Chapter Text
Nothing actually changed in the lab; it was the same as it was last week, but the usual warmth and comfort Bruce felt when in the lab was stripped away. The only thing left in its place was a cold, stale box. He and Tony on any other day would be filling the void of silence with chatter, but today they were both too scared to fill the silence. Hell, they were too scared to even glance each other’s way. Bruce needed the test tubes, but to get them, he would have to reach over Tony. God, he really needs them, but he didn’t want to try and fumble over Tony to get them, but he needs them now. No, he doesn’t need it that bad; he’ll be fine, right? Agh, he did need it, and he needs it now; he was just going to have to man up and grab it. He reached over Tony cautiously and grabbed them. His hand knocked into Tony on his way to grab the tubs. Shit, why can’t you just do something right for once. What do I say, sorry? Well, if you say sorry for that, you might as well say sorry for running away last night, or maybe I should say, my apologies are something no that’s too formal shit Bruce, just hurry up and say something.
“Sorry I-I didn’t mean to hit you," Bruce said, voice tight and laced with awkwardness. Tony spun around in his chair to face Bruce. “Looks like someone’s a little shy today.” Tony let out a light laugh. Expecting Bruce to laugh with him,but unfortunately he didn’t making the awkward silence even more awkward.
“Bruce, look, I'm sorry about last nigh-."
Before he could finish Bruce cut him off. "Hey, it’s no biggie don’t worry about it.”
“Bruce it’s so clearly bothering you. I don’t want things to be awkward. I mean we do have to deal with each other everyday.”
Was he making it obvious that he was bothered? Of course he was; he’s been trying to act like he’s working but has been fidgeting with his hands for the past 30 minutes. Dammit, Bruce, you can’t do anything right, can you. Bruce, hurry up; you have to respond to Tony.
"No, everything’s fine, don’t worry about last night." He said with his voice slightly creaking on the last word. Bruce began to think about last night what he could have said to change the outcome.
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Last night Bruce, Tony, Clint, Nat, Cap, Wanda, and even Thor ( though he was just visiting for a night to check up on everyone) were celebrating a win. Nat and Wanda were sitting on the couch talking about a show they both liked. Cap and Thor were talking about whatever two old men talk about, and Clint was just sitting there observing their conversation without adding much to it. Bruce and Tony had moved away from the living room area and over to the bar. Everyone (except Bruce and Steve, seeing there really wouldn’t be a point) had had a couple of drinks, but Tony had way more to drink than everyone else and was now pissed drunk. He was having a conversation with Bruce (well, as much of a conversation you can have with someone who slurs every other word that leaves their mouth) when midway through Tony’s rant about how he views the idea of blue cheese as weird, he stopped to stared at Bruce. His eyes, a deep sea of brown now intently focused on Bruce. Tony then said flatly, "I like you.”
Bruce, chuckled amused by Tony’s random topic change, simply said, “I like you too.”
“No, like my heart races when I see you kinda like you. Not like oh thats my best dude Bruce yeah I guess I like him.” Tony responded surprisingly well for how drunk he was. Bruce flushed a bright shade of red, not expecting Tony to say that.
"Tony, you’re drunk; you don’t know what you’re saying. You don’t mean that.”
“No, but I do like you; I have for a while. I thought you might like me too.”
How the hell do I even respond to that. Why do I always have to get myself in these situations ugh. While Bruce was zoned out thinking about what to say. Tony in his drunken state thought hmmm look at his face; he clearly wants to kiss me right now, so ‘obviously ’ he leaned in and tried to kiss Bruce. Bruce quickly moved away, dodging Tony’s advances. "Tony, no you—" he let out a deep groan and began to rub his head. "You don’t want me; you’re not thinking straight.” Tony’s face dropped at the rejection. “Tony, you ugh I’m—I’m going to bed. Goodnight." Bruce walked to his room trying to clear his mind, but all he could think about was Tony. The truth was he did like Tony. Gosh, he wanted no he needed Tony he needed him more than anything. He felt he needed him more than he needed air, but he knew he couldn’t have him. It would never work out he…the ‘other guy’ might hurt Tony, and he wouldn’t be able to live with himself if he ended up hurting Tony. Plus who would even want to be in a relationship with a guy that you can barely even touch without the fear of him hurting you? God, he wanted to touch Tony. He hasn’t felt the warmth of someone’s love in a long time, but he couldn’t risk it; he couldn’t hurt anyone else he cares about. He’s already hurt so many people, and hey Tony probably didn’t even mean what he was saying anyways.
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"Brucie big guy Bruce hello? don’t ignore me."
Oh yeah, you’re having a conversation stop zoning out Bruce .
"I'm sorry I-I didn’t mean to ignore you."
Tony let out a sigh before he began to speak.
“Bruce, look I didn’t mean to tell you like that. I would have preferably wanted to tell you at a nice restaurant candle lit dinner nice juicy steak you know set the whole romantic tone.” Bruce stopped paying attention to Tony after he said preferably his mind was elsewhere. Tony now had his hand deep in his hair and was looking directly at Bruce, though Bruce’s eyes were pointed to the floor.
