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Stephen is just finishing dinner when his phone buzzes and lights up with the name “Steve Rogers”. He frowns at it for a moment. The Avengers do periodically call him when they encounter threats with mystical elements, but these days it’s always Tony making the call. Stephen has little difficulty turning down the others, or sending an apprentice if it seems necessary, but when Tony calls… Well, he can never seem to resist. Even if he really should. Even though the Avengers noticed and started having Tony make all the calls.
That it’s Captain Rogers calling now means Tony is either unwilling or unable to call, and neither of those options sounds good.
“Captain,” Stephen says, answering. “What seems to be the problem?”
“It’s Tony,” Rogers says immediately. Stephen’s heart sinks. Please, no. “During our last battle, the target did something that released a pulse of light that knocked Iron Man right out of the sky. We thought the source was purely technological—there were no other magical elements to the fight—but Tony has been unconscious for three days now. Dr. Cho has run every test she can think of and there doesn’t seem to be any physical cause.”
“He’s in the medical bay?” Stephen stands and readies his sling ring.
“All of us are.”
He’d prefer not to have an audience, but this is typical for the Avengers. Stephen doesn’t bother to reply, just hangs up and opens a portal.
Rogers, Banner, Romanoff, Rhodes, Lang, and Van Dyne are all waiting for him on the other side. Stephen almost can’t see around them to the medical bed holding Tony. He strides through the portal and they shuffle apart to let him through. Raising his hands, Stephen summons a diagnostic spell. The problem reveals itself almost instantly: a web of black strands that appears to grow out of Tony’s heart, tendrils stretching out to plunge into his temples.
“What is that?” Lang asks. He sounds nauseated.
Stephen doesn’t blame him; his own stomach is turning. Curses have that effect. “It’s a curse,” he sighs.
“That sounds bad,” Banner says.
Van Dyne jumps in. “Can it be broken?”
“The short answer is yes.”
“And the long answer?” Rogers prompts.
“Do we need the long answer?” Rhodes asks. He waves at Tony. “If you can break it, then break it.”
“Apparently you need the long answer,” Stephen says dryly. “Curse breaking is exceptionally dangerous. The backlash of a broken curse can easily kill both parties involved. The good news is, the nature of curses means that you can’t cast one without including a safe release mechanism; that’s part of what makes them powerful.”
“How do we identify the safe release mechanism?” Romanoff watches him with narrow eyes as she speaks. A student of human behavior, Stephen expects she picked up on the edge of reluctance in his sigh. Hopefully, she’ll never understand it.
“I could study the curse’s structure to identify the release,” Stephen explains, “but in this case that won’t be necessary; I’m already familiar with it. Tony needs to be kissed by someone who feels absolute, unconditional love for him.”
There’s a beat of silence.
Lang grins. “True Love’s Kiss?” he says. Stephen can hear the capitals. “That’s real?”
Stephen frowns at him, but Lang’s enthusiasm goes undamped. “It doesn’t have to be romantic love. This curse is most frequently broken by parents.”
“Not an option,” Rhodes says. Not even, Stephen knows, if Tony’s parents were still living. But that’s beside the point: why hasn’t Rhodes mentioned— “I had better call Pepper.”
Everyone mills around a bit while Rhodes is making the call. They all seem a lot more relaxed than they’d been when Stephen got here, though. All of them except Rhodes himself. Stephen hadn’t been worried about not seeing Pepper in the medbay—as far as anyone could tell, Tony wasn’t in immediate danger, and it had been three days. But now, watching Rhodes speak quietly into his phone, unease swells in Stephen’s chest.
After a minute, Rhodes looks up and catches Stephen’s eye. “Can you open a portal for Pepper? She’s in her office.”
“I’ll need a photograph.”
One is provided to Rhodes’ phone; a moment later, Pepper steps through a portal. She looks at Tony, and worry fills her expression. Turning her gaze on Stephen, she says, “Absolute, unconditional love?”
“Yes,” he confirms. Pepper doesn’t relax, either. “You just have to kiss him.”
She nods, steps up to the medical bed, and pauses for a moment. Everyone is watching now. Suddenly, Stephen wishes he’d asked the team to leave. He could have come up with a reason. But Pepper is already leaning down to lay a gentle kiss on Tony’s lips.
It’s silent while they wait.
Nothing happens.
After a moment, Pepper sighs softly, but she doesn't seem surprised. “I’m sorry,” she says, looking down at Tony. Turning to face the team, she folds her hands in front of her. “I do love Tony… but our relationship has never been absolute. Or unconditional.” Rhodes lays a comforting hand on her shoulder.
“I should have asked for privacy,” Stephen offers, apologetic. No one should have to be exposed like this.
