Mystic

Tony’s lab was more of a mess than he remembered it and Stephen takes the opportunity to poke around at things a little while Tony found what he was looking for. “That wasn’t… that love thing wasn’t real, right?” he asks, shuffling some papers around to try and find those damn glasses. Dummy probably knocked them over or something and didn’t pick them up because the bot had more bolts than brains.

Stephen lets out a loud sigh, “of course not, why would I ever say something so fucking stupid?” he says more to himself than Tony.

Yeah, so Christine wasn’t wrong even though Tony hoped she was. “Uh. Okay you know what, I hate pussyfooting so I’m not even going to bother. I don’t love you, I don’t even know if I like you to be honest. You’re kind of a dickhead, and the first thing you did when we met was lie to me and the second thing you did was punch my soul out of my body. You definitely know how to make an impression but it wasn’t a very good one. I hate magic, it always seemed to screw me up somehow and you accidently proved that true. Again. But… well, the other day I did tell Rhodey off for saying you were bad for me somehow because despite all that it is abundantly clear to everyone who’s paying attention that you have far more respect for me than most other people around you. I can appreciate that. So I don’t love you, but that doesn’t mean I never will. And that’s Dummy, he can make toast,” Tony says as Stephen flicks Dummy’s claw.

Dummy comes to life, spinning to face him and Stephen lets out an embarrassingly high shriek as he jumps back. Tony laughs and shakes his head, turning back to his task while Dummy tries to check Stephen out, not that he was allowing it. “Call your weird robot off!” Stephen yells at him, trying and failing to escape the corner Dummy now had him backed into.

Tony gives him a lazy look over his shoulder, “I got felt up by your weird cape, you can get checked out by my awesome robot,” he says, grinning. Stephen just presses himself further into the corner and mumbles a bunch of stuff under his breath. Tony is sure that its all swear words and other insults but he doesn’t mind much. He finally locates the glasses and turns back around, “Dummy, leave Stephen alone,” he tells the bot. Dummy looks dejected but he wheels away and over to Tony, running over like seven things in the process. Normally Tony would be annoyed but he can’t muster enough anger to be mad at the bot when he hasn’t seen Dummy in some time now. “Yeah, yeah, Stephen sucks as a person because he thinks you’re creepy I get it,” he says, patting Dummy’s claw and watching as Stephen primly picks his way out of the corner he was backed into.

“My cape is superior to that… thing,” he says, waving a hand at Dummy.

He rolls his eyes, “only in your dreams would your stupid piece of cloth be even remotely as cool as my bot. Can your cape make toast? Probably not,” Tony says, nose in the air.

“My cape has saved my life on multiple occasions, I bet your bot can’t do that,” Stephen says back, nose also in the air.

“Please, child’s play to Dummy. I accidentally light myself on fire a lot and this trusty little guy always puts me out,” he says proudly. He put Tony out too much honestly but he wasn’t going to tell Stephen that.

Stephen squints at him, “I’m sorry, you accidentally light yourself on fire and this is a frequent occurrence?” he asks. He looks off at the floor with a confused and slightly dejected facial expression, “what the hell did I fall in love with?”

“Someone with better taste in odd companions than you,” Tony tells him. “Now do your portal thing so we can figure out what the hell is going on.”

*

Christine watches as Stephen looks around in wonder and Wong mirrors the action. She had to admit she was impressed herself and not just with the technology. Stephen… before all this he wouldn’t have reacted well to Tony’s rebuff of his love confession- she’d know given that she’s found herself in a similar situation even if Stephen did eventually come back. But it took him three months. She wasn’t sure if this was some kind of character development or some kind of testament to Stephen’s love for Tony but either way it was nice to see him more… relaxed.

“Tony you have outdone yourself,” Stephen says, shaking his head.

Tony shrugs, “it took a bunch of fucking around and Christine, you’re going to be nursing a nasty electromagnetic headache after this- but I eventually got it to work.”