"Hey, it’s okay; we all say stuff we don’t mean when we get drunk. I won’t hold it against you.”
Tony’s heart, or what was left of it, dropped because he so obviously did mean what he said. He wanted Bruce; how blind was Bruce that he couldn’t tell at this point we might as well call Bruce Matt. I mean he flirted with the man every day. He thought about not correcting Bruce letting Bruce believe it was simply a drunken mistake, but he couldn’t just keep siting here everyday and lie to Bruce; he can’t keep acting as if he didn’t like him.
“God are you not listening Bruce, I do like you. I didn’t want it to come out like this, but it’s the way it happened, and if I wasn’t confident in the fact you like me too drunk are not I wouldn’t have told you.” The tall brown headed man said now with a more serious tone.
“Gosh, Tony, it wouldn’t work. Nothing about this," he said, gesturing between him and Tony, "will ever work." He said, yelling, not meaning to yell. God, he hated yelling.
“And why couldn’t it? The only reason it won’t work is because you won’t let it," Tony said, yelling right back at Bruce, immediately regretting it as he saw Bruce flinch from the nonexistent attack. Bruce had to reminded himself that Tony wasn’t going to try and hurt him that he needs to calm down. Tony mumbled a quick sorry.
“I could think of plenty of reasons this well never work. Let me think I can accidentally kill you. Um, we can’t even have sex, and God knows you can’t live without that, and hmm maybe the fact I could accidentally kill you. Need I say more?”
“I know you want this to work, but I don't. I-I can’t risk hurting you like I hurt everyone else."
“Bruce it’s so sweet to know you care about me, but trust me you won’t hurt my feelings I will be fine”
“No, Tony I mean hurt you physically. I care about you. I don’t want to one day ‘hulk out’ and wake up to— He let out a shaky breath, and bit down on his lip that had now slowly began to quiver. “I-I don’t want to wake up one day to find out I killed you because I couldn’t control my emotions."
Tony, in a softer gentle tone, began to speak. "Bruce, you could nev—"
“You don’t know that everyone says that until it happens, until they’re—” his chest felt heavy and he felt as if there was something blocking his airway. “Until they’re lying dead in the ground." Bruce’s voice began to rise with anger. He’s anger-starved from a place of sadness and worry. Worry that he’ll hurt one more person he loves.
“No, Bruce, you don’t know that. You can’t make an hypothesis without testing it out. You of all people know that."
“But I do, Tony. Every time I get good, get something I want, I end up screwing it up. I hurt everyone, fuck Tony I even hurt you a couple times.”
“I don’t hold it against you big guy. I’m fine I didn’t die.”
“Yeah, you’re fine now, but what about the next time the ‘other guy’ takes over?”
“I’ll be fine then too. You didn’t mean to hurt me you were being mind controlled.”
“I never mean to hurt anyone, yet people always end up getting hurt. I didn’t mean to hurt Betty I didn’t mean to kill my dad, I didn’t mean to kill—“ Bruce’s breath hitched as he talked. Tony heard the deep sorrow in Bruce’s voice as he talked about Betty and his dad. Tony know he couldn’t let Bruce continue to reminisce about his past mistakes so he interrupted him.
“None of that was your fault.”
“We can try and make it work. I want this to work so much, but I can’t be the only one trying.” Tears started to glide down Bruce’s face and onto the floor; his lip was quivering and his vision was clouded. Gosh, he hates the way he looks right now; he hates when people see him like this. See him weak. He wanted Tony so bad, and he hated to reject Tony, but he was scared. Scared he would hurt him. Bruce was still looking down at the ground, trying to hide the fact he was now crying, though he wasn’t hiding it well.
“Tony, I want to try and make this work. I want to try so hard, but I’m scared. Deep down I’m scared that I’ll hurt you."
“At least give me a chance. Im a total package if I do say so myself self." Tony said joking to hide the undertone of desperation in his voice. He was trying not to show that he wanted this so much.
“How about this why don’t we go on one date, and if you don’t like the date, we can just act as if this never happened.”
“One dated." The shorter man said, tears still slowly falling down.
"Yes, one date. That’s all, and if you don’t like the way things go even though you totally will or you think that this can’t go anywhere, then we’ll forget all about it." Bruce paused, thinking about the proposition.
“I’ll-I’ll have to think about it," he said, wiping the tears away from his face. Ugh, he probably looked so pathetic. Why would Tony even want to still go out with him?
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Bruce did think about the idea of them going on a date. He thought about the cons, but he also thought about the pros of going on a date with Tony. Evidently he decided that he can go on the date with Tony as long as they set a couple of ground rules. "Tony, I thought about the idea of us going on a date and—“
“And you think that I'm so amazing, and of course you want to go out with the great Tony Stark."
