Author's Note- I ship Truce/Stanner/Brony/ScienceBoyfriends so freaking hard. This is the "sequel" to 'Losing Control' but you can read it alone if you want. Like always, none of the fun stuff is mine, review please, all that.
Oh, and I don't know much about how science works, so I'll try my best to make the science-type bits realistic but my knowledge of the subject is so limited, it'll almost inevitably be awkward. Sorry about that.
When he woke up in an unfamiliar bed, Bruce Banner was momentarily panicked. Naked, in a room he only vaguely recognized, he felt himself temporarily afraid of what he had done and not remembered. He was using to this- coming to, in a place he didn't know, missing his clothes- and it basically meant one thing. The Other Guy had come out to "play".
It took him a minute to remember where he was- Stark Towers. Guilt began to mix with the panic- he hoped he hadn't destroyed anything Tony cared about. Already, he'd essentially ruined several floors of the Tower singlehandedly.
Another moment went by, in which Bruce simply lay in bed, unsure if he was prepared to face Stark and the inevitable damage, or not. And then he remembered- for once, waking up without clothes and in someone else's bed had nothing to do with the Other Guy.
Tony. It all had to do with Tony.
Sitting up, he ran his hands through his hair, memories of last night flooding his brain.
….lights off, kissing, hands in his hair, tugging…
With a faint smile on his face, he leaned over and made to retrieve the clothes which had been discarded by the side of the bed.
….the feel of a race, hands clamoring to undo belts, stripping in parallel motion….
Barefoot with his shirt only halfway buttoned, Bruce made his way slowly across the room to find new clothes. The clothes were a recent acquisition; he hadn't brought anything from India, and he certainly hadn't intended to be…held up….in New York City (the place he swore he'd never go near again). However, Tony Stark had managed to make a pretty good case for him sticking around, and so he was now living in one of the million bedrooms in Stark Tower, doing science experiments by day and having sex with Tony at night.
Only one of those activities had required the purchase of clothes.
Stepping out of his clothes again and into the shower, Banner spent some time dwelling on his relationship with Tony. It wasn't like the two ever talked about it- they were both smart enough to pick up on a few things, like that this was something that nobody else needed to know about. For someone loud, obnoxious, and with the reputation for being a playboy, Tony had been completely discreet. It might have been courtesy to Banner (although he doubted it) or embarrassment that he was fucking a guy (a guy who gave the phrase 'anger management' a whole new meaning) or most likely, that he needed his maybe-possibly girlfriend Pepper for the running of the Stark business. Bruce might have been a genius scientist and doctor and Tony might have been a child prodigy-turned adult visionary, but neither of them could do much in the way of management.
This arrangement didn't really bother Banner. It wasn't like he was looking for something with any permanence. The place to stay, the science, the platonic companionship, that was what he really needed. The sex…well, that was just an added bonus.
A really goddamn nice added bonus.
He relaxed his entire body once the hot water hit it. God, he felt sore everywhere.
…skin to skin, nothing to prevent Tony from grabbing him and working stroking no tormenting him with his hands everywhere and the heat that settled just below his stomach threatening to explode and the way it felt when Tony had him in his mouth those hands those hands splitting him in two from behind at the exact same time so he didn't know what felt better and all he could do was moan and cry out….
When he got out of the shower, he studied himself in the mirror. His body was very alien and bizarre to him at this particular moment. It seemed so unfathomable that the same body that was capable of practically exploding and then reforming itself into a hideous monster was equally capable of being used for pleasure, his or anyone else's.
….the way he'd felt when he finally came was only temporary because then he was facedown on the bed and Tony was doing something with his fingers that felt so fucking amazing all pressure and twists and the slick of the lube and then the fingers were replaced by something else something larger more intense thrusting in out in out pleasure coming in waves crashing and dying and cresting again both of them gasping and moaning and practically screaming in tandem….
Carefully, he shaved and redressed, rolling up the sleeves of the button-down shirt as he was wont to do. Then he went looking for Tony.
Stark was right where Bruce knew he'd be- one floor up, a lab, the latest model of the Iron Man suit sitting half-finished, while Tony examined a long series of numbers on a screen. Banner registered the faint blue light emanating from beneath the Black Sabbath shirt his friend was so partial to.
….digging his nails into the skin around the arc reactor, scratching, and then smiling when he made Tony gasp with pleasure….
"Come look at this." Stark indicated a group of numbers on the screen with his hand.
"That's impossible." Banner shook his head. "If you were able to do that, you'd die. The suit would kill you."
"Not when I add this." He began typing in more numbers, more variables. Even if there was no physical side to their relationship, Bruce would still have been mesmerized by Tony Stark (not that he would have ever admitted to it). Sometimes, it was if his mind was a computer, finding the flaws and connections that nearly no one else would notice. True, it made him arrogant, but on the other hand, it made his inclusion of Banner into his scientific work that much more flattering. Stark regarded him as an intellectual equal or else he never would have invited him to stay in the first place.
"If you do that, you have to add something here and here."
"I knew that."
"Of course." But they were both smiling and Bruce laughed softly.
"But if you doubt my genius, Dr. Banner, maybe I should show you what I can do." And suddenly they weren't talking about science. Banner had only a moment to register that this was the first time their nighttime activities had been discussed in any way in the lab before he found himself against a wall, Tony's arms creating a cage with his arms that Bruce couldn't, and wouldn't want to, escape from.
"I don't doubt you at all." He let his lips fall close to Tony's ear. Tony responded by pressing his body up against Bruce's, grinding his hips into the other man's. "Although I suppose you'll want to prove your genius to me anyway."
"Obviously." This time, Tony kissed him and he wasn't sure which sensation to focus on- the feel of Stark's goatee against his face, setting the nerve endings alight and making his skin hyperaware, or the feel of Tony's erection driving into his thigh, enough to make him just as hard.
….tracing his hands over Tony's face, around his goatee, around his lips, and then kissing them, hard and heavy and passionate…..
The kissing continued for what felt like forever (not that Bruce was complaining), until Tony pulled back and asked, "Floor or lab table?"
Bruce raised his eyebrows. "What if Pepper finds us?" He wasn't sure how Pepper would react to find her maybe-boyfriend engaged in sexual activity on a lab table with the guy who was supposed to be helping him build another Iron Man suit.
"She won't." Stark smiled in his usual self-assured way for a moment, but then it faded slightly. "I told her about…" The smile returned as he said the final word, "Us."
"And?" The one word could have meant a lot things. It could have been "Is she angry?" or "Is there even an 'us'?" or "How exactly are we defining 'us'?".
"Does it matter?" Banner was about to say something in reply, something maybe like "Of course it matters." or "Other people actually have feelings too, Tony." but was distracted, because Stark picked that moment to press his lips to Banner's neck and bite and suck like some kind of sex-crazed vampire.
….Tony attacking his neck, leaving visible marks of his passion…..
The memories were over-saturating his brain and what Tony was currently doing with his tongue and his hands was driving Bruce crazy, and so he decided to give in, just as Tony began talking again.
"I told her that I was too much of a man to not inform her that I wanted somebody else. And that somebody else was you."
"What did she say?"
"Apparently, it was obvious to everyone what was going on. It appears I'm not known for being subtle."
Banner had to laugh. "No, you're not. At all."
"So it appears," Stark continued, "That I am now free to spend as much time with you as I want. And," he raised his eyebrows, "To fuck you in my lab without interruption."
There was only one thing for Bruce to say. "Lab table."
"With pleasure."