Wash was offended instantly, open mouthed and everything. Mostly it was because he was self conscious about his less than svelte physique, but he would add that it wasn't a very kind comment.
Nevertheless, as he handled everything else, he handled this with an overacted display of humor.
"It's not paunch it's...manly cushioning," he said with a stiff upper lip and a upward tilt to his chin, though his voice was sheepish and uncertain. "...I just finished a big meal..." he added in a smaller voice.
"Wah!" Wash recoiled at the idea of Tony anywhere near that area. He shivered. He was a very very straight man despite his futuristic upbringing. "I'll just do what I do when I have a physical, think of a better place to be. Like somewhere getting my teeth pulled. Or being burned alive."
Finally it seemed Tony's facial muscle did have the ability to do something other than sneer derisively.
He couldn't help but smile smugly. This was before he worked on Serenity.
"A war ship the size of a small moon," Wash said. He wouldn't have seen Star Wars so he wouldn't have gotten any parallels Tony would draw from a small ship taking on a moon size war ship with a single strategically placed powerhouse of explosion.
Wash could spin a fantastic story and he spent no time launching into it with dramatics that would probably leave Tony having to pin on of his hands down to adjust his finger length. The otherwise quick tale of how he single handedly planted the explosives into the aft engine of a derelict Alliance war ship taken over by dirty pirates who were also working for the Alliance under the table by depressurizing the escape pod and wearing a space suit helmet to lower the explosives down then leading them on a wild chase through an abandoned space colony on a terraformed planet...okay, maybe there was no quick way to tell the story.
But Wash pulled out all the stops on this story leaving no room for commentary as he described every feat of piloting. He reveled in the memories.