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Every night, I dream the same dream.
Stephen has royally fucked up, again. It seems to be a pattern at this point, and he doesn’t exactly know how to stop it from happening.
The tentacle monster was fine, really, compared to this. There is no easy way to put it when Stephen can barely believe it himself.
“Tony!”
Tony Stark flies towards him in a silver armor that glows in the hues of red and orange.
“Tony!” Stephen screams again even though the man can't possibly hear him from all the noise of the battle. Nobody knows which side Tony is on, nobody knows where this version is from, he is a complete mystery to everyone. Stephen flies a bit closer to this version of his dead husband and tries to catch his eyes, but they’re fixed on someone else, Stephen doesn’t even care to check who, he just needs this man to look at him.
“Tony!"
And then, the nightmare begins.
Tony turns to look at Stephen and suddenly all his worst fears are true.
Tony doesn’t recognize him. His eyes are just as angry as they were before and he shoots a blast towards Stephen, who blocks it with an orange shield. His eyes flicker towards Wong, who is fighting something slimy nearby. Wong bares his teeth, sends the slimy thing back into its original universe through a portal and rushes to help America Chavez, a kid Stephen has grown quite fond of, with the last monster. Maybe Stephen can sneak away for a moment, and besides, Tony seems to be the last threat. Stephen sighs and fixes his gaze on the man who has moved on to blow up a building.
“Stark!” Stephen yells and Tony turns to look at him with an evil smile on his lips. Stephen shudders and a yell gets stuck in his throat. His hands move almost automatically when he creates a portal into a mirror dimension.
I did, what I had to do.
The mirror dimension changes its form and turns into the penthouse he and Tony lived in for their scattered months together. Tony shows no signs of remembering or understanding but he softly lands on the carpet and just stares at Stephen with raised eyebrows. Stephen looks at his bloodstained robes, and his clothes turn into a t-shirt and jeans. The cloak settles on his shoulders, and he breathes in and out.
“Tony please”, Stephen pleads before he knows what he’s doing.
“Who are you?” Tony asks, “Stephen Strange, I know, but who are you to me? Why are you shedding your armor? That is a bad idea, I hope you know that.”
“I know.”
“Then tell me before I give in to the desire to kill you.”
Stephen’s heart has probably stopped beating.
“I- I am your- well, not your, my Tony’s husband.”
“Husband?”
This Tony seems surprised. He laughs and Stephen looks at him, brows furrowed.
“That’s probably the funniest shit I’ve heard all day. You and me? Sure, I see the appeal, you are quite pretty…”
Tony looks at him, up and down and Stephen frowns. This Tony has even more audacity than his Tony had had.
“My Tony is dead”, Stephen says, seriously and Tony looks surprised.
“How did he die?” He asks. This is not where Stephen wanted this conversation to go.
“Saved the universe with the Infinity Stones and died while doing it”, he says, trying to sound like he’s over it. He isn’t. He never will be. He is selfish. He hopes there would have been another way.
“How noble of him”, Tony says, mockingly. Stephen bites his tongue to avoid arguing with the man. It would just get him killed and he’s not too keen on dying in the hands of a man who looks so much like his Tony.
“He had to”, Stephen says, trying to appear nonchalant.
“I never have to do anything”, Tony snarls and to Stephen’s surprise walks to face him. Tony is almost as tall as him in this armor. It is silver but there is the familiar blue glow in his chest.
“What do you do then?” Stephen asks, raising his chin and looking at Tony contemptuously. Tony smiles at him, almost condescendingly.
“Whatever I want”, Tony answers.
“Then why are you here?” Stephen asks. He refuses to back down. It is not difficult to tell the difference between the Tonys, on the surface at least, but Stephen recognizes this side too. Tony is always Tony. This Tony has just embraced the evil inside of him.
“I was bored. Do you want a drink?” Tony asks and winks at Stephen.
“If you can find the whiskey”, Stephen just says. Of course this Tony drinks.
“You think I won’t recognize my own penthouse? You really aren’t as smart as they make you out to be”, Tony laughs, removing his armor too. It doesn’t look exactly like nanites, it has a more fluid movement to it when it gathers itself into the case Tony has on his chest. He makes his way to the cupboard where they used to have all their alcohol and Stephen rolls his eyes, snapping his fingers to make a bottle of whiskey appear. Tony looks delighted and Stephen isn’t sure if that is a good thing. He is, however, sure that he would do anything to make the shorter man smile. He looks so much like his Tony, with the same brown eyes and crooked smile, hell, he even has the same wardrobe. Stephen is sure he has seen that exact sleeveless shirt before.
“Thanks Doc”, Tony says and finds two glasses to pour the whiskey into.
Stephen feels like this is a trap.
It is a beautiful trap though. A few moments with Tony, just them two again, how much he has missed this.
Just a moment, and then Stephen will go back and send Tony back to his world. This version is a villain, for God’s sake.
