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He looks at him with so much pain in his eyes, that Stephen’s determination falters for a second.

“You don’t know how it is to lose both of them.”

And then the other Strange swings his arm at him, and Stephen is losing his grip on reality.

_____

“Stephen,” some voice calls him from the depths and he snaps his eyes wide open, jumping up with gracefulness of a cat. He swings his arm, aiming at his double, but instead he hits another man’s chest quite pathetically. “Hey, sleeping beauty, chill.”

And that’s when it strikes him.

“Tony?”

“You had a nightmare, man. Again.”

Tony looks at him with his lovely eyes. He’s concerned, but after awhile he slowly widens his smile in that smirk Stephen’s too familiar with.

“What? You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” he chuckles.

And that’s the only viable explanation, because Tony Stark is long dead. Stephen feels like he can’t breathe for a second, and he looks at his hand to remind himself that he’s in a middle of a fight and this is all an illusion, but instead he sees two other absolutely bizarre things: his healthy, not scarred hand and Stark’s bare chest. With no reactor right in the middle. Strange is scared that his eyes are about to pop out of their sockets from the shock.

“What’s going on?” he asks nervously. His voice is rasp and heavy with anxiety. For some reason he feels like he is in panic.

“Hey, hey, little Stevie, it’s alright,” Stark catches his hands and kisses them just like he used to. “We are home, everything’s fine, I’m here with you.”

“Don’t touch me,” Stephen says breathlessly and stands up from the couch, drawing his hands back with a sharp motion. He concentrates on that room he just was in and tries to summon a portal but it’s no use.

“Huh, that’s new,” Tony smiles lightheartedly, while watching Strange performing different gestures with his hands. His healthy hands. “Well, once you’re done, we’re having Chinese.”

“I can’t eat normal food,” Stephen utters, but he senses noodles and realizes that he’s starving.

“You really are nuts, Strange,” Tony stands up and goes to the table, taking the carton packages out of the bag, “but that’s one of the reasons I like you.”

When Stephen finally sits down on the couch and looks around, he takes in the small apartment they are in. Not something Stark would rent even for a hideout, that’s for sure, and yet he just called it a home and now he gives Strange a package with chopsticks, and Stephen finds nothing better than just to take it. He tries it experimentally, expecting to gag, just like he started several years ago at any normal food, but instead his mouth waters and he eats noodles as if it’s the tastiest and the most expensive filet minion he has ever tried.

When he’s done, Tony snickers.

“Nothing like good Chinese to keep mind at bay.”

Damn, he’s right. Strange has already forgotten the taste and it was simply delicious. He looks at his package with a little bit of sadness, that there’s no more noodles inside.

After they’re done with dinner, Tony turns on a small TV and starts checking out the channels.

“What’s going on?” Stephen asks, remembering his little predicament. The faster he gets to the bottom of this the better. He tries to summon at least a spark of his powers, but nothing happens.

“Nothing much, really,” Tony scratches his head and then lays his hand right on Stephen’s shoulder, “co-workers are pain in the ass, as usual, but the project’s not that bad this time. Some eco batteries.”

“No, I mean, what’s going on here, how are you alive?”

At that Tony looks actually surprised and turns to Stephen with a question in his beautiful eyes.

“You want to talk philosophy? Thought you left this field after they failed you at bachelors.”

“Failed? I have a PhD,” Stephen feels protective all of a sudden, and Tony laughs.

“Sure, hot stuff.”

It takes some time for Strange to realize, that Tony’s genuine. It also helps that they are showing Avengers on TV and there’s no one Stephen has ever seen. Stark says some quirky jokes, laughs at them, but, when he sees Stephen’s serious face, he just rolls his eyes and murmurs “tough audience today, okay”. And that’s how the day ends.

Tony wakes up in the morning and helps Strange to rise up with kisses, before Stephen thinks that this’s the first time in years he has slept more than three hours at night. Stephen looks around again, deciding that the bed is too small for both of them together, but it was the most comfortable thing he has ever experienced. Strange chooses to play his part, trying to piece things in the process.

Christine looks surprised.

“You are late,” she looks posh and elevated. There’s white jacket on her shoulders with embroidered ‘Doc. Christine Palmer’ on it.

“Had some existential questions to answer on my way,” Stephen says, and she rolls her eyes.

“Listen, Strange, I’m not going to give you special treatment, because you are my ex. You are my assistant, please respect that.”

Oh, well. Whatever the fuck that’s supposed to mean.

A week later he gets more or less the context of what’s going on. For example, that he’s Christine’s assistant and a failed doctorate. Or that that shack he woke up in is his and Stark’s home they are paying rent for. Or that Stark is a mediocre engineer. Or that both of their families have disowned them, because of their relationship.

Or that they don’t give a shit what the universe thinks about them, when Tony goes down on him and sucks Stephen clean. Strange comes with a strangled moan and Stark kisses him smugly.

“Fuck, once we’re out of this shithole, you’ll fuck me standing in front of windows,” Tony laughs, when he says it, and it triggers Stephen to remember that they’ve done it. “Or we’ve done that too in that incredible life you dreamed of?”

