Chapter Text
The bed Steven was sleeping on was certainly not his own, he had known that from the moment he had felt the brink of consciousness pressing against his skull, but that didn’t stop him from basking in the moment a little longer.
He was comfy, and warm and he trusted Marc enough to know that they weren’t in any danger, wherever it was he had chosen to rest up for the evening.
Steven had been taking a break of sorts since they had returned to the normalcy of regular life. With the newfound memories of Marc’s trauma, the realisation that he had been an alter of the body this whole time and that his mother was dead, it had been just a little too much for him. He had taken some time away from the on-going stress of everyday life once they were settled into things, choosing instead to turn off within the inner world for a while. He had no idea quite how long it had been- but it had flown by for him, so he couldn’t expect that it had been that long.
When he opened his eyes, he felt a jolt of panic run through him.
This was definitely not their bedroom.
Or maybe it was, and Marc had simply redecorated- maybe…they had moved? It would make sense, given the gloomy state of their flat in London, and after everything they had gone through there.
Although they had agreed, no major life changes for a while- not until they were more…adjusted, and this room was far too fancy for anything they could’ve possibly afforded.
It was then, he noted the arm hooked over his waist.
“Morning, Sunshine.”
Nope. Nope. Nope.
Steven found himself sitting up abruptly, eyes focused on the body curled up behind him - How hadn’t he noticed that immediately? Who the hell were they in bed with?
“I know, I know, you hate that name. C’mon, just a little longer in bed?” The stranger grumbled, already tugging Steven a little closer to him.
“Oh my god- No, I’m sorry. I think there’s been a mix up.”
That seemed to alert Stephen to something being wrong, if the way his eyes shot open to focus on Steven was anything to go by.
“What are you talking about, Marc?”
“Marc? No, no, I’m not Marc. Wait- are you that wizard, with the Avengers? I swear if he met the Avengers without me, I’ll never forgive him, I told him I wanted to be the one to meet them! What a dickhead...”
“What in god’s name are you talking about?” Stephen grumbled, still rubbing the sleep from his eyes as he tried to process whatever it was Marc was talking about.
“Well- whenever Marc and I talked about it, it was always gonna be me, you know? Because I was like- obsessed- with you guys for a while and-“
“Please, stop referring to yourself in the third person, and what’s with the accent? It’s freaking me out.” Stephen muttered, using his elbow to prop himself up on the pillow and get a good look at Marc.
“I’m not referring to myself in the third person- I’m Steven, I’m talking about Marc.”
“No…I’m Stephen.” He furrowed his brows, finally deciding to sit up in bed to look at his... whatever Marc was to him. There was something distinctly wrong with him right now, he looked genuinely confused, and that was before even addressing the fact that he was talking with some sort of British accent, and seemed to think his name was also Stephen.
“Stephen Strange, right? I’m also Steven.”
“No, you’re not. Did you hit your head last night? Or...”
Was this a spell? Had someone been cast into Marc’s body overnight? It wouldn’t be the most unusual thing to have happened, they both had a long list of enemies, and body swaps weren’t the hardest of spells to cast if you knew the right people for the job.
“Are we…oh, oh my god. Did he sleep with you last night? Are we...?” A quick lift of the covers confirmed Steven’s suspicions, and he quickly held the covers tightly over his own chest, as if it made any difference to the lack of clothes underneath. “Oh my god, is Marc gay? He never said anything- I just assumed because of Layla that he was interested in women but we…I mean you two slept together, right?”
“We slept together, Marc- “
“-Steven.”
“Okay, Steven, just give me a minute to figure this out, alright?”
“If you two are…oh god, I shouldn’t- I’m so sorry, this is so embarrassing, you’re literally dating Marc and I’m sitting here, naked, in your bed.”
Stephen reached forward to place his hand on Steven’s shoulder, squeezing it just slightly before letting go and opening his mouth to speak. At the touch to his shoulder, Steven shoved himself towards the edge of the bed, unceremoniously tumbling over the edge without giving Stephen even a second to react. He made quite the sight, rising up from the ground where he had landed, now with his suit on. All Stephen could do was watch as he dusted himself off, an awkward grimace on his face.
“That’s better, right?”
“Is that...the Moonknight suit?”
“Well- Marc calls it the Mr. Knight suit, because it’s…my version, you know?”
