Mystic

Tony curls up on his bed, looking out the window in his room. Nepal was pretty; he’d give the country that even if he missed home. Stephen did too, he could tell. Rhodey would probably like the vacation, he’s been dying to do literally anything since his injury but between physical therapy, healing time, and lack of opportunity he hasn’t been able to do much. This would at least be a nice chance for him to do something that didn’t make him feel… limited. He never said anything but Tony knew he felt the wheel chair was confining even if he accepted being in it. Tony didn’t much think his new method of travel should be any more limiting than legs but he also wasn’t in Rhodey’s situation. It was easy for him to look on the bright side when he didn’t suffer a nasty injury to his spine that he was unlikely to recover from.

But maybe this would serve as a good way to show Rhodey that things didn’t need to be as… limited as he felt they were. Tony didn’t much think the same for himself but he also knew that Stephen and Wong were his best bet to not end up getting himself, Rhodey, and Hope killed. So for now he’d stick around.

Its some time later when he hears a knock on the door. He looks over at it and for a moment considers saying nothing but sighs, “what?” he asks loud enough for whomever to hear on the other side of the thick wood.

Stephen takes this as an invitation into his space because he opens the door and steps inside. “You didn’t show up to this morning’s lesson,” he notes. “I thought I should offer you your own space to learn, you’re probably better at magic than the rest of the class anyways.”

Tony snorts, more like Stephen was more willing to teach his soul mate than people he considered not worth his time and efforts. Even if he was sure Stephen didn’t actively know that’s what he was thinking. “I’m not learning magic,” he says, shaking his head.

Stephen lets out an annoyed noise, “oh not this again, come on, stop feeling sorry for yourself and get out of bed. I’m not letting you wallow because Mordo is an asshole,” he tells Tony, hands planted firmly on his hips.

“I’m not wallowing, I’m just refusing to do something stupid. Again,” he says. It was always situations like this, ones that allowed him an opportunity to reach beyond what he knew, and he never failed to fuck it up.

Its clear Stephen doesn’t have the patience to deal with this from the look on his face alone, so Tony is surprised when he doesn’t immediately ignore his assessment of the situation. “What do you mean something stupid?” he asks. It comes out in an almost gentle tone that contradicted heavily with his annoyed features and it occurs to Tony that Stephen had a shit poker face despite the fact that he was obviously trying not to act as irritated as he felt with Tony.

“I mean that every time I find something bigger than myself I have a near compulsive need to mess with it, and every time I do that something bad happens. I don’t agree with this Mordo’s methods but he does have a point in saying that maybe the natural order of things shouldn’t be tampered with,” he says. Every time he did it went horribly, disastrously wrong.

Something in what he says must trigger something for Stephen though because he gives up all pretenses of hiding his feelings from Tony and scoffs, rolling his eyes. “Mordo is a fool and a hypocrite. If I didn’t break the natural order the whole world would have been consumed by Dormammu, rules have their place but breaking them has their place too,” he snaps.

“What the hell is a ‘Dormammu’?” Tony asks, frowning.

“Something you don’t know about thanks to me using an infinity stone to manipulate time. I used it to turn back time on a massive destruction in Hong Kong and New York, and I trapped Dormammu in a time loop. Dormammu is an interdimensional being of immense power from the dark dimension- he would have destroyed earth, was destroying earth, should he have actually succeeded in entering this world,” he adds when Tony still looks confused.

“I had no choice, I trapped him in a time loop and said I came to bargain,” he says, stopping for a moment and looking off into the distance with a look on his face that Tony knew intimately well, especially in the last few years. It was the look you got when you saw too much.

He takes a deep breath, “Dormammu obviously had no intention of bargaining with me so he killed me. But the loops just continued, and he kept killing me over and over an over again. Eventually he got bored of that- I could have kept the spell going for infinity, we were both prisoners until I broke the spell so I made him a deal. He took his Zealots, the people who brought him here to begin with, and leave earth and I’d release him from the loop. If he didn’t we were back to killing and being killed. I understand that what I did was exceptional and that toying with time is dangerous at best, but every rule has an exception so get off your ass and learn,” he tells Tony, passion underscoring his words.

