A roommate never stopped me before, although I don't think my date tomorrow night is into yiffing, so make yourself scarce when she comes, okay? [ there's no smirk or bluster when tony glances up this time, just the heads-up and an honest plea. besides keeping simba secret, tony genuinely wants this date to go smoothly. he likes lina. she's beautiful, bold, and smart. he rung her up on the flight back; he wants to try a relationship with her. he wants a relationship, period. as fun as the parade of no-strings flings is, they always end in an empty bed.
nothing like a chest full of shrapnel to wake you up to wanting more, he muses darkly and finalizes the order. on the windows, thompson struggles in his pursuit to find the meaning of "rosebud." ]
[He tilts his head slightly - he genuinely doesn't want his presence to affect Tony's life, but at the same time, having someone come over seems hazardous. Pepper, whoever she is, is one thing; Tony seems to trust her implicitly. A stranger is different. But Tony must know what he's doing, or at least trust that his presence is enough to keep her from getting distracted and wandering around the house.]
If you think it's safe.
[He can't help sounding dubious about the notion, though.]
[ tony tosses the tablet onto the table. finally without distractions, he meets simba's eyes, serious. ] I got better security protocols than the Pentagon. It's safe. Just keep closed doors around you and JARVIS will do the rest. If you can't trust me, trust him. He's programmed now to keep you safe.
[He shrugs. Like Tony says, all he has to do is stay in his room and he'll be fine.]
You got some way I can read? These don't do books very well. [He holds up one paw-hand and wiggles the fingers. He can mostly turn pages, though it's right on the bottom line of fine dexterity for him, but the books are far too small in his hands. It's simply not comfortable.]
[ for the smallest, most bizarre moment, tony honestly considers canceling his date, or at least not bringing her back here, but he mentally swats the notion away with a frown. simba doesn't seem to really mind. (what would it matter if he did, though?)
he's already moving on. it'll be fine. tony glances to the paws. ] Is it their baseball-mitt size or their flesh-rending claws? [ he drawls. to actually answer: ] I'll hook you up. Gimme a day or two.
[But it's said in good humor, and he playfully places a hand against Tony's cheek to show him. The barest suggestion of claws can be felt - the tips hidden in the fur - but otherwise, it's all rough bare skin and velvety fur. His hand is only there a second before he pulls away again.]
It's the size. Same reason why I can't eat with a knife and fork like a civilized person. [He shrugs.] Everything's too small for me.
[ the feel of the fur and padded fingers coaxes the hazy memory to the surface: being dehydrated and injured, half-out-of-it, and then those same paws lifting his head to help him drink. tony almost leans into the touch, or rather its memory, but it ends quickly, breaking the illusion. he tries not to feel bereft.
yeah, wow, he really needs that date tomorrow if he's so starved for fulfilling intimacy. ]
Well, luckily you saved someone larger than life then, huh? [ tony points out. anything simba wants, he just needs to name it. doesn't matter how small the issue or how big he needs something to be. ]
[The touch feels surprisingly intimate to him - or maybe not so surprising, considering his own isolation - and that's what makes him end it so quickly. He wants more, but that's probably (definitely) weird.]
You might try saying that to someone who hasn't seen you in your underwear, [he shoots back teasingly, trying to distract himself more than anything else.]
[ tony lifts his chin. he's confident in his body and ability to please his part–a woman, even with the tech sitting in his chest. ] I've yet to receive complaints and I don't see that streak breaking.
Oh, bit of a size queen, are you? That's respectable. [ tony nods thoughtfully to himself. then, slyly: ] Want me to buy you a mega-size dildo since I'm so unfit for your needs?
[He's just left blinking and sputtering at, well, everything. Apparently he needs to stop playing chicken with Tony. He remembers the guys giving each other shit about their dicks (he's not sure which guys; that part of it is hazy), but none of it ever went this far.]
I think I'm unfit for your needs.
[Which maybe comes out a little more self-deprecating than he intends it to.]
[ tony smirks. score another win for him. ] You're right. I like mine much curvier and softer, and with less, [ he glances downward, ] dangly bits. Especially less teeth. No offense.
I know a subset of people who would be very into that. [ tony's not, but he's dabbled in the scene. a girl wanted him to try it. ] Who knows? One day you might find your very own kinky Belle.
