A Familiar Touch | (Doctor Strange x Female!Reader)

Chapter 20 - I Know

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TW: Smut warning.
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When the lift doors opened, Stephen followed her out, stopping in front of her door.

"(Y/n)-"

Her hand was on the door, about to push it open when his words stopped her, and she turned around to met his eyes.

"I-I'm sorry your night turned out like this..."

She laughed, crossing her arms over her chest defensively.

"Yeah, well, did you ever think that if you hadn't used me all those years ago, we wouldn't be here?"

Stephen looked at the floor, busying his eyes with his shoes. He knew she was right. And he hated that she still believed that. But he hadn't said anything since that night to change her mind.

Well.

Not until now.

As she turned back around and started to push herself into her room, Stephen caught her wrist and pulled her back.

"I'm sorry."

She looked confused. Sorry for what?

"Stephen, it's not your fault-"

"That night. Everything that I said, it wasn't true."

(Y/n) could feel her heartbeat increasing, her breathing becoming unsteady.

"I- I was scared I was going to lose you. I mean," He chuckled slightly, "You saw how I was with women. I could never keep a relationship. And I so desperately wanted us to work. But I wasn't ready. I knew I'd mess it up. So I said those things. But I don't know why I did."

His grip on her wrist loosened and he searched for her other hand, holding them in his.

"I wanted you so badly, but I just didn't know what to do. You were," He sighed, "You were everything to me. And I knew as soon as you walked out my door that night, that I had messed up."

He tightened his grip on her hands.

"And then you left and- and I was so scared I was never going to see you again. I hoped, desperately hoped, that I'd see you again, one day. And even if you had moved on, I couldn't live the rest of my life knowing you hated me for that night. I couldn't live knowing you believed I never loved you. Because I did. I do."

He looked up at her, seeing her speechless expression and the tears threatening to fall from her eyes as well as trying his hardest to hold his own back.

"I, uh, I had something for you."

Stephen opened a small gateway next to where they were standing and grabbed something. He held it out to her, and she studied it before finally accepting it.

It was a brown leather book, wrapped in a dark red bow. There was no title or engraving or runes in sight.

And before she could ask what it was, Stephen leaned in, placing the most delicate kiss to her temple.

"I know it's a little early but... Happy Birthday."

And he made his way back towards his room.

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(Y/n) sat at the edge of her bed next to her hat, eyeing the book in her hands. She had removed her shoes before letting the thoughts in her brain consume her. She was turning over each word he had said to her, reliving the dream they had experienced together. The crash. She thought back to every single memory they shared.

He had always been there.

Right in front of her.

Yet she had been so blind.