Tony just stares because Stephen had just told him earth suffered an attack from an interdimensional being, which he trapped in a time loop that resulted in Stephen essentially living a deadly version of Groundhog Day. Sometimes failure is the best way to succeed. Now his words made so much more sense given the experience that inspired it. He felt like a real asshole for comparing what sounded like an extremely traumatic event to a fucking fortune cookie now. “Holy fuck,” he says because that was all he had right now.

“It wasn’t pleasant,” Stephen says, probably uttering one of the most understated sentences in human history.

“How long were you in that loop?” Tony asks softly.

The question surprises Stephen but he shrugs, “by my estimates probably close to a century,” he says and Tony’s jaw drops. “Interdimensional beings take a long time to bore.” Now he knew how people felt when he made jokes about the shitty things that happened to him because he didn’t even know how to respond to that. Stephen gets bored faster than this Dormammu guy though because he sighs, “alright Tony, now that we’ve established that sometimes playing with fire won’t land you burned get up, you have things to learn. Things that are obviously not messing with time and making loops, I was thinking something more basic. Like a shield,” he says, smiling a little but Tony shakes his head.

“No. That was some… I don’t know what that was, but I’m still not learning magic. I’m tired of trying to do grandiose things to try and save the world, or myself, or someone I care about when it all ends the same way. Badly. I’ve went this route in a dozen different ways or more Stephen, and I’m done with it,” he says honestly.

Stephen pinches the bridge of his nose and takes a deep breath. “You want to help people Tony, I know you do. You want to save people from HYDRA, or aliens, or whatever. And this, magic, is how you do it. There are people all over the world right now, people like me, who are protecting this world from the dangers that lie beyond it. You can do that too. It’s not grand; you don’t even get credit for what you did if you do it right. No one knows about Dormammu because I stopped it from happening entirely. This is what you were meant to do,” he says, pleads actually. He’s leaning forward with his hands pressed together almost like a prayer but to who Tony didn’t know.

But he shakes his head again, “no. This isn’t what I was meant to do; this is what you were meant to do. I wasn’t meant to meddle in any of this… stuff,” he says for lack of a better word.

“Tony-” Stephen starts but someone interrupts.

“Teach him to fight,” Wong says, opening the door wider. “I didn’t meant to eavesdrop, but I overheard you talking. He doesn’t need to learn magic Stephen, but he does need to learn how to fight.”

Stephen wants to argue, Tony can tell, but after holding Wong’s gaze for several moments he sighs and deflates a little. “You were meant for more than this, Tony, and you know it. You’ve always known it. But for now I’ll leave it alone,” he says.

Tony relaxes a little. “Please don’t tell me we’re learning Kung Fu,” he says. Wong and Stephen exchange a look before rolling their eyes.

“We’re not in a bad movie about stereotyped Asian people, Tony. Its standard combat training,” Stephen tells him and Tony laughs, doubling over with his arms around his waist like that was the funniest thing he’s ever heard. “Honestly, I will never understand you,” Stephen mumbles.

*

He knew how to fight already, at least a little, but his training was less formal and more watching videos of Steve and especially Natasha fight and figuring out the mathematical angles they moved at and mimicking them. He had knowledge on how to hold himself and how to punch from boxing with Happy, but ultimately he wasn’t exactly the best at combat without the suit to enhance his strength, something Stephen discovers quickly.

Currently he was trapped by Stephen’s arms, one around his waist pinning his left arm and the other around his shoulders with his back pressed to Stephen’s chest. He was annoyed to find that the height difference between them was almost comical, something Stephen capitalized on earlier by telling Tony that he blended in with Nepal’s general height better than Stephen did despite his heritage from the country. Which was true, everyone here was freakishly short compared to America and Stephen was basically a giant. Hell, even in America he was tall. That didn’t mean Tony appreciated jokes about them basically being a different species, but he was sufficiently trapped by Stephen for the time being.

His right arm was free and his hand was wrapped around Stephen’s wrist in some desperate attempt to not be held captive when something occurs to him. He had no idea if it would work, but it was worth it to give it a shot so he forces himself to relax and all but releases Stephen’s wrist from his grip. He feels Stephen relax a little too, poor bastard, as Tony moves his hand up Stephen’s wrist in a slow, almost romantic gesture. Stephen lets it happen, letting out a small breath as Tony’s finger tips drag along the back of his hand until he got to the part he actually cared about. He grabs one of Stephen’s fingers and pulls it back, earning a loud scream from Stephen for his efforts as he lets go of Tony and releases an impressive string of expletives in five different languages.

