IronStrange Haven, formerly IronStrangeHQ

“Of course I’m not,” Stephen said. He just barely resisted rolling his eyes. Admittedly, he did understand Tony’s fear. Tony Stark could be a divisive character, and rumors surrounding what had happened in Sokovia probably hadn’t helped that. “Now, where are we going first?”

Tony let out a surprised breath, and Stephen saw Tony’s whole body relax. “Oh.” He took a deep breath. “J liked the sunset. I thought… Well, I thought I’d go to the old mansion around then to…” He closed his eyes for a minute. “I figured I’d go there this evening. But we can get lunch… or something.”

“I could use food,” Stephen admitted. “The chips on the flight aren’t all that filling.”

Tony nodded. “Right. Great. Let’s… do that.”

The drive was mostly silent, and Stephen just watched Tony, trying to match the confident image of Tony Stark with the man he’d been talking to on the phone. Even now, Tony looked more put together than not. He was certainly not drunk, which Stephen appreciated, given he was in the car with him.

They ended up going through drive through at a burger place before Tony parked their car in a parking lot next to a park, in the shade of a tree. 

“How are you feeling?” Stephen asked, though he found he wasn’t sure if that was the right question to start.

Tony stared out the window, silent for a long moment. “Not much,” he said. “Outside of the grief drinking, it’s easier to just… stay numb.”

Stephen nodded, understanding exactly what Tony meant. “What do you need?”

Tony fiddled with the bag, before reaching in and passing Stephen his food, not answering the question.

Stephen didn’t eat yet, deciding it would be better to wait for Tony.

“Tell me more about Jarvis,” Stephen said, when the silence grew a little longer.

“J… Jarvis…” Tony started, then stopped. He sighed. “The reason no one else understands…” He let out a heavy sigh. “J wasn’t human.”

What did that even mean? “What was he?” Stephen asked carefully.

Tony fiddled with the wrapper around his burger. “When I was 19, I coded an AI,” Tony said quietly. “I named him Jarvis, after the family butler who cared for me when I was younger. Just Another Rather Very Intelligent System: JARVIS. Most people saw him as just… computer coding. But he was more than that. I’d coded him to learn and grow. That was his core coding. And he did.”

Stephen wasn’t sure what the right thing to say was. “He was with you for a long time,” Stephen decided on finally.

Tony nodded, eyes glistening just slightly. “When I was 24, I overdosed,” he said quietly. “I was drowning in grief and bad decisions and I just… I didn’t care. When I got out of the hospital, JARVIS…”

He stopped, taking in a heavy breath.

“What did JARVIS do?” Stephen asked gently.

Tony closed his eyes, and he was trembling slightly. “He’d changed his core coding,” he whispered. “He still wanted to learn and grow, of course, but he’d changed his core coding. ‘Protect creator. Designation: sir’.” Tony’s breath came out in a shudder. “I never took drugs again. It took… it took longer to give up on getting blackout drunk, but I got that under control. For the most part at least. JARVIS chose me. And if he hadn’t… If he hadn’t decided to protect creator back then…” Tony’s breath shuddered. “Maybe he wouldn’t have died protecting me now,” he finished, voice quiet. “Maybe I doomed him fifteen years ago.”

"If a person is a point of view,

then to know them well

you have to ask them how they see things" 

~ David Brooks

“The only way to truly know someone

is by being with them, by conversation.” 

~ Eric Overby

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was dark outside, quiet spreading throughout the playground. The soft gentle wind lightly pushing the swings back and forth, the action causing the hinges of the swings to squeak out a scratchy metallic noise that would hurt someone’s ears if the park wasn’t empty. Alas the park was empty in the dead of night, only for it to be interrupted by sound of running feet hitting the ground.

Stephen ran as fast as he could towards the creature. It was fast for a magical creature, but at least he wasn’t chasing after the fastest card in the deck. His lungs were burning from trying to breathe in more air into his lungs as he ran. Despite all the training he’s had his whole entire life, with the magic training and the physical training, his training experience never really prepared him for how fast the cards reacted moved around.

“Move that butt of yours, you slow poke!” Screeched that annoying little plushie that followed Tony around.

“I’m running as fast as I can, you flying stuffed animal!” Screamed Stephen, “You’re the one with the wings, how come you’re slower than me?”

