- 1. 2002
Tony did not enjoy hospitals. They were always too loud, too clean, too white, and smelled too strongly of antiseptic and tears. There was always someone crying, and there was always someone dying.
On a normal day to day basis, Tony would do anything in his power to be as far away as possible from a hospital.
But today was not a normal day.
Today he had had the terrible idea of crashing his car with his best friend inside, so now here he was.
He tapped his foot impatiently on the pristine floor, glaring at the stupid fluid beside him. He had told the nurse that he was fine and didn’t need it, but as soon as she had looked him in the eyes and realised who he was, he had immediately been hooked up.
He only hoped it wasn’t drugged or something, cause that would be really awkward. He had been kidnapped from an hospital before, and that was one experience he did not want to relive.
Finally the curtains of the room he had been taken in opened, and a tall and handsome man strolled in, holding what Tony assumed was his chart in his hands.
He looked deeply irritated, and the irritation did not disappear when he looked up at Tony.
“Mr Stark,” he said, staring at him with a grimace. “What seems to be the problem today?”
Tony leaned a little back on the chair, feeling a slight irritation for the way the man was looking at him.
Tony was used to two main emotions, when people interacted with him - adoration and disgust - and he had since his early twenties prepared modes of conduct on how to react to either or.
“You have my chart, why don’t you tell me?” he asked, one eyebrow raised.
The doctor’s annoyance grew. “Because I’m not a nurse,” he said, lips thinning. “I’m a neurosurgeon and while I do suspect you to be a victim of serious mental problems, it’s not my area of expertise. Of course,” he continued, before Tony could get a word in, “you are a trust fund kid who never learnt the meaning of moderation, and the hospital hopes that throwing big names at you will ensure that you suddenly feel overwhelmed with the need to generously donate to the hospital for the impeccable service you're received. But, unfortunately for them, I don’t want to be here, and you clearly don’t need to be here. So how about you do us both a favour and just answer the questions, Mr Stark?”
Tony stared at the man standing in front of him.
He took in his words, the way he was standing, the look on his face, and everything else he could.
And then he giggled.
“Wow,” he said, when the Doctor went from sneering and unimpressed to deeply confused, “I’m sorry, didn’t mean to laugh at you. Or well, I did. You’re funny.”
He was definitely unused to people reacting to him this way and other than Happy and Rhodey, nobody ever spoke to him like that, not even Obie.
He smiled, all teeth showing. “I like you.”
“Please don’t,” said the Doctor - Doctor Strange, said his nametag - going back to very disapproving.
“Mh,” said Tony, still smiling. “And you’re right. I don’t want to be here, and I don’t need to be here. But I do care very much about what happened to the other guy in the car with me when I crashed, so how about you go along and find out for me? Then I can sign all your forms about leaving AMA, and I’ll be out of your pretty hair, oh Strange doctor.”
“I am not a nurse,” said the doctor, eyes narrowing at Tony’s not well thought pun.
Tony raised a shoulder. “What if I promise to sign the check your boss so clearly wants and then getting out of your hair? I’m sure you’d love a new MRI machine for your department.”
“You think you can buy me?”
“Everyone’s got a price, hun, and your boss is pimping you out to me,” reminded Tony. “You can choose not to do me this solid, of course, but then I’ll just rip this thing out of my arm myself and go around looking for Rhodey by myself, and I’m sure I can seduce anyone I need to for information while embarrassing you at the same time.”
The doctor continued to stare at him for a few moments after those words, looking like he wanted to incinerate Tony with his eyes alone - something Tony was not sure he couldn’t do.
Then he pulled the curtain along. “Sandra,” he said, looking at the pretty and not so grumpy nurse that Tony had been dealing with earlier. She had been much easier and easy going. “I need information on a patient.”
Tony was still smiling when the doctor turned back to him, but the smile disappeared when he approached the bed and picked up Tony’s chart.
“What are you doing?”
“You don’t buy me, Mr Stark,” said the doctor, smiling all sweetly at him. “So how about we start this exam? I am a neurosurgeon: we have a lot to go through.”
Now it was Tony’s turn to narrow his eyes at him.
“I still like you.”
“I’ll live.”
- 2. 2010
“Mr Stark.”
