seekevolution | The Amulet

That's bloody creepy, Tony. Bruce is glad he doesn't know.

With a little lean of his head into Tony's hand, Bruce gives a small smile as well. He lays down beside Tony, content enough to stretch out against Tony and put his head on the pillow. It feels... nice. Calm. He watches Tony come down from that high, how he melts into the pillow.

For a moment, he wonders if he would feel that calm from that release as well. If it would even be possible for him to feel that calm ever again.

Tony's fingers lightly move down Bruce's throat to his shoulder and back to his ribs. "Are you all right?" He questions, pulling up the covers as he lightly mouths a stubbled jaw. "Still breathing? Heart all right?" Come closer, Bruce. Tony's become a cuddler. Thank you, Pepper.

He also has a feeling that Bruce might need some reassurance after this. Tony's set it up to have exactly this happen and now that it has, he's more protective, more possessive, of Bruce than he has been before.

Bruce takes a breath and follows the unspoken instructions. He feels inside - heart rate is steady and easy even if a little high, his breathing easy, and more important than anything, Bruce feels nothing stirring in his head.

He nods softly. "Everything is quiet," he informs Tony. Everything is quiet except he doesn't know what to make of this. What he had just done for Tony. Why...?

From his face, it's clear he isn't sure about this at all. Everyone knows that Tony is a playboy and takes what he wants, but Bruce wants nothing to do with that. To be... Something to be had.

It's more than that. More than that but Tony can't say it because he doesn't know what it means to feel it. Loving Pepper is obvious. She knows him better than anyone in every way except his mind. She knows how he takes his coffee and his social security number. She even knows his heart. Or, that he has one at least. And so, he loves her for it.

But all of that had happened before Bruce came along into his life. It'd been so easy. It'd never been that easy before. And while Tony is obsessive and childish and so very confused, he just has to cover it up lest anything happen to these few moments.

He knows, deep down, that he's not the person Bruce would ultimately choose. And it kills him.

Tony's next kiss is heartbreakingly soft. Even he doesn't know why that is. But he tastes Bruce, memorized him. Pleads for him to care enough to overlook how shitty a human being he is... And then stretches out like a cat under him.

"Good. Entertaining as the other guy would be... Good."

Bruce doesn't know those things - wait, no, he knows how Tony takes his coffee by this point. He knows Tony is a childish adult with a good heart that has the usual crimes of being egotistical and selfish, but it's still a very good heart in his opinion. Yes, it had had to be changed, to be pointed down another path than the one he had been molded onto and said there is another way, but he'd followed it.

Besides, Bruce does know his mind. He understands the obsessiveness, the intelligence, and on the other hand from Pepper, he understands Tony's need for Iron Man. For the pain and agony, the triumph and success, the hero worship and saving. Not that he wants it for himself, no, but he saw it in the change from just after the battle in New York to after Tony had destroyed all of the suits.

But this is another thought for another time, because Tony is holding him and unlike the other kisses, this one is tender, soft, and slow. It steals Bruce's breath away from him, leaves him having to steady himself over Tony, blinking down at him.

Then he swallows, refocusing. "Tony..." Soft, unable to follow up the single word with more. Instead, his hand comes up, tracing Tony's jaw slowly.

"Still right here," Tony replies, not mocking Bruce, he can't do the voice at all, Bruce's is too much part of himself to mimic, but simply laying it out there. Tony's here and safe and warm and not running away. He still has a bit of victory lap going on, but that's for another time to analyze.

Tugging Bruce down by his hair, he nudges the other onto his side and wraps an arm around him, big spoon to little spoon, lips to the back of his neck and his own softening erection against Bruce's thigh.

They still need to nap before the real world comes back and JARVIS is ready with Mohinder's preliminary scans.

There is no sleep that's going to come. Instead, with his own arm coming up and securing Tony's against him, Bruce lies very much awake, taking in every little feeling of Tony's body against his, the speed of Tony's breathing, what just happened. There is a strange electric feeling where they touched, where they touch right now, and that last kiss replays over and over.

Tucked up in bed with Tony, the real world feels very far away indeed, and for a time, Bruce is glad for it to be so. He doesn't even notice the little motions of his hand, stroking over Tony's wrist and the back of his palm while he thinks.

He'd never have pegged Bruce for being so affection, but having his skin stroked like that as he drifts off is utterly amazing. Tony wakes up in just as good a mood, leg having inched between Bruce's and body half covering his back like a blanket. He's never fallen asleep holding someone and woken up that way too.

