"Hello! Anyone around?"

"In the kitchen, sweetheart!"

Esté closed the front door to the Stark's house on the upper west side on a cloudy Saturday afternoon, carrying a box of freshly baked cupcakes steadily in her hands.

She wandered through the house, following the sound of Maria's voice coming from the kitchen and the scent of rose perfume that lingered in the air.

"Mom and I baked these this morning, thought you guys might like some. They're chocolate chip."

Esté placed down the cupcakes on the kitchen counter with a smile, opening her arms to welcome a warm hug from Maria. She squeezed her tightly and felt a kiss press against her forehead, the sound of the radio reporting on the baseball scores drowned out the traffic from the city through an open window.

"How thoughtful of you, you're such a kind soul, Estélla," Maria smiled and placed her hands on Esté's red cheeks, looking down at the fifteen year old with admiration in her eyes, "Howard is working across town but Tony's in the workshop. I couldn't get him to leave to come and eat lunch, probably because it was me asking and not you. You're the only one that can get him out of there."

Esté blushed and shook her head, "Let him stay down there for a little while longer. Did you get your hair done? It looks beautiful."

Maria's lips parted with a quiet gasp, "Y-yes, I did. Howard didn't even notice. You like it?"

"I love it," Esté grinned, tilting her head as she gazed at Maria in the dim afternoon light, "It really suits you. Are you heading out somewhere?"

Maria Stark always looked perfect, but that afternoon Esté thought she looked particularly pretty. Sporting a blue sundress and a pair of high heels, Esté wondered why she was so dressed up and drowning in the divine scent of roses if Howard was working across the city.

With a quiet sigh, Maria's smile faltered ever so slightly, "Howard and I were supposed to be going for afternoon tea in town but he got called into work."

"Oh," Esté frowned, chewing on her lip as she examined the hint of sadness that Maria was trying her best to mask, "Do you still have the reservation?"

"Yes, I should probably call and cancel now that you mention it."

"Wait," Esté jumped in, reaching out and touching Maria's arm before she picked up the phone, "I'd love to go with you, if you still want to go?"

Before having a child, Maria had always imagined herself as a mother to a little girl. She dreamt of the dresses and the flowers, the pretty pink bows and the sparkles and glitter, though her perspective changed completely once she became a mother to a son who loved everything that his father did, forgetting the flowers and princesses and accepting the science and the motor engines instead.

While Maria wouldn't have changed anything about Tony for the world, having Estélla in her life felt like a blessing, their relationship giving her the closest thing to a daughter she would ever have, and one of the most precious, cherished things in her life, too.

"Of course," Maria grinned, "That would be lovely, Esté, just lovely."

Tony peeled his heavy eyes open with a groan, sighing loudly and stretching his arms above his head. The first thing he saw was a cup of hot coffee swirling with steam on the bedside table and the curtains cracked open just a little, a stream of golden sunlight beaming through into the room.

The sound of a page turning pushed him up onto his elbows, glancing with sleepy eyes to his left. Esté was sat beside him resting against the headboard with a book in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other. Her hair was tied back in a ponytail and her face fresh, eyes bright and skin glowing.

"How did you manage to make two cups of coffee without waking me up?" He said, reaching for the mug on the table while running a hand through his dark hair.

"Good morning to you too," Esté smiled, "I tiptoed."

Tony laughed quietly, sitting up in bed beside her and sipping his coffee, "What are we reading?"

"This Side of Paradise."

"Alright, I'm all ears."

Tony lifted up his arm and Esté put down her coffee, snuggling against his chest with the book in her hands and duvet pulled around her waist. She read to him while he danced his fingers across her arm, peppering soft kisses through her hair.

The moment was pure and Tony savoured every second of it, noticing the stillness of their world and how all he could hear was her gentle voice and her quiet breathing, the slow turning of each page and how she would look up at him every so often to make sure he hadn't fallen asleep, a smile on her lips to see his eyes still open every time.

They'd left Estélla's birthday dinner hand in hand the night before, jumping into the back of the same car and heading back to her place in the west village, leaving behind an ocean of camera flashes from lingering paparazzi and journalists that had been camped outside the hotel all evening.

It hadn't come as a surprise to a lot of the dinner guests that Tony and Esté were in fact dating since their public denials of all the tabloid rumours weren't really fooling anybody by that point. After their first kiss at the bar, they didn't leave each other's side all night, practically stuck together while friends came over to congratulate them and others revelled in the fact their suspicions had been right all along.