“Without any real invasion of the brain,” Stephen notes, staring at the walls around them- walls that now looked like Christine’s apartment- in awe. Tony doesn’t look impressed but he only knew about the technological aspect of this invention, it was Stephen and Christine that were the medical experts. This wasn’t something simple- memories were incredibly complex and for Tony to have managed to make a device like that… it was more than a little impressive, especially since Christine felt nothing. At least not yet if Tony’s predictions of a headache were true, but that was an incredibly small price to pay for something so intricate and noninvasive.

“Yeah, its not really that impressive. Its mostly a really expensive way for me to say goodbye to my parents to be honest,” he says and Stephen shakes his head, looking shocked.

“Do you have any idea how useful this could be for mental health alone? And that’s without considering police applications for this, among other uses. This is no small feat- it’s a medical miracle,” Stephen tells Tony, admiration clear on his features. Wong and Christine share a look, apparently both knowing him well enough to know that Stephen doesn’t admire people often if ever.

“Whatever. Christine, play the memory,” Tony tells her and she frowns.

“Play the- how am I supposed to do that?” she asks and Tony sighs.

“Literally think about it, the glasses will fill in true details you don’t remember and from there we’ll figure out what happened,” Tony says. “The good news is that you know the layout of your apartment well, that’ll make the 360 reconstruction more accurate.”

Stephen raises an eyebrow, “360 reconstruction?” he asks and Christine rolls her eyes, thinking of the memory and jumping when it starts to play, staring with her looking at her computer. That was… trippy to say the least. She watches as she reaches out- something she didn’t distinctly remember herself doing- before the sparks start behind her and that Mordo guy steps through.

“Pause it,” Tony tells her, “Focus on this moment,” he clarifies when she gives him a confused look. She does as he says; focusing on that Mordo person, surprised then the scene freezes. “Can anyone see what’s in that portal? It probably won’t be perfect recall- Christine was obviously focusing on Mordo, not where he stepped through from but it would be useful to know where he is. Or was anyways.”

“I didn’t even think of that,” Christine says, stepping closer to the portal but all she saw were some weird books. Something about the scene must stick out to Stephen though because he raises an eyebrow.

“That’s a Sanctum library- Wong, have we gotten any word of an attack?” he asks, turning to the pudgy man.

He shakes his head, “but we wouldn’t have if Mordo was efficient in his purpose. And we know him to be quite efficient,” he says.

Tony nods, “good, we’re already getting information. Christine, play it again. Focus on what happens next,” he tells her. She does as Tony says and the scene continues to play like she remembered. Mordo steps towards her, tells her he has no desire to hurt her but gives her a typical ‘cooperate or else’ speech. It seemed odd to her then and now that a villain, or she at least thought he was a villain, would be this benevolent.

Stephen frowns when Christine only pauses for a moment to ask what exactly Mordo’s goal was before going with him. “You just went?” Stephen asks, looking shocked for some stupid reason. She rolls her eyes but its Tony that explains.

“The guy just came out of a shower of sparks into her apartment, you really think she was going to fight back? Don’t be stupid, she knew she was outclassed,” Tony says.

“I can speak for myself, thank you. But he’s right- plus his goal was to get to you and I know two things about you that will never change. One, you’re probably the most stubborn person I’ve ever met. And two- you don’t take kindly to people trying to take your things. Between those two things I knew you’d show up, it’s was just a matter of when.” Granted she didn’t expect her rescue to go so smoothly, nor did she expect a complete lack of retaliation on her attacker’s end but here they were.

“You’re not a thing, Christine,” Tony says but she snorts.

“Oh you don’t know Stephen well then- he doesn’t play well with people and he tends to think of them as things that convenience or inconvenience his life. So no, objectively I’m not a thing- but Stephen’s opinions are subjective so,” she says, shrugging. Tony exchanges an awkward look with Wong as Stephen’s eyebrows draw together.

