Chapter Text
Tony casually swung the door to the New Yorker Sanctum open, lazily strolling into the giant entrance hall, hands in pockets. “Good afternoon, Wong.”, he greeted the grumpy sorcerer as soon as he spotted him sitting on the couch near the entrance.
That was where he usually lingered, at least every time Tony visited. In conclusion, he sat there very, very often, book in hand and a stern look on his face. He waited for the X-files episode regarding the theory if the man ever smiled.
So far, there wasn’t much evidence to go by.
“Ah.”, Wong exclaimed softly without taking his eyes off the old drawings. “Here to see The Sorcerer Supreme yet again, Mister Stark?” He calmly turned a page. Without moving his hands, of course. All sorcerers were massive show-offs.
He nodded, a big smirk already spreading out on his face. “You bet I am. Is he upstairs?” He really didn’t need to wait for an answer on that question. Stephen was always upstairs, lost in some weird sorcerer business.
Tony didn’t understand anything about The Mystic Arts but that probably had to do with the fact that he really couldn’t care less about listening to Stephen whenever he was talking about it.
Creepily staring while completely losing sense of what was real, that sounded more like him. He wasn’t to blame that they had decided to have the sorcerers be represented by the most beautiful man Tony had ever seen.
Which person with even the smallest bit of common sense couldn’t get lost in those eyes and that voice? The answer was none.
“What might it be that brings you to our doors this time?” He stopped halfway up the stairs, slightly turning towards the source of the bored voice. “Another lesson about the history of the cosmos? The seventh one now, if I remember correctly. Or maybe it’s something truly important. A broken light bulb perhaps?”
Tony chuckled and shrugged. “If he’d just repair it I wouldn’t have to buy a new one.”
“You are the richest person on this planet.”
“Now, that isn’t really true. I know a rather handsome King of Wakanda who could easily buy me and all my belongings.” He gave Wong a wink even though he hadn’t looked up once.
His mood only lifted more when he heard him mumble “So could Stephen with an invitation for a cheap cup of coffee.” under his breath. Well, he wasn’t wrong. Right on spot, the more he thought about it.
Once he arrived upstairs he immediately started looking for the man in question. “Stephen? Is your nose buried behind a book again?” His brows furrowed when he didn’t spot him in his favourite chair.
That was odd. He usually was studying his weird magic there. Well, unless he-
“Good afternoon, Anthony.”
Tony barely suppressed a scream as he whipped around to come face to face with Stephen. Or half a Stephen since he was slightly transparent. And flying. And glowing.
“You have to stop that! I have a weak heart, Stephen.”, he breathed out after he caught himself. “What is the purpose of-” He made a vague gesture towards his floating body. “This?”
The see-through sorcerer waved him off. “I told you a thousand times by now. It’s to improve my astral projection skills. It requires training.” Then, he flew right through Tony, ignoring the shocked and slightly disgusted cry his action brought with it.
“Grow up, Anthony. I don’t leave any traces.” He started making his way towards a closed door at the end of the antiques-filled room. “Come on, my body is in there.”
“No physical traces, at least, no. When it comes to mental ones though...”, Tony pressed out between his teeth. “You know, that could actually scar people for life, you just zooming through them like this.” And yet, he ended up following Stephen right away. That was the reason he was here, after all.
“You fight against potentially world-ending disaster every month. I think you can take me and my jokes.” He waited in front of the door until Tony had caught up to him. “Don’t mind the mess in there. We don’t have the time to clean. Or the money for personal.”
He did and his place still looked absolutely appalling.
“If you’d finally come over to my place you’d see that-” He walked face first into the closed door thanks to Stephen not bothering to open it when he had entered the room seconds before him. “Thanks for that.”, he hissed while rubbing his bruised nose.
From inside the room, he heard a quiet and deep chuckle; music to his ears and soothing the pain in an instant. His ego was another matter though but that could wait. He opened the door and-
He’d never think about his lab as messy again. Good lord, the place was a nightmare. All the mechanical parts had simply been replaced by old books and painting, by scrolls and by what looked like it might have his origin in ancient Egypt.
Pepper would go insane if she saw that. There wasn’t one cleaned up spot. You could sit nowhere besides the bed Stephen was currently occupying. His body, at least. Astral projection Stephen was still floating in the middle of the room, smirking at him.
“You alright, there? Need a tissue perhaps?”
Tony smiled and flipped him off. “Get back in your body so I can return the favour.” Not that he’d actually go through with his threat. He wasn’t that stupid. “What happened here?”, he asked just as Stephen closed his eyes. “Did you and Wong have a little row and decided to settle it by throwing books at each other?”
“Quiet.”, the sorcerer warned. “I have to concentrate.” Tony saw him take a deep breath and in the next second the body on the bed breathed out. Didn’t look too hard in his eyes but then again, he had no idea about any of this.
“Seems like you have the hang of it.”, he remarked as he watched Stephen standing up and stretching his legs. “But I guess there is always room to improve.” That was something he knew everything about. Mark 75 was currently in progress back at the Avengers facility.
But he had a massive problem and probably, definitely , needed a therapy.
“There is. Especially when you are the Sorcerer Supreme. I can never stop learning.” He whistled loudly towards the door. “Stay away from the entrance.”, he told Tony when he saw the confused expression on his face.
“Why should I-” The rest of the question was directed into the pile of books he landed in face first. “Fuck.” He should have known. The damn cloak was never far away from his owner. He should have been suspicious the moment he didn’t see it rest on Stephens’ shoulders.
