starkingenuity | (no subject)

When a guy had been missing for as long as Banner had been, Tony didn’t bother to ask any questions when mild mannered physicist with anger issues waltzed back into his life. Things with Pepper had gone down hill again pretty quickly. Peter Parker decided he wanted to just be a kid with super powers and a part time, after school crime fighting job. Rogers was in exile with half of the Avengers. Rhodey’s walking support system kept him active in the military. Romanoff was having fun being a spy or breaking the hearts of other scientists the world over and driving them away from their best friends. Thor-- Who knew. Vision was still around but mopey and so un-JARVIS sometimes that it hurt to be around him.

Which left DUM-E and DUM-E-er (affectionately known to most as Happy Hogan). And sure. They were great. And FRIDAY was great too now that Tony made sure she could never take over the world like Ultron had or get a physical body like the artist formerly known as JARVIS had. But as great as they were, they weren’t Banner.

Since his move into HQ, Tony had done some design work with Maria Hill. His workshop was bad-ass, all chrome and glass, and the sound system was killer. He’d been listening to some hardcore metal as he worked on repairing a shield he half-hoped and half-dreaded Rogers would decide to pick back up again when the shadow beyond the glass door made him look up over the safety glasses FRIDAY made him wear before she allowed the torch in his hand to light.

“Music off,” he said, tongue dry in his mouth. He clicked the torch off too. “Wow. Are you ever late,” he called.

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“I knew you’d be back. And I knew you might not want to have to deal with everyone. So... do with it as you will. FRIDAY has access to my Amazon account. Packages are left at the main gate.”

He was blowing off how huge this was. He knew Banner was going to feel the weight of it but now he was pretty sure he’d gone overboard and instead of making Bruce feel welcome, he was doing too much, coming on too strong.

He hated back peddling.

“Listen. It’s nothing. Everyone had their own spaces. Even the people that don’t live here anymore. I didn’t dismantle Cap’s gym either. It’s just. Here. If you want it. Or you can do whatever you want. Move into the main building or... build an underwater habitat in the pool. Whatever you want.”

He could hear that back peddling. Bruce turned and faced towards Tony, brows coming together. In a way, it was a bit of a panic, for so much money and space to be devoted to just him with no idea what to even do with it, and he'd be quite a bit further from Tony than they had been in the Tower. It really was supposed to be 'his space'. "Thank you." Firm, trying to show even if he was overwhelmed, he was thankful for it.

For Tony.

The corner of his mouth lifts, trying to be open and failing to some degree. "You know, if you didn't want me in your lab anymore, you could have just told me." An attempt at humor, knowing it was far from the case. They did some of their best work when they worked together. ...Even if it had been not to the best of ends, in one case.

“You would have thought I was joking,” Tony shot right back. “I know you like to tell people that you’re a genius but you’re terrible at taking a hint.” And Tony wasn’t a fool. The Hulk was dangerous and this particular building had s constantly upgraded, if untested, way to make sure that the Hulk was as contained as possible until one of them could get there with the lullaby.

It was far away because it needed to be. And because Tony knew that Bruce would appreciate being able to go into lockdown whenever he needed to.

They did work well together. Their brilliance only ever increased when they collaborated. But Tony was an annoying guy. He had that in writing.

At least Bruce wasn’t reading into what he had been saying before.

That really scared him. To get him back and just lose him again? Not an option.

...He was terrible at taking a hint.

It was less that Bruce wasn't reading into it, or at least he would when he went back over this conversation in his head later, but more that he couldn't handle that sort of thing right now. This was already a major step that he didn't know what to do with, as much as he didn't back then when Tony had given him a lab, but the amount of care that went into such an offer... He certainly wasn't used to.

"Care to give me the tour, or should I go explore on my own?" In turn, cautiously, offering for Tony to stay. Maybe offering for both of them, after so long without someone who even so much as knew his real name. Even if he couldn't be completely open with anyone, Tony was undoubtedly one of only a tiny handful of people he had let any of himself open up to. (Tony, Natasha, Betty.)

