Not From This Universe?

Tony spent 3 weeks in your apartment, tinkering with his nanotech suit and something else, while continuously eating all the donuts you had in your fridge. As the pandemic would allow, you worked at home so you were around when Tony blasted his loud music.

One time the neighbor even came over to complain about the loud noises. You apologized briefly and scolded Tony for having his music so loud. “Not my fault they don’t have music taste,” was all he replied, biting into another donut. You adjusted into going out to buy weirdly expensive supplies for him and occasionally groceries for yourself when he raided your fridge.

It was still like a fever dream to have the Tony Stark actually in your apartment and talking to you about things that are different in your universes. However, you did eventually build up a friendship with him, telling him about your life and him telling you about his. Well, not that he needed to, you knew most of it.

That was a week ago, now he stands in front of you, hands up in joy as he shows you his final product beside him. “Okay I give up, what am I looking at.”

His arms drop and he gives you a playful glare. “This, my friend, is a mini quantum realm travel...thing,” he continues, now realizing he doesn’t have a name for his final product.

 “So you’re telling me that I spent thousands of dollars for that little thing?” you say unnamused. Truth is, this was probably the most interesting thing you’ve seen. I mean it’s literally quantum realm travel. But when one has the chance to bully Tony Stark, who doesn’t take it?

Tony, on the other hand, seemed unaffected by your insults. “Ha ha. Fine, then just don’t come along,” he replies, rolling his eyes dramatically. “Maybe I won’t then, haven’t you been calling me your ‘seer’ all week long?” you scoff back playfully. 

He sighed in defeat, and wordlessly handed you the device. You smirked and put it on, grateful for being able to banter with the man. 

The thing he handed was a small device to be worn on the hand. There was a strap to put it on your hand properly, with a button in the middle, plus a small slot beside it.

“How...does this work?” 

“Figure it out.”

You give him a glare.

“Fine wait,” he says, coming over. “You put a Pym Particle in the slot, and press the button. Simple, that’s why I said figure it out.” You give him a roll of eyes in return.

“This is, and I cannot stress this enough, is so fucking impressive. But how did you get a Pym Particle? I definitely don’t remember buying that from the hardware store.”

“I have a lot.”

“Liar.”

“I duplicated it.”

You turn and look at him behind you, shocked. He had his suit on, but he didn’t have his helmet on him and you could see the smug look on his face. “How the h-”

“How did I do that?” he cuts you off. You simply nod in return. “Your small weasel mind simply couldn’t comprehend my geniu- OW!” 

You thwack him in the head. “Just because you’re my favorite doesn’t mean you get a pass to bully me,” you say, flipping your head away from him dramatically. “I’m your favorite?” He asks, and you could practically feel his smirk in his words.

“Well not anymore, you’ve been replaced,” you snark. Obviously you wouldn’t tell him why, the reason being he’s, well, dead .

Luckily he didn’t press further, instead continuing to do last minute tinkering with his suit. “You ready cupcake?” he asks. You turn and look at him again, “Oh we’re going like now, now?” you ask, worry clear on your face.

“No time like the present right? Besides, we only got one shot at this so why not shoot the shot?” is all he replies.

 “I haven’t even figured out how to say goodbye to friends! I mean what do I even say? That I’m going on a life long vacation? How long would I even be gone? What would they say if I just told them the truth? Do I tell my parents? Would I make it out alive to apologize to them?” you were positively spiraling. 

Tony held on to your shoulders and steadied your mindless hand gestures. “Alright, ease out, one thought at a time.”

You eventually calmed down, and decided on just leaving a note on your apartment.

‘Not dead, just out, probably for a long time. xx.’  Simplicity is key, you think to yourself.

Once that was done, you slid the pym particle in its slot, and took a deep breath. “Nervous?” Tony’s voice asked beside you. “No,” you reply, looking at him.

He raises an eyebrow.

“Okay yes, of course I’m nervous. But I’m excited too, this is like a dream to me.”

“Well consider it a dream come true,” and with that he presses the button on your glove as a suit covers you. Before you could curse him for pressing the button without warning or at least admire how Tony managed to make a suit just like that, you shrink and into the quantum realm you go.

-

Quick pro tip, quantum realm travel is not fun. Twisting and tumbling while at the same time your vision doubling. Your suit was designed to just follow Tony’s suit so he didn’t have to make another quantum realm map on your suit. Still, that didn’t stop you from accidentally spinning like a barrel whenever there was a turn. 

It seemed like forever before you stopped spinning, and the last few seconds before you exited the quantum realm seemed so bumpy and you could barely see anything, but you thought that’s just how it was. The second the suit retracted and you were rolled onto grass out of the quantum realm, you nearly threw up.

“Jesus Tony, I’m never doing that again. Guess I’m never going back to my universe,” you say jokingly, your body still lying down on the grass, “negative 100 over 10 experience,” you add, but get no reply.

“Tony?” you roll onto your back, body still not ready to support you standing up. No one. You looked around, it was just a grassy plane. Confused, you finally pulled yourself up to see what was around you. Because of how dizzy the trip to this universe made you, you swayed side to side slightly like a drunk while walking. ‘ What a sight I probably am right now,’ you joked to yourself.

Once you walk a bit further, the grass abruptly ends and is replaced by a deep downward grassless curve, almost like a large ass asteroid hit the grou- oh no.Oh no no no no no. 

No you’ve cried over Endgame enough times to know where this place is. But that’s not possible, if you were here and the battle was over, how did Tony meet you and was only halfway through the time heist? In fact, where even was Tony?

You look even further around, and PRIVATE PROPERTY was written on the fences a bit further left. Well shit then . You took a moment to examine the former battleground, still in shock that you’re in a different universe and still confused as to where your friend has gone.