But Pepper waves off the words. “It was going to happen whether people were watching or not,” she says. “The important thing now is, how do we wake up Tony?”
All eyes turn back to Stephen.
“You said curse breaking was dangerous,” Rogers ventures. “But it is possible, right?”
“It is,” Stephen confirms. He knows what he needs to do. But… if there’s any other way… “I’d like to consult with a colleague, first.”
Wong is unamused once he’s briefed. He just fixes his gaze on Stephen and says, “You know what to do.”
“I know that’s an option— ”
“It’s by far the safest method,” Wong interrupts. “Do you want to risk his death? Or yours?”
Stephen deflates. The curious gazes of the Avengers feel like physical weights. “Of course not.”
“Good,” Wong states. Stephen expects him to leave, but instead he crosses his arms and nods at Tony. “Get on with it.”
For a brief moment, Stephen considers asking everyone to leave and then pretending that he’d used some complicated ritual to wake Tony. But only for a moment; lying to people he occasionally needs to trust him in a fight is a terrible idea, and the thought of a lie that big festering between him and Tony hurts. Besides, he probably owes this to Pepper.
Stephen steps up to Tony’s side, braces himself on the med bed, and leans down to lay a slow, tender kiss on his lips.
True Love’s Kiss or not, there’s nothing romantic about this. Tony is still and unresponsive, and if he were awake, he wouldn’t welcome this, so Stephen keeps it brief, if heartfelt. By the time he straightens up Tony is already stirring, and the other Avengers have burst into a flood of questions. Stephen ignores them, watching until Tony’s eyes flutter open before turning and escaping through a portal.
Maybe it’s cowardice to flee, but he doesn’t want to be grilled about his feelings, and he doesn’t owe anything to anyone but Tony. They can have that conversation in private, once Tony makes his own escape.
*
The first thing Tony sees is Stephen Strange. It would be a much nicer sight if the man didn’t look like his heart was breaking. He’s trying to hide it, but no matter how hard he tries to be stoic, he’s got expressive eyes.
The second thing Tony sees is the ceiling, because Stephen books it out of there. Probably to get away from the Avengers, who are… Well, it’s not quite shouting, but it’s still an awful lot of noise. Tony pushes himself up to sit with his legs hanging off the edge of the bed and is a bit put out when no one but Pepper seems to care that he’s, you know, conscious again.
Leaning over to Pepper, Tony says, “What’s going on?”
“You were cursed,” Pepper replies. “According to Doctor Strange, the safest way to break the curse was for someone to give you a kiss of ‘absolute, unconditional love.’” She gives him a gentle, sad smile.
Tony can guess what happened. “They called you, and you tried, but it didn’t work.”
“Yes.”
If it wasn’t for the hubbub around him, Tony’s next guess would have been that Stephen broke the curse some other way, but he’s heard at least five variations on, ‘Strange barely knows him,’ so far. “And then Stephen kissed me and it worked.”
Pepper nods. “I know the two of you have started becoming friends…”
Enough to be on the first name basis… “But not like that,” Tony finished. “You’re not wrong.”
Tony doesn’t believe in love at first sight. Lust, sure. Interest, no problem. But you can’t love someone until you know them. That’s why love changes over time–as you come to know someone better, it deepens or fades depending on how you respond to what you learn. He and Stephen have only really known each other for a few months. Which means that there’s something here he’s missing.
“Friday,” Tony says, “could you interrupt,” he waves a hand at the still babbling group, “this?”
In response, a discordant, piercing noise echoes through the room. Tony winces, but it does the job: everyone shuts up.
Tony claps his hands together, drawing everyone’s attention. “Thank you!” he says cheerfully. “Pepper has brought me up to speed—” that earns him a few sheepish looks, especially from Rhodey, “—and if we want some kind of explanation, maybe we should let Wong speak, yes?” He catches the sorcerer’s eye and raises an eyebrow.
Wong releases a long suffering sigh, but he doesn’t argue when their eyes turn to him. Tony ignores the sigh; if he hadn’t been willing to enlighten them, he’d have been out of there as fast as Stephen. “Do you remember Titan?” he asks, addressing Tony.
“You mean the planet where we killed Thanos?” Tony says dryly. “That Titan? Rings a bell.”
Wong is unmoved. “Do you remember how Stephen knew which path to take?”
Tony frowns. “Yeah. He said he went forward in time to view possible outcomes. To find the one that would work.”
“And how many of those were there?”
“14,000,605,” Tony says slowly. A few of the Avengers catch their breath, and it occurs to Tony that many of them hadn’t heard the number before. It hadn’t been relevant once they won.
