Disclaimer: I do not own anything that I have written. Yep, that is right, I own not even one iota of the below work.

Warnings: Cannon violence, sexuality, and blood. Possibly worse language than the actual movie. Will contain homosexual relationships.

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Chapter Three

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With that done, Tony wandered into his bedroom, trying his best to ignore his aching muscles as he laid down, staring at the ceiling, and just thought of everything that had happened in the past few days. For some reason there was a wet track making its way down Tony's face, all the way to his neck. The roof must have a leak or something; Tony made a mental note to get JARVIS on that.

...

The next week had drifted by slowly. Tony was a mess of desperate work, depression, and forcing his body through the ringer constantly. It seemed, however, that something was getting better. The aches and pains of the daily 'Wilson Treatment' were getting less and less. He was not winning or being hit any less, if anything he was being hit more, it was more than likely just his pain tolerance catching up with his new activities.

"As anyone ever told you that you learn things freakishly quick?" Wade had asked, even as Stark hit the floor again with a pained groan.

"I've certainly never been accused of being a slow learner." Stark scoffed, and pushed himself back onto his feet, forcing a pained moan down as he took a stance against Wilson, and the sparing renewed itself, "Although if you wanted to let up a bit..."

"I like the look of a handsome man panting at my feet, though." Wade said, and you could see the outline of a pout through that red and black mask. Tony allowed a laugh to bubble up or the first time in a week – Because Wade Wilson was a spectacular human being that just got Tony's sense of humour. They were quickly leaving contract partner territory, and entering a weird sort of friendship.

Wade left soon after, thought, leaving Tony to his work.

He had gotten the prototype for Project Proving Subsection – Bracelet Gauntlets. The Vibranium would need to be pushed extremely thin to make it work, and thus the project went from two full gauntlets, to two 'fingerless glove' type gauntlets to preserve the metal. The best part of Vibranium was the fact that even the smallest amount could be used if taken into consideration effectively enough. Even a paper thin sheet of the metal was extremely effective – Enough so to block bullets. The project underwent renaming, because he wanted a Gauntlet for both hands, and what sort of idiot wore two different watches.

"Shall I allow the cal from Mister Rhodes to go to voicemail again, sir?" JARVIS suddenly asked, starling Tony in his testing of the prototype gauntlets.

"Yes, if he wants to talk to me, he knows where I live." Tony announced looking a bit put out. He wanted for forgive Rhodes, but the man was making it difficult. He'd made over fifty calls, but Tony wouldn't be letting even a single one through. No, Tony knew he deserved an actual apology, in person, and if his best friend couldn't provide that...

The genius turned his attention back to the prototype bracelets around his wrists. They were slightly chunky, as to be expected considering their purpose, but when Tony clicked the button on the side and spread his fingers, the metal unfolded and wrapped itself around his hands snuggly, there was a small, individualized arc reactour on the back of the gauntlets hands so that he didn't need to take the time for attachment to the main reactour on his chest during battle. Both hands were fitted over with red and silver painted metal, and Tony carefully took aim, keeping the power down as to not repeat the same mistakes he'd made the first time he was making Mark II, and fired.

The result was as to be expected, it worked. It was Stark-Tech after all. Still, Tony did it repeatedly, not letting up until he'd tested them in every angle, every possible finger configuration, and so on.

"Perfect, JARVIS, start making the Vibranium version, but put it on the slow burner, we want it done perfectly. Wouldn't want to waste a billion dollar piece of metal by working it too fast, would we?" Tony asked rhetorically, before sitting back down at his desk and covering his tired eyes with his hand. The inventor didn't even want to know what he looked like in the mirror, judging by how much torture he was putting himself through, he likely didn't make as attractive of a picture as Wilson had claimed.

"Sir, might I suggest resting for a little while, then coming back to the drawing board tomorrow after a decent meal?" JARVIS asked, but really, he was very clearly demanding this of his creator.

"Worried about me, J?" Tony asked, not removing his hand from their place covering his eyes, not so much as twitching.

"To be frank, yes. You have been pushing your body to the limit, as well as your mind, and you have been eating less, as well as sleeping less than you need considering the abuse you are putting yourself through. It goes against any sort of logic that you are even still able to do the sparing after the week you've put yourself through." JARVIS swiftly explained, and Tony could hear that subtle, worried tone in the background.

"Anything you ask of me, Sweets, I shall comply." Tony eventually said, getting up and leaving the workshop, knowing that JARVIS would have DUM-E or U clean it up, and moved toward his bedroom, his comfortable mattress sounding so incredibly pleasing at the moment.

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The next morning, JARVIS woke up Tony at 08:00 on the dot, giving the genius a surprising, full eight hours of sleep. Something that he hadn't had since before Afghanistan and it wasn't even periodically interrupted by the now typical nightmares. Still somewhat groggy, Tony spilled himself out of bed, rolling onto the floor unceremoniously, and pushing himself up and toward the shower.

