Learning Curve
Sep. 11th, 2012 01:37 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
heartsdesire456Title:Learning Curve
Author:heartsdesire456
Rating: Hard R (non-explicit sexual content; dark themes/past abuse)
POV: 3rd
Pairing: Science Boyfriends (Tony Stark/Bruce Banner; Avengers)
Summary: After five months of no word, Bruce Banner shows up at Stark Tower hoping to get a little time in Tony's lab to work on an experiment. However, what he finds at the tower is a lot more than an empty work bench. After weeks of living in the same building as Tony, more than science happens between them. Although, love is often described as a chemical reaction.
Disclaimer: "-Fic.tion: [noun] something feigned, invented, or imagined; a made-up story"
Author's Note: THIS is the Science Boyfriends I've WANTED to write for a good long while. However, you may notice a few loose ends left dangling! This fic is meant to have a sequel that shall hopefully be posted in the near future. However, it is entirely a story on it's own, no cliffhanger endings or anything that would make it unpleasant of a story on it's own.
It had been five months since Bruce left New York. Truth be told, he hadn’t expected to return to the city so soon. However, after a few weeks trying to work on a new theory with only his brain and limited resources, he finally accepted that it was futile to ignore the fact that he had been extended an open invitation to have access to the absolute highest technology in the world’s most expansive privately owned laboratories at Stark Tower. As he walked towards the great beacon in the sky, the tower gleaming high above the streets, he wondered if Tony would still be open to letting him play with his favorite toys for a little while.
As he entered the gilded lobby, he shook his head at the dramatic grandeur his friend liked to surround himself with. He approached a front desk, smiling awkwardly when the woman sitting behind the desk eyed his dusty clothes and ratty backpack with clear disdain. “Can I help you, sir?” she asked, and Bruce but his lip.
“Uh, maybe. I’m supposed to see Mr. Stark? My name is Banner,” he tried and the woman narrowed her eyes suspiciously before typing something in.
She looked at something on her screen and smirked. “I don’t see an appointment for a Banner for Mr. Stark at all,” she said and Bruce nodded.
“Um, yeah, I don’t really have one? I was just trying to get in touch,” he said and she leveled him with a look.
“Sir, you really can’t think a man like Mr. Stark sees anyone without an appointment-“ She was silenced as the phone rang. “Excuse me,” she said, pressing her ear piece, only to start some at whatever was said. “Sir?” she asked, frowning. “Yes, I did search the registry for the name ‘Banner’-“ She looked up at Bruce with wide eyes. “Yes, salt and pepper hair, dark eyes-“ She seemed absolutely appalled at whatever was being said before she straightened her face. “Yes, sir,” she said with an air of submission before removing her earpiece as she stood. “Come with me,” she said, and Bruce shuffled his feet awkwardly before hefting his bag to follow the woman across the lobby. They turned down a narrow hallway just behind the large fountain that took up the far wall of the lobby that seemed to be empty, door less, and windowless. At the end of the hall, Bruce saw to the left a hallway sloping downwards, quite possibly to a sub-level, and to the right, where the woman led him, an elevator.
As they approached it, the doors dinged and slid open, revealing Tony Stark himself. “Bruce!” he said, holding up his hands- smudged black nearly up to his elbows- with a surprised smile on his face. “Hey buddy, I had no idea you were coming into town!” he exclaimed, walking out of the elevator to shake Bruce’s hand, clearly disregarding the black smudges- grease, Bruce noted- transferring from his hand to Bruce’s. He completely disregarded the woman who had led Bruce there as he turned and waved Bruce after him, back towards the elevator. “Come on, let’s at least get to my domain,” he said, only seeming to notice his hands when he pressed a code into the panel on the elevator door. “Oh, damn, sorry,” he said, nodding at Bruce’s dirty hand. “I was down in the garage building a new engine for one of my babies,” he said, and Bruce chuckled.
“Always hands on, huh?” he asked and Tony smirked.
“Of course I am, like I’m trusting someone else to do what my robots can’t!” He nodded at the elevator panel. “Future reference, this is the express up past all the offices and stuff straight to the lab floor. To get in from the ground floor, you just need to tell JARVIS your name and face the camera for recognition and bio-scanning,” he said and Bruce raised an eyebrow at Tony.
“My bio-information is set to give me access to your lab floor in your private elevator?” he asked and Tony shrugged.
“Well… yeah,” he said simply, smiling when the elevator stopped and the doors opened. “I told you, Bruce, this floor is all access to people smart enough to enjoy it and you, my friend, are one of the few people I’ve ever met who can keep up with me,” he said, leading Bruce down a hall between frosted glass walls that showed silhouettes of machines in laboratories on either side of them. “So, how’ve you been?” he asked Bruce, who shrugged, giving him a shy little smile.
“Just… living, I guess.” He looked up, eyes widening as they approached a gap in the frosted glass wall where the glass was clear with a door in the center. Past it, he could see nothing but lab equipment covering what appeared to be a fourth of the floor they were on.
“Great, huh?” Tony asked and Bruce snapped out of his daze, giving Tony an apologetic look. Tony smirked and waved a hand. “Oh no, really. I’m way less interesting than these puppies,” he said, nodding at the door. “However, I figured we would head on up and let you settle in, take a breather,” he said, nodding at Bruce’s dusty, rumpled clothes and bag. “No offence, my friend, but you look dead on your feet.”
Bruce didn’t speak, choosing to just follow Tony. It was his building, after all. When they turned a corner away from the frosted glass hallway to reveal a more business-like hallway, he wasn’t at all surprised to see another elevator at the end. “Beauty of my building? Terribly complex elevator systems,” Tony said as they approached. “To get past the offices, you have to use my express elevator. To get to the offices, you have to take the public elevator. To get past the R&D floor you have another ‘less than public’ elevator. A lot of friends and a few research assistants and the odd college student that receives my grants get to come to the labs. Higher up, only people I like get to come, and that’s this puppy,” he said as they entered the carriage.
Bruce looked at the remaining buttons and was amused to see that it was, once again, only a handful of floors serviced by the elevator. “At least tell me you have a central fire escape stairwell that connects all floors,” he joked and Tony chuckled.
“Well, there’s no need, the building is designed to be fireproof with my kind of work, but yes, there is a central stairwell, all the way top to bottom. However, the doors are literally covered by sliding wall that only opens if the fire alarm sounds on one of the floors.” He shrugged and nodded at the camera above the door. “I like my privacy, for obvious reasons.” The doors opened and they excited onto what appeared to be another business-centered floor. “Pepper’s command floor,” he explained and Bruce nodded. “And, another elevator change!”
Bruce was more than amused at Tony’s damn near gleeful expression at how complicated his building was. “You enjoy annoying people,” he spoke, though he only meant to think it.
Tony chuckled. “Is that an actual question?” he prompted and Bruce gave him a smile for his trouble. “Now!” They found the next elevator just around the corner from the last. “This is the last one,” he said as they got inside. “From here on up, each floor has access codes given to specific research teams, certain people, and my master code,” he said.
Bruce examined the panel and then actually let out a bark of laughter when he saw the elevator went to every floor, top to underground. “You really are an asshole, Tony,” he said and Tony just grinned to himself.
“Hey, this is my elevator. Below this floor? JARVIS has to approve of the elevator going down with an access code and an identity scan. Did you really think I would do all that walking just to go upstairs?” he asked, and Bruce rolled his eyes.
“Then what, is this one ‘hidden’ like the stairwell below Ms. Pott’s floor?” Bruce asked and Tony shook his head.
“No, it’s just tucked into an empty hallway on every floor and JARVIS is programmed to say ‘out of order’ to anybody who stumbles across it.” Tony pointed at the floor they were heading to as the panel went from a regular elevator panel to a graphic to show the carriage rising through the floors on the buildings blueprints. “Since our little ‘saving the world’ party earlier this year, I reassigned each member of the team a floor, see?” He pointed to where they were when the carriage came to a halt and the image shifted to highlight one floor and a message appeared across the screen reading ‘Greetings, Dr. Banner’.
Bruce just blinked. “I have a floor here?” he asked and Tony nodded brightly.
“Yes! And I personally hired decorators to make each one of you guys’ floors more homey. Yours is supposedly very tranquil, probably a lot of blue,” he said, humming. “Blue is tranquil, right?” he asked, and Bruce just fidgeted.
“So… are we leaving the elevator anytime soon?” he asked, and Tony’s face lit up.
“Yes! However, you need some info- JARVIS,” Tony said.
“Yes, sir,” a cool, accented voice said. “Mr. Banner, your passcode for your floor is ‘spicy guacamole’. However, as Mr. Stark is clearly going to get a black eye for making that your code, he also installed a system in my functions in which you can change your passcode at any time without his knowledge.”
Bruce shot Tony a speculative look and Tony chuckled. “Well, green, has a bit of a kick-“ Realization dawned on Bruce and he just shook his head, sighing.
“You’re not going to make me lose control, so please don’t start with the jokes,” he said with a tired lilt to his voice.
Tony just clapped his hands together. “No way, Jose! Now, give JARVIS the passcode, go get settled, and then come on up to my living room. Your bio-scan will get you past JARVIS on my floor, just not on everybody else’s. Too many people come to see me for me to make it private, but Pepper threatened to quit if I didn’t extend a possibility of privacy to the others.”
