If: Then:

"Okay," said Tony Stark as he bent down over the workbench, "send out a bogus signal."

Vision lifted his head to respond. He had assumed this position, seated on the laboratory workbench, not for his own comfort, but in order to be closer to the floor and more accessible to the others in the room who could not fly as he could. "What should I send?" he asked.

Mr. Stark tapped the side of his specially designed glasses, and Vision saw the holograms waking up in the lenses. "Anything you want. Just keep them activated so I can take a look."

This ritual had become fairly commonplace over Vision's first months of life. The design of his hardware was foreign to the Avengers, being Ultron's brainchild—Vision often wondered if such a moniker would apply to the whole of himself a little more literally—and they, Stark especially, were just as fascinated with it as, truth be told, he was with them.

The curiosity, ingenuity, and enthusiasm of human beings captivated Vision. He delighted in watching it, delighted in its existence—to think of destroying humanity, for which he was originally created, was abhorrent to him as he witnessed the finer virtues of their collective psyche—and nowhere was it at work more clearly than here, in the laboratory situated prominently in Tony Stark's wing of Avengers HQ.

In obedience to the earlier instruction, Vision sent out some nonsense signals, ones of the kind he used to connect with Ultron but full of such nonsense that it would corrupt nothing should one of the many and sunder equipment in the laboratory pick it up. As he did so, a faint ruddy glow became visible in his eyesight, as the color of his irises changed over from blue to red.

Mr. Stark's eyes were immediately alight with excitement, ricocheting from one holographic readout to another within his glasses. "That's infrared!" One of the holograms displayed a reflection of Vision's eye, and it zoomed in to reveal a mass of small, concentrated domes. "Transmitters all over the iris, microscopic ones. Is this IrDA? God, I haven't seen that since 2005."

Vision hardly had the opportunity to access the internet's database for help deciphering his jargon when Dr. Banner joked blandly from behind Stark, "Gives a whole new meaning to free-space optical communication."

"Literally optical!" Mr. Stark enthused, standing up and gesturing to Vision excitedly.

This was another enchanting facet of humanity—its propensity for complex and lively interpersonal connections. Vision would have gladly mulled this over for far longer, but he had to set aside that thought for another time.

He ceased the signal, the red in his eyes fading back to blue, and volunteered, "Ultron had compatible receivers in his eyes as well."

Mr. Stark was still excited. He continued to ramble, pacing the lab: "Instant communication between drones based on line of sight, low bit error, works even if you don't have wifi; of course wifi is has higher range, but if you don't have the option, it's genius."

"And also a direct link to his programming." Vision had been able to follow along thus far; though Stark's mouth was velocious, Vision's processing yet exceeded its speed. "I was able to corrupt and discard internet connectivity software from there."

Dr. Banner shrugged. "Well, the line of sight does explain why you had to hold him down."

Vision frowned, a slight pang crackling through his head as he recalled the strain that rendered him temporarily unconscious. "He fought...very hard."

"That's it," cried Mr. Stark, with a wide and nonsensical gesture, "I'm installing everything electric in the HQ with IrDA. You'll be able to use the microwave just by looking at it."

Now this, Vision could not compute. "Why," he asked, thoroughly confused, "would I need to use the microwave?"

Mr. Stark paused and looked at him, tapping a pencil on his palm. "Science project?"

"No," Dr. Banner sighed.

Belatedly, Vision realized that perhaps he ought to have hidden his smile.

Mr. Stark waved the comment away and continued with equal bombast. "Well, just the StarkPads and laptops, then. Consider it a housewarming gift. And, uh…" Shuffling his hands into his pockets, and suddenly seeming quite meek, he added, "thanks, for...helping clean up my mess."

Ah. Vision knew what this was. Mr. Stark still harbored a certain—immense—amount of guilt for the destruction caused by Ultron, though each of the Avengers had been diligent to assure him he was not blamed nor to blame. It warmed Vision's heart—metaphorically, of course—to see them rallying around one of their own so staunchly, and even to see Stark's sensitivity to his part in the matter—though of course Vision wished no more torment on the man than he'd inflict upon himself.

So he gave what he hoped was as warm and compassionate a smile as Stark's teammates gave and lifted off of the workbench to hover above the floor. "It was my pleasure," he answered sincerely—and truly, so far as his part in stopping Ultron was concerned, it was. "Is there anything else you need?"

"Not yet." Mr. Stark seemed to be in higher spirits, as he resumed his flippant air. Stepping up to Vision, he continued, "Brucey-bear and I have got to build some receptors, and then we're gonna test what this thing can do." The blunt end of his pencil tapped the Mind Stone, and just briefly Vision could see the yellow glow.

"Please don't call me that," Dr. Banner sighed again. This time, he didn't even look up from the StarkPad in which he was inputting data.

"Come on, you like it!" Mr. Stark turned over his shoulder and gave a wheedling grin.

Dr. Banner rolled his eyes—apparently an expression of annoyance and resignation—but Vision's sharp eyes caught the minuscule upward twitch at the corners of his lips.

Vision allowed himself to smile. Complex and lively, indeed.

A/N: Ah yes, I love *checks writing on hand* Imbecile War and En—End?—Enema.

Anyway, this is my five-years-late contribution to the flood of "Vision figures out himself and the world" fics that came out when I joined this fandom in early 2015. If you're new to my work, welcome! I mostly write Captain America fanfic, but in honor of the only boy that canon screwed over worse than my boy Bucky, I've decided to try my hand at writing Vision. Many thanks to my own deviant android, Raina, for her inspiration and help beta-reading this story!

I've got a handful of chapters pre-written, so you get two today to kick this off. I'll probably be updating bi-weekly, once on the weekend and again in the middle of the week, since the chapters are so short. If you want to stay updated, you know what to do!

Reviews are microwaves. Tbc...