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“This is so embarrassing.”
“Nah man, it happens,” Rhodey said. If he hadn’t been wearing his suit, Tony knew that Rhodey would have shrugged good naturedly and his face would be doing that thing where his mouth ticked up in the corner, not quite a smile but almost. “You tried a new thing and it didn’t work. No big deal.”
“Stop being smug. I can hear it in your voice.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Rhodey said mildly, and there it was again. Rhodey was enjoying this way too much but was being a bigger man about it instead of rubbing it in like Tony would have. What a bastard.
Tony loved him so much. He heaved a long sigh, making sure it was loud enough that Rhodey could hear it over comms, and let his head fall back. It was pretty much the only thing he could do right now; he was in a mostly dead suit, save for comms and life support, and was currently in the ignominious position of being carried back to his lab by Rhodey. He’d been working on a new propulsion system for his suit and it had failed spectacularly in the middle of the desert. After an hour of trying to figure out what was wrong, he'd finally given up and called Rhodey for help.
“Don’t know why you are sighing like that, you’re lucky I was close enough to come get you. Ungrateful, that’s what you are.”
“No, no, you’re right,” Tony said. “You saved me. My hero. Though I don’t know why you have to carry me bridal style.”
“Oh, now you got a problem with the way I rescue you? I could have let you walk home.”
“Aww, come on platypus, don’t be like that. I’m grateful. I’ll even buy you dinner.”
Rhodey snorted. “You’ll be paying a lot more than that, I think the Air Force is going to bill you for this rescue.”
“That’s cold, Rhodey. Real cold.” Tony lifted his head again and examined a missile launcher on Rhodey’s shoulder. “Is this new?” He asked, poking it.
“Sir, I’m going to have to ask you to keep your hands to yourself during the course of this rescue operation. The War Machine suit is property of the US Air Force and any damage to it will result in me dropping you on your ass and leaving you there like a turtle on its back.”
Tony poked it again, undeterred. “This better not be Hammer Tech again.”
“The Air Force is developing its own in-house capabilities for making modifications to the War Machine suit. We have smart people too, you know.”
“Yeah, you.” Then Tony gasped as the realization hit him. “Wait, did you build this?” He refocused on the launcher and examined it with new eyes.
“I was the head of the development team, yeah.”
What a goddamn brilliant son of a bitch. This was why Rhodey was one of his favorite people. “Guess we’ll have to see how it works then,” he commented off-handedly like he wasn’t grinning like a madman inside his helmet.
“Sure thing, buddy, once you’re not in a shiny red paperweight.”