-Unbetaed so please kindly point out any mistakes.

"Doctor, you need to let go of my hand."

"Sorry." He was about to release Cap's hand when he saw the vision of Cap fighting Thanos.

"Destiny has dire…" Someone covered his mouth. Of course it was Stark.

"That's enough of Doom talk in my party. Are you sure your name is not Doctor Doom? Come on, you're so late for the party."

He pushed Stark's hand away from his mouth, "Did you wash your hand? You just came from the bathroom."

Stark rolled his eyes. "Stating the obvious as usual, I think you're more of a Watson than a Sherlock. Of course I've washed my hands. Jarvis didn't raise no fool."

"Jarvis?"

"Yes, my parents died so Jarvis practically raised me." Stark walked quickly ahead.

Cap followed. "Tony, I know it's still a sore point for you. We need to talk."

"Later, Cap. Party awaits."

Stephen looked at Peter. "What's that all about?"

He shrugged. "It's complicated. I only know part of the story anyway. What kind of magic do you do? What number am I thinking?"

Stephen knew Peter changed the subject abruptly but it was not his place to pry.

"You're not thinking of numbers, you're thinking of flapjacks."

Peter squeaked. "I wasn't."

Stephen raised his left eyebrow.

"OK, I totally was. How cool is that? So do you know telepathy? Or do you have foresight?"

"I've dabbled in both."

Peter covered his face with his hands. "Oh, no, so you totally know all my secrets."

Stephen smiled. "I don't. I usually honour people's privacy unless a life is at stake. Besides your secret is with me, trust me, I'm a doctor." He winked and quickened his pace.

Peter ran to catch up. "Wait? Like the Doctor Doctor? Not like the Doctor in Doctor Who?"

"Who?"

"Exactly. Doctor Who."

"Who?"

"The Doctor in the show Doctor Who."

"Who?"

Peter groaned. "I really don't know how to explain it."

Stephen ruffled Peter's hair. "I was messing with you. I know Doctor Who. Have been a big fan in fact."

"That's so not cool. I mean the messing with me part but it's cool that you're a Doctor Who fan. You still haven't answered me. What kind of doctor are you?"

"The medical one and also the PhD one."

Peter's eyes widened comically. "Wow, cool. I know I've been using cool a lot lately but I do know more vocabulary."

"You don't need to explain, kid."

They turned a corner and arrived at the party.

Stark quickly announced, "Here is the magician, Doctor Strange, the Expresso Supreme. Strange is his actual name, not a nickname."

Stephen quickly corrected. "Sorcerer Supreme although I'm the acting Sorcerer Supreme, not the official one yet. There's a tournament for that."

"Yeah, whatever, he is of course fashionably late. Not that his robe is in fashion. Perhaps back in the 18th century. But anyway, he knows all about the Infinity Stones and Thanos. But before we talked about that, perhaps you can introduce yourself and mingle a bit first."

Peter added, "And he is a real doctor too, the medical one and also the PhD one."

A female voice from the back said, "Another white boy doctor? What's the obsession with doctorates in this room? Doctor Banner, how many doctorates do you have? Doctor Stark, how about you?"

Another voice quickly chimed in. "Please forgive my sister, Shuri, she is brilliant but she never shuts up. I'm T'challa."

T'challa and Shuri went forward to shake Stephen's hand.

Peter whispered at Stephen's ear. "He is the new king of Wakanda. His made-up name is Black Panther. Shuri is super genius."

Stephen looked at T'challa. "Should I bow?"

"You don't need to."

Shuri looked at Stephen's shaking hands. "I think Wakandan medicine might be able to fix those if you want."

There was a surge of hope in his chest but then Stephen remembered that he had chosen different path for the rest of his life. "Thank you for the offer. These scars serve as a reminder who I used to be."

"White people are so strange." She seemed to be so proud of her pun.

T'challa quickly dragged his sister away. "Please excuse us, there is a canapé with your name on it."

Stephen could still hear Shuri's voice saying that she was 90% sure she could heal him. Bless her heart.

Peter still lingered nearby.

Thor went forward and clasped Stephen's shoulders. "Sorcerer Doctor Strange, I'm glad you can meet my friends from work."

"Brother, it's not called work if you don't get paid." Of course Loki was with Thor. The God of Mischief hissed at Stephen. "I can't say it's a pleasure to see you again, second rate sorcerer."

"Brother, please be polite. Do you want to fall for thirty minutes again? We need to work together even if we don't get paid."

"Why? They are idiots."

"Because we are the idiots who live in it." A man came forward and shook Stephen's hand. "I'm Star Lord."

