#I take both Steter and IronStrange

[infiniteeight8]

👀👀👀 Continue the "let me help you"/Nothing of significance drabble. Any moment after that drabble is fine.

Stephen wakes very, very slowly. It’s an unfamiliar sensation: med school taught him to wake instantly, being a surgeon reinforced the habit, and sorcerous emergencies have benefitted from it too often to lose it. Nevertheless, this time he feels like he’s swimming to consciousness through jello. When he finally pries his eyes open, his whole body feels twice its normal weight. He groans. What happened?

Moments later, Tony Stark leans into his field of view. “Nothing of significance?” he says, scowling.

Stephen groans louder. Now he remembers. 

“Nothing of significance!”

“I’m not awake,” Stephen manages. “Let’s do this later.”

“Like hell,” Tony snaps. “Wong says you tore a hole in your soul. What were you thinking?”

“I was thinking that I’d lived more than fourteen million lifetimes,” Stephen says tiredly, “and that you hadn’t even had one. You deserved so much more than that, and I was so tired. I’m still tired.”

Tony jerks back, almost out of Stephen’s field of view. He catches himself and leans back in. “I don’t want anyone dying for me.”

“Too bad,” Stephen says, his eyelids drooping, sliding towards sleep once more. “I don’t want to live without you.”

He’s asleep before Tony responds.

[infiniteeight8]

Hey can I give you a prompt?? Iron strange?

So here it is, early 2000's where tony and stephen are attending some gala and find each other attractive and decide for a steamy night the next day both are in hotel room having conversations about the news reels photo ing them

Like "Having regrets already?" "Nah, babe with a personality like you one can only hope and btw someone decided to take pics of us leaving the gala together thoughts?"

Prompts are always welcome! I take both IronStrange and Steter. That said, I do normally require that they be short. My goal is 100-300 words, and anything more than a single short sentence is usually too complicated for that. I almost sent this one back as too long. 

However, I decided that what you wanted here was really just the morning after conversation, not the entire set up. And I can do a drabble of a morning after. So here you go:

-

When Tony gets out of the shower, he finds Stephen eating the breakfast he ordered and watching TMZ with a blank expression. Tony’s heart sinks. There’s really only two ways this can go. Either Stephen wanted the media attention, and Tony is going to have to kick him out—attention seekers like that never go well for him—or he’s now considering the wisdom of ever being seen with Tony again.

“Didn’t take you for the TMZ type,” Tony says, because he didn’t, and if Stephen is going to leave he’d rather get it over with.

“I’m not,” Stephen says. “I was channel surfing and caught my name.”

Tony winces. “Shit, they identified you already?” It usually takes longer when it's not a celebrity.

Stephen snorts and turns off the TV. “I may not be famous in your circles, but I’m well known in mine,” he says. 

“Yeah, well, welcome to a different kind of fame.” Tony resists the urge to cross the room, to take a seat next to Stephen. He could still leave.

Stephen leans back in his chair, cradling a coffee cup in both hands. “You are brilliant, gorgeous, and spectacular in bed,” he drawls, eyes sweeping up and down Tony’s bathrobe clad form. “There had to be some kind of drawback. Now I know.”

A grin slowly stretches Tony’s mouth. “Most people figure the drawback is my personality.”

Stephen smirks. “I’ve been told the same. I thought perhaps they’d cancel each other out.”

Tony laughs and walks over to him. Stephen sets his coffee aside in time for Tony to lean down and kiss him. Thoroughly. 

[infiniteeight8]

Anon here from the last two (presumably). I meant to specify IronStrange for both of those.

But since I’m in your inbox again, might as well get in a third prompt… (Also IronStrange)

“Why do you believe in me? No one else does.”

I confess, the IronStrange prompts so outnumber the Steter prompts that I assume people are asking for IronStrange unless specified. *wry* But I do encourage people to include the pairing, just to be safe!

-

“Why do you believe in me? No one else does.”

Stephen pauses and looks over at Tony. They’re sitting on the couch, eating Chinese food and brainstorming strategies for approaching the next half dozen crises on the Timeline of the Future. After arriving in 2016 Stephen had come straight to Tony for help, so he supposes he can see the relevance of the question, but the phrasing makes him want to smack a few people. 

“14 million futures,” Stephen reminds him. “I know from experience that you’re the best person to guide the timeline toward a victory.”

Tony stares at the timeline rather than meet Stephen’s gaze. “14 million failures,” he says.

Stephen puts down his food and turns to face Tony. “Tony, look at me.” It takes a minute, but eventually Tony mirrors Stephen’s position. “You are not solely responsible for saving the future, the universe, the world, or even this city,” Stephen says firmly. “Those 14 million failures are our collective 14 million failures. The Masters of the Mystics Arts are specifically charged with protecting reality, and we didn’t even know Thanos was coming until Bruce fell through the Sanctum’s roof. 

“This isn’t a job any of us can do alone,” Stephen goes on. “We need a lot more pieces on the board. But of everyone I met in those 14 million futures, you’re the one who saw it coming. You’re the one who showed he could make sacrifices, solve problems, swallow his pride, have the right person on speed dial, whatever we needed.” 

Pausing, Stephen forces himself to take a breath. 

“You can’t do this alone,” he says finally, “but the rest of us can’t do it without you.”

Looking into Tony’s eyes, Stephen sees a weight on his soul that he regrets, but it’s the truth.

“Promise me,” Tony says intently, “that you won’t leave me on my own.”

At least he can help bear that weight. “I promise,” Stephen swears, with all the weight a Sorcerer can put on an oath. 

A small flare of magic demonstrates just how binding that promise is.

Seeing the gratitude and relief in Tony’s eyes, Stephen doesn’t regret it one bit.