starkingenuity | The Not So Silent Hill

The Not So Silent Hill

[Continued from: here]

Staring at the little house, Tony was noteably unimpressed. The child and other half of a god (however loosely you wanted to use the term) really ought to have not been so...small. He was expecting more, and the way he stood with his hip out and arms crossed proved it. They'd take a quinjet to the nearest open field and one of Tony's smaller cars after that, loaded into the back of the plane after he'd ripped out a few seats.

With Extremis stable enough to exist in several now fire-breathing and extra strong mice rampaging through specially designed cages to contain them, JARVIS' databases and hacking ability getting them the information they needed to arrive here, and Alessa more or less content with the nurse she and Banner picked out, this had been the next logical step. Even so, he expected it to be a little more difficult.

Wearing a black t-shirt and dark jeans that only accentuated his somewhat femininely proportioned hips and backside, Tony Stark was still Tony Stark and flashiness and he went hand in hand.

Like a brand name.

It didn't help that the yellow convertible was parked across the street, in direct contention with the overall look and feel of the neighbor around it.

"You can knock." He wasn't too keen on touching things other people did.

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It didn't take Bruce long to get down to the kitchen, looking more relaxed than he had been before. The kissing had reassured him that he and Tony would be okay, even if there would be difficulties while they figured things out.

"We're in the same building, Tony. You could just shout."

He didn't immediately touch him like he wanted to. He didn't want to push Tony, just in case he needed a little more time to adjust. Instead he just leaned on the counter and crossed his arms. "What do you two need?"

"I'm glad you think my lungs are that good, but yell, Banner? Some of us are civilized." Tony might not have taken to casual touching so quickly but he didn't mind if Bruce was close. He couldn't help but grin at him anyway. "And remember that when I tell you that I'm getting Alessa a tattoo for what absolutely amounted to a brand new birthday yesterday since you supposedly wouldn't let me get her weaponry or a ship."

Sometimes it was obvious that Tony thought he could out talk anyone just by piling the heart of the matter with a whole lot of verbose speech, most of which attempted to be witty but otherwise didn't mean a whole hell of a lot. It was just distracting. No wonder he was good at business.

"Also, I need some coffee. And an apple turn over. Excuse me."

"You're what?!"

Yeah, no, not burying the lead there. Bruce was far smarter than the average businessman.

"She's just gotten a body and you're already talking about--"

"It's not because I want one. It's a binding charm to keep me from killing everyone once you give me Extremis," Alessa cut in, sitting down on the edge of the counter. Bruce looked at her, looking cranky already. "I was powerful enough before my body was destroyed. I don't think I could control it with Extremis if I didn't bind it."

"Plus, my dad never let me get a tat and I'm going to be a much cooler dad," Tony boasted. It might have been the first time that he had come up with that out loud, though inferring it at every chance he got certainly gave it all away just the same. "We could all shave our heads too, you know. For solidarity. I'll get a tattoo on my arm--"

Bruce's face-- oh okay. Now he understood all of the things JARVIS had shown him. He wanted to reach over and just kiss him. It almost made Tony feel giddy... And young. Very young.

What a good way to finish off the day?

"You should probably eat. We both should. And soon, Alessa can too."

"Tony, there is a very thick line between being 'cool' and being completely irresponsible. Letting a seven-year-old get a tattoo for aesthetic reasons is irresponsible." Not even going to acknowledge Tony's solidarity comment. Alessa just rolled her eyes at Tony.

"But letting a seven-year-old get a tattoo so she doesn't kill everyone isn't." He looks at Alessa, who's mostly at eye-level when she sits on the counter. "Are you sure this will work?"

"I've used it before. I just couldn't put it on myself before."

Bruce held eye contact with her. "Put it somewhere you can hide with clothes."

He'd seen plenty of tattoos, and he knew that she'd be in for a lot of judgment from other people. As would he and Tony, actually, but they were already judged a lot. Bruce looked up at Tony, arching one eyebrow disapprovingly. "Do you feel like Bolivian? I can cook."