Tony stopped spinning around on the chair he had appropriated, flashing a grin at the doctor standing at the door in front of him.
Doctor Strange had not changed much in the eight years since he had met him. He looked exactly the same, even the slight grimace on his face at the sight of Tony sitting at his desk.
Tony was actually glad for that.
A lot of people seemed not too sure of how to treat him, once he had come back from Afghanistan and announced himself a superhero. They seemed either worried that Tony was going to breakdown in front of them, or like they suddenly thought the sun shone out of his ass.
Seeing Stephen decide to stick with his initial impression of who Tony was was almost comforting.
“Doctor Strange, what a small world,” he greeted, watching as the man let out a sigh and walked inside of his office.
“The whole ‘accidentally ran into you’ thing would be far more believable if you hadn’t booked out my entire day and expressly said that you wanted to see me. Should I feel flattered or should I go ahead with the restraining order?”
“You’d miss me too much,” said Tony, still smiling as the doctor sat down on the other side of the desk.
Stephen did not look impressed. “The best years of my life were every year before 2002 when I met you, and every year after meeting you until now.”
“I’m not convinced,” said Tony, amused. “Admit it, your heart skipped a beat when you saw me here for you.”
“Should I write down hallucinations and delusions as your symptoms?” he asked one eyebrow raised.
Tony snorted. “No. How about you write abnormal skin rashes, migraines, burning of the eyes, dizziness, confusion, nerve pain, muscle cramps, insomnia and heart palpitations instead?”
Stephen frowned, opening his notepad. “Metal taste in the mouth?”
Uh, Tony had thought it was his new toothpaste. “Yep.”
“Memory loss?”
“Not yet.”
“Depression?”
Tony snorted. “Pass.”
Stephen looked back at him, frowning. “And how long have you feeling these symptoms for?”
“That’s not important,” said Tony, waving dismissively.
“Mr Stark-”
“I am just here for a consult,” he insisted. “On behalf of a friend of mine.”
“A friend of yours,” repeated Doctor Strange, still looking extremely unconvinced.
Tony sighed. “I get it, you want to keep me with you as long as possible, but Doctor Strange-”
“Heavy metal poisoning,” said the doctor, placing the pen on the table. “What you have described to me sound like the symptoms of heavy metal poisoning.”
Tony knew, of course. He was only here because JARVIS insisted on a human touch and Tony was desperate enough for a solution that he came here.
“Oh, that’s not good,” he said, tutting. “Any cure?”
“The treatment is removing the metal causing the poisoning itself,” said the doctor. “As quickly as possible.”
Tony nodded. “I was afraid you’d say that,” said Tony, sighing. “And when that isn’t possible?”
“How isn’t that possible?” asked Strange, sounding very annoyed. “How do you expect to heal when the thing poisoning you is still inside of you? I know you have some degree of intellect, Doctor Stark.”
“Aw, babe, did you research me?” cooed Tony, but the Doctor did not smile back.
“You need... to tell your friend that heavy metal poisoning is deadly,” he said, eyes boring into Tony’s. “If he doesn’t take the thing out of his body, he will die. If he needs the metal in his body, then I suggest he looks at alternatives that do not risk poisoning him.”
“Kind of sexist of you to assume my friend is a he,” said Tony, tapping his hand on the desk.
Change metal. Did he not think that if Tony could he would have?
But it wasn’t that simple. There were after all no metals in the world that could power the reactor the way he needed them too. Only palladium.
And palladium kept trying to kill him more the more he used the reactor, even faster when he used the suit.
But if Tony took the reactor out, he’d die because of the shrapnel in his heart.
Catch-22.
“Well, thank you for the consult,” ended up saying Tony, standing up. “I’ve learnt a lot.”
Doctor Strange looked concerned as he stood up, and now he was definitely looking at Tony far more closely than before. “Mr Stark,” he started, and Tony waved him off.
“As much as I love your company too, Doctor Strange, I need to let my friend know about your prognosis so that we can take that metal out and switch it. Just as the doctor recommended. So thank you, mazel tov, etcetera.”
With that, he turned around making straight for the door.
The doctor did not stop him, but Tony could still feel his eyes on his back.