Those things happen when you’re too busy staring at his face.
“I warned you.”, Stephen justified himself from above. “You should have moved.” He reached out his hand for Tony to take it, pulling him up with ease. “How may I help you today, Anthony?”, he asked while straightening his clothes, elegant fingers sliding over blue and red fabric.
He was truly lost.
“I need-” Well, damn. The excuse had been right on his mind before he had entered the Sanctum. Where was it now? Lost somewhere in the sapphires which were Stephens’ eyes. Who could blame him?
“Yes?” Thank god the Sorcerer was already preoccupied with one of the thousand books in his ‘bedroom’ and didn’t bother paying attention to the now stammering Tony.
“I just had a question.”
“Hm?”, Stephen mumbled absentmindedly, starting to make his way over the massive piles of paper and towards a shelf on the other side of the room. Tony was surprised that there were actually books stocked inside of it. Where did this man get so many books from?
“Yeah, you see…” He bit his bottom lip in concentration, trying to remember his old excuse or at least to come up with a decent new one instead. It was to no avail.
“Oh, excuse me. Did you say something?” Stephen turned away from the shelf and regarded him for a split second, raising an eyebrow in question. When Tony failed to answer yet again, he sighed and focused his attention back on the new book in his hand.
“I was wondering if you had any information…”
“Hm?”
“About the Chitauri?” That didn’t sound convincing enough. “About their origin, perhaps? Their weaknesses?” He cocked his head to the side and put on his best innocent face. Stephen looked up from his occupation.
“The Chitauri?”, he questioned him. “Why would you want to know about them?” His eyes grew slightly bigger, one hand balling into a fist. “Are they coming? I didn’t notice anything of their return.”
Tony quickly shook his head to dispose of his worries. “No, I just want to be thorough if they ever decide to actually return. Getting into the fight prepared already seals half the deal, don’t you think?” Now, he was laying it on a bit too thick and of course, the sorcerer didn’t miss it.
“ Getting into the fight prepared already seals half the deal? ”, he repeated with a snort. “Who are you and what have you done to Anthony?”
Tony rolled his eyes. “Very funny. Can you help me or not?” He was embarrassing himself. Next time he’d definitely write his excuse down. “Because otherwise, I can just leave.” There was nothing in the world he’d rather not do.
“You really can’t take a joke today, hm?”, Stephen teased with a smirk.
“I’m just not used to it.”, Tony snapped back at him immediately. “Where is this mysterious grumpy persona of yours?” To be fair, he wasn’t quite as bad as Wong when it came to looking like a sad monk but it was close.
Stephen shrugged slightly and walked past him. “I’ve had a nice breakfast, I guess. Come along, Wong will know if we have any of the information you are searching for.”
They made their way back into the main room, Tony trailing behind the sorcerer with a sheepish grin on his face. He knew that he should go to Wong whenever he had questions regarding writings and books. Hell, Stephen told him so every time he asked for one.
Surely, he had caught on by now.
“I don’t know how often I have to tell you this until it gets into your thick skull, Anthony, but next time you can just go to Wong with a problem like that.”
Apparently not.
“Other than some people,” He turned his head and gave him a look. “I actually have stuff to do.” Master of The Mystic Arts, Sorcerer Supreme, a man with a PhD and an M.D (yes, Tony had researched him and no, he wasn’t a creep) and he still didn’t get the fucking clue.
“I’ll keep that in mind, next time I come here.” He wouldn’t. “But in my defence, your best buddy is kind of scary. Are you constantly giving him a hard time or why does he always looks like he has just bitten into a lemon?”
“Believe it or not but we sorcerers do have a lot of weight on our shoulders.”, Stephen explained while leading Tony downstairs. “And Wong in particular also has the job to watch over the library back at Kamar-Taj.”
Tony being the carefree and happy guy he was, of course, had no idea about the pressure a job could bring upon oneself. Iron Man was nothing but a nice hobby. But he understood Stephens point of view, in his eyes he was constantly sneaking around his home. It probably looked like he had run out of stuff to do.
“Alright, Dumbledore. Noted.” He stopped when Stephen whipped around, brows furrowed in anger.
“I’m warning you. I told you not to call me that, douchebag.”, he growled with that deep voice of his which made Tony's’ knees weak, almost sending him to the floor. He quickly lifted his hands to calm his outburst.
“Okay, fine. I’ll stop.” It had taken him months to finally get the sorcerer to call him Anthony. While he’d prefer it to be Tony or maybe darling or honey it was better than Mr Stark or, well, douchebag. “It was supposed to be a joke.”
Stephen huffed. “I imagine a lot of people tell you how unfunny you are but I won’t miss out on rubbing it in your face again.” With that, he resumed making his way towards the still sitting Wong, who looked everything but surprised to see the two once he noticed them approaching.
“What is it, Stephen?”, he asked, closing the book in his hand and setting it on the table in front of him. “Does Mister Stark require our services yet again?” He glanced briefly at Tony, eyes bored and unamused, perfectly normal.
“He does, Wong.” Stephen quickly explained the situation, missing the disbelieving looks the other sorcerer kept on giving him and Tony. It was hilarious.
“So, Mister Stark here…”, Wong started to repeat once Stephen had finished. “Is in need of a book about the Chitauri in order to study them?” If it wouldn’t have raised too many questioned, Tony would have taken a picture of his face.
He was in for a ride.