A/N: Okay! Dear readers, when you get to the end of the chapter, please don't kill me! I kind of thought to myself that this bond between Stephen and Irena can't all be rainbows and butterflies so that is what is happening here. There are a couple of important things thrown in there too. I have a couple of things I would like to discuss too.
1) I have noticed that these last few chapter haven't being getting as much feedback and the previous ones so I want to make sure they are okay. If anybody is finding them not as good as the ones before, I will take the down and do them over. If somebody could let me know if there is an issue with them that would be awesome.
2) I want to thank enp I want to thank you for your support in this anxiety thing of mine. Also I want to thank Heaven IN A Rage and everybody else who have faved, followed and reviewed this story. Again and again, I cannot say enough how good it feels that somebody out there likes this story! Please, please keep that stuff up!
3) You may have noticed I deleted and re-submitted this chapter. Just wanted to fine tune some things I failed to do last night!
Lastly, on with the show!
Disclaimer: I own nothing!
To Strain an Unbreakable Bond
Stephen
Stretching languidly, Stephen opened his eyes to the most glorious sight. Irena was lying on her side facing him. At some point in the night, she must have tried to kick the sheets off because they were all bunched around her hips giving him quite the view. He shifted into his side and tucked one hand underneath the pillow that he was currently using so he could just watch her sleep for a bit. He used his free hand to gently push her messy, wayward curls out of her face; they seemed messier than normal. He supposed the proper term for it would be 'sex hair' and he thoroughly enjoyed how it looked on her. He saw that her freckled cheeks were still slightly flushed and couldn't help the shit-eating that formed on his face. As some point in the night, he woke her up for another round to which she gladly complied to. She was right, he WAS insatiable but it wasn't his fault that she was so damn delectable. Immediately, an image of her straddling him popped into his mind and it caused a spike of desire to shoot through him. He tried to quell it for fear of waking her up, she was spent and he wanted her to sleep. He shook himself of the thought for now and let his stormy blue eyes drift from her face to her neck.
He decided that it would be a good time to check one her wound while she was knocked right out. He pushed her curls a little further out of the way to get a better view of her shoulder, as he did this he noticed that the Dragon's Tear had returned to its normal blue hue and was glowing softly once again. He couldn't help but be intrigued; he thought it would take far longer for it to return to normal. Gently, he peeled back the bandage covering her wound and was shocked to see that it was mostly healed. Far more than it should be at this point. Now he was really intrigued. He wondered if it had something to do with her being the Descendant of the Guardians. He wanted to test that theory later and he also wanted to see if the taint in her magic had lessened as well. He decided that the wound had healed enough to keep it open from now on.
As for right now, he decided he wanted to take another crack at trying to make her breakfast because she really seemed to like it despite the fact that he and Wong really made a mess of it and he really wanted to please her. This time though he would stick to something simple, fruit and toast. Even with his screwed up hands he knew he could handle that. Plus, if they were going to practice her magic today a big breakfast would do them no good. Turning his attention back to Irena, he saw that she was shaking a little and he looked at her tenderly. He could sense that she was cold. He pulled up the sheets to her shoulders and her shaking lessened a little. He stroked the side of her face softly with his thumb and placed a warm kiss on her temple.
As carefully as he could, he extricated himself from the bed doing his best to avoid disturbing her. He headed to the bathroom to clean himself up. After having a quick shower, he wrapped a towel around his waist and cleaned his teeth. He checked for five o'clock shadow as well, there were certain things that he still had to have a certain way and being well groomed was one of them. He couldn't stand it when he had five o'clock shadow. After getting rid of the five o'clock shadow, he left the bathroom to go and get dressed. He chose his 'sorcerer garb' as Irena affectionately called it. Once he was dressed, he made sure his hair was perfectly in place and once he was satisfied with his appearance he opened the bedroom door ready to head to the kitchen. However, as he opened the door his cloak shot through the door along with little Sapphire chasing it and he shook his head in exasperation.
'What a pair those two make.' He thought to himself in exasperation.