Bruce chuckled. “This has been an interesting meeting, Stark, that’s for sure,” he said before giving his passcode and exiting onto his floor. Of Stark Tower. Shit.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Bruce was actually unsure of what to do on the floor designated to him. Immediately outside the elevator landing, the small foyer was a pale blue with tan carpet, just as tranquil as Tony had suggested it might be. There was a hallway there was a doorway to the right that was made of frosted glass, showing nothing but the darkness inside the room. Straight ahead, however, the double doors drew his attention. Bruce crossed the foyer and looked at the panel next to the double doors. “Um… JARVIS, do I need another code?” he asked, feeling stupid talking to empty air.
“No, sir. The access panel is there just in case someone comes to your floor. Even if they have permission out of the elevator, it is only socially polite to allow you the option of turning away visitors from your apartment, Mr. Banner,” JARVIS’s cool voice spoke, and Bruce chuckled, turning the handle to open the doors.
As he stepped into the apartment, he was absolutely astonished. He had been in Tony’s penthouse, but he had no idea there were other apartments nearly as nice in the building. The entry doors opened into a large, open yet cozy living room. It was made cozy in spite of the open expanse by very comfortable looking, less fashionable furniture, gray-blue walls with white trim, an electric fireplace made to look exactly like a brick fireplace against one wall, and an entire wall of bookcases with two large picture windows interrupting them. The living room looked nothing like most of the ultra-modern, ultra-sleek design of the building itself. From where the double doors opened in the corner of the room, straight ahead of him was an opening that stepped up into what looked like a kitchen. Along the wall to his right about half-way into the room, there was a hallway that was painted a soft tan color. He walked over to look down the hall and saw a door on the right and a door at the end of the hall.
As he ventured down the hallway, he opened the door to the left and discovered what appeared to be a meditation area, if the pale green walls, white carpeted floors, lack of furniture, and presence of potted plants and a small Japanese style fountain in the corner were anything to go by. Bruce chuckled in amusement and shook his head as he turned to leave that room and head to the end of the hall. When he opened the door, the lights automatically came up to reveal probably the biggest bedroom Bruce had ever seen. The walls were a deep purple, leaving the room feeling smaller than it really was. The bed to his left was a large bed with a black leather headboard that went well with the dark purple walls and the white carpeted floors. There was a black entertainment system set opposite the bed, doors on either side of the room, and floor to ceiling glass along the outside of the building, giving him a view of all of Manhattan below his bedroom windows. He checked the doors and found one was a large closet and the other a monumentally expansive bathroom. The bathroom alone was larger than the hut he had been working and living in for the past five months. The black tile floors matched the tiles of the shower easily the size of his work area back in Bangladesh.
When he went back out to the living room, he headed over into the kitchen, smiling when he saw a control panel on the outside of the refrigerator that read ‘JARVIS will order groceries for you, buddy!’ across the screen. “What the hell am I doing?” he asked himself out loud, only to jump and bang his knee on the island when he got a response.
“Dr. Banner, Mr. Stark requests you meet him at the elevator, sir,” JARVIS said without warning.
Bruce groaned, shaking is leg some as he turned. “Thank you, JARVIS,” he replied, heading to meet Tony. When he walked out of the door, he saw Tony just standing there.
“See, I figured,” Tony said, smirking. “I got up and thought ‘hmm, Bruce will go for the big doors first’ so I decided to come back to watch you when you get to the best part!”
Bruce raised an amused eyebrow. “The best part? The apartment bigger than anything I’ve been in before isn’t it?” he asked and Tony nodded at the door with the frosted glass, which Bruce had all but forgot about. Bruce gave Tony a suspicious look as he walked over. He touched the luminous panel next to the door to light up the numbers. “Code?” he asked Tony, who just smirked.
“Atomic weight of iron to five digits,” he said and Bruce gave him an incredulous look.
“Only you could have so much of an ego,” he said, turning to enter ’55.845’ into the keypad, still shaking his head when the beep and click of the door lock releasing answered his code. “I’ve always wondered,” Bruce started as he pulled the door open. “Why are you called Iron Man anyways? I looked at your suit, it’s a gold-titanium alloy, iron would be too heavy for flight with the design you use. Not sustained any-“ He stopped as the lights started coming on and he saw where they were. “How?” he finished, though his meaning was clearly changed. He looked at Tony and then looked at the rather expansive laboratory. It was a clinical white, very clean and professional. High end equipment, some of which Bruce had actually never seen before, littered every surface apart from the odd work-table here and there.
“Candy Land junior, the real Candy Land is above the penthouse” Tony said with a shrug, and Bruce turned to give him a confused look. Tony rolled his eyes at the distrust etched onto the man’s face. “It isn’t a trick Bruce, it’s just a lab-“
“Stark, you don’t even know me-“ he started only to be interrupted.
“Does everybody miss the ‘billionaire’ and ‘philanthropist’ parts of my favorite tagline?!” Tony grumbled, walking a few feet to pull around a holo-screen, opening up some files. “Come here, I will show you how much I spend on engineering and physics scholarships around the country and let you compare that to what all is in this lab,” he said, shoving the screen around to face Bruce. “I know I’m self-centered, but I’m not greedy. I have billions of dollars. I have more money than some entire nations, Dr. Banner, and as much as I love myself, I like other smart people.” He let Bruce look at the figures before swiping it clear.
“Tony, I get it, but you had no idea I would even come back here. Why didn’t you just give this equipment to a college or something?” he asked, and Stark smirked.
“Of course I knew you would be back. I tempted you with the lure of state of the art equipment and you have a doctorate in science. Eventually, something would give,” he said, leaning against the table behind him.
Bruce just chuckled weakly, walking around the lab, looking a little lost. “I barely know what some of this stuff is-“
“Probably because most of it was invented when I was designing the plans for Stark Tower,” Tony pointed out. “You’re smart though, you’ll figure it all out,” he said, sticking his hands in his pockets.
“I have a state of the art lab. In my apartment. Which combine to take up an entire floor of a skyscraper in a city I avoid like the plague,” Bruce said, shaking his head. “And to think I came looking for a few hours with clean beakers, a moderately powered microscope, and a spectrometer.”
Tony scoffed. “Your aims are so low. Raise the bar, buddy!” he said, then nodded. “I’ve got things to do, but come by the penthouse later, okay? We can catch up. Pepper might even come around to really meet you. Last time she didn’t really get to know you that well.”
Bruce nodded. “Sure,” he said, then turned when he heard the door open. “Hey Stark?” he called, and Tony stopped. Bruce gave him a small smile. “Thanks. For this… it’s all really just… too much.”
Tony just winked. “I like smart people, don’t worry about it.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
That evening, Bruce smiled when he came out of the elevator and was greeted by Pepper Potts coming towards him. “Dr. Banner, it’s great to see you came to visit,” she said and he was surprised to be met with a handshake and a smile, not uneasiness. Although, he did have to take into account that she’d put up with Tony Stark for years. “Just between you and me, I think Tony was really glad you came back,” she said in a lower voice, shooting a look out the balcony, where Tony was speaking animatedly to a robot while fixing a holo-panel. “He apparently didn’t really think he’d have to put up with anybody using their space in the tower, but when Director Fury basically made Steve start using his floor more often since it was safer for him to train there, Tony’s started moaning on about how the only one to use their floor so far is the least fun.”
Bruce raised an eyebrow. “I doubt I’m anybody’s idea of fun. I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t really need access to the equipment. I just hope nobody knows I’m here and tries to provoke a response, because last time that happened in Manhattan… well-“
Pepper put a hand on his arm with a sympathetic smile. “Don’t worry, Tony breaks New York a lot, your ‘friend’ caused less damage than Tony ever will.” Bruce was amazed at how lightly the woman seemed to be taking his presence.
“For the record,” Tony’s voice called out and Bruce looked up to see him coming inside. “I didn’t ‘break New York’, I just dented a few blocks of Manhattan,” he said, shrugging. “And I donated a decent sum to the NYPD for the whole ‘cop car frisbee’ thing.” Bruce gave him and Pepper alternating confused looks and Tony made a face. “Long story, not worth it, trust me,” he said with a flip of his hand. “Anyways, Ms. Potts, would you be so kind as to go order food for me? I forgot completely-“
“Tony! You told me you ordered takeout twenty minutes ago, I was expecting the delivery any time now-“
“I can’t help I forget time!” Tony argued, ignoring Pepper as he headed over to the bar. “I’m a genius, I fit more information into my brain than the average person, some things have to be sacrificed in turn,” he said, looking up as he put ice in his cup. “I just chose for those things to be time and tact,” he said, smirking about two seconds before Pepper growled in frustration and turned away.
“Excuse me, Dr. Banner,” she said with a put-upon look on her face. “I’ll be back soon,” she said before leaving the room.
Bruce chuckled, hands in his pockets awkwardly as he looked form where she had gone to Tony, who was pouring himself a drink. “So… Ms. Potts is kind of…”
“Overbearing?” Tony offered and Bruce chuckled.
“I was going to go with ‘strangely calm’,” Bruce countered, walking over to look out the window. “Not that often I show up in a place where people know what I am and don’t show any fear.”
Tony hummed. “No offense, Bruce, but you aren’t exactly the most intimidating guy,” he said, turning to grab a second glass. “What’s your poison? I’ve got the best scotch from this little distillery-“
“No thanks,” Bruce said, wringing his hands somewhat as he glanced at the glass in Tony’s hand. He gave him an awkward smile and shrugged some. “Not really a good idea to lower my guard.”
Tony looked appalled. “No alcohol? Bummer,” he said and Bruce could only raise an eyebrow at the absurdity of Tony’s use of ‘bummer’. “And as for Pepper’s indifference, she’s worked for me for years,” he stressed, tilting his head pointedly. “Even before Afghanistan, I pretty much put her through about as much as anybody could handle. Add her boss being presumed dead, said boss building an Iron Man suit and becoming a super hero, multiple instances of someone trying to kill her because of me, and that isn’t even counting all of my lab accidents just since Stark Tower’s been up and running,” he said, whistling. “If she can deal with all of that, I’m pretty sure she isn’t going to be afraid of the most polite nerd ever,” he concluded, giving Bruce a pointed look.
