starkingenuity | (no subject)

“I might be able to walk around but I’m pretty sure whatever is left of my liver is shot,” Tony says, accepting a towel only because drip drying will take too long and he really does want to explore. Unlike Banner, he’s never been to an alien planet before and he’s filled with kiss-fueled excitement mixed with all of the desires of a ten year old kid wanting to play Indiana Jones or Buck Rogers (as awkward as that name may now be).

He’s irreverent to the towel when he’s finished, tossing it aside like DUM-E is here to clean up after him and dresses in the same jeans and t-shirt he’d taken off. Normally he’d put on a suit but he looks all right in this, once he musses up his hair and glances over his shoulder to make sure that Banner was either watching all of that or trying to make it a point not to watch him.

Yes. It had just been a kiss. But it was some kiss. And Tony has designs on ways to get more of that. Even if it means being patient. He hates being patient. Once he’s ready, for example, he’s very ready, waiting for Banner like an overly excited puppy. The suits can stay here. For now.

"That isn't as reassuring as you think it is." Bruce isn't trying not to look at Tony or watching him parade around naked, he's just intensely focused on getting dressed. It's like a men's locker room or the YMCA. Just keep your eyes on your own business and all is fine.

There's nothing like life on the run to get a guy acquainted with the finer points of communal living and how to mind your own business. Not that he's always succeeded at the latter, but it's working for this specific moment in time.

He doesn't make Tony wait for him. He's dressed and hopping to pull on his shoe when Tony finishes up. "Let's go see how the revolution's going."

“What happened anyway? I’m all for opposed people coming into their own but this seems different than the usual coups that happen back on Earth,” Tony says as he and Bruce stand in a strange elevator, rumbling from side to side at times. His back is to the doors and he watches the world move closer and closer as they descend. It’s strangely beautiful, familiar and exotic at the same time.

And he’s dying to get out into those streets, right after they take in the Tower itself.

The doors open with a familiar ping (elevators are elevators no matter where you are) and Tony feels hands on his shoulders before he can even turn around. He’s yanked out of the cab and crumples against the wall in front of the doors with a groan. The woman that stand between him and Banner is familiar, even from the backside.

“Doctor Banner.” Her smile is wide but awkward. She hasn’t gotten used to this body yet.

"You're stuck on a strange planet that enslaves people as gladiators, you need to get off that planet, and you really need a fighting force to distract from stealing the planetary leader's spaceship." Bruce isn't watching the streets below them. He's seen them and he's very much hoping that they're over that whole dancing around with Hulk heads thing.

He has his back to the windows watching alien characters shift on the interface and committing them to memory. There's a certain pleasure to being as big of a pain in the ass at doling out a clear narrative as Tony is. "Who do--"

The elevator doors open and he has enough time to register green woman = Kiara before Tony's taking a short flight.

"Kiara." There is nothing about his expression, posture, or tone that doesn't scream, Oh shit. "Nice to see you?"

Edited 2017-12-22 18:19 (UTC)

“It’s so good to see you too,” Kiara exclaims, her volume control about as good as her ability to smile convincingly. “Thank you so much for this body... I had been hoping you would come to see it in person.”

She ignores the groan from poor Tony Stark, trying to pick himself up, and straightens the row of buttons on Banner’s cardigan. Her purple tinted nails lightly scrape against the rounded edges.

Perhaps this hadn’t been the best idea. Her new host is very strong and Bruce doesn’t have her tied down.

“Is this more pleasing than my last body?”

This is just one worst idea in a long history of worst ideas, conceived both on his own and in cahoots with Tony. It's definitely the worst idea of the day at the very least.

"I'm thinking the green makes you pretty popular around here," he says with all the care of someone facing down a rottweiler that might want to pounce on him for the kill or to lick him to death. The problem is not knowing which way it's going to go.

She's also tall, which means he has to raise up on his tiptoes to see past her to ensure Tony's not irretrievably broken. "How, uh... How'd you know how to find us?"

Tony is always broken and has been for as long as he could spell the word. But each little break brings new meaning to his life. The aches he feeling right now much too. Eventually. After he’s done nursing the wounds to check and see if he’s come through it with some new and interesting scar. At least he’s moving though? That’s a big plus. Kiara seems hell bent on killing him, though.

The woman moved her hand from buttons to shirt. Her skin is somewhat chilled, noticeable even through the fabric. Her sharp nails are just as noticeable.

“I will always be able to find you,” she says, her voice now a bit too soft. “You’re destined for me. I knew it the moment I possessed that awkward body.”

Bruce has a handle on biology. He can probably put two and two together. Kiara, it seems, has imprinted on him, and probably psychically too. For a guy to have so many love interests in so short s period of time, Bruce sure is a lucky guy.

Bad luck is still luck, so there's that.

Bruce is really having trouble with this sudden development. He'd told Thor that Sakaar was designed to stress him and damned it isn't living up to that.

Before Kiara can get much farther - oh like, trying to get him out of his shirt and sweater - he lightly puts both of his hands around her hers. "Your destiny is with someone who can give you what you want and need, and I'm not that person."

