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Stephen never expected to lose everything twice.
Of course, he hadn’t expected to lose everything once, either. But over the years, losing his hands and his career as a surgeon had started feeling like an inevitability, as if it was necessary for fate to clear away the obstacles to his calling to magic.
Having his capacity for magic burned out of him reminds him that no, it’s not fate. Sometimes terrible things just happen.
This time, at least, he thinks he handles it with more grace. It only takes him a month to accept that there is nothing that will make it possible for him to do magic again. Stephen’s life as a sorcerer is over.
Sadly, reaching acceptance more quickly and with less anger and resentment (not none, but less) does little to preserve his friendships. Oh, they all say that they’ll stay in touch. They try, at least at first. But the lives of sorcerers and heroes move in a very different direction than Stephen’s is, now. Within a year of losing his magic, the only sorcerer still keeping in touch is Wong, and that only occasionally. He’s Sorcerer Supreme, he has many duties.
But none of that really surprises Stephen, for all that he’d hoped for better. No, the real surprise is the one hero who stuck around.
“Quit your wool gathering, doc,” Tony says, leaning over the back of Stephen’s couch to catch his eye. “It’s time for our lunch date.”
“I wasn’t woolgathering,” Stephen protests, bookmarking the medical journal he’d been reading on his tablet—Stark Industries, of course—and setting it aside. Consulting has turned out to be surprisingly engaging.
“Uh huh,” Tony says skeptically. “It really just took you ten minutes to read that page.”
Well, no. Stephen shoots Tony a dirty look anyway.
Tony just laughs and puts a hand in the small of Stephen’s back after he stands, ushering him toward the door. “I promise lunch will be worth it.”
Considering the way Tony is smiling at him, Stephen suspects that “lunch date” is more than just a turn of phrase.
The thought makes him smile, too.