"Mmmhm. As much as you want," he says, mostly into Soldier's shoulder. At face value, those words could sound dismissive, but in reality, his tone makes the sentence much more gentle. Contented, a little sleepy. Tony takes one last sip, then, "Was just about to top up myself."
Pulling away is hard, because Tony knows once he does, he won't be able to cozy back up again. And, lo and behold, stepping away breaks the little safety bubble that had formed around them.
(But better sooner rather than later, ripping off the bandaid and all that. It's not like he could stay there forever.)
Tony takes the mug from Soldier with a smile (which, unbeknownst to him, comes off much more gentle than intended-- he'd wanted to break any potential awkwardness by being his usual lighthearted I-don't-take-things-too-seriously self). Now that he can see Soldier again, the guy seems... a little less tense, maybe? It's difficult for Tony to pinpoint exactly, but there is definitely a small improvement from yesterday.
If this whole situation had a progress bar, they'd maybe ticked up to 1%. Which doesn't sound encouraging, but even the slowest of processes eventually got there in the end.
By the time the second round of coffee is ready, FRIDAY is done with the scans. (She probably finished them a while ago, but Tony's glad she had the tact not to interrupt the... moment? Was it a moment? That they were having. ((Plus, his AI learning what tact is!)) Tony hands Soldier his mug before re-situating back at the workbench.
"M'kay, let's see what we've got here--"
Any ease and/or good mood Tony has evaporates the second he sets his eyes on Soldier's scans.
It's... bad. Bad doesn't even begin to describe it. So monumentally bad that even Tony has to take at least ten minutes cataloging each and every problem.
"I..." Tony wipes a tired and disbelieving hand over his mouth. (What has his face even been doing this whole time? Hopefully nothing that makes Soldier pull away again. They'd only just started making progress.) "I'm shocked this thing even works at all."
If FRIDAY weren't there to assist him, who knows how long it would've taken him to decipher the tangled maze of the wiring. Sorting through all of it is going to be a nightmare. But it has to be done. He can't leave wiring that looks like this in-- frayed and split and rusting, there's so much rust in this arm that Tony could swim in it. Some of the wiring is knotted and tied around other wires, too. There's no way any of it can be salvaged. If only it could be as easy as ripping it all out, but that's the downside when it comes to prosthetics with a neural link-- you have to tread carefully.
Designing better functioning parts was going to be the easiest part, honestly. And seeing some of the, frankly, painful looking mechanisms that make up this arm? Yeah, uh... Pretty much anything else would be an improvement (both for function and comfort).
"Do you, uh-- do you want me to tell you everything that's wrong, or should I just... go ahead and fix it?"
no subject
Pulling away is hard, because Tony knows once he does, he won't be able to cozy back up again. And, lo and behold, stepping away breaks the little safety bubble that had formed around them.
(But better sooner rather than later, ripping off the bandaid and all that. It's not like he could stay there forever.)
Tony takes the mug from Soldier with a smile (which, unbeknownst to him, comes off much more gentle than intended-- he'd wanted to break any potential awkwardness by being his usual lighthearted I-don't-take-things-too-seriously self). Now that he can see Soldier again, the guy seems... a little less tense, maybe? It's difficult for Tony to pinpoint exactly, but there is definitely a small improvement from yesterday.
If this whole situation had a progress bar, they'd maybe ticked up to 1%. Which doesn't sound encouraging, but even the slowest of processes eventually got there in the end.
By the time the second round of coffee is ready, FRIDAY is done with the scans. (She probably finished them a while ago, but Tony's glad she had the tact not to interrupt the... moment? Was it a moment? That they were having. ((Plus, his AI learning what tact is!)) Tony hands Soldier his mug before re-situating back at the workbench.
"M'kay, let's see what we've got here--"
Any ease and/or good mood Tony has evaporates the second he sets his eyes on Soldier's scans.
It's... bad. Bad doesn't even begin to describe it. So monumentally bad that even Tony has to take at least ten minutes cataloging each and every problem.
"I..." Tony wipes a tired and disbelieving hand over his mouth. (What has his face even been doing this whole time? Hopefully nothing that makes Soldier pull away again. They'd only just started making progress.) "I'm shocked this thing even works at all."
If FRIDAY weren't there to assist him, who knows how long it would've taken him to decipher the tangled maze of the wiring. Sorting through all of it is going to be a nightmare. But it has to be done. He can't leave wiring that looks like this in-- frayed and split and rusting, there's so much rust in this arm that Tony could swim in it. Some of the wiring is knotted and tied around other wires, too. There's no way any of it can be salvaged. If only it could be as easy as ripping it all out, but that's the downside when it comes to prosthetics with a neural link-- you have to tread carefully.
Designing better functioning parts was going to be the easiest part, honestly. And seeing some of the, frankly, painful looking mechanisms that make up this arm? Yeah, uh... Pretty much anything else would be an improvement (both for function and comfort).
"Do you, uh-- do you want me to tell you everything that's wrong, or should I just... go ahead and fix it?"