Peter had a difficult life.
After becoming a superhero due to a little circumstantial and inconvenient (or convenient?) spider, his life was one of the weirdest a teenager could have.
But, it had a lot of good things. One of them was having the fortune to meet Tony Stark, his favorite superhero of all times aka Iron Man.
Before Mister Stark inserting himself in his life, Peter only knew the mask of Iron Man and the mask of the man smiling proudly on TV, but now he saw him as the human he really was, full of kindness, generosity, compassion and…
Always ready to scold him.
“Do you want me to have a heart attack?!”
“B-But I saved the plane!” Peter spluttered out, his eyes wide in fear.
It wasn’t a fear like when he faced a huge difficult villain. It was more like that fear you feel when you break a pot and then you see your mom coming to you with a broom in hands, not to kindly help you sweep the floor, but to stomp it on your idiotic head, which doesn’t really hurt physically, but emotionally it’s scarring.
But after calming down, Mister Stark proceeded to force himself (force, because the man seemed to struggle so much with emotions and demonstration of affection) to tell him how proud he was of him (in a new attempt to do things differently than his own father, as far as Peter understood) and Peter was happy. Confused, but happy.
So now Peter had an adult figure who was also a hero to look up to. Peter couldn’t ask for anything else.
Until something else happened.
His spider sense perked up one night and he followed and cornered a criminal who happened to be…
“The devil!” Peter squeaked when the creature turned around to look at him with his ugly atrocious face.
“It’s not the devil. Just a demon,” a calm deep voice said behind him and that was how he met Doctor Strange.
The man had thanked him for cornering the thing and asked him to leave this problem to him and get away,
But Peter, being Peter, just stood there amazed by the sparkles and awesome powers the man was performing against the demon. He was so distracted by the spectacle of lights that he didn’t see the demon coming towards him in an attempt to use him against the man.
Doctor Strange managed to save him and kill the creature, but Peter ended up with a concussion that left him unconscious for some minutes.
So Doctor Strange who, to Peter’s utter surprise, happened to be an actual doctor , took Peter with him to his hero lair-
“It’s a Sanctum,” he corrected rolling his eyes.
-to his Sanctum to treat his wound.
When Peter was well enough, he shot every question that came to his mind at the doctor, who looked overwhelmed by the incessant babbling.
“Is that cape magic? Do you have a magic wand? Why didn’t I see you before? Do you use invisibility? How can you be a wizard and a doctor? If Doctor Strange is actually your name, why don’t you have a hero name? Can I put my hand in here? Is there an ice cream with your na-”
He stopped talking. Not because he wanted, but because the man had waved his hand and gagged him with magic.
Calmly, the sorcerer (not wizard) answered every question (the important ones) and then he asked him to keep his existence as a secret before leaving him in his room through a portal.
Peter was wheezing .
He wanted to scream to everybody that he met a new superhero that did magic things and that no one knew about which was unfair because Doctor Strange deserved recognition too.
“What is it, kid? You look like you just broke a plate,” Mister Stark asked him one day.
The worst part was that the last person he was allowed to tell was, in fact, Mister Stark. Doctor Strange had stated it firmly. And that was precisely because he didn’t want to deal with the Avengers at his door demanding information, which was understandable, but that didn’t erase the itchy feeling of having a big awesome secret and not being able to share it.
After several more encounters with the sorcerer, now having enough confidence to even go to the Sanctum and hang out with the man, Peter pleaded for some release of his soul.
“Please, Doctor Strange. I’m just going to tell Ned and MJ. They know my identity as Spiderman and they keep the secret! Please? Pretty please?”
Doctor Strange rolled his eyes. It surprised Peter how much his snarky personality resembled Mister Stark’s one and, honestly, he liked it.
“Fine”.
……………………………..
“That’s amazing!” Ned said in awe at Peter’s description of Doctor Strange.
“That’s cheating,” MJ said with a disinterested and unimpressed face, “You’re cheating on science, with magic. Shame on you,” she scolded halfheartedly, “Can we visit the Sanctum and have a look at the library you talked about?”.
Then, Peter’s life proceeded as normal as it could be. He usually met with his favorite hero, Tony Stark, and had a good time in the lab; and he usually met with his other favorite hero, Doctor Strange, and had fun learning about weird things about magic and how to deal with his strong emotions.
He had the best of two worlds and it was awesome.
Until…
“So, how are things going with Iron Mom and Doctor Dad?”
