or hell we can wait after all of this bullshit is done and it can be like taking a victory lap. Either way it can wait but I just … I want …”
“Petal,” James moves around the bed then until he’s standing in front of her, his hands coming up to cup her face in his palms. “Breathe.”
Toni forces herself to take a steady, even breath.
“Better?” James asks softly.
Toni nods.
“Good,” James smiles at her then, loving and just the slightest bit mischievous. “Ain’t no need to get so worked up blossom. You don’t wanna wait anymore then we won’t.”
“You sure?” Toni asks. “This is your wedding too James, all the bullshit aside. I want you to enjoy it. You deserve to enjoy it.”
“Moy tsvetok,” James says with a small shake of his head. “So sweet and good to me. I’d hunt down a priest and marry you right now, tonight, just like this, if you wanted me to Toni. Nothing’s gonna steal the joy of me getting to make you mine like that from me, no matter what it is.”
“So,” Toni begins, a small but growing smile blossoming across her face, “tomorrow then?”
“Tomorrow,” James agrees.
~~~
“We want to get married soon.” Toni tells Rhodey and Vision early the next morning, James at her side as he so often is. “As in preferably today kind of soon.”
In the end that’s all she has to say.
JARVIS is, as he so often is, in step with her and anticipating her every need.
Toni finds out that by the time she makes her announcement to Rhodey and Vision, JARVIS has already been hard at work collecting the rest of the family.
James promises to handle the priest before Vision takes it upon himself to drag him away while Rhodey stays with Toni. Happy and Pepper laugh at them over the vid call JARVIS puts through to their plane from California while the bots whirl around the workshop in a frenzy.
The Spider-tot shows up an hour or so later, wraps Toni in a huge hug and then sprints off towards parts unknown.
Harley shows up an hour after that, makes the ‘I’m watching you’ gesture towards James and then after hugging Toni for a long moment takes off towards wherever it is the Spider-child has disappeared to. The two have, apparently, been keeping in contact which may or may not bode well for Toni’s future blood pressure.
At least her divinity gives her the perk of not having to worry about either of the two driving her towards a heart attack.
Vision floats back into the workshop an hour or so later and volunteers to handle the food. He waylays any protests by promising to have a selection of fruits from the garden and sweet cream paired with the dark chocolates and sharp cheeses both Toni and James prefer.
He swears to have it all settled in the garden before time and then he presses a palm to Toni’s cheek, smiles sweetly at her, and floats over towards where the bots are huddled secretively in the corner behind the large sheet Butterfingers had angrily pressed Rhodey into hanging for them.
Caught in the middle of the whirlwind that is her family, happily, joyfully, planning a wedding for her and James all Toni can do is toss her head back laugh.
They love her.
And she loves them back with an intensity that outshines the sun itself.
These people are the ones she’ll save the world to protect.
~~~
Time clicking down towards sunset, the Compound a mess of people and noise, Toni forces herself to take a deep breath as she slides out of the workshop.
Everything’s being arranged but there’s one thing that Toni knows she has to do herself.
~~~
She finds him in the gym.
His knuckles are bloody and even the reinforced bag she’d designed is looking worse for the wear.
When he turns towards her there’s such sorrow in his face, guilt and hurt welling in his eyes, that Toni knows that once it would have been enough to completely undo her.
But not anymore.
“Pers- Toni,” Rogers’ voice is soft and just a bit confused, but above all else it also sounds sad. “What’re … did you … can I help you with something?”
The confusion is understandable because this is the first time Toni’s sought him out in a very long time.
“Actually,” Toni says as she comes to a stop a good distance away from him, any desire to be close to Rogers long gone by now, “there is something you can do for me.”
The way his breath shudders in his chest and the way his shoulders stiffen is more than a bit noticeable but Rogers just looks at her head on and nods.
“Me and James are getting married today,” Toni says it evenly, abruptly.
The full body flinch Rogers gives off and the barely hidden look of agony he tries and fails to hide would be enough to make her pity him just a bit if he were anyone else.
“A small ceremony, something intimate without all of the press,” Toni keeps going. “We’ll do the big thing, all the lights and the glitz, when this is all done. This time’s just for us, for family.”
“Why’re you telling me this?” Rogers asks, expression agonized and hands clenching tightly at his sides. “Never known you to be cruel like this.”
“This isn’t cruelty,” Toni tells him even though they both know that’s not completely true. “This is love. From me, to James.”
Toni knows that sometimes the two can look remarkably similar from a certain point of view.
“James is in his room getting ready,” Toni tells him after a long moment of silence. “Vision’s been going in and out but otherwise he’s alone. He shouldn’t have to be. Not today. Not for this. No matter what happened between all of us.”
“What’re you asking me to do?” Rogers manages to force the question out past obviously gritted teeth.
“I’m not going to be alone out there today.” Toni finally says. “I’m going to have Rhodey and Vision, Pepper and Happy, JARVIS and the rest of the kids. My family is going to stand with me. James should have his. Should have you. So I’m asking you to go to stand with him. To put everything else aside for one afternoon and just … be there for him.”
