Playdates, Blocks

Disclaimer: Do not own Marvel characters, or Lego, or the rest of the building block companies. I so want to play with them, though, they sound awesome!

Warnings: None, except boy on boy kissing. C'mon, if you read my stuff, you know that is what I write the most of. Playdates is meant as Teen and Up.

AN: It can be revealed that this is nominally attached to the Vital Communication series, though indirectly, as there are no specific dates when any of this happens. I will not be attempting to, and the only thing you can assume, is that they take place after Tony and Bruce get together in VC.

Tony and Bruce were working on the plans for Hulk's room, dubbed by Tony in a fit of silliness as the "Green Room". They had everything displayed on the wireframe system Tony had built for projecting any 3D images he worked on.

"Tony, I'm not sure that a 12 foot deep end is necessary. We do not need to be teaching Hulk about cannonballs," Bruce teased, a small smile on his face. They had come a long way in working with Hulk, making him more of a member of the team.

"Shows what you know!" Tony exclaimed, spinning away on his rolling stool. "He was doing those last time we were at the cove."

A flash of memory crossed Bruce's consciousness, confirming that Tony was telling the truth, instead of embellishing as was normal. "I see," Bruce amended, smile lighting up his face.

Tony wheeled back over, caging Bruce up against the work table, "Still you doubt me? I should be hurt." He mock pouted, lower lip stuck out, even though he looked to be holding back laughter. Bruce did laugh at his antics, and leaned down to bestow a quick kiss on Tony's lips.

"So, what are we going to include?" Tony demanded when they broke apart.

Bruce sighed, and turned in Tony's arms to face the monitor again. "What about those bean bags?"

"We still need to work out the new fabric. Having issues with tensile strength when the fiber is braided thicker than 4 strands," Tony reminded him. "There are the toys..." he offers instead.

"Toys?" Bruce is curious, and he can feel Hulk stirring at the idea of something fun to do. Science talk is too boring for him.

"C'mon, down in the training room are some examples I had shipped in last week. We just haven't had time to test them yet," Tony stood, tugging on Bruce's hand to get him to move. Still smiling, Bruce went with the motion, leaving the wireframe design of a deep water pool hanging in the air. "JARVIS, the usual please!" Tony called as they left the lab.

JARVIS responded, "Saved, and closed out, sir. Have fun."

Down in the lower basement of the Tower, Tony opened the thick plascrete door to the current Hulk room. The keypad only accepted the two scientists, but in an emergency, JARVIS could override with a key phrase that the rest of the team knew to use.

Bruce proceeded Tony into the room, a glorified sectioned off area of the basement, near the range that Tony had installed for the team's use. Bruce was unbuttoning his shirt, and shucking off his shoes as soon as he crossed the threshold. The pants would be sacrificed, but then they always were. Plus side to having a billionaire boyfriend, unlimited clothing allowance.

Tony followed, pulling the heavy door closed behind him. The hinges gave a squeal as the door swung shut, prompting him to remember the room probably needed maintenance.

"I still think that you being in here when I shift is a bad idea," Bruce said, moving to the center of the room, where there were a few piles of soft furnishings.

"Yeah, and until we get the real rumpus room finished, it has to be this way. We didn't get any kind of two way communication set up in here, and only have JARVIS' passive scanners. It's enough that we can get in and out when you aren't Hulk-ed out," Tony reminded him, leaning back against the door, watching his partner prepare for the transformation.

"Rumpus room, sounds better than "Green Room" and you know we don't want the room painted green," Bruce idly mumbled, as he slowly slipped control over to Hulk.

"Yeah yeah, call it whatever," Tony waved it off. He knew the room would be named whatever the Big Guy wanted, regardless of Tony's playful interference.

Watching Bruce become the Hulk never got old to Tony. It was over in seconds, though not without pain as muscles, tendons and bones realigned themselves to the Hulk's greater size. When the transformation finished, Hulk stood, shoulders hunched over, slightly clenched fists brushing the concrete floor, breathing deeply as he centered himself.

"Hey Big Guy," Tony called out. Sometimes the transformation was easy, and Hulk came to consciousness without much pain and anger, but it was always a crap shoot.

"Tin Man," Hulk grunted, not looking in his direction. Hulk slumped to the floor, and poked at one of the piles of fabric. "Broke bags," he mourned, turning over one of the split bean bags, the beans having since been removed as they clung everywhere with static electricity.

