Almost like returning home

[arrogantalloy]

 Tony had woken with a start, in fact he had been so expressive in his waking up he ended up rolling off the couch he was apparently on. He had gotten up onto his knees and looked around, expecting to see familiar Capitol fashion trademarks. There were none, they were his - Well, Pepper's- trademarks. He was back in the tower, J.A.R.V.I.S was even able to confirm that it had barely been more than a few hours since he had even taken well over two years ago.

The god damn machine worked. After letting out a yippie and having an unnecessarily long shower, Tony confirmed that all the Avengers were where he had left them all relatively safe and sound in this world, then ordered a pizza to be delivered while he set to work giving Dum-E a service ignoring the fact the robot didn't need one, Tony just really needed to be finger deep in something familiar and Pepper wasn't in New York right now.

It naturally didn't occur to him he would be the only one returned to this world, especially not someone who had never originally from this world.

Comments

[shenunigans]

Like a typical teen, Dave sleeps in far longer than Tony. Even the couch he's managed to find himself on is more comfortable than any place he's slept for the past few months. Even before leaving the Capitol, sleep didn't come so easily. He just instinctively feels safe, for no discernible reason.

Later, he awakes with a similar start. The feeling of safety melts away when he doesn't recognise his surroundings. It isn't the meteor, it isn't his apartment, it isn't District 13 and it isn't his room in the Tribute Tower. It's lavish, like a Capitol building, and Dave is suddenly running horrible scenarios through his head. Mostly involving drugs, the plan failing horribly and the Capitol catching him.

He's pacing around, trying to figure out where he is and who the fuck else is here. He finds the kitchen and politely borrows a knife from it. There's the off-chance he accidentally got sent somewhere other than his home, given his unstable living situation, but he doesn't want to chance Capitol fuckery.

He hears noises that sound like machinery leading down stairs and he starts to creep down, knife ahead of him as he enters the room to find none other than... Tony. Fucking with the shittiest robot he's ever seen in his goddamn life.

"I think you should have tinkered with those calibrations a little more." He's using that monotone voice he's so well known for. Then he realises he's holding a knife out toward Tony, so he pulls that back. "You been here long? Long enough to make a "We almost nailed it" cake?"

[arrogantalloy]

Before Tony even is aware of Dave's presence, Dum-E spots him, his head swiveling towards him completely disregarding Tony's mumbled comment about not moving. Tony does though immediately look up when Dave speaks up, blinking once in surprise as Dum-e's grips open and close at the mention of cake.

"J.A.R.V.I.S?" Tony says in something of an unimpressed tone.

"He appeared the same time you re-appeared." The disembodied voice replies plaintively. "I was under the assumption that you had brought him back from where ever it is you had gone." Tony closes the opened compartment he was working on of Dum-E. Shaking his head before starting to come close to Dave before stopping. To be honest he isn't all that sure of how Dave even came with him, that cobbled together machine was at best a prototype, sure a Stark defined prototype which meant it was at least 80% shippable to markets. But it was meant to send everyone back to their world. Not his world. With slight agitation and confusion Tony rubs at his face still this whole time not actually acknowledging Dave past the fact he's looked at him a few times and has been talking directly about him.

"Anyone else you made wrong assumptions about?" He snarks at his computer A.I.

"He was the only one." J.A.R.V.I.S reproachfully replies.

"Fire up the machine shop." He orders then points to Dave. "Don't touch anything." He turns and heads to a drafting board. Determined to redraft the blueprints he'd been working with for months so he can build something to get Dave back to his world and not his own. The media didn't need to know that suddenly there was a teenage boy in his tower for a whole host of reasons, and at least some of them were kidnappable reasons. It was bad enough he's had Pepper and Happy hurt in his wake, Dave wasn't going to be one of them.

[shenunigans]

For a moment, it's as if Dum-E and Dave share a moment. The robot seems to stare at him, and Dave nods back as if they've shared a look of understanding. Seems like he likes cake, Dave can respect that immensely. For a robot, anyway.

He seems confused when Tony addresses J.A.R.V.I.S before him, but he knows damn well who he's talking to. He never expected he'd be so surprised at the voice coming from nowhere. It seems that, despite all the shit he's been through, he's still something of a 13 year old fanboy for this kind of crap. It's enough to make the fact that he's in another goddamn foreign universe almost novel.

"Don't blame the robot because you fucked up." Dave points out, watching Tony fire out orders and dive into work immediately. He raises his hands like he's being held at gunpoint, but he steps further into the room anyway to go look at Dum-E, who he fully intends to prod at. "You don't need to slide into the sweatshop so fast, y'know. Lest you done goof again." Dave sets the knife down on a counter, waving a hand at Dum-E, mostly to see if he'll wave back. "I'm a little seasick from all the interdimensional travel, anyway. I wouldn't mind, like. Drinking. Eating. Taking a small moment to contemplate the vast and cavernous universe and its pockets of murder and mayhem. If that's not too much to ask, I mean. You're acting like I'm ants at a picnic."

