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Agatha watched in amusement as her nephew paced back and forth across the living room as she was sprawled out on the couch. She had shown up when her wards on the property went off only to find Stephen sitting on her porch looking grumpy, though that was a regular sight.
“One would think a promotion would be something to celebrate.” Agatha drawled and that only set Stephen off again.
“No, this is horrible because I am going to be found out, ruin relations between witches and sorcerers even more, possibly be imprisoned, and cause another round of infighting in Kamar-Taj because the last Sorcerer Supreme who had a secret this large almost caused the universe to be consumed by Dormammu.”
He paused to run a shaky hand through his hair in exasperation. Agatha couldn’t help but feel bad for him.
“Listen toots, you need to push past your inability to not see the negative in everything.” She reached out to tug on his wrist and Stephen let her pull him down next to her. “You are one of the most powerful magic users I have ever seen and that is just with the mystic arts. I bet none of the others could have stopped Dormammu. I bet he was an ugly bitch.”
Stephen stared at her for a moment before he finally relaxed and let out a snort.
“Yeah, he was a real ugly bitch. I may have gotten killed one time because I called him that because I missed you.”
“D’awww you charmer.” Agatha replied with a grin and patted him on the cheek. Stephen rolled his eyes before he flopped back into the couch.
“I know if they find out and I have to run, they won't be able to catch me. You’ve taught me too well.”
“Correct, my little raven.”
“My transformation and shadow walking abilities have always been the standouts. That’s just the family abilities! Even the day to day magic is a completely different flavor of magic that they wouldn’t be expecting. I doubt they would try to poison me-“
“That would be more of a witch-esque revenge, true.”
“I’m just not sure if they would be able to track me even if I’m not using the mystic arts.” Stephen groaned and covered his eyes with his hands. “I don’t want to go on the run just because of what I inherited from my family.”
“You’re missing the clear cut answer here, kid: just tell your bestie your secret and see what he thinks. He’s been there forever, right? He’ll know how to go about it. Then, if something goes wrong you can come right back here to my safe house in the bog because I’m a basic witch who lives up to stereotypes.”
“Is it really you living up to stereotypes if the stereotypes were based off of you in the first place?”
“Ah, true. Basic bitch then.”
Stephen finally could help but let out a full blown belly laugh, something Agatha hadn’t heard since before his accident. Mission accomplished.
“Fine, I’ll talk to Wong. But if I have to hide out here, you get to support me while I lay low and I have expensive tastes.”
“Don’t you start with me, I helped raise you! Who do you think influenced those expensive tastes? Beverly raised you on a farm!”
Wong eyed Stephen warily as the other man shuffled into the library awkwardly. With Wong’s luck, Stephen probably activated some sort of relic that was going to end the world sometime in the next twenty-four hours.
“Alright, what do you want?” Wong asked with a sigh and Stephen just stared at him with worried eyes. Well, shit. It had to be more serious than he thought.
“Wong, I know we’ve been friends for a while now-“
“Don’t push your luck.”
“-and since there has been some talk regarding me starting to train for eventually becoming Sorcerer Supreme, I wanted to get something off my chest.”
Wong stared at him for a moment.
“I know you’ve been taking the books out of the library without checking them out for months. Just don’t do it again and I won’t maim you over it.”
Stephen’s eyes widened in shock as the tension drained out of him suddenly.
“That’s not what I- wait, how do you even know about that?”
Wong gave him an unimpressed look and Stephen immediately looked abashed.
“Yeah, okay. Dumb question. But that’s not what I wanted to talk about.” The younger sorcerer took a deep breath before staring Wong in the eyes. “When I first arrived at Kamar-Taj, it was assumed that I had never experienced magic. Well, that’s a lie. I’m actually a witch.”
Wong stared blankly at Stephen who stared back at him. After about ten seconds, Stephen began to shuffle nervously.
“When you say witch-“
“My mom was a witch and there has been one every generation even going back to the Salem Witch Trials. I am also a witch as well.”
Wong hummed and came out from behind the desk to stand in front of his friend.
“And if I asked for proof that this isn’t a prank?” Not that he assumed that with how the usually unflappable Stephen Strange was close to shaking like a leaf. In a blink of an eye, a raven was flapping its wings and floating in place where Stephen stood a second ago. Huh. That was rather convincing. Holding out an arm as a perch, Wong allowed Stephen to perch as he returned them to the desk.
“A witch, huh? I will admit I did not expect this, what with your speeches about how the mystics arts didn’t make sense.”
“They don’t compared to witchcraft. Everyone just assumed I was speaking of science.” Stephen replied. His voice was similar, if a little bit more croaky in this form. Even in animal form, Stephen Strange would always be able to have the last word.
“Hmm. This is what you were so worried about this entire time? We won’t kick you out for your heritage. You may be asked to compile your knowledge about witchcraft for the library since there’s so little we know about it as the Order. Is that why you were compiling books for so long? You were doing the same on your end?”
If a raven could blush, Wong imagined that Stephen would be doing so right now. Instead, his feathered friend merely ducked his head in embarrassment.
“That’s part of it…”
“……what else aren’t you telling me?”
“…………Agatha Harkness is my aunt and basically raised me. She’s the one who pushed me to finally tell you because I haven’t told anyone outside of the family before.”
This time, Wong let out an audible groan and pinched the bridge of his nose.
“No wonder you’re so difficult.”
“Excuse you!”
When finally introduced, Wong and Agatha got along so well that Stephen feared for his future. The two were incredibly scary when they were together.
Despite this, Stephen finally felt complete as his oldest secret was finally out in the open. Now he just had to convince Agatha to stop scaring all the apprentices when she came to visit Kamar-Taj since she was finally allowed access again.