Oh, Bruce's protective streak was wonderful. No wonder he'd unleashed the Hulk after Loki had forced Tony to forget him. That stung ever so slightly, like peeling off a bandage did. No one cared that much for him. No one. He'd had forty-some years to know that and the realization hit him hard.

And so, he said nothing about the admonishment. He just nodded at Bruce, his gaze intense and touched with uncertainly. "Sounds perfect. I'll make the coffee. JARVIS?"

"Right away, sir," the AI responded and Tony sat down that the breakfast nook.

Bruce nodded, moving to the oven and setting up a cutting board next to it. "Alessa, you can help. I'll show you how to make aji de lentejas."

He gave her a laundry list of things to grab from the covers as he prepared the cooking space. He usually took control of what they stocked their cupboards with these days, so he knew exactly where everything was and what they had.

"Who taught you how to cook this?" she asked as he juiced a whole lime as easily as he would do anything else.

"A lot of people. I think I learned this one in El Alto. A woman was very grateful after I gave her granddaughter some help taking medication, so she taught me all of the family recipes. And, well, gave me enough food to feed an army."

"Why did they go to you for help?" Alessa picked up a knife and started cutting up an onion for him. "Don't they have hospitals in Bolivia?"

"Well..." Bruce cleared his throat. "Considering she was using it to give herself an illegal abortion? No. Not in that case."

Alessa arched one eyebrow. "Huh."

Tony just watched the two interact as if it was for the first time. It seemed strange to have them both side by side in his kitchen, bustling around the space as if they knew it. And of course they did. Not remembering that, however, left such a terrible taste in his mouth. It was worse than just losing out on something wonderful...it was that his mind was failing him.

He counted to twenty silently in all six languages he knew, conjugated the verb 'to be' after that and went over all the working parts in the engines he'd design ed for the quinjet. He solved a few mathematical equations in his head too, just to be sure his mind was up to the task, and looked noticeably relieved as the smells started to hit him.

Banner, he realized, made a good wife.

He couldn't mention that because he'd get hit and having suffered a traumatic memory-loss already, he didn't need a head injury to go with it.

He nearly missed out on the whole Banner-the-Abortion-doctor, but he wasn't going to judge. Bruce saved a girl's life. And Tony was firmly pro-choice.

He kept quiet on that too.

"Did you usually swap recipes for medical know-how? Explains your clothes."

It was a good thing he didn't say anything about Bruce being a wife, because he would have gotten hit.

As it stood, Bruce rolled his eyes. He rolled his eyes more with Tony than he ever had in his life.

"It wasn't just recipes." The food smelled like nostalgia. It had been many years since he had been in Bolivia, but he had liked it there very much. "A lot of the places I went to were very impoverished. People gave me anything in exchange for medical help. I remember one man tried to give me his daughter to marry." He smiles a little at all the memories. "Between you and me, I think he just wanted her to marry an American doctor. I told him that he could just give me a blanket and we'd call it even."

That wasn't even the only time he was proposed to. A lot of people were convinced he could get girls to America. One or two girls also were just enamored with the mystery around him, but they were almost universally way too young for him.

It all made Tony laugh. "Only you would equate a blanket with a woman," he said, all too fondly. How easy it was for him to slip back into that sort of comfort zone, though he didn't have the last few weeks of togetherness to back it up. Bruce was still Bruce and Tony was still so very pleased to be around him. It was a spark. They had it together in a way that Tony had never sparked with anyone else before in his life. Not even Maya, who was pretty brilliant herself.

He could feel his mouth starting to water, something that even fresh ground and brewed coffee couldn't quite put the kibosh on. Tony tried to behave, but he found himself abandoning said coffee before too long to join Bruce and Alessa at the counter.

He was more interested in stealing ingredients than helping, however.

"Tony!"

Bruce smacked Tony's hands when they wandered too close to the ingredients. "If you eat everything now, then there will be nothing to eat later."

Alessa gave a small, crooked smile of amusement as she started to help Bruce cook lentils, humming to herself.

