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Bruce swore softly shooting a glance at his watch as he hurried to the next presentation. This conference was turning out to be more hectic than he had expected. He had been hoping to catch a couple of presentations in particular but had already managed to miss some of them. The one he was hoping to attend the most was after the one he was currently running to. He really hoped he didn’t miss it. He paused at the entrance to the conference room to catch his breath before entering. He stepped in and scanned the room before hurrying to the one free space he could see. He settled down just as the speaker took to the floor.
He was so invested in what he was hearing that he forgot to keep an eye on the time and wasn’t aware of it until he was applauding the conclusion of the presentation. He looked at his watch absentmindedly before doing a double take when he saw the time. Swearing loudly this time he tried to squeeze his way through the crowd. By the time he finally escaped the room more precious time had elapsed. Inevitably by the time he reached his destination there was no possible way that he could have gotten inside. He let out a sigh of frustration and scrubbed his hand through his hair. It looked like he wasn’t getting into Tony Stark’s talk after all. He dropped his hand with another sigh. He’d been looking forward to the talk all weekend. It was the reason he had asked to have his presentation given so early, he had been hoping that he wouldn’t have to worry about the talks clashing. He swallowed his disappointment and headed for the dining hall hoping to eat his feelings.
There weren’t too many people in the dining hall so he managed to snag food and somewhere to eat relatively easily. Once he was seated he pulled out his phone and called Betty. His ex-girlfriend wasted no time.
“Aren’t you supposed to be at Tony Stark’s presentation right now?”
Bruce glared sadly at his bowl of ice cream.
“I am.”
“… I take it you didn’t make it then?”
“No I didn’t. I lost track of time and the place was packed by the time I got there. There was no way I was getting in.”
“I’m sorry Bruce I know you were looking forward to it.”
“Thanks Betty.”
“Buuuut… there’s always your One isn’t there?”
Betty asked this with undisguised glee in her voice. Bruce shook his head with a wry smile as he looked down at the inner forearm of his right arm. The countdown was currently at 45mins 27secs and dropping. He had known before coming that he was going to meet his soulmate at the conference and couldn’t contain his joy. He had called Betty as soon as he had realized and she had been over the moon. She was happy with her own One and couldn’t wait to see Bruce similarly settled.
“Not long more before you meet them now!”
Bruce laughed.
“I honestly think you might be more excited about this than I am.”
“Because you deserve it! I have to go but let me know when you’ve met them.”
Bruce smiled.
“Will do.”
With that they hung up and Bruce gave his melting ice cream his undivided attention. Once he was finished he pushed the bowl out of the way and pulled out his tablet. He started to go through the notes he had taken during the weekend and quickly lost himself to information and equations. He was so caught up he failed to notice his timer counting closer to zero. He absently noticed the dining hall filling up without paying much attention. That is until someone walked up to him.
“Mind if I sit here? It’s the only seat left so know that if you say no you’re being incredibly heartless.”
Bruce was startled out of his reading and lifted his head to see who was talking. His eyes met those of Tony Stark just as the beeping of their timers went off. He saw Stark’s eyes widen and knew he looked equally as shocked.
“You’re-“
“Dr. Bruce Banner.”
Bruce blinked.
“You know who I am?”
“Of course I know who you are, I tried to get into your presentation yesterday but the room was full and no one would let me in. Which I have to tell you has not happened to me a lot, unless you count irate bouncers of course.”
“What?”
Stark slid into the seat in front of him with a wince.
“Which I realize is not the best way to introduce myself to one of the best minds of our age let alone my soulmate so maybe just ignore that.”
“Well it’s not like I didn’t know it already.”
Stark raised an eyebrow.
“Been reading up on me?”
“It’s kind of hard to escape honestly.”
The other man gave a rueful smile. He changed it to a genuine smile and stuck out his hand.
“Let’s do this properly then shall we? Hello, I’m Tony Stark.”
Bruce grinned and shook his hand, feeling a tingle start in his palm and spread throughout his body. He could tell from the smile on Tony’s face that he felt it too.
“Hello Tony, I’m Bruce Banner.”
“It’s good to meet you Bruce. Your work on anti-electron collisions is unparalleled.”
Bruce flushed and cleared his throat as he retrieved his hand.
“Thanks.”
He started to tap the table lightly beginning to feel awkward. What was the universe thinking paring him up with Tony Stark? The man was a genius, charming, good looking and Bruce was just… Bruce. A finger suddenly appeared to gently tap the back of his hand. He looked up to see Tony smiling gently at him.
“Not used to compliments?”
“Oh. Uh. I’m-“
“I guess we’ll have to work on that because I plan on discussing how amazing you are on a regular basis, but first dinner.”
“Dinner?”
“As a first date I realize that it lacks originality but I’m worried that if I don’t convince you to go to dinner with me tonight you’ll disappear and I’ll never find you again.”
Bruce gave him a look that clearly said he didn’t buy that and Tony relented.
“Fine, I would find you again but that could take hours that we could be spending getting to know each other. So. Dinner?”
Bruce let a slow smile appear on his face.
“Dinner sounds good.”
Tony gave him a smile that looked a lot more sincere than the ones that Bruce had seen splashed across tabloids and it thrilled him that he was the cause of it. Tony slid Bruce’s tablet towards him.
“So what were you so invested in before I dazzled you?”
Bruce rolled his eyes good humouredly as he started to flick through his notes. He and Tony were soon deep in conversation and Bruce tried to wrap his head around the fact that he got to have this. That this amazing person was his. And if the looks Tony shot him when he thought he wouldn’t notice were anything to go by, he wasn’t the only one thinking it. The fact that Tony Stark was looking at him like that took his breath away.
He couldn’t wait for dinner.