Chapter 8: Captain, my Captain

A few weeks had passed since Tony had persuaded the good Doctor as Iron to join him (Tony Stark) at his home and to the surprise of them both gotten along pretty well right from the beginning. Pepper had nicknamed them 'Science Bros' which Tony found somehow fitting since their work was the thing that had gotten Bruce to slowly open up despite his fear of 'hulking out' and hurting Tony. Tony himself had no fear of that happening, he had known before he had met Bruce that the other man wasn't the type to hurt people intentionally from what he could make out of the files. But he was afraid of telling Bruce the truth about himself – afraid of Bruce being angry with him for kind of lying to him and afraid of losing the trust he had gained by being (mostly) honest with him.

Now were working in the lab and Tony gathered his courage to tell Bruce, fidgeting on the spot, which caught Bruce attention. "Something wrong Tony?" "I, uhm, Bruce I have wanted to tell you something… I-" Suddenly Tony's mobile rang, interrupting Tony in what he had wanted to say and playing 'Yo ho, a pirate's life for me!' and Bruce saw the grimace Tony made as he heard the song but despite it still picked the phone up. "Yo Eye Patch! What cha want?" Tony greeted the person on the other end of the line. "Anthony, I want you for a mission."

Tony's face darkened slightly. "You know that I don't do that anymore, why are you even trying?" He heard Fury sigh. "You are the best person suited for that job since Natasha and Clint are on other missions, which I am sure you know already, and I don't want to send anybody else. But you will be partnered with someone." "Who and what is in for me if I do it?" You could practically see the sour face Fury made as he said: "You will see who and… you get one favour." "Huh. Okay I will do it. Send me the data and I will be on my way." And then he hung up without a warning and turned back to mildly curious looking Bruce.

"Who was that?"

"Just someone who wanted me to built something for them but I have to go to them to oversee the problem myself." Tony lied smoothly and Bruce nodded in acceptance even though he was pretty sure that Tony wasn't telling him something. But that was okay since everyone had something to hide and Bruce had accepted that Tony was always hiding something from the majority of the world including Bruce. He just added the little parts onto his mental lists for Iron Man and Tony, trying a bit to figure out their connection by himself without prying into business that wasn't his by only using the information that Tony gave him. Tony and Iron Man were the first friends Bruce had since his accident and he wouldn't want to lose that friendship just because of his curiosity.

"Well then good luck. When will you be back?"

Tony shrugged. "Don't know but I'm sure I will be gone for a couple of day at least. Old shell head will accompany me. If something happens, don't hesitate to call or send me a message." Again Bruce nodded and then Tony was already moving out of the lab and to his room where he would gather his 'Blue Knives' stuff he would need…

He couldn't believe that Fury had teamed him with that man. Fury seemed to finally have lost it to give Tony a chance to meet him outside from SHIELD! But it was true, he wasn't hallucinating, Steve Rogers aka Captain America was standing right in front of him! 'Phil will be so jealous when I tell him! He wanted to be the one to ask Rogers… Ah, well can't do anything about that now since we can't let such a opportunity slip away.' Tony thought.

"Hi, I'm Blue Knives. I'm your partner for this mission. Nice to meet you." Captain America shook the hand Tony had offered, careful of his own power and replied. "Nice to meet you too. I'm Steve Rogers, Captain America, but I am sure you know that already." Steve scratched his head in embarrassment and Tony thought that maybe he could learn to like that guy as long as he wouldn't start to compare him to Howard once he knew that Tony was his son.

"Well, then lets get this mission behind us. I had to leave an experiment because of Fury's call." Steve blinked at Tony in confusion. "Aren't you a SHIELD Agent?" Tony shook his head as he unpacked the map of the location they were supposed to infiltrate. "Nope. Never was. But I sometimes did some missions for them with my old partner who is a SHIELD Agent." A frown appeared on Steve's face at the answer. "Why would you do that? Are you some kind of a mercenary?" Tony shot him a dark look. "No and I would like it if you wouldn't establish something like that already as a fact in your mind without the proper facts!" The blond man had at least the decency to look ashamed at that. "I'm sorry. You are correct but I don't understand why you would undertake missions for them when you're not an agent of theirs or a mercenary." "Apology accepted Cap. …How about we go through with this first and after that you could come to my home. There we can talk in peace without SHIELD looking over our shoulders and monitoring what we are saying."

