Chapter Text
Stephen was having an okay day.
He had woken up with less pain than usual in his hands, and he had managed to make Wong laugh twice already. Everything was going pretty well, all things considered, which was of course why a familiar looking man had crash landed on top of the New York Sanctum and was rambling about someone called ‘Thanos’ who was ‘coming’.
Thankfully his medical instincts kicked back in as he watched the half naked man shake in the hole in the floor he had made in their Sanctum, and he was immediately moving.
“Cloak, get him up here. Wong-”
“On it,” said the other sorcerer, using magic to move them away from the stairs.
“Hello, I am Doctor Stephen Strange, Sorcerer Supreme an-” started Stephen, moving the man towards a couch with the help of the Cloak.
The man looked pained and scared but he frowned for a second when he saw Stephen, looking at him properly. “Doctor Stran- I know you. Or... I knew of you.”
The sorcerer forced himself not to roll his eyes or drop him at that. It had been more than a year since his accident, but it was still annoying to have it spoken about. “Yeah, I was the doctor who lost-”
“You’re Tony’s ex boyfriend,” said the man, and Stephen actually froze.
Fuck, it had been. It had been a very long time since someone had referred to him as ‘Tony Stark’s ex’. It had been a long time since he and Tony were dating each other, how could this random man know?
At his expression - which must have been surprised? - the man gave him a wobbly smile. “I’m Dr Bruce Banner. The Hulk.”
Oh. That made a little more sense. And a little less, since, last he knew, the man had disappeared/died during the Ultron debacle. “One of the Avengers,” he finished, finally shaking himself out of his stupor and pulling him towards the couch again.
“Your clothes,” said Wong, reappearing a few moments later with a glass of water in his hands. “And then you can tell us why and how exactly you crash landed in our Sanctum with the Bifrost.”
The pained expression on Dr Banner returned, but he didn’t say anything for a second, accepting what Wong was offering.
Stephen would have liked to say that he was fully professional and understanding of what danger Banner must be speaking of, but the moment the scientist was dressed, Stephen’s eyes were drawn on the blazer shirt combination he was wearing.
He was honestly not one for tabloid gossip or someone who cared about the Avengers (shut up Wong, his interest in the Stark-Rogers divorce was purely scientific), but he would hazard to guess that only one of them would walk around wearing that particular outfit combination.
“Why are you wearing Tony’s clothes?” escaped his mouth before he could even think about it.
“Tony?” asked Wong with a frown, while Banner blinked at him in surprise.
“Oh, it was the only thing left in the Quinjet when I-” he stopped himself and shook his head. “Thanos. Thanos is a mad man, a Titan, who is hunting for the Infinity Stones. He wants to create ‘balance’ in the Universe, and to do that, he wants to find all of them and then he will snap his fingers and half of the population in the entire Universe will disappear.” He finished that with a grim look and then drank from his glass.
Stephen tried to exchange a glance with Wong, but the man was still squinting at him in suspicion. “Well, that’s horrifying,” he tried, but Wong wasn’t willing to play ball.
“Tony?” he repeated, arms crossed.
“He just told you about a possible 'End of the World' situation involving the Eye of Agamotto and that’s what you’re worried about?!” demanded the taller sorcerer, trying hard not to blush under his assessing gaze.
It didn’t work, and a look of realisation came over Wong's face. “Stark?! Tony Stark? You dated Tony Stark?!” and then he burst into laughter.
Stephen crossed his arms, a little offended. “No need to sound so surprised. It was a long time ago.”
“They broke up in 2010,” informed them Banner, earning a scowl from Strange. He quickly picked up his glass of water again. “Just saying,”
Wong was still trying to stifle his giggling. “Okay, okay. Moving aside from the fact that somehow Strange managed to land Tony Stark,”
“Hey!”
“And back to the end of the world coming up.” Well that sobered everyone pretty quickly. “What do we do?”
Banner finally put down his glass, and Stephen had a sudden bad feeling about this. “We need to call the Avengers.”
Oh no.
“We need to call Tony Stark.”
Fuck his life.
All he wanted was a sandwich from the deli.
Wong, the asshole, started laughing again.
Tony had just finished a couple of laps with Pepper when an orange portal suddenly opened in the middle of Central Park.
