Mystic

“The Hong Kong Sanctum was wiped out,” Wong reports. Stephen looks up from his breakfast and Tony looks up from the book Rhodey was trying to read over his shoulder with no success. Tony could barely read the Sanskrit, Rhodey was sure to be at a loss. He’s pretty sure Rhodey only knew Spanish and French aside from English.

Stephen sighs, “well, they were weak after Dormammu. It was a good strategical choice,” he says.

Christine looks at Tony, “Dormam-what?” she asks. Hope and Rhodey look just as interested in his response.

“Interdimensional asshole,” he explains. “Almost ate the earth until Stephen stuck him in a time loop where he got killed a billion and one times until said interdimensional douche got bored and gave Stephen a second to speak.” Christine’s eyes bug out and Rhodey and Hope have similar reactions. “Yeah, it was pretty hard core,” he says in Stephen’s defense because it was. Sure Tony has nearly sacrificed himself on a few occasions but he didn’t think he was that brave.

“Its hard to believe one man can cause all this damage,” Wong says, giving the table a look like he was at a loss.

“Trust me, take it from someone who knows- when you have the resources one person can do a lot of damage. Out of curiosity how long was he there afterwards though?” he asks.

Wong frowns at him, “what do you mean?” he asks.

“Well he wouldn’t just kill a crap ton of sorcerers and then go kidnap someone, he’d need time to recharge if he expected an attack from Stephen. And he probably did,” Rhodey points out.

Tony nods, “what he said.” Stephen and Wong exchange a look and Wong nods.

“I’ll go investigate,” he says and with that he’s off.

“You’re quite good at this,” Stephen notes. “How much experience do you have with strategy anyways?”

“Not much,” Rhodey answers for him. “Steve and Natasha did most of the planning, but Tony processes things at near computer fast speeds- it makes him an asset in the field not that any of the Avengers ever capitalized on that,” Rhodey says in a bitter, annoyed tone. Tony smiles, shaking his head at his friend. Rhodey had always been annoyed at the way Tony was cast to the side as a distraction most of the time thanks to his brightly colored and highly recognizable suit. When Rhodey was in charge, which was rare, he always kept Tony as his right hand man and Natasha was the distraction. Or Clint, but Tony suspected Rhodey made Clint the distraction because he didn’t like him. Natasha got the position because she was the most likely to get out alive thanks to her skill set.

Stephen hums and nods, “so I’m gathering. He’s quite good at figuring out motivation as well,” he says.

“He figured out Loki too,” Rhodey adds proudly.

“And Ultron. You are actually pretty good at this stuff,” Hope says, surprised. Rhodey gives her a look but she doesn’t notice due to her making connections to Tony’s ability to work through information.

“Yes, lovely, I know he’s talented at figuring things out. If you don’t mind I’d like to keep you updated so I can get your opinions on things- so far you’ve figured out more than Wong and I,” Stephen says and Tony raises his eyebrows in surprise.

“I uh… yeah, sure,” he says, shocked that he was actually being included in this.

*

Christine finds him in the library and to Tony’s delight the cape was following her, flapping its material at her. “What is this annoying cloth?” she asks, smacking the cape away. It seems to give up at least, flying over to Tony and settling on his shoulders. “You look like a bad rendition of Dracula in that,” she tells him.

Tony snorts, “you should see it on Stephen, it’s ten times more hilarious. This is his by the way- something about a magical relic choosing its user; I don’t know the details but its sentient and apparently fickle. Its been feeling me up since I got here and I guess since you’re also his soul mate it felt the need to crawl up your ass too,” he says, batting the cape away from trying to move some hair off his forehead. The cape smacks him back and he flicks it, earning a near jab to the eye from the corner of the collar. “Could you not?” Tony asks the cape, glaring at it.

“Stephen told me about it but I honestly thought he was exaggerating. You know, you do it with your technology, applying personalities to your stuff. I thought he was lonely and got overly attached to the cape, not that it was actually sentient,” she says, gesturing to it.

“Okay first of all my bots do have personalities thank you, and they’re very distinctive. But no, sadly the cape is sentient and it insists on bugging everyone around it.” The cape flutters, obviously not pleased with Tony’s assessment of its actions but Tony didn’t care, it was annoying and he felt the need to tell it that.