Bruce raised an eyebrow. “That ‘polite nerd’ has a temper you don’t want to mess with, though,” he added and Tony shrugged as if it was nothing. Bruce shook his head and laughed at the absurdity of the situation. “I swear, you and your girlfriend both defy logic. I almost made Natasha cry, she was so scared the first night we met, and I’m pretty sure nobody who ever heard the name Natasha Romanov isn’t terrified of her.”
Tony pulled a dramatic face, eyes wide. “Oh my God, did you ever hear the whole story? She was under cover for a long time as an employee for me and I never suspected anything. I’m terrified of that woman, I think she can kill people without moving,” he said, and Bruce laughed.
“Seriously. I mean, I know nothing can hurt me and I was still absolutely intimidated when we met.” He shot Tony a look. “And my point still stands, if the scariest assassin in the world is afraid of me, why aren’t you? And especially, why isn’t your girlfriend?”
Tony hummed. “Well first off, it isn’t ‘girlfriend’, hasn’t been for a while. And second,” he pointed at Bruce as he walked around to the sofa. “I wasn’t afraid of you before I saw what became of you because you have the control of Gandhi. And after I saw your friend come out to play, he kind of saved my life, and I like that trait in a person-“
“He isn’t a person,” Bruce snapped, cringing at his tone. He swallowed and sighed, looking down at the floor. “He’s… a monster. All the Other Guy is good for is destruction and collateral damage. He doesn’t care who he kills-“
“Clearly you have never seen the footage of our alien battle, Bruce,” Tony argued. “The Other Guy protected his teammates-“
“After he tried to kill all of you on the helicarrier,” Bruce reminded him and Tony shrugged.
“He was afraid. I’d be terrified too in that situation. He can’t help that when he trips and falls he breaks other people and things, not himself,” Tony said simply. “If I woke up in the bowels of a helicarrier the way the Other Guy did when he ‘tried to kill us all’, I would be disoriented and swing at whatever came at me too.”
Bruce sighed, sitting on the couch across from Tony. “Only you don’t kill people when you black out and start swinging,” he said, shuddering.
Tony smiled sadly. “The Other Guy can’t help how big he gets.”
Bruce raised an eyebrow in amusement. “‘Can’t help how big he gets’? That’s your take on that one?”
“Bruce,” Tony started. “I’ve spoken to Hulk. He is basically like a big puppy: he doesn’t mean to break shit, he just isn’t aware of his own strength. And when he goes all ‘blind rage’, it’s because he’s like a caged animal. He’s terrified and just trying to survive. When he focuses, when he lets part of Banner come through, he saves people’s lives.”
Bruce just shook his head. “He kills people, Stark. Moments of clarity aside, he’s exactly like a caged animal- completely volatile and destructive. Only he can’t be stopped, a lion can,” he stressed.
Tony shrugged, sipping his drink. “Agree to disagree, my friend. All we can do. Because your thoughts aside, previous issues I couldn’t possibly know about-“
Bruce sighed. “Do you think I’ll believe you’ve never read my files-“
Tony continued. “I know what I’ve seen myself, and the only reason I’m here to have seen the footage is because of the Hulk, Bruce.” He looked him in the eyes and shook his head. “Everything aside, from my point of view, the Other Guy saved me from being mopped out of the inside of a Iron Man shaped soup can and I just can’t see him as nothing but ‘destructive’. I accept that I’ve never lived your life or been through what he’s put you through, but from my side of things, he’s just as much of a hero as any of us.”
Bruce just sighed, and leaned back, rubbing a hand over his face. He cast around for anything to say before settling on something Tony had said a few minutes back. He frowned. “Oh hey, ‘not girlfriend’?” he asked and Tony made a face.
“Yeah, not really,” he said and Bruce raised an eyebrow, looking at the elevator. Tony chuckled. “I know, what’s she still doing around? Everybody asked that one when we split up.”
Bruce gave him a sheepish look. “Not for nothing, but you don’t really strike people as the kind to have anything but a messy and public breakup. I’ve been out of touch for a while, so maybe it was, but she’s still around,” he hinted and Tony laughed softly.
“It wasn’t really. Pep’s great even when she’s dumping me,” he joked, then waved a hand. “Actually wasn’t like that. Pretty much it wasn’t so bad-“
They were interrupted as the elevator opened and Pepper walked out, carrying bags of takeout. “Sorry guys, that was a nightmare,” she said, smiling as she kicked off her shoes and stepped down to the level of the sofa. “Dr. Banner! Good to see Tony hasn’t broken you while I was gone,” she joked and Bruce couldn’t help but laugh.
“Takes a lot more than his ego to break me, Ms. Potts,” he said and she returned his laugh.
Tony gave a mockingly offended huff. “Pepper, I don’t always break things-“
“Give me a week of your life you didn’t cause a fire or blow something up or smash something?” she challenged and Tony frowned, thinking.
His eyes lit up and he sat up straighter. “Hawaii! We spent two weeks in Hawaii, remember? I didn’t break anything-“
She glared. “I was in Hawaii. You used the suit to fly back to Malibu every night after I fell asleep so you could work on your cars,” she said and Tony hummed.
“Yeah, I got nothing,” he said and Pepper smiled playfully. “Pepper, dear, I was just explaining the ‘not my girlfriend’ thing to Bruce. Shockingly, he was only surprised you didn’t kill me or something,” he said flatly and Pepper laughed.
“Well, I might have if we’d stayed together,” she offered, kneeling down to unpack the takeout packages from the bags she sat on the coffee table. “It’s pretty simple, I love Tony with all my heart, but… just not that way,” she said, shrugging innocently. “It was just too weird.”
Tony chuckled. “Pretty sure I’m not ‘relationship’ material,” he explained. “Plus, add in that Pepper is the CEO of my company and the only person I have in my life anymore, and it just got… really strange.”
Pepper smirked. “Plus I travel with Happy a lot-“
“Oh God, not this again,” Tony groaned, falling over to hide his face in the couch cushions. “Bruce, she decided the new ‘best friend’ role in my life means it’s okay to talk about her dates. It’s horrible. Seriously, you don’t understand how grateful I am you are the one who came back,” he said, and Bruce actually cracked a genuine smile.
“Well, I can promise I won’t tell you about any dates?” he offered and Tony chuckled.
“God I hope not.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Bruce was left blessedly alone for the first week he was at Stark Tower. It wasn’t until his fourth day going out after that first week of settling in that Tony, leaving Pepper’s office, caught up with him on the way back to the elevator. “Hey Bruce, where do you keep going to? I could lend you a car so you can stop walking so much,” he offered and Bruce shot him a look.
“Thanks, but I like walking,” he said.
Tony pressed the button for his floor and Bruce rolled his eyes. “But where’ve you been going so much? Thought you had pressing work?” he questioned and Bruce chuckled at his persistence, fidgeting some under Tony’s scrutiny.
“Job hunting,” he said and Tony gave him a look like he’d said ‘murdering puppies’ instead.
“Oh my God, Why?” Tony asked dramatically.
Bruce raised an eyebrow. “Not sure if you noticed, but even if you’re housing and feeding me, I do have other things that require money. Not much, but I should buy some clothes, probably need to get new glasses since I’m going to be doing precision work and the ones I have are scratched, stuff like that.”
Tony just frowned. “Wait, Pepper didn’t give you a credit card?” he asked, and Bruce gave him in incredulous look.
“Tony, you can’t be serious. She probably knew better than to try and get me to take it-“
Tony sighed dramatically, almost as if explaining something to a child for the thousandth time. “Billionaire,” he stressed. “Seriously, if it makes you feel better, consider it funding scientific research, okay?”
Bruce chuckled uneasily. “I don’t know, Tony-“
Tony grabbed his shoulders and turned them to face each other. “Dr. Banner, you are a genius who is working and living in my building. The least I can do is fund the research of a certified science geek, okay? Especially one who isn’t evil,” he said before releasing Bruce to turn back to face the doors. “Besides,” he added with a smirk. “You laugh at my jokes without being paid for it.”
Bruce just ducked his head to hide his grin.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When Bruce found his closet full of clothes a few days later, he couldn’t help but be amused. He walked out to the elevator and climbed on. “JARVIS, can I go up to see Tony?” he asked.
“Actually, Dr. Banner, Mr. Stark is in his personal laboratories at the top of the building, to which he has not authorized me to grant you access,” JARVIS supplied and Bruce sighed.
“Then can you get him on the intercom for me and let him know I want to speak with him? I would call, but I don’t have a phone,” he explained.
“Right away, sir. Would you like to go to Mr. Stark’s apartment to wait for him there, sir?”
Bruce chuckled. “May as well,” he said, running a hand over his face at the still-ridiculous notion of speaking to an AI after so many years living in huts in small villages.
He waited in Tony’s living room for only about five minutes before the elevator doors opened and Tony came walking out wearing a somewhat singed tee-shirt. “Bruce! Why didn’t you just come up to the lab to talk?” he asked as he walked over.
Bruce raised an eyebrow. “JARVIS isn’t authorized to let me up to your lab.”
Tony frowned. “JARVIS, why isn’t Dr. Banner authorized to come hang out and play with my toys?” he asked as he walked over to the bar to pour himself a drink.
“Mr. Stark, you haven’t authorized me-“
“Then I authorize it now,” Tony said simply, holding up the bottle towards Bruce, who shook his head.
