Long may you run (part 10)

The next day Tony sleeps in – he came back home around 3 a.m. – and once he wakes up, he stares at his breakfast as if it was a disguised alien, because his brain is still pretty much focused on yesterday. He wishes he knew what Steve was thinking and he's torn between surprise and worry about Iron Man's friend. He knows Steve is still having a hard time adjusting and maybe – maybe he wanted to say something or to ask something, but he was afraid to.

Tony realizes he probably won't know; Steve seemed pretty determined to run away and pretend nothing happened. He can't stop thinking about Steve, alternating his thoughts between yesterday and the arc reactor problems, while he takes the metro to the clinic. Time for his usual blood tests.

It takes only five minutes to get the blood drawn and Tony spends maybe five more exchanging hellos with some of the people he recognizes from radiation before disappearing outside. It's pouring rain but somehow it feels right and pleasant, the greyness and slight strange mist filling the streets and making the world seem soft and just peaceful. Tony walks a few miles until his feet hurt and his trousers are soaked up to knees.

'You are all wet,' Happy observes when Tony enters the apartment, leaving his coat and umbrella by the door and struggling to take the shoes off.

'Brilliant observation skills,' Tony mumbles and then jumps a bit when something hits his head, something light and fluffy. 'Geez, thanks,' he sighs, wrapping the blanket around his shoulders, and disappears in the bathroom to take a long warm shower before going back to his everyday work.

Saturday is Riverside time and Tony ends up going with some of the oldest kids to a science museum and they come back bearing gallons of ice cream for everyone and eat it instead of something more substantial for an afternoon snack. Everyone loves it despite the weather: it's getting cold and windy and not very pleasant, but they are protected from the world by thick brick walls of the building.

Monday morning Tony is back on the subway taking his almost an hour long trip to the clinic and staring at people.

It's almost as fascinating as that one time he went to the biggest supermarket in the world – or it felt like it: he knows he shouldn't be surprised by all those little everyday things he never got to do as Stark, but it all is just so perfectly mundane. Simple. There are no aliens and no terrorists and no people dying all around: people read books on their e-readers, listen to music, talk or just sit and stare at everything around like Tony does.

It feels good not to be a superhero sometimes.

Tony spends his transfusion time tapping on his tablet with his free hand, adding some finishing touches to an algorithm he's been working on for reading the alien technology's energy output – most of the tools they've tried to use were just too vague and easily interrupted and they do need very detailed readings to work on understanding the magic, magical science, whichever, that makes the weapons run.

Back at home, he finishes the job and sends the message to his S.H.I.E.L.D. team, eats lunch with Happy, and disappears to the big workshop to get some upgrades installed for the suit's powering systems. A typical day.

The illusion doesn't last long though because Iron Man is called to Mexico for a quick mission involving some more terrorists – that's getting really annoying, but Tony still prefers it over aliens – and it takes him a day to come back and get some rest before Nate is supposed to check up on Ijon and hang around, probably, although it wasn't written in the official invite of an email that Clint sent him.

'Hey, Nate,' a female voice greets Nate as he enters the Avengers Mansion and he can't help but frown and look around. There aren't many women that are acquainted with Nate, not really, unless he would count elderly citizens and kids, so this is unexpected.

'Hello,' he signs into the space, taking off his coat and shoes and stepping into the bigger corridor.

He finds Clint sitting on a windowsill at the end of the hall, drinking something disturbingly green-colored.

'Like this?' Clint signs and the female voice translates his words instantly and Tony blinks and then snickers soundlessly and pats Clint's shoulder amusedly. 'I'm trying out the features. Since you kinda ran out the last time, just like us, and there were no instructions.'

'Are you trying to make someone annoyed with you?'

'Phil's life is sooo boring right now,' the voice says, prolonging the o and making it sound really high-pitched. 'He's been getting out a bit recently but he's been an army man all his life and he can't stand sitting in one place, even after a serious surgery.'

'Guess I understand,' Tony signs back, winking at Clint, and then gestures at him to follow to the control room. They stay there for themere fifteen minutes that Tony needs to pretend to check everything he'd have to check if he didn't have JARVIS doing that for him, and when he stands up, Clint clasps his hands and smiles.

'Stay for a movie? It's just me, Phil and Bruce today.'

