When Tony awoke, a smile instantly brightened his face.

He was still cuddled up with Bruce, although their position had changed a bit. Bruce's face was pressed into Tony's neck like before, his breath washing over it. His hand, however, was no longer on his chest. His whole arm was wrapped around Tony's waist, causing his body to be pressed even closer to Tony's. Their legs were slightly intertwined, but not enough to make it awkward.

Tony had his face practically pressed into Bruce's hair (not that he minded), and his arm was around the other man's shoulders, bent so that his hand was touching his upturned shoulder. Happy with the position they were in, Tony stayed quiet and still, not wanting to wake the doctor up. He wasn't sure how he would react and he wanted this moment to last for as long as he could make it.

Tony's unconsciously traced circles into Bruce's shoulder with him thumb, sighing with content. Bruce's breathing was soft and slow against his neck, sending shivers of delight down his spine every two seconds. He assumed there was nothing that could ruin this.

"Tony?"

The man in question froze. His thumb stopped its motions, he held his breath, and his eyes widened a little.

"Tony," Bruce spoke again, "You're awake, aren't you?"

Tony didn't answer right away, his brain panicking. You knew he would wake up eventually, dumbass, Tony told himself. "Yeah. I'm awake."

"Shit," Bruce said under his breath. Tony shot the doctor a surprised look as he disentangled himself from Tony, sitting up. Bruce almost never swore.

"Doctor Banner!" Tony said with mock surprise, "Language!"

Bruce rolled his eyes, ignoring the statement. He looked around the room for a moment, shaking his head. His eyes wandered back to Tony, who was still lying on his back in the bed. "Sorry about… Well, you know…"

Tony held up his hand, closing his eyes. "Hey," he said, "There's nothing to apologize for. You were scared; I got you to calm down. It's not anyone's fault we woke up like that."

Bruce smiled sheepishly. "Okay," he replied. He stood, stretched, and yawned while Tony rolled out of the bed, his feet hitting the floor. As he cracked his neck, his hand flew to his stomach when it growled.

"Well, then," Tony raised his eyebrows. "I guess I'm gonna go get some breakfast before my stomach decides to continue singing the song of its people. You coming with?"

Bruce shook his head, "I'm going to grab a shower. I'll meet you downstairs afterwards."

"I shall be desperately awaiting your arrival, Doctor Banner!" Tony dramatically lifted a hand to his forehead, fluttering his eyelashes.

Bruce chuckled, a small smile forming. "Just go eat, you idiot," he said as he walked into the bathroom. Tony laughed before turning and heading toward the door.

Halfway to the elevator, he stopped. "JARVIS, did you get the pipelines for the shower fixed?"

"No, sir," the AI responded.

"Well, get them fixed! I doubt that Bruce wants to be taking a cold shower!" Tony said, exasperated that JARVIS hadn't gotten them repaired yet.

"Certainly, sir."

"And make sure that you don't screw anything up, because I don't want to know what'll happen if Bruce is suddenly attacked by scorching water," Tony pointed out.

"Of course, Mr. Stark," JARVIS complied.

But what Tony didn't realize was that Bruce was planning on taking a cold shower anyway, so it really didn't matter.

~*~*~AVENGERS*~*~

"Morning, Tony."

Tony stopped in the doorway to the kitchen. He raised an eyebrow, looking at the woman in front of him. "Good morning, I guess?"

The woman, Pepper Potts, smiled. "What's with the weird look?"

"Well," Tony began. "You're standing in the middle of the kitchen, smiling, and you said 'good morning.'"

She nodded. "So?"

Tony continued to stare at her. "Did someone put something in your breakfast?"

She laughed. "No! I'm just… happy, is all."

"Uh-huh…" Tony nodded slowly. He made his way over to the fridge, taking the milk out. What was Pepper's deal this morning? She was usually very serious and monotone. It was freaking Tony out.

Grabbing Froot-Loops again, he went to the counter, setting the milk and cereal down along with a bowl and a spoon. He kept an eye on Pepper, who was still standing where she had been standing before, a smile still plastered onto her face.

Tony eyed the milk carefully, opening the top and looking inside. "You poisoned this, didn't you?" he narrowed his eyes.

"Not at all," Pepper shrugged nonchalantly.

