Warning: Unbetaed, also being more serious than the previous chapter.

Stephen did the most logical thing he could think of. He entered the astral plane (he never said it was a brilliant move). He made his astral body invisible and flew through the front door to check on Steve Rogers. Captain American seemed to be at the peak of good health so it was unlikely he came here just to complain about his non-existent illness. Of course it was not a solid proof because most the Avengers looked healthy until they saw him. Would he want to risk it? From what he'd heard so far, Captain America was always true to his word so he was willing to take a chance.

He returned to his physical body, stood up, opened the door, and feigned surprises. "Captain Rogers, it was nice of you to drop by. Please come in."

Steve smiled brightly as he stepped through the door. "As I've always insisted, please call me Steve. It's good to see you too. I thought you were not willing to see the Avengers."

He tried his best to look affronted. "What gave you the impression?" He really didn't want to recount the numerous times the Avengers tried to confront him. It'd make him look paranoid. "Tea?" he offered his guest as they were seated in the lounge. Well, the room might initially be intended for another use but for now he would treat it as the lounge.

"Yes, please, milk and no sugar."

He teleported the cups from the kitchen and filled it with tea automatically. Actually he had brewed the tea this morning and just transferred the content to the cups via magic to make it look like that the tea appeared out of thin air.

Steve Rogers seemed to be in awe of that. "I'm never used to this twenty first century. First, aliens are real. Then there were killer robots and evil artificial intelligence. Now, even magic is real." Steve sipped his tea and nodded appreciatively.

Stephen released a breath that he didn't realize he had been holding. "Actually magic has always been around. We were just not aware of it. Even I was just made aware of it recently."

"Oh yes, you're actually quite new in this superheroes world. How does it feel?"

He fidgeted. "I don't think of myself as a superhero. I don't have any superstrength, superspeed, or super something. I'm just a human who has these skills by learning. Everyone could do that."

Steve smiled. "I could assure you that not every could. Not everyone has the patience. Could you imagine Tony Stark learning spells? Or Bruce Banner? Well, Bruce might have the patience but he might set Hulk off accidentally."

They both shuddered.

"Well, to be fair to Stark, he created a lot of experiments so he has the patience. It's just his mind refuses to believe in magic."

Steve looked him up and down. "I thought you'd say something different. I heard you were quite arrogant. Not that I mind about it personally. I'm so used to Tony so anyone who could snark back at Tony is fine by me."

Stephen felt his cheeks getting warm. "Oh, I can assure you I'm still arrogant. Wong and Christine have been telling me about that constantly. I just try to tone it down when I remember. "

"Is that because I'm Captain America so you don't want to make yourself look bad?"

His cheeks were definitely warm now. He merely nodded.

Steve laughed. "I don't know that I'm that scary."

"No, it's not that. You've been my childhood hero. It's not everyday people gets to meet their childhood hero. The way you sacrificed yourself to save the northern hemisphere left quite a deep impression for me. To finally hear you were back to life was quite something."

"Hmm, I get that a lot. I can assure you I'm just a regular guy."

"Yes, with superhealing, superstrength and quite impressive range of skills. I heard you have an eidetic memory as well." He chided himself as he couldn't stop being a fanboy.

"Stephen, all those powers don't matter. A man told me once the important thing is to always be a good man. All those powers are secondary. You're not so bad yourself. I heard what you did in Hong Kong and the way you defeated Dormammu was impressive. Not everyone could think of that method—suffering for eternity for a greater good. That's definitely the sign of a hero. And you have all those powers, even they are by learning, so you're still a superhero in my book."

Stephen remembered all the patients he rejected because they wouldn't bring him fame and fortune. He also remembered what The Ancient One told him in her dying breath. "Uh, yes, I haven't always been like that. I'm ashamed to admit that I'd still be a selfish person if it were not because of my accident. Even then I was still selfish until my teacher told me that it was not about me in her dying breath."

Steve raised his cup. "To our dying mentors." He felt a heavy lump in his throat as they toasted. "To our dying mentors."

Steve cleared his throat. "Doctor Strange, I know you still carry a lot of guilt for what you did in the past. Although it sounds heartless, but you never harm anyone on purpose so you were never a bad person, just might not be the nicest one. Even some of the Avengers don't have the brightest past. What's important is what you would do with the powers you have now. I think you've gone down the right path. Besides, I heard that you still try to keep the Hippocratic Oath. It's quite impressive by itself, not every hero tries not to harm his or her enemy."

The sorcerer was left speechless. Not everyone got complimented by their childhood hero. After a few seconds, he regained his power of speech. "Thanks, coming from you, it means a lot to me."

"You're most welcome. You're a good man. That's the most important thing. All these powers are secondary as they could come and go. Did you know you were on HYDRA's hit list even before you became a sorcerer? I was quite impressed with that. That's why your name sounded familiar when I heard you have powers."

