Chapter 2
“Tony, wake up,” Bruce said, nudging the brown haired genius. He had dragged Tony over to the red sofa in the corner, so he wouldn’t be on the floor anymore.
“Five more minutes mom, it’s Saturday,” Tony replied. Even in his sleep he had a sarcastic comment for anything. Having tried, and failed at waking Tony many times, Bruce decided he wouldn’t get anywhere without coffee. He turned around and left for the kitchen, but when he returned, the genius was back on the ground shivering and sobbing in his sleep.
“Tony, I need you to wake up, alright?” Bruce said softly, setting the coffee down on the nearest table and kneeling at the brunette’s side. “Tony you’re dreaming. It’s not real. You’re in Avengers tower, in New York, with your best science bro, you know, the giant green rage monster?”
“Don’t let me fall, please don’t let me fall,” Tony mumbled through sobs in his sleep. Bruce hadn’t seen Tony so distraught before in his life, and it was truly heartbreaking. As he saw the genius curl in on himself, making him seem even smaller, he deeply regretted dozing off the one time Tony had tried to open up to somebody.
“I’m not going to let you fall, I’m right here,” he said and wrapped his arms around Tony. Instantly, he felt the genius tense up, but he didn’t push away.
“Bruce?” Tony asked softly. He was sniffling, but the sobbing had subsided and Tony was fully awake.
“Hey Tony,” Bruce said, pulling back but leaving his hand on the genius’ shoulder. “I brought you coffee. I thought you might want some, but you didn’t come up this morning.”
“I ruined your shirt.” Tony took the coffee from Bruce, but didn’t look him in the eye.
“Yeah, well seeing as it was your money that bought it, I think I can find it in my heart to forgive you,” Bruce laughed softly, before his smile dropped and turned into a concerned frown. “Do you want to talk about it? I should have listened last time.” With that, Tony looked up at Bruce.
“Nope,” he said, the typical Tony Stark nonchalance returning to his voice. He took a sip of his coffee, but pulled back when it burned his tongue. “So, seeing as no one comes down here just to give me coffee, what do you want?”
“I wanted to apologize for last night,” Bruce started, making a mental note to bring Tony coffee every morning in the future. “The trust fall thing, I understood why you didn’t want to do it. I was about to ask you if you wanted to come down to the lab with me instead when you disappeared.”
“I’m a piping hot mess, not your responsibility,” Tony said, shrugging. He moved to get up, but his legs betrayed him and he stumbled, almost spilling coffee all over the sofa.
“No Tony, they were pressuring you into doing something you clearly weren’t comfortable with,” Bruce said more sternly. He wanted nothing more than to go green and rip apart whoever it was in Tony’s past that had led to his incredibly low self-worth. But at that moment, Tony needed him by his side more. “I should have said something sooner. We shouldn’t be the ones causing panic attacks, we should be helping you.”
“Wha-? How did you…” he trailed off, narrowing his eyes and looking straight into the nearest camera. “Traitor.”
“My sincerest apologies, Sir,” came JARVIS’s voice, but the AI clearly wasn’t particularly remorseful. Bruce marveled at how Tony had managed to program so much emotion into a machine, but then again, he was Tony Stark.
“It doesn’t matter. They don’t think I trust them,” Tony said, once again trying to get up. This time he managed to walk over to his work station where an arrow was lain out. He began to tinker with the head of the arrow, asking JARVIS to run tests on how they could increase the aerodynamics of it while retaining the same force of the explosion.
“Maybe you should trust them enough to tell them,” Bruce said, falling down on the couch. Tony froze momentarily, before returning to his work.
“That’s entirely unfair, and no.”
“Tony,” Bruce pleaded.
“Bruce,” Tony said with a level of finality that he usually reserved for politicians or the media or the military when they begged him to make them weapons. Bruce wanted to push, but the harder he pushed, the harder Tony would push back. He sighed, knowing the man was more stubborn than a mountain, and decided to let it go for the moment.
“Well at least come upstairs and grab breakfast with me,” Bruce said, getting up and taking Tony’s coffee from the work station.
“Come back with that or you’ll see you’re not the only one who can lose control and turn into a giant green rage monster!” Tony called over his shoulder, but Bruce just rolled his eyes and continued walking to the elevator. Tony slipped through the doors just as they were closing. “I hate you,” he mumbled. Bruce hummed happily and handed Tony his coffee.
When they stepped out of the elevator, Clint, Thor, and Nat were sitting around the kitchen eating eggs and leftover pizza. Clint was sitting on the kitchen island, facing Nat who was sitting on the counter. Thor was sitting on a stool, leaning on the island as well. When Bruce and Tony approached, they quickly stopped talking, allowing Tony to guess that he was the topic of discussion.
“Do you want pizza or cereal for breakfast? We’re out of eggs,” Bruce said, opening the fridge while Tony worked on making himself a second cup of coffee.
“Pizza is not a breakfast food,” Tony stated plainly. Bruce laughed while the others remained uncomfortably silent.
“That hasn’t exactly stopped you before,” he replied, getting milk out of the fridge.
“Well it’s not breakfast if you haven’t slept, so I’ve never had an issue with it,” Tony explained. The one on one conversation with three silent witnesses was really starting to get on his nerves.
“You eat pizza for breakfast every day,” Bruce commented. Tony rolled his eyes and grabbed two bowls from the cabinets.
“You’re a smart man, Brucie,” he said, taking the cereal and milk from Bruce’s hands and pouring him and himself a bowl each. He saw Bruce frown, and he looked like he wanted to say something, but didn’t. He tossed a spoon to Bruce, which he didn’t catch, but Nat grabbed it before it hit the floor and handed it to him.
Seconds later, Steve walked in from his morning run and spotted Tony. Immediately Tony could see the shift in his facial expression from neutrality to annoyance. That did it. “Well, this was fun,” Tony spat, looking each member of his team in the eye before continuing, “but I have more important things to be doing than being given the silent treatment and the Captain America ‘I’m disappointed in you’ look.” Like he had the night before, the genius disappeared into the safety of the lab.
“Sir, would you like me to lockdown the lab?” came JARVIS’s voice. At least someone cared.
“Yeah, leave it locked until I say otherwise.” Going upstairs had been a mistake.