A/N: Beta'd by TheCimmerianRaven.

Bruce had been invited to do a guest lecture about the effect of gamma radiation on nuclear stability by his friend and ex-girlfriend Betty Ross. Tony had sulked a little (or maybe a lot) but urged Bruce to go. He didn't mind that Bruce was visiting his ex. Betty was a wonderful person and had fallen in love with Bruce's brilliance and good will. Tony had been a little upset that Bruce still kept in contact with Betty when they had first started going out, but then Bruce had insisted that they meet and Tony's fears had been abated. He finally had found a relationship where he didn't have to worry about losing his lover to better prospects.

Tony had Stark Industries to get all of his inventions out into the public eye and lavish attention on him. Most of Bruce's work never got published. It was a good opportunity. Most of Bruce's papers, which would have gotten world acclaim, had been buried by the army after The Incident. Slowly, Bruce had been starting up his research again with Tony's backing. Bruce could add so much to the understanding of gamma radiation that it was blasphemy to keep him away. Of course, he had absolutely nothing at all to do with Betty inviting Bruce to give the talk.

Tony bounced on his heels with excitement when he walked Bruce to the plane. He was practically skipping as he held Bruce's hand. He was certainly more excited than Bruce who looked like he was worried that the plane might crash or something. Tony had been ordered to leave the Tower since apparently some people didn't like science or things that were awesome. He had just been trying to tell Clint about Bruce's research. Then he saw that one SHIELD agent who liked to stop by and spy on them for Fury and Tony knew that he would appreciate the talk. He talked to a couple of other drones about Bruce before he noticed Steve. Steve listened for ten minutes and then told him to just go take Bruce to the airport. Tony had rolled his eyes at that.

Tony liked to amuse himself remembering how Bruce was originally brought into the Avengers Initiative because of the Hulk. Also to help detect the gamma radiation from the cube but for some reason everyone focused on the Hulk. Not that the Hulk was a bad guy, Tony had started hanging out with him after the battle. The Hulk was a part of Bruce and who couldn't love Bruce? Bruce was so smart and Tony wished he had met him earlier in his career. Bruce would have saved him from Obie. He could have prevented Bruce being screwed over by the military. Win-win.

Bruce texted him when the plane landed. "Miss you already."

Tony immediately responded with a simple, "Love you."

He called Bruce that night and they talked about how their day went. He loved the sound of Bruce's voice at night. The way it grew slightly horse and was so soft. He was lounging on the sofa as he talked. Watching the other Avengers run in and out of the kitchen, Tony kept a running commentary up for Bruce. It was almost like Bruce was still here.

When Tony heard Bruce start yawning he reluctantly urged Bruce to get to bed. Bruce had just said, "You have to hang up first."

Tony laughed, "No, you hang up."

Bruce was adorable when he tried to out stubborn Tony, "I'm not going to hang up first. You probably haven't slept in at least a day. You should go to bed."

"If you hang up first I will." Tony was not going to lose this battle. He couldn't let go of the sound of Bruce's voice.

Ten minutes later, neither one of them had relented. Tony had just come up with the perfect argument and had been seconds away from winning when Steve plucked the phone from Tony's fingers. Steve said, "I hope Harvard is treating you well Bruce. Tony is going to bed now. Say your goodnights."

Steve held the phone out and said to Tony, "I am going to end the call in 30 seconds."

Glaring up at Steve, Tony told Bruce, "I love you" one last time and heard a faint "I love you too" before Steve snapped the phone shut and put it on the table.

Ten minutes later, after he was sure Steve had left, Tony sent Bruce a text, "miss you."

Bruce replied, "It's only 5.3± 0.3 more days. I'll be home soon, I promise."

Tony took a moment to curse the weather which made the uncertainty in Bruce's return time so large. It wasn't fair that the world could measure the mass of an electron to nine significant figures and Bruce could barely give him two. Tony reluctantly went to bed alone.

Tony woke up. It was day two without Bruce. He plodded to the bathroom and stuck the toothbrush in his mouth. He put on sweatpants. He put on a tank. He thumped to the kitchen to get coffee. Natasha was sitting there. She had made coffee. Coffee was good. Tony got coffee.

When Tony returned to his room, a fresh cup of coffee in his hand, he saw that he had missed a text, "Being without you is like being a metric space in which exists a Cauchy sequence that does not converge. I love you so much. I'll see you soon!"

Tony could feel his heart start to race. He knew how to solve this problem and he was an idiot not to think of it before. He quickly texted back, "You had me at 'Hello World!'" before he called Pepper. He couldn't take the Iron Man suit. He didn't want to steal any of Bruce's thunder so that meant taking the jet.

"I need - " Tony began.

"Your flight is in an hour. Remember to pack clothes this time. You don't need to buy a new wardrobe every time you travel somewhere. The meeting scheduled for this week have already been canceled. Tell Thor I owe him $20. I could have sworn you would have folded and followed Bruce yesterday." They had a betting pool on him and he hadn't been informed? Tony wondered what they promised JARVIS in order to keep him quiet. JARVIS usually let him know when he was the subject of gambling so that he could at least earn some money by winning the bet.

An hour and a half later Tony was in the air. He was going to have to ask Bruce what their resonant frequency was. If he was lucky, they might need to take some more data.

A/N: More stories might be added later, but I think I'm done with these drabbles for now.