"Besides, the daughter was far from a woman at that point. She couldn't have been older than sixteen." It was simultaneously fascinating and horrifying, how many teenage girls were married with kids where he went. "The stories I could tell you. One time in Honduras, a man offered to kill the person of my choice if I treated his gunshot wound. I think his one caveat was that they couldn't be twelve or below."

Alessa liked the stories. She tilted her head towards him despite the fact it didn't affect her hearing at all. "What did you say to that one?"

"I patched him up and asked him to never come back. I didn't like Honduras very much."

Bruce had better stories than even Tony himself did, mostly because Tony's stories tended to end with some drunken orgy or being kidnapped of late. He didn't mind listening to the other man, not finding any reason to interject even as he fished something out of the pan before Bruce could swat at him. The game might have been the most enjoyable one he'd ever played.

After, he just sat down to scroll through emails he wasn't planning to answer while Bruce answered all of Alessa's questions. At least, he hadn't planned to until something strange in the preview of an email made him frown.

He'd hacked into multiple surveillance equipment and traffic cameras set up around the Tower some time ago. It seemed as if it might actually be paying off.

And that...that was going to be a problem.

"Think we can get that to go, Banner?" It wasn't every day that one of SHIELD's most wanted appeared on camera three blocks from your home.

"What's going on?"

He was already playing the food, but he moved it aside to frown at Tony. Alessa looked a little disappointed that the stories were over--that girl enjoyed the violent a little too much--but she leaned in to listen.

Bruce was good at stories. He had a lot of them, and he knew how to tell them. He just didn't find himself sharing them all too often, mostly because people rarely showed an interest in what he had been up to while out of the country.

They could hear more stories on the plane, Tony decided, already calling for JARVIS to power up the quinjet. They had to be careful with Alessa's body, of course, but it wasn't burned to a crisp any more. It didn't need kid gloves. "And I need our tattooist brought here immediately. Send a car. Ten thousand cash waiting for him. He'll just have to come with."

He knew he was explaining nothing but he also knew that Bruce could figure it out, at least in part, before he explained. "HYDRA. Possible HYDRA. Definitely one of the baddies that have been tearing up LA and DC though. Probably why he's here. He likes city reduced to initials."

He didn't have a full dossier on this guy but he knew he was bad news with all of that chitauri tech they'd introduced to him.

"Alessa, get your body ready now."

Alessa disappeared, Bruce already packing the food in Tupperware and planning what they needed to get in his head.

"Is the city safe if we leave it?" They didn't know if HYDRA was coming for them specifically or for something else. Bruce wasn't sure if it was safe to leave New York in the hands of police if t was HYDRA they were dealing with.

"Let Spider-Man have something to do for once," Tony muttered and, because his body was so use to doing it without his mind or emotions playing in on it, as Bruce passed him, he gently put his hand to guide the other man with him. To where? The bedroom.

Tony kept his things packed just in case. He figured that Bruce himself had a bug out bag. It would be in one of the massive closets in the bedroom, obviously.

Too bad he couldn't really afford to pack all of his roll away luggage. He doubted he'd need ten different watches any way. "We have to protect Alessa." It wasn't about being single minded or parental. She was their best bet to avoid something catastrophic like the end of the whole universe happening.

Bruce always had a packed bag. One didn't shake off a decade of running. He would always be ready to leave at a moment's notice.

He grabbed his bag from the closet. It's small and easily slung over his shoulder. "We'll keep her safe."

Even though she probably could keep herself safe just fine, Bruce was ready to protect her. It wasn't just about the universe--it was about a man wanting to take care of a child who no one had taken care of before.

"You need to stay safe too. You don't have a suit protecting you now." And that had to be said too. Bruce didn't know what he would do without Tony.

"That's on the list," Tony said, his luggage equalling three pieces total to Bruce's tiny overnight bag. He didn't make a comment about it, just directed DUM-E to take everything to the landing pad. JARVIS filled them in, briefly, on the location of the artist and lucky, Manhattan traffic was going to keep them safely on their way in the next fifteen minutes.

