Draumr

As per usual, the lights were blinding in Bruce’s lab. The white painted walls did nothing to help, in fact reminding him more of a hospital than he would prefer. If it hadn’t been for the distinct smell of more dangerous chemicals than phenol and antiseptic solutions, it would easily have been mistaken for a doctor’s office. Tony found that most of the time, Bruce’s lab along with the man himself either smelled severely burnt or sickly sweet. As of right now, however, the scent of freshly brewed herbal tea and vomit assaulted his senses. Both pleasant and nauseating at the same time. Butyric acid and herbal tea should not be mixed. In fact, butyric acid shouldn’t be mixed with anything…

“Why the hell are you playing around with butyric acid?” Tony asked, allowing Bruce to know he’d arrived as JARVIS promised. The doctor cast him a glance over his shoulder. He was wearing protective glasses over his normal glasses, which looked funny as all hell. However, Tony found it best not to judge. After all, this was the man who could defy the rules of mass and turn into a green giant when he got enough epinephrine in his system.

“I ah… I’m studying the effects it has on intestinal walls. ” Bruce replied in his usual, slightly hesitant ĺmanner. Jeez, the guy needed to get out more. Tony raised an eyebrow at him.

“Interesting...” he said, not really meaning it. Body fluids and sickness was all Bruce’s field. Though Tony did have more than the general knowledge, he had always prefered animal studies and machines.

Bruce let out something between a chuckle and a sigh, removing the lab goggles and setting them aside on the table next to his experiment. With a gesture for Tony to follow him over to the usual “check-up” chair while he went in search for the right equipment.

“Are those human guts?” He asked, eyes narrowing at the pieces of colon resting on a glass plate. The doctor blushed slightly, which was all the answers Tony needed. He shrugged, plopping down into the chair. With Bruce still sticking his head into different cabinets and pulling out needles and other equipment, Tony started playing around with the seat. Push a button and it started folding into more of a bed, another button and it started folding in on itself (Tony quickly stopped playing with this button). Another button made his legs raise and so on and so forth.

“Right. I’m just going to start with some simple blood samples.” Bruce said, finally returning with a metal tray full of test tubes and a menacing-looking needle.

“Alright, but if you ask me to piss in a jar, I will leave.” Tony said, only half-joking. Bruce smiled at him, his eyes glinting with humour only Tony could bring out.

“Hopefully it won’t come to that.” He replied, wrapping Tony’s upper arm to cut his blood flow. “Why don’t you tell me what happened?” he asked, moving onto the needle.

So Tony told him everything he remembered from going up to the rooftop, taking a break to hiss when the needle entered his skin before ending at the part where he looked up at the sky. Bruce would hum his acknowledgement while changing out the full vials with the empty ones. When Tony finally finished his tale, including JARVIS’ alarm about his vitals and his midnight fever, Bruce was frowning. He pulled out the needle, quickly applying a cotton ball to stop the bleeding before looking up at Tony.

“This sounds…” The doctor trailed off, swirling the test tube of blood he was still holding in his hand.

“Yes?” Tony prompted. Bruce swallowed.

“Well, it sounds like you had some sort of seizure.”

“Seizure?!” Tony gaped. That didn’t make any sense. He couldn’t have had a seizure, could he? Bruce nodded sadly, not meeting Tony’s gaze.

“I’d like to do an EEG to be on the safe side, though.” As he said this, he pressed down on one of the buttons, transforming the chair to a bed. Tony let himself be dragged down by gravity, following the chair-bed when all he really wanted was get up and out, find a good bottle of scotch and drink until the week was gone from his memory. He could not have had a seizure. He refused! The press would have a field day; “Is this the end of Tony Stark?”. And what would Pepper say? She would be broken, sad. Not to mention pissed off that he didn’t tell her about it right away, because he knew he wouldn’t. It would be like the palladium poisoning all over again.

He didn’t notice, deep in thought as he was, that Bruce disappeared off to the sides, reappearing with a giant, old-looking computer screen that he had to wheel in. This was followed by a tall metal stand with a strange rectangle covered in small holes, which was connected to the computer.

“Alright, I’m going to attach the electrodes to your scalp now.” Bruce explained in a voice as if talking to a child, doing just that. Tony wanted to come with some witty remark about him only a year younger than Bruce, but bit his tongue. This was Bruce’s own way of coping with the situation, he knew. He would always use that voice when one of them got injured during a battle, and he was worried. The white wires were cold and sticky, and instantly made his scalp itch.