“MJ!” Peter looked at her scandalized.
Ned chuckled, “That one’s good! Iron Mom and Doctor Dad,” and he continued laughing.
“What?” MJ just shrugged, “They practically adopted you,”
Peter blushed at that, “They didn’t!” he argued, “Also, Iron mom?”
“Normally, mom is the one who wraps you up with a helmet and other security things, and puts the baby training wheels on the bicycle,” she explained in all seriousness, “dad is the one who takes them off and lets you go on the bicycle by yourself all of the sudden while you scream in fear”.
Peter blinked, and just remembered the time when something like that happened.
“You can take it,” Doctor Strange said standing next to Peter on a high building where they both were looking at an enormous creature that was now gladly captured in the mirror dimension, but still needed to be defeated.
“A-Are you sure?” Peter stuttered, because he was not sure. At all.
“Yes,” and Doctor Strange pushed him off the building with Peter letting out a scream of surprise.
It turned out that Doctor Strange was right, and Peter managed to defeat the beast all by himself. It was the first time Peter saw the doctor’s proud face.
“But they didn’t adopt me!” he argued again, crossing his arms.
“They’re a married couple and don’t even know. That’s sad, man”,
“Ned!”
And just like that, the trio started to use the code names “Iron Mom” and “Doctor Dad” to refer to the oblivious duo of heroes until they got so used to it like getting used to a meme to express emotions. But it was okay as far as they kept it to themselves, right?
“Iron what?”
Peter squawked and jumped to the ceiling. Literally.
He was just talking on the phone with MJ, telling her that he was in the lab with Iron Mom . He didn’t notice Mister Stark standing behind him.
“I said Iron Man!!” he shouted, hanging from the ceiling upside down.
Stark just narrowed his eyes suspiciously but thankfully he let it slip.
And everything was fine.
…………………………..
Not everything was fine.
Because thatman appeared.
Quentin Beck.
The man seemed like a cool person at first. He said he was from another universe, which Peter believed easily due to his experience with Doctor Strange. Funnily, the man looked like a mix of Doctor Strange and Mister Stark which leaded Peter to trust the man even faster while restraining himself from asking him if he wasn’t, by any weird chance, the son of those two in the other universe.
Peter thought he was a nice guy, until such “nice guy” tried to steal Mister Stark’s technology and revealed himself to be one more villain of those…. The “Fuck You, Stark, for indirectly ruining my life and now everyone must die” club.
It happened that no, Beck wasn’t from another universe. And no, he didn’t even have magic. The jerk just used illusions with his technology.
Oh, and he was trying to murder Peter.
Iron Man interfered with his plans of murdering the teenager fast enough, but the villain was more than prepared to face him with his tricky illusions, knowing that he could mess with his mind and emotions just how he did with Peter some moments ago.
What Beck little did know, though, was that Doctor Strange existed, and that he was Peter’s Doctor Dad . So, when Doctor Dad received the SOS call from the necklace he had given Peter months ago, he appeared to show Beck what a real sorcerer was.
Meanwhile, Peter was on the floor, feeling exhausted and questioning his life choices while his head was throbbing heavily.
He just decided to lay there and watch his two favorite heroes kick Beck’s humbug ass.
He let out a groan. Well, at least he already knew what his next post on twitter was going to be about…
Not every man with facial hair and red clothes is a good person. #ugh #why #mylifewasalie #I’vebeenrobbed #:’(
With Doctor Strange’s help, Iron Man managed to subdue the criminals quickly. Peter was amazed at how well they worked together even without talking.
But then, the battle ended and Doctor Strange, being the caring dad he didn’t know he was, approached Peter quickly to check on him.
“Peter! Are you okay?”
“I’m fiiine,” he let out a whine, still feeling sore.
And that very second, Iron Man, being the overprotective mom he didn’t know he was, landed heavily in front of them with his repulsors charged and aimed at Doctor Strange, who immediately created a shield that covered him and Peter.
“Get away from him!” Stark demanded feverishly.
Peter couldn’t blame him. The engineer had just experienced some traumatic illusions courtesy of Jerk-Beck and Doctor Strange’s clothes looked very similar to him.
Peter stood up quickly, “Wait! Mister Stark! He’s a friend!”
Tony wasn’t buying it, “That’s what you said about that other imbecile some hours ago!”
“Stay behind me, Peter,” Doctor Strange said, not letting down his shield, “Stark looks disturbed and instable. He might hurt you accidentally”.