To protect our world.
Stephen tells himself this is him stalling. Stalling until Wong and America get everything under control in their universe. Yeah, stalling.
“Stalling me won’t change anything”, Tony says, giving Stephen a glass. He swears in his head and makes a mental note to remember that Tony is annoyingly smart in every universe.
“No, no, no- threatening”, Stephen answers. Tony smiles.
“I see why I liked you so much.”
The past tense hurts. Stephen laughs despite the pain.
“Yeah.”
“So, tell me about us”, Tony says. Stephen grimaces.
“Why?”
“Why not. Like I said, I’m bored. Entertain me”, Tony says smugly and shrugs, “I have nothing better to do. Your universe is still there somewhere for me to take over or destroy, this is just a bit of fun before that.”
“You know that my Tony was a superhero, not a supervillain, right?” Stephen says, rolling his eyes. It fills him with guilt, talking about Tony like this, like he doesn’t care, like it means nothing that he is dead and gone and has been for the past year.
“Those labels are often interchangeable”, Tony says, as if that would fix the situation.
“Well, at least we were in the same side.”
“Who says we aren’t?”
“Me”, Stephen says, raising an eyebrow.
“A shame, that would have been a lot of fun. You and me, wreaking havoc”, Tony admits and takes a sip of the whiskey. He looks delighted. Stephen decides to ignore the whole becoming-a-supervillain-with-a-variant-of-his-husband -offer:
“Yeah, I remembered you like that brand.”
“Well thank you, good doctor.”
“I’ve been told that I am an asshole.”
“Oh, but you’re so adorable, who would say such lewd things to you?” Tony laughs and looks at Stephen over the rim of his glass.
“You”, Stephen says and dares to take a sip too. It is good whiskey after all.
“Makes sense”, Tony admits.
“What do you do in your universe besides supervillaining?”
“You know, the usual, inventing stuff.”
Tony seems almost too carefree.
“Sleeping around and drinking?” Stephen offers. If this Tony is similar to his, he should be no stranger to the horrible coping mechanisms.
“That too. Just girls though, but maybe I should go for men too…”
“Thanks”, Stephen says and finishes his whiskey. Tony giggles.
“Nah, I was talking about that friend of yours, the one with the buzzcut”, Tony says in the middle of his giggles, but when Stephen looks at him, daringly, he collects himself:
“Of course I was talking about you. You’re so much better than my Strange, he is so righteous and wants to be so good. You, on the other hand seem to understand me.”
Stephen shrugs and his brain is screaming at him, telling him that he’s stalling here, not desperately trying to find pieces of his lover in a twisted version that looks exactly like him. And is walking towards Stephen with a clear mission in mind. Shit.
The only thing Stephen can think about when Tony puts his arms around him and kisses him is that this version of Tony even smells like home.
“You cannot control everything, Strange.”
Stephen kisses Tony back and presses his body against the shorter man out of instinct. Tony’s breath hitches and Stephen rests his hands on the engineer’s hips. Tony breaks the kiss and looks at Stephen with a smile that is so familiar it sends a wave of panic through Stephen. What is he doing? This is a homicidal variant of his husb-
Tony kisses him again and God, this version even tastes like his Tony and Stephen can’t exactly breathe anymore.
“I most definitely understand what he- I saw in you”, Tony whispers in his ear and kisses his neck, slowly and infuriatingly. Stephen breathes in and out. What he saw in you.
His Tony is dead and the person kissing him is someone else and Stephen can’t do it, Stephen can’t let him go but he has to, everything is too much. He can’t. He can’t. He can’t if he sees Tony smile, if he sees Tony laugh-. He just desperately wants to go back in time to when it was his Tony smiling and laughing, when they were far from lovers, bickering in space, whatever, anything with his Tony, anything. He could have everything with this Tony, everything, but it would never be worth even a sliver of what he had with his Tony. Stephen has to send this version home.
“Tony”, he sighs and lifts the shorter man’s jaw so they can lock eyes.
“Stephen”, Tony says quietly and Stephen almost cancels his entire plan there and then.
“Let’s take this to bed, shall we?” Stephen asks, his voice steady, a note of teasing placed carefully in it.
“Yeah”, Tony smiles and Stephen clenches his teeth. Do it, do it, do it. Stephen creates a portal behind Tony and motions to it. Tony looks at it and then Stephen.
“Are you sure it’s safe?” he asks.
“Trust me”, Stephen just says and for two seconds he lets himself imagine that the man in front of him is the love of his life. Tony nods and Stephen lifts his hands to caress the man’s face for the last time. His hands travel on Tony’s chest and as he pushes the billionaire through the portal to his original universe, he closes his eyes.
He refuses to see the betrayed look in Tony’s eyes. He can't let himself see the eyes that belong to the man he loves more than anything. He doesn't want to see himself let Tony down again.