A/N: sooooo! Here is the second chapter to this fic. Let me know what you think of the progress in a review, eh?

REVIEW.

~PT

Nightlight

Bruce woke up to the soft blue light of something right in front of his face. He slowly blinked himself out of sleep and realized what it was.

Because of his… condition. He usually didn't react before taking stock of a situation fully so he didn't move until he understood what was going on.

The light happened to be Tony Stark's artificial heart. His arc reactor. Bruce was held tightly by the inventor, his arms making it hard to shift away. Tony's hands were everywhere, or at least it felt like it. A couple of his fingers were even tucked into the waistband of his pants that he had never gotten to take off the night before.

Bruce would be angry about it if it weren't for both his training, as well as the fact that Tony was obviously sound asleep still. It was probably just something that happened during the night.

The scientist remembered being pulled down onto the slim bed and held there by one sleepy Tony, and it seemed as though the older man hadn't let go of him once during the night.

Bruce shifted, trying to untangle them. Tony mumbled something and tried to pull Bruce back in, against him.

Bruce became more forceful, and ended up accidentally shoving the man off the other side of the bed.

Tony gave a muffled sound of surprise and he woke up on the floor, his head ringing a little from having hit the wall.

"Wha?"

Bruce poked his head over the side of the bed, "Sorry, I didn't mean to shove you off. You just wouldn't let go of me."

"You mean… you wouldn't let go of me. I wasn't holding you at all."

Bruce chuckled, "You don't remember last night very well do you?"

"Why, did you deflower me? Gasp! How unlike you, Dr. Banner!" Tony's sharp sarcasm apparently didn't take long to show up in the morning.

"Deflower? You have no flower left."

"Because you took it!" Tony grabbed the side of the bed and hoisted himself to his feet. His leg hurt like hell, and he remembered having to tear out a piece of his suit from his upper thigh.

Bruce got up as well, and left the room, making his way to the kitchen.

Tony stumbled around trying to find his pants, and he blushed, just slightly as he remembered grabbing a hold of the doctor before falling asleep. Oh well, what's done is done.

Bruce looking at the mess that Tony had created with his suit when the other man came in, having successfully put on his bloodied pants and joined him.

"I'll have someone come in and clean this all up, not that it'll make much of a difference in this place, eh greenie?"

Tony shuffled to the fridge only to find that it had nothing inside of it.

Bruce just watching him as he muttered to himself about how this apartment was reminiscent of a certain middle eastern dirt cell he'd been in once.

Bruce rolled his eyes, "Look, I'll call Fury today. You can get back to your mansion in the sky now.

"Well, I would if I had any way to contact the tower. My suit is destroyed, thanks to you, and Pepper…"

Bruce raised an eyebrow as the other man trailed off. The man shut a cupboard door loudly, "Pepper left me."

Not expecting anything but nonsense from the man, Bruce didn't know what to say.

Tony turned towards him and just stared. For once, there was no sarcasm or insulting jokes. They just looked at each other.

"I'll get you to a payphone. You can get Fury to get you home."

With that Bruce left the apartment, leaving Tony to hurriedly catch up.

"This is so archaic. They have these still? I mean seriously?"

Bruce ignored the huffy man and slid in two quarters into the machine. He held up the receiver and waited for Fury to answer. The line clicked but there was no answer. "It's me, Bruce. I'm in New Jersey. I came down on my own time, I didn't realize you needed me. I, uh, broke Tony's suit so you'll have to come pick him up. Next time? Don't send the one man guaranteed to make the other guy want to come out and play."

There was a moment of silence before Fury replied, "Tell me your location and I will collect Iron Man. Next time, don't go off the grid."

Bruce told him and then hung up.

"Hey! I wanted to talk to dad!" Tony whined in his ear.

Bruce just looked at him and sat down on the curb. After a few moments, Tony joined him stiffly. They sat there in silence for a while until Tony said, "Thanks. For helping me last night."

Bruce just nodded and in a few more moments, a black car pulled up in front of them.

"Tony Stark and Bruce Banner?" A man asked as he rolled down the window.

"That's us!" Tony jumped up awkwardly and made to get into the vehicle, "Don't kidnap me, ok?"

Bruce informed the man that he would be back in his lab by 2 pm and that he had some other errands to attend to while in New Jersey. The man nodded and they took off, leaving the doctor behind.

Bruce couldn't help but think that he had never heard Tony thank anyone for anything, unless it was in jest.

He went back to the apartment and just locked it up. There was no reason to believe that Tony wouldn't come back to get his damaged suit, but he didn't want the place left open to make sure no one stumbled in and stole anything off of it.

He closed the door and made his way slowly back to the cemetery. He had been visiting his mother's grave, and he wanted to finish his ritual.

He did this on the anniversary of her death. Every time, he bought her favorite flowers and went to sit by her grave and talk to her. People always said it was strange that he remembered so much of his early childhood, but attributed it to his high intelligence level.

He stopped in front of the gravestone titled "Rebecca Banner, loving mother and wife" followed by the dates. After long years of him touching the word mother with his fingers, it was almost rubbed away.

He sat down heavily and looked at the flowers. His mother had always loved simple posies and had a bunch of them planted in their backyard when he was growing up. Even now, years and years later he felt the anger towards his father well in inside of him.

