THE MAGICIAN ( dr. strange.. )

005. From Magician to Witch..

The water pouring into the sink wasn't exactly the cleanest. Much like the mirror, which she knew she'd eventually have to look up into and take notice of her smudged makeup, of the puffiness of her eyes and the sand stuck in her hair, otherwise already stiff from the ocean and the chlorine in the pool, the water made the sink seem like it was yellowing out. A rotten prediction of the future.

But the dirt of a public bathroom improvised on the beach by the hotel resort they were spending their holiday in was not going to shadow over the brightness of Sierra Harss in a moment when, she could say, she was the happiest woman alive.

This was her happiest moment and it was sanctified on the beach of Taihiti.

Washing her hands in that semi-decent water pouring, her big thumb brushed over the new accessory on her ring finger. Gentle and suave, neither too extravagant, but not cheap either, it stood there, flickering shines at her and reminding the woman that she should look up now and get used to calling herself Sierra Rand, Mrs. Rand for special occasions.

Tears bubbled in her eyes again before she could look up.

Joy made her hiccup and desperately brought the dampness of her hands up, wiped her eyes until the stain of black came off and she washed it away into the yellowed sink. The bathroom was too small to actually bend over and wash her face properly, but this whole scheme of doing it step by step had to be enough.

Sierra looked up at last and into the mirror, behind her, stood Dr. Strange, freshly out of a portal still open behind him. She flinched, turning around and hitting her left hand on the sink, in the process of doing so.

"Seven Heavens, Stephen! Haven't you heard of knocking?!" Her voice was pitched in tone, a way she discovered she could cover her fright while she controlled it with a couple of breaths. A glare was inevitable, but perhaps not as much directed towards her friend, Stephen, as towards the sound of the busy New York City streets, overlapping with the clash of waves she's gotten so used to over just two days in Tahiti.

Stephen didn't even bother opening his mouth to answer. He counted in his mind up to Sierra's fifth breath and then nodded along as she pointed her finger at him, "This is a public bathroom. What if I was... indecent?!"

"This is an emergency-"

"And I am on a vacation," Sierra promptly cut him off, crossing her arms at her chest.

"Then let me congratulate you on your engagement first," Stephen continued, calmly.

Sierra's first instinct was to get ready to thank him, perhaps even get bashful that after years of pining, years of hesitations, Danny finally found the right time and got that ring out of the box and on her finger. As odd as it may sound, from the moment they laid eyes on each other in the astral realm, her in the sewers of NYC and him in a Sanctum, meditating away under the cosmic powers' frequency, they both knew they were meant to be.

That, eventually, they'd circle to this very moment in time and space when they'd become a family.

"How did you know he asked me?" Sierra asked instead, after also tasting reason... Danny brought their witnesses there and Stephen was not amongst them.

Stephen's apologetic smile made Sierra's heart grow cold and her mind to grow back into the ache of paranoia and always being on the edge. Battle after battle, war after war; this was supposed to be her holiday, but she should have known shadows followed her there, from the moment the damn cloak played tricks on her with the Darkhold.

"The whole world knows," Stephen ripped the bandaid off without any surgical tact.

Though a thousand questions immediately flared her mind in red, Sierra's only palpable thought was that of the name which uttered off her lips, "Danny..."