Chapter Text
Tony felt the drops of rain on the back of his neck before he noticed them darkening the pavement. The growing rain had gone unnoticed by the billionaire as a light breeze cloaked the unexpected drops, impeded by the occasional mottled canopy of a small, sidewalk-caged tree. Tony turned his collar up as the wind kicked up, the last remnants of the autumn leaf fall dancing down the sidewalk and around his feet. Seven a.m. had never felt so late, as insomnia had him up for three hours already, and he yawned against the wind as a foggy haze pushed behind his eyes heavily, but it was nothing he wasn’t used to. The grey dawn was welcome, warmer than it should have been at this time of year, but still cold enough to warrant a good coat. The trees thinned out as Tony left the park side street, giving way to parking meters and cars lining the road on both sides. He spotted their planned meeting place with relief, the Starbucks logo hanging loftily above the sidewalk like a godsend. To his surprise, Stephen was waiting for him outside the storefront, two steaming cups in hand.
“How do you know how I take my coffee?”, Tony asked almost testily in way of a greeting. His heart had actually jumped a little seeing that tall, sturdy silhouette that was already familiar, but sleep deprivation and a broken coffee maker this morning had set his nerves on edge. A gloved hand shoved the coffee at him with a small frown.
“You’re not as hard to figure out as you think, Stark”, the sorcerer countered, almost bored.
“You’ve got me all figured out, have you?” Tony regretted his words as he took a sip of his usual double espresso cappuccino, shivering suddenly against the cold. “Sure you don’t want to head inside?” Stephen cocked a brow.
“Not unless you want to be bombarded by your fawning public. There were a bunch of teenage girls staked out in the back corner, and I doubt they were there for me.” The sorcerer’s tone wasn’t implying any passed judgment, but Tony frowned defensively nonetheless.
“Thought it was about time. I’m going to have to go to the one on 6th for a while. Too risky to become a regular anywhere these days.” Stephen nodded understandingly, though he couldn’t empathize.
“What was the purpose of meeting here, then?” Tony shuffled his feet in an attempt to warm up as he took another sip, eyeing the sorcerer’s red scarf almost enviously.
“Thought it would be best to meet on neutral turf, ya know? Nothing against you, Doc, but you can never be too careful with who’s got an edge on who.” He grinned, making the sorcerer realize how nervous Tony was. “I wouldn’t do you the disservice of inviting you to the compound, anyway. Don’t know about your lot, but my guys would have been on you like vultures to roadkill.”
“I appreciate the sentiment, but I’d prefer if we could discuss this somewhere other than the sidewalk.” Stephen sniffed in the cold. “I can assure you there aren’t any ambushes waiting at the Sanctum.” The sorcerer watched as Tony went through a series of arguments with himself in the span of a few seconds, passing by resignation and landing on his usual below-surface wariness.
“Uh, how’s about we head to the cafe down the street?”
“Hungry?”, Stephen asked.
“No. Just don’t want anyone getting suspicious about me heading into Merlin’s house of magic.”
“How many times do I have to tell you that I’m not a wizard?”, Stephen jabbed lightly as he followed Tony down the sidewalk. He frowned slightly when there was no response from the other man. Tight frown lines marked Tony’s face as he glanced down at his phone, dodging a puddle as he stormed down the sidewalk, not worried about the sorcerer keeping up as his stride was significantly larger. “Stark?”
Tony looked up from his phone distractedly, brow pinched severely. Stephen found himself noticing how the fine mist of rain drops darkened his greying hair.
“Yeah? What’s up, Doc?”
“Are you having second thoughts?”, Stephen asked, upper body swivelling as he dodged someone’s passing umbrella, falling in behind Tony momentarily. “We can call off the whole thing if you are. No hard feelings.” He resumed his former position as the shorter man craned his neck slightly, with annoyance no doubt, to fix the sorcerer with a steely glare.
“I don’t back out of deals. Besides, I’m the one who came to you, wasn’t I?” Stephen tried to backpedal a little. He was usually pretty lackadaisical about preserving other people's feelings, but he didn’t want to get on Tony’s bad side.
“Just seems like you have something on your mind, is all.”
Tony proved his point by nearly colliding with someone coming towards them on the sidewalk, phone slipping from his hand in the process. There was an alarming crack as glass hit pavement, Tony swearing as he stooped to retrieve the Stark phone out of a shallow puddle on the sidewalk.
