Work Text:
Something good and pure in you had served to balance the evil and corruption in him. That was why you had been the one to fall into his universe. Even after he had fallen prey to the Darkhold the fates had decided he deserved a chance at redemption. That was why you saw a silver lining where he only saw a dead end. It made you an odd couple of sorts, but you brought out something in him he had thought died long ago.
You balanced each other, and you balanced the cosmic scale of the crumbling universe around you. Instead of continuing to devour the city piece by piece, the world had found a sort of homeostasis. It was something he had only noticed after that day when gave you his sweatshirt. When you had fallen asleep in his arms. After he let his affections for you show.
Not long after that your relationship began to bloom in something beyond incidental housemates. First into friends, then slowly moving towards lovers.
Pieces of the world slowly stopped crumbling away. Day after day he had grown used to looking out the large window of the Sanctum only to see a new building that had fractured in two, or rubble where a building had been just the day before. It took a few days before he realized that nothing was changing anymore. A hunger seemed to have been satiated in the maw of the incursion.
As the hunger of the cannibalistic world faded, a hunger grew inside him. An emptiness that yearned to be filled. He wanted to change too. He wanted the emptiness in his heart to be filled by you. By your love.
The first time he kissed you, really kissed you, was the first day you saw the sunshine since you had been there.
The whole thing came to a head the first time you got him to slow dance with you. It was to an old country record you were surprised to find in the Sanctum at all. It was "In A Different Light" by Doug Stone.
It was a song you had spent hours hearing your parents dance to, when you were growing up. It was their song. Of all the things to find here, at the literal end of the world, this seemed like such an odd thing. Even Strange said that he had never seen it there before you found it. Not that it was exactly his style of music anyway he could easily have looked right past it.
You essentially had to beg him to dance with you. All you were asking was one slow dance. After some arm twisting and making your best sad face he finally relented. Secretly pleased when you giddily ran over to put the song on.
He extended one hand to you to grasp and reached to wrap his other arm around your waist. He tried to hold you at a slight distance, to keep his frame stiff and formal, but as he heard your sweet voice sing along to the song softly he started to let himself melt against you. Pretending for a moment you were just another couple dancing in your home. There was no incursion and no crumbling building, you were just normal and you were happy together.
"You know in a weird way this song is perfect to describe us. I see you as such a different person than who you try to be. I really like that person Stephen. I like it here, with you."
Your confession pulled him from his fantasy and he became crushingly aware of his own fate once again. This was his punishment, he was doomed to be miserable. It was something he was sure of. At least he was sure of it, before you. Now he didn't feel so sure of anything. This had to be some sort of joke. You couldn't be happy. He couldn't be happy.
"Why do you insist on trying to project some happy fantasy onto your life here?! You are trapped here with a monster! With the man who did this! You should hate me with your entire being! Why do you insist on trying to love me when all I can do is cause pain and suffering?! I cannot save you from this place!"
His suggestion hurt you. You had truly started to care for him. You saw the cracks in his cold facade. You were falling for the man who let you see beneath the surface. He wasn't about to shut you out again without a fight. He had to know that you would fight for him. For he man who likes it or not, somehow, someway did something to bring you there.
"Who says I want to be saved?! I'm not some damsel in distress Stephen, and I don't see you as some broken toy to fix either. I have never asked you to be anything other than who you are. Who says I'm not happy here exactly as things are, you and I?"
"You can't be happy here! You just can't!" He screamed as he pulled at his hair in frustration both at you and himself.
The best thing to do was remove yourself from the situation. You were both letting your emotions get the best of you. You were both angry and upset. So you removed yourself from the situation.
"We aren't doing this right now. We will do this once we can talk about it without screaming. I'm going to be in my room, and I need to not see you for like 2 hours. So I can calm down. Okay? Come find me when you're ready."
He stood in stunned silence. Once again you managed to take him by surprise. He wasn't used to fights that didn't just continue to dissolve until things started being thrown and things were said that could never be taken back. You waited to walk away until you saw him give an almost imperceptible nod.
You stayed away from each other the rest of the day. At opposite ends of the Sanctum, or at least you tried. You could feel his presence when he would come to your side, just to make sure you were okay, even though you knew he thought you couldn't. He liked to underestimate you.
You hated how cold the room felt when you curled under the covers of the bed you hadn't slept in in months. In the bedroom he said was yours when you first arrived. You had grown so used to snuggling into his side, feeling him go stiff at first be relaxing into your touch. You knew you had to let him come to you though, he would tell you when he was ready to talk.
He cracked open the door of your room when he knew you were sleeping soundly. He felt so lonely even with you just that far away. He had to understand what made you so confounding to him. He had to understand this idea of love that you had. The image that had been set for you in your mind all those years ago.
He wouldn't mess with anything. He just wanted to see. So he grabbed and pursued the books of the Sanctum in the dark of night looking for the one he needed to take him there. The one that would allow him to turn back the clock & see.
As he cast the spell he watched the decayed Sanctum melt away to the sight of greenery & fresh smell of cut grass. It was early evening & the noise of crickets starting to sing could be heard over the sound of the radio. On the porch stood your parents arm in arm in their own world dancing & singing to each other. Laughing when one of them would be horribly off key or step on the other's feet.
"Are you a prince?"
A small girl with pink cheeks & a pure curious smile had snuck up behind him. Dressed in a shimmering princess dress & crown. He recognized her smile immediately. It was you. You were maybe 7 at the time, but it was without a doubt you.
He was surprised not only at your question, but at the fact you could even see him. He had taken care to magically cloak himself. It must have worked as your parents were clearly none the wiser to his presence. They weren't far away from where you had been playing. So why could you see him?
