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"I did it!!"
America positively beamed in front of her first portal, a huge smile on her face.
"You did it!!" Rintrah immediately made his way over to her, wrapping her into a near crushing embrace, lifting her from the ground for a short moment. "Congratulations!"
America giggled as he set her back down. "I almost thought I'd never make it!"
"And I told you you would! You don't want to know how long my first portal took me, and you had both the Master of the New York Sanctum, and the Sorcerer Supreme coaching you, of course you'd do it eventually!"
"Oh my god--" America almost vibrated with her excitement, "I have to tell them I did it, where's Wong, he was here like a minute ago--"
Rintrah levelled her a look, failing in calming her down, and rather getting infected by her happiness. "Your 'minute' was like at least an hour ago, you've been trying again and again all day."
"Oh."
"But given the time he should be meeting with the masters now? Or just, you know, follow the crowd of people who also want to talk to him."
America's grin somehow managed to widen even further. "Will do, thanks!" And off she went.
"Close your portal first!" Rintrah called after her, only to end up doing it himself when she obviously didn't hear him.
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America found Wong in a middle of a crowd. Which wasn't particularly uncommon, he was the Sorcerer Supreme after all, managing all of the Mystic Order. Kamar-Taj itself was only a small part of that duty.
Still, he smiled when America showed up at the edge of the crowd and waved back when she did.
It took everything for her to not burst into the middle of the circle and excitedly tell everyone of her huge success, but she knew she would get her turn eventually. She busied herself with counting the pebbles under her feet.
Eventually took waaaay too long though, she counted up to 326 when-- "America."
"Wong! I--"
"Excuse me, Sorcerer Supreme?"
Wong sighed, gave America his most apologetic smile before he turned. "What? Make it quick."
"You wanted to know as soon as we tracked down that phoenix? Well, uh, we found it."
"Good, wait for me, I'll be there in a couple minutes to help catch it."
"Yes sir."
Wong grimaced at the 'sir', he'd never get used to that address and he liked it even less. He had barely even begun to turn when the next person approached.
"Master Wong, I've been looking to find some material to get into advanced transfiguration..."
"Library, second isle, third shelf down, two rows from the bottom, you'll find everything you could ever need."
"Thank you!"
The apprentice walked off, only for the vacated spot to be immediately filled with Master Jio.
"I see you are in high demand," she said, her quiet voice somehow soothing.
"Comes with the job," Wong answered courtly, "now if you would excuse me for just a second."
He finally managed to properly turn his attention to America, giving her a small smile.
"What do you need?"
Somehow America found herself blindsided by the question. "Need? Uh, nothing--"
Wong raised an eyebrow. "You came to talk to me about something, didn't you?"
"Yeah, well... No, it's not really that important, you are busy, this can wait, bye!" She immediately began walking off, back in direction of the training grounds where she had left Rintrah.
"America!"
She didn't stop even when Wong called after her. He was the Sorcerer Supreme. Of course he had more important stuff to think about than a stupid portal, why did she ever think it was a good idea to bother him with something unimportant like that?
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Wong sighed deeply looking after America. The sigh earned him the full scrutiny of Master Jio's calm but insistent care. It wouldn't be the first time the master of the infirmary expressed her worry, but it's not like she could change anything.
"There is a thread of pain in your aura," she diagnosed calmly.
"Just a slight headache, I've been through five different climates in two days." As good as Wong was at deflecting, Master Jio was even better at looking through his excuses, so he pressed right on, "You needed something?"
She continued her judgemental stare for a couple moments, but ultimately gave in. "A couple of my healers are ready for their promotion, I intended to ask if we could set a date for the ceremony--"
"Yes, of course," Wong summoned a little planner from his pocket dimension, turning pages scribbled full of notes and things to do, "how's the week after next?"
"-- but it can wait." Master Jio ended the sentence Wong had interrupted. She summoned a small vial, a glittery orange potion inside and handed it over. "You need to sleep."
Wong accepted it, pulling the cork and downing it in one go. "I can sleep when I'm dead," he mumbled under his breath.
"That's what I am afraid of."
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"Doctor Strange!"
Stephen looked up from his book to find America and Rintrah waving at him from the other side of a portal. He barely managed to place his bookmark with how quickly he snapped his book shut.
"You managed your first portal, congratulations!"
"Well, technically, it's her third," Rintrah said, immediately followed by a quiet "ow" as America elbowed him in the ribs.