“For God’s sake-.”
“Here, let me.” Stephen took the phone while passing his coffee to Tony, turning the phone over for signs of cracks. “Pretty durable”, he commented idly, golden static sparking from his gloved fingertips as he ran a hand over the screen. The movement was subtle, beads of moisture being drawn from within the phone, dripping down onto the damp pavement. He passed it back to Tony, ignoring the wary look he received as he took his coffee back. “Just removed the water from it, not that much got in”, he explained as Tony studied it.
“I’ve got tech for that, but thanks.”
“I understand your hesitation about accepting magic, that it exists or at all. Trust me, I used to be the same.” Tony inspected his phone with a sideways grin, shoving it into his coat pocket for good measure.
“Well, I’m not so close-minded, it’s just…different.” He drew his collar closer around his jaw, blocking out the wind and the sorcerer’s icy stare. “Like I said, I came to you. It’s important to accept that magic is a thing that will become useful and necessary, especially if we ever have to face anything worse than…what we’ve already dealt with.”
“Right”, Stephen replied, trying unsuccessfully to sound detached. “Smart tactical move on your part.” Tony snorted before taking another sip of coffee.
“Not everyone sees it like that. I tried to casually mention it to Steve and he got all up on my back about it, how magic and what we do should stay separate. So, you see why I thought meeting at a Starbucks would be better than either of our places.”
“Yeah, for sure.”
“Nothing against you personally”, Tony clarified.
“Good to know.”
The sorcerer’s self conscious grin threw Tony off, hiding the reflexive twitch of his mouth behind his coffee cup. They reached the cafe Tony had mentioned, the billionaire pulling the door open for Stephen who inclined his head slightly before Tony followed him in out of the rain. He found himself quickly overheating in the warmth of the homey cafe, unbuttoning his coat with one hand as he shook the water off his coat onto the welcome mat, surveying the room for a secluded, empty table. A few young play writes and an older couple at the side tables were the only other patrons on the early cloudy morning that had seemingly sent half of New York into hiding.
“Shall we?”, Tony asked, gesturing to a corner table near the front window, not waiting for Stephen’s verbal response as he walked over and pulled the wood chair out with his aching left hand. Hiding his twitching digits in his coat pocket, Tony felt his cheeks flush with the overbearing heat of the cafe. The sorcerer felt too close when he sat down as well, Tony’s gaze being forced out onto the wet pavement, which glistened in the reflection of artificial light as he attempted to avoid eye contact. Stephen was taking his coat off and hanging it on the back of his chair, reminding Tony to do the same.
“Have you had breakfast?”, Stephen asked, without any of the usual pretence people normally asked Tony that question with.
“Only if caffeine’s considered a major food group now.” He downed the remainder of his coffee in direct relation, noticing that Stephen had reluctantly peeled his gloves off, shaking hands wrapped around the lingering warmth of his coffee.
“In that case, I could do with something to eat.” Almost as if on cue, a young waitress came up to their table, blonde hair drawn up in the tired, messy bun of a university student on an early morning shift.
“What can I get for you?”, she said, fighting an exhausted tone and then a blush when she recognized Tony. The billionaire ignored her reaction, ordering a black coffee before looking back out the window, aching left hand gripped in his right.
“I’ll get a green tea. And then we’ll take a look at the breakfast menu, please”, Stephen told her, earning a disapproving glance from Tony.
“I’m not eating anything”, he retorted as soon as the flustered waitress was out of earshot. Tony’s gaze quickly returned to watching the rain fall across the street, jumping when a woman with a bright yellow umbrella passed close by the cafe window. Stephen cocked his head slightly as he studied the man across from him, who noticed his gaze and met him with an affronted look.
“What?”
“Someone following you?”, Stephen asked sarcastically, straightening the salt and pepper shakers.
“Not that I know of.”
Stephen blinked in surprise. He hadn’t been expecting a serious answer.
“For all I know, Steve has Nat tracking me like a good, little puppy.” If Stephen concentrated really hard, he could detect a trace of resentment and even fear under the usual layers of wariness surrounding everything that wasn’t Tony’s public facade. “That’s probably her.” Tony pointed with his nose to another cafe across the street, a redhead sipping coffee at the barstool window, sunglasses on despite the cloudy morning.