“WHAT?!” Stark shouted and his helmet retracted to reveal his enraged and offended face, “I’m disturbed because you are standing close to him, circus wizard!”
“I was talking about the effects of the illusions you were exposed to,” the doctor explained, “it’s normal for weak minds to crumble with that”.
Irritation crossed Iron Man’s face at the suggestion of his mind being weak, and at the tone of the doctor who just seemed to want to annoy him, “Anyone would be affected by that. Now step away!”
“I don’t know. I think I would handle it better,” the doctor retorted sounding so full of himself. Yup , Peter decided, he just wanted to annoy him. And since Peter knew Stephen better, he was aware that the man was just trying to distract Tony from the recent traumatic experience to calm him down, “Pain is an old friend”.
Tony seemed to bit the hook, “Yeah? Well, surprise! Pain is an old friend of mine, too!”
“Great!” Peter interrupted franticly, “Pain’s my friend too. Nice guy. The best jokes. We four should do a pajama party sometime!”
Both adults glared at him in silence with parental exasperation.
Peter decided to talk again, “Mister Stark, please. Doctor Strange is not going to hurt me,” he assured, “he helped you defeat Beck!”
“And Beck helped you defeat some other thing in order to gain your trust just some days ago,” Tony countered.
Well. He had a good point.
“I’ve… I’ve known Doctor Strange for seven months now,” he confessed, defeated.
Tony blinked, taken aback.
Seeing that Tony was not being hysterical anymore, Stephen made his shield disappear, and Stark lowered his weapons.
Peter let out a sigh of relief.
“Kid, come here”.
Peter startled at Tony’s order. He looked at Stephen anxiously, who was frowning at Iron Man.
“I said come here, ” Tony repeated, more harshly this time, and Peter looked at Stephen again, feeling torn.
“Go,” Doctor Strange complied, and Peter had no more option than to leave his side.
……………………………………………..
Tony had treated his few wounds in complete silence and had left the room to talk with Mister Rhodey, who was the one who took care of Beck and his partners in crime.
Mister Stark had severely said “Don’t move. I’m not done with you,” before leaving, and now Peter was a ball of fretfulness sitting there in the infirmary, waiting for him.
He grabbed his phone and started typing on the group chat he had with his friends.
Peter: HEEPL
MJ: What
Peter: IRON MOM AND DOCTOR DAD MET AND IT WAS AWFUL
Ned: OMG
MJ: Were there hearts and butterflies when they looked into each other’s eyes?
Peter: HELL NO
Peter: THEY WANTED
Peter: TO KILL
Peter: EACH OTHER!!
MJ: Same thing. Typical mom and dad.
Ned: send photos!!!
Peter: [Selfie of himself with a scared face]
Peter: I’m at the compound!!!
Peter: Mister Stark took me away from Doctor Strange and he’s angry af!!
Peter: I’m in the infirmary waiting for him to come and kill me!!!
Peter: He’s gonna kill me and then he’s gonna ground me!!!!!
Ned: dude, it’s like your parents just divorced and mom took you with her lol
MJ: You’ll never see your father again, that’s sad.
MJ: [Random Sponge Bob Meme of Sadness]
Ned: LOL
Peter: NOT FUNYY!!!
MJ: Man up, Parker.
MJ: Just tell mom he can’t forbid you see dad.
Ned: true!!
Peter: U know what?
Peter: U r right!!
Peter: [Random Sponge Bob Meme of Sudden and Misplaced Courage]
It was decided. It didn’t matter if Mister Stark was angry at him, this was his life, and it was his decision if he wanted to keep hanging out with Doctor Strange!
A second later Tony stormed into the room looking like a rhino about to charge against his victim.
“Peter Benjamin Parker”.
Peter typed on his phone without taking his terrified eyes off the man approaching.
Peter: HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELP
“Put that cellphone away and start explaining,” Tony ordered, “Now”.
“MO-! I mean, Mister Stark! Please, don’t get angry!”
“Too late for that!”
Peter explained as much as he thought he could about his relationship with Doctor Strange. He talked continuously and franticly until his lungs were empty and just paused to fill them again. Tony stayed silent during all this time pinching the bridge of his nose surely counting to one hundred in his mind.
“Where does he live?” was the first thing Tony asked.
“I… can’t tell you,” Peter said with honesty, “But I can ask him if he wants you to know!”
