“Yeah, it doesn’t get better the second time.” Tony groaned, and then he straightened up.
There was an excited bark, and then Alke started to pace back and forward. Her small pointed ear stood straight up, and her short stubby tail wagged excitedly.
“Yes, Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione are here.” Kendis cooed.
Alke struggled against the leash, uncaring that the large plastic cone around her neck was getting in the way. Despite his reservations about the huge dog, Tony found her oddly adorable.
Kendis muttered something, and with a wave of her hand, the door opened. It’s been a while since he learned about the existence of magic and Tony still wasn’t used to it.
With a shake of his head, he followed Kendis into the great room and nearly slammed into her back.
“Kendis?”
And then Tony looked over her shoulder to see that Ron and Hermione weren’t alone. Sitting on the sofa were two men. One of the men was tall and built like a brick house. He was gorgeous in a way that if he weren’t with Kendis, Tony would do his level best to get in his pants. Beefcake wore a white t-shirt and jeans that were way too tight and showed off his tan skin to distraction. His long, honey blond hair, which fell below his shoulders, brought Fabio to Tony’s mind.
With the way he had his arms around the other guy and the glint of the wedding ring on his fingers, it was clear that he was very much taken. The shorter guy was not hard to look at, either. He looks exactly like a surfer. The surfer was skinny and small next to the beef cake, sporting a tank and cut off jean shorts that ended just below his knees, showing off his tan. His hair was long and curly, and light blonde. Even with his laugh lines, there was still an ageless quality about him that caught Tony’s attention.
“Kendis!”
“Jason!” Kendis’ eyes went wide as she turned to the surfer. “Ian!”
Alke whined, and Kendis shook her head as she unleashed her, and the dog happily trotted over to Ron and Hermione, who gushed over her. Ian shook his head and hurried over to hug Kendis.
Kendis slapped him on the back, “You two old mother hens.”
“You drop off the face of the planet for days,” Ian complained. “And then you call us mother hens when we worry about you.”
“He sounds like my mother,” Ron muttered as he bent down to scratch Alke’s ears.
“Fuck you, Weasley,” Ian turned to glare at the redhead.
“Not my type, mate.” Ron snorted.
Beefcake, who Kendis called Jason, gave him a look, and Tony braced himself because he knew a threat when he saw one. He stared at Tony as if he could look right through him and into his very soul, but then he simply gave Tony a nod and calmly walked over.
“Jason Brant,” Beefcake introduced himself. “Friends of Kendis.”
“Tony Stark,” Tony shrugged, but he decided not to reveal who he was to Kendis or why he was there. Figuring that Kendis should decide if she was ready to tell the rest of her friends. “But you probably know that.”
Jason snorted and turned to see Ian finally releasing Kendis. He gave Kendis a look and then raised an eyebrow at Tony. “You want to tell me why Tony Stark is in your living room?”
Jason crossed his large, muscular arms and glared at Kendis, “And what trouble you are in now?”
Kendis rubbed her head and muttered something about being thankful Hortense and Isiah were on vacation. She turned to Tony and sighed.
“Jason and Ian are my dear friends, self-appointed big brothers (like the six I already have wasn’t enough) and all-around pain in the asses.” Kendis gestured towards the two men. “And this is Tony Stark, my *husband*.”
“The guy you got drunk and married in Vegas?” Jason said, and at Kendis’s look. He shook his head. “You know Ian tells me everything. ”
Ian put up his hands and shot Kendis an incredulous look. “I thought you told me that you were getting an annulment.”
“You told Ian, and you didn’t tell us?” Hermione demanded.
Ron pointedly kept his attention on the dog, and Ian glared at Tony.
Kendis raised an eyebrow at him, and Tony tried to look innocent, but she wasn’t buying it.
“I might have shredded the papers,” Tony shrugged.
“Pepper is going to kill you,” Kendis snorted as she quickly crossed the short distance between them to press her lips to his. And Tony should have cared more that they were literally surrounded by Kendis’s friends, but Tony couldn’t resist kissing her even on his worst day.
He pulled her close as their lips moved against each other slowly and sensually, like they had all the time in the world. Tony got lost in the feel of her mouth against his as he tasted a hint of bergamot from her tea this morning and the flavor of something more intangible but addictive that he, even with all of his genius, couldn’t quite put his finger on.
His hands slid down her back as she moaned. She tightened her arms around him.
There was a loud cough, and startled, they jumped and turned to see their friends looking at them. Hermione was rolling her eyes, Ron, hilariously enough, had his hands slapped over his face, Ian gave them a shit eating grin, and Jason shot them a wry look.
“Safe to say you two are staying married,” Ian wiggled his eyebrows. Tony was surprised that Ian wasn’t going to punch him in the face. It was a total 180 from his earlier attitude.
“Yes,” Kendis coughed.
“If we are all done with the theatrics,” Hermione said, hands on her hips. “Why don’t we all sit down, and Kendis can tell you all about it?”
Witnessing Kendis reveal the truth to Hermione and Ron had given Tony a false sense of security. It wasn’t as if Ian and Jason’s reaction was explosive, although Ian swore up a blue streak in both English and, to Tony’s surprise, Greek.
No, it was the aura of upcoming violence that came over the two of them. It reminded him oddly of the few times he had met the Howling Commandos and the old reels of Captain America his father used to make him watch.
Kendis, Ron, and Hermione were war veterans in their own right, but there was something more visceral about the threat of violence these two presented. It was the way Jason and Ian moved, the way they were aware of each other’s movements, their body language that told Tony that these two men were dealing out violence up close.
