Irrational

Chapter 14 - Strange indeed

You walk down the hall and find the room that is quite obviously occupied.

Tony’s jacket folded on the back of the chair at the head of the table, with his favourite cup.

A personalised cup from Pepper, she got as a joke. Shortly before New York happened.

White mug with “Stark Industries” logo, with “+ 12% of Pepper Pott’s baby”, mirrored on either side. It’s an inside joke of something he said when the new Stark tower he built in New York lit up, shortly before it was destroyed by the Chitauri.

He cherished it and he always smiled looking at it, re-living the little inside joke with his girl.

Adorable.

You sit down on one of the chairs and start swaying from side to side, it was impossible for you to sit still in those chairs.

Couldn’t help yourself.

“God you are a child” croaked Dr Grumpy as he closed the door behind him.

You looked around for Tony, quickly realising Tony lured you into a trap to speak to the grouchiest man alive.

But you got curious about the jacket, until you finally paid attention to Strange.

He wasn’t in his cape as he normally is.

You were a little – okay very disappointed – but he was instead in a deep navy-blue three-piece suit, currently without the jacket. With a black shirt and tie under the waistcoat and you couldn’t deny, he was hot.

“Says the grumpy old man” you say sarcastically, as you raise an eyebrow.

He lowers the corners of his lips and looks up at the same time, making a fair enough facial expression.

“We need to seriously talk Y/N, I need to ask you some questions about your powers” Strange states very carefully, watching your reaction as closely as he can.

“I thought you did your research” you quiz him, following the last encounter you had in your room and he showed London through a portal.

“Oh, I did sweetheart. Personal research, which is why I know London is your second favourite city in the world. The first is-was New York until the Chitauri and you haven’t been back since. Slowly worrying everyone into oblivion” Strange relies this with pride, happy he can finally unleash the knowledge he has on you.

You can’t help but smile at the confession.

No one ever took the time to do something like that before.

The only person who knew any of that was Tony. He went to Tony about you, meaning he knew he was the best to pry information from.

Normally Pietro would, but everyone knows bestfriend confidentiality could never allow Pietro to spill.

“Impressive Strange, very impressive” you say with sincerity.

“Why thank you, I’m glad you approve. Now, about your powers, do you mind if I ask you something? He says again with caution, something that was shocking you. He’s usually so brass.

“Depends what it is?” you quiz back.

“How did you get them? Was you with Pietro and Wanda in Hydra or?” he is genuinely curious, sitting delicately in the seat next to you.

You carefully look at him and take a breath. “The ancient one” you utter out in a whisper and watch his eyes widen and he stiffens.

“I’m sorry, what did you just say?” Strange gasped.

“The Ancient One, now don’t freak out on me okay. I can and will explain. If you’ll let me?” you question, a little worried for his reaction.

He gives a subtle nod, whilst loosening his tie and undoing his top button with one hand.

Flawlessly.

“Before Tony found me, and built me up to this. I was at a whole new level of low before that. My family all died around me, cancer, car accidents, suicide and death whilst on duty. Army before you ask. My father, then mother, brother and sisters. I won’t explain who died where, if you don’t mind?” he gives you another subtle nod.

“I didn’t see a way out. I wanted to never feel pain or loss again. Not to feel again was even an option. Then I remembered hearing about “The Winter Soldier” attacking the UN building in Austria, so I looked into getting the serum, I could become a robot and work through any pain. Bad logic I know” you shake your head and you drop it to look at your lap, palms becoming sticky and starting to shake.

He reached over and gentle stroked across the top of your hand, looking up at him through your lashes, you see he looks at his hands then you again, gesturing for you to look. His hands was scarred and shaky.

“I know all about bad logic. That’s what got me here. Trust me, despite our initial opinions of eachother, I am not judging you. Please continue” Strange encourages with a gentle and almost loving tone to his voice.

“Someone caught wind at what I was trying to do. They told me of the promise of Kamar-Taj. If you were to reach it, the ancient one would heal me. I thought it was daft, I didn’t think there anything to heal, but once I reached her. She questioned me as to what needed healing, when I stated nothing. She tilted her head and said oh child, it’s your heart that requires healing. Let’s begin” you sighed and looked up at Strange.

He was sat back, one arm leaning on the table and his forefinger and thumb supporting his head from under his chin and at the side of his cheek with the rest of his fingers resting along his top lip.

Completely taken with your story, which you found both shocking and well… amazing.

“Are you okay to continue? Or is it too much?” Strange pulls out of his daze when he realises you’ve been paused for a while. Genuinely concerned.

“No, no, I’m fine to continue. Erm, you know what happens there Strange. I do keep up with who is the latest Master of each Sanctum, and any new Masters of the Mystic Arts. I know all about you. I just pretended to be oblivious because of how we started, didn’t want to give anything away about who I was. Anyway, I went one further. I’m rare, well my power is, I’m known as the Master of the Natural Arts. I can’t do the portal thing or the orange spinny things you, Wong and Mordo can do. The Ancient One can do little bits of my power, I mean you obviously can to. But not to my extent.” You explain as cooly as you can.

“You’re not kidding. I read about your kind of powers in the forbidden texts. You’re like unicorn rare” Strange states excitedly.

You chuckle at his excitement. “Something like that” you shrug it off.

He runs his hand over his face, complete astounded. Then his face flashes with guilt, fear and complete embarrassment. “I am so sor-“, you lift your hand and lean forward grabbing one of his hands.

“Don’t. I’m sorry, especially for the last comment I made earlier. We’ve both been a little more than harsh to one another, but I think we both know we need to stop this now.” You look at him and you lock eyes, still holding onto eachother.

He leans in with a smirk and whispers “I thought I made it clear, this just the beginning”, he swiftly gets up and grabs his jacket, as if happening in slow-mo, throws it around him placing his arms into the sleeves, fixing it by the collar and pulling his cuffs of his shirt out from under the jacket and heads for the door.

You turn towards him in your seat, and he turns back to you at the door, “I’m not going anywhere, we’ve got time, my sweet girl” and walks out.

Leaving you melting at the soft endearment but hot to core with his possessive innuendo.