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[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]

Like a sore tooth, Stark couldn't help but probe, could he? Bruce's fingers clench hard at his side and when he looks up, Stark can see the change. He meets Stark's eyes without issue, and somewhere in their depths, there is a hint of green. "He's a mindless beast with a severe rage issue and endless strength. He's not me."

He looks away, eyeing over the disc still sitting by his computer. He doesn't want to watch it. "I can't." It's very quiet, but there is still a dark tone to it. "Have you ever gotten very drunk, and witnessed yourself being so somehow the next day?"

[starkingenuity]

Stark's eyebrows make a dramatic shoot upwards. "Uh...yeah?" C'mon Bruce, you're talking to Tony Stark here. The man use to have whiskey for blood. "But fine. I won't thank you for saving me then. I'll thank him. But you're on eggshells. You're top-toeing here. I can see it in your eyes. You need to let out some steam. In a good way." He's prodding. Of course he's prodding. The man use to tinker for a living. "But if you don't want to watch it, mind if I pop it in? You eat the ice cream. I want to see what happened to my poor Jaeger."

His own fault, really. He'd let it all just get away from him.

[aggravated]

Bruce gives a little snort at the 'who to thank' comment, shaking his head. He picks up his laptop and the disc, actually bringing both over to Stark on the bed. "Knock yourself out," he says quietly, but he sits on the edge of the bed with his back to the screen, the ice cream forgotten for the moment.

Bruce still considers the whole thing his own fault. If he hadn't had the stroke of conscience that made him tell Jarvis about his condition... which he doesn't feel guilty about doing, only the outcome of what happened with the Jaeger.

Stark will see the whole thing from several cuts of the cameras around the Shatterdome. The wild blotches and streaks of blue across the Hulk's skin, forever stained by his fight against Trespasser. His brutal entrance through the head of the Jaeger, the fall, coming out with each one of them under his arms, cables ripped right out and dangling behind when he didn't know how to remove them otherwise.

[starkingenuity]

Too bad he doesn't have popcorn. The butter pecan is good enough for now and he crosses his legs as he props himself up on Banner's pillows and watches the DVD player with interest. He makes little noises of surprise -- because of the erratic way that the Apostle is moving, and then because of how it's face is sort of literally pulled open -- and then shakes his head at all of the ruined cabling.

It's not the money that makes him sad, but the beauty of the technology being defiled.

"Well that was my fault," he mutters to himself, rewinding the video to watch the Hulk smash it's way into his Jaeger's head. "But how did he know where to get us from and why did he do it? Smash and grabs usually involve shiny things and jewelery stores."

[aggravated]

Bruce licks his lips, his mouth suddenly very dry. He's never... really spoken about the Other Guy to someone. Not just little things, but what he and he alone knows about him, about how he works inside. He works his mouth a few times before he finally gets up the courage to speak, listening to it all play out behind him.

"Despite what most people think, he's not stupid. Some things will confuse him, but never for long. He learns incredibly fast and for what he hasn't yet he's incredibly stubborn. He... listens. Learns."

From Bruce himself.

"He's the ID, without any morals or boundaries. Pure emotional with unlimited power and nearly unlimited ability."

[starkingenuity]

"He might be the id but no one'd assume he's stupid. He just doesn't talk a lot and I can get that. I've seen you fight, Banner, I've seen you take down threats from the greatest to the least. That's a tactical mind responsible for that. I mean it." Stark rewinds the whole thing from the beginning again and watches it over. There's more than just grunting there but this piece of crap won't let him enhance the data being delivered.

Is the Hulk speaking or is that background noise from the yelling going on inside the launch room or the control center? Stark's eyes narrow and he leans forward.

"And if people do assume he's stupid, that's their own problem. You're not an animal, doctor." Yes, he's using the pronouns intermingledly.

[aggravated]

"You'd be surprised who would assume he is stupid," Bruce says, but then he has to take a quick breath to calm his nerves. "Him, Stark. Him. Not me. We are not the same. I'm not a killer. He is." How many he's killed, how much destruction he'd caused...

A hand comes up and holds his head, feeling a throb at the back of his eye. "No, he's worse than an animal and at the same time, more intelligent. That's half the trouble."

It's difficult to tell, because it's so mixed, but really, there's no actual words coming from his mouth.