He took eight deep breaths, the number assigned to 'copious', and closed his eyes and began to talk.

"Hey mom. I was here yesterday, but I didn't get to talk to you because Iron Man showed up. He makes me so mad. The other guy came out because he insulted you. Well, I don't think he knew why I was here or who you were but I still got so angry. I crushed his suit and I could've killed him. Dad was right. I may not have been a monster then. But I am one now."

Bruce was crying a little bit now, tears leaking from his closed eyelids.

"I didn't mean to hurt him, but the other guy doesn't care about my intentions. I tried to help him afterwards, I sutured his leg wound and I let him stay at my old apartment. He… I slept in the same bed with him, and mom… I've never slept so well. He had his arms around me and I fell asleep to the blue light from his artificial heart. It was nice not to be alone in the dark for once."

Bruce stopped talking. He always felt a little foolish, talking to bones in the ground, but he came every year anyway, because he missed her so much that it physically hurt. He usually felt better after giving her a candid update on his life, but as he opened his eyes and took in the desolate cemetery, he just felt all the more alone.

The doctor sighed and got up. He dusted off his pants and headed out of the gate towards the street. It was a long walk into the city where he had left his Oldsmobile. He drove back to his lab in New York, listening to an old rock station; feeling like his life couldn't be emptier at the moment. He had helped the 'Avengers', as Captain America had taken to calling them, defeat the alien menace that Thor's brother had threatened upon earth. He hadn't been one of the ones surprised to hear about real aliens, there was no way humans were the only intelligent life forms in the universe; not had he been surprised to read about Thor in the news. The man claimed to be a god, and after seeing him in action, it was hard to dispute. Thor and Captain America hung out a lot, as did the red haired woman, Black Widow, and that little archer guy. Iron Man didn't really hang out with anyone, though Bruce thought he had so much inventor stuff on his mind, he didn't need company.

Bruce couldn't have company. He hated to be around people. He had no idea when the other guy would start pressing on his consciousness. He couldn't take the risk. Besides, everyone on the team was wary of him. Captain America straight up told him he couldn't be trusted and he agreed wholeheartedly. He was pretty sure he had scarred agent Romanov for years if not life. The only one who seemed to go out of their way to aggravate him was Tony. He couldn't figure it out either. Did the man have a death wish? He acted like it was all just a game to him, and maybe it was. But the other guy couldn't stand him, and by extension Bruce tried to keep his distance.

Bruce was fascinated by the inventor, however. He was brilliant. He was passionate. He was funny.

All things that Bruce wished he could be. He was smart, but he couldn't be passionate for fear of waking up his alter ego. And he very rarely cracked jokes. He never felt like he had anything to laugh about. But Tony had money and Pepper and fans and his brilliant work. His Iron Man suit was a marvel, but what really intrigued Bruce was his arc reactor. He couldn't believe it when he read that Tony had made in in the Middle East while he had been held captive and heavily wounded. He would love to look at the schematics of the thing.

That, would take getting to know Tony better. Something he knew was a bad idea.

He sighed as pulled up to his lab and parked and locked his car. The lab wasn't anything fancy. It was all substandard equipment that he had been given by S.H.I.E.L.D. He didn't want to have expensive things because of his condition. He could work with outdated models of machines just as easily. He had furnished the place after going to a high school schoolroom sale and a lot of the items mismatched. He liked the lab, but nowhere had seemed like home to him since the accident.

Knowing that Fury had been notified the second he stepped inside, he didn't bother to call him. Instead, he pulled out his research on modern pathology and began to revise. Better to keep him mind busy.

Around 8 he stopped to get something to eat. Above the lab, there was a small living space. Almost like those trendy studio apartments but without the stylish part. Every piece of furniture was a garage sale find. He found a couple day old box of take out and microwaved it. As he headed back down to the lab, the phone rang. He had a mobile but he hardly kept track of it. He had almost giving up on finding it when he finally looked in the fridge.

The phone vibrated gently against some expired orange juice. Bruce scowled at himself and answered right as the call went to voicemail.

"Dr. Banner."

"Brucie!"

Bruce held the bridge of his nose when he recognized the voice, "What do you want, Tony?"

"I just wanted to inform you that I got all the pieces of my suit out of your place. I also tweaked a couple things as a sort of thank you for letting me crash there."

"You didn't have to do that," Bruce said automatically.

"Too bad. Look, you should come over to the Tower tomorrow, I've been working on something and I want to see what you think."

Bruce shook his head and then felt foolish because Tony couldn't see him, "I don't think that's a good idea…"

Tony made a rude sound and Bruce shook his head again at the man's childishness, "Nonsense. Think of it as an apology for what happened yesterday."

Bruce said nothing.

Tony's voice took on a more serious tone, "Just think about it? I'll be there all day."

Then he hung up, leaving Bruce wanting to call him back and say, 'yes he would love to come check out all of Tony's cool gadgets but no, he couldn't do it because he would most likely destroy millions of dollars' worth of cool gadgets.

He sighed, and stopped short of putting his phone back into the fridge. He went back to his research and his food. He'd think about this later.

A/N: So? Freaking review already! I'm desperate!

Loves,

~PT