A wand was a distance weapon, but Jason probably had no issues getting up close and personal. Tony made sure to keep his eyes on the two men at all times because he got a feeling that, one step out of line, he would regret it.
Yet as Kendis stonily faced Chester’s reign of terror, a part of himself was glad that Kendis had so many people in her corner.
He was born with a target on his back, and while Tony might not have had a stalker, he was a public figure, and everyone knew he was the mastermind behind most of the weapons at S.I.
If something happened to him, Tony was relieved that Kendis had a loyal support system behind her.
He was shaken out of his thoughts when Ian stood up suddenly and stormed out the back door. The door slammed hard against the frame. Jason didn’t follow him; he just sat on the sofa with a calm and thoughtful look on his face.
The silence stretched on for a while. Finally fed up with being ignored Alke padded over to Jason. He smiled gently, scratched behind her ears, then faced the group again. “I know you three well enough to know you already have a plan,” Jason shot Kendis, Ron, and Hermione a look. Whatever you’ve got going on? I want in.”
Kendis pinched the bridge of her nose. “I was afraid of that.”
The group of friends discussed their plan to bait Chester into a trap. Ian cooled down and then stormed back in, shouting that he wanted in on their plan.
“No one hurts our shield sister and gets away with it,” Ian growled.
The next day was spent with Tony on the phone with Pepper, Happy, and then later with his publicist, Samantha. Pepper and Samantha threatened to quit at least three times. Samantha wasn’t kidding about quitting; she’d been wanting him to hire someone from the area. His publicist was based in New York, and while he could have hired a publicist who was closer to home, he refused. Samantha Jones was the best PR manager in the country, and Tony Stark only dealt with the best.
Pepper, meanwhile, got another pay bump (even though she was already the highest-paid personal assistant in California) and five pairs of designer shoes that, altogether, were worth the network of a small country.
Tony, unfortunately, also had to deal with Happy’s disapproval when he told him that Ian and Jason were joining his security team. But, lucky for us, according to the resume they supplied, this wasn’t their first time working in security.
Happy grumbled about it, but he finally let the couple join his team since they were so experienced. Especially after Tony pointed out that this was only a temporary assignment (he might also have bribed his bodyguard with a box set of the first three seasons of Downton Abbey).
While Tony was dealing with the mundane logistics of Kendis’s public debut, Kendis had been busy with the magical stuff. Ron, Hermione, Kendis, with the added security of Ian and Jason, went down to the Los Angeles magical headquarters to file official paperwork that allows them to know legally about magic.
Apparently, Jason and Ian were exempt from those laws, but when Tony pressed, Kendis just shook her head and muttered about it not being her secret to tell.
Getting that ironed out apparently took multiple trips to the valley, and an army of owls swooping through the window with mail.
Now, it was the day before the Apogee Awards. And everyone was scrambling to get ready for Kendis’s big reveal. Tony spent hours stuck in Kendis’s office (where there was little magical interference) on the phone with Pepper, Samantha, and his stylist, Marco, trying to get everything done at the last minute.
It was almost five o’clock, and Ian and Jason would spend the night in a guest room that had suddenly appeared that morning. The next day, they were going to be on Tony and Kendis’s security detail while they got ready for the red carpet at the Sofitel.
After finally hanging up with a very pissed off Marco (who swore at him in rapid-fire Spanish), Tony sighed and tried to soothe his burgeoning headache. He only had one last thing to do, and he had been dreading it all day.
His finger flicked the screen over to QuickPix.
Tony carefully picked out the photos and wrote and then rewrote the caption. His finger hovered over the publish button. This post would change everything. For the last month and a half, Tony and Kendis had been able to fall in love without the scrutiny of the press.
Suddenly, there was a knock at the door, and Kendis peeked her head in. She frowned. “You okay?”
Tony sighed and shook his head. “I’m about to soft launch our relationship.”
Kendis’s eyebrow rose to the top of her head. “Soft launch?” She closed the door behind her and walked over to Tony. He pulled back his chair, and Kendis sat on his lap. She kissed him on the cheek and took his phone.
“These are from our first date,” Kendis said.
He chuckled, pulling her closer. “You figured that was a date, huh?”
Kendis rolled her eyes and said, “You’re not exactly subtle.” She then looked at the photos, swiping through them. She smiled softly at the photos. “That was the perfect day.”
“It was,” Tony nodded. “The best time I have had in a long time.”
“I’m going to miss the anonymity.” Kendis shrugged. “Looks like I am going to be casting more notice-me-not spells more often.”
“Second thoughts?” Tony asked, his heart in his chest.
“I just filed paperwork legally acknowledging you as my husband,” Kendis pointed out. “And let me tell you, the head of the Muggle Liaison Department was not happy.”
Tony could only stare at her in amazement. There were so many things he wanted to say, but all he could do was bring his lips to hers. There was passion and hunger there. These days, it always nipped at his heels, willing at a moment’s notice to take over him. But it was the love for each other that shone through with every nip of their lips, the press of their tongues as he told her with every movement the depth of his devotion.
Finally, they slowly pulled away from each other, gasping for air as they pressed their foreheads together. Kendis grinned at him, her green eyes bright with emotion that Tony knew was love for him, and it humbled him.
Kendis raised the phone in her hand, and she gave him a look. Tony simply nodded, and she pushed the button. The two of them sat in the office for a long time, just watching as the likes and comments poured in.
“What do you think?”
Tony grabbed the phone, set it down, kissed her again, and said, “I’m a very lucky man.”
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