“No thanks,” he said as he walked closer. “So, your lab? You don’t work downstairs?”
Tony scoffed. “Are you kidding me? C’mon, I have multiple floors up there. Remember that time I mentioned Candy Land?” he asked, winking as he walked over, sipping his drink. “C’mon up, I have a particle accelerator that will blow your mind,” he said, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively.
Bruce ducked his head, hiding the amused look as he fidgeted with his sleeves. “Well, I don’t want to disturb you. I was actually just coming to say thank you for the clothes-“
“Mr. Stark, I’ve already informed Ms. Potts that Dr. Banner doesn’t have a mobile phone, so one will be in his apartment when he returns,” JARVIS interrupted before Bruce could continue.
Tony hummed. “Explains why you didn’t call me,” he said, then slung his arm around Bruce’s shoulders, leading him towards the elevator. “Come on up and be jealous. You think your lab is nice, wait until you see my electron microscope, you will lose your shit, man,” he said as he guided him, gesturing with his free hand.
When Bruce finally allowed Tony to drag him up to his labs, Bruce couldn’t help but stare. He thought his lab was nice, but the top ten floors of Stark Tower were packed with every piece of equipment he could imagine and some he couldn’t. As he walked past the control panel for Tony’s aforementioned particle accelerator, he could only chuckle weakly. “Damn.”
Tony beamed. “I know right?!”
Bruce grinned, plucking his glasses out of his shirt pocket and put them on, leaning over to read the limits posted next to the particle accelerator. “You’re an engineer, what on earth do you need this for anyways?” he asked and Tony shrugged.
“If found myself in need of a particle accelerator a while back,” he said, tapping his chest where Bruce could see the faint glow of the Arc Reactor through the fabric of his shirt. “Figured why not build a real one here in case I need to synthesize another element.” He smirked. “Although, for the time being, I seem to have my very own in-house nuclear physicist to help me out if I need one,” he said and Bruce chuckled uneasily.
“You overestimate my capabilities,” he said, taking his glasses off before allowing Tony to guide him further on the tour. “I haven’t worked in a physics lab in a long time.”
Tony shrugged. “You’re still considered a leading expert in nuclear research. You wouldn’t believe how much of your work with the military went into Stark tech when we were still dealing weapons.” He nodded to him. “Even years out of the game, the game hasn’t caught up with you.”
Bruce hummed. “Great, even more people I’ve killed,” he muttered under his breath as he turned and wandered away.
Tony cringed when he heard the doctor’s statement. He could relate with that sentiment. “Hey, tell you what!” He caught up with Bruce and clapped a hand on his shoulder. “Let’s head downstairs, order a pizza, and I can tell you all about the work in clean energy. I promise, the details are extremely fascinating,” he said, then smiled at him. “Besides, you might actually understand what I’m saying. Nobody else ever has.”
Bruce chuckled. “Alright, I’ll take you up on that. It would be nice to catch up with where you’ve advanced to since I’ve been off-radar. I’ve read some things since I got here, but it would be nice to get a better understanding of scientific advances in the past few months.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Bruce had been working for three weeks in his lab before Tony interrupted him while he was working. JARVIS interrupted him, rather, to ask him, “Dr. Banner, Mr. Stark is outside of the lab. Shall I allow him inside?”
Bruce pushed his safety goggles up on his head and looked at the frosted glass doors. “Sure, let him in.”
Tony entered the lab with a smile. “Hey Big Guy, what’s cookin’?” he asked, eyes on the beakers in front of Bruce.
Bruce rolled his eyes at the nickname Tony had taken to using more often in the month he had been at Stark Towers. “I’m just testing a few combinations stability, it’s nothing terribly important. What can I help you with?” he asked and Tony shrugged, hands in his pockets.
“I was going to see if you were coming up tonight. It’s later than you usually come up,” he said and Bruce glanced down, shoving his lab coat up to check his watch. Tony and Bruce had fallen into a habit for the last few weeks of having dinner in Tony’s apartment most every night, spending time bouncing ideas and theories off of each other. Bruce could tell Tony was more than ecstatic to have someone who could really grasp the concepts of his ideas to talk to. Some nights Pepper joined them, some nights Steve even came up to join them, but most of the time, it was just the two of them, some food, some shop talk, and maybe some trash TV if they needed to let their brains rest for a little while.
Bruce took the goggles off his head and put them on the table. “Um, I may be late,” he said sheepishly, picking up the pen beside his notepad to make some notes. “I’m getting somewhere finally, not sure I can stop now without losing this momentum, you know?”
Tony nodded and chuckled. “Oh yeah, I know that feeling. Pepper used to yell at me when she would come in for work in the morning and find me still up working on something.” He walked around Bruce and looked at the labels of the test tubes next to Bruce’s beaker setup. “What is all this?” he asked, and Bruce glanced up over the rim of his glasses from taking a note.
“Sorry, my handwriting is pretty bad I guess,” he said but Tony shook his head.
“Not the problem, Brucey,” he said, shooting him an amused look. “You forget, I build things. I make things with my hands. I only know enough about chemistry to know what makes certain alloys and compounds. I’m sure I could learn what these words and symbols mean quite easily, but I’ve never had a reason to do the required reading,” he said, and Bruce couldn’t help a small smirk at the idea of outsmarting the ‘great’ Tony Stark. Tony rolled his eyes. “I saw that.”
Bruce laughed a genuine laugh. “Okay let me gloat!” He took a tube from the rack Tony was holding without bothering to make him set it down. “Not many people can say they know something a science prodigy knows.”
Tony set the rack down and turned to face Bruce, a curious glimmer in his eyes. “It’s funny you say that,” he said, pulling up the lab stool behind him to sit on it, watching as Bruce catalogued results from the tubes-Tony didn’t know what they were still- with a patient gaze.
Bruce sighed and shot Tony a playfully annoyed look. “Alright, I’ll bite, why is it funny I say that?”
Tony grabbed the holoscreen and pulled it around. “You see, you can’t be shocked to know I have looked at everybody’s files and from your college data combined with the psychological observations I’ve had JARVIS catalogue, you, my friend, should’ve been a science prodigy just like me.” He propped his chin in his hand pointedly. “Care to explain why that isn’t information everybody knows?”
Bruce got quiet. Tony was surprised when Bruce put down his test tube and pen and pulled off his gloves, fidgeting with his glasses before looking up. “If you have seen files and ran non-consensual psych evaluations on me, you know already,” he said, voice somewhat strained.
Tony frowned some at Bruce’s reaction. He started to wring his hands and shuffle from foot to foot before turning to walk away, carrying his clipboard and note pad over to place on the other table. “Actually, I feel ashamed to admit this, but your files… they were sealed to me.” He sat up and followed Bruce with his eyes as he fussed with things, clearly avoiding Tony’s gaze. “I couldn’t hack into anything pre-college and pre-army.” He tilted his head. “Going by the information JARVIS has collected in regards to your logic, innovation, and decision making skills, computations estimates that your IQ is between 170 and 185.” Tony shook his head with an incredulous yet captivated expression. “Bruce, I’m a certified genius, I was a child prodigy, there are arguments I am smarter than my dad was even, and yet my IQ was tested to be about 160.”
Bruce forced a weak laugh. “Then why don’t you have a PhD, huh? Slacking, Stark,” he tried, but Tony just frowned at his attempts at humor.
Tony stood up and walked over to Bruce, who was more staring at a clipboard than doing anything. He leaned against the table and looked at Bruce’s face, frowning at the look he couldn’t decipher that was painted on his friend’s face. “If I’m a genius, you’re a super genius… why is it I graduated from MIT at seventeen and yet you, apparently, didn’t even go to college until you showed up on army payroll?”
Bruce shook his head. “Don’t, Tony,” he said softly and Tony’s eyes widened.
“You mean to tell me you went through normal school?! At your intellectual level? God, wasn’t it agonizing-“
“There is a reason my records are sealed so tight you can’t even hack into them, Tony,” Bruce snapped, turning an angry expression on Tony. He took a deep breath and backed away. “Sorry, I’m sorry, that was dramatic of me-“
“Bruce… are you okay?” Tony asked, and Bruce looked up, nodding.
“Yes, I’m fine, see? No green,” he said, looking slightly forlorn as he added that note for Tony’s benefit.
Tony rolled his eyes. “Bruce, I trust you better than that-“
“Well, you shouldn’t,” Bruce said firmly. He walked past Tony, shucking his lab coat. “Fuck it, let’s go eat, okay? Just… I need to get out of the lab. Pretty sure I have things that will explode if I get too out of control and someone else decides to pay a visit.”
Tony shook his head. “You’re in control,” he said confidently. “JARVIS monitors you.”
Bruce groaned. “Of course he does, why am I not shocked?” he sighed and Tony had the decency to look apologetic. “Do you want me to come upstairs or not?” Bruce asked, giving Tony a tired look, the lines on his face intensified by his mood. “I won’t blame you if you don’t want to really be around me right now-“
“Bullshit,” Tony said, walking over to Bruce, who raised an eyebrow. “Bruce, don’t make me start poking you with sticks again,” he said with a deathly serious expression.
It was enough to startle a laugh out of Bruce, who was not expecting that. “You have a death wish, Stark,” he said, shaking his head, unable to stop smiling. “Alright, but if I lose control and you die, it’s on your head,” he said and Tony cut him a smile.
“Deal!” He clapped and gestured to the door with a flourish. “Now, the toughest question of the night: Chinese or Indian? I’m feeling noodles, but I know how you like curry,” he started, and Bruce couldn’t help the smile on his face as he followed his friend out of the lab, more amused and confused than ever about Tony Stark.
