runs_on_batteries | IC Inbox/ Interactions 2.0

"I don't like waste." Gladio replied with a slight half-smile. "It's not that bad. Better than some things I've eaten." And Tony had gone to effort to make it. And before he'd come down had seemed happy with the idea of making it.

Maybe he'd fucked up by showing his face too soon? Though Gladio wasn't sure why Tony would be upset with him...

It was about that point that Gladio realised that things were getting strained. That there was an air of awkwardness in the room and he really didn't like it. Though he supposed it stood to reason. This was, technically speaking, their first fight while... doing whatever it was they were doing. And the realisation of that hit Gladio like a tonne of bricks. So much so he found himself sitting back in his seat and just staring down at his plate as he thought it all through.

If they'd 'just been friends', Gladio might have just punched Tony. He probably would have yelled. There would have been several choice names and accusations thrown at the man. And then he would have stormed off. Making up would have come a day or two later once they'd calmed and would have been done over a drink and maybe a few appropriately rude names.

But Gladio was hurt... and that implied a level of caring that had crept up on him without his realising. And wasn't that just the kick in the balls he hadn't really needed that early in the morning?

Tony had been on the verge of getting up and tossing the plates together so he could ditch them in the sink. He stopped though and looked at the man when he spoke. The smile, though small, confused him and had him searching the younger man's face to try and understand what the hell was going on.

Something was going on in that head of his, Tony could see that clearly but he wasn't sharing what yet. This was why robots were better than people! If Jarvis had ever taken this long, he would've threatened to soak his power cords in the sink.

"You're driving me crazy!" Tony finally blurted out. "I can't stand this. You're thinking something and I have no idea what. I appreciate you being nice enough to talk about the bar idea, but that was stupid when you're not willing to actually talk to me about it. I know I hurt you. It kills me that I hurt you. Is this how you're going to get me back though, by not telling me what you're thinking? That's not going to work for us. I know that's not fair and I shouldn't have any say in that, but I can't do it this way. I gotta know what you're thinking."

The outburst surprised Gladio. It again made him realise that he hadn't actually spoken and he wasnt entirely sure why other than he'd just wanted to get his thoughts organised first. He was learning things on the fly here and it was hard working through them when someone was sat beside him eagerly waiting for his next word. Or needing to know what was going on in his head.

And wasn't that a revelation in itself? Usually no one cared much about what he was thinking... No one bothered to ask. So maybe Gladio kept things inside a bit more than he would have liked. But now Tony had his attention.

"Why won't it work for us?" Gladio, picking through the things he could say, finally settled on that. "Can't do what this way?"

Tony made a frustrated sound with his throat before answering that. "This! This style of fighting. Look, I know I'm a difficult person to live with and I really do try my best to appreciate everything you do for me. I get it's a lot. I don't want to make this any harder and I definitely don't want you to regret me moving in here... but, okay, I had it coming last night. I thought you'd find it funny or you'd be so annoyed I was standing there naked you'd stop and we could talk. You didn't, it really sucked and hurt, but I deserved that."

He sat back and crossed his arms in front of his chest and shook his head. "But, you got a find a different way to punish me than shut me out."

"Ah..." Apparently they'd meant different things. And that was fine. Gladio was used to mental gymnastics by now and quickly changed gears.

"I'm tired, Tony. I'm not shutting you out. Wasn't tryin to punish you. I figured I'd already made my point, I don't like to drag things out. But... I'm tired." And that was the long and short of it. His energy levels where nearing empty. He hadn't slept well and was really considering just going back to bed.

"The naked thing was dumb though. Don't do that again. You'd pissed me off. You're lucky I didn't just punch you as I passed you."

"I can see you thinking and pretty hard about something," Tony pointed out. "You looked like there was more you wanted to say about the bar too, but you didn't." IF he wanted to say it was his energy level though, there wasn't much Tony could do about it. He wanted to offer ways to help make him feel better, but he wasn't sure it was welcomed.

He frowned at the last bit. "Why would that have pissed you off?"

