Strange Connection (Stephen Strange x OC)

Chapter 9

"If you don't answer, he's liable to fly over here," Wong said.

"I'm not that important—," Arianna said, shaking her head.

"Don't be silly, of course you are," Stephen said before answering the call. "Hello, Tony...yes, she's fine...yes we had a break-in. I don't think I want to know how you figured that out seeing as they used inter-dimensional portals to get in. Yes, as I said, she's fine, she's safe, uninjured. I kept her safe. What, you don't believe me? Fine—" He pushed a button on the phone and looked at Arianna expectantly.

"Hello, Mr. Stark."

"Hey, kid. How you doing?"

"I'm fine now, sir."

"This was your first incursion, Princess Plum, since the big one. You sure you're alright?"

Arianna sighed. "I wasn't alright, but I am now, sir. I'll be ready to fight next time."

"Listen, tech girl, I know you, and you know that I prepared you to fight, but how about you leave it to those of us with a little more experience—that is, until absolutely necessary?"

Stephen raised his hands up in the air as if to say Hah! I was right! See!

Arianna rolled her eyes, but relented. "Yes sir, not unless absolutely necessary."

"You good to stay on the job with Mr. Wizard? I can have a ride there to pick you up in less that 15 seconds if you've changed your mind."

"Yes sir, I'm good.. We've finalized plans for the upgrades at Kamar Taj. I estimate at least one week of work time, after I pick up the supplies from the warehouse."

"Alright, I'll let Barry know. Hey, have you told the good Doctor about the party?"

Arianna bit at her lip and glanced at Stephen, who looked at her with a raised eyebrow.

"No, no sir I haven't."

"Well, give him the deets and be sure I see you there tomorrow night. Stay safe and stay smart, Princess Plum—Tony out."

With that, there was a click. Arianna looked up to find both Stephen and Wong staring at her. "What?"

"First of all, 'Princess Plum'?"

"It's a long story."

"We have plenty of time, nothing but time, in fact. If needed, I'll go grab the Eye of Agamotto and we can pause time, reverse time, whatever is necessary," Stephen said, crossing his arms.

"It's not that long a story."

"Good, good," Wong sat down next to Stephen on the couch. "Then you can go ahead and tell us."

"Really?" Arianna said, looking at Wong. "You, too?"

"Yes, Princess Plum, me too."

Arianna sighed. Then, she started pacing again. "Five years ago, I was living in a small apartment with my elderly grandparents. They had adopted me as their own when my parents died when I was young. My fiance, Lewis, he was a fellow IT geek. He worked for Stark Industries, at the Stark Tower. He was on his way to work when the Battle of New York began. He called me from where he was at and I left my grandparents at our apartment to go find him. I don't know, I guess I thought I could help or something. I heard him die on the phone. By the time I made it back to my apartment, it was a heap of rubble. I lost everything I had that day, my family, my love, my home. Everything. And who happened upon me as I sat on top of a pile of rubble crying but Tony Stark. Well, he was in full Iron Man regalia at the time. Helping with the clean up after Loki's attempt at destroying the City to get the Tesseract. He recognized me from a picture that Lewis kept on his desk. In a manner of speaking, he took me under his wing. He found out I was in IT like Lewis and offered me a job. He helped me find an apartment—though he wasn't thrilled when I chose Hoboken. I couldn't seem to bring myself to live in the City proper at the time. He kept checking in on me anytime he was in New York. He started treating me like a little sister, though I insist on still calling him Mr. Stark. I do love my purple, if you recall. The first year of my employment, on my birthday, he brought be a purple crown and dubbed me Princess Plum. Four years later, he hasn't stopped calling me that." She had rushed through the more emotional parts of the story, hoping to keep it light and from being too big a deal, but when she looked back to Wong and Stephen, they both sat there a bit shocked. She tried to lighten it up again. "And that's why he calls me Princess Plum."

Stephen finally spoke, but when he did it was quiet, almost a whisper as he leaned forward, elbows going to his knees as he steepled his fingers together. "You lost...everything..."

Cloak couldn't handle it any longer, it flew to her and wrapped itself around her in a hug that almost toppled her over.

"Oh my goodness, Cloak—it's fine, I'm fine now. I'm okay. It's been five years. I've had a long time to grieve. I mean, not that I won't always be grieving in some way, shape or form, but I'm good. I'm good."

Cloak finally relented and released her, but then flew over to Stephen and grabbed him by the arm, pulling him up and towards her. They both chuckled as it released him just in time for him to run right into her. "I believe Cloak is trying to tell me I should give you a hug."

"I think if you tried to argue, he'd just trap us."

"True." Stephen took her arms and pulled her towards him, wrapping her in his own arms and holding her close. "I'm so, so sorry for the loss you've had to endure in your life. But I will never refer to you as Princess Plum." He said, his deep baritone voice ending in a chuckle that she echoed from within the comfort of his embrace.

"Good, that's really good."

"I don't know, I think It could grow on me," Wong said snarkily.

"Wong," Stephen said sternly.

"Alright, alright. No Princess Plum for me either."

"Alright, second thing," Stephen said, pulling back to look down at her, but keeping her close. He could get used to this.

"What's that?"

"Party?"

"Oh, that..." she sad,biting at her lip again. "It's just—well, Mr. Stark is having a party tomorrow night at Stark Tower. He asked me to invite you. There'll be other superheros there, and Stark Industries employees, mixing, mingling, I'm sure you wouldn't want to go."

"Are you going?" he asked.

"Yeah, Tony said I have to before he'll release me to go work on the Kamar-Taj project."

"Well, then maybe I'll come."

Both Arianna and Wong were surprised and simultaneously spoke, "Really?"

He shrugged and released her from his arms, "Maybe."