Potential
Stephen spends a lot of time sorting through futures. Its long, tedious work but someone needs to ensure that cosmic threats aren’t about to swallow the earth whole and he’s been promoted to the task in a most unfortunate turn of events. But disaster is never all he finds in the futures he sorts through- he finds everything and anything from Wong adopting a stray cat and then two stray dogs to his discovering an allergy to some rare kind of plant he now avoids. Futures rarely remain consistent, Wong only ends up with one cat and one dog, but occasionally there’s an element or two that remains stubbornly in tact no matter which future it is.
When he runs into Tony Stark he’s trying to buy cat food but he’s butchering the language. It doesn’t help that he can’t really speak it and despite being fluent in Sanskrit, that’s only the basis for Nepali not the whole language. And he rarely speaks Sanskrit, he mostly just reads it. So when Tony steps in and fluently translates what he’s attempting to say to the harasses shopkeeper he’s grateful for a half a second until he looks down. Tony grins up at him, yellow sunglasses perched on his nose and he’s seen seventy thousand futures that start this way but only half of those involve Tony in yellow sunglasses. The other half shows him favoring red and there are three where he’s wearing purple. Stephen is relieved this isn’t one of those futures because all of those particular potential lines of history end with Tony dead.
But staring down at someone he’s watched himself fall in love with over and over again thousands- no, millions of times is… intimidating. “You can say thanks, you know,” Tony tells him, laughing.
Stephen straightens a little, knowing he looks irritated but unable to help that that’s his natural facial expression. “Thanks,” he says in a curt tone and there are about thirty thousand responses Tony could give but he decides its a good plan to go off script.
“Fine, be rude. Next time your cat can starve,” he says and Stephen panics. How is it that he’s messed up an interaction he’s seen thousands of times so badly that he’s created an entirely new line of history? Who even does that?
“The cat isn’t mine,” he says quickly. “She’s my best friend’s cat but the man refuses to have anything to do with the material so I get stuck with the bill. Thank you for um… translating though, I’m not that great with Nepali.” Despite his ancestry from the country he knows nothing of it, especially not culturally. He thought perhaps he might blend in more here than he had in America but it only resulted in him feeling more American than he’s ever felt considering he spent most of his time in America feeling Nepali. Now he’s just settled in and made himself feel at home with Wong in the sanctum instead of caring about cultural customs.
Tony considers this for a moment before he continues, still off script. “Yeah, I can tell you’re not skilled in the uh, Nepali department. Nice attempt at Sanskrit though,” he says. He has no idea how to respond, not when Tony is still forging his own future and he has no idea how to handle that.
Stephen knows so much about Tony- his favorite color, his preferred music, his best friends names and occupations, his favorite tie even. He knows deeper things too, like Tony’s deep seated fear of failure, his abusive father, his alcoholism, his long undiagnosed ADHD, how much he hates Christmas and not just because he’s an atheist. But does any of that knowledge come in handy now? No, because he doesn’t really know Tony, not really, he just knows what he’s seen. And Tony doesn’t know anything of him at all so really they’re at a disadvantage.
He sighs, “my mother insisted I was fluent as a child, I was rather close to my grandmother and she barely knew English, but I have no evidence for that claim how,” he tells Tony, smiling a little. Tony, in every future he’s seen, responds well to personal stories. Now is no exception- he smiles and thaws a little to Stephen’s previous attitude.
“My nannies came from all over so I know a little of a lot of languages, but I’m fluent in seven,” he says. Stephen knows this too but he lets Tony think this is new information.
“I only knew English when I got here and learned Sanskrit,” he says.
Tony raises an eyebrow, “you learned Sanskrit over Nepali in a country where people speak Nepali? What the hell influenced that?” he asks, laughing at the obvious blunder to an outsider. Its not like he knows Stephen had been reading magical texts and if he were to tell Tony that he’d be called nuts and there’s be a prompt breakup. He’s watched that happen over one hundred thousand times before it simply occurred to him to show Tony the magic instead of tell him about it. That changed all futures thereafter and only a few resulted in breakups and most of them were over things unrelated to the magic. And he always manages to win Tony back somehow.
“The books I wanted to read were in Sanskrit, not Nepali,” he says, feeling the heat in his cheeks. Tony must find it endearing though because he laughs, shaking his head at Stephen’s obviously bad choice.
*
Wong and the cat give him a dirty look by the time he makes it home with the cat food feeling pleased with himself. Despite his sad attempt at communication to start with he managed to make a good impression afterwards. It helps that he knows Tony’s favorite foods, movies, and activities so planning a perfect date on the fly hadn’t been the most strenuous activity he’s ever had to deal with. Tony responded to it all wonderfully of course and he’s got another date tomorrow. But the cat and Wong don’t look impressed.
“What? If you want the food to be home by dinner get a job,” he tells Wong, depositing the food at his feet.
“You’d let an animal starve over your your attachment to useless material objects like money?” Wong asks, obviously trying to send him on a guilt trip.
“Of course I would,” he lies. He knows Wong fed the cat some of his dinner, Wong always feeds the cat some of his dinner. The animal isn’t going to starve any time soon.