“Why are you like this?” he yells at Tony, half crouched over his own hand and giving Tony a look so poisonous it was a wonder he didn’t drop dead on the spot.

“The intent was to escape, which I did so…” he says, raising an eyebrow.

“Well you could have managed without aggravating my already injured hand!” Stephen yells and Tony has that ‘oh shit’ feeling because he forgot about that pesky bit of information.

“Uh,” he says, stepping towards Stephen but Stephen quickly steps away.

“Oh no, that is quite enough from you today!” he says, still curled protectively around his hand.

“I forgot about your hands,” Tony says, “sorry!”

Stephen doesn’t let up in his poisonous look, “my hands are my entire life, how could you forget about them!”

“Uh, because they don’t matter to me the same way they matter to you?” Tony asks more than states. Hands were hardly something he focused on even if yeah, logically a surgeon needed hands to work and that’s why Stephen was no longer a surgeon but it wasn’t like Tony spent every waking moment thinking of Stephen’s hands like Stephen did. He steps closer and Stephen steps away again, still glaring at Tony though with a little less heat now. “I’m not going to injure you more, stop trying to run away,” he says and steps closer. This time Stephen doesn’t go anywhere even if he still looks highly suspicious as Tony approaches and holds out his hand.

“If you expect me to just give you my hand all willy nilly you are mistaken,” Stephen tells him and Tony snorts.

“Didn’t take you for the type to use the phrase ‘willy nilly’. Give me your hand,” he tells Stephen, who debates on it for several long seconds before he holds out the hand Tony accidentally injured. Tony takes the extremity in his hands carefully and starts gently massaging it, “there, not so bad, hmm?” he asks as Stephen continues to look grumpy and annoyed.

“You felt me up,” he accuses.

Tony shrugs, “didn’t think I’d get much opportunity to use my sex appeal in an actual fight. Besides, gently touching your hand is not feeling you up,” he says.

“Still wasn’t fair,” Stephen mumbles and Tony rolls his eyes.

“Since when is fighting fair a goal?” he asks and Stephen raises an eyebrow.

“You actually don’t fight fair?” he asks. Tony stares at Stephen like he’s an idiot.

“No dumbass, you win a fight by kicking them when they’re down. Besides, in my line of work they don’t stay down long so it’s somewhat necessary. That and you’re fighting villains, they aren’t going to fight fair with you and you shouldn’t bother fighting fair with them.” The goal was to win the fight, not to play nice and hope that the other person knows the rules and plays by them too. That was a rulebook on how to die fast with a supposed sense of heroics.

“That’s not… that isn’t… that just lacks honor,” Stephen says, shaking his head as he dismisses Tony’s line of thought.

He rolls his eyes. “Stephen, you’re already throwing your limbs about in an attempt to hurt someone, even if you throw a mechanized suit into the mix. That’s as base as you get- contrary to popular belief there is no honor to be found in any kind of fight. But fair fights are for idiots or regulated competitions, not for the real world. You don’t win battles by pretending to have honor and playing by a set of rules that are inexplicably attached to a moral system despite the fact that you know your opponent won’t follow the same guidelines. You fight them according to their guidelines- which is win at any cost. Unless there are civilians around, then obviously get them out,” he adds.

Stephen considers this for a moment, looking at Tony massaging his hand as he does so. “That’s an odd and seemingly at contradictory stance to your opinion on the Accords,” he says eventually and Tony laughs.

“No it isn’t. When you’re in the middle of battle laws don’t matter, the person you’re fighting has already broken the law and in that moment you need to do what you need to in order to stop them and bring them in. Its everything before, after, and in between that the Accords would apply to. Like Steve’s traipsing all over the world looking for Barnes. Things like that are what the Accords should be designed to stop. There was no reason for that aside from his own personal gain, and no reason for me to fund that search or participate in it with the other Avengers aside from Steve’s personal gain. It’s right for the world to want that to be illegal because in those moments we were the villains breaking laws and the world did what we do in a battle- whatever they needed to to get us to stop.” Unpopular opinion these days but he stood by it. There were problems with the Accords; there were problems with any law that was experimental and new. It was a starting point that he had been willing to work with and look where that got him. Nowhere good, anyways.

