Hi everyone! Sorry I haven't posted in the last couple days; lots and lots of blood tests and treatments and all that lovely crap. Anyways, this is a half-romance-fluff half-hurt/comfort Bruce/Tony fic. Yes, you read that order right. I don't usually write Bruce as the dominant, but it worked well for this. Someone requested I write the wedding that was inevitably going to happen in my two-shot "Wanna See You Strut". I kind-of-sort-of did a wedding, but not really, as you'll see. It's a semi-character study on their evolution in both their own selves, as well as in their relationship. It was meant to show how well they know each other and how deeply they understand. Dedicated to Lynnie-chan, Post U Later, Avengersareawesome , and Andibeast (the latter two didn't sign in, so I don't know their actual pennames). I wish I could mention everybody here, but I'll be writing plenty more, so hopefully everyone will get their shout-out. I love you all! Oh btw, this will not be the only other fic in the "Wanna See You Strut" universe. There will be one with the lab sex I mentioned in ch. 2 ;)
The first part was written to "Perfect Two" by Auburn and the second part was written to "Your Song" by Elton John, but I used Christina Grimmie's version. Here is a link… www . youtube watch?v=IGO3GfLrFZE (remove all spaces). I really suggest listening to the music I write to as you read, 'cause it says a lot about the mood.
Disclaimer: Not even gonna say I don't own because I do, just not what I want to own.
Blood as pink as bubblegum sprayed out of the fallen alien.
That's…just messed up. Tony thought. "Poor bastard probably can't help being the way he is! He's got pink blood! That's like…that's fuckin' wrong to do to a man, ya know?" He shouted to the others as more abhorrently pink blood was splashed across the pavement by the Avengers.
Another alien attack. Another day on the job.
Did it have to today, goddamn it?
This was the biggest middle finger from the Universe Tony had ever encountered. Okay, so maybe not quite, but it was close. Of course they would have finally set a day a few months ago, and of course Pepper and Natasha had looked at him like he was crazy and said "You can't have a wedding on a Thursday!" though he had no idea why a Thursday wasn't as good as any other day of the week. It wasn't really the day he cared about, but he argued for the sake of principle. They didn't need to be so prejudiced against Thursday; it hadn't ever done anything to deserve their disdain. Bruce had agreed with him, but immediately conceded at the pouts the two women gave him.
"Ya know, if I didn't know any better, I would say you were either in love with them, or just hopelessly hopeless at standing up for yourself," he'd grumbled as they ran off giggling like virgins—which he could personally attest that they both weren't—turning to Bruce.
His lover laughed that ohsobeautiful laugh of his, the one that never failed to make Tony grin stupidly. "You feel up for death by thigh choke? I know Clint says it's like entering Nirvana, but honestly, I can't see it being anything but painful." He grimaced at the mental image before shaking his head. "I think I'll take a Saturday over a slow death of asphyxiation."
Tony had just laughed, called him a wuss and reluctantly agreed to the Saturday date. And then proceeded to kiss the hell out of his fiancé.
Fiancé. The stupid grin was back.
Of course, he hadn't seen his fiancé all day. He was over an hour late for the ceremony, and Bruce was probably pacing—oh shit, Bruce was by himself with all the guys from the military.
"Tony! Keep your guard up! There's more headed your way," Natasha called from her position on the ground, her guns firing rapidly at the sickly-green creatures crawling around and destroying stuff like those things in Dead Space. I hate those things. More bubblegum blood flew into the air, and Nat lecturing him was not okay in this scenario. She'd been trying to get him to focus for the past few hours, and he was sick of it. He had other, more important things to worry about! He sort of snapped.
"Natasha, this is your fault! And Pepper's! Thursday was perfectly fine! God fucking dammit, woman, do you know how much that suit cost? It was a Biani for Christ's sake! And I finally got Bruce to stop worrying about things going wrong today." He was now practically screaming into the microphone, and everyone winced, knowing he was well within his rights to be angry right now. "He has now been waiting at the fucking altar—and don't you dare turn that into an innuendo—for an hour! He has either reverted back to suicide mode or skipped off singing 'Freedom' and I've probably just lost the one person I want in this world! This is your fault, bitch!"
