p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: bold; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Alternative title: Tony and Stephen acting like literal five year olds at Kamar-Taj *cough* Hogwarts *cough* *cough*/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"The next day, Tony finished his morning routine with a small, sincere smile. He was finally happy where he was. Both literally and figuratively./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"His stay at Kamar-Taj had already taught him so much about himself as a person and the world around him. Not only that, but he even had a handful of friends who liked him for /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"him/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" and not because he ran a multi-million dollar tech company./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"The Ancient One had also been a huge part of Tony's success and, thanks to her, (and Alie's demonstration) Tony was no longer waking up in pain. He was extremely proud of that feat and it quickly became the highlight of his schooling so far./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Until he met Stephen Strange./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"The stunning doctor with bright blue-grey eyes, prominent cheekbones, slender face, and –as far as Tony could tell– a thin but strong build. The definition of handsome, in Tony's book- even with the scruffy, haven't-shaved-in-months look, Stephen was still quite the specimen and Tony found he couldn't keep the image of the taller sorcerer-in-training out of his mind./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Whether it was his looks, striking personality, or scathing tongue, Tony didn't know. But he did know that he loved being around the charming doctor./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Another thing Tony liked about Stephen was how similar the two were. They were both passionate about their interests, both eager to learn, 'slightly' egotistical, charming, charismatic, handsome, and a whole list of adjectives Tony could use to describe the similarities. Another likeness was how they acted when they were excited./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Although Stephen was a bit more reserved, the two students shared their infectious excitement two days after their first meeting. They had run into each other near the library and Tony brought up the idea to explore the school together because the doctor was new and Tony had spent most of his time in the library or his room with JARVIS./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"~/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Oi! Stephanie!" Tony called out, spotting the taller man and running towards him./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Stephen froze, then turned around. "Mr. Stark." Tony noticed that it was the first time he had seen the doctor with a stack of books clutched to his chest./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""How dare you." Tony deadpanned, hand over his arc reactor in mock indignation./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Stephen grinned. "Well, I must respect my elders."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Tony rolled his eyes. "Prick. Anyways, are you doing anything right now?"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Stephen shook his head. "I was heading to the library, but you're here, so I'm free."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Tony whistled and shot finger guns at Stephen. "Hey, that was smooth!"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Thanks."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I was wondering if you wanted to explore a bit. You're new to Kamar-Taj and I've only ever been to the library. If you're busy or don't want to, that's fine. It was just a suggestion." Tony explained, rocking back and forth on his heels./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Oh." Stephen said. "That sounds interesting. Let's do it."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Wait, really?" Tony asked, bewildered. Stephen didn't seem the type to accept the billionaire's offer./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Really."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Nice." Tony grinned. "Race you to the courtyard!" He yelled, running as fast as he could./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"The billionaire heard a faint curse before heavy footsteps soon followed, their own gaining speed. Tony grinned and laughed, a slight breeze rushing through his hair. Suddenly, Tony felt a pair of arms grab him from behind and the laughter turned into shrieks as the opponent lifted him slightly off the ground. "I win." Stephen stayed plainly, a small smile decorating his lips as Tony turned around, ready to retaliate./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Stephen's playful smirk became a grimace as Tony attached, landing them both on the ground where they wrestled for some time, flailing limbs, shouting, and rolling around (thankfully no one was there to witness the interesting scene) until Tony managed to gain the upper hand and straddled Stephen, immobilizing his arms while being wary of his hands. "'It's over, Anakin. I have the high ground!'"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""'You underestimate my power.'" Stephen finished, flipping the two over and pinning the shorter man to the ground./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""He is a man of culture!" Tony yelled, much like Thor would do./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Stephen smiled. Tony noticed the wrinkles that formed in the corners of his eyes when he did so. It was cute. "Why yes, yes, I am. I wouldn't be a man if I were not cultured, would I?"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""But to truly pass the test, he must answer my riddle."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Shoot." Stephen challanced./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""'Yer a wizard, Harry.'"