Strange moans painfully and Stark laughs once again. He tried to check the waters, trigger some memories, but Tony clearly wasn’t aware of Thanos, or Stones, or multiverse, or his own death. Stephen ended up lying, that he had this strange dream he was thinking about, and now Stark never skips a chance to tease him.

“Hey, Stevie,” Tony calls him, head lying down on Stephen’s shoulder, while Stark is drawing some shapes with his fingers on Strange’s chest, “humor me, tell me about that dream.”

“So you can tease me harder?”

“C’mon, man, don’t be a pussy. If you tell me, I swear to not tease you about it for a… week.”

“That’s a shitty deal.”

“Welp, I’m sorry then, oh Sorcerer Supreme Doctor Strange with a PhD in philosophy,” Tony chuckles, and Strange is done.

“Okay, imagine a universe, where we are heroes,” Stephen starts, expecting Stark to laugh his ass off, but he’s surprisingly quiet, so Strange continues, “and you have lots of money and a reactor in your chest. And then you make yourself a suit that lets you fly and shoot blasters.”

“If I didn’t know you are sober, I’d ask you to share,” Tony hums, “and you?”

“And I am a Sorcerer, one of the mightiest ones, and I also used to have lots of money and two PhDs.”

“What a dream,” Stark closes his eyes and smiles, “yeah, I’d also be disoriented if I woke up from something like that. Are we together there too?”

“Well,” Stephen carefully caresses Tony’s back, “we didn’t start on the equal footing, but in the end, everything has worked out.”

“And we were happy? I mean, before I died or whatever,” Stark asks with a smirk.

“And we were happy.”

“Good.”

Stephen finds the place on Bleecker street, but there is no Sanctum Santorum, and he doesn’t know what to do anymore. Magic doesn’t work and Stephen feels empty, and yet he thinks that he will come home and there will be Stark, who will make fun of him, and then will comfort him, and then will kiss him, and then they will live happily ever after.

There’s some rubble just where the sacred place is supposed to be, and Stephen looks around with little to no hope. Maybe, it was a dream after all. Maybe, he’s just a failure of a surgeon, who tries his hardest to meet the ends. Maybe, it’s not as bad with Stark right behind him, and maybe, just maybe, it’s a…

And then Stephen sees an Eye of Bosporus, and he feels goosebumps on his skin. He digs it out, there’s a little bit of light shining inside. An artifact that can grant any wish. He’s not a madman after all. Adrenalin, Strange remembers, is the key to make it work.

He returns home and hides it, when Stark comes back. One last evening, Stephen decides, and then they fuck right on the couch with the most passionate kisses Strange has ever received and given. When they are done, Stephen carries Tony back to their bed, and Stark jokes that only a wizard can do something like that, and Strange hisses at him, because he promised to not tease him about that, but they still laugh. And they still kiss. And Strange says quietly ‘I have some extra work today, don’t wait for me’ and leaves Tony in the bedroom, but before exiting murmurs ‘I love you’.

Their house has thirty floors, tall enough to jump and activate the Eye. Stephen uses an elevator, thanks whatever there is, that a door to a roof is open, and then stops right in front of an edge. He needs to go, but he feels that awful thing inside him wanting to give up and just stay here with Tony. There’s nothing there, it’s not the same without him, and Stephen thinks of kisses, and he thinks of this simple life and there’s nothing more that he wants.

He looks at the Eye and feels his hands shaking.

“Stephen!” Stark shouts right behind his back, and Strange sharply turns to him. “What the fuck?!”

“Tony, I can explain…”

“No, don’t you even think about it, you fucking moron!” Tony looks so scared, that Stephen feels extremely guilty. “Extra work my ass, what the fuck, Stevie?!”

And Strange wants to just hug Tony and never leave him again, promise that they don’t need money or fame, tell that he’s the best thing that has happened to him.

“I need to go, Tony, I’m sorry,” Stephen gags on his own words.

“No! No, I said,” Stark begs, “Don’t you even think about leaving me!”

Strange thinks that he’s the most beautiful man he’s ever seen, when he jumps off the edge, while Tony screams behind him. The Eye in his hands starts to shine brighter, and Stephen makes his wish. It’s so close to the earth, that he thinks that he is a madman, that he has made a mistake, but right before he’s smashed, there’s the cloak around his shoulders.

Before he realizes that, the earth right under him starts to become dust, and Stephen understands, that this universe can’t exist without him being an ordinary human.

He wills the cloak to rise him up to the roof, where Tony stands in shock. He tries to say something, but everything around him starts to decay, including his own body.

“What’s that…” he wonders with terror.

“That’s…” Strange nearly answers, but he’s interrupted.

“Wait, that fucking dream, it’s true?!” Tony’s suddenly excited. “With a reactor in my chest and money?”

“Yes, it is,” Stephen feels how tight his throat is.

“So that means… we were happy, right?”

“We were,” Strange’s voice is shaking, but Stark is laughing. And then he’s gone just like that, but before he becomes dust, he touches Stephen’s scarred hands and smiles brighter than any Infinity Stone would ever shine.

_____

Strange catches his double’s hand just in time.

“Oh. You are back already?” The double is surprised, and Stephen summons a wave to push away the other Strange.

“I am,” he says confidently, but there is something in his eyes that hints, that Stephen is forever changed.