"Well, then, what did you do to it?" Tony shook the carton around, looking for anything weird that might be floating inside of it.

"I didn't do anything, I swear!" Pepper held up her hands in defense. "Jeez, a girl says good morning and suddenly she's trying to kill everyone."

"Hmm, no," Tony pursed his lips. "You're just trying to kill me. Not Bruce. Lord knows what would happen if you tried to kill Bruce."

"Although that's a good theory, I am, in fact, not trying to kill you," Pepper said. She stepped over to the sink, running the water and pouring soap into it so she could do whatever dishes they had used later.

"Alright," Tony gave up, "I believe you. But I know that there's something you're not telling me."

Pepper sighed. She did want to tell Tony something. She wanted to tell him, but she wasn't sure if he would get upset or if he would laugh… Honestly, she was hoping for the latter reaction. Pepper wasn't normally the type of person to get excited over things, but what she knew was just too good to not freak out over. Now she understood the feeling that a lot of women got when they saw Tony. Fangirls, she supposed. She snorted a bit at the thought.

"What is it?" Tony asked, pouring the Froot-Loops into the bowl, along with the milk. After putting the cereal and milk carton away (but not without one last suspicious glance at it), he returned to the side of the counter where his bowl was.

"Nothing you need to worry about," Pepper shrugged. She turned off the faucet when the sink was decently filled.

"Ah, but I think it is," Tony winked.

"No, Tony, it's not!" she fought back. Tony set his spoon down and stared at Pepper. She was hiding something, and he intended to find out what it was.

"Tell me," he insisted.

"It's not important, though."

"If it's not important, then why can't you tell me?" Tony pointed out. He leaned forward, placing his hand on the counter to support his bodyweight. He gave Pepper an expectant look.

"Um…" Pepper didn't know what to say at this point. Frankly, she was a bit too worried to tell Tony what she was hiding because, once again, she had no idea what his reaction would be! She bit her lip, anxious to tell him but at the same time not. She could feel Tony's expectant glare on her, and that really didn't help much.

Tony continued to stare at her until she literally could not take it anymore. She sighed in defeat. "Fine! I'll show you!"

Tony blinked. "Show me?" he asked. "Pepper, if you're thinking of showing me your boobs or something, don't even bother because I've already seen them-," he stopped when he saw the death glare she was giving him. "Sorry."

"You're such a pig sometimes," she rolled her eyes. "Wait, make that most of the time."

"Hey, I've been better lately!" Tony defended.

"Yep, and I think I know why," Pepper said, digging in her pocket for something.

Tony blanched. "Oh, really?"

Pepper pulled her phone out of her pocket, her fingers desperately sliding over the screen. The smile on her face grew wider with every swipe, finally pulling up a picture. She shoved the phone into Tony's face.

Tony, not being able to see what the hell she was holding in front of him because it was so close to his eyes, grabbed her wrist lightly and moved it away, taking the phone from her grasp.

Tony gave Pepper another weird glance before looking down at the phone.

He basically choked on his own spit.

"What- what the hell?" he coughed, his face reddening in embarrassment.

Pepper was practically jumping up and down. "You guys are just so cute!" she squealed.

Tony gaped at her, "Okay, seriously, Pepps. Did someone give you weed or…?"

Pepper frowned (which was quite a relief to her mouth muscles), "Tony! Come on," she said, crossing her arms. "Would I ever do weed?"

"Not sure," Tony shrugged. He looked back down at the picture, blushing once again. The picture was, regrettably, of Tony and Bruce in bed, cuddling and sleeping. Instead of looking how they did when Tony woke up this morning, though, he saw that their fingers were laced together on top of Tony's chest, barely covering the arc reactor.

"You two are adorable, you know that, right?" Pepper smiled again. Tony shook his head unbelievably.

"I can't believe you did this," he muttered. "How did you get this, anyway?"

"I was… kind of looking for you because I had a question about something this morning, and when I saw that you weren't in your room, I went to look in Bruce's room. I thought that maybe you had gone in there to work on some early morning science project. But when I opened the door, I was greeted with this lovely little picture," Pepper explained, pointing to her phone. "Now it's my turn to ask. Why were you sleeping with him?"

Tony pressed his lips together. "That's his personal information. Not my place to tell."