Part 2
Author:
heartsdesire456Rating: Hard R (non-explicit sexual content; dark themes/past abuse)
POV: 3rd
Pairing: Science Boyfriends (Tony Stark/Bruce Banner; Avengers)
Summary: After five months of no word, Bruce Banner shows up at Stark Tower hoping to get a little time in Tony's lab to work on an experiment. However, what he finds at the tower is a lot more than an empty work bench. After weeks of living in the same building as Tony, more than science happens between them. Although, love is often described as a chemical reaction.
Disclaimer: "-Fic.tion: [noun] something feigned, invented, or imagined; a made-up story"
Author's Note: THIS is the Science Boyfriends I've WANTED to write for a good long while. However, you may notice a few loose ends left dangling! This fic is meant to have a sequel that shall hopefully be posted in the near future. However, it is entirely a story on it's own, no cliffhanger endings or anything that would make it unpleasant of a story on it's own.
It had been five months since Bruce left New York. Truth be told, he hadn’t expected to return to the city so soon. However, after a few weeks trying to work on a new theory with only his brain and limited resources, he finally accepted that it was futile to ignore the fact that he had been extended an open invitation to have access to the absolute highest technology in the world’s most expansive privately owned laboratories at Stark Tower. As he walked towards the great beacon in the sky, the tower gleaming high above the streets, he wondered if Tony would still be open to letting him play with his favorite toys for a little while.
As he entered the gilded lobby, he shook his head at the dramatic grandeur his friend liked to surround himself with. He approached a front desk, smiling awkwardly when the woman sitting behind the desk eyed his dusty clothes and ratty backpack with clear disdain. “Can I help you, sir?” she asked, and Bruce but his lip.
“Uh, maybe. I’m supposed to see Mr. Stark? My name is Banner,” he tried and the woman narrowed her eyes suspiciously before typing something in.
She looked at something on her screen and smirked. “I don’t see an appointment for a Banner for Mr. Stark at all,” she said and Bruce nodded.
“Um, yeah, I don’t really have one? I was just trying to get in touch,” he said and she leveled him with a look.
“Sir, you really can’t think a man like Mr. Stark sees anyone without an appointment-“ She was silenced as the phone rang. “Excuse me,” she said, pressing her ear piece, only to start some at whatever was said. “Sir?” she asked, frowning. “Yes, I did search the registry for the name ‘Banner’-“ She looked up at Bruce with wide eyes. “Yes, salt and pepper hair, dark eyes-“ She seemed absolutely appalled at whatever was being said before she straightened her face. “Yes, sir,” she said with an air of submission before removing her earpiece as she stood. “Come with me,” she said, and Bruce shuffled his feet awkwardly before hefting his bag to follow the woman across the lobby. They turned down a narrow hallway just behind the large fountain that took up the far wall of the lobby that seemed to be empty, door less, and windowless. At the end of the hall, Bruce saw to the left a hallway sloping downwards, quite possibly to a sub-level, and to the right, where the woman led him, an elevator.
As they approached it, the doors dinged and slid open, revealing Tony Stark himself. “Bruce!” he said, holding up his hands- smudged black nearly up to his elbows- with a surprised smile on his face. “Hey buddy, I had no idea you were coming into town!” he exclaimed, walking out of the elevator to shake Bruce’s hand, clearly disregarding the black smudges- grease, Bruce noted- transferring from his hand to Bruce’s. He completely disregarded the woman who had led Bruce there as he turned and waved Bruce after him, back towards the elevator. “Come on, let’s at least get to my domain,” he said, only seeming to notice his hands when he pressed a code into the panel on the elevator door. “Oh, damn, sorry,” he said, nodding at Bruce’s dirty hand. “I was down in the garage building a new engine for one of my babies,” he said, and Bruce chuckled.
“Always hands on, huh?” he asked and Tony smirked.
“Of course I am, like I’m trusting someone else to do what my robots can’t!” He nodded at the elevator panel. “Future reference, this is the express up past all the offices and stuff straight to the lab floor. To get in from the ground floor, you just need to tell JARVIS your name and face the camera for recognition and bio-scanning,” he said and Bruce raised an eyebrow at Tony.
“My bio-information is set to give me access to your lab floor in your private elevator?” he asked and Tony shrugged.
“Well… yeah,” he said simply, smiling when the elevator stopped and the doors opened. “I told you, Bruce, this floor is all access to people smart enough to enjoy it and you, my friend, are one of the few people I’ve ever met who can keep up with me,” he said, leading Bruce down a hall between frosted glass walls that showed silhouettes of machines in laboratories on either side of them. “So, how’ve you been?” he asked Bruce, who shrugged, giving him a shy little smile.
“Just… living, I guess.” He looked up, eyes widening as they approached a gap in the frosted glass wall where the glass was clear with a door in the center. Past it, he could see nothing but lab equipment covering what appeared to be a fourth of the floor they were on.
“Great, huh?” Tony asked and Bruce snapped out of his daze, giving Tony an apologetic look. Tony smirked and waved a hand. “Oh no, really. I’m way less interesting than these puppies,” he said, nodding at the door. “However, I figured we would head on up and let you settle in, take a breather,” he said, nodding at Bruce’s dusty, rumpled clothes and bag. “No offence, my friend, but you look dead on your feet.”
Bruce didn’t speak, choosing to just follow Tony. It was his building, after all. When they turned a corner away from the frosted glass hallway to reveal a more business-like hallway, he wasn’t at all surprised to see another elevator at the end. “Beauty of my building? Terribly complex elevator systems,” Tony said as they approached. “To get past the offices, you have to use my express elevator. To get to the offices, you have to take the public elevator. To get past the R&D floor you have another ‘less than public’ elevator. A lot of friends and a few research assistants and the odd college student that receives my grants get to come to the labs. Higher up, only people I like get to come, and that’s this puppy,” he said as they entered the carriage.
Bruce looked at the remaining buttons and was amused to see that it was, once again, only a handful of floors serviced by the elevator. “At least tell me you have a central fire escape stairwell that connects all floors,” he joked and Tony chuckled.
“Well, there’s no need, the building is designed to be fireproof with my kind of work, but yes, there is a central stairwell, all the way top to bottom. However, the doors are literally covered by sliding wall that only opens if the fire alarm sounds on one of the floors.” He shrugged and nodded at the camera above the door. “I like my privacy, for obvious reasons.” The doors opened and they excited onto what appeared to be another business-centered floor. “Pepper’s command floor,” he explained and Bruce nodded. “And, another elevator change!”
Bruce was more than amused at Tony’s damn near gleeful expression at how complicated his building was. “You enjoy annoying people,” he spoke, though he only meant to think it.
Tony chuckled. “Is that an actual question?” he prompted and Bruce gave him a smile for his trouble. “Now!” They found the next elevator just around the corner from the last. “This is the last one,” he said as they got inside. “From here on up, each floor has access codes given to specific research teams, certain people, and my master code,” he said.
Bruce examined the panel and then actually let out a bark of laughter when he saw the elevator went to every floor, top to underground. “You really are an asshole, Tony,” he said and Tony just grinned to himself.
“Hey, this is my elevator. Below this floor? JARVIS has to approve of the elevator going down with an access code and an identity scan. Did you really think I would do all that walking just to go upstairs?” he asked, and Bruce rolled his eyes.
“Then what, is this one ‘hidden’ like the stairwell below Ms. Pott’s floor?” Bruce asked and Tony shook his head.
“No, it’s just tucked into an empty hallway on every floor and JARVIS is programmed to say ‘out of order’ to anybody who stumbles across it.” Tony pointed at the floor they were heading to as the panel went from a regular elevator panel to a graphic to show the carriage rising through the floors on the buildings blueprints. “Since our little ‘saving the world’ party earlier this year, I reassigned each member of the team a floor, see?” He pointed to where they were when the carriage came to a halt and the image shifted to highlight one floor and a message appeared across the screen reading ‘Greetings, Dr. Banner’.
Bruce just blinked. “I have a floor here?” he asked and Tony nodded brightly.
“Yes! And I personally hired decorators to make each one of you guys’ floors more homey. Yours is supposedly very tranquil, probably a lot of blue,” he said, humming. “Blue is tranquil, right?” he asked, and Bruce just fidgeted.
“So… are we leaving the elevator anytime soon?” he asked, and Tony’s face lit up.
“Yes! However, you need some info- JARVIS,” Tony said.
“Yes, sir,” a cool, accented voice said. “Mr. Banner, your passcode for your floor is ‘spicy guacamole’. However, as Mr. Stark is clearly going to get a black eye for making that your code, he also installed a system in my functions in which you can change your passcode at any time without his knowledge.”
Bruce shot Tony a speculative look and Tony chuckled. “Well, green, has a bit of a kick-“ Realization dawned on Bruce and he just shook his head, sighing.
“You’re not going to make me lose control, so please don’t start with the jokes,” he said with a tired lilt to his voice.
Tony just clapped his hands together. “No way, Jose! Now, give JARVIS the passcode, go get settled, and then come on up to my living room. Your bio-scan will get you past JARVIS on my floor, just not on everybody else’s. Too many people come to see me for me to make it private, but Pepper threatened to quit if I didn’t extend a possibility of privacy to the others.”
Bruce chuckled. “This has been an interesting meeting, Stark, that’s for sure,” he said before giving his passcode and exiting onto his floor. Of Stark Tower. Shit.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Bruce was actually unsure of what to do on the floor designated to him. Immediately outside the elevator landing, the small foyer was a pale blue with tan carpet, just as tranquil as Tony had suggested it might be. There was a hallway there was a doorway to the right that was made of frosted glass, showing nothing but the darkness inside the room. Straight ahead, however, the double doors drew his attention. Bruce crossed the foyer and looked at the panel next to the double doors. “Um… JARVIS, do I need another code?” he asked, feeling stupid talking to empty air.