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Harry Potter. Said by Rubeus Hagrid, the gameskeeper. Iconic line in both the 1997 book and 2001 movie, /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"``The Sorcerer's Stone/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"." Stephen recited, sitting up and basically crawling off of his friends, although his dignity refused to admit it. A light blush decorated his cheeks as Stephen realized the compromising position the two had ended up in. /span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Tony sat up, grinning, and offered a high-five. Stephen reluctantly returned it, laughing when Tony said that they were in the 'eastern version of Hogwarts'./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Hey, the Ancient One is Dumbledore." Stephen remarked./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Oh my g-d, you're right! We should give her a wand./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"The two began to laugh, starting with small giggles and ending in cackles. Eventually they calmed down, but not before Tony did some weird hand motion and produced a wand, orange and sizzling with sparks./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Stephen stared at the actual magic wand in shock, the laughter fading quickly. "How…?"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Tony glanced down at the wand. "Oh, it's easy! Wong showed me how."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I've been taking lessons from the Ancient One themselves and I can't do that."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"The billionaire shrugged. "I've always been a fast learner."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Stephen huffed, standing up and brushing dirt off of his new robes. Reaching out a hand, he hauled a laughing Tony to his feet./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Once he was stable, Tony stepped away then abruptly turned, playfully brandishing his 'Orange Sparkle Wand /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"tm/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"'/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Getting an idea, Stephen knelt beside the treeline next to them and found a decent sized branch after rummaging through the dirt a little while. Clenching the 'wand' in his shaking hands, he jumped up and faced Tony, waving his wand menacingly./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Once both were ready, they began to shoot pretend spells at each other, dodging, jumping, running down halls and around corners, even going as far as developing an entire plot, until Tony stopped mid-casting. "We should have cool wizard names! Like Mad-Eye Moody or Remus Lupin or something."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Alright." Stephen agreed. "I'll be… Doctor Strange."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Tony gave him a look. "You're already 'Doctor Strange'. Be original!'/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Stephen paused, thinking. "Yeah! I'll be Doctor Strange."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Tony looked at him. "But you're already 'doctor strange'. Be original!"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Stephen sighed. "Fine. I'll be... King George?"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Tony crossed his arms, pointing his wand at the doctor.. "He's dead. And he was British."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Stephen gave Tony an innocent look as he slipped easily into an English accent. "But what if I am British?" he argued./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Tony's eyes widened and his arms fell to his sides. "Wait, are you actually?"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""No. Born and raised in New York." Stephen said, shaking his head and dropping the accent./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Cool trick, though. Anyways, my wizard name will be... Briar Nightshade." Tony exclaimed./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Stephen paused. He liked Edger Allen Poe. Maybe he could borror a name "Uh.. Edgar..." He started, then spotted a rose bush near the edge of the courtyard./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Edgar Rose." Stephen decided. Tony snorted./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Like Edgar Allan Poe?"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Hey! He's a good poet."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Sure, sure." Tony dropped into a fighting stance once more. "Edgar!" He called. "Fight me like a man!"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Stephen schooled his face, slapping on a menacing scowl, jumping down from his bench. "Oh, I will. But prepare to lose to Edgar Rose!"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Tony laughed, breaking character for a second. Not that he was /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"in /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"character in the first place.. "Rose." He snorted. "Ha!"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Stephen rolled his eyes, dropping the act. "Like 'Briar Nightshade' is any better."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""You'll pay for that, Edgar!" Tony yelled./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Oh shit." Stephen muttered, breaking into a run./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Tony was chasing him, shouting spells like 'levicorpus' and 'sectumsempra'. Stephen dodged then shot back his own spells, whisking around corners at the last second until the fight led them into the main courtyard and through a small crown of sorcerers./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Sorry, sorry, coming through!" Stephen yelled, pushing past the bewildered sorcerers. The path Stephen was following, however, led him straight into a corner./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Tony rounded on him once he noticed that Stephen was trapped. Stephen, however, had a plan. "Look what the cat dragged in: Briar Nightshade. How nice of you to join me, as you've given me an opportunity to describe my evil plan." Stephen spoke in a cold, venomous English accent./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Tony caught himself before he could blush at the accent. He never found english accents remarkably attractive, but coming from Stephen and his low, baritone voice- /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"'No, Tony! Bad Tony- now is not the time. Why are you even thinking that?'