And then he pauses. "So do Steve or the other cool Avengers live here or is it just you?" Emphasis on just.

[arrogantalloy]

"Robots have bodies. J.A.R.V.I.S is an A.I" Tony replies absently before even entertaining anything else that's said as he puts a pencil to paper and starts getting the design roughly drawn out. Dum-E, stuck on the table right now as Tony had only been giving him a service mere seconds ago simply keeps his attention on Dave, at the wave the bot open and closes his grips a few times before tilting his 'head' to one side, as if waiting for Dave's next move.

"Glitches happened, it's not like I was exactly flooded with time to beta test." He pauses looking up from his drafting and off into the middle distance. "Or anyone on the other end to record feedback." He shakes his head and keeps drafting going back to ignoring Dave for a little while as he starts listing materials he'll need in the corner of the drafting board. Every line drawn lighting up in blue on the table just waiting to be converted into a holographic wireframe.
When Dave asks about the others, Tony doesn't slow down in his work, but his face does set itself into a very neutral expression.

"Uh, looks like you're stuck with me. Avenger-wise at least." He keeps his voice casually dismissive as much as he'd grown used to the other Avengers being around in the games, coming back home reminded him that for the most part none of the other Avengers had anything to do with him. Except for Bruce, but that hardly meant the two were joined at the hip. Bruce wasn't even on the East Coast right now.

[shenunigans]

"Potato, potahto." He knows damn well there's a big difference between the two, but acknowledging the difference wouldn't annoy Tony and that's just not what he's about. He probably shouldn't be surprised that Tony is diving right back into a project. He's a chronic workaholic. Even if life gave him a break, he'd probably just find a way to cram more obsessive tinkering into it.

"Speaking of the other side," He breezes past the dismissive tone, because he was really only jabbing Tony where it hurt to get a little more attention. "Do you think anyone else ended up in the wrong place? Is there even a way to check that? Not like we can just ring up another dimension and check the ride home was safe. It's like living in the dark ages. Bet you didn't know your cousins mule ran off the road and sent the whole family of twelve off the cart and down the mountainside until six months after the fact." He puts his hands on his hips, only slowly beginning to realise that was the opposite of what you should say to an obsessive workaholic.

"Shouldn't you have a tuna sandwich or something before you dive into math? I heard long division on an empty brain can give you a stroke."

[arrogantalloy]

"J.A.R.V.I.S. Source the list, I want it here by tonight." Tony says aloud once he finishes writing his list of needed materials.

"I'm afraid most of those materials won't even reach the united states, by nightfall. But the orders have been placed." Tony makes no move to show he's heard what his A.I said as he keeps sketching the blueprints from memory, silently pleased he's now in a position where he can add adjustments he knew it would need but would never have been able to get his hands on what he needed for it while working on it in the capitol avoiding detection and getting whatever bare bone necessities he could just to help make it work. He goes back to ignoring Dave until he's finished the first sketch and puts the wireframe through a stress test program.

"That." He says pointing at Dave, finally acknowledging his words. "Is probably the best way to put it. This." He gestures at the blueprint. "Only technically worked one way, unlike a Stargate this was only had one door, so you can't dial up to come home once you're on the other side. Our version at least." He gets up and paces a little, well to Tony it was pacing, due to the side of the workshop it looks more like he's just strolling through it as if giving a lecture to students.
"The Capitol's machine was able to bring us there, unlikely it could send you back, kind of like a racoon trap. once you're in the blockade comes down and you're stuck in your wire box until someone in camo and a Louisiana baseball cap gets you out." He picks up a small cylinder in one hand and starts to tap it thoughtfully on the other until he looks at it realises it's garbage and shoots it as if it's a basket ball into a trashbin.
"Uh. Because the design's one way. We have no idea how many people have ended up in the wrong place, just because they wanted to be in Gryffindor and not Slytherin." He looks pointedly at Dave, even though he believed nothing of the sort he still opted to imply the persons will had something to do with it as well.

"Kitchen's up the stairs, I like it with Mayo." He barely waits more than 10 seconds before adding. "Where's my sandwich?"

[shenunigans]

Dave thinks it's rude that Tony just ignores J.A.R.V.I.S when he's working so hard, so he flashes a thumbs up to nowhere in particular. If he knows it's for him or not isn't important, what's important is that Dave acknowledges him whether he needs it or not. But hey, Tony is acknowledging him once again, so his attention turns back to him with a raised brow.

"Well, guess they can build their own interdimensional travel machines if they don't like it, right?" It's really surprising when someone drones on more than he does, not to mention all the references. Dave is overwhelmed in many, many aspects here. He's not sure if he wants a snack or a nap or if he wants to cry or laugh or take a shower or stay here or go home. He isn't exactly chomping at the bit to get back to the meteor.

"Do I look like I work at Subway, Mr.Magoo? Make your own damn sandwich. Hell, make me one too." He folds his arms over his chest defiantly, but it wanes a bit when he follows that with more words. "Plus there's lots of things upstairs." And one of those things is the thing he got the knife from, so that excuse falls flat. He's just not exactly eager to be alone right now.