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Stark was raving about the disassembled armor scattered around him. Not like a lunatic, although he did have those moments as well, but there was something almost Shakespearean about his passion on the present topic. If he pulled another one of his terrible Thor impressions, Stephen could have taken him for an actor. He certainly had enough drama for it.
“Friday, if you would just override the failsafe, I promise it won’t blow up. I built it myself, I know what I’m doing.” Tony practically begged.
“I’m afraid I can’t do that, boss. That failsafe is a backup in case I can’t convince you out of your more ‘hairbrained’ decisions. That’s how you programmed me and the armor.” The A.I. answered. Even her serene automated voice sounded strained.
Stephen wondered just how long the two had been going at it. He had business in Limbo that kept him occupied since 2am that morning when he was awoken by a warning that a demonic power struggle was getting out of hand and had the potential to unleash phalanx of demons upon the earth. He hadn’t recalled seeing Tony in bed before slipping off to another dimension. He returned from the weary, weeklong trip to find that only 18 hours had passed on Earth thanks to interdimensional time zones and differences in the laws of physics on other planes of existence. When he went into the kitchen to find something edible, he found a note from Wong. His fellow sorcerer was long gone, citing some need to go and check in on the other sanctums and that he would be back ‘soon’. When Stephen came out of the kitchen with a cup of white lavender tea to find the foyer in a state that resembled a garage that had been struck by a cyclone, he suspected that Wong’s soon return might be somewhere into next week. That was how he had found Tony. Nuts, bolts, friend circuits and armor pieces were littered all across the floor, with Tony in the center of it all, the bare bones of an old iron man suit cradled in his lap.
Stephen was surprised that Tony had already moved on from updating the design of his nanotech armor. Ever since the battle with Thanos on Titan and the subsequent war over the infinity gauntlet, Tony had been working out a way to improve the design of his latest model. Mostly just to find a way that would render it inert if someone tried to stab him in the gut with the blade configuration again. Tony still had the scar just above the contour of his hipbone. Although he was fortunate that that was the only souvenir from that injury and that he hadn’t ruptured a kidney.
But this was a brand-new project, cobbled together from the remains of his original Iron Legion project. Plates of golden armor and emerald colored marked with the model numbers XXI and XXVI. Repurposing the remains of operation clean slate had been part of the recycling kick Tony had come into ever since Peter did a report on recycling in industry for school and focused his project on Stark Industries. Tony had a hard time living it down and like many realizations, he dedicated himself to it with a laser focus.
Tony threw down his tools in frustration. By the looks of it, Friday had won their little argument. With the iron avenger a little less distracted and still mildly riled up, Stephen threw in his own jab. “Between Friday and Vision, I don’t see how you still believe you can win against an A.I.”
Tony jumped slightly at the sound of Stephen’s arrival but the frustration melted from his face, “I beat Vision at chess just last week, it’s possible.”
“Mm, he let you win.” Stephen corrected.
Stephen walked over to where Tony was seated on the floor. He was covered in grease stains, from all over his clothes to a few smudges all over his face. Stephen couldn’t help taking a swipe to clean off the smudge below his left eye, right along his cheekbone.
“Whatever, I still count it as a win. But in this case, I’ll have you know I’m right. I appreciate Friday trying to keep me from blowing myself up. Once I update her improv subroutine, she’ll see that this is a perfectly rational solution to dealing with the irrational.” Tony said.
“I think she already has that down.” Stephen said. Agamotto knows that any person or program close to Tony Stark had to be well versed in the irrational. Not even the strongest spells in his repertoire would be enough to save Stephen from how enamored he was by that infuriating trait.
Tony leered at him, “Friday has a lot to learn to keep up with my attempts to upgrade the magical defense protocols.”
He pulled out a tome that he had evidently snuck from the Sanctum’s library. It too was covered in grease and there was one smudge on the front cover that looked suspiciously like a burn mark. Perhaps it was a blessing in disguise that Wong wasn’t around. That man would raise hell if he found out that someone was running amuck in his library and destroying its contents. Especially if that someone was Stark.
Stephen took the book from Tony. He recognized it as a Latin tome of defensive spells and enchantments. It wasn’t one of those cheap book of parlor tricks that Stephen had given Wong for his birthday. Some of the book’s contents required a serious understanding of the craft, to the point that Stephen was hesitant on attempting some of them.
He raised an eyebrow and tucked the book beneath his arm as he moved to sit in the one spot beside Tony that wasn’t completely engulfed in this engineering mess. The tea cup shook rather violently on its platter as a tremor spasmed through his hands while he settled on the ground.
“What new scheme is unfolding in that brain of yours Stark?” Stephen asked.
