Who: Katou and Tony What: Tony gives Katou a hand (har har har I'm so punny) When: March Where: Stark Industries Warnings/Ratings: Teenish for vague references to drug use Status: Complete
After coming back, there had been a long time when Katou hadn’t bothered with the arm that Kanan had given back to him. He was just as useless with two arms as with one, so what the hell was the point? But, well, everything was more difficult with only one arm, and it was beginning to be a real pain in the ass. He’d texted Tony, reminding the millionaire who he was because he’d only met him a couple of times, and tossing his old arm in a backpack (again, a pain in the ass when he didn’t even have a left shoulder), he made his way to Stark Tower to meet up with the tech genius.
On this rare occasion, Tony wasn’t busy. This was one of those once-in-a-lifetime days when he was staring off into space, through the window of his office, with a mug of hot coffee in his hand. Of course, when he wasn’t busy, he was still active. Tony’s head was whirring, going over the project that he was considering starting up with Ms. Luthor.
When the AI alerted him that there was a visitor, Tony’s attention was drawn from the window to the door. “Come on in.” Tony‘s Personal Assistant was out at the moment, so when Katou came out of the elevator into the executive lobby, the door to Tony’s office simply opened to him.
Katou entered Tony’s office, glassy-eyed but aware enough to find Tony in no time. “S’up?” he asked, finding Tony and making his way over to the man. His old arm was in his backpack - a little difficult to wear since he was missing a shoulder, though he had it slung over his remaining one. He let the bag slide down his arm and hit the floor with a thunk. “I haven’t been up here since that time Caleb shot me.”
Tony broke into a smile at the sight of his younger friend. It’d been a while since he’d seen the kid, though he knew that Katou was tough as nails. He hadn’t been worried about the boy’s safety. Tony slipped his hands into his pockets as he turned to saunter across his office. His eyes wandered over Katou’s form, noting that he looked a little… incomplete?... and frowned at the sound of the thunk. Eyebrows rose. “No, you haven’t. I was starting to wonder if you’d forgotten about me. What’s in the bag?”
Katou shrugged, a little lopsidedly given that he only had one shoulder. “No, not forgotten,” Katou said. But it wasn’t like he had particularly enjoyed having his arm examined, and without the excuse to come see Caleb he hadn’t seen much of a point in heading to Stark Industries just to be poked and prodded at. Now he half wished he had kept up with that.
“It’s my arm,” Katou said casually. “Not sure if you noticed, but it kinda fell off. I was hoping you could like, I dunno, stick it back on for me.”
“I noticed.” Tony pulled one hand from his pocket to reach out for the bag. “Well, I’ll see what I can do.” Honestly, though, it was Tony Stark. He could do it. He could do pretty much anything he set his mind to. And helping this kid out was fairly high on his “to do” list. As of thirty seconds ago.
“How was it attached the last time?” Tony asked.
“Do I look like someone who’d know the answer to that?” Katou asked, raising an eyebrow. Clearly, Tony was giving him way too much credit. “I was pretty fucking out of it the first time too. Rivet had to replace a bunch of these ribs though, and the shoulder blade.” Lucifer hadn’t just cut off Katou’s arm, he’d very nearly sliced him in two. If his body wasn’t just a place where his soul hung out, he was pretty sure there was no way he could’ve survived something like that. As it was, the injury had more or less killed him in the end anyway. “So I assume it connects that way somehow or something.”
Tony nodded. He’d taken some scans and had some initial blueprints of Katou’s body from the last time the younger man was up in his lab. He thought he had an idea, but he’d hate to mess things up for the kid. Still, he’d do his best. He came over to take a closer look at things, to lift the arm and inspect it, and to hold it up where it was supposed to go. “Well, then. We’ll have to set this right somehow.” He turned his eyes to Katou’s back to inspect his shoulder blade, too. It was unlike anything he was used to. Tony was all about metal and plastic, and this was… different. Not bad different, though. “Let’s get started.”
Katou set his mouth into a deep frown as Tony inspected him, doing his best to not pull away as Tony inspected his shoulder. It wasn’t a comfortable feeling, having someone poke and prod at him, but he had to admit that it needed to be done. He’d sat around feeling too sorry for himself to get a new arm for too long, and the longer it went on the more he was willing to admit that he was only making everything harder on himself. Eating, getting dressed, all of it.
Katou nodded, and went to where Tony told him to, allowing the man to do his tests and inspections without much fuss.
Being a one-armed person couldn’t be easy. Tony was sure this would help Katou in almost everything he wanted to do. That is, if Tony could actually fix it.
But hey. He was Tony Fucking Stark. He could do God Damned anything he put his mind to.
So he had Katou stand in the right place, hold his body in the right place, and he planned and fixed, and did his Tony Fucking Stark thing. And sure enough, the arm came back on. Right where it was supposed to be.
The connection of the nerves was painful, but Katou clenched his teeth and didn’t cry out. He had self-medicated before he’d come to see Tony in anticipation of the procedure, but despite that he could still feel it. He couldn’t imagine how bad it would have been if he hadn’t thought ahead like that. He hadn’t been able to medicate when he’d had his arm installed in the dreams, but then, everything had hurt, and he was literally losing his mind and his memories, and it had only been a drop in the bucket of things that were wrong with him then.
Once Tony was done, Katou inhaled deeply through his nose to try to dispel the pain, and then wiggled his fingers. Happily, they moved exactly how Katou had wanted them to. “Cool,” he said, making a fist and then releasing it, then making circles with his wrist, then bending at the elbow. “Good as new.”
Tony did his best to make it as easy and quick a process as he could… but some things couldn’t be rushed. And some things were going to hurt, regardless of how careful and tentative he was. So in the end he made sure he was accurate, rather than speedy. He didn’t want to have to do any of it over again.
Tony broke into a smirk at the sight of the wiggling fingers. Job well done, indeed. He’d have to have a celebratory drink after this. “Perhaps better than new?” He kidded as Tony made his way over to where he’d left his glass. There was still a gulp of amber liquid in it, so he finished it off in one go. “Thankfully I had those tests I’d taken last time you were here.”
“Yeah, good thing,” Katou said, rolling his shoulder back in the socket as though he were warming up the muscles that no longer existed there. “You got any more of that stuff?” he asked, nodding toward the glass. God knew he could use a pick-me-up.
Well, it was pretty good work, anyway. Tony moved back over to the dry bar to pour the younger man a finger of the good stuff. Then he brought the glass back and offered it to Katou. “You’re not gonna give me the whole story on how it fell off, are you?”
“Nope,” Katou said, and knocked back the drink that Tony had poured for him. “I’ve got shit to do.” Mostly, he had plans to get fucked up and pass out on the couch. Getting an arm reattached was exhausting. “Later,” he said, giving a half-wave with the reattached arm. “I’ll give you a shout if it starts giving me trouble.”
“Yeah yeah. Get outta here, ya crazy animal.” Tony smirked. He collected Katou’s glass once the boy was on his way out, and turned back to his dry bar. He knew he’d see the kid again. Hopefully not too soon.