The Perfect Illusion

Wildflowers

Narrator's POV

"Urgh..." Tony groaned, opening his very tired eyes. "What time is it?" He asked himself. He felt liquid all over him. "Shit, did I piss in my-" He moved around, noticing he was in the kiddy pool. "Oh, yeah." He laughed, but stopped once he remembered Stephen was in there with him too. Turning his head, he saw Stephen asleep behind him.

Stephen had gone back to his regular form. He was no longer half fish.

Awesome. Now the library wouldn't smell like fish so much.

Tony couldn't help but notice Stephen was in the nude. He quickly turned around, blushing. "No, no." He whispered. "Stark. Stop. This is wrong." He said.

There it was.

That little annoying urge.

The urge to turn around and look.

Tony sighed. "Okay." He said. "Just a quick little peek." Taking in a deep breath, he turned around slowly; biting his lip.

His eyes slowly fell from Stephen's beautiful face to his chest and slithered down to his abdomen, the finally to what Tony longed to see.

His face suddenly flushed red and his cheeks burned.

"Holy shit!" He squealed, quickly turning around.

Stephen was a lot bigger than he thought he'd be.

The Wizard has grown since the last time Tony had seen him.

"Mm..." He heard a lazy groan behind him.

Tony quickly went back to his position and pretended to be asleep.

"Fuck." He heard a whisper behind him.

The water began to move around, and droplets hit the water as Tony could feel Stephen get up.

Tony heard plenty of shifting and things moving around. He opened his eyes a little to try and see what was going on, but quickly closed them when he felt trembling hands pick him up. He could feel an arm under his upper back and the other behind his knees. He was being carried bridal style. Peeking, he saw Stephen above him, carrying him somewhere.

A small smile crept on Tony's lips as he closed his eyes once again.

It wasn't long before he heard a door open, keeping his eyes closed, and feel cool soft sheets under him.

Once he was sure Stephen was at the doorway, he opened his eyes to see Stephen's back turned to him. He was wearing a towel around his waist.

"I know you were awake the whole time." Stephen said before completely walking out of the room.

Tony' cheeks flushed red. "Dammit."

"Hm." Stephen smiled as he made his way to his room.

///0///0

"So how's this whole mystical mission going?" Bruce asked Tony as they sat in the dining room.

"It's been long and quiet exhausting." Tony said. "Running all over the place, being chased by Zealots."

"Zealots?" Bruce asked.

"They're bad people." Tony said. "Stephen's attacked me some times..." He looked up to see Stephen through the large glass window, walking around the gardens in the back. "...but he's doing a lot better." He turned to Bruce. "I haven't seen him touch a cigarette since after the first day we got here."

"Oh." Bruce said.

"Yeah." Tony nodded, watching as Stephen picked a few flowers out. "You know, the other day-what the hell?" Tony looked outside to something moving in the bushes near Stephen.