beholding_archivist: (Retreat)

[personal profile] beholding_archivist 2020-08-07 10:05 pm (UTC)(link)
Jon freezes when Tony gets close enough to put the belt around him, only a slight trembling of his fingers still clutching the gun giving away his actual tension. He doesn't even dare to breathe.

Too close. Too close for proper, reasonable thoughts.

He has to close his eyes for a moment and take a deep breath once Tony is finished and a modicum of distance has been reacquired between them. And of course Tony is doing it again: Distracting from the issue rather than acknowledging it. This won't be an easy talk once they find the time for it.

Jon exhales with a visible shudder running through him and he wills his hands to stop cramping around the weapon, forcing himself to lower it further while looking up at Tony and slowly shaking his head. "What didn't change, Tony...?" He asks, his tone slipping into a sad, yet not compelling one. A sigh, and Jon drops his eyes down to his gun. "There's no time n-now. My-... my group... W-we leave soon. I- I... I hate... Leavign you like this, but..." He raises the gun a little bit. "My job now. Just... When I get back." Yes. That's when they can talk. Hopefully.

Taking a slow, hesitant step back, Jon dares to glance up once more. "...please don't disappear."
in_extremis: (Default)

[personal profile] in_extremis 2020-08-07 11:45 pm (UTC)(link)
The proximity didn't seem welcome, so Tony ended up stuck in between the console and his pile of tools and detritus he had been gathering in his belt, and Jon and his gun. Without a good answer to Jon's sad question, Tony had to roll his shoulders back to at least appear confident, hand waving, in lieu of trying to explain that he thought he was an irritatingly fixed point anymore while everything else evolved, despite how hard he worked to convince himself otherwise. He only mirrored Jon's sigh as Jon started his retreat, biting his tongue with a joyless smile to accept this terrible date, great, something to look forward to, Jon coming back to explain all of those changes Tony hadn't kept up with. Some futurist.

The quiet request was at least some indication of how Tony was allowed to feel about that possibility now, making him readily meet Jon's eye with a hopeful knit of his brow before falling back into that cultivated confidence to gesture grandly back at his work at the console, then the shuttle bay at large before dropping both of his hands into the pockets of his robe and turning his intent stare back to Jon. He held it for a beat before explaining, "I've got nowhere better to be, boss."