“No, sir. The access panel is there just in case someone comes to your floor. Even if they have permission out of the elevator, it is only socially polite to allow you the option of turning away visitors from your apartment, Mr. Banner,” JARVIS’s cool voice spoke, and Bruce chuckled, turning the handle to open the doors.
As he stepped into the apartment, he was absolutely astonished. He had been in Tony’s penthouse, but he had no idea there were other apartments nearly as nice in the building. The entry doors opened into a large, open yet cozy living room. It was made cozy in spite of the open expanse by very comfortable looking, less fashionable furniture, gray-blue walls with white trim, an electric fireplace made to look exactly like a brick fireplace against one wall, and an entire wall of bookcases with two large picture windows interrupting them. The living room looked nothing like most of the ultra-modern, ultra-sleek design of the building itself. From where the double doors opened in the corner of the room, straight ahead of him was an opening that stepped up into what looked like a kitchen. Along the wall to his right about half-way into the room, there was a hallway that was painted a soft tan color. He walked over to look down the hall and saw a door on the right and a door at the end of the hall.
As he ventured down the hallway, he opened the door to the left and discovered what appeared to be a meditation area, if the pale green walls, white carpeted floors, lack of furniture, and presence of potted plants and a small Japanese style fountain in the corner were anything to go by. Bruce chuckled in amusement and shook his head as he turned to leave that room and head to the end of the hall. When he opened the door, the lights automatically came up to reveal probably the biggest bedroom Bruce had ever seen. The walls were a deep purple, leaving the room feeling smaller than it really was. The bed to his left was a large bed with a black leather headboard that went well with the dark purple walls and the white carpeted floors. There was a black entertainment system set opposite the bed, doors on either side of the room, and floor to ceiling glass along the outside of the building, giving him a view of all of Manhattan below his bedroom windows. He checked the doors and found one was a large closet and the other a monumentally expansive bathroom. The bathroom alone was larger than the hut he had been working and living in for the past five months. The black tile floors matched the tiles of the shower easily the size of his work area back in Bangladesh.
When he went back out to the living room, he headed over into the kitchen, smiling when he saw a control panel on the outside of the refrigerator that read ‘JARVIS will order groceries for you, buddy!’ across the screen. “What the hell am I doing?” he asked himself out loud, only to jump and bang his knee on the island when he got a response.
“Dr. Banner, Mr. Stark requests you meet him at the elevator, sir,” JARVIS said without warning.
Bruce groaned, shaking is leg some as he turned. “Thank you, JARVIS,” he replied, heading to meet Tony. When he walked out of the door, he saw Tony just standing there.
“See, I figured,” Tony said, smirking. “I got up and thought ‘hmm, Bruce will go for the big doors first’ so I decided to come back to watch you when you get to the best part!”
Bruce raised an amused eyebrow. “The best part? The apartment bigger than anything I’ve been in before isn’t it?” he asked and Tony nodded at the door with the frosted glass, which Bruce had all but forgot about. Bruce gave Tony a suspicious look as he walked over. He touched the luminous panel next to the door to light up the numbers. “Code?” he asked Tony, who just smirked.
“Atomic weight of iron to five digits,” he said and Bruce gave him an incredulous look.
“Only you could have so much of an ego,” he said, turning to enter ’55.845’ into the keypad, still shaking his head when the beep and click of the door lock releasing answered his code. “I’ve always wondered,” Bruce started as he pulled the door open. “Why are you called Iron Man anyways? I looked at your suit, it’s a gold-titanium alloy, iron would be too heavy for flight with the design you use. Not sustained any-“ He stopped as the lights started coming on and he saw where they were. “How?” he finished, though his meaning was clearly changed. He looked at Tony and then looked at the rather expansive laboratory. It was a clinical white, very clean and professional. High end equipment, some of which Bruce had actually never seen before, littered every surface apart from the odd work-table here and there.
“Candy Land junior, the real Candy Land is above the penthouse” Tony said with a shrug, and Bruce turned to give him a confused look. Tony rolled his eyes at the distrust etched onto the man’s face. “It isn’t a trick Bruce, it’s just a lab-“
“Stark, you don’t even know me-“ he started only to be interrupted.
“Does everybody miss the ‘billionaire’ and ‘philanthropist’ parts of my favorite tagline?!” Tony grumbled, walking a few feet to pull around a holo-screen, opening up some files. “Come here, I will show you how much I spend on engineering and physics scholarships around the country and let you compare that to what all is in this lab,” he said, shoving the screen around to face Bruce. “I know I’m self-centered, but I’m not greedy. I have billions of dollars. I have more money than some entire nations, Dr. Banner, and as much as I love myself, I like other smart people.” He let Bruce look at the figures before swiping it clear.
“Tony, I get it, but you had no idea I would even come back here. Why didn’t you just give this equipment to a college or something?” he asked, and Stark smirked.
“Of course I knew you would be back. I tempted you with the lure of state of the art equipment and you have a doctorate in science. Eventually, something would give,” he said, leaning against the table behind him.
Bruce just chuckled weakly, walking around the lab, looking a little lost. “I barely know what some of this stuff is-“
“Probably because most of it was invented when I was designing the plans for Stark Tower,” Tony pointed out. “You’re smart though, you’ll figure it all out,” he said, sticking his hands in his pockets.
“I have a state of the art lab. In my apartment. Which combine to take up an entire floor of a skyscraper in a city I avoid like the plague,” Bruce said, shaking his head. “And to think I came looking for a few hours with clean beakers, a moderately powered microscope, and a spectrometer.”
Tony scoffed. “Your aims are so low. Raise the bar, buddy!” he said, then nodded. “I’ve got things to do, but come by the penthouse later, okay? We can catch up. Pepper might even come around to really meet you. Last time she didn’t really get to know you that well.”
Bruce nodded. “Sure,” he said, then turned when he heard the door open. “Hey Stark?” he called, and Tony stopped. Bruce gave him a small smile. “Thanks. For this… it’s all really just… too much.”
Tony just winked. “I like smart people, don’t worry about it.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
That evening, Bruce smiled when he came out of the elevator and was greeted by Pepper Potts coming towards him. “Dr. Banner, it’s great to see you came to visit,” she said and he was surprised to be met with a handshake and a smile, not uneasiness. Although, he did have to take into account that she’d put up with Tony Stark for years. “Just between you and me, I think Tony was really glad you came back,” she said in a lower voice, shooting a look out the balcony, where Tony was speaking animatedly to a robot while fixing a holo-panel. “He apparently didn’t really think he’d have to put up with anybody using their space in the tower, but when Director Fury basically made Steve start using his floor more often since it was safer for him to train there, Tony’s started moaning on about how the only one to use their floor so far is the least fun.”
Bruce raised an eyebrow. “I doubt I’m anybody’s idea of fun. I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t really need access to the equipment. I just hope nobody knows I’m here and tries to provoke a response, because last time that happened in Manhattan… well-“
Pepper put a hand on his arm with a sympathetic smile. “Don’t worry, Tony breaks New York a lot, your ‘friend’ caused less damage than Tony ever will.” Bruce was amazed at how lightly the woman seemed to be taking his presence.
“For the record,” Tony’s voice called out and Bruce looked up to see him coming inside. “I didn’t ‘break New York’, I just dented a few blocks of Manhattan,” he said, shrugging. “And I donated a decent sum to the NYPD for the whole ‘cop car frisbee’ thing.” Bruce gave him and Pepper alternating confused looks and Tony made a face. “Long story, not worth it, trust me,” he said with a flip of his hand. “Anyways, Ms. Potts, would you be so kind as to go order food for me? I forgot completely-“
“Tony! You told me you ordered takeout twenty minutes ago, I was expecting the delivery any time now-“
“I can’t help I forget time!” Tony argued, ignoring Pepper as he headed over to the bar. “I’m a genius, I fit more information into my brain than the average person, some things have to be sacrificed in turn,” he said, looking up as he put ice in his cup. “I just chose for those things to be time and tact,” he said, smirking about two seconds before Pepper growled in frustration and turned away.
“Excuse me, Dr. Banner,” she said with a put-upon look on her face. “I’ll be back soon,” she said before leaving the room.
Bruce chuckled, hands in his pockets awkwardly as he looked form where she had gone to Tony, who was pouring himself a drink. “So… Ms. Potts is kind of…”
“Overbearing?” Tony offered and Bruce chuckled.
“I was going to go with ‘strangely calm’,” Bruce countered, walking over to look out the window. “Not that often I show up in a place where people know what I am and don’t show any fear.”
Tony hummed. “No offense, Bruce, but you aren’t exactly the most intimidating guy,” he said, turning to grab a second glass. “What’s your poison? I’ve got the best scotch from this little distillery-“
“No thanks,” Bruce said, wringing his hands somewhat as he glanced at the glass in Tony’s hand. He gave him an awkward smile and shrugged some. “Not really a good idea to lower my guard.”
Tony looked appalled. “No alcohol? Bummer,” he said and Bruce could only raise an eyebrow at the absurdity of Tony’s use of ‘bummer’. “And as for Pepper’s indifference, she’s worked for me for years,” he stressed, tilting his head pointedly. “Even before Afghanistan, I pretty much put her through about as much as anybody could handle. Add her boss being presumed dead, said boss building an Iron Man suit and becoming a super hero, multiple instances of someone trying to kill her because of me, and that isn’t even counting all of my lab accidents just since Stark Tower’s been up and running,” he said, whistling. “If she can deal with all of that, I’m pretty sure she isn’t going to be afraid of the most polite nerd ever,” he concluded, giving Bruce a pointed look.