Peter added, "And his real name is Peter Quill. He is half human, half planet. How cool is that? " He scrunched his forehead. "I'm not sure how it works biologically."

Stephen said, "Life finds a way. You're too young to know about it anyway." Not that he himself had any clue.

"I'm fifteen! Will be sixteen in two months' time."

"Terrans are so preoccupied with ages and numbers. I'm Drax. I'm with Peter. The tall Peter. We're the Guardians of the Galaxy." A very muscular man without any shirt came forward and shook Stephen's hand.

"Do you really guard the galaxy?" The smaller Peter asked. "From who?"

"Every threat in the galaxy." Drax puffed up his chest. "My reflexes are really fast."

"So you claim but I could kick your ass anytime." A green woman came forward. "Please ignore these idiots. I'm Gamora. I guess you've my heard of my father, Thanos."

"Thanos is your father?!" Peter asked.

"Well, he adopted me."

Thor clasped Loki's shoulder. "Just like you brother, except you're blue and she's green."

Loki literally face palmed. "Just how much drink do you have, my adopted brother?"

"I can't get drunk from Midgardian ales. I'm just so happy we can all be here together."

Gamora dragged a blue woman to come forward. "This is Nebula. My sister, well adopted sister. Both of us were adopted by Thanos. We hate Thanos so we'll do anything to help you."

Nebula hissed. "I said I'm going to help you, sister, but I don't want to mingle with Terrans. I hate everything."

Thor added, "Loki, she is just like you and she is blue too."

It was Loki's turn to hiss. He came forward and asked Nebula, "Do you want to get away from here and plot our siblings' demise together?"

Nebula shrugged. "Sure. Anything to get away from here." She waved her hands around to include all of them.

They both left.

Stephen asked, "Are you sure it's OK for them to plot together?"

Thor shrugged. "It's fine. Loki always plots my demise every Tuesday and Friday."

Gamora also shrugged. "Nebula does that every Monday and Thursday."

Stephen shook his head. If only he still had his siblings…

A woman with antennas in her head came forward and shook his hand, "I'm Mantis. Wow, Doctor Strange, you have so much sadness and loneliness in you. You miss your siblings and family. You also worry a lot about Thanos and other threats. Everything will be OK."

"I'm not.."

She quickly put her hand at his neck, suddenly Stephen felt like heavy weighs had been lifted from his chest and he felt reliefs. Some happy tears came out of his eyes and couldn't control it. He felt light headed. Luckily Peter quickly came by and supported him.

Mantis quickly released her hold. "I'm sorry, I must 've used too much of my power on you but your sadness is so great."

At that time Stark came by, "Strange, already crying because of a girl. How Espresso Supreme of you! Earth is so doomed."

Stephen drew some deep breaths and used his calming techniques to release the left over influence from Mantis. She must be an empath. "Don't you have anything else to do? Like marketing the Stark Raving Hazelnut that you claimed Ben and Jerry named after you?"

Stark put his hands in his heart. "Stephen, I told you in confidence. How could you?"

"Who's Stephen?" The small Peter asked.

Stark pointed at Stephen. "He is Stephen. Well, his name is Stephen Vincent Strange but he tends to ask people to call him Doctor Strange for same reason. Overcompensating perhaps?"

Before Stephen could retort, a racoon carrying a big gun came over. Stephen had seen so many interdimensional weird creatures and monsters lately so a talking racoon was merely a blib on his radar. "You Terrans are so boring and tedious. Of course you like to overcompensate." The racoon looked at a metallic arm that belonged to a guy standing next to Cap at the far side of the room. "Oh, I need that man's arm." The racoon quickly strolled away toward Cap.

Peter added, "That was Rocket. Don't call him racoon. Somehow it's offensive. Hang on, if Rocket is here, where is Groot?"

At that time, a walking tree came forward and said, "I'm Groot."

"I'm Doctor Strange."

"Stephen Strange," Tony chimed in.

"I'm Groot."

"Nice to meet you, too. Yes, I know Rocket doesn't really need that arm."

"I'm Groot."

"You need to ask Stark to buy you the Stark Raving Hazelnut. I'm sure he has a lot of stocks because it's named after him. Overcompensating."

Star Lord stared at Stephen. "Do you genuinely understand what Groot was saying?"

"Of course. How do you understand Groot?"

"We use this comm device that could translate aliens' language. How do you understand?"

"I often travel to other dimensions so I use spells to that can automatically translate any language to English."

Peter Quill whistled. Peter Parker looked star struck.

Stark was annoyed that he was not the center of attention anymore. "Let's have some refreshment. All those crying and multidimensional translating must have made you hungry."