Tony hesitates for a moment, but then he did expect this, so in the end he signs yes and lets Clint lead them to the leisure room. Phil is already there when they enter, sitting on the floor and browsing through big selection of DVDs on one of the shelves – Tony wonders whose idea it was to actually purchase the physical copies instead of having them online, but it seems like it's somebody's collection – and he looks strangely un-Phil-like. Clint ruffles his hair affectionately, gaining a glare from Phil.

'Hey, Nate. Nice to see you. Bruce is still in the kitchen, he's making popcorn –'

'I'll help him,' Tony signs and leaves the room, giving a moment of privacy to the two agents. If he didn't have the blueprints of HQ embedded in his brain, he could only follow the buttery scent to find Bruce.

'Hey,' Tony signs and Ijon verbalizes it for him without being prompted; that's something he's been learning from JARVIS. 'Clint invited me to stay and I thought I could help?'

'Nate, good afternoon – nice to see you,' Bruce says with his usual small shy smile. Tony almost hears we haven't really heard from you in a few weeks, because Tony mostly disappeared during October, but Bruce it too tactful to mention that.

'Can I help?'

'Do you know how to make caramel?'

'Yes,' Tony signs decisively, suddenly remembering his first kitchen experiments with Jarvis; making caramel was like a miracle when he was a kid, you could observe the change in structure and color and all the little details.

'Here's fleur de sel,' Bruce says, pushing a small paper tub into Tony's hand and turning around. 'We like the salted kind.'

'Sure,' Tony signs and takes off his shirt, staying only in a t-shirt – he's made sure the rector is covered so that no one can ever see its light; the kitchen is warm and if he'll be making caramel, he'll be hovering over the oven for a good few minutes.

'What's that?' he hears Bruce ask, the man's voice suddenly close, as he's placing the sugar-filled heavy bottom pan on the oven.

'What?' he asks, turning around to see that Bruce is just two steps behind him, eyes fixed on something on the level of Tony's navel.

Oh.

So maybe this doesn't look too good because there's a huge dark blue bruise in the crook of Tony's arm where the IV cannula was inserted, and his other arm is still presenting a few fading needle marks from blood drawing – and Tony hasn't noticed. He should have, it's such a silly thing – it should have ached, but between Tony's headaches and the reactor and getting beaten up by bad guys, aremotely painful bruise is nothing, and then he's been busy with mission and all that.

It means a slip-up and Tony is not happy.

'Nothing,' he signs and mentally beats himself for taking the shirt off. Silly mistake. Problems.

'Nate, there are about two possible reasons for this – either you're doing drugs or you've undergone some medical procedure –'

'I'd rather not talk about this,' Ijon translates for Tony – that's the truth – and Tony turns back to his pan and staring at the melting sugar, but of course Bruce is persistent.

'You make me worried,' he says and Tony lets himself sigh. 'I don't want to mother you or anything, but you're skinny and you always look tired and now this –'

'How about all those time when you see me and I'm fine?'

'I don't see you that often –'

'Drop it. Please,' Tony adds after a second of hesitation and Bruce's frown deepens, but he finally gives Nate a sharp nod.

'I'm not really a doctor, but if anything is wrong, you can always come to me,' he says in the end, taking off his glasses and pocketing them, and then goes back to the popcorn machine. Tony kind of wants to disappear because this is a bit more than he's bargained for, the closeness and the concern, but it would be even more suspicious.

Or that's what he tells himself when they sit down on the big sofa, Nate in his trademark plain shirt and ignoring Bruce's subtle glances, and watch 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Tony tries not to overthink the Bruce issue when he comes back home; he walked from HQ and it's almost midnight when he finally sneaks under the warm covers of his bed. Tomorrow is just another twelve hours of work that Tony is itching to do, and the day after tomorrow Rhodey comes back and Tony will see him for the first time in months.

'Sir, I am not sure it is wise to focus your thoughts on an arc reactor powered building when you are aware that such a big unit would not be cost effective, not to mention it would lack in power –'

'Could you please stop being so nice to me, J?' Tony interrupts the stream of JARVIS' words, still turning the holographic arc reactor in his hands. 'You're always so polite when you're not sassing me –'

'You should be resting.'

'Come on, J, I've been here for nine hours only and there's still so much to do –'

'There always is –'

'– and it's better than thinking about other things.'

