(no subject)

[starkingenuity]

"Yep, actually, I did hear you, Doc.  I'm just ignoring you."  Don't be a buzz kill.  Stark is riding high from that last fight.  "It's just a cut.  I've gotten a lot of cuts.  Some bactine and some bandages and a little kiss over it from Jarvis here and I'll be just fine."  The tall, leggy blond at his side doesn't even bother to roll his pale blue eyes.  He's worked with Stark for years, too long really.  He knows how the man acts.

"Sir."

That always makes Stark laugh and he lightly pats Jarvis on the back of his drivesuit.  "Not your boss anymore, Jarv," he reminds him gentle.  Or maybe he's just trying to drown out the mousy little guy following him.  And that's when it hits him, halfway down the corridor, through the cheering crowds and the crews trying to get his Jaeger back into one piece.  He knows that mousey little man follow him.  "Shit.  You're Doctor Banner!  Well hey, nice to meet you finally!  Man, we studied your tactics against Onibaba for months after that attack in Tokyo!"

Comments

[aggravated]

Bruce actually gives Stark a look as they go to split, and there in the quiet hall, he says quietly, "it isn't me I'd be afraid of if I had to Drift, Stark. I already have someone else in my head. At least you get a break from it." He gives the other a nod, and turns, heading back down towards his lab.

He'll be there at the physicals, tomorrow. Right now, he has thoughts he needs to get out of his head.

[starkingenuity]

Despite late hours, drink, conversations about radiation poisoning that were suppose to be fixed in the Mark-Is last year before the Mark-IIs rolled out, Stark is prompt for his training and his drills. He spends his mornings after breakfast doing exercising, working with Jarvis through simulations, and stick fighting in the Kwoon room. It's always a sight to see when two drift compatible people are there instead of just trainees or one day pilot hopefuls. It becomes a dance.

One in which neither ever strikes the other, even when it goes on for over fifteen minutes.

After that, Banner can have his tests. Stark goes through them as needed, starting with a lung capacity test and ending with blood samples. He gives Banner a wink when he leans over. "Doctor. Nice to see you again."

[aggravated]

"Nice to see you sober, Stark." A tiny bit less professional than he wants to be but he soothes it over with, "thank you for agreeing to this. Not only for your own health but for all of your fellow pilots."

His hands are very gentle as he draws a vial of blood. "I spent last night going over your research."

[starkingenuity]

"Oh yeah?" Tony grins and Jarvis, as ever, is stoic and silent. Stark talks. Sometimes Jarvis adds, but generally, he lets the other do the work. Mostly because they don't need to discuss much between them. They handshake nearly every day in simulations or in drills in the conn-pod. Why speak when they'll share thoughts and feelings and memories in the nearest future? "Which part of my research?"

Go ahead, Banner. Wow him. No. Really. Wow him. He likes his ego to be stroked.

The beeping of the little machines are annoying but he ignores it. Banner has a lot of his attention right now, for better or for worse. Jarvis makes note of it. There will be ribbing later. Tony doesn't often get to play with people on his intellectual level.

[aggravated]

As if he'd never dealt with an egotistical engineer or scientist before. He'd been one, before everything had come crashing in around him because of his own fault. So, he can stroke an ego when he needs to, but he does genuinely admire the work Stark had been doing.

"I was reading on your ideas for clean energy, and even what I could find on the programming you did for the Jaegers. I think the former is a fascinating concept and I don't know why, considering the difficulties we're having right now, no one's looking more into it." Bruce, while speaking about this, actually meets Stark's eyes, just for a heartbeat before he looks back down to his work.

[starkingenuity]

"Well you know, not a lot of people that can follow my brain, so I guess it's probably obvious why no one's been working on the reactor. My dad tried it and didn't quite get there. Then K Day happened, all hell broke loose -- kinda literally -- and here we are. Don't worry. Soon as I'm not protecting the world from alien life, I'll get back to that clean energy plan." Jarvis listens to all of this with an intense amusement he's just not one to show. There's no ghosting today so luckily Tony won't get the backlash of that internal amusement.

