That wasn't a comforting expression, but Tony wasn't doing a very good job parsing it, just chewing slowly with his burger dripping into his lap. Steve didn't seem mad at him, per se, but it did kind of look like disappointment. Or Tony just expected disappointment from Steve; he was staggeringly good at it, very practiced and nuanced, and it seeped into most of his other expressions. Tony was going to have to say something.
"Yeah--so...So, when I left, I thought you would just get stronger, you know, more...unified. And then the whole thing with Hammer, and I get it, it's..." he started, but didn't know how this was going to lead to his own defense still and lingered a moment over a french fry, chewing deliberately as he idly nudged the others in the box on the bed between them. "It's hard to trust anyone right now," he came up with, but maybe that was just him. Either way, Steve had to understand Tony's reservation, and Tony could meet his eye again. "But you've never had a problem getting anyone to listen to you. If you want, I could draw up a list, make first contact with the people I think could be good for this right now, but I don't...I can't listen to that again. Not without someone there to help."