“And if she is?”, Stephen said, attempting to dissuade Tony’s paranoia, annoyed at it’s source more than anything. “You’re not committing a crime by sitting in a cafe with me. For all she knows, we’re just meeting up as friends.” This comment drew Tony’s attention away from the window, a dry smirk working it’s way through the grey haze of his now evident exhaustion.
“At seven in the morning?” Stephen shrugged as the waitress came, taking his tea and thanking her for the menus.
“I’m an early riser and you don’t sleep, evidently. She has to know that.” Tony didn’t respond, just sipped his scalding coffee as though he was desensitized to the burning in his throat.
“Either way, hells knows I’ll be getting an earful next time I go to the compound.”
“If this is going to cause too much grief between you and your teammates, you can still back out.” Stephen arched a brow as he leafed through the breakfast menu. “I won’t hold you to it.” Tony frowned testily.
“You seem to be the one who wants to back out, Doc. You keep giving me an out, but maybe you’re regretting our agreement.” Stephen folded the menu calmly and fixed Tony with a gaze that was too steady, too calm.
“I just want to make sure you don’t feel pressured.” Tony opened his mouth to speak, but no words came, for once. He closed his mouth and sipped too much of his coffee again, the heat making his eyes water.
“I’m fine”, he said, obviously not fine, but Stephen didn’t push it.
This was only the fourth time they’d seen each other since Titan, after all. It had almost been six months since the battle on the alien planet, but both men still wore that day clearly on their sleeves and faces. It was what had turned their acquaintanceship into carefully gravitating towards each other in the aftermath of near disaster, though Tony was still wary of the sorcerer’s motives. Not so wary that he avoided approaching him about a collaboration agreement, though. Combining the forces against physical and mystic threats seemed only logical now that the Avengers were aware of sorcerers’ existence, though Tony seemed to be the only one to think so. Forever thinking of the future, he had recently contacted Stephen about opening up two-way communication between the sorcerers of the New York Sanctum and the Avengers, in hopes that they could call upon each other for help when warranted. They’d done everything but work out the details that day two weeks ago in the Sanctum, so this meeting wasn’t technically necessary, but neither man had shied away from an opportunity to talk one-on-one.
“Pick something”, Stephen said, shoving the other menu across the table at Tony who had been blatantly ignoring it.
“I don’t eat in the mornings, Doc.”
“When was the last time you ate something?”, he asked, raising a patient brow in a way that actually made him look like a doctor for once.
“Jeez, you’re worse than Rhodey”, Tony sighed in a way that wasn’t an insult, reluctantly grabbing the menu before gaping in horror. “Oh, god, they’ve got frittata.”
“Is that a good thing?”
“Depends”, Tony said, which didn’t answer Stephen’s question much. They didn’t speak again until the waitress had come and taken their orders, after which Stephen cleared his throat uncomfortably.
“So, there was one issue that we might come across”, he started.
“What’s that?” Tony had zoned out again, attention caught by rain drops falling from the roof of the cafe across the road. He pulled himself back in with visible effort, leaning on one hand as he fixed Stephen with his tired, amber gaze.
“I realized just last night actually that our main obstacle with the whole team-up thing”, here he gestured between them,” -are some technological limitations to say the least.” Tony cocked a brow, interest piqued for the first time that morning.
“Weaponry wise or surveillance-?”
“Not quite. We take care of all of that with spells and runes. I was thinking more just basic communication between our two sides.” Tony squinted as he sipped his newly topped-up coffee.
“Communication”, he clarified. A small grin suddenly split over Stephen’s face as he leaned back in his chair slightly.
“Yeah. I don’t think Wong even owns a phone.” Tony grinned, more at the sorcerer relaxing than what he had said.
“Well, as long as we can get Wong out of the eighteenth century, then, I don’t think we’ll have to get too much more high tech than one of these.” He fished his Stark phone out of his coat pocket and placed it on the table. It was his basic street model, nothing fancy, not like the holographic model he liked to use in the lab. Stephen nodded after his split-second analysis.
“I think we can manage that”, Stephen said, suddenly noticing how much his hands were shaking. There was a beat of silence, rain now pattering steadily against the window. “Anything else new with you?”, he asked, very aware of the abrupt topic change.
