Like Teacher, Like Student /// A Doctor Strange Fanfiction

Chapter 15

"You're in over your head."

"Oh really," Stephen said, frowning at Wong as he sat down in a chair beside the fireplace, the flames dancing merrily on the logs. After she had finished her tea, Casey had gone off to work on some homework, and Wong had decided to stick around, haunting him and apparently waiting to launch into a scolding. At least he held off until it was late, and Casey was most likely asleep. Maybe. Teenagers kept weird hours. Plus, it wasn't like he had given her a bedtime, though he had started to give her A Look any time he caught her up past midnight on a school night.

Wong settled back and pointed at the other armchair. "And you're keeping things from her."

Stephen rubbed at one eye, purposefully looking away from Wong and gesturing at the fire. The flames rose, and a spell rolled out around them from the fireplace, taking the warm golden color and pushing outward. The runes for silence were threaded through the twists and turns of the incantation, ensuring that Casey wouldn't overhear anything in case this was one of her late nights. He shot Wong another frown, deeper this time, before sitting down in the chair. "For her own good."

"I've heard that goes over really well with kids, the 'for your own good' explanation," Wong said in a deadpan tone. "Have you even mentioned her own summer plans to her?"

"We agreed to ease her into that."

"You and I agreed to that, but you said you wouldn't put it off too long."

"I'm going to." There just hadn't been a good time. How did you tell a kid that you were going to completely uproot them and send them to a small but very safe school for young sorcerers on a tiny island that most people had only heard about in fairy tales? In fact, not many people in their own group even knew about it. Most of the kids there were in a similar situation to Casey; they had lost a sorcerer parent or parents, and now they needed to be kept safe or somewhere to stay.

He and Wong had come up with that plan when he and Casey had visited Kamar-Taj. Taking Casey and throwing her in with the rest of the students when she had just lost her grandfather and her home hadn't sat well with Stephen, but he wasn't exactly real guardian material. He didn't know what he was doing. He couldn't do this long term. Allowing her to finish out the school year at her own school and then moving her to Avalon seemed like the best choice. She could have a semi-normal life in New York for a few more months, learn some of the basics of the mystic arts, and then switch to the school at Avalon. It would be good for her. At Avalon, there would be people who actually knew how to train and raise a kid.

And he was getting around to telling her all of that.

"If you put it off for too long, you might get attached," Wong said, "And we both know you'd hate that. You don't even like kids."

"I don't think kids are awful," Stephen said defensively, lifting his left ankle onto his right knee. "They're just messy. And confusing. And hard to understand."

"Casey seems very straightforward," Wong said. He lifted a hand and made a gesture with his pointer finger and pinky finger. In turn, the fire rose and danced on the logs, making geometric shapes. He always had liked a nice fire.

"Almost always." Stephen's forehead wrinkled. "Her fighting style reflects it. She's only offense. No defense. I can't get her to change, no matter what I throw at her, and trust me, I've thrown everything besides the kitchen sink at her. It's next on the list." He huffed. "Did I tell you she tried to kick me one time?"

"I bet you deserved it."

"That's debatable," Stephen said.

Wong's finger twitches sent the geometric shapes rolling in circles around the logs. "Avalon isn't the only thing you're hiding from her."