A/N: This was a fun chapter :) There is also a but of smut in it too, so enjoy! Thank you so much for the newest favs and follows!
"Bruce, you have to go to this party," whined Tony, following his friend into the lab. A few weeks had passed, and summer was swiftly coming to an end. Tony had been pestering Bruce about having a last warm-weather hurrah and a pool party seemed like the perfect way to end the season. Plus, it was Perry's birthday, so there was no excuse not to have some sort of get together.
"No."
"Oh come on, Perry would be so disappointed if you don't come –"
"No."
" – She will probably cry. If you make her cry, so help me, I will make you clean up the mess."
"She won't cry," Bruce mumbled, uncertainty creeping up in his voice. Would she really be that upset?
"Ok, so she won't cry, but she will get revenge, and you know what her revenge is like."
Bruce's face drained of color as he remembered Perry's revenge on Tony the week before. When Bruce went to turn on his computer that day, he was met by an image of Mr. Stark in his birthday suit with nothing more than a strategically placed mini sombrero for cover. Apparently it was a legitimate picture that Perry had managed to wiggle out of JARVIS' closely guarded system. This picture made its way onto every computer in Stark Tower, all because Tony told Bruce that she preferred men who were big and green in the sack. Of course, Tony thought it was hilarious and wore a sombrero around the building for the rest of the day, laughing like a maniac at people who refused to look him in the eye.
"Fine, I will go to the party. But don't expect me to swim," Bruce said begrudgingly.
Tony smacked him on the back and grinned. "That's the spirit."
Perry was definitely surprised by the party, a bittersweet surprised. She was happy that they had all been so thoughtful and planned this, but she was annoyed with herself for not figuring it out beforehand. She ran a rather impressive gossip mill in Stark Tower and Tony wasn't exactly subtle. But needless to say, she was not expecting the swimming session she had planned with Pepper to be a full on birthday party for her.
When she first arrived, Tony, Bruce, Pepper, and Darcy were already there, plus a few other R&D workers, lounging in white chairs along the pool edge. The huge room was decorated with large potted tropical plants that were draped with strings of Japanese lanterns. Tiki torches were scattered randomly around the room (no doubt planted by ADD prone Tony who was too excited to concentrate on a pattern) and the lights had been dimmed to a warm glow. They had even rigged up a fire pit to grill dinner on. A full bar was available, serviced by coconut top/grass skirt clad women.
Excited, Perry wandered about the room, admiring all of the decorations. The cake, which was cleverly designed by Tony, was shaped like a nuclear plant cooling tower and had a plastic Hulk action figure hanging on the side like King Kong. This elicited an eye-roll from Perry, but she was secretly pleased by Tony's merging of her two favorite things. For a moment, as she scanned over the crowd already gathered around the pool, she could feel the emotion collecting in her throat. People just didn't throw surprise parties for Perry Stark.
Ending up beside Bruce, she sat down on the end of his chair. "This is wonderful," she said, beaming widely at him. "I am so glad you guys did this."
Bruce blushed. "It was Tony's doing, really."
Perry reached out and patted his knee. "But you came. I really appreciate that."
The moment was broken by Tony showing up, his arms full of flowers. "You two need to get leied," he said loudly.
"What the hell," sputtered Bruce, already reaching his embarrassment threshold for the evening. Perry on the other hand snickered.
"Ew, get your mind out of the gutter," said Tony with a self-satisfied smirk. "You are not wearing leis," he explained, looping one around each of their heads.
Bruce gave Tony a brief blazing look before settling back into his chair and taking a long sip from his drink. Thank god it was an open bar because he was going to need a lot of alcohol to get through the night.
"So what are you going to do first?" Tony asked the birthday girl.
Giving him the Stark Grin (as Bruce had finally dubbed the wicked smile the pair had before doing something that horrified him), Perry promptly stood and yanked her dress over her head, revealing the swim suit (if you could call it that) that was underneath. Bruce choked on his drink as his wide eyes raked over the red bikini that left little of her amazing body to the imagination.
Tony clapped his friend on the back, the Stark Grin now plastered on his face as well. "Careful, Big Guy, asphyxiation isn't really a turn on anymore."
Perry swung a futile kick at Tony. "Ignore him," she said apologetically to Bruce. "Do you want to come swim with me?"
A muscle was twitching in Bruce's clenched jaw. Smiling tightly, he said ", maybe later, I am going to finish my drink now and contemplate disabling Tony's arc reactor."