"Okay, I can deal with that," Pepper nodded. She looked at Tony's bowl. "You done with this?" Tony glanced in it, seeing that it was still half full, but the cereal was soggy. "Yeah."

Pepper rolled her eyes, emptying the bowl into the garbage disposal in the sink. She set the dishes in the soapy water before turning back to Tony.

"You know," Tony said, "You're going to have to delete that."

"What?" Pepper gasped. "No! I don't want to! I'm setting it as my wallpaper on my phone."

"Pepper, please?" Tony whined. "Just delete it!"

"Why?" Pepper put her hands on her hips.

"I don't want to risk Bruce seeing it," Tony admitted.

"Why would that be so bad?" Pepper asked.

"Hey! You were so apprehensive about showing me it, so why aren't you scared that Bruce will see it?" Tony threw up his hands. "And besides, we woke up kind of like that, and he was really weird about it. If he sees that, I don't what he'll think."

Pepper gazed at Tony, feeling sorry for him. "I'm not deleting it. It's going as my wallpaper. But I swear to God, I won't let Bruce see it, Tony."

Tony let out a frustrated breath. "Fine."

"So how long have you had feelings for him?" Pepper asked out of nowhere.

Tony choked again, nervously laughing at the same time. "What? What the hell are you talking about?"

"Please, Tony," Pepper poked him. "It's sort of obvious."

"I don't have feelings for him!" Tony lied. "I was just… making sure that he was okay last night! Like I said, personal stuff."

"You're horrible at lying," Pepper deadpanned. "But at least now I know who it is that you're in love with. Nice to know you broke up with me for a man."

"I'm not in love with him, though!"

"Hey, I'm actually happy about that. I mean, if you had broken up with me for another woman, I would be a bit angry. But for some reason, it doesn't bother me that it's Bruce." Pepper said.

"You're not even listening to me," Tony muttered.

"Okay, okay," Pepper laughed. "I'm sorry. I'll stop."

"Thank you!" Tony sighed with relief.

"You love him."

"Oh my god!" Tony groaned, face palming. It was useless to fight against Pepper right now.

With another death glare toward Pepper, he stalked over to the table and sat down, waiting for the woman that was giving him so much grief to make her own breakfast and leave him alone.

~*~*AVENGERS*~*~

Tony sat at the table, tapping his fingers, watching Pepper as she ate. Bruce was still upstairs.

It was silent until Pepper's phone rang, indicating that she had received a text. She took out her phone, reading the text.

"What are you doing a week from today?" she asked Tony.

"It depends," Tony replied calmly. "What's happening that day that you need to know what I'm doing?"

"There's a press conference that-," Pepper attempted tell him.

"I'm busy," Tony said immediately.

Pepper narrowed her eyes. "What are you doing that day that's so important you can't go to a press conference?"

"Breathing."

Pepper growled. "You need to start attending more of these meetings, Tony."

"I just went to one last week!" Tony complained. "I need a few weeks off, Pepps. I hate those stupid conferences."

"Fine," Pepper sighed, texting back that Tony couldn't make it that day. After the message was sent, she looked back up at Tony. "Can you please just admit that you're in love with Bruce?"

Tony threw his head back. "For the last time, I'm not in love with the damn guy!"

"You're in denial," Pepper quipped. "So much denial it hurts."

"Nope. No denial here. I'm denial free!" Tony said sarcastically. "I don't love the guy, Pepper… And even if I did, it wouldn't work."

"Why not?" Pepper questioned.

"Because he doesn't feel the same way," Tony said softly.

Whether Tony knew it or not, he had basically just admitted that he did in fact love Bruce. Pepper held back a shout of joy for his sake.

"You never know until you-"

"Until I what?" Tony snapped. "Until I suddenly confess everything to him? Until I kiss him out of nowhere? That's not going to happen."

Pepper stared sadly at Tony, her eyes full of sympathy. She wondered how hard it must be for someone like Tony to actually love someone as much as he probably loved Bruce. It hurt her to see him like this.

"What's not going to happen?" A voice suddenly spoke. Tony and Pepper snapped their attention to the source of the voice, seeing Bruce standing in the doorway, freshly showered and dressed in a plain T-shirt and jeans.

