starkingenuity | (no subject)

"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!"

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From:

aggravated

Bruce is no small amount of surprised at the request. He stops, pushing up his glasses and meeting Stark's eyes in return. "Test out? Did you already have something in mind, or is this something that still needs to be created, or are you willing to let me try a few already on the market?" No, this isn't his field, but he has thoughts already going about people to call, a few ideas they could try. He would need to speak to Yinsen more about how the man planned to set the reactor into Stark's chest and where the lubricant would be needed, check closely for any possible reactions...

From:

starkingenuity

"Dad always wanted to branch out into medicine and clean energy but I was always too caught up in destruction." Tony doesn't shrug it off but it does look as if he's changed his mind on that aspect. He watches Bruce for a moment before looking down again at his paper. "You have license to do what you think best. Just don't kill me."

It's suppose to be a joke but they both know that is life hangs on this. And they both are aware of the consequences if it fails. More pilots will get sick. More Kaiju will appear. And they'll lose a genius in the process.

"If you pull this off, Banner, once this war is over, you've got guaranteed funding from Stark Industries for life." If the war doesn't kill him. Or his company.

From:

aggravated

"Your father had the right idea of the way to go. I saw too much of what war does to people, and once you've seen it, you can never go back to the way of thinking you had before."

Bruce isn't sure why Stark offers that last part. In his mind, it makes little sense. He knows Stark knows, or believes he knows, that he's in this to make sure that Stark, and Jarvis, live. So perhaps his response isn't entirely unexpected. "You don't need to show me a biscuit, Stark. I plan to do the work. This.. happened because of me, and I'm going to fix it." Quiet, but very determined.

From:

starkingenuity

"It's not a biscuit," he tells Banner quietly. "It's sort of like.. A promise. Don't go running off to Brazil or India or wherever it is you think people need you the most. Work for me." He feels sort of like he owes Banner. And sort of like Banner owes him. The war is doing horrible things to the world, no doubt, and there are going to be a lot of people that need them both. So why not work together? "Or... With me."

Tony claps Bruce on the shoulder and moves away. He doesn't need an answer now. He can wait.

Hopefully in a year or two this will all just be a bad dream--

But who knows. The k-lab scientists are saying that the attacks are slowly increasing in frequency. It's a troubling fault. Now is not the time for that. Or for pity. Or for blame.

They have a limited time to get Tony whole again and not much more to fix their radiation issues.

From:

aggravated

That... isn't what he's expecting at all to hear. Bruce, a touch startled at the offer and the touch, looks up into Stark's eyes and is surprised by the sincerity in the gaze looking back. Stark is serious about this offer, and it's not a small one. "...you want me to work with you on your switch to clean energy?" Almost not even sure he understands. How would he even fit into that?

Bruce swallows, the strange feeling in his chest at someone offering him, not demanding, not forcing, not because he has no other options, a place. Does Stark even understand all he's offering?

"We... can figure that out later, I suppose. Right now, I have a lubricant to develop or find for you. I'll speak to Doctor Yinsen right away." A tiny smile, one brought on from... hope? Maybe not something that large, but related.

From:

starkingenuity

Stark doesn't have anything else to say about it now. He can't think about restructuring Stark Industries at the moment to include more biomedical applications. He just can't. There's entirely too many steps between now and then.

For the rest of the day, he's caught between teams, caught between waiting on this or explaining that or trying out an idea or disproving a theory. Normally, he doesn't work well with others. This situations isn't normal though.

It's amazing what can be done when a bunch of geniuses put their minds to something.

Prototypes are ready to be tried and gels are ready to be tested. Tony is optimistic. And starving.

From:

aggravated

Bruce, for the most part, hides down in his lab. No one sees him for lunch, and dinner he only comes up to the mess hall long enough to throw not one tray together, but two. Only then does he send a message to Stark, a very quick one.

Three ready to test - B

He still isn't a huge fan of cell phones or any other communication device like this, as they track all too easily, but at least he hopes Stark will get this and stop buy. The clock is eyed, knowing he should sleep, but he ignores it. For now. He won't be able to forever, or the Other Guy gets grumpy. No one likes it when he's grumpy.

From:

starkingenuity

He has to duck Jarvis but he does make it down to the lab before too long, wheeling himself in his chair. Walking would have been all right too but his arms get really tired holding the damned thing. It's not even all that good for his biceps! He rolls over the bump between the hall and the room and stops just short of Banner's desk.