Perry giggled while Tony feigned insult. "See the thanks I get? Just trying to help a guy out…" he muttered while walking away.
With one last lingering glance at Bruce, Perry jumped into the water and swam to the other side where she was unknowingly in full view, and earshot, of Bruce. She motioned for Darcy, who was wearing a rather patriotic bikini, to join her.
"Trying a little hard aren't we," Perry asked as the girl slid smoothly into the water.
Darcy rolled her eyes. "Oh please, what about you? I thought Dr. Banner was going to keel over when you whipped your dress over your head."
Perry chuckled. "That was a bit much, wasn't it?"
No, it was wonderful thought Bruce, trying to look like he was suddenly fascinated in Tony's Hulk Grill Master impersonation at the front of the room.
"No wonder the poor man almost choked, you are jacked. What is your secret? Kickboxing? Street fighting? Ninja training?"
Bruce's eyes wandered back to the girls to find Darcy admiring Perry's flat stomach and muscled arms and legs. She wasn't overly muscled by any means, but she definitely fit. And those legs… Bruce had to turn away again before continuing down that train of thought.
Perry grinned at Darcy. "Well, I run and do a bit of yoga now and then –" Aha! Bruce knew it! " – But my real secret is alligator wrestling."
Bruce glanced over at Perry with a raised eyebrow. Surely she was joking, but knowing the Starks, he couldn't be sure. And she did live in the Everglades...
"Oh, whatever. Is that what you tell all the boys?" snickered Darcy.
"Well, look at you," said Perry, squeezing Darcy's arm. "You've got quite the gun show going on here."
Darcy blushed. "Steve has been teaching me how to box. I asked him to teach me so I could spend some more time with him, but it really is a lot of fun."
Perry nodded. "I bet it is. I know I wouldn't mind staring at that rear end of his in sweat pants."
"Oh you don't know the half of it. When he gets all sweaty he takes off –"
Just then, the girls were interrupted by a small disturbance at the end of the room. Standing by the bar was non-other than Captain America himself in a very tiny, very snug, set of blue swim shorts.
Darcy looked like she was melting. "Oh sweet Jesus," she mumbled.
Slapping on a Stark Grin, Perry waved Steve over two them. Of course, he complied, making Darcy turn bright red, a small whimper escaping from her mouth.
"Hello, Perry. Happy Birthday!" He said enthusiastically. "Darcy, it is good to see you too."
Darcy tried to look up, but her eyes couldn't quite make it past the blue bulge at the top of his thighs.
"Hello, Steve, I am so glad you came," said Perry sweetly. "I was just challenging Darcy to a race, but it seems that she can't swim. Since you are such a good boxing teacher, I thought maybe you could teach her how to swim as well." Darcy was stomping on her foot under the water, but she ignored it, her grin growing wider.
Steve smiled back politely. "Of course, I would be glad to teach Darcy how to swim."
"What are you doing?!" hissed Darcy as the Captain climbed down the ladder at the end.
Perry smirked triumphantly. "You can thank me later."
"Are you ready?" asked Steve, taking Darcy's hand.
The poor girl stared pitifully at his gleaming chest. "Y-yes."
An hour later, Darcy decided to take a drink break from her swimming lesson. With a round of cocktails, she sat with Perry and Pepper in some of the white lounge chairs beside the pool. Bruce had moved over to the fire pit and was helping Tony grill some meat while drinking a beer. Perry noticed that he seemed to be much more relaxed than she had seen him in a long time.
This is just what he needed. If only he would look at me, thought Perry. The entire evening, Bruce had carefully avoided staring at Perry. Unfortunately, that meant ignoring her.
Suddenly loud gasps from the front of the room broke Perry from her thoughts. Looking up, she was quite shocked to see Thor standing proudly in front of the pool, completely nude, except for the helmet on his head and mjolnir in his hand. Perry, Darcy, and Pepper stared at him completely dumbfounded. Bruce pinched the bridge of his nose, like he did when his patience was wearing thin, and Steve moved to stand in front of the young ladies working at the bar, shielding their eyes from the blond god's glory. Only Tony seemed enthused by this entrance, shouting, "All right girls, it is this kind of party now!"
"Now that I am here, the party shall begin!" roared Thor, beaming at everyone in the room, unfazed by their open mouths and averted eyes.
Jane burst into the room, running over to Thor with a towel in hand. With shaking fingers and a very red face, she tried to wrap the towel around Thor's hips.