"Uh…" Tony said intelligently. He tried to think of an explanation for what he had said. "I was talking to Pepper about a press conference next week. I should go to the conference, but I had planned a day at the movies for the three of us… So I told her the movies weren't going to happen."

"Why not? We can go to the movies," Bruce blinked. "The conference can't be all that important."

"Wow," Tony said, surprised. "I would have thought you'd agree with me about attending the conference."

"Nah," Bruce shrugged. "We all need a day off to just do nothing. And going to the movies sounds like a good idea."

Tony shot Pepper a triumphant glance, chuckling when she glared at him. He tore his eyes away, watching Bruce as he went to the fridge to grab eggs. He got a pan out, setting it on the stove and turning the flame on.

Tony stood up, cracking his back, and then taking Pepper's empty plate from her and sticking it in the dish water. He decided to do her a favor and just take care of the dishes that needed to be washed, setting them on a towel to dry. He looked up to see her smiling at him. He smiled back, nodding.

Turning around, he noticed Bruce at the stove with one hand on the handle of the pan his eggs were cooking in, but he wasn't paying any attention to them. One side of the eggs was already cooked, but Tony knew that if Bruce kept staring off into space like that, the other side would burn very quickly.

He took a few steps over to Bruce, boldly placing his hand over the one the shorter man had on the handle. He smiled, slightly amused, when Bruce suddenly snapped back to full attention, blushing and looking at Tony.

"You're going to burn them," Tony chuckled, grasping Bruce's hand and making him lift the pan off of the stove. He set the pan down on the counter to the side, and then removed his hand from Bruce's to turn the flame off.

"Th- Thanks," Bruce stuttered nervously.

"Just pay more attention," Tony grinned. "I don't want you burning this place down."

"Sorry," Bruce smiled sheepishly. He felt a little silly for letting himself get distracted by his stupid thoughts.

Tony didn't say anything back. He just turned around and headed for the door. "Where are you going?" Bruce asked.

"A man can only not piss for so long," Tony laughed before leaving the room. Bruce smiled to himself, his eyes lingering on the doorway.

Pepper seemed to notice Bruce's strange behavior. "Bruce?" she spoke, "Is everything alright?"

Bruce blinked. "Hm? What was that?" he asked, facing her.

"Is everything alright?" she repeated herself.

Bruce sighed, looking back at the doorway, his eyes wandering the space around it.

"Yeah," he breathed. "Everything's fine."

*~*~AVENGERS*~*~

Tony Stark was always one to feel restless. And when he felt restless, he tended to walk around his entire tower doing absolutely nothing but peering into rooms for something to entertain him.

It was around eleven-thirty at night when he decided that he should start heading to Bruce's room. He planned on staying with him through these next few nights to help him get over his night terrors, or however long it took. He didn't care. He liked being with Bruce. Hell, he'd stay with him night and day if he had to, just to make him feel better.

Just to make the fear go away.

… And maybe even after that.

Tony rolled his eyes at himself. When he finally got to Bruce's room, he knocked a few times and opened it without waiting for a response.

BAM!

Tony's jaw dropped a bit when he stepped in. If he didn't know any better, he'd say that Bruce was trying to kill him.

Then again, Pepper was also trying to kill him, he was pretty sure. So the notion that Bruce would be trying to kill him, too… Well, that just seemed to be bordering on paranoia.

Tony forced his mouth to close, clearing his throat a bit. Bruce looked up from where he was lying on his bed – shirtless – and spoke, "Oh, hey, Tony."

"Hi," the taller man waved, closing the door behind him as he walked further in.

"You need something?" Bruce asked. Tony stopped, blinking in surprise.

"Um, no," he said, "It's late. I just thought I'd head in for the night. We don't know if you're over those night terror things yet."

Bruce sat up, "You actually want to stay another night?"

"Well, duh," Tony stuck his tongue out. "I'm not going to leave you here to deal with it on your own. Why wouldn't I stay?"

Bruce ducked his head a little. "I don't know… Maybe because of the position we woke up in this morning?"

Tony sighed. "That doesn't matter to me," he told Bruce, "Besides; it was actually very… comfy." Bruce looked up at that.

"Alright, then," he sighed, lying back down. He stared up at the ceiling fan, his eyes darting around.

"What are you doing?" Tony snorted, looking at Bruce and then the fan.

