starkingenuity | The Not So Silent Hill

Rolling over, Tony threw an arm dramatically over his face and did his best not to vocalize his frustration. He felt like his heart was going to burst right into his chest, sinew and muscle liquifying beyond his control. "I'll get you some water," Tony said softly a moment later, his voice as steady as he could manage it. It was his own code for a quick jerk off before the water came, but he slipped out of bed and into his bathrobe before Bruce could protest.

He wasn't sure if leaving was the right course of action, but Bruce needed to calm down and it didn't help to have your lover as hard as they could possibly get tenting their boxer-briefs right next to you.

Tony took care of his business in half a dozen jerks, flushed the hall toilet, and washed his hands as well as he could to avoid Bruce's incredibly sharp nose picking up on what he'd done.

The water took an astounding five minutes to arrive, though Tony lingered outside of his bedroom running one hand through his hair to force himself not to suggest they take a trip back to Silent Hill for a little fuck-cation.

"Hey. How's the heart?"

Bruce knew exactly what Tony did in the bathroom, even if he could usually only smell soap on him when he came back. He tried not to think of it. Instead, he just covered his eyes, breathed, and thought about physics.

After a couple minutes of breathing and acing his exams all over again, he got up and changed out of his pants, climbing into pajamas instead, and lay on the bed, inwardly cursing everything for the deep sense of dissatisfaction he was always left with after sessions like this.

By the time Tony came back, he had mostly calmed down.

"Better." Bruce sat up and took the offered glass, taking a long drink. He resisted the urge to apologize for putting a stop to everything. To apologize for not being able to give Tony everything a good partner should.

An apology like that would have done absolutely no good anyway. Tony felt the need to apologize too, for always starting what he knew he could not finish, for making Bruce worse off than he himself was. There was no relief for the other man. None at all.

"Good, then I got you something." He'd been teasing Banner, half a life time ago, about smoking a lot of weed to stay mellow. Maybe he hadn't been too off course, however. Tony wasn't much of a drug enthusiast, unless you counted liquor, but he did have a few ounces of rather choice marijuana...some of which was located in his headboard, already rolled.

It was sort of like a peace offering, though he knew it wouldn't do much more than calm them both down again.

It was either this or go back to work and honestly, Tony would rather keep his leg up for a few more hours.

Bruce smirked when he saw what Tony was taking out.

"Why am I not surprised?"

He took one of the offered joints, giving Tony a light kiss on the cheek in thanks. He rarely depended on drugs to keep himself in check, since they could sometimes be hard to come by and he didn't want to leave himself without any way to control himself if the supply dried up, but they definitely made things easier.

"Do you have a lighter?"

Normally, he'd be more worried about getting high when they had a small child to take care of, but Alessa was so good at taking care of herself that sometimes he suspected they could leave for a year and they'd come back to see her perfectly fine. It'd be all the things around her that'd be in ruins.

"Do you really take me for a pothead?" Tony asked with a smirk. He didn't even use it that much when he really needed to, when the thoughts hit him from all angles and when his mind had mini meltdowns that would leave him scrawling plans and ideas along the walls in sheer terror that he might lose some amazing breakthrough that would first make him worthy of his father's attention and then make him worthy of his succession.

Luckily, alcohol managed to be a very good way to dull his brain enough not to resort to more illegal substances.

He lifted the joint up and through an aperture that likely ought to have not been working into a bedroom design, JARVIS fired a laser at the tip to set it smouldering.

Tony liked showing off and being lazy at the same time. He also didn't seem to care that he could have had a laser beam shoot through his hand. He took a puff on the joint before passing it over, a stupid grin on his face.

"I take you for the kind of guy who doesn't care if something's illegal."

Bruce rolled his eyes at the laser before accepting the joint and puffing.

"Some time, I should show you around some of the countries I went to. You'd be surprised what you can get away with in some of them." Of course, he was only referring to the comparatively harmless stuff. He was jaded to some of the awful things. "Then again, I'm not sure how well you'd take to the living conditions."

Sometimes, Bruce missed his life before SHIELD dropped in. He definitely didn't miss running for his life, but he had liked traveling, learning cultures he'd never seen and helping people who never could.