"Got some new toys for you to try, if you wanted," Tony said, pushing off the door and striding to one side of the room, where two shipping pallets still in their plastic sat waiting.

"Toys for Hulk? Play?" Hulk sounded interested at least, which was good. Tony didn't have anything for the titan to destroy if it came down to that.

"Yep, just inside these pallets should be some building blocks. Ever play with those?" Tony said, pulling on the plastic wrap to reveal the boxes. The plastic stretched, but didn't tear, until Hulk got a couple of fingers into it, and shredded the wrapping like tissue. "Just so," Tony laughed, stepping back out of the way.

Hulk grinned.

The pallets had several primary colored packages of what Tony initially mistook for pillows, but upon opening one up, discovered they were soft, slightly squishy blocks.

"Huh, very different. Here Big Guy, let's dump a few of these out, and see what we can do with them, all right?" he looked at Hulk, who was curiously poking a thick green index finger into one of the now opened zippered packages.

Tony took a few of the packages, and moved back to the center of the room. Unzipping each bag, he upended them, dumping the blocks onto the floor. They barely made a sound, barely there plops as they bounced off the concrete, and each other.

Hulk brought over the bag he'd been inspecting, and watched what Tony did. Then he upended his own bag, and laughed as the blocks fell to the ground. "Blocks like pillows!" he said, bending down to poke through the growing pile.

"Seems that way, doesn't it? Let me grab a few more, then we'll try to build something," Tony agreed, going back for more.

Eventually, they had a tidy pile of squishable blocks, and Tony was inspecting a small red one. "Hm, it's like a Lego. I wonder..." he looked at the pile, and found a yellow one, the same size, and brought it to the red, pressing the hollow bottom of one to the studs of the other. There was no satisfying click, but they held together.

Tony turned the connected bricks over in his hands, examining the new piece with a critical engineering eye. He then grasped the piece by one color, unconsciously choosing red, and shook the whole thing, checking to see if the piece would separate. It didn't.

"Good," Hulk said, taking up a pair of midsized bricks and following in Tony's footsteps. He didn't have too much trouble getting the studs into the base, and discovered how nice it was to have SOFT building materials when he pushed down hard on the top brick and attempted to flatten that brick.

Tony laughed, "No, Hulk, gently push them together! They don't need much, they are just like regular Legos." Tony put his pair on the floor, and showed Hulk how to gently add more onto the existing structure.

The bricks were large in Tony's slim hands, but looked to be about equivalent to the old Duplo style, made for toddlers, in Hulk's hands. He easily figured out how to use the bigger pieces to balance towers, and used several curved shapes to create arches. Hulk also figured out how to make a quadrupedal animal of indeterminate identity, using the sloped blocks as feet, and a head, and an interlocking group of small and medium bricks for the body and neck. Tony thought it might have been a giraffe, but when asked, Hulk only said, "Puppy." And he made barking sounds. The brick creature was easily as tall as Tony!

Tony grumbled about the lack of spokes and wheels, wanting to create some kind of race car, but happily assisted Hulk in making a tower filled city out of the 2 pallets they had.

When all the blocks were part of the larger whole, including a second, smaller animal that Tony had put together, they looked at their creation with satisfaction. Hulk hummed in happiness, seeing something he bbuilt/b rather than destroyed.

Tony slipped the phone out of his pocket, and took dozens of pictures, realizing he should have done so much earlier, but had been too wrapped up in the creation of their little city.

"Hey Hulk?" he asked, putting his arm down for a moment.

Hulk grunted, turning to look at Tony.

"The best part of making big towers of building blocks?" Tony suggested, knowing this would be the hardest part. "You get to knock it down and start all over again!"

"Smash? But break!" Hulk said, eyes bulging as he stepped back away from the city, hands up in front of him as though warding off a blow.

"No, you won't, Big Guy. Look," Tony went to one of the solitary towers and gave the structure a good roundhouse kick. It collapsed, several bricks separating from the whole as the rainbow colored tower fell.

It was definitely unusual, watching the bricks separating only where Tony's foot had connected. The structure wasn't super sturdy, but solid enough that a single kick couldn't completely destabilize it. The tower hit the floor with a hard thump, stirring a bit of dust as it landed.

