-Warning: Unbetaed, more "crack treated seriously", questionable science, more popular culture references.
The waiter poured the white wine as soon as her glass was empty. It had been the second time tonight. She needed to tell Stephen to give him a good tip.
Speaking of the devil, suddenly there was a golden circle at the corner where Stephen disappeared. He stepped into the circle, collapsed into his chair immediately, and took a deep breath. The waiter paid no attention to the commotion. It seemed a man materialized out of thin air was a common occurrence for him—perhaps that was the actual reason because Stephen frequented this restaurant. She shook her head. She overthought everything as usual. She turned her attention to Stephen instead.
He looked exhausted and apparently thirsty as he finished his glass of coconut water in one gulp. For good measure, he poured himself some wine and drank it. He had black smudges all over his face and hands. She even smelled some burnt hair. His suit was in tatters and singed in a lot of places. It couldn't be salvaged— except perhaps by magic? She needed to ask him whether he could do that next time. The only thing intact seemed to be Sophie. That cloak certainly knew how to take care of herself and protect Stephen from the worst of the fire.
Despite being disheveled and dirty, Stephen seemed to grow more attractive. How was it possible? Christine never knew that she was attracted to bad boys. Perhaps it was her healer nature who wanted to fix something. She shook her head to dislodge any unsavory thoughts. "Are you OK?"
"I'm fine. I'm not sure if I could fix my suit. I really need to learn the fixing spells from Wong." There was a manic gleam in his eyes. "Perhaps I could borrow some books from his library."
"You look terrible." There was no use to feed his oversized ego and he really needed to go back to his impeccable self before she started to question her sanity. "Perhaps you need to go to the bathroom to clean up."
He sighed. "I guess I'd better. I'm certainly not the Mother of Dragons."
She giggled at the image. "No, you're not. Besides, I doubt you could pull off the braided light blonde look effortlessly."
He gave her a sour look before going to the bathroom.
The waiter rematerialized and served the main courses.
He returned after washing up his face. He had taken off his suit. In her eyes, he still looked great in his blue shirt, even with Sophie fastened on his shoulders. Well, at least it was not the bad boy look anymore.
"Oh dinner, I'm famished." He quickly sat down. As soon as he lifted his chopsticks, he realized that he hadn't asked her to start. "Where's my manner? Let's eat together. Before I forget, I have something for you."
He produced something covered in a black cloth for her. She opened it and it was a big unpolished diamond. She was speechless. After a few seconds, she realized that her jaw had dropped. "How did you get it?"
"You're welcome. You can make a pendant out of it." He shrugged nonchalantly. "The heat of the fire gave me the idea. I remember that a normal stone in high temperature and pressure could turn into a diamond. So it's worth a try."
"So let me get this straight. When normal people see dragons, they'd run, or for your cult members, they'd banish the dragons immediately. But you decided to make them your personal jewelers."
"Eh, what good is a dragon anyway is we can't utilize its high temperature? It took me a few tries as I needed to find the right spells for creating the right pressure for the stones."
She facepalmed. "Are you telling me that instead of banishing the dragons immediately, you experimented with your spells? Do you know how dangerous it was?"
He looked like a little boy who had been scolded by his mom for giving her an A instead of an A+. "Sophie was there to protect me. She flew me around so I wouldn't get burned. I was dirty and slightly singed because of my insistence to get close to the dragons for creating the perfect diamond. It was not her fault at all." The cloak's collars patted his shoulders to comfort him.
Christine, not to be outdone by a cloak, took his right hand in her hands. She noticed that his hands were shaking. "Stephen, you don't have to do this. You don't need to bring me any gift to apologize for being called away. I know it's your life now. You're more valuable alive to me than dead. Do you get that? And I really appreciate the thought."
He nodded sheepishly. That was a new look on him. The old Stephen was never sheepish.
"I'm famished. Shall we start?"
She nodded.
As if on cue, as soon as he was about to put the Pad Thai in his mouth, his StarkPhone rang again. "Doctor Strange, you're needed in Amsterdam. There are three succubi there wreaking havoc." He groaned as he put down his chopsticks.
Christine nodded understandingly. "Just go. I'll ask them to keep the Pad Thai warm so you can finish it when you get back. Come back immediately as soon as you banish them. Don't you dare to conduct more experiments and don't bring anymore gifts."
He nodded grimly. He stood up, created another portal, stepped into it, and disappeared with his cloak flapping majestically behind him.
Christine thought that ordering another bottle of wine was a great idea as the night would be very long indeed.
Notes:
-Thanks to KarToon12 for the suggestion of Stephen giving a gift (hence making the story longer than planned :-) ) and also the mention of a pendant.
-How could I resist putting the "Mother of the Dragons" reference when there were dragons present?
-Yes, I intended it to be a two-shot but it's likely to be a three-shot. The prompt will be published at the end of the story which is hopefully the next chapter :)
-I intend to publish it on the weekend but it's March 8th. So, "Happy International Women Day" for the female readers and a good Wednesday for the male readers (if there is any).
-Thanks to unknownnobody32 for pointing out some mistakes.
-Feedback and comments are welcome.