They all probably looked like fools, standing there in the middle of the parking lot looking between each other like there had been some kind of terrible mix up. Tony's eyes had been flicking consistently between Bruce and Pepper, brows raised expectantly while he waited for some kind of answer or explanation.

Bruce didn't really want to give him one, though. He didn't know what he would have said if he tried.

"Sure." Pepper finally broke the silence. It was heavy and uncomfortable, but most of all she didn't like the calculating look on Tony's face that she knew all too well. She was sure he'd be questioning Bruce about this later, so she figured she'd save Bruce the pain right now. "Let's go. Um…" She shifted to look at Bruce still beside her, and offered him a little, grateful smile. "Thank you for coming with me. And… everything."

"Of course." Bruce returned the smile as easily as he could before he gestured her towards Tony. "I guess I'll see you both back home?" He turned his gaze onto Tony, but before the other man replied he took a quick step forward and pressed his lips to Bruce's cheek. He lingered there for a moment, and Bruce almost turned his head so he could catch Tony's lips in his own until he felt Tony whisper "I'll talk to you about this later" against his ear.

Bruce just squeezed Tony's shoulder, savoring the brief moment of closeness until Tony pulled back and Bruce stepped back towards his car, trying not to think too hard about what part of the situation "this" was referring to.

They parted ways then, each of them feeling some level of awkward as they slid into their respective vehicles. Once Pepper was situated in the passenger seat and was about as comfortable as she was going to be, she looked over at Tony, studying his movements as he put the car in drive. "Nice of you to show up after the appointment," she commented dryly, looking back out the windshield. Maybe a bitter remark wasn't the best way to start the conversation, but there wasn't much else that came to mind.

"Told you I was busy," Tony replied. His eyes were staring long down the road before them, and his fingers were stiff as he gripped the wheel with both hands. He was nowhere near his usual reckless driving habits, and Pepper could read his body language far too well to fall for whatever façade he was trying to put on.

"What changed your mind?" Pepper knew he was fibbing, and she wasn't having any of it.

Tony's jaw flexed, and that was the surefire sign that he knew he was caught. The fact of the matter though was that his mind hadn't even needed to be changed—he'd been thinking about this all day, so the truth was that he'd finally worked up the confidence to get over himself and show up and at least try to make things right. "I realized that I've been an asshole about all of this," he finally responded, and when he had the car fully stopped at a light he stole a glance at Pepper in the seat beside him. He met her eyes for barely a second before his gaze traveled elsewhere, lingering on her stomach for a moment until he looked back at the road. "And during all of my assholery, I also realized that I'm missing… everything. And I guess I don't want to miss it anymore."

"How sentimental." Pepper hadn't meant for the comment to sound so snide, but she was still on the fence and slightly aloof. It was odd to see Tony do a complete one-eighty with how he felt, and on top of that it just seemed to have happened so fast.

"Pep, I'm being serious." Tony very narrowly avoided making a remark about mood swings, but stopped himself at the last second. Pepper was already hesitant to listen to him; being spiteful wasn't going to encourage her to let him in. "We both know what happened in the workshop, okay? We know what I said and what I did, and for some stupid reason I've been thinking about that more than I've been thinking about anything else when I should be thinking about… him or her." He took one hand off the wheel and gestured vaguely towards Pepper's middle, not sure how else to convey it right now. "So then I realized that if I don't want to end up like my own dad, then I shouldn't throw away my kid like he threw away his." With that statement, Tony peeled into the garage and brought the car to a screeching halt in its parking space. Maybe that wasn't the best subject to bring up when he was behind the wheel.

Pepper tensed a little when Tony slammed on the brakes, but she quickly composed herself. She'd dealt with a frustrated Tony Stark on multiple occasions, but this was different, more delicate. That was something she didn't have nearly as much experience with, and she even felt her own chest tighten in response to Tony's final sentiment. "I don't want you to miss her life either," she replied, turning her eyes onto Tony after a brief moment of hesitation.

When she did, she was at least four or five different emotions flicker inconspicuously across Tony's face until he blinked them away, and his expression seemed to settle on some kind of surprise. "Her?" The word felt strange on his tongue, so he had to try it out again. "It's a… you're having a… her?"

"I believe the correct way to word that sentence would be 'we're having a girl,' but yes, Tony. Her." Pepper couldn't quite decide if she was more relieved or put off by Tony's response. She decided to reexamine that again a little later, particularly after she slowly reached into her pocket and pulled out the printout of the ultrasound she'd gotten. She handed it over to Tony, almost holding her breath until she gauged his reaction. "What, are you nervous that you'll be outnumbered by women?" she joked weakly, trying to break through the confusion and not-quite-tension in the car.