- 3. 2012
Tony was laying on the bed in one of the triage area of Metro hospital when Doctor Strange walked in.
Tony had known when he had requested him that Doctor Stephen Strange was alive.
Someone would have said something, after all, if the man had died in the invasion.
But it was definitely another thing to see him walk inside the room and then stare at Tony.
Tony didn’t say anything immediately, and neither did Strange.
It was hard to explain the relationship between himself and the doctor.
On page, there was no relationship between the two of them. They were strangers that had accidentally ended up in each other’s life because Tony had crashed his car while he had been driving Rhodey back home, and then met again because Tony had been dying of palladium poisoning.
All they did when they met was argue (Strange) and flirt (Tony), with Tony trying to get a raise out of the man no matter what.
They didn’t know each other.
And yet, here Tony was. Willingly going to the hospital to get himself checked out only because he wanted to make sure that the doctor had survived.
Strange sat down on the edge of Tony’s bed, expression unreadable as he looked at him straight in the eyes. He looked as tired as Tony felt, and there were some traces of blood on his usually pristine scrubs. He looked exhausted.
“Stark,” he eventually said.
“Tony,” corrected Tony.
Stephen stared at him for a few seconds longer, then he spoke. “You could have died.”
So he had seen the footage of Tony carrying the nuke.
He shrugged, pretending nonchalance. “If I hadn’t done that, you would have all died,” he reminded him. “And how was I meant to live without seeing your face ever again, Doctor Strange?”
“Stephen,” corrected Doctor- corrected Stephen.
“Stephen,” agreed Tony, lips turning up in a smile.
Stephen looked like he had regretted saying it as soon as he had, but it was too late. Tony had no intention of letting him get away with ignoring it.
“Next time you decide to try and kill yourself, please don’t call me,” said Stephen after a few more seconds in which the two of them quietly looked at each other. “I’m not a nurse.”
“And yet here you are, at my side, checking on my charts and everything,” said Tony, grinning as the man ignored him and proceed to walk out of the room.
They had both gotten what they needed.
- 4. 2013
“You’re insane,” said Stephen, as soon as he walked inside the medbay of the Tower.
Tony sat up from his bed, grinning. “Hey! You made it!” He looked at Wu and his team, pointing at the approaching man. “Fellas, if any of you was unfamiliar, this is Doctor Stephen Strange.”
“Neurosurgeon,” added Stephen, glaring at Tony. “That is a very important point that I feel you are ignoring. I’m a neurosurgeon, Tony. Brains and spinal cords. Not the heart!”
Tony rolled his eyes. “As you can see, he’s a little bit grumpy. He always is like this, so don’t worry about it. He’s decent at what he does though, so just allow it.”
Stephen paused to shoot him a dirty look. “Decent?”
“He’s also a bit of a drama queen, and not humble at all. Very arrogant, actually.”
“You did not just cast those stones, Stark.”
“Aw, what happened to Tony?”
“You get Tony when you deserve Tony,” said Stephen, crossing his arms and looking down at him when he got close enough to the bed. He did not even appear to notice the other surgeons and doctors in the room. “What the hell are you thinking?”
Tony huffed, turning serious. “I’m thinking that I have a safe way of removing the shrapnel that’s been in my heart for four years at this point and want to get on with that.”
“Safe.”
“Tried and tested,” promised Tony. “I’m not stupid enough to just inject it in me without double and n-times checking and making sure that it’s not going make me explode. I literally work with walking advertisement Doctor Bruce Banner.”
“It’s still dangerous,” said Stephen, brows furrowed.
“Isn’t cutting people’s brains as - if not more - dangerous? And you do it all the time,” said Tony. Before Stephen could poke holes in his argument, he continued. “And what’s more dangerous: a tested and tried and fixed serum, or living with metal and shrapnel in my heart for the foreseeable future? I can barely hold my breath, babe.”
Stephen’s lips pursed, and then his eyes glanced at the scans on the walls behind them, scans that Tony had made sure to e-mail him after he had signed the NDA and been invited along.
“What am I doing here, then?” he said, after a moment. “I don’t do cardio.”
“Cardio was your number two if you didn’t go into neuro,” pointed out Tony. “And I’ve heard that you have the steadiest hands this side of the globe. Even better than the man who operated on me, according to statistics.”