The water was brisk, JARVIS knowing exactly what his creator's preferences were, and 15 minutes later, Tony exited, and was greeted to the smell of a full breakfast, and DUM-E was the one making it, "Oh Universe, JARVIS I hope you've been keeping an eye the little tragedy."

"I even made him leave the fire-extinguisher in the other room." Came JARVIS reply as Tony sat down and practically inhaled his food – Not just any breakfast, but a Full-English, and it was far better than the breakfast of champions that Stark had been having for the last month or so.

An hour after enjoying all the food, everyone's favourite part of the day let himself into the house, "Hello my darlings! Me and my boxes are back, you may bow down in thanks for gracing you with my presence."

Wade's purposely overconfident tone brought a large grin to Tony's, "That one of your kinks?"

"Don't ask me what my kinks are, that's one of my kinks." Wade stated simply, and the white eyes on his masked seemed to actually shift and widen as he laid eyes on the breakfast at the table, which Tony still hadn't finished even after all that time, "Ohhh~ Is that for me? I knew you were thinking of me, darling!"

"Help yourself." Tony said, backing away from the table and heading to the gym, "Once you're done, I'll be waiting to hand my ass to me."

"Sure thing, shnookums! I'll be right with you." Wade spoke, but his words were clearly muffled with the food he was currently stuffing his face with.

Tony still hadn't seen the mercenary's face, of course. It seemed to be something of a point; Wade avoided showing it to his employer at all costs. Of course, the inventor didn't really understand why, he was never one to judge, especially someone that was swiftly becoming one of his only friends, but he also didn't feel the need to push into that particular part of Wilson's life. If he hid, then Tony could respect that. After all, Tony had a mask of his own, even if was significantly more metaphorical.

15 minutes later, Wilson joined his student in the gym, his mask was rolled back down on his face completely, but his jaw was still chewing.

"Alright Padawan, ready for your daily ass kicking?" Wade asked, getting into a ready position across from his student.

"As long as it's by you, Wade-Sensei." Tony replied, but the snark was missing from the tone, instead the inventor focused his concentration completely on his current opponent.

Wade lunged forward, although he was not going anywhere near his top speeds. Tony rolled out of the way, and attempted to give his sparring partner a jab to the small of his back, but Wade spun around quickly, far too quickly, and Tony felt something snap as the gloved hand of his partner connected with his nose.

"Dude, this is a billion dollar face!" Tony said incredulously, holding a hand to his now bleeding nose, wincing in pain when he felt the truth of it – His nose was very broken.

"Oh shit..." Wade whispered, the white eye markings on his mask going wider as he scurried closer to his friend, "Instinct darling, didn't mean too, let's see...Oh man I don't think any other Deadpool ever broke Iron Man's nose, this is certainly something to brag to the others about..."

Wade moved Tony's hand away from his nose, and Wade just shook his head and grabbed the nose, pulling it back into place. Tony jerked back, away from the crazy person who just snapped his nose back into place without warning – Tony didn't have the healing factor his friend did! Doing something like that without waiting for the bleeding to stop, or a pain killer to dull the edge, cruel. Still, Tony knew that his friend didn't actually mean anything by it; Wade probably didn't remember what it was like, being without a super-healing ability.

"Don't do that again, please." Tony snarled after a brief moment of silence, pinching his nose and trying to get the bleeding to stop.

"Sir, should I get medical services?" JARVIS inquired, sounding worried.

"No, it's fine. Already back in place and the bleeding stopped. We should probably call it a day though, Red." Tony answered, facing the almost depressed looking mercenary, "Same time tomorrow though, and I'll even save you some breakfast."

The man brightened visibly at that, leaving Tony alone to bandage his own wounds, as well as contemplate some things. The reports that Tony read about Wade said the man was insane, it wasn't until just a moment about that Tony got the first idea of what they were talking about – Wilson very clearly believe in the Multiverse theory. It was fascinating to think about, it made Tony want to converse the subject with his newest friend, start talking shop like he hadn't expected to be able with the mercenary, "J, remind me to ask Red about the M-Theory later."

"Of course, sir. For now, you should bandage your nose and decide to do a less stressful job, perhaps." JARVIS nudged, and Tony just gave a sigh and nodded. He actually much preferred sparing to the intricacies of running Stark Industries. Unless there was someone there of similar intelligence going against him in some way, business always bored the genius as a waste of his considerable mind that could have instead been making breakthroughs in science.

Strangely enough, his nose didn't hurt at all. Probably not surprising, what's the sting of a broken bone compared to the rest of the pain Tony had been through in his life. Alternatively, perhaps it hurt so much that the area numbed itself. Regardless, Tony shook the thought of as meaningless and starting signing the paperwork that JARVIS had deemed important enough for him to bother with.