'… It's time for your medicine, sir,' JARVIS adds and Tony can swear the A.I. sounds positively smug.

'Couldn't you just say so?' he grumbles and obediently swallows the pills that fill his Tuesday part of the dispenser. 'And I want to do some things in advance, mother hen. Rhodey will be annoyed if I drag him here and spend all the time working instead of arguing or getting drunk – scratch that, I guess we have only arguing on the list –'

'And sushi.'

'And that, smartass,' Tony agrees and even eats a big nutritious sandwich before going back to work, with his favorite playlist filing the vast space, and he silently worries about JARVIS the same way the A.I. worries about him. Tony can't stop marveling at that because even he himself doesn't really understand JARVIS completely.

Tony greets Rhodey with his usual "Platypus!" but he has the decency to wait until Rhodey closes the doors behind himself. They need to meet in private spaces since Tony doesn't want people to get suspicious about someone who is suddenly buddy-buddy with both of Stark's closest friends – Happy is an exception here, no one really looks at Happy and usually it's a big advantage.

'You look –' Rhodey starts, but seems unsure, so he takes off his coat and shoes and then stares at Tony for a moment. 'You look tired,' he finally decides and Tony rolls his eyes; when doesn't he look tired? It's been a thing since he was in MIT. And every time he looks not-tired is either make-up or digital manipulation. 'Also, you look like Nate.'

'No shit,' Tony huffs and then wraps his arms around Rhodey in a quick hug. 'Good to see you.'

'Good to see you too,' Rhodey replies, looking around and taking in everything that has changed since the last time he was here. 'But it'll be better if you tell me we're watching a movie, I missed like five months of premieres and I need some mindless sci-fi action badly.'

'I've got a whole marathon prepared – and we're alone for now, so no one is gonna disturb us or something. Let's just grab the food and we're ready.'

'Sure,' Rhodey agrees, putting his bag down by the door and following Tony into the kitchen.

Sometime in the middle of the third movie, Tony falls asleep on Rhodey, just like good old time in college – only minus booze. When he wakes up it's still dark, he guesses he was out just for an hour or less; the screen is all black and there is no other noise in the room than his and Rhodey's mismatched breaths and a soft hum of the city outside the building.

Tony just knows that Rhodey is not asleep, he's had enough practice in his life to be able to tell that in a fraction of a second.

'What you thinking about?' he asks, keeping his voice hushed so that it doesn't sound too loud in the calm space.

'You,' Rhodey replies with a tense strain to his voice. He's worried. He's always worried around Tony, well, unless he's drunk or laughing. But Tony seems to do that to people who know him too well for their own good.

'You always think about me, I'm irresistible, I thought we've been through that,' Tony says easily, falling back into the familiar pattern of slightly mocking but friendly speech that he doesn't get to practice enough these days. 'What exactly did I do this time?'

'I don't want to go away for another mission,' Rhodey replies, still looking somewhere far above Tony's head.

'Rhodey, honeybear –'

'I don't want to disappear for a few months and then pop in for a few days,' Rhodey continues, ignoring Tony completely. 'I don't want to go away and then come back and see how much you've changed. I don't want to see you changed, all right? That's selfish of me and probably pretty insensitive to mention all this stuff, but it's just wrong to – to come back to this –'

'Have I really changed that much?'

'Gosh, I don't know,' Rhodey chuckles nervously, shifting slightly to pull his legs up on the sofa. 'I guess I just wasn't around you enough since – since all of this happened and maybe I was hoping that when I go through those doors, everything will be like it used to be.'

'Even if I stop this game, nothing will be like before,' Tony says, doing his best job at ignoring he hollow feeling in his gut when he says those words.

'And I feel like a total asshole because this must be so much more difficult for you than for me and I just come here and drop all my shit on you and expect a miraculous answer that would suddenly make everything right,' Rhodey says and then laughs drily, but there is no trace of amusement in it; it's almost as if he was trying to choke something down. Tears, maybe. Tony's been there.

'It's fine. I'm dealing,' Tony assures him, no need to use more words, no need for psychology or elaborate sentences or anything. Rhodey understands him more than Tony himself does sometimes. '… have I changed?'

'I guess it's little things I wouldn't have noticed if I saw you more often than once every few months,' Rhodey replies and then pauses for a moment. 'I guess – you look less tired, paler, more… fragile maybe, but less tired than after the Chitauri. And looks like you're even thinner than the last time, but it might be just my imagination.'

