Toni awoke to James sat in the corner chair that was placed by her wall-length window. Strangely enough, she wasn't too surprised by seeing him watching over her like he was some sort of bodyguard or protector.
"Did you even sleep?" Toni asked groggily. She was surprised she'd slept peacefully—well, at least that she could remember.
James, who had already turned his eyes onto her when she'd woke, tilted his head. "Mission is to protect Handler, sleep only hinders that task."
Toni squinted at him in confusion. "Handler?"
Wasn't that normally what agents called their main contacts? The people who gave them their information and details?
James blinked and gave a jerky nod. "Current Handler: Toni Stark."
Toni sat up with a look of bewilderment. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, buddy!" She waved her arms to compliment her perplexity. "I'm not a Handler of anything, especially to an infamous ghost-story assassin."
James frowned, for a moment Toni's mind linked the expression to the blue screen of death—a thought which she quickly pushed aside—and stood. She grabbed his hand and pulled. He stood, mostly because Toni was never getting him to hand herself, and Toni pushed him towards her bed.
"Which as you don't have a Handler—" Toni hid a grimaced. "—you can rest."
"Negative." James rebuffed, brows furrowing in confusion and—desperation? Toni wasn't sure if that was the correct word but she'd think about it more later. "You are the current Handler. You were the only one there upon my thawing."
Toni dropped her hands and stared up at him with a heavy sigh. Her gut twisted as a thought came to mind. "Then—" She cleared her throat. "As—as you Handler, I order you to sleep before you pass out."
She loathed the idea of manipulating this man—even if it would benefit him—that was clearly brainwashed and had suffered greatly at the hands of someone, but she had no other chose. He wasn't going to rest otherwise.
James—but then again, was this really James?—seemed to struggle in confusion. It hurt Toni inside.
She gently nudged him to sit on the edge of her bed. He sat and Toni started undoing his shoes. She pointedly didn't look at his face, she'd caught a glimpse of the pure and utter confusion.
It made Toni want to crawl somewhere and hide to cry—whoever his previous Handlers were, they were horrible people that.. she nearly choked at the thought.
She pushed herself onto her feet once she'd taken off his shoes. "Rest, nothing is getting past JARIVS's detection." Then she left the room, closing the door behind her. She leant against it for a moment, covering her mouth to muffle the sob.
Holy shit.
The Asset (James, Darling, Taylor? She has currently given three names to him, none of which were 'Asset') twitched, he raised his flesh hand when he realised that it was shaking.
(He didn't understand. Didn't understand. Didn't understand. Didn't understand.)
Handler had finally ordered him—but the order to rest.
He'd never been told to rest—sleep—because he was put into cryo to rest, therefore he had no need to acquire a bed and sleep.
At the back of his mind, he thinks he could recall a memory lost in the hole-ridden brain of theirs that thinks he's collapsed in exhaustion before but he cannot place the memory.
(Error. Error. Error. Error. Error. Error. Error. Err—)
The Asset could not compute Handler Toni's actions.
She showed signs of distress at his mention of his not needing to rest and then again when she had ordered him.
Handlers had never had a problem before with ordering him—yet she had also said she was not a Handler.
She had ordered still, despite how much she showed distress at doing so.
Why? Why was she so distressed?
(Different, the other murmured.)
The Asset paused at the other's comment. It was dissimilar to normal—far more…
The Asset exhaled and stopped his thoughts.
He had orders.
(The bed was still warm. He liked it.)
Toni shoved her mouth full of toast, not even buttered, before heading to her workshop. She finally allowed her three other babies out: Dum-E, U, and Butterfingers.
They beeped and chirped at her in excitement and Toni's shoulders feel that bit lighter again at the sight of them.
They were her creations—her babies, they meant everything to her.
She played around with them and chatted with JARVIS for some time, before focusing on finishing up the Arc-Reactor, desperate to not think about the sleeping assassin upstairs that thought she was his Handler—and the fact she'd taken advantage of him while he was such a state.
She had completed the thing when JARVIS informed her of James's awakening and had told him she was down here.
Toni took a moment to compose herself, especially since she was in the middle of currently cleaning the gunk out of the metal in her body that held the Reactor.
The door opened and she ignored it, she'd been given a heads up, otherwise, it would have scared the living crap out of her and likely set of a sort of negative reaction.
Last night was enough for her, thank you very much.
From the corner of her eye, she spotted James go incredibly still and she thinks maybe he did so to not distract her.
She pulled the magnet out, nearly shocking herself and with shaking hands and wheezy breaths fits the new Arc-Reactor into place.
She let out a breath, thankful she'd not messed up.
"What is the necessity behind that object?"
Toni jumped, eyes widening as she'd not heard (obviously, this dude was an assassin) James approach. "Holy Shit, dude!"
James blinked but otherwise didn't react. Ah, he was back to a blank slate, Toni noticed grimly.
(Toni actively ignored the way her heart beat against the metal casing in her chest.)
"It's called an Arc-Reactor." She flicked the one in her chest. "It's currently keeping me alive by making sure the pieces of shrapnel inside me don't pierce my heart."
James frowned deeply. "What of the original? Was it not up to standard?"
"S'not strong enough, think of it as a prototype, yeah? This new one is the perfected version." Toni explained. She chucked the old Reactor up into the air, caught it and repeated the action several times. "Don't really need this one anymore, best to destroy it."
"What if you are in need of a backup, in the case of an emergency?"
Toni paused and pursed her lips. Her grip of the old one tightened before she peered down at it. She met James' eyes. "Good point."
Toni hopped off the seat. "I'll make another, this one isn't very efficient and if something does happen, better safe than sorry, just like you said, huh?" She smiled up at him. "Thanks for mentioning it, Darling."
James gave a slow nod.
(Toni hopes he knows it was a compliment.)
"Oh!" She grinned. "There's some of my other babies I'd like you to meet! Dum-E, U, Butters!"
(We've got to make sure Arc-Reactor stays inside Toni's chest no matter what, the other whispered, tone twanging with more emotions than in a long time. The Asset agreed.)
"Say." Toni paused her work on creating Mark II when a thought came to mind. James, who was bent over a workshop screen with a book and pen she'd given him, looked up.
(She'd introduced him to the computer on there to allow him to research and learn and just do something. She secretly hopes that it helps jog something in his mind.)
"Would it be insensitive to ask about…" She trailed off, unable about the wording—she didn't want to go off on a ramble. "Why are you so, well, reserved is putting it lightly. I mean you've definitely got the whole I-am-a-scary-and-terrifying-assassin down pat but—eh. What did the people you called Handlers do to you before you met me?"
James stood straight. He tilted his head. "I am the Asset. I exist for the Handlers to command."
Toni exhaled and dropped her stylus to stand because his words said nothing yet everything. She moved until she stood the other side of the worktable, meeting his eyes. "Well, as you're no longer with those people you are a free man. I'll literally rip apart anyone that tries to take you from me, got it?"
James blinked. "I do not—"
Toni reached over, grasping his hands. "You're not going anywhere, I promise you, not as any sort of Handler but as someone who cares. You saved my life, now let me repay you by giving you your back."
