Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

"We should go." Wong said one morning, fiddling with his phone over his cereal.

"What? To my parent's place for Thanksgiving dinner? Uh, no. Not happening." Stephen said, downing his tea in one go. He stood up to put the now empty cup in the sink.

"It will be good. You can take a break from the duties of Sorcerer Supreme and mend relationships with your parents."

"I haven't event talked with my mom in 15 years!" Stephen complained.

"Besides," Wong continued, "the invitation said to bring friends. From what you have told me, your mother won't take no for an answer so we will be there. Not only that, but you can introduce me to your parents." Wong said matter-of-factly.

The other sorcerer was right, Beverly Strange would not take no for an answer. And neither would Wong, apparently.

"We.... don't have to go in...?" Stephen muttered, glaring at the doorbell.

"Yes we do. You promised." Wong said.

Stephen sighed. "I was dragged here against my will?"

"You summoned the portal." Wong noted smugly.

"Ugh, fine. You win."

Stephen bit his lip and pressed the doorbell.

Suddenly, the door flew open and Stephen was engulfed in a massive hug.

"Stephy!! You came! Come in, come in- Oh, you brought friends!" Beverly Strange, Stephen's mother, nearly shouted as she ushered them in and helped them take their coats off. Stephen looked around the room as he gently tugged on the sleeve of the Cloak, disguised as a red parka coat. His entire family was gathered in the living room. Eugene Strange sat in an arm chair, trying and failing to watch what he assumed to be a rerun of a thanksgiving football game. Beverly was fussing over them while Donna and Victor, now 37 and 29, respectively, squabbled in the living room while their kids (they had kids?) ran around the living room.

"Stephy's here!" Beverly cried and a rush of family members came from the kitchen. Stephen recognized most of them (most of them being Braidynn, Beatrice and Chad, Barbara, Eleanor, Mary, John, and Joseph, but Joseph was wearing a trans pin so Stephen figured their name wasn't Joseph anymore), but the children he had a harder time placing. He at least recognized two little twins that seemed to belong to Braidynn, but not the woman with her arm around Braidynn's waist. Bea was familiar, they had grown up together, and so was Jack, but Donna's kids and the man next to her were unfamiliar. The eldest looked to be almost 15.

"Hey, Stephen!" Stephen turned to see Joseph.

"Hey, uh- she/her, right?" Stephen eventually asked.

Joseph grinned. "She/they, actually, and the name's Ginger."

"Ah. Nice to meet you, Ginger. This is my boyfriend, Wong." Wong was distracted with a little boy who looked to be around 6, but his hand was still clasped in Stephen.

"That's wonderful! He seems a little busy at the moment, but I'll definitely introduce myself later." Ginger smiled again then walked back into the kitchen where most of the children had run off to. Stephen assumed it was to wrangle the four year old that had just squeezed past his sister.

"Stephen, come sit down! Tell us about your friends!" Beverly exclaimed, leading Stephen to a familiar brown couch and shooing a pair of guys off. Stephen vaguely recognized one of them as Samuel, Donna's husband going by the matching rings and the way he looked at her with heart eyes.

Suddenly, the room fell silent. Stephen froze. Well, uh-"

"My name is Wong. I am Stephen's boyfriend. Behind us is the Ancient One, but Stephen's family may call her Yao."

Stephen barely restrained himself from whirling around and glaring at Yao. Mostly because she wasn't there when Beverly let him and Wong in.

"Yeah, uh. Yeah. What Wong said. Wong, Yao, this is my family. There's a lot of them and... some I haven't met. It's been a long few years, am I right?" Some of the family nervously chuckled, but the sudden announcement of dinner being ready quickly dispelled the awkwardness.

If Stephen didn't know that his parents had never encountered real magic in their lives, he would have assumed they had managed to cast a spell that somehow fit all 27 of them at the family dinner table. Stephen really had no idea how his mom made that all work, but he decided not to break his brain over it.