'Mhm,' Tony hums noncommittally; Rhodey doesn't have to know that Tony did lose more weight to Doc and Levy's vehement disapproval.

They stay in silence for a few more minutes before Tony sits up and stretches his back in soft practiced motion.

'You wanna sleep on the sofa all night?'

'I could use your thousand-dollar mattress,' Rhodey replies and Tony's pretty sure he's smirking, even though he can't see that.

'Come on then,' Tony commands and Rhodey follows him into the bedroom with a blanket still wrapped around his shoulders like a cape.

'I'm going to request a transfer to New York,' Rhodey tells Tony a few days later when they're making breakfast. It's Saturday so Tony is leaving Rhodey with Happy and going to Riverside for a few hours.

'What?' Tony asks, turning around from the stove so fast his head almost spins.

'What I said?' Rhodey replies with a quirked eyebrow. 'Look at the pan, I don't want my French toast burned.'

'I think I know why you'd do that, but why would you do that?' Tony questions, his attention obediently back to the pan and the food he's making. 'You love active duty and here you'd be doing some boring jobs that would make you sick after a week –'

'There's a position I could get if I wanted. It's something like before –'

'Like when you were a liaison to SI?'

'– yes, it's weapons, I've had enough experience dealing with your arms that I could take over negotiating weapon contracts with everyone we're working with. It's a really big thing – it would still involve lots of travelling to places and to presentations and all that, but I'd be stationed here.'

'You don't have to –' Tony starts, even though he knows what Rhodey will say.

'I want to and you have no say in this,' Rhodey declares predictably. 'Besides, I could use a break from all those deserts and mountains and the sun.'

'Winter in New York is awful.'

'Everything cold seems nice after Iraq.'

'… I guess it does,' Tony agrees with a shrug, thinking briefly about how he missed snow – and he doesn't even like snow, there was a reason his house was built in California – when he was in Afghanistan. 'The food's ready, grab the cinnamon sugar and sit down, cupcake,' he adds, sliding the French toast onto plates.

Rhodey stays until Wednesday, even if he wants a transfer, he's still working for his army bosses and they seem to think that a week of holidays is enough after a long mission. Tony doesn't get as much as he'd like done but that's typical; he's probably just aiming too high. They both spend lots of time in the big workshop, Rhodey helping Tony with whatever he can, bonding over engineering like they used to do in MIT. Rhodey doesn't really possess any of Nate's skills so Tony leaves those jobs aside for now and teaches Rhodey how to fly in an Iron Man suit instead.

Being around Rhodey is as natural as breathing and when he's gone, Tony feels like he needs to fill his time with something more, so he buries himself with work and goes out with Annik and her three youngest and has Doc come over for dinner. The next Saturday he goes to Riverside – they are used to weekly visits now – and on the train ride home he has this brilliant idea he can't believe he hasn't thought of before.

'JARVIS,' he calls the A.I. as soon as he greets Happy and disappears inside his small workshop. 'I need you to make a note and add it to our list.'

JARVIS knows, of course, which list Tony is talking about, he always knows everything, so he doesn't ask and waits for Tony to elaborate.

'I figured out what to do with you, guys, and seriously, I've been so stupid thinking about anything else,' Tony adds, gesturing at his bots to come over and they are by his side in a moment, good little kids. 'I want you to stay with uncle Rhodey when I won't be around, all right? Can you do that and be good boys?' he asks, keeping his voice as impassive as possible, but it's proving difficult because they're making those sad quiet chirps as soon as he says won't be here. 'You're all too smart for your own good,' Tony adds, patting the three bots on their heads and still not moving from the spot on the floor where he's kneeling.

'I believe they will be as comfortable – given the situation – as possible with Colonel Rhodes,' JARVIS comments quietly and Tony really hopes so, but he doesn't have to say that aloud.

'Rhodey will take the best care of you,' Tony says softly, rubbing the bots' sensors for a moment longer, and then he stands up. 'But enough slacking for now, fellas. We still need to do some reverse engineering before daddy disappears to get his fuel.'

Tony is tired and he knows he should sleep but he really can't, it feels like his mind is working too fast for his body to keep up and maybe that's exactly what is it.