"Darn, I missed it." Stephen got up from his chair, stepping through America's portal and into the courtyard at Kamar-Taj. The day had just begun in New York, but here it was almost over already. There was a rush of air as the Cloak flitted past him, rushing to swaddle America in a huge hug. Stephen grinned at its antics.
"Have I ever told you the story of my first portal?"
"No," came the immediate answer from Rintrah and more muffled from America as she playfully fought her way out from beneath the blanket over her head. "It must have been something super epic, like, saving the day kind of epic!"
Stephen couldn't help but laugh at America's idolized image of his abilities. "Well, I did kind of save the day. If by that you mean saved myself from freezing to death." That got both their attention, not like they weren't already intently listening to every single word coming from his lips. "I had huge trouble opening my first portal; I spent weeks achieving nothing at all. I doubted my abilities to the point where I completely denied I'd ever be able to do any magic." Pause for effect--
"So how did you do it?"
"The Ancient One set me out on Mount Everest," he turned to point at said mountain, "riiight over there. Told me to surrender to the current or freeze. I surrendered."
Both America and Rintrah were staring at him, eyes so wide he was surprised they didn't fall out of their heads.
"Gee, I'm glad I didn't have to go through that." "Yeah me neither." "I would have gotten so sick after." "Yeah, like two weeks bound to bed kind of sick."
Stephen interrupted their ramble with another chuckle. "Don't tell anyone, but..." He leaned forward a little, America and Rintrah immediately shuffling closer, the Cloak spreading around them as if to create another barrier of secrecy. "I go so sick, even Wong was worried for a second."
They all broke out laughing.
It was nice. Stephen had always thought he was no teacher, even less of a parental figure, but watching America doubled over in laughter, leaning on Rintrah and wiping a tear from her eyes made him feel all kinds of warm and proud.
"Speaking of, have you told Wong yet? I bet he'd love to know and I can go on tease him that you told me first."
There was a long moment of worry about having said something terribly wrong, because the moment the words left his lips the smile was positively wiped off America's face.
"America?"
"Uh, no. I haven't. I tried to, but you know... He's the Sorcerer Supreme, he's too busy. And it's really just a portal, nothing special..."
"America." Stephen summoned the Cloak back to his shoulders with a single gesture, adding to the aura of seriousness as he stepped closer and placed his hands on America's shoulders. "It's your first portal--"
"First Sling Ring portal actually." Rintrah interjected. It earned him an exasperated look. "... Sorry."
"It's your first portal America, of course it is special. Just because other people are already past these milestones doesn't make it any less significant for you to reach them. Understand?"
America nodded up at him, her smile slowly returning.
"Good, now let’s find Wong and tell him."
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It was bad.
They had to wait around for a little while, but the moment Wong even as much as set a single foot back on Kamar-Taj grounds he was completely flocked by sorcerers wanting a thing or another from him. The masters Stephen understood, but there were also disciples among them, apprentices even.
Stephen knitted his eyebrows together. When he had his short tenure as Supreme before he got snapped, he was only ever approached by other masters, and even they had handled most of their issues themselves as long as they could.
"Is it always this bad?" He asked America, not taking his eyes off the crowd for even a moment.
"From what I see... yeah."
That won't do. Not at all.
Stephen pushed off the wall he had been leaning against, striding right into the middle of the crowd and toward Wong. The sorcerers fell silent as they made way for him; they still recognized him as second in command now that Wong was first.
Stephen found himself in the middle of the circle, making a show of turning around and giving all the gathered a good, long look.
"Have we become dependent on the Sorcerer Supreme to tie our shoelaces?" He asked eventually.
The silence turned slightly uncomfortable. No one dared to answer.
"Oh, so we haven't? Good, because I seem to remember there is a chain of command for a reason. Do all of your problems really concern the Sorcerer Supreme directly?"
More silence.
"No? Then report your problems to your appointed masters first. And if it is a matter that goes beyond their position they can send you to speak it through with him after all, but not a moment sooner."
"Stephen--" Wong tried to interrupt, but Stephen continued to talk right over him.
"I held the post for two full years, and I can't remember having ever been this swarmed. And I won't believe that that's just because you all can't stand my face. Now think very hard if you really need to occupy the already limited time of the Sorcerer Supreme, before making your case. I'll start."
