Chapter 3
You spent an hour explaining to the sorcerer exactly how you ended up in their universe, getting distracted once in a while with how unreal it all was. By the time you’ve finished, the sun had already set outside the sanctum windows.
Stephen just sat there listening, sipping his tea, interrupting you once in a while to ask a question. “And that’s how I ended up here,” You end with a sigh, sinking back into your seat.
The sorcerer waits a few moments before speaking up. “You done?” He asks, hand supporting his face. You nod in reply. “You know I’m no expert but I do believe your entire story would’ve been 30 minutes shorter if you had skipped a few useless details,” He comments.
“Oh so now you’re my english teacher?” You retort instantly, throat dry from all the explaining. Almost like reading your mind, he conjures a glass of water in your hand. You stare in disbelief for a second, before chugging the ice cold water down your throat. “Thank you.”
He nods in return. “No, not your English teacher,” he says, regarding your previous statement. “But I do think that 10 minute explanation on how Stark had ‘obliterated’ your refrigerator was a bit unnecessary.”
You shrug in response, “You had to be there.”
He simply rolls his eyes. “It’s late, there’s no point in us fixing this problem tonight if it’s not urgent,” he stands up, sighing. There’s nowhere for you to stay here, but since you’ve met sergeant Barnes, you could stay with him.”
You perk your head up at him, checking his face if he was serious. “Stay? With Sergeant Barnes? What?” You were confused and flustered at the same time. “Why, d’you got a school girl crush?” Stephen teases, still with a straight face and putting on his sling ring.
He opens a portal for you two to go in, and the view on the other side of the portal is an apartment door.
“I don’t have a school girl crush, he just makes me nervous, and so do you, and so does everyone in this god forsaken universe, Why did I think this was a good idea,” you shove your face in your hands dramatically, covering your face.
Stephen, who was so done with all of this, shrugged down his arms in slight annoyance. He walked over and held you on your shoulder, “Listen I thought you said this was your dream? It’s not as bad as it seems. Come on get up, it’s late, I need sleep.”
You rolled your eyes. Of course. He was thinking about his sleep. You stand up and walk in the portal and suddenly you’re in an apartment lobby. You turned back around, and Stephen was still standing on the other side.
“Just knock, it’s Barnes’ apartment. I’ll come back tomorrow,” And he closes the portal, leaving you there alone. You raise your hands up in confusion, look around, drop them and scoff.
“Okay Y/N goodnight, I hope your existential crisis fades soon, ” You mumble to yourself, and knock at the apartment door. You hold your breath, nervous about what he would say. You’ve just been dropped off there and in the last 24 hours, and you didn’t notice how exhausted you were until now.
A few moments pass and you think for a second maybe he was already asleep. Just then the door opened, and a short haired Bucky was standing in front of you. “Holy shit. You cut your hair.”
“Hello to you too love, what can I do for you?” He leans on the doorframe. “I- uh, mister doctor Strange rudely dropped me off here and said I should ask you if I could bunk. And he said you can’t say no because I have nowhere else to stay.”
He stood and looked around, before pushing you lightly into the apartment. You get maybe he was a bit paranoid, especially the fact he doesn’t know your name. “We actually haven’t met properly, I’m Y/N.”
He nods in reply, “I assume you know my name by now?” And now it was your turn to nod. “Wanna tell me why Strange was looking for you earlier, and why you were in the compound?” He asks, fixing himself a glass of whiskey.
You weren’t a drinker, but with everything, you seriously wanted that whiskey. Moving on, you explained the entire situation to somebody for the second time today. After you explained everything--significantly shorter this time-- he takes another sip of whiskey and nods slowly. “Helluva Ride.”
“What?”
“Hell of a ride.”
“No I understood that but you’re not like…shell shocked or anything?”
“I mean, I fought a purple alien 6 months ago so, nothing's quite a shocker now.”
You scrunch your face in confusion, but eventually just nod. You were confused how he wasn’t having an existential crisis like you were, but you left it at that. He put up some small talk about your universe and theirs, mostly to diffuse the awkward tension in the room.