“The wedding’s off”, Tony said, so casually that Stephen coughed on his tea.
“Yours?”, he asked dumbly, earning a warranted brow raise from Tony.
“Yeah, mine, asshole.”
“I’m sorry. Do your- does the team know?” Stephen’s brow furrowed as he asked, confused at himself for the question he’d presented. It wasn’t as if he’d suddenly started caring about the Avenger’s opinions of anything.
“Why would I tell them? They’d probably take her side anyway.” Stephen nodded uncertainly, picking up his tea, then putting it back down without taking a sip.
“I - her side being?”
“I’m reckless”, Tony said bitterly and looked down at his coffee, silently willing the waitress to bring their food. How had the conversation landed on his personal issues? He could feel himself dissociating again and had to focus hard to not tune out the sorcerer's voice.
“You’re the least reckless person I’ve ever met. Self-sacrificial and impulsive, sure, but not reckless. You calculate everything, you plan ahead for everything. This meeting signifies that more than anything. You’re teaming up with something you hate just because you think it will make the world safer for everyone.”
“I don’t hate magic.” Tony assured quietly, wrapping his cramping fingers around the warmth of his cup. “I don’t understand it. That’s not a preference, that’s ignorance.”
“I could teach you”, the sorcerer offered lightly, prompting a grin from Tony as he had hoped.
“Can you imagine?” Tony’s eyes sparkled with imaginative excitement and Stephen thought that he had never seen something so beautiful. “God, my techy brain could never wrap itself around all that. I bet you we could make a magic powered reactor, though. That would be rad.”
“Definitely possible. We’ll only know if we try.” The waitress came with their food then and Stephen smiled at Tony through the steam from their plates, ducking his head as the waitress looked between them.
“Thank you, dear”, Tony said to her, charming public persona turned on like a switch had flipped. His fake smile fell as the flustered teen left, only to be replaced with a tired, but genuine one as he watched Stephen meticulously arranging his napkin on his lap. Tony’s hand cramped again as he unfolded his cutlery from his napkin, distracting himself by inhaling the aromatic steam rising from the vegetable frittata he’d ordered. It smelled like home. Home from a long time ago, at least. Abandoning his left hand completely, he discarded his knife and dug a clumsy chunk out of his meal with his fork. The savoury mix of egg, cheese, and sweet bell peppers covered his tongue with a delicious warmth and he forgot the aches in his body for a moment. Tony felt an assessing gaze flickering over him and he looked up to meet Stephen’ s twitch of a grin.
“Fritatta’s a comfort food for you, I take it?” Tony dropped his fork as he took a cleansing sip of coffee, pleasant, deep bitterness mixing in with the savoury lull.
“Possibly.” He jabbed an accusing fork at Stephen’s plate of strawberry crepes. “At least I’m not eating dessert for breakfast.” Stephen scoffed, but gentler than when they had first met.
“They’re basically pancakes.”
“Wow, food snob”, Tony sassed off-handedly, taking another mouthful of egg and peppers. He hadn’t eaten anything warm in about two days, and one of his favourite foods, especially well-cooked, was enough to make him purr in contentment. “This was a good idea.”
“You admit the human body needs food? I’m shocked.”
“Okay, you and Rhodey never get to hang out”, Tony assured jokingly, but he saw Stephen’s face fall a little under the half smile he gave. “I’m kidding, Doc. Actually, we’re having a guy’s night, or whatever you want to call it, this Friday at my place. You should come.” He ducked his head to take another bite because that was easier than meeting the sorcerer’s celestially-colored gaze. “Movies, drinks, pizza, all that. It’ll be fun.”
“And that’s just you and Rhodes?” Tony shook his head as he chewed.
“Happy too. He needs some guy time now that he’s got a girl.” Stephen blinked.
“A girl?”
“Oh, Pete’s aunt. Aunty hottie. May”, he corrected with a smirk.
“I had no idea. You and Peter have been holding out on me.” Tony nodded as he wiped his mouth on his napkin, clenching and unclenching his hand in a futile attempt to calm its tremors.
“That’s what I’m saying, Doc. You’re outta the loop, you know? We’ve gotta, uh…” Tony poked absently at a mushroom. “We’ve gotta get you in the loop. If you want.” Something in the sorcerer’s face softened, something Tony hadn’t seen since Titan, immediately after Stephen had looked at the 14,000,605 possibilities. He tried to hide his smile behind a sip of tea, but Tony caught it anyway.
