𝕻𝖊𝖓𝖉𝖚𝖑𝖚𝖒 - [𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲]

𝐎𝐍𝐄𝐒𝐇𝐎𝐓 𝐢. 𝘴𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦'𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘮

𝐎𝐍𝐄𝐒𝐇𝐎𝐓 𝐎𝐍𝐄 - second time's the charm

━━━━━━━

 𝐄𝐌𝐈𝐋𝐈𝐀 𝐇𝐀𝐃 𝐀𝐖𝐎𝐊𝐄𝐍 this morning with a bedside utterly cold. It was strange, for while Stephen was very much an early riser, he would always potter about the kitchen, brew two cups of tea and titter his way back to the bedroom.

 Emilia would always wake to Stephen reading some kind of book dotted with runes and ancient words, all the while his honey and lemon tea was steadily drained. She'd always find his eyes upon her while she grumbled and groaned, royally pissed off at the sunlight burning into her eyes.

 But then Stephen would toss his book to the side, slink further down the bed, and pull Emilia to his chest. He was always so incredibly warm and smelt like fresh herbs... he hated the smell, but Emilia found that she rather loved it.

 So to wake up without a sound echoing about the Sanctum was entirely odd. Then, to have another fifteen minutes pass by without a single kiss planted against her skin... utterly horrendous.

 Emilia pushed her covers aside with such ferocity that the red bundle almost toppled off Stephen's side. One of her pillows had managed to slip to the ground amidst the night, and Emilia swiftly stomped it by. Soon enough, she had slathered clothes onto her body and made for the kitchen.

 She just... stood there. Eyes glossing over old cabinets, over the sliced lemon left upon the cutting board and the cute little array of mugs she'd collected that lined one of the shelves. No Stephen Strange.

 Emilia frowned, placing her palm against the metal kettle. It was cold.

 "Stephen?" She called, poking her head out of the kitchen. When nothing but silence greeted her, Emilia soon trailed down the dimly lit staircase made of stone... the staircase that led to the rather decrepit basement. It was where trinkets best kept from prying eyes were stored, where the laundry was held... and, of course, the rather odd little altar.

 She'd thought that Stephen might have been practising his spells for once, hoping that he'd exited the slump that came with narrowly losing the title of Sorcerer Supreme. But that was a story for another day... because Stephen most certainly wasn't shrouded in the darkness of their basement.

 Emilia truly wished her heart didn't work against her, she really begged that her would be the one to take over... but panic set in. It was silly, to start breathing ever so heavily upon finding an empty home, but it made sense. After watching Stephen vanish, after feeling a great sense of complete emptiness... after looking at the Sanctum from the outside in, she was terrified that he'd somehow managed to leave again.

 Emilia took a heavy breath as she stood there beneath the dull light of the basement. There was a low drip from an old leak that had squirmed through the cracks of the Sanctum, and then, she exhaled. Emilia wasn't going to keep letting her poor old heart hammer away whenever he wasn't near, it was foolish.