/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""But I thought I was evil!" Tony mused./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""But, I was running away, so I'm evil."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Tony made a face. "My name is/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" literally/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" nightshade! Nightshade is poisonous, so it would make sense that/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" I'm/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" evil.'/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Well, /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Atropa Belladonna/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;", also known as Deadly nightshade, is indeed poisonous, but there's a lot of non-poisonous nightshade plants, like /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Solanaceae/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Tony stared at Stephen, mouth open in surprise. "Since when did you become a botanist?"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Stephen shrugged. "When I learned that the non-poisonous nightshade plant is used in medicine, my professor had us memorize the difference between deadly nightshade and regular nightshade."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Tony fell silent./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Anthony?"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I'm still evil!"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Fine then," Stephen pointed his wand at Tony. "It's over Nightshade: I have the high ground!"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Tony grinned at the reference. "You underestimate my power, Edgar Rose!"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Stephen charged at Tony, freeing himself from the corder as Tony's wand transformed into a long staff much like a blunt sword. Stephen slipped into his hero role and gripped his wand tighter, warding off Tony's attacks. The two continued to fight, circling each other until Tony took off, Stephen chasing him down a hallway./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"The ran and played, throwing banter at each other and laughing until it began to get dark. Night fell and Tony stopped, panting hard. Stephen leaned against the wall, huffing. Tony didn't look like it, but he was strong. They had wrestled quite a bit during their 'adventure' and every time, Tony had managed to pin Stephen down until he tapped out. /span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Uh, Stephen?" Tony asked out of the blue./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"At first, Stephen was confused. He had been 'Edgar Rose' the entire day, so why was Tony calling him by his real name?/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Yes, Briar Nightshade?"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Tony shoved Stephen's shoulder, a playful grin appearing and disappearing as soon as it had come, melting into a frown./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""No, Stephen, where are we?"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Stephen's head jerked up and he looked around, scouring his surroundings. He hadn't been at Kamar-Taj very long and didn't have everything memorized, but even he didn't recognize where they were./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Ok the other hand, they were vaguely familiar- familiar enough to know they were still in Kamar-Taj, but not enough to know where exactly in Kamar-Taj they were./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""...I don't know." Stephen finally admitted after a long pause./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Tony opened his mouth to say something but before he could, a warm sizzling sound -the tail-tail signs of a portal opening- came from beside them./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Spinning on his heel to face the sound, Stephen was greeted by the Ancient One emerging from the portal with a small, tender smile on her face./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""There you two are. I was wondering where you had gone. It's past curfew and your rooms were empty." The Ancient One chided gently./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Tony tried and failed to hind a snicker. Leaning towards Stephen he hissed, "Where HAVE you been?!"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Stephen snorted. "Beds empty, no note, car gone!"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"The Ancient One smiled fondly at their newest students, glad that they found each other. "You could have died! You could have been seen!"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Tony and Stephen's hushed laughter died down and they turned to face the Ancient One, mouths agape./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Yes, I know Harry Potter. A few years back in the 2000s every new student was quoting it when they came to the quote-en-quote 'real life Hogwarts'. Older students and masters alike joined in. The Kamar-Taj fanbase grew and I got curious. Read the books, watched the movies, it's a classic, really." The Ancient One explained./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Tony grinned, relieved. Of what, he didn't know. "Cool. We were playing the game of sorts- I'm Briar Nightshade and he's Edgar Rose."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"The Ancient One nodded. "Sounds like you two had a fun time. Now how about we get you two to bed. It's getting late and tomorrow is your first school-wide lesson. And Stephen, I want to know about all of your adventures at our next meeting." They said, a mischievous glint in her eyes. "And Tony, if you wanted to share, Wong is always up for a good gossip- I know from experience."