His cloak and Sapphire wasted no time in going to Irena. His cloak tried to wrap around her and Sapphire curled up next her head on her pillow. He had kept them purposely locked out of the bedroom the previous night because either he would have to put up with Sapphire's eerie yellow eyes staring at him the whole time he and Irena engaged in 'extracurricular activities' like some deranged cat or have to put up with his cloak trying to slap his hand away every time he tried to touch her. He wanted neither of those so he just kept them both locked out of the bedroom. Of course Irena just thought the whole thing was hilarious.
Giving Irena one last tender look, he left the bedroom and headed to the kitchen. He wasted no time in getting breakfast together. He hands were a little shaky but no more than what he was used to. If he managed to shave this morning, he knew he could handle a knife no problem. He managed to cut the fruit with little difficultly. It looked sloppy as hell but he was pretty damn proud of himself that he managed to do without cutting a finger off. As he was putting the toast in the toaster, he could sense that she was waking up.
'What great timing that is.' He thought, smiling.
Sure enough, just as the toast popped Irena entered the kitchen. She had Sapphire perched on her shoulder. She had her hair up in a messy bun and wore a thick strapped black tank top that said 'bite me' across the chest along with a pair of yoga type pants and her running shoes. He couldn't help but stare a little bit; neither the tank top nor the pants did anything to hide her curvy figure which he found liked very much. However at the moment, he was happy to concentrate on the beautiful, radiant smile she currently wore for him.
"Hello, beautiful." He greeted warmly.
Irena
Of all the things that Stephen has done for her so far, this had to be her favorite. Beside the fact that cooking wasn't his forte, his hands made doing things like cutting fruit extremely hard for him to do. But he did it anyway because he knew it would make her happy. She had no idea what she did to get so damn lucky. She wasted no time in entering his personal space; she wrapped her arms around his waist. She stood on her tippy toes and placed a warm kiss on his jaw. She could sense his contentment.
"Hello yourself, handsome." She replied cheekily.
"This is perfect by the way, thank you." She added, smiling happily.
Making a contented noise, he wrapped his arms around her waist and he lowered his head to kiss her good and properly. She let out a happy noise.
"You are welcome, my sweet little kitten." He said, smiling softly at her.
As she parted from him, Sapphire suddenly jumped from her shoulder to his and started tasting his cheek with her little forked tongue. He looked like he didn't even know what to do with the situation and she couldn't help but burst out laughing.
"What is this all about?" He asked, confused.
She started laughing harder.
"Oh Stephen, she trying to give you kisses!" She exclaimed, giggling uncontrollably.
Stephen made a face and tolerated it for a little bit longer before gently shooing Sapphire back over to her shoulder. She gave him an exasperated look as if to say 'don't be such a grumpy pants' and he merely rolled his eyes back at her. She watched him use his magic to levitate their meal to the little table in the corner of the kitchen. They both sat down at the table and began to eat. From time to time, she would feed a piece of fruit to Sapphire. They sat in a companionable silence until Stephen broke it.
"Sweetheart, I would like to test your magic a bit today if that is okay with you?" He asked curiously.
"I saw that the Dragon's Tear returned to normal so I wanted to see if the taint in your magic has lessened." He explained.
She nodded in understanding.
"Sure, sounds good to me. I could use the practice." She replied happily.
"Excellent!" He said with a smile on his face.
After finishing their meal in a companionable silence, they cleaned everything up and headed to the 'practice room'. Before they entered, she gave a command to go play; it was way easier to concentrate when the tiny dragon wasn't wreaking havoc all around the room. For some reason, Sapphire decided that she was going to be very stubborn about it so it took a few tries but she finally got her to go play. Not quite knowing what the deal was that was, she inwardly shrugged and entered the 'practice room' with Stephen following closely behind her. Walking up to the wooden table in the center of the room, she plopped down onto it and waited to see what Stephen wanted her to summon.
She looked to Stephen curiously.
"So what would you like me to summon?" She asked curiously.
She watched Stephen think for a moment. A few moments later she could sense that something had popped into his head.
