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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]

"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.

[starkingenuity]

"Don't tell me you're asexual. I don't care about how much documentation there is about it," Tony says, scraping his wooden spoon across Rocky Road gelato. "I just don't buy it that people can't get sexually excited."

It's just something to talk about. And he's not really done all that much research on it or he might realize how narrow minded he's being. Or maybe he does and he doesn't care. Psychology doesn't interest him as much as engineering does.

And he's terrible to talk to about things that people care about. He's extremely close minded for such an open minded man.

[aggravated]

Bruce gets such a look and turns to give Stark a head look. "That isn't what being asexual is about, Stark," he says with the tone of being insulted for other people out there. He lets it go through and shakes his head. "It's not like that."

Now with a tone of 'can we not discuss my sex life?' added on there.


"It's not very important in the scheme of things, so if you want to discuss that with someone, you'll have to find someone else."

[starkingenuity]

"Actually, in the grand scheme of things? It's like the most important thing. Ever. Since, you know, procreation. Kind of important. Or not if you're not into that." He's just feeling Bruce out...which probably is...not right.

Alas. These things happen. Tony doesn't know when to stop. Half way done with his ice cream, he sets it aside and yawns.

"If I snore, wake me, will you?" he asks. Yes, sleep. He'd very much like sleep.

[aggravated]

"Procreation can't happen anymore, so maybe that's why it's become unimportant." Oh yes, there is a soft bitterness in Bruce's voice that he can't help. It's a topic he's always avoided with other people.

Still, he pushes it aside and gives a nod, standing up. "I'll be keeping an eye on you. Sleep well, Stark." A tight smile that doesn't touch his eyes, and Bruce moves over to snag all of the ice cream containers, tucking them safely in the cooler.