The Scientist

"Bruce stop running. You know I'm just going to track you down again." Bruce got up from the cot as Tony entered the decrepit building.

"Why?"

"Because I love you god dam it! Is that so hard to see?!" Tony's angry words echoed off the wall of the shack. Bruce fidgeted with his sleeves, not looking at his angry lover.

"Yes." He whispered.

"Well you better start seeing! I'm not just going to leave you to disappear in to some far off country."

"Please just let me go."

"No!"

"Tony I'm dangerous!"

"Arn't we all!"

"Some one could get hurt!"

"Bruce..."

"Don't you see Tony." He looked up eye's begging with Tony to understand. "I...I can't be with you."

"Oh for the love of Pete!" Tony through up his hands.

"Will you just listen!" Anger crept in to Bruce's voice. He took a deep breath and calmed down. "Tony have you ever thought about what it is like for me? Every day I know that I might go off and..." he swallowed. "the other guy might kill you."

"If you get angry enough. If I can't stop him. If the other guy doesn't like me. It's all if's! Your a scientist figure out the probability."

"It's not a question of if it's a question of when!"

"When might be right now if you don't calm down." Tony spat. Bruce winced at the words that no one but Tony was brave, no stupid, enough to say. "Bruce you got to trust yourself one day." Tony pleaded.

"Oh yah and that will work all the way up to the moment the hulk comes out to play and brakes you all like toys!"

"It's not going to be that easy." Tony knew the Hulk could crush his suit in a instant so he tried a different tactic. "When are you going to stop being afraid!"

"When I'm dead!" There was silence.

They stood, panting, the fight so familiar. There had been a few over the month and a half Bruce had been resident in Stark tower. Most ended with Bruce giving up and thinking bitterly 'it's your funeral'.

"Tony I don't expect you to understand. You live life to the fullest and you see the Hulk as a power. I'm different."

"Bruce..."

"No Tony I'm not letting this go!"

"Well I'm not letting you go!" And here they were again. That same argument that same stand off. But this time it was different, Bruce wasn't giving up even if it killed him. Tony knew words would do no good. He approached the man, Bruce shied away from his touch.

"Nobody said this was easy." Tony whispered.

"No one ever said it would be so hard." Bruce choked.

Tony hugged the shorter man to him. Bruce's glasses slipped off and Tony put them on the side table. He stroked dark curls as he held the man closer. Bruce broke down in Tony's arms, tears staining the expensive suit, sobs shaking them back and forth. Tony held the man like he would hold all the pieces of his shattered heart together, so one day Bruce could put them back in their place.

Tony hugged him tighter and Bruce buried his head in Tony shoulder. The brunet sobbed louder and his shoulders shook. Tony clutched him holding Bruce together as his world fell apart. Why couldn't they go back to the start? When it was simple and Bruce didn't have to worry about hurting every one around him. He was a scientist but no amount of science could cure him. Cure him of the Hulk or cure him of the love he held for the billionaire. Two such opposed forces in Bruce's being, constantly at war.

"I'm sorry." Bruce whispered.

Questions of science, science and progress

Do not speak as loud as my heart

oh take me back to the start

Authors note- angsty Bruce/Tony fic that popped in to my head while listening to the scientist by Coldplay. Hope you enjoy! Reviews feed the starving writer.