[starkingenuity]

"He's not a killer, he's a survivor," Stark says immediately, not even thinking. He probably should do that from time to time. "And he passed a little bit of that luck onto me." Plus, Tony's been sort of watching the Hulk for awhile. At least, getting highlights. It had been hard to keep up with it when he was drinking, partying, building weapons, or Jaegers.

Tony focuses all of his attention right now on Bruce. He might as well be starting.

"Stop blaming yourself. It's not the same."

[aggravated]

"A survivor?!" Bruce finally turns, looking hard at Stark. "He's a killer, Stark! He's hurt and killed more people, so many people, but he won't care. He doesn't feel for people. There's no sense of empathy, there's no-" Bruce let out a low, quiet sound that sounds almost like a growl. He doesn't see the flash in his own eyes.

"All because of me."

[starkingenuity]

"How do you know? You black out, right? You have no idea his motivations. You won't even look at this footage of him being something other than a monster and you haven't bothered taking it into consideration that he's saved people!" Okay, do not yell at people prone to hurting people. Do not get angry at a man that can barely keep his anger in check.

This is not a Bruce Banner that has learned to force his anger into check, Stark. This is a Bruce Banner barely holding it together.

Tony grabs at the doctor's sleeve and tugs it upward. "He saved millions of people, Banner. You can say it's just because he liked punching a Kaiju more but give you both just a little more fucking credit! You're a good man."

[aggravated]

"I KNOW WHAT HE'S DONE!" Bruce all but snarled, glaring hard at Stark. His eyes have gone completely radioactive green, and even his fingertips match. "He fought against trespasser because this monster came into his domain and tried to take over! He's saved people as a side-result of his aggression and anger, nothing more!"

His hand actually reaches out and grabs Stark's wrist, not even realizing how hard the grip is. Stark is pushing him, right to the edge.

[starkingenuity]

He's not afraid. Tony Stark is a danger whore. People have been blogging that for years now. So even though Bruce is going green on him, he doesn't back down. What does he have to lose? The Hulk saved him once and Tony is stupidly, perhaps wrongly, sure that he'll not hurt him again. "If you two aren't the same person, Banner, if he's not even a little bit of what you are, and if you hate that you cause all of this, why are you letting me push all of your buttons?"

He's watched the Hulk's take down of the Kaiju. He's watched the Harlem incident. And he's not afraid.

Even if Banner might break his wrist now.

"You are the one hurting me now."

[aggravated]

That is all it takes. Everything falls from Bruce's face all at once, all of that anger and frustration and rage, and instead, it's replaced with fear. With fear and pain and surprise. He immediately releases Stark's wrist and stumbles back from the bed, almost enough to fall over the wheelchair.

His father. He's turning into his father. He's grabbed someone who's weaker than him and started to hurt him what has he done!?

"I'm sorry," he barely manages to whisper, everything all too much. It's not even a guess that he's bolting, as he turns for the door.

[starkingenuity]

He's not quick enough to catch Bruce, so he's just going to lay back and frown at the doctor. "Are you running away out of shame or because you think you might still hurt me? Don't, okay? Seriously. I need you, Banner."

He needs you to get a grip of yourself, toughen the fuck up, and be his friend. And he'll be yours too, even if it doesn't seem like that's what he's doing right now.

"Try trusting yourself a little and come back here before I become that pathetic guy crawling after you down the hall."

[aggravated]

Bruce's fingers lace around the door handle before Stark's words hit him. His eyes squeeze shut, fingers white-knuckled on the handle, mouth tight. He can't trust himself. Didn't he just prove that he couldn't? He's a danger to everyone, just like his father was. He inherited his genius, why not his desire to hurt people?

"I don't want to hurt you," he whispers, not even sure if Stark can hear him, but it comes out anyway as his forehead lays against the door.

[starkingenuity]

"Well good, that makes two of us." Of course he heard. Tony settles back against the pillows and watches the now muted screen as the Mammoth Apostle's face gets beaten in yet again. His poor Jaeger. Honestly, he's pretty upset about that, if only because he's not the one fixing her. And he should be. "Neither does your alter ego, Clark Kent. Come over here."

He's not trying to extend an olive branch. He's trying to prove to Bruce that he's strong too, it's not just the green guy. He'll figure it out.