Stephen wanted to deny it but he was actually famished. He couldn't remember the last time he ate. "I agree."

Stark said, "That's a first."

Peter Parker breathed a sigh of relief. "Finally! It's like watching a tennis match between two awesome dads with goatees." He realized what he just said and turned beet red. "I saw some flapjacks with my name on it over there. Ciao."

Stark smiled. "He's a good kid."

Stephen nodded. "I agree."

Stark quickly said, "That doesn't mean anything. We're not together together and your fashion sense is still terrible."

"When pigs fly then we can be together in whatever sense you meant." Stephen pondered a bit. "Actually, I've seen blue pigs that can fly in the Realm of Asdionueous so that's a terrible analogy. And your sense of humor is still terrible."

"Hey, boys. Having fun?" A blond woman who Stephen knew was Black Widow approached and gave a little hand wave.

Tony squeaked. "I've seen her reduced ten men twice her size to tears after she spoke that phrase. Strange, if you value for your life, run." He heeded his own advice and ran to the food table.

That left Stephen stood awkwardly with Natasha. He didn't even realize the rest of the Avengers, including the young Peter, and Guardians had gone elsewhere. He extended his right hand. "Uh, hi, I'm Doctor Stephen Strange. You must be the esteemed Black Widow."

Black Widow shook his hand and smiled. "A pleasure to finally meet you. You can call me Natasha. Tony has been raving about you after he returned from your place yesterday. Well, in his own way. He complained a lot about you which meant he likes you. Are you not going to run like Tony?"

"Won't you be able to catch up with me if you put your mind to it?"

Natasha showed more of her teeth as she released his hand. "You're smarter than you look and definitely has a better sense of self-preservation compared to Tony. Let's eat. I'm not scary if you don't do anything wrong."

Stephen had heard how scary she could be but wisely kept it to himself. He followed her lead.

Tony certainly knew how to throw a party. The food available in the party could feed the whole Kamar-Taj and some neighbouring area for one whole month. At least he provided some vegan choices that Stephen approved.

As he was picking up some food, a man approached him and extended his hand. Stephen put his plate down and shook his hand. "Hi, I'm Scott Lang. My made-up name is Ant-Man. You must be the magic guy, Doctor Strange."

Stephen smirked. Peter must have told everyone he met about their encounter. He immediately liked Lang, he seemed to such a genuine person. "I dabbled in Mystic Arts. You can call me Stephen. So what does Ant-Man do? Do you actually know how to control ants?"

"Sort of, I could communicate with ants. I could also shrink to their sizes or grew much larger than normal human. I could also travel to Quantum Realm although that was mostly by accident."

"Quantum Realm? I've been there. Your powers are actually very interesting and different from the rest of them. How do you shrink and expand yourself? Is Hank Pym involved?"

"You've heard of Hank Pym?!"

"Of course. I was interested in his research. I think shrinking some equipment might be handy for some neurological operations."

Scott slapped his own forehead. "I keep forgetting that you're an actual doctor. Hank is the one creating the Pym Particles to shrink and expand things."

A blond man in purple shirt came to pick up some pizzas. "Scott, let the good Doctor eat." He extended his hand at Stephen. "I'm Clint Barton. You can call me Clint. I'm…"

"Hawkeye." Stephen answered. "I know the original Avengers. Well, at least by name. Not personally."

Clint whistled. "And I thought I was the most obscure Avengers. I think most of the Avengers PR team forget about me."

"Well, you saved New York. I heard a lot of your heroic efforts during the Chitauri invasion when I was at the hospital. At least you reduced my workload."

Clint seemed to glow at his praise.

Natasha approached and shook her head. "Clint, you're as bad as Scott. Let Doctor Strange eat."

She stirred Stephen toward Cap's table. She winked at him. "I heard you're a big fan of Cap so you can have a heart-to-heart with him."

Before Stephen could respond, they had arrived.

The man with the metal arm sat next to Steve Rogers while a man with an easy smile glared at the man with the metal arm. "This was my seat. I just went to pick up some juices and you took my seat. Move."

The man with the metal arm smirked. "No, you move."

Cap stood up. "I think this might take a while. Bucky, why don't you take my seat so you and Sam can glare at each other more conveniently? Doctor Strange, please forgive my friends' behaviour. This is Bucky Barnes, my oldest friend."

Bucky shook Stephen's hand. "Nice to meet you, Doctor Strange but I have to maintain my position here so we'll talk later." He returned to glare at Sam.

Cap shook his head. "And the other childish guy is Sam Wilson. He is very loyal and he helped me through my tough time."

