Work Text:
He came to slowly.
Noise appeared first, the steady beeping of a heart monitor, the drip of an IV line, the more distance bustling in the corridor, voices muffled behind walls, birds chirping outside, cars driving down a street. And most important the very familiar breathing of the only other person in the room.
Feeling returned next, the dull numbness of his body, his head feeling so heavy, his thoughts felt slurred and like in slow motion, his mouth tasted like cotton, the oxygen mask in his nose was itching. But it all vanished upon the feeling of that one calloused but still so gentle warm hand covering his right one.
Awareness followed as his head cleared up more and more, he had been in hospitals often enough to recognize the smell and the sounds. The stiff hospital bed beneath him, and it wasn't like he hadn't known himself to be waking up in one anyway. He remembered what had happened, he knew what the surgery had been supposed to do, but he couldn't feel anything, anywhere, so how much it had really brought was still unclear.
Sight rounded everything up, sunlight flickering through the thin curtains in front of the windows, the pale blue walls of the hospital room. And the man asleep in the chair right next to his bed, head rolled to the side to rest upon his shoulder, legs spread out.
Tony looked like hell.
His face covered in cuts and bruises, his eye looked worse than before. Deep bags under both his eyes, pale with exhaustion. His body stiff, his arm cradled securely against his chest. He was really hurt and beaten. And so tired.
Rhodey turned his hand around and squeezed the one now wrapped in his, Tony stirred immediately. Brown eyes flew open and zeroed in on his face, bright if tired smile blooming on his face as he straightened up and leaned closer.
"Hey." Tony whispered and Rhodey cracked open dry lips to smile back at him, "Got enough beauty sleep now, honey-bear?"
"You're..." and he started coughing when his throat went too dry and Tony reached for the cup of water with the straw, holding it up for him to take a few sips, and then Rhodey tried it again, "You're here. You've been waiting for me to wake up?"
"Wouldn't want to be anywhere else." Tony told him and pushed his chair even closer still to the bed, "Right here, that's the place where I need to be right now, nowhere else."
Silence descended over them for a moment where they just looked at each other, and Rhodey's head tried to wrap itself around the million questions in his head.
What did the doctors say? How did the surgery go?
What happened in Russia? Why aren't you talking about what happened already? What happened to Steve and Barnes? What is going on? Who hurt you?
He didn't ask any of those questions, none of that was important at the moment. He was awake and Tony was here. Here at his side and they had time. Their hands were holding onto each other now, and Tony was just that bit quicker in speaking up again, as it had always been the case. And Rhodey was so relieved that some things would never change.
"I'm sorry." Tony said quietly and brought up a finger to rest upon his lips when Rhodey wanted to protest, "No, let me say this, please. I am sorry. I know what happened to you isn't my fault, I know that, but it still feels like it is. You got wrapped up in all of this because of me, because I couldn't do this without you."
"No." Rhodey protested when Tony finally let him, "No, that isn't right. I got wrapped up in this because it was the right thing to do, and I would do it all over again. I will do it all over again if it means doing something good, doing something right.This is not the end, Tones. And I don't want to hear what the final diagnosis is, not right now." He cut short whatever Tony had wanted to tell him, "Because I know that whatever it is, you won't give up until I am standing in that suit again if I want to. And I want."
Tony looked down at their hands for a long moment and then closed his eyes for an even longer one before looking up at him again.
"We're all that's left. I can't trust Vision right now, the Avengers, that just you and me now. I don't know and I don't want to know where the rest of them are now." Rhodey squeezed his hand again, bringing Tony back to the present inside his head, "We're alone."
"We have each other." Rhodey reminded him, "We made mistakes, Tony, all of us did mistakes. Rogers most of all. We didn't get here just because of what we did, this is not your fault. You wanted to do the right thing, you wanted to do good." Tony sighed in response and hung his head, and Rhodey swore to himself that they would talk about it, they would talk about everything.
Just not today. Not right now.
He untangled his hand from Tony's fingers and stroked through dark hair, "Hey, come on, look at me." Tony did, even if reluctantly, he was so tired, "I won't give up. Not on my legs, not on War Machine, not on the Avengers. And especially not on you. I will never give up on you. You're my best friend, Tony."
"What if..." Tony started hesitantly and then needed a few seconds before he had his thoughts in order, frowning slightly, "What if I want more?"
And when he looked up then, all guards down, letting Rhodey see just how hurt, broken and lost he was right now, how vulnerable he felt and how much he was longing to be saved, he looked just like that kid again that Rhodey had first laid eyes on the campus of MIT. So, so many years ago. His wide bright eyes, that big heart hidden behind steel walls, too afraid to get hurt again but so kind and warm and loving once he let you in.
And the question he had asked, it echoed around Rhodey's head, until it found that safely guarded chest that wasn't too much hidden away in the corner of his mind. That was so much bigger in the center of his heart.
"Then I won't say no." He replied softly, brought his hand to Tony's unbruised jaw and gently pulled him closer and over himself until their lips met. It was a slow kiss, and when they pulled apart again, Tony propped himself up on his hands so he could hover with his face about Rhodey's.
"I could have lost you. I could have never gotten the chance for this." He whispered against his lips and Rhodey tenderly stroked over some of the bruises on Tony's face, "It was so close."
"I'm here. I'll always be here." Rhodey promised and then kissed him again, and when they broke apart once more, both of them were smiling, "My Tony."
"My Rhodey."