AN: Once again, apology's, I struggled with this one because it was clear from the feedback from the last chapter that a lot of you were looking forward to seeing something, that er, wasn't going to be seen, so I tried to write it, I did, but honestly it didn't stretch out to more than a few paragraphs, so this chapter is pretty much as I always intended it. Sorry.

Chapter Fifteen

Tony was elbow deep in robot parts, he had leather safety gloves on and his favourite pair of safety goggles which were round with black lenses that Bruce always mocked him slightly for, but Tony didn't care because he thought they looked cool. Not that there was ever a time that Tony didn't look cool... maybe after a night of very hard drinking when he could barely stand up, not that he would ever admit that out loud.

He was trying to locate the original source of a rogue wire which was sure was supposed to do something very important but he couldn't quite detangle it from a mass of other wires and it was driving him crazy.

"Who do you belong to, little wire?" he asked, half ducking his head into the battered casing.

Suddenly he felt hot breath against his ear and he jumped six inches into the air as a voice said, "WHATAYADOIN'?"

"FUCKING HELL!" shouted Tony as he jumped and grabbed his chest, turning around to glare at Bruce, who was tittering at him.

"Bit jumpy aren't we?" said Bruce.

Tony pulled off his safety goggles and tossed them onto the work bench, almost deciding to throw them at Bruce's head, but changed his mind and he gave Bruce a good glaring for sneaking up on him again.

"You are going to give me a heart attack if you're not careful," he said, "You seem to take far too much pleasure in literally trying to make me piss my pants."

"Forgive me I didn't realise you didn't hear me come in," said Bruce, still smirking so he was obviously lying. If Bruce had any spare money to gamble with, Tony would love to take it all from him in a poker game. Worst poker face, ever.

"I was absorbed in my work," said Tony.

"Clearly," said Bruce, then he waved a data pad in front of Tony, "well guess who finally came for his physical."

"You have got to be shitting me," said Tony, "he actually turned up?"

"Yep," said Bruce, "a couple of hours ago. Not that he made it easy for me, mind you, the most he would take off was that body armour vest, kept the hoodie on the entire time."

Tony pulled his safety gloves off and tossed them onto the table next to the goggles, then lent back against the workbench. "Ok, lay it on me," he said, "what's he like?"

Bruce started looking over the pad, reading off the data he'd recorded, "Physically speaking you'd be hard pushed to find someone fitter," he said, "made him run on the tread mill for ages, not really for the physical, just to amuse myself really, but even with the get up on, he barely broke a sweat. The guy has stamina, heart and lungs are excellent, perfect reflexes, he wouldn't let me check his eyes or his ears, because it would have meant putting the hood back, so I didn't even bother suggesting checking his prostate, and he was still a bit twitchy around me, but he didn't make much of a fuss."

"So whatever he is, he's in peak physical condition?" said Tony.

"Whatever he is, I'm not entirely convinced " said Bruce, "though, he's a little underweight for his height, which surprised me, but I think that's why he wears that get up, to disguise his frame. He could do with eating a little more really."

"But apart from that?" asked Tony.

"Apart from that," said Bruce, "in terms of physical stamina, strength, health, I think he'd probably give Steve a run for his money. Who knows, he could have been holding back. I'd love to give the younger brother a set of tests too, see how they compare, from what we've seen I think they have different abilities, but to be honest, I think that's about as likely to happen as you becoming the pope."

Tony laughed, "Yeah, to say that he's 'over protective' would probably be something of an understatement, huh?"

"I can't really blame them," said Bruce, "not if they were in Harlem."

"But he didn't give you any shit?" said Tony.

"No," said Bruce, "he behaved himself for the most part. I don't think we'll ever be BFF's, braiding each others hair and talking about boys."

"Well you have me for that," said Tony.

"Yes, I do enjoy those nights where we do nothing but eat ice cream and watch romantic comedies, and paint each others toe nails," said Bruce.

"We must do them more often," said Tony, with a smirk. "Seriously though, buddy, I'm glad it went over well."

"Yes, me too," said Bruce, "it's another thing to cross off the check list at least."

"Are you off to be a do-gooder again tonight?" asked Tony, "Or do you wanna come out? We could go see a movie? Maybe grab a beer?"

"I have a shift at the free clinic," said Bruce, "they've been short handed recently."

"Bruce," said Tony putting his hand on his shoulder. "you don't actually have to become a saint you know."

"Come on, Tony," said Bruce, "on your epitaph, it'll probably say something like 'Tony Stark, genius, billionaire, inventor, innovator, saved the world, adored by millions,' - I'm just trying to make sure, that mine doesn't jus say, 'Hulk smash'."

"I wouldn't let that happen," said Tony, seeing the sad expression on his friends face, this wasn't just some off-hand snarky remark, Bruce really believed that.

