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Stephen threw his cell phone out the moment he heard it ring again. His hands were shaking when he did but it managed to go right out of the window, into the street and somewhere he doesn’t need to know. The ring tone calling for him to answer, the tone going lower before eventually fading into obscurity among his rose bushes.
The good doctor is tired of listening to people and their lamentations. Their apologies for something they never did and something they can not fix.
So, quiet and angry, he stays at home. He has begged to all the people he can beg and he has pleaded with the devil seven times seven, hoping the God that didn’t hear him the first time would.
He takes off his shirt- an act so laborious now. The water for his bath has been running and he doesn’t want to keep it waiting.
===
He can’t close the tap so he leaves it on.
Stephen leans his back on the tub, forcing his hands to make fists. They never totally close as his fingers refuse to meet the middle of his hand. The tips of his digits try to press on the inside of his palm but they falter as they would rather stay open.
The dark haired man throws them over his head, raising them up in the air.
Maybe this time, he thinks to himself as he sinks into the water, if I ask politely a miracle would happen.
He closes his eyes and fall under. The water passing the boundaries of his tub, meeting his white tiled floor.
===
“Jesus Christ, what the fuck are you trying to do!” It wasn’t a question, it was a demand. Someone pulls him out forcefully at what looks like a suicide attempt. Stephen coughs, shock filling his lungs with too much liquid it burned him from the inside. He looks up to glare at the one and only Tony Stark.
Tony, in his mecha suit, matching his angry eyes while holding on to his arm. This action prompted him to sit down in a more awkward position, one side forced up while the other slightly under.
“What are you doing here” Stephen hisses. He tries to take back his arm but Tony refuses to let go.
“I was calling you the whole day” Tony’s suit was slowly disintegrating, the nanotech working its magic. All that was left was the hand holding on to Stephen’s, “I fucking found your cell phone in the bushes”
“I threw it out”
“Why?”
Stephen shakes his head and demands his arm back. Water splashing while he struggles to get motherfucking Ironman to let go of him. Tony doesn’t budge as he slowly kneeled on the wet tiles. He tries to reach for the doctor’s other arm, hoping he could subdue him totally. He didn’t want to use his tech on Strange.
“I don’t have to answer to you” Strange thrashed, furious at how weak and vulnerable he must have looked, “Let go of me! I said let go”
“Not until you tell me why you tried to fucking kill yourself”
“Why? “ the dark haired man stared incredulously at Stark, going deadly still while he let his eyes fill the other with poison, “I’m a fucking surgeon. I am one of the fucking best in the country... in the world. And now, I can barely write my own name without dropping my pen. You’re asking me why I want to kill myself, Stark?
“Because I’m done, my life is over. I’m going to lose everything and no one is helping me”
“That’s not fucking true and you know it” Tony spat back, finally letting go of Stephen’s hands so he can grab his shoulders instead. “I’m here, you fucking idiot, I want to fucking help you”
“How? By turning me into one of your little pet projects, Tony?” Stephen threw his head and laughed sarcastically. At this point, the other’s clothes were drenched but Tony didn’t seem to mind, “I’m not going to subject myself to your experiments”
“Why do you keep saying that?” Tony asked, his face contorted in exasperation as he takes in the sight of the Stephen Strange fall into pieces. He loosened his grips on Stephen’s shoulders as the other’s pushed his face into his useless hands.
“I’m... no one now” he cries to his wet palms. His body shaking while his back bent forward slightly.
“I can’t... I... can’t even close the god damn tap” he lifts his head up, his eyes highlighted with tears. His fingers with their ugly scars laying claim to something that made Stephen Strange whole, “Tony I’m... I’m afraid”