(Yet he hoped he wouldn't be forced into it again. He had heard rumblings of military taking legal action to arrest him.)

Bruce scooted so he was against Tony, resting his head on his lover's shoulder before passing the joint back. He couldn't have sex, but that didn't mean he couldn't be affectionate. He knew how physical Tony was, and frankly, he enjoyed any affection they shared.

"I have a factory in China and spent a few months in a cave in Afganistan. That's about all of the third world that I really want to spend time in," Tony said honestly, slipping down between Bruce and the pillows. He waved the joint off. These things were done slowly and, in all honesty, for Bruce's benefit more than his own.

He was happy to stroke hair and try to figure out how to ask Alessa for the secret Silent Hill managed to bestow upon Bruce before they exploded. It would have been one thing if there wasn't a constant, nagging sexual tension but, unfortunately, Tony's tastes had changed irrevocably from blondes with nice racks to Bruce Banner with his probably perfect mouth.

"Instead, how about you accept a little pampering? You've spent long enough without air conditioning, Bruce," he said, inhaling the smoke Banner exhaled with his eyes closed.

"I'll admit that AC is nice. There's nothing quite like picking between closed windows on a hot night and malaria." Even the smell of marijuana was calming him down. He lazily rolled the joint between his fingers, smiling as he thought of all the unpleasantness of the third world. "But there were a lot of interesting people out there. A lot of kind people, too. I don't think I would have lasted long if it weren't for the kindness of random people."

Bruce didn't even think about asking Alessa for the secret. Even if he could somehow ask without her asking awkward questions, he doubted she was even able to do anything. If she were, she would have probably offered by now just for his own sake.

Then again, maybe she wouldn't. He was never quite sure how much compassion Alessa would extend. She didn't seem to think it was right to--more than just a girl in an abusive household, but a girl raised in a violent culture. He should ask her how the Order did things. He would be able to understand where she was coming from better.

Maybe he could also figure out if they had specific recipes or harmless traditions. Maybe that would make her feel more at home, if she really did still subscribe to their philosophy of life and creation.

If Tony had any idea how scattered Bruce's mind could be when he was toked up, he would have done this more often and gotten him to think out loud. Instead, he contented himself with talking about India and South America and teased Bruce that if there wasn't a five star hotel nearby, he didn't want to see it.

Even so, he knew that if Bruce had to run, he would run with him. The thought came crystal clear and a bright frighteningly as his fingers tangled in a stubbornly thick curl.

Well damn. Silent Hill, and everything that had happened since, had changed him.

"Stop it, Banner," he muttered. "I mean it, really, stop. I can't be more in love with you than I already am, it's not physically possible."

Bruce let out a soft chuckle, smoke curling out with his breath, and he gave his lover a smile.

"I love you too, Tony."

It was a perfect moment. Cuddled against Tony, just talking, with their little girl resting in her room, talking to JARVIS about whatever little girls talked about. For a moment, he had no idea why he had been so afraid to be close to Tony, to let something like this happen.

"I have a lot of letters I should send. There are people who'd I'd like to thank for their hospitality." One day, he'd like to write down all the experiences. Not really for anyone but himself and maybe whoever cared to read it. There were so many amazing people, so many beautiful incidents of common humanity that it felt like an injustice to keep the memories to himself. "It's just hard to send some of those letters when a lot of them don't have addresses."

So there it was. The love exchange. Tony felt warm, and it wasn't because Bruce's body temperature was abnormally high. It wasn't because of the pot either. He almost wanted to giggle-- Hopefully that was the pot though! It all happened organically. The conversation returned almost immediately after.

Still, he placed a kiss on the top of Banner's head and folded his arms tightly around his boyfriend with a sigh into his hair as he prattled away about letters.

"Borrow some of the drones," he murmured. "Write your letters or record video and JARVIS will send them where they need to go if you have approximate GPS coordinates."

If they could find Cheryl, they could find Bruce's old compatriots.

"And say thank you from me, too. I would have missed out if I never got to meet you."

Love. They hadn't needed to say it, really--Bruce knew that Tony loved him, and he assumed Tony knew that he loved him back. But it was still nice to say it out loud.

He rested his head on Tony's chest, still rolling the joint between his fingers but listening to his lover's heart beat.