"Following one blade on the fan," Bruce shrugged. He glanced at Tony, seeing the odd expression on his face. "Oh, come on. You can't tell me you've never done that before."

"Whatever," Tony chuckled, sitting on the bed beside Bruce. He looked over to see Bruce staring at him this time. "What?"

Bruce shook his head. "I've been curious," he stated. "Now, you don't have to tell me if you don't want to because I'm sure it's a sensitive topic, but it's kind of been driving me up a wall. When you came to bring me here, you mentioned the fact that you couldn't handle losing another friend. Who was the other friend?"

Tony stayed motionless, not looking at Bruce or making a sound.

"L- Like I said," Bruce panicked, fearing he had overstepped a boundary, "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to! I was just wondering…"

"No," Tony held up a hand this time. "I'll tell you. It's fine." He got into a more comfortable position, as did Bruce. "Okay… When I was a teenager, I met this kid named Danny at school. He was new and he was clumsy and nervous, so I decided to help him out a bit. I was the confident, cocky, nerd of the school that no one seemed to notice, but I figured that we could be invisible together. We became friends – eventually best friends – and by the time we hit our twenties, we were basically brothers. We went around bars and pubs scoring chicks and taking them home… What with so much time around me, Danny had gotten better around people.

"And then Danny got a girlfriend. A real, honest-to-goodness girlfriend. I didn't know what to think. I was happy for him, sure, but that meant we couldn't do our normal thing and he'd be hanging out with her sometimes instead of me. When he introduced me to her, right away I could tell there was something wrong with her. Something about her didn't seem right. Danny didn't see it, though, I could tell that much, so I didn't bring it up to him. I was nice to her, I treated her well, but she didn't like me either. Danny and I were still hanging out a lot, although we weren't picking up girls anymore. I mean, I did sometimes when he wasn't around, but not as much as I did before.

"It was after a good three months when I finally started to realize that he was… Er, drifting away, I guess. When he wanted to be with his girlfriend, I wasn't allowed to come. I never saw her, but he was with her a lot. And when he would come and hang out with me, she was never with him and he seemed sort of… depressed. When I talked to him on the phone, he was quick and to the point and the conversations never lasted long. And when he was with me in person, he just acted sort of lifeless. It was scaring me.

"Then on the sixth month, he was all of a sudden happy again. He seemed okay. I had no idea what the hell to think about it. Suddenly being happy after being depressed for three months straight isn't normal. Anyway, one night, we planned to catch a movie and hang out afterwards, so I went to his apartment complex and went up to his room," Tony paused for a moment here, looking at the sheets on the bed. He could feel Bruce's concerned stare. It only took him a moment to realize that he was dangerously close to actually crying. He continued anyway. "I knocked on his door, but he didn't answer. I found that it was unlocked, I walked in, and Bruce, I've never been so terrified in my entire life than I was when I saw what was in there. Danny was hanging - hanging, Bruce – from the fucking ceiling. A rope was around his neck and his feet were just dangling there and a chair was behind him and… Bruce, I can't have that happen again. I can't."

He was surprised to feel Bruce pull him into a hug, his now tear stained face pressed into the shorter man's neck. "I knew there was something wrong with that girl," Tony choked out. "I know she was the reason he killed himself. She was determined innocent, of course. People are too fucking blind to see these things."

Bruce felt horrible. He didn't have any idea before why Tony cared so much about his attempt at killing himself. But now he did, and he couldn't believe how stupid he had been.

"I'm sorry," he said softly. "God, Tony, I'm so sorry…"

"Just… Bruce, can you promise me you won't try again?" Tony asked desperately.

Bruce's eyes widened. He honestly didn't know if he could make that big of a promise. "Tony, I-"

"Promise me!" Tony pleaded, squeezing his eyes shut.

This was a big thing for Bruce to promise, and Tony didn't really realize that. Bruce wasn't sure he could keep that promise if something were to happen to the people he cared about. He knew the attempts would never work, but it gave him closure just to try. Holding a gun in his hand… it was a great feeling when it seemed that the universe was against him.

But being with Tony was an even better feeling. He had to make this promise. He didn't know what would happen to Tony if he didn't. And he had to keep it.

"I… I promise," he whispered, knowing there was no turning back now.