“Whatever. Do you think you can talk Stephen into getting me home? Those portal things are a lot faster than planes and I have things to do,” she says.

Tony raises an eyebrow, “what makes you think he’ll listen to me over you?” he asks. They probably had the same amount of respect from Stephen and considering Tony’s recent blow to his ego he’d probably be more willing to listen to Christine.

“Oh please, seduce him a little and he’ll do almost anything you want. Please,” she adds, looking a little desperate and Tony laughs.

“I’ll see what I can do, but I’m pretty sure seducing him won’t work. You’re also a neurosurgeon, right?” he asks.

She nods, “yes and I have better things to do than be harassed by magical capes,” she says, gesturing to the cape currently around Tony’s shoulders.

“So do I but the last time I tried to leave the stupid cape followed me and then I almost died,” he says and Christine raises an eyebrow in surprise. He explains what happened and she shakes her head as the story gets more and more wild.

“A cape saved your life. What the hell has Stephen gotten himself into?” she asks more to herself than Tony.

“Nothing I can’t handle, I assure you,” Stephen tells her, walking in at just the right moment. Christine gives Tony a look and he sighs.

“Stephen you can’t keep Christine here, she’s not a prisoner,” he says. Christine kicks him under the table and he glares at her. “She has work to do,” he adds.

For a moment Stephen looks like he’s going to respond but he pauses, considering things for a long moment before smiling victoriously. “Alright,” he says and Christine lets out a sigh of relief.

Tony squints at him, knowing this was way to easy. “What’s the catch?” he asks.

At this Stephen looks extra pleased with himself, “she goes back to work, and you let her run some tests on your injuries,” he says.

“Dirty bastard,” Tony snarls at him but Stephen doesn’t lose his clear pride in himself.

“Told you I’d get you to a hospital. I mean I managed to negotiate earth’s safety out of an interdimensional being, negotiation with you is simple in comparison,” he says proudly.

“What makes you think I’ll agree?” he asks, earning another kick from Christine.

“Because you care more about other people than yourself and you don’t want Christine to suffer here,” he says and Tony swears and starts cursing Stephen out under his breath. “Checkmate for me,” he says, arrogant smile on his face. Tony glares at Christine, hoping she appreciated this.

*

Christine looks over Tony’s charts and sighs, which he fucking resents. “How do you even function?” she asks.

“Very well, thank you. Now can I go?” he asks. He moves to get up but Stephen gives him a look and he sits back down.

“You can go- straight to bed. You have cracked ribs that haven’t healed right, a torn rotator cuff, and a heart murmur that I’m certain is due to some abnormalities in your heart valves. You need to slow down,” she tells him and Tony rolls his eyes. Christine turns to Stephen but he waves her off.

“I already know the treatments,” he says, “just make sure his heart isn’t about to kill him.” Tony sits back on the stupid hospital bed he was currently occupying and glares at Stephen as Christine leaves the room. “What? I’m just trying to make sure you’re not on the verge of death,” he says.

Tony sighs because he knew that but he loathed hospitals. “I am not doing bed rest- I can’t stay still that long,” he says mostly because it’s true but a little because he’s stubborn too.

Stephen sighs and stands, walking over to Tony. “I know that you’re used to always being in motion but Christine is right. You need to allow your body time to heal,” he says softly, gently moving some of Tony’s hair out of his face.

He snorts, “why does something tell me that you didn’t do that with your hands?” he asks, earning a rueful laugh from Stephen.

“I didn’t, and I should have. But I’m stubborn like you and wanted everything to go my way right away. I did eventually give myself time to heal and it worked in my favor, and you need to do the same,” Stephen says softly. He runs his fingers down the side of Tony’s face and Tony leans into the touch, sighing.

“I seriously don’t think I can keep still for any length of time,” he says.

“I know,” Stephen says gently. “But I’ll be around to keep you company.”

Tony lets out a small laugh, “you have to chase down Mordo,” he says.

“And I’ll need your help with that. I’m serious Tony; you’re much better at figuring out what’s going on in Mordo’s head than Wong and I. We never would have gotten this far without you,” he says. Tony leans forward, pressing his head to Stephen’s chest and allowing him to run his fingers through his hair. It felt nice to be touched, to accept some measure of comfort after so long without it. Even before their breakup Pepper had grown distant, something he didn’t blame her for, but it meant that its been too long since he’s had any kind of positive touch aside from the occasional pats from Rhodey. “I’ve got you,” Stephen croons, “its okay.”

