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Ever since Soul started sharing Stephen’s emotions with Tony, being around him feels like being wrapped in a soft blanket. Call it affection, fondness, friendship; whatever word you used, it felt very, very nice. It also made it kind of hard to be annoyed with him.
“I don’t need to meditate,” Tony argues, sitting cross-legged across from Stephen on the floor of one of the practice rooms. It was nicely padded, at least. “I can just ask Soul.”
“Oh, certainly,” Stephen says dryly. “So when you fly the armor, you just sit there and let FRIDAY do all the work?”
Tony scowled. “You know I don’t.”
Stephen groaned. “And you know that I’m trying to make a point.” A small orange spike shot through the soft blanket feeling.
Well, at least if Tony couldn’t quite be annoyed, Stephen could be annoyed for him.
“I’m not a wizard,” Tony grumbles.
“Neither am I.” Despite the words, a bright flare of amusement illuminates Stephen’s emotions. “Look, don’t think of it as meditation, if that helps,” Stephen goes on. “This of it as…” Tony can feel him casting about for the words, and then a shot of satisfaction as he finds them “...learning a new user interface. Sometimes it’ll be easier to ask Soul for information, like asking FRIDAY. But sometimes it’ll be faster, and easier, to just access the data directly.”
That makes sense. Damn it. Tony sighs. “Okay, fine. Remind me what we were doing?”
“Soul can sense the connections between people,” Stephen says. “You want to try to sense them for yourself.”
“Sense?” Tony groans. “I’m not psychic, Merlin.”
“The word does also apply to the five senses you already have,” Stephen says dryly. “Your perception can represent them however you’re comfortable with processing the data.”
Well, Tony always had been an extremely visual person. There was a reason he built holograms into everything. Closing his eyes, he takes a deep breath. Soul?
I’m not supposed to do it for you, Soul reminds him.
Yeah, I know. But if I’m accessing a new UI, I need to know where the on button is, right? Just show me that.
Soul considers for a moment. Very well. Relax. Open yourself to me.
Christ, magic was full of hand wavy bullshit. ‘Open yourself to me.’ Still, Tony concentrats on his breathing and tries to relax. Slowly, everything seems to go quiet around him. The feeling that there’s something just on the edge of his vision—closed eyes and all—starts to grow. Tony’s brow wrinkles. He tries to reach, but it seems to retreat. “It feels like I’m nudging it with my fingertips,” he mutters, “and it keeps rolling away.”
“May I?”
Tony has no idea what Stephen was suggesting, but he nods anyway. Abruptly, the shallow sense he has of Stephen’s emotions deepens like the bottom has fallen out of a well and revealed an ocean. Tony catches his breath, and then it’s like Stephen’s hand is on his, showing him how to lift just enough that the thing he’s reaching for is under his fingertips instead of in front of them. As he makes contact, the sense of that ocean vanishes.
Tony opens his eyes. “Holy shit!” He’s surrounded by threads of light. No, not surrounded—they’re coming out of him.
“Tony? Is everything okay?”
Tony blinks and focuses on Stephen and realizes that one of the strands is connecting him and Stephen, except this one can hardly be called a thread. It’s more like a cord, a good inch in diameter.
“Tony!” Astringent concern floods the soft affection that emanated from Stephen. He’s on his knees now, hands coming to rest on Tony’s shoulders.
“I’m okay,” Tony says. Blinking some more, he manages to meet Stephen’s eyes and smile reassuringly. “Just, I’ve got the new UI working and there’s a lot more information than I was expecting.”
Slowly, Stephen lets his hands slide from Tony’s shoulders. He sits back a little, but stays close. “What does it look like?”
“Like thousands of threads radiating out from me,” Tony says. “They’re all orange, like Soul. There are a few thicker ones, too. There’s one between you and me, and one… Whew. That one’s big.” It’s almost as thick as his wrist, and it stretches off into the distance. Pepper, maybe?
“Concentrate on it,” Stephen suggests. “You should be able to identify the person on the other end.”
Tony stares at it for a moment, but that doesn’t help, so he reaches out carefully, like he would with a hologram, and taps it. Rhodey’s face fills his mind's eye and he grins. “It’s Rhodey.”
“Well done,” Stephen says warmly, and Tony looks back at him, enjoying the buoyant feeling of admiration. “What about the others?”
Looking around, Tony finds another thicker cord. It’s not as solid as the one with Stephen, but definitely substantial. Curious, Tony touches it and sees Pepper. He lets go and swallows hard. “Assuming the thick cords are with people important to me,” he says, “what are all these thin ones?”
“I could guess, but I assume Soul can tell you,” Stephen says.
Anyone who thinks about you regularly has a connection with you, Soul explains. You have many because you are very well known. Most have never met you.
Tony relates that to Stephen, frowning. “I’m not sure I like being connected to people I’ve never met, who I never asked to be connected to.”
“It’s only a representation,” Stephen reassures him. “You matter to people, Tony. As a hero, or a role model, or a business interest. That’s the same as it ever was.”
“But with Soul, it’s more than just a representation, isn’t it?” Tony touches the connection between him and Stephen lightly. He doesn’t try to affect it, but he knows he could. Soul sends a feeling of affirmation and Tony knows that Stephen has received it as well from the way his expression goes thoughtful.
“Well,” Stephen says eventually, “I suppose that’s one of the responsibilities of being a stone bearer. They bring us power, and we have to choose how to use it, and when. I could turn back time every time the outcome of some encounter displeased me. I don’t, because I know these abilities aren’t to be used lightly.”
Tony takes a breath. “I’m not sure I’m the guy you want carrying that kind of power around.”
Stephen laughs and Tony shoots him an offended look. “I’m sorry,” Stephen says, still chuckling. “I don’t mean to make light of your concerns, but of everyone in the world, you’d be my first choice to carry that kind of power around. You chose to protect people when you could have lived a life of ease. But more than that, between your wealth, your genius, and your fame, you have plenty of experience with influence and how seductive it is and how careful you have to be with it.” Stephen smiles at Tony. “I can’t think of a better man to wield Soul.”
It’s all Tony can do to hold back the blush. He clears his throat and tries to keep his tone light. “Thanks for the vote of confidence.”
It comes out a little too sincere, but that isn’t too scary with the soft blanket of Stephen’s affection wrapped around him.