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"I feel like an idiot," Roy said, examining one arm. He was wearing a skintight suit, something like a very thin wetsuit, with microscopic circuitry threaded through it. "You don't wear one of these under your armour, do you?"
"Sometimes," Tony said absently, running a monitor over the suit. "It gives better control. More precision. Until you're used to the AI, you're better with the undersuit"
Roy tilted his arm. "I glitter," he said, as the light picked up the nearly-invisible silver wires.
"You're a very pretty sparkle princess," Tony said with elaborate seriousness, then slapped Roy's ass. "Okay, all clear on the undersuit. Time for the armour."
Roy tried to bite back his grin but he gave up when Tony raised an eyebrow. "Oh, screw you," he said. "I've dreamed of wearing Iron Man armour since I was sixteen."
"I knew it," Tony said. "You only want me for my armour."
"Damn right," Roy said. "So can we get on with it?"
"So fucking pushy," Tony said. "Okay, assume the position."
The chest piece was first. Roy was expecting something about the same weight as Tony's but this was heavier. It took him a moment to realise why. "Huh," he said. "The arc reactor's heftier than I thought."
"It's not that heavy," Tony said, "but it means more depth in the armour, which does add up. And," he added, as the bot slipped the back-plate into place, "alters the balance of the whole suit. It is heavier than mine."
The weight continued to add up as the hip and groin protection slid into place. The bot moved slower than when Tony was suiting up, giving Tony time to check the fit and positioning of each piece.
Roy had to take a deep breath when Tony's fingers slipped under the pelvic plate and he deliberately looked straight ahead, rather than down to where Tony was kneeling at his feet.
"Does that fit okay?" Tony asked.
"Fine," Roy said.
"Are you sure?" Tony's fingers slipped further between Roy's legs. "Absolutely certain?"
Roy finally looked down to find Tony grinning up at him. "Bastard," Roy said.
Tony's grin widened, but he leaned back enough for the bot to click the thigh plates into place, then the lower legs and the knees. A few minutes more and the boots were built up and locked in and-
"Oh," Roy said at the unexpected relief of the suit finally supporting its own weight.
"Yeah," Tony said, "it's easier to make adjustments with the chest plate already established as a baseline. You shouldn't have to carry the whole weight again."
"Good," Roy said with feeling.
"Okay," Tony said as he stood up. "Arms out."
It took a few tweaks to get the arms to fit - "It's your ridiculous muscles," Tony grumbled around the screwdriver in his mouth - but soon enough, Roy was sliding his hands into the gauntlets.
"Shit," he said, and turned his hands over so he was looking at the repulsors. "This is... This is awesome." He looked up to find Tony grinning at him. "Oh, fuck off," he said. "Like you don't love your armour."
"It's endearing. Really. Ready for the helmet?"
"Yeah."
He kept his eyes shut as the helmet was locked into place around his head. He'd been expecting the quiet noises of the workshop to be muffled but they became sharper, each sound pinprick-clear, easily isolated and located.
And then the slide of the faceplate, moving smooth enough that he could barely feel it.
He was ready for the slight feeling of claustrophobia, of his own breath reflecting back onto his face, of being shut off from the world.
But then he opened his eyes and let out a long breath of wonder.
He wasn't just looking through the eye slits. Instead, there were cameras in the helmet working with the HUD to project a full field of vision. And the HUD... The read-outs stretched off into the distance, layered on top of each other but slipping into focus as soon as he wanted them. He had no idea how it worked - some kind of scan of his eyes, maybe? - but he didn't even have to think about it.
"Wow," he said finally. "I mean, everybody knows you're a genius but this... Shit." He slowly shook his head. "This is beyond genius."
"Try moving," Tony said.
Roy took a hesitant step forward, and the suit moved with him, moved for him. He was aware of the weight, of the solid thud of his foot touching the concrete, but it was irrelevant.
He took another step, another, then risked running to the other end of the workshop. Stopping was briefly alarming as he under-estimated the suit's momentum, but the suit worked for him, servos whining softly.
When he looked back towards the centre of the room, Tony was suited up and just sliding down his suit's faceplate. "What do you think?"
"It's-" He laughed. "I don't know what it is. It's amazing. It's fucking amazing."
"Here." A brief flicker and there was an inset image in his HUD, the output of one of the workshop cameras. He turned to face the camera and watched Tony move to stand next to him.
He was a few inches taller than Tony and noticeably broader, his suit the same red but black where Tony's was gold. He watched as Tony rested his hand on Roy's shoulder. He didn't feel the touch but he felt the weight of it, felt the suit automatically adjusting and compensating.
"Come on," Tony said. "Time for your flying lesson."