Then, it was Tony’s turn to talk. Tony proceeded to reprimand him about how reckless he’d been and how magic was dangerous and awful and able to make your head explode.
Peter took everything in silence like a good boy until the man started to make bad assumptions about Doctor Strange specifically, and that made him snap, “He’s one thousand times better than those teammates of yours!”
Tony shut his mouth, looking at him surprised and somehow hurt. Peter just then realized what he had said. Civil War was still a wound in his soul.
“I-I mean,” he started more softly, “He’s a very nice person, I swear!” he assured desperately, “He’s so kind, compassionate, selfless, caring… he’s like you!”
Tony looked very troubled, not knowing what to think, but then he crossed his arms and glanced at Peter unconvinced, “You were doing well until you said the last part”.
Yeah, Peter knew that Mister Stark didn’t think so high of himself no matter how he looked like around people that he was not close to, “Please, Mister Stark!” he pleaded, “Just give him a chance! I swear if you get to know him you’ll fall in love!” Tony raised an eyebrow, “I mean, in a… bro way,” he corrected himself with his cheeks reddening, “Just… don’t blow up his secret identity, please. It was my fault because I called him for help. And he risked himself to come and help! If his identity and his work go public, it’s going to be my fault and I’d never forgive myself for that!”
He knew it sounded like blackmail, but Peter didn’t care. It was what he was truly feeling.
Effectively, Tony’s eyes softened. The man took in a deep breath, and was about to say something when Peter’s phone rang.
“Answer. It must be your aunt,” the engineer nodded at the device.
But when Peter grabbed his phone, it wasn’t aunt May’s number.
“Doctor Strange!” he let out without thinking and Tony’s body tensed all of the sudden.
“Answer, and put it on speaker,” he ordered.
Peter obeyed, wincing.
Mom can’t forbid you see dad. Mom can’t forbid you see dad. Mom can’t forbid you see dad. He repeated in his mind with MJ’s voice.
“Peter,” they heard the doctor’s voice.
“DA- I mean, Doctor Strange!”
“How are you?”
“I-I’m fine!” he answered somehow unconvincing, because he was fine physically, but emotionally he was kind of disturbed, “It was just some bruises!”
“Good,” Stephen said, “So, Stark, are you done yelling at him?”
“Uhm,” Peter looked up at Tony, who frowned and crossed his arms, and glared at the phone as if it were Doctor Strange’s face.
“Where is your circus located, wizard?” Tony decided to speak up, “I would like to pay you a visit”.
“Is Peter Ok?”
“He just told you he’s fine”.
“He lies sometimes,” Stephen countered, and Peter pouted.
“I do not!”
“He’s fine,” Tony repeated, rolling his eyes.
“Good,” Stephen approved, “Oh, and you can stop trying to track my location. Your toys don’t work against my magic protection”.
Mister Stark scoffed and Peter suppressed a smile.
“What do you want?” Tony snarled.
“Let’s meet and talk like adults”.
Tony frowned deeply, thinking hard.
Peter held his breath.
…………………………….……
Peter didn’t know why he had to be here. He didn’t want to be here!
“Stark,” Doctor Strange greeted solemnly.
“Strange,” Mister Stark hissed.
Peter glanced at Stephen, then at Tony, then at Stephen, while both men remained there face to face glaring into each other’s eyes in silence.
“Look! A free table!” Peter said cheerfully trying to light up the atmosphere, pointing away to get their attention.
They were at Ben & Jerry’s, supposedly to friendly eat ice cream and calmly have a conversation to know each other better.
When they sat, a very awkward silence followed and Peter shuffled a little looking nervous.
“Isn’t it lovely?” the teenager asked happily, feigning joy, “The three of us, here, about to enjoy the sweetness of ice cream, enjoying each other’s company…” he said dramatically, looking at the sky.
Tony and Stephen stared at him.
“I blame you for that,” Tony decided, glaring at Doctor Strange, talking about Peter’s abilities of socializing.
Peter pursed his lips. He was trying, ok?!
Stephen scoffed. “You don’t even know me, Stark”.
“Exactly,” the mechanic pointed out. “Now tell me who the hell you are and what you do besides making balloon animals”.
Peter tensed and grimaced at that. Mister Stark was insulting Doctor Strange’s job!
The doctor seemed to be holding himself. He just smirked with irony, “I protect your reality, douchebag ”.