Tony huffed out a dry chuckle. "Nah. I mean, unless Bruce has been hiding something from me, but… well, I can say from experience that he's still a dude." He watched Pepper roll her eyes before he noticed her holding the printout in his direction. His demeanor softened just slightly as he took it, studying the greyscale image for a few moments before he let out a little humph. "It, uh… she… actually looks like a tiny human," he remarked, probably quite stupidly in hindsight.

"Yeah, the unrecognizable-blob stage was over a while ago," Pepper murmured, watching Tony's face just about as intently as he was looking at the photo in his hand. "So?"

"So what?"

"What are you thinking, Tony?"

Tony was quiet for a moment. He seemed to be doing that a lot lately, being quiet—it was unusual, and even a little unnerving. This was a different kind of quiet, though. It wasn't the kind of quiet he'd been a few weeks ago, when he was scared and confused and reluctant to deal with any of this. Now, it was the kind of quiet that meant he was thinking maybe too hard, trying to piece together how he felt about everything. The emotions weren't all bad this time, though. In fact, he was mostly trying to make sense of the strange, almost prideful warmth he felt curling through the center of his chest. "I think it's pretty cool that we made this," he finally replied, and he looked up at Pepper just in time to see her lips curl into a smile after she sighed, the small exhale sounding some kind of relieved.

"I guess it is pretty cool," she agreed. Cool wasn't exactly the word she would have expected to come out of this conversation, but if it meant that Tony was on his way to being a bigger part of this, she would take it. "Do you… want to feel her?"

"Feel her, huh?" The typical Stark smirk appeared on Tony's face.

"God, you're disgusting. Give me your hand." She didn't wait for Tony to comply before she just reached out and grabbed his hand herself, pulling it to her stomach before either of them could change their minds. Tony flattened his palm against the smooth curve of Pepper's stomach, and it was only a matter of seconds before he felt the baby—his baby—start kicking and squirming, probably in response to the different kind of warmth.

"Shit," he muttered distractedly, his mind too occupied by the tiny flutters he felt against his palm and by just how nice it felt to have Pepper holding his hand so closely again. "Someone's restless."

"Always is, really," Pepper said, involuntarily squeezing Tony's hand while her lips quirked into a smile. "I suppose we know who she takes after, then."

"Are you suggesting that I'm restless and fidgety and annoying?"

"I wasn't going to specifically pin it on you, but if you're accepting the blame…" The little smile on Pepper's face stretched into a grin, and she had to admit that this was the most genuinely comfortable and… happy, almost, that she'd felt around Tony in the past several months.

"Fine. Whatever." Tony was silenced again as he focused in on letting the warmth under his palm spread through the rest of him, and he sighed softly as he leaned over a little closer to Pepper. "I'm gonna be better about this, Pep." He finally tore his gaze away from her stomach to look up and meet her gaze. "I promise."

Pepper felt her eyes lock on Tony's when he finally looked back up at her, and the intensity of his deep, hazel gaze was just enough for her to feel the urge to use her mouth to kiss him again rather than forming words. She almost moved in to do just that, but she stopped the little hitch in her movement when she realized that she could still taste Bruce on her lips just a little bit, and that wasn't what this was about. Or at least it wasn't supposed to be. "Okay," she managed to say after another pause, forcing herself to blink. "I believe you."

"Okay." Tony grinned encouragingly, and he left his hand resting on her belly until it made sense to pull it away. He discreetly squeezed Pepper's fingers before he let go completely, and his hand immediately felt cold once hers was gone. "Come on, let's get back inside."

"So you went with her today, huh?"

When Tony made it back to his apartment in the tower, he was greeted by an empty bedroom and the squeal of the shower through the wall. For a moment when he'd gotten there, he debated on going somewhere else to wait until later that night to bring anything up with Bruce, but the shower turned off too quickly for Tony to escape so he decided to suck it up and stay.

He also very much appreciated watching Bruce as he got out of the shower, all dripping and naked with every bit of his wet hair matted to his skin. There was that, too.

So there Tony sat, stretched out on the bed with his arms folded behind his head, watching a very naked and very wet Bruce Banner flinch and stammer in surprise. "I thought you would have at least let me put some clothes on before you started asking questions," Bruce commented, patting himself dry with a towel before he wandered over to his wardrobe.

"And why would I do such a ridiculous thing like that?" Tony replied, his eyes unabashedly raking over Bruce's back and ass until the man unfortunately pulled on some sweatpants. Well, it was nice while it lasted. "I happen to appreciate the view. And you didn't answer my question."