"Tony, I know you're angry and rightfully so, but you need to—" Steve was cut off.
"Fuck you, Capsicle! I am not fucking going to calm down. I can't do this without him, okay? .Do It. In case all your heads have been too far up your asses to notice, I love him." He blasted aliens left and right, not a single one able to take a shot due to his furious firing. "And in case you're all too fucking stupid to understand what that means in Tony language, that means that if he's left, I'm done. I will sit in my fucking tower, drinking my entire fucking liquor collection, and if you think I'll stop like I did after my breakup with Pepper, you are sorely mistaken. Bruce was the one that got me out of that. There is no Iron Man without the Hulk. There is no Tony Stark without Bruce Banner, got it? So I suggest you all shut the hell up and help me finish this so that I at least have an opportunity to get on my fucking knees and beg him to not leave me!" He knew he was being a little hysterical, but if Bruce had left or was hurt by this…
There was just static on the other's ends of the connection, and he thought they'd finally left him alone to do their jobs. Suddenly another voice came on the mic.
"You know, for a speech with that many swears in it, that was really romantic."
He felt his heart falter, pausing in the air and turning back towards the way he came. His visor came up. "…Bruce?"
"Yeah, it's me. Geez, did you not think to call me about an alien invasion going down? I ran some tests on a dead one and it looks like their blood pressure is susceptible to 18Hz sound waves, which the Other Guy happens to be able to do. Did you know that the only other creature we know of that can make that wave length is a tiger? I could probably make a really bad innuendo from that, but I've got a feeling the banter possibilities have already been sorted into 'Let's Turn Banner On' and 'Let's Embarrass The Hell Out of Banner In Front of the Team' piles in your mind." Tony almost turned sky-cartwheels at the playful tone he could hear in his lover's voice.
"You're not mad?" He turned the corner of a building, hovering about fifteen feet up and staring at where Bruce was standing near Steve, the latter beaming and giving Tony a thumbs up, with the radio in his ear and the others surrounding him in a protective circle to ward off the aliens.
Bruce looked at him incredulously. "I'm always mad, remember?" He suddenly smirked and god if that didn't send Tony's hormone levels through the roof. "But I'm not mad at you. Just these unfortunate aliens that are about to explode in all their cotton candy-pink glory."
He handed the mic back to Steve and grinned. The others stepped away as he transformed into the Hulk, the power nearly emanating from the enlarging form that stood at least seven feet taller than Bruce. He gleefully watched as Hulk leapt into the air and began to flail the aliens around as easy as ragdolls—or Loki—having fun smashing until he'd get bored and let out a fierce roar that no one would ever guess Dr. Banner could make.
In their relationship, Bruce was soft-spoken, and nerdy and sweet and gentle as could be. Tony usually led their lovemaking, and they were both good with that. Really good. But on the occasional times he wanted Bruce to have him, the emotion ran so rampant that Tony had once broken down crying in the middle of it at the sheer adoration that Bruce lavished on him. Bruce was just like that. If he followed past patterns, when the high of realizing he wasn't going to lose Bruce wore off, he knew it was going to leave him in a bit of an emotional predicament. And then he'd ask Bruce to…
Stop that train of thought right there, Stark. The suit is not forgiving to altered measurements. I really need to fix that. He let a light shiver of anticipation run through him, before he got himself back in focus to watch his introverted scientist's alter-ego do a number on whatever army was stupid enough to mess with Earth.
Eventually Hulk had cleaned out most of the street, and roared to finish the job. The aliens burst in streams of pink fluids that almost everyone got drenched in. "Oh that's just sick!" Clint whined.
"It smells like…what are the small squares that Midgardians chew? Bubblegum?" Thor brought his hand up to his face, examining the pink liquid with rapt attention. "Do you think—?"
"Don't eat it, you idiot! It's not candy!" Natasha scolded, grimacing in disgust at the mess.
"I dunno, maybe it's one of Wonka's. He's been going a little overboard lately with his confections," Tony said sarcastically. God forbid the candy-maker ever unleash those Chocolate Frogs again. He took the Harry Potter movies way too seriously.