Peter winced. Fantastic. Now Doctor Strange was insulting Mister Stark’s person!
And they were staring at each other again!
“WHAT FLAVOR-” Peter shouted hysterically, getting the attention of the other heroes, “-are you going to order, guys?”
Tony tilted his head thoughtfully, “I’m willing to try my flavor”.
“Chalky,” Stephen opined.
Stark glared at him. “Well, yours surely would be sour as fuck”.
If Peter was honest, Mister Stark was being the sour one right now. He knew it wasn’t entirely his fault, though. Tony hadn’t had good experience with magic and he definitively hadn’t had good experience trusting people. Peter could see that Doctor Strange was able to notice that, and he didn’t take it seriously every time Tony said something that indicated he was just looking for a fight.
Stephen didn’t follow the same line. At first it was very easy to think that the doctor was a serious bitter person, but he was actually very cheeky and playful. So in response to Tony’s satirical comments, he just smirked and insulted him back in a playful way, without making any real judgement.
Tony didn’t know what to do, he was so used to being judged.
And when the ordered ice cream arrived to the table, and Tony complained that the chips were a mixture and not just chocolate like he wanted, and Doctor Strange used his magic to get the not-chocolate chips out of the ice cream, and then winked at Tony’s surprised face, Peter knew that Mister Stark just fell in love .
Well, sort of.
He snorted totally unimpressed, yes, but he relaxed and started smiling and even joking afterwards.
Peter could finally breathe in peace.
……………..……………….
“I think they should be Iron Family,” Peter heard Ned saying.
“No way. Peter and Doctor Strange have nothing to do with iron. Strange Family suits them better. Because the three of them are freaking strange,” he heard MJ saying.
“What about Posh Family? Because, you know… Vincent, Edward and Benjamin,” they both laughed.
“Hey!” Peter complained red-faced, finally revealing himself from behind the wall.
“Hurry up, loser” MJ said not paying attention to his offended expression. “The decathlon is about to start”.
Peter let out a sigh. He walked with his friends, confident enough that everything was going to be alright with the event. They had practiced a lot, and under MJ’s leadership it was even better.
But then, he looked towards the public.
Mister Stark and Doctor Strange were there.
He squeaked.
“What is it?” MJ asked, stopping to look at him.
“Doctor Dad and Iron Mom!” Ned answered for him with excitement, glancing towards the direction Peter was staring and noticing both men in the crowd.
“What’s wrong with that?” the girl raised an eyebrow at Peter’s panicked face.
“What if I answer something wrong? What if we lose because of me and they’re here watching me making an idiot of myself and-”
“Peter, you need to calm down,” she interrupted him putting her hands on his shoulders and looked at him in the eyes, ready to give him all the support he needed, “Because if you ruin this for the team, I’ll fucking kill you. Is that inspiring enough for you?”
With a scared face, Peter nodded quickly.
“Good. Let’s go”.
He glanced towards his hero friends again. They were sitting together, Stephen leaning down a little towards Tony while the man was whispering something at him, both of them smiling.
Peter grinned at the sight. He was so glad that they were getting along. It had been three months since they were… introduced , and now Tony apparently hanged out with Stephen even more than Peter could.
Peter wasn’t in the position to go wherever he wanted without permission like the two adults, so he wasn’t always around, but when he was, he could see with his own eyes the development of the friendship of his two favorite heroes.
“You are an idiot,” Stephen said while cleaning an ugly injury on Tony’s face.
“Just so you know, I did ok!” the engineer protested defensively.
“What? Of course you did! I'm not saying you didn't,” the sorcerer frowned at him, as if offended at the mere thought of having a different opinion, “you saved every single one of them. Including the cat,” he added approvingly, Doctor Strange loved animals, “but you could use some help sometimes, at least for you to not end up so beaten up”.
Peter suppressed his chuckle when he saw Tony looking so surprised at the doctor’s words. He wasn’t used to people praising him in such honest way.
Luckily, the commotion had happened close to the Sanctum and Stephen had heard the explosions. The government had sent only Tony to deal with a bunch of terrorists with weird technology because they thought he could deal with it alone, but apparently they didn’t take all the civilians into account, Tony never left a single life behind if he could.
Peter was visiting Doctor Strange at the moment when it all happened.
“The building exploded,” Tony said tiredly, all irritation erased from his voice.
“Yes, material damage is not important, though,” Stephen shrugged, still focused on his task, healing the other man.