He lets himself be comforted, sinking into Stephen’s touch a little as he continues to run his fingers through his hair. “Thanks,” Tony murmurs, face still pressed to Stephen’s chest.

“You’re welcome,” Stephen murmurs. “It seems like you needed it.”

So he did not that he’d ever admit that out loud. Instead he pulls back a little and Stephen lets him go, smiling at him as he does. Tony smiles back, somewhat irritated to find that he had to bend his head back ridiculously far to actually meet Stephen’s gaze thanks to his height. Damn genetics- both his parents were taller than he was so he was annoyed that he got the short stick on that end- literally. He reaches out and settles his right hand on Stephen’s hip, leaving his left by his side because whatever Christine did to it left it sore. “You know you’re kind of gorgeous, right?” he asks. Tall, lean, high cheekbones and just a little grey in his hair all worked very well on him.

Stephen grins like he knows it too, “I’ve been told. But it’s always nice to hear,” he says.

“Also you have an insanely attractive voice,” Tony adds. Voices weren’t really things he paid attention to but Stephen’s was a beautifully soft, deep voice that Tony could probably listen to all day even if he was more than likely to ignore the actual words.

“My voice?” Stephen asks, laughing. “That’s new.”

“Is not, it’s just that no one has ever said it to you before. They’ve thought it, trust me,” Tony says. No one could hear Stephen’s voice and not find it attractive.

“Mhm, sure,” Stephen says, laughing when Tony rolls his eyes.

“I’m going to ask Christine about it when she comes back,” Tony tells him. It was just a fact- his voice is attractive.

“She’s going to tell you you’re nuts,” Stephen says, “but be my guest.”

“Just shut up and take the compliment, asshole,” Tony says, poking Stephen in the side and earning a sharp laugh out of him as he jumps. “So you’re ticklish?” he asks.

“If you tickle me I will kick you and it’ll be mostly involuntary,” he warns.

Tony snorts, “you’d probably feel pretty shitty for kicking me, I’m injured,” he reminds Stephen, who sighs.

“Yes well, you’ve been warned. What happens now is on you. In all seriousness though you are going to need to relax, you won’t be able to lift anything with your left hand for some time and your ribs need a break. And you know if I tell Rhodey he’ll probably make it his mission to keep you in bed,” he says.

He wrinkles his nose, “could you not?” he asks. Rhodey was too overprotective for his own good sometimes and Tony could do without.

“If I think its necessary I’ll do what I need to,” Stephen says evasively. “But I’ll let your bed rest to the talking in the meantime.”

Tony sighs and presses his face back into Stephen’s chest. “You’re impossible,” he mumbles.

“Not any more impossible than you,” Stephen replies and Tony guessed he had a point there.

They stay like that for a few moments before Tony pulls back again. “Does your back hurt from hunching over to hug me? Because you’re like, part giraffe or something,” he says. Stephen snorts and shakes his head.

“Doesn’t matter either way, I wouldn’t care,” he says. Tony ducks his head a little, surprised when Stephen tilts his head up again, “you’re worth a little back pain anyways,” he says softly, leaning down and kissing Tony. He leans into the kiss because its been awhile since he’s had this too, and he wants to relish in it a little.

“Really Stephen?” Christine says, walking in at an inopportune moment.

“I don’t see why you’re surprised, this isn’t unusual,” a different woman says, giving Stephen an annoyed enough look that Tony knows immediately that they have a history.

“Uh, this is the head of the cardiology department. She’s quite good,” he says awkwardly.

“Funny you say that given that the last time we talked you called me a quack and asked if I got my medical license out of a box of Cheerios,” she says in a clipped tone.

“Out of curiosity does anyone here actually like Stephen?” Tony asks, earning a look from Stephen but Christine looks amused at Tony sticking him in the hot seat.

The cardiology doctor laughs, “we like Stephen about as much as we like the idea of sitting on a cactus or contracting the black plague. If it were legal to fire someone out of sheer dislike he would have been fired several times over. But even I have to admit he is a fantastic doctor with an even better track record,” she mumbles, shooting Stephen an annoyed glare like this particular fact made it harder to dislike him. Which may be true for all Tony knew but her response makes him laugh nonetheless.