“I never thought of you as a thing,” he says and she gives him a look. “Not consciously anyways,” he mumbles under his breath. It was a testament to how much he’s grown as a person that he actually admitted that to himself let alone out loud. “I really am sorry- for all of it, but especially how things ended between us. You didn’t deserve any of what I did, how I treated you. You were only trying to help,” he says, head bowed in actual shame, not some poorly simulated version of it like usual. Most of the time Stephen only played along until he got what he wanted but this wasn’t that. She knew him well enough to know.

“I like to think he’s moved on his arrogant past,” Wong adds. “Even if he still makes me want to rip my hair out.”

“You’re bald,” Tony says.

“Exactly. You’ve been a victim of his attempts at teaching, you know my pain,” he says, giving Tony a meaningful look.

Christine makes a face, “who let him teach, that’s an awful idea. He’s terrible at it,” she says.

Stephen makes an irritated noise, “yeah, everybody hates me, we get it. Can we move on now?” he asks, acting more like his previous self than she’s seen from him thus far. He never has been good at taking criticism.

Tony steps closer and places his hand on Stephen’s forearm though, seemingly startling him with the touch. “We don’t hate you, we just think teaching isn’t your forte. It isn’t mine either- I have no patience and teaching people things I consider basic is like dragging nails across a chalkboard. When I was a PhD student I got banned from being a TA because I made an entire class cry. Not my proudest moment,” Tony admits, looking properly ashamed of his fact.

“You made an entire room full of students cry?” he asks and Tony sighs.

“Eighteen grown men sobbing, yeah. So you’re not the only one who sucks at trying to teach people new things,” he says.

“You seemed to do just fine with the glasses,” Christine points out. Stephen gives her a dirty look but she ignores it, it wasn’t her fault Tony clearly grew out of his inability to teach.

“That’s different. You don’t actually know what you’re doing, a bunch of guys in a masters program who didn’t know what I was talking about when I introduced the subject for the day? Totally unacceptable given that it was knowledge they should have had already. And I had way less patience as a teen.” Christine frowns for a moment before she remembered that Tony went through school far faster than the average kid, even if he was likely in his late teens when this happened.

“Once I accidentally made a resident quit and move to a new country,” Stephen says and Christine sighs.

“Yeah, I remember that. Exhibit A in all the number of reasons why no one should allow you to have students.” The number of students they ended up with at the hospital that wanted to work with Stephen because he was the top in his field was fairly generous, but the number who stuck with him was zero. Christine tended to take on whoever was still brave enough to stick with medicine once Stephen was through with them. She resented being the second choice- she and Stephen came up with several new ways of doing surgery together but it didn’t surprise her that he got all the credit. It helped that he was louder about their accomplishments than she was but she just didn’t feel the need to brag unnecessarily while that was about three quarters of Stephen’s personality.

*

Tony finds Stephen hiding on the roof, which wasn’t much of an effective hiding place considering he happened to know that Stephen liked high places for some reason. “You look… dejected,” Tony notes as he walks up. Stephen doesn’t look impressed to be found but the guy was a fucking sorcerer, of he really wanted to not be found than he should have thought up a better hiding place. Or hid himself with magic.

He sighs, “today was not my day,” he says.

Yeah, Tony figured with all the unrequited love and soul mates being attacked and all that but he guesses it was the rejection that stung more than Christine. She was safe- at least for now though she has spent a good amount of time complaining to go home- but Tony’s lack of love wasn’t really going anywhere.

“I’m not quick to trust,” Tony says, “and we didn’t start off on the right foot.”

“It wasn’t that bad,” Stephen says and Tony rolls his eyes.

“You punched my soul out of my body, that is easily the shittiest way I’ve ever met a person minus maybe Steve, who decided I was a useless hero basically on sight. In his defense he wasn’t wrong exactly but still.” Even he and Hope started out on a better note and they hated each other for years thanks to both of them hearing the other’s father talk shit about their families for years. Then they actually sat down and talked and realized that Hank and Howard were basically the same person and called a truce. That had been when Tony told Rhodey he knew who Hope was and the rest fell into place well enough.