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"The Ancient One winked and Tony laughed. "I'll think about it." A gentle hand was placed on the small of Stephen's back, the Ancient One gently pushing them to step through the portal, leading them straight to the doctors hallway./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" The pressure on his back lessoned and Stephen looked back to see the Ancient One in a small bow. "Goodnight Anthony. Goodnight, Stephen." Then she strode down the hallway and disappeared around a corner leaving Tony and Stephen alone./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Alrighty. Bedtime it is." Tony stated, pointing to a door. "This is my stop. Where's your room?" He was a little confused- wouldn't the Ancient One have dropped Stephen in front of his room? Why was he in front of Tony's? Surely the Ancient One knew they were just friends (not that Tony would mind sharing a bed with Stephen Strange)./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""It's a few doors down." Stephen answered, breaking Tony out of his thoughts./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Tony grinned. "I'll come visit sometime; bring a housewarming gift or something. 'night, Mr. Rose!"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Stephen rolled his eyes, smiling. "Goodnight Monsieur Nightshade."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Oui, oui! C'est moi. Bonne nuit, Monsieur!" Tony said, his french practically flawless./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Dork."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Hey," Tony put his hands up to show his innocence. "You started it!"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Bonne nuit, Tony." Stephen smiled./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Buonanotte, Stefano." Tony gave a mock salute and closed his door./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Stephen stood in front of Tony's door, smiling softly. After a few moments of silence, he sighed and the smile slipped off his face. He started walking, trying to sort through his emotions and scattered thoughts./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Stephen Strange liked Tony Stark./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Stephen Strange was not gay./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Stephen Strange did not like guys./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Stephen Strange was crushing on Tony Stark./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"The doctor humorlessly laughed, reaching the door to his room. He unlocked it and stepped inside./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Imagine what his parents would think if they were still alive. His mom would support him, but wouldn't necessarily approve of the relationship. His dad wouldn't approve in the slightest, but he'd keep shut because it made his son happy./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"The door shut silently behind him and Stephen let out a warm breath into the dark room. His parents, his feelings, his thoughts- nothing mattered at the moment. Stephen closed his eyes and pushed everything to the back of his mind. He'd deal with it later./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Undressing and changing into his pajamas, Stephen reflected on his day and smiled. He had fun with Tony. It didn't matter if he has feelings or not because he had fun./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Stephen climbed into his bed and smiled, falling asleep almost instantly. Today was good./spanspan id="docs-internal-guid-e8f1b97d-7fff-07c7-fc08-475ac96962da"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"The next day, Tony finished his morning routine with a small, sincere smile. He was finally happy where he was. Both literally and figuratively./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"His stay at Kamar-Taj had already taught him so much about himself as a person and the world around him. Not only that, but he even had a handful of friends who liked him for /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"him/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" and not because he ran a multi-million dollar tech company./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"The Ancient One had also been a huge part of Tony's success and, thanks to her, (and Alie's demonstration) Tony was no longer waking up in pain. He was extremely proud of that feat and it quickly became the highlight of his schooling so far./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Until he met Stephen Strange./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"The stunning doctor with bright blue-grey eyes, prominent cheekbones, slender face, and –as far as Tony could tell– a thin but strong build. The definition of handsome, in Tony's book- even with the scruffy, haven't-shaved-in-months look, Stephen was still quite the specimen and Tony found he couldn't keep the image of the taller sorcerer-in-training out of his mind./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Whether it was his looks, striking personality, or scathing tongue, Tony didn't know. But he did know that he loved being around the charming doctor./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Another thing Tony liked about Stephen was how similar the two were. They were both passionate about their interests, both eager to learn, 'slightly' egotistical, charming, charismatic, handsome, and a whole list of adjectives Tony could use to describe the similarities. Another likeness was how they acted when they were excited./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Although Stephen was a bit more reserved, the two students shared their infectious excitement two days after their first meeting. They had run into each other near the library and Tony brought up the idea to explore the school together because the doctor was new and Tony had spent most of his time in the library or his room with JARVIS./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"~/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Oi! Stephanie!" Tony called out, spotting the taller man and running towards him./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Stephen froze, then turned around. "Mr. Stark." Tony noticed that it was the first time he had seen the doctor with a stack of books clutched to his chest./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""How dare you." Tony deadpanned, hand over his arc reactor in mock indignation./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Stephen grinned. "Well, I must respect my elders."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Tony rolled his eyes. "Prick. Anyways, are you doing anything right now?"