He looked over to where Hulk was shrinking back down into Bruce, and he jetted forward to catch him before he collapsed. "Easy there, Bruce," he said soothingly, grinning when the scientist gave him a tired smile and a small chuckle.
"Not at all how today was supposed to go, huh?"
"Um, no. No, I'm pretty sure I didn't schedule Alien Invasion Entertainment or ask for exploding bubblegum party favors," he quipped, running a hand through Bruce's messy hair. "I'm really sorry."
Bruce laughed that ohsobeautiful laugh of his, the one that never failed to make Tony grin stupidly. There was no more perfect sound in the world than that mixture of high and low that seemed so perfect for Bruce. "I'm not. Any day with you, married or not, is good enough for me."
"You are a sap. I hate you. Why do you make me feel that I love you so much that I actually agree?" Tony grinned, leaning forward to kiss the smiling lips, their tongues mingling for a moment before Clint yelled "Save it for the honeymoon!"
Bruce blushed a little and whispered, "Later." Tony was going to hold him to that.
xXx
The steam rose in the closed space of the bathroom, coating the mirror in moisture and embracing Bruce with nearly the heat Tony would if he were here. Nearly. He groaned, wondering why his mind had decided to torture him at the least convenient time. He was really tired, and he still had a lot of things to do for cleanup and helping Tony deal with the press on the cancelled wedding and getting around to eating for the first time in two days because he'd been in the lab trying to take his mind off of weddings—which ended up cancelled after he stood there like an idiot for over forty minutes with the military guys Tony knew looking at him like 'Sooo, now that Tony has lost interest, are we allowed to do blood tests?' He'd finally just called it off and gone back to the lab, feeling the numb that comes before something hits you. He didn't think Tony was saying 'It's over' with this, but there was no way to be sure since Tony wasn't answering his cell. He turned on a monitor when JARVIS said, "Sir, there is something you may want to see. Shall I switch to a news channel?"
"Uh…sure," he said to the AI, focusing on the computer. He almost fainted from relief and laughter at what he saw.
He never thought he'd be so happy about a hostile takeover bid.
"Tony, you idiot," he said, shaking his head and hurriedly made his way outside to find his lover and the team. "Thanks JARVIS!" he called as he went.
"Not a problem, sir."
The thoughts of Tony would not leave him alone. His hand crept down to his burgeoning erection and he sighed, leaning his forehead against the tile of the shower, letting the grime and sweat of the battle circle down the drain. Tony looking at him like he was a drink of water in a desert when he arrived at the scene, Tony running his hand through his hair, Tony ranting about how much he lovedcherishedneeded him. Bruce moaned, his hips jerking against his hand at the thought of what Tony had had planned for the evening. He'd told him in vivid, delicious detail what he'd had in store and Bruce could only think I hate Saturdays, Thursdays are better.
"Tony," he whispered, wishing more than anything that his lover wasn't out dealing with the public—a job Steve had rapidly and willingly turned over. They all knew that was Tony's area of expertise.
"Yes?"
His yelp was cut off by turning to see Tony stepping out of the ruined suit pants he'd had to wear under his Iron Man suit and stepping into the shower. "Tony! You know it's not good for me to Hulk Out twice in a day," he breathed, pressing a hand to his palpitating heart, glad that it wasn't too high. He startled when his hand was drawn into Tony's and pressed to the arc reactor. His mind was suddenly very clearly reminded that Tony was with him. In the shower. Saturdays just scored a few points back.
Tony grinned, leaning forward to brace the hand not holding Bruce's against the wall over his shoulder. "So…it's later."
"Later is an indefinite, indeterminate period of time," Bruce replied cheekily. "But yes, it is later." He shivered, despite the warmth of the water cascading over them, when Tony leaned forward to brush his lips along Bruce's jaw.
"I know you're tired and probably a little pissed at how today went, but I'd like to apologize for all that." Underneath the teasing was a hint of guilt, a little trepidation, and a lot of apology. Bruce rolled his eyes and slid his arms around Tony's waist.
"You really think I'm mad at you?"
"Not really, just…I still feel like it's my fault."