“The criminals almost got away,” Tony said, like looking for an excuse to be yelled at.
“Because you were busy saving lives. And I caught them for you anyway,” the sorcerer finally looked at Tony’s eyes, “I understand that the government designates the missions and that you and your current colleagues can’t entirely act by yourselves, but the government doesn’t know about me. You can call for me whenever you want. I might not always be at disposal, but I promise I’ll always come to help you if I can”.
Tony was surprised again, and then his eyes softened, “I thought you only dealt with mystical threats”.
“I normally only deal with mystical threats because I have a way to detect them. I don’t have a way to learn about other kind of threats on time,” Stephen explained, “but I’m here to protect lives, too, Tony, and I want to help as much as I can,” he assured, “Also, I can’t let Iron Man get all the fun of kicking asses,” he said cheekily.
Tony snorted, but his big doe eyes were glittering with gratitude.
He loved that Doctor Strange was taking care of Mister Stark, but he was delightedly surprised when he saw that Mister Stark was taking care of Doctor Strange, too.
“You’re the worst patient ever,” Tony grumbled pursing his lips.
“I’m a doctor,” Stephen said grumpily, as if that were any justification, “I can deal with a stupid cold by myself”.
‘As if’, Peter thought rolling his eyes. If it weren’t for the cloak keeping Stephen from leaving his bed, the man would be fighting (or trying to fight) demons right now.
“You two shouldn’t be here. This could be contagious”.
“Shut up and eat your soup”.
“ ‘m not hungry!”
“You’re going to eat this freaking soup or so help me, Stephen!”
Peter flinched at the tone... Iron Mom’s tone.
Stephen managed to hide his fear after a second, “Fine,” he accepted, “but you don’t get to be difficult with me if you get sick”.
Tony rolled his eyes. “Deal”.
Peter smiled at the memory. He didn’t wonder now why Wong called Tony every time Stephen was being stubborn. Or Rhodey calling Doctor Strange when Tony was being stubborn.
It was because both of them could call the other out of their stubbornness with the stubbornness itself as blackmail, like ‘remember that time when you scolded me for not going to sleep like a normal person and I listened to you? Well, now, put those books down and go to sleep!’ or ‘I accepted you to buy food for me when you said that I wasn’t eating well because sandwiches were not enough. Now, put your coffee number seven down and go eat actual food for once!’ and things like that.
Oh, and ever since Doctor Strange accepted to be introduced to the rest of Tony’s team, he spent some time at the compound, too. Peter was not surprised that soon the doctor gained the privilege to have free pass to Tony’s lab.
“Tony, this is amazing,” Stephen said, truly amazed, looking at the details of Tony’s new project that Peter didn’t really know what it was about. It must be something regarding medicine. Peter knew how passionate the doctor was with the fields of both magic and medicine. “You are amazing”.
The teenager was right now standing at the door of the lab, watching them while the adults didn’t notice his presence yet.
With a grin on his face, he saw Tony shuffling a little at the praise, “Flattery will take you nowhere, doc”.
“Seriously, Tony. This is revolutionary,” the sorcerer said with all honesty.
One of the things that Peter noticed about the two of them was that Tony always took Stephen’s praises to heart. It wasn’t just because the sorcerer sounded always so sincere, but it was also because Tony knew all the things that shaped Stephen to be the person he was now, and being someone who endured so much and understood him so much, his approval meant a lot to him.
What maybe Tony didn’t know, was that Stephen valued his opinion just as much. That was why the sorcerer had worked so hard and so patiently to make Tony accept his magic. Tony didn’t like magic, that was a fact, and he flinched at it like a cat in front of a cucumber, which wasn’t weird considering his bad experience with magic. Obviously, Stephen had noticed that, and little by little started to show him how beautiful the magic could be, always being careful to be attentive at Tony’s reactions and not to step out any boundary. Little by little he gained Tony’s complete trust and now the engineer was fascinated with his magic.
“Actually, I was hoping you could help me with it,” Tony said quietly, as if waiting to be rejected.
Stephen grinned at him, “I’d love to”.
They were really good friends now.
And they were here, together, to see Peter.
When the event ended, and Doctor Strange, with a proud smile, ruffled his hair regardless the constant pain in his hand, and when Mister Stark wrapped an arm around his shoulder with affection, he knew, with moist eyes, that he couldn’t ask for more.
….………………..………….
Mister Stark and Doctor Strange wanted more.