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Stephen shook his head. "I was heading to the library, but you're here, so I'm free."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Tony whistled and shot finger guns at Stephen. "Hey, that was smooth!"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Thanks."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I was wondering if you wanted to explore a bit. You're new to Kamar-Taj and I've only ever been to the library. If you're busy or don't want to, that's fine. It was just a suggestion." Tony explained, rocking back and forth on his heels./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Oh." Stephen said. "That sounds interesting. Let's do it."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Wait, really?" Tony asked, bewildered. Stephen didn't seem the type to accept the billionaire's offer./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Really."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Nice." Tony grinned. "Race you to the courtyard!" He yelled, running as fast as he could./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"The billionaire heard a faint curse before heavy footsteps soon followed, their own gaining speed. Tony grinned and laughed, a slight breeze rushing through his hair. Suddenly, Tony felt a pair of arms grab him from behind and the laughter turned into shrieks as the opponent lifted him slightly off the ground. "I win." Stephen stayed plainly, a small smile decorating his lips as Tony turned around, ready to retaliate./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Stephen's playful smirk became a grimace as Tony attached, landing them both on the ground where they wrestled for some time, flailing limbs, shouting, and rolling around (thankfully no one was there to witness the interesting scene) until Tony managed to gain the upper hand and straddled Stephen, immobilizing his arms while being wary of his hands. "'It's over, Anakin. I have the high ground!'"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""'You underestimate my power.'" Stephen finished, flipping the two over and pinning the shorter man to the ground./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""He is a man of culture!" Tony yelled, much like Thor would do./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Stephen smiled. Tony noticed the wrinkles that formed in the corners of his eyes when he did so. It was cute. "Why yes, yes, I am. I wouldn't be a man if I were not cultured, would I?"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""But to truly pass the test, he must answer my riddle."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Shoot." Stephen challanced./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""'Yer a wizard, Harry.'"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Harry Potter. Said by Rubeus Hagrid, the gameskeeper. Iconic line in both the 1997 book and 2001 movie, /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"``The Sorcerer's Stone/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"." Stephen recited, sitting up and basically crawling off of his friends, although his dignity refused to admit it. A light blush decorated his cheeks as Stephen realized the compromising position the two had ended up in. /span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Tony sat up, grinning, and offered a high-five. Stephen reluctantly returned it, laughing when Tony said that they were in the 'eastern version of Hogwarts'./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Hey, the Ancient One is Dumbledore." Stephen remarked./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Oh my g-d, you're right! We should give her a wand./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"The two began to laugh, starting with small giggles and ending in cackles. Eventually they calmed down, but not before Tony did some weird hand motion and produced a wand, orange and sizzling with sparks./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Stephen stared at the actual magic wand in shock, the laughter fading quickly. "How…?"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Tony glanced down at the wand. "Oh, it's easy! Wong showed me how."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I've been taking lessons from the Ancient One themselves and I can't do that."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"The billionaire shrugged. "I've always been a fast learner."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Stephen huffed, standing up and brushing dirt off of his new robes. Reaching out a hand, he hauled a laughing Tony to his feet./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Once he was stable, Tony stepped away then abruptly turned, playfully brandishing his 'Orange Sparkle Wand /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"tm/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"'/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Getting an idea, Stephen knelt beside the treeline next to them and found a decent sized branch after rummaging through the dirt a little while. Clenching the 'wand' in his shaking hands, he jumped up and faced Tony, waving his wand menacingly./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Once both were ready, they began to shoot pretend spells at each other, dodging, jumping, running down halls and around corners, even going as far as developing an entire plot, until Tony stopped mid-casting. "We should have cool wizard names! Like Mad-Eye Moody or Remus Lupin or something."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Alright." Stephen agreed. "I'll be… Doctor Strange."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Tony gave him a look. "You're already 'Doctor Strange'. Be original!'/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Stephen paused, thinking. "Yeah! I'll be Doctor Strange."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Tony looked at him. "But you're already 'doctor strange'. Be original!"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Stephen sighed. "Fine. I'll be... King George?"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Tony crossed his arms, pointing his wand at the doctor.. "He's dead. And he was British."