"Didn't think the question needed answering," Bruce replied matter-of-factly, his hand pausing just before he grabbed a shirt to decide if he really needed one. "I mean… you came, you saw, you took her home." He decided against the shirt, and squeezed a few stray droplets of water from his hair before he turned and stepped towards Tony again. "How did the ride back go, anyway?"

"Fine," Tony answered, the word a quick, staccato syllable. "But we were talking about you."

"Really?" A small, smug smile quirked the corner of Bruce's lips as he crawled into bed beside Tony. He scooted close enough to the other man that he could feel the heat of Tony's body against his own. "Usually you're so eager to talk about yourself." He leaned closer and rested his hand on the center of Tony's chest, just above where the arc reactor used to be. His hand trailed down Tony's abdomen as he shuffled in a little closer, and ever so lightly touched his lips to Tony's.

Tony let himself kiss back for a moment, one of his hands finding its way into his boyfriend's hair as Bruce sucked and tugged at his bottom lip. Bruce's lips felt so good against his own that Tony very nearly forgot about the things weighing on his mind, but when Bruce's hand trailed too close to the zipper on his jeans, Tony realized that he just couldn't do this without clearing his mind first. He'd done that too many times lately, and it was certainly starting to take its toll.

Slowly, and definitely reluctantly, Tony pulled away and opened his eyes, but didn't meet Bruce's gaze. "So are you gonna answer my question or not?" he asked, his eyes absently tracing the contours of Bruce's chest.

Bruce sighed quietly when Tony pulled back, the little sound halfway between annoyed and disappointed. "What question?"

"Why you went with her today."

Even though Tony wasn't looking at him, Bruce just stared at his face until he broke out into a chuckle. "Really?" he laughed, dropping his head back against the pillow. "I'm laying here with you, half-naked, damp, and quite literally about to put my hand down your pants and you want to talk about Pepper? That's really what's on your mind right now?"

"Yep."

Bruce had to hesitate for a second, just to absorb the fact that Tony actually wanted to talk about that right now, when Bruce could think of so many other things that they could be doing. But if Tony wasn't going to let it go until he got an answer, Bruce supposed he could give the other man that much. "I thought she could use some moral support," he answered, fingers absently dancing along Tony's lower abdomen. "Today was a big deal for her. I didn't think she should be alone."

Tony had been watching the progress of Bruce's hand along his stomach, his gaze unwavering until he processed Bruce's words and his eyes flicked upwards. "What's that supposed to mean?" he asked, feeling his heartbeat begin to pick up speed.

"Um… that I thought it might help her to have someone there with her?" Bruce raised an eyebrow. He really didn't know where Tony was going with this, or why he seemed so desperate to know. "Why are you so hung up on this, Tony?"

Tony balked at the question. Honestly, he really didn't even know how to answer. When he took a step back and thought about it, he was sure that Bruce probably had to be completely confused and probably a little taken aback right now—Tony had basically attacked him out of the blue without so much as a hello.

Everyone knew that Tony always bypassed that first step though, and just jumped right into what was on his mind. This wasn't any exception, and quite frankly, he still wanted an answer.

"I just… I don't know," Tony started, dropping his head back against the pillow. "I know you two are friends, but I didn't think you were the kind of friends where you bring each other along to doctor's appointments. What other personal business do you and Pep do together? Do I even want to know?"

Bruce blinked slowly, taking a second to absorb Tony's little rant. Christ. He really didn't think it had been that big of a deal. "Tony, if you're upset that I went with her today, you can just tell me," he said, keeping his eyes on Tony's face even if the other man wasn't looking at him.

"I'm not upset."

"Well, you're certainly acting like you are." Bruce sat up a little straighter, huffing out a quiet sigh as he pushed a hand through his still-damp hair. This really wasn't how he expected or wanted the night to go, but… well, he didn't always get what he wanted, anyway. "Look, I get it. This is your thing. You're the one having the baby with her, not me. But this is just as hard for her as it is for you, and if you weren't going to go with her today, then somebody needed to, and I'm really getting sick and tired of watching her go through this alone. She deserves better from you, Tony. 'She' meaning Pepper and your daughter."

"I'm trying," Tony almost snapped. He sat up on the bed and roughly pushed his fingers through his hair; maybe he should have just left it alone. If anything, he just hoped that Pepper hadn't told Bruce anything about what happened between them in more private moments—that was something Tony wanted to tell Bruce himself. "I'm trying to be better, Bruce, I really am, okay? It's just really hard to try to be better about this without—without—" He clenched a fist in his hair, not quite able to get the words out. He wasn't sure what words he wanted to use to describe it anyway.