“You’re sure they won’t mind? Rhodes and Happy, I mean. I wouldn’t want to impo-.”
“Don’t be ridiculous, Doc. You’re more than welcome.”
“Thanks.”
“No problem.”
Stephen smirked as a thought came to him, watching Tony tuck back into his breakfast.
“That’s a thing you do, isn’t it?”
“I’ve been accused of doing a lot of things, Doc. You’re gonna have to be more specific.”
“Nicknames”, Stephen explained, watching guarded brown eyes flicker up at him quickly. “Happy, Rhodey, Pepper”, he supplied, regretting the last addition. “You call me ‘Doc’ consistently, and I can’t even count the number of names you have for Peter.”
“Okay, there’s a trend”, Tony relented, still stiffer than he’d been moments ago.
“Sorry, it’s just interesting.” He didn’t want to make Tony uncomfortable. “Endearing”, he corrected, before chancing a risky question hidden in a joking tone. “First name basis too close for you?”
“The opposite, actually. I guess first name basis is too formal for people I actually care about, you know? I’ve never once called Rhodey ‘James’, and I forget what Happy’s real name is half the time”, he said, relaxing with a small chuckle.
“People you care about”, Stephen mused, muttering into his tea as the smile lines around his eyes crinkled. Tony’s heart lurched. Fuck. Time to backpedal. Make a joke.
“Don’t get ahead of yourself there, Merlin. ‘Sides, we’re supposed to be talking business. I didn’t come here to be psycho-analyzed by a neurosurgeon.” Stephen’s returned chuckle was strained, but he didn’t seem concerned about dropping his facade.
“Fair enough. Though I swear it was an innocent observation.”
“Sure, it was.”
It took the rest of their meal and two refills each of coffee and tea for them to hash out the details of their collaboration arrangement, though there was an underlying feeling of doubt throughout the entire conversation. Tony hadn’t brought up the idea to the team past running it by Steve, which hadn’t gone well, to say the least. It seemed illogical to become invested in the fine components of a collaboration if there was still a good chance the Avengers wouldn’t take to it, but Tony was understandably hesitant to present a foreign idea to them without all the particulars sorted. He needed to be able to back himself up, with the cohesiveness of his own information if nothing else. Stephen had offered to come with him when he went to tell the team, for moral support if nothing else, and Tony had quickly declined. The last thing he wanted was for Stephen to get caught in the crossfire of the argument that was sure to break out once Tony brought up the subject. Steve would see it as a vulnerability. He always did. Anything that didn’t grant him 100% control was a bad idea in the captain’s books. Natasha would follow suit, backing Steve up, as usual. As oddly selfish as it sounded, Tony wanted to keep his newfound friendship with the sorcerer to remain untarnished, separate from the inevitable ugliness that came from any debate the Avengers had. Stephen had seemed oddly subdued when Tony had turned down his offer to come along, and it wasn’t until Tony explained that it wasn’t personal that the sorcerer agreed with him. The last thing they needed was more controversy, as the others might feel like they were being teamed up on if both Tony and Stephen confronted them. That was how Tony had put it, anyway. Stephen couldn't see how two against nine was unfair.
“Is Peter going to be there?”, Stephen asked as he had a sudden thought, downing the last of his tea.
“Nah, I’m not dragging the kid into the ugly beginning stages of this. If we get past the beginning stages, that is”, Tony said, dragging a hand across his forehead, planting his elbows on the table as he stared down at his empty plate.
“Well, I’m not saying he should be part of the decision-making process. I mean, he’s smart enough, that’s for sure, but I don’t think it’s fair to put that on him.” Tony looked up at him tiredly, the bags under his eyes apparent as he pulled his hands down his face.
“What are you getting at, Doc?” Stephen steepled his hands as he fixed Tony with a calm gaze.
“I’m suggesting he could be there to back you up if the rest of them are being unreasonable. I know they’ll see him as just a kid, but it might limit undue stress for you if he can give you a bit of support.”
“I’ll think about it.” Tony dropped his head again as he laughed bitterly. “God, six months and you’ve got them figured out better than I did in six years.” Stephen was taken aback by the tears glistening in dark brown eyes as Tony met his face. “Is it really that obvious that they’re a bunch of back-stabbing sons-of-bitches, or am I just that fucking dense?” The sorcerer’s brow furrowed, reaching a hand out.
