The reprimand, if anything, settled the tension winding up Tony's spine. It felt normal, somewhat expected, to disappoint someone he was close to. A return to form, another point in this being reality instead of some fucked up hallucination- too many things had been going, well. If not right, if not great, but going smoothly for him to be entirely comfortable. Maybe it was self sabotage, laying this out, but Bull wasn't about to pretend it wasn't happening and Tony wasn't big on shame. "People are entirely able to separate physical and emotional intimacy, Bruce. I am. Haven't had to for awhile-"

Since Pepper, since Afghanistan took him by the spine and shook him. "But I've shacked up with strangers I knew for less, I trusted less, for more or less the same reason."

To give his mind a break. To lose himself in sensation, ground himself, feel connected to someone, anyone, for a few hours. He didn't need it in the same way as before, not really, so perhaps he wasn't framing it properly. "It's not just- What, if anything, do you know about the bsdm scene? If he rolled up just for a ride I wouldn't have tagged in but- that wasn't what he was offering."

Or what he needed at the time.

"...I don't either, honestly. If she were here? She'd be handling it. She's not." And that was as much thought as he could comfortably put into the situation. She wasn't here. It didn't mean she was dead, it didn't mean he'd lost her she simply...wasn't here.