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Stephen gave Tony an innocent look as he slipped easily into an English accent. "But what if I am British?" he argued./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Tony's eyes widened and his arms fell to his sides. "Wait, are you actually?"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""No. Born and raised in New York." Stephen said, shaking his head and dropping the accent./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Cool trick, though. Anyways, my wizard name will be... Briar Nightshade." Tony exclaimed./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Stephen paused. He liked Edger Allen Poe. Maybe he could borror a name "Uh.. Edgar..." He started, then spotted a rose bush near the edge of the courtyard./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Edgar Rose." Stephen decided. Tony snorted./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Like Edgar Allan Poe?"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Hey! He's a good poet."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Sure, sure." Tony dropped into a fighting stance once more. "Edgar!" He called. "Fight me like a man!"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Stephen schooled his face, slapping on a menacing scowl, jumping down from his bench. "Oh, I will. But prepare to lose to Edgar Rose!"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Tony laughed, breaking character for a second. Not that he was /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"in /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"character in the first place.. "Rose." He snorted. "Ha!"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Stephen rolled his eyes, dropping the act. "Like 'Briar Nightshade' is any better."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""You'll pay for that, Edgar!" Tony yelled./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Oh shit." Stephen muttered, breaking into a run./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Tony was chasing him, shouting spells like 'levicorpus' and 'sectumsempra'. Stephen dodged then shot back his own spells, whisking around corners at the last second until the fight led them into the main courtyard and through a small crown of sorcerers./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Sorry, sorry, coming through!" Stephen yelled, pushing past the bewildered sorcerers. The path Stephen was following, however, led him straight into a corner./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Tony rounded on him once he noticed that Stephen was trapped. Stephen, however, had a plan. "Look what the cat dragged in: Briar Nightshade. How nice of you to join me, as you've given me an opportunity to describe my evil plan." Stephen spoke in a cold, venomous English accent./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Tony caught himself before he could blush at the accent. He never found english accents remarkably attractive, but coming from Stephen and his low, baritone voice- /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"'No, Tony! Bad Tony- now is not the time. Why are you even thinking that?'/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""But I thought I was evil!" Tony mused./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""But, I was running away, so I'm evil."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Tony made a face. "My name is/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" literally/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" nightshade! Nightshade is poisonous, so it would make sense that/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" I'm/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" evil.'/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Well, /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Atropa Belladonna/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;", also known as Deadly nightshade, is indeed poisonous, but there's a lot of non-poisonous nightshade plants, like /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Solanaceae/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Tony stared at Stephen, mouth open in surprise. "Since when did you become a botanist?"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Stephen shrugged. "When I learned that the non-poisonous nightshade plant is used in medicine, my professor had us memorize the difference between deadly nightshade and regular nightshade."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Tony fell silent./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Anthony?"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I'm still evil!"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Fine then," Stephen pointed his wand at Tony. "It's over Nightshade: I have the high ground!"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Tony grinned at the reference. "You underestimate my power, Edgar Rose!"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Stephen charged at Tony, freeing himself from the corder as Tony's wand transformed into a long staff much like a blunt sword. Stephen slipped into his hero role and gripped his wand tighter, warding off Tony's attacks. The two continued to fight, circling each other until Tony took off, Stephen chasing him down a hallway./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"The ran and played, throwing banter at each other and laughing until it began to get dark. Night fell and Tony stopped, panting hard. Stephen leaned against the wall, huffing. Tony didn't look like it, but he was strong. They had wrestled quite a bit during their 'adventure' and every time, Tony had managed to pin Stephen down until he tapped out. /span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Uh, Stephen?" Tony asked out of the blue./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"At first, Stephen was confused. He had been 'Edgar Rose' the entire day, so why was Tony calling him by his real name?/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Yes, Briar Nightshade?"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Tony shoved Stephen's shoulder, a playful grin appearing and disappearing as soon as it had come, melting into a frown./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""No, Stephen, where are we?"