"Not allowed to think now, huh?" Gladio couldn't even work up the energy to be really irritated, he just sighed and leaned forward and folded his arms upon the edge of the table.

"Synthetic wood. That's what I was thinking about the bar. But your idea sounded good. And the naked thing... You'd already pissed me off. That just added to it. You were going for funny? Looked to me like you were trying to use sex to apologise. That doesn't work for me."

Tony scowled realizing that is how his comment sounded, but it wasn't what he meant. He looked down, feeling frustrated that he was having trouble with this.

"That wasn't what I meant," he muttered, unsure why he was so frustrated. If this was Rhodey, he'd just let him go be mad for a while. His frown deepened, especially when he heard the rest of it. "That wasn't.."

He suddenly looked at Gladio curiously. "Why aren't you acting pissed off? I know what someone angry at me looks like and this isn't it." He gestures vaguely at Gladio's face. "I know how to forgive myself when I make people angry." His hand settled on Gladio's. "How do I go about forgiving myself for hurting you?"

"Because I don't actually wanna be pissed off. That simple." Was it really that strange? Gladio thought it should have made more sense, given the reasons why some of his closest friends get on edge around him. Sometimes he had a temper. Sometimes when he got angry or frustrated he'd shout. And somehow that had scared people he was closest to. This time when he'd gotten angry he'd walked away. Now it was the next day and he just didn't want to feel that anger anymore.

When Tony's hand landed on his own, Gladio didn't pull it away. He glanced down at the hand... and quietly sighed. "How the hell am I supposed to answer that? I don't know how you forgive yourself, Tony. I don't know what the hell you want from me half the time, what makes you think I've got all the answers here?"

Tony sighed and scooted so he was facing Gladio better.

"What I mean is, I know how to react to you when you're angry because that's how it's worked till now. It's okay to want to do something different, but if you see me over here floundering and saying the wrong thing that's probably part of why. I don't like not having the right answers or know how to fix things, but I want to support you." He'd had to work on his anger too at one point on the train, so he can respect that. He could even offer some suggestions.. but maybe not when Gladio was mad at him.

"And what I want, is for you to be happy. I want your friends to treat you well, to feel loved and cared for, and for you to have some well deserved fun after all that time in the train. Is there something else I seem like I want from you?"

"No, nothing at all." Gladio gave him a small smile then and carefully pulled his hand out from under Tony's to lightly pat it before he reached for his cooling cup of tea.

"I'm not angry at you. For the record. I was. I'm not now. I'm sorry you're struggling. I'll finish this tea and head back to bed. Maybe I'll be able to sleep. Maybe I'll be able to deal with this better then." Maybe Tony would stop beating himself up for stupid things. He was making a bigger deal out of all of this than Gladio ever had.

Tony watched Gladio and couldn't shake the feeling he had before. It felt like the other man had kept half the conversation to himself and it was frustrating and worried him. What had Gladio heard? He nodded and let the man go, before cleaning up.

He grabbed his jacket and left, unable to deal with that awful feeling. He'd missed something important. He just knew he did, but what, he had no idea.

What did he want from Gladio? How the hell should he know? He wanted his friend to be happy and healthy and safe. He wanted him never to disappear or die or get hurt or get mistreated. Sadly at some point most of those would happen and he'd already caused the last two. He wanted Gladio to be too smart to be with him.

He was gone for several hours, before coming back with some scrap metal and some buckets of paint. He set those down outside the front door since they were all covered in chocolate and not going in the house. Trudging inside, he kicked off his shoes and jeans (since they were also chocolate stained), he headed upstairs to the bathroom.

Once he'd finished his tea, Gladio took his tired self back up to his room and fell back into bed. He didn't even take his pants off before he lay down. Almost as soon as his head hit the pillow Gladio had fallen fast asleep.

He had no idea how long he slept for but when he woke the light filtering in through the curtains was dimmer. It took him a half minute to work out what the hell has woken him in the first place, when something banged again and Gladio sat up in bed and looked around, confused. "What the hell...?"