They were still safe inside that party, things only changing for certain once they walked outside at just shy of four o'clock in the morning. There was a pause they held before walking out into the real world, both Esté and Tony looking at one another without saying a word, though both of them exchanging a reassuring nod before they walked outside hand in hand.

"Everything's changed, you know?" Esté said, placing her book down after sliding a leather bookmark between the pages.

She hadn't looked at her phone that morning nor had she turned on the television, knowing exactly what kind of media storm would have descended upon her and Tony's names. And although it wasn't bad press and in fact, she was happy she didn't have to keep such a huge part of her life a secret any longer, she wanted to pretend that their world was still just theirs for a little longer.

"Are you regretting it?" Tony asked, putting down his coffee and wrapping his arms around her.

"Not at all," Esté shook her head and looked up at him, one hand on his chest, "It's just...different now. I've done this before, the whole public relationship thing, but you, you haven't."

"It's not going to ruin us, Stella. In fact, nothing could." Tony said, brushing his knuckles across her cheek, "I'm just glad I can kiss you in public now."

Esté rolled her eyes and hung her hands around his neck, reaching up to place a kiss on his lips. Truthfully, she was a little concerned about how Tony would deal with their relationship being in the spotlight. And that wasn't because he couldn't deal with having attention on him constantly, it was because a part of Esté was worried that he'd decide a relationship wasn't for him like he'd always believed before, the pressure and scrutiny of the world's media hounding their privacy having the potential to tip some people over an edge.

She trusted him and she trusted what they had, and although the insecurities that being cheated on had bestowed upon her had started to burn with the jealousy she felt when Tony was around other women the night before, Estélla found solace in his arms and in his eyes, his soul reminding her that everything was, and would be, just fine.

"I have something for you by the way, for your birthday."

Tony kissed Esté's temple before shuffling out of bed and walking over to his pile of several different duffel bags that had grown in the corner of her bedroom since they'd started dating. He'd bring over a bag filled with clothes every time he stayed, only never seemed to take anything back home with him, not that Esté minded in the slightest.

With a small box gift wrapped in navy blue paper decorated with gold stars in his hand, Tony walked back across the room in nothing but a pair of Calvin Klein boxer shorts, a blue glow in his chest and sleep in the corners of his hazel eyes.

Esté sat upright and pulled the covers up to her chest, crossing her legs as Tony slid back into bed, handing her the box with a smile.

"I know you said no presents, and really, it's not a present. At least, not one from me," he said, "I was looking through all my old stuff trying to find something sentimental to give to you like you gave to me on my birthday, but I stumbled across this and thought it was more fitting than anything I could've ever given you."

Brows furrowed in confusion, Esté took the little box from Tony and began to gently tear at the corners. She pulled the wrapping apart and set it aside, running her fingers over an old velvet box with a golden lock keeping it closed. With gentle fingers she flicked open the lock and lifted the lid, hinges creaking with two pieces of velvet pulling straight on either side.

Esté gasped when she saw the most beautiful diamond necklace sitting inside the box. A chain of square diamonds crowned a delicate oval cut sapphire in the centre that hung just below the rest of the stones, reflecting the stretch of sunlight breaking through the curtains in shadows of blue across the bedroom.

She was lost for words at the sight of the jewels, breathtaken at the beauty she was holding in her hands, though a small envelope with her name written on the front was tucked into the upside of the box stole her attention for moment.

Esté gently pulled the envelope out and set the box down on her lap, carefully lifting the flap and sliding out a note, the handwriting instantly recognisable. With shaking breaths and teary blue eyes, Esté raised a hand to her mouth as she read  the words on the card.

'To our darling Estélla, happy 21st birthday. We are so incredibly proud of you and everything that you've achieved, everything you will achieve. We miss you more than words can describe and we hope you have the most wonderful birthday. All our love, Howard, Maria and Anthony.'

"Tony, this is..." Esté whispered, lips parted as she looked up at him.

He smiled with a hint of sadness behind his eyes, "A little late, is what it is. My mom picked it out for you, I remember. I know we'd kind of lost touch by then but she talked about you all the time. She loved you a lot, my dad did too."

