seekevolution | The Amulet

Bruce would have reacted far worse if he knew what SHIELD had done. Maybe it's for the better he had no idea. "It worked before," he whispers. Why would it have changed? "We'll make this work. There is a limit on the range of the amulet. Even if we have to stay apart, no one else will have touched the amulet and you can be safe."

Mohinder reaches out to take Bruce by the wrist. His grip is loose, his touch cool. "Where's Molly?" he asks softly. He has been trying to hard to keep his cool. To keep himself from thinking. Obviously, he's too dangerous to be around his daughter but having no idea how long he's been out, anything could have happened to her. The rest...he'll find out about later. He might not be the girl's biological father and he might not have been looking out for her for all that long, but he at least has a good paternal instinct to protect her.

"I'm not sure. I will find out, I promise." A soft smile, trying to get his friend to calm down and steady himself. "Steady yourself. You won't affect anyone but me. You're rapidly putting distance between anyone else who touched the amulet. There is a limit on its effect."

That, at least, has a calming effect on him and Mohinder closes his eyes and exhales slowly through his nose. "Last week... I wish I could return to last week." He'd been happy, more or less, pining secretly (more or less) for Bruce. They'd had their project, Molly had a recital with her violin at a school she was doing so well at. Everything was fine.

And now--

"I believe I understand how you and how Xavier's lot feels now." Alone. So...very alone.

Bruce flinches, just a touch, from those words. He doesn't pull away any more though, sighing softly. "Mohinder, it will be okay. You can only effect a certain people and you're away from them right now, except for me. I need you to focus and work with me; you can't fallen into depression or darkness. I trust you, even if you trust no one else, even yourself. I know how that feels, and honestly I am probably being a hypocrite."

There's nothing that Bruce says that isn't one hundred percent true, but he can't help but be upset by it all. Breathing normally just isn't about to happen right now, not with tears slowly streaking down his cheeks.

"I do trust you," he promises. "I...can't thank you enough for coming for me."

"I couldn't leave anyone in that situation, nevermind a friend." Even if Mohinder decides to pull away from him, Bruce will always hold him as a friend. He gets up and finds a tissue box built into the plane itself, snagging a few before returning to press them into the other's hand. "We'll be landing in just a few hours, and I'll get you set up with us. There might even be enough distance between bedrooms and labs to be safe."

He's grateful. Sitting up, Mohinder tries to shake off the dizziness he feels, and gently dabs at his cheeks. He feels quite foolish but there is so very little he can do about that now. What's done is done.

He's very careful with everything he says, making sure everything that comes out of his mouth can not be misconstrued as a command. "Thank...thank you."

"Take it slow." Bruce hovers there, watching how Mohinder reacts to sitting up. He can see the dizziness in the sway of his body, but that is to be expected. "Mohinder, tell me what happened after I left. I was ready to take on Fury and SHIELD itself if that's what it took to get Fury to let you go."

It's not a long tale to tell but it takes Mohinder the better part of an hour to tell Bruce about how he'd been taken from the lab just after Bruce and Tony left and been given several blind tests through one way mirrored rooms and cards stretching from the inane 'bark like a dog' and 'take off your clothing' to the horrorfying 'put your firearm in your mouth and pull the trigger.'

All three agents in the room had put their guns in their mouths...the test subject (who had an empty chamber) and the two guards who had supposedly been cleared and safe. Mohinder shakes over that, half laughing and half crying.

"It spreads. It spreads, Bruce. Anyone in physical contact with me-- That's why it's not safe."

It spreads. That is frightening for any scientist to hear. The effect of the amulet spreads and more people end up under Mohinder's control. Two people were dead because of it. There is a flare of green just for a moment in anger towards Fury, who should have known better in how this was being tested, but hindsight is ever twenty-twenty.

"Physical contact is required?" Bruce wants to confirm, lips tight, suddenly grateful for Tony's issues with touching people.

"It seems so," Mohinder says quietly. The look Bruce gives him does...something to him. It doesn't stir any fear in his heart...just desire. But that's dangerous. That causes dangerous thoughts. He wishes he could experience that kiss again. The one given at the end of their evening together, the one that made him feel so...so alive.

Bruce can't know what Mohinder is thinking, but the amulet's power draws him anyway. He leans in before he's thought about it, couldn't think about it, capturing Mohinder's lips with his, his eyes closing. It would take a thought to break it off, and Bruce can't fault Mohinder for this. But it's as passionate as Mohinder wants, his hand warm on Mohinder's a moment later.

