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May wasn't supposed to be here. In Avengers' Tower, that is.
But she is, because Tony said he needed to talk to her about something regarding Peter, and he couldn't make it out to her.
Dr. Banner met her outside, apparently Tony had sent him down to make sure she didn't get lost.
And now they're stuck in the elevator. Stuck. Because whatever system Tony put in charge of it decided to go into maintenance while they were between floors.
"I'm so sorry," Dr. Banner says for the third time in maybe two minutes. "I swear, Tony's been going crazy with the UI's recently. He probably forgot we were coming up and decided to switch some stuff up."
"It's really fine," May replies, just like she did the last two times. "Seriously. I don't have anywhere else to be."
Dr. Banner sighs, pushing his glasses up so he can rub his eyes. "I know. Sorry for apologizing so much."
"I feel like that's kinda.."
"Yeah."
May laughs watching Dr. Banner shake his head at his own words. "Well, I'd hope I'm not the worst person to be stuck with, at least?"
"Oh, not at all. Not even the worst person in the building."
"Mm, Tony's here."
"Yeah." Dr. Banner laughs. "Tony is here. So are a couple 'super villains' that are being moved around. I think they might be slightly worse company."
"Only slightly? Wow. I think I should be offended by that."
"Well, I'm sure there are some very nice bad guys out there."
May laughs again. Wow, if she's being honest, she doesn't know the last time she's laughed this much.
"See, if you asked me I'd say you're better company that a criminal, Dr. Banner."
"You can just call me Bruce," Dr.—Bruce says. He then shakes his head as he adds, "I don't know why Tony's so insistant on introducing me as Dr. Banner to everyone."
"Maybe he's just proud of you," May offers. He does that with Peter a lot, always making sure to tell people how smart her kid is. Peter told her once Tony spend twelve minutes listing his accomplishments to some vigilante while they were flying around. (May's still not used to that being a thing her nephew does.) Still, she wouldn't be surprised if he does the same thing with his friends.
"Maybe," Bruce agrees. "Or he's just being a little shit. It's 50/50."
"Yeah, that sounds about right," May chuckles.
"I don't know how someone like you someone like you tolerates him, I mean, don't get me wrong, he's great. But I hardly do most of the time."
"Yeah, well—" Before May could finish her sentence, the elevator jerks. She stumbles at the unexpected motion, but fortunately Bruce catches her before she can fall.
He steadies her, hands lingering on her waist as he looks her over. "You okay?"
"Yeah, yeah," May breathes out, "all good." May looks up at the elevator panel. They're finally moving up. "Ah, seems like maintenance is over."
Bruce nods. He blinks when May looks over to him again, finally pulling his hands from her. "Sorry, yeah, we—uh—we should be there soon."
And he's right. Less than a minute later, the elevator stops again, smoothly this time.
The first thing May sees when the doors finally open is Tony grinning at them. He's clearly been waiting there for a while, bouncing on his heels. "There you are! J told me the elevator went out. I was worried sick."
"You got her?" Bruce asks, glancing between him and May. He doesn't wait for Tony to respond before continuing. "I'm gonna head back to the lab, make sure nothing else was.. paused for maintenance, since apparently I'm not told about it anymore." He turns to May with a smile, the passive-aggressive tone all but evaporating as he says, "let me know if you need anything, alright?"
"Yeah," May replies, at the same time as Tony says "have fun!"
As soon as Bruce is out of earshot, Tony leans into her. "So," he whispers. "Did you two hit it off?"
What? May turns to face him. That better not mean what she thinks it means.
Tony, oblivious to her already growing suspicion, keeps talking. "You totally hit it off, didn't you? I knew you would. Am I a great matchmaker or what?"
"Wait, wait.." May shakes her head. "You stopped the elevator?" No wonder Bruce seemed so peeved just now. She wonders how quickly he figured it out.
"Well, yeah. Duh. Bruce is shy, I needed a reason for him to actually talk to you."
"Is this what you do for fun?"
Tony blinks, finally taking in her annoyance. "Oh. So it was a bad idea."
"Kinda, yeah."
He grins sheepishly. "Sorry?"
May sighs. She has to admit.. it wasn't bad, not at all. And, well, Tony tried. She's gotta give him that. "You don't have to apologize. Thank you for helping."
"Yay." Tony grins. "Okay, so, Peter's coming for lab day on Friday, right? And Bruce is gonna be there. So, I'm thinking you could come by to 'supervise,' and it'll give you an excuse to, y'know.."
May shakes her head, though she can't stop the smile that grows on her face as she listens to Tony's "foolproof" matchmaking plan.
If it makes him happy, she isn't going to complain. Besides.. she wouldn't exactly mind if she got a date with Bruce out of it.