You internally thanked him for it, for once catching a break today. By the time you two finished talking it was around 7pm, and you just finished insulting him playfully.
“It’s still weird,” he comments.
“What is?”
“The fact that you know nearly everything about me and that you’re from a different universe.”
“Are you serious? I thought we moved on from that conversation like,” You look at the clock. “30 minutes ago, and you were saying how nothing shocks you anymore.”
“I know but aftershocks have just settled in.”
“You’re actually taking this all in pretty well for a man from the 40’s.”
He scoffs and raises an eyebrow, “I’m not that old.”
“Mhm, are we sure about that?”
He rolls his eyes and takes a final sip of his whiskey that he’s only finished now. “You should rest up sweetheart, or the sorcerer might kill me tomorrow if his ‘problem’ hasn’t slept.”
You laugh as he escorts you to a room, ever the gentleman. “You can stay here for a while, I can sleep on the couch.”
“I can’t kick you out of your own room,” you immediately say. “No it’s fine, the couch gives me less night terrors anyways,” he replies. You nod slowly and thank him, and he bids you a goodnight.
You lay down uncomfortably on the bed, not used to the feeling of someone else’s bed. You decided to skip the shower to just do that tomorrow morning. You thought you wouldn’t be able to sleep immediately, but the exhaustion overtook your body quick enough.
When you woke up you glanced at the clock, reading 5:00am. Groaning, you try to go back to sleep but to no avail. You decided to get up instead, praying to whoever was listening that Bucky had a coffee machine.
Sure enough, he did keep a coffee machine in his apartment. The apartment, speaking of which, was an absolute mess. Looking around you wondered where the man in question was in the first place.
You saw a note left on the counter, ‘went to therapy, there’s food in the fridge. If sorcerer comes, just leave a note.’ You tsk, and put the note back on the counter. Finally deciding, you were determined to clean the dirty apartment.
Maybe after coffee though.
9:00 AM
You sat slouched on the sofa, hair only slightly disheveled. You finished cleaning two hours ago, and sat there waiting for Bucky to come home, which was taking him surprisingly long.
You were watching some trash reality TV show, but you couldn't care less. Two hours of watching a trashy reality show gave you time to establish where you were in the current MCU timeline you knew.
Bucky had just recently cut his hair, Stephen Strange hasn”t made the sanctum into Elsa’s ice palace yet, and you were sure Endgame had just recently happened. You estimated that it was a few months after Endgame and Wandavision, but before Falcon and the Winter Soldier. ‘ Wonder how Wanda’s holding up,’ You thought to yourself.
Just then, the door opened and promptly closed. You didn’t bother looking around to the door, since the person who came in spoke up as soon as it closed. “Did I get robbed?” Bucky asks. You simply laugh in reply, “First time seeing a clean apartment?”
He scoffs, putting down his jacket. “Just not used to seeing mine clean.”
“As we can clearly tell by its state earlier.’”
He rolls his eyes, “You didn’t have to do it.”
“But I wanted to,” You smile at him. “Just a small thank you for letting me stay here,” You add. ‘ And because you’re literally the best character in existence.’ You say in your head. “Also I thought you were just going to therapy, what took you so long?”
“Decided to take a run too, clear my head and things,” He replies. You nod, not knowing what else to say. It was clear he wasn’t doing well, and even someone who doesn't know him would see it just by his demeanor.
Comfortable silence overtook the room, and for a while it stayed like that as he moved around his kitchen and you were switching channels on the TV. Just then, a certain news channel caught your attention.
“Good Morning America!! Just early last night, John Walker, or as you may know him ‘Captain America’ stole all of our hearts during his first ever live interview. What do you think about this Margaret?”
“Well personally I was always a Steve Rogers girl, but I think we have to move on and just to be honest, John Walker is a hunk ale-”
Bucky turns off the TV, face filled with annoyance. You put two and two together, and realized that he’s probably seen the news last night after you fell asleep. “If it makes you feel better,” You start, getting him to look at you. “I don’t like him either.”
