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[starkingenuity]

[Tony volunteers for the worst sort of body take over ever: here.]

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[starkingenuity]

Tony has never had to pursue someone this much, though it had only been an afternoon. Two days? Three? He can’t keep track of the time. Bruce was out of his life for so long that now that he’s come back, he almost can’t fathom that he’d ever left. And over a woman of all things! This is probably different territory for the both of them. They’re not young men. They’ve got the majority of their experience with women. And they’ve got the same sort of wit and genius. There’s got to be a flashpoint here that neither are seeing, or don’t want to see, though

Tony’s become the poster boy, despite how the media sees him, for monogamy over the last seven years. Bruce has been the poster boy for celibacy. Their connection shouldn’t exist, but it does. It has for years, overcoming long bouts of absenteeism.

“I’ve been called worse,” he offers, not sure if Bruce is trying to keep him from unbuttoning his shirt next or if he’s egging him on to see if he’s in it for the long haul. The guy is maddeningly hard to read, even for someone who has had to become very good at reading people (even if he doesn’t care about them or what he gets off of them). “But this, or the hot tub, aren’t deal breakers. It’s not one thing or nothing. You’ve got the wheel here. I laid out my cards. All of them, the whole spectrum. You can pick your hand.”

Friendship. Romance. A little of each. It’s up to Bruce.

[hulkbusted]

Bruce isn't really sure if he's holding Tony back or egging him on. He's well aware that all he has to do is say no and it's be mostly no harm, no foul. There might be some hurt feelings, but they're big boys; they can take it and move on.

He just doesn't really want to move on, and with Hulk and everything that fueled Hulk stuffed away where Bruce can't currently reach them, he's not feeling a compelling reason to deny himself.

"Let's leave most of the cards on the table for now." There is no graceful way, lying on your side, to inch your way closer to another person on a bed. The best Bruce can manage is to brace himself on his elbow and shimmy closer, releasing his hold on Tony's hand to grab one of Tony's belt loops and give it a tug toward him. "We need to figure out what game we're playing first."

[starkingenuity]

Having only known Bruce as a mousy sort of man that tries to stick clear of being obvious or intrusive, the fact that Tony is yanked towards him by the belt loops is (probably) unintentionally hot. He grunts a little, pulling his lips back from his teeth in a show of surprise.

He gets that they’re finding their way right now. Tony has had enough one night stands to know that the first few minutes are usually just a heated up version of what a regular relationship that you see on TV might be like, so he’s pretty sure that he’s clued in on how these negotiations work work (though the fact that he’s never had a relationship that started out quite this way and is equating his life with fiction is probably a bad sign).

They have to play the game. This game. Even if it feels so serious.

“You already said no on Call of Duty,” Tony says, moving his hand to Bruce’s shoulder. “And not too many explosions. You’re no fun, doctor, but I want to fix that.”

[hulkbusted]

It's unintentional. It's also entirely possible that if he hadn't been primed, so to speak, by some exceedingly athletic sex earlier in the day, he would have been significantly less assertive. Still, Tony had wanted to see him strut, and here they are.

There will be more negotiations if this whatever it is makes it off of Sakaar. Possibly fewer than might be needed with anyone else simply because they already know each other so well, and Bruce at least knows well enough that there's little about Tony that can or will be changed unless Tony wants to make the change.

"You've wanted to fix that from the first time we met." It's an observation, not a complaint. Life with Tony had been good right up until they'd nearly destroyed the world. That's going to be one of his top negotiating priorities if they get to a point of negotiations. "I should probably warn you now that I'm going to need some sleep before I can be as fun as I'd like to be."

[starkingenuity]

“And then a few more showers. Before the hot tub. And a fly around the planet to see if they have pizza here,” Tony says. He’s not going to just fall into bed with Banner. Okay. Yes. They are already in bed together but the people that matter aren’t a hot and heavy loving and leaving kind of thing for him. He ruffles up Bruce’s hair and stretches out like a cat, shifting so that his arm pillows under his head.

He hasn’t slept in a long time. Cat naps here and there (pun intended at this point) dont exactly help the brain repair itself. He’s just used to running until he passes out.

And he’s not ready for that just yet.

“Settle in. But if you snore or drool on me, all bets are off,” he says, knowing he’ll just have FRIDAY project a movie for him and he’ll read it subtitled so Bruce can nap away his sex romp.

[hulkbusted]

"Pretty sure I don't snore, but all bets are off on the drooling." But he rolls over, turning away from Tony and throwing an arm over his eyes to block the light. Can't drool on someone if your mouth's nowhere near them.