“Tony-.”
“Can I get another refill for you?”, the waitress offered as she came and cleared their plates. “Or are you ready for the cheque?”
“I think we’re okay, thanks. The cheque would be good”, Stephen said with a small grin, turning back to Tony who had his face buried in his hands. He suddenly noticed the white knuckles on his left hand, squeezed so tightly into a fist that his whole body was shaking. “Hey, what’s going on with your hand?”
“Nothing”, Tony sniffed, head snapping up.
“Let me see”, the sorcerer rumbled gently, holding out his own shaking hand, palm up. There was a steady, but undeniable vulnerability in his eyes that Tony couldn’t quite put a single colour to, relinquishing his aching wrist from his own grip. Expert eyes, a doctor’s touch, both flitted over the limb that had never properly seen a medical exam and Stephen’s brow furrowed slightly. “Old injury, or…?”
“Yeah, something like that”, Tony muttered into the knuckles of his other hand, the metallic shards of discomfort running up his arm distracting him from how soft the pad of Stephen’s thumb was, pressed against the pulse racing in his inner wrist. A sudden, healing warmth spread through his arm, starting from under the sorcerer’s fingertips on his wrist, and Tony had to keep from gasping. It was near ecstasy, driving knives being replaced by honey-smooth heat and soothing, and Tony felt his entire arm relax before Stephen gently drew his hands away. He watched Tony take his arm back, turning it this way and that in his own grip, tentative, but a relieved grin grew on his face.
“I didn’t know you could do that”, he muttered in slight awe. Stephen looked uncertain now.
“It feels okay?”
“Better than it has in years. Was that just some sort of healing…spell…thing?”
“Yeah, it was just to relax your nerves and muscles, so it’s not a fix, but…” He sat back in his chair a little, shifting, like he’d done something wrong. “You should probably get that checked out by a real doctor.”
“Probably”, Tony rasped, inclining his head as their waitress came with the cheque. “Thank you, sweetheart.”
“The pin machine’s at the front if you need it”, she informed him out of habit, visibly cringing as she walked away. Stephen smiled sympathetically as she left.
“I can treat, unless-.”
“Don’t be absurd, Stephen”, Tony interrupted, snatching the cheque as he stood, letting his no longer aching hand brush a feather-light grip on the sorcerer’s shoulder as he passed. Stephen nearly stumbled over himself as he grabbed both of their coats from the backs of their chairs.
Stephen.
The sound of his name coming from the billionaire’s lips was foreign, but it felt like something that should have been happening all along. Stephen tried desperately to quell the feeling of his heart being squashed in his chest as Tony paid, leaving the waitress a $500 tip which caused her to visibly pale when she saw it.
“Thanks for putting up with us, hun”, Tony said as he took his coat from Stephen and they headed out onto the street. The rain was still pelting down at full tilt, the sorcerer hissing in an almost cat-like way as he conjured a large black umbrella, popping it out to hold above them.
“Don’t you have some sort of clear magic umbrella that comes out of your wand, or some shit, like Harry Potter?”, Tony asked as he did the buttons of his coat up, arm brushing against Stephen’s as they huddled under the umbrella.
“Not that I have a wand”, Stephen said pointedly, with a faux frown. “Yes, that is possible, but it draws too much attention.”
“And pulling an umbrella out of thin air doesn’t”, Tony drawled sarcastically as they headed down the sidewalk in the direction that they had come. Stephen only responded with a hum of acknowledgement, pulling the edge of his glove down to check the time.
“You have much planned for the rest of the day, then?”, he asked as casually as possible, loudly enough to be heard over the rain, and kept looking ahead as he tried to ignore how Tony kept bumping against him lightly as they walked.
“Uh, yeah, I guess. Meeting with a lawyer, right after this, actually. Pepper and I need to figure out how we’re divvying up all our shit, you know?”
“Wow, uh, sorry to hear it?”
“You’re terrible at comforting”, Tony informed him lightly. “Then I was probably gonna draw up some notes from today, not that I won’t remember all of it, Steve’s just a fan of documents, y’know? It appeals to his military brain-washing.” Stephen snorted lightly, making Tony chuckle with him.
