August 6, 2012

Tony had been home for about three weeks now.

After getting kicked out of the hotel, Tony had walked around Camdenton, drunk, until a nice local saw that he was drunk and decided to drop him off at his house. Since Camdenton was one of the few places Tony didn't own a house in, he showed him the crumbled up address in his pocket and he stayed at Bruce's house.

Tony spent days secluded in Bruce's house. When he wasn't drunk, he was looking through Bruce's lab work and figured out he was working on an EpiPen-esque chemical that he would probably use when the Hulk came out.

One day he actually decided to work a little himself on it. Even though he was more of an engineering buff than a chemistry one, he thought since Bruce was gone he probably wouldn't mind Tony stepping in where he left off.

He also snooped around Bruce's room a little more and found some things pretty interesting.

Bruce's laptop, for example.

For the most part, it had normal things like links to illegally downloaded movies and email and data that didn't fit into his lab notebook. but he did have another folder entitled, much like a teenage girl's, "DO NOT OPEN"

"Oh, this has got to be good…" Tony muttered to himself.

He opened what seemed to be an inception of folders entitled similar things until he actually came across files.

First he came across a folder with pictures in it. The first few were pictures of the entire Avengers team, but after about the first three they were all Bruce and Tony or just Tony.

Probably just a coincidence. Tony thought at first. But, Tony did spend the most time with Bruce, but that's really only because Tony was such a pusher to spend time with someone who actually talked science. And did science. And was just smart and interesting in general.

Bruce mainly stayed to himself and didn't seem to want to be involved with anyone, whether it was a friendly relationship or if there was a chance at something more.

Or maybe Bruce was trying to protect them. maybe he thought he would hurt them.

Tony's mind was working at a speed faster than his own trying to figure out Bruce even when he was missing, even though Tony's brain is already working ten times faster than anyone else's at any given time.

He didn't bother going through the rest of his files, but he did rummage through the rest of Bruce's desk.

He found a little booklet that kept his dates and plans, and as he flipped through it, most of them consisted of Tony. Obviously.

There was even a circle around that date of his flight, and Tony just slammed the book shut and threw it under the desk again.

Tony had to stop himself after a while because he found himself worrying more. he went to the kitchen and found himself some alcohol and drank to sooth the pain of worry.

Not being able to talk to Bruce, even if it was just calling him for a while, Tony started realizing how much he cared about Bruce.

He was missing the little things like calling him to make jokes about science no one else would understand or to talk about new theories or just talk about themselves. Tony forced Bruce to open up about himself sometimes and vice versa. It was a great friendship, and it seemed like so much more to Tony, someone who had trouble keeping real friends in his world of business and money.

Sitting alone, drunk, in Bruce's abandoned house because Bruce was probably dead, Tony realized he had so much more than friendship with Bruce, even if to him it was just friendship. Tony loved Bruce. And he would probably never see him again.

And for the first time in his life, Tony just started crying.

Tony went home the next day. He took Bruce's lab book and a small journal he found in his desk with him. The rest wasn't really worth saving.

The first thing he did when he went home was get drunk. It eased the pain, and he sure as hell couldn't talk to anyone sober.

Pepper finally couldn't take it with the drunk mess he seemed to be 24/7, and she left him alone. She didn't want to talk to him until he cleaned himself up, and she suspected he wouldn't do that ever.

As he was pleading with her through booze brain, he had said something about the company needing her, and when she said he could keep the company to himself or she'd take it all, he gave it to her. All of it. Every single penny, and she was gone with it.

He walked into his lab and crawled onto one of the empty tables. He was incredibly drunk still, and tired, and he started crying again and as he started falling asleep, he started wishing he wouldn't wake up to everything he loved gone.