He dons a small smile, “How’d you know? You haven’t even seen him.”
You wait for him to process his words for a bit, but he doesn’t make a connection. You roll your eyes, “Other universe?”
He gives a little “ ohhh yeah” and turns around, then you realize he was just messing with you. You scoff accusingly but playful, ready to annoy him. But just then, a knock on the door comes. “I’ll get it,” You hear Bucky say.
Once he opens the door, you see Stephen standing there. With more energy than yesterday, you give him a little wave, which seemed to throw him off a bit for some reason, but he smiles back.
Then he turns his head back to Bucky with a serious face, “Barnes.”
“Magician.”
“It’s actually sorcerer.”
“I’ll check if I care soon,” Bucky quips, making you stifle a laugh. “Well doll, your caretaker’s here,” and now you really laugh.
“Hahaha. Great. Can we go now please?” Stephen asks, arms leading to the portal he’d conjured. You nod, and wave a goodbye to Bucky. He seemed to give a genuine smile back and waved, before the portal closed.
“So, what's the diagnosis doc?” You turn around, asking Stephen. He didn’t seem to appreciate your doctor quips, but answered nonetheless.
“I read a bit about the multiverse last night, and from what I’ve seen, there’s no harm with you staying here a bit,” He says, leading you into a room in the sanctum. “Unless you decide to try and destroy the entire known multiverse, that is,” He adds.
“I promise on my earthly soul I will not try,” You say, crossing your heart. He rolls his eyes, but in not such an annoyed way. You took it as a success in tearing the man’s walls down.
Watching him through the screen in movies, he seemed like an adorable fixable asshole. But here, seeing him in front of you, he just seemed closed off, almost like he wants to open up but he doesn’t know how. You decide to leave it be.
“Oh by the way, I got a question.”
“Fire away,” He answers.
“I came through here with Tony Stark, then he sorta just...poof. Disappeared? You said yesterday you’d try and look into it and so...what’s the verdict?”
He stays still for a moment, before turning slowly to you. “I...truly am, sorry to be the one to tell you this. I thought I could avoid it but, Tony Stark, he’s-”
“Dead?”
He looks up at you, removing his gaze from the floor. “How do you- right. Your whole universe thing.”
“I didn’t wail over his death loudly in a theatre to forget about him dying, thank you very much.”
He smiles and you swear you heard a slight laugh. “So if Tony’s really dead here,” You start, “Then how did he get to my universe? I doubt he faked his death, because that was very theatrical.”
He strokes his chin with his hand, and the sight makes you feel your knees nearly give up below you. Jesus keep yourself together.
“Could be the quantum realm travel went wrong. I can’t be sure, I wasn’t there when they did it originally. You’re gonna have to ask someone who knows about it.”
“So you’re saying you have no useful information?” You tease him. He gives you an offended look, but didn’t seem to take the insult to heart. “Wow. I help you out and I get that response? Rude,” He says back. You laugh, and unknown to you, Stephen smiles at the sight subconsciously.
“So where do we start with this whole, 'where's Waldo Tony Stark version’ ?” You ask.
“Well, someone who was there the time they used quantum realm time travel to bring back half the universe,” His face turned back to serious. “Clint Barton has officially retired, Carol Danvers and Thor are off planet-”
“What about Scott Lang?”
“...Who?”
“The guy who suggested Quantum Realm travel in the first place? Do you really not know him? This is giving me a new understanding of criminally underrated.”
“Oh, the ant man guy? Didn’t know his name, don’t start judging me now,” He says, putting back on his sling ring.
“Bold of you to assume I hadn’t started judging you since we first met,” You mutter, but just loud enough for him to hear. He side eyes you, annoyed, but moves on and opens the portal to what seems like a suburban house’s front yard.
You step into the portal to the grassy lawn, and this time Stephen steps in after you. Closing the portal, he leads the way to the door, knocking promptly.
You both hear a lot of crashing and cussing after, making you two look at each other. It was obvious he was containing a laugh as much as you were at the chaos. A man’s voice far inside shouts, “I’m coming!” followed by more loud bumping and cursing.
