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space-mermaid-writing · 1 year

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Delivery for 177A Bleecker Street

Summary: Most people just walk by the Sanctum’s doors without noticing it. While this is a gread security measure, it also raises questions when Stephen and Wong want to order food and have it delivered.

Tags: fun, slice of life, don’t take this too seriously, delivery persons deserve a lot of credit

Ko-fi | Masterlist | Word count: 2.1k

Author’s note: It’s been a while since I had a stupid writing idea and put it down on paper immediately.

Delivery for 177A Bleecker Street

Danny was cleaning the counter when a new order came in online. He passed it directly to the kitchen, the rag still in his other hand, when his eyes fell on the delivery instructions and he frowned. They had to be kidding.

But a glance at the bottom of the receipt told him that the order had already been paid up front. So it would be an expensive joke if so.

"Cate!" he called to his co-worker, who had worked at Ginger Noodle way longer than he. Maybe she had more of a clue.

Cate stepped next to him and looked at the delivery instructions:

Address: 177A Bleecker Street

Added note: put the bag down at the corner of 181 and 175

„Oh, yeah, they ordered before,“ Cate told him. „Max will know.“

Max, the delivery boy, must come across some strange instructions on his tours.

„Are they homeless?“ Danny asked. He couldn‘t think of any other reason why they didn‘t simply name a doorbell to ring.

Cate shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know. But they always pay up front, so I don't really care if it's a raccoon ordering."

That was one way to see it. And Danny was in charge of the counter, not delivering orders. Still, he couldn't get that weird instruction out of his head.

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Stephen dropped onto the couch, groggily. Wong, who closed the portal behind them, also looked exhausted. Although he kept a bit more of his composure as he sat down on an armchair. But he also grunted in satisfaction – and pain – when his back hit the cushion.

„Let‘s never do that again,“ Stephen muttered.

„Agreed.“

Exorcisms weren‘t fun in general and even less if the demon managed to break out and possess one of them. The evil spirit had been a slippery one. Stephen had let his mental shields down for only half a second to warn Wong of an incoming attack and the demon took advantage of that to possess him.

Well, the two sorcerers still managed to banish it in the end. (Stephen was glad that Wong was too exhausted to scold him for his carelessness)

The demon had consumed a lot of Stephen‘s energy and he felt like he was starving. He needed food. Preferably immediately.

„Ginger Noodle‘s?“

„Naturally.“

When he thought about what they stored in the fridge, he shuddered. No way he would open that door.

Therefore he pulled out his phone to order something, but his hands were shaking. With his low blood sugar even worse than usual. He couldn‘t seem to bring up any more magic to stabilize then. It hurt just to type in the code to unlock it.

Fortunately, Wong saved him by leaning over and snatching the phone out of his hands. „Let me take a look at the menu. I heard they have a new dish.“

It was a weak excuse. They almost always ordered the same dishes. But Stephen didn‘t point that out, since he was glad not to have to move his fingers anymore.

Wong swiped and typed, but after a few minutes he frowned. „Ginger Noodle‘s closed.“

„Closed?“ Stephen echoed. They couldn‘t just close. It was their favorite place and they didn‘t ask weird questions.

Wong confirmed with a hum. „Due to a holiday.“

Stephen wasn‘t aware of any holiday but he also wasn‘t exactly sure what day it was. So it was entirely possible that it was a legit reason.

It should be around spring… his eyes wandered to the nearest window. There was a blue sky, barely any clouds. It was sunny but some people were still wearing jackets. Yeah, definitely spring. Early summer at most.

Wong spoke up again. „We could order from that other place around the corner.“

„No,“ Stephen protested weakly but firmly. „I refuse to eat anything coming from a place called ‘THAI TANIC‘.“

Regardless of his own last name and his job, Stephen did not appreciate stupid puns.

„Well, we have to eat something.“

There was a short pause when both men looked at each other while – again – thinking about what was left in the Sanctum‘s fridge.

„Fine,“ Stephen gave in. „But I will despite every single bite of it.“

„I‘m sure your food will know your disdain towards its vendor and act accordingly,“ Wong said in his yet driest voice while googling the place.

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The phone rang.

„Thank you for calling ‘Ginger Noodle’. This is Danny speaking. How can I help you?“ The young man was proud of his customer voice. He had practiced for a long time to make it sound like he was highly motivated and this wasn't just a part time job while he went to college.

The person on the other end of the line sounded slightly annoyed and very tired. „Hello. I tried to put an order online to have my food delivered, but it always shows me an error message.“

„Yeah, I‘m really sorry about that. The server‘s down and it will probably take a day or two for them to fix it. You can put your order with me though and pay when your food gets there.“

There was a short pause.

Then, „You wouldn‘t be able to find my door.“

Danny rolled his eyes and gestured to the cook to hurry up with another order. „I assure you our driver has a one-hundred percent success rate. Max has found any door so far. You can leave the specifics with me and I pass them through. What‘s your address?“

„Bleecker Street.“

That made Danny perk up. Could it be? He took a look at the phone but of course there was no clue of the person he was talking to.

"That's not too far from here actually. Which number?" He tried to get more information. It could be a coincidence, but there was the small chance Danny was currently speaking to the odd 'leave the bag at the corner of two buildings on the middle of the sidewalk' person that ordered food at least once a week.

There was another pause and Danny thought that the man maybe had fallen asleep or just walked away from the phone (both happened more often than you would think) when the other man spoke up again.

