starkingenuity | After The Suits

"And so then I told General Ross that I was a virgin, but he took my hand and told me he'd be gentle." And...nothing. Tony thinks about throwing his shoe at Banner's head, but that probably wouldn't go over well and then he'd be missing a shoe. He liked this pair too. Pepper got it for him after he threw the last at the Vice President's head. "Banner." Nothing. "Banner, I'm going to come over there and give you the wettest, most amazing kiss--"

"Sir, might I remind you of Ms. Pott's condition?" JARVIS chimes in.

Tony has to concur. You don't cheat on your power powered girlfriend.

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From:

starkingenuity

Everyone enjoys being around Tony. Even the people that swear up and down that he's a selflish prick whom they all hate. He never buys that. "Being exhausted so I pass out on the floor helps me sleep," Tony tells Bruce in amusement. Not what he means. "Also, drunken stupors. Wanna tie one on with me?"

From:

aggravated

Tie one on with him? Bruce gives him a look of confusion about that before shaking his head. "I don't drink. Do you really need me to explain what would happen if I got drunk?"

Bruce rubs his brow, thinking. "There are a few things we could try, if you're actually willing to try them and not just mock them. Things like... massage, hypnosis, different kinds of white noise..."

From:

starkingenuity

"You'd be mellow? Oh, are you an angry drunk?" He's a prick. He's never gonna stop being a prick. It's just one of those things. Tony stands up again and gives Bruce a small sigh. "Unless it's in your top ten to give me a massage, Banner."

But hypnosis-- Maybe he shouldn't think about it. He doesn't need Bruce unlocking anything weird or traumatic from his childhood.

From:

aggravated

"We could hire someone to give you one," Bruce points out. "I know a little bit about hypnosis, and I'd have to read up a touch on it, but I'm willing to try. And the white noise will make it so you... there isn't complete silence."

From:

starkingenuity

"A touch? Is that part of this hypnosis thing to get me to let you touch me?" Protesting too much? Very, very likely. Tony wants this topic thrown out. It's not that it exactly bothers him, but it's starting to make him uncomfortable. And when he gets uncomfortable, he calls children pussys. It's bad, Bruce. It's really bad.

From:

aggravated

Long look. "I won't be touching you at all, so you can take that little thought out of your mind. But Tony, this is important. It's about your health. Your brain will start to do worse and worse things to you without sleep."

From:

starkingenuity

"You're really not going to let this go," Tony mutters, even though he knows why. They're friends. Tony can count the number of friends he has on one hand without bothering to use his thumb unless he wants to count something he created.

If he gets worse, Pepper might never get better. And that, really, is what he should be focusing on.

"Listen, I'll let you massage me all you want as soon as you get enough rest to check on my girlfriend, all right? Please, Bruce."

From:

aggravated

"No, I'm not." He points at Tony, but doesn't quite meet his eyes. "Remember, your health? Affects Pepper's. Getting you both healthy, together, is important."

A faint smile. "I got an hour or two. I'll be fine for a little while. I'd rather get the gist of what's going on with Pepper."

From:

starkingenuity

Bruce Banner, you mean the world to him. He might not ever say it, but he feels it. You're that important to him sometimes. He pats Bruce on the back and nods.

"I'll show you her readings. And then we can try some hypnosis. Maybe you can talk me into sleeping a little."

From:

aggravated

"Lead the way. I want to see what's happened, and every piece of information you have. Can you load it onto a tablet? That way I can keep an eye on you while you sleep, if we can get you that far." Bruce stands up finally.

From:

starkingenuity

"Is the sky blue? Don't get sciencey on me, Banner," Tony says with a laugh before he takes Bruce down to R&D. Pepper's on several monitors sleeping away. JARVIS is monitoring her vitals. Tony keeps her sedated, mostly at her insistence, and though he's made some progress on stabilizing Extremis into her, it's nothing either of them are comfortable with.

At least her temperature is running stable for the moment. It spiked two days ago and Tony almost thought the worst.

From:

aggravated

Bruce goes silent as he stares at the vitals, his brows pinched together, focused. His only movement, other than a blink, is the very slow tap of a finger on the desk top. An incredible raise in temperature - even greater than his, but her body is handling it. He doesn't like the idea of her being sedated - but more intriguing is that a sedative works.

So he starts speaking without looking away. "Exact physical changes you've seen. Personality changes. What happens immediately before the spikes?"

