p • r • e • s • s • u • r • e

We Need To Talk

About an hour passes and Bruce is asleep.

God, this is boring.

He told me to stay in bed, but...

Tony eyes the doorway, smelling something delicious wafting up from downstairs.

Damn, I'm hungry.

He eyes the sleeping man in his chair.

Aww.

Tony drapes a blanket over him.

Knowing him, he probably hasn't slept since we got back from the hospital....

The engineer opens the doors to his massive closet and grabs some jeans and a shirt, struggling to get the jeans on. Dum-E helps with getting his shirt off (he ripped it), but putting one on is a whole 'nother story.

Shit.

Tony walks over to his bathroom mirror and sees a person. He removes the bandage covering the blue module.

He doesn't want it to be him.

The arc reactor sits, as it always has, comfortably embedded in his chest but not quite in the middle-it was two millimetres to the left, actually. He found it absolutely maddening, but to Yinsen's credit, his working conditions weren't exactly ideal.

The skin was no longer red and irritated, rather it was smooth, and it met the metal cleanly. Tony touches it, finding it painful to the touch.

Well at least that's something.

Realising that if he messes with it, it'll heal weird and then he'd have to go under the knife again- which, to be honest, was something he never wanted to do again, not after Afghanistan.

Thinking that...sounds like I fought in the military...

Never, too much of a pussy

Useless

Tony shakes his head and turns around, looking over his shoulder and wincing as he sees his back.

"Well damn," he says out loud, chuckling.

His skin is marred and covered in purplish-pink scars.

My back looks like Wade Wilson's face.

Cold fingers run through the crevices of his flesh, over the ridges and settling in the deepest parts.

Wake up, Stark.

He walks over to Bruce.

God, I'm an asshole.

I should let him sleep...

Tony's spots a large shawl in his closet.

I mean, as long as I can keep everything covered...

Wrapped in the mini-blanket and semi-confident it won't slip and lead to a very awkward conversation, Tony pockets his phone and heads downstairs. Steve is showing a very confused looking Bucky how to cook sesame duck breast.

Ah, so that was the smell...

The tired engineer walks around the counter to the coffee maker, and is dismayed to find the pot empty.

"Hey Ice Cube, why is there no coffee?"

"Who's Ice Cube?"

"A musician. And I am still coffee-less."