starsandsupernovae:

the-flightoficarus:

Hello just imagine baby!DUM-E freaking out the first time Tony’s stomach rumbles because “Creator-Unit is damaged! HE DOESN’T HAVE PROTOCOLS FOR STRANGE RUMBLES? Will bringing Creator-Unit a screwdriver help? There is no access to fix the rumbles! Is Creator-Unit broken? Maybe he should bring Creator-Unit a smoothie? It doesn’t creak but maybe a covering will help? DUM-E NEEDS TO FIX!!!”

( @the-flightoficarus like this?)

Tony looked at his creation proudly. Only a few days old and DUM-E was already acting, well, almost perfectly. Well, he was trying his best and that was what counted. He was turning to one of the other projects whose plans he had strewn across his desk, thinking of how much more he could accomplish now when his stomach rumbled, an annoying reminder that his body was long overdue sustenance, given the fact that he hadn’t eaten that day. Or the day before really. He was considering leaving in a few hours, maybe getting some pizza or something when DUM-E came rolling over. If a robot without a face could look concerned, this one did.

“Hey, DUM-E, what’s wrong?”

Tony looked around frantically, searching for the flames or smoke that was worthy of such concern. Was something exploding? imploding? spontaneously combusting? 

DUM-E kept bumping against his arm gently, holding out a screwdriver. 

“Uh, thanks?” Tony accepted it, and DUM-E looked relieved for just a moment until Tony set it down whereupon he got his concerned look again and sped off. Tony sat in a bemused silence, waiting to see where this would go before DUM-E brought back a smoothie, whose main component seemed to be motor oil. Tony was genuinely touched if very confused.

“DUM-E, I can’t drink this.” He set it down beside him and saw the bot speed off towards another pile of tools.

“JARVIS?” Tony asked, “What’s DUM-E doing?”

“Well, sir.” JARVIS answered, trying to communicate with the agitated bot. “He’s concerned that you’re malfunctioning.”

“Malfunctioning?”

“Your stomach was rumbling. He is afraid of the problems that may be causing it. And he has no protocols for this.”

Tony watched DUM-E try to mess through the tools on the desk, trying so hard to figure out which one could fix him and definitely did not tear up a tiny bit.

“DUM-E, I’m going to go fix myself, okay? Thanks for trying to help.” 

Tony hadn’t planned on eating for another few hours but with DUM-E so concerned…..

JARVIS explained what had happened while Tony was gone.  And yet, even so, whenever Tony hadn’t eaten in too long, whenever his stomach was particularly loud in protest DUM-E would come rolling over. And Tony would mumble something about how that was stupid, he was fine, one of these days he was going to donate that programming- but he would go upstairs and eat.