Because his life had been going a little too well lately and the Universe must have decided that that could not stand.
“Tony Stark,” said a chubby man dressed in monk clothing as he stepped through said portal. “My name is Wong. I need you to come with me.”
Tony blinked at him for a couple of seconds, making sure Pepper was safely behind him. “I’m sorry, are you giving out tickets to something?”
“We need your help,” said this ‘Wong’ monk person. “The fate of the Universe is at stake.”
Yeah, no one liked it when Tony was happy and had fun. Still, despite the anxiety and fear, he couldn’t help but poke, “And who is ‘we’?”
Before Wong could say anything though, a new figure stepped through the portal.
“Hey Tony,” said Bruce Banner, showing up for the first time since that disaster with Ultron in- wait was he wearing Tony’s clothes?
“Bruce,” he managed startled. He heard Pepper also greeting him, but all he could think about was how dejected his friend looked. “Are you okay?”
Bruce didn’t answer, instead coming forward and enveloping Tony into a hug.
Tony hugged him back, shocked and slightly terrified at the strength with which he was being hugged and then turned to Pepper. “Pep-”
“I’m gonna take the jet to Cali,” she agreed. Tony could kiss her, that’s why she was his best girl. “Nice to meet you Mr Wong. Bruce.”
The scientist finally let go of Tony, though he kept a hand on his arm like the contact was the only thing giving him any sort of strength anymore, but smiled at her too. “You too, Pep.”
Then a second later, the pretty portal all but swallowed them whole, but the panic attack that had been building since Tony spotted it vanished when, instead of space, they found themselves into a cozy looking museum/house.
“We are we? Hogwarts?” he questioned, still holding Bruce’s hand.
Wong gave him a dry look - could he give any other type of look? So far all he had seen from the man was dry looks. “This is the New York Sanctum, where the Master of the Sanctum and Sorcerer Supreme now reside.”
Tony gave him an incredulous look. “Sorcerer Supreme?” he parroted. What kind of idiotic name -
“Yeah. Sorcerer Supreme,” said a very familiar voice. Tony felt his blood freeze and he turned around, eyes wide with shock and there he was. Looking like everything was fine, completely alive and not dead in the depths of Kathmandu as Tony had feared for months, and also... a little smug? Stephen fucking Strange. He smiled at Tony, like everything was fine and dandy. “Hello, Tony.”
Tony let go of Bruce’s hand and started walking towards Stephen expression still battling between shock, irritation, disbelief and thankful. It was hard to believe. After all these years of Tony searching for him with no luck, Stephen just showed up like this? Was this a trick? Was he real or an hallucination?
His smile got even softer when Tony stopped in front of him but immediately disappeared into a look of shock when Tony raised a palm and slapped him across the face. Hard.
“What was that for?” demanded Strange, indignant.
“I had to make sure... but you’re real,” breathed Tony, putting two hands on his shoulders. “Holy shit, you’re real. You are here, you're real and alive. I looked for you everywhere, I thought you were dead-”
Stephen had started mollifying again at the touch and then Tony slapped him across the face again. Harder than before.
“Fuck!” swore the taller man, taking a step backward. “Why did you slap me again?!”
Now the only feeling left in Tony was irritation. And anger. A lot of anger. “I thought you were dead! What the fuck is wrong with you? I searched for you everywhere, last I saw you just fucking disappeared in the middle of Kathmandu and I couldn’t find you anywhere, what is your damage, why would you do that!”
“You were keeping tabs on me?!”
“You were blowing all of your money on operation after operation and refusing to let me help! Of course I was keeping tabs on you, what if something happened?!”
“Oh because I’m just the lowly Stephen Strange and you’re the mighty Tony Stark who was going to save me from the world?”
“No, you asshat, because I care about you!”
“You do? I’m sorry, I didn’t realise that when I was in hospital trying to get better and you couldn’t even bother to fly to New York and see me!”
“I told you why I couldn’t stay!”
“I could have died in that accident! And I tell you I don’t wanna see you you once and you couldn’t-”
“My kid died!” exploded Tony with a shrill scream. Stephen bit back the words he wanted to hurl at him, blinking. Tony was shaking slightly. “Sokovia fell out of the sky because of a murder bot of my making. And that murder bot killed my kid, he killed JARVIS! I couldn't, and then you! But I- And now-”
Tony didn’t manage to finish what he wanted to say, as two strong arms were suddenly wrapped around him and the smell he had thought gone forever, the scent of sandalwood and patchouli shaving cream, enveloped him, grounding him.