Gladio was out of bed and moving before he'd even had a chance to wipe the sleep from his eyes. He yawned and ran his fingers through sleep tousled hair and followed the sound of... whatever that was. What the hell was Tony doing? He found him in one of the empty rooms. Leaning against the doorframe, he watched Tony for a handful of seconds before he cleared his throat to get his attention, and then yawned again.

"What're you doing? And why so loudly?"

Up until now Tony had been slowly picking up a few things here and there for this new work room of his but hadn't actually done much with it. He'd put the bags in the spare bedroom or crafted a design using one of Friday's programs. Finally, it seemed, it was time to act! This had included a quick trip out again to borrow some tools from the Eos boys' house, but once he'd started moving, he couldn't stop.

First thing he'd done, was drag everything out. The hallway was littered with a lamp, the dresser, the desk chair, etc. He left the desk inside, but put a tarp over it so it wouldn't get damaged or stained. He cut the carpet at the edge of the doorway and torn it out of the rest of the room. He threw some painter's cloth down to protect the floor underneath, but was surprised to find it was metal not wood. Anything on the walls was pulled off and set the painting supplies on the desk for the next step.

The banging was a piece of scrap metal falling and hitting the after a portion of it had been cut out that met Tony's needs. He looked up at Gladio and wiped the sweat off his brow. His white tank top was damp and he hadn't bothered to put on pants, just clean shoes (he wasn't dropping shit on his bare feet, he's learned that lesson), and a metal gauntlet he was using as a welding tool. He pushed up the safety glasses he was wearing and sighed heavily. "Sorry, I have to do this."

Edited 2021-03-01 18:34 (UTC)

The place was a mess. Gladio wasn't sure how he felt about waking up to all of this. Yes, he'd given Tony permission to do this, it was his home as well after all. But he kind of thought they'd discuss it a bit more and make preparations before Tony just threw everything out into the hall and gutted the room. There was a perfectly good room behind him he could have put all this shit in, instead of cluttering everywhere, for instance.

But the more Gladio watched the more he grew concerned. "Why?" He asked simply. No judgement, just curiosity. And concern, yes. He was worried. Why was Tony doing this now of all times?

And why without pants?

He shot Gladio a look that at first was an irritated glare for interrupting him, but he managed to push that aside to something that looked simply stressed. It almost hurt to stop. He assumed it was a mix of the influence he was under and his own massive case of neurosis to work on a project once his mind was set on it. Still, he owed Gladio something better than a shrug or 'because' like he wanted to say.

He reached for the dropped metal so he could continue his work before closing his fist and dragging it back. With a sigh, he opted to give Gladio the fastest answer he could come up with. "Here," he said, first pointing to a blue imprint of a pair of mittens on his hand and then he angled his calf so Gladio could see a fiery gold and red imprint of a hammer. "At first I was concerned this involved an idiot I know, but no, it was just a regular hammer. I just.. I have to get this done today."

He knew he'd already irritated his friend enough for the rest of the year (and it was February) but there wasn't anything he could do about that. All the dora he had left had gone to the scrap materials. He really, really hated those bears.

The look he got almost had him just walking away, but luckily he stuck around to get some kind of an explanation. He didn't look happy with it. He understood, but he wasn't happy and was even more worried that Tony was going to work himself into another heart attack.

"Alright... I get it. Just take it slow. Have you eaten? Drank anything? I'll go make you something." Because no, collapsing once was one too many times for Gladio's liking. He wasn't going to have it happen again. But he wasn't going to stop Tony either. He understood that you couldn't really escape that need. He could only hope it wore off soon.

He nodded, "I stopped by Lup's to see Rio and had some lunch. I was then going to look around at spots we could maybe set up our bar and I wasn't paying enough attention." He glanced around the room and then back at Gladio. He was really pushing his luck here but..

"Would you be willing to help me?" Gladio certainly wouldn't be blamed if he turned Tony down flat, especially with how he'd acted lately. The older man half expected it even. However, it would make this process go a lot faster and possible make this mental frenzy go away. He didn't like asking for help and wouldn't normally do it, but maybe he could or should start telling Gladio what he wanted from him. You know, since he'd asked.

