A/N - Hi guys! It's another Tony-centric story! (WHAT A SURPRISE!) For those of you who are new here, check out my profile for 2 Tony-centric kidnapping stories, a thing that also has Bucky in it, and a bunch of introspective oneshots about anything and everything... but mostly Tony.

BUT YOU'RE HERE FOR THE IDENTITY-PORN (just an expression, this is not rated M) SO LET'S HAVE AT IT!

It was proving more difficult by the day to keep the secret.

And yet, every day, it was proving more vital.

Iron Man was gaining more and more fame as an Avenger as well as Tony's bodyguard, and more and more people were starting to speculate on everything from a potential relationship between them to the absurd idea that there really was nobody inside the suit.

The whole problem was attracting far too much attention, and in the meanwhile, Tony had to confront an unfortunate dichotomy: he had to remember which of the team liked Iron Man, and which liked Tony Stark.

He quickly realized it wasn't difficult, seeing as only Clint and Bruce actually liked his unsuited personality. He blamed his SHIELD file and his tendency to be drunk when the others ran into him as Tony.

Still, was it ever nice to have a lab partner, and Clint appreciated his sense of humor. He couldn't count the number of times the archer had managed to cheer him up just by snorting at one of his ill-timed jokes.

Iron Man saw the team a lot more, and got along with most of them a lot better. When Natasha met him in the suit for the first time, she admitted she was impressed with how professional he actually was. "Knowing Stark, I would have expected some excited flyboy…"

"This is one of the biggest technological marvels of our age - and extremely dangerous in amateur hands," Tony had replied. "Believe me, Stark considered self-control important."

She had smiled then, and he couldn't remember her smiling at him outside the suit, not even once unless it was a smirk. "Glad to hear it."

Meeting Steve had been a shock to Tony, because the first time they met (outside the suit) they got on each other's nerves instantly. When they had met as Iron Man and Captain America, however, Tony found two extraordinary things.

The first was that Cap liked him, and the second, even more astonishing, was that he liked Cap. He was honestly impressed with the man's leadership and his willingness to take risks for the team, and it definitely helped that Howard wasn't really a topic of conversation.

He first used his nickname for Steve while in the suit. "Capsicle, I'm going to get into that rotor and jump-start it. Then I need you to save me, okay?"

"Okay, Iron Man. How?" Steve hadn't even noticed the nickname until maybe the third or fourth time he used it, and then he gave a genuine laugh. From then on, of course, the nickname could only be an Iron Man thing, but Tony didn't mind much. It was enough that he could get along with the man in battle.

Thor and Iron Man had gotten off on the wrong foot, but after an offhand comment of "No hard feelings, Point Break," neither of them held any grudge. After hearing how Iron Man had managed to save the Helicarrier, he had even managed to earn a little respect from the Asgardian. They had each other's backs in battle, that was what mattered. Thor didn't even meet Tony outside the suit until later, and they mostly only talked about Thor's skill at breaking electronic appliances (after Thor managed to break six in one day).

Bruce was another story entirely, and a welcome one. The first time they met, it had been outside the suit, and Tony had instantly started annoying him by prying beneath his calm demeanor, even to the point of jabbing him in the side with a lab tool.

And Bruce didn't mind.

And then he realized what Tony was doing, showing the team he had a tight lid on the Hulk as well as incautiously proving that Tony trusted him, and he saw the moment it clicked because Bruce turned, took a blueberry, and gave him a small smile. After that, Tony eased up a little, point made. He really did trust the man, to the point where Iron Man even vouched for him after his disappearance. "He'll be here." And so he was.

Iron Man gained Clint's respect pretty much instantly, the first time they met. That was mostly because they met practically in the heat of battle, when the two of them had the most information about the situation at any given moment. The communication was nearly perfect, because honestly, Tony's brain in combat worked a lot like an archer's, mainly focused on targets and trajectories (instead of individual enemies like Natasha and Steve). Therefore, when Clint told him to do something, Tony did it, and vice versa.

Outside the suit, Clint started out aloof, and Tony blamed it on Natasha's assessment of him. That still stung. After a few days of witnessing his immature humor, however, Clint warmed up to him a bit. Tony liked to think of it as a relationship based on friendship instead of actual trust, and that was okay with him, because that made Clint a lot like Rhodey. Rhodey didn't trust Tony, but they sure had a good time when they ended up in the same room, and so did Tony and Clint.

Still, it was downright strange. With Pepper, she only spoke to Tony, so there was no conflict there. Rhodey was a lot the same, they had only fought together once. Mostly, people in SHIELD knew Tony, and only a select few ever worked with Iron Man. Not the mention the fact that while Tony was almost dangerously loquacious, Iron Man was… kinda quiet.

The Avengers, on the other hand, worked with both of them, which quickly became annoying. It was hard to greet Steve and receive a cooler look than he had gotten just a few minutes before when he was ensconced in a suit of armor. It was strange to have Clint barking not-quite-orders in his ear without any of the inside jokes he and Tony had. It was unnerving to have Thor coming to Iron Man for help understanding what Tony told him,

And don't even get him started on Natasha. They avoided each other like the plague outside of battle, but when she saw Iron Man, she tended to practically throw her life into his hands. More than once, she had yelled for him to catch her when she was already midair.

Then. Then there was Bruce. And that was just complicated.

Bruce was grateful to Tony for having faith in him, and worked with him in the lab, and came to him whenever he had questions. He knew Iron Man really only in passing.

But the Hulk, Tony suspected, thought of them as the same person. He couldn't be too surprised, because Bruce wasn't used to having anyone trust him automatically, but both Tony and Iron Man had done it. At least subconsciously, Bruce knew.

So it really didn't bother Tony that Bruce was the first to learn.

SHOUTOUT TO THE OTHER FEW PEOPLE WHO WRITE STORIES LIKE THESE. I think I'll point you guys toward one story a chapter. So, go check out "5 Times Someone Found Tony Stark and 1 Time They Didn't Have To" by Elizabird, because it's the most similar to this story in layout.