Wong nods. “Using the time stone isn’t like flipping through channels on a TV,” he says. “In order to view those futures, Stephen had to visit them. Experience them, at least for a time.”
“If he spent even an hour in each one,” Tony says, “then that comes to—”
“1,598 years,” Friday finishes. “Rounded to the nearest year.”
For a moment, it’s so quiet you could hear a pin drop.
Eventually, Wong goes on. “The time stone does protect its user against the weight of that knowledge. If it didn’t, I think seeing us lose to Thanos over and over again for nearly 16 centuries would have driven Stephen insane. But he still feels the impact of those centuries. Some knowledge—the most important things—carry over. And you, Tony Stark, were the lynch pin of our victory. I expect that you were present in most futures Stephen viewed. Even if the experiences were disjointed—”
“1,600 years is more than enough time to fall in love,” Tony finishes. “Hell, at least that long. I’m betting he spent a lot more than an hour in some futures.” Wong just nods.
“So what happens now?” Steve asks.
“Now, all of you,” Tony waves at the Avengers, “leave, and I have a series of conversations.”
Natasha frowns. “Tony—”
“No,” he interrupts. “Whatever Stephen feels for me, or me for him, is no one’s business but his and mine. And Pepper’s, to a degree.” Tony shoots her a slightly apologetic look for that ‘to a degree,’ but she just nods. “The curse is broken, I’m fine, which means your interest in all of this is over. Capisce?”
Steve and Natasha look inclined to argue, but Scott nods. “Got it,” he says, and immediately heads for the door, Hope following. After that, the rest seem to feel it would be weird for them to stay behind.
Well, all of them save Rhodey, but Tony expected that. “Tony…”
“Pepper first, Platypus,” Tony says firmly.
Rhodey gives him a look. “Pepper first means you want to try something with Strange, and don’t get me wrong, he seems like a decent enough guy. Bit of an asshole, but so are you.” Tony chuckles at that but doesn’t argue. “I just want to make sure that you don’t feel like you owe him anything. That’s…” Rhodey sighs. “Well, it’s not a good basis for a relationship, among other things.”
“That’s not what this is,” Tony promises. “I’ll talk to you third, Rhodey. But—”
“Pepper first,” Rhodey says, nodding.
When they’re alone, Pepper hops up to sit on the bed beside him. “Do we actually need to talk?” she asks. “I think we’ve been having something like this conversation pretty regularly ever since Thanos.”
Tony makes himself look over at her, as hard as it is right now. “I just don’t want you to think I’m giving up on us.”
Pepper laughs softly. “Tony, you are giving up on us. So am I. That’s what you do when you decide a relationship isn’t working.”
“We hadn’t actually decided that yet, though,” Tony protests. “We were still trying to make it work, weren’t we?”
“We were trying,” Pepper agrees. “We weren’t succeeding. This life…” she waves, the gesture encompassing the entire Avengers Compound, “...this isn’t what I want. But it’s an important part of who you are. Whether you’re in the field as Iron Man or working behind the scenes, you can’t not help, and trying makes you miserable, just like pretending I can handle it makes me miserable.”
Tony smiles; he may be a genius, but Pepper is the smart one. “I still love you, you know.”
She pats him on the knee. “I know. I love you, too. But there’s someone else who loves you, too, and this life is as much a part of him as it is of you.”
“I don’t love him, though,” Tony admits. He feels a bit guilty about that, but he knows it's irrational—he’s only known Stephen a few months, their introduction wasn’t the smoothest experience ever, and Tony has been focusing hard on his relationship with Pepper the entire time he’s known Stephen. These circumstances do not a romance make.
“But there’s potential there?” Pepper says.
“Yeah.” Tony likes Stephen’s sharp sense of humor. He likes Stephen’s arrogance, as odd as that sounds—Tony has never quite known how to talk to tentative people. He tends to run them right over. He likes how smart Stephen is, and his expertise being in wildly different areas than Tony’s only makes those conversations more fun, because they can each give the other a new perspective on their work.
Pepper smiles at him. “Then you should go for it.”
Tony relaxes. “I want to take a shot at this,” he says. “But I don’t think I could have done it if you weren’t okay with it.”
“More than anything,” Pepper says, resting a hand on his knee, “I want you to be happy.”
“Ditto,” Tony tosses back, and she laughs.
*
Tony is capable of tracking Stephen down anywhere on Earth, so when he retreats, he goes to a different dimension. A peaceful one, where the light is warm and golden and the land is all small islands in the midst of a global ocean. The sound of waves washing up on the shore is soothing; Stephen often comes here when he needs to center himself. Wong will know where to look for him if there’s an emergency.