"If you keep drinking the way you do," said Bruce, "I think it's safe to say that I'll be the one ordering your headstone, and not the other way around."

"Alright, mother hen," said Tony, "point made, now go do your part or they won't canonise you in time."

"Ok, I'll see you later," said Bruce, and he left the workshop leaving the data pad behind.

Tony picked it up curiously and began going over Shadows physical results, Bruce was right, the guy was in excellent shape. He'd not told Bruce exactly how old he was, but Bruce had made an estimate from the condition of his teeth that he was between his late twenties and early thirties.

"If it's the last thing I do," Tony muttered to himself, "I'll get that guy to stop being so infuriatingly mysterious."

"Sir?," said Jarvis "you have a visitor waiting for you in the penthouse."

"Who?" asked Tony, frowning and putting down the data pad.

"Miss Potts is waiting for you, sir," said Jarvis.

Tony felt like his heart was about to pound out of his chest.

x-x-x

The elevator ride up to the penthouse had never seemed to move more slowly, he'd clenched his fists so hard that his palms had red half moons cut into them, but Tony barely noticed. The doors slid open and there she was, standing by the window in a Laura Ashley blouse and skirt, her long red hair hung loose and draped around her shoulders.

Her head turned as she must have heard the elevator doors open and she smiled at Tony. Tony wasn't sure how much more his heart could take.

"Pepper," he said, "what have I done to earn a visit from my ex-CEO?"

He stepped out of the elevator and headed straight for his bar, only to discover that Bruce, the devious bastard had been and cleaned him out again, so he grabbed a can of pepsi from the fridge and opened it, pouring some into a glass tumbler.

"Drink?" offered Tony.

"No, thank you," said Pepper, dear, sweet, beautiful, understanding, Pepper, oh god, he'd missed her. "I was worried."

Well that was a surprise, Bruce had been keeping him on the straight and narrow as much as Bruce could, and even as Shadow had pointed out, his face hadn't been on page 6 as much lately.

"Why?" asked Tony, "What's brought this on all of a sudden?"

"Tony," said Pepper, "Bruce might have stopped calling, and the pictures might have stopped appearing in the papers, but I still know you, I still care about you, I still love you. I just can't let my heart get broken by watching you tear yourself apart. Not anymore."

"I got news for you, sister," said Tony, drinking a mouthful of the pepsi, "I'm doing fine, Bruce has me on a leash, I'm getting over it."

"As flattering as it might be for me to think the last few months have been about me," said Pepper, "they haven't, Tony. Your drinking was way out of control, even before I left."

"It wasn't that bad-"

Pepper interrupted him and began listing off things on her fingers, "Bottle of vodka in the medicine cabinet, bottle of vodka in the basket in the bathroom where you keep the extra shampoo, bottle of Jack stuffed behind the sofa, two bottles of Johnny beneath the bed, emergency vodka behind the false panel in the bar, bottle of Jim beside the baked beans in the cupboard, hip flasks of varying quantities hidden behind books and dvds, and those were just the ones I'd found by accident, Tony."

"So I was well stocked," said Tony, defensively.

"You're drinking yourself into an early grave," she said, "and you couldn't even open up enough to tell me why."

"Why are you here, Pepper?" he asked.

"To make sure you were still alive," she said, "to make sure Bruce hadn't had to stash your body somewhere and pretend to the public that everything was fine."

"Your concern touches me," he said.

"Tony, I love you," she said, and that cut into him deeply, "but I just can't be with you. I'm not strong enough to sit back and watch you die from up close, knowing there was nothing I could do about it."

"I could change," said Tony, quietly.

"Maybe you could," said Pepper, "but I don't think you could change for me, and that's part of the problem too really, isn't it?"

Well damn her if she wasn't right about that.

"I'm sorry," he said.

"I'm sorry, too," she said.

x-x-x

The problem with having Bruce constantly worrying that Tony was going to drink himself to death, was that Bruce kept throwing out all of his booze. After conducting a thorough search of his floor, Bruce's floor and the workshop, he struck upon success in the main Avengers floor when he came across a bottle of Glen Fiddich that had been hiding in a cupboard behind a bunch of old paperwork that nobody had ever bothered to fill in.

He was now laid out on the couch, a good quarter of the bottle consumed, one leg dangling over the side, his back propped up with pillows so he didn't choke every time he took a drink directly from the neck of the bottle.

Somewhere behind him he head the elevator ping, and he assumed it was Bruce, come to drag him away from his beautiful, beautiful drinking, but the voices he heard did not belong to Bruce.

"You sure this is ok?"

"Yes, he informed me it was fine."

Ah, Shadow and Spider-man, probably come to raid the fridge.

"Well I don't like hanging around here much," said Spider-man, "I don't like the way Iron Man looks at you."