And Peter was the sad witness of their pining .
The worst part was that they denied the pining.
“Who was the genius who introduced Doctor Strange to Tony?” Mister Rhodey asked one day exasperatedly to no one in particular.
Without thinking, Peter raised his hand.
Rhodey just narrowed his eyes at him and didn’t say anything. Although Peter could clearly hear the ‘Curse you, Peter the teenager’ in his silence.
“He’s driving me mad. With his ‘Stephen this, Stephen that’,” the colonel said rolling his eyes. “He finds the only other person in this world as infuriating as him and he freaking falls in love. Why am I not surprised?”
He knew that mister Rhodey didn’t have a problem with Tony being in love with Stephen. The pining was the problem.
“Why doesn’t he just… ask him out?” Doctor Banner asked, not really understanding the whole situation.
Colonel Rhodes rubbed his face, “he says he’s not in love”.
Doctor Banner put a hand on his mouth, “Oh my God”.
“Yeah”.
Mister Wong didn’t have it easier.
“If he sighs longingly one more time in front of me, I’m going to slap him into another dimension,” Wong said grumpily to no one in particular. Peter, looking up from his homework, blinked at him.
Wong and Rhodey would be very good friends.
Doctor Strange was ‘Tony this, Tony that’, too. But he always assured they were just friends and denied any kind of romantic feelings.
And, okay, it was not like people around them were belittling the word ‘friendship’, of course they could be very close to each other being just friends. But the way they looked at each other with so much longing and fondness, their hands on each other giving subtle and kind of desperate touches, the secrecy between them that indicated that they had shared secrets that they didn’t tell to anyone else, the comfort they seek and find on each other, and their smiles when the other wasn’t even looking…
They MUST marry, for heaven’s sake!!
Why were they both denying their feelings? Peter didn’t know. Maybe it was because they were scared since previous relationships weren’t successful, maybe they were scared of ruining their precious friendship, maybe they thought that they couldn’t be together due their jobs as heroes, or maybe they just didn’t know the other was also pining.
When he decided to ask some advice to his aunt May, she smiled sweetly at him and said, “Let them find their own pace. If they didn’t take the next step, it’s because there are still obstacles inside themselves they need to overcome. Rushing things won’t do any good”.
He nodded. She was right.
………..…………………………
“Dude, at this rate, they will be grandparents before they even start dating”.
“Ned!” Peter scolded and MJ punched the arm of a laughing Ned, who was amused at his friends red faces.
But he was kind of right. It was almost a year already and Peter wanted to see his friends happy, but they were still dancing around each other.
At least they had already accepted their feelings. Just to themselves, yes, but it was a start.
Peter had learned about it thank to Mister Rhodey and Mister Wong.
“He says he’s not good with relationship and he doesn’t want to ruin what he has with Stephen. Also, he thinks Stephen doesn’t see him that way. How blind is that?” the colonel had told Peter one day.
How blind, indeed.
“He thinks Tony deserves better than him, someone like Miss Potts,” Wong had said one day. “Also, he thinks Tony doesn’t see him that way. How stupid is that?”
How stupid, indeed!
And still, they remained together, being each other’s anchor.
He knew they were going to reach a point of culmination soon, though. The signals were much stronger than before between them, soon they’d learn that they were perfect for each other.
Soon…
……….………………………….
Soon a freaking powerful demon with the burning desire to eat people’s souls appeared to destroy everything.
It was awful and traumatic seeing all the lifeless bodies on the ground. The Avengers and the ex-Avengers were there... well, some of them, because the thing had sucked the souls of some of them already. The remaining ones were devastated and beaten up to shit by the countless minions of the demon.
Thank goodness, Peter’s friends were still alive, but that would not last long at this rate.
But then, Doctor Strange came and charged against the demon, ready to end the ugly creature’s whole career…
And his own life in the process.
“Stephen!” Tony had shouted to no avail. Doctor Strange had disappeared with the demon into the mirror dimension in order to avoid more damage.
They didn’t know what was happening, they weren’t able to help, they just stood there waiting in desperation, impotence and distress.
And then, suddenly, the dead people started to wake. Their souls had been freed.
But where was Doctor Strange?
Tony looked at Wong, panic in his eyes. Wong remained silent, stiff, looking at a specific point in the sky, holding himself from falling into dread.
Peter didn’t know what Wong saw, but something alerted him all of the sudden, and the sorcerer finally used his magic to open a portal to the mirror dimension.