'Maybe getting some fresh air would help you sleep, sir,' JARVIS says sometime around midnight, two hours after Tony decided to call it a night and then tossed and turned in his bed.

'What am I, five-year-old who needs to get his playtime outside to be tired enough not to bother his mother in the evening?'

'Sometimes I wonder, sir,' JARVIS replies smugly and Tony shakes his head in disbelief. Really, he should have been smarter than to make an A.I. that would talk back to him – no, not really. They both love this.

'What do you say for a therapy session, hmm?' Tony asks, quirking an eyebrow at the nearest camera as he gets out of the bed and opens his wardrobe to look for some warm clothes.

'I am always available,' JARVIS declares. 'If you need me.'

'Guess clearing my head won't hurt,' Tony muses, putting on a warm pullover and fishing his gloves out of a drawer.

'It would be beneficial if it helped you sleep, sir, as tomorrow –'

'I've got a sparring session with my misfit team, yeah, I remember.'

'Are you sure you feel physically fit to take part it in, sir?'

'We've been there,' Tony sighs, wrapping a scarf around his neck and them putting a ridiculous thick woolen hat that makes his head look gigantic; Pepper insisted he need one – since you're playing this game and it means you're still shaving your hair off, your head must get cold, right? – and he has to admit it's really warm.

Then Tony puts on big wireless headphones over the hat and places his Starkphone in the pocket of his thermal jacket and he's ready to go.

'Glad you fancy being mobile,' he tells JARVIS as soon as he's out in the streets; it's dark and surprisingly quiet for a Saturday night in New York City, but that's probably the weather's fault. It's cold, luckily with zero snow, and there's a moist bone-chilling wind that Tony is protected from by his almost-Arctic clothing.

'Have you been thinking about Colonel Rhodes again?' JARVIS asks and Tony has to verbalize a yes since the A.I. can't see him nod; JARVIS really can read his mind.

'I'm glad he'll be around more,' Tony confesses. 'I – we're not really around each other all the time, you know? And it's been fine. That's how we function. We don't have to be around all the time. It's cool. But I – you know, I'd like to see him more than five times in my life… Gosh, that sounds depressing,' Tony adds, shrugging a bit, but it's the truth: if Rhodey was to leave on his missions like usual, he's see Tony a few times a year. No more.

And there just is no time.

'Sir, I think –'

'I know, J,' Tony mumbles, speeding up a bit and taking big steps across the pavements of Manhattan; it feels good to move. To be a part of the moving city. To be a part of – all of this, everything around. To still be here. 'It'll be a year in a few weeks.'

'A year?'

'Since I got my diagnosis,' Tony explains, spitting the last word out because it sounds wrong. 'My sentence.'

'Please do not say things like that, sir,' JARVIS objects, of course he does.

Tony just snickers, pushes his gloved hands deeper into his jacket's pockets, and adds, 'Let's go over my to-do list. No time like present.'

'As you wish,' JARVIS agrees and starts to recite the list.

Tony wakes up at nine, just an hour before the team meeting is scheduled, after sleeping for six hours straight. Happy is already waiting with breakfast when Tony gets out of his bedroom after a shower, wrapped with a dressing gown.

'Long night?'

'Late night,' Tony corrects with a small smile. 'Have I ever told you you're an angel for putting up with my shit and making me food?'

'You might have mentioned the second reason,' Happy muses, putting a plate of scrambled eggs into front of Tony. 'I like it when I have your money to buy Kobe beef for a Sunday dinner.'

'Good to have something to come back home to,' Tony declares with a straight face, but then offers Happy a quick smile and digs in; there isn't much time left.

As soon as he's eaten, he puts on his newest armor and makes his short flight to the HQ. When he enters the training room, he almost freezes, but makes himself act naturally because otherwise it could be suspicious.

Spider Man is there, for the first time in a month and a half.

Tony, of course, made sure to check up on Peter Parker and he knew the man was going to work normally and everything seemed to be fine on his end, but it's good to finally see him, in his usual Spidey costume and apparently arguing with someone already.

It's also the first time Iron Man meets with Captain since that scene two weeks ago and Tony isn't sure how should he act.

'Iron Man, good to see you, Thor will be here in a minute and we can begin,' Steve says, gesturing at Tony to come inside the training area, and Tony silently agrees to this: let's pretend nothing happened.

He still isn't sure what did happen, anyway. So this he can do.