"Well, I wasn’t going to say all that, but yes, with some conditions.” Tony nodded his head to indicate that he was listening to what Bruce had to say. “No, touching at all. I don’t want to risk it.” Tony raised an eyebrow, not understanding what touching would risk. Bruce noticed this, so he began to explain. "Well, you know any strong emotions could trigger the Hulk coming out; anger is the most common trigger, but if I feel any really strong emotion, it could cause me to Hulk out, like happiness or, like, umm, arousal, hence why I said no touching."
"Oh, is that why you mention not being able to have sex."
"Yeah, I—I know that might be a deal breaker; it is for most people.” Bruce said now awkwardly avoiding eye contact and he now had his hand on the back of his neck.
"No, no, not at all. I can work around that; it’s no big deal, and I like you for you, not for your body, even though you do have an incredibly sexy body.”
"And none of that, no little flirty comments like that."
"Ok, no touching and no flirting noted. I’ll set up everything, just show up."
"Umm, when do you want me to show up?"
"JARVIS, what days are both me and Dr. Banners schedules open?"
“You and Dr. Banner's schedules appear to over lap with an opening on Friday. Dr. Banner’s whole schedule is open that day and you don’t have anything scheduled past six."
“Thank you, JARVIS. Please make sure that me and Banner's schedules stay open the rest of that Friday after 6:30pm if you’re ok with that”
“Uh, yeah, that will work for me."
"Ok, so make sure you are on the ground floor at around 7:30 so we can get there at like 8."
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The days seemed to fly by and before they knew it, it was already Friday. It was time for their date, and Bruce was now pacing around his room talking to himself and debating if he should just cancel on Tony.
“You know I could just say I don’t feel good or that I need to finish up on some work. No, he’ll just try and reschedule the date. Plus, I'm already dressed; might as well go right. Is this to causal why does he even want to go with me Im so ugly and my personality isn’t even that good Im always so awkward what does he see in me. Should I change. It’s probably to late I’m just going to have to look like an ugly mess.”
“I personally think you look good, sir."
“Thank you, JARVIS, but I was really just rambling to myself."
"Sir, I must remind you that it is now 7:20. I suggest you start moving so you are not late."
“It’s already time to go, damn." Bruce was still thinking about ways to get out of this, but Tony was most likely already dressed and ready, and he felt it would be rude to cancel on him so late. So he
reluctantly went down to meet Tony. Tony was dressed in a nice, well-ironed Blake suit. While Bruce was simply dressed in blue jeans a black sweater with the collar of his purple button-up showing. He felt underdressed. When he was getting ready; he debated wearing a suit but decided not to, as he wanted to be comfortable.
“You look awesome as always.” Tony said with a soft smile
"Thanks, you look good too.” Bruce's eyes couldn’t help but linger on Tony. God, Tony was hot. Tony began to lead them towards the garage and opted to pick a nice Honda Civic, as it was one of the not so flashy cars. They drove to this nice restaurant. Bruce could tell that Tony put a lot of thought into the date. The restaurant was well lit, and the seating was spaced out rather than clumped together. Tony knows that Bruce most likely would not have wanted to be in a crowded dark space for a long time. What Tony didn’t think about is that when you save the world a bunch of times in costume or not, you're bound to get recognized.
In the beginning they were both still kind of awkward, but they soon began to become more chatty. Bruce noticed Tony, who was usually a touchy person, was going out of his way to not touch Bruce in any way, and Bruce’s heart couldn’t help but flutter at how much Tony was trying. Midway through their conversation, they noticed a table of five on the other side of the restaurant where now staring at them; every few seconds, they would whisper to one another and then glance back at Bruce and Tony. Soon the whole table of five got up and started walking towards them.
“Hey big guy, we got about five people incoming from our right," Tony said while jerking his head towards them.
“Yeah I see them.”
“In about one two annnnd they're here. Hi."
The first girl in the group began to speak; she looked to be only around 14. "Umm, hi, are you the Avengers?"
"Hmm, let me think about it as of right now no."
"Tony," Bruce said in a stern tone, glaring daggers at Tony. "Yes, we are."
The girl turned to what appeared to be her friends and said, "I told you. Look, he's the Hulk, and that's Iron Man.
One of the other girls immediately chimed in. “Can we get a picture with you both?"
“Of course," Bruce said with a smile as he started to stand to get closer to the group of girls. Tony finished chewing the food in his mouth before he got up and stood next to Bruce as the girls took the photo. Tony stuck up two fingers to resemble bunny ears behind Bruce.
“If any of you post the photos make sure to tag me in them.” The group of girls all said ok as they went to sit down. Bruce and Tony sat back down. After the first interruption more people seemed to noticed them and started to come over and ask for photos. After the fourth time of getting intrepid they decided it was best to just get the rest of their food to go.
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They soon made it home and were now in the elevator to go to their shared floor in the now renovated Avengers compound (according to Tony they had to add three additional floors for more space;everyone else thought there was plenty of space).
“So what do you say, big guy? You think I might be able to get a second date. Maybe this time we can plan it to where we won’t get interrupted.”
"Yeah, actually I think would love to go on a second date with you.” Bruce was happy with the way the date went; even with all the interruptions, it was perfect.