He did care, which he acknowledged with a fleeting little scowl, his mouth pulling briefly to the side as he raised his glass and sucked the slightly frothy, icy layer off the top before it could spill over the edge. He did care, and it irked him that he didn't really know why, but at least it was obvious to both of them - at least he didn't have to argue the point. He let it slide, reserving his ammunition for a battle he hadn't already conceded.
And Rogers' precise brand of incompetence was a very fertile field, in that regard. "Is it, though? It isn't. It isn't different. It doesn't matter if he's a dumbass or if he was just born yesterday. It comes out to the same thing. The process isn't important. It's the result. And the result -"
The result was that he'd get himself in a mountain of trouble with the wrong people, and would be neutralized in one way or another. Which brought Tony back to the question of why that was important enough to annoy him, but he shook it off again, settling, for now, on Barton seems to like him, poor son of a bitch. Good enough. He drank again, more or less heedless of the harsh, tinny bite of it, too quickly made and poorly balanced and unadorned by anything as fussy as a garnish, and headed for the table, resting his hand on the back of the chair Rogers had so recently vacated.
"The result is goodbye Rogers. If he thinks I'm abrasive," he continued, as an alarm went off somewhere in the back of his mind to inform him that he'd just started down the wrong road, "he's got ... I mean." His words trailed off a little, his brain finally catching up to his mouth to deliver the message that, probably, the consequences of treasonous speech and behavior weren't necessary to enumerate here. That they might cause some distress, which, despite his willingness to run roughshod over almost everyone and everything, he'd have preferred not to stir up. "Come on," he said, rallying. "You think he'd respond better to 'gosh, Steve, maybe you should tone it down a little'? Seriously. My point's not getting across no matter what."