['Disney', at least, he recognizes - though the lavish spectacle that unfolds before him bears little resemblance to Snow White or Bambi. But he can see the bones of the past in the present, a certain style that seems familiar.
The story, of course, he recognizes. It might not be a tale as old as time, but it's still one he's familiar with, at least after the setting is established. But his first comment comes after Belle's in the Beast's castle, a quiet remark that he slips in just before a musical number kicks off-]
At least you only have one thing in your house that talks.
[ tony loses interest early on. the movie's not his style, even if he owns it (good enough for the academy, good enough for him), but he keeps quiet in his chair, letting simba watch, occupying his busy brain with working on his tablet and later with the pizza delivery that arrives sometime during gaston's song. after dividing the boxes appropriately between them, he leaves and returns with a large glass of water for simba and a bottle of beer for himself.
once the beast shows up more, tony pays more attention, looking up from hunching over his tablet and food. mainly, though, when he looks up, he watches simba watching it. he finds the gion more interesting: his own real-life beast. not that that ... makes him belle. nope.
he yanks his eyes back to his tablet and shoves more pizza into his mouth. when simba finally comments, a smile fights its way onto tony's face, his cheek still full, and he ducks his head behind his hand to hide it. ]
[At least the movie distracts him from the emotions that threaten to drag him under when he eats the pizza. It brings back so many fragments of memories from before the war, and that's part of what keeps him so quiet up till then, fighting a battle between his past and the present. (It helps that the pizza isn't quite the same as what he had growing up - the crust is thinner and crispier than he's used to, the sauce tastes different.)
Tony doesn't offer a retort, and he finishes off the pizza as he watches Belle befriend the Beast, drawing him out of his shell. He thinks about the soft brown curls that haunt his memory, a firmly stubborn gaze and vibrant red lips - wonders what she would think of him now. She'd seen through to his heart before, but the situation is muddled now - thornier. He's not the person he used to be, and she's probably dead now, anyway.
He doesn't speak up again till Gaston leads the townspeople in a hunt against the Beast.]
That's what would happen to me if people found out. In a best-case scenario. [That's why he can't do what Tony does, no matter how much he might want to.]
[ tony's reclined in the chair, pizza box closed for leftovers later. the beer bottle hangs from his fingers. ] You might be surprised. Most people have moved on from the torch-and-pitchfork mentality.
[ eyes glued to his tablet, which seesaws on his knee as he draws his finger around it, tony twists his mouth to one side. he can't say he disagrees with simba's assessment, especially if they're talking worse-case, but ... he can't figure out how to word it, so he lets his silence trail after.
until, during the comedic battle between the townsfolk and the enchanted furniture, tony says out of the blue in a low, somber tone in direct contrast to the movie, ] I didn't think I'd get out of that cave alive. [ shoulders laced with tension, he taps and swipes on his tablet. ] I had a chest full of shrapnel, terrorists with military-grade weaponry, [ my weaponry, he growls, ] surrounding every exit, and no hope of rescue. I shouldn't be alive several times over, but ... I am. I got out of there, and now I'm Iron Man. [ he breathes deeply in and shrugs as if revealing even this little wasn't difficult. ] Just sayin', there's always a chance. [ always a hope for something better. ] Don't knock it.
[He doesn't want to dump on Tony's optimism, especially not when he's being so vulnerable - and as much as Tony's trying to pretend otherwise, he knows it takes a lot to admit it - so he doesn't mention how many narrow escapes he's had, that even this is more luck than he'd expected, and that it has to run out sometime.
Instead, he reaches over and rests a paw on Tony's hand, catching it as it swipes over the tablet like he might catch a mouse. He doesn't say anything, just lets the silence hang, more comfortable than before.
At least, until the Beast changes back into a human.]
Okay, but I think we can agree that's definitely not gonna happen.
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Sorry to cramp your style.
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nothing like a chest full of shrapnel to wake you up to wanting more, he muses darkly and finalizes the order. on the windows, thompson struggles in his pursuit to find the meaning of "rosebud." ]
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If you think it's safe.
[He can't help sounding dubious about the notion, though.]
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[Obviously.]
I just don't trust her.
[He shrugs. Like Tony says, all he has to do is stay in his room and he'll be fine.]