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Stephen's head jerked up and he looked around, scouring his surroundings. He hadn't been at Kamar-Taj very long and didn't have everything memorized, but even he didn't recognize where they were./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Ok the other hand, they were vaguely familiar- familiar enough to know they were still in Kamar-Taj, but not enough to know where exactly in Kamar-Taj they were./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""...I don't know." Stephen finally admitted after a long pause./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Tony opened his mouth to say something but before he could, a warm sizzling sound -the tail-tail signs of a portal opening- came from beside them./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Spinning on his heel to face the sound, Stephen was greeted by the Ancient One emerging from the portal with a small, tender smile on her face./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""There you two are. I was wondering where you had gone. It's past curfew and your rooms were empty." The Ancient One chided gently./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Tony tried and failed to hind a snicker. Leaning towards Stephen he hissed, "Where HAVE you been?!"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Stephen snorted. "Beds empty, no note, car gone!"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"The Ancient One smiled fondly at their newest students, glad that they found each other. "You could have died! You could have been seen!"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Tony and Stephen's hushed laughter died down and they turned to face the Ancient One, mouths agape./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Yes, I know Harry Potter. A few years back in the 2000s every new student was quoting it when they came to the quote-en-quote 'real life Hogwarts'. Older students and masters alike joined in. The Kamar-Taj fanbase grew and I got curious. Read the books, watched the movies, it's a classic, really." The Ancient One explained./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Tony grinned, relieved. Of what, he didn't know. "Cool. We were playing the game of sorts- I'm Briar Nightshade and he's Edgar Rose."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"The Ancient One nodded. "Sounds like you two had a fun time. Now how about we get you two to bed. It's getting late and tomorrow is your first school-wide lesson. And Stephen, I want to know about all of your adventures at our next meeting." They said, a mischievous glint in her eyes. "And Tony, if you wanted to share, Wong is always up for a good gossip- I know from experience."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"The Ancient One winked and Tony laughed. "I'll think about it." A gentle hand was placed on the small of Stephen's back, the Ancient One gently pushing them to step through the portal, leading them straight to the doctors hallway./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" The pressure on his back lessoned and Stephen looked back to see the Ancient One in a small bow. "Goodnight Anthony. Goodnight, Stephen." Then she strode down the hallway and disappeared around a corner leaving Tony and Stephen alone./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Alrighty. Bedtime it is." Tony stated, pointing to a door. "This is my stop. Where's your room?" He was a little confused- wouldn't the Ancient One have dropped Stephen in front of his room? Why was he in front of Tony's? Surely the Ancient One knew they were just friends (not that Tony would mind sharing a bed with Stephen Strange)./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""It's a few doors down." Stephen answered, breaking Tony out of his thoughts./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Tony grinned. "I'll come visit sometime; bring a housewarming gift or something. 'night, Mr. Rose!"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Stephen rolled his eyes, smiling. "Goodnight Monsieur Nightshade."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Oui, oui! C'est moi. Bonne nuit, Monsieur!" Tony said, his french practically flawless./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Dork."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Hey," Tony put his hands up to show his innocence. "You started it!"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Bonne nuit, Tony." Stephen smiled./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Buonanotte, Stefano." Tony gave a mock salute and closed his door./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Stephen stood in front of Tony's door, smiling softly. After a few moments of silence, he sighed and the smile slipped off his face. He started walking, trying to sort through his emotions and scattered thoughts./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Stephen Strange liked Tony Stark./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Stephen Strange was not gay./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Stephen Strange did not like guys./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Stephen Strange was crushing on Tony Stark./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"The doctor humorlessly laughed, reaching the door to his room. He unlocked it and stepped inside./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Imagine what his parents would think if they were still alive. His mom would support him, but wouldn't necessarily approve of the relationship. His dad wouldn't approve in the slightest, but he'd keep shut because it made his son happy./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"The door shut silently behind him and Stephen let out a warm breath into the dark room. His parents, his feelings, his thoughts- nothing mattered at the moment. Stephen closed his eyes and pushed everything to the back of his mind. He'd deal with it later./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Undressing and changing into his pajamas, Stephen reflected on his day and smiled. He had fun with Tony. It didn't matter if he has feelings or not because he had fun./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5999999999999999; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 18pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Stephen climbed into his bed and smiled, falling asleep almost instantly. Today was good./spanspan id="docs-internal-guid-e8f1b97d-7fff-07c7-fc08-475ac96962da"/span/p