“I like you,” he says and the doctor snorts.

“I don’t care what you think, I’m here because working on your heart has been a dream of mine since you got fucked up in Afghanistan and made yourself interesting to me,” she says and Tony’s eyebrows shoot up. Well, at least she was blunt.

*

Stephen sighs as Tony starts wiggling around basically ten seconds after lying in his bed. “For gods sakes, stay still. All this moving around caused your ribs to heal badly, and thanks to your inability to let yourself heal is the reason why the muscles around your ribs are bruised. So sit still, you only need to stay there for a few days,” he says. As it was he was lucky his badly healed ribs didn’t cause complications given how much he got smacked around, and he was even luckier that that heart murmur of his turned out to be benign. Luck honestly didn’t even begin to cover how unlikely it was that Tony’s injuries weren’t that serious. Even a torn rotator cuff wasn’t that bad even if he wouldn’t be able to use that arm for much until it was healed. It may take time to heal right, especially since Tony aggravated it so much, but it would be fine eventually. The fact that he didn’t manage to get an infection was a miracle in itself; Stephen was flat amazed with Tony’s good luck. The man was surprisingly hard to kill or otherwise maim.

“You know I don’t do well in bed,” Tony says and Stephen grins.

“Well, I’ve heard better things about your skills in bed than that,” he says and Tony snorts, rolling his eyes at him.

“You know what I meant,” he says.

So he did, but he couldn’t resist the joke. “I thought you could use the time to read those books Wong gave you on prophets and meditate. Its something to do technically, and its low energy so you’ll occupy yourself without risking further injury. You’re lucky you aren’t more injured to begin with,” he says. Of all the things that could go wrong, that were probably still wrong given the tests Tony still had to undergo thanks to his probable heart issues even if there were none related to the murmur.

“Can’t I like… move?” Tony asks and Stephen sighs.

“No Tony you can’t, not until the bruising is healed so lay down and work on those books. I have to go teach students I’d rather avoid for the rest of my life, but I’ll be back. You can tell me what you learned in the meantime and I know what those books are about too, so don’t try and cheat,” he says. He read them all as a precaution just so he could tell if Tony decided to take his time unsupervised to go messing around.

“I’ve been functioning fine with the bruised ribs, I’ll live,” Tony says and he goes to get up but Stephen pushes him back onto his bed.

“I will use a body binding spell on you and it will not be pleasant. Wong did it to me once and I was stuck like that for hours bored out of my skull before the damn thing wore off. So stay here and heal. I don’t care how used to functioning you are while in huge amounts of pain, I am not going to allow it. Stay,” he tells Tony, pulling his hand away at Tony gives him a vicious look over that body binding threat. “Good,” he says when Tony doesn’t move. He goes to leave then, pausing for a moment, “I know this will be hard, but you’ve managed to reinjure yourself enough often enough that you still have lingering problems from an injury that took place almost two years ago. You just can’t continue like that, you’ll die,” he says softly. “And what good are you to anyone, yourself included, then? So please rest and give yourself time to relax. Your body is practically begging for it.”

He goes after that, leaving Tony with his books and hoping that he doesn’t try and do something strenuous while Stephen is gone.

*

God knows Tony wants to leave, he wants to run around and jump over fences, and climb a mountain or something but he does none of those things because of Stephen. Just the look on his face when he told Tony he couldn’t continue going on the way he was, the look on his face when he said Tony would die. He’d looked so… so… distraught and Tony didn’t know what to make of that. It wasn’t often that people cared about him let alone enough that they looked outright disturbed at the thought of him dying. And the attention Stephen paid to him was nice too, even if it was mostly for medical purposes.

Rhodey had been right offended when he found out Stephen managed to bargain Tony into a hospital because he’s never been successful, but Stephen capitalized on a weakness of Tony’s and left a trusted friend to watch over Christine while he was elsewhere. The situation might have landed Tony in a hospital but it did work out for everyone else involved and so he dealt with it. In the meantime though he focuses on the stupid books Wong brought. Most of them said the same thing- focus on a reoccurring thought and wait for something to come to you but it sounded stupid to Tony, and not very scientific. The process though said it would distinguish a prophet from someone with good instincts to he closes his eyes and focuses.