"Do you think you are up to summoning your fans?" He questioned.
She thought for a moment and nodded.
"Sure, I don't see why not." She agreed.
Getting up from the table, she concentrated really hard and while it still took a bit of effort she managed to summon her fans. They still looked a little tainted but they were mostly blue once more. She let out a sigh of relief and thanked every god above that the taint was going away. To make sure, she decided to summon a butterfly. Again, it took a little bit but she managed summon one and it also looked a whole lot better. It looked a whole lot more blue and a whole lot less like it came out of a Tim Burton film. She could sense that Stephen was pleased with her progress too.
"Very good Sweetheart, everything looks so much better!" He praised.
Stephen's praise made her feel good.
"Thanks! I feel better too!" She said happily.
She was telling the truth, seeing that her magic was in fact returning to normal made her feel so much better. She saw that Stephen was looking at her intently and she looked back at him curiously. She could sense through the bond that he was thinking about something.
"What are you thinking about?" She asked him curiously.
He looked a little sheepish at begin caught. Clearly, he was thinking about something that she might not like.
"When I was checking your wound, I noticed something a little peculiar. It was far more healed then it should be. This leads me to wonder if you could learn to heal." He explained.
She looked at Stephen with intrigue. That could be an interesting addition to her arsenal of spells and weapons. It could be useful in battle too but how could she go about learning such a thing? She wondered if it had something to do with her being The Descendant of The Guardians and if it did, could she and Stephen find more information on it? Looking at Stephen, she could sense that there were still thoughts bouncing around in his head.
"What else are you thinking about?" She asked knowingly.
She watched him frown. Okay so this was the part that she wouldn't like.
"Well, I was also thinking about seeing how far we could push your transformations now that the relic is back to normal." He explained.
It was her turn to frown. She didn't like the sound of that. It was hard enough to transform halfway, she couldn't even imagine what it would feel like to transform fully. That would be an insane amount of power pumping through her veins. She had a feeling that everything would go to hell before she could even blink. She voiced this to Stephen.
"Um Stephen, I don't think I'm ready to try and wield THAT much power yet. I am happy to learn more about healing though." She said, hoping to make him shift gears back to healing instead of the relic.
Unfortunately, it didn't work. In getting to know Stephen, she found that once Stephen got an idea stuck in his head it was impossible to get it out until he saw it through and this was no exception.
"Sweetheart, I just want to test some things out. I promise you nothing bad will happen." He tried to reassure.
She inwardly sighed. No matter how much Stephen tried to reassure her it still didn't make her feel any more comfortable with doing it. She just wasn't ready to try and wield that much power yet and she was getting aggravated that Stephen wasn't respecting that just so he could satisfy his own curiosities about the relic. She knew that he could sense her feelings over the bond and he was choosing to ignore them. This aggravated her more and she was about to voice this when she felt something shift in the magic of the sanctum. She knew that Stephen could feel it too. Somebody had entered the Sanctum but they weren't a foe, she could feel that much. As the person approached the stairs leading to the basement of the Sanctum, she could hear whistling. She determined that it was Clint, only he whistled like that. Clearly, he brought her something that she needed to fix. She turned to Stephen and he was looking at her with a look that she really didn't like. The look was the epitome of 'you better believe that we are nowhere near finished talking about this'. Before she could say anything about it, he wordlessly left her standing there in shock. She could not BELIEVE that just transpired. She wondered if this was what Stephen was like before he found Kamar-Taj. He only seemed to care about what he wanted and not about what she needed. She tried to put the feelings in the back of her mind so she could help Clint fix whatever needed fixing without alerting him that something was the matter with her. Because that was all she needed at the moment.
'So this is what Stephen was like when he was an asshole.' She thought sadly.
She was certain everything just felt more amplified because of the bond but it made her feel really crappy. She watched Clint enter the room, holding his quiver in one hand. She could see that something was the matter with it right away. As soon as he saw her, his face fell and she knew that could tell something was off. Oh lord almighty.
