Avengers Imagines

You're Bleeding on my Carpet- Stephen Strange

(Gender Neutral Reader)

Warnings: Mention of blood/injuries

Who ever just abruptly woke you up at three a.m. was a dead man. You had just finished a twelve hour shift at the hospital, and not two hours after you fell into bed still in your scrubs, a crash outside your window pulled you from sleep. Initially, you were just going to do your best to fall back asleep, I mean, what were the chances that crash sound had to do with you? Turns out, it had to do with only you.

A tapping at your bedroom window pulled your eyes open again, and you groaned in frustration. You threw your blankets off and stomped over to the window, expecting a pigeon to be sat on the fire escape after crashing into your window. However, you were greeted with a human on the other side of your window once you pulled up the blinds. A human by the name of Stephen Strange, who looked like he'd been through hell. 

Rubbing your eyes, you sighed in annoyance. Unfortunately, this had happened before. 

"Are you going to let me in?" Stephen shouted tiredly from behind the glass. You rolled your eyes and opened the window to let him topple inside. Through the dim streetlight, you noticed the reason why he was showing up on your fire escape in the middle of the night, lacking his usual magic; There was a slash on his side, thigh, and eyebrow. 

"You're bleeding on my carpet," you said simply. He only shot you an annoyed looked over his hunched shoulder. 

"I just thought the place needed a splash of color," he gritted through his teeth. He appeared to be fading fast. 

"Looks like your sarcasm has survived yet another injury. Come on, let's get you stitched up," you sighed, wrapping an arm under his arms to help support his crumbling figure. "What happened this time, Strange?"

Whatever he was going to say was lost when Stephen lost consciousness and dragged you down with him. You pushed out a sigh through your nose. You'd known about Stephen's caped magic adventures for some time now, having been friends since your residency. You were both surgeons, before his injury a few years ago, and he came to you every now and then when he needed to get stitched up. 

Pushing yourself up to your feet, you dragged Stephen through your dark apartment, hands too occupied to turn on any lights until you dropped him on your couch. As per usual when he showed up bloody at your apartment, you got your suture kit, and sat on your coffee table across from a bloody Stephen. You never loved having to stitch him up. Yes it was a bit of an inconvenience, but the problem was, you had to see your friend beaten to a pulp. You cared about him, not that you would ever inflate his ego even more by telling him. 

It took just over an hour to stitch up the problematic wounds on his leg and torso, and all that was left was the one on his face. You gnawed on your lip slightly as you focused on the cut over Stephen's eyebrow. He luckily had been unconscious when you were stitching up a gash on his abdomen and thigh, but now he was starting to stir. His brow furrowed a bit, and you froze to avoid much strain against the stitching. Then his striking blue eyes were peeked through the lids, and they looked up at you with confusion.

"Y/N?" he asked through a raspy voice, and you continued your work.

"Glad to see whatever happened didn't affect your memory, hold still.." you said dryly, continuing to carefully stitch Stephen's eyebrow when he moved again, causing you to lean back.

"What are you doing?" he questioned, wincing slightly, and you looked at him with an exasperated expression.

"I'm training for the opera. Did whatever kick your ass give you a concussion? What does it look like I'm doing? Now seriously hold still," you repeated, but Stephen shifted again.

"No, you shouldn't be using a running stitch. You should use a cross stitch, it'll speed up the healing process," he said arrogantly. Yes he was a doctor, and yes he was talented, but you were officially annoyed. Your palm found his chest and you pushed him back, his back meeting the arm of your couch.

"Look, you don't need to tell me that you used to be a surgeon. I went through residency with you, and oh right! I worked with you! But you come to me, an active surgeon, and asked for my medical expertise. And you've done it seven times before tonight. Which, I'd like to think you wouldn't have done if you didn't trust me. Now for the love of God, will you hold still because I'm stitching your face..." His backseat doctoring happened every time, and you usually would nod and give him the satisfaction to avoid it getting worse, but this time you'd had enough. Luckily, he seemed to tired to fight back. Stephen paused for a second, studying your face closely before relaxing and actually staying still. You thought it was a miracle he actually let you take the wheel. "What happened, by the way?"

He sighed. "Long story, not planet threatening though," Stephen explained, to which you shook your head. 

"Knowing you, I thought you'd be more careful doing this shit..." you muttered. Due to your laser focus on your stitching, you missed the entertained expression on his face. 

"Worried about me, are you?" Stephan teased. You rolled your eyes, and could only hope the blush on your cheeks was subtle. 

"You wish," you muttered.

After a few minutes, you finished the stitch, but realized your scissors were out of reach. The entirety of those minutes, you could feel Stephen staring at you out of the corner of his eyes, and your next movement wasn't exempt from the stare. Carefully, you leaned towards his forehead and quickly bit the string right above the stitches, pulling back just as quickly. 

You sighed in relief for the first time since he crashed into your apartment, and Stephen studied your face again. "There, my work here is done. I have to wash all this blood off me and get some sleep, which you should also do, by the way. Now, you can leave, but I don't recommend it since someone probably still wants you dead, and the job's already half done. But it's your choice." You stood from your seat on the coffee table, but Stephen caught your arm gently.

"Thank you. You were right. I do trust your judgement," he whispered, not looking you in the eye. You could tell he meant it, it just stung his ego to admit it. And boy, were you going to get the most out of it. 

"I'm sorry," you grinned, sitting back across from him, "did you just admit I was right?" Stephen rolled his eyes at your comment. 

"Don't get ahead of yourself, Y/N, it won't be a common occurrence." Stephen sat up against your couch's arm with a wince. You were instantly back into doctor mode, since he could easily rip the sutures you just stitched, and put your hands on his torso to keep him still. 

"Just pull the stitches out, why don't you?" You pulled his shirt away from the wound to assure he was alright, and you were oblivious to the goosebumps your breathing caused on his bare stomach. "You come to me to avoid hospitals, and instantly disrespect my work? You're really just abusing how much I care about you at this point, the least you could do-" You tiredly ranted, not bothering to filter yourself, when you felt Stephen's lips under yours. 

You'd be lying if you said you hadn't thought about it in the past, because look at him, but you never thought it could be a reality. Truth be told, you'd had some close calls, but never talked about it with him. Something romantic between you two was always on the back burner. But damn was he a good kisser.

"Sorry, couldn't think of any other way to shut you up," he grinned cheekily, after pulling away. 

"If that was an option all along, I would've shut you up years ago," you said before leaning in to kiss him again. 

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Hello! Thanks for reading! It's been a hot minute since I've uploaded an imagine, and in my last chapter asking for requests, I got a few for a snarky Stephen Strange and was inspired. Also, 500 THOUSAND READS, HOLY SHIT I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!! Seriously, thank you all who read my stuff consistently, I appreciate you so much! I want to upload more, I'm going through some shit right now that could make it hard, but I do want to keep uploading when I can! I think I'm gonna do a Sam Wilson one next. 

Anyway, thanks for reading! Vote, comment, and request! Or just message me if you're bored and for some reason want to talk to me lol I want more internet friends.