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lailyn · 3 years

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Three's A Crowd

Summary: Loki and Stephen found love. So did Wong.

Pairing: Loki/Stephen Strange, Loki/Wong

Tags: Angst, Pining, Implied Chara Death

Rating: G

Wong was in trouble.

A Master of the Mystic Arts of his calibre, he should not have found himself in this position, not now, not in a million years. And the worst thing about it all was that he should have seen this coming.

Who was he kidding, he did see this coming. He just did nothing about it.

That...was not the entire truth. He did warn Stephen against taking Loki under his wing and into their home, but when the safety of the world was at stake, Wong knew there was no better person for the task. If there was anybody on earth who could keep the literal God of Mischief in check, it was the Sorcerer Supreme.

Suspicious by nature, Wong had initially treated Loki with the same coldness he treated those he distrusted. Loki being aloof himself, found Wong's icy demeanour so pleasing that even in Stephen's absence, Loki sought his company, if only for banter and not much else.

Interestingly, they never talked magic. Wong was a Guardian and Loki was a Sorcerer; being proprietors of the same trade, each guarded his secrets jealously. They talked people, made fun of them (the Avengers mostly). They talked arts and culture and history and everything under the sun. Wong had never met anyone as worldly or as knowledgeable.

Loki was Wikipedia walking on very, very long legs and Wong had always been drawn to intelligence, hence the trouble he currently found himself in.

How could he explain the delicious thrill that ran from the back of his neck all the way down to the tail of his spine everytime Loki called him ‘Master Wong’ in that unearthly sultry voice of his, and the imagery that accompanied it?

How could he explain losing himself in his infinite daydream of exploring the length of Loki’s body, imagining it writhing under him on his bed, warmed for once by the body heat of someone other than his own?

What was love, but endless daydreaming? A fleeting shadow that disappeared once the illusion shattered with Loki calling out someone else's name?

(Stephen.)

Would Loki ever do him the same honor? Wong wouldn’t know, and honestly speaking, he did not wish to find out. It had been years since anyone called him by his given name, and frankly, Wong could not imagine the effect it would have on him.

Render him stupid, more like.

Stupid enough to profess his love, for example. A secret love he had harbored ever since he laid eyes on this fantastic creature fallen from the heavens, with raw magic bleeding from every pore and a savage beauty possessed by no other on earth.

"What is your purpose, Wong?" He would ask the mirror everytime the longing became too great to bear, "What is your purpose here on earth? Truly?"

Loki, said his inner demon. Always Loki.

"Not Loki," he would growl at his reflection. "Never Loki."

Wong could not begrudge Stephen the relationship his friend had forged with Loki. After all the hardship they had gone through to be together, what right did Wong have to come between them?

"Congratulations," was the only thing Wong could say when the happy couple finally announced their courtship to the world. With acting skills worthy of an award, Wong then pretended to bemoan not just his fate of forever being the third wheel, but the loss of his 'peace and quiet'.

"I can be quiet," Loki had said with a wink, and a smirk that did not last. "Although I have to admit, I have never known a moment of peace in my life."

Stephen had wrapped an arm around Loki's waist then, prompting the Asgardian prince to amend his statement, "Until I met you, of course."

Wong turned away but not before he caught the kiss they shared out of the corner of his eyes, and that day, something inside him died.

Once in a while it stirred to life, especially on days Wong happened to impress Loki with his acts of magic, as mediocre as they may be. To get a smile out of Loki (not the ones on his lips, those were mostly fake) but the one you could only see in those bright green eyes, a genuine smile that could light the entire world? Yeah, that was a feat.

A fleeting thought trapped Wong into wondering if Stephen ever learned Loki's laugh lines by heart as Wong had done.

It shamed him beyond belief to discover at that moment just how far he had fallen, to have succumbed to such a juvenile emotion as envy.

But Wong was only human, and a human could not help wanting. He feared he was not far from needing either, a frightening discovery he made when he found heart racing at the mere sight of his best friend emerging from his bedroom one morning.

Was Loki still sleeping, silk sheets clinging to his long, lean body like a second skin?

Was he a light sleeper, fidgeting at every disturbance, or a sound one, who would not feel a lover tracing those precious laugh lines as he slept? Did Loki dream in colours and laughter, or was his sleep riddled with nightmares too?

If it was the latter, then Wong was grateful Loki had Stephen to seek comfort from. Wong would not have been of much use for he could not even escape from his own recurrent nightmare, of Loki engulfed in a ball of fire, his face a rictus of agony while Wong, petrified, stood and watched.

However Loki may have slept, soundly or fitfully, Wong made sure he was ready with some lemon balm tea for when Loki showed up in the kitchen hours later.

"Thank you, my friend," Loki thanked him with a rare smile reserved for Stephen, his Brother, and now Wong.

There was nothing Wong would not do for Loki, he knew that now.

So when a mission gone awry had Loki and Stephen caught in a tug-of-war between life and death, Wong found himself at a crossroads.

"Don't let go!" Loki was yelling, terrified of being the one to let go, but from where Wong was standing, he could see Stephen, his Sorcerer Supreme, his best friend, was slipping. Any second now the eternal fire would claim Stephen's soul for its own.

Knowing Stephen, he would gladly give it if it meant saving the world...even if it meant leaving Loki alone.

Wong stared into the gaping maw before them and at Stephen who was swallowed up to his waist, holding onto Loki by the tips of his fingers.

"Stephen, no!"

The sound of Loki wailing was the last straw. Wong would rather die a thousand deaths than hear such grief again.

But he was hearing something else in Loki's determined roar; Wong knew enough of Loki by now to know what the Trickster God was thinking.

It was no simple dream, Wong's nightmare, but a premonition.

He charged.

"Take me!" He bellowed, "Take me, you son of a bitch!"

"Wong, you fool! What are you doing?!" Loki screamed.

My purpose, Wong thought crazily.

A soul for a soul. Wong, for Stephen.

He cast Loki one last look.

"For you, my friend," he whispered, and leaped into the fire.

#strangefrost #froststrange #loki #doctor strange #stephen strange #fic

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