Tony looked up, a relieved smile on his face and tears still flowing.

"Thank God."

~*~*AVENGERS*~*~

After Tony and Bruce's little talk, they had gotten ready for bed and climbed in together, both on their own sides. Bruce woke up once during the night, but this time it was easier for Tony to calm him down. They both seemed to be doing a lot of comforting each other, lately, it seemed.

And once again, they woke up in the same position they had the morning before. Bruce's face in Tony's neck, Tony's arm around Bruce's shoulder while Bruce's arm was around the other man's waist. Tony was just as happy as he had been the other morning.

"You were right," Bruce said against Tony's neck. "This is pretty comfortable."

"I told you," Tony smiled into Bruce's hair.

"We should probably get up, though," Bruce said regrettably. For a moment it felt as if he had pressed himself even closer to Tony.

"We probably should," Tony agreed. He didn't move for a moment and neither did Bruce, both very hesitant to ruin what they were feeling right then. Once Bruce squirmed a bit, though, Tony took that as an opportunity to get up. He sighed, untangling himself from Bruce once again.

"Thanks again for staying with me," Bruce said, sliding out of the bed along with Tony. He smiled softly, running a hand through his hair.

"My pleasure," Tony grinned, nodding. He stared at Bruce as he ran his hand through his salt and pepper hair, asking himself how one man could be so amazingly attractive in every way possible.

Bruce caught Tony staring and straightened up a little, cocking his head. "Tony?"

"What?" Tony said absentmindedly.

"You never know until you-"

"Until I what? Until I suddenly confess everything to him? Until I kiss him out of nowhere? That's not going to happen."

"Are you okay?" Bruce asked, taking a step forward. Tony sighed.

"Nope, not at all," he said blatantly. Bruce raised his eyebrows. "Was it something I did?" Bruce immediately jumped to conclusions. "It was, wasn't it? I knew I shouldn't have asked you to stay with me…"

"You're an idiot," Tony deadpanned, walking forward. Bruce stopped rambling and looked up at Tony with a confused and slightly shocked expression. Tony continued toward him, finally invading his personal space and touching their noses together. "But you're an idiot that's probably going to kill me." Without any warning, Tony pressed his lips to Bruce's, squeezing his eyes shut in hope that Bruce wouldn't back away. Bruce didn't back away, but it took him a moment to realize that Tony god damn Stark was kissing him.

Oh.

Tony was kissing him.

That's your move, Banner. It's time to react, now.

Bruce blinked a few times before finally melting into the kiss, bringing his arms up around Tony's neck and tilting his head to deepen it. Tony let out a little happy noise, surprised to find that Bruce was actually kissing him back. He lifted one hand to Bruce's hair, threading his fingers through it while pressing his other hand to Bruce's lower back.

It was after what seemed like hours that they realized you need oxygen to live and broke apart, Tony leaning his forehead against the shorter man's.

"So… You're not going to kill me?" he asked jokingly.

"That's Pepper's job, isn't it?" Bruce quipped, chuckling. Tony laughed, pulling away and reaching up to take one of Bruce's hands, lacing his fingers through the others.

"Speaking of Pepper," Tony said, smiling. "We should give her something to be excited about this morning."

Bruce furrowed a brow at Tony. "She'd be okay with this?"

"Oh, trust me," Tony nodded, his eyes widening a bit. "She'll be more than okay with it."

Bruce shrugged, allowing Tony to drag him down to the kitchen, their fingers still intertwined. Upon entering the kitchen, Tony noticed Pepper playing with her phone and grinned.

"Morning, Pep," he chirped, waving his free hand and squeezing Bruce's. He glanced over at Bruce who had a bit of a concerned expression on his face. He rolled his eyes.

"Well, good morning to you too-," Pepper stopped when she turned her head and saw Tony and Bruce's hands clasped together. She didn't freak out; she didn't even let out a happy little squeak.

She simply shook her head, smiled, and said, "I knew it."

So there you guys have it. This thing took FOREVER to write, in case you haven't noticed. I've just been so busy lately and I got obsessed with doing roleplays and ugh I can't even.

So I really hoped you enjoyed this story, because I loved writing it. I had to rewrite this chapter TWICE. Ya'll had better be damn happy with this.

Remember the Three R's! :D Bye!