- Hiraeth -

... Fourteen ...

It's been... a while. I'm super sorry for that, but hey, 300+ reads! Plus, I'm working on a high school ironstrange fic!! I'm having lots of fun with it so far, and I can't wait for you guys to see it. This is the second-to-last chapter in this fic, so I hope you all enjoy it <3

BASIL

It had been six months since Stephen and Tony discovered that they were soulmates.

Breaking the news to Peter and Wade was easy, although extremely chaotic.

There were many more dates, meaningful looks, and affectionate gestures. In the recent weeks, however, they'd been seeing less and less of each other.

Stephen was in another dimension, on the planet that Rex had come from. Much to the sorcerer's dismay, demon dogs weren't the most dangerous creatures on the planet. He did manage to find Rex, and the two adventured together while Strange looked for his way back to Earth.

For Tony, it was a month. For Stephen, it was two years.
When Strange had finally slain his final time-threatening enemy, he dropped to his knees in exhaustion. His bones were jelly, and his head spun like a plate. Rex licked his friend's face, cleaning it of the defeated alien's gooey blood in one stroke.

Scratching the beast behind his ear, the former doctor forced himself to stand. He staggered forward, holding a hand out to feel for any inconsistencies in the magical atmosphere. His left hand covered his eye socket, where a black ooze steadily spilled out. Apparently, the dream he'd had a while back wasn't completely fictitious.

He bumped into an invisible wall, grasping it and immediately focusing his energy into it. A portal. It was old, but it would do. Stealing one last look around at the planet's towering mountains and greenish-yellow sky, Stephen nodded towards Rex. "I'll be back, so don't worry. Maybe not too soon, but I promise I will." With those words, Strange went through the portal.

———

Things hadn't been easy for Tony after Stephen left on his interplanetary mission. Of course, he had Peter and Wade. He'd even been getting used to the idea of Wilson being a permanent member of their makeshift family.

It was only supposed to be two weeks. Something bad happened, and that was the only explanation. No, Stark wasn't meant to have anything normal. Not parents, not sleep, not even a soulmate. Internally, the engineer cursed himself for believing that he'd ever be happy.

Tony Stark, caught in the rain on his way to nowhere in particular, hid out in a small, family-owned coffee shop. He sat at their table, and ordered a matcha tea.

It was disgusting.

Gasps rang out through Sunny's Side as employees rushed from behind the counter. In a moment of instinct, Tony stood in a rush and pushed through the small crowd.

Face down, as if he'd fallen, in a puddle of multicolored goop, laid Stephen Strange.

"Back off!" Stark instructed, holding an arm out to distance the employees from his soulmate. He shook Stephen, panic rising all throughout his body. With a strained grunt, he flipped the sorcerer onto his back. He checked Strange's pulse, and almost burst into tears at the relief he felt when there was a strong heartbeat. That relief quickly vanished when Tony looked to the other's face, however.

One seafoam green eye fluttered open, the lashes caked in blood. "Levi," Stephen began, his voice surprisingly strong. The cloak didn't wait for instruction. It whisked its master and Tony out of the café before anyone could raise any questions.

Unable to cast any spells in his current state, Strange simply gave his soulmate an apologetic look. He couldn't teleport them home, or even talk for long enough to explain himself. "Tony, I-"

But he was cut off. Two arms wrapped around his torso and a face pressed into the side of his neck, Stephen felt tears forming in his eye.

"Tell me when we're home. If I hear you say one more word, I'll have to hit you. I actually can't stand you right now."

Staggering to the Sanctum Sanctorum , the two were speechless. It had been too long since they shared a comfortable silence.

——

Wong tried his best not to look relieved when he saw Stephen and Tony at the door. "You're missing an eye, Strange," the man stated bluntly, fighting a smile. When Stephen didn't have a witty comeback, Wong's concern grew tenfold. He ushered the two inside, beginning to assess his friend's injuries.

"He'll be fine," Wong began, drawing a symbol over a large gash on Strange's arm. The wound closed itself, not leaving a scar. "He needs rest, and judging from the stench, his first bath in a year."

"A year?" Stark's eyebrows furrowed in bewilderment. "It's only been a month."

Stephen looked to Wong, hoping that he'd have an explanation. If Strange tried to speak, his voice would've failed him.

Thankfully, the librarian knew the answer to Tony's question. "For you, yes. A month. For Stephen, it's been... I'd say two years. Time works differently in other dimensions."

On instinct, Tony's hold on his soulmate became tighter. He felt tears well up in the corners of his eyes at the idea of Strange being lost, and possibly hurt, for so long. "Two years..."

In the bathroom, with the water running, Stephen still didn't talk. He hadn't let go of his left eye socket at all, even though both of his hands were completely useless with all of their shaking. It was as bad as before he'd gone to Kamar-Taj. With that in mind, he let Tony undress him.

The engineer helped Strange into the tub, making sure he didn't slip. "Before you left, Steph... You told me it would be dangerous. That's why I couldn't go. I said I'd be okay, but you looked worried, like you didn't think there was a guarantee that we'd come back. Why'd you go, if you knew it wasn't safe?" Tony began scrubbing Stephen's back of dirt and alien sludge, revealing an abundance of small scars. The water turned murky, so he re-opened the tap and let the dirty water out.

To be taken care of after all that he'd been through made Stephen want to cry in ecstasy. Not once did the sorcerer forget about Stark, or stop fighting for a chance to see him again. Their time apart led Strange to the thrilling conclusion that he was, in fact, in love with Tony. His throat burned with the amount of oxygen. Over the past two years, he'd grown accustomed to a very thin atmosphere. "The fishermen know that the sea is dangerous and the storm terrible, but they have never found these dangers sufficient reason for remaining ashore."

"What?"

"Vincent Van Gogh." Strange winced as he touched his hair. It was hard and caked in aged slime. As the billionaire started kneading shampoo into the matted mess atop Stephen's head, the latter felt overwhelmingly guilty. "I missed you." There were endless apologies caught in his throat, but none of them made it to the surface.

"I'm in love with you, Stephen." Stark's hands dropped to his sides as he admitted it out loud, taking in a deep breath when a metaphorical weight was lifted from his shoulders. "And I don't really get your Van Gogh quote, but I know that you need to do things to protect the world sometimes. I do too. I love you anyway, and before you tell me that you can't love because you're an emotionless rock, I just wanna say that there's no one else I'd rather be stuck with forever. Maybe Zac Effron, but that's a stretch."

Without saying a word, Stephen turned around in the tub. He took hold of Tony's hands, tracing the soulmarks, then his own scars. Every single one of Strange's defenses crumbled as he looked into Stark's deep, dark eyes. His next words were spoken with an exasperated chuckle. "Are you proposing?"

Although Tony knew that this was only a tease, it made him beam with happinesses. There was his Stephen, in a good enough mental state to poke fun. "What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?" Another quote, one that he had to wrack his brain for.

On autopilot, the sorcerer responded, "By the Vishanti, Anthony, marry me." Instead of being embarrassed, he simply began laughing. It hurt his chest, but nothing could bother him while he was safe in his Sanctum.

Tony laughed along, pressing a kiss to his soulmate's forehead. "Well now I have to!"