-Unbetaed and non native speaker so please kindly point out any mistakes.
-Warning: Language


"Erasing everyone's memory?! And you accused me of being dramatic." Peter looked so despondent so he didn't have the heart to say more.

"So can it be done? If not, I may need to help from others. I wonder whether Fury would let me use the technology to change appearance. But then I need to go to a new school and can't be Spider-Man anymore. Perhaps I should use a new costume and adopt a new title like Day Arachnid or something. "

Stephen raised his left eyebrow again. "Day Arachnid? Won't people associate it with Spider-Man?"

"Well, it's better than Night Monkey. Darn Ned and his terrible naming."

"I think I'm channeling Cap here but language. Ned is not the only one who came up with terrible titles."

"I said darn, not damn. Isn't it more polite? Perhaps I can move to Wakanda. Princess Shuri has asked me to visit her. I'm not sure how I could swing between their fantastically shaped buildings. Or perhaps move to wherever Captain Marvel lives. Do you know where she lives? Or I can always pull a Thor and joined the Guardians of the Galaxy. It'll be though to understand Groot though because Midtown High doesn't teach Groot as an elective. That's very shortsighted of them because they already know there are other realms since Thor visited us a few years ago. Or perhaps I could…"

The doctor drew a deep breath. Feeling his tension, the Cloak started to massage his shoulders. "Peter, I need to stop you right there. You don't need to move anywhere. You can still stay in Queens and lead a normal life. Well, normal-ish given your superhero lifestyle."

"Does it mean you can help me erasing everyone's memory?"

"I've heard some spells that can alter memory of large population. But are you absolutely sure you want to erase everyone's memory? How about your aunt or Ned or MJ? It'll be hard to tell reveal your identity the second time. How did they know in the first place?"

"Ned and May caught me wearing my costume without my mask on."

Stephen rolled his eyes. "Don't you have Peter Sprinkle ?" WIth his eidetic memory, he remembered the right term but the future Sorcerer Supreme was not beneath petty name calling. "Why didn't you know they were there?"

"Peter Tingle. That's another terrible name my aunt come up with. What's wrong with people around me and naming? The Tingle only work when I'm in danger so I guess my instinct didn't detect any danger from them."

"How about MJ? How did she know?"

"She guessed."

"Either she is pretty smart or you are very terrible at keeping your secret identity"

"Eh…". He rubbed the back of his neck. "Definitely, the first one."

"So you don't tell her right away."

"Why would I do that?"

"You told me your name the first time we met. I'm not sure whether I've thanked you properly. Thank you for saving me."

At least Peter's mood seemed to pick up. "Don't mention it, You also save me, the team on the Titan, and…, well, the rest of the Universe."

Stephen noticed the pause."I'm sorry that I can't save Tony. I've been feeling guilty ever since. But without his sacrifice, everyone will be dead."

"I'm also feeling guilty."

"You shouldn't. You're the reason he managed to figure out time travel to save everyone. You're never to blame for Tony's death. I, on the other hand…"

"I'm not blaming you, Doc. I don't think anyone blamed you even Tony himself. We all make our choices. Can we get back to the part about erasing everyone's memory except for the select few? Can we do that?"

Stephen decided not to reprimand Peter as it was unethical to alter people's memories. He was not one to talk as occasionally he altered the memories of the few people he had saved because they were not ready to know about interdimensional and supernatural threats yet. "How many is the few? Who else knows your identity?"

"Everyone who has seen the news?!" Peter's voice rose half an octave.

"I meant before that."

Peter looked down and bit his lower lip. His cheeks were pink. "Everybody who was present at our battle at the Avengers' Compound. The ones where you opened portals for everyone, which is very cool by the way."

Stephen inhaled deeply. "So basically all the superheroes, sorcerers, aliens, plus Thanos' army."

"I was without a mask that time. It's hard to have a mask for someone who just got resurrected. You were there. But I did introduce myself to Captain Marvel as she looked so cool."

"Do you like to introduce yourself to every superhero if you have the chance?"

"Only the cool ones."

"You introduced yourself to me!"

"My point still stands."

If the kid thinking striking his ego was the right move, he was right. Not that he didn't want to help in the first place because of course he would help Peter even if he thought he was the most uncool person in the multiverse. "You think everything is cool. You even nearly shook hands with the Cloak of Levitation!"

Peter's voice rose an octave now. "The Cloak told you that?! How? He doesn't have a mouth."

He felt the Cloak tensed her fabric before deciding to let Stephen defend her honor. "The Cloak is a she." He refrained from saying her name was Sophie because he didn't want to add more unnecessary strangeness to his name. "The Masters of Mystic Arts always have their ways." In fact, Tony told him that in the spaceship to make sure Stephen knew how precious and naive Peter was and he was to be protected at all cost in the upcoming battle. As if Stephen couldn't draw the conclusion by himself. It was still a nice mental image as he imagined Peter fruitlessly tried to shake hands with her. "My point also stands." He was also not beneath petty comeback. "So who do you want to remember that you're Spider-Man?"

"So it can be done?!"

"I believe there is a potion available to protect people from the spell to erase memories. That's why I need to ask how many people to remember your identity so I need to prepare the ingredients and look for spells."

"You're the best Magician Doctor." Peter stood up to hug him.

He was not big on hugging but he returned it one handed as he knew Peter needed it. He counted the seconds until Peter decided it was long enough to release him and returned to his seat. The hug lasted sixteen seconds. "I'm the only Sorcerer Doctor you know. As far as I'm aware, I'm the only doctor who turned into sorcerer in this universe. I don't know about other universes as I haven't checked. You still haven't answered my questions. Do you need everyone at battlefield to remember you? It'll be hard to come up with that many ingredients. Do you really need them to know?"

