Tricks

Eight

"When you called I assumed that it would be about Peter." Stephen said, eyeing Tony with a certain look. Said man was in a suit with red sketcher shoes to go along with it.

Tony smiled nervously, "I mean, sure if you want to talk about him. Kinda a turn off though, just a warning."
Strange rolled his eyes at the man, "Goodbye Stark."

"I have reservations! They'll go to waste!" Tony shouted before the taller man could close the door to the Sanctum.
Stephen sighed, "Look Stark-"

"Just talk yeah? I'll be on my best behavior." Tony winked. Stephen just stared at the man wondering why his life was currently like this. "Please?"

"Fine." Strange sighed, shuffling his feet.
Tony grinned his eyes twinkling, "Great! So are you going to wear that? Or?" Strange responded with slamming the door in the man's face. Tony stepped back and nodded to himself, "Wonderful."

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"What exactly did you want to talk about?" Stephen questioned over a glass of red wine. The place where Tony took him was probably one of the places that Strange would've gone too back in his days being a doctor.

"Stuff, things, stuff and things. You seem like a very serious man, you need to loosen up sometimes." Tony answered with a shrug.

Stephen sighed, "I don't get a lot of free time for that. I do have pressing matters to attend to."
"And it, you're here with me, eating cocktail shrimp." Tony smirked. Stephen paused, he was doing that wasn't he?

"Don't make me regret it." Strange muttered behind his glass. He tried to ignore the warmness that spread across his chest as Tony's eye crinkled when he laughed. It didn't mean anything, he hoped.

"Do you still practice medicine then? Since you became a magic man." Tony inquired, raising an eyebrow.

"Don't ever call me that again." Stephen deadpanned, "I can still, yes, buy its fairly tricky. I do know a good amount of healing spells, though. Why do you ask?"

"How would you like a role at being an Avenger?" Tony questioned cheerfully.
"No thanks, I don't like replacing your ex on the superhero team." Strange responded.

Tony's face fell as he looked down, "Rightly then, it wouldn't be a replacement though. Just saving the world sort of stuff."

Stephen sighed, "Sorry, I didn't mean it. You asked me to help your son out so that's what I'm doing. I'm certainly not doing it to get an invite to be apart of the Avengers."

Tony's mouth formed an 'O' shape as he stared at Strange. "Don't worry your pretty little head about that. I've been keeping tabs on you. How you fight, why you fight, I needed to know more. That's why you met Peter. You passed everything I need for a teammate." Tony explained to Strange.

Strange took a moment for the information to sink in. "Oh, I see. I'm sorry for-" Tony shook his head in understanding, it'll take a while for his image to change. He knew this. "Well, I'll have to think about it."

"That's all I'm asking." Tony smiled.
"Wait, so you've been surveilling me?" Stephen asked.

"Um, well, I mean it was for a good cause!" Tony stuttered.
Strange smirked, "Yeah, sure whatever you say."

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"Peter! Do you want gray or ranch with your chicken stripes?" Ned shouted, from his kitchen.

"Gravy!" The preteen yelled back. The duo was at Ned's place for the night, while Tony was having dinner with the infamous doctor Peter was having a sleepover at Ned's house.

When Tony pitched in the idea, both boys immediately agreed to it. Not only would it be the first time Peter would be away from his dad this long, Ned's mother also jumped up in excitement. This would be the first time in a long time that Ned had a friend over.

Ned carefully ran up the stairs holding two plates that had chicken stripes and steamed seasoned vegetables with small containers in his pockets.
"Here you go." The black haired preteen handed his friend the plate of food.

"Thank you." Peter smiled, setting the plastic plate down on the small folding table. "What are we watching?"

"Repeats of Disney movies. My dad broke the DVD player while trying to fix the ceiling light, so we can't watch anything else." Ned replied, "I don't even know man." Ned shrugged when Peter gave him a questioning stare.

Peter laughed and shook his head, "Okay, what's on then?"

Ned surfed through his DVR with a soft hum, "There's Halloween movies, Disney, oh, we have the Star Wars cartoon recorded."

"Let's watch that then!" Peter cheered. The two boys were quiet while eating dinner and watching Disney cartoons. Peter was happy and a little nervous. He knew his dad was busy tonight, however, he felt timid to sleep somewhere else besides his home.

He didn't want to tell Ned this just in case the other boy felt offended. Peter really didn't want to ruin his friendship.

"Hey, you okay?" Ned nudged him.

"I'm, yeah, I'm just going to call my dad real quick." Peter responded, fleeing the room.
The preteen made his way to where the house phone was and typed in the memorized number.

"Hello?" Tony's voice echoed into the phone.
"Hi dad." Peter smiled through the phone.

"Is something wrong?" Tony inquired. Peter could already see his father getting ready to come and take him home if needed.

"No, just wanted to say goodnight. Ned's dad will be taking me home, before he goes to work." Peter explained.

"Yup, well I hope you have fun kiddo." Tony grinned, "Love you, see you tomorrow."
"Bye dad." Peter felt happier as he made his way to his friend's room.

Alone Together: Fall out boy