Where's FRIDAY when he and Tony both really need her?

Well Bruce. FRIDAY is upstairs. Tony’s got shit on him to alert her what’s happening. Someone should have made sure he brought his phone but there had been too much kissing and then dressing and then trying to pretend that there was nothing going on has caused Tony to leave said phone about where he left the chips. Upstairs. Far away. And without embedding sensors all over the place, as this isn’t his home, the AI is doing her job and monitoring the chips.

It’s not a good look when two geniuses can’t remember a phone. Then again, on this whole planet who would have expected that an imprinted psychic alien would find them and try to toss out her competition?

“Why would you say that? You’re perfectly virile!”

They had been a bit distracted and Bruce had thought that it was a good idea for them to get out of the room before Tony made any suggestions about giving the bed the same kind of test run that the hot tub had gotten. It honestly hadn't occurred to him that Tony would step out on an alien planet with no 911 available.

So he's still hoping for a suit intervention as he tries to dissuade Kiara from any thoughts of making more little jar aliens together.

"I'm not." He's back to shaking his head and there's a real question to whether he'll ever be able to stop, considering how this day's been going. "I'm really not. I'm genetically nonviable, my bodily secretions are toxic, and you need to trust me that I absolutely cannot engage physically."

He leans past her to check on Tony, then gives her a firm look. "And you hurt my best friend. I don't find that a turnon."

Kiara gives Bruce an unexpected sort of look, one that is actually a mirror of his own, but without the precision. Her brow creases in tension. Her lips are poised and her eyes narrow slightly. She tilts her head like a bird might (or like a raptor in Jurassic Park), and for a moment, it’s like she might strike him.

“The creature that swells within you is so easily nullified, Doctor Banner,” Kiara says, which likely will get all of Bruce’s attention despite Tony struggling to stand up. He’s fine, just bruised, carry on with your lady friend, his eyes definitely do not say as he scowls at her lovely behind in purple leather pants.

Kiara’s eyes flash.

“We should go somewhere more private. I have learned it is the civilized thing to do.”

She already had his attention, but what she says makes the rest of the world just completely go away. Even Tony. His hands tighten their hold on her hand before he relaxes his grip, though he can't quite hide the speculative look in his eyes. To be free of Hulk - what would he do to see that dream realized?

He says nothing for an infinity that lasts a full minute, then asks, "Nullified as in gone completely or temporarily?"

If he hadn't asked, the question would torture him for life.

“It would be your choice. Sometimes you view this other you as a boon. You wish to control it. And that is what I would give you. He would, in many ways, be as my host is now. Asleep. Unaware. Not dead, for I can draw upon her knowledge and her strengths, but she will never again wake up. This is what I can give you.”

Her free hand lightly brushes against his cheek—. Okay, she tries to lightly brush his cheek but it’s more rough than she’s intended and she frowns.

“You will need practice when you become him. As I need practice with this body.”

“Banner—“ Tony’s finally on his feet. Wary. Hands out. Kiara rolls her pretty eyes and leans into Bruce for his trouble.

“Mind over matter. That is a saying I pulled from your best friend’s mind. And it is truth. You can be whole. You can use his strength. But you will never lose control again.”

Everything he's wanted since the accident handed to him on a silver platter held by a beautiful woman. Anything Tony has to say is irrelevant to what he's being offered.

To be free of Hulk, but not the strength that helped save New York and Asgard's people? To be able to have a stable life? He tries to be a good man, but this is something more powerful than his will to be good.

He can't look away from Kiara to Tony. If Tony would deny him a real life, is he really his best friend? "And in return? Nothing like that comes for free."

“You are my mate,” Kiara says softly. “I want a child. It is my sole purpose, to give life to my people. I am all there is until you give me what I need. And then there will be two.”

Tony is pretty sure that this becoming some weird alien porno. He’s just waiting for the music to be cued and even glances around as if he’s trying to spot the film crew. Or the guy with the shakey handheld.

“Life for a life. Surely that is fair?”

The chances of his breaking his promise to Tony about kissing Kiara are growing by the moment. Is this going to be one of those genie situations where he gets bitten in the ass by the fine print?

She's winning him closer and closer to agreeing by the moment, but he's still looking for those gotchas. "If-- if I were to do this, how long does it take for the child to reach a point of needing a body of its own? It seemed like you were in your vessel for a very long time."

Would he be unleashing a quickly reproducing, locust-like plague of body snatchers? He had wanted children, but ending civilizations across the galaxy has never been one of his dreams.

Tony is silent as Kiara seems to think this over. Her hand leaves Bruce’s cheek to rest upon her belly. “This species takes roughly thirteen months, as you might understand them, to fully gestitate a child’s body. There will be several of our offspring within that body who will need to find suitable urn to mature in. I will die of mortal causes as will the primary child we have together. The rest will wait until a suitable host comes across their urns and a suitable mate wakes them. It may take many lifetimes. I member my mother. And I remember the mortal sibling whom I started life within. I miss both dearly, though neither truly knew me. And I never truly knew them. It is... it is difficult to be congnizant of long periods of nothingness, Doctor Banner, but while I did not have a childhood, I have a life now to live for as long as this vessel carries me. You are looking to see if what I propose will harm others?”