Tony had enough time to grab another coffee and...steal just a moment with Bruce.

He took the scientist's hand in his own. The touch was nothing short of electric. Tony's eyes glowed. "And I'm going to pencil in a little reverse memory loss too. Lessy thinks she can help."

Bruce was single-minded, thinking only about what they needed and how to leave and why HYRDA might be trying to get them, when Tony's hand touched his and all the focus disappeared.

He bit the inside of his cheek, trying to control the emotional roller coaster inside of him. Alessa might be able to fix it.

"That's good." Bruce's words were very mild, but the way he squeezed Tony's hand wasn't. "Are you two sure that it's safe to try, though?"

"Honestly? No idea. I'm leaning towards probably not." It could do more damage. He could lose the part of him that made him him. He could forget important information. He could really be reduced to a mechanic. "It's my head. That's got to be dangerous."

But, and it was a rather large but, Tony wanted the chance to remember. He wanted what he had seen in the recordings. He wanted that feeling.

Making it up again with Bruce wouldn't be the end of the world, but it still wouldn't be the same.

"It's worth it."

"Tony..."

Bruce was still biting the inside of his cheek. He hesitated, then came closer, resting his chin on Tony's shoulder. He could smell the man's cologne.

"Learn how dangerous it is. We can work things out on our own if it's too risky."

Maybe it wouldn't be quite the same, but it would be something. They would still have Tony, and there wouldn't be a chance of Alessa ravaging his mind.

Okay. So he did stiffen up again, but that was his mind, and not his body, telling him that he didn't like people so close. The flinch dissolved just a moment later and the hug he'd forgotten how much he liked was just enough to make Tony resolved in recapturing what he'd lost.

He held Bruce too tightly. He clung. It was somewhere between a mannish clasp and a trembling hug. He wanted to hold and be held. They just didn't have the time for it.

"Later," he said, the heat if his breath catching in the curls around Bruce's ear. "After this." If Alessa high on Extremis didn't kill him.

The flinch stung for a moment. The embrace made up for it.

Bruce took a moment to just breathe Tony in, to feel his breath on his ear. Time was too short.

But life was unfair. He took a deep breath and stepped back. "Later."

He compartmentalized. He had to get everything together. They had to leave.

He gave Tony a quick peck on the cheek before he got back to work, though.

"I'll hold you to that. And the really ridiculously pitiful kiss," Tony said, making everything flirty because that was the sort of man he was. Flirting just came naturally, it always had. He'd been flirting with Bruce since they'd met after all. Nothing changed. Minus the fact that they sometimes got naked together. Sort of. Tony was mostly curious about how they managed sex...he hadn't seen any on screen.

And from what he knew of Bruce, elevated heart rate could and often did call down the Hulk. Huh. Something to dwell on later too.

Later, later, later.

Tony was just going to have to be patient.

A man in his twenties with white-boy dreads and a long goatee was waiting in the living room as Tony moved past him. "You. With me."

"Y-You're--"

"Tony Stark. Yes. Hi. Bruce Banner, AKA the Hulk. Hello, introductions complete. Let's go."

Bruce gave the artist a little nod of acknowledgement. This was probably going to be the weirdest day of the poor man's life.

"We're going to need to be working in the air today. I hope you have all your equipment."

Alessa already had packed her body into the quinjet. It was lying naked on a bed, arms crossed over its chest and eyes closed. Bruce went through a mental check list of everything they needed and cross-referenced it with a mental list of what they had. They were ready.

"This is going to get strange," Bruce said to the artist as they took off while he examined the controls to make sure everything was in order. "Your client is right in there," he gestured to the door leading to a bedroom allocated to Alessa. "Believe me when I say that doing your work accurately is important."

Chances were that the man had never tattooed someone so young, let alone someone who seemed to have absolutely no control over themselves. Alessa's projection lounged near the head of the bed, watching her sleeping face in fascination.

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