Normally it would have been he first thing Gladio would have asked, but the look he'd been given just from asking Tony a simple question had halted that offer. He'd wondered if an offer to help would be dismissed as unneeded and Gladio wasn't sure his ego could take much more of a beating. But since Tony was asking, Gladio gave him a small smile and pushed away from the door frame.

"Just tell me what you need." If food and water were off the able, Gladio would help in any way Tony needed him to, if it would make this go easier for him.

It hadn't been him, he swears. This madness in his mind was focused on one thing and that was completing this task. For that brief moment, Gladio had been an adversary to that goal, but he was wanted in ways he didn't even realize.

He smiled, visibly relieved when he was willing to help. "I have paint for the walls, a metal bracket to put up that will work as a storage unit here-" He gestured where it was to go and what item he was talking about. "I'll bring the dresser back in here for storage but I thought I'd need to sand underneath the carpet pad, but we don't have hardwood floors but a metal frame. That'll work better since it will reduce the chances of anything catching fire but could lead to other surfaces getting to hot, depending on what I'm doing, and I thought a light gray would be neutral enough, but I also have ginger because I thought it would be funny and a decent color in here and yikes I can hear that, can you hear that? I'd rather be shooting those damn bears, but instead I have to finish making this stupid office."

Gladio thought he'd need to go and get his boots on before he did anything else. But first...

He continued toward Tony, picking his way across the room. By the time the silly man had finished talking, Gladio was within reach of him. And with the greatest of care... he grabbed Tony and yanked him close, pulling him into his arms before he leaned down to press a warm kiss to his lips.

When he pulled back, Gladio's smile was a little on the lopsided side. "How about you calm the hell down? I'll go get my boots on then I'll get to painting. We'll have it done, but we're not getting anything done if you go and give yourself another heart attack. So calm. Down. Take a deep breath and focus. This doesn't control you. You control it."

Tony didn't like this one bit. It reminded him of the one and only time he'd tried speed. With his energy level and ADHD, he'd been almost homicidal for a few hours. His gaze had fallen as he'd begun focusing on what he was hearing rather than the other man, trying to think what he could do to fix this. Only when Gladio was right there next to him did he notice.

He was pulled into his roommate's arms and he froze. Everything froze- blissfully! Gladio was saying something and had the cutest grin on his face, but he didn't care what it was. He tugged the larger man right back in and kissed him back. His arms wrapped around broad, thick shoulders and was thankful he didn't have another thought in his head, for now at least.

Alright... He'd only planned on distracting Tony and shutting him up, but clearly the older guy had decided on something else to focus on and Gladio couldn't find it within himself to mind too much. So he wrapped his arms around him tighter and carried on kissing him.

It was about that point Gladio realised he'd need to get Tony into the shower when all this was done. The guy stank of chocolate and sweat and mental weirdly enough. But he tasted sweet. He groaned softly, a sound deep in the back of his throat, pulled from him before he had the mind to stop it. Gods but he loved kissing this man.

Tony could guess that had been Gladio's plan, but why take a tiny nibble when he loved taking full bites. His hand slid up into his roommate's hair and his fingers tangled in long, dark hair. The groan made him shiver, wanting something more than just a kiss.

His eyes slipped shut and opened his lips, welcoming the larger man in eagerly. His grip on Gladio's back tightened, wanting him closer. For balance, he stepped back only to bump clumsily against the desk. His hold on Gladio's shoulders was the only thing keeping him upright.

Dammit, Tony needed to not do that... He was supposed to be helping paint. He should have been going to get his shoes so he could help sort this mess out and fix what those stupid bears had done to him. But there was a hand in his and a tongue battling with his own and Gladio just didn't give a damn anymore.

When he both heard and felt Tony bump into the desk, Gladio moved his hands to grab Tony by the waist and lifted him as if he was as light as a feather and sat him on the desk. Then he slid his hands down Tony's legs to his knees and pushed them apart so he could slip between them and get as close as he could. And never once did he break that kiss. Never once did he lose contact.

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