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Stephen spends the next two weeks ducking Tony’s calls and portaling away whenever he drops by the Sanctum. He can’t avoid the alpha forever, but he’s desperate for some distance. Although Tony had made himself clear, he hadn’t actually asked Stephen if he could share his heat. Stephen had run before he could, because he’s not sure that he’d be strong enough to say no.
Wong, however, is not so easily avoided.
The arguments he’s marshaled in favor of Stephen accepting Tony’s help are legion: the negative effects of severe heats on Stephen’s body (treatable), the limits regular exhaustion puts on his power (they’ve never had those resources before, they can hardly be missing them now), the risk if he’s attacked when he’s recovering from a heat (that’s his decision to make), the risk to reality if he’s unable to meet an attack on Earth during his recovery (he’d drain himself fatally before letting that happen)... Wong is unrelenting.
Stephen has just sat down to dinner when Wong joins him, looking intent. “Wong—” he says, tiredly. “Please—”
“I think you are underestimating the emotional damage,” Wong says, digging a fork into his plate of curry. There are three varieties over rice, courtesy of Kamar-Taj. Stephen had been looking forward to it.
“Isn’t that an argument against sharing my heat with Tony?” Stephen asks.
“Not of saying yes,” Wong says. “Of saying no.”
Stephen stops eating, brow wrinkled. “Saying no is maintaining the status quo,” he argues. “There’s no emotional damage. Why would that change?”
“How do you think Stark will feel when he sees you next,” Wong says, holding Stephen’s gaze, “worn and weak, and knows that he could have helped, but you didn’t trust him.”
Stephen’s heart clenches. “It’s not about trust.”
“He doesn’t know that, and you can’t explain it in a way he’ll believe. But he won’t blame you.”
“He’ll blame himself,” Stephen says quietly. Vishanti, the thought hurts.
Wong isn’t done. “And how will you feel, in the midst of your heat, knowing that your alpha would have been there, had you not sent him away? Do you think that will make it easier?”
Stephen doesn’t answer. They both know it would almost certainly make it even worse. Both physically and emotionally. In the midst of his heat, Stephen won’t be thinking rationally. He’ll only be aching for the alpha who isn’t there.
“I know you are worried how you will react to having him there and then not having him,” Wong says, “but I don’t see how it would be any different from how it is now. You had him there, in the futures that never were, and now you do not have him.”
“They weren’t real,” Stephen says, but it’s weak.
“They were real to you, or you wouldn’t be having this problem at all,” Wong returns.
Stephen is silent, staring down at his dinner.
“That he can’t be your mate doesn’t mean he can’t be something else,” Wong says gently. “Perhaps something just as precious.”
“And if I let it slip?” Stephen asks, looking up at Wong. “That it’s Tony himself I’m needing?”
“You were confused,” Wong says easily. “You would not be the first omega to get mixed up between your alpha and the alpha who is there, in that storm of hormones.”
Stephen can’t be sure if Wong’s arguments truly make sense or if he just wants it so badly that he’s letting them override his better judgment. Either way, the answer’s the same:
“Very well. I’ll call Tony and tell him yes.”