"They say love is blind. I disagree. Infatuation is blind, love is all-seeing and accepting.
Love is seeing all the flaws and blemishes and accepting them. Love is accepting the bad habits and mannerisms, and working around them. Love is recognising all the fears and insecurities, and knowing your role is to comfort. Love is working through all the challenges and painful times. Infatuation is fragile and will shatter when life is not perfect.
Love is strong and it strengthens because it is real.
When I'm with you, I can see again."
Bruce looked over at the man laying in the bed next to him, remembering the day that he felt the tower shake as one of Tony's experiments exploded in the lab, rushing down the stairs only to find the man lead unconscious on the floor, blood covering his face.
Banner knew that he couldn't have done anything differently lest he lose the man next to him but he still regretted the fact that he couldn't save the eyes of the genius. Bruce reached over and tenderly caressed Tony's cheek, feeling the stubble under his fingers.
"It wasn't your fault Bruce, I can tell that you're blaming yourself. I wouldn't be here still if you didn't help me. Do you really regret that?" Tony shifted so that he was looking towards where, he believed, Bruce was. "I was being an idiot in the lab Bruce, I was frustrated about out last mission so I wasn't paying attention to what I was doing."
Bruce had no words that he could offer the man next to him, instead he pulled Tony over so that he was draped across Bruce's chest, head over his heart. He wrapped his arms tight around the man on top of him, one around his back while the other hand slid into Tony's hair, teasing the locks between his fingers.
"I can see Bruce, when I'm with you, I can see. I love you."
Bruce finally found his words as he made a quiet confession, "I love you too Tony." With these five words Tony lifted his head to place a deep kiss to Bruce's lips.
"That's the first time you've said those words back to me," Tony murmured against Bruce's lips before licking the lower lip asking for entrance. They kept on kissing until they had to pull away for air, resting their foreheads together so they didn't lose contact.
Bruce flipped the two of them over so that he was on top of Tony, keeping his weight on his arms so to not hurt the smaller man. Tony began mapping Bruce's chest above him, not because he didn't know what he looked like but because he wanted to feel the muscles move beneath his fingers, feel the steady beat of the man's heart, feel each of the scars that made up the past of the man he loved.
Bruce let out an involuntary shiver when Tony softly ghosted his fingers over Bruce's nipples until his hands reached behind the man's neck and pulling him down for another kiss which the man complied with without hesitation.
Bruce moved his hands to take off Tony's undershirt from the day before, which he keeps on to try to dull the light from the reactor slightly, lifting it slowly, relishing in the feel of the man's skin against his own as more flesh was displayed. Tony sat up slightly allowing his shirt to be pulled over his head. As soon as the offending article of clothing was removed Tony fell back down against the bed and Bruce wasted no time in attaching his lips to the smaller mans skin, sucking and nipping at Tony's collarbone, willing the mark to appear.
The two men took comfort in one another's bodies that morning, making love slowly and with great care, letting the other know how they felt through their actions rather than through words.
Bruce had always known that he loved Tony, and vice versa, after the explosion they both realised how fragile their lives were as Avengers and wasted no time in telling each other that they loved them. In that moment though, when they both took such tender care of the other that they realised what those words really meant to them.
They were not words to be thrown about with no regard of the consequences, not words to be said to a random stranger, they were words that could only be said with such sincerity to one person in your life, the one you were meant to be with, your soulmate.
At that point they realised the truth, that they did not love one another, they were in love with one another. Forever, and always.