Notre Dame Des Fleurs - and her hypnotic gaze

Notre Dame Des Fleurs - and her hypnotic gaze

"It seemed to last for hours
It seemed to last for days
This lady of the flowers
And her hypnotic gaze".
[Lady Of The Flower - Placebo]

Tony Stark did not exactly know when it all started.
Maybe, something sprang the moment he saw Stephen again and alive by his side in the chaos of the battlefield, or maybe even before, the second he believed that it had been indeed the Sorcerer who slapped his ass, back then in the Sanctum.
It was also possible that the thing for Strange happened much later, the day Tony finally decided to go and meet him. At the beginning, he had just intended to thank the Sorcerer and then to turn around and leave; so, when he caught sight of the other in the middle of the reading, with his focused sky blue eyes and his sharp silhouette so beautiful against the sunlight from a window, he was simply left speechless and way too defenseless.
The first real symptoms, however, started one day, several months after Pepper had left him - who could blame her? - and a friendship made of little favors and pleasant conversations had already bloomed between them.
The little tingle in his throat became a part of his flat routine: it was with him most of the time, scratching and making him cough more than enough. At first, Tony thought he could get used to it, erasing that inconvenience just by storing it in a dusty corner of his mind, but the longer he ignored the problem, the sorer his lungs were; and then he simply accepted to live with that grasp around the neck.
It stung.
Sometimes it felt like growing vines were tearing him apart from the inside, but Tony, stubbornly, forced himself to swallow his saliva and a pastry lump that, lately, he could taste on the tip of his tongue along with the blood.

Anyway, Stark at least realized how that thing started.
Strange truly was a fascinating man: he had a sharp mind, he kept up the pace of Tony's jokes and he rarely smiled - and yet, when it happened, all his features changed, and Stark even managed to glimpse a vivid spark from the deep of his eyes.
Pragmatic and analytical, the Doctor was a trump card to be used at the most appropriate time - a temptation that Tony had to banish from his heart, keeping it at a safe distance.
It could never have worked, anyway.
So, Tony decided to see the other as little as possible, only if absolutely necessary, and to leave at least few feet between them in the case they would have ended up being in the same room.

As a consequence, when one morning he found the other man floating in his kitchen, holding a steaming black mug, Tony had to use all his self control not to scream.
"What the hell."
Stephen did not answer back.
He was perfectly comfortable and absorbed in a voracious study, while reading a levitating book.
"Good morning, Tony. Tea?"
Stark had not got any tea.
He never had.
He hated tea.
"Good morning."
Pause.
A breath.
He cleared his throat.
"What the fuck are you doing here?"
Stephen closed the tome still in midair, making it disappear in a portal, and then he focused his steel blue eyes on Tony.
"My apologies, but if it wasn't a real emergency, I wouldn't have disturbed you. However, you'll notice I didn't pick the lock."
"That's even worse. Fucking portals."
Tony headed towards the fridge. He needed water, a lot of fresh water, because a fire had just exploded in his throat.
"What if I was naked, Doc?"
"Ah, tell me more."
"Funny, a truly wiseass. But that's not the point."
"Please, it was a good point."
"Didn't Hogwarts teach you anything about privacy?"
There was silence.
Strange stared at him with the tiniest hint of a smile and Tony deeply hated the Sorcerer - actually, Stark found all sorts of excuses for not meeting his gaze, like a dirty plate or an empty pizza box that he had not thrown away yet.
Pathetic.
He ignored the sharp pain in the chest that, for an instant, took his breath away, swallowing a coughing fit and a knot of bitter bile.
"Anyway."
Stark turned around to face the Sorcerer who had just put his cup down and now was waiting for him.
Tony could not put up with the other's concern as well. Strange respected the mechanic's terms; and, in fact, keeping his eyes on him, Stephen understood his need of time in order to process every little news.
Stark hated him - no, not at all.
"What's the emergency?"