"Perhaps not?!"

"I thought so. Besides, you're going to reintroduce yourself to those superheroes anyway. You can't help it because it's your nature. For someone who is big at secret identity, you're really bad at it."

"Hey." Peter stopped as he thought about it. "Fair."

"So who do you need to remember?"

"Myself, Aunt May, Ned, MJ, Happy, Ms Potts, you, perhaps Wong and whoever else stays in this Sanctum." Stephen was touched that he was included in the list. " I'm not sure about the Avengers. Are the Avengers still around at all? How about Nick Fury and SHIELD?" He looked horrified. "Fury and SHIELD also know about my identity and I didn't introduce myself to them"

"Fury won't be a good director or ex Director, as I'm not sure his status is, if he doesn't know. With the memory spell, he won't remember but I guess he will find out if he really wants to know. I think he figured you out at Tony's memorial. So those are the few people you want to know. I can work with that. I'll make some extra for the new Captain America or whoever else you want to know."

"You're the best."

"I've decided to help you so extra flattery will get you nowhere."

The teenager had unshed tears."But I meant it. I thought my life was over and you decide to help me even if you don't have to."

It was his turn to feel uncomfortable. "You're welcome. It's the least I could do to help Tony to take care of you."

"I miss him."

"I know. I also miss him even though technically I only knew him for a few hours. I've looked through all those possible futures and in all of them, he always looked out for you. I think he is proud to have you as his protege. I can see why."

"Even if I messed up like giving EDITH away to Quentin?!"

"It's your trusting nature. I can't fault you with that. Besides, who doesn't make mistakes? Even with powers, we are only humans. Well, perhaps only I'm human, as I don't have enhanced serum or radioactive power or powers derived from the Infinity Stones, but you get the gist. What's important is you fix your mistake and you did. I'm proud of you."

"You said you were proud of me. DId you record that EDITH?" He was talking at his shirt so there must be where he stored her. "She said she did. So no taksies backsies, Doc."

"I won't take it back. And you can call me Stephen. You did save me after all."

"Calling you Stephen is strange." The doctor rolled his eyes. "But I'll get used to it. Aunt May called you Mister Strange and I corrected her like you corrected everybody."

He didn't expect Peter to defend his title. The more reason this boy was precious. No wonder Tony was so attached to the kid."Thank you, Peter. By the way, I can only erase people's memories but how about those news footage. Can EDITH delete all of them?"

Peter listened to his shirt again. It was scary that EDITH was such a powerful tool and she had been listening to their whole conversation. He hoped she wouldn't decide to end humanity like Ultron. But he needed to trust Peter on that. The teenager looked up at him. "She said affirmative. As soon as you activated the spell, she would start to delete all the footage."

Stephen breathed a sigh of relief. He didn't realize until then that he cared for Peter so much.

"By the way, Stephen. Once this is over, I'm going to invite you to have dinner with me and my aunt. Nothing fancy as she can't cook but it's my way of thanking you."

"It's not necessary."

"You look too thin. Besides, my aunt has been looking forward to meet you. I think she purposefully needled me by saying Mister Strange or Master Strange."

"Out of all the superheroes, why would she want to meet me?"

"I told her about our adventures on the spaceship and Titan."

"The one where I got kidnapped and we died?!"

"Half of the people died including her but we got better. She doesn't like to hold grudges. She wants to thank you for taking care of me in Titan before and after returning from being dust. She also wants to feed you because you look skinny in the memorial. Plus-I-told-her-about-you-being-kidnapped-and-tortured-somehow-she thought-of-you-are-a-bit-of-of-damsel-in-distress."

He said the last part very quickly but somehow Stephen got it this time. Perhaps he was used to Peter's speak. He wasn't sure it was a good thin to get used to. "She what?!" Damsel in distress was not a good look for the candidate of Sorcerer Supreme.

Peter purposefully ignored his remark. "But you're absolutely not allowed to fall in love with her when you meet her. She seems to have that effects on a lot of males. Tony said she was hot. Happy was trying to date her."

Stephen shook his head. He was not a playboy by nature. It was his turn to make Peter uncomfortable. "I'll try to keep it in my pants."

"Ewww."

"Besides, a damsel in distress won't be a good match for your aunt. I thought Happy was dating her, not trying to date her."

"They have different definitions of dating and that's not my problem." He stood up and start to look around. "Do you have any food?"

He recognized a change of topic. "I can always order a take out."

After lunch, he needed to look at the spells and potions. They were not as simple as he made out to be but he didn't want to make Peter feel guilty. That was the least he could do to help the young hero and also to ease his conscience about Tony.


Notes:

-This plot was actually inspired by an actual Marvel comic storyline "One Moment in Time", in Amazing Spider-Man #638-641. Peter initially joined Team Iron Man in Civil War so Tony and Reed Richards asked him to reveal his identity to the public. But they regretted it so they tried to fix it with the help of Doctor Strange, who tried to stay neutral although he helped Team Captain America on the run from the government later on. Peter also decided to join Team Cap afterward.
scifi dot stackexchange dot com/questions/187298/how-did-spider-man-regain-his-secret-identity-after-civil-war
Of course I tried to make it less angst as I don't really like writing prolonged angst and Far From Home was supposed to be a fun movie if we ignore the mid credit scene.
-Aunt May and Stephen's pairing will be a rare pair but it would be fun if it happened. This is meant to be an unsubtle prompt for other writers.