The Cloak of Levitation came from it, carrying Stephen’s inert body.
“Stephen!” Tony, Peter and Wong ran to him. Wong kneeled quickly next to him and started to cast a spell which wrapped the doctor in a golden sphere. The energy of the sphere seemed to be absorbing dark energy that came out like some kind of smoke from Stephen’s body.
“Come on, Strange!” Wong grunted, his face sweating in concentration and effort.
“Stephen, please!” Tony called out desperately.
“Doctor Strange!” Peter sobbed.
Doctor Strange didn’t wake up.
……………….……………………………
Wong had explained that the dark energy was the result of the demon’s attacks. Such energy’s purpose was the complete consumption of the soul of its victim, but thanks to Wong’s quick action he had managed to extract it from his body, now the rest depended on the strength of Stephen’s soul for him to come back.
The sorcerer was comatose right now.
Wong had said that he was supposed to wake up any time soon if the internal battle was successful, otherwise Stephen would come to life as one of the zombie demon’s minions, his souls lost forever.
Tony hadn’t left Stephen’s side the whole time. The man had cried his eyes out, and now he was pleading quietly for Stephen to wake up.
Peter was looking at him from behind the almost closed door of the sorcerer’s room. He had refused to leave. He wouldn’t do it until the doctor woke up, he knew Stephen was strong and that he was going to wake up. He knew, regardless how hopeless he looked with his tears running through his face.
He will wake up…
He will come back…
He will.
He will.
He will.
He did.
“Tony…?”
Peter held his breath.
Tony looked up.
Stephen was awake.
“You asshole!!” Tony threw himself to the sorcerer and hugged him, sobbing in his shoulder, “You asshole! I’m going to kill you! ”
Stephen smiled, overwhelmed with emotions too, and hugged him back.
Tony lifted his head to look at him in the eyes, as If still not believing he was alright, “I thought… I thought I had lost you”.
“I was about to lose the battle,” Stephen confessed, caressing Tony’s face with one hand, “but then I remembered all the people I love,” he made a pause, swallowing the knot in his throat, blinking the tears that appeared in his eyes for the bunch of emotions he was feeling, “I remembered that I haven’t had the chance to tell you how much I love you,” he whispered, “I had to win”.
Tony’s breath hitched while he looked at the sorcerer awestruck, “Stephen,” he breathed out, his voice wavering.
“I love you,” he repeated in a desperate whisper, “I love you, Tony”.
Tony let out a sob, a smile in his face full of happiness, and he leaned to kiss Stephen, “I love you, too,” he said quietly, and this time Stephen kissed him again and wrapped him with his arms. The sorcerer rolled them over until Tony was lying next to him in a tight embrace.
They pulled apart breathless, and then smiled at each other lovingly.
“Please,” Tony pleaded, “promise me you’ll never do that again”.
Stephen caressed his face. “You know I can’t. But I can promise you that you are, and will always be, the reason I’ll grasp life with everything I have from now on”.
Tony looked at him mesmerized, and he let out the air in his lungs with a happy grin, “I promise you to do the same,” he said burying his face in Stephen’s chest. “I’m so glad you’re alright”.
“The battle of my soul depended on me, but I wouldn’t have survived without the armor you built for me. The attacks were physical, too.”
Tony snuggled him, relief washing over him. “We’ll always take care of each other,” he assured.
“Yes,” Stephen smiled, “we’ll always take care of our Spider Son, too”.
Tony chuckled, not seeming unfamiliar in the slightest with the nickname Stephen used, “Of course”.
Peter couldn’t take it anymore when he heard that and let out a sob.
Geez, couldn’t this conversation happen in a happy sunny day at Coney Island or something? Gosh!
“Peter?” Of course the doctor heard him.
He entered the room, grinning in happiness “Doc!”
“Come here, kid,” he extended the arm that wasn’t under Tony hugging him, and Peter went to the other side to hug his Doctor Dad too, “I’m sorry, it wasn’t my intention to scare you like that”.
“It’s ok,” he whimpered between tears, “You’re ok”.
“I’m ok,” Stephen assured, “We’re ok”.
After a moment, Peter chuckled, “Also, fucking finally”.
“Shut up, kid. You’re ruining the moment,” Tony grumbled, snuggling even more on Stephen’s shoulder.
“You better marry this year or so help me,” the teenager threatened and they laughed.
Peter couldn’t wish for more.