Stephen’s not sure how long he remains there. It’s hard to keep track of time here; the sun’s slow arc doesn’t have much relationship to time on Earth. He is not, Stephen tells himself, avoiding Tony. He was escaping from the Avengers, not from Tony. He and Tony are going to have to talk, one way or another. So when he feels as centered as he can get, he opens a portal to his bedroom and steps through.
Tony is stretched out on his bed, back against the headboard. There’s a tablet in his hands, but he soon sets it aside, his eyes on Stephen. “Wong said you’d come back here when you were ready.”
Faced with Tony in the flesh, Stephen doesn’t think all the meditation in the world could have prepared him for this conversation. His heart aches. He sits down on the edge of the bed, facing the wall instead of Tony. “I don’t expect anything,” he says firmly. “You’re with Pepper, and I have no intention of interfering with that relationship. I would like to continue to be friends,” God, he hopes they count as friends at this point, “but I will understand if things become too awkward.”
It’s quiet for a moment. Stephen doesn’t turn at the sound of movement, but he can see it out of the corner of his eye when Tony moves to sit on the edge of the bed next to him. “Making a lot of assumptions there, Doc.”
Stephen closes his eyes. “Please don’t make this harder.”
“I’m not trying to,” Tony says. “But before I tell you what Pepper and I talked about, I need to know why you’re so certain you’re going to get your heart broken. I like you, Stephen, and I’m still getting to know you. I have to think that in all those futures, there were some where I loved you back.”
“There were,” Stephen says, his voice breaking. His eyes are still closed, but he can’t stop tears from escaping. “There were millions of them. If you weren’t with Pepper, you were with me.” For a moment, all he can think about is those futures. The losing was terrible, but sometimes there were years and years of happiness before the end. The time stone has blurred the details, but he remembers the feeling. He opens his eyes and turns to look at Tony. “But only if you weren’t with Pepper. In most of those futures, we were on the run, trying to find a path to victory while staying ahead of Thanos. In the rest, Pepper was dead.”
Tony’s expression is gentle. “And in the ones where I was with Pepper? What happened in those?”
Stephen frowns and quickly wipes at the tears. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, what was I doing?” Tony asks. “If I wasn’t running from Thanos, what was I doing?”
It takes a moment to pull together his impressions. “Most of the time you were… very badly injured,” Stephen says finally. It’s hard to remember those futures, even in impressions. “Sometimes you—” he breaks off. It feels wrong to say it to the man who won on Titan.
“Sometimes I broke?” Tony fills in for him. “Couldn’t take it anymore and just gave in and moved out to the boonies and never spoke to any of you again?”
Stephen nods.
“I bet all those futures with Pepper had something in common,” Tony goes on. “I bet I gave up on being Iron Man. I bet I gave up on the Avengers entirely, in every single one of them.”
Stephen thinks about it. Even without the details, he has general impressions, and more than that, he can usually feel when a statement about the fourteen million futures is right or wrong. It’s a strange kind of intuition stemming from all that masked knowledge, but it’s never failed him, and right now he feels like… “I think you’re right,” he says slowly.
“I know I am,” Tony says, “because Pepper and I talked about it. She’s not happy when I’m heroing, and I’m not happy when I’m not. We’ve been struggling.” He smiles, a little sadly, at Stephen’s surprised look. “We were trying, because we love each other, but we both knew it wasn’t working. And now here’s someone who loves me, who feels the same way about protecting people and saving the world that I do. Someone who I could love back, if he’d give me a little time to catch up.”
Oh, hope is such a tricky, resilient thing. Stephen feels it swell in his heart for the first time in a long, long time. “You and Pepper—”
“We broke up,” Tony says. “I’ll always love her, but she’s not my happily ever after, and I’m not hers.” Tony takes a breath, and Stephen suddenly realizes that he’s nervous. “So. Do you want to give this a shot?” he waves a hand between the two of them.
“Yes,” Stephen says instantly. Tony huffs out a laugh, startled at the quick response, but Stephen isn’t going to let this chance slip through his fingers. “Can I kiss you?”
Instead of answering, Tony leans in. Their lips come together slowly, brushing lightly for a moment before both of them press in closer and let their mouths slide together properly. Stephen’s eyes close and his heart pounds as Tony kisses him so, so sweetly. This isn’t a possibility he may yet have to reset. This isn’t a vague impression of a million forgotten first kisses. His hands ache and his cheeks are still damp from his tears and the Cloak is clasping his shoulders tightly because this is real. It’s real, and it will still be real tomorrow.
Suddenly, the days stretching out in front of Stephen seem much fuller than all of those fourteen million futures put together.
~End~