Eventually the man gets to the door, and who else did you expect it to be. “Hi, Scott Lang, what can I do fo- hey aren’t you that magician guy?” He points at Stephen, smiling.
His energy truly did match one of a golden retriever, as the tumblr blogs would say.
“Sorcerer,” Stephen quickly corrects. “Why do people love calling me a magician?”
Scott doesn’t answer the question, “Yeah we fought Thanos together right?” He smiles, even bigger than before, which you have no idea how it’s possible when his previous smile was already so bright.
“Man. This is an honor to see you again,” He shakes Stephen’s hand, and Stephen looked like the human equivalent of the loading sign. “Am I being weird? I think it’s a bit weird. Just tell me if I’m being weird.”
You laugh, finding this the best thing that’s happened to you since you got to this universe. The confused look of Stephen’s face plus the golden retriever contradicting one of Scott’s, it was a pure gold moment that you took a mental picture of.
The moment didn’t last too long, though, as Scott’s attention was then directed at you. “Were you there too? There were so many people there I- well some weren’t people, I think there were aliens too- Is it insensitive if I say people for aliens? Or is it more insensitive if I call them aliens? Nevermind, I’ll figure it out myself.”
Once he finished rambling, you introduced yourself. “And no, I wasn’t there at Thanos. We-”
“Which is actually what we’re here to talk about,” Stephen cuts you off. “Why? Is he back?” Scott asks, face going through what seemed like the 5 stages of grief in 5 seconds.
“No no, nothing of the sort. It was about what happened before that? Quantum realm travel and the sort. Could we come in?” Stephen asks.
“Oh, of course!” Scott smacks himself in the head. “I don’t know why I didn’t think of that. Come in!” He says, as he opens the door for both of you. Scott however, being the guy he is, forgot he had guests originally before you two.
“Scott? Who’re these?” The woman asks. Your face automatically lit up. Oh my god that’s Hope Van Dyne- don’t be gay don’t be gay don’t be gay- “Oh, you remember wizard guy,” Scott guestures vaguely at Stephen, who rolls his eyes at being called wizard again.
Hope nods, “Yeah, made a portal in front of me then told me we were fighting a purple grape nut alien. Next thing I’m out there smacking purple balls,” She comments. “Sorry about that, I was kind of in a hurry then,” Stephen replies.
“It’s all good sorcerer.”
“Finally someone who calls me sorcerer,” You hear him mutter under his breath, but it seemed like no one else heard him. Hope then asked who you were, and you briefly introduced yourself again. Scott leads you and Stephen to the kitchen where you both sit down at a small table.
“So, what was all the serious talk gonna be about again?” Scott asks. You inhale largely, and explain the entire situation to him. He stared absentmindedly the entire time, invested in the story. Hope was in the back also vaguely listening, but when you finished explaining she seemed interested.
“That’s not supposed to do that,” Was the first thing Scott comments. “Supposed to do what?” You ask.
“Travel to another universe. It’s physically impossible,” Hope answers for Scott, who nods in agreement. You and Stephen sit there processing, not really knowing how to respond. “Sorry, what?” You ask again.
“Okay, do you know the show Doctor Who?’ Scott asks. You nod. Stephen doesn’t.
“So the TARDIS, the main character's machine, can travel through space and time. Anywhere, anytime. That’s sorta how the Quantum Realm works,” He says, pausing to see if you two understand.
“And the TARDIS, at times, can go out of their known universe, with hardship, though. Well, I think so, I don’t know, I haven't watched it in years. Point is, the Quantum Realm is like the TARDIS except it literally can’t go out of universe. No matter what you try, it’s mathematically, scientifically, impossible.”
You process his words again, a bit speechless. “Tony only spent 3 weeks in my apartment,” You finally comment. Hope and Scott share a knowing glance. “What? What is it?”
“Well Scott said it’s scientifically and mathematically impossible, but not... magically impossible,” Hope voices out for the both of them.
Ah. Oh shit