“Now who’s googling who?” asked Stephen, but he had started to thaw. “So what? You want me here as an extra pair of hands?”
“Basically,” said Tony. “I know you can’t do it by yourself, but I tru- I know you won’t kill me,” he amended, ignoring the look Stephen sent him at his slip up. “You’d miss me too much.”
“Mh,” said Stephen, watching him carefully. “I suppose this is better than you treating me like your personal nurse. Can I write my name on the paper on this?”
“I treat you like a nurse because you’re so handsome, babe, and I will sue you into bankruptcy if you try to publish anything from this,” said Tony, smiling the entire time.
Stephen sighed. “Figures. And don't call me babe.”
"Of course, babe."
+++
When Tony woke up from the successful operation, Stephen was the only doctor left in the room. He was sitting on a chair beside his, seeming absorbed in some paper or the other on one of Tony’s StarkTabs.
“I thought you weren’t a nurse,” he croaked, smiling sleepily when the man turned to look at him.
“Apparently I’m the only one capable of handling you for a prolonged period of time without needing a break,” said Stephen, picking up a cup of water with a straw inside of it from the table behind Tony.
“I was unconscious,” complained Tony, even as he allowed Stephen to help place the straw in his mouth.
“And still managed to irritate everyone around you,” said Stephen, almost smiling. “A talent.”
Tony allowed himself a few seconds to drink before he spoke up again. “Careful there, Stephen. Is that fondness in your eyes?”
He scoffed. “You wish.”
“I do, actually,” mused Tony. “If it wasn’t for the fact that dating you would mean that you wouldn’t get to play nurse with me anymore, I would have swept you off your feet already.”
Stephen made a sound of vague amusement beside him. “Awfully bold of you to assume I’d ever let you take me anywhere.”
“I’d pick you up with one of my fast cars,” said Tony, as his eyes started to feel heavy again. “I’d take you anywhere you want. You’d love it.”
He must be dreaming, because it felt like Stephen actually laughed at this. A low huff that Tony had never heard before but that definitely sounded like laugh.
He must be dreaming.
“Go to sleep, Tony.”
Tony did.
- 5. 2016
The first time Tony woke up after Siberia and saw Stephen standing over him, he thought he was hallucinating.
To be fair, there were flying objects everywhere, he was dressed in monk clothes, and he had orange things coming out of his fingers. He had been saying something, but Tony had quickly passed out again.
The second time he was actually conscious and saw Stephen, he thought he was dead. He was in his medical room in the Compound, and Stephen was sitting on a chair beside him. He was dressed in a weird tunic and reading a book, looking like the definition of an angel.
Tony had fallen back to unconsciousness before the man could even notice that he was awake.
The third time he was definitely awake.
He was awake, alive, in pain, and Stephen Strange was sitting at the edge of his bed, feeding him water through a straw.
“Tony,” said Stephen, as soon as Tony’s eyes focused on him, relaxing. “You’re okay. You’re back.”
Tony stared at him, moving so that the straw slipped out of his mouth. He tried to sit up, but Stephen gently but firmly put a hand on his chest, keeping him down.
“You’re still healing,” he told him, when Tony glanced up at him. “You need to take it easy.”
Tony looked at the scarred hand on his chest and then proceeded to poke Stephen’s cheek with a slightly shaky hand.
Stephen raised an eyebrow at the action. “Why.”
“M-Making sure,” said Tony, grimacing at how his voice came out. He took another sip of the water, stubbornly taking it out of Stephen’s hand, and then spoke up again. “Last time I saw you, you asked me to leave your hospital room, and then you disappeared.”
“Long story,” said Stephen, running a hand over the Cloak on his shoulders. Tony could have sworn it was floating a little, even though there was no wind.
“Longer than how last I remember I was dying in Siberia and now I’m here?”
Stephen’s jaw clenched at that, his eyes turning tempestuous. “What happened there?”
Tony decided to stop pretending to be stronger than he was, lying back on the pillow behind him. “Tit for tat. You tell me your story, and I tell you mine.”
And so Stephen did.
Tony wanted to say that he doubted him or that he didn’t immediately believe him, but in this world of Norse gods, supersoldiers who survived way past their expiration dates and super serums, what was one more sorcerer? Or an entire hidden cult of sorcerers?