Aliens he thinks to himself, focusing on the portal, Loki, Thor, London, all that contraband alien tech Peter found six months ago, and SHIELD. For a long time all he gets is that familiar panic he had when he thought of aliens, that squeezing in his heart that apparently wasn’t normal, and he’s about to give up when he feels a weird jolt that makes him gasp and his entire body flinches in response. The last thing he expects is a loud yell and when he looks over Stephen is in the air, cape fluttering around him with his hand on his heart. “Please give a man a warning next time you wake from a dead sleep!” Stephen tells him, shaking his head as he settles back to the ground.

Tony frowns, “I wasn’t sleeping, I was doing that- what time is it?” he asks, looking out the small window in his room. It was completely dark outside and his stomach was starting to growl and twist like he hadn’t eaten all day.

“Nearly nine o’clock, why?” Stephen asks. “And what do you mean you weren’t sleeping?”

“I… I was trying that meditation thing. I started around noon,” he says softly. What the fuck just happened?

Stephen raises an eyebrow. “Did you see anything?” he asks but Tony shakes his head.

“Nothing. I think I was about to but I got this weird… shock I guess. And then you were in the air floating around like a scared cat,” he says. Stephen flips him off and he laughs, wincing a little and looking down at his ribs in surprise. Sure he normally felt a twinge or two when he laughed but this was the first time it registered to him as actual pain in some time.

“The medication is wearing off,” Stephen says. “This, by the way, is what you normally feel like. Not so nice now that you aren’t used to it, is it?” he asks.

Tony rolls his eyes at Stephen’s ‘told you so’ attitude but accepts that he’s right. “Those uh… those pain meds aren’t addictive are they? I didn’t think of it when-”

“I’m aware of your past as an addict, its been accounted for. And I’ve seen people become addicted to pain medications more than times that I’d care to count. I’d know the symptoms before you would and wean you off even if Christine didn’t give you something with a low addiction rate,” he says gently. Tony lets out tension in his body he didn’t realize he was holding and sighs, slumping in his spot. “You should probably lie back down, you gave quite a start. I’ve probably seen too many horror movies because for a moment I was certain you were going to start flying around,” he says, shaking his head to himself.

Tony lets out a laugh and winces, “don’t make me laugh, it hurts,” he says, trying his best and failing to laugh softly. “One time Rhodey and I decided it was a good idea to watch Freddy Kruger on acid. Now we both hate horror movies with a passion because we tripped that we were actually in the movie. For a couple of geniuses we were fucking stupid as teens,” he says. Phenomenally stupid, that’s what his mother had called them when she found them hours later hiding in her closet. In her defense she wasn’t wrong and bless her for managing to shoo them out with minimal issues.

Stephen gives him a look like he thinks Tony is the dumbest person he’s ever met but Tony accepts it. In that particular situation he was pretty spectacularly stupid so he earned that. “Sometimes when I find out new information about you I wonder why you’re my soul mate. Don’t look at me like that, Freddy Kruger on acid? Anyone would wonder how they ended up with you as a soul mate. Except your other soul mate who was stupid enough to go along with an idea I’m sure was your idea.” He walks over and makes a shooing motion at Tony so he sighs and he moves over a little so Stephen could sit.

“I’m sure you’re perfect and make no stupid choices ever,” Tony tells him, nose in the air.

“I’ve made my fair share of dumb choices, watching horror movies on hallucinogenic drugs would never be on my radar of stupid things to do,” he says, carefully putting an arm around Tony. He presses himself into Stephen’s side and yawns, surprised with his lack of energy he had despite basically sleeping all day. “You should go to sleep,” Stephen tells him but Tony shakes his head.

“I basically slept all day,” he says, “I don’t need more sleep.”

“You meditated all day,” Stephen says, “and when magic is involved I can confirm that it’s tiring. Sleep,” he tells Tony. He wants to resist but it becomes increasingly clear that he won’t be able to keep his eyes open much longer. The last thing he remembers before he passes out is his head falling to Stephen’s chest.

*

When Tony wakes up some time later he’s still curled into Stephen’s side and Stephen is fast asleep, nose twitching in his dreams. It was absolutely adorable but Tony was too tired to watch for more than a few moments before he lays his head back on Stephen’s chest and falls back asleep.