It's sort of mythical.

He grins against Bruce's ear as he pulls himself away (and awake) and hovers for a moment, tabled over him. "JARVIS will have those scans. I'm going to shower."

Bruce turns his head to look up at Tony, brows coming together. Hadn't Tony showered before they went to sleep? Maybe he is mis-remembering, or more like not fully realizing just how bad Tony's tendencies can be at times. He gives a small nod, and then after a moment, he's alone.

It's an odd feeling when he realizes he wishes Tony hadn't left. Like a cat, he ends up turning over and for a minute or two, curls up in the warmth left behind. Ironically, it lets him drift off, not a full sleep, but a cat-nap that Tony, when he's done in the shower, will find Bruce still in, nosed down deep into Tony's pillow.

That's...insane cute. For a few moments, Tony just watches Bruce, fresh and steamy from the shower, before he sucks in a breath and wanders past him, nude and not caring. There's clothing to be put on and Bruce can watch him. Tony has to distance himself a little bit from this.

An affectionate Bruce Banner is really the last thing he needs to fall for right now when he's already lost so much. He can't give up Pepper. He's not physically able to.

He might be able to get away with that blow job but... He doesn't want to push it. "C'mon, I'll order a pizza. How long will you need with Suresh?"

"Mmm?" A groggy sound as Bruce pulls out of his cat-nap, yawning wide before he shifts on the bed, following the voice and focusing on Tony. Must have only napped for a few minutes, right? Pizza. Suresh- oh! Bruce sits up, rubbing a hand over his face to help wake himself up.

"Dunno," he mutters into his hand. "I need to see how bad the damage is." Not to mention he's more than capable of getting just as lost in his work as Tony can, from time to time.

Tony doesn't mind and Bruce can take however long he needs with Mohinder so long as he keeps the monitor on at all times and doesn't go too close. They don't need a repeat of the roof incident. Or with what happened with the agents. Bruce can't die, but there's a lot of others that might as the result and Tony really doesn't need that.

Bruce and his guilt-- it's more of a show stopped than the Hulk.

"I'm sure he's fine. We've all played around with recreational drugs here and there." He pulls on a shirt and pads out of the room. He'll let Bruce follow when he will.

Bruce actually gives a full pause at the 'recreational drugs' as he tries to make it fit into normal understanding, then groans a little to himself. He pulls himself completely out of the warm bed, giving a full body stretch, then scratches at a stubbly jaw. It'll take a full walk to his own rooms, getting properly dressed and a shave, before Bruce finally joins Tony.

It had given him some time to think, and right now, those few minutes are what he needs to get himself focused on Mohinder's problem. Every part of him wants to go check on his friend, but he knows better. Instead, he only goes down to the lab. "JARVIS, if you could bring up all of the information on the scans you have been able to gather."

"Certainly, Doctor." Bruce wonders if Tony managed to get SHIELD to release the amulet to them, or at least to put them into contact with whoever is or could be running scans on the item in the SHIELD labs.

What sort of person do you think Tony is? Of course he has the amulet, sitting upstairs in a safe container. Lead, weirdly enough, seems to work well as an insulator. It's given him some ideas on the Chitauri tech they've been poking at and it's radioactive components. When Bruce gets himself to the lab, with all of Mohinder's scans, he'll find a three-camera feed of the Indian plastered on the large white wall to the left of the door.

Mohinder looks restless, wandering around in soft black pants and a t-shirt, more alert than he'd been the last time they'd spoke. He scratches at an arm and lays his forehead against a wall before wandered into the hallway and down towards the small kitchen where he puts on a pot of water.

Bruce only watches Mohinder for a good minute or so, before sitting back in his chair with a sickened look on his face. "I'm a hypocrite," he whispers to himself. Here he is, locking someone away and treating them like a lab rat - the very thing he has terrible fears about. It leaves him uneasy, even if the prison is a fine one.

So he gets to work, burying himself into it. It might be a while before he resurfaces at all, Tony. Try to make sure your pet doctor eats.

Oh, he will. There's pizza and coffee brought in a little while later and though he ignores one doctor on the screen as he pokes around with his stuff, he can't ignore Bruce and that look of concentration on his face.

"Eat this. Don't argue. A turkey sandwich isn't going to cut it. I got vegetarian pizza for our friend down there too. DUM-E is bringing it in." That will likely result in a fire. At least it'll be fun to watch?

