Vogue | Tony Stark

SIXTY TWO - EARLY HOURS

Tony was fast asleep by the time Estélla tiptoed up the staircase at one-thirty in the morning. Although not the tipsy, gossip-filled evening she'd expected, Esté came away from her girls night with her life forever changed, and without the premise of a hangover from drinking too much wine like usual.

She slipped silently beneath the covers beside Tony, smiling to herself as she listened to him breathe with his eyes closed, lips parted ever so slightly and his hair fluffed up from lying on one side.

He looked beautiful, Esté thought. Everything he did, everything he was, made her heart swell with love, consumed entirely by him. She couldn't have loved him anymore if she'd tried, giving his forehead a gentle kiss before pulling the covers up over their shoulders and closing her eyes.

She didn't fall asleep straight away, the anxiety of the news making it impossible for Estélla to quieten down her thoughts and her heartbeat. The girls had been brainstorming ideas of how to tell Tony the news all night, though Esté still hadn't decided what she was going to do. It seemed like too big of a deal to simply tell him out of the blue, but she wasn't sure a huge surprise full of theatrics was what she wanted either.

Somewhere around two-thirty, Estélla slipped into a deep slumber, the exhaustion eventually outweighing the butterflies tickling her heart and pulling the shutters down inside her mind, dreams sparking out of old memories.

She didn't remember falling asleep but the time on the clock showed just after five in the morning when Tony jolted awake beside her, gasping for breath and drenched in sweat.

Esté instantly shot awake too, pushing herself up onto her elbows and reaching out to touch Tony's arm, giving it a gentle squeeze as he rubbed his eyes and desperately tried to catch his breath.

"Hey, hey, you're okay," Esté said, shuffling to sit up beside him, "Look at me, you're fine. Everything's fine, you're safe."

The room was dark but Esté could see the panic and terror in Tony's hazel eyes, mellowed by his nightmare that reflected in his frown and the quick rising and falling of his chest, the sheets damp with sweat.

"Wh...what happened? What...?"

"It's okay," Esté pulled him against her chest while he calmed down, holding his head in her hands and kissing through his hair.

She felt him slowly start to relax, his breathing slowing as he wrapped his arms around her waist, fingers gripping her skin.

It had been a while since Tony had last been plagued by a nightmare but Esté had still seen him get lost in his thoughts during the day, falling quiet and looking vacant all of a sudden. He had a world of pressure inside of his mind that she would never be able to understand, but would always try her best to.

"I'm sorry," he panted, tracing his hands across her bare legs and stomach, "I'm sorry for waking you."

"Don't be stupid, Tony. Are you okay?"

He drew in a deep breath and nodded against her chest, "I'm fine. Tell me something good, Stella, something happy."

She swallowed and felt her body tense beneath his weight, a pit of nerves dropping in her chest as one thing, one answer came straight to the tip of her tongue. Esté paused before speaking, holding back the words that seemed so desperate to come out, thinking for a long moment about whether it was the right thing to do.

"Something good..." she whispered in thought.

"Please," he mumbled, his hands racing across her skin like she was all he needed to calm down.

"Alright," Esté exhaled shakily and curled her fingers through his hair, biting down on her lip with her eyes squeezed shut before finally speaking once more, "I'm pregnant."