'Greetings, my friends,' Thor's voice booms in the vast space a moment later, before Tony even manages to say hello to everyone else. 'It is good to see you all again. I am prepared for this training meeting, Mjölnir has been eager to fight again.'

'Let's do this, folks, like we discussed the last time,' Steve orders and everyone get into positions; they were working on team strategies for some time and every absentee was briefed, so now they only need to perfect the sequences in real.

Tony is not a violent man and neither is Iron Man, but he hasn't been really boxing and when he was, it wasn't as intense as he'd like because of the reactor and getting otherwise banged up, so the chance to work off his energy in a safe and efficient way is very welcome.

As always, it leaves him exhausted by the end of the day – the training lasts a full six hours with one longer break. Everyone is here and it's the first time in months so they want to make as much as possible out of this session.

Tony doesn't exchange more than strategy opinions and a few random words with Steve and Cap doesn't seem eager to talk when the training is finished so Tony decided not to push him – he's been getting too much into everything, right, with both Nate and Iron Man, that's what he decided – but before he can leave HQ, someone else catches up with him.

'I've been an ass,' Spider Man says, his voice sounding almost remorseful. 'Shouldn't have disappeared on you.'

'I understand that,' Tony replies truthfully, he's done the same things enough times. 'I just hope it wasn't because you thought you couldn't trust me.'

'Nah, man, you're a superhero, we've got trust rules, don't we?' Peter laughs, his voice a bit tight too reassure Tony that it's all fine. 'I just had – can we take this talk elsewhere?'

'Don't you trust Ijon?' Tony asks back, smiling at JARVIS behind the faceplate.

'I don't trust super-hearing, and well, I've been in the superhero business longer than you and I know best it's good to be super-extra paranoid.'

'I bet you do,' Tony agrees and has Spider Man go with him to the big workshop, giving JARVIS a quick command to get rid of everything that might shout STARK. Well, everything besides Stark tech because it's the best and everyone uses Stark tech; most of Tony's machines and supplies are prototypes or handmade so they don't have the SI logo anyway.

'This will do,' Spider Man declares when Tony closes the door behind them, the noise echoing through the big room. 'Man, you've got a fantastic collection of toy– of about everything,' he comments excitedly, making is way through the room with a slightly alarming speed, still in his suit. 'Figures, you made the armor yourself, you'd have – is this a particle accelerator, in the corner?'

'Yes,' Tony replies, Iron Man's voice carrying the amusement perfectly. 'Look,' he adds and as soon as Spider Man's eyes are on him, he gives JARVIS a command to take off the suit.

'Holy – fuck, that's amazing,' Spider Man sighs, suddenly three steps away from Nate. 'Do it again? Pretty please?'

Tony raises his eyebrows with amusement but Peter seems to be serious, so he gives in and had JARVIS put the armor on and off again; it's routine for Tony, something he's done like a million times by now – he is still perfectly aware how futuristic the whole suit is and how impressive it looks.

'Has anyone seen this before?' Peter asks, running his hands over the armor's surface.

'A few very close friends,' Tony replies truthfully and Peter turns around faster than any human could at the sound of Tony's voice – only to see Tony smiling apologetically.

'I created the system, you know that already,' he signs and JARVIS speaks it out for him in real time. Tony is pretty sure Peter's face falls behind the mask.

'How come Iron Man speaks normally when you – when you don't –' he trails off, gesturing at Tony's hands.

'Magic,' Tony replies and laughs hollowly. 'No, not really. Science. Though at this level most people would probably call it magic.'

'As in?' Peter prompts, dividing his attention between the armor and Tony.

'A combination of things,' Tony signs, teasing the younger man and imagining his scowling face. 'Come on, I'll show you,' he adds and Spider Man follows to the far corner of the 'shop where Tony works on his medical projects for future use for SI. When he stops and looks over his shoulder, Peter is standing there, mask off, looking pretty funny with his head sticking out of the costume of the most notorious superhero. 'Bathroom's there if you want to change,' he says, gesturing at a door on his left, and Peter disappears for a few minutes during which Tony strolls around the room and smirks at every sign of JARVIS' hiding Stark intervention. Good thing that Tony has some robots at the A.I.'s disposal, to act as JARVIS' arms – they are gone now, too, probably sitting nicely in the backroom.

'So what's the magic?'