"You have to put your swimming trunks on," she hissed through clenched teeth.
Thor pushed her hands, and towel away, and gave her a very confused look. "Is this not a birthday party? Darcy said I should wear my birthday suit."
"Yes, yes I did say that," mumbled Darcy, her eyes glued to Thor, oblivious to Jane's flaming glare.
"How many times have I told you not to listen to Darcy? Is there anyone else here with no clothes on?""
Thor frowned as he looked around again. Seeing everyone adequately clothed, his shoulders slumped and he turned toward the locker room.
"And now we get a view of the backside," murmured Pepper, taking a long sip of her cocktail.
Darcy and Perry nodded appreciatively.
"He definitely has god-like proportions," said Darcy, her eyes taking on that glazed look.
"I now have so much more respect for Jane," Perry said.
Darcy suddenly stood. "Where are you going?" Perry asked her.
Glancing over at Steve, who was now sitting alone at the bar, she said, "I think it is time to review mouth to mouth resuscitation with the Captain before our next swimming lesson."
By the end of the night, Perry was feeling quite giddy. Partially because she had a few too many drinks, and partially because she had a plan. Many people had already left the party. Darcy and Steve were the first to go, hand in hand, a bashful grin on Steve's face. Tony and Pepper left soon afterwards, Tony promising to seduce the memory of a naked Thor right out of her mind. Thor and Jane were still there, lounging together in the shallow end of the pool. It was sickening to see them wrapped up together, Jane's back against Thor's chest with her head nuzzled against his neck.
Seeing everyone occupied, Perry turned her attention on Bruce. He was sitting in one of the chairs with his eyes closed. Perry knew that he wasn't really sleeping, so she sauntered over to him as well as she could with her swimming head. He still didn't open his eyes, so she decided to go on to step two of the plan. With as much grace as she could muster, she swooned dramatically, landing intentionally on his lap. Bruce jumped, his eyes wide with surprise. Adjusting so that she was more comfortable, Perry leaned against him and wrapped her arms around his neck. Tucking her head under his chin, she sighed contentedly.
Bruce remained statue still for a moment, clearly shocked by the sudden contact, and then slowly moved his hands so they settled on her hip that was facing away from him. Turning his head slightly, his lips hovered just above her chlorine scented hair.
"What are you doing?" he asked quietly, not noticing that his thumbs had begun tracing patterns on her bare skin.
Perry shivered at the sensation and pressed into him. Bruce's breath caught, and he bit his lip to keep from letting out a moan. This woman was driving him crazy.
"You looked like you needed company," she said sweetly.
Bruce snorted. He knew Perry well enough to know that she never did anything with such innocent intentions.
"Thank you for coming to my birthday, Bruce," she said quietly. Looking down, Bruce saw that Perry was staring up at him with her lovely brown eyes. He could feel his good intentions weakening and he moved his right hand down her firm thigh. His thoughts were disjointed, incomplete, each train wandering back to the woman wonderfully settled on his lap.
"I have a present for you," he said. "It's in my room though."
The Stark Grin cropped up on Perry's face, making him cringe when he realized the underlying message she got out of what he just said.
"I-I mean that I didn't bring it down… I have to go get it…" he stuttered.
Perry slowly moved off of him, much to his displeasure, and stood beside him. Extending a hand to help him up she said, "Come on, we will go get it together."
Bruce took Perry's hand and slowly stood. Allowing her to pull him out of the room, he couldn't help but to think What have I got myself into?
Upstairs, Bruce settled Perry on the couch and went to fetch her present out of his bedroom. Although she had sat on that very couch numerous times before, he was suddenly hyper-aware of the fact that Perry was in his apartment wearing nothing but that tiny bikini. A few moments, and deep breaths, later he came back with a very thick and worn book.
"I'm sorry it isn't wrapped," he said, sitting beside her on the couch. Perry promptly scooted next to him so she was pressed against his side. "I wasn't sure if you would even want something like this…I know it isn't special or anything…"
Without a word, Perry reached over and plucked the book from Bruce's hands. He watched her nervously as she opened to the first page. The initial confusion she had was immediately replaced with recognition, then shock.
Looking up at Bruce with wide eyes, Perry said, "Bruce, are you sure you want to share this with me?"
Running his hand through his brown curls, Bruce nodded slowly. "I know it is a bit much, and there is nothing pretty to read in there, but I thought you might be interested in some of the information."