„I can also pick the order up and pay cash, right?“

„Absolutely.“ This time the enthusiasm in Danny's voice was not fake. It meant that he would see the person. The mystery would finally be revealed.

He wrote the order down.

„It‘s ready in twenty minutes. Can I get a name for it?“ This was absolutely not necessary, but Danny was too curious to resist. He snuck every piece of information he could lay his hand on.

„Doctor Strange.“

Danny‘s eyes were beaming. Of course! It sounded so very fake, but considering who he was talking to it seemed just fitting.

After hanging up, he passed the order to the kitchen and told them to prioritize it.

The next twenty minutes couldn't go by fast enough. Danny stowed the order in a plastic bag and placed it on the counter, eyeing the door every few seconds to catch any first glimpses of that mysterious person, whose secret he was about to reveal.

Fortunately, no other customer was in the shop and the phone was silent too. It was that small window between lunch rush hour and dinner that allowed the staff to each take their breaks one after another.

It also left Danny with nothing to do but to re-organize some stuff. He knew how to keep himself busy while looking like he was working hard.

Then there was a sudden shriek from the kitchen and when Danny turned around he saw through the serving hatch the cook holding his hand as if it had been burned. The man cursed as he stumbled back, bumping into a stack of take out containers as he did so.

Like in a cartoon, the tower wobbled comedicly slow, before it fell over – onto the cook.

For a second Danny just watched. Then he rushed to help, not hearing the faint hiss on the other side of the counter, nor seeing the golden sparks. Instead the young man helped pick up and re-stack the containers while the cook tended to his hand. (It wasn't bad, he had just gotten to the hot wok carelessly).

Just then, Cate returned from her break and saw the mess. Shaking her head, she ignored it and went to the front. Only to be back a second later.

„Hey, someone left twenty dollars on the counter.“ She held the bill in her hand, questioningly.

Danny looked up. The money had certainly not been there when he left. „I don‘t…,“ he started but than noticed that the plastic bag with the order was gone. He rushed over to check if it fell on the floor, but that wasn‘t the case.

„Did you see someone picking up an order just now?“

„No, just the money.“

Danny blinked. Twenty dollars was enough to cover the food, it even left a small tip. He couldn't believe he had missed the customer.

Weird, normally a bell rang in the back when someone entered through the front door.

Danny can‘t help but think this was just another mystery of the Bleecker Street orders.

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Stephen was sitting in the library. A book hovered in front of him, the pages turning with a single movement of his finger. It was a quiet day, almost lazy, if Stephen would ever know these kinds of days and he spent the time reading.

He sat in a comfortable silence. Only the rustling of the cloak's fabric, that was draped over his lap like a cat and the low buzzing of magic in the background that was ever present in this building, was hearable.

Somewhere in the Sanctum, Wong was taking care of the relics, dusting them.

Stephen was not often able to relax. It came with the title of the Sorcerer Supreme and with the burden of protecting reality.

The city outside was as hectic as ever, but thick stone walls and magic shielded the inside from the noises. Once upon a time, Stephen had liked the hustle and bustle, but since his time in Kamar-Taj, the sorcerer had learned to appreciate the quiet as well.

Suddenly something interrupted the silence, when something shifted in the aura of the Sanctum. A second later, there was a knock at the front door.

Stephen frowned. Visitors were rare and usually meant trouble. He stood up. The cloak of levitation also shifted and rested on his shoulders. With the next step the sorcerer stood in the foyer and opened the front door.

On the steps of the Sanctum stood a young man with a take out bag in his hand. "Delivery for 177A Bleecker Street."

Stephen eyed him warily. „Why can you see this door?“

Although Danny’s voice had been uncertain a moment ago, he didn't back down. Instead he straightened his shoulders as he looked at the man in front of him. The guy wore a cape – this had to be the address he was looking for. It was the weird worded question that made him speak with more confidence.

„To be honest, I‘m not sure. I looked everywhere for 177A but not even in the tattoo parlor next door they knew nothing. So, I was ready to leave the bag between 181 and 175 like in the instruction but when I turned back around there was suddenly this house.“

He tried to pry behind Stephen, but didn't see much except a big staircase.

„Huh,“ the sorcerer said eloquently.

„Are you Doctor Strange?“

„I am.“

The bag was taken from the student's fingers, but it wasn't Strange’s hands but the cape’s corner.

Danny stared at it dumbfounded. A piece of clothes that moved on its own?

The door was being closed and would have been shoved right in his face, if Danny hadn’t taken a quick step back. He didn‘t even get a thank you for delivering the food, but the young man was surprisingly okay with that. He had finally solved who was behind the weird order instructions of Bleecker Street.

Even though he now had even more questions than before.

Stephen, meanwhile, walked up the grand staircase shaking his head, glancing at the food he had ordered online earlier. He decided to recheck the wards of the Sanctum later today.

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Danny smiled the next time an order with special instructions came in online.

„Bleecker Street. You know where the door is. (Mind the Boggarts. They bite.)“

Danny worked the counter but would do an exception for one kind of food delivery: the strange one.

#Stephen Strange #Doctor Strange #Wong #imagine Doctor Strange #imagine stephen strange #SpaceMermaid #SpaceMermaid writing #delivery for 177A Bleecker Street #marvel #mcu #mcu prompt #Mytic Arts #master of the mystic arts #Ginger Noodle #I read Thai Tanic and had to include it

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