The One Percent:

Chapter Ten – A Token of My Devotion

"How long have we been waiting here now?" Clint huffed, frustrated as he stood in front of Tony's front door. Natasha looked at the watch on her wrist.

"About fifteen minutes," she shivered. Clint had given her his suit jacket to wear, shielding her from the cold night air, but it was still freezing. "Try the doorbell again."

"I've tried. A dozen times. Have you called him?"

"His phone's off."

"Have you tried Banner's phone?"

"His is off too," she sighed.

"Great." Clint muttered, running a hand through his hair. "Well this is the lamest party I've ever been to. But it doesn't look like it's much of a party anyway seeing as we're the only guests waiting to get in. Shouldn't his parents at least be home or something?"

"What, when they know he's throwing a party? Fat chance. His Dad will probably be home before the party's meant to finish though. He's an ass like that." Natasha sighed, putting her arm around Clint's waist to steal his body heat. "Tony'll probably just be ignoring us for a bit. I'm sure he'll come to the door when he's finished doing... whatever he's doing," she muttered, watching as a red car pulled up in the driveway beside them, and Thor stepped out. He offered them a quick smile before walking around to the passenger side to open the door for Jane – ever the gentleman.

"Hello, friends. Has Tony not invited you into his home yet?" he asked with a furrowed brow as he led Jane towards the porch.

"No. He's ignoring us, by the looks of it. Natasha's convinced that he'll come out soon but we've been here for nearly twenty minutes so..." Clint shrugged.

"That is unfortunate."

"Well, if it gets to half an hour, I'm just gonna go home."

"No you're not. I say we're staying, so we're staying, okay?" Natasha ordered, turning to face Clint before turning her attention back to Jane and offering her a smile. "Sorry about him. He's a dick."

"Hey!"

"Oh no, it's fine. I think it's a guy thing. Thor's a bit of a jackass too." Jane agreed, and Thor frowned, looking over to Clint who sighed exasperatedly. The archer turned towards the door and rang the doorbell again, before knocking frantically on the door itself.

"For the love of God... Why say you're gonna hold a party, if you're not gonna let any of the fucking guests in?" Clint huffed, folding his arms across his chest and leaning against the doorframe.

"Lady Jane, you must be cold. Here, take my jacket as a token of my devotion to you." Thor smiled softly as he shed his suit jacket and draped it over Jane's shoulders. She smiled gently and leaned up to press a kiss to his cheek.

"Thank you," she murmured.

"You stole the idea from me." Clint grumbled, glaring at Thor playfully, and Thor just beamed at him as if he'd spoken an entirely different language.

"Maybe he's not in?" Natasha shrugged. "That would explain why he's not answering."

"His car's in the drive, Tasha."

"He could have walked."

"Tony Stark doesn't walk anywhere if he can help it."

"... Good point." Just then, the engine of a motorcycle could be heard from down the long winding path to Stark Mansion. The headlight came into view as the motorcycle made its way closer and closer to the house, before finally pulling up to the driveway. Steve's perfect hair was dishevelled, his top button undone and his tie lying loosely around his neck – not to mention the three different shades of lipstick smeared across his cheeks.

"Hey guys. Is it a garden party?" he smiled as he set the brakes of the motorcycle down and set it against the side of Tony's house before making his way over to join the others.

"No, Stark's just being a massive asshole and not letting anyone in." Natasha sighed.

"I wouldn't say that, Natasha. I would say that Tony is obviously attending to some highly important business, and I'm sure he'll be with us shortly." Thor smiled, wrapping his arm around Jane again to keep her warm.

"My, my, Captain Virginity... And which base did you get to tonight?" Clint smirked, an eyebrow raised as he looked at the make-up which besmirched Steve's face.

"Well, if you must know, I-" Steve was cut off as the front door finally opened, to reveal Tony wearing a pair of sweatpants and a Pink Floyd t-shirt, with Bruce stood beside him in a pair of shorts and Tony's wine red shirt from earlier in the night.

"Sorry, guys... Come in, come in," Tony grinned, smoothing down his ruffled hair as he stepped back from the door to let his guests in, directing them towards the kitchen. "Help yourselves to drinks and snacks – there's all sorts of stuff laid out on the table."

"What took you so long?" Clint grumbled as he padded in through the door, although when he saw the display of alcoholic beverages in the kitchen, the question became irrelevant.

"We were in the lab," Bruce shrugged, flattening down his own hair which was sticking up in all directions. He closed the door after the last of the five had entered the house and joined them in the kitchen, where they were already stuffing their faces with food.

"You know, if you guys came here just to eat all my food, I'm not letting you come around again." Tony grinned, leaning against one of the kitchen counters as he watched the group eating; Thor cramming handfuls of Doritos into his mouth at a time; Jane picking daintily at a couple of pretzels; Steve holding a paper plate and loading it with sandwiches and potato chips; Clint too distracted by the concept of actual alcohol to even care about the food, and Natasha stood beside him with her arms folded, narrowing her eyes at Tony.