"Hey tootsie roll, is everything okay?" He asked worriedly.
She chewed at her lips trying to decide just how to answer that.
"Yeah Clint, everything is fine. Stephen and I just had a small disagreement that's all." She explained.
Clint looked at her like he didn't quite believe her but let it go thankfully.
"Alrightie then, but if you wanna talk about it I'm here for you." He reassured.
She looked at him gratefully.
"Thanks Clint, I really appreciate that. So what did you do to your quiver?" She asked curiously.
From what she was seeing, it looked pretty messed up. He looked sheepish at that question and held it up for her to look at. It looked like it had been squished all to hell. How she would get it to dispense arrows again, she did not know. She couldn't for the life of her figure out just how he managed to destroy it THAT badly. She looked to him for answers and he merely gave her a sheepish look back. While Clint was mostly retired now, he did still go on a mission from time to time.
"Don't even ask." He muttered.
She rolled her mismatched eyes at him.
"Can you fix it, tootsie roll?" He asked hopefully.
She frowned but nodded. What her asshole brothers put their crap through was beyond her.
"I think so, do you mind hanging around here until I am done fixing it?" She asked curiously.
He nodded eagerly.
"I was hoping for that, I would love to catch up with you." He replied laughing.
She smiled happily.
"Good." She agreed.
She went to retrieve her tools and got to work and they talked about all kinds of things.
Mostly, she could sense that Clint wanted to make sure that Stephen was treating her well to which she couldn't help but inwardly roll her eyes at, big brother syndrome much? She told him that Stephen was in fact treating her very well with the exception of this afternoon and she was sure that they would work it out. As they talked, the topic turned to her magic and magical spells.
"Soo tootsie roll, how are the spells coming along? "He asked curiously.
"Pretty good, I'm not blowing up crap anymore and I've got the hang of summoning most everything now. It feels pretty damn good to gain some control." She admitted.
"And you have the bonus of getting into merlin's pants." Clint added jokingly.
"Clint! Do you want me to screw up your quiver worse instead of fix it for you?" She griped.
Instantly, Clint held up his hands in defeat. That quiver was like his baby, he would do anything for it.
"Alright, alright, you win!" He said, giving in.
She couldn't help but laugh.
"Oh my god Clint, you love this thing more than your own children!" She teased.
Clint looked at her with mock outrage at was she just said.
"Oh I do NOT!" He countered sticking his tongue out at her.
She rolled her mismatched eyes at him. Clint could act like such a 4 year old sometimes.
As she continued to put wires and parts back into place in Clint's quiver, she thought about what happened to Clint when Loki messed with his mind all of those years ago. She never personally witnessed what took place because she was quite young and Tony personally made sure that she was nowhere near the tower when it happened. But he did tell her an edited version of what took place one day when she became curious about it. She remembered him telling her that Loki aimed his sceptre at his heart. He told Clint that he 'had heart' and that was the last thing that Clint could remember of the whole ordeal. In her dream, 'Mr. Mordo' aimed his spell at her heart. She was certain that he was trying to use a mind control spell on her. In one of the books that Stephen had given her to read all of those days ago, she read that a sorcerer's magic was connected to both heart and soul. She also read that because of this that mind control spells were notoriously hard to undo. With her unique magic, it might even be impossible. She could only imagine what damage she would do if Mordo actually managed to get a hold of her.
After she was done fixing Clint's quiver, she would have to talk to Stephen about it if he would even listen to her. Somehow, she managed to get Clint's quiver working again. She handed it back to him and he gave her a bone-crushing hug in return.
"Thank you, toosie roll!" He exclaimed happily.
She couldn't help but laugh a little a Clint's giddiness.
"You're welcome, come on I'll walk you to the door." She laughed.
She and Clint left the 'practice room' and she led Clint back to the foyer of the Sanctum. They continued to talk as she led him to entrance of the Sanctum. After giving him a huge hug, she bid him goodbye with the promise of visiting more often. As she turned around, she was shocked to Stephen sitting on the couch looking at her with a look that she did not like at all. In fact it freaked her out a little. She could sense through the bond that he was not happy. She approached him and sat down next to him. He didn't reach out to cuddle her into his side like he normally would and she didn't like it.