How the hell do I look at him?

"And how exactly does he look at me?" asked Shadow.

Yeah, that's what I would like to know.

Tony heard the fridge door open and the rustling of wrappers and packaging.

"I don't know, bro, I just get a weird vibe off him is all," said Spider-man, "Like right now, my Spidey sense won't stop tingling."

"Well, I'm famished, so I'll make these first," said Shadow, "then we'll go have that well earned night off. I think we've both earned one."

Huh, so they do take the night off once in a while.

"I am very pleased that your studies have been improving," said Shadow, "you can't be Spider-man forever and it's important that you will be able to do something with your life. You don't want to be still running around in that ridiculous outfit when you get to Stark and Banners age."

HEY!

"Speaking of old people," said Spider-man.

HEY! Forty three isn't old!

"How'd your physical go?" asked the boy.

"The beast did not manhandle me," said Shadow.

Now Tony was really pissed. He'd been called old, he'd been accused of looking at someone funny, and now Bruce had been called a beast, where the hell had he heard that before?

Tony sat up properly, taking a swig from the bottle, leaning his arms on the back of the couch he rested his chin upon them so that now if they glanced in his direction he would be seen. He expected them to carry on talking as they had been until they noticed him, but the Spider-boy touched his hand to the side of his head and turned, Shadow followed his gaze and now they were both looking directly at him.

"Don't let me interrupt," said Tony, cockily.

And to his great annoyance, they simply turned their attention back to each other and went back to their conversation.

"So I got Starship Troopers and Pitch Black for us to watch tonight," said Spider-man.

"What are you two?" asked Tony, "Aliens? Mutants? Children of the corn?"

"Any particular reason for those choices?" said Shadow, passing over Tony's question.

"Because one of those movies is about huge bugs called arachnids, and the other is about a planet in complete darkness," said Tony, interrupting them, "thematic symmetry."

"Because you like monster movies," said Spider-man, ignoring Tony completely, "and they're both sci-fi."

"I have those movies," said Tony, "on dvd and on Blue ray… I think I still have them on VHS too somewhere. Maybe laser disc."

"I'm happy for you," said Shadow, finally acknowledging him.

He appeared to have finished making a set of sandwiches, and handed one off to his brother and then bit into one for himself, before tidying away the things he'd got out of the fridge.

"Just saying if you want to have a movie night, you could have one here," said Tony, "fridge is stocked, snacks are abundant."

"Don't you have your own friends to play with?" asked Spider-man, turning his head to look at him, Tony noticed he'd raised his mask just enough to expose his mouth and eat his sandwich.

"Bruce is working at the free clinic tonight," said Tony, then he took a long drink from his bottle.

"Well if you're pushing to get invited to our movie night, you're out of luck," said Spider-man.

"Why?" asked Tony.

"Because we need a night off to relax," said Shadow, "and neither of us could relax if you were there."

"Why, because I'm old?" said Tony.

"Because we would be unable to remove our masks," said Shadow.

Well they had him there.

"Fine, fuck the both of you," said Tony, "I've got my good buddy, Glen here to keep me company."

The brothers finished eating their sandwiches, as Tony sat back in the couch, continuing to drink, they walked across the room and the younger opened one of the windows and jumped out, damn show off, Shadow turned a glance in his direction, then jumped out after his brother, and Tony continued drinking.

x-x-x

The bottle was half empty when Tony felt a hand on his shoulder, he looked up and saw Bruce looking down at him, his face etched with worry.

"Thought you were working tonight," Tony grumbled, tightening his grip around the bottle so Bruce wouldn't take it away from him.

"I was," said Bruce, "I got a couple of visitors at the clinic. They said if I didn't get back here, I'd probably find you choking on your own vomit in a heap on the floor."

Tony looked up at Bruce, surprised, "They came and found you?"

"I was as surprised as you are," said Bruce, and he sat beside Tony, putting his arm around his shoulders, "what happened?"

"Pepper," said Tony, "she came to see me."

"Christ," said Bruce, "I take it, it didn't go well."

"Could have gone better," he said, "it's…. it's over, Bruce, it's really over. In the back of my mind I had kinda thought that maybe, eventually she'd come around, but we talked for a few hours and… it's really over."

"I know, buddy, I know," said Bruce.

The bottle slipped from Tony's fingers, clattering onto the floor and spilling its contents everywhere, Tony leaned over and buried his face into Bruce's shoulder and began heaving, with deep racking sobs, whilst Bruce stroked the back of his head for comfort.

AN: I'd love to take credit for Bruce's worries over his grave stone, but that's actually a paraphrased quote from the comics.

Also, please no Pepper hate, I love Pepper.

A special thanks to a IRL friend of mine who read this through and assured me it was fine, so any displeasure can be aimed at him. *ducks*