"Hey guys, grab your plates and come through to the living room. We can all sit and stick a movie on or something. Or you can tell me how prom went!" Bruce smiled, gesturing back towards the hallway. Jane took the opportunity to introduce herself to Bruce as they walked back towards the lounge, Steve following closely behind, and Thor eventually made his way after them, carrying two different bowls of potato chips and a whole bag of popcorn. Natasha moved her gaze from Tony to Clint, who looked back at her and rolled his eyes – that look meant 'give me a minute to get the gossip'. Tony got the hint.

"Here, Katniss, catch this," he muttered, before throwing a beer in Clint's direction. The archer caught it in one hand, and Tony raised an eyebrow. "Wow, with skills like that, you should join the circus." Tony smirked. Clint twisted the cap off before silently moving to the other room, despite the glare he was giving Tony. Natasha waited until she could hear all four voices in the other room before walking around the table towards Tony.

"So... It went well then," she smiled.

"What makes you say that?" he asked, moving towards the table to pour himself a drink.

"Oh I don't know, maybe the fact that he's wearing your shirt, and you both have a massive line of hickeys up your necks," Natasha grinned. "I'm not stupid. I've told you before, I know everything." Tony smirked to himself as he took a sip of the scotch from his glass.

"Okay, yeah. It went well. Very well. He's staying over tonight, and then tomorrow we're gonna... discuss the nature of our relationship."

"... And by 'discuss' you mean... have sex in every room in the house?"

"Absolutely."

"Knew it," she smirked, nudging into his side again. "Honestly though, I'm happy for you. It's about time you two got your shit together."

"I know. Come on... We should get back to the others before Clint starts getting jealous." Tony smiled, looping an arm across Natasha's shoulders and guiding her back towards the living room. When they got there, Thor was lying on the floor in front of the TV watching 'Aladdin', still cramming as many items of food into his mouth as he possibly could, while Steve was sat beside him fascinated by the animation. Clint was sitting on the couch, his bottle already drained and he reached out for Natasha as soon as she entered the room – so she went to sit beside him, cuddling into his side. Stood over in the corner, Jane and Bruce had already bonded over their love of science and were discussing the phenomena of quantum mechanics. Tony leaned against the doorframe, watching fondly for a moment before he went over to join them. He sat down in the armchair near where Bruce was standing and pulled him backwards so the other boy was seated in his lap, although it didn't disrupt the flow of conversation, and instead, Jane stationed herself on the arm of the chair so she could see both of them, involving Tony in their astrophysics debate. When Jane and Tony got talking about Schrödinger's cat, Bruce took the opportunity to look around the room briefly and smiled to himself as he saw everyone getting along and watching the film.

What did he need his Dad for? His family was right here.

It wasn't until about half twelve that Howard and Maria Stark got home. Tony didn't bother asking where they'd gone, partly because he didn't care, and partly because they wouldn't tell him anyway. Bruce moved from Tony's lap to the arm of the armchair, looking a little more casual when Howard came into the room.

"Hey guys." Howard waved towards them all, and Jane – who had never met the man – squealed out loud and threatened to fall from the chair. Howard's brow furrowed but he didn't question it; he was used to having fans, but Jane was the first teenage girl who'd obviously shown an interest in his work. He flashed her an award winning grin before looking around all the faces in the room to see exactly who had turned up to his son's little get-together.

"Hello, Mr Stark," they all muttered, not quite in unison – but it would have been creepy if they had.

"Steve!" Howard beamed when he noticed the captain of the football team sitting cross-legged on the floor, and held a hand out to him to shake. "I haven't seen you since you were tiny," he grinned. "My, you've gotten big. And a firm grip too."

"Thank you, sir. I do try." Steve smiled, a slight blush tingeing his cheeks (it wasn't the lipstick; Natasha had made sure she wiped that off for him when she got the chance).

"Right, well I'll leave you all to it. Don't stay up all night, kids," Howard nodded, before leaving the room and closing the door behind him.

"Your... your Dad is Howard Stark? The Howard Stark? Engineer Howard Stark? Science King Howard Stark?" Jane bumbled, her eyes wide.

"Did the surname not give it away?" Bruce asked, a smile on his face as he slid back into Tony's lap with ease.

"I thought it was coincidence!"

"The mansion? The charming good looks? The insanely high levels of intelligence? None of that hinted that the Howard Stark in New York might be the father of the Tony Stark in New York?" Tony muttered with his brow furrowed. Jane just shrugged.

"No, but I just... I... I'm gonna need his autograph before I leave."

"You'd better go get it now then. He won't want to be disturbed after he's gone up those stairs." Tony chuckled, and Jane pushed herself from her seat on the armchair to chase after Howard.

"Guys, please... Can we turn Aladdin off now?" Clint sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration. "This is the third time we've watched it through. Steve's gonna start quoting it in a minute."