“How long is this gonna take?” Tony asked while Bruce was connecting the wires into the holes on the rectangle hanging from the stand. So that’s what that thing was for.

“It shouldn’t take longer than thirty to forty-five minutes, give or take” Bruce answered. With the push of a button, the computer jumped to life, screens lighting up with information Tony didn’t even bother to look at. He was too busy grumbling over the loss of precious time.

They sat there for what felt like an eternity. Then again, time always felt too slow when Tony was bored out of his mind. Several times, Bruce had to tell him to be still, lest he yank the electrodes off. When Tony didn’t stop being a bother, Bruce realized that the only way to keep the genius at least relatively still would be to ease his boredom.

“So, these burns,” Tony’s reaction was instant. He had been in the middle of fiddling with the collar of his black sabbath t-shirt, using his fingernail to brush away an old piece of cheese. Then his body went rigid, as if Bruce’s words had physically struck him. It only lasted a millisecond, and the inventor thought he’d gotten away with it. But the way Bruce’s eyes seemed to sharpen, he knew he’d been too slow. Yet the lie seemed to simply slip from his lips.

“I told you before. I had a welding accident. I was working on one of the suit updates and got a little careless. Hadn’t had my coffee yet.” Bruce looked at him doubtfully, obviously not buying it. Was he really that bad a liar?

“Tony, I might not have a PhD in medicine, but it’s clear to everyone that those burns didn’t come from a welding accident” The doctor gave him a look Tony couldn’t quite place. The worry was clear in his eyes, but he made no demands for information. One of the things he liked about Bruce was that the man understood boundaries better than anyone. He was possibly

one of the few people on earth that got Tony. Rhodey, Pepper and Bruce. The three people who’d bothered trying…

“Look. If you don’t want to tell me, that’s fine. I’m not going to push for info I don’t have the right to know. But don’t lie to me, alright?” For once, Tony didn’t have a sassy remark to throw. No clever words to play out of the situation like he usually did. Instead, he just nodded. He contemplated actually telling Bruce about the shower, but decided against it when the machine gave a small bleep, signalling that their touchy-feely time was over.

Bruce’s attention turned back towards the screen with the result. Tony tried to get a better look, but decided he couldn’t be bothered with it. This was all Bruce’s area of expertise. Except the outdated machine. How that thing had slipped into his tower he didn’t know. He was sure he could make an even better one for Bruce’s brain-fetish. Maybe one that could show a hologram of the brain… He would have to look into it.

“So, Doc. Tell me the good news” He joked, silently crossing his fingers that the news would indeed be good. Bruce hummed in concentration, hid finger tracing the zigzag pattern on the screen absently. Tony bit down the fear that was starting to grow in his chest.

“Well… it doesn’t look like a seizure, but…” Bruce trailed off, eyes narrow as he stared at the screen. “That doesn’t look right” The relief Tony felt from “not a seizure” was washed away instantly.

“What? What is it?” he questioned.

“There’s this… hold on, I’ll show you” With great effort, Bruce managed to turn the wheeled computer so Tony could get a better look. On the screen in front of him was different numbers, neatly set up in a table on the side. Next to it was an imagine of a bunch of squiggly zigzag lines going up and down. Tony understood what the lines were, that much was obvious, but he had no idea what any of them meant. He cast a peculiar look at Bruce, prompting the scientist to explain.

“This here is your brain pattern. Everything looks healthy and normal” Bruce started, pointing to the zigzag lines. “However this line here… well, it’s not supposed to be there” As he said this, he moved to point at a strange wavy line running across the zigzags. Tony hadn’t taken notice of it before, it was much thinner than the other lines.

“So… what does that mean?” he asked.

Bruce shook his head.

“I have no idea. But I would like to do a 24-hour EEG” Tony shot up from the bed, ripping off the electrons stuck to his scalp. He got off the bed, relieved to stand after half an hour of lying down.

“No”

“Tony-”

“Bruce, and I can’t believe I’m saying this, I have a company to run. I promised Pepper I would attend today’s board meeting” he said. “I can’t be lying on an uncomfortable chair-bed in your lab all day just so you can look at a wavy line” The words came out harsher than he intended. Instead of replying, Bruce got out of his chair and walked over to one of the many cabinets he had. After ruffling around in there for a few seconds, he pulled out a strange looking backpack. Electrical cords were sticking out of it, connected to a swimming cap. Tony stared at it, unsure of what even it was.

“It’s portable” Oh! Oh… oh hell no!