“You’re not a useless hero,” Stephen says but the words are empty and Tony rolls his eyes.

“Stephen- you punched my soul out of my body, lied to me about who you were, said some really nasty stuff true or not, and then I got attacked. Those aren’t exactly ideal circumstances without considering my past with people let alone after,” he points out.

Stephen gives him an irritated look, “is there a point to that lovely speech?” he asks.

“Yeah, drop the attitude and stop acting like a kicked puppy. No one wants to be in your situation, I’ve been there, but realistically you have a lot more reason to love me than I have to love you. That’s not an insult so don’t make that face- I’m just saying overall I left a far more positive impression than you did. That isn’t even necessarily a bad thing honestly. I’ve already seen you at your worst, sounds odd but it’s a lot easier to trust someone when you know what their bad side looks like.” He remembered that conversation with Steve not long ago, about how he didn’t trust anyone with a bad side and Steve had responded that maybe he hadn’t seen it yet. He wasn’t wrong but Tony couldn’t have anticipated nearly being killed by him a little over a year after that. Stephen was at least up front about his character flaws even if Tony by no means appreciated having his soul punched. Better than having his rib cage crushed if he was honest.

“That does sound rather… contradictory,” Stephen says and Tony shrugs.

“When people are at their worst they say and do stuff they normally wouldn’t. Best to see that first before you get attached only to find out you’re friends with a fucking psycho who all but literally rips your heart out over a bigger bottom line,” he points out. Stephen frowns, obviously not getting the reference and Tony sighs. “Obadiah. If you want I can give you a whole list of people who presented themselves as one thing and ended up another. Hell, Captain fucking America, the goody- goody who never does anything wrong rode my ass about keeping secrets when he didn’t even have the balls to tell me his war buddy murdered my parents. Never would have taken him for a hypocrite,” he mumbles.

“Really? I find the ones who think they’re fantastically good people to be the ones most likely to stab you in the back and claim it was your fault to begin with. They don’t typically like breaking their ‘do gooder’ personas, and they like admitting to their mistakes less. Matter of perspective, I suppose. Sorry about punching you soul. That’s not what I did but sorry,” he says and Tony snorts and laughs.

“You suck at apologies, but I’ll take it. And you’re not wrong about the do gooders, I have the same philosophy. People who think they’re so good they’re above making mistakes pretty much elevate themselves to a god-like status and humans suck as a species. We’ll always screw something up. Guess I learned lesson again the hard way,” he mumbles.

“You’re too trusting,” Stephen says, “which is why it’s a real kick to the ego that you seem to have no trust in me. I can’t possibly be worse that anyone else in your life,” he mumbles, glaring off the edge of the building and going back to looking like a kicked puppy.

Tony sighs, “yeah, but you happened to come into my life at probably the worst moment. I mean for the second time in a decade everything I thought was true isn’t, my entire life as I knew it is completely fucked, and it turns out a bitchy sorcerer with a cape that likes to play favorites is my soul mate. Oh, and some other magical jackass is trying to kill me and every other magical person on the planet. The odds weren’t really stacked in your favor. You’re doing pretty well regardless.”

Stephen gives him an annoyed look, “don’t placate me,” he says.

“Why not, that’s exactly what you want me to do. Besides, you know me well enough to know I wouldn’t have said it if I didn’t believe it on some level. I chewed Rhodey’s ass the other day because I didn’t agree with his perception of you and trust me that is not something that happens often. Ever, actually,” Tony says, frowning. It never occurred to him that he’s never actually spoke out against Rhodey’s judgment of character because he was almost always right. And he was much better at judging character than Tony, who was emotionally incompetent at best. The closest he’s come is defending Obadiah and even then the defenses were weak and limited to Rhodey not knowing him like Tony did. He never really did mean anything he said to Rhodey in defense of Obadiah but he didn’t think the man would try to kill him either. He had far more faith that Stephen wasn’t going to kill him than most other people in his life at the moment so really Stephen was winning.