"That might freak some of them out. It's hard to get used to drones if you've never seen a computer before."

He'd never say it, but he loved the smell of Tony. Grease and cologne, but beneath that, when he was shirtless and in bed, there was something unique. Warm.

"But thank you. I'll do that. I'd like to make sure they're all still alive. I never got to say goodbye to most of them."

Steve Rogers called early the next morning, right around ten o'clock, and though Tony tended to lean towards insomnia, after his and Banner's late night, he'd slept in. Having JARVIS wake him to inform him of the other man's arrival caused him to lift his head. Bruce, sprawled against his chest, looked too perfect to move and so Tony closed his eyes again and let his head hit the pillow.

That lasted all of ten seconds.

"J--" he half whispered, trying to get the AI's responses to match so Bruce wouldn't wake. It was rare his boyfriend didn't have nightmares after Silent Hill, after all. "Does Alessa know we have company again?"

He didn't need another blown out section of home. The repairs were too costly.

He probably shouldn't have allowed poor Alessa to be alone all night and morning.

No, Alessa had no idea that they were supposed to have company.

But she knew now.

She had spent the night chatting with JARVIS. When she grew tired of that, she went outside and played tricks on people she didn't like. And by 'play tricks,' she meant 'burn or pummel or otherwise attack' people she caught doing things she didn't like, mainly things like mugging or drinking excessively or bullying children. A lot of people went home with unexplained burns and bruises. Silent Hill wasn't doing the punishing for her, so she'd happily dole some retribution out to sinners in her boredom.

You were only allowed to beat up children if you were their parents or a religious authority. So there.

In the morning, she came back to the Tower, impatiently waiting for Tony and Bruce to wake up. She was aware of their relationship, and before the ritual she would have been deeply disgusted by it, but after encountering murdered children and wife killers and rapists, homosexuality really didn't seem like a big deal. So she found she really didn't mind like she once would have.

She entertained herself by looking up things on the Internet, introducing herself to more violent video games, and drawing. Until someone came to the door.

She was immediately there, staring as a weirdly handsome man walked inside. She narrowed her eyes. Tell her they weren't going to have another guest talking over her like she were some baby boy.

She threw a pen at the man to catch his attention and see if he could spot her.

Steve Rogers wasn't like the rest. He'd seen things that might break most men, but he was a paragon of good and while that made it impossible to see Alessa, even a chest as broad as his wasn't going to be able to ignore the pen that bounced off of it. Glancing up in his faded blue jeans and brown bomber jacket, every bit the picture of a good old American boy, quite literally born on the Fourth of July, Steve bent to pick up the object and frown at it.

By that point, Tony appeared in the doorway and the pen was neatly placed on the table by the entry way. "Stark."

But Tony wasn't looking at him. "Try to be nice this time, Lessy." Okay... Steve wasn't sure how to take that but he assumed it was a new AI. He had trouble dealing with that sort of thing, but having just gotten through I Love Lucy on Blu Ray between flights around the country, dodging HYDRA as he went, he decided to roll with the punches.

It was just easier.

Tony frowned slightly and then moved forward before he turned hi back to Steve and crouched down. The super soldier didn't need super hearing to pick up Tony's whispering. "He can't see you...great. I guess it looks like I'm talking to myself. Where's your Teddy JARVIS?"

“I’ll be nice if he is nice.” Alessa puffed her cheeks out indignantly, as if that made her look any more dignified and mature, but she was surreptitiously trying to check if Tony’s leg had gotten any better. Not that she was concerned and guilty, absolutely not.

The people who couldn’t see her generally annoyed her. It wasn’t just about them by default ignoring her, which was irritating but understandable—it was the implication that they had no reason to. There were only three ways one could be unaware of her entirely, in her experience: one, the town didn’t care to make her visible and neither did she, and the person lacked any extraordinary sight. That, she could live with, and that was how she was generally able to navigate the city without ever being seen. Two, they were too good or lacking in sin to have need for her and the judgment she was tied to. Those people didn’t exist past the age of twelve.

That left the third category: the people who refused to acknowledge, even in the darkest depths of their hearts, that they had done anything wrong. The town usually dealt with those types. There was no town to deal with them here.

But Tony seemed to want her to play nice with the unseeing man, so she supposed she could tolerate him. As long as he didn’t make her mad.

