"Honey, I'm home!" Tony called out cheerfully, throwing open the door to his Malibu house. Maybe it was cruel to not have told Pepper he was coming back home, but, hey, she liked surprises, right?

He really hoped so, considering who was walking into the house behind him – the product of the ridiculous number of hours it had taken to convince Bruce to move in with him and Pepper.

"Tony!" Pepper shrieked, flying down the staircase so quickly she nearly tripped on her own two feet.

He met her at the last step and she crashed into him, kissing him feverishly. "Hey!" he chuckled breathily when she finally let him come up for air, his periphery catching the way Bruce looked away from the two of them, face flushing as his hands clenched at his sides. "I am still alive, you know."

"Just barely!" she cried, slapping him in the chest. "Jarvis already read me your medical reports; you almost died out there, Tony!"

Tears glistened in her eyes, so Tony pulled her in for a hug, reminding, "But I didn't." Pepper mumbled nothing in particular, burying her face in the crook of his neck as a few wet tears slipped out. "Hey," he murmured, rubbing her back. "I have someone I want you to meet."

She stiffened, apparently realizing for the first time that they had an audience and instantly straightened, wiping her wide eyes self-consciously.

"You're gorgeous," Tony assured her, taking her hand in his own as they turned towards Bruce and he asked, "Don't you think so, Bruce?"

Both Bruce and Pepper looked at him like he'd lost his mind and the poor doctor flushed even darker as he managed an encouraging smile in Pepper's direction – without saying a word. Suspicious...

"Bruce, this is Pepper Potts, the best soulmate anyone could ever ask for," Tony declared. "Pep, this is Dr. Bruce Banner… and he's agreed to come live with us."

Bruce nodded at Pepper again, still not opening his mouth as Pepper shot an alarmed look in Tony's direction before she recovered her composer and said to Bruce, "It's nice to meet you, Dr. Banner. Jarvis can show you to a suite, if you'd like."

Bruce nodded, but Tony knew he saw pain flash through the man's dark eyes as he scuffed his right foot subconsciously against the hardwood floor.

"Jarvis," Pepper called out, without a clue in the world.

"Right this way, Dr. Banner," the AI called out. "Into the elevator on your left, if you would."

As soon as the elevator doors had slid closed behind the doctor, Pepper looked to Tony, her eyes demanding an answer that he was all too eager to give.

"You are never going to believe what happened!" Tony declared to Pepper the first moment they were alone together. "I met our third – Dr. Banner! He said my words the first time we met!"

Pepper shrieked with excitement – an emotion that quickly fell away as she asked, "Then why didn't he say anything to me?"

"I don't know," Tony said, frustration lacing his words as he scrubbed his hands across his eyes. "When I asked him about it, he even went so far as to tell me that he didn't even have a soulmark. But I know that's not true."

"How?"

"I may or may not have kind of hacked into SHIELD and a part of what Jarvis stuck back for me was the personnel files on all of the Avengers, which include pictures of their soulmarks – which Bruce has, and they are definitely yours and mine."

"Then why deny it?" Pepper asked again, looking more and more crushed the longer Tony spoke.

Tony shook his head, pulling her close again as he said, "The best thing I can come up with is that he's still scared of the big guy – but he even went out of his way to protect me in Manhattan!"

"What are we going to do?"

She was close to tears now and Tony hated it, but he genuinely didn't have a clue. "I work with tech, Pep; I'm not good with people, that's your area of expertise. I was hoping you'd have an idea. The best I've come up with is just to make friends with him and show him that I'm not afraid of him or the Hulk."

"Then that's what we'll do," Pepper decided, sounding a little desperate and a whole lot at a loss. "We'll just have to give him time. I don't see how we can do anything else…"

She dropped her head onto his shoulder and for the second time in ten minutes, she burst into tears.

This had been a mistake – agreeing to move in with Tony and Pepper – Bruce realized hopelessly, leaning against the wall of the elevator to catch his breath. Tony knew he had lied, he was sure of it now, and he wanted to panic because of it – and that was the exact reason that he shouldn't be here. He couldn't panic; the other guy would come out and hurt his soulmates and tat would be the death of him.

But now that he'd met them – now that he was here and going to live with them, he honestly didn't know if he had it in him to walk away. Tony still wanted him nearby even with the "other guy" looming and Pepper was – well, Tony was right – gorgeous, far more beautiful in person then the camera claimed.

But he wouldn't – couldn't – let himself think those thoughts. For as long as he could, he wouldn't speak to Pepper, and even then he'd hold to his claim of having no soulmark even if they all did know better. Much as it killed him, they were just going to have to remain what Tony had offered in the schawarma joint: friends.