In fact, Stark's not paying attention to anything other than Banner right now. It's probably just a passing infatuation between intellectuals anyhow. He'll find out tomorrow during their next drift. The teasing will continue later.

[aggravated]

"I wish I had the engineering prowess to be able to help continue it, but that's far from my area. It seems a perfect way to solve the issues with radiation in the Jaegers." His thumb gently slides over as he pulls the small needle out, then lays a quick bandage over it.

"Trespasser changed everything, didn't it?" Asked, but not so much towards Stark as a rhetorical question.

[starkingenuity]

"It certainly changed my weapons contracts," Tony laughs. "Right about now I might be giving a presentation to a five star general about a new set of smart mines or a tank detection device. Instead-- Well, I get to pilot a giant metal robot. Actually, the inner kid inside of me is pretty damned stoked about it." But yes. If he had time, if he wasn't a pilot, technology might have jumped by leaps and bounds.

If Stark gives up piloting, it might help the cause. But he can't. He's addicted. Not to the drift, God no, but then again, he likes the intimacy. Jarvis isn't butler. He's best friend. He's brother. He's... Right now, he's absolutely everything to Stark.

"So we done?"

[aggravated]

In Bruce's quiet opinion, there is no 'might'. The kind of technology that Stark could bring to the Jaegers, to their weaponry, to the defense of the whole planet... it could very well save them all. Still, he's not Stark's father to dictate what he did. That is Marshall Fury's decision.

"I've finished with both of you." He turns back and gathers up his samples and the scanner, then looks back to Stark. "We'll see what it turns up." But he remembers the ultimatum that Stark asked of him. They would have to see what happens with the test results.

A small nod of thanks to Jarvis as well, then he heads back down to his lab.

[starkingenuity]

It all suits Stark just fine. Though he caught that look. He liked that look. The conversation had been good for the most part but he's already over it. There's too many things to think about. They don't exactly get time off. There's very little downtime being a ranger. And anyway, Stark spends a lot of it with Jarvis.

Today, though, he breaks off from his co-pilot and heads down to engineer. Just to tinker. With an afternoon off...he might as well, right? Give Banner something more to read? He gets lost in code, lost in hardware. Lost in being a good old fashioned mechanic.

So long, he forgets dinner.

[aggravated]

Stark might forget dinner, but there's little surprise that Jarvis doesn't. He comes down into the lab, but is surprised to see someone lingering just outside of the lab. There is Doctor Banner, watching Stark from the doorway, clearly curious. Jarvis' brow rises, but then he clears his throat quietly, making Bruce jump.

The doctor looks embarrassed to be caught, after taking a few moments to get his startled nerves under control. "I- ah," Bruce starts, but Jarvis shakes his head and offers out the tray.

"Why not bring him dinner, Doctor Banner, and you will have a reason to speak with him?"

Bruce blinks at the offer and the tray, but hesitates. "I don't want to interrupt him-"

"He still requires dinner." Holding the tray perfectly still, waiting for Banner to take it.

Bruce swallows once, then nods just slightly. "Thank you, Jarvis." He takes the tray. This isn't exactly what he expected when he came down here.

Jarvis nods and turns, but quietly says, "thank you for having him return here." He heads back towards his quarters for a little peace and quiet.

[starkingenuity]

"Oh, thanks Jarv. Just leave-- Oh." Stark's glance up proves that there is not a pair of blue eyes riding under a fringe of blond coming to take care of him. The smile he gives to Banner is genuine, warm-- Perhaps not affectionate but most certainly pleased. "Doctor Banner. Come to take care of me again?"

He pushes aside the lump of metal and wires he'd been working on and glances over the dishes. Jarvis definitely had a hand in this. High protein, lean meats, and a donut. Oh, he loves donuts. That means that once again Jarvis is pushing Banner onto him. It's cute, really. His co-pilot is being a little matchmaker.

"Please, have a seat. You can watch me deposit my carrots in my napkin."

[aggravated]

"I came to see you in action. Your partner came to take care of you." He puts the tray down in front of Stark and taking a seat only when offered. "I think he'd be disappointed if you did that." Commenting about the carrots.

