10.
There was a tense silence in the conference room. All the Avengers except Bruce were seated at the table, while Fury stood at the head of it, hands folded behind his back, trying to look intimidating. He wasn't good at all, Tony was more afraid of angry Steve, and Steve mostly looked like an overgrown golden retriever puppy.
Tony slid his gaze over everyone for a moment, Natasha and Clint both looked uninterested, and Steve tapped his finger on the table, growing more and more restless. He usually brought a pad and pen with him to briefings and drew, but today he had neither.
"Did you tell Stark to drop Hulk on the park?" Fury asked, and you could tell from his voice that he was just short of a tantrum. He'd better watch himself, he wasn’t young anymore. One fit like that and he could have had a heart attack or something.
"It seemed like the best option at the time, sir," Steve nodded. He straightened his back, watching Fury intently, Captain America mode oozing right out of him. Tony propped his head up and looked Steve over. His jaw was tight and his eyes were hard and serious. A very different Steve from the one he'd seen at home.
Fury's stance relaxed slightly and he stopped looking so angry. He turned his gaze to Natasha. "Do we know what happened?"
She shook her head, leaning back in her chair, her always perfect eyebrows curling slightly in a frown. "No. By the time Barton and I got there, Hulk was already out and rampaging. I tried to calm him down, but he attacked me."
"Hulk usually cooperates with us, sir. This time he didn't seem to recognize us at all," Barton joined in. "When Captain and Stark arrived, he became even more enraged. We had to get Bruce back as soon as possible."
"Cap was quick to react and even though I didn't like his idea, it worked," Tony shrugged and patted Steve on the back. "Captain saved the day time and time again. And we all have to admit that if we'd let the green guy run around any longer, the damage would have been far worse than the crater in the park."
The flash of blue eyes was brief, yet Tony could see the grateful expression in them. Tony smiled, let the hand on Steve’s back linger a moment longer, and looked at Fury again. Despite all his arguments, it didn't quell his anger completely.
Tony watched Fury with his head propped up. He could see his lips moving, but all he heard was "blablablah, you should have done it differently, blablablah, New York is in ruins again, blablablah". But he could hear the increasingly rapid and restless tapping on the table clearly. Steve was on pins and needles, you could tell he was trying to pay attention to Fury, but his eyes kept darting around the room.
"Hey," Tony whispered, handing him a pen and letting his palm rest in front of him, "do what you gotta do."
Steve gave him another grateful look and without hesitation, he snatched the pen from his fingers and pulled his palm closer to his own. Tony continued to prop his head up with his other hand, at least pretending to pay attention. The short quick strokes on his skin were actually quite pleasurable and Tony kept trying to peer over Steve's broad shoulder to see what he was scribbling, but it was no use.
He traced his hand on both sides, even his fingers, and when Tony sensed rather than saw that he'd run out of room, he simply gave him the other hand. For it seemed that Fury wasn't going to just shut up. Now he was muttering something about how the Avengers, while having a high success rate on missions, were leaving more havoc than a tornado and a tsunami combined. Hey, what did he expect? He sent Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, a hundred-year-old soldier, two spies, a billionaire in a suit, and occasionally Viking god to sort things out. It must have been clear to everyone by this point that it wasn't going to go off without property damage.
Tony examined his ink-stained hand and whistled softly to himself. For lack of an idea, or just plain luck, Steve had drawn climbing roses on his fingers that didn't match what he drew next at all. It took Tony a while before he realized he had his own arc reactor on the back of his hand, the one that was now in his chest. On the palm of his hand was the first one he'd created after returning from captivity. Steve must have seen the blueprints somewhere in his workshop.
"Agent Barton, Agent Romanoff, you have a training session with the rookies in a few minutes, you're free to go." Tony finally registered the sensible sentence and now he too was paying more attention to Fury. "I want a mission report from both of you since you were there first. Go."
Natasha rose gracefully to her feet, cast Tony a knowing look, smiled slightly, and disappeared silently, with Clint on her heels. Tony must make him those arrows with Skittles, as he had once promised. There was no logic to it, but, hey, they're Skittles! Who doesn't like them?
"Stark, Rogers," the one-eyed bear turned to them once the Assassins had disappeared, "I want to talk to you about certain newspaper."
The strokes of the pen ceased, and Steve dropped his hand and raised his head. He straightened up again and jumped into Captain mode.
"That's my fault," Tony waved a hand dismissively. "Me and my bad habit of bringing female journalists into my bed. I took a bit of a shot at her, she took it seriously, and the story came out. But it wasn't my fault that she ran into Rogers in a negligee when she left!" he defended himself quickly. Fury's eyes flicked between them, obviously even less comfortable with the situation than the captain himself.
"So there's nothing between you two?" He assured himself. They both shook their heads in unison. Fury nodded, letting out a small sigh of relief and straightening up again in an attempt to look bigger. "I mean, I don't care if there is or isn't... It's purely your business and as long as it doesn't affect the Avengers in any way, it's fine... I guess. But I just wanted to be sure."
