A/N: the prompt didn't specify if the whole 'verse should be swapped, or just the characters in question, so, for the purposes of the story, only Bruce and Tony have been swapped. I imagined something like Eva Green for Stark and Jennifer Connelly for Banner, but that's ultimately your thing.
Warning: vaguely implied past rape.
Don't Want To Talk About It
It took Toni some time to figure it out.
"I don't want to talk about it."
"With me or with anyone at all?"
"With anyone. But especially with you."
It was getting dark outside, that hour of the evening just before sunset that was full of contrasts, with the lighted surfaces bright in a warm orange glow, and the shadows cold in serene blues and grays. Thin drizzling rain was falling from the half-clear sky, and the air was filled with the smells of water and metal.
Still, the picturesque beauty of the weather was detracted from by the shattered glass, ploughed up asphalt and mangled, burned debris littering the streets of Detroit. All thanks to one Henry "I Didn't Know It Will Come Down to This" Pym, whose skills at robotics were even more pathetic than his completely unhealthy obsession with ants.
Amateurs.
On the bright side though, the scope of the destruction caused by the Pym's rogue robot was large enough to warrant the Avengers' Big Reunion, so Toni's mood wasn't completely ruined. One could argue, of course, if destruction of the Motor City's downtown and death of a dozen innocents could be classified as a 'bright' side, but what did they know.
The big battle was over, the bad guy beaten, the rain falling in tiny droplets on the dust-covered metal of the Iron Maiden suit, and Toni had only one duty left to be carried out before she could actually productively enjoy the fruits of her labour and the company of a friend that made explaining the finer points of the artificial intelligence theory to Rogers eighty-five percent more bearable.
The said friend was lying on the ground now, unconscious, near a wall in some back alley, fully human, with only torn and stretched out clothing to show for the transformation that occurred mere minutes ago. Toni actually felt the gag reflex act up upon seeing Banner in a hideously formless, oversized sweater that morning, but she supposed it did have its advantages.
She entered the alley and moved towards Banner's prone form, but stopped just a couple of steps short, because she remembered the first clue.
They all did, actually, since the experience was pretty dramatic. It happened right after the Manhattan incident, almost seven months ago, after Loki was bound, gagged and taken away to a secure SHIELD facility. It was something of a sign to relax for them all, and the next thing they saw was the Hulk backing away, tearing the door to the penthouse's bathroom off its hinges and going inside to curl on the floor and shrink back to the human-sized Banner. The process was fascinating to say the least, and left Toni in a momentary amazed stupor, so it was Barton who moved closer to wake Banner up from the cold tile floor, crouched near the woman and put a hand on her shoulder, presumably to shake it and elicit a reaction.
And elicit he did. Toni remembered it vividly: how Banner's eyes shot instantly open, wide and wild, and how she flinched so fast and sharp, trying to scramble to her feet, that she hit her head hard on the marble sink, and the combined stimuli of panic and pain were enough to set off an ugly, fit-like but quick transformation. And calming down that Hulk was another story entirely.
So Toni didn't come closer. She stood there, a few feet away from the unconscious woman, and lifted her faceplate.
"Hey Banner! If only you don't seriously consider spending this dark, cold and wet evening on this dark, cold and wet ground I suggest you come to quickly, so we all can get the hell out of here."
Banner's whole body shuddered at that, then flinched and pushed itself from the ground and into a wall in movements that were clearly more of a reflex than a conscious reaction. She let out a quiet moan, resting her weight against the concrete for a moment, then climbed up it clumsily to a standing position. Only then did she open her eyes, wrapped her hands tightly around herself and, still leaning heavily against the wall, looked at the other woman.
"D-did I…" she croaked, getting a hang of her voice cords.
"There were a couple of bystanders that the green girl tried to protect by pushing them away from the falling debris," Toni shrugged. "They got a bit ruffled up, but survived. Overall casualties are still being counted, but I can bet you anything they were on the Pym's boy and his 'bots."
"The team?"
"Oh please, like something can happen to them. Well, maybe something can, but they are certainly not an area of my immediate concern. Speaking of…" she said, tossing a neatly folded bunch of fabric Banner's way. The woman caught it, barely, and unfolded to find a SHIELD-issue T-shirt and a pair of sweatpants. "Get yourself a bit more decent, and we'll finally move out of here."
The physicist mumbled a "thank you" and smiled weakly at Toni, at which the engineer just rolled her eyes and turned around to give her friend some privacy.
"You just have to show me to the jet," she heard from behind her. "I've left my duffel there. I'll find my way once I've got it."