"Stephen I…" She started but was cut off by him.
"Irena, what do I have to do to get you to trust me fully?" He barked.
She was shocked by his outburst. This wasn't about trust this was about trying to get him to understand that she just wasn't comfortable trying to tap into that much magic yet.
"It not about trust Stephen! Of course I trust you, I'm petrified to tap into that much magic because I don't think I'm ready to handle it yet and I think everything is going to go to hell!" She tried to explain.
"The hell it isn't about trust! You know I won't let anything harm you and I will always protect you from anything and everything and you know full well that if something were to go wrong I would never force you to continue to do it just to satisfy own selfish curiosities like a giant asshole would. But clearly, that's what you thought I would do because you don't trust me and let's not even mention the fact that you refuse to tell me what exactly you sensed when you were fighting the faceless ones. So how exactly am I to help you when you refuse to let me in to do it?" He yelled.
She couldn't help but flinch at the tone of his voice and the fact that he read her thoughts. That made everything ten times worse. He had never ever once used that tone of voice with her. He could feel his anger pulsing through the bond, it was full of fury and it was raging. For the first ever, it was directed at her. It made her sick. She couldn't help what started spewing out of her mouth.
"Stephen, I'm sorry okay! I'm sorry that I'm petrified of the magic inside of me. I'm sorry that I'm petrified that one day soon, Karl Mordo is going to come and mind control me into doing a lot of terrible crap because he is the one that tried to unleash the faceless ones into the sanctum. I am sorry that I was too scared to tell you that Okay? I am terrified if I unleash all of the power in the relic that he will find me, mess with my mind and cause the end of the universe!" She yelled back.
Stephen sat there flabbergasted as she continued to rant.
"By the way, it's kinda hard to trust people when you've been screwed over every day of your life until the age of 10. It's a takes a long time to undo all of that damage just ask Tony or anybody at the tower for that matter so I'm sorry for not trusting you fast enough okay?" She hissed angrily.
She was so hurt and angry that she just had to get the HELL out of the Sanctum before she something that she would regret. Sapphire tried to jump on her shoulder to come with her but she told her to stay put. She didn't have her sling ring on her so decided to just to hell with it. She left the Sanctum, slamming the door angrily behind her. She tapped into the power of the relic, she felt herself transforming and she flew away as fast as she could. She didn't even bother sparing a second glance at Stephen.
Stephen
Stephen couldn't believe he just let that happen. He knew better, he could sense through the bond that she was uncomfortable about tapping into the relic fully and instead of understanding that he lashed out at her about trust. Was he really that bloody thick?
He knew that trust was a sore subject for her and that she was really trying hard and that's how he repaid her. As the gravity of situation weighed down on him, he put his head in his hands and ran his hands through his hair. He let out an annoyed growl, he was so pissed off at himself he couldn't even think properly. He didn't even know how he was going to do it, but he had to fix the damage he did somehow. He could feel her emotions through the bond even though she was nowhere near him. They made him sick.
He had to fix this and he would do anything to do it because it would literally kill him to be without her now.
Spoiler
Bucky searched everywhere for Stephen, he had to fix this mess somehow. He had no idea that one little fight could turn into such a damn mess. Then again, he wasn't bonded to Darcy in the way the Irena was bonded to Stephen so what the hell did he know? He was shocked to see that when he went to the Sanctum that he wasn't there. Even his buddy Wong had no clue where he was. He had to fix this mess for Irena's sake because she couldn't go on much longer the way she was.
He exited the Sanctum and thought hard for a moment. If he were a guy who just had a huge ass blow out with his girlfriend where would he go? The lightbulb suddenly went off inside his head. If he were that guy, he would go and get shitfaced. He immediately thought of the pub a few blocks from here.
Well this was going to be interesting; he only hoped that Strange was a happy drunk.
A/N: Oh dear…XD