“So, you work with Marc?” Stephen was getting pretty tired of all this back and forth, he needed to figure out what had happened to Marc and how exactly to get him back- God knows where he had actually ended up. The man who was in his body had a British accent, which meant he was probably somewhere in England at least. He just had to find him and reverse the spell, which wouldn’t be too hard as long as it wasn’t anything too powerful- perhaps it was time to call Wong in and-
“Listen, Marc should be around soon, it’s been lovely to meet you and all, but you really don’t seem to know who I am and that’s really…it’s definitely a you and Marc conversation, okay?”
“Like hell am I letting you go anywhere right now, you could get yourself hurt or worse-“ Stephen pushed himself out of bed, entirely unbothered about the fact he had gone to sleep naked last night. Steven averted his eyes, staring up at the grand ceiling in order to ignore the stupidly attractive man walking away from him- Marc’s fucking boyfriend, of all people - just how long had he been stuck in the inner world for?
“It is a Saturday, Strange, and I can hear your banging from across the Sanctum, what the hell is going on?”
The cloak seemed to whirr to life from where it had been left on the coat hook last night, wrapping itself around Stephen’s shoulders in attempt to conceal at least some of his dignity as Wong burst into the room, clearly disturbed by the commotion the boys were causing at such an early hour of the morning.
“Look, I was just trying to leave.”
“-And you can’t because something is seriously, seriously wrong with you right now. Tell him what your name is!”
“For fucks sa- My name is Steven!”
“No, his name is Stephen.” Wong glanced towards Stephen, still wrapped up in his cloak, although he appeared to be making an effort to dress himself at the presence of another person. It didn’t seem like the first time either of these men had been in this sort of position- or maybe they just had more important matters to deal with at present.
“I think he may have hit his head, or worse, someone’s cast a body swapping spell- we need to figure out what’s going on so we can reverse it.” Stephen moved around the bed to stand in front of Steven, his hand waving in the air for a few seconds before a few sparks of gold circled Steven’s wrist.
“Look! You can’t reverse this, believe me, we’ve tried! This really isn’t something I should be doing- you need to speak to Marc and just-“ His sentence was abruptly cut off as Stephen cupped his cheeks in the palms of his hands, angling his head up just slightly to look him in the eyes.
“Listen, I don’t know what’s going on, and I understand that you’re afraid, but I cannot let you go until this is fixed. It isn’t safe for you, and we need to find Marc and make sure he’s okay too.”
“Marc is right here!” Steven snapped, turning his head away from Stephen to put some space between them. “We’re the same person, or…the same body, at least- different people in the same bloody body, alright?”
Stephen seemed to pause where he stood, letting his hands fall by his sides. “Wong, can you detect any recent magic on him?”
“Nothing would have gotten past the wards on the Sanctum without alerting either of us,” He mused, crossing his arms where he stood, watching the two together. “Perhaps he’s telling the truth, Stephen, we’ve both dealt with stranger things than this.”
“You think Marc is some kind of…human Dr Banner and Hulk-equivalent?” Stephen muttered, closing his eyes as he mulled it over.
“Not necessarily. I think this is more of a human illness than the gamma radiation poisoning Dr Banner experienced.” Wong sighed, his head tilting just slightly as he watched Steven. “Right?”
“Yes. Please, I just want to go home. Marc is fine, I swear, I’ll have him call the second I can speak to him.” Steven begged, the atmosphere of the room taking on a slightly more panicked air. He was sure Stephen wouldn’t hurt him, but the last thing he wanted was for random spells to be cast or potions forced down his throat because the wizard didn’t believe that he was part of Marc’s body and not just some ‘invader’.
“That doesn’t fix anything! A human illness is just as bad as anything else you could have come up with- if Marc is fine, then why isn’t he in control of his own body?” Stephen yelled, turning his anger towards Wong, how the hell could he accept some intruders’ words so easily? “Do you have any common sense at all?”
“Enough, move.” Wong exhaled, moving around Stephen to stand in front of Steven. “Don’t panic, alright?”
That was all the warning Steven had before Wong’s hand pushed into his chest and sent him floating backwards, he instinctively tried to catch himself before making a distraught noise at the sight of his body in front of him, slowly falling into Wong’s waiting hands. He felt…light and floaty, tingly around the edges. He didn’t feel real.
“No, no, no-“ He panicked immediately, his hands flailing around to grab at himself- it was like he had been kicked from the body. He couldn’t have been kicked out though, could he? Although he supposed anything was possible with magic. What if he had been permanently ejected ? How was he going to survive as some ghost and-
“What the fuck just happened?” Marc gasped, seemingly appearing to be catching his breath. He appeared fully dressed in his Moonknight suit, although he had ripped the mask off his face. “What the fuck did you do?”