Bruce was already regretting starting this conversation. The topic was still so sensitive, especially for Tony, but thinking about what happened between him and Pepper earlier that day made Bruce's heart beat just a little faster. Tony's stammering wasn't making it any better. "Without what?" he asked almost tentatively, wrapping his arms around his chest.

Tony had been putting a considerable amount of effort into keeping his eyes off of Bruce, but the man's subtle movement caught his eye and he looked up just for a moment. Bruce's face was just one version of that typical mask he wore before the two of them had gotten serious, back when everything was all pining and seemingly unrequited feelings. It looked like he was trying to silently mask the hurt he undoubtedly must have felt by watching Tony get so torn up over somebody else.

That not-exactly-neutral expression on Bruce's face made Tony yet again regret opening his big mouth. Things just seemed so much easier when he was quiet.

"I don't know if I can really be better about this without falling for her again." Tony said it as matter-of-factly as he could. Hearing that kind of sentence was already horrible enough, and he didn't want to make it worse for Bruce by using some kind of forlorn, melodramatic tone. "Okay? That's it."

Bruce wanted to say that he felt like he'd been hit by a truck, but that wasn't quite the case. Instead, he felt numb, as if he'd been waiting (and dreading) to hear those words for so long that the actual punch wasn't much of a punch at all. "Okay," he responded, his voice surprisingly stronger than he'd expected it to be. "Okay. Yeah. I get it. It makes more sense that way, anyway."

"Wait, what?" Tony looked up properly, concern and confusion drawn into his face. "What are you—what do you mean, that way? What way?"

"Well…" Bruce shrugged, lifting one of his hands to scratch the back of his neck. "If you being better about all this means you're going to go be with her, it makes sense that way. I… I'm not going to stop you from giving yourself and your child a better experience, Tony." It hurt like hell to say it, but Bruce couldn't bring himself to be so selfish.

"Jesus Christ." Tony sighed heavily, head falling forward into his hands again. If there was ever a time he wished he could go back to when things were better, it was now. "That's not what I meant. I'm not leaving you, Bruce. No. Fuck, no."

Bruce just raised his eyebrows as he looked back at Tony. His mouth didn't seem to want to form words at the moment, so he settled for letting his non-verbals communicate the question "why not?"

The wounded look on Bruce's face felt like a knife in Tony's gut. It always did. "I love you." The words felt dry and tasteless on his tongue—this wasn't how he ever wanted it to be when he admitted that little sentence, but there wasn't much he could do about it now. "I'm so fucking in love with you, Bruce. I'm not leaving."

I love you too. Bruce wanted to say it, he was pretty damn sure that he felt it—he'd been so sure for so long that love wasn't something he could feel anymore, but if there was anything that he certainly felt for Tony, it had to be love. It was just such horrible timing for all of this, and as much as he wanted to utter the four words that his head was chanting like a mantra, all that came out was, "But you love her, too."

That wasn't something that either of them wanted to hear, let alone admit.

"You know, Bruce…" Tony sighed again and leaned back against the headboard of the bed. He definitely felt the urge and the need to reach out and touch his boyfriend, feel that familiar warm, calloused skin beneath his fingertips, but the tension in the room seemed to suggest that it wasn't the right time. "You know, I'm not gonna say no." There wasn't any use in lying about it, anyway.

"Wasn't expecting you to," Bruce mumbled, and after he uttered the words, the two of them were met with several long, heavy moments of silence. Bruce's skin felt like static, and he was starting to hear low rumblings of the Other Guy in the back of his mind. He wasn't anywhere near an incident, but the beast was clearly starting to pick up on the situation—Bruce just couldn't tell exactly what the Other Guy was thinking. When Bruce felt the bed dip as Tony shifted, it was almost as if Hulk would have given him a shove towards the other man if it had been physically possible. He was tempted to act on the Other Guy's prompting, but before he could do so, an image of his encounter with Pepper earlier that day flashed through his mind, and Hulk sent him a familiar feeling of warmth and comfort—familiar only because that was what he always felt around Tony.

"I kissed her," Bruce blurted, and it wasn't until the words were already out in the open that he was able to clamp his mouth shut. His fingers curled into fists, and he nervously kneaded them into his legs. "Today. At the doctor's. I kissed her—or, well, she kissed me, but I… kissed back."

Tony lifted his head from where he'd had it laying against a pillow, and gave Bruce a quizzical look. He was caught too off-guard to be angry about anything yet, so for the moment he just raised an eyebrow as he took in Bruce's stiff stature. "You fuckin' with me, Banner?"