Tony looked down at his shaking hands and gave Stephen a worried look before answering. “I’m attempting to bridge my suit’s functions with some mystical protections, but it seems that my software programming and magic spells aren’t compatible, unless I find a way to rewrite the spells in binary. Are you alright, your hands- “
“My hands are fine.” Stephen said as he attempted to set down his tea and the book but managed to succeed at splashing hot tea onto his fingers.
Tony took hold of his hands and after seeing to it that the hot liquid only exasberated his already sore nerves and that he wasn’t scalded, began to massage them lightly. “Liar,” he said with a soft smile.
The tension in Stephen’s hands melted under Tony’s ministrations. Stephen closed his eyes and took in how all of this, sitting with Tony in the foyer after a long day was pleasantly mundane, especially compared to the other wonders and horrors housed in the Sanctum.
A question nagging at his thoughts pulled him from this nice moment. “Why do you need an enchanted Iron Man suit for? You and your Avengers pals take on super villains, alien invasions, and all the avenging in between. Wong and I have a handle on any mystic threats that try to creep into our world. You don’t need to worry about incursions from other realities, dark magic, and the creatures that go bump in the night.”
“What happens the next time Dormammu comes back to bargain and he brings Voldemort along as back up? Your two-man Hogwarts team can’t possibly do it all by yourselves.” Tony said.
The memory of Dormammu sent a shiver down Stephen’s spine. “How do you know that name?”
Tony met Stephen’s gaze and lowered it, focusing intently on the sorcerer’s hands. “You talk in your sleep, darling. Seems like I’m not the only one who has nightmares about bad guys.”
“I have this recurring dream, I’m out to dinner with you until I suddenly wake up and I’m back in the Dark Dimension facing the dread Dormammu. I’m trying to stop him again but I’m losing. I can’t stop him from taking the time stone, so instead of creating time loops to get him to bargain, Dormammu’s using it to make me see a life I’ll never live, again and again. Torturing me before he escapes his prison and destroying the world.” Stephen explains.
“I doubt lord lounge-dress had the imagination ot dream up the idea of you and me ending up together after saving the planet from a space grape.” Tony jokes, trying to lighten Stephen’s mood.
Nightmares were an inescapable job hazard that came along with being Sorcerer Supreme. Even the strongest of dream catchers and potions could keep some of the nightmares and dream demons at bay. The worst of the dreams stole night after night of precious sleep from him. Stephen couldn’t even remember a night since his accident that he had slept soundly. But the loss of sleep and nightmares were worth it if they meant that Stephen could stop Limbo demons, Mephisto, or even Dormammu himself from hurting a single person on Earth.
But then Tony grew somber, his eyes searching Stephen’s. “Maybe letting me fight by your side so it’s not just you and Wong fighting terror and madness by yourselves would help you sleep better.
“I used to have nightmares about the Chitauri, Ultron, hell even Obadiah used to keep me up at night. But it got better when I got the Avengers to have my back and learned to trust them. I’m not saying you need a backup band of wizard Avengers, but you don’t have to carry this all on your own. You can count on me having your back.”
“Tony.” Stephen looked at this incredible man sitting at the heart of the mechanical mess in his foyer. He seemed so out of place among cursed relics and tomes written in dead languages from different dimensions. But Stephen couldn’t picture living in the Sanctum without him anymore. Even after divining the future for the best outcome to survive Thanos’ snap and seeing Tony’s surprising way to save the world, Tony Stark found new ways to go above and beyond to surprise Stephen more. This was a man who fought personal demons made of men and metal, who was willing to enter Stephen’s mad world to help fight actual demons. All so that Stephen would sleep better at night.
Stephen found himself tumbling deeper down the rabbit hole that was loving Tony Stark. “Incorporating magic into your systems isn’t going to work like programming a mac to run on windows. Forging your armor with enchanted metal and then incorporating Friday and your other programs might do the trick.” He relented, hoping that this would kill two birds with one stone: resolving Tony’s armor hang up and the overprotective worry in his heart.
The joy in Tony’s smile could have easily outshone supernovae. “Another win for the beautiful mind of Doctor Stephen Strange.”
He was careful about letting go of Stephen’s hands but as soon as they were out of harms way, he planted an excited kiss on Stephen’s lips. “We’ve got work to do!”
Stephen groaned. “I’m already regretting this.”
Tony leapt up with the same enthusiastic grin he had seen a hundred times before on the Spider-kid’s face.
Stephen rose slowly and gave a whistle to summon the cloak of levitation. “I swear if you name this the magicbuster armor, I’m not helping you anymore.”
Tony wrapped his arm around Stephen’s waist. “You never know, it might grow on you.”
“Heavens know how you managed to.” Stephen grumbled.
“Love you too Stephen.” Tony said.
“Tony, before we start-“ Stephen began.
“Mhm?”
Stephen smiled devilishly, “Clean up the mess you’ve already got going. If Wong sees that we’ve turned half the Sanctum into a garage, he’ll kill the both of us and portal our bodies to the moons of Neptune where no one will ever find them.”