Bruce raised an eyebrow. “That ‘polite nerd’ has a temper you don’t want to mess with, though,” he added and Tony shrugged as if it was nothing. Bruce shook his head and laughed at the absurdity of the situation. “I swear, you and your girlfriend both defy logic. I almost made Natasha cry, she was so scared the first night we met, and I’m pretty sure nobody who ever heard the name Natasha Romanov isn’t terrified of her.”
Tony pulled a dramatic face, eyes wide. “Oh my God, did you ever hear the whole story? She was under cover for a long time as an employee for me and I never suspected anything. I’m terrified of that woman, I think she can kill people without moving,” he said, and Bruce laughed.
“Seriously. I mean, I know nothing can hurt me and I was still absolutely intimidated when we met.” He shot Tony a look. “And my point still stands, if the scariest assassin in the world is afraid of me, why aren’t you? And especially, why isn’t your girlfriend?”
Tony hummed. “Well first off, it isn’t ‘girlfriend’, hasn’t been for a while. And second,” he pointed at Bruce as he walked around to the sofa. “I wasn’t afraid of you before I saw what became of you because you have the control of Gandhi. And after I saw your friend come out to play, he kind of saved my life, and I like that trait in a person-“
“He isn’t a person,” Bruce snapped, cringing at his tone. He swallowed and sighed, looking down at the floor. “He’s… a monster. All the Other Guy is good for is destruction and collateral damage. He doesn’t care who he kills-“
“Clearly you have never seen the footage of our alien battle, Bruce,” Tony argued. “The Other Guy protected his teammates-“
“After he tried to kill all of you on the helicarrier,” Bruce reminded him and Tony shrugged.
“He was afraid. I’d be terrified too in that situation. He can’t help that when he trips and falls he breaks other people and things, not himself,” Tony said simply. “If I woke up in the bowels of a helicarrier the way the Other Guy did when he ‘tried to kill us all’, I would be disoriented and swing at whatever came at me too.”
Bruce sighed, sitting on the couch across from Tony. “Only you don’t kill people when you black out and start swinging,” he said, shuddering.
Tony smiled sadly. “The Other Guy can’t help how big he gets.”
Bruce raised an eyebrow in amusement. “‘Can’t help how big he gets’? That’s your take on that one?”
“Bruce,” Tony started. “I’ve spoken to Hulk. He is basically like a big puppy: he doesn’t mean to break shit, he just isn’t aware of his own strength. And when he goes all ‘blind rage’, it’s because he’s like a caged animal. He’s terrified and just trying to survive. When he focuses, when he lets part of Banner come through, he saves people’s lives.”
Bruce just shook his head. “He kills people, Stark. Moments of clarity aside, he’s exactly like a caged animal- completely volatile and destructive. Only he can’t be stopped, a lion can,” he stressed.
Tony shrugged, sipping his drink. “Agree to disagree, my friend. All we can do. Because your thoughts aside, previous issues I couldn’t possibly know about-“
Bruce sighed. “Do you think I’ll believe you’ve never read my files-“
Tony continued. “I know what I’ve seen myself, and the only reason I’m here to have seen the footage is because of the Hulk, Bruce.” He looked him in the eyes and shook his head. “Everything aside, from my point of view, the Other Guy saved me from being mopped out of the inside of a Iron Man shaped soup can and I just can’t see him as nothing but ‘destructive’. I accept that I’ve never lived your life or been through what he’s put you through, but from my side of things, he’s just as much of a hero as any of us.”
Bruce just sighed, and leaned back, rubbing a hand over his face. He cast around for anything to say before settling on something Tony had said a few minutes back. He frowned. “Oh hey, ‘not girlfriend’?” he asked and Tony made a face.
“Yeah, not really,” he said and Bruce raised an eyebrow, looking at the elevator. Tony chuckled. “I know, what’s she still doing around? Everybody asked that one when we split up.”
Bruce gave him a sheepish look. “Not for nothing, but you don’t really strike people as the kind to have anything but a messy and public breakup. I’ve been out of touch for a while, so maybe it was, but she’s still around,” he hinted and Tony laughed softly.
“It wasn’t really. Pep’s great even when she’s dumping me,” he joked, then waved a hand. “Actually wasn’t like that. Pretty much it wasn’t so bad-“
They were interrupted as the elevator opened and Pepper walked out, carrying bags of takeout. “Sorry guys, that was a nightmare,” she said, smiling as she kicked off her shoes and stepped down to the level of the sofa. “Dr. Banner! Good to see Tony hasn’t broken you while I was gone,” she joked and Bruce couldn’t help but laugh.
“Takes a lot more than his ego to break me, Ms. Potts,” he said and she returned his laugh.
Tony gave a mockingly offended huff. “Pepper, I don’t always break things-“
“Give me a week of your life you didn’t cause a fire or blow something up or smash something?” she challenged and Tony frowned, thinking.
His eyes lit up and he sat up straighter. “Hawaii! We spent two weeks in Hawaii, remember? I didn’t break anything-“
She glared. “I was in Hawaii. You used the suit to fly back to Malibu every night after I fell asleep so you could work on your cars,” she said and Tony hummed.
“Yeah, I got nothing,” he said and Pepper smiled playfully. “Pepper, dear, I was just explaining the ‘not my girlfriend’ thing to Bruce. Shockingly, he was only surprised you didn’t kill me or something,” he said flatly and Pepper laughed.
“Well, I might have if we’d stayed together,” she offered, kneeling down to unpack the takeout packages from the bags she sat on the coffee table. “It’s pretty simple, I love Tony with all my heart, but… just not that way,” she said, shrugging innocently. “It was just too weird.”
Tony chuckled. “Pretty sure I’m not ‘relationship’ material,” he explained. “Plus, add in that Pepper is the CEO of my company and the only person I have in my life anymore, and it just got… really strange.”
Pepper smirked. “Plus I travel with Happy a lot-“
“Oh God, not this again,” Tony groaned, falling over to hide his face in the couch cushions. “Bruce, she decided the new ‘best friend’ role in my life means it’s okay to talk about her dates. It’s horrible. Seriously, you don’t understand how grateful I am you are the one who came back,” he said, and Bruce actually cracked a genuine smile.
“Well, I can promise I won’t tell you about any dates?” he offered and Tony chuckled.
“God I hope not.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Bruce was left blessedly alone for the first week he was at Stark Tower. It wasn’t until his fourth day going out after that first week of settling in that Tony, leaving Pepper’s office, caught up with him on the way back to the elevator. “Hey Bruce, where do you keep going to? I could lend you a car so you can stop walking so much,” he offered and Bruce shot him a look.
“Thanks, but I like walking,” he said.
Tony pressed the button for his floor and Bruce rolled his eyes. “But where’ve you been going so much? Thought you had pressing work?” he questioned and Bruce chuckled at his persistence, fidgeting some under Tony’s scrutiny.
“Job hunting,” he said and Tony gave him a look like he’d said ‘murdering puppies’ instead.
“Oh my God, Why?” Tony asked dramatically.
Bruce raised an eyebrow. “Not sure if you noticed, but even if you’re housing and feeding me, I do have other things that require money. Not much, but I should buy some clothes, probably need to get new glasses since I’m going to be doing precision work and the ones I have are scratched, stuff like that.”
Tony just frowned. “Wait, Pepper didn’t give you a credit card?” he asked, and Bruce gave him in incredulous look.
“Tony, you can’t be serious. She probably knew better than to try and get me to take it-“
Tony sighed dramatically, almost as if explaining something to a child for the thousandth time. “Billionaire,” he stressed. “Seriously, if it makes you feel better, consider it funding scientific research, okay?”
Bruce chuckled uneasily. “I don’t know, Tony-“
Tony grabbed his shoulders and turned them to face each other. “Dr. Banner, you are a genius who is working and living in my building. The least I can do is fund the research of a certified science geek, okay? Especially one who isn’t evil,” he said before releasing Bruce to turn back to face the doors. “Besides,” he added with a smirk. “You laugh at my jokes without being paid for it.”
Bruce just ducked his head to hide his grin.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When Bruce found his closet full of clothes a few days later, he couldn’t help but be amused. He walked out to the elevator and climbed on. “JARVIS, can I go up to see Tony?” he asked.
“Actually, Dr. Banner, Mr. Stark is in his personal laboratories at the top of the building, to which he has not authorized me to grant you access,” JARVIS supplied and Bruce sighed.
“Then can you get him on the intercom for me and let him know I want to speak with him? I would call, but I don’t have a phone,” he explained.
“Right away, sir. Would you like to go to Mr. Stark’s apartment to wait for him there, sir?”
Bruce chuckled. “May as well,” he said, running a hand over his face at the still-ridiculous notion of speaking to an AI after so many years living in huts in small villages.
He waited in Tony’s living room for only about five minutes before the elevator doors opened and Tony came walking out wearing a somewhat singed tee-shirt. “Bruce! Why didn’t you just come up to the lab to talk?” he asked as he walked over.
Bruce raised an eyebrow. “JARVIS isn’t authorized to let me up to your lab.”
Tony frowned. “JARVIS, why isn’t Dr. Banner authorized to come hang out and play with my toys?” he asked as he walked over to the bar to pour himself a drink.
“Mr. Stark, you haven’t authorized me-“
“Then I authorize it now,” Tony said simply, holding up the bottle towards Bruce, who shook his head.
