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[hotredhero]

You have reached the voice mail box of Tony Stark. Leave a message with JARVIS and someone will get back to you. Make it a nice one, and it'll probably be me.

Comments

He said with great imitation of surprise.

[hotredhero]

[Tony registered it. There's a fraction of a second where Tony could see the back swing and he knew what was coming. It wasn't a lot of time, but it was enough that if he reacted immediately he might have a chance to dive out of the way. He didn't react. Joker swung and Tony set his stance. The impact was enough to make him stagger and push him back a step, but he could feel the recoil when Joker's hand connected too.

It was hard to tell what hurt more. his jaw or the fact that Joker was willing to bust his knuckles on Tony's face. It always hurt when people he came to think of as friends finally decided to take that step. It was coming--he always had it coming--but it still hurt.

And apparently he'd split his lip too.]

If it was that hopeless than you should have cut your losses.

[He was holding his ground. God knew why anymore. It wasn't like he believed that he'd won anything. But once Tony committed it was too late to pull back. Still, his voice was low, hopefully hiding that he was getting hoarse.]

We pulled a few more innocent people out of the fire, and if you didn't think I could do that, then none of you should have backed me in the first place. You knew who you were dealing with when you signed on to work with me.

[He dropped his gaze. Joker seemed to know more about him than he was comfortable with sharing. It never really came up, but there were comments, little details that were all too familiar. Right now, that just served to remind him that his chest hurt.]

And don't give me that bullshit about leaving no man behind. They were being left behind. No one was going back for them.

I suppose if we're being fair, they're both assholes

[pluggedintheoverlord]

[Joker's knuckles shattered when his fist hit Stark, and he could feel the bone give way; it was a red hot, burning sensation that blitzed up his arm, almost comforting in its familiarity. Once he'd followed through and Stark's lip was split and his hand was throbbing, though, he found it had done nothing to stop the sick feeling in his chest, the guilt. All it had done was break his hand.]

I thought I had you figured out, Stark, but now I don't think I did.

[There was still venom staining his voice and he wouldn't have been able to get it out even if he'd wanted to.]

Hell, does anyone know you at all? Is there anything there under all that fucking arrogance and self-importance? 'Cause all I hear right now is you trying to shift blame onto a dead man, so either you can't see past your own ego or you actually think it's his fault that you weren't able to do your job.

They are brothers in arms for being jerks.

[hotredhero]

I was doing my job.

[He can take everything else. It's his fault, of course, and he knows that already. He knows he screwed up and that Garrus was bailing him out. That's already wounding his pride enough, but he won't sit back and let Joker tell him that it wasn't for the right reasons.]

I was doing your job. I was keeping those people from becoming more missile fodder. You can throw any military protocol crap you want at me, but it doesn't mean anything if we aren't pulling them out of the fire.

[He turns back sharply as if he were magnetically repelled and takes several strides on the momentum. Then he turns back, hackles raised and muscles tight.]

You're right. It shouldn't have happened to him. It wasn't supposed to happen. I thought he knew better than that.

Re: They are brothers in arms for being jerks.

[pluggedintheoverlord]

[Joker watched Stark start to leave with an expression that was a mix between outrage and disbelief.]

You are a piece of work, Stark. You can't even see past your own fucking arrogance, can you? I shouldn't even wasted my time coming down here.

[hotredhero]

Maybe you should think about that before you march down my side of the hangar to take everything out on me, Joker.

[He throws more arrogance in that just to drive it home. They're already fighting. Nothing that Tony says at this point will help... and he doesn't want it to.]

They wouldn't have bothered with them if they'd just left the way they were supposed to. He knew that. I don't know what he was thinking.

[He wishes he did. Then maybe this would make sense.]