He didn't want to frighten you, but he desperately didn't want to disrupt the timeline & return to the Sanctum to find you now erased from his life. He decided to just get out of the situation as fast as he could. Pretend he was a new neighbor dropping by, or a salesman. Something innocuous.
"Far from it actually. I was hoping to see your parents, but I don't want to interrupt. So I'm just going to leave & come back later."
He started trying to back away from you and move towards the street. Once he was out of eyeshot he would portal back to the Sanctum. Before he could get far though you lunged forward & grabbed both of his large hands in your small ones without a hint of hesitation. If you noticed his scars it didn't show. How his appearance hadn't terrified you he didn't know.
"Wait! You seem sad. Will you dance with me? Dancing always makes me smile, & you seem like you need to smile."
It was very apparent to him at that moment that you were still the same person you were all those years ago. You had always had an optimism & a curiosity that even in his best days, before the Darkhold, he never had. The pureness of intent was the same. You just wanted to help him. It wasn't about making him into your perfect Prince Charming. It was just about wanting to see others happy. Even him.
"Who am I to say no to a princess?"
So he let you lead him as you turned & side stepped together, around in a small circle. He thought about all the ways the world had jaded him even before he succumbed to the evil of the Darkhold.
That what had brought him to the moment you came into his life was a desperate search for somewhere he was happy. Where he could have the love he felt he had been so cruelly denied.
He thought about the question Christine had asked him on her wedding day; 'Are you happy Stephen?'
He had given up long ago on ever even thinking he would approach that feeling, but as he thought of you he realized. You made him happy. He was happy when he was with you. That's why he pushed you away earlier. He was being given the thing he had wanted more than anything, & it scared him.
He wasn't miserable with you there, he was happy. Finally, He was happy. He wasn't just happy, he was falling in love. That's why the universe was repairing itself. The very thing it had been fractured to find was blooming inside its broken pieces.
As the song ended, a genuine smile was no on his face as well as your small cherubic one. He had to get back & apologize. He had to make things right. He let your hands fall from his & took a bow.
"Thank you princess. I feel much better now."
Your mother suddenly called your name & he immediately worried he had been found. As soon as you turned away he vanished himself out of your world & back to the Sanctum of his own universe. Immediately going to make sure he hadn't changed his own world beyond salvage once again.
You were still there. Still asleep. Holding the light blue sweatshirt, his light blue sweatshirt, close to your chest & cuddling into it as a substitute for his presence. He fought the urge to go pull the garment from your grasp & slide into its place, his place, next to you.
For once he wanted to do things right though, & the right way to say he was sorry wasn't to slink in under the cloak of darkness. He wanted to make a grand gesture. To show you how much you had changed him. That he may not be a good man by the standards of most in the multiverse, but he would be a good man for you. You made him happy.
So he worked for hours to make everything right. He cleared out a space to use as a dance floor and surrounded it with candles. Then he put on your parents' song loud enough for you to hear in your room and waited for you to wake up.
When you wandered into the room you were clearly confused and still half asleep. Hair disheveled and wearing your favorite old baggy t-shirt and ratty pajama shorts he had magically recreated for you after you arrived. You still managed to take his breath away.
You slowly wandered over to him, about to ask what was going on. He went ahead and beat you to the punch. The longer he waited to speak the greater the chance he would over think it and chicken out.
"I've never been good at saying the words 'I'm sorry', so I hope that this will help show you that I am sorry. I didn't mean what I said. I got overwhelmed. I'm not used to having someone else here. I'm not used to caring for someone or having someone care for me. So… will you dance with me?"
You smiled at him softly. While he spoke you continued to walk towards him. So instead of answering first with words you reached out and placed his arms around your waist. Yours looping around his neck and pulling him to the center of the floor.
"I'll always dance with you Stephen. All you have to do is ask."
As he held you in his arms and started slowly spinning you around the floor of the Sanctum a flick of his hand illuminated tealight candles floating in the air above and around you. It almost looked like you were surrounded by fireflies. That alone had you speechless. When he started to sing you had to fight not to cry. It was barely audible at first, but you recognized it immediately.
I see you... In a different light
Your hair falling down
With love in your eyes
In my mind... You're a beautiful sight
I see you in a different light
Just the way I saw you, last night
"I'm sorry for being such an asshole. I just... You know I've been here alone and I've done some terrible things... I don't think you're capable of harming a fly. I just don't deserve you, someone as irredeemable as me doesn't deserve someone so good, but I want to deserve you. I want to be better... for you, because of you. You make me happy and searching for happiness is what got me here. I just forgot how to let myself feel happy. A villain isn't supposed to get the princess and live happily ever after. I'm scared, but I'm happy… because I'm falling in love with you."
"Stephen, I understand how hard it's been for you here. I also know that something you did caused this, and in time I hope you'll tell me everything. Truthfully. To me, it feels like I was brought here to help you, not to change you. So all I want is for you to be the man you want to be. Know that I will always see you in a different light than the one you cast yourself in. A princess doesn't have to find a prince, Stephen, they just have to find someone who makes them happy. You make me happy and I'm falling for you too."
You danced in silence for some time before you finally spoke again.
"I remember you by the way. It took me a bit of time after I got here, but it hit me one day. When you thought I didn't see you watching me. That day in the backyard. My parents were convinced I had made you up and that no one was there. That you were some imaginary friend I created, but I knew you were real. I don't know how, but I knew. That's why I believe in you. That's why I love you, because I always have. Even if you aren't a prince."
You tilted your head up to his and he let his lips melt into yours. You stood surrounded by the flickering lights and for a moment the decayed facade of the Sanctum faded into what it once was. You looked up to see Stephen actually smiling down at you.
"Stephen, before either of us says anything to mess this up, take me to bed please. Make love to me."
He lifted you up bridal style and kissed you once more before he started walking toward the bedroom. "Who am I to say no to a princess?"