He turned to Wong, made a bit too much of a flourish out of his bow, the Cloak making it just as perfectly flashy as he liked.
"I am here not to talk to the Sorcerer Supreme, but to my friend, because I'm certain you'd like to know that I am taking America to New York for a couple days. You look like shit by the way, and I didn't think it was even possible to sleep less than me."
Wong sighed, deeply. "Why thank you Stephen..."
"You are very welcome." He bowed again, and was very pleased to see the crowd dispersing as he turned and walked off to were America was observing the whole thing.
He didn't turn back as he reached her, simply asking: "How many are left?"
America tried to duck around the Cloak as inconspicuously as possible. "Less than a handful. Just a couple masters."
"Good, mission phase one success, on to phase two."
"What's phase two?"
"Can you cook?"
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America could not, in fact, cook.
Not much of a surprise given that she had spent her life hopping from one universe to another; thankfully, Stephen could look back on quite a bit of time as hobby cook, which only really ended with his injured hands leaving him incapable of safely holding a knife.
They spent three days during which Stephen taught America to cook some basic meals, which really were more of three days of making a mess of the Sanctum's kitchen. America made every possible mistake, from not keeping an eye on the boiling water to turning the heat up too high on the pan. Stephen also taught her all the secrets to cleaning the kitchen.
But Stephen made sure to laugh with her as he helped her, ensuring the fun wouldn't turn into frustration.
Not that there was any danger of that, America was on a mission and she dedicated herself to it with all she got, to the point where on day four, Stephen returned from an exhausting night of hunting slime monsters to America presenting him with a nice plate of scrambled eggs. She was still figuring out the seasoning, but that could be easily helped.
"Think I'm ready?"
Stephen exchanged a grin with her. "Phase two is a go."
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Stephen didn't usually call on Wong using telepathy. He'd either go to Kamar-Taj to find him in person, or left a note with an apprentice for whenever Wong would return.
So it was no surprise that Wong switched into full emergency mode the moment Stephen made contact and demanded: "Drop everything you are doing."
A split second later Wong was stumbling out of a portal and into the New York Sanctum's relic room, ready for a fight. "What's the emergency? Is America alright?"
Stephen blinked up from where he was sitting cross legged in the middle of the Sanctum's focus point in front of the huge window, completely relaxed, not even wearing his robes and much rather enjoying the comfort of his favourite hoodie. "No emergency." He answered eventually, unfolding his legs and getting up, summoning a cup of freshly brewed tea and pushing it into Wong's hands.
Wong stared at the tea for full ten seconds of overwhelmed silence.
Then: "Stephen, I have things to do--"
"No you don't."
"Yes I do, if this isn't an emergency--"
"Are any of the things on your endless list of world ending consequence?"
"Well, no, but--"
"Then it's not as important as you being here today." Stephen began walking, leading Wong down the stairs and toward the kitchen.
Wong blinked another couple times, taking a sip of the tea. It was good, Stephen knew exactly how he liked it and he felt his whole body begin to relax. Then he fully caught on to what Stephen had said. "Wait, important? Why am I here exactly?"
"We are celebrating."
"Celebrating what?"
Stephen opened the door to the kitchen, gesturing for Wong to walk in ahead of him. "America's first portal."
"And my first self-made pizza!" America was positively beaming from where she was sitting on the floor in front of the oven, closely watching her pizza bake to perfection.
For a moment Stephen feared Wong might actually pass out from exhaustion, with the way he swayed a little where he stood glued to his spot. Stephen gently rested a hand on Wong's shoulder which served for Wong to remember himself, hand Stephen his teacup and make his way over to America, heavily plopping on the ground to give her a tight hug.
"Well done, young one," he said quietly and America's smile was bright enough to turn the darkest night to day.
Stephen picked up the slight quiver in Wong's voice. Wong wasn't stupid; Stephen was absolutely sure that Wong remembered the moment a couple days ago where America wanted to talk to him when he didn't have the time, and Stephen was just as certain that Wong was already knee deep in beating himself up for not properly being there for her.
The oven timer went off, and Stephen went to set down the cup of tea at Wong's usual seat at the dinner table and then proceeded to help Wong off the floor. He didn't know what was more worrying. That Wong actually accepted his help, or that he was heavily leaning on Stephen as he pulled him up.
"Careful," he told America, the very same moment Wong said "Don't burn yourself," as she went and picked up the oven mitts. America rolled her eyes at the both of them.