Bruce laughed, "Tony, I'm pretty sure I remember you putting up a fight against Natasha and Pepper while I, as you said, 'wussed out'. How does that make this your fault?" He drew Tony's face to him, melding their lips in such a familiar way, but one he could never grow tired of. "You know, I do take 'for better or worse, for richer or poorer, for science-y success or explosions, for peacefully watching movies or alien invasion' seriously," he murmured against Tony's lips. His lover chuckled and moved his lips to Bruce's neck.
"Was that part of what you were going to say at the ceremony?"
"Yeah. Seems as good a time as any since it's been cancelled and my nerd side has been dying to say the science and explosion part for months." He smiled and tilted his head back to let Tony lave at the beads of water gliding down his skin.
"God, I love you. That doesn't even cover it. There's love and then there's you. You just…" Tony exhaled slowly, letting the emotions he'd known he was going to have just slowly sweep through his body. His lips meandered along Bruce's neck, small bites and sucks leaving a love letter like Morse code on the tanned skin. "I promise this won't turn into Reed and Sue's wedding drama. Damn those two were persistent, but I don't want to do that to you. You had enough trouble just getting squared for this one. Maybe just the team next time, yeah? And no military or party crashers." His tongue darted out against Bruce's collarbone, traveling along the ridges and pressing a kiss to the hollow at the base of his throat.
"Whatever you want," Bruce replied softly. "I told you, I'd be happy regardless." He moaned when Tony's mouth began its ministration on a nipple, catching the sound and automatically trying to strangle it, but he couldn't help it. Tony loved hearing the vocal appreciation, but years of having to stay as drawn-in and quiet as possible as a child to avoid confrontation was a difficult thing to overcome. Tony knew that, and he took great pride that he was able to coax the sounds from Bruce's throat. The only person in the world who wants me uninhibited. Ah, now he knew how Tony wanted things to progress tonight. He smiled and drew Tony up for a slow-burning kiss. His hand slipped down to grip Tony intimately, leaning back from the kiss to brush his lips to Tony's ear. Tony's breath hitched when he began to stroke, and leaned his head on the doctor's shoulder. "Tony," he murmured, just to say it. There was just an innate lyricism in his name, it could be said in any myriad of ways and each was beautiful. "Tony," he whispered again, shuddering when his lover leaned back to look at him.
If eyes were the window to the soul, Tony's would be like re-enforced steel-plated vaults with double locked doors and a security code that could keep any hacker out. But Bruce wasn't a hacker, and Tony had seen fit to unlock the vault for him. He knew he couldn't have done it himself. Tony had let him in, and Bruce would be forever awed by that. Whenever Tony looked at him with that look, the one that said 'I love you and I need you to love me back,' he did very little protesting, his trepidation, the public or saving the world be damned.
"Bruce," Tony asked; even though it wasn't phrased as a question, it was.
"I love you." A simple answer for a simple question.
They were languorous about it, neither in the mood to rush and have to face the world at the moment. It was their wedding day, interrupted or not, and all Bruce cared about right now was bringing Tony to highest point possible. It was a rare thing for Tony to need to be re-assured, but when he did, Bruce put every single ounce of his being into making sure Tony knew he wasn't going anywhere. He crooked his fingers and Tony let out the most amazing sound, a cross between a moan of need, and a sigh of his name. "Good?" he asked, because he knew he could with Tony, and he wouldn't be made fun of.
"God yes," his lover moaned, arching into him to press their bodies together as close as they could. Heated skin on heated skin and it was what he needed. "Bruce," he breathed, trying for all the world not to press back against Bruce's fingers and end this all too soon.
"I know. I will. I just want to worship for a while," he chuckled into Tony's chest.
Tony buried his face in the soaked curls that smelled of his own soap, and Tony loved that. It was a primal sort of delight to have his scent on Bruce; a subtle way of saying mine. Kissing Bruce slowly, feeling the slide of Bruce's tongue against his, the streams of water on sensitive skin making the other shiver despite the heat, and the sweetness of Bruce's gentle preparations, Tony didn't understand how he had ever gone without this—this bizarre, strange, foreign, annoyingly distracting, perpetually bothersome, amazingly freeing, heart-beating-out-of-my-damn-chest feeling. It usually manifested itself with their positions reversed, Tony giving all that he could to prove to Bruce that he was more important—that was a goddamn understatement, he thought—than anything or anyone else. Sometimes though, it was in this. In allowing himself to accept what Bruce wanted to give, and not letting worries of his own unworthiness bother him for a while.
