If she had touched a hand to his blatantly unscarred cheek he would have casually dismissed it as a figure of speech. And god but he's grateful it's only a figure of speech. At least the face survived intact; maybe it was a stretch to consider what had happened to him lucky, but it could have been so much worse. A little pain and what he liked to refer to as a 'heart condition' when he felt like being an asshole isn't all that hard to live with. He couldn't have dealt with being blinded.
"Oh yeah, it was great," he responds dryly, gaze flicking up to her face with a humorless little half-smirk. It's easier than it should be to talk to her about this. It doesn't make sense. He couldn't have had this conversation with her before. But his distrust of Natasha was never personal, stabbing-related incidents notwithstanding; it was always a byproduct of her loyalty to SHIELD, who he doesn't trust an inch. Except it's gone now, isn't it? As far as this Natasha knows SHIELD are still her enemies. That really shouldn't put him more at ease, but it does. After all, how can she have an agenda right now when she barely knows who or where she is?
He shrugs. "It was all they had going spare. There was a-" His voice catches momentarily in his throat. "-surgeon they'd grabbed. He put me back together. Got most of the shrapnel out, and then rigged up the battery to keep the rest out of the way. It woulda ran flat in a couple of weeks at the outside, but this thing..." He tilts his head and shifts his shoulders slightly in a gesture which indicates the arc reactor "...kept me going after that."
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"Oh yeah, it was great," he responds dryly, gaze flicking up to her face with a humorless little half-smirk. It's easier than it should be to talk to her about this. It doesn't make sense. He couldn't have had this conversation with her before. But his distrust of Natasha was never personal, stabbing-related incidents notwithstanding; it was always a byproduct of her loyalty to SHIELD, who he doesn't trust an inch. Except it's gone now, isn't it? As far as this Natasha knows SHIELD are still her enemies. That really shouldn't put him more at ease, but it does. After all, how can she have an agenda right now when she barely knows who or where she is?
He shrugs. "It was all they had going spare. There was a-" His voice catches momentarily in his throat. "-surgeon they'd grabbed. He put me back together. Got most of the shrapnel out, and then rigged up the battery to keep the rest out of the way. It woulda ran flat in a couple of weeks at the outside, but this thing..." He tilts his head and shifts his shoulders slightly in a gesture which indicates the arc reactor "...kept me going after that."