The insistent tapping on his shoulder suddenly jolts Tony awake, his beautiful dream, which consisted of him just relaxing in his laboratory with no apparent worries, disappearing into the harsh reality of the current world. Groggily and slowly turning his head, which Tony realizes is still plastered onto the cool metal of his table, his eyes focus on the soft smile of the man standing near him.

Bruce.

It does not surprise Tony; after all, he did give Bruce permission to use his laboratory at all times. He was the only person Tony trusted with his invaluable equipment, and the only person who actually knew how to use all the technologically advanced materials in the first place.

Tony sees the man cross his arms and pointedly stare at something across the table. Resisting the persistent desire to slam his head back onto the table and avoid facing up to his roommate, Tony rubs his eyes. He arches his back, stretches loudly, with a dramatic flare, and follows Bruce's gaze.

And eventually lands on a plate full of food, a hard-boiled egg and rich toast topped with a thick layer of creamy butter and jam. Tony rolls his eyes, yawns, and returns to Bruce.

"I'm not hungry, Bruce. Plus, do you want me to gain weight? Look at this marvelous body of mine and I know you'll instantly change your mind." Tony raises his eyebrow suggestively and flexes his biceps.

"You've slept on a table for the past 8 hours Tony, and you should be glad that I didn't wake you up and force you to eat with us in the first place. Since I convinced the rest of our roommates that I would make you eat, albeit later, I will." Ignoring Tony's comment about his apparently fantastic body, Bruce uncrosses his arms lazily and cocks his head at the billionaire, subtly daring him to refuse.

"Please Bruce. Deep deep deep deep deep deep down, you know that I don't need this kind of food. Can I have a cup of coffee?" Tony jokingly pleads, his hands wildly indicating his opinion of the revolting breakfast.

"I'll call Natasha." Damn. Bruce obviously discovered Tony's weakest point. That woman would inflict horrible pain on his fragile figure if he refused.

Tony grins, and holds up his hands in surrender. Bruce does not look amused, but the crinkles near his eyes show Tony that he's not too annoyed. He picks up the toast as slowly as possible, never releasing Bruce's gaze, and puts it to his lips. Tony winks, and jams the toast in his mouth as fast as humanly possible, smearing raspberry jam across his cheeks.

Chomping and grinding his teeth together, Tony tries to swallow the entire piece of toast within seconds but only manages to choke on the stupid piece of bread. Coughing and spluttering momentarily, Tony finally succeeds in consuming the food.

Bruce laughs out loud, a rare occurrence, and it makes Tony's heart fill with pride that he had made the quiet but impossibly kind man happy.

"What?" Feigning innocence, Tony allows the delicious jam to dribble across his face, gradually falling on his white shirt and staining the collar.

Bruce smiles, tells Tony that he should clean up the mess he made because he was not going to get the cleaning supplies twenty floors up. He then turns and goes to the living room to, probably, continue reading The Lord of The Rings. Tony has no idea how the man has the patience, seriously, the book is a million pages long.

He hardly made it to Chapter 2.

Shaking his head, Tony returns to his depressing work. The results from yesterday did, unfortunately, not brighten his day. He estimated he had at least 3 weeks until the pain would be unbearable. The attacks would also increase threefold, and the team would most likely find out by the second week.

Jesus.

Tony decided his life sucked. He could already imagine the indignation of the Avengers, and Pepper's fury. Although, technically, it wasn't his fault. Except for the fact that he did choose and is choosing to not tell them. It was for their own good.

Absentmindedly munching on the hard-boiled egg that Bruce had put on the plate, Tony leans back on his chair and puts his feet on the table.

He might tell Bruce. If he had to find a cure or a solution, Bruce would be extremely helpful and the least likely to kill him. Well, he hoped Bruce wouldn't have the urge to hit him.

Tony was 96% positive that Bruce would punch him, though. That seemingly silent man had a knack for surprising the absolute crap out of Tony. Only last week did Tony have a shower during the early hours of dawn, walk into the cold living room and grab a soda.

He, literally, jumped backwards and had a heart attack when he closed the fridge door and Bruce was standing right behind it. It was a scene out of a horror movie.

Bruce didn't seem very sorry at all, and didn't lose that mischievous grin of his for the rest of the day. Tony was sure he asked Jarvis to personally save the footage of that event so that he could look at it during the night and laugh at his well-deserved reaction.

Sigh.

He was going to miss the world.


Author's Note: I'm soooooooo sorry for the delay! I've just had my hands full with the current move to another country, and I will try to continue updating this story regularly. :) Hugs to everybody who still reads this story.