She’s insightful. Tony really doesn’t like her at all. He kind of wishes he hadn’t had that Hulk juice. The hot tub was restorative but it really didn’t do more than take the edge off.

“All life harms others. But it is life. And my people have a right to it. Please. Help me. And I will help you.”

"Mortal causes?" His eyes drop to rest on Kiara's hand on her abdomen, and there's a lot to process here, including the massive ethical violation of impregnating this body, which only compounds how he contributed to violating it by dropping Kiara here in the first place.

"This is a lot. You're saying all the things I want to hear, offering me my life back, but..." His mouth twists like he's tasted something bitter and he turns his head away, eyes turning up toward the ceiling for guidance that won't be there.

"I need some time to think. Give me an hour upstairs with Tony and I'll give you an answer." To be honest, he doesn't always trust Tony's judgment, but he does trust his mind. He needs someone to point out what he's missing because he's blinded by the chance to end this long nightmare.

“I will be forever mortal once I have my child, will I not? I may die of old age or of a fall or of angering another.” Funny, that. A being who has been immortal while in her urn, while in this body and capable of moving into others, is willing to give that I for a baby? The biological drive, or physic drive in this case, to reproduce is astounding.

The alien agrees. If Banner leaves her, she will find him, or at least follow him until she can not.

“Take all the time you need. Think my name, truly think it, yell it within your thoughts, and I shall come to you.”

“Generous,” Tony grunted as Bruce and Kiara break off their annoying touching.

“He is my mate. One must be generous with the father of one’s children,” Kiara says and steps back to allow the two to retreat.

He can finally breathe properly once Kiara gives him space. Shaking off the spell of having his dearest wish dangled before him doesn't come easily, but getting to Tony and checking to see if he's hurt or if he just had the wind knocked out of him helps him shift his focus.

"Sorry to cut into the sightseeing." He says quietly, looking Tony over and almost guiltily stealing glances at his face for some read on his mood. "But I could use your input upstairs."

He isn't touching the whole mate thing or that Kiara could possibly hear him if he just mentally yelled for her. He just nods to her and says, "I'll yell."

Tony isn’t sure what input he could actually give to Brice right now. He’s a little confused himself. In his line of work, if things seem too good to be true, they probably are. What’s Kiara’s scheme? He doubts she’ll let him go with a bun in the oven.

And she said ‘children.’ Plural. Why? Does she hope to have a lot of families? Build a lot of urns for those kids within kids? And from what Tony knows of Bruce, the guy kind of wants that family too.

He quiet as they ride the elevator back upstairs. He’s jealous and trying not to show it, but it radiates through his pores just the same.

Bruce isn't sure, either, but he needs something before he just goes for it. If Kiara can actually do what she says, he could have a life. He and Tony could decide if what they were doing in the hot tub is just two lonely men or something more. He could kill the omnipresent fear that the next Code Green will be the end of Bruce Banner.

"Talk to me. What am I not seeing?" Other than the question of how long Kiara thinks she's keeping him and whether it's even possible for a human to impregnate an alien?

And whether Tony's going to resent him for killing Hulk.

“Let’s see. How much time do we have before you telepathically hollar for your space princess?” He’s not being fair and he knows it but that doesn’t stop him from stalking back to their appropriated room to drop onto a bed he’d been worried about being filthy not too long before. “FRIDAY, set up a list. Headers, pro and con.”

The iron man armor lifts its palm and the projection on the wall comes from a wave variant on the repulsor beam.

“Pro: sex.” He’s not beating around the bush here. “Con: being an alien love slave for all eternity.” Tony wishes Bruce had asked about that. He hadn’t so he was just expecting the worst. “Pro: keeping yourself from smashing stuff. “Con...?”

He arches an eyebrow at Banner. Join the fun!

Bruce trails in Tony's wake and ends up pacing the room rather than trying to find a place to sit or joining Tony on the bed. He's both surprised and not by Tony's attitude, just as he's both surprised and not by his own level of guilt for this situation.

"Con: she was literally born yesterday." Looking for a distraction, all he's got is picking up the towel Tony just tossed away earlier. "Pro: not living a nightmare where one wrong step could mean I'm the one locked in the trunk while Hulk takes the driver's seat for good."

Okay, now what's he supposed to do with this wet towel? Good call, Banner.

He’s being selfish. He’s always selfish with people he loves but he’s being more selfish than even he thinks he has any right to be. That bothers him. That’s what drive people further away than anything else. Tony sucks on his lower lip, in thought but not thinking about the earlier kiss, and sits up.

“Erase the cons. They don’t matter.” Bruce will have his life back. That life might be raising a family with a body stealing alien and having children with her that will eventually do exactly what she is doing. It might mean that he is eternally tied to her, but would that be so bad in the grand scheme of things?

Objective Tony doesn’t think so.

Subjective Tony wants Bruce to be happy no matter what, though obviously he’d prefer it if Bruce was happy with him.

“Congratulations on your upcoming Nuptuals, Doctor Banner.”