From:

starkingenuity

"She gets worked up," Tony says, drink in hand because let's face it, he's got scotch stashed just about everywhere. "Not agitated, and not like she's just been doing a lot of cardio either. I mean...she gets excited." Banner, you make one double entandre about that--

Tony waits for it, but Bruce is a good guy. He's not going to make a sex joke here about Tony's potentially explosive girlfriend!

"It's like when my battle HUD kicks in."

From:

aggravated

Where did Tony even get that drink? Bruce spots it from the corner of his eye. Not the concern, at the moment, though he's sure the alcohol doesn't help with the sleeping issues. "Excited how? Is it a physical excitement, or an emotional one?"

The last bit is interesting, and Bruce comes to a certain realization. He vaguely remembers hearing a touch about the suits being gone.

Is part of the sleeplessness... because Tony feels vulnerable without the suit ready to go? Bruce is sure of it.

From:

starkingenuity

It's absolutely the case. He talks about the armors as if he still has them. And, in a way, he does. Just a prototype of course, but it's working on his left leg. The rest will just take some help. He doesn't trust JARVIS with the rest. And even if he could--

Well, that's something completely different. Something he's not going to tell Bruce, or anyone, about.

Tony needs the armor, but not as a cocoon. He needs it as something greater than himself. Literally apart of himself.

"Mental. Something just triggers it. Sort of like a rush of adrenaline. I need to a few more days to become an expert in it."

From:

aggravated

In a way, Bruce can understand. Maybe not even fully consciously, but he has the same thing in the way of the Other Guy. His mind created something that protected him, a part of himself.

"Then I guess I have a few days to do the same, as well. I'll need to speak to her specifically about the triggers." An 'insider' position. "And more, I need a sample from her, unless we have a sample of the chemical itself?"

From:

starkingenuity

"Uh...kind of blew it up. Blame Rhodey, it was all his idea. Oh, yeah, and the armors. So you can blame JARVIS too--"

"I heard that, sir."

"Just Rhodey then." But he does have samples from Pepper. He's only so good on biology, but he's trying... And potentially using what he's gleaned from her blood in himself-- Bruce could probably understand what that's all about though.

From:

aggravated

"I'm not blaming anyone," Bruce says with a tiny sigh in his voice. "Do you think she'll have an issue with giving a few samples?" Not knowing Tony had already taken some.

From:

starkingenuity

"I dunno. Maybe. If she does, there's a few in the fridge. Blood, hair, saliva, small biopsy sections--" Clink-clink goes the ice in the glass and Tony smiles fetchingly at Bruce. Ignore the bags and he looks great!

From:

aggravated

"You already have some?" Bruce gives Tony a look for with holding that. "Let's start, then. If you can bring me a sample of her blood to start, I can get going."

He's already moving to get himself set up.

From:

starkingenuity

"I'm not an idiot," Tony says with a smirk and gestures to the fridge. He likes you. He does. But he's not going to play go-for-- Oh...well, it is for Pepper. All right.

Tony scoots over in a wheeled chair and crosses his arms over his chest. Watching people do science is a sexy thing.

From:

aggravated

He'll get to watch a lot of that with Bruce, who immediately buries himself into his work once he has the sample in hand. He needed to go over every bit he could, to study any changes in cell structure, even the DNA if he could. Could her very genes have been changed? Was this short lived, or would it last forever? It is a terrifying concept, in one sense, but in another....

All he can think of is how similar it sounds to himself.

From:

starkingenuity

Tony ends up actually dozing while Bruce discovers something awful and yet fairly important about Extremis: it's a virus. A biologically engineered virus. The regerative capabilities are incredible.

But so is the instability. Luckily, Pepper seems to be adapting to it well.

And Tony is going to wake up with a stiff neck, draped over his chair like this.

From:

aggravated

And tony will find Bruce still at work, bent over a microscope, completely focused. A notepad sits open by his right hand, and without looking, he writes something down. His handwriting is better than any secret code.

He pulls back and rubs his eyes, then shifts his glasses down so he can look at what he wrote. His mouth pulls into a thin line as he stares at the writing, thinking.

From:

starkingenuity

Tony wakes with a start and blinks owlishly as he rubs the back of his aching neck. More scotch follows. And pain killers. "I was having this dream, Banner, where you were spooning me," Tony says with a laugh and rolls on over to plunk his head down on the desk. He feels like he's in this constant state of exhaustion.