Iron Will, Iron Heart: Conductivity

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

Blast. Recharge. Blast. Recharge. Blast Set up the fresh targets.

That had been Tony Stark's refrain for the last three days. The first day was dedicated solely to holding it as far from the hotel as humanly possible into the most remote desert location possible. Himself and his new toys, all alone. And the tent. There was no scenario where he wouldn't take that for the ride.

The plasma auto rifle--today's plaything--boasted rapid fire and plasma grenades. With nothing but sand, rock, and dust for miles, Tony was free to let loose. For the bigger blasts, Tony activated his armor--which was up to several minutes of stability at a time. With a sigh, the time limit ran out and he was left in his tank and fatigues bottoms. Adjusting it to the stun setting, he took aim at the few remaining targets.

Comments

[st_ormbreaker]

"Would it help if I told you I missed you?"

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

Tony shoved another handful of nuts into his mouth, making his cheeks puff out. "No."

[st_ormbreaker]

Thor moves his hand away from Tony's back and up to his neck, where he lightly wiggles them in a tickle.

"And this?"

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

Thor's fingers brushed over the sensitive hairs covering the skin of the back of his neck and Tony's throat lurched in a barely suppressed laugh--and out came the barely-chewed nuts in a chunky waterfall.

[st_ormbreaker]

Thor lets out a bark of laughter at Tony's reaction.

"You're ticklish?"

Thor is clearly delighted by this discover, and, being the good friend he is to Stark, immediately brings his hands to Tony's sides to continue waggling his fingers to find all of his sensitive spots.

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

Doubling over, Tony tried to proclaim that Thor was as good as mounted on his headboard but it came out as a helplessly frustrated gurgle as the nuts continue to spill out onto the sand. When he was sure there were all gone, more came. He curled up, bucking and pushing.

"I will--" A nut went flying to bounce off of Thor's forehead, "stretch your foreskin like a balloon--!"

[st_ormbreaker]

Tony's reaction just makes Thor laugh louder. Thor found all humans adorable, but this one, even spewing up nuts into the sand like there's no tomorrow --

-- is definitely the most adorable of them all.

Especially when he makes threats.

"Good luck with that," he challenges, still tickling Tony. And since he can't trust more nuts (were there more? Thor wasn't sure) to spew from Tony's mouth, he plants an affectionate kiss on Tony's forehead instead of his lips.

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

At some point, Tony turtled, and Thor was on top of him with his hands all over his body and pressing his lips onto his face. He went slack.

"...Alright, here's the deal." He was red-faced with the effort of holding his laughter back. "It's been three days dry and I'm half-hard so let's stop."

[st_ormbreaker]

Thor smiles and withdraws his hands and reaches into the bag of nuts. Impressively, there are still some that haven't been consumed by Stark, in part or in full.

Thor pops one in his mouth, then watches Tony casually, in case the other man decides to retaliate.

"How are you feeling now?"

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

Tony panted softly, pushing up onto the backs of his forearms. He glanced down at his once-lunch and pouted. "...I was storing those for winter." He gestured expectantly. "What are you gonna do about this?"

[st_ormbreaker]

"What?" he asks, tossing another two nuts into his mouth. "Would you have me forage for nuts and berries to replenish your stores?"

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

"In the des~ert." Rolling and coughing up another few nuts, Tony pushed the almond skin out of his teeth. "Bold of you to assume I wanted to see your face to begin with, by the way. I don't just forget some things. Or most things."

[st_ormbreaker]

Thor lets out a low hum at that.

"Would you prefer that I leave?"

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

Tony pushed up fully, sitting cross-legged. "...I'd prefer you trusted me. The way I trust you."

[st_ormbreaker]

Thor takes a breath at that, but quickly manages a smile. He rolls his tongue along the back of his teeth.

"Okay," he says. The word is not defensive or confused or angry in the least. Thor just says it in the same way he would say anything else.

"I'll work on it."

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

The thin smirk was back, as well as some restless ankle tapping. Tony wasn't sure what to make of the reply, but everything just...hurt. His head, his stomach, his body. It ached.

"Alright."

[st_ormbreaker]

"Good," Thor say. And for a moment, Thor doesn't say or do anything else.

"Come here." The way he says it, it comes out as more of a request than a demand.