"Maybe you should just have me ultrasonically sterilized if you can't trust my showering skills." Unlike Tony, Bruce tries to keep a reasonable sleep schedule most of the time. Disrupted sleep patterns do little to help with emotional stability, and up until today, Bruce has needed every advantage he could manage.

"You could trade bringing pizza to Sakaar for the tech we take away. Pizza for hot tubs - fair's fair."

[starkingenuity]

Tony just laughs. There’s something about how easy Bruce is with him that just makes him relax. They’ve been talking about (and doing) some pretty life changing things but that’s what this particular place seems to be all about. It changed Bruce once and it’s doing it again. Right here. And Tony gets to watch (and have a hand in it) this time.

He doesn’t even have to zap him or try to get him to admit to the weed!

They’re halfways through Transformers 2, Bruce asleep for all but the first five minutes, when Tony lets his eyelids droop and his cheek press into the pillow. He means to sleep for all of a few minutes and maybe go zipping around Sakaar for a little while longer as Bruce naps, but he gravitates towards the overly warm man and ends up with an arm across his chest and his head pressed into his bicep.

FRIDAY turns the movie off.

And sonicly sanitizes them both. Just in case.

[hulkbusted]

He sleeps easily, a skill hard won during years on the run. He'd learned to sleep when it was possible, though never too deeply. Any change in his environment is enough to pull him toward consciousness enough to quickly assess risk and either fall back asleep or snap to full wakefulness.

The change in his environment now is the warmth of another human being actually right up against him. He wakes up enough for that and shifts around to get an arm around Tony and a face full of stiff, product-hardened hair.

It's weird, but after twisting his face away from Tony's hair and wrinkling his nose at the guardian suit, he closes his eyes again and dozes while the daylight wanes and the city outside lights up to chase the night back.

Eventually he has to try to extricate himself from Tony's hold on him, trying to do so without waking him so he can walk out onto the balcony and watch the city lights and the flying craft that zip among the skyscrapers. This city's far less stressful now. It's hard to believe that relative days ago, he'd been struggling to find some equilibrium here, stressed out and teetering on the brink of losing control.

He toys with the idea of learning to control the Hulk form and coming back here. He could rule this city if he were in control of that body with his mind. Does he want that?

A glance back inside and he has to shake his head at himself. No, he doesn't want to rule anywhere, especially not wearing Hulk's face. It has nothing to do with anger or fear; he just wants to leave a positive mark on his own world now that the mark might not look like a fist. That, and he's not leaving Tony alone on Earth to slowly kill himself with self-doubt and alcohol.

He leaves the balcony and goes in search of the shower, solely for Tony's sake rather than his own.

[starkingenuity]

It’s probably not fair to let Bruce shower twice for the same reason but he has to admit that he feels a lot better with a very clean (and lavender scented) physicist joins him at the table after his shower. Tony had woken when Bruce pulled away, his own sleeping habits a little too shallow for the amount of sleep he allows himself. He’s not about to complain however. It is what it is.

Eating peanutbutter frkm the jar with some celery he’d cut up to add to the Banner-sack, he arches an eyebrow knowingly at the damp man and holds out the jar.

“I’d say I have no diseases but that doesn’t really matter to you huh?” The serum keeps Banner more or less healthy after all. “And my cooties are worth millions.”

[hulkbusted]

"Your cooties aren't going to survive ten seconds in my body." He grabs a stalk of celery and dips it in the peanut butter without hesitation. "Bright side for you is that I have no diseases, either."

He doesn't mind the double shower. He's had enough times in his life where a shower was just a fond wish that he can enjoy the luxury of a long, hot shower, regardless of repetition.

Tony could use one himself - that and a toothbrush.

Once he finishes his piece of celery, he grabs another one and taps it against the peanut butter jar. "I'm going to give you a free pass to ask me about what happened with Kiara, but it expires once we leave Sakaar. Once we're back on Earth, I don't want to think about her." Or the tadpoles.

[starkingenuity]

Sanitizing evidently doesn’t help with peanutbutter breath, or morning breath really. There’s only so much a sonic blast can do it seems and Tony has found the limit of that technology. Currently too busy munching away on his celery to do anything but continue to munch on that celery, he thinks about the proposition.

His answer, at least, is more carefully worded than it might have otherwise offered. Bruce is in luck. Tony is rarely without some sort of wit (appropriate or otherwise) when he opens his mouth.

