[ It takes a lot to keep looking at her under the weight of that gaze, knowing that she's looking further than the surface by the minute changes in her expression, totally aware of how well and intuitively she understands people, and especially in the absence of any other communication - just one long, heavy moment between them. Instinctively, he pulls up blankets around whatever he might be broadcasting, not quite good enough to actually qualify as shields owing to a lack of training and his present distraction, but enough to muffle whatever he wasn't trying to show her in the first place. And it's not to be mean; it's not even something he does on purpose, just another defense mechanism. Tony is effectively built out of a series of defense mechanisms. It's one of the reasons he's so good at making bombs.
At the instruction, the contact, he swallows once, taking the moment where she's beside his face to vent a little more reaction through it before she straightens back. There's got to be a give somewhere, if he can't talk and she's going to keep shifting like that, because soon there's going to be a filled out response to it and then he knows he'll be in far less a state to control himself. Better to get some of it out now. ]
no subject
At the instruction, the contact, he swallows once, taking the moment where she's beside his face to vent a little more reaction through it before she straightens back. There's got to be a give somewhere, if he can't talk and she's going to keep shifting like that, because soon there's going to be a filled out response to it and then he knows he'll be in far less a state to control himself. Better to get some of it out now. ]