Rogers doesn’t say anything, just clenches his eyes closed, chest shuddering.
Toni pretends like she can’t see the slow trickle of tears he doesn’t even bother to try and hide.
Instead she turns on her heel and makes her way back towards the gym door.
“Why?” Rogers’ question comes out strangled and just a hair off a sob.
“Why what?” Toni doesn’t turn back towards him, choses to give him this small shred of dignity even if she owes him nothing of the sort.
“Why would you …” Rogers trails off for a moment before he seems to gather himself. “You don’t want me there.”
“No,” Toni answers him easily, perhaps a bit cruelly this time. “No, I don’t. But James loves you. And I know he wants you to support him, to stand with him, even if he won’t say anything to me. After everything he’s been through he deserves to have this. I’m willing to take the steps to make sure he gets it. Are you?”
This time when Toni walks away Rogers doesn’t attempt to stop her.
~~~
Pepper and Happy find her a few hours or so before it’s time, switching out with Rhodey who, along with Vision, goes to herd the bots towards the garden ahead of time.
They’re both red eyed but smiling as Pepper bustles inside the bedroom with a dress bag and Happy sweeps her up into a rare but much loved hug.
Toni closes her eyes with a small laugh and basks in the warmth and love.
~~~
She’s in her and James’ bedroom, clad only in her specially bought white lingerie set, and staring down at the dress bag Pepper had brought her when Rhodey comes back in.
Her hair is up, her makeup is flawless, and the pit of her stomach feels as if it’s going to fall out onto her stocking clad feet.
“Got a present for you from lover boy,” Rhodey says as he steps inside, a fat black box balanced in hand.
Toni just hums at him in greeting
“Baby girl?” Rhodey asks as he puts the box down on the bed and slides a warm, gentle hand across the line of her shoulders as he comes up beside her. “You okay?”
“I …” Toni takes a shuddering breath, eyes glued on the gorgeous white gown she and Pepper had agreed on over the vid call and had paid a substantial amount to have rushed enough that Pepper could pick it up.
“You getting cold feet?” Rhodey asks gently as he pulls her around to face him. “Cause if you wanna call this whole thing off baby, we can. You say you ain’t ready and it ends right here. No matter what. None of us are gonna be mad and that man out there loves you enough to understand if you need more time too.”
“No,” Toni shakes her head quickly, “no it’s, it’s not that. I want to marry James. It’s just …”
She looks back down at the dress. It’s gorgeous, a sleek fitting beauty of a gown with a train for days. A dream wedding dress with all of the glam and money to be expected of her tastes.
And yet …
“It’s a beautiful dress, Tones.” Rhodey says as he pulls her close to his chest and presses a kiss against her temple. “You’ll look like a masterpiece in it, baby girl. But I think you should have exactly what you want today. And if it’s not that gown, if it’s anything else, then just say the word and we’ll fix it.”
Toni’s breath shudders in her chest and she presses close to him, hands smoothing up the lapels of his form fitting tux. There are delicate gold and silver flowers etched across his vest and there’s even a familiar asphodel pinned to his lapel.
She loves him so very much.
He always gives her the courage to do exactly what needs to be done.
Toni pulls back from Rhodey’s embrace with a smile. He lets her go, face fond, as she moves towards her vanity. She grabs a wet wipe with one hand and reaches up to tug a pin from her hair with the other.
“Help me out?” Toni asks with a look over her shoulder.
“Always,” Rhodey says as he steps forward.
~~~
The garden looks beautiful when Toni steps past the holly hedges.
Harley and the Spider-baby have obviously outdone themselves. There’s a walkway heading towards the bridge to the island that’s a clever mix of webbing and flowers. Spider silk arches practically overflowing with orange blossoms and bridal roses in gold and crimson and arc reactor blue line the walkway like a tunnel of blooms. She can hear muted strands of music, something light and airy, and can smell sweet chocolate and fruit heavy in the air.
It warms Toni’s heart, the effort they’d all gone through for her and James, to try and make this day as special as possible.
Rhodey, with one more kiss to the forehead, leaves her just outside the curtain of ivy and myrtle vines that Vision had requested her to grow earlier that day.
He’ll be waiting for her at the altar just like James because Toni wants to make this walk alone.
It’s symbolic in a way, not being given away.
Plus, as much as she adores Rhodey with all of her heart and soul, there’s only one man she’d have wanted to walk her down the aisle.
And Jarvis has been gone for years now.
Gone but never, ever forgotten.
Gone but always loved.
Always.
“Are you with me?” Toni whispers.
“Always, Miss,” JARVIS whispers back. “I am with you now, and always, as I know my namesake would have wished to be.”
Toni takes a deep breath, holds her head up high, and steps forward.
~~~
Toni steps through the vines and they’re all there.
Rhodey stands in his place as Toni’s man of honor, the bots, flower covered and surprisingly calm, stand behind him, while Rogers stands behind James in a flawless black tux.