"No." Bruce swallowed thickly, then twisted to look at Tony. "I'm not. You were honest with me, so I figured I'd do you the same courtesy."

Tony was very tempted to make a comment about how doing him would definitely be a courtesy, but he made sure to stop himself. His mind was definitely traveling in that direction, however, and he probably should have found it odd that he wasn't even mad that his current boyfriend had apparently been making out with his ex-girlfriend. Then again, Tony had done the same thing with Pepper not too long ago, so being any kind of angry would do nothing but paint him as a hypocrite.

Honestly, thinking about Bruce and Pepper together was actually kind of hot. Hotter than it should have been, and definitely the reason why Tony wasn't feeling any of the typical rage that anyone else probably would have (and should have) felt.

"Did you like it?" Tony asked, leaning forward with curiosity.

The look on Bruce's face would have had Tony in stitches if the cause for that question was anything other than the situation at hand, but even considering that, the man's round eyes and gaping mouth were still amusing. "I… yes?" Bruce stammered, trying to find the right answer. "I mean, I… yeah, she's great, but then I thought about you and what I was doing to you and…" He trailed off, shrugging and shaking his head.

"But you liked it?" Tony asked again, moving closer to prompt a definitive answer out of Bruce.

Bruce sighed, and looked up to meet Tony's eyes. "Yes," he confirmed, feeling a little flutter in his chest when he actually admitted it.

"And you like her too?" Tony continued.

"Maybe?" Bruce couldn't decide if he was more confused or worried about Tony's inquiries. It seemed like Tony had some kind of agenda here, but Bruce wouldn't know what it was until he answered. "Clearly I'm feeling something for her. Where are you going with this, Tony?"

Tony sat up a little straighter, and Bruce could have sworn he saw a tiny grin quirking at the corners of the man's mouth. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"Knowing how your mind works, probably not," Bruce answered dryly.

"Bruce." Tony shuffled forward and gripped Bruce's shoulders with both hands. "Threesome."

Words had failed Bruce at the moment, and for a second he thought about how that had been happening far too often that day. "What?" he finally managed to get out, the word a little strained despite how the tension in his muscles seemed to drain as soon as Tony touched him. "Do you—are you suggesting that sex is going to make this all go away? I don't really think that's logical—"

"It's not a sex thing," Tony jutted in before Bruce could go any further, gently squeezing the man's shoulders. "Well, down the line there might be a sex thing—god, I hope there'll be a sex thing—but, Bruce, no, we shouldn't have to make it go away. That's the point. Threesome relationship."

Bruce had to stop and think for a moment. All of this was happening too fast—the appointment earlier with Pepper, the conversation with Tony, the 'I love you's getting thrown around, this. He had to give himself some time to sort everything into their respective places in his mind before he could actually give Tony a reply. "So, polyamory," he said slowly, once the idea was finally starting to dawn on him.

"Yeah," Tony agreed. "Doesn't it just make sense?"

Bruce supposed it did. Of all the strange, ridiculous, and quite frankly inhuman things he'd dealt with in his life, for some reason this was one of the most unexpected. But it did make sense, and Bruce was very much inclined to give it a chance.

"It does," Bruce said, nodding absently, "it actually really does." He looked back up at Tony, and couldn't help but chuckle as he saw the excitable expression on his boyfriend's face that was really quite similar to how he looked whenever they made a breakthrough in the lab. "You realize that this will probably be the strangest conversation either of us have ever had with her, right?" he laughed.

A wide grin broke out across Tony's face when he heard Bruce's beautiful laugh, and it was definitely contagious as Tony leaned his forehead down on Bruce's shoulder and laughed as well. "Yeah, yeah, it will be," he agreed, "guess we should figure out how to bring that up to her, huh?"

"Might be a good idea." Bruce relaxed his arms and set one of his hands on Tony's waist, the other finding its way into Tony's thick, brunette locks. He could see a few strands of grey in the man's hair, but since Bruce really wanted to keep his sanity he wasn't going to point it out to Tony. "But we should think on it first. Don't get too far ahead of yourself, Tony."

"Mm, fine," Tony said against Bruce's neck. He supposed Bruce was right—really, this was all hypothetical right now, and there was no telling how Pepper was going to react. Honestly, he didn't even know how he'd gotten to this conclusion so quickly, but Tony decided not to concern himself with it too much in favor of keeping to Bruce's warm, sturdy, and still half-naked body. "You know how we can start thinking about it, though?"

Bruce smiled gently, combing his hand through the back of Tony's hair. "How?"

"You can start by picking up where you left off and putting your hand down my pants."