Behind His Quiet Lies: Part Five

By: Villain's Vindication

AN: If I continue on with the romantic side of their relationship as opposed to the bromance, I'm going to have to up the rating on the story due to sexy times. This is just a forewarning if you're not into that.

"You betrayed me. You took advantage of me. You took my weapon and fucking killed yourself! You went and made it my fault. And even after all the money I've sunk into your care, after all I've done to help you, I can still see it in your eyes that you wish you were dead. Is your life really so unlivable? We all have problems, hell, our stories could fill volumes. What makes you think you're so special? What makes you think you can just off yourself when we all care for you so much. I care so much. I'm so angry at you... and so sad.

I can see it in that fake ass smile of yours, in your eyes. Deeper than the green anger, deeper inside, that black abyss that has poisoned your mind.

I want nothing more than to shove my hand in your heart and tear out your darkness. I want to do something to really help you. But there is no armor that can protect you... there's nothing I can do... nothing... And I'm still so FUCKING ANGRY AT YOU!" Tony turned and threw his glass against the wall, shattering it.

"And I can't even tell you any of this or you might go out and hurt yourself again. I have no idea how to handle this... I can't handle this..." Tony's fists were clenched at his sides. He was strung out far beyond his means.

He had become accustomed to blabbing everything his mind could conjure at Bruce over the past year. But now that the man was awake, Tony had taken to talking to himself because he was so, ridiculously, afraid of talking to the doctor while conscious. Tony was an emotional hurricane while the doctor was the epitome of serenity. And Tony had spent all this time thinking about Bruce, getting closer to him, but for the doctor nothing had changed. What if it was weird, the casualness with which he spoke to Banner? Whar if he did or said something wrong?

What if he messed everything up?

There came a soft knock at the door, "Tony? Is everything alright? I heard you shouting from down the hall." The door slid open to admit Bruce. The doctor was undergoing intense physical therapy within the walls of Avenger Tower. He had argued against it of course. He didn't want the threat of the Hulk in such an important place, but Tony argued against him just as vehemently.

Stark was tired of not getting his way.

Eventually Bruce had to give in.

The man was weak, still confined to a wheelchair, still having a hard time speaking. He was so pale and rail thin from the long months confined to a bed. The radiation therapy hadn't done him many favors either. "Tony?"

"Uh, right it was just Dummy you know? Tried to fucking douse me again with the extinguisher just because there was some sparkage from the fuel lodge," Tony rushed to make something up.

Bruce raised an eyebrow at him while wheeling himself closer, "I thought you said you came down here to work on the flight stabilizers?"

"Right, I did, you see, but JARVIS got all snarky with me and I had to put him in his place because really he's just a computer-"

"You just said it was Dummy you were yelling at," Bruce said shaking his head.

"Dummy, right, just like I said."

"Tony," Bruce admonished, "everyone else is nervous and placating around me, walks on eggshells whenever I'm near... not you too. I thought... I thought you weren't like the others." Tony deflated at that. He knew he wasn't being fair to Bruce avoiding him and all the emotions he brought. "Of course I'm different. I'm Tony Stark," the physicist tried to smirk at the smaller man but the tired look on the other man's face made it whither on his lips.

"Tony."

"Alright, stop saying my name like that geeze. You know this isn't about the Hulk. I've never tiptoed around that, never saw a reason to, but..." he sighed running a hand through his already disheveled hair. "I just don't know what to say. Which is quite a feat you know. Many people would pay for a patented How To Shut Stark Up technique." That joke at least pulled a small smile out of Bruce.

"I'm sorry Stark. I know I've made a real mess of things." Bruce absently traced a jagged scars that crisscrossed the left side of his jaw. "Now I look like Frankenstein's monster even more than the Hulk."