Like her father, the guilt of not attending Howard and Maria's funeral was a feeling Esté had never been able to shake away. She'd felt bad about missing out on years of friendship with Tony, but what made her guilt so heavy was knowing that he'd gone through his hardest moments all alone when he shouldn't have had to, when she should've been there to support him.

Esté's bottom lip quivered and she quickly wiped away a fallen tear from her cheek, sniffling quietly, "I'm so sorry, I'm sorry I wasn't around and I-"

"No, no please don't..."

Tony shook his head and quickly cut off Esté from her imminent spiel of an apology that he didn't want or need to hear. He pulled her into his lap and held her head against his cheek, kissing through her hair while his hands cradled her tightly, his eyes fixed on the note that had fallen onto the white bedsheets around his knees.

A lot of memories from his childhood had blurred into a hazy mess, though upon digging through old boxes of belongings from his parent's old house and his own stash of things, he was able to recall moments he'd otherwise never have remembered.

Finding the necklace and reading the note made Tony remember just how much his mother adored Estélla. He always remembered how close he had been with George and Leonie, but the relationship Esté had had with his mother was something that until then, had been forgotten.

The necklace reminded him of the hours they'd spend together on the porch in summer reading books and drinking iced tea or shopping on Fifth Avenue at Christmas. Tony could see the love his mother had for Esté, which was perhaps what made him always feel so peaceful around the girl from a young age. In a world that had been huge and scary for as long as he could remember, the only time he ever felt safe was when he held his mother's hand, or when he held Esté's.

"Will you help me put it on?" Esté said quietly after a short while, her tears now dry after both she and Tony took a moment to compose themselves.

"Of course."

Esté turned around and lifted up her pony tail while Tony picked up the necklace with delicate fingers, lacing it across her collarbones before fixing the clasp together behind her neck, placing a long kiss on her bare shoulder as she let her hair down once more.

"How does it look?"

Tony let out a quiet sigh when Esté turned back around, her fingertips grazing ever so lightly across the sapphire in the centre of her chest, a breathless smile on her face as she searched his face desperately for the validation she wanted from him.

It looked beautiful. She looked beautiful. Tony was besotted by the girl with the sapphire eyes and the way the stone hanging from her neck made her skin glow and eyes shine even bluer than they had before.

"It looks like it was made for you, Esté." He said with a grin, placing his finger and thumb around her chin and pulling her in for a kiss, "I'm sorry to do this, but I have to go back for a meeting with Fury and the team. Will you check with your parents to make sure they still want to come over tonight?"

Estélla finished off her coffee after Tony left her alone in the bed, drinking with an absentminded smile while she watched him get dressed. She found herself adoring the small things he did like the way he buckled his belt and how he always fluffed up his hair after pulling on a t-shirt, noticing things in him that she'd never cared to notice in any man before. He was classically handsome and in the morning light with golden eyes and bruises on his cheekbones that were slowly starting to heal, Esté was sure she'd never seen anything as beautiful as Tony.

"They might be a little hungover but I'm sure they'll be there," Esté laughed while she pulled on a black silk robe and tied it around her middle, "They were so happy to see you."

Esté followed Tony downstairs and grabbed him his wallet and car keys while he laced his sneakers by the foot of the stairs, both of them ignoring the sound of reporters waiting outside on the street.

"I was equally as happy to see them, really," he said, standing up and sliding his keys and wallet into his back pocket before pulling Esté into him by her hips, "You want me to tell those guys outside to fuck off when I leave?"

Esté scoffed and rolled her eyes, draping her arms around his neck with a lazy smile, "They'll get bored eventually."

Tony smirked as he looked at her, "I don't think anyone could ever get bored of you."

Esté giggled and pushed him playfully on the chest, "You are so cheesy, you know that?"

He grinned and stole a quick kiss from her lips before pressing a long one against her forehead as he finally let go of her, despite wanting to do nothing but crawl back upstairs into their safe haven of cool bedsheets and endless conversation.

"It's all part of the charm," he shrugged as he unlocked the front door, "I'll see you later, alright?"

Esté stood on the first step of the staircase, one hand on the banister and one hands tracing the stones that decorated her skin.

"See you later, Anthony."

an;;
They are so cute I'm actually going to throw up because wtf???? Hope you enjoyed this chapter, I really appreciate all your kind comments, I still can't believe people actually enjoy what I write it really does blow my mind so thank you so so much!!