“Yes, your Rhodey doesn’t seem to like me much. He’s concerned I’m trying to give you solutions to your life problems that don’t exist,” Stephen says.

Yeah, so Tony knew. “So I’ve been told. But I genuinely don’t think you would have agreed with Wong if you didn’t have faith in his opinion. Its not like you’re shy about disagreeing with people,” he points out.

Stephen laughs, “no I’m not, especially if I think I’m right. And you aren’t the type to just accept a solution without examining it first- especially if its magical,” he points out.

Probably because magic liked to kick his ass and almost kill him, the people he cares about, or the entire planet a little too often for his liking. “Magic sucks. But for the record despite getting off to a pretty shitty start I think Rhodey’s wrong about you. It helps that you’re not at all shy in telling people what you really think- there’s a pretty obvious difference in the way you treat me and the way you treat everyone else but Wong. And Christine.” Mostly that Tony got much better treatment and a lot less attitude.

“That’s because you aren’t a fucking idiot,” he mumbles and Tony laughs.

“Depends on who you ask. So stop moping around, it doesn’t suit you,” he says.

Stephen snorts, “oh most people would tell you otherwise. But I’m not moping about you- presently- its Mordo that’s got me confused. Why wait so long to pick up Christine? Why no retaliation after her hasty rescue? What exactly is he planning?” he asks, frowning.

Tony shrugs, “the first two are easy. One- Christine is rarely home given that she’s obviously a workaholic. He clearly didn’t want to pick her up in the hospital so he waited for a good opportunity to get her elsewhere. As for why he waited so long- probably because of the time of day he chose. Dusk in New York is the very early morning here- waking you up at three in the morning would put you at your absolute worst performance in problem solving and likely magical skill. It just happened to work out in your favor that you were awake already. The lack of retaliation is probably because he’s got a backup plan,” Tony says.

“A back up plan,” Stephen murmurs, “like what? Because Christine won’t stop yelling about going home until I let her go and that would be stupid given that she’s in danger.”

“He could have been testing your reaction time,” Tony says, the thought occurring to him late. He and the Avengers have done it a few times with reoccurring hard to catch villains. They drew up plans but they needed to know how long they had before they’d get a response so Tony usually ran a distraction to figure out how their target responded. This Mordo guy seemed more than smart enough to have thought something similar through.

“Testing my reaction time… to what end?” Stephen asks, obviously considering the option. “And why use Christine to do it?”

This occupies Tony’s mind for a moment before he smiles. “Because he never wanted Christine to be a target. Think about it- why would he chose me to go after first when I’m such a high profile target and one that’s used to being in a fight? Christine by all accounts is the easier target- she’s easier to find, easier to actually access, and has the least amount of fighting experience. But she’s never messed with the natural order of things. Actually she’s a doctor- she saves lives on a regular basis and if this Mordo guy functions the way I think he does he probably has a lot or respect for the profession. Me? Lot less respect there, and both Rhodey and Hope are well known for toying with things they shouldn’t. All of the Avengers are in their own ways; though Hope has done more to unbalance things than Rhodey thanks to her work on the Pym Particle. Point is he didn’t want Christine to be a target and only used her to test what you would do. My guess is that you passed whatever test he had.”

Stephen considers this for a long few moments. “He wanted to see how I preformed at my worst with someone I considered precious on the line,” he says slowly. “I really dislike dealing with smart people.”

“They are the best at villainy,” Tony agrees.

“How do you think Christine will react to all of this?” he asks after a few moments.

“Probably with an insistence to go home since she was never a real target,” Tony says and Stephen laughs.

“Probably,” he agrees.