Elevator Troubles

"This is ridiculous," Stephen Strange growled under his breath, struggling to adjust his black tie while sitting at the circular, white clothed dinner table. Christine, his colleague and his best friend placed a warm hand on his shoulder.

"Stephen, this is going to be a good thing for you. This just shows that you're well-known as a surgeon in order to be invited to this benefit," Christine told him, offering the doctor a small smile.

"But I didn't know that he would show up," he said, blue eyes glaring sharply at the seemingly shorter man at the podium.

Tony fucking Stark.

"Stephen. He's a brilliant man.  I'm not sure why you hate him so much."

"That's because he didn't work for it, he just got his... fame handed to him because of his father. Talk about an arrogant brat."

Christine held back a chuckle.

"That's for you to say, Doctor."

Stephen scoffed, straightening up in his chair as the billionaire in question began to speak.

***

Stephen despised Tony Stark. But he couldn't take his eyes off of him as he spoke. His words were fluid, and he had a lovely voice, though Stephen could never admit it. Not aloud of course. He was professional, but cracked a few jokes to lighten the mood. Stark had even made eye contact with Stephen a couple times as well. Him. The brain surgeon that nearly no one at this benefit knew. He flushed and glared at Tony in retort. He was not going to be fooled by Stark's apparent "charm". After all. He had to be called a playboy for a reason, right? Stephen shoved these thoughts into the back of his head, took a sip from his wine glass, and did his best to pay attention to the other speakers.

Christine looked at the brain surgeon and rolled her eyes.

"Stephen, it seems like the only person you actually listened to was Stark."

Stephen huffed in response, not entirely sure on how to answer her. He took a breath and was about to speak when he heard someone approaching the table. He had hoped that it wasn't him, and that it would be the other medical professionals assigned to the table.

"Excuse me?" A familiar voice called out.

But alas, Stephen's luck failed him.

His blue eyes slowly drifted away from his colleague and up to Tony Stark, who had a wine glass in his hand. He immediately grit his teeth at the sight.

What did he even want?

"Doctor...." Stark pauses to look at his name tag, "Stephen Strange, correct? I've heard about you. Brain surgeon, yeah?"

Stephen narrowed his eyes in response and reluctantly nodded, heart pounding.

"Then, wow, I certainly can't believe a well-known surgeon such as yourself glared at me all throughout the speech," Stark quipped, getting Christine to chuckle nervously.

"Well," Stephen started, "that's because you're an a-"

"Amazing person. Simply brilliant, really," Christine interrupted, "my coworker here actually only listened to your speech, Mr. Stark. He didn't seem to care about anyone else. He tried, but failed."

Stephen snapped his head at the brunette besides him, glaring daggers. The nurse only looked up at him and smiled in response.

Stark had a shit-eating grin upon hearing that. What an asshole, Stephen had immediately thought.