“Better let me. I don’t want you getting lost again for another two years.” Poor Bruce wasn’t getting rid of Tony so easily. Not after all of this time. The tour, as Bruce has called it, took the better part of two hours and Tony, as if showing off, wandered into meeting rooms in use and through cube farms where people were trying to get things done, all tied to the Accords and to the UN oversight committee.

In a way, he wanted these people to know where they stood... as nothing. The bill was to make sure that everyone was safe but not to regulate Tony himself.

Yeah yeah. He knew it was a shit move. He just didn’t care.

It was close to ten when they made it back to Tony’s place. He invited Bruce in, of course. “I know you probably miss your stuff, but there’s a guest room here. If you don’t want to be alone.”

Oh, Tony. Bruce finds himself muttering a few apologies as they disturb people at work, though he does find himself trying to gather what information he can on these new 'accords'. He knows a bit, what the media has spoken about, but it's so much more than that. It involves himself, however indirectly or directly. About control on something that Bruce knows they can't. There is no control. There is let sleeping dogs lie and hope they don't wake up.

He would learn exactly what Tony is doing here, eventually.

When they finally make it back, Bruce accepts the invitation... for tonight. Maybe a part of him doesn't want to be alone tonight when he has that chance not to be alone. Even if 'not alone' meant 'in the same building with someone who wanted him to be there'. It meant more than he could really say for even that small comfort in his life. "Lived without 'stuff' for a long time," he pointed out, giving a slight faint smirk showing it was a joke. Well, it was true but... dry humor.

“My stuff is your stuff.” It sounded like a marriage license. It sounded like a contract. In reality, Tony was just doing his best to sweeten the deal about keeping Bruce around.

That wasn’t a bad thing, right?

He was carelessly less than careful about making some grand gesture to the rooms that Bruce could choose from and, of course, followed him up there over the pretense of speaking about fractals and god particles and why was it that the crazier a movie was, Tony always the need of trying to top it in real life?

He toppled into the wingback chair by the chosen bed and put his feet up. If Bruce was hoping to get away with sleep tonight, he was sorely mistaken.

It was almost as if Tony was afraid he’d just leave again.

For the moment, Bruce was okay with that. He had nothing really, so there was nothing to get into or anything except for him to brush his teeth. Easier to travel when you had only a small backpack as his... everything. So he dropped it onto the massive bed in one of the rooms, not particularly caring which room because he knew they would all be fine and comfortable and similar.

He listened to the chatter, contributing a little from time to time, as he slowly sat on the edge of the bed. Impossibly comfortable to a degree he wasn't even sure he would be able to sleep on it. He would probably end up on the floor on the soft carpet because it would be something he was more used to.

"Tony." Quiet. A firm look to his friend. "I'm not going anywhere."

“Is this your way of telling me to leave? I was just about to get some cookies.” He wasn’t kidding either and wriggled his toes in his socks as if he was planning on springing up. “I like having a bed to eat cookies in. I hate crumbs in the sheets.”

Also not joking there either, though his smile faded a little.

“One moment you were there and then you werent. So you are going to have to forgive me if I don’t exsctly belief that you won’t disappear again.” He did remove his feet from the bed through and pushed lightly on the armrests of the chair. He wanted Bruce to tell him to stay, but he’d leave if he had to.

"You're not eating cookies in my bed to spare your bed crumbs." Bruce managed a small but real smile because it was just such a very Tony Stark thing to do. He watched Tony get up, slowly, and knew what the other was trying to do when spoken with those words, and so he debated within him. Did he want Tony to stay? Did Tony want to stay that badly?

After a moment or two, Bruce let out a breath and patted the bed. "Go get into some pajamas and come back." He went to make himself more comfortable, but he also assumed it would actually give Tony a chance to back out because the notionw as so ridiculous. Not that he would care, but... no one would want to share a bed with him.