“What exactly about the Accords did Steve protest to?” Stephen asks, frowning. “I mean I heard all the slander, and the protests of him in countries that weren’t America, and a bunch of other things about you in particular. But what did Steve disagree with exactly?”

Good question, one the press in America never asked because they all assumed Captain America was right all the time. The exception was Christine Everhart but she was skeptical of anyone with too much power and for good reason. No one had a perfect track record but people were almost totally content to ignore that aside from a small minority of Americans and a decent portion of people elsewhere in the world.

“To be honest he didn’t protest anything in particular, he just wanted to know who was calling the shots and if we could say no to an order. They were good questions, but it wasn’t a real disagreement with anything the Accords actually said. More like questions related to how the law would play out, not the law itself. I had my issues but I also had a team of lawyers picking it apart to make sure that the laws made sense. Steve never referenced anything in particular about the document and then it was the Find Bucky Show after that.” Any semblance of an argument was gone and it was, just like it had been for years up until that point, it became all about Bucky.

Stephen obviously doesn’t know what to make of that because his eyebrows draw together a little. “Alright. What were the issues you found?” he asks.

Tony lets out a small snort, “you already saw the fallout of that. The ‘jail without a trial’ thing was a biggie, but that’s considered unconstitutional according to U.S laws, and most other countries have a similar system in place that doesn’t allow you to be prosecuted before people hear the evidence of your indiscretions. Granted the whole world saw us all break the law but still, trials are necessary. There was a section that wanted to apply the law to all people with some kind of enhancement, but that makes no sense unless those people are acting like law enforcement like the Avengers were, and some other individual people. That, and SHIELD already has a list and according to their own reports they treat those people like shit so Phil Coulson’s support of Steve can be shoved right up his ass. And there were no emergency clauses, which are needed in situations like New York.”

Three major problems wasn’t a lot, but they were all big issues. There were several other smaller things that needed to be addressed but those smaller problems weren’t on his radar until the trial thing was fixed and an emergency system was designed. Beyond that looking to keep people who the law wouldn’t apply to off any kind of list was a good place to go, and then they could fix everything else.

“Phil Coulson, why does that name sound familiar?” Stephen asks, confusion on his face as he tries to figure it out.

“He used to be Fury’s right hand man, now runs what pitiful remains there is of SHIELD. I can’t fucking believe the cognitive dissonance even needed to say Steve was right when he’s well documented in still supporting his own shittier version of the Accords. Except his version is basically just a list and heavy monitoring of people who have abilities, not something borne out of actual concern for civilian safety,” Tony says, rolling his eyes. He had mostly stayed out of the media for Pepper’s sake at that point- his name was still on her company and he didn’t want to alienate her ability to run SI- but he had been fucking floored by that. So he called up an old friend but it turned out Christine Everhart already hunted down Phil’s previous opinions on pretty much everything and had already been working on an article flaming his ass.

She hadn’t exactly supported Tony, but he had been surprised to find that she didn’t write him off the way she usually did either. She had called him an irresponsible, arrogant moron but said that he was at least smart enough to recognize that when Steve wasn’t. Tony had taken an unholy amount of joy in her article on Phil even if he knew it was immature to. And after that he faded back into the walls of his home and focused on Rhodey. Pepper had later told him that she was both impressed and grateful for his restraint but truthfully he just didn’t have the energy to fight back anymore so he didn’t.

“Sounds like people only support Steve because of who he is, not what he believes in,” Stephen mumbles.

“I don’t disagree. So where do you sit?” Tony asks because everyone had an opinion and he might as well get Stephen’s over with now. Its been a long, long time coming and he doubted there was ever a timeline where this conversation didn’t happen. It was hard for it not to when it ruled so much of Tony’s life now.

Stephen shrugs, “I’ve always found the Avengers useful but highly irresponsible. It doesn’t help that I’m a pacifist though,” he says with a weary smile that makes Tony raise an eyebrow in surprise. “Don’t give me that look, I’m a doctor, I took a Hippocratic Oath to help people, obviously I wouldn’t support whatever mess the Avengers were. No offense,” he adds and Tony laughs.

“Can’t be offended if its true,” he says. They don’t talk for awhile before Wong shows up, looking between them, obviously surprised. It takes a moment for Tony to realize why but when Wong looks between Stephen, his hand in Tony’s, and Tony the reason for his surprise is obvious.

“Well,” he says, “this is a pleasant surprise.”