"Oh my god, Bruce. This is your own personal journal. Are you sure you want me to read all of that?"
Looking Perry square in the eye, he said, "I wouldn't want anyone else but you to read it."
"Oh, Bruce," she said softly, turning quickly away. As discreetly as possible, she dabbed at her eye with the back of her hand, but he noticed the action anyway. Reaching out, he took her hand, brushing away the wetness with his thumb.
"I started this after my first transformation. My intention was to record my reactions, their frequency, and their cause. But I also started writing down how I felt when the other guy showed up and my concerns. I am afraid it is rather intimate and it does show me at my worst, but I think it will help you with your research. "
Without warning, Perry clamored up on Bruce's lap, sitting with her thighs on either side of him, as she wrapped him in a tight hug. "You are an amazing man, Bruce Banner," she murmured in his ear.
Instinctively, his arms went around her, one around her waist, the other wrapped in her hair. He pressed his face against the crook of her neck, his breath tickling her collar bone, as she used her right hand to toy with his curls. Although he knew it was wrong, the hug was simultaneously raw and satisfying.
Bruce was distinctly aware of each place their skin touched, each spot sending shivers down his spine. Slowly he withdrew his fingers from her hair, skimming them down her neck and over her back, eventually stopping on her right thigh. Her breath shortened and Bruce realized that she was slowly pulling back from him. Daring a look, he saw that Perry's eyes were dark with sudden desire, driving his own thoughts into a tailspin. Whatever reinforcements his conscience sent forward in his mind were promptly shot down when Perry pressed tighter against him. The sensation was incredible and Bruce could feel his pants growing snug beneath her. His final undoing came when she let out a small moan and slowly rocked her hips against him.
Lifting his head, Bruce brushed his lips against her jaw as they moved toward their destination. Her mouth hovered just above his, ready and waiting, and Bruce found himself unable to resist its draw. The kiss was raw, just like the hug had been, and he found that her huger was equal to his own. Her hand was fisted in his hair as she turned her head slightly to deepen the kiss. Bruce's senses were blazing and his heart pounded victoriously in his chest. This wasn't the first time for him by any means, but something about Perry and the way she moved against his lips made him feel a primal sense of passion.
Slipping his hand into the waistband of her bottoms, Bruce pulled Perry fully against him so she felt the hard ridge of his arousal. The sudden movement made her gasp against his mouth, and Bruce took advantage of the lapse to slip his tongue past her lips. A moan sounded deep within Perry's throat and she returned the action with fervor. Bruce's mind had reached the point of overload, and the few thoughts he had bounced between removing red bikini top and sweeping her up in his arms to move her to his bedroom. Settling on the first, Bruce's hands moved to untie the halter string at the back of her neck.
Suddenly, Perry pushed back, grabbing his hands to still their movement. Panting for breath, she bit her lip and stared sadly down at Bruce's confused expression
"We have to stop," she said quietly. "We can't do this tonight."
Bruce suddenly felt very ashamed. Not only had he crossed the line of friendship that he had been carefully avoiding with Perry, but he had managed to put her in grave danger on her birthday. His face burning, he tried to lift her off his lap.
But Perry clung tightly to him, refusing to move over to the couch beside him. "Look at me, Bruce," she said, tilting his chin so that he had to look her in the eye. "I thoroughly enjoyed every last moment of what we just did. Hell, I can't wait to do it again. But you see, I have this little rule that I live by…I don't have sex on the first date."
Bruce's eyes widened. A little nagging voice in his mind kept reminding him that he could kill her if it happened again, but a much louder voice cheered at the thought of kissing her again…without stopping.
Perry grinned when she saw the conflicted looks flitting across Bruce's face. Swooping down, she pressed a lingering kiss against his lips. Grin still intact, she slowly removed herself from his lap and stood in front of him.
"Goodnight, Bruce. And thank you for the best birthday present ever."
Bruce watched her hungrily as she picked up the book and sauntered out of his apartment. Despite the sudden end to their activities, the side effects still remained. He waited as long as he could, hoping that the passing time would satiate his desires, but his arousal stayed intact. Sighing, he finally moved to settle his hand over his strained fly. He knew that the Other Guy, just like before, was going to let him have his release. As he slowly stroked his throbbing member, he couldn't help but to think Perry Stark was one hell of a woman if she could make both Bruce and the Other Guy as happy as he felt at that moment.