To All Those Brave and Lovely

The Wedding

They have the wedding a week later.

It's not what they intended.  There are no matching bridesmaids dresses, and no fancy fold for the napkins.  The flower arrangement is wrong, and they had to get two smaller cakes instead of one big one.  Pepper's not even in her real dress, which was designer and cost over ten thousand dollars, but in something that she picked up from a thrift store that had a weird stain on the hem.   Instead of going off without a hitch, it was a last minute jumble, with no one sure where they were sitting or what they were going to eat at the reception or what time anything was going to start, but they all agreed afterwards that it was the most beautiful wedding they had ever sat through.

Because Nora is the maid of honor and Peter is the best man, they get to escort each other down the aisle.  She's nervous and too afraid she's going to trip, but it's better knowing that he's there to catch her.  When she gets to the end, Tony hugs them both before they take their places.

"It's happening kid,"  He mutters in her ears, and he looks so damn happy that it makes tears spring to her eyes.  She tries to blink them back, but ends up having to wipe them away the whole way through.  "I finally did it."

Pepper looks beautiful, walking down the aisle in her second hand dress.  The bouqet was made from flowers that Peter had picked out from his Aunt May's rooftop flower bed, none of them matching and all of them slightly wilting, but it seemed to match better than a professional arrangement.  When she gets to the end of the aisle, she takes Tony's hands and lets him pull her close to whisper something in her ear.  Whatever it is, it makes her cry.

They wrote their own vows.   Nora had to read Tony's over three times the night before in order for him to read it out loud today.

"Pepper Potts."  Tony's eyes were shining.  "I spent a lot of time thinking about what I could say that would sum up my feelings better than I love you, but I finally came up with this: most of my life, I spent running away from everything and everyone.  I was hiding, but no matter where I went, I'd look to my side and have you be right there with me, pushing me to be better even when I thought that wasn't possible.  And when I thought that there was no point in going on, no way to go on, I'd look at you and know with my entire heart that I was wrong, that as long as you were willing to stand with me, than there must be something worth fighting for."  Nora was crying, and across from her, so was Peter, both of them smiling through the tears.  "I know you don't like that suit.  I know it scares you.  But every time I go off to fight, I'm doing it because of you, and the thought that no matter where I'm at, there is always someone who is counting on me to come back home."  He brought her hand to his lips and kissed it.  "You're the only reason I'm still breathing, Pepper Potts.  So I guess all I'm trying to say is this: stay with me.  For the rest of my life, always be the person that stands by side and reminds me to keep fighting, okay?"

Pepper's crying, but her voice is steady when she talks.  "When I met you, I didn't like messes.  And I didn't like chaos.  I liked things neat and organzied, everything placed in boxes that can be checked off and filed away.  And then I started working for you, and Tony Stark, you had the messiest, most chaotic life that I could have imagined, and suddenly I couldn't find out how to get away from you." She stopped to wipe away her tears.  "And one day -I don't know when- I stopped wanting to, because I realized that with you and all your many messes, my life was better. I loved you and all your choas, becuase I needed someone to draw me out of that box that I was living in.  I was so afraid of leaving that box, but I was more afraid of not being a part of your life."  Pepper tucked the piece of paper she was readhing off of away, like she no longer was unsure about what she had to say.  "When I walked into work that first day, you told me I had made the worst decision of my life. But I didn't.  In this world, there aren't many things I have faith in, but you, Tony Stark, with all your chaos and catastrohpy, are one of them.  And I am so, so grateful for that first day, becuase it led us to all of this.  To our little family."