They sat down at the dinner table, America presenting her pizza with a gleeful "tadaa!" and they both watched Wong's impressed expression.
"You did all that by yourself?"
"Well, Stephen did--"
"Yes, she made it all by herself," Stephen interrupted. "I neglected my duty of oversight by reading a book; you can see what state the kitchen is in as a result."
The casual dry remark made both of them laugh.
They had timed it all quite well. It was lunchtime in New York, which meant it was late evening in Kamar-Taj and judging by the way Wong dug in, he had indeed neglected to eat any dinner so far.
America received ample compliments for her pizza, which made her bristle with pride. Which was then immediately replaced by her own genuine surprise that it had actually turned out this good.
It was nice, America carrying the conversation, telling Wong about some of the more funny mistakes she had made while Stephen was teaching her over the past couple days.
They could practically observe Wong relaxing further and further with every minute passing, and if it hadn't given away their plan, they'd have given each other a fist bump under the table.
It nearly was all for nothing when Stephen's eyes went cross-eyed the way they did when the Sanctum demanded his attention. Wong immediately went back into problem solving mode and the only reason that he didn't get up when Stephen did was because America literally held on to his arm.
"I'll be right back." Stephen said, nodding at America.
Stephen caught the intruder in the hallway from the door to Kamar-Taj. Said intruder was one of the younger disciples, who visibly jumped when Stephen appeared right in front of him, in full satisfyingly swishy sorcerer regalia.
"What do you want?" Stephen wasted no time being friendly, and it served to make the disciple even more apprehensive.
"Well, uh, we've been looking for the Sorcerer Supreme? Usually someone always knows where he is..."
"Unavailable." Stephen answered as shortly as possible, only further explaining when the confusion on the disciples face didn't vanish. "Yes, he is here. No, unless the matter is of world ending consequence he is not available. Try again no earlier than twelve hours from now."
"Uh..."
"We are understood then. Goodbye."
He really didn't need to force the poor disciple into a portal right back to Kamar-Taj, but he also really didn't need to interrupt his meal with his family for something wholly unimportant, so he didn't feel remorseful for even a second.
He returned to the table no thirty seconds later, Cloak dismissed and robes again exchanged for his much more comfortable hoodie, confirming that everything was in perfect order.
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"So, what's next?" Stephen asked America after their meal was done (not even any leftovers remaining) and at least the worst of the mess was cleaned. Wong had actually tried to help and immediately found himself banned to his chair with yet another cup of tea.
"Next?" America asked, and it actually didn't sound rehearsed.
"Your celebration, your decision."
America thought for a second. "Oh, can we watch a movie?"
"Sure thing kid." Stephen smiled as America let out a quiet "yessss" and went to pull Wong out of his chair and drag him along to the living room.
This sequence of events had been completely planned and dubbed as phase three of the mission, and it went down without a hitch.
It helped that Stephen had introduced America to the huge library of Disney movies and she had with great fascination asked him to watch one with her every evening since.
In short: Wong was left no other choice than to find himself on the small couch next to Stephen, America opting to sit on the floor as she decided which movie she wanted to see next.
Stephen used the time to place two tubs of ice cream on the table, the clattering of three spoons drawing Wong's already fading attention.
Wong squinted at the labels.
"Okay, who in this household has no taste?"
"I have excellent taste, thank you very much!" America said, grinning as she grabbed the tub of Stark Raving Hazelnuts.
Wong let his head fall back against the couch, raising a hand to cover his eyes as dramatically as possible. "Where did we go wrong, Stephen? How could we fail her so much?"
"I don't know..." Stephen easily mirrored Wong's tone of voice, "I tried so much to educate her, I really did, but she just had to keep making the worst possible ice cream choices..."
They sighed in sync and America broke out laughing, nearly planting her face in the carpet as the force of her laughter made her double over. Wong and Stephen watched her with amused smiles of their own.
"I think I'm being really smart actually," she managed eventually; "it means I get a tub all to myself with absolutely zero chance of you guys stealing any."
"Pff. Sharing is caring," Stephen intoned as he offered the tub of Hunka-Hulka Burnin' Fudge to Wong.
America pulled an affronted face. "Sharing means less ice cream for me."
Her deadpan made both Wong and Stephen snort out a laugh.
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To both Stephen and America's surprise, Wong made it all the way to the first half hour mark of the movie before falling asleep.