“We’re not a cult,” complained Stephen, and Tony waved him off dismissively.
“If it looks like duck, walks like a duck, talks like a duck, then it’s no longer a medical practitioner,” he said, and then lit up. “Which means it’s no longer illegal for me to ask him out or for him to date me.”
“I just saved you from dying in Siberia,” said Stephen, looking at him in awe. “And flirting is the first thing in your mind?”
“What can I say,” said Tony, smiling. “You are pretty and I’m a very weak man.”
Stephen shook his head, but Tony could see the smile on his face.
“You’re incorrigible.”
"And you want me so bad it makes your head spin," claimed Tony. "You wanna kiss me so bad it makes you act stupid."
Stephen shook his head. “What am I going to do with you?”
“Meaning you’re planning on keeping me?”
Stephen chuckled, and then looked back at Tony with a small smile. “Tell me what happened, don’t die, and I’ll think about it.”
Tony punched the air, and Stephen rolled his eyes.
This time definitely in fondness.
- +1. 2018
Stephen opened his eyes to the white ceilings of a hospital and groaned.
“Yeah,” said a voice on the other side of the bed, and Stephen closed his eyes again.
Immediately he felt a finger poking his cheek. “Pretending to not see me isn’t going to make me leave. You’re an idiot, and I hate you, open your eyes so I can tell you more.”
Stephen opened his eyes just so that he could glare at his boyfriend. “I wasn’t going to let you die,” he said. He had been meaning to sound harsher, but his voice had softened against his will as soon as he had seen Tony’s expression.
Also, it felt dry, so he was grateful when Tony passed him some water.
“So you were going to let yourself die?!” he asked, once Stephen had drank enough.
Tony looked like he had been through hell. He had big bags under his eyes, and while he was not suited up like he had been the last time Stephen had seen him, it was clear he had not washed up in a while.
And he was very upset.
And angry.
“Do you have any idea-”
“I knew what I was doing-” started Stephen, and Tony interrupted, loudly.
“Is that why you fell into a magical coma for fifteen days and no one could wake you or figure out if you would wake up?” he asked, a slightly hysterical tone in his voice. Stephen winced. “You said that you weren’t going to do any of those dangerous spells!”
“If I hadn’t done them, you would have died,” said Stephen. “And Thanos would have won. What was I meant to do?”
“Anything but run face first into danger and nearly dying! Jesus, Stephen, I thought you were gone when I came to congratulate you and you just fell to the ground, bleeding from everywhere!”
“Again, I did what I had to do.”
“You didn’t have to do this alone!”
Stephen made a sound of derision. “Don’t act as if you wouldn’t have tried to stop me as soon as you heard my plan.”
“Hell yeah, I would have tried to stop you!” snapped Tony. “I love you, dumbass! What do you expect, that I just sit aside and watch you kill yourself?!”
“Might I remind you that one, I’m recovering, so please don’t shout at me. Two, what do you think I was doing these past few years, having a heart attack every time you nearly died because you’re an idiot? I love you too, and you think self sacrifice is a good first plan every time you run into a minor difficulty!”
“That’s not true, and it’s dawning to me that this is the first time you’ve told me you love me!”
“Yeah, I realised after I said it! But it’s true, I love you!”
“I love you too, why are we still shouting?”
“I don’t know!” Stephen cleared his throat, lowered his voice. “I don’t know. I love you.”
Tony’s shoulder untensed. He still looked tired as fuck and a little annoyed, but he was smiling now. “I love you.”
“God, you two are ridiculous,” said Rhodes, who Stephen had not noticed sitting on the other bed in the medbay.
“Hey.”
“I wanted to take credit for this entire relationship because it was me nearly dying-”
“You hit your head on the window, you were fine-”
“Nearly dying in a car crash caused by one Tony Stark that brought the two of you together, but I don’t want any part in this nonsense of yours.”
“You’re just jealous that nobody loves you,” said Tony, and Stephen could not get tired of that.
Tony loved him.
Loved him.
It was worth listening to him sniping with his best friend and the argument he knew was going to come later when they both had more energy and more chance to scream.
Worth it.