“I’m sorry,” said Stephen. His face was half hidden in Tony’s hair. “I shouldn’t have said that, it was uncalled for.”
“No,” managed to say Tony, even as he held himself tighter against his chest. “I shouldn’t have slapped you.”
A beat. “I’m not going to argue against that,” finally said Stephen and Tony let a little laugh at that before reluctantly letting him go.
Bruce was looking at him worried, while Wong had for some reason a bag of popcorn in his hands as he watched them.
“Seriously?” asked Stephen, glaring at him and not quite letting go of Tony.
Tony found that he didn’t mind it so much.
Wong just shrugged, unrepentant. “You were gonna get me a tuna melt earlier,” he pointed out, putting down the popcorn. “I got hungry.” Then he turned serious again. “Let’s talk about the end of the Universe as we know it.”
Oh, Tony liked this one. “Let’s,” he agreed, coming to stand next to Bruce again.
With a flourish of his hands, Wong made a ‘hologram’ of their Universe appear. “From the dawn of the universe, there was nothing. Then, boom! The Big Bang sent six elemental crystals, hurtling across the virgin universe. These Infinity Stones each control an essential aspect of existence.”
Now it was Stephen’s turn as he pointed at each of the stones in front of him. “Space. Reality. Power. Soul. Mind.” Then he touched his funky new necklace and a green stone appeared inside of it. “Time.”
Why was he walking around with an Infinity Stone? Tony bit back the comment and turned to Bruce. “You’ve seen him?”
The man shuddered. “Yeah, Thanos. He's a plague, Tony. He invades planets. He takes what he wants. He wipes out half the population. He sent Loki. The attack on New York. That's him.”
“So I was right,” said Tony, not above being a little bit petty.
Bruce stared at him in confusion, “What?”
“Nothing. Just remind me to tell everyone ‘I told you so’ if we manage to survive this. Actually,” he pulled out his phone. “FRI?”
“Yes, Boss?”
“Schedule a big serving of ‘I told you so’ for everyone who has called me paranoid since the Invasion. And a double dose for undead Fury who didn’t believe me when I said Loki sabotaged the Invasion.”
“That’s what you’re thinking about?” complained Bruce and Tony shrugged.
“There is nothing more important to me in life than proving myself smarter than the idiots I surround myself with and who dare to keep forgetting that I’m a genius and smarter than them all.” Stephen rolled his eyes, and Tony turned serious again. “Okay. So, what’s our timeline?”
Bruce turned sober again. “No telling. He has the Power and Space Stones, that already makes him the strongest creature in the whole universe. If he gets his hands, on all six Stones, Tony...”
“He can destroy life on a scale hitherto undreamt of,” finished Stephen, looking a little glum.
Which was terrible of course but, “Did you seriously just say 'hitherto undreamt of'?” he asked, leaning on one of their witchy cauldrons.
The other gave him a look. “Are you seriously leaning on the Cauldron of the Cosmos?”
In his defence, Tony hadn’t known what it was. However, even before he could move away from it, Stephen’s cloak moved by itself and smacked his arm.
There was a second in which Tony just stared at the garment both offended and confused before he straightened himself up. “I'm going to allow that.” He focused back on his ex boyfriend. “If Thanos needs all six, why don't we just stick this one down the garbage disposal?”
In his usual annoying manner, Stephen shook his head. “No can do,” he said, and how exactly had Tony missed him? He was as annoying as his other ex.
Wong clarified, “We swore an oath to protect the Time Stone. With our lives.”
What kind of mess did Stephen land himself in? Couldn’t help but think Tony. At first he had thought he joined a mystical monastery, but monastery were all about preserving life. Not stones.
“And I swore off dairy, but then, Ben & Jerry's named a flavour after me, so...” he said, mindlessly, now mostly studying Wong. Had he somewhat managed to lure in Stephen with some sort of wily sexy moves? Was he his ex’s new boyfriend?
“Stark Raving Hazelnuts,” remembered Stephen and Tony blinked at him. The taller man quickly avoided his gaze, and was that a blush on his cheeks?