"Don't be ridiculous, you're still the most adorable Avenger." Bruce flushed a bit at that, shifting awkwardly in his seat. The action brought Tony's attention to the man's thin wrist and the portable heart monoter wrapped around it. It was what that Betty woman had gifted Banner with. Apparently it was some sort of tradtion of theirs for her to replace it whenever he lost it by Hulking Out.

Tony didn't like the seething jealousy he felt when he looked at it.

"You know you really should let me design a better one of those for you. Could make it look just like a regular watch and have it place Black Sabbath instead of making that horrible generic beeping." The smile on Bruce's face grew, "better have it play elevator music. It's supposed to help me keep calm and in control, not rial me up." Bruce actually laughed at the horrified look on Tony's face at the suggestion.

"Elevator music? Now there's a torture that's certain to pull the Other Guy on his head, if only to destroy the thing." Bruce's laughter brought a flicker of light back in his dead eyes. Tony nearly teared up at the sight.

"Alright well I'll give you that one, Stark. I was actually coming down here to ask you were my pain meds had walked off too?" Tony tried to make his best innocent face, which only made Bruce laugh again. The doctor knew that drugs and alcohol were the least of Tony's self destructive behaviors.

Though they couldn't hold a candle to his own.

"When are you going to stop living as if you're a rock star, Stark?"

"When I stop being a rock star, Banner."

Bruce rolled his eyes, and Tony was thankful that The Conversation had been successfully avoided once again. Maybe if the two of them pretended everything was normal long enough they'd both start believing it.

It was a better option than actually facing their problems after all.

That was Thor's shtick anyways.

The team had been busy as ever even with the absence of Ironman and the Hulk. After Bruce had first arrived in the tower, the entire team came together to celebrate his release from the hospital. At the time, Bruce's jaw was still wired shut and Thor made some comment that it reminded him of something that happened once to his brother, but no one paid the Asgardian much attention as everything reminded him of Loki.

The two of them had lived as brothers for a thousand years, and Thor was still having trouble adjusting. They all were really, and when there wasn't some great threat the team never lasted too long together before they were back at eachother's throats.

So it only lasted about a week before they all went their separate ways once more. They all carried communicators of course in case anything planet threatening appeared.

This was both good and bad as it left Bruce and Tony more or less alone together in the tower.

Pepper had moved in with Rhodes, no real surprise there. The War Machine had taken his place in all the other ways. It was probably inevitable that his two oldest friends would eventually hook up. He hadn't been lying when he told Bruce's unresponsive form that their last break up had been something different. Tony knew he should have bee more upset about it, but all his emotions were invested in Bruce these days.

He was arriving at the inevitable conclusion that he actually loved loved the doctor as more than just a fellow hero and science bro.

And he had no idea how to handle it.

Like everything else concerning the man.

It wasn't the fact that he was a man. Tony suspected that he was whore enough to sleep with a rock if it was arranged provocatively enough. But this wasn't at all about getting Banner into bed with him. He really cared about the man. Everything about him that should have been annoying just ended up being... well... cute. And Bruce was clearly oblivious about it all. The man thought he was a monster.

But Tony had yet to meet a challenge he couldn't overcome.

He just had to change Banner's mind.

"Tony do you think it's possible for you to go an entire day without trying to provoke the Hulk?" Banner's hands held his seat belt and the door handle in a death grip. Tony's drove a car like he was Ironman just flying low to the ground. And unlike Stark, Bruce wasn't used to trusting a thin layer of metal to protect him from certain death.

Tony took another turn at sixty and Banner turned green for a very different reason.

"Aww but he's just so fun to mess with!" Tony laughed over the blaring music. He was going stir crazy in his lab and he was sure Bruce felt ten times worse. So, he decided on an impromptu trip to Central Park.

Well, his intentions hadn't been entirely pure. Bruce was able to walk assisted for short distances now. And the thought of walking around the park with Banner clinging to his arm, leaning his weight against him, had motivated him to get out of the house ASAP.

The shy smile Bruce sent him as they stumbled together was worth everything.