Finally, when they all sat down and began to say grace, Stephen had a chance to look everyone over. He himself was in a pair of nice blue jeans that Wong said accentuated his ass nicely and a form fitting black shirt that, according to Wong (again), showed off his hard-earned muscles. Wong himself had taken a lot of convincing to actually change out of his robes, but when he did, he wore a pair of black jeans with an olive green short-sleeve shirt and a black vest that, despite Stephen's protests, actually looked really good on the other man. Yao was wearing a light blue skirt with a beige top and matching heels. Which, honestly, Stephen had never seen her dress up (or down) before and he had to admit that she looked good.

Everyone at the table wore some variations of casual clothes that Stephen found himself wondering why it felt off until he remembered how used he had become to wearing his robes.

"Amen." Beverly said. Stephen blinked and dropped Yao and Wong's respective hands. "Before we get started, why don't we go around the table and introduce ourselves for Stephy's friends! Now that we're all here and all."

Stephen sighed but stayed silent as his mom continued. "I'm Beverly. I'm Stephen's mom. Yao, right? Yao, why don't you go next?"

Yao, on Beverly's right smiled. "Of course. My name is Yao. I'm Stephen's..."

"Mentor. At the... institute I work at." Stephen announced. Yao frowned slightly, but thankfully didn't say anything.

"Yes, that. Wong?" Yao asked, gesturing over Stephen to Wong, sitting quietly on Stephen's right.

"I am Wong, Stephen's boyfriend. It is a pleasure to meet you all. Beverly, your son is incredible and I love him very much." Beverly cooed, but Victor jumped in before it could escalate.

"Name's Victor. Stephen's brother." Victor nudged Wong with his shoulder and Stephen rolled his eyes.

"Vicky, don't molest my boyfriend." Stephen groaned.

"I barely touched him, Stephanie!" Victor protested.

"I'm Chad. One of the uncles. This is Beatrice, my wife, our daughter Bea, and Bea's family." Chad cut in before Stephen and Victor could rekindle their sibling rivalry.

And so it contined. The line of relatives stretched on and on, a few of them Stephen had never met. To Chad's right sat Beatrice, Stephen's aunt and to her right was Stephen's cousin, Bea. Bea's husband was named Luke and they had a 6 year-old son named Sam. Braidynn sat with her wife, Lucy, next to their adopted twin daughters, Lynn and Jane. Eleanor sat next to the 8-year-old twins. Barbara sat on Eleanor's right, a bowl of mashed potatoes balancing precariously on the corner between them. Ginger was sandwitched between Barbara and Jack, John and Mary's 20-year old son. Between John and Donna sat Donna's young family. Their names were Tommy (8), Stephen (14), Lillian (15), and their father, Samuel. Stephen totally did not tear up when he realized that he had missed the growth of his little sister's family. He squeezed Wong's hand under the table and made a vow to himself that he would be there for Donna's kids, no matter what.

Next to Donna's little family was Stephen's grandfather on his mom's side, John Hanson, and finally Stephen's father, Eugene.

"It's been a pleasure to meet all of you." Yao finally said after introductions were over and dinner had finally began.

"It's wonderful to meet you too! Now, I'm sorry I haven't asked earlier, but I didn't think Stephy would bring anybody-" ouch, mom, "but are you two allergic to anything?"

Yao shook her head, but Wong nodded. "Shellfish."

Beverly nodded. "Stay away from the steamed muscles, then. Did you know that Stephy's allergic to tuna?"

Stephen flushed, reaching for the pot of green beans. Wong glared at him. "You said you weren't allergic to anything!"

Stephen rolled his eyes. "I'm not! I just--"

"No, Stephen's allergic. He gets this nasty little hives all over his body when he eats it. Found that out when he was nine." If Stephen hadn't made Wong promise not to use magic before they came, he would have portalled the hell out of there. If only to escape Wong's stern lecture.

"If you're allergic, why do you insist of tuna melts every Wednesday?"

"Wong--"

"Nope, don't answer that, I'll text the-"

"Can we talk about this later. Please?" Stephen asked, tugging on the bottom of Wong's waistcoat. Wong sighed and put his phone down.

"Fine." Wong sighed. "But you will not be eating any more tuna. Understood?" Wong asked. Stephen was grateful that most of his family was preoccupied with dinner to notice what was happening.

"Understood. I'm sorry for not telling you."

"It's okay." Wong said, then kissed him.