“I don’t need to know.” He’s curious, he’s human after all, but he doesn’t think he wants to know about the alien that had invaded his body shacking up with Banner to give her some kids. He frowns for a moment and leans back. “Unless you want to tell me about it. I’ll listen. And try not to judge you. And your...uh. Tadpoles.”

[hulkbusted]

"As much as there might be some value in dispelling any ideas that it had been romantic, I don't really need to talk about it. In retrospect, there were parts that are kind of scary."

Kiara had made herself the only important thing in his universe for those hours they'd spent together. It's terrifying how easy it had been for her and how fully he'd fallen into it, and it's nightmarish that there may be a link between them for life. Best not to even think about the four tadpoles who will be two, but also six.

"Let's look forward instead. I'm guessing there's still a place for me, but I don't know where I fall in this new world order. What happens when it becomes common knowledge that I'm back? Who's got first dibs on arresting me?"

[starkingenuity]

Forward is the only place Tony tells himself is important. And the only place he has trouble looking towards outside of his word. He’s a futurist who lives in his own past. It’s not healthy. He knows it’s not healthy. He can’t manage to get out of that rut.

And he’s about to find himself in another as Brice plows on ahead and asks him a question that could probably get him in a lot of trouble and dash apart their fledging tryst. It shatters before his eyes, tumbling end over end, and he can’t catch it. He won’t be able to put it back together. So it’s best to break them before they even start. That ten minute cuddle had been so nice, though...

“Technically, I’ve got dibs,” he says carefully, watching Bruce’s face. “I’m not about to let Ross encroach on my friends.”

[hulkbusted]

"You've got dibs?" It doesn't sound too terrible, but there's been a shift in Tony's demeanor that says that he's missing something important, and he's immediately wary. They both live in a minefield, and he can feel something hard under his foot.

"Because I'm an Avenger and you're the boss, or..." What has he just tripped over, Tony?

[starkingenuity]

Aw fuck.

“Because I inherited and then renewed the patent on the super soldier serum,” Tony says, not quite looking at Banner. He rarely does. He’s always too interested in his mouth.

The reasoning is simple. The moment hat patent slips, someone else can own or do with Banner and Rogers anything they want. And that includes using them to make more. AIM doesn’t really operate in the daylight and there will always be people trying to replicate the serum. But this is to keep it out of the Army’s hands.

[hulkbusted]

Bruce's mouth isn't really where the action's at just then. His brows draw down while he runs through the implications, calculating and considering before he shakes his head and shrugs. Yesterday there might have been more reaction than that, but yesterday he'd been kind of a different guy.

"You own the patent on the serum but that clearly hasn't kept Steve off of any arrest lists. You can't rescind it from either of us. The only real threat here with your owning the patent is if you do something incredibly stupid like try to make more of either of us, and you aren't going to do that, right?" That serum is like Pandora's Box. The world had gotten lucky the first time it had been used; they'd gotten Hope in the form of one genuinely good man.

Then they'd gotten Hulk.

"And it would have been nice if you'd told me this years ago when I was trying everything to undo what I did to myself." And there's the sticking point where Tony's very lucky he told Bruce today and not yesterday.

[starkingenuity]

“Rogers has super human abilities, but that’s not what’s kept him from being arrested. He’s not run underground and he’s not laying low. There’s a reason they left you alone for seven years. They’re a reason they’re leaving him alone now.” This was not the right stance to take but he doesn’t like to have his work full of holes. It’s a bad habit. It’s a really bad habit.

He leans back in his chair as if he’s suddenly lost all of his bones and his arms dangle uselessly towards his heels.

“I’m not trying to play the saint here. I’m not a saint. I’m not going to try to create more little Banners, especially now that I know they turn out to be tadpoles, but… I don’t want anyone else having you.” Uh. “That sounds more jealous than I am.”

[hulkbusted]

"The tadpoles weren't me, but that's not the point." He's bemused because whatever else he would have felt just isn't there for him. Bemused is as good as it gets. "The point is that just because you own the serum doesn't make me immune from prosecution if some country like South Africa decides that they want someone to be held responsible for what Hulk did. I just need to know who's currently on that waiting list."

He's just looking for facts. He doesn't need anger or fear to drive that pursuit. The need to understand is a factory standard feature for Bruce Banner. No accessorizing required.

He drops his head and looks at the celery stick he's forgotten and takes a decisive bite just to get the damn thing out of his hand.

"I don't think you're trying to be anything but Tony Stark. I told you before that I believe you'd do anything to protect your friends and this looks like part of that, but I'm going to ask you again - why didn't you tell me this years ago when I would have given anything to be normal again?"