Sam smiled and shook Stephen's hand. "A pleasure, Doctor Strange but please excuse me, I need to put the Winter Soldier at his place. We'll talk later." He quickly sat next to Bucky and stole Bucky's pizza.

Cap smiled. "I thought the so called Civil War is between Tony and I but it seems we have mini civil wars among ourselves too. Doctor, I heard you have some questions for me." He stirred Stephen to sit at a corner table.

"Uhm…" Stephen said intelligently.

"About why I asked Tony to recruit you instead of myself?"

"Oh, that. Why?"

"Tony has been down lately and I feel that he needs a win. I asked him to recruit you. I heard that you are quite snarky. I'm sure you'll rise to the challenge when you hear his snarks. Then you'll be intrigued to check us out and hopefully join us which will be great and Tony will feel like he succeeds in something. I'm sure you two will get along like a house on fire."

"I didn't know that Captain America could be so devious. It never appeared in any textbook."

Steve smiled beatifically. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Cap looked so innocent that Stephen wondered that he might have heard the whole thing wrong. But he had an eidetic memory so what Cap said was still fresh in his mind. He shook his head. "Never mind. Your strategy might work. However, anyone recruiting would be fine as long as they know about the stones. I'm also interested in Wanda's powers. If we train her, she could reach her full potential. Having said that, I do enjoy bantering with Stark so thanks."

"I heard that. You like me." Of course Stark chose that time to saunter along.

Steve smiled apologetically. How could that man have so many types of smiles? "Yes, sounds really carry around here so we don't usually talk personal stuffs at this corner. But it's good that you like each other."

Stephen suspected that Cap brought him to this corner on purpose.

Stark said, "I didn't say I liked him though."

"Tony, we are not in preschools." The voice was coming from a tall man who followed Tony. He extended his hand to Stephen. "Colonel James Rhodes."

"Doctor Stephen Strange. I'm sorry about your accident."

"Thank you. I'm fine now. Thanks to Shuri. She is a gem."

Tony nodded. "Yup. She scoffed when I asked whether she was interested to be an intern here. She said she had more funding in Wakanda and the technology here was so outdated. If she were not so smart and classy, I'd have been offended."

The colonel clasped Tony's shoulders. "I know you're enamoured by her. We all are. I think your Peter is also smitten by her."

"He is not my Peter."

Spider-Man yelled from the far corner. "And I'm not smitten by her."

Shuri who was standing next to Parker said, "You totally are. It's so cute when you blush. Let's science together. Well, as soon as this meeting is over."

At that time, a man came to join Tony. "I think they stole our line." He extended his hand at Stephen. "Hi, I'm Bruce Banner. You must be Doctor Stephen Strange that Tony has been raving about."

Stephen shook his hand. "Doctor Bruce Banner, it's an honour to meet you."

Tony pouted. "I totally haven't. Strange's inflated head doesn't need any more boost. Gandalf, you have met everyone. We should have the meeting."

Stephen hadn't finished his dinner with so much interruption but he didn't mind. Duty was more important.

In the meeting, he was surprised that most of them had been in contact with one or two infinity stones. Perhaps they were not so clueless after all.

Stark, Banner, Peter Parker, Shuri, and Rocket would work together to build anything to strengthen their defence system. Thor, Loki, Stephen, and the Guardians would go to collect or safeguard the rest of the stones that were not on Earth. Cap and Black Widow would strategize and train the rest of the team for upcoming battles.

Stephen asked Cap after the meeting about how they were going to defeat Thanos who was much more powerful than any of the enemies they had encountered.

Cap smiled and said, "Together."

Well, no matter what the outcome of the war was, Stephen felt for the first time that he was not alone. There were other people who fought the good fight along with him. He felt a surge of hope rising in his chest. Sophie seemed to agree as she caressed his face.

Notes:

-And they all live happily ever after and they snark, banter, and fight for parenting Shuri and Peter Parker.
-Most of my stories were written before any Infinity War promos were out so I was surprised that Tony and Stark interacted a lot like I expected. I love their banters in all the promos. Stephen didn't really talk using archaic words here :) Of course a lot of their meetings or interactions here were different from the promos but eh it's an AU :)
-This story didn't turn out like I planned but since I'm going to watch Infinity War tomorrow, I'd better publish this before I watch it. I can't include all characters like Okoye and M'baku whom I really enjoy. I'm sure I miss a lot of other characters as well. (Feel free to discuss the movie with me once you've watched it. I heard it's actually the first part of two movies so there is a big cliffhanger at the end.)

-Forgot to add, the line about flapjack was taken verbatim from the animated series "Ultimate Spider-Man" when Peter first met Doctor Strange.