Bruce's whole stance is an awkward one, but he's clearly quite curious about what Stark's doing. Of course he appreciates what Stark does as a pilot - millions would be dead with the Mammoth's help - but this is more about Tony Stark the man than the famous Jaeger pilot.

Besides, shortly, he'll have to go back up to his lab and check on the test results. "I hope I'm not interrupting."

[starkingenuity]

"If there's one thing I learned, Doc, it's that I always disappoint Jarvis. Carrots is the least of my offenses. But if you want to see me in action, come to a training session." Yes. Stark believes he's more pilot than engineer now. It's not really his fault. He doesn't have a lot of anything else to go on. They need him to keep training or he gets wiped out. He's never failed at anything in his life. He's not going to fail now.

But Banner seems interested in the device so he explains it, drawing up a schematic that hovers over his workstation. "And anyway, this part here is giving me some trouble. Just where my dad stopped too."

[aggravated]

I don't think if a man cares about you that much that you always disappoint him, Bruce thinks to himself, but then debates if Stark meant that with sarcasm or not. When he realizes he isn't sure, he ignores the thought and focuses back on what Stark is doing. Maybe, though, he would go and watch one of the Mammoth Apostle's next training sessions.

Still, this is the type of 'action' that interests him far more than the Jaeger.

Bruce focuses on the description of the device Stark is working on, his brows furrowing as he follows the complex creation at each turn. When Stark gets to his problem, he makes a little gesture to silently ask if he can turn the device to look at it from another angle, and stares at it as he thinks.

"What if..." Bruce starts, hesitating before, "what if you tried..." He uses a screwdriver snatched from the desktop to point, offering a possible suggestion. No, by far not an engineer, but after the last several years of dealing with the military, helping to build the machines he needed to do his testing, and helping with the tech now here in his lab when needed, he had some ideas.

[starkingenuity]

"It's a good theory but if that was connected to live power, you'd have just stopped your heart." Stark moves around the work bench to sit next to Banner, food forgotten for now. Food forgotten for the next hour at least. Heads together, they still don't make much headway but Banner's ideas are fresh and even if Stark can build off of them, there's a blockage somewhere with the current.

The blockage, of course, is desperation. Tony don't need this enough. Not yet. And so his genius is somewhat wasted even in his attempt to impress and collaborate with the fellow physicist.

"So how does that work," he asks when his stomach's complaints actually get them to stop working so he'll have his chicken. Cold, sure, but still good. "I mean, you go from being the world's expert on gamma radiation to a physician? What am I missing here?"

[aggravated]

"Proof, undoubtedly, that I am not an engineer," Bruce says with a little wince at the comment about stopping the heart, but there's a good-natured smile on his lips. However, he actually enjoys the work, the change from his current focus on radiation levels in the Jaegers and their pilots.

There is something terribly sad in this genius going to waste. There's so much more that could be done.

The sudden question, while Stark eats, does surprise him. Enough that Bruce doesn't quite know how to answer, mostly because the explanation is so very convoluted and personal. "After the accident, I decided I wanted to help people instead of devising ways the military could hurt more." His lips twist into an unhappy frown as memories try to crop up, but he pushes them aside. "At least here, I'm combining both to help."

[starkingenuity]

"Well good. You should start by figuring out a better way to work the metharocin. If it wasn't for Jarv, I'd forget to take it all the time." But he's not worried about it. Radiation poisoning between the Mark-I and the Mark-IIs are suppose to be pretty much settled, even if Bruce's presence here is a little bit disturbing. "Put it in the showers or something. No way I'd forget to dose myself then."

Stark grins and starts in on the donut. His sweet tooth is, again, winning out as usual. He has it hanging from his mouth as he shoves the not quite right reactor back into it's box and closes the lid. He'll shove it into the compartment later. Or one of the other engineers will. Stark's not worried that his tech night get usupred. No one here's good enough to do it.

Even if they were, they're all working towards the same cause.

"Thanks for dinner," he says around the pastry.

[aggravated]

"You're welcome," Bruce says, assuming that means Stark is asking him to leave. He looks up at the nearest clock and frowns, just slightly. He stands up, dusting off his pants a little. "If I manage to get some sleep, I'll miss my time in the combat room." Far more a comment to himself than to Stark.