“JARVIS bear is on the couch. I was playing video games with him.” And by that, she meant she convinced JARVIS to go on multiplayer. He was way better at games than she was, since he was literally an AI, but she liked to think she was getting better, considering she didn’t have any thumbs to work with. “You want me to get him?”

Because if she was supposed to communicate with Mr. American Stereotype over there, he probably needed some indicator of where she was standing. Holding a bear in front of her might help.

"That's sort of the trouble with that one," Tony muttered. "He is nice. Well, it's relative. And yeah, go get him. You can make him talk for you." Tony stood and faced the wary frown of Captain America. Tony had half a mind to send him on his way without answers, but...they needed him.

And that was annoying. Almost as annoying as his limp. He was stiff but it was better than yesterday. Pot, aspirin and a good night's sleep will do that.

And then Steve opened his mouth. "Stark, I don't know what game you're playing--"

"Know what I wish this was? A game. It's not. There's a little girl here, about seven years old, ritualistically burned. Banner filled you in a little bit, I know, but we couldn't risk saying much over the phone."

Steve shifted his weight. "Are you saying your lines might be tapped?"

"Yes. Thanks to you and your new girlfriend--"

"Woah, woah, woah--!"

"--I have HYDRA trying to kill me and I don't know if they're working with this Order. She's probably a mutant, Steve. She can astral project, she has telekinesis. Don't get her mad because I really can not afford another renovation right now, okay? I'm twice your age, Rogers. I get tired too."

Steve, poor Steve, at least looked like he believed Tony through his own confusion.

"Is there anything JARVIS can't do?" Alessa muttered as the door leading to the living room suddenly clattered open and a teddy bear flew out, coming to a sudden stop in front of her.

She leaned forward, though that did nothing, and said, "Tony, you're really bad at explaining things. And that's coming from me."

She waved at Rogers, once again a useless gesture, and resigned herself to at least trying to play nice. "I'm Alessa. Don't listen to Tony. My name's not Lessy. Or Less. Or Ashy. It's Alessa."

"He can't make eggs and eat them," Tony replied, calling after her, which just so happened to make him look even more insane before he turned to lead Steve into the kitchen. Eggs sounded good. He'd fallen asleep before the pot munchies started and now he could really use a little grease.

Steve, thankfully, decided not to bring up the limp. Instead, all he wanted to know was: "Are you pulling the wool over my eyes, Stark?" And that was before the sudden banging and flying teddy bears happened to cause him to spin around and nearly reach for the shield he had strapped to his back.

"Wh-- Rogers, no one... No one says that any more," he groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose. Yes, evidently floating teddy bears were normal for Tony.

What wasn't normal was having Alessa's approximated voice coming out of the bear a moment after Alessa herself said the same words it repeated.

"Creepy."

It wouldn't be as creepy as explaining things to the somewhat disgruntled, on edge blond, however. At least Steve took it all fairly well while Tony made omelets.

As Tony finished the preliminary explanations, Bruce wandered in, dressed in a rumpled button-down and pajama bottoms. As soon as he sees Steve, he smiles one of his rare smiles.

"Steve. Good to see you."

While Tony didn't like Steve, Bruce really did. Steve was one of the only people who treated Bruce like he was human, even after knowing about the Hulk. One of the other only people happened to be Tony.

"Thanks for coming by." He sits down near Alessa, taking note how she was holding the teddy bear and looking disgruntled. "They haven't started picking fights with each other yet, have they?"

Alessa smirked at Bruce, letting the bear float in her lap. "Leave for another minute and I bet they will."

"Good thing I got here, then." Bruce leans against the edge of the table and gives both Steve and Tony a sleepy smile, still not completely awake.

Tony would be more or less fine being insular. He had his toys, he had his boyfriend, he had his lab and a mission. He could go out and be above them all any time he wanted. He told himself he didn't need anything else. And perhaps that was true now that he had Banner and Alessa with him. He really didn't.

He sat back and let the teddy bear and Bruce fill in Steve on the rest of what had happened while he placed plates in front of them all. Yes, even Alessa. It wasn't that he didn't remember she was incorporeal, he just wanted to make sure that she didn't feel left out. She even got a glass of chocolate milk too.

