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“I swear to God, I will tie you to the bed if you keep doing this Stephen!” Tony yelled as the mage wiped up excess blood from the gash in his side. An alien had invaded and Stephen had been shot while attending to a civilian.
“Tony, it’s really not that big of a deal,” Stephen said, his words accentuated with a slight eye roll, “You’re exaggerating.”
Stephen’s words irked the engineer, “It is a big deal when it involves you! You have to be more attentive to this shit Steph!” The words were pouring out of him at this point and showed no sign of stopping. “Maybe if you were more attentive to things, your sister wouldn’t have died, and I wouldn’t hate you as I do now!”
A quiet gasp resounded through the room, and Tony immediately regretted everything. Looking at the sorcerer in the eyes, he could see tears welling up in those beautiful blue irises. A shaking hand raised up to Stephen’s mouth, silencing any cries that might come out.
“Fuck, Stephen, I didn’t” Tony started, reaching out to grab the still trembling hand. He stopped his sentence when Stephen backed away as if Tony had a disease. “Steph, please I’m sor-”
“I-I’m just going to go,” Stephen said quietly. If Tony had been any further away, he probably wouldn’t have heard it. “Goodbye, Tony.” The familiar orange ring appeared as Stephen stepped through.
The portal disappeared, leaving Tony alone. “Once he gets home,” He thought, “I’m going to apologize and beg for forgiveness if I have to.” With his itinerary, he set off for bed. Curling up, he left a space for the mage when he came back. “Please, I’m begging, just let me hold him again. I want to tell him I love him and for Stephen to say it back. I’ll beg him to stay on my knees if that’s what it takes.” With the wish in the air, Tony fell asleep, arm thrown across the other side of the bed where his wizard would hopefully be when he woke up.
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Tony was losing it. It had been a week. A week without his wizard. A week since he made that wish. He had made up his mind to go and track Stephen down, ready to beg on his knees, desperate to hold him again. Tony pulled on his jacket and began to head out until a call came.
A distant explosion came from the phone and Steve’s voice chimed in. “Hey Tony, hope I’m not interrupting anything.” Part of Tony wanted to say he was, but he didn’t, instead answering with, “Nope, what do you need?”
“A random creature is causing chaos downtown, and we really need backup, so please hurry.” Steve said as he hung up. Tony sighed and suited up before heading outside.
The first thing he noticed was the weird green glob that was trying to take down a school, but the second thing captured his interest more. Stephen Strange was herding students and faculty members out of the building along with Peter. Despite the carnage, he felt a smile creep onto his face upon seeing his wizard. After looking at the mage a little longer, he flew into battle, planning his apology in his head.
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“WAIT!” Peter yelled. Stephen snapped towards him at the sudden yell. “A kid’s missing!” The teen screamed. Strange counted all the kids, and sure enough, one was missing.
“We have to save them, Dr. Strange! We can’t let them die in there!” Peter pleaded. “I’ll go!” the arachnid stated as he ran into the collapsing building.
“Kid, wait!” Stephen began, but the kid was gone. He stole a glance at Tony who was still fighting the creature and ran after the teenager.
The two heroes eventually found the kid wedged under a pillar and brought him to safety. The child thanked them and ran to his mother as Stephen tended to Peter’s wound. Peter was watching Stephen who was totally zoned in on stitching his side gash.
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A final blow caused the monster to fall, but it didn’t die like everyone had thought. Using the last bit of its strength it grabbed a loose knife and chucked it.
The world went into slow motion for Tony until a sickening squelch noise brought him into regular time. A collection of gasps broke the momentary silence and everyone looked towards the teen. Peter's eyes were shot wide open and he looked at the sorcerer, who had a knife lodged deep into his back, too much blood pouring out of it.
Peter had run to get help as more of Stephen’s blood poured out. The shock wore off Tony quickly and he spirited to his wizard. He grabbed the sorcerer just as he fell over, unsteady from the blood loss, catching him before he hit the cement. Kneeling down he pulled him to his chest carefully, with Stephen’s whole left side pushed into his suit.
“T-Tony?” Stephen said as he gazed into those breath-taking eyes that he filled with tears a week ago. “I-I love you, even though you h-hate me, I thought y-you deserve to kno-w.” The last word ended with a cough as his life force slipped away a little more.
Tony grabbed the always trembling hand in his own rough ones and tightened his grip on the sorcerer. “Steph, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean any of it. I’ve always loved you and I always will.”
Stephen cracked a small smile. “Please- please don’t let the last words I hear be lies.” He whispered in the same tone as the night they argued. His words broke Tony’s heart. His grip went rigid, as he held the mage again.
“Stephy, please. You can’t leave me. I can’t do this without you.” Tony begged.
Stephen inhaled raggedly. “I-I’m sorry, all I wanted was you to love me, but I suppose we can’t all have what we want.” Another wet cough was pulled from the man in his arms before Stephen continued, “I guess my inability to pay attention killed two people, my sister and now me.”
“No, Steph, please stay. Don’t go. I’m sorry. Please.” Tony was pleading, the debris from the cement was digging into his knees but he didn’t notice.
The tremors in his mage’s hands suddenly shook in his grip violently. Stephen took a deep breath and let it go. “I love you, Tony. I hope you find someone you love too.” He said in a whisper, anything else would shatter Tony’s heart.
The ever-present shaking stopped, as Stephen’s body went limp in Tony’s hold. “I love you too Steph,” Tony said, holding his wizard tightly for the last time.