Tony propped his head up again and watched Fury's stammering. He seemed more like a man who would have a huge problem with that. After all, it was a common rule in such large institutions that colleagues were not allowed to have anything to do with each other. FBI, CIA, they all had it. Unless something's changed.
"When Rogers and I get engaged, you'll be the first to know, Nick. Don't worry." Tony's got a toothy grin on his face. Steve looked at him and gave him a slightly warning look. He smiled innocently. "What, aren't we making fun of him today? No? Never mind, well."
"Enough, Stark," Fury cut him off. "I need you to go talk to Banner. Find out what's got him so upset that he's unleashed Hulk. And Rogers, I want a report from you, too. I'd like one from you too, Stark, but after the tenth mission I figured it would be easier to make the nuns dance at the pole."
"You'd be amazed how naughty nuns can be," Tony waggled his eyebrows significantly and stood up. "Come on, Cap, let's go."
"Go on," Fury nodded before Steve stood up and walked with Tony, pen still in hand. He clicked it a few times, his gaze fixed absently ahead.
"Tony..."
"We'll talk later, okay?" He looked at him. "Let's go get something to eat and talk it over. But for now, let's go see Bruce. He must feel like shit."
Steve agreed and knocked on the door of Bruce's room. A tired, muffled voice urged them to come in. Tony didn't hesitate, bursting open the door and immediately flopping down on the bed next to a confused Bruce. Tony wrapped an arm around his shoulders.
"I'm telling you upfront, if you're in pain, it's Cap's fault, not mine."
Bruce smiled weakly and leaned back into Tony's embrace a little. "Nothing hurts, Tony."
"I'm kind of surprised. He hit you at full speed. And then he told me to drop you to the ground from a pretty good height. Rogers must have picked on you, Bruce," he lamented further, watching amusedly as Steve squirmed nervously. But Bruce just chuckled, took off his glasses and fixed Steve with his bloodshot eyes.
"I know you did all that just to stop the other guy, Captain."
"What happened, Professor Banner?" Steve asked, sitting down in the chair across from them. He linked his hands in his lap and watched Bruce kindly. There was not a hint of anger, condemnation or any other negative emotion in Steve’s gaze. Only understanding and compassion.
Bruce shook his head, buried his face in his hands and sighed. Tony could feel him shudder. Bruce was more fucked up than usual.
"How about you start from the beginning?" Steve suggested. Tony didn't interfere, just held Bruce and supported him. Tony was great at that! Being someone's support. Especially when no one wanted him to give comforting and sympathetic speeches. Others were better at that. Like Steve. Tony just put his shoulder out. It occurred to him that he and Steve actually complemented each other well.
"I had a lecture at the university. It went well, the lecture hall was full, the students active," he smiled contentedly, but only for a moment. The smile immediately froze on his face again and his gaze blurred, lost in thought. "I was packing my things when one of the students came up to me. He was sitting right in the front row, I remember him well. He asked me about my research, he seemed like a very bright boy. But there was something... wrong with him. You know?" he looked up at them. "When you sense something is wrong?"
Steve nodded, and Tony followed suit, though that wasn't exactly true. But he wanted to be a good support, he tried!
"Then he started throwing pictures in front of me. There were kids in them. The kids!"
Tony exchanged a look with Steve. He knew immediately what kids he was talking about.
"He called me a killer. He threw more and more pictures in front of me, and then a tablet with a video. He showed me the explosion again. The next thing I remember, I woke up in a hole in the ground and you two were standing over me."
Bruce was shaking more and Tony thought his face was turning slightly green. A deep animal growl ripped from Bruce’s chest. Tony began to rub his shoulder.
"Hey, Bruce, take it easy. Come on, we don't want to get into another fight with the green guy now. It wasn't your fault, okay? The kids, the bomb, it wasn't your fault. It wasn't Hulk's fault either. Even he's pissed off, right? Hulk likes kids, we saw that."
It went on for a while, Tony continuing to say everything he could think of and for a moment he was worried that he and Hulk were really going to have to have a second go-round, but Bruce finally calmed down, his face pale as death.
"I must sleep," he said in a weak voice. Tony nodded, helping him to lie down and covering him.
"I'd tell you a story, but they say I tell terrible ones. Would you like a goodnight kiss?" he joked, and even though Bruce was almost asleep, he chuckled slightly and pushed him away.
"Get away from me, Tony, or I'm really going to let the other one loose on you."
Tony laughed, letting him sleep, and walked out into the hallway with Steve. The Captain frowned, his bottom lip clenched tightly in his teeth. Tony rested his gaze on him for a moment. Rogers had really nice lips, and Tony almost reached out and released the bottom one from the grip of his teeth. He didn't, he managed to stop himself.
"They had video of the explosion, Tony," Steve whispered, snapping him out of his daydream. Tony looked at him, uncomprehending. "SHIELD was cleaning up after us. If there were cameras, only SHIELD could have gotten the videos."
The seriousness of his words hit him almost immediately. He glanced at the door to Bruce's room, then back at Steve. He smiled carelessly, but this time he made sure Steve knew it was a mask.
"Let's get something to eat, shall we? We talk better over food."