Trust Exercise

It was odd to think of Tony Stark as someone who actually aimed at being on time to formal events, but perhaps it was more because this particular event was aimed at raising necessary goodwill for the Avengers post-"Civil War." Media manipulation—the good kind, anyway—was difficult at best on a good day; on a bad one... well, Stephen learned a new appreciation for the adage 'silence is golden.'

So being on time and making an excellent impression was important for this sort of event: this time around, it was just Stephen, Tony, and the Vision; the rest of the New Avengers were either on missions or had alternate, secret identities and did not qualify for required event attendance. Still, though: it did mean that more public teammates had to pick up the difference and, with how often Tony and Stephen had had to attend galas and other similar events in along the course of their careers... they were typically the ones elected to go.

It was unfortunate, then, that Stephen was having difficulty in getting ready.

The battery on his electric razor had died the other day and the Sorcerer Supreme hadn't had the chance to replace it; there had been an emergency of the alternate dimension kind (and there for unavoidable)—one that had been finally resolved earlier that day—and Stephen had spent weeks in Kamar-Taj.

Which still left him pressed for time in preparing for the gala that he was required to attend, no replacement battery for his electric razor, and—surprisingly enough—no automatic shaving spell that would rid him of his unnecessary facial hair. Frustratingly enough, the only razor that Stephen currently had access to was a straight one, but with how badly his hands still shook... even attempting to shave with it was a bad idea in all sorts of various ways.

"Dammit," the sorcerer snapped, tossing the dead razor onto the bathroom's countertop in a fit of pique. His mouth twisted in his irritation while golden sparks flickered to life around the tips of his fingers: nothing truly dangerous, not particularly, but a bleeding off of excess emotion that he still hadn't been able to stop himself from doing.

"Problem, Houdini?" Tony asked with a knock to the bathroom's doorframe and stepped into the room as if he owned it (which he did, truth be told, but it was the set of rooms that had been set aside for Stephen's specific use when he boarded at the Compound). The taller man met Tony's gaze in the mirror, quirking an eyebrow in inquiry: What are you doing in my rooms? the lifted brow supposedly, silently asked. In answer, the inventor just waved a dismissive hand and continued, answering his own rhetorical question: "FRIDAY said that you were nearly ready but that you were having trouble with the final touches—razor not working?"

"It's dead," Stephen admitted with a sigh. "And, with everything that was going on, I forgot to stop by and pick up a new one before heading here to the Compound. I hate using those horrible disposable razors, but I don't have time for anything else. Do you still have any in the guest supplies, Tony?"

There was no immediate answer to the sorcerer's request and, when Stephen glanced up in the mirror to catch sight of Tony once more, he saw that the other man was silently drumming his fingers over the edge of the doorframe, an unspoken war raging within his dark brown eyes: weighing of choices, decisions and options on how to proceed. The sorcerer knew that, should he switch over to his other Sight, he would see a multitude of dimensions, alternate realities, birthing themselves in a spark of gold and flame the longer Tony went without speaking.

"Tony..." the Sorcerer Supreme prompted gently once more.

Tony blinked and his eyes cleared; attention refocusing on the one-time doctor, there was yet another drawn-out moment that stretched between the both of them, but the engineer eventually broke it by offering his teammate a slow, borderline-teasing grin. "If I remember correctly—and I should, since I was the one that originally placed your room's supplies order—there's still an Option B available to you."