Mohinder knows he's done it again, knows it's against Bruce's desire, but he's had so little going for him that he lets himself have the moment. Bruce is wonderful, almost too warm, the sort of person he just wants to spend his days with... He's perfect. Just perfect. But Bruce doesn't feel that way. The guilt after is overwhelming and he pulls back with a gasp, sucking on his lower lip, eyes down and his heart racing.

"I think it best if you keep me locked away. Tell Mr. Stark to... To set the code. I have no influence over him."

Edited 2013-11-27 18:53 (UTC)

Bruce sits back, breathing slowly, his eyes opening. He swallows, remembering the conversation he had with Tony on this same plane not that long ago. About trying. Having 'fun'. It isn't about having fun, but he understands.

There is a warmth he feels with Mohinder, a friendship, something very close. Is it right to try something that he doesn't know how it will go?

So, he shakes his head. "I didn't lie, in the restaurant, you know. You asked me to tell you how I felt, and I did."

A slow burn? I kept something very different from what he feels with Tony. Tony is fast. Exciting. Take charge. And Mohinder couldn't be more different. "I have trouble believing most things I hear. Especially when they're things I'd like to believe," he says somewhat twistedly. He gently presses his fingers against the stubble on Bruce's cheek. "You may well care for me because I care for you. That's unfair to you, Bruce."

Without a doubt it is a different feeling. Tony riles, pushes, nudges, twists, burns fierce and hot. In many ways, he and Tony are complete opposites. That makes he and Mohinder very similar. A slow burn... Is a better way to put it.

It doesn't mean he knows which is what he should have in his life. This though, he doesn't feel wrong to admit. "I spoke to Tony about that. Some... Of what I felt... Is long from before this situation from the amulet." His eyes lift to Mohinder's, speaking softly. "I don't know what it means, or what should happen. It may have to wait until this is over."

Mohinder just nods. Nods and then sets his forehead, monetarily, against Bruce's. "You should go." Yes. This time he's doing it on purpose. Go away, Bruce. It's no different from running, actually. Mohinder knows that.

Tony's waiting when a glassy eyed Banner returns to the cabin and he doesn't bother to put down his sandwich.

"You're getting more action than I am, lately. That's not right."

Blink. Bruce looks around, then at Tony, almost confused how he got there before focusing on Tony. "What? More action?" Now he does look confused, not at all following. Hadn't he been talking to Mohinder? He needs to watch his patient until he's sure Mohinder will be okay and all of the drugs are out of his system.

Tony just smirks. "Sit down. He wants to be alone, obviously, or else you'd have your pants around your ankles right about now." He gently pats the seat beside him and offers Bruce a bottle of water and a bag of all natural organic apple chips.

Bruce sits down where patted, taking the offerings and a bit surprised at them, but he cracks open the water first and drinks a good deal of it in a go. A droplet escapes and follows his jaw before he sucks in a breath as he finishes. "That's not funny, Tony. I'm not going to have sex, nevermind on your plane."

"You were getting pretty cozy back there," Tony says, reaching to get that bit of water before it falls into Bruce's collar. Tony's smiling but he doesn't much feel like it, if he's honest. "Before you jump on me, I wasn't watching. JARVIS was."

"And you were watching JARVIS, hardly any difference." He rubs his hand over where Tony touched, feeling a faint tingle there. "I think he thought back to the other night and... it happened. It's spreading, first off. Anyone who has physical contact with him. SHIELD accidentally killed two people because of their idiocy."

Tony nods, stoic, but not surprised. "So I heard." Let's not talk about you and the other doctor kissing. Tony recrosses his legs so that one goes over Bruce's. He needs to get Pepper naked ASAP before this turns into something bad.

And something he can't explain to his girlfriend.

"He's all right? Will be?"

Pepper wanted to see him kissing Bruce. Who knows what she would do with the idea of him shagging Bruce.

Bruce doesn't even really think twice about what Tony does, mostly because Tony is always trying to do little things like this. "I think he will be. The drugs they used... damn them for it. That's not the kind of thing that should be used on people unless it's a medical emergency. They threw him into a room and used him like a lab rat and two people died because of it!" For a moment, Bruce actually snaps his words before he looks away, eyes closing hard.

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