"Slow down-HEY-!"
"Oh come on kid! My lab is on the 72nd floor, we have to take the elevator unless you wanna go up like 30 flights of stairs-"
"This thing has 72 floors?!"
"Nah, like 100." Tony pushed the elevator 'up' button and started tapping his foot impatiently. Jarvis chose this moment to interject.
"Actually sir, there are 107 floors. 108, if you count the basement—"
"WHAT THE HELL IS THAT!?" Ed screeched, whipping around and searching for the source of the voice.
"That," Tony said, stepping into the elevator and ignoring Ed's screeching, "Would be Jarvis, my A.I system." He didn't bother holding the door for Ed.
"Your fuckin' what?" Edward hissed, stepping into the elevator but still looking around like someone with a british accent was going to jump out from nowhere and stab him.
"A.I." Tony repeated, punching in the numbers '7,2' into the elevator keypad. "Artificial intelligence. Everyone has at least some cheap version these days. What planet exactly are you from?"
"Earth." Edward said defensively. The elevator began it's accension, the simple music flowing from the speaker mounted in the roof doing absolutely nothing to ease the tension.
"Yeah, sure." Tony said sarcastically, "Which part? And don't give me the Tacobell crap."
"Wha-Tacobell is a place on earth!" Ed protested.
Tony rolled his eyes just as the elevator 'ding!'d, signaling their arrival. He stepped out into a hallway, continuing sarcastically, "Unless you're homeless and literally live behind the dumpsters at some Tacobell, which honestly wouldn't surprise me much-"
"hey!"
"-Then I'm gonna need a better explanation." He paused. They had reached the lab. "Later though." He added, opening the door and ushering Ed inside.
Inside the lab was a massive assortment of the mechanical equivalent of crumpled paper balls. Half-finished machines and other oddities covered nearly every available surface (there was even stuff strewn across the floor). A large bin in the corner labeled 'trash' had wires and random jagged metal bits sticking out. There were mechanical arms, scanners, and other equipment attached from the ceiling and dangling down like highly advanced vines. The whole thing reminded Ed strongly of winry's workshop mixed with a jungle.
Tony shoved an unfinished project off a table, causing a loud 'bang' when it hit the floor, and slapped the surface of the table. "Sit." He commanded, hardly sparing Ed a glance as he rummaged through a large set of metal drawers.
Ed scowled, but reluctantly hopped up onto the table. The movement caused his shoulder to throb painfully, reminding him of the entire reason he was here in the first place.
"Go ahead and take the cloak off." Tony murmured as he dug through a bin of tools, "Gonna need to see the connection again. How exactly does that work by the way?"
"It's connected to my nerves." Ed said icily, hesitantly shrugging off his cloak and undershirt.
"Uh huh." Tony finally rose from the tool bin, peering at Ed's shoulder with a scrutinizing gaze.
Ed had to fight the urge to scooch away or cover himself, feeling oddly uncomfortable. This certainly wasn't the first time he'd been shirtless in from of someone. Hell, Winry saw him in his underwear nearly every time he went for automail repairs.
This jackass, however, was not Winry, and being exposed like this in front of a stranger was awkward. His automail repairs had always been almost an intimate thing, something he had only ever trusted Winry and granny with. Being bared to judgment, automail, scars and all, made him feel uncomfortably vulnerable.
Tony however, clearly gave not one flying fuck, and proceeded with his examination, looking over the damage to Ed's arm. Ed didn't miss how Tony's eyes lingered on the scars on his shoulder, where the metal was bolted into the flesh, before flicking away as though he hadn't been staring.
Please don't ask. Ed thought desperately. I'm not talking about it, especially not to you.
Abruptly, Tony tapped his finger on the front plating of Ed's arm. "Carbonized steel?" he asked, though it sounded more like a statement.
"Y-yeah, actually." Ed said, caught off guard and mildly impressed. His arm looked mostly like plain steel. He could tell the difference without equipment because he was an alchemist, but it was a pleasant (and reassuring) surprise that Tony could too.
"Pretty tough stuff." Tony said in a tone that sounded vaguely like approval. He poked his finger in the deep grove on Ed's forearm, the damage from blocking Atuma's spear. "So how did you manage to put a dent in it?"
Ed only had seconds to think of a reasonable explanation, and a few of those were spent cursing himself for not having something put together already, so the story he managed to stitch together was-
"When I uh…got dropped, my arm-I stopped my fall with my arm."
-…less than satisfactory.
Tony raised an eyebrow, peering at Ed, but shrugged and didn't press the issue.
"Well anyway," Tony said, returning to the automail, "one of the wires in here got squished against the side; frayed a little. And then it's just fixing that dent. Should be a piece of cake."
Ed let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding, and almost missed Tony's next question.
"Does it come off?"
"Wha?" Ed said, blinking in surprise.
Tony quirked an eyebrow again, speaking very slowly. "Your arm. The arm I have to fix. Does it come off or not?"
"Oh." Ed said dumbly, "Oh, yeah it-hold on." He reached his other hand up to his shoulder, slipping his hand into the grove where his port was and pushing the release lever. His automail arm fell limply to his side, and Ed wiggled it the rest of the way out of the port and handed it to Tony. Tony made a simple 'hm.' sound, and abruptly turned on his heel, walking to a table with some equipment on it and taking the arm with him. He immediately got to work on the arm, though Ed found it impossible to figure out what he was doing.
The room soon filled with the sound of mechanical whirring and grinding, occasional sparks flying from the arm as Tony worked on it. Ed had a brief moment of wondering what tools were being used. They mostly weren't ones he was familiar with, but they clearly did some incredible things.
I wonder what winry could do with all this. He quickly shook the thought from his head, returning to silent observation. The minutes ticked by, and Ed quickly got bored.
"So…uh, " Ed began after a few more silent moments of watching Tony work. "What now?"
Tony flapped a hand dismissively, not looking up from the workbench. "Explore. Frolic. Whatever it is kids do these days."
Ed bristled slightly, hopping off the table and grabbing his cloak in a way that could only be described as 'sassily'.
"I'm not a kid." He said venomously, turning to leave with a swish of his cloak. He was halfway out the door when Tony suddenly spoke up again.
"Oh, and-" Tony actually turned to look at Ed this time. "Don't leave the tower. I mean it."
Ed immediately began thinking of ways to escape the tower.
"hmph." He huffed, turning on his heel.
And in a flapping of red fabric, Edward Elric exited the room.
"Jarvis." Tony said offhandedly, grabbing another tool from the bin after Edward's departure.
"Sir?"
"Keep an eye on him. He's definitely gonna try and leave."
"Of course, sir."