[aggravated]

"I don't know why," Bruce says very softly, fingers tightening before his shoulders slump, his hand falls. He isn't quite ready to face Stark again, not while his eyes are hot and he needs to calm down from the spike of his heart. "I don't know why he helped you were he's never done anything like that before."

Why does Stark even want him over there? He just- and he- why does nothing make sense with him here?!

[starkingenuity]

Stark smirks and half laughs, giving Banner a shrug. Stark has no idea if he's seen or not, and frankly he doesn't care. Banner can have his moments of silence because he's not leaving and that is, honestly, all that Stark cares about now. When Bruce does look at him, when he sees it out of the corner of his eye, he gives Banner a genuine smile this time. He's awesome, or at least he's pretty close to it. No one would even argue with him about that!

"I don't think it matters," he says finally. "I don't think it matters why he saved me and Jarvis. But he did. And you just spending the rest of our sleep over crying into your beer is going to really suck. So stop. Come here and watch him do it. If anyone has insight into why, it's you, but you need to stop running. You don't have to any more."

[aggravated]

Bruce catches that smile, and it confuses him down to his core. How could Stark be smiling after what he did?! "...why?" he finally asks, because he needs to know. Like any good man of science, he needs to understand. But with Stark... he feels like he doesn't understand anything. "Why do you want me over there? Why do you want me here, still, after what I just did?"

He pulls away from the door, which brings him a little closer, but there is much of a stray dog in his body language. That's a lot like what he resembles - a stray dog, thin and rough at the edges, showing its teeth, but able to be warmed up to if one doesn't happen too move too quickly.

[starkingenuity]

Stark doesn't answer for a moment and when he does, there's a romantic sort of hum to his words that isn't exactly something he's anticipated to happen. Or maybe it's just ingrained into his being.

He's never been a fan of strays. He doesn't like people who are hard to get.

"Why? Because someone needs to show you that you're a good person. Someone needs to toughen you up. And since I probably am the only person you think of as a friend--"

You ticked the box, Banner.

"That's my job. Come here."

[aggravated]

Stark will have to deal with the 'hard to get' if he wants to be friends with Bruce. Practically the walking definition of just that. Bruce takes in, then slowly lets out, a very deep breath as he schools down those spikes of fear-defense before taking another step closer. Then another.

His eyes flicker to Stark's wrist where he'd grabbed the other, looking for signs of bruising from a too-hard grip. "...I don't understand you," he admits quietly, another step, almost to the end of the bed. "You don't make sense. Everyone else is afraid of me." He hesitates, then amends, "except maybe your co-pilot."

[starkingenuity]

"Well Jarvis is a machine," he laughs and shrugs, closing the screen on the portable DVD player. Banner doesn't have to watch if he doesn't want to. Tony isn't going to force anything. "And you're not a psychiatrist. So I don't expect you to understand me. And I've stumped my previous shrinks too."

There is a little bit of a shrug before he looks up at Bruce in earnest.

"You're not someone to be afraid of. You've got a pretty good lid on the pot."

[aggravated]

That finally brings Bruce to Stark's side, looking down on him. "Most people, in particular after what happened, would disagree." Maybe someday, but Bruce has no particular desire to watch the Other Guy. It is the part of him that he hates, seperates entirely from himself. Watching it.. makes it all that much more real, even if he knows it is reality.

So Stark had visited psychologists in the past. He wonders how well they dealt with his... issues. Or why Stark had chosen to go at all.

"I'm still sorry," he says quietly. "You say I have a lid on it, but..." His eyes flicker to Stark's wrist again. "I guess I have to keep trying."

[starkingenuity]

A small bruise might be forming but as long as his wrist isn't broken, he's all right. He waits for Banner to glance up at him before he smiles. "Hey. That lost lid was for a good cause. We appreciate it."

Tony very much likes being alive and likes not having killed people accidentally because of a freak out.

"Enough kicked puppy play. Get some ice cream and let's have a proper sleep over. Braid my hair and let's talk about boys."

[aggravated]

Bruce gives a small snort at that last bit, but very cautiously he does as told and gathers up his beloved little container of caramel ice cream, poking in the container and handing Stark another one at random. He even dares to sit on the edge of the bed this time, but that's as far as he'll go.

"I've little to discuss as far as 'boys' go. Or girls, I suppose, either." A little shrug, not looking for pity, but a straight blunt comment.