“It's not bad,” he said, now studying Stephen very carefully.
The now magician noticed and went back to being the irritating piece of shit Tony remembered. “A bit chalky.”
Wong shrugged. “A Hunka-Hulka Burning Fudge is our favourite,” he said. 'Our'? Was he stating that he had claimed him? Was this a way to say they were together now?
Bruce looked adorably confused, and god, had Tony missed him. “That's a thing?”
“Whatever. Point is: things change,” said Tony, doing his best not to eye Wong too suspiciously.
It was Stephen who spoke. “Our oath to protect the Time Stone cannot change. This Stone may be the best chance we have against Thanos,” he said seriously.
Tony had seen him serious a lot of times, but he seemed... different now. Calmer? More imposing? Somehow?
Maybe it was the heart growing fonder with time and distance, but Tony couldn’t help but think he looked very much hotter too.
He kept his libido in check, though, because the fate of the world was at stake here and he was a professional. “And still conversely, it may also be his best chance against us.”
“Well, if we don't do our jobs.”
'Our jobs'? Last time Stephen had left because of Tony’s job. He couldn’t quite let the acid at bay when he said, “What is your job exactly, besides making balloon animals?”
Stephen remained annoyingly and sexily calm. “Protecting your reality, douchebag,” He said, his blue eyes trained on Tony’s.
Demanding, strong willed, almost authorative...
You cannot fuck your ex before the end of the world, you cannot fuck your ex before the end of the world, you cannot fuck your ex before the end of the world.
“Okay, guys, could we table this discussion right now?” thankfully interrupted Bruce. Because Tony was really not known for his self control. “The fact is that we have this Stone. We know where it is. Vision is out there somewhere with the Mind Stone, and we have to find him now.”
Well, wasn’t that fun. “Yeah, that's the... thing.” He didn’t quite look at Bruce this time.
Bruce frowned. “What do you mean?”
Tony sighed. He really didn’t want to have this discussion with Vision’s theoretical step dad. “Two weeks ago, Vision turned off his transponder. He's offline.” Bruce opened his mouth to say something more, but Tony interrupted him. “Look, he ran away from home, okay? This couple of years have been hard for him and well, I guess I didn’t do as well as I could as a single parent.”
Stephen looked a little pained, which Tony noted down in his head immediately. “Who could find Vision, then?”
Oh good grace. “Shit,” he muttered. Of all the people he did not want to bring up in front of, this particular trio... “Probably Steve Rogers.”
“Oh, great,” said Stephen, exasperated already, and had Tony not been very annoyed by this sudden turn of events he’d have analysed the shit out of the situation.
“It’s a maybe. But...”
Bruce was clearly confused. “Call him.”
Like it was that easy. “It’s not that simple.” He huffed. “The Avengers broke up.”
The other man looked even more confused. “Broke up? Like a band? Like The Beatles?”
The genius elected to ignore some of that sentence. “Cap and I fell out hard. Teams were chosen, a metaphorical and a real divorce happened and now we’re not on speaking terms.” Tony very carefully did not look at Stephen at this part, but he did see that Wong was eating popcorn again.
Bruce took his attention again. “Tony, listen to me. Thor's gone.” What? “Thanos is coming. It doesn't matter who you're talking to or not.”
Which was simply rude.
He wasn’t there. He didn’t even know why they divorced, honestly he should -
He felt Stephen’s hand on his shoulder and he looked up at the man. He looked a little uncomfortable, but he kept his eyes fixed on Tony. “Fate of the Universe, Tony.” He reminded him. He paused. “And you don’t have to be the one to call him.”
Tony looked away from Stephen’s face to his scarred hand. Then he nodded. “Yeah,” he agreed, finally unearthing the monstrous flip phone from his pocket that he had taken to wearing around ever since Vision had gone off in his love rendezvous.
God, if they won against Thanos and Vision managed to stay safe Tony would ground him for the rest of his life.
“It’s the only number on the phone,” he said, handing it over to Bruce who looked reproaching but accepted it nevertheless. Then he turned back to Stephen, staring at the man intensely.
“What?” asked the man after a couple of seconds, cheeks reddening a little.
Tony blinked. “Say, doc. You wouldn’t happen to be moving your hair, would you?”