"What's all this?"

By some miracle, Tony had convinced Sasha to go back to the Stark Tower with him to talk. He'd practically seen her guard fall away by the look in her eyes and a shallow gasp, a watery gaze and unstable tongue. If there was ever a chance for Tony to make things right, it had presented itself that morning in Central Park.

Sasha wasn't sure why she walked by Tony's side through the streets of New York back to his home, but the warmth she felt when she smiled at the familiar doorman made a place that cast dark shadows across her city and now her life, a little less daunting.

Heading down a corridor towards the living room, Sasha stopped when through glass walls she saw a room full of colourful holograms projecting an eyesore of an amount of information and pictures, giving her a headache without her stepping foot into the room.

Tony swallowed and quickly barged into the room, swiping his hand through the air and dragging everything down into the corner, leaving the room suddenly bare.

"Nothing, it's nothing." He said, shaking his head and closing the door behind him.

Sasha dropped her shoulders and furrowed her brows, "Those guys in the pictures, I recognised them."

With a defeated sigh, Tony kissed his teeth and crossed his arms at his chest, "I had to do something to keep me busy, something good after everything that happened. I worked night and day putting a case together with a lawyer I know to make sure anyone and anything related to Obadiah Stane and the guys who did what they did to you, that they'd be in jail for life. That's what all that was."

Sasha clenched her jaw, swallowing hard as she looked at Tony. She realised then in that moment that down to his core, he was a fixer, a rectifier, an avenger. He couldn't always prevent things, in fact none of the team could, and although Sasha had spent most of her life thinking it was possible to live that way, she'd had the prime example of it being impossible in front of her for the past twelve months.

"You found a lawyer better than me?" She said with a small smile.

Tony's face relaxed and he let out a quiet sigh of relief, allowing his lips to curve into a mischievous grin at the sight of a light behind Sasha's blue eyes again, something he'd missed more than anything.

"He's a very good lawyer, you could learn a lot from him."

Sasha just rolled her eyes and followed Tony a few paces behind as they made their way into his living room. His home was spotlessly clean and appeared the same as she remembered it, besides a large framed piece of artwork on the wall beside the bar area that hadn't been there before.

She wandered over to it while Tony began making two cups of coffee, her eyes gazing up at the large frame fronted with glass, hundred of pressed red and yellow petals inside it that were arranged to form a letter S.

"When did you get this?" She asked, turning to look at Tony.

He cleared his throat, approaching her nonchalantly before handing her a cup of coffee.

"A while ago. You remember that huge bouquet of flowers you bought for me? I had 'em dried out and pressed. It adds something to the place, don't you think?"

As much as Sasha willed herself to stay strong, it seemed like there was no way for her to avoid Tony's charm. He spoke to calmly like what he'd just explained was nothing, no big deal, and yet to Sasha, it was one of the most romantic things she'd ever heard.

"And the S?" She said, "For Stark?"

"Sure," Tony just smirked and shrugged his shoulders, "It's for Stark."

They fell into a cold silence as Sasha sipped her coffee, gazing up at the rose petals on the wall. They served as a reminder to her in that moment that things seen and heard weren't always the extent of the truth, and realising then that the things Tony did and said to her didn't always truly reflect how he felt about her.

Sasha had never seen the flowers again after she gave them to Tony, yet he'd turned them into a piece of art that had been stored somewhere in his home for months, all without Sasha knowing. Tony had never once used anything he'd done for her as leverage to claw his way out of a bad situation or an argument, and the rose petals on the wall proved that.

Swallowing her pride, Sasha turned on her feet to face Tony, daintily holding the mug between her two hands, sighing as she stared at the ground while thinking about what to say.

"I'm sorry for the way I spoke to you earlier," she said in a whisper, "I was, I am, frustrated, angry, upset. I'm hurting still, I'm hurting everyday and I just know that if I go, if I leave New York, that in time, I'll heal."

"I'm sorry too, I feel all of those things as well, I'm hurting over and over again and I can't see it getting better. I don't know that I'll ever be able to heal without you, Sasha. What I do know, though, is that we can get through this together, like we've gotten through everything else together."

Sasha knew now that what Tony did best was fixing things. He'd made mistakes and messed up, but he had never for a second even thought about walking away from the messes that he'd made, and that included their relationship.