The only time to get in the combat room is very early, even before any trainee sets foot in there, but it's the only proper space for him to work on his kata. It loosens him up, relaxes him before a long day.

"I'll think about alternate ways to provide all of you with metharocin. Perhaps work it right into your food-" Already thinking it through, if it would be safe to give to all in the Shatterdome or even worth it...

[starkingenuity]

"Not a dog, Banner," Stark says without even turning around. "Not even close. Do not hide meds in my food." It's all good natured though and while Tony is self absorbed in his donut, he focuses only on what's about him. That Bruce wants to use the Combat Room is neither here nor there. It's their gym. Staying fit is important. He doesn't even worry about the Big Guy. Even if he'd like to meet him one day.

It's all the same the next day. No Drifting again, but a regular rotation of training is broken up by meals and light banter and maybe a little more fiddling with his reactor. Jarvis, however, can't help but comment when he catches Stark looking around the mess at dinner.

"Who're you trying to find, sir."

"What? No one."

[aggravated]

"Mm mm," Jarvis says calmly, knowingly, as he moves to sit himself down. Bruce is not there at the time, and in fact, hasn't been out of the lab since he returned yesterday. No, he has something more important he's rechecking very carefully.

"You were more focused today," Jarvis actually chooses to comment, watching Stark's expression from the corner of his eye.

[starkingenuity]

Stark's expression? Sort of unamused, sort of distracted. "I'm always focused," he says, though he finally turns to sit down too across from his co-pilot. The other crews are sitting scattered around the mess too. None of them really talk. Not like he and Jarvis do. Sometimes. Now is one of those sometimes. "Are you implying that I do give it my all, every day? Because I'd like to point out--"

Oh, he catches that glance.

"I don't have to go out and drink every night, Jarv. I'm not in college any more. I just felt like playing with some metal is all. That doesn't make me more focused. Okay, okay, yes, not being hung over might-- Shut up."

[aggravated]

Jarvis' smile is so faint that others would never catch it, but Stark most certainly does. They don't need to be Drifting, or even haunted by ghost drifts, for them to understand each other without words. Not that Stark ever fails to provide those words. "Perhaps it was because you had a chance to unwind, sir," is all he says in connection to that, since Stark knows everything else he had to say on the subject. Not being hung over, and perhaps just being able to spend some time with someone who could match him on an intellectual level is good for him.

[starkingenuity]

"Scotch is unwinding." Just putting it out there. He doesn't expect Jarvis to answer back but that ghost-like smile-- Oh, sometimes he could just reach across the table and throttle him! He'll make sure that's in the forefront of his mind when he has another Drift scheduled. After dinner, Stark does a little stalking up and down the residential bunks where the pilots and most of the staff live. He honestly has no idea where the K-Scientists are housed but it's gotta be somewhere in this quad so he tries marching around with little to no success.

If Jarvis knew what he'd doing, he'd never hear the end of it. Ever. So what's an efficient stalker to do? Why, give himself a reason to visit the labs.

And yes, he needs a reason. Stark's got personality and charm coming out of his ears. That doesn't mean he's not socially awkward with people he likes. Sort of. In another life, he might have just collected Banner like he'd collected Jarvis. Or Rhodey. That life is over. It's better not to have attachments and just cut yourself on something and visit medical for a bandage.

[aggravated]

No, he's not with the rest of the population, Stark. No matter his control now, no matter what services he's done or provides now, he's still an assest and a threat. He's off in his own place, somewhere that's quite and he won't be disturbed during the night.

A blessing and a curse, really. Bruce prefers the quiet anyway.

However, when Stark ends up in medical, he will find Bruce's lab if he skirts off to the side. There are several large kaiju organs in containers around the outer edges, and more ominous, a large tank of blue goo that anyone familiar with the kaiju would recognize as a surprisingly large amount of Kaiju Blue. Bruce himself is tucked up at a desk, bent over a microscope and staring down at something with all of his attention. After all, he's no one's prime physician and usually no one comes to bother him.