"Don't be ridiculous, Banner," Toni snorted. "You've gotten away with it once, but don't for a second think I will let you slip from my fingers a second time."
There was a sigh. "We've talked about this…"
"No, you talked about this. I actually remember you go on and on with it until I took pity on you and agreed with the ridiculous nonsense you call your 'reasons', but did you seriously think I'll let you drag me through this again? You're coming with me to New York, honey."
"Toni," the woman sighed again, but it was closer this time, and Toni turned around to see Banner in the SHIELD clothes, her own rags discarded right there in the alley.
"Brooke," she said simply, looking the other woman straight in the eyes.
Banner held her gaze for almost a minute, but then just chuckled and shook her head. It looked more like resignation then rejection though, so Toni let a grin on her face too. And as Banner slowly, carefully walked out of the alley and stopped on the corner with her hand still on the wall for support, she came to stand by her side and pointed down the street with a nod.
"That way. Go grab your stuff, and, sure thing, you can run off to the jungle right after to sleep on the fucking moss and distribute dysentery shots. A noble goal. But if by some stroke of fancy you'll decide to spend a couple of weeks in this country's most well-equipped scientific R&D department with this country's prettiest super genius as your lab partner, then, well… I'll still be here."
"You think I'm strong, right?"
"Sure. The strongest one there is."
"I want you to keep thinking that."
If Toni was completely honest with herself, she'd admit that a tiny part of her was afraid that, left unsupervised, Banner might freak out, sneak out of the Tower and disappear into the night without anyone finding her till the next Apocalypse or something.
Not that the woman gave her a lot of reasons to think that way, mind you, but… She was complex. And quiet. And talked to herself when she thought no-one was looking. And it all may or may not have made Toni just a touch worried about leaving the building to go on a long-overdue date with Rhodey.
So she stole glances of Banner in the mirror while dealing with the make-up, and tried to keep up a conversation going.
"Only the two of you?" Banner asked. She was sitting in a large chair near the windows, feet tucked beneath her, a book in her lap.
"Exactly," Toni grinned, and sprayed a couple of drops of Dior's Addict on the pulse points under her jaw. "And then Rogers walks in, in all of his post-work out glory, and comes to us to thank me for, you know, setting up that gym in the first place, and I could pinpoint the second Rhodey's face went all twisty and he began with his 'I'm sure Ms. Stark appreciates your gratitude, Captain' spiel."
"I didn't know Rhodey was the jealous type."
Toni shrugged. "Well, it's not like he's this possessive douchebag who would not have me speaking to men ever again, but I guess he just can't help himself from time to time. Not that I can blame him."
"What do you mean?" Banner frowned slightly.
"Seriously now?" Toni turned for a second to look at the woman. "I mean, clean your glasses or something, Banner, have you seen Rogers after a training session? Or Barton for that matter? I'm not even talking about Thor."
"I… didn't pay much attention to it, I must admit," Banner chuckled, and took off her glasses to clean them with a hem of another of her pathetically ill-fitted sweaters.
"That's because you're old and boring, my friend. Completely lost for the dating scene."
"I'm only a year older than you."
"Details."
Banner put the glasses back on and remained silent for a few moments, which Toni spent deciding between Sunset Copper, Tuscan Russet and Perfect Red. "Would you go for it though?" She asked finally. "If there was no Rhodey, for example?"
Toni picked up a tube of Sunset Copper lipstick and applied it in a few quick precise motions of a true professional. "No," she said, smacking her lips quickly together to better spread the pigment. "I mean, even if Rogers and I got past his annoying self-righteousness and sickening boy-scout tendencies there's still a matter of an age gap."
"Too old for you?" Banner smirked.
The engineer shook her head with a smile. "I know I joke about it a lot, but… If we look at the things clearly and take away the Capsicle years, all that's left is a – what? – twenty-five or something year old boy who's almost young enough to be my son? Well that, honey, just ain't my kink," she shook her head for emphasis, then cocked it slightly to the side to put on the earrings. "Barton is this heavy brooding type, aaand I think there might be something going on between him and Romanoff, so. And Thor is just too… alien I suppose. And tall. He's really tall."
She took a last quick look of herself in the mirror, then stood up and carefully straightened out the miniscule folds on her dark silk dress. Finally she turned to Banner. "I'm not asking you how I look," she said simply, "because I hate to be the one to inform you, honey, but you have absolutely zero taste in these things. And I know I'm gorgeous."
"You sure are," the physicist smiled, at which Toni just nodded, then threw a quick glance on the clock holo projected in the corner of the mirror.
"Rhodey's waiting downstairs," she said. "Come on, you should go say hi."
