Marvel Imagines

Stars in Her Eyes | Stephen

"Can you get your head out of the clouds for two seconds and stop worrying?" I asked, smiling in spite of myself. "Just trust me." Beside me, Stephen Strange was walking slowly, holding onto my left arm.

"I do trust you," He tried to reassure me, "But this is suspicious. You ask me to come with to an unknown location and you tied a blindfold around my face, forcing me to rely on you for all sense of direction."

"That doesn't sound like trust to me," I retorted playfully, and even blindfolded, I saw a grin slip onto Stephen's face.

"If I really didn't trust you, I'd have this blindfold off already," He responded, and I nodded even though he couldn't see it.

"Touché," I said, deciding to stay quiet for a little while longer. In reality, we only had to walk about another fifty feet before I stopped him.

"Okay," I said, "You can take the blindfold off now." In a flash the blindfold was in his hand, and he squinted in the late afternoon sun. I stood back, saying nothing as I watched him take in his surroundings. 

"This is... Central Park?" He asked, and I nodded.

"Yes, indeed it is, and I can't believe you've never been here." I chuckled as Stephen looked around, scrutinizing the park with unreasonable caution.

"You brought us here because of me?" He reiterated. As I bent down and put the picnic basket in my right hand down, I looked up at him.

"Do you not want to be here?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"No, that's not it at all." He stopped glaring at the other park-goers and sat down cross-legged across from me. "I'm sorry; I didn't mean to seem ungrateful." A small smile made its way back onto my face.

"It's alright," I responded, "But I do hope you have fun." It was his turn to smile.

"I'm sure whatever you have planned will be lovely," He assured me, and I grinned.

"So," I said, fully unpacking the basket, "I only brought a few things here today, but I don't expect we'll be here forever. Firstly, I made us lunch!" I began spreading out our picnic blanket (that I stole from Tony), and Stephen reached over and carefully took the food out of the basket. After a moment I heard him chuckle, causing me to look over at him.

"These are so adorable," He said, holding up sandwiches that I'd cut into stars. My face flushed- I'd forgotten that I'd done that, and now that he was holding them up, it felt kind of childish.

"Secondly," I said, swiftly changing the subject, "I brought a chess board. It seems kind of random, but you promised that you'd teach me chess a while ago, and you never did." At that, he perked up.

"Oh, good thinking. I can definitely teach you- and it's so nice out today, too, this is the perfect place." I smiled, glad that he was excited. "You really thought of everything, didn't you?" I shrugged and looked away, now feeling a little bashful. Stephen was never really one to compliment, so I knew it was genuine when he did. It was nice to hear, and I'd be lying if I said I didn't want to hear it again.

We switched- he took the chessboard from me and began setting up the pieces, and I took the sandwiches from him and set out the rest of the food. I gave him his favorite drink, sparkling orange cider ("You remembered that it was my favorite?" He had asked), and I set out my own bottle of strawberry lemonade. Just as he was setting up the last pieces, I was putting out the last of the snacks, leaving them covered to keep the bugs away. 

"Alright, are you ready?" Stephen asked. I sat up straight, scooting over to the board and taking a sip of lemonade.

"I certainly am, even though I know I won't I win a single game today!" I joked, and he raised an eyebrow.