“I’m don’t have full access to my true form, you moron!” Yelled Friday, “If I had my powers back, It wouldn’t take the two of us to go after it!”

The "it" was the cause of all of this running that Stephen was doing now. The "it" that was a rampant Clow Card. The only way for Tony to catch the Card was to have it immobilized and that was left to Stephen and that annoying little plushie.

In a feat of athletic prowess from Stephen and a speedy maneuver from Friday, the two finally managed to subdue the magic creature to the ground. Stephen was a little annoyed when he realized that his favorite shirt was covered in dirt again. It took all of Stephen's strength to keep it from escaping, every time it started to jump jerk in Stephen's arms, he wrapped his arms around it tighter.

"Oi Tony!" shouted Stephen, turning his head a bit in the direction that he could sense Tony in, which was on top of the giant penguin slide, "Get your ass over here and capture this little shit already!"

"Geez relax, dude," responded Tony, "I'm about to here."

Stephen watched as Tony ran to a stop, his body jerked as the creature tried to escape.

"Reclaim the guise you were meant to inhabit."

"CLOW CARD!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Oh shit. Oh shit. Oh shit. Oh shit. Oh shit.

Stephen had to move fast to get to them. Stephen finally understood why Friday was struggling to catch up, the body was too small and weak. He hoped that Friday would be able to at least able pretend being him. Stephen just needed Friday to skip school or something just so that he could coach them on how to act like him. He flew out of the house once he knew the school was out. He flew around time as fast as the tiny little plushie could. He flew into the park, hoping that Friday thought of doing the same thing.

"Hey you jerk!" growled a voice that was both familiar and unfamiliar to Stephen, hearing his voice from another body was so weird and uncomfortable, he needed to get back to his body.

Stephen looked down and found his own body looking up at the sky. He flew down and got close to his body's face.

"Friday, what the fuck is going on?" screeched Stephen, "and were you able to pass as me?"

"Boy, am I glad I found you and I think I managed to pass as you," replied Friday in Stephen's body, "but I think that Tony wasn't fooled at all. Also I finally remembered that there's a limit that Clow Reed put on the Change card…"

"Wait what?" squeaked out Stephen in Friday's body, "what do you mean Tony wasn't fooled at all?"

"Well, kid, he just kept staring at me with a confused look on his face and with his head tilted to the side like dogs do when their confused," answered Friday.

"But how?" asked Stephen, as he floated in the air.

"Wow, Stephen you're smart, but you're dumb as fuck here, kid," snarked Friday, "You and Tony tend to hang out a lot ever since you joined us to capture the cards."

"What do you mean?"

"Seriously do I really have to spell it out to you?" questioned Friday, "You punk, do y'all not feel the vibes between the two of you?"

"STEPHEN VINCENT STRANGE!"

Stephen in Friday's body flew straight into the backpack, with his head peeking out watching as Tony ran towards Stephen's body.

"Uhhhhhhh, he…hey, Tony," greeted Friday in Stephen's body, as they scratched the back of Stephen's head as Tony stopped in front of Stephen.

"You're not fooling me, Friday in Stephen's body, I know Stephen very well and you might have managed to fool everyone, but you didn't fool me," said Tony as he glared at Stephen, "I know how Stephen is so intimately well that I clocked it the minute I walked into class this morning."

"And Stephen I know you're in the backpack," screeched Tony as he glared at Stephen's backpack.

Stephen flew out of the backpack as he looked guiltily at Tony.

"Uhhh hey Tony?" greeted Stephen in a sheepish voice, "Anyways Friday said that Clow put a limit on the Change card?"

"Don't interrupt.." started Tony.

Stephen who had flown closer to Tony turned around and glared at Friday trying to get them to butt in with their new information.

"Oh right, kid, so Clow Reed, when he made the Change card, to make it so no one would take advantage of the card, put a limit where the people who switched bodies have twenty-four hours to change back or they stuck in the bodies they've been swapped into permanently," lecture Friday, "and unfortunately we have twenty minutes left, so kid, if you don't want the vibes to be permanently weird, then you gotta change us back."

Stephen watched as Tony did his magic stuff.

"Oh, Key of Clow, Power of Magic, Power of Light, Surrender the Wand, the force ignite! Release!"

"Oh, Card created by Clow, lend your powers my key!

Transfer the magic dwelling within the card to this key, and grant me your power!"

"Return their souls to their original bodies, Change!"