Banner squirmed a little in her chair. "Thanks, but I… I think I'd rather stay here. Have fun."
Toni frowned. "Is this because of… Hey, he's totally on your side, you know. He's not even Army, he's Air Force, they have this weird male rivalry thing going on between them, you have nothing to worry about from him. And even if, do you seriously think I would let him do something that would endanger you in any way?"
A small crooked smile appeared on Banner's face at that, and Toni noticed the fingers of her right hand brush against the knuckles of the left. "Sometimes it's not about whether you let them or not," the woman said in a deprecating manner, though it wasn't very clear exactly who was being deprecated here. "Sometimes you just can't do anything to stop it."
It was fleeting, and subtle, and something Toni could have easily forgotten or dismissed as her imagination, but for some reason it stuck.
It was the second clue.
"Talking about it does not make you weak."
"Don't make me talk about it, Toni."
The third clue came up just as suddenly, maybe a week or two later, when they were both in the lab, and Toni was retelling a story from her college years.
"…the whole pile of them, you know? And so I crouch down to pick them up, and this guy crouches down next to me to help, and passes me one of them and says: 'Those are some great schematics. Are they your boyfriend's?' I kept my cool, and silently showed him my name and my curator's signature in a corner, and he just went all: 'Oh, he probably drew them for you anyway'. I mean, can you believe it?" she shook her head in distaste.
"Oh yes, Toni, I can. Trust me, it wasn't just you."
She sighed. "And it's not even the worst thing I've ever heard. You wouldn't believe some of the stuff that got hurled at me by the board of directors when I announced to them that a daughter of Howard Stark was going to stand at the helm of the company instead of Obie. Hell, you wouldn't believe some of the shit Obie himself has said to me over the years. Seriously, has anyone supported you when you told them you were going to study physics in college?"
Banner paused in reviewing the stream of data on her monitor. "Well, I didn't really have any friends, and all of my family was my aunt, who was happy as long as I picked something I wanted to do, be it swiping the floors or splitting the atom," she shrugged.
"Lucky. Because I tell you, you wouldn't believe… What was the worst thing a man ever told you?" Toni asked in a tone that suggested she was ready for an argument.
Banner frowned and considered the question in silence, and Toni watched her get farther and farther away with each second, then take her hands off the keyboard and start wringing them slowly, deliberately, rubbing at each knuckle in turn.
"Brooke?" Tony asked in a careful manner, making a step closer to the physicist.
Banner flinched at the sound, and touched her glasses nervously, and did not lift her eyes. "A lady like you," she murmured hastily, "shouldn't walk on these dark streets all alone. That's what he said."
And then it clicked, and Toni knew she wasn't going to leave it at that.
It took her some time. It took her some days and some nights, and some weeks and some threats and some pleading. And then it was getting dark, that hour of the evening just after sunset that was full of heavy indigo shadows and soft violet half-tones around the patches of cold electric light. There was no sun and no stars, only thick rain pouring from the clouded sky, and Banner was not looking at Toni.
"I don't want to talk about it."
"With me or with anyone at all?"
"With anyone. But especially with you."
"Why?"
A pause.
"You think I'm strong, right?"
"Sure. The strongest one there is."
"I want you to keep thinking that."
Another pause, a peal of thunder in the distance.
"Talking about it does not make you weak."
And another one, longer than before, filled with rain, and not looking, and not speaking.
"Don't make me talk about it, Toni."
"I just want to help you."
"I know."
The silence was heavy. The downpour intensified, and soon there was nothing left at all, no shadows and no dim lights either, just a massive roaring grey wall that devoured the ground and the air.
"What do you want to talk about?"
"What?"
"You don't want to talk about it, alright. What do you want to talk about?"
"I… I wanted to talk to you tomorrow about an idea I had, about repurposing the Gamma Pulse technology to employ it in the clean energy research. Sort of a new spin on hydraulic fracturing, but without the water and air pollution."
"Great. Do you want to talk about it now?"
"I don't know. Maybe when the rain stops."
The thunder rumbled somewhere in the grey, gaining more strength with each peal. The Tower felt cold and exposed.
"Okay. I'll still be here."
A/N: It was actually a thing I thought about when watching The Incredible Hulk. After the reverse transformation, Banner goes hitchhiking and then enters a town, half-naked, weak and dazed, and it just got me thinking "what if there was a woman in his place? That'd probably be even more dangerous for her." Something like that. And, of course, Banner being Banner, she just represses the whole thing. But Toni's there for her either way, so.
I hope you enjoyed it, and, please, leave a comment if you have the time.
Next time in Kaleidoscope: Allegiance-Swap!