Visiting

Sitting on a chair while watching Tony's work, the morph was happily observing him. Tony loved this little fella already although it has only been a few days since he got the egg.

"Sir, I am sorry to interrupt but Colonel James Rupert Rhodes just arrived."

Pleasantly surprised Tony replied

„Tell him to meet me in the living room."

Looking at his newest household addition Tony said:

"Come, Einstein, let's go and meet sourpatch."

The morph who was recently named Einstein tilted his head, barked once and jumped down and led the way to the living room. Tony looked after his little friend and went to follow

"Tony!"

the voice seemed a little panicked so Tony hurried up to the room. Not knowing what to except, Tony had to suppress his laughter because Rhodey tried to fend off DUMMEE who made a few more attempts to catch Rhodey's uniform hat. Laughing silently he tried to call his robot in a stern voice:

"DUMMEE I already had to send you up, stop harassing honey bear. "

Looking at Rhodey, Tony continued:

"Sorry, at the moment DUMMEE is a little beside himself. He hates the new addition to our family. But he will cool down in a few days. He always has difficulties with someone new."

Puzzled by the comment, Rhodey discovered the little robot dog sitting beside his best friend. The dog was wagging his tail and looking at Rhodey expectantly.

"No, you didn't. Tony... what did you do? you build a robot dog? Why? Did you tell Pepper about it? Because I just spoke to her and she said you are swamped with work for the expo."

"Take a deep breath. No reason to hyperventilate. I will tell Pepper when I see her the next time and who says I build him?"

"Tony, please. There is no way you would have a robotic dog around you that you hadn't built yourself. Why didn't you buy a dog?"

Tony looked at Rhodes as if he was mad:

"What would I do if the dog is dumb? I can't exchange it or upgrade it! And then I would be stuck with an extremely foolish dog."

"Ha... I see. That is... I really don't know what I should say to that... Be careful with Pepper. I think she will be mad at you. And why is your robotic dog sniffing my leg? Tony.... get it away from me!"

with a smiling face, Tony said:

"Rhodey. Keep calm. Einstein wants to know your scent so he can recognize you again."

Looking in disbelief at the dog who was now sniffing his other leg, James complained:

" I can't believe you named it Einstein. I mean you named your other robots U and Dummee or something like that, so I suppose Einstein is a step up...maybe. And you programmed it to sniff legs? Really Tony are you mad or were you drunk while building it? "

As soon as Einstein heard Rhodes calling him it, he began glaring angrily at the colonel.

"I named him Einstein because he is a very intelligent dog and it was either that or Loki but he liked Einstein better and I didn't program him to do anything, he makes his own decisions."

"Tony I think your dog is staring at me murderously."

"Rhodey, you called him an it, he takes such offenses seriously. You should apologize."

Staring at Tony, Rhodes replied.

"I will not apologize to a robot! Tony, what is wrong with you?"

"Okay, okay. Do what you want. I am not the one who is offended. So, platypus, is there a reason why you came here or are you here to check on me?"

"I came only to check on you, although my superiors think I am here to convince you to hand me an Iron Man suit. So are you really okay? You look a little pale."

At this moment Tony looked unusually solemn at Rhodey. Sobering up Tony was internally debating with himself if he should tell Rhodes that he was dying. He came very close to reveal everything but at the last moment, he decided against it.

Everybody was always telling him how selfish and egoistical he was, but this time he decided he would not be what everyone expected from him. He would not tell his best friend about his illness because his honey bear couldn't do anything and he would spare him the anguish. How he would die was already predetermined by him, if the poisoning got too much to bear he would kill himself so that nobody would know the real reason behind his death. Knowing about the problem with his arc reactor might drive Rhodey to work actively against his plan to end it himself, or if he told Pepper? And what if his superiors found out? Rhodes was a loyal friend and Tony was reasonably certain that he would even take a bullet for him but he would not want to bring his friend in a position to choose between his career and his best friend.

So no, telling his best friend was not an option. Already Tony could predict that Rhodey would get in conflict with his superiors because of the Iron Man suit. At first, their friendship was an asset and it helped with Rhodes carrier in the military but now it slowly became a burden, each time Tony refused to hand over an Iron Man suit he jeopardized Rhodey's career.

"Sir. Code 42. "

Jarvis interrupted Tony's thoughts. Knowing the code meant SHE was coming up the stairs, Tony wanted to move but was not able to because of his visible guest. So he tried to stir his thoughts away from the invisible visitor.

"Is everything alright? Do you need to go to the workshop?"

Rhodes asked concerned.

Suddenly Tony could see the drink in Rhodes hand turning blue and his hat, which was placed beside him on the couch, began to float above his head. Trying hard not to gape, Tony tried his best to continue the conversation:

"Why wouldn't I be? Do you want to see some tricks that Einstein already mastered? Of course, you want to see it, who wouldn't want to see something awesome? "

Glancing at his watch Rhodes shook his head.

" I am sorry but I have to return to base. "

Yelping, Tony jumped up and ran to his friend, two seconds before he had felt someone breathing down his earlobe and that surprised him so much, that he couldn't suppress the sound. Trying to cover it he had leaped up but now Rhodes looked at him really strange.

"Are you really alright? "

"Yes, yes. Come visit me again as soon as possible. We should have some drinks next time you come to visit. "

After some persuasion that Tony was fine, the colonel left and Tony couldn't help the laugh that escaped him.

"Vixen."

While hearing the bell-like tinkling laughter again, he thought he would do so much more only to hear that sound again.