Irene blinked when her phone buzzed at her, but she picked up anyway, stirring the simmering pot with her free hand.

"This is Irene."

"Irene, it's Stephen, hello," Strange replied. "Might I have a moment of your time?"

"Stephen! Of course, of course." Irene grinned. "What's going on this time and who did you piss off?" The words were clearly teasing, though.

"Irene, you wound me!" Strange replied, teasing her as well. "However, I have a favor to ask. I assume you've felt those spikes of uncontrolled magic recently, yes?"

"Yes," Irene answered placidly. "Figured it was a kid coming into their own or something. You need me to play teacher again?"

"The situation is slightly different than that," Strange replied. "Although you are not necessarily wrong. However, I was going to ask if perhaps you and Clara could teach this particular student?"

"Sure," Irene answered after a moment. "Neither of us has anything pressing to do besides the shop, so we can do that. Stephen, why haven't you told me who it is?" A hint of suspicion colored her tone.

"Ah, you always did catch on quickly," Strange replied. He was quiet for a moment. "It seems that Anthony Stark has come into his own."

Irene made a choked noise.

"Stephen, I swear, one day you will be the death of me." Her voice was quiet but not too stressed. "Fine. You owe us for this one."

"Indeed I do," Strange replied. "Thank you, Irene. Please, let me know if there is anything I might do to help."

"I will." Irene huffed at him and hung up. Well, time to go share the good news.

"Clara! We've got a new tutoring job!"

"Tutoring job?" Clara called from the next room. "Fun. When?"

"Coming up this next week and then ongoing," Irene said. "Not sure how long this'll take. It might be a bit... difficult."

"Difficult?" Clara said, coming into the room. "What makes this one difficult? Already specialized or something?"

Irene waited until she could see Clara to drop the other shoe.

"It's Tony Stark. We're going to be mentoring Tony Stark."

"What?" Clara yelped. "No. No way. That can't be. Not possible!"

"Apparently it is possible, and apparently he's the one we've been feeling the past couple weeks," Irene said, her voice dry. "Stephen told me, and he has yet to be wrong about something like this."

"How could he be coming into his power so late, though?" Clara asked. "It typically manifests in children." She shook her head a bit. "You said Stephen wants us to tutor Stark?"

"Yup." Irene popped the 'p'. "I told him he owes us. I didn't tell him no. You can say no if you want to though."

"This is going to need more than one person," Clara pointed out. "Everyone knows how notoriously stubborn Tony Stark is. You may need a hand."

Irene nodded. "I'm not stupid enough to say no if you want to help," she said with a little grin. "Just giving you the option."

"You know me," Clara said, grinning. "I'm not going to pass this up, or leave you high and dry like that. So when do we start?"

"After we get in contact with him, which will be interesting." Irene sighed. "Hopefully soon, anyway."

Clara nodded at that.

"Alright," she said. "Then let's take a couple of days to prepare, and then give him a call and see what happens. Sound good?"

"Sounds good to me." Irene smiled a little and went back to her work. Taking a few days to prepare sounded like a good idea to her.