Anthony Edward Stark

Tony had expected a lot of hemming and hawing. He expected Bruce to give him a non-committal answer, one that very likely would just made Tony smile and shrug and say he hadn’t meant it anyway. But none of that happened. Bruce was going to stay. Here. They could hang out together and talk about everything and… Tony was aware that his excitement stemmed from loneliness, but there was something to be said about his relationship with Bruce.

It had never been fully one sided. Bruce had never been an employee. And he was the only one on Earth that could keep up with him intellectually.

The smile on Tony’s face brightened. He crossed his legs at the ankles under his chair and leaned forward on one elbow. “Maybe I should beg more often,” he mused, chin and cheek resting on the side of his bent forearm, eyes watching the way Bruce wrung his hands. “It’s really working out for me.” As if he didn’t usually get what he wanted. The man had the money to make anything happen…

Except, perhaps, to have a genuine human connection.

And Bruce gave him that in spades.

“FRIDAY, get some of the Legion to dust Banner’s lab off. There’s got to be a foot of skin cells in there.”