Stephen actually found himself letting out a relived sigh when Wong's head finally dropped to lean on his shoulder. Wong was completely out cold, he didn't react at all to the Cloak bundling him up and rearranging him to sit more comfortable at Stephen's silent order. Didn't react to Stephen wrapping an arm around him and pulling him to halfway rest on Stephen's chest either.
America turned down the volume of the TV and they decided to let Wong sleep for the rest of the movie.
"What now?" She asked quietly after the credits rolled and she had turned off the TV.
"Let him sleep." Stephen had long given up on trying to resist the urge to gently pet Wong's hair. Who knows when he'd get a chance like this again. If ever at all.
America watched them for a moment. "This is kind of cute. You know, in this really weird, 'those are my parental figures, I don't really want to see this, but it's still cute' kind of way."
Stephen fought hard to keep down the chuckle, to not startle Wong awake after all. And then the 'parental figures' caught up to him and he felt that warmth again and suddenly remembered that he had thought of this as a family event from the very beginning and the warmth only grew further.
"Always remember America: We are both really proud of you. Even with him being as busy as he is, even with me not being around Kamar-Taj that much. We are glad to have you with us and we are proud of every step you take. And if you need anything, or want to tell us anything, or just want to see us, you can come to us at any time. We will never be too busy to find time for you, alright?"
"As long as the world isn't ending," America added, but she was smiling, and Stephen wasn't quite sure, but he thought he caught the beginnings of tears in her eyes.
"As long as the world isn't ending. And even then chances are good we make it work." Stephen grinned at her.
The next moment he found himself not just with an arm full of Wong, but also an arm full of America.
So this is what happiness feels like, he found himself thinking, gently patting America's back who was very much fighting to not break out crying.
Of course it was just enough of a commotion for Wong to wake up.
"What'd I miss?" He mumbled out, his words slurring together. Stephen faintly noted that sleepy Wong had a lot less control over his accent too.
"Nothing, just a hug," America said, "go back to sleep dad."
It was a testament to just how sleep deprived Wong was that his only reaction to that was a low grumble as he burrowed his face further into Stephen's chest.
America simply smiled at them and then quietly stalked out of the room.
They spent another five or ten minutes like that, unwilling to move, Wong drifting in and out of consciousness. Stephen realized that now that he had started it, even the knowledge of Wong no longer being fully asleep didn't make him feel the need to stop the slow rhythm of running his fingers through Wong's short hair.
He didn't really stop either when Wong took a deep breath and blinked his eyes open.
"I fell asleep."
"You did."
Silence.
"And before you try to fully wake up I am going to take you to your bed in your room, which is exactly the same as you left it."
"Don't wanna move..." Wong yawned. "You're comfy."
Stephen couldn't help the small chuckle at that. "You're not really awake are you? Because awake Wong would never for the life of him have said that out loud."
"Shut up."
Wong actually tried to sit up then, finding it rather difficult with how thoroughly the Cloak had bundled him up, but it eventually relented and released him. Stephen sat up next to him, keeping one hand in constant contact with his elbow, just in case Wong tried to stand up too quickly.
"I'm awake enough to know what I am doing. I'm just also tired enough to no longer have any filter." Wong paused to level a look at Stephen, which failed as he was overcome with another yawn. "And you started with the hair petting."
"I did."
"Hm."
How do you call this feeling, when you know something is coming miles away, but still are absolutely stunned when it is actually happening?
Whatever it was, Stephen was experiencing a lot of it when Wong leaned in and placed a gentle kiss on his lips.
It was just that. It didn't need to be more.
Stephen smiled as he got up and opened a portal right into Wong's old room, offering him a hand to help him get to his bed in one piece. Wong took it, but furrowed his brows before getting up.
"Did America call me dad?"
"She did."
"... Hm."
Wong let Stephen lead him to his bed then, accepted that maybe should take off at least the outer layers of his robes to sleep more comfortably with only a tiny bit of an discussion, and then proceeded to take Stephen's hand again and drag him right with him onto the bed.
"It's the middle of day for me." Stephen tried to argue.
"Your sleeping schedule is just as atrocious as mine; you can take a nap with me."
"Fine, but I have to get up in an hour."
"Hm." Was the only thing Wong answered before he hugged Stephen as close as humanly possible, with absolutely no intention of letting go in an hour.
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