Stephen Strange x Reader x Loki
“What the hell happened?!?” you screamed when you opened the front door of the New York Sanctum. At the bottom of the staircase, Stephen was standing beside a motionless body that you instantly recognized as your lifelong companion and dearest friend.
“Loki!” you yelled, running to him and and crouching beside him. “Loki, honey?” you said, placing his head in your lap. “Wake up!”
“What happened?” you asked Stephen for the second time.
“He showed up, we fought…I won,” he said nonchalantly.
“You are in so much trouble. Now, help me get him to bed. We’ll take him to your room.”
“My room? I’m not putting him in my-“ he quickly cut himself off when he saw the flash of anger in your eyes.
“Alright,” he sighed in defeat before helping you lift Loki off the ground and carry him up the stairs.
You sat on the edge of Stephen’s bed, staring at Loki’s unconscious face and gently stroking his hair.
“You could have killed him,” you said.
“I thought he was supposed to already be dead,” Stephen said from where he stood on the opposite side of the bed. “That’s what you told me anyway.”
“Incorrect,” you said. “You heard from someone else that Loki was dead. I just never told you he wasn’t. That’s completely different.”
“That’s his kind of logic,” he said, motioning to the Asgardian currently lying on his bed. “And will you please stop doing that?!”
“Doing what?” You asked innocently, even though you already knew damn well that he was referring to the way you were lovingly caressing Loki’s cheek. It gave you joy to see it get under his skin so much.
“Go fix him some tea for when he wakes up,” you told Stephen. He cocked his eyebrow up in complete and utter disbelief, but instead of arguing with you, he simply snorted his discontent and left the room.
“Idiot,” you heard Loki’s voice mumble. You watched as he popped one eye open to survey the room before the other joined it and he turned his attention to you.
“How long have you been awake?” You asked.
“Oh, awhile,” he simply said while smiling up at you.
“What are you doing here?”
“I came to see you. I’ve missed you. You’ve been on this wretched realm far too much lately. Do I need a better reason than that?”
“Of course not, but did you have to start a fight with Stephen? He could’ve killed you.”
“First of all,” he began, sitting up and leaning back against the headboard, “I didn’t start our little disagreement, he did. Secondly, there is no way that second-rate magician could kill me with his bag of tricks. The only reason he was able to knock me out is because he got me by surprise.”
“Big talk for a man who was on his back unconscious just a few minutes ago,” Stephen said as he entered the room carrying a tray. As he set it on the nightstand, Loki watched him with a cautious, but angry expression.
“A mistake I won’t let happen next time,” Loki said with a smirk.
“I wouldn’t be so sure about that,” Stephen replied.
The two stared at each other for what felt like an eternity before Loki jumped up with a long knife appearing in each hand. Stephen took a combat position as his hands began to glow with that familiar orange hue. Crawling quickly across the bed, you leapt in between them and placed a hand on each man’s chest.
“Loki! No stabbing, slashing, beheading, dismembering, or disemboweling! Okay?”
As suddenly as they had appeared, the knives in Loki’s hands vanished into thin air as he raised them into a surrendering position.
“Anything for you, darling.”
“Stephen…Put the magic away…NOW!”
The glow of magic flickered momentarily before disappearing completely. Stephen clasped his hands behind his back and said, “I’ll behave if he will.”
You heard a small whimper and turned to see Loki sit back on the bed with his hand against his forehead.
“I must have overexerted myself after that vicious and completely unwarranted attack earlier. Perhaps, if I had something to eat, it would help me regain my strength,” Loki said while looking up at you with his best puppy dog eyes.
“Stephen, go fix Loki something to eat.”
“I-, uh-, grr-“ Stephen stammered and growled before storming out the room with his cloak whipping behind him.
Loki smiled and leaned back on the bed with his fingers laced behind his head. “Like I said earlier, the man is an idiot.”
“You’re planning on milking this for all it's worth, aren’t you?”
“Of course, he’s an easy mark. As long as you keep backing me up, that is.”
You chucked and shook your head at Loki’s antics before leaving him alone in the room. When you entered the kitchen, you found Stephen dumping a box of frozen pizza rolls on a plate.
“I don’t think Loki will like those.”
“You said that like I’d care.”
You watched as he practically slammed the plate into the microwave and pushed the buttons much harder than necessary.
“So, what is he doing here?” Stephen asked, folding his arms across his chest and looking at you.
“He came to visit me, which isn’t that surprising, Loki and I have always been close.”
You would have been willing to swear in a court of law that the muscles in Stephen’s jaws visibly clenched when he heard that.
“How long will he be staying?”
“Beats me. As long as he wants to, I guess. Haven’t those been heating a really long time?”
Stephen smiled to himself like he just remembered a really funny joke someone had told him. He stopped the microwave and pulled the plate out and looked at it while still smiling.
“These things do have the nasty tendency of getting hellishly hot on the inside, don’t they?”
He walked out the room still smiling oddly at the plate of pizza rolls. A few moments later, you heard Loki scream out in pain before yelling “You did that on purpose!” followed by the sound of objects breaking.
Your chin dropped to your chest in defeat while you muttered to yourself, “This is going to be a long day….”