“How much experience do you have with drawing blood, Tony?” Stephen asked, giving his … partner? date? … giving Tony an inquisitive smile. “My impression was that I was the resident doctor in the area.”
He was learning more about the man by the day - the way he liked his coffee (anything from black as sin and sugarless, to a Starbucks java chip frappucino with whipped cream and every syrup known to man), the fact that he apparently couldn’t sit still to save his life, to … a surprisingly wide and varied skill set.
“I don’t think the toxins are responsible for the pain,” he explained, not realising that Tony had, in fact, switched tracks of thought. “It’s an old injury, nerve damage. But it’s fine, really. I’ll just be sure to wear thicker gloves next time.”
He tilted his head, frowning at Tony’s mention of where the money had gone. “That makes… little sense. Why would he go through all this effort to raise funds? There are easier ways of doing it. Ways that would make fewer enemies.”
He sighed. “Still, I suspect we don’t have enough information. Will you continue to investigate? Or will you leave it to Gotham’s usual vigilante crime fighters?” He couldn’t help but look over, reaching for Tony’s free hand, placing a hand over his. “Incidentally, I was hoping to enlist your help with the bigger problem of the colliding universes.”
Maybe it was a little selfish, wanting to hoard Tony for himself, but… he couldn’t bear to see the man run headlong into danger. Not again.
“you’d be surprised with the experiences i have with medical procedures, doc.“ he stated lightly, giving stephen a small shrug before sighing. he’d been in his fair share of situations where having some medical training was absolutely necessary to saving his or someone else’s life. plus the fact that he had a hard time trusting anyone with his chest - aside from pepper and rhodey, mostly. and now stephen.
giving a bit of a smirk, he slyly looked over at stephen and leaned in, “you still are - i’m a doctor, but not that kind of doctor - i operate medically without a license.“ he added, feeling like if he told anyone else that, that they’d chastise him and give him a very stern talking to. with stephen it felt different, it felt like he wasn’t being judged for who he was and random sometimes idiotic crap he’s done.
“i read a bit about it from ... other me’s stuff, i’m sorry - if it helps i saw he was working on something for you, i could see if i can finish it?“ he asked, carefully measuring stephen’s reaction to the offer of help for his hands knowing that it was entirely a sensitive subject. “i mean, if it helps with the pain and the sensitivity to cold, it’d be worth it, right?“
tony was pretty certain that even without permission from stephen that he’d launch into working on it anyway. “besides, you’re the one who suggested to me to start leaning into healthcare, this is a good start.” he lightly teased, giving him enough of an angle to make it seem like it wasn’t entirely for a ‘selfish’ reason.
giving a shrug about penguin’s motives, tony smiled warmly at the touch the other provided, giving his hand a look over before clasping his other over it, an attempt to warm the scarred hand and a happy chance to touch him. “i’ll help you - gotham has a lot of heroes with capes, i think they’ll be fine without me - i’ll happily do what you want me to do - let me back into the fold.”
