Vogue | Tony Stark

FIFTY NINE - FAMILY TIME

"Come on, sweetheart. You used to love this one when you were little, come on now."

Christmas Eve that year was the happiest Tony could ever remember being. Snow hadn't stopped falling for the past week and a half and for a little while, there were fears that George and Leonie wouldn't be able to make it back to the States for the holidays, breaking their baby girl's heart.

In a lucky turn of fate however, they landed safely at JFK on December 22nd. Estélla hadn't told her parents about her decision to purchase their old family home and so they were more than a little shocked to say the least when their car headed towards the Upper East Side instead of the West Village.

A huge, green fir tree twinkled gold in the window at the front of the home, handmade decorations hanging delicately from its needled branches with nostalgic ornaments kept from childhood adding heart and soul. The fireplace roared with two red stockings hanging above it, each of them decorated with tiny candy canes and snowmen, small bows of holly and frosted icicles.

Tony and Esté had done a wonderful job at making the empty house a home in the two weeks they had before Christmas arrived. They worked day and night shifting furniture around and running to stores to grab rugs and pillows, throws for the ends of guest bedrooms and spare towels.

They hadn't painted anything yet but for the time being, they were happy with how everything looked. Expensive art that Tony had stored away for a rainy day added depth to some of the paler rooms while family photos sat in gold and silver mismatched frames in the living room, a collage of their lives carrying through into the kitchen.

Amidst decorating a vacant home, they also decorated for Christmas. Holly hung above every doorway and a huge, beautiful wreath welcomed them into their house on the front door. More green and red wrapped around the bannisters on the staircase and dainty winter trinkets that Esté had found from a stall at Chelsea Market had homes on windowsills and atop of sideboards.

The whole place smelled like cinnamon and fir trees, candles lit in almost every room, freshly baked gingerbread cookies lingering in the sweet air of the huge kitchen, a cookbook propped open on a stand by the oven.

They hadn't been there long, but the space felt lived in and loved. And that's because it was, because it always had been.

George pulled his daughter up by the hand from the couch, spinning her around beneath his arm as the television played back classic Christmas songs from decades gone by. There were several empty bottles of red wine on the floor by the foot of the couch and more sat unopened in the kitchen, surrounded by dishes that needed cleaning after the rather un-traditional Italian feast they'd devoured earlier on that night.

Tony smiled to himself as he watched Este's emerald dress swirl around her ankles, laughter coming from her lips as her father held her by the waist and swayed her side to side in front of the window, snow still falling outside.

Leonie was on the couch beside him, sipping her wine with a smile to match Tony's. She had been floored to find out that the couple had moved into the Goldwyn's old home, but overjoyed to no end. Moving half way across the world had been a huge decision that the family hadn't taken lightly and while it seemed superficial, leaving behind the home that they'd seen their only child grow up in was one of the hardest parts of the whole process.

While it turned out that moving to Switzerland and onward had been the best thing for George's job and the family's fortune, it felt like the right kind of end for Estélla to have, and to have it with Tony made more sense than anything else ever could.

"Feels like old times, doesn't it?" Tony said, giving Leonie a light nudge in the arm.

She looked at him with a tired grin, "It feels perfect. I can't believe you did this, and together, too."