The younger Stephen, from across the table giggled as his sister pretended to gag.

"Stephen!" Donna scolded. Stephen broke the kiss and looked over at his sister confused. Sure, she wasn't fond of him dating while they were in high school and he could understand, he didn't want to see his siblings kissing another person. When they were kids, at least-

"What?" Stephen groaned, only to realize that Donna was glaring at her son. 

"Stephen, eat your beans- no, you can't have any pie until you finish your beans. And Lillian, respect your uncle." Lillian rolled her eyes and shoveled a forkful of candied yams into her mouth as Wong huffed out a laugh.

"Reminds me of when Jericho was at Kamar-Taj full time before he left for New Orleans and he was assigned Jordyn Jericho as an Apprentice. No one knew who they were talking too when they both responded." Yao mused, much to the laughter of most of the family.

"So, Stephen," Ginger asked from the other end of the table.

"Yes?" Stephen asked, setting down his fork and rubbing out as much of the knots as he could while Ginger talked.

"Where have you been all these years? I kept up with most of your neuroscience stuff, I mean, I didn't understand a lot of it but it was pretty cool, and then you just... disappeared. What happened?" Stephen liked Ginger, she was his favorite uncle growing up and he admired the way she was so open about her gender. She also helped him understand himself and was the first person to accept him when he came out and gay. Stephen also admired how she always asked the difficult questions that no one wanted to deal with while being sensitive about it. For some reason, Stephen felt himself wanting to explain his story because he knew that Ginger would understand.

"Well, uh, I got into an accident. Distracted driving-" Stephen pointed at Lillian, his hands shaking slightly. "don't ever text and drive, Lillian, you understand?" Lillian nodded and one of Donna's boys laughed again. "It ruined my career and after a bit, I started working at the Institute. I'm now the, uh... boss."

Ginger opened their mouth to say something, but Tommy beat her to it. "Is that why your hands are all shaky and gross?"

"Tommy!" Donna gasped as Stephen glanced at Wong. He quickly hid his hands beneath the table and closed his eyes, taking a few deep breaths. Yao reached over and took his wrist. There were a few second of Yao's warm magic tingling through his hands before Stephen felt a wave of peace wash over him. Tommy's blunt question had forced Stephen to focus on the chronic pain coursing through his hands. Today had been a good day, but in just a few words, it was another bad day.

Stephen swallowed. His old room was just around the corner. If he excused himself to go to the bathroom, he could hide in his childhood bedroom and portal to Kamar-Taj and- "Yes." He found himself saying. "The accident hurt my hands and now I have permanent nerve damage and chronic pain. I had to relearn all of my fine motor skills and sometimes, on bad days, Wong has to do everything for me because I can't do it myself."

"Like going pee-pee? And eating?" Tommy asked.

Donna's face was bright red but Stephen, for some reason, remained calm. He figured he owed it to Yao's calming spell. "Yes. Like going to the bathroom. That doesn't happen very often anymore. Eating is more difficult and sometimes Wong has to feed me. Like how your mama feeds you sometimes?" Tommy nodded enthusiastically. "It's just like that. Does that make sense?"

Tommy nodded and Stephen smiled in relief. Wong rubbed his back and Yao let go of his wrist. The spell eventually wore off and before he knew it, the whole incident had been blown over and the family was laughing and conversing and complimenting his mother on the amazing food. The meal really was delicious, and Wong stayed away from the steamed muscles. There was a close incident where Victor had put a muscle on Wong's plate as a "joke" and Stephen had just barely managed to warn his boyfriend before his habit of eating whatever was in front of him caused a serious problem. Beverly took Victor out of the room and scolded him. Victor came back to the table, muttered an apology to both Stephen and Wong, and sulked for the rest of dinner.

Then the pies came out and Victor was cracking jokes again like nothing had happened. There were cherry, apple, pecan, and peach pies scattered around the table, surrounded by tubs of ice cream. Stephen and Wong's favorite, Hunka Hulka Burning Fudge, was in front of them and Wong dished him and Stephen up. Eugene was just passing the half empty dish of Stephen's favorite pie (homemade pecan) when something beeped. Loudly. It took Stephen a few moments to realize that it was a sound specific to Yao when Kamar-Taj needed her attention, similar to the way Stephen went cross-eyed whenever the Sanctum needed his attention. It took him another few seconds and a double take of the table to realize that the sound was only audible to trained magic users.