“No.” Tony said again.

“Tony, I just want to make sure-”

“That is not happening. I am not showing up to a board meeting for the first time in forever, wearing a swimming cap and a backpack. You checked, you said it looked relatively normal. That’s good enough for me, Bruce. The answer is no.” Bruce looked like he wanted to argue, but in the end, he just sighed, shoulders slumping. Tony felt a knot form in his stomach at the look of defeat on Bruce’s face.

“Alright. Just… if anything happens, please tell me, okay?” Tony just nodded. He checked his watch, looking for any excuse he could to get out of the lab. The board meeting had already started. He hadn’t exactly promised Pepper that he would show up seeing as Pepper had given up on getting him there ages ago. That had mostly been an excuse not to wear that. Now that he’d said it though… If he knew Bruce well enough, and he liked to think that he did, then Bruce would talk to Pepper. He didn’t want to get caught having lied to his friend.

“If you’ll excuse me, I need to go get ready for that board meeting” With a small “see ya” He hastily exited the lab through the elevator. The elevator ride up to his own floor was awkwardly silent. Usually, he would talk to JARVIS about various subjects like updating the suits and new projects for Stark Industries. However, for now he just wanted to enjoy the silence while he had it.

Having the other Avengers move in had taken more out of him than he thought it would. Not because he wasn’t good with people, he was a charmer unlike any other, but because these weren’t just people who sucked up every word he told them like a sponge. The assassins said they would only be staying until SHIELD had rebuilt their helicarriers. Though all Tony heard when they told him was “until we have enough intel on you”. He liked Clint, the guy could take a good joke. But he didn’t trust the man as far as he could throw him. Natasha was obviously not on his friends list, not because he didn’t want to get to know her. He just didn’t want her to get to know him. The captain was… complicated. Tony still remembered Howard’s praise of his golden boy when he was younger. Growing up, constantly being compared to a corpse had taken its toll on young Anthony. As the years progressed, the admiration he’d felt for Captain America slowly turned into an ever-present feeling of envy. When he met Steve himself, he instantly noticed the way Steve’s eyes searched through him. He seemed relieved at first, after all, Tony looked a lot like his father. The relief, however, died down to disappointment when Tony opened his mouth and started talking. So now he was again constantly being compared to a corpse. At least Steve was more subtle about it than Howard had been.

The elevator pinged. Tony excited, instantly going for the closet with his (normal) suits. Grabbing the first one he saw, a dark grey suit and a blue tie, he quickly changed. It was probably a bad idea to just come barging in halfway through the meeting, but he didn’t care. It was his business after all, and Tony liked to think he could do whatever he wanted. Besides, he had a few new ideas he needed to consult Pepper about. And there was never a better time to talk to Pep about anything, than when she is busy with other things. Easier to get a yes if she was focused on something else.

Ten minutes later, he was on the road on his way to the meeting. It wasn’t really that far away from Stark Avengers tower. Only just ten to fifteen minutes by car, give or take. Tony leant back in the seat of his Audi R8 Spyder, enjoying the way the air ruffled his hair as he sped along. He would enjoy it until he got into the real traffic, then he would regret ever taking his car, but fuck it. Driving his cars was the closest he got to feeling really free, aside from flying in his suits, of course. There was no other feeling like that of the world speeding past you, the wind beating against your ears in an oddly pleasant way. Freedom was speed, being faster than everyone. Because when you’re faster than everyone, no one can catch you.

Tony leant over to find some good music. It was a special thing to him, listening to CDs in the car the good ‘ol fashioned way. Maybe it was just something that stuck with him from when he got his first car, and would drive around irresponsibly while deafening everyone around him with ACDC. Ah! ACDC, that was a good place to start. Reaching over, he picked out one of the mixed albums he’d put together himself and tried to open the cover with only one hand. Once the CD was out, he pushed it into the CD player.

The first thing he heard was the classic guitar intro of Shoot to thrill. It instantly brought back memories of how this all started. From Coulson bringing him the schematics on the tesseract, to hacking Natasha’s quinjet. His first encounter with the mischief god.

Tony was thrown back into reality when a woman screamed. Although it could have only lasted a few seconds at most, time seemed to slow down. The woman in front of his car, clutching her daughter. It is possible that he cursed, he didn’t know. Quick as a whip, he turned the steering wheel, just in time to avoid hitting the two people crossing the road and slam right into the side of an old pizzeria.

The last thing Tony saw was a flash of green.