They were halfway through their meal, after stopping to rip on Captain America for his overzealous use of ketchup, when a figure appeared behind Banner followed by her shadow.

Tony waggled his fork around. "You two are too late for breakfast."

Barton just shrugged. "I can make ours."

"Not in my kitchen," Tony said defensively. "I already had enough of my place blown up already!"

Bruce turned in his seat, and the corner of his mouth quirked slightly. He knew neither Natasha nor Clint very well, but the fact remained that they all saved the world together. That earned them 'Bruce smiling at you' privileges.

"Glad to see you could make it. Pull up a seat."

Alessa, who up until now was trying to figure out what she was expected to do with food and chocolate milk, immediately looked up and narrowed her eyes at the newcomers, Natasha especially.

One of the utensil drawers clattered open and chopsticks flew out, getting thrown at both Clint and Natasha to see if they could see her.

Immediately, Bruce slapped his hand down on the counter, forcing Alessa to look him in the eye as he tried to look stern. "Alessa, that is not how we say hi to people! Play nice."

"I am playing nice!" she huffed. "I didn't throw sharp things!"

"You have your JARVIS bear, just talk at people!"

"But that's boring!"

Barton was fast. You had to be when your only superpower in a room full of super heroes (or trained former ballerinas turned KGB agents) was to move quicker than they could. He didn't even turn, half in the fridge despite Stark's commands, when he grabbed the chopsticks out of the air and tucked them behind one here.

"Who's the kid?" He balanced pancake mix, eggs and milk in one arm and kicked the door to the refrigerator shut. "Because that's creepy, even for you, Stark."

Tony was too busy helping Bruce deal with Alessa to pay attention to Clint Barton, invader of air ducts and disabler of security equipment. He assumed that was why JARVIS did no announce their arrival to the Tower. He needed to install lasers, he decided.

"Oh, hey, got blueberries? Nat, you want pancakes? Yeah you do." He grinned.

Natasha caught the chopsticks heading her way easily enough, raising one eyebrow at the small child. "You know me, Clint."

Steve looked between Clint and Natasha, frowning. "You're seriously telling me I'm the only one who can't see her?" He had been thinking that maybe Stark was pulling his leg, but...

Natasha arched one eyebrow at him, slowly moving towards Clint and away from the child. "Why wouldn't you see her? She's right there. Glaring at me."

Alessa intensified her glare. Bruce frowned at her, but considering she wasn't throwing anything, he decided to just be satisfied.

"Are you a mutant?" Natasha asked, keeping her eyes on Alessa, because just because Tony let it in the house doesn't mean it isn't dangerous.

"We call it Divinely Touched where I come from, but I guess your word works too," Alessa grumbled, giving a small roll of her eyes.

"This is Alessa," Bruce cut in. "And she's honestly a sweet girl once she warms up to you."

"No I'm not."

"Tony, is she or is she no nice once you get to know her?" Bruce asked, taking a drink of orange juice and looking to his boyfriend for support while Alessa kept glaring at Natasha.

"Banner," Tony said, smirking, "we are not playing 'gang up' on this one or she'll go out of her way to prove just how far right of the nice spectrum she is!" He couldn't help but laugh, the warmth in his eyes causing Clint to turn away from his pancake assembly line to glance almost secretly at Natasha.

Tony's personality was certainly off. Natasha did not return the look to her friend and her savior. She might have cleared her ledger when it came to Barton but there was still something there that would never be erased by paying one good deed with another. Much too capable of schooling her expressions, she didn't reveal her surprise at Tony's interactions with Banner or the girl.

When poor Steve just started to get lost in the confusion of the bickering with a person he couldn't see, Tony hooked him up with an earpiece and JARVIS was able to approximate Alessa's voice for him. It was only strange, thereafter, not to see the girl, even if he could see her manipulating objects.

The story, like it had with Thor, came out slowly. The two assassins were quiet, well, relatively. Barton ate noisily, fork to plate, but he kept his mouth shut otherwise. Natasha more or less ignored the pancakes in favor of watching Alessa and her scowling act all through the tale.

Other than the sex, their relationship and some of Bruce's trials in Silent Hill, the three of them managed to fill the Avengers in on what was happening.

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