*
Stephen Strange is fucking perfect and Tony is starting to wonder what the catch is. Its like he knows everything about Tony and manages to pull off these ridiculous dates that should take months of planning and a lot of in depth knowledge of Tony’s likes and dislikes to get right but he has none of that.
“Maybe he’s a stalker,” Pepper says and Happy perks up, looking out the window of the Tower like he’ll find Stephen floating there looking in at them or something.
“One I’ve never noticed?” he asks, raising an eyebrow.
Pepper sighs, “Tony you know I love you but you’re as observant as a particularly stupid goat. An Oompa Loompa could be stalking you and you wouldn’t notice it,” she points out.
“Well I would have noticed,” Happy says in his own defense.
Tony isn’t sure that’s true even if Happy is a very dedicated employee who tries his best. Pepper looks skeptical too but she must also has the same reservation about insulting Happy because she doesn’t say anything. “Seriously,” Tony says, “he’s like every fantasy I’ve ever had come to life.” He likes all the same music even if he also likes some weird shit Tony can’t stand, they have the same movie taste even if Stephen also likes those bullshit art films that make Tony want to die, and they even agree politically- something Tony confirmed because he learned from Tiberius. He’s not dating another republican. But he doesn’t really want to date another Steve either so thankfully Stephen has strong opinions but he’s not about to start a protest. The only subject Tony hasn’t gotten a real answer on is the god question.
He’s a staunch atheist partially because he thinks religion is fucking stupid- what kind of god is so arrogant that he has to take attendance- but also because the idea of an omnipotent god with endless powers is scientifically laughable. Stephen seems to skirt the subject though and honestly Tony can deal with some potential belief in a god or two if it means he gets the rest of what’s attached to Stephen. He even acts interested in his charities for children- most for kids leaving abusive homes, but there’s a few that are for the science-inclined. He asks questions and actually listens to the answers.
“Well… maybe he’s just a good fit for you,” Pepper says finally.
Tony sighs, “so were you and we know how that ended,” he says.
“Okay, there were circumstances,” Pepper says. “That wasn’t your fault.”
Yeah, okay so Pepper being a raging lesbian wasn’t his fault obviously and she mostly just chose him because they genuinely do get along really well sans the romance and whatnot, but still. What if Stephen has some closeted sexuality thing? Actually no, that’d mean he’s secretly straight and that’d be a weird thing to hide and also a bad reason to go on several dates with a guy. But maybe Stephen’s got some other thing, he doesn’t know. Maybe he’s a fucking secret wizard or something. Okay, obviously that’s ridiculous but still. There’s got to be some kind of catch.
*
Six months, Stephen decides, is a good time to show Tony the literal magic. By then he knows plenty about Stephen- like all his favorite movies, that he and Tony vehemently disagree on Die Hard being a good movie, and that Stephen’s sister died when he was ten despite his best efforts to try and save her. No one else on this planet even knows that that was his motivation for becoming a doctor, no one except Tony.
So when Tony shows up to the sanctum, looking around at the magical artifacts that are mostly just floating around in their glass prisons he thinks he’s already half botched it. There is no future in which Tony reacts well to finding out about magic before he’s out and out shown that it exists. “How did you get them to do that? Some kind of magnet thing?” he asks, grinning over his shoulder at Stephen. He wraps his arms around Tony’s waist and presses a kiss to the top of his head.
“Follow me,” he tells Tony, pulling away despite Tony’s protests. He follows Stephen dutifully along until they get to the other students- Stephen has determined that this is the best way to show Tony magic through all his checks of Tony’s reactions in all potential futures. When he sees the students confusion crosses his face for a moment, then skepticism, then something akin to anger. Stephen has never understood Tony’s reactions- not one of them- so he chooses to step back.
“I know you know that I’ve been holding something back. Magic is real, and I’m quite talented at it,” he says stepping back and drawing a circle in the air. A portal appears between him and Tony and he knows Tony will hesitate for almost a fully minute before slowly sticking his hand through and withdrawing it quickly. When nothing bad happens he steps forward again, sticking his whole head through. “Just walk through the damn portal,” Stephen tells him eventually. Tony takes the time to pull himself out and glare at Stephen for a moment before he steps through. Stephen follows after him and closes it behind them.
Tony looks around his penthouse wildly, frowning at his surroundings. “JARVIS?” he asks hesitantly.
“Yes, sir?” the AI responds and Tony blinks rapidly, probably trying to find a scientific explanation for his presence halfway across the world in a matter of seconds. Stephen lets him work it out on his own because pushing Tony only ever ends in screaming matches he’s on the losing end of even if he’s right. Tony has a hard time accepting things he doesn’t believe in, at least in regards to this particular subject, so its best to let him test things. Tony will ask questions eventually, he always does.
“Call Pepper,” he tells the AI. The phone rings a few times over the speaker system before Pepper answers.
“Tony? Aren’t you in Nepal right now? Your flight would have landed what… two hours ago? Go to bed,” Pepper tells him. Stephen smiles, deciding he’s fond of Pepper even if they haven’t officially met.