'First, we used lip reading, tapping, codes, eye control – I'm sure you're familiar with all of them –'

'And now?'

'Have you ever played virtual ping pong with just your brain?'

'Like those think left and it'll move to left games they have at science fairs for kids?'

'Like that,' Tony confirms, taking one of the prototype helmets in his hands and inviting Peter to sit down with one meaningful glance. When Peter is seated, Tony carefully places the helmet on his head and signs with his now free hands, 'I just brought it to a higher level. I think a sentence and I say the sentence via synthesizer. This might not work perfectly because it needs to be calibrated to every person specifically, it has my data in, but try.'

For a moment nothing happens and Peter looks as if he was wondering if he's in a science fiction movie, but then he blinks, shakes his head with the slightest delicate move, and Tony wants to laugh at Peter's amazed face when it does work.

Tony knew it would, he tested it with Doc and Happy, but a little suspense is always good, right?

'I don't think it's going to work,' JARVIS synthesizes in a voice almost perfectly mimicking Peter's. 'It is working!'

'Of course it is,' Tony scoffs, seating himself in the other chair. 'I don't speak and I'm a scientist, therefore it's just natural I create this.'

'No one managed before,' the fake-voice says. 'I thought you were a programmer.'

'I'm many things,' Tony declares. 'Want to see more?'

'Yes very much,' Peter says, now with his real voice, and JARVIS doesn't bother to double that. 'So when I say something aloud, something I'm thinking too, it doesn't get synthesized? How did you do that?'

'I'm smart,' Tony laughs soundlessly and enjoys Peter's eyes lighting up with curiosity.

Having decided to tell Spider Man the Iron Man/Nate deal suddenly feels like it was a really good idea.

The next morning Tony gets out of bed early and leaves for the clinic around seven a.m. The radiation is its usual ten minutes plus some more for chatting with random strangers. As soon as Tony is done, he goes back home to finish a piece of a code for the response system that Nate is still working with his S.H.I.E.L.D. team on, and probably will be working for a few more weeks.

When Tony is done with this chunk of work it's lunchtime, so he gets himself some pasta salad in a bistro near his workshop and then sits on one of abandoned benches of a tiny green space square that is proudly called a memorial of something, he didn't pay enough attention to remember. Sitting outside and eating lunch doesn't seem to be the thing in 42°F so he gets some stares from passersby, not that it matters; it's nice to observe people even if it means being observed, too.

Being stared at in such a simple curious way is nice. Not being stared at for being some kind of a gone-wrong celebrity. At least now when Tony smiles when he meets someone's eyes, they usually smile back and not snap a photo.

As soon as Tony is back in the workshop, JARVIS speaks up.

'An email just arrived for Nate, sir. It is from your team reminding you that the Inventor's Award you won for unit RS-10 will be presented to you on Saturday evening. Doctor Green is asking if you are sure you will not be able to attend.'

'I won't be there, let him know,' Tony says, remembering the message about the award he got some time ago, around that mess time involving an alien monster. 'Also, we really need to name that thing something nice –'

'I am not sure the team would appreciate your penchant for names, sir,' JARVIS replies smugly, the email already sent – Tony screen flashes with an alert – and adds, 'If you continue in a similar way to your name ideas up to now.'

'Dummy knows his name is a term of endearment –'

'As he knows that you threatening to dismantle him and make a wine rack out of his parts is just a way of showing your affection, sir.'

'Just wait until I add a virus to your code and turn you into a bad computer game, J. Like, 80s-style snake game –'

'You love me too much to do that, sir, so I feel quite safe.'

'You know me too well,' Tony shakes his head and then glanced up at the work-for-today list on the top of the screen. 'Ugh, do I really need to work on those power conversions? It's booring, J,' he whines, perfectly aware that it was himself who made the list.

'I am sure the bots would enjoy some time with you and WALL-E, sir,' JARVIS comments and Tony makes effort not to groan.

'You know what, J? I love them, but sometimes they are more than I bargained for,' Tony declares, sighing, and waves at JARVIS to present the energy output for the suit on the holographic screens.

'All children are, sir,' JARVIS replies in a soft voice and Tony smiles and nods in agreement before going back to work.

A/N: Beta by dri-dri93 and Kae ;)

Thank you for your lovely comments & hello to all new people here! I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please share your thoughts and impressions and I will love you foreeever :)