These Little Moments / Ironstrange

18~ Years

As I fell through the portal, my head collided with something hard and pointy. The edge of a desk, maybe? I couldn't tell. I screwed my eyes shut at the impact, gritting my teeth to keep from yelling. Everything hurt. Every thought felt like cutting through static. Like walking through a dense forest, fighting past shrubbery and low-hanging branches. It was tiring. I was tired. Was thinking necessary? Even if I wanted to stop, I wouldn't have been able to. Too much happening. Too many things to think about.

Where am I? The question pushed through the static like a bullet ricocheting around my skull. The echo was deafening: Where am I? Where am I? Where-

A voice cut through the sound like a hot knife into a block of ice: "Who's there?"

Slowly, my thoughts melted around that voice, the screaming in my head giving way to the voice. My eyes opened, but my vision was blurred. Blobs of color mushed together like a seasick kaleidoscope.

"I asked who was there," the voice was louder now, closer than before. My mouth opened against my will, but only broken croaks came out. "I will blast you!"

Tony. It was Tony. Oh my god, Tony. Tony, please. Where am I? Where are you?

My screams were lost in my throat as a figure appeared in the doorway. Tony? His hand raised and a blue light shone from his hand, blinding me. My eyes shut, bright dots of yellow and orange flashing against my eyelids. I recoiled, rolling into the edge that I had hit on my way through the portal. Ugh god does it ever end.

"Oh my god. Stephen?" 

"No," I somehow choked out. "It's Mary fucking Poppins."

"It is you. Only you could make jokes when you literally just had a concussion, " the sides of his mouth quirked up as his eyes squinted at me. He wrapped his arms around me as we dissolved into a heap of light chuckling and gentle sobs. Our foreheads rested together as Tony breathed, "I thought you were dead."

"Not yet," I said and leaning forward. Tony pulled back before our lips could meet. His eyebrows were knit together.

"You said a few days, Stephen. It's been months," he whispered, tears in his voice. "Why didn't you tell me?"

It was at that moment that a dam within me broke. My strong, sarcastic façade was broken down with one look at his face. His eyes, now glassy with tears, were riddled with dark bags, the reminders of sleepless nights awake worrying about me. Deep wrinkles in his forehead showed his stress and fear and, perhaps, anger for me. And his hands. Oh, those hands. Calloused and split with small scars that could only be the result of failed experiments and lost fights.

I broke, letting my tears leave streaks in the dirt and blood covering my cheeks. My face found its way to Tony's chest and my hands to his waist.

And I cried.

And he held me, murmuring softly into my hair.

Finally, I looked up and spoke.

"I've been away for 3 years, Tony."

"Holy sh-"

"Shit. Dormmamu and his army of zealots found a way to harness the Space stone and sent us to the singularity at the heart Alpha Centauri."

"I thought- I thought time slows down at the event horizon of a black hole. How did-?"

"Oh it does, but once you enter the black hole, the flow of time reverses. The closer you get to the singularity, the faster it passes."

"But-"

"Just let me finish, it'll all make sense...sort of," I took a breath. "Dormammu and his zealots work for this creature named Thanos who is trying to collect all of the Infinity Stones. As you know, I keep the Time stone. We didn't know what they were planning and walked right into a trap meant for the stone. They meant to kill me and anyone who got in their way."

I heard Tony's breath hitch, but he stayed silent.

"When we reached the singularity, Wong created a mirror dimension and trapped us all in it. We couldn't have the events of our battle cause consequences in our universe. But, of course, things went downhill. Fast. So, Wong threw me through a portal to protect the Time stone. I can only assume that he then sealed the dimension so that no one could enter or escape," my voice broke. "He'll die in there and there's nothing we can do about it."

"Oh god, Stephen," Tony breathed, clutching to me as if I would turn to dust. "And I thought I had it bad these past few months."