[starkingenuity]

Tony snorts, still looking put out. “Possession laws are a lot more stringent than personal ones. Different rules. Different regulations, you know? They can’t hold you legally. What’s to stop them from holding you illegally? Just the UN. Just the World Counsel. It’s all politics.”

Tony sighs and he leans forward. His elbows rest on his knees.

“I thought I was making your life better. I took your tracking contract from Ross. I kept him off of you so you can be free. I didn’t know I... I just wanted to help.”

That’s how he always feels though. He wants to help. And rarely does.

[hulkbusted]

Maybe, Bruce thinks as he listens to Tony, what Tony really needs is someone who can hear him doing a shitty job of explaining bad decisions and not get pissed off at him. His nails scrape audibly in the stubble on his jaw as he scratches there and looks at Tony, saying nothing while he tries to find the reasonable anger that should be there for this situation.

It just isn't there, and this is part of why he'd asked Kiara to put it back. All he's got now is that empty space and tired resignation.

"What's done is done." He shrugs and puts a hand on the table to brace himself as he leans in toward Tony. "But I'm going to give you some advice you'll probably ignore - when you make a choice that's going to impact a friend's life more than yours, don't do it unilaterally. That's how you lose friends." On that Bruce is speaking from experience.

[starkingenuity]

Tony needs someone in his life, period. Patience is important. But so is being redirected to be a good man. He needs everything Bruce is, which is probably asking way too much from a guy who only just got his freedom, but Tony’s never been anything except selfish.

“We weren’t friends,” Tony says. He’s a defensive guy for someone that barely ever apologizes. “You were just this guy I thought was amazing and I wanted them to leave you alone.”

Ah. The guy that gazes from affair. No wonder he’d be so stupidly (and obviously) pleased to finally meet Banner. It had been like meeting a celebrity.

“But—. And I hate to ask this because you’re being really understanding— Why aren’t you pissed off?”

[hulkbusted]

"That excuse works right up until we became friends." The silver lining to not being angry at Tony, apparently, is that he can be implacable without worrying that if he pursues something too far, he'll blow up about it.

That piece of celery is hanging on like a half-eaten ghost. He shoves it in his mouth and uses the time while he chews to consider how to answer the inevitable question. He even holds up a finger in the universal signal of Hang on, I can't talk, my mouth's full.

And apparently he can still be a little bit mean without being angry, because he makes sure that piece of celery is thoroughly masticated before he swallows.

"Pretty sure I mentioned the part about having a substantial portion of my emotional range suppressed. I can't get angry and it seems like a sizable amount of my response to fear is MIA, too." Honestly, it could be pretty scary, but he's not sure. He's covering the uncertainty with practiced calm.

[starkingenuity]

“Yeah,” Tony agrees. “You did.” Wow. This Banner is mean. Or maybe he’s always been mean but still a little funny to try and mellow down the anger? “Being pissed off and being angry aren’t— Okay yes actually. Same thing. But different degrees. I guess you’re just being a little too understanding and...”

Tony’s usually a fast talker, he’s usually witty. He usually gives as good as he takes. But this is a new situation. He’s done a shitty thing. He expects Banner to be angry with him. And he just has never had anyone be so blasé about his short comings before.

This is worrying.

What Bruce could be feeling now might translate into everything else. Including their tabled relationship.

“Okay. Okay. So now you’re just calm. Like all weed all the time?”

[hulkbusted]

"I think all weed all the time would be more like numb." Tony must have missed Natasha's report on their first meeting. He's always had a mean streak, but he's also always been afraid of that part of himself and works to keep it in check -- worked to keep it in check.

"This is more like a 404 error with a redirect back to whatever else I have to work with. I know I should be pissed off at you, but I'm not." Yeah, it's weird to him, too, Tony. "I don't really know what I'm feeling. Anger's been the core component of my OS for as long as I can remember, so I'm not gonna lie, this is weird."

[starkingenuity]

Shit. “I’m going to be mad at me for you,” he promises, which sounds as silly as it all feels. He is mad at himself but that’s a constant thing. He’s always mad at himself for something. Why not this too? “I should have... I feel like if I would have...”

Tony stands and rubs a hand over his mouth before he sets his hands on his hips. How can he go from excited and manic to mellow and flirty to jealous and annoyed to outright angry and guilty in the span of just a few hours?

He needs to win an award for the emotional gambit he’s putting himself through.

“I’m sorry. For all of this. And I’m not going to ignore you. Not when you’re right.” This is what Steve told him.

He doesn’t always know best.