Tony pined for her, he worshiped the ground Sasha walked on and made it no secret he'd move heaven and earth to be able to just be in the same room as her. It was a love strong enough to power cities, countries and planets alike, stronger than any force from outer space and stronger than the glowing blue light in his chest.

"I want you to know that I love you, Tony. I need you to know that despite everything, I love you, and that will never change. But there's some things that we have to do alone."

Tony tilted his head at the softness of her words, feeling his stomach sink at the four lettered confession of her heart and realising that whatever he felt, was equally required, though slipping slowly from his grasp again.

"Some things," Tony nodded and took a step closer to Sasha, "Yeah. Some things we do have to do alone. Healing isn't one of them, grieving isn't one of them, loving isn't one of them. We make each other better, Sash, whether you want to say it out loud or not, we do. We're two halves making a whole, the sun and the moon, fire and water, Sasha and Tony. I don't want to be just Tony, not anymore."

Sasha scoffed quietly, shaking her head as she felt a stray tear fall down her cheek again, "You're so much more than just Tony."

"You know why?" He said, setting his coffee down on the table and placing both hands on the sides of her face, having grown tired of the burning in his chest and needing to relive the sensation somehow, "Because you make me more. You make me better, brighter, stronger. You give me true purpose, a passion, a reason to keep fighting that I never had before. You can ask anyone, Sash, I've not stopped thinking about you, talking about you, waking up from dreams about you since the day that we met. We were made for each other, don't you feel it?"

Sasha hated when she was wrong, but hated it even more when Tony was right. As his hot hands graced her face, the coolness of her skin sent a shiver down her spine, igniting something inside of her that made her tense up yet relax at the same time, an overwhelming feeling of the most hellish chaos harmonising with a heavenly peace.

"You've told me that you love me," he whispered, their foreheads touching now as their eyes stayed transfixed on each other, a marble stillness between them, "So love me. But let me love you back, the way you deserve, the way we deserve."

"God, Tony."

Sasha was fighting with herself to suppress the urge to kiss Tony. His lips were far closer to her own than they had been in a very long time and the feeling of his hands on her skin only made her more hyper aware of his body and soul, the scent of his aftershave and roughness of his stubble, the flecks of green in his dark eyes and the softness of a gaze that told her he would stop at nothing to keep her there forever.

She knew then that the darkness had lost, and the light that was Tony Stark had won.

"God Sasha," he mimicked, smirking as he felt her breathe a heavy sigh of relief that was to him, his green light.

Tony kissed her softly, wanting to savour every inch of her lips and the way they felt against his own. The kiss was cold but Sasha always was, the feeling reminding him of her cold feet in the middle of summer and cold tone of her words, two things that he vowed to never take for granted again.

Sasha slowly but surely let herself kiss back, feeling her soul grow weightless from the tension, a safety enveloping her in the form of a kiss, wrapping them both in golden silk.

She pulled away a few moments later, placing a finger against Tony's lips to keep them separated. He grabbed the coffee cup from her hand and placed it down beside his own, his cheeks red from the look in her eyes.

"This doesn't mean things will go back to how they were right away, you know that, right? This is going to take time, a lot of it."

"Sasha, sweetheart," Tony silenced her by gently removing her finger from his lips, his hands falling to her waist as he pulled her body against his, "I'll invent a goddamned time machine if that's what this takes, and you know I'm not joking."

The sarcasm in his voice made Sasha's knees weak and the cocky smirk on his lips made her unable to keep her hands to herself any longer, throwing them around his neck as she instinctively jumped and wrapped her legs around his waist, his hands holding her against him before she cradled his face in her palms, smiling down at him with the eyes of an angel.

"Tell me you love me." She whispered, gently tickling his jaw with her fingertips.

Tony just smiled, "You're my girl, Sasha. I'll always love you."

an;;
hello!!! So sorry I've been gone for a while, I've taken a little break over Christmas!! I hope you enjoyed this chapter and are still enjoying this story, I want to say a HUGEEE thank you for 100K reads, I am genuinely gobsmacked I never ever though this story would get the attention it's had so far, it's honestly blowing my mind so from the bottom of my heart, thank you so so so much for reading <3