When Harry woke up, the smell of fresh blood and metal greeted him.
It was warmer than he had ever felt it in the cave, and he unsteadily got to his feet, cradling his sore arm to his chest, and peered around at the blobs that were various boxes and tools and bloody hell those were missiles crammed into the space.
"Carefully, Stark." Harry followed the sound of Yinsen's voice, picking his way through the maze the cavern had become. He rounded a large plastic box and saw a man with intricate facial hair sitting up, a glowing device in the centre of his chest.
Yinsen gave a small chuckle. "It's working?"
The man scoffed. "Of course it is. I designed it."
"Your modesty is unrivalled, Stark." Yinsen said, shaking his head.
The man looked up and caught sight of Harry hiding behind the boxes. "Kid's up." He said.
Yinsen's head jerked up towards Harry. "Harry. Come." He waved him over to the fire and pressed half a tin of cold soup into his hand. "I was beginning to worry. You have been asleep three days."
Harry gently heated his fingertips, ignoring the searing pain around his wrists from the metal bands designed to stop him doing just that, warming the tin of soup through as he watched the unidentified man wander around the cave and pull on a shirt.
"That is Tony Stark. Raza captured him three days ago. They are forcing him to make a missile."
Harry examined the hot soup held in his hands, ignoring the sounds coming from further back in the cave where Stark was apparently drawing, muttering calculations under his breath.
Yinsen hovered around Harry as he did every time he returned from his 'meetings' with the ten rings. The kettle began to whistle, and Yinsen quickly poured the water into three metal cups as Tony Stark appeared and sat down next to the fire. The strong smell of the spices he used in the tea assaulted Harry's nose and he sneezed.
"You still haven't told me where you're from." Stark said as Yinsen handed him one of the mugs.
"I am from a small town called Gulmira." Yinsen said.
"You got family there?" Stark asked.
Yinsen nodded. "Yes. And I will see them when I leave here."
"What about you, kid?" Stark asked, looking over at Harry. He started when he caught sight of his unnatural eyes. "Holy... was that the ten rings?"
Harry shook his head in answer to both questions. Stark seemed to be expecting him to say more, but he kept his eyes fixed on the fire in front of him, watching the flames dance around.
Yinsen set a wooden board between himself and Stark, and the two began playing a game Harry didn't know the rules to, using a selection of brass bolts and metal rings.
"So how come you heal so quickly kid?" Stark asked, rolling a pair of wooden dice in a metal cup. "I saw you when those guys brought you in, and you shouldn't have survived the night, yet alone woken up a few days later."
Harry shrugged, not wanting to get into the whole phoenix tears thing. He fingered a scar on his thigh, a mark from the Dursleys.
"You don't talk much, huh?" Tony said.
The rattle from the board game mixed with the men's voices and the occasional pop from the bright fire as Harry drank his tea. He regarded Tony Stark without looking at him, taking in the man's intricate facial hair and the faint smell of expensive cologne that still clung to him.
"Do you have family, Stark?" Yinsen asked.
Tony shook his head.
"So you are a man that has everything, but nothing." Yinsen said. "Trapped with a boy who has nothing, but everything."
Harry noticed a metal poker lying in the fire, and reached out to move it away from the flames. He ignored Stark's shout and closed his hand around the hot metal, pulling the poker out and setting it on the stone floor next to the fire.
Stark had jumped to his feet and immediately grabbed for Harry's hand, pulling it towards him. Harry cringed away from the sudden movement, but Stark had his wrist in a tight grip and was inspecting his palm.
"Why would you grab that? Yinsen, get some..." He trailed off, staring at Harry's unmarked skin. "How..."
Harry pulled his hand back and scooted away from the man, pulling his knees up to his chest and wrapping his arms around them.
"How didn't you burn yourself?" Stark asked, his head tipped slightly to one side in confusion. "That poker had been in there basically all day."
"Heat doesn't bother me." Harry muttered, absently running his hand over one of the bands around his wrist. Yet another person who would think him a freak. Yinsen had never said it, but Harry knew if unnerved him when he healed after the things the ten rings did.
To his surprise, Stark's eyes lit up. "Not at all? Could you keep a fire going for us to smelt things?"
Harry didn't understand what he meant, but he shrugged and nodded.
"Brilliant. That's the worst part of forging things, the heat. If you don't mind having the hottest job..." He trailed off once more, and Harry could almost hear his brain firing off in all directions.
He regarded the man for a few seconds, then cleared his throat and held up one hand. He clicked his fingers, concentrating hard, and a small flame appeared at the tip of his finger.
Tony jumped, but then moved forwards, inspecting the fire. "How big can you make it?" He asked.
"This big." Harry grimaced, doing his best to block out the pain in his arm. He let the flame die when the smell of burning flesh reached his nostrils.
"How hot can you make it?"
Harry shrugged and tapped his wrist. "The bands stop it."
"But without them? How hot could you make the fire? In degrees?" Stark asked.
Harry shrugged. "It melts rock."
Stark's eyebrows rose. "That's like..."
"2000 kelvin." Yinsen finished, catching Stark's eye. "Hot enough to melt palladium." He grinned. "You might just save us yet, Peter."