“No thanks,” he said as he walked closer. “So, your lab? You don’t work downstairs?”
Tony scoffed. “Are you kidding me? C’mon, I have multiple floors up there. Remember that time I mentioned Candy Land?” he asked, winking as he walked over, sipping his drink. “C’mon up, I have a particle accelerator that will blow your mind,” he said, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively.
Bruce ducked his head, hiding the amused look as he fidgeted with his sleeves. “Well, I don’t want to disturb you. I was actually just coming to say thank you for the clothes-“
“Mr. Stark, I’ve already informed Ms. Potts that Dr. Banner doesn’t have a mobile phone, so one will be in his apartment when he returns,” JARVIS interrupted before Bruce could continue.
Tony hummed. “Explains why you didn’t call me,” he said, then slung his arm around Bruce’s shoulders, leading him towards the elevator. “Come on up and be jealous. You think your lab is nice, wait until you see my electron microscope, you will lose your shit, man,” he said as he guided him, gesturing with his free hand.
When Bruce finally allowed Tony to drag him up to his labs, Bruce couldn’t help but stare. He thought his lab was nice, but the top ten floors of Stark Tower were packed with every piece of equipment he could imagine and some he couldn’t. As he walked past the control panel for Tony’s aforementioned particle accelerator, he could only chuckle weakly. “Damn.”
Tony beamed. “I know right?!”
Bruce grinned, plucking his glasses out of his shirt pocket and put them on, leaning over to read the limits posted next to the particle accelerator. “You’re an engineer, what on earth do you need this for anyways?” he asked and Tony shrugged.
“If found myself in need of a particle accelerator a while back,” he said, tapping his chest where Bruce could see the faint glow of the Arc Reactor through the fabric of his shirt. “Figured why not build a real one here in case I need to synthesize another element.” He smirked. “Although, for the time being, I seem to have my very own in-house nuclear physicist to help me out if I need one,” he said and Bruce chuckled uneasily.
“You overestimate my capabilities,” he said, taking his glasses off before allowing Tony to guide him further on the tour. “I haven’t worked in a physics lab in a long time.”
Tony shrugged. “You’re still considered a leading expert in nuclear research. You wouldn’t believe how much of your work with the military went into Stark tech when we were still dealing weapons.” He nodded to him. “Even years out of the game, the game hasn’t caught up with you.”
Bruce hummed. “Great, even more people I’ve killed,” he muttered under his breath as he turned and wandered away.
Tony cringed when he heard the doctor’s statement. He could relate with that sentiment. “Hey, tell you what!” He caught up with Bruce and clapped a hand on his shoulder. “Let’s head downstairs, order a pizza, and I can tell you all about the work in clean energy. I promise, the details are extremely fascinating,” he said, then smiled at him. “Besides, you might actually understand what I’m saying. Nobody else ever has.”
Bruce chuckled. “Alright, I’ll take you up on that. It would be nice to catch up with where you’ve advanced to since I’ve been off-radar. I’ve read some things since I got here, but it would be nice to get a better understanding of scientific advances in the past few months.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Bruce had been working for three weeks in his lab before Tony interrupted him while he was working. JARVIS interrupted him, rather, to ask him, “Dr. Banner, Mr. Stark is outside of the lab. Shall I allow him inside?”
Bruce pushed his safety goggles up on his head and looked at the frosted glass doors. “Sure, let him in.”
Tony entered the lab with a smile. “Hey Big Guy, what’s cookin’?” he asked, eyes on the beakers in front of Bruce.
Bruce rolled his eyes at the nickname Tony had taken to using more often in the month he had been at Stark Towers. “I’m just testing a few combinations stability, it’s nothing terribly important. What can I help you with?” he asked and Tony shrugged, hands in his pockets.
“I was going to see if you were coming up tonight. It’s later than you usually come up,” he said and Bruce glanced down, shoving his lab coat up to check his watch. Tony and Bruce had fallen into a habit for the last few weeks of having dinner in Tony’s apartment most every night, spending time bouncing ideas and theories off of each other. Bruce could tell Tony was more than ecstatic to have someone who could really grasp the concepts of his ideas to talk to. Some nights Pepper joined them, some nights Steve even came up to join them, but most of the time, it was just the two of them, some food, some shop talk, and maybe some trash TV if they needed to let their brains rest for a little while.
Bruce took the goggles off his head and put them on the table. “Um, I may be late,” he said sheepishly, picking up the pen beside his notepad to make some notes. “I’m getting somewhere finally, not sure I can stop now without losing this momentum, you know?”
Tony nodded and chuckled. “Oh yeah, I know that feeling. Pepper used to yell at me when she would come in for work in the morning and find me still up working on something.” He walked around Bruce and looked at the labels of the test tubes next to Bruce’s beaker setup. “What is all this?” he asked, and Bruce glanced up over the rim of his glasses from taking a note.
“Sorry, my handwriting is pretty bad I guess,” he said but Tony shook his head.
“Not the problem, Brucey,” he said, shooting him an amused look. “You forget, I build things. I make things with my hands. I only know enough about chemistry to know what makes certain alloys and compounds. I’m sure I could learn what these words and symbols mean quite easily, but I’ve never had a reason to do the required reading,” he said, and Bruce couldn’t help a small smirk at the idea of outsmarting the ‘great’ Tony Stark. Tony rolled his eyes. “I saw that.”
Bruce laughed a genuine laugh. “Okay let me gloat!” He took a tube from the rack Tony was holding without bothering to make him set it down. “Not many people can say they know something a science prodigy knows.”
Tony set the rack down and turned to face Bruce, a curious glimmer in his eyes. “It’s funny you say that,” he said, pulling up the lab stool behind him to sit on it, watching as Bruce catalogued results from the tubes-Tony didn’t know what they were still- with a patient gaze.
Bruce sighed and shot Tony a playfully annoyed look. “Alright, I’ll bite, why is it funny I say that?”
Tony grabbed the holoscreen and pulled it around. “You see, you can’t be shocked to know I have looked at everybody’s files and from your college data combined with the psychological observations I’ve had JARVIS catalogue, you, my friend, should’ve been a science prodigy just like me.” He propped his chin in his hand pointedly. “Care to explain why that isn’t information everybody knows?”
Bruce got quiet. Tony was surprised when Bruce put down his test tube and pen and pulled off his gloves, fidgeting with his glasses before looking up. “If you have seen files and ran non-consensual psych evaluations on me, you know already,” he said, voice somewhat strained.
Tony frowned some at Bruce’s reaction. He started to wring his hands and shuffle from foot to foot before turning to walk away, carrying his clipboard and note pad over to place on the other table. “Actually, I feel ashamed to admit this, but your files… they were sealed to me.” He sat up and followed Bruce with his eyes as he fussed with things, clearly avoiding Tony’s gaze. “I couldn’t hack into anything pre-college and pre-army.” He tilted his head. “Going by the information JARVIS has collected in regards to your logic, innovation, and decision making skills, computations estimates that your IQ is between 170 and 185.” Tony shook his head with an incredulous yet captivated expression. “Bruce, I’m a certified genius, I was a child prodigy, there are arguments I am smarter than my dad was even, and yet my IQ was tested to be about 160.”
Bruce forced a weak laugh. “Then why don’t you have a PhD, huh? Slacking, Stark,” he tried, but Tony just frowned at his attempts at humor.
Tony stood up and walked over to Bruce, who was more staring at a clipboard than doing anything. He leaned against the table and looked at Bruce’s face, frowning at the look he couldn’t decipher that was painted on his friend’s face. “If I’m a genius, you’re a super genius… why is it I graduated from MIT at seventeen and yet you, apparently, didn’t even go to college until you showed up on army payroll?”
Bruce shook his head. “Don’t, Tony,” he said softly and Tony’s eyes widened.
“You mean to tell me you went through normal school?! At your intellectual level? God, wasn’t it agonizing-“
“There is a reason my records are sealed so tight you can’t even hack into them, Tony,” Bruce snapped, turning an angry expression on Tony. He took a deep breath and backed away. “Sorry, I’m sorry, that was dramatic of me-“
“Bruce… are you okay?” Tony asked, and Bruce looked up, nodding.
“Yes, I’m fine, see? No green,” he said, looking slightly forlorn as he added that note for Tony’s benefit.
Tony rolled his eyes. “Bruce, I trust you better than that-“
“Well, you shouldn’t,” Bruce said firmly. He walked past Tony, shucking his lab coat. “Fuck it, let’s go eat, okay? Just… I need to get out of the lab. Pretty sure I have things that will explode if I get too out of control and someone else decides to pay a visit.”
Tony shook his head. “You’re in control,” he said confidently. “JARVIS monitors you.”
Bruce groaned. “Of course he does, why am I not shocked?” he sighed and Tony had the decency to look apologetic. “Do you want me to come upstairs or not?” Bruce asked, giving Tony a tired look, the lines on his face intensified by his mood. “I won’t blame you if you don’t want to really be around me right now-“
“Bullshit,” Tony said, walking over to Bruce, who raised an eyebrow. “Bruce, don’t make me start poking you with sticks again,” he said with a deathly serious expression.
It was enough to startle a laugh out of Bruce, who was not expecting that. “You have a death wish, Stark,” he said, shaking his head, unable to stop smiling. “Alright, but if I lose control and you die, it’s on your head,” he said and Tony cut him a smile.
“Deal!” He clapped and gestured to the door with a flourish. “Now, the toughest question of the night: Chinese or Indian? I’m feeling noodles, but I know how you like curry,” he started, and Bruce couldn’t help the smile on his face as he followed his friend out of the lab, more amused and confused than ever about Tony Stark.
Part 2
