"Pepper, can we talk for a minute?"

"Yes?"

"Why didn't you pick up?"

"When?"

"When I was going to die."

"What do you mean?"

"Pepper, I carried a nuclear missile into space. I only had enough power to get there, and not back. I called you. You didn't pick up."

"Tony, I..."

"No, I get it Pepper. You were too busy to pick up. So just imagine this; You're being held hostage, a gun to your temple. You've been deemed no longer useful, so they're going to kill. you. They give you one chance to call one person for three minutes, that's it. You call the one person you think you can't live without, knowing that they have their phone turned on and they will always pick up and they. Don't. Pick. Up. You broke my heart at that moment, Pepper. I thought I was going to die, and I didn't get to hear your voice one last time. So I'm sorry, but it's over."

Bruce walked into Tony's lab quietly, presuming that as there was no sound of music, Tony had fallen asleep in the past 48 hours he had stayed in there and JARVIS had turned the music off. He didn't know the trigger for Tony's solitude, but then again, often there wasn't one.

Bruce froze on the spot when he saw Tony.

He wasn't passed out at all, but sitting on the sofa, curled into a ball.

He was crying.

Tony Stark, who was the strongest man Bruce knew, who acted the least emotional of everyone he knew at times, was shaking with sobs, clutching a necklace in his calloused hands.

Bruce rushed up to him. "Tony, are you okay?"

Tony cried a little harder. "I though it was the right choice." He muttered.

Bruce came and sat next to him and put an arm around him. "I'm sure it couldn't be that bad."

"But it is! I thought that she'd tell me I was being silly and apologise but she didn't."

"Natasha?"

"No, Pepper. I... I broke up with her, because she didn't pick up when I called in the battle. When I was going to die. She just sat there trying to defend herself. She didn't even fucking say sorry."

After that, Tony broke down into even more sobbing. But Bruce didn't mind. He was willing to wait, to hold Tony until he wanted to leave.

"Hey, Bruce?" Tony asked. It was 2 days later and Tony was still to leave his lab.

Bruce smiled at him tiredly. Tony had a lot of nightmares, apparently. More than Bruce has, anyway. Most of the time Tony ended up screaming for Pepper or simply crying a lot. It was sad for Bruce to watch his best friend (because Tony classed as that now seeing as they'd had a very emotional couple of days.) break down so badly every time he went to sleep.

Tony took him by surprise when he wrapped his arms around Bruce. "Thank you so much. I don't think I would have made it through without you..."

Bruce returned the hug easily, smiling into Tony's hair.

Tony made a choked noise. "I give up!" He exclaimed, and pressed his mouth to Bruce's.

Bruce was frozen for a second, but then he returned the kiss.

It wasn't like he would have expected from the famous playboy. It wasn't at all intruding or particularly dirty, just soft and warm. His lips pressed against Bruce's.

Bruce wasn't sure who was more surprised when, during the weekly team dinner, Tony held his hand under the table. It could have been him, or Tony, as he looked pretty surprised when he realised what he was doing, or Natasha, who never misses anything that goes on.

She glared at them once the final crumbs had been cleared from plates. "Care to explain what's going on here?"

Tony matched her glare. "We just finished eating dinner. Do you have a problem with that?"

"Don't even suggest that I didn't notice that."

"Care to fill me in?" Clint asked.

"Stark was holding Banner's hand under the table."

Steve had been paying little attention to the argument beforehand, but he spun around to look at Tony and Bruce closely. "Yes, please explain." He said, his tone clearly annoyed.

Tony scowled. "Hey, am I not allowed to hold his hand? He's my boyfriend."

Bruce was a little taken aback by the comment, he hadn't really thought of the situation the kiss had put them in. But he liked the title of boyfriend.

"Now, if you'll excuse me and Bruce, we have science to do."