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It’s not like Tony started his day thinking, Let’s take a bullet for Stephen Strange. It’ll be fun!
He didn’t even know he’d done it until he felt blinding pain echo out through his torso, pain that would have intensified had Stephen not rushed forward to catch him.
See, Tony had gone to battle some rogue Hydra agents, and so had Stephen, it seemed.
It didn’t take them long to incapacitate the agents, and it was after Tony’s armour had retracted back into the housing compartment on Tony’s chest and Stephen had lowered his magical shields.
They’d obviously missed one of the agents during the battle.
A single shot rang out over the street.
And before he knew it, Tony had leapt in front of Stephen.
Now he could feel warmth flowing into him where Stephen was touching him; magic, Stephen was helping him with magic.
Exhaustion dragged at Tony, and he could hear Stephen frantically telling him to stay awake.
“Just do one thing for me, Tony, just stay awake!”
Tony wanted to tell Stephen to be quiet, that he was tired, that he just wanted to sleep.
The last thing Tony thought before he passed out was, I could have just used the suit’s shield.
When Tony first woke up, he was alone in a room he didn’t recognise.
He lay awake for a few moments, wondering where he was and why he felt so exhausted.
Then his eyes closed again, and he slipped back off to sleep.
When Tony woke up for the second time, he was still in the room that he didn’t recognise, and he was still alone.
He dimly recognised the pain in his torso, and felt exhaustion begin to drag at him again.
Before sleep took him again, Tony fully realised he was alone, and he drifted back off feeling lonelier than he had in a long time.
The third time Tony woke up, he didn’t feel exhausted.
Tired, yes, but not enough that he felt like immediately sleeping again.
As he glanced around, pointedly ignoring the throbbing pain in his torso, he realised two things.
One, he was in the Sanctum.
And two, he wasn’t alone.
Beside him, slumped in a chair, asleep, was none other than Stephen Strange.
Tony didn’t really want to wake the sorcerer, and he wouldn’t have, if he hasn’t noticed that Stephen’s hand was lightly gripping his, slightly limp with sleep.
Tony began to try to carefully pry his hand from Stephen’s, but this caused the sorcerer to stir and blink sleepily before bolting upright.
“Tony! You’re awake!”
“No, I’m still asleep,” Tony deadpanned.
“At least your sense of humour wasn’t damaged,” Stephen replied with a grin. “How’re you feeling?”
“Sore,” Tony replied, wincing as he shifted to get more comfortable. “Injured.”
Stephen chuckled. “Yeah, sounds about right.”
“How long has it been?” Tony pushed himself into a sitting position, wincing again as he did so.
“Four days. You actually died, at one point. That was pretty terrifying.”
“Worried you were gonna lose me?” Tony teased, leaning slightly closer to Stephen.
“A little,” Stephen admitted, and Tony noticed his voice was shaking a bit.
“Are you alright?” The billionaire asked, concern lacing his tone.
“I’ve lost three patients. In my whole career as a doctor, I’ve lost three patients, and now as a sorcerer I’ve had to kill one man. That’s four deaths because of me. And…” Stephen paused, swallowing. “And I didn’t want you to be the fifth.”
“Well, I wasn’t. And if I was, I wouldn’t have regretted it. Taking that bullet for you.” Tony grinned as he continued, “I’ve done far stupider things for people who were far less attractive than you.”
At this, Stephen gave Tony a shaky smile. “Maybe I didn’t let you die because the world wouldn’t know what to do without your incredibly good looking face.”
Tony smirked, leaning closer to Stephen. “Maybe a kiss might make me feel better.”
“Maybe it would. But you won’t know.” And with that Stephen leaned back and away from Tony.
“Hey! You can’t do that! Unfair advantage! I’m injured and you’re not!”
“If you didn’t jump in front of the bullet, you wouldn’t be injured,” Stephen pointed out, but Tony wasn’t listening.
“Unfair, I tell you, unfair!”
Stephen sighed. “Remind me how I managed to find you attractive at all?”