Hulk practically leaped to investigate the collapsed brick structure, getting down close to the ones that stayed together, and reaching out to bring back the ones that had separated. He turned each 'broken off' piece around and around in his hands, checking for cracks, or other breaks. Finding none, he held one up to Tony, a hang dog expression on his big green mug, "What?"

Tony had to hold back the peal of laughter. Hulk was too adorable. He really wished JARVIS had cameras in that room for just that image, since no one else would believe the goliath was capable of such a broken look.

Instead, Tony gently took the block from Hulk, and then squeezed it as tightly as he could. "It's soft, Big Guy. It can't be broken like concrete, or real bricks, or rock. Here, you try," Tony gave back the brick.

Hulk gently pushed his index fingers together, denting the foam enough to cause significant bowing, but the piece didn't tear. He kept up the pressure for several minutes, then abruptly let go, the block flipping away from him, expanding back to normal. He then reached for the smaller block creature and hugged it tight, separating the head from the body, and plopping off the feet. It made him laugh.

Tony watched, a large, open smile threatening to separate his face into halves.

After breaking the block creature, Hulk decided that the blocks would survive a smashing, and went at it. The main building he saved for last, choosing to fall on the structure. It gave under him, as designed, with the trapped blocks acting as nothing more than very thick tumbling mats, absorbing the shock of Hulk playing with gravity.

Tony watched, and considered the idea of installing some kind of soft floor in part of the rec room they were designing. He made a mental note to discuss it with Bruce next time they worked together on the project.

Hulk grabbed the nearest blocks to his prone position and threw them straight up in the air, letting them rain down on him. "Blocks no hurt!" he called to Tony, who still stood well to one side of the destruction.

"That's right!" Tony affirmed, tossing one of the smaller ones into the mix. Hulk laughed, a deep grumbling belly sound that echoed in the small room.

It went on long enough that Hulk laughed himself into a transformation. Bruce taking back over, while bent double, trying to catch his breath.

Tony approached as soon as there was more beige than green in their skin tone, and helped Bruce to sit up. "Well?" he asked.

"Get my glasses, please?" Bruce said, gasping for air. Tony nodded and went to the small cubicle lockers they'd installed near the door. Putting his palm to the scanner, he was able to get into one locker and get out the spare glasses Bruce liked to make sure were available for each transformation.

"Here, buddy," Tony handed them over once he was close enough. He then realized they had forgotten any kind of beverage or power bar for Bruce to start replacing the nutrients he'd used.

"Thanks. Um, well, that seemed to work," Bruce said, tone even, and thoroughly sarcastic. He turned back to the pile of foam blocks and picked up a couple to inspect.

The different in size of hands was incredible. In Hulk's hands, the blocks looked natural, like they'd been made specifically for an 8' jade giant. In Bruce's? The blocks were oversized, and if not made of foam, that they should weigh as much as normal cinder blocks did.

"Good, we'll make time to send a review to the company," Tony allowed. He was happy as long as Hulk was. Turning to fully face Bruce, he plucked the blocks from the man's hands. "C'mon, let's get you back upstairs and into a hot tub, then food, and bed." Tony wrapped one arm around Bruce's back, gently prodding him into motion.

They made their way back upstairs, quietly comparing notes, and looking at the photos Tony had taken of the affair.

JARVIS had hot food waiting for them on the communal floor, and they paused long enough to gather enough to feed three people, and continued on to the penthouse where Tony got Bruce to strip out of the ruined pants and get in the jacuzzi tub in the bath. After getting Bruce settled, Tony took it upon himself to feed his partner, turning a normal past time into something a touch more romantic. He knew full well that after the hot soak, and a full stomach, Bruce would be ready for nothing more than sleep. The transformations took a hell of a lot of energy to go through, and they always wiped Bruce out.

Eventually, Tony got Bruce tucked into bed, and he stayed to keep his lover company, sketching out ideas for improving the rec room's toys on a softly glowing tablet.

Here is a tiny url to the EduShape company's EduBlocks, tinyurl pt5tf83 (remove the spaces when you copy it for it to work) These blocks are huge for toddlers in the pictures, so I assumed they be about Duplo sized to Hulk. Again, I do not own these, have no ties to the company. I also created arches where it seems they don't exist. Oh well.