Thor is standing with a beaming smile at the head of the small gathering, a thick bundle of silk ribbon laid out across his hands.
But it’s James that catches her attention, James that makes everything melt away around her.
His hair is down and loose, he’s bare chested, arm and scars and all on full display, there’s a circlet of what looks like onyx on his head, inlaid with veins of gold and small sapphires that Toni just knows would match her eyes.
When he looks up and sees her for the first time, joy unlike anything Toni has ever seen blossoms across his face.
When Toni steps forward towards him there is no hesitation to be found within her.
The grass is cool and soft beneath her stocking clad feet, the breeze ruffles the hem of the precious red sundress she’s wearing. A way to have Jarvis close to her on this most joyful of days because if she cannot have him with her then she'll wear the dress he gave her so long ago.
Her hair is a riot of blossom filled curls left lose to spill down her back to her waist and beyond. The jeweled comb sweeps it back and away from her face while Rhodey had placed small, delicate braids throughout the mass and helped her tuck the asphodel blossoms James had given her into the strands with infinite care.
Hair down, wings and arc reactor uncovered, Toni goes to James as she is. Goes to him without all of her masks.
A girl, a woman, who had been more than half destroyed more than once over the years.
A goddess who had slumbered unaware for decades but had still managed to somehow be half mad from the cradle.
‘This,’ Toni tells James silently, ‘is who I am, down below it all, past all of my armors. This is what I give to you.’
And James …
Standing there, feet bare and shadows curling at the edges of his being, James only smiles and holds out a hand.
Eyes locked with his, Toni’s tips unpainted lips up into a sweet smile, and reaches out to place her hand in his.
He pulls her closer.
Ever, always, closer.
~~~
The reception is loud and joyful even with such a small crowd. Rogers disappears as soon as the ceremony is done but Toni can’t, won’t, focus on him.
Toni dances with everyone more than once. Spends song after song spinning around the grass with Rhodey or Pepper or Harley’s hand in her own, with one of the bots’ claws clasped carefully in hand. She even dances with Thor who had been honored to tears at being asked to bless their handfasting.
Toni just laughs and admits that James had excellent taste in terms of a priest.
Who better to bless the joining of Life and Death than the god of fertility and hallowing?
The ribbon that was used is one that Toni will cherish forever too because her boys, her bots, had made it for her and James themselves.
And between every dance with the others James takes her into his arms and twirls her around the grass, eyes bright and vibrant, expression a glorious mixture of love and hunger.
The ring she’d added to his hand shines gold in the fading light as swarms of fireflies begin to softly glow. The way he looks at the sliver she’d taken from the Mark III, the first true Iron Queen armor, and reworked into a ring makes her heart warm all over again.
When their fingers intertwine their rings line up perfectly, the band of shadows he’d pressed into her skin warm and humming in time with his heartbeat.
Toni moves with him across the dance floor, eyes locked, hearts beating in time, and swears she can touch infinity.
With him at her side she actually wants to.
~~~
That night, once the others have cleared out, James slides the sundress from her shoulders with reverent gentleness.
And when he handles the aged fabric carefully, picks it up to hang it over a low hanging branch, she loves him all the more.
He strips her until she’s bare, left with only the flowers in her hair, the comb, and the golden vine crown, topped with rubies and sapphires shaped into rose buds, he’d made for her.
“Wife,” James presses the word against the soft skin of her throat, the hollows of her shoulders, the swell of her breasts.
“Husband,” Toni whispers back later against his temple, the sharp cut of his jaw, the cut of his hips.
Each time they say the words is a new whisper of worship.
Two gods kneeling at their chosen alters.
Eternity promised in a breath.
~~~
When Thanos finally does come Toni meets him on the battlefield, head held high.
“I know you, little girl,” Thanos says, recognition heavy in his tone, something like possessiveness in his face, “Kore. The Stones whispered to me of you, lover of Death. Queen of Life.”
“Persephone,” Toni corrects him, “or Toni Stark, they both mean the same thing really.”
“No matter what name you wear I know you. And I know you are so very alone,” Thanos taunts. “You were abandoned if the rumors are true. And now here you are, no Death King at your side. I will fix that for you.”
“Oh,” Toni says with a blade sharp smile, “that’s where you’re wrong.”
And when she holds out a hand James reaches out of the shadows to meet her half way, eyes bright and cold as he steps from the dark and takes his place at her side.
The kiss he presses against her knuckles and then against the inside of her wrist are gentle, loving, even as his face twists itself into a vicious snarl as he stares at Thanos.
His eyes promise Death to the Mad Titan, to this would be usurper who covets what will never be his.
“You’ve wanted to taste Death for so long now. Wanted to take it as your own.” Toni tells Thanos easily, calmly. “Well now you’re about to get your chance. But I don’t think it’s going to work out the way you were hoping it would.”
Because, Toni cannot help but think, what is a Mad Titan in the face of Life and Death themselves, united and whole and determined to never be parted?
Thanos might wield the gauntlet but Toni and James know infinity in a way he will never touch.