hold on (to me)

8: in saying you love me (made things harder at best)

In hindsight, maybe Tony should have asked someone to keep Stephen busy. Maybe he wouldn't be in this situation.

Stephen drops the cup in his hands, and it's not because of the tremors in his fingers. Tony winces a little when the glass shatters against the floor. The ring on Stephen's fingers shines as if mocking him.

"What are you doing?" Stephen finally asks when he overcomes the shock of what he's seeing. Tony's in a pretty compromising situation. No, he isn't in bed with someone else — he could never do that to Stephen — but it's probably just as bad.

"Honey, you may want to sit down," Tony says, stepping off the platform. It's complete.

Stephen shakes his head, backing away when Tony walks to him, saying, "No. What the hell is this?" Tony takes a deep breath — no backing out now. He's been caught.

"It's new armour," Tony says.

Stephen's eyes narrow, "Elaborate."

Tony begins to list all the pros of the new armour, hoping that it calms Stephen down, "It's a new way of implementing it. It's for everyone's safety. Yours and Peter's, especially. I —"

"Elaborate," Stephen interrupts, tone icy. "What. The hell. Is this?"

Tony sighs, turning back to his worktable and reorganising the blueprints. He puts them one over the other, the end result being a complete blueprint. He hands the stack over to Stephen who looks it over before glaring up at Tony.

"Do not tell me you —"

"I put it in my bones," Tony replies timidly. Timidly? Tony doesn't do timid. He's confident. But the ring on Stephen's finger and the way his warm eyes instantly turn icy makes him timid. Stephen sets the blueprints down on the nearest table, rubbing his face silently, and Tony starts, "Steph, I know you're mad."

"I'm more than mad. You should have asked me. You're putting metal into your bones!" Stephen explodes.

Tony defends himself, "You weren't here when I started making the armour. Even if I wanted to ask you first, I couldn't."

"You could have talked to literally anyone else. Rhodey, Pepper, Jessica, Banner, Thor. Hell, I'll bet even Rogers would have good judgment on this," Stephen lists. Tony can feel Stephen's anger rising. He really needs to get him to calm down. He really should have asked someone to keep him occupied.

"It's just a part of me," Tony tries. "It's to protect you. I don't want to be caught in a situation where my armour isn't with me. Pepper complained about the arc reactor and, I'll admit, I don't need it anymore. So why not get rid of that and work on a better way? It's not that different from your hands."

"That's exactly why I'm mad," Stephen says, finally not as explosive as minutes before. Tony stares at him wordlessly as Stephen continues, "I'm mad because you're doing to yourself what I wish never happened to me. I can protect myself, Tony, and so can Peter. You don't have to do these kinds of things to yourself. Metal in your bones? That's crazy."

"I'm sorry, Stephen," Tony says. "You're right. I didn't think you would mind because of your hands, but... I didn't realise it was still a sensitive topic for you."

"I would be sure it's still sensitive. I did go back to make sure my hands were destroyed," Stephen replies flatly.

Tony nods before saying, "But I can't go back anyway. It's in me now."

"Can I see?" Stephen asks. His voice is quiet, likely just suppressed irritation, but Tony will take it over Stephen exploding.

Tony activates the armour, and Stephen watches as the red and gold crawls over his skin. It's not unlike his nanotech armour, just that there's no arc reactor to store the nanotech. It wraps around him smoothly with a chrome finish. Tony doesn't summon up a mask, leaving his face exposed to Stephen. The rest of him is armoured.