He used to brag that not everyone was in HYDRA's hit list before the accident. After the accident, that fact was not so important anymore so he nearly forgot about it. Now his personal savior, not only in the sense of his childhood hero but also in the sense that he truly saved his life personally, appeared right in front of him. He stood up and hugged a surprised Captain America who hugged back. "Thank you for saving my life. I didn't mean to be ungrateful but I've forgotten about it after my accident." He released the hug before it became awkward. He could hear Steve Rogers' sigh of relief.

"You're most welcome. Thanks for saving this world from Dormammu. I think we should stop thanking each other as it could go on all day. To be honest, I've forgotten about it as well. It just suddenly clicked when I was talking just now."

Stephen returned back to his seat. "I presume you don't all the way up here for a pep talk. And I presume you don't come here to ask my medical advice. Why do you come here?"

"Why would I ask you for any medical advice?" Suddenly, he smiled. "Oh, I got it now. Is that the reason you have been avoiding the Avengers? I come here to ask you why but I know now. I apologize for my team mates' behaviors. They could be so childish sometime and they have carried out the pranks for too long."

It was his turn not to able to make heads or tails of what happened. "What pranks?"

"Well, it started with Tony as most of our disasters always are. He complained that you always insisted to be called a doctor in any instances. So they wanted to remind you that fact whenever they see you."

"But I'm a Doctor, I have a PhD and a MD."

"I know. But some of the team members don't see it that way. They think you're very arrogant. I reminded Tony that even he is still arrogant now. But once they set their mind on something, they'd execute it. I tried to stop them but I could barely control their behaviors. They only listen to me when I give them commands in battles. They even still make fun of me for chiding them about their language. Only Bruce saw my way and didn't want to have anything to do with these pranks. And Thor is still out of this realm."

No wonder he never saw Bruce and Steve lately. "Do you mean all the Avengers, except you and Bruce, were faking their illnesses? So I wasn't paranoid but I was right all along." He could finally relax and smile. "I'll definitely tell Christine about that. But how did Barton fake his broken hand?"

"Yes, you were right. You were never being paranoid. I apologize on their behalf. As for Barton, he planned to prank you but I think he really broke his arm accidentally. Yes, he is accident prone." He nodded grimly.

The sorcerer grinned. "Oh, don't need to be sorry. It wasn't your fault. I'm always glad when I'm right. So it wasn't paranoia all along." He then sobered up. "Even Black Widow?"

"I'm afraid Nat was in for the prank. What did she do?"

He told him what happened when Black Widow visited.

Steve grinned. "I think what you did was wise. Someone less wise might have ended up strangled in between her thighs. I know someone in our team has. I'll give her props for her ingenuity."

"Yes, that definitely is the scariest and the reason I avoided the Avengers. She should prank Wong sometime. How about Nick Fury? I don't think he was involved in the Avengers' prank, wasn't he?"

He told him what happened with Fury.

"Nick Fury doesn't do pranks. I think he must've heard about the pranks. That man knows everything. I guessed he wanted to test your mental strength. I was puzzled when he told me one day that I was right in recruiting you, you have a steely resolve that not every SHIELD agent possesses. Everything makes sense now. Once again, I apologize for the inconvenience."

"It really is nothing after I know they've been pranks all along. Perhaps I can ask them to call me Stephen unless I introduce myself to some strangers."

"That's really big of you. As I said, as long as you are a good man, I really don't care how you address yourself. I'll have words with them as I believe they've gone too far. I hope you don't run away from us now."

"I certainly won't as I know now. I'm really OK with them. They were excellent pranks."

"I still believe they owe you an apology. I must take my leave now. Thanks for the tea." He rose after he spoke.

"You're most welcome. And please call me Stephen." He refrained himself from saying "Please drop by anytime" as he had been behaving like a silly fanboy this whole time.

"Bye, Stephen."

In the evening, he got a gift basket.

The delivery guy asked, "Are you a big shot or something to get a basket from the Avengers? "

He grinned. "Something like that. I'm their doctor."

"Huh? Wouldn't peg you as a doctor with that robe. That cloak is impressive though. Not everyone could rock that look."

Stephen could feel Sophie shake with excitement at the compliment. He signed the card, thanked the guy, and closed the door.

He chuckled as he read the card. It read "We're really sorry. Please don't be mad and send us to another dimension. We don't want to be their aliens."

He looked at the basket. It contained assortments of gifts: A bottle of red wine, a bottle of white wine, three new StarkPhones and StarkPads, the complete set of DVDs for Harry Potter movies (he had the inkling this must be from Tony), also a complete set of movies titled Lord of The Rings, The Hobbit, and the complete four seasons of Sherlock. Christine kept teasing him that he looked like that guy who played Sherlock and he also sounded like that dragon Smaug. Perhaps some of the Avengers also thought the same. Wong and Christine would be pleased with these gifts.

Who knew insisting to be called a Doctor would be so productive?

Notes:

-Yeah, I expected this story to be more cracky but with Steve Rogers, things somehow become more sensible and serious.
I mean he's sensible, not sure about this story :)
-Strange might be OOC here but somehow I think he would try to be humble in front of his childhood hero. Scott Derrickson did say that Stephen admired Captain America.

-Thanks to IHeartGrimm81 for pointing out a mistake.
-Feedback and comments are welcome.