By Design - Stony AU

Chapter 10

Warning: transphobia, violence, and smut

Tony quadrupled-checked the estimated-arrival-time on the GPS, still uneasy even though it was still predicting that he was right on time. He thought, for the eighth time, about turning on some music, but he knew himself when he was that nervous and feeling distracted just made it worse. Better to just obsess. He parked in front of the garage and straightened his tux before heading up the stairs.

Steve checked himself in the mirror for the fifth time. He made sure he had his inhaler, pain killers, eye drops, wallet, phone, and keys in the pockets of his tux. He was extremely nervous, mainly because of the type of people who would be there. These were socialites with millions of dollars, probably used to all the cameras and glam. Steve had decided he would stick with Tony as much as he could in order to not feel overwhelmed, and they had agreed on the code word. And his heart jumped in his throat when there was a knock on the door. With a steadying breath, Steve left the bathroom and opened the front door.

Tony caught his breath behind a reflexive leer. "Well damn. Look at you." Steve looked taller, stronger, in his tux, even if he was clearly perspiring.

Steve smiled shyly at Tony, who looked damn good in a full tuxedo. "You don't look half bad yourself."

Tony tried to summon up some small talk, but it honestly felt like they had suited up for a mission. They both knew the job. Time to get all steely and cut the chit chat.

"You ready?"

"If I say no, will you cancel the whole thing and save us the trouble?"

"Yes. Always. Wanna got to Tahiti instead?"

Steve stepped out of the apartment and locked the door. "I burn too easily for the amount of sun. Don't think you wanna spend a weekend applying aloe on me."

Tony smiled. "Maybe another time." He held out an elbow. "Let's go be night creatures."

Steve took his elbow and they headed to the car. The whole car ride, Steve was fidgeting with his phone to try and tune out the nerves. After all the preparations and lessons he'd gotten, it felt like he was going to the front on Italy to fight Nazis, not go to an annual Gala. When he realized his phone wasn't going to help, he reached over and held Tony's hand. Tony gave him an affirming squeeze.

They pulled into the line of cars in the drive up to the red carpet. It felt more than a little like getting pulled up the first hill of a roller coaster. When it was their turn, Tony got out first and came around to the passenger door. It took awhile for him to open it, because he wanted to let the photographers get a good gawk at the paint job and field a couple questions before he unveiled the artist.

With an impresario's flourish he opened Steve's door and stepped back.

Steve hesitantly got out and took Tony's arm. A valet took Tony's keys and immediately Steve felt out of his element with all the cameras and the beautiful people around him. They started making their way down the red carpet, and Tony answered a question once in a while, mostly introducing Steve as his boyfriend... which honestly made this whole circus feel worth it. Every time Tony said any variation of "This is Steve, my boyfriend" he smiled a bit wider. Eventually they made it through the front door and into the foyer, and Steve was getting a headache from the flashbulbs.

Tony had forgotten to warn Steve that walking the carpet was kind of like being underwater. You had to shout to be heard, and never quite felt like you could hear anyway, and the whole fishbowl aspect was pretty obvious. Overall the indicators were good. The right people were smiling, the right people were throwing shady looks, and Steve had a fantastic smile for cameras. Stepping through the front doors was like getting through an airlock, and Tony took a deep breath. Without missing a stride they went to the top of the stairs that lead down into the ballroom and took their fashionably-late time walking down arm in arm, letting everyone take a good look.