He was aware of a steady litany of words coming from Bruce's mouth, but the feel of Bruce molded against his back when they'd both had enough of the teasing was making it difficult to concentrate. He realized he was saying 'I love you' in the various languages he knew, over and over as he brushed his lips down Tony's back and up again. He smiled and answered the sentiment without hesitation before Bruce slid into him. They both almost keened, the completeness of the feeling always taking them by surprise, regardless of time or frequency or who was doing what. Instead Bruce settled for the air leaving his lungs in a heavy gust; a low moan lacing into the air.
The rhythm was steady and agonizingly slow; Bruce could feel every nerve of his body sparking like live wires. The bliss and the heat could nearly render him incoherent if he didn't have so much practice with control. And he told himself, very firmly, that loss of control wasn't happening tonight. Not because he was nervous or fearful that the Hulk would make an appearance—they had long since disproved that fear. No, there was a much better reason for keeping things like this.
Tony was fairly certain he was going to be reduced to a writhing mess if Bruce didn't put him out of his misery. "Bruce," he half-moaned half-growled. Tony felt him smile into the back of his neck, but he didn't change the pace. "Bruce," he tried again, shivering and trying to resist bucking into the hand that encircled him in that intimate grasp that always made him want to cry at the magnitude of pleasure it could induce. "Bruce, please," he pleaded as the slow thrusts kept bringing him to the edge and back, over and again, always almost but never there. He didn't even care that he was almost-not-quite begging, because if this kept up, he was going to pass out. It was a testament to how far gone he was that he didn't spare a single thought to the embarrassment of that. His prostate was brushed again and again, but the release was just out of his reach each time. His vision was shimmery at the edges, and his mind hazily informed him that Bruce had most definitely been to India if he knew how to do this. Tony let out a strangled whine in his throat, and his hips jerked when Bruce matched the pace of his thrusts to the strokes of his hand. "Bruce…"
Bruce could never quite believe how undeniably amazing it was to have those lips speak his name. Tony was always the first to disagree, but the fact was that if he hadn't been lucky enough to have Tony for himself, the genius-billionaire-playboy-philanthropist would be breathing another's name. If there was a question in the universe he couldn't answer, it was why Tony had chosen him.
But he was grateful that he did. Bruce questioned everything and had taken so many things in life for granted. So had Tony.
Not this. Not each other.
His hips rocked against Tony's, feeling the waves rise and recede, not letting himself speed his pace because he was going to show Tony that 'for better or worse, for richer or poorer, for science-y success or explosions, for peacefully watching movies or alien invasion' was the vow of his life. Tony would never have to worry about waking up to an empty bed, because somewhere in the laws of science, it said that just as there was no Tony Stark without Bruce Banner, there was also no Bruce Banner without Tony Stark. If it didn't say that yet, Bruce would write a thesis and publish it, just for records sake.
Tony suddenly, shakily, felt the coil snap, and his vision flashed white, reminding him of a star falling to into supernova, the scream wrenched from his throat would embarrass him later, but it didn't matter because he could hear his name whispered in equal measures of ecstasy and all he could think was IloveyouIloveyouIloveyou—
Tony moved to hold Bruce, bonelessly sliding them down the wall of the shower, letting the warm water wash away the evidence of their coupling, just letting random thoughts float through his blissed-out mind.
"Thank you."
"I love you." A simple reply to a simple statement.
After they'd shakily climbed out of the shower and dealt with everything they needed to, they tiredly dropped into bed, neither nearly awake enough to undress or get under the covers. Tony laughed sleepily and turned to drape an arm over Bruce's side. "Not even married and we're already tired enough to be goddamn parents."
Bruce smiled, half-asleep and said, "Well, kids like bubblegum, and Thor does sometimes have the mentality of a four year old." Tony was already out. Bruce followed right behind him.
They fell asleep, thinking that Saturdays were alright, and they would never chew bubblegum again.
Finis
Read and Review! I hope you all liked it, and I hope you look forward to laboratory smexyness.