Fury had called the Avengers in quite early on Monday morning, which none of them seemed to complain about – other than Tony, of course, who had been reluctantly dragged from his slumber. The group settled down around the table; Natasha sitting in between Steve and Thor so she could point things out to them when they got confused, Clint sitting high up in the rafters (he saw better from a distance), and of course, Tony opted to sit right next to Bruce, much to the doctor's dismay.

The director started drawling on about safety regimes and emergency protocols, moving on to rules and regulations before he started to rant about new missions that had popped up. They all listened intently, except for Tony, who spent the majority of Fury's speech staring at Bruce, who was sending him meek smiles in return. Natasha – being the master spy that she was – had the ability to listen and comprehend exactly what Fury was saying, while watching Stark and Banner in their awkward staring contest. Tony looked up for a moment, accidently catching her gaze, and he managed to get a raised eyebrow in response. He mouthed to her the word 'what?' along with a smirk, and she simply shook her head and turned back to face Fury.

Tony immediately turned his attention back to Bruce, who had been enjoying his few moments of peace before he was being stared at again. The physicist let out a sigh and scanned his eyes across the room, catching a death glare from Natasha, before looking back to Tony. He picked up his pen and scrawled a note to the man in his speedy, untidy handwriting. 'Romanoff's looks like she's about to castrate you, and I don't blame her one bit.'

Tony looked up at the man and raised an eyebrow before taking the pen back and writing underneath Bruce's note: 'Oh please, you'd probably ask her if you could keep my testicles.'

Bruce simply rolled his eyes, taking only a moment before he thought of the perfect comeback. 'Yeah, and then I'd sell them on EBay to a taxidermist.' That made Tony smirk before he decided to up the anti – staring at the man to try and make him uncomfortable obviously wasn't cutting it for him. He snaked his hand into the man's trouser pocket and fished out his keys, twirling them on one finger, not even caring that the jingly noise they made was disrupting Fury's talking. The director cleared his throat and gave Tony a one-eyed glare before turning back to the others and continuing to talk. Bruce had raised an eyebrow at Tony, curious to what exactly he was planning to do with the keys, and rolled his eyes as the other man put them into his own pocket. 'Really, Tony?' He wrote quickly.

'What? I'm not doing anything.'

'For god's sake, just pay attention.' Bruce scrawled before glaring at Tony like everyone else had been. Tony shook his head and brought the keys out again, dangling them in front of Bruce before he put them back in his pocket. The doctor sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose irritably. 'You are unbelievable.'

'Unbelievably attractive?'

'No.'

'Oh please, I'm giving you an excuse to put your hand in my pocket.'

Bruce underlined his previous comment. Tony pouted at him and rolled his eyes before taking the keys out and stuffing them back into Bruce's pocket, but he wasn't admitting defeat just yet. 'Just admit it Banner.' Tony scrawled before drawing a doodle of 'BB + TS' inside a love heart. Bruce looked at the doodle, ignoring the colour that had crept up onto his cheeks, and instead turned to look at Tony with a furrowed brow, before underlining his 'No' comment from earlier. Tony frowned and looked around the room for a moment before he locked eyes with Steve.

The soldier frowned at Tony and shook his head disapprovingly, as if to say 'what do you think you're playing at?'. Tony just shrugged and gave Steve a lazy smile – he hadn't cared what the Captain thought before and he definitely didn't now. He turned back to face Bruce, whose face was still a little flushed, and smiled to himself, knowing that he'd had that effect on Bruce. He drew another doodle – this time he'd rearranged their initials to say 'TS + BB' in the love heart. Bruce blushed again and shook his head, telling himself that it wasn't true. It couldn't be true. But Tony let his hand creep under the table again, and took Bruce's hand in his, entwining their fingers. Bruce pursed his lips and shot Tony a meek smile before squeezing his hand back. Tony grinned to himself and picked up the pen in his left hand – he couldn't write with his other hand very well, so he opted to just circle his 'TS + BB' doodle.

Natasha had been watching the whole thing with a fond expression. This was her little family now, and she was glad that Bruce and Tony had finally found comfort in each other. The rest of them had seen it coming for months on end, even Steve, who wouldn't notice flirting if it hit him in the face. She looked up to Clint quickly, giving him a nod as if to signal that what they'd all been waiting for had finally happened, and he shot her a wink in return.

When you try to ask someone out, you will nearly always screw it up – for the two scientists, that would almost be a guarantee. They could barely put a sentence together without putting their foot in it. Tony had never been a good artist, and Bruce's handwriting was scruffy as hell, but it was with just a pen and paper that they managed to show each other how they really felt. And it was because of that that made both Natasha and Clint agree, in silence, that the most beautiful way to confess your love was indeed, in silence.

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