A/N: So I've been watching The Avengers a lot lately... and by a lot I mean I think I've watched it like 30 or so times in the last 2 months... but anyway because I'm a sucker for hurt and comfort fluff and I love the idea of Bruce calling Stark Tower home I came up with this. So yeah I hope you like it! Enjoy!

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Aftermath

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The battle of New York had been brutal but it was finally over. Loki had been captured and properly restrained and the Tesseract had been returned. After a brief stop for Shawarma everyone was on their way to finally get cleaned up and get some much needed rest. Tony got a hold of Pepper and had her meet him at Stark Tower. He brought Bruce along, knowing he didn't really feel comfortable at S.H.I.E.L.D. and he had nowhere else to go. When they got to the tower and met up with Pepper Tony let Bruce into his own suite and gave him the rundown of where everything was and where he could be found before they left him to get cleaned up and settled.

As soon as Tony and Pepper were in their alternate suite, their main quarters having been damaged by Loki, Tony completely dropped his tough act.

"Pep, it hurts to move," Tony whined as he lowered himself into a seat at the island in the kitchen.

"That's not surprising," Pepper said as she moved to stand in front of him, "Come on, let's get you cleaned up and into bed."

"Are you trying to take advantage of me Ms. Potts?" Tony asked sassily.

"Maybe," Pepper said suggestively, "But you won't know useless you come up stairs with me."

"I'm up," Tony said, groaning when he moved to fast but eventually getting himself up.

Pepper took his hand and led him to the en suite bathroom off the master bedroom. Pepper started up the shower as hot as she thought they both could handle before they both stripped down and climbed in. Tony visibly relaxed as soon as he was under the hot water. Pepper gave him a moment before started to gently rub shampoo through his hair. Once that was rinsed out she started scrubbing the dirt, sweat, and little bits of blood from his body, starting at his shoulders and working her way down. She sent him out to get dried off and dressed while she washed herself up then followed him out. When she walked out of the bathroom she found Tony sitting on the bed wearing an old tshirt and a pair of pj pants. She made quick work of getting herself dressed before joining him on the bed.

"Still sore?" Pepper asked softly, running her fingers through his still damp hair.

"Better than before but yeah," Tony said closing his eyes as her fingers ran over his scalp.

"You should get some sleep before you get called back in," Pepper said, smiling as he seemed to start to fall asleep right there.

Tony just nodded and laid down, wiggling slowly under the covers as he did so, but before he pulled the covers up he rolled and pulled Pepper down with him.

"Tony," Pepper said in surprise.

"Shhh," Tony mumbled, keeping hold of her with one arm while he reached down to pull the comforter over them before settling with his head on her chest.

Pepper just sighed and starting up running her fingers through his hair again, she wasn't planning on lying in bed instead of getting a head start on some press issues to cover Stark Industries but she couldn't say no to Tony so she stayed where he had her pinned.

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Tony was out for almost half an hour when there was a knock on the door.

"Tony?" Came a hushed question from behind the door.

"Come in," Pepper said, loud enough to be heard through the door but not to wake Tony up.

The door slowly opened and Bruce peaked around it, looking away when he saw them on the bed.

"Uh sorry I uh..." Bruce mumbled forgetting what he was going to ask.

"It's ok," Pepper said reassuringly, "What did you need?"

"Well my bag is still on the helicarrier so I don't have any clean clothes," Bruce started.

"Oh, right I guess Tony forgot about that," Pepper said, keeping her tone light, "I don't know if he has your suite stocked but both of the other rooms on this level have brand new clothes in their chest of draws. I can show you if you like."

"Uh no that's ok," Bruce said a little sheepishly, "I'm sure I can find them on my own."

"Alright well if you have any problems there's an AI that Tony has running this whole building and you can ask him anything you need to know," Pepper said before addressing JARVIS, "JARVIS if there's anything Dr. Banner needs please help him."

"Of Course, Ms. Potts," JARVIS answered smoothly, "Mr. Stark has already granted him security access."

"Somehow that doesn't surprise me," Pepper said to no one in particular.

"Hmm?" Bruce said, her words sinking in.

"Oh I just mean that Tony doesn't bring just anyone home now that he isn't sleeping with various groupies," Pepper explained, "So he must really like you, which makes it not surprising that he also gave you security access, my guess is he's trying to get you to stay. He has a hard time finding people who understand what he's talking about."

"Oh," Bruce said, not sure how to take that but deciding it was time to take his leave so he could think it over, "Uh well thanks... I think I should get some sleep before they call us back in though."

"You're welcome," Pepper said with a warm smile, "Of course. Tony already had that idea, you might as well follow suit."

Bruce returned her smile before making is exit. He wandered down to the next bedroom over to raid the dresser. Once he had found a tshirt and a pair of pj pants he headed back to his suite and took a quick shower before getting dressed and getting ready to catch a few hours of sleep. He was surprised when he walked back into the bedroom to find the blinds already drawn and the lights turned down to just barely glowing. He briefly wondered how Tony knew that he liked sleeping with that little bit of light but decided he was too tired to think it over much more. He crawled into bed and settled on his side before letting exhaustion overcome him and slipping into a solid sleep.

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Pepper didn't realize she had lost herself in thought and stopped smoothing Tony's hair until she heard him mumble something and felt him nuzzled closer into his chest. She moved to running her hand up and down his back in a soothing manner which seemed to help. She was starting to feel the exhaustion from her day of traveling and worrying set in but there was something keeping her from fall asleep and after thinking over everything for a second she realized it was her usual mothering instinct that tended to come out with Tony wondering if Bruce had gotten settled. She contemplated just convincing herself she didn't need to know but decided that probably wouldn't work so instead she turned to JARVIS.

"JARVIS, how is Dr. Banner doing?" She asked softly.

"He's currently asleep Ms. Potts," JARVIS said smoothly.

"Thank you JARVIS," Pepper said, before shifting a bit to get comfortable, "Please make sure you wake all of us up if anyone from S.H.I.E.L.D. calls."

"Of course Ms. Potts," JARVIS answered, turning down the lights as he went silent.

Pepper let herself drift off if only for a few hours until she would have to drag Tony out of bed and force him to go in when he was called back for final debriefing.

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End