Yao frowned and excused herself, her heels clicking softly in the hall. Her cherry pie was left untouched, the vanilla ice cream beginning to melt and soak into the crust. When she came back, her frown had deepened. "Master Strange," she hissed, her cold hand resting on his shoulder as she leaned forward to whisper in his ear. Stephen set down his fork. He knew it was serious when she called him by his title, especially at a family event. It also signaled that it was 'work related'. "Master Strange, Mister Stark is outside. There has been an emergency with a group of rogue Sorcerers that have managed to avoid capture. Hee is afraid that the group is looking for you."

Stephen and Wong both froze. The family began to sense the disturbance, forks dropping in a wave. "What group? What are we looking at?"

Yao took a deep breath. "Mordo."

Chapter Text

"Mister Stark called a few minutes ago to let us know what he knew, and Mordo just arrived."

"What do you mean, Mordo's here?" Stephen hissed, almost ignoring the mention of Stark.

"I... set up wards around your mother's house." At least Yao had the sense to look slightly guilty, not that Stephen was paying it any attention at the moment, "and Mordo has broken them."

"Shit." Stephen pushed Yao away from him and stood up. His family, all their eyes once again on him, watched. "Where is he and what are his intentions with my family."

"I asked, but he refused to answer. His mind has become stronger, strong enough to resist my intrusions." Stephen sucked in a breath.

"How far out do the wards go?"

"A mile."

Stephen nodded, then addressed the rest of the family. "Stay here, all of you. The three of us have some... business to attend to."

Wong looked up at him and nodded, standing up. For a second, he looked forlornly at his half-finished pie before following Stephen to the front door. Stephen opened the door, expecting to half to walk at least half a mile to meet Mordo. He didn't expect the rogue Sorcerer to be right in front of him, standing on the doorstep, his arm raised to knock.

Mordo's face split into a grin before Stephen had a chance to react. "Hello, Strange."

"Mordo."

"Happy Thanksgiving. I heard your mother has excellent home-baked pies. May I come in?"

"Absolutely not."

"That's a shame." Mordo sighed, running a handover his short, black hair.

Stephen waited for Mordo to say anything, to do anything, but the silence stretched on. 

"What do you want, Mordo?" Stephen finally asked.

The rogue's grin broadened slightly. "Well, I'm glad you asked. I was going to find you at Kamar-Taj, but you weren't there. Our little Miss Chavez told me that you were here," Mordo waved his hand around the house, "celebrating Thanksgiving with your family."

Stephen froze. He knew it was a bad idea to leave America at Kamar-Taj-- "I did not hurt her. I told her I was, well, a friend of yours. That seemed to calm her down."

"How did she know where--"

"She did not. I, however, am a powerful Sorcerer. I have my means." Mordo explained.

Stephen huffed, then stepped out onto his mother's porch. In one movement, he closed the door behind him and shifted into his robes. "You may be a powerful sorcerer, Mordo," Stephen said, "but you will not harm my family."

"Well," Mordo stepped forward until he was nearly chest to chest with Stephen, "If that's what it takes."

"Absolutely not." Stephen all but growled.

Mordo threw the first spell, but before it the magic could hit Stephen, it was deflected by a shield Wong had conjured. Stephen countered Mordo's magic, his own thrumming through him. It only took a few well-placed spells and a scrape or two for Stephen to get Mordo trapped and sent to a cell beneath Kamar-Taj to deal with later. Afterwards, Stephen thought that it was almost too easy for him to beat Mordo, almost as if Mordo was off his game, but Stephen decided not to question it -- especially when Stephen turned around after the short fight, slightly out of breath, to see his family staring at him. Or at least, Beverly, his siblings, and a few kids that Donna was trying to herd back inside. 

"What was that? Who was that man?" Beverly asked. Stephen winced, then smiled slyly when he realized he couldn't exactly explain himself out of this one.

"Well, Ma, you always said you wanted a bit of Thanksgiving magic here and there."

Beverly just laughed.