p • r • e • s • s • u • r • e

a blue coat and a pep talk

"The general."

"Oh," is all he says.

They're quiet, until Bruce speaks.

"How's your arm?"

Tony wiggles it.

"Yeah, it's fine."

"Tony."

"That is in fact my name, yes."

He rolls his eyes.

"Tony."

The engineer puts his coffee aside and sits up on the little wall, facing Bruce.

"Yes."

The scientist's eyes widen, but he calms down.

"Don't you dare fall."

"I'm not, dummy. So did you say my name because it sounds nice, or...?"

The man smirks.

"We need to talk about that." Bruce nods toward Tony's chest.

"What about it?"

"What really happened yesterday?"

"I told you-it burned out."

"No, you told me you tapped it."

Tony nods.

"Did I."

"Yeah, yeah you did-why the fuck would you do that?"

"Why not?"

"Because it's fucking painful! And you know the whole system's unstable. It was a brand new reactor."

"So? I des-"

"No, Tony, how many fucking times do I have to tell you? You don't deserve it!"

The engineer stubbornly looks away.

Yeah I do.

"Anyway," Bruce continues.

"Tell me what happened."

"I did."

"Not completely."

"Ugh, fine."

Tony explains how he'd gone upstairs, how tired he was, how he'd figured out that somehow the pain and duration would double exponentially every time he'd activated the shock system.

"The whAT?"

"Y'know."

"That was intentional? The double-tap thing?"

"Obviously. Anyway, it was too much for the reactor I guess, 'cos it started smoking and sparking and shit-"

"Jesus..."

"-so I took it out."

"You couldn't just turn it off?"

"The switch was on the inside. So anyhow, I took it out because I mean, it's not really fair that I burn the place down with you guys inside-"

He stops when Bruce glares at him.

"I thought you took it out because you were being responsible."

"No, I just didn't want to take you guys down with me."

The scientist's eyes sparkle sadly.

"So I went downstairs and this old thing," he pats his chest and grimaces, ignoring how Bruce grabbed his hand to keep it away from his reactor.