Stephen seemed to be, for the first time in his life, speechless. He stared between the two astral projections in front of him, before sitting down on the bed. Why were there two souls inside of Marc- and how had Wong been so sure of ‘Steven’ telling the truth?
“You really need to work on those trust issues of yours, Strange, and maybe open a medical book once in a while, hm?” Wong murmured, before deciding to take his leave and slip out the bedroom door before all hell broke loose.
“Stephen! Would you fuckin’ answer me?”
“Give me a second, dammit! Do you wanna explain why I’m staring at two of you instead of one?” Stephen stood up from the bed, almost going to grab Marc by the front of his suit before he realised he couldn’t quite do that in this form.
“Two?” Marc whispered, looking back towards where Steven was. “Because there are two of us. Steven- hasn’t been around lately, and he’s none of your fucking business, alright, Strange?”
“No, no, it’s not alright. You made him my business the moment you climbed into my bed. Don’t you think it’s important for me to know that Khonshu split you in two? That not only am I sleeping with you, but there’s a whole other side of you I need to be aware of?” Stephen hissed, running a hand through his hair before standing up and walking away from the two souls to tug the trousers he must have been wearing the prior night on. “You had no right to keep that from me.”
“You’re not entitled to know anything about me, Stephen.” Marc followed him around the other side of the bed, leaving Steven to stand alone by their body which had been gently laid on the floor. At least he would be stuck like this with Marc, but it all honesty, it didn’t make him feel much better about the situation. “Khonshu had nothing to do with this- with us!” Marc gestured over to Steven. “We’ve been like this for as long as we can remember. I thought you were a Doctor , Stephen.”
“What does being a doctor have to do with anything, Marc! Last I checked-“
“Bloody hell- we have D.I.D!” The room stilled as two sets of eyes turned to Steven, standing in the corner like some scared lamb. “Please, for the love of Christ, stop yelling at each other. My head hurts, and we’re floating around like…like a pair of ghosts, and I have no idea how we got here, or how long I’ve been gone for, so can we please just stop yelling?” Steven sighed, finally bringing his hands up to rub at his face.
Astral Projection took a lot out of people the first time, and Steven was no different. Not to mention the fact that he had been in the inner world for god knows how long, he wasn’t used to dealing with this sort of conflict. The entire reason he had formed was to be the one who didn’t experience the screaming and the hitting and the-
“Okay, Steven, okay. I’m sorry- come here?”
Steven wasn’t sure when Marc had appeared in front of him, but he didn’t hesitate before stepping into his open arms, thriving on the way Marc actually enveloped him in his arms. The last time they had been able to feel each other had been back in the Duat, but here they were, at least somewhat in the real world, and touching each other. Steven clung to him just a little tighter, as if the moment would fade away at any second. “I missed you.”
“I didn’t… I didn’t know, Marc. You didn’t tell me-“
“Some things aren’t for you to know, Stephen. We went through hell with Khonshu, he targeted us because we were vulnerable, and I won’t make that mistake again.” Marc murmured, Steven still tucked away in his arms. He still carried the guilt of everything he had put both of them through, it had never been Steven’s choice to become Khonshu’s Avatar, and yet he had still paid the price for it.
“Do you think I would take advantage of you like that, Marc?”
The question seemed to stop Marc in his tracks. He took a sharp breath, finally letting go of Steven and turning to almost shield him from Stephen.
“I wouldn’t, Marc.”
“Put us back, Stephen.”
“You need to understand that I would never-“
Marc cut Stephen off, seemingly uncaring of whatever it was that the elder was going to say. “Put us back, Stephen!” He snapped, taking a step towards the sorcerer. “I’m not fucking around.”
The last thing he ever wanted to do was put Steven in danger again after the events of Khonshu.
“Just…touch your body, alright? You need to make contact with it.”
Marc pushed Steven back towards their body first, before turning to Stephen. “This- whatever it was, it’s over, Stephen. Don’t speak to us again.” Marc warned, turning back towards the body as Steven gained control and sat them up. “I mean it.”
Stephen couldn’t bring himself to follow as they walked away, the doors to the Sanctum closing as the cape flew off of Stephen's shoulders in a weak attempt to give chase in Stephen’s place.