These Little Moments / Ironstrange

11~ Stars

I lay in bed alone, mentally cursing the person that decided visiting hours had to end. Tony left about an hour ago and I already miss him. We had been finishing up the last of our third dessert, a key lime pie,  when a nurse burst through the door and ordered Tony to leave. This is seriously not okay. That pie was delicious. Nevertheless, here I am. All alone.

   "Psst! Stephen!" I heard a whisper from next to me. It's almost like I can still hear his voice.

   "Stephen!" I looked up to see a small portal in the ceiling with a tiny head poking out of it. I really shouldn't have taught him how to use those.

   "Tony!" I hissed. "What are you doing here?"

   "Being a rulebreaker, duh," he rolled his eyes and slipped through the portal, only to fall right on his ass.

   "SHHH!" I waved a hand at him as he crawled over to the chair near my bed. "But why?"

   "Cause fuck da police," was his only response before he slipped into bed next to me. There was hardly any space, so I moved closer to him.

   "Tony are you sure that was just grape juice?"

   "Completely," he mumbled, rolling on his side to face me. "So what do you wanna do?"

   "Sleep."

   "But before that."

   I sighed and gazed and his giddy face. I guess I got my wish. "I've always wanted to take someone stargazing."

   "I've already broken enough rules by sneaking myself in here. I'm not sneaking you out," he poked me in the chest and I laughed.

   "Well good thing there's a spell for that," I smirked and summoned a projection of the night sky onto the ceiling. It wasn't overly complicated, just a few hand motions and it was there. Small pinpoints of white light poked through a navy blue ocean right before our eyes. I glanced at Tony, who was smiling in delight, and raised my hands to make a triangle with my thumbs and forefingers. Pulling them apart, I zoomed in on a random patch of sky. "What do you think?"

   "It's beautiful," Tony mumbled, completely awestruck. I brought my hands down, wrapping one arm around his small shoulders and kissing him on the temple.

   "Do you know any constellations?" I asked and he shook his head, not removing his eyes from the sky for a single moment. "Well here, let me show you some."

~*~*~

   For hours, we lay there, tracing stars and even creating our own constellations. There was one for each Avenger, except for Steve, and three for Tony. He insisted on having more than the others and I just laughed. I tried naming a few after spells, but Tony just stared at me in confusion. For the last one, we decided it should be for me.

   "What do you see Steph?" Tony asked, adjusting where his head lay on my shoulder. He turned his face so his nose brushed against my neck and I brushed my fingers through his greasy hair. My eyes scanned the wide expanse of stars, searching for a pattern we hadn't used yet.

   "Right there," I pointed to an almond shape with a small circle inside of it. "Do you see the eye about 3 inches from Thor's hammer?"

   "Ooh! Yes!" I watched his face light up and giggled.

   "Well it looks a lot like the Eye of Agamotto," I remarked. "Can we call it that?"

   He gave me his confused look again before it faded into realization. "Ohhh right your necklace thing." He paused again immediately followed by him rolling out of bed and hitting the floor with a thud. "Ow."

   "Tony? You okay?"

   "Yeah, yeah I'm good," he scrambled over to the cart and grabbed the gift box from the bottom shelf. The gold wrapping paper glinted with the dim starlight from the ceiling as he climbed back into bed. "You just reminded me I had to give you this."

I took the box, feeling it sitting daintily in my palm. Tony watched carefully as I gently pulled the satin ribbon undone with shaking fingers. The wrapping paper was slowly peeled off to reveal a small jewelry box. "Already proposing, Tiny?" I chided as I cast the paper aside.

"Oh just open it."

Inside was a small, gold locket with multicolored butterfly outlines encrusted on it. Each butterfly was filled with a different colored jewel, each one beautifully vibrant and shimmery. I carefully lifted it from its bed, cradling the charm in my fingers with tears in my eyes. "Tony...i-it's gorgeous...I don't know what to say."

"That's not all," Tony smiled sweetly, taking the necklace from me and undoing the clasp on its side. Embedded inside the necklace was a glowing piece of blue metal. The same metal of Tony's arc reactor.

"Tony..."

"It's a piece of my first arc reactor," he whispered, placing it back in my hands. "So you can wear my heart close to yours."

My fingers traced the reactor, tears trickling down my cheeks. His hand came up to my face and brushed the tears away, smiling gently at me. I laughed breathlessly before lunging forward and slamming my lips against his. His arms wrapped around me, a hand cradling the back of my head as we kissed. As the kiss deepened, I pulled him on top of me, my lips never once leaving his. He still tasted like lime, making me chuckle against his lips. In that moment, he slipped his tongue into my mouth, making me moan in surprise. He took this as encouragement and kissed me harder, pushing me into the bed.

Out of breath, I pulled away and fastened the locket around my neck. It sat perfectly below my clavicle, the cold metal tickling my skin. Wordlessly, Tony leaned down and rested his head on my chest, both of us falling into a deep sleep.