“What day is it?” Tony asks, frowning because Pepper made direct reference to his flight having just landed- clearly Stephen hadn’t drugged him and this isn’t some wild trip. Pepper is the control subject and she’s performing well.
“The thirtieth Tony- are you on something? You don’t sound quite right,” she says.
Tony waves a hand around, “yeah, I’m fine Pep. Bye,” he says, offering her no explanation. He turns to Stephen. “Okay what the fuck?” he asks, back to going off script. He’s got an annoying habit of that.
“I told you,” Stephen says, “magic is real. Just be happy you didn’t get my introduction to it- I got thrown through two hundred and seventy five dimensions by a rather crabby old woman,” he says, shaking his head. He still doesn’t even know her name and he resents that.
Tony squints, clearly not believing this so Stephen demonstrates, carefully moving his hands the right way until they’re in the mirror dimension. Tony isn’t stupid, he knows something is off even if he can’t exactly see what it is. “What the fuck is that?” he asks, pointing to the wall Stephen has made in the middle of the room that separates reality from the muted mirror dimension.
“That is where the mirror dimension stops,” he says. “Here things don’t work the same way- Wong and I use it with students learning more dangerous spells because the damage here isn’t permanent.” It is if inflicted on another human being but no student knows enough to be a threat to Wong or Stephen and especially not to both of them combined.
“Did you like… stick me with a needle or something? Don’t give me that face, you used to be a doctor, you know how to use a needle,” Tony rationalizes.
“Yeah, but I’m not exactly fond of drugging the unwitting. Is that really the most logical solution you could come up with?” he asks, a little offended by it.
“This is nuts,” Tony says, shaking his head. He turns to walk away and Stephen quickly wills the mirror dimension away and throws a portal at Tony. He yelps as he falls through and Stephen follows after him, neatly landing back in Nepal. He waves the portal away when Tony tries to go back through it. “You can’t just keep me here,” Tony tells him.
Stephen snorts, “of course not. I would like to point out that you do have faith in magic though. If you didn’t you wouldn’t have tried to go back through that portal, knowing you’d be home again.” Its the right thing to say because Tony scowls at him, annoyed that Stephen is right.
*
Tony looks up at the sky, curled into Stephen’s side. “Did… you use magic to get to know me so well?” he asks because he’s been dying to know since he reluctantly accepted magic is reality.
Stephen sighs, “not purposefully, no. There’s a stone with the power to manipulate time- I use it to scan the future for possible dangers. I didn’t mean to find you there but you were in every future I ever found of myself.”
He frowns, shifting so he’s leaning up on his elbow looking down at Stephen, who’s stretched across the sanctum roof. “So you’ve meet me however many times you’ve looked into the future?”
“No,” Stephen says, “I’ve watched myself fall in love with you seventeen million five hundred thousand three hundred and fifteen times.”
Seventeen million- ok what the fuck? Tony looks down at him skeptically, wondering if he could determine some kind of truth to that statement. “And this is how you knew me so well, I’m guessing?” he asks and Stephen nods. Hmm. “Did I ever tell you why I hate Howard so much in any of those futures?” Because he hasn’t in this one and if Stephen knows the answer than there has to be some kind of truth to his words.
He nods. “He was abusive to you and your mother. The way you phrased it in most futures is that he never told you he loved you. Never even told you he liked you. He left you these home videos though, telling you that you were the future. You ended up burning them because you didn’t believe a word he said.”
There is no way for Stephen to know that and only three people on this planet know about the videos. Fury might as well count as dead considering he doesn’t dole out secrets ever and he knows Stephen and Rhodey haven’t met because Rhodey keeps harassing him about meeting Stephen. Phil Coulson probably wouldn’t have told some random guy with a tacky cape that appears to be sentient about those videos either.
“Did you see this too?” he asks, not knowing how else to react.
Stephen shakes his head. “No. Futures are infinite in possibility of course, but you seem to go off script more than most,” he says.
“Hmm,” Tony murmurs more to himself than Stephen.
*
Tony tries to shoo the cape away from him but the damn thing refuses to fly back to Stephen. “Can you stop this thing from molesting me?” he asks.
Stephen sighs, “I can’t stop it from molesting me, Tony. You’re hopeless. Now come here, I’ve missed you,” he says. Tony is happy enough to go over, trying to shake off the cape as he does with no success, and curls into Stephen’s embrace. Turns out dating a full time sorcerer has its downsides- like his busy schedule he’s been pushing to the wayside for you for months- but Tony doesn’t mind. He’s learned a few tricks too and honestly he’s pleased to never have to deal with another fucking plane ride ever again.
The cape decides this is a good opportunity to wrap itself around Stephen, effectively trapping them in a red cocoon. Stephen sighs, “it won’t stop doing this, I’ve looked. This thing is very enthused by our relationship and takes every opportunity to show us,” Stephen tells him. Tony laughs, shaking his head.
“Fine. But I’m only putting up with this tacky ass cape because I love you,” he tells Stephen.
Stephen smiles, leaning down to kiss his forehead. “I love you too.”