So many questions, and no one to give you answers.

But a certain sorcerer also in New York sensed you, a presence that wasn’t supposed to be there. A presence that was currently standing above what remains of the former Avenger facility.

As dazed in awe you were, you were so fucking screwed. No contacts, no money, and no identity. Panic overthrew your body and just before you could get into a full blown panic attack, a voice spoke behind you.

“I don’t think you’re supposed to be in here sweetheart,” the voice said, and you would be a hundred percent ying if you said you didn’t recognize it right away. “Sergeant Barnes?” was all you could say as you turned around. 

And yep, of course you were right, sergeant Barnes right there, still donning his long hair as it flew around a little in the wind. Oh my god. That's Bucky Barnes. He's right there. His hair's still long it's gorgeous oh my g--

“Bucky, is fine.” he cuts off your train of thought. ‘ Okay, after Endgame but not the your present MCU,’ you concluded.

“Uhm, hi.” was all you could manage without dying. In fact, you could die on the spot right now just seeing him actually real in front of you.

“Listen I don’t think you’re allowed to be in here sweetheart, how did you even get in?” he asks, hands still in his jacket pockets. “I-” you argued internally if you should tell him the truth or not, but your mouth had already slipped a lie. “So sorry I was dealing with some affairs, blacked out, and ended up here.”

“And how extreme were these affairs that you ended up here?” he asks, raising an eyebrow at you suspiciously. “… Very extreme,” you whisper, unsure of your words.

He scoffed lightly in not a rude way, but in a way to tell you he doesn’t buy your story.

“Listen, are you a journalist? News reporter or something? Got a source telling you there’s some aliens around here?” he continues to ask mockingly, still, not in a way that he seems rude. You wonder how he’s able to do that.

“No I swear I’m not a journalist or anything, I ju-” before you’re able to finish your sentence, you get cut off by a glowing orange portal, opening just beside you and Barnes. What is it with me and being cut off today?

“Not a journalist for sure, but making my job harder, yes.” 

“What?” You and Barnes’ voice overlapped, as you both turned to look who stepped out the orange glow. 

“My name is Doctor Stephen Strange, and you’re making my job harder. Come with me.”

“No no hold on magic man, she’s trespassing on this property,” Bucky’s voice stated beside you, both of you now fully facing the sorcerer. 

Stephen simply scoffed at his words. “Sergeant Barnes, I didn’t know you were the security guard of this place,” Stephen sassed. Typical of him to sass, you thought to yourself.

“What’s with everyone starting to call me sergeant?”

“I don’t know, what were you doing here on a random Tuesday at-,” he checks his watch, “at 3pm?” 

“I don’t know, I just wanted some peace and quiet and this was the first place I thought of. Turns out, my head hurts more talking to you here than ordering at that loud ass sushi place.”

Stephen chuckled, and his attention turned to you, his brain focusing back at the task at hand.

You were still too dumbstruck that Bucky Barnes and Stephen Strange were able to banter so easily, considering they’ve never talked before in the movies as far as you could remember. The Russos have some explaining to do.

“You. Coming. With. Me.” Stephen emoted, pointing at you then pointing back at the portal. “Until next time love, this situation doesn’t seem to concern me at all, and maybe that sushi place was better than here” Bucky states, as he walks away waving a goodbye to Stephen, the sorcerer nodding back.

He turns his head back to you. “So…are you going in or do I push you in?” he asks, a bit annoyed and side eyeing the portal. Your mouth opens but nothing comes out, and you realize you're flustered. Shit. You decide it’s better to just follow his orders, and step in.

Once you were on the other side of the portal that led to the Sanctum Sanctorum, Stephen walked in. 

“I was supposed to be having a relaxing day.” He mutters to himself, while continuing to walk. You didn’t hear it though, as you were too caught up in admiring the sanctum. It looked exactly like you imagined, of course.

As nervous as you were about why the sorcerer wanted to talk to you, the amount of serotonin pumping through your veins right now that this was all happening was immeasurable. Once you finally looked at Stephen, he snapped his fingers, and you two were teleported to another part of the Sanctum, and you two were sat in chairs facing each other.

The teleportation made you nauseous, just like quantum realm travel. That made you remember about Tony, and your head shot up to see the sorcerer sitting and chuckling in front of you, seemingly amused at how nauseated the teleportation made you.

Just before you could ask him questions, he put on a stoic face again and leaned forward. “I’m sure you have many questions, but I ask first.”

Dear God this trip has gone all wrong.

“Let's start simple, what’s your name?”

“Y/N.”

“And where are you from?”

“New York.”

“No.”

“No?” You echo his words. “Sorry wait, what do you mean no?”

“I’m saying you’re not from New York. In fact, you’re not even from our world,” he adjusts and leans back on his seat.

“You’re calling me an alien?” You ask, eyebrows raised. That was definitely not what you were expecting.

His face this time becomes a confused one. “What? No, no I meant you’re not from this universe. ”

He expected you to react largely, like he uncovered your big secret or something of the sort. However, your focus was still on other things. 

"Are you saying that there's no New York in other universes?”

“What?”

“You said I’m not from New York or this universe. Sure you got the second one right but I still live in New York.”

“You’re focusing on that?”

“I simply notice the important details.”

“More important than me figuring out you’re from another universe?”

“Well no, but I like that I proved you wrong on one aspect.”

He rolls his eyes, and you laugh at his growing stress. “You seem difficult already,” he mutters. “I kinda am, I mean you did say I’m making your job harder for you, so I’m technically just helping prove you right in something,” You say. 

“You’re moving away from the main topic of discussion. What’re you doing in a universe that isn’t your own?

“It’s a long story actually.”

“I’ve got all day.”