"You summoned me?" He asks with a grin. Conductive biomedical gel has to be one of the weirdest things he's ever commissioned.

Bright brown eyes seek the other's and he waits to be noticed.

From:

aggravated

Bruce looks back to Stark and gives a small smile. "I did." He reaches over and pulls over three jars - two are clear, one is a goopy brown. "You'd be amazed how fast something can be delivered when money speaks instead of actually wanting to help someone." A dry sort of humor in that.

"This one, and this one," tapping one clear, one brown, "are mine. The last is a company on the east coast. I'm not going to apologize for the fact it is actually used for pregnant women, very safe." Except for the little lift at the corner of his mouth.

From:

starkingenuity

"Well if you can't trust what's used for pregnant women, what can you trust?" he asks, picking up the last jar before he opens it and gives it a sniff. He turns it around in his hand, then sets it down again and shrugs. "I can tell you right now that having to re-lubricate a potential chest socket with brown sludge is pretty much a no-go for me. So let's test the first and last." The second one? Right into the waste basket under the desk.

Sorry Banner. It's not an attempt to be rude or anything, but that stuff doesn't exactly look like chocolate sauce.

"Are you running simulations or slathering this stuff on lab rats? If it's the latter, I'd rather not be named King of the Lab Rats. You understand."

From:

aggravated

"I tested it on myself, first," Bruce says with non-chalance, "then on the same rats I use to work on Kaiju Blue projects. It's all relatively safe to begin with, so you shouldn't worry." He gives a small smile, still amused at Stark's prima donna attitude.

"More importantly, all three of these have Yinsen's approval, even if one doesn't have yours." He opens up the first, looking to Stark. "First test is pretty simple - thirty minute reaction test. After that, I want to test it over night. Tomorrow, we're going to test it on the site itself." Pointing to the center of his chest.

From:

starkingenuity

Stark wrinkles his nose which makes all of his unkempt facial hair bunch up. His forehead wrinkles too as he lays his forehead across his forearm. "You're going to slather me with goop."

He just has to say it out loud. It sounds so awful. And Banner looks so amused. And smug. It's hard not to smile at that.

"Well all right then. If your heart is settled on it." He rolls up his sleep and offers his arm with a grin. "Do your worst. Or your best."

From:

aggravated

"You make it sound perverse," Bruce says with a wrinkle of his nose, but he takes out only a little bit. Then he stands there, waiting, with it on his two fingers. It could look 'perverse' in the right situation. "Warming it up," he murmurs after a stillness and silence. "It's quite cold and I might as well put my higher temperature to work."

He's going to try and not make this awkward.

From:

starkingenuity

"Well it is a little," Stark says, whining ever so slightly the way children do when they want to be right. He does roll up his sleeve, however, offering the underside of his arm to Bruce and the warmed up gel. "Just tell me I won't get super powers, grow a third eye, or become a woman, Banner. I'd never leave my room if the last one happens and the world needs me."

He's like the annoying kid in school that always tries to get the last word, or say something foul. Even if all he wants to do is make someone else notice him or smile for his efforts.

From:

aggravated

Bruce chuckles a little and shakes his head, but more out of Stark's ridiculousness than anything else. "Nothing radioactive in it, or all that special." He took Stark's hand in his, steadying the offered arm while he spread just a little of the clear gel on the tanned skin. Stark would find his hand to be surprisingly calloused and very warm, but the grip was very gentle. "I'll be checking every five minutes, and if we hit thirty without issue, we'll put plastic and tape over it for the overnight test."

His head lifts, eyes meeting briefly, before he looks away again.

From:

starkingenuity

"Are you going to be checking it every five minutes over night too?" Stark's eyes are bright even though the areas around ten are crinkled. He's not a young man. His youth has passed but his vigor is still there in droves. He tries to live like a man half his age and until K-Day, he probably succeeded.

Why he is insisting on flirting with Banner, though, is more emotional than it is anything else. He's so careful usually with that. He does know he can't connect with people usually.

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From:

aggravated

"Mmm, I think not." Stark's youth may have passed by, but that hasn't changed his spirit. That spirit all but pours out of him, and it infects people around him, for good or for worse. Bruce can feel it every time he's around Stark, like an aura, but he keeps it at a distance. Stark flirts with everyone, as far as he can tell, so Bruce lets it off as meaningless.

"If you have any reaction, I need you to notify me immediately, no matter what time it is. Understood?"

