You Look Hot with Your Clothes Ripped Off
Back at home, Bruce stopped speaking to Tony. Although there was plenty of room to be alone at Stark Tower, especially since Pepper had left for good after a big fight, the science-loving boys shared a lab and often ate meals or watched movies together. Bruce was usually quiet, ignoring Tony or, if he was in a good mood, talking a little about work and smiling at Tony's jokes. But this was different. In the three days since the last therapy session, he hadn't spoken a word. He moved through the lab with his eyes lowered, never meeting Tony's gaze, only nodding or shaking his head when necessary.
Tony soon decided he'd had enough of that.
Swinging open the door to the lab where he knew Bruce was working, he got right to the point. “So it's your dad, right?” It was less of a question and more of an announcement. “He abused you, and fucked you up for life and now you're taking that shit out on me.”
Bruce looked at him for the first time in days, anguish in his big brown eyes like a wounded animal, a look that pleaded for him to stop. But Tony couldn't stop now, he was just getting started. It didn't help that he'd just had a few drinks.
“If your piece of shit dad was still alive, Bruce, I swear I'd kill him with my own bare hands for what he did to you, and that includes the fact that you're damn near impossible to live with because of that jerk.”
“You don't even know what he did to me, Tony,” he mumbled, turning back to his work on the screen in front of him.
Tony strode over to him. “Listen,” he said, grabbing his friend's arm.
Bruce tensed and pulled away, backing toward the wall. Tony was suddenly aware of the very real danger that his buddy was about to hulk out and it would be all his fault.
“I don't like to be touched, Tony,” he said, his voice still stable. “So... just... watch yourself, alright?”
“I know exactly what he did to you.” Tony took a step back to give him his space, but he wasn't willing to back down until he had got this off his chest. “He turned you into this.”
“Into what?”
“You know what I mean, Brucey... the Hulk.”
Bruce laughed dryly. “What the hell are you talking about, Stark? You know about the Gamma radiation: it was an accident, an experiment gone wrong, nothing to do with my dad.”
“Come on, man, don't try to tell me you don't see it.” Tony ventured a step closer. He felt he could lessen the blow of what he was about to say next, if only he would let him get close. “With all the pain you went through – whatever that pain was – you were already transformed into a big ball of rage, weren't you? The Gamma radiation just took that already existing ball, grew it giant, and turned it green.” He took another step closer. “And, of course, as a happy side effect, it makes your clothes rip off every time, which is incredibly hot – have I ever told you that?”
Bruce raised his eyebrows and smirked. “You got all that from thirty seconds of screaming under hypnosis? That's real good, Tony. But you don't even know that it was my dad. You don't know what happened to me,” he went back to where he'd been working and studied the screen intently, “and I don't want to talk about it.”
“Well, I've got news for you, then: you have to talk about it.”
Bruce looked up again, calmly amused. “Or what, you're gonna make me? Go ahead and try.”
“No. It's just... you...” He faltered, feeling awful at what he'd implied. Of course he wasn't going to make him! If Bruce even thought for a second he would try to fight him then Tony was failing at what he desperately wanted, which was to be the one Bruce could turn to for comfort and protection. “I just can't stand you moping around here anymore. Why can't we be buds?”
He paused, hoping for an answer, but didn't get one.
“That wasn't rhetorical, you know. Look, okay... dad's are shit, alright? We can agree on that; that's just the way it is sometimes. And I know it was your dad that hurt you, Bruce, buddy. I can see it in your face every time I try to touch you and you pull away. But you can talk to me about it, and I'll be there for you, because I know what that's like.”
Bruce scoffed. “Oh, you know what that's like, do you?”
Tony nodded, not sure why the little guy was being so hostile about it.
“So you know what it's like to have someone beat the crap out of you every day, then send you off to school the next morning with rehearsed lies about where your injuries came from? You know what that's like? You know what it's like to run and hide in a closet whenever you heard his car pull up? You did that, too? No, wait, you wanted your distant father to spend more time with you, you wanted to feel loved. Well, all I wanted was to survive the fucking night!”
As he said those last two words -- “fucking night” -- his voice turned to a deep growl. He was changing.
“Oh, shit.” Tony put his hands up in the surrender position and backed away as he watched his friend fall to his knees, his head in his hands, struggling to fight off the monster. His skin had a greenish tinge. “Bruuuce...” he said worriedly, feeling around behind him for anything that could be used as a shield. “Come on, Bruce, baby, keep it together.”
Bruce roared and dug his fingers into his scalp. His arms and chest began to swell, tearing his shirt.
“Now, I know I said it was hot when your clothes ripped off, but I think in a different context it might be more --”
“Shut up!” His voice was husky. He was very close to being fully Hulked out, but he was still fighting.
“-- arousing,” Tony finished. “Okay, look. Look at me, buddy. See, I'm not even summoning the Iron Man suit. We're gonna keep things calm, cool. I'm your friend and you are still Bruce Banner, not the other guy, and I'm totally... totally... not... freaked out right now.” He tried to keep the tremble from his voice. “So it's just me and you. Just me and you, pal. Let's juuust keep it cool.”
He could still see Bruce in there, so he told himself that it would all be okay if he could just keep talking. You've got that gift of gab for a reason, Tony, he thought. Use it!
“I'm gonna take care of you, Bruce, you hear me? I'm a man of my word, and I am promising you, right now, that I will always be right there with you. Okay? No one's going to hurt you ever again because you've got Iron Man protecting you now. You don't even need the big guy anymore. Bruce? Talk to me, buddy, I know you're still in there.”
And it worked. He breathed an audible sigh of relief as the growing body before him softened, the colour fading to a pale green tint. Slowly, the Hulk let go and Banner took control again.
“T-Tony?” His voice was back to normal. “You'll come with me again next time, right? To therapy?” He let out a small laugh. “'Cause I think I really need it.”
Tony laughed too. “Yeah, buddy, you really do.” He crossed the room and sat beside him on the floor. “And you're damn right I'll come with you. You think I'd let fucking Jerome hypnotize you unsupervised? He'd probably end up making you his sex kitten.”
They both laughed. Then Bruce did something unexpected. He moved closer and nuzzled his head into Tony's chest.
“Oh,” said Tony, not sure at first what to do with his hands, then hesitantly lifting one to touch those curls he'd wanted so badly to touch. He still wasn't sure why he felt this way – it wasn't like he was into guys or anything. But there was something about Bruce. “Oh, okay. This is... something we haven't done before. This is nice, Bruce, we should do this more often.”
“Hmmm,” Bruce answered pleasantly.
Tony draped his arm around Bruce's shoulder and pulled him even closer, fingering that warm skin through the holes ripped in his shirt, combing the fingers of his other hand through the dark mat of sweaty curls. “Mmmm... we should have a sleepover tonight in my room.”
“You're pushing it, Tony.”
“Okay, I'll shut up now.”
So he just sat and enjoyed the moment, wishing it would never end.