“I might do that as well. Wong’s not as anal, but he’s a big fan of things being put to paper, so that’ll probably be for the best.”
“Yeah, wouldn’t want you to be kicked out of the book cult.” He laughed again as Stephen elbowed him lightly. The rain thrummed pleasantly on their umbrella and both men could feel their body heat trapped around their heads where the waterproof fabric kept it in. “And I got the kid coming over this afternoon to work on some updates for his suit. I swear to god, that kid goes through suits like I make them out of tissue paper. You should have seen the hole he tore in it last week. You wanna know how he said it happened?”
“I can’t imagine”, Stephen rumbled, smile lines creased as he watched Tony’s eyes alight with a a sort of intense, protective love for his kid.
“His foods class! Of all things. He was wearing the goddamned thing under his regular clothes and then him and Ted- Ed, what ever the hell his name is-.”
“Ned.”
“Right. He and Ned were trying to show off to the kid’s crush or whatever when they were chopping potatoes, and he-“, another disbelieving laugh wormed its way out of Tony’s chest and Stephen thought that he had never heard something so lovely. “He’s trying to do some fancy cutting thing and he ends up dropping the knife; three foot gash down the thigh of his suit, like this”, he said, holding his hands apart to demonstrate, one hand brushing against Stephen’s chest as he did. Tony sighed affectionately as he shoved his hands back in his coat pockets. “I swear, that kid’s going to be the death of me.” Stephen couldn’t help the surge of warmth overwhelming his chest; one thing never failed to make Tony happy and that was Peter.
“But you love him.”
“Of course”, Tony muttered without hesitation. “I mean, he doesn’t listen to a word I say and he’s almost getting himself killed constantly. I’m surprised he hasn’t actually landed me in the hospital with a heart attack yet. I’d say he gets it from me, but it’s not like we share blood.”
“I think you’ve rubbed off on him enough that that doesn’t matter”, Stephen chuckled.
“Hey”, Tony elbowed him gently, feigning offence. “You’re probably right. Well, this is me.” He stopped suddenly and Stephen’s heart sank as he found them standing in front of the familiar orange Audi.
“You don’t do inconspicuous well, do you?” Tony regarded the car as if he was noticing its bright paint job for the first time, edge of his mouth turned up in an amused grin.
“No, not really”, he agreed, turning to the sorcerer with a lazy eye roll. “Thanks for breakfast, Doc. I’ll let you know how the team takes the collaboration idea.” He clapped Stephen warmly on the shoulder, gripping him for a second as if he were about to say something else, but let go with a minute shake of his head. Stephen felt his cheeks flush as they walked around to the driver side, Tony ducking in while Stephen held the umbrella out for him.
“Tell Peter I say hi”, he choked out in a sudden, desperate attempt to prolong…whatever had just happened. The entire morning felt like an amazing, dream-like stupor right now.
“Tell him yourself”, Tony snarked back good-naturedly with a smirk. “He’s coming over for movie night on Friday, if you’re still coming, that is.” The billionaire looked at him from under his lids, looking like he should have been peering over the tops of his shades.
“Of course. I should be able to make it as long as none of the universes have other plans for me.” Tony snorted with a nod and secret grin to himself.
“Right, right. Inter dimensional space and time, monsters and all that, right?”
“Something like that”, Stephen agreed, meeting his eyes. “See you later, Tony.”
“See ya, Doc.”
Stephen walked around the front of the car, stepping back up onto the curb as the Audi pulled out and sped away, offering a wave that might have gone unnoticed. The heavy rain thrummed on his umbrella, taunting him in his dry, warm coat. Several thousand memories passed in the illusioned light of the rain as lightning cracked over the horizon, years of smiles and pain trapped inside his head every time he closed his eyes. Suddenly, the tassels of the red scarf around his neck were brushing against his cheek softly, questioningly.
“I’m okay”, he muttered, and he could tell that Levi didn't believe him, but settled back on his shoulders anyway. “It’ll be okay.”
Stephen walked back down the rain-soaked sidewalk, hope bubbling in his chest, already memorizing the feeling of Tony’s hand in his, the soft inside of his wrist exposed. Trusting. His shoes clacked rhythmically with the sound of a million raindrops as he walked, and the sorcerer smiled, the clouds above holding a turning point in the future that was always meant to be.