You got some way I can read? These don't do books very well. [He holds up one paw-hand and wiggles the fingers. He can mostly turn pages, though it's right on the bottom line of fine dexterity for him, but the books are far too small in his hands. It's simply not comfortable.]
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he's already moving on. it'll be fine. tony glances to the paws. ] Is it their baseball-mitt size or their flesh-rending claws? [ he drawls. to actually answer: ] I'll hook you up. Gimme a day or two.
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[But it's said in good humor, and he playfully places a hand against Tony's cheek to show him. The barest suggestion of claws can be felt - the tips hidden in the fur - but otherwise, it's all rough bare skin and velvety fur. His hand is only there a second before he pulls away again.]
It's the size. Same reason why I can't eat with a knife and fork like a civilized person. [He shrugs.] Everything's too small for me.
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yeah, wow, he really needs that date tomorrow if he's so starved for fulfilling intimacy. ]
Well, luckily you saved someone larger than life then, huh? [ tony points out. anything simba wants, he just needs to name it. doesn't matter how small the issue or how big he needs something to be. ]
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You might try saying that to someone who hasn't seen you in your underwear, [he shoots back teasingly, trying to distract himself more than anything else.]
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[His grin is toothy - but he doesn't really have any other kind.]
I'm just talkin' about the facts.
[Admittedly, facts he only caught a glimpse of for a split second.]
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[He's just left blinking and sputtering at, well, everything. Apparently he needs to stop playing chicken with Tony. He remembers the guys giving each other shit about their dicks (he's not sure which guys; that part of it is hazy), but none of it ever went this far.]
I think I'm unfit for your needs.
[Which maybe comes out a little more self-deprecating than he intends it to.]
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All the better to eat you with, my dear.
[Surprisingly, that isn't intended to be an innuendo. Which, obviously, will not keep Tony from interpreting it that way.]
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[The twenty-first century is weird. Living in a cave was much less complicated - but also a lot lonelier.]
-what does being Southern have to do with anything?
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[ "indeed, sir." ]
Roll it.
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The story, of course, he recognizes. It might not be a tale as old as time, but it's still one he's familiar with, at least after the setting is established. But his first comment comes after Belle's in the Beast's castle, a quiet remark that he slips in just before a musical number kicks off-]
At least you only have one thing in your house that talks.
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once the beast shows up more, tony pays more attention, looking up from hunching over his tablet and food. mainly, though, when he looks up, he watches simba watching it. he finds the gion more interesting: his own real-life beast. not that that ... makes him belle. nope.
he yanks his eyes back to his tablet and shoves more pizza into his mouth. when simba finally comments, a smile fights its way onto tony's face, his cheek still full, and he ducks his head behind his hand to hide it. ]
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Tony doesn't offer a retort, and he finishes off the pizza as he watches Belle befriend the Beast, drawing him out of his shell. He thinks about the soft brown curls that haunt his memory, a firmly stubborn gaze and vibrant red lips - wonders what she would think of him now. She'd seen through to his heart before, but the situation is muddled now - thornier. He's not the person he used to be, and she's probably dead now, anyway.
He doesn't speak up again till Gaston leads the townspeople in a hunt against the Beast.]
That's what would happen to me if people found out. In a best-case scenario. [That's why he can't do what Tony does, no matter how much he might want to.]
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[So dry.]
Either way, I don't think there'd be much of a happy ending.
[Or a love interest.]
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until, during the comedic battle between the townsfolk and the enchanted furniture, tony says out of the blue in a low, somber tone in direct contrast to the movie, ] I didn't think I'd get out of that cave alive. [ shoulders laced with tension, he taps and swipes on his tablet. ] I had a chest full of shrapnel, terrorists with military-grade weaponry, [ my weaponry, he growls, ] surrounding every exit, and no hope of rescue. I shouldn't be alive several times over, but ... I am. I got out of there, and now I'm Iron Man. [ he breathes deeply in and shrugs as if revealing even this little wasn't difficult. ] Just sayin', there's always a chance. [ always a hope for something better. ] Don't knock it.
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Instead, he reaches over and rests a paw on Tony's hand, catching it as it swipes over the tablet like he might catch a mouse. He doesn't say anything, just lets the silence hang, more comfortable than before.
At least, until the Beast changes back into a human.]
Okay, but I think we can agree that's definitely not gonna happen.
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