From:

starkingenuity

"Or, and hear me out here, or we just bunk up together." He's just putting it out there. "I should have someone with me at all times and Jarvis needs his rest." He doesn't usually go for Bruce's type. Male, occasionally, sure, everyone likes a little caramel in their otherwise strictly chocolate laden dessert schedule from time to time but otherwise? Bruce isn't anything he's ever interested in. And, for the moment, he is pretty sure the attraction is really just intellectual. The trouble is that Tony doesn't know how to be friendly. He just flirts.

Bruce Banner is getting hit with the flirt, therefore, full force.

"It'll be like school." If you went to boarding school. "We'll tell ghost stories or something."

From:

aggravated

Bruce gives Stark such a look for that, flirt safely deflected, bluntly stating, "I don't see how that's like school," but he still looks thoughtful about the suggestion. Finally, after some hesitation, he does relent, however. "I'll offer Jarvis my room. He might enjoy the peace and quiet." Not that Bruce would be sleeping, his mind already is telling him, but he could live with that for a little while.

Bruce is not caramel, Stark, and right now, you've been macking more on white chocolate than chocolate.

From:

starkingenuity

Maybe. Bruce is beyond his comfort zone and know what? Tony likes it. He arches an eyebrow at the offer and tilts his head distinctly to the left. "Or we just take your room." Private bunks have bigger beds and it's not like they take up much space to begin with. Jarvis shouldn't be worried. Or told. He's got this really bad habit of smirking lately when it comes to anything involving Banner.

Tomorrow, once he's got the all clear, they can move on to the next phase and, by rough estimate, be finished with at least the smaller, prototype reactor by the end of the week.

He's got extremely high hopes for himself, obviously.

"Bag me up, Banner."

From:

aggravated

Stark might like taking Bruce beyond his comfort zone, but Bruce will equally firmly barricade himself inside that zone and not step beyond unless necessary. So right now, Stark's suggestion is being weighed and dismissed as being unnecessary. "There's only one bed in my room." Not even realizing what Stark might be trying to push.

"Give it a few more minutes. I want to make sure there's no skin reaction before I go about bagging you fully." Which sounded strange, spoken aloud.

Bruce honestly believes that Stark's time range is accurate. He's seen the speed at which Stark can work, and how quickly the whole creation of the arc reactor has been going. It's been incredible to watch. It reminds him, though, that often war is the vice proven to increase technology by leaps and bounds compared to peace.

From:

starkingenuity

War doesn't matter as much to Tony -- who knows that wars happen to be part and parcel of daily life somewhere in the world and thus, he gets to stay in business -- as his own livelihood does. The arc reactor had been a maybe later project until it had become obvious that he needs it. Now the time tables are pushed straight up. And rightly so. He can't have this car battery forever.

He just can't.

Leaning back in the wheel chair and flexing his arm as he waits for the gel, Tony shrugs. "I'm not going to molest you. I promise. But if you want to climb up into a bunk that's fine too."

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From:

aggravated

Bruce isn't beyond the idea that people can learn, they can change, and Stark seems to be following that. Maybe not for the best reasons, but it's happening. So, he will help bolster it as much as he can.

Bruce's eyes flicker down to where the gel sits, and finally, he wipes it away. His fingertips probe gently, feeling out the flesh, before giving a nod. "No sign of a reaction visually. Do you feel any pain? Itching?" Lifting his eyes to briefly meet Stark's eyes. "I don't plan to sleep, so I'm not concerned about the bed situation. ...If you think it'll upset Jarvis to change rooms, I suppose you could come to mine."

From:

starkingenuity

"Dose of a blast of radiation powerful enough to kill you doesn't just give you a healthy glow but also makes you an insomniac?" Believe it or not, Tony is attempting to be charming and personable.

Even if he tends to fail. Epically. Constantly. Bruce might be sensitive about his situation but Tony takes it all in stride. It's part of who Banner is and Tony finds it as easy to comment about as the way his hair curls and the greying at his temples.

From:

aggravated

Oh Tony.

Bruce frowns, pulling back from Stark at the words, then actually shakes his head just a little. "Quite the opposite, actually." His tone has gone clinical instead of what he would consider friendly. "A heavily increased metabolism, increased heart rate and body temperature, and however my body has survived leaves me needing more sleep than the average person by an hour or two."

He takes out a bit more of the gel, very uncertain about the whole topic of conversation. He's never really spoken to anyone outside of Betty and of course, "Mr. Blue" about his... condition.