Countdown to 2025: Jan 1
Arranged Marriage AU / Marvel - Winteriron / Fireworks
There were fireworks at midnight to celebrate the marriage. To celebrate the end of the war.
The end of the war was, Tony could agree, worth celebrating. Too many lives had been lost. Too many resources drained. Too many families broken. The end of the war was a good thing, no question.
The marriage... Well, that remained to be seen, didn’t it? Tony glanced sidelong as his new husband.
James was watching the fireworks, his expression impassive, betraying neither wonder nor disdain. It was much the same expression he’d worn when they had first met in person, a week ago, and when they’d sworn their vows to one another earlier that day. Not a man for displays of emotion, it seemed.
Tony suppressed a sigh and looked back up at the display. “Do you not like the fireworks?” he asked quietly.
From the corner of his eye, he saw James turn to look at him. “They are pretty enough,” he said, “but the noise is unpleasant.”
It was hard to argue with that. “I suppose,” Tony said, not looking away from the fireworks, “that to have something beautiful, one must sometimes endure a little unpleasantness.”
After a pause, James said, “Is this -- me -- the unpleasantness you endure for the beauty of peace?”
“Are you so certain that it must be unpleasant?” Tony wondered.
“I am maimed,” James said, with the most emotion he’d displayed so far. He rubbed at his shoulder, just above the empty sleeve.
“A lot of people were hurt in the war,” Tony said. He tapped absently at his own chest, the scar left by the wound that had nearly killed him. “That’s not so bad.”
James grunted. “Once, I was pleasant. I knew how to be charming and dance and talk and say flattering things. That man, he is gone, and will never return.”
Tony shrugged one shoulder. “Flattery and dancing and charm are for courting,” he said, “and we are well past that. I need to know only one thing of you: will you treat me with respect?”
“I-- That is my intention, yes.”
“Then everything else can be managed.” Tony faced his husband directly. “Let me decide whether I find our marriage unpleasant, rather than trying to make up my mind for me. Unless you think you’ll be the one in an unpleasant situation?”
James stared at him, and he stared back. The lights of the fireworks lit up James’ face with strange shadows, but Tony was almost certain that, as the crowds gasped and cheered at the finale, he saw his husband’s mouth curve into a smile, just for an instant before James looked back up at the display above them.
“Something beautiful,” he murmured, almost too quiet for Tony to hear, and some sort of tension eased in him. Louder, he said, “We must have fireworks every year, for our anniversary.”
“What a splendid idea,” Tony said, and thought that, just perhaps, there might be something to celebrate here, after all.
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Happy New Year!