"Silence, Barton. We're getting to the most commendable part!" Thor boomed, before turning his attention back to the screen. "Shining, shimmering, splendid," he sang softly, "Tell me princess, now when did you last let your heart decide..."

"Oh my god." Clint grumbled, turning to face Natasha and burying his face into her shoulder. She ran a hand through his hair lovingly as she turned to grin at Tony, Thor still singing away in the background.

"I think I'd better get him home before he hits Thunderbolt over there," she chuckled, slowly standing from the couch and pulling Clint to his feet. "Come on, pigeon, let's go. Thanks for the party Tony." And with that, she led him out of the house.

"Anyone else wanna leave? Totally cool if you do." Tony shrugged, playing fondly with the curls on Bruce's head.

"I'll probably go soon – I don't want to be a burden." Steve smiled softly.

"Oh, Spandex, you're not a burden! But yeah, please leave." Tony muttered, and Bruce elbowed him the ribs.

"Ignore him, Steve. You can stay as long as you like. Thor, when are yo-"

"Silence!" Thor bellowed, his eyes fixed on the screen.

"I know I just want to know when you're go-"

"Silence!" Bruce sighed and turned back to Tony.

"We'll kick him out once this showing of the film is over," he chuckled softly, his arms still around Tony's neck.

"Good idea."

"Bye! See you on Monday!" Tony grinned, waving Thor and Jane off as they pulled out of his driveway, followed quickly by Steve on his motorbike, who flashed them a smile as he drove off. "Thank fuck for that," he huffed, closing the door and turning to face Bruce, pulling him close for a kiss. "Finally got you all to myself."

"Not just yet... There's something I need you to do before you can whisk me off upstairs again," Bruce smirked, although his arms were wrapped tightly around Tony's neck.

"Right and what's that?"

"Open your birthday present. It's still down in your lab where I left it last time you had a party. I saw it earlier."

"Really? I still haven't opened that?... Jeez, I'm a shitty boyfriend." Tony huffed.

"Well, technically we were still only friends then, so I'll let you off." Bruce grinned, pressing a quick kiss to Tony's nose before he grabbed his hand and pulled him downstairs towards the lab.

Once they were in Tony's laboratory, Bruce let go of his hand and rushed over to one of the worktops at the far end of the room, where he'd left Tony's present on a shelf the night he'd come to his rescue. He brought it over with a smile and handed it to him, leaning back against the worktop.

"Read the tag first," he urged, biting his lip gently.

"'Dear Tony,'", Tony read as he picked up the package Bruce handed to him, "'I hope you like this. All my love, big guy. PS: Why do you call me that? After all this time, my curiosity has finally gotten the better of me.'... What? You really don't know?"

"Well, I've had that nickname since the start of high school and I never really knew why – I'm not really that much taller than you." Bruce frowned.

"... Well it wasn't a nickname for your height, sweetheart," Tony smirked. Bruce just raised an eyebrow.

"How did you know that when we were twelve?"

"Hey, just because you never paid attention in the showers after gym doesn't mean I didn't," he grinned, biting his lip.

"... Torn between flattered and creeped out, but I think I'll go for flattered. Now go on... Open it." Tony grinned back at Bruce before tearing away the wrapping paper to reveal an extremely worn copy of Albert Einstein's book, 'Relativity: The Special and General Theory'.

"Bruce, I love it... but you know I have a copy of this, right?" he asked, his brow furrowed.

"Hm, not this one," Bruce grinned, biting his lip still. "Open the cover." Tony did as he was told and opened the front cover of the book, to reveal a dated creamy-yellow page with a signature on it in black ink. He froze.

"Is this...?"

"Yep."

"Like, for real..?"

"Yes, Tony."

"... Did this cost you a mortgage?" Tony asked, looking up from the page to Bruce's face. "You bought me a copy of Einstein's book, signed by Einstein, from the 1920's?"

"Yes. My Dad bought it back when he had some money to his name, while he was working in the lab, but after he got fired, he just sorta... stored it away. I don't think he'll miss it much – he's always too drunk to read a page anyways. But... I figured you'd appreciate it more than he would," he shrugged, a smug look on his face as he witnessed Tony's reaction. "You like it?" Tony put the book down on the worktop and moved towards Bruce, cupping his face as he kissed him again, smiling against his lips.

"Robert Bruce Banner, you are perfect," he grinned.

"Well, you're not too ba-... How do you know my first name?" Bruce grunted, a frown on his face again.

"Like I said, I pay attention." Tony winked, leaning in for another kiss. "Come on... Let's go to bed," he smirked, biting his lip as he took Bruce's hand in his and led him back up the stairs towards the main hallway. "JARVIS, lights out."

And the lab was consumed by darkness; the only visible light, the soft blue glow of Tony's arc reactor as he guided Bruce out.

Thanks for reading! That was the last chapter so thank you so much for all of your support. I'd love it if you could leave me a review letting me know how you found this story – both good and bad feedback is appreciated. And for those of you that are wondering, I am considering writing a sequel, so let me know if you'd be interested in that. Thanks again!