The Perfect Illusion

Heaven Is a Bedroom

Narrator's POV

"Hm, hm, hmm, hm~" Tony hummed as he worked on some gadget up in his room.

Bruce had taken Thor out to see the aquarium since Thor was very fond of jellyfish.

"Jarvis."

Yes, sir?

"Could you get me an order of metal-"

>CRASH<

Tony froze in place, his eyes being the only thing to move. He looked up from his work.

That sounded like it came from the kitchen.

"I'll be back." Tony said, standing up from his chair and walking out of the room. "Stephen." He called out in the hall. "Stephen, was that you?" He asked, going down the stairs. "Stephen." He hurried to the kitchen. "Are you okay? Please answer m-" He stopped when he got the kitchen.

There was glass all over the floor.

Red stained the beautiful floor.

And Stephen stood in the middle of it all, holding pieces of glass in his shaking hands.

Blood dripped from his fingertips, and tears raced down his face as he looked at Tony was terrified eyes.

"Hey, what's-"

"I-I-I didn't mean to." Stephen said. "I'm sorry." He apologized, choking on tears. "I was j-just trying to...then the thing..." He rambled. "If it weren't for my fucking hands..." He said

"No, no." Tony walked up to him, being careful with the glass on the ground. "It's not your fault. Accidents happen." He took the glass from Stephen's hands and put it on the counter, next to a plate that had two slices of bread on it. "Lets calm down first, okay?" Tony said. "Remember our breathing exercises?"

Stephen put a hand to his head, closing his eyes tightly and sniffling sharply. "Yeah." He sighed. "Yeah." He nodded.

"Let's calm down first, then we can clean this up, okay?" Tony suggested. "Sound like a good idea?"

"Yes." Stephen nodded, sniffling and wiping tears away.

///0///0

"Can I ask you something?" Tony asked as he wrapped Stephen's hands up with bandages.

"Mhm." Stephen nodded.

The two were sitting on the edge of the bed.

Tony had a first aide kit with him.

Stephen had changed out of his clothes and put them to wash. He had washed his sneakers in the bathroom and hung them from the shoelaces on the towel rack.

"If you can regenerate yourself, how come your hands don't?" Tony asked. "They always take time to heal."

"Because it takes a lot more energy to heal my hands." Stephen explained. "Dormammu's magic limits my power to heal them. It's one of the punishments he set on me."

"Mm." Tony nodded.

"Ah." Stephen gasped.

"Sorry." Tony apologized. "I'm almost done." He hurried, but was careful to finish. "There we go." He said, kissing Stephen's hands before looking up at him and smiling.

Stephen slowly pulled away from Tony and looked down at his shaking hands wrapped in bandages.

Tears began to form in his eyes.

He had gone through so much pain, and Tony just made it go away. Tony always made everything better.

Things were always better with Tony, always.