Tony stumbled back slightly with a yelp, swatting at a corner of Strange’s cloak.
“Hey, Gandalf! Watch your magic poncho!”
Stephen glanced up from his spellbook. “Sorry?”
“Your cape! It poked me!”
“It’s a cloak. But my apologies.”
A few minutes passed in relative quiet as the pair of them went about their respective research. The silence was later broken as Tony dropped his pen, letting out a rather undignified noise and immediately turning to bat away the cloak for a second time.
“Wizard!”
“Yes?” Strange almost didn’t respond to the nickname, but decided to humour his companion for a while. He knew very well that the cloak had been going after Tony, but had no intention of stopping it from doing so. Besides, it’d be cruel not to let it avenge itself after that poncho remark.
“Make it stop!”
“Why, is it hurting you?”
Tony’s face took on a slightly darker shade, and he briskly turned back to his work. No response.
“I asked if it was hurting you.”
“No- it’s- it tickles, okay?”
Strange barked out a laugh. “Seriously? Wouldn’t peg you as the ticklish type, Stark.”
Tony was definitely not blushing crimson. “Surprise?” It would’ve been too embarrassing to face Stephen whilst having the discussion, so Tony had opted to keep his back to the wizard, not-so-intently pretending to intently focus on the parts in front of him. The silence that hung between them was almost too awkward to bear; both were waiting for the other to act on the discovery, but neither chose to do so. At least not for a few seconds. So when two hands tweaked his lower ribs? Tony just about jumped five feet into the air. He whipped around to face his attacker, hands held up in defence.
“Don’t you dare!”
Strange had used the period of quiet to sneak up and trap Tony between himself and the lab counter, so there was no hope of getting out.
“What? Are you scared of a little tickling?” The jibe was ignored.
“I’ve had enough from the others, I don’t need it from you too!”
“From the others? How ticklish are you?” Stephen’s fingers fluttered over Tony’s ribs as a test, producing a poorly held-back string of giggles. “-Ah. That explains it.”
“Shuhuhuhut up!” Tony snorted when the tickling moved to his stomach, trying but failing to curl up to protect himself.
“Really, Stark- as if insulting my cloak wasn’t bad enough. You’re aware that’s what started this, right?” Strange redoubled his efforts, enjoying seeing Tony smiling for a change. His cloak offered a light jab to Tony’s side as if to reiterate his point, warranting even more laughter on Tony’s part.
As the millionaire desperately tried to remain upright through his laughter, he debated the consequences of throwing more nicknames at the cloak- and decided it was worth it.
“You- ahaha-and your shoulder curtain- cahahan take a hihike!”
This of course made things much worse for him, but Tony would never regret it. And as he dissolved further into hysterics, Tony supposed it was what he wanted - even if he couldn’t admit it.