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

Putting aside his urge towards difficulty, Tony scooted within feet of Thor. "I'm here."

[st_ormbreaker]

Thor reaches out and pulls Tony into his arms, taking careful care not to hug Tony quite as tightly as he'd like to.

"There," he says, pulling back, apparently satisfied. He holds Tony by the arms for just a moment longer, then gives him an affectionate pat on the side of one of them before relinquishing his grasp on him entirely.

"Much better, right?"

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

Tony sat stiffly for a good ten seconds longer before his muscles gave out with the effort of appearing aloof. "Fine. I missed you. A lot." 'I'm a weak, tiny, sad little chipmunk.' He spat out a peanut. That should be the last of them.

"Look, I've been thinking. About you. Us."

[st_ormbreaker]

Thor settles back down into the spot he was sitting in a moment or two before, then looks over at Tony.

"What about?"

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

"Thinking about everything." Tony gave a sideways glance at Thor Jr. '"But then again, I was thinking about nothing." God, they better have that album here.'

"I came to the conclusion that...we need to talk."

[st_ormbreaker]

Thor knows what's coming. He had a similar conversation with Jane, so at least he knows how to ready himself for it.

"We're talking..." he says, hoping at least that Tony will do him the courtesy of ripping the bandage off more quickly than he is building it up.

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

"Well. I am. Mostly. What else is new? Here's the thing--" Tony took a swig from his water bottle, needing to wet his throat. "You say things like, "Stark, I'd go to war for you" or "Stark, I'd die for you" and it...it gets to me. Like in a, 'oh that's so flattering way' but it's really fucked when I think about it because that's not who I am." Tony glanced up at Thor's face, gauging his attention.

"I'm Iron Man, but I'm also the kinda guy who cannot wait to hang it up, retire in some remote village in France and die surrounded by my family and some cats and some goats. And..." He sighed. "And it's not like I had some fantasy of us sharing this future. But when I hear you make all these--these declarations, it's like you don't see a future with you in it. And then it just, I dunno, made sense. You, me, the accusations, the flagrant hypocrisy." His hands were everywhere, gesturing at Thor, himself, Thor Jr., the tent, the desert, the greater universe. He took a deep breath, slowing down.

"There's this thing called 'projection.' Psychological term. Found it in my bid at playing therapist for myself, that's not important. Defense mechanism. Basically, when you've got thoughts or feelings that are just too much to cope with, you project them onto others and go after the target as a proxy." All of his attention was back on Thor at this point, and his hands were still. "There's something else you're not telling me, Big Guy. And I'm the proxy. That's what I think."

[st_ormbreaker]

"You're not the proxy," he says, and then he moves in to clarify before there can be any doubt. "There is no proxy. There's just a lot that's happened and you already know about it. I mean, hello! My family's dead, my best friend's dead, I killed my sister --" Thor points a finger at Tony. "-- destroyed Asgard to make that happen."

Thor takes a breath there, and is suddenly overwhelmed by the complete absurdity of it all. He remembers telling Jane about Loki and the snake and she was utterly horrified by it, even after Thor tried to assure her that it was okay, he wasn't upset about it at all. And that's what it feels like on some level right now. Except instead of trying to convince Jane he's not traumatized by telling her the good stories, he's trying to convince Tony there's nothing really worse than what he's spoken about already by telling him all the bad ones, with the same casual ease one might have while discussing the work day with a friend over shawarma.

"And that --" he continues, "That's stressing me out. But you aren't any part of it. It's just me --" And almost unconsciously, Thor plants a hand against his own chest in the same space where Tony had the wound in his dream. "-- freaking out, because of the whole freaky dream thing. And that stuff -- the stuff about the future? I've got like, probably another, I don't know, eight thousand years in me. My father died young and he was like, 6,800 years old or something, and that wasn't even old when you're looking at all-fathers. I mean, Bor -- my grandfather, he lived to be like, 12,000 years old or something."

Thor feels like he should wrap this up somehow, but he's been rambling on for so long now that he's pretty sure he lost track of the thread. Maybe it's time to get back to the heart of all this.

"But I can work on those things," he pronounces. "I can work on us. Stop being such an asshole every time I wake up on the wrong side of the bed or something."