Steve nodded, curious about his mission partner, and together they planned how they would infiltrate the facility without raising the alarms.

Bruce and Yinsen were playing chess in the common living room when suddenly Jarvis' voice disturbed the comfortable silence. "Mr Yinsen! Your help is required in the medical area, now!" The urgent tone made Yinsen jump out of his seat and the older man sprinted to the elevator with Bruce close on his heals. Once inside, Yinsen tapped his feet impatiently even though the elevator was already going faster than normal. "Jarvis give me details!" "Sir has sustained a knife injury and his left arm seems to be broken. Mr Rogers is trying to stop the bleeding by applying pressure." "Mr Rogers?" Yinsen asked but the door swung open and so Yinsen didn't wait for an answer, instead he ran as fast as he could to the medical area on his floor. He bursted through the doors, startling a confused Rogers and was greeted by Tony's small wave with his right hand and "Hi, Yinsen." The older man gently pushed the blond haired man away who seemed to be still confused but still moved away and Bruce joined his side. They exchanged quick glances with each other, saying nothing and refocused on the other two men in the room. Yinsen had grabbed a medical scissor cutting the blood stained hoodie, ignoring Tony's weak protests of "Yins, that's my favourite one!"

Bruce's eyes widened slightly as he realised the clothes Tony was wearing: a dark blue hoodie, underneath it was some kind of protective armour – it had only small gaps where it seemed Tony had taken a hit – (talk of bad luck) and knives strapped on his arm, legs and torso! But the weapons weren't what Bruce was concentrating on right now, it was the hoodie that had cached his attention: it looked exactly like the one Iron had worn the night he had asked Bruce to come with him! But that couldn't be… Oh, but of course! How could he have been so dense?! Iron Man and Tony were one and the same, that was why they reacted to certain things exactly the same even if they tried not to but it was hard to hide things like the strange reactions towards a mass of water… Why hadn't Tony told him? Maybe… maybe he had wanted to before he had to go wherever he had gone to that led to him being injured and being in the company of the Steve Rogers! If Bruce had been in Tony's position he too wouldn't have told someone who would possibly walk away after a few days or weeks such a secret but Tony could have told him sooner when he saw that Bruce wouldn't leave him, Yinsen and Jarvis! …But it was Tony he was talking about and as far as Bruce had the chance to get to know the younger man, he knew that Tony was afraid of letting people to close (but at the same time was surrounded by a group of people that were his family) and despite this had wanted to befriend Bruce and not because of the other guy but because of Bruce himself.

Before Bruce could dwell in these thoughts more, three people stormed through the door. Bruce recognized one of them; the one in the suit was Agent Phil Coulson and the other two slightly tattered figures he hadn't gotten the chance to be properly be introduced to but he knew that they were part of Tony's family because Tony had told him a bit about them: Clint and Natasha.

"Jarvis called us, is he all right?" Agent Coulson asked Yinsen who was stitching the now cleaned wound, trying to remain calm. "Yes, he will be." He finished the stitches and began to reset the bones in Tony's arm into their correct position. Tony had already passed out and only a small pained grunt came out of his mouth, as he stayed unconscious. After that was done Yinsen put the arm in a splint to hinder Tony from using it too much – probably a lost cause but he could at least try.

"He just needs rest." You could hear the relieved sigh the three newcomers gave. Clint saw the other two people in the room and nudged Phil into the ribs who had made a move towards tunnel (with kind of a tunnel vision until he could make sure by himself that his little brother was okay). The older agent looked at Clint who nodded towards Bruce and Steve, which were still standing awkwardly at the side not really knowing what they should do with themselves.

Phil's eyes lit up in recognition and he turned towards the other two men...

And here I somehow couldn't continue! I don't know why but instead of trying desperately to continue it, I decided to (as I already said countless times) rewrite the whole thing and the result was the story you already read.
Now since that is of my chest I can focus on other things... (*turns to the other countless notes of different fan fictions*) Where to start?