"Hmm?" Bruce lifts his head and looks at the food, blinking. It hadn't been that long- with a glance over at the nearest clock, he corrects himself. It has been hours. "No arguing here," he agrees, grabbing a piece of pizza and taking a large bite. What he doesn't notice is that it's coffee, not tea, and even decaf gives his heart a little whirl.

"...decaf at least, right? Not that industrial strength sludge you drink? And are you determined to kill Mohinder by sending DUM-E?" The robot does have a knack for fire, somehow.

"Yep, decaf," Tony replies with a grin. He's not an idiot. He likes to push Bruce's buttons but he does it in big ways. A little caffeine here and there has been played with before after all. Boring. He even slipped caffeinated soap into his shower once.

Now that had been fun!

"And no. DUM-E won't kill Mohinder. We need him for our mad scientist experimentation and--" On screen, DUM-E has actually managed to back poor Mohinder into a corner. He's never been privy to Stark's lifestyle -- save for one small fundraiser he attended a year ago. He's never met the man's mechanical puppies! "Whoops. JARVIS, intercom. DUM-E! Down boy!"

FUN!? That had been anything but fun! Bruce had spent most of the day jittery and on edge and way too much energy because of it! Very different definitions of the word fun, here.

"Mohinder!" Bruce calls out through the intercom. "It's okay. It's one of Tony's robots, he won't hurt you. You're not Tony. He's just bringing you a pizza, that's all." With a little look at Tony for scaring the other. Warn him next time!

Hands flat against the wall he's pressed against, it dawns on Mohinder that he's being watched and he scans the ceiling for signs of a camera. When he finds one, the light blinking red, he can't help but think of what it'd been like to work for the Company, constantly and forever being watched.

It makes his skin crawl but he smiles just the same, especially when DUM-E backs down and leaves the pizza on the table. It looks almost like the poor thing has been reprimanded! He almost feels badly for it. Almost.

"Bruce?" There's hope in his voice, and relief. And the next words flow out in Hindi. "Are you all right?" Because yes. Mohinder is concerned for Bruce.

Bruce responds in kind, his Hindi much smoother than it had been before meeting Mohinder. "I am fine, I promise. Are you feeling well? I am safely enough distance away." However, still more formal than any native speaker.

He leans forward, as if Mohinder could see him back, watching his friend with concern. The idea of not being able to go down and properly check on him, even to speak to him, feels wrong.

Skirting the path the robot had taken in retreat, Mohinder smiles shakily at the camera even as Tony, behind Bruce, complains about the language.

He speaks German, Italian, Japanese, French, Mandarin, Spanish and Portuguese...but Hindi? He's going to have to learn.

"I believe I've felt better. But thank you. This is a lovely space. I'm not sure I know how to work most of it, however."

"Tony, please, really?" Bruce casts another look before sighing, turning back to focus on Mohinder. "It is like dealing with a child, at times! Tony's Tower is like nothing else, so do not feel bad. It took me almost a week to understand all of the settings on the shower." Trying to cheer his friend up, even if it is a losing battle.

"I am working on the--" He has to pause, realizing he isn't certain of the word. "Scans?" Asking for the word.

"Skaina. Your Hindi is very much improved," he praises because it's always important to give praise to students. Once a professor, always a professor. "Would you like help with them? I've resources down here to run simulations as well... I'm just not quite sure what to look for. If you're speaking about my medical scans--"

He hears Tony groan and cuts himself off. "All right Banner. I'm out of here. I'll be upstairs tinkering around with the amulet itself if you need me." Biology. Hardly an interesting science!

The door clicks and Mohinder arches an eyebrow at the camera. "That man is maddening," he contends, no idea at all that Bruce and 'that man' have become fairly intimate.

"Because of my excellent teacher," Bruce replies to the praise, eyes flickering away. Always humble to a certain extent. However, he does smile, feeling a little pride.

Tony storming out leaves him to sigh, just a little. "At times, yes." Like earlier. They had been pressed together as tightly as could be, warm and comfortable. Tony had wanted... more, Bruce is completely certain, yet he stopped.

Doesn't Tony get what Tony wants?

Pay attention, Bruce. "We are looking for anything out of the ordinary. Abnormal brain patterns, changes in the physical body, anything that seems strange. It's vague, I hate to say, but I'm sure it is going to be focused on the mind considering what you've proven to be able to do."

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J: Ms. Potts already has guessed, sir.

/fistshake

<3

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