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Self isolation? I think you mean 'FINALLY no excuse not to update' (;

I hope you all enjoy this chapter that is gonna help fill in some of the blanks. It's shorter than usual but it'll be worth it for what is to come. Just filled with some snippets of Bruce and Tony throughout the years (;

Bruce had graduated 2 years after Tony had. While Tony was developing his first marketed StarkTab at 18, Bruce was graduating with honours at Harvard University at 19, a stones throw away from where 2 years earlier, Tony had been graduating with honours at MIT. It had taken Tony two years to graduate, it had taken Bruce less than that, not that Tony was keeping a competitive tally, it was just something he had noticed.

It had taken Bruce a criminal amount of time to finish his course in comparison to his intellectual counterpart, whose money and natural charm had been a gift to allow Tony to finish earlier, despite the fact that their intellectual abilities were on par to one another. Tony knew this, of course, Bruce had simply just assumed that Tony had been smarter.

And Tony had knew this, of course, because he had been keeping a close eye on Bruce for awhile, and maybe it's because Tony had become infatuated with Bruce and his beautiful mind, or maybe because he was overly concerned about the man, but he was never far out of Tony's mind. While Bruce had become star-struck to have been talking to the Tony Stark in Steve's living room that night, talking about mechanics, of science, of unanswered questions, new alloys and metals and inventions that they were both working on; Tony was equally as struck with awe.

Because Bruce was not only smart, he was intelligent, a sort of intelligence that Tony has ever only been able to glimmer at during those deep, workshop dives where the sleeping part of his brain stirs just a little to allow Tony to finish a project, an invention, an equation, to remember where Tony had left his mug of coffee. Bruce was beyond intelligent and he didn't even know it. He was kind without needing to be.

But he was also secretive. Tony himself was a very reserved person because sure, his life was a favourite for the tabloids to follow, to write about, to photograph, to smear his name and spread rumours of what Tony likes stuck up his butt by strange men, but he himself could be very reserved. Tony didn't trust people. Tony didn't like a lot of people and the people he did, could be counted on his right hand alone.

Bruce, however, took that reservedness to a next level. It had taken Tony 3 minutes to find and hack into the file that Harvard kept of Bruce Banner, it had taken Tony 3 years to hear of that same information from Bruce's mouth. They were alike, whether Bruce and Tony liked that fact or not, there was no changing just how much in common that the two had.

And Tony was not letting Steve Rogers get in the way of such a friendship either

So, Tony had done the only logical and sane thing a person could do after stalking a man he had met at his ex's house years back and had not made direct contact with since then, and invited the man to dinner. A dinner was ambiguous, it left wasn't hostile or threatening and surely Bruce couldn't think of an excuse not to go.

Dear Dr. Bruce Banner,

I would graciously like to invite you to a dinner at my apartment. A car shall pick you up on accordance, wherever it is that you now reside. I am truly looking forward to catching up with you, I have missed your company and have thought of you fondly since our first meeting.

Kind regards,

T

It took Tony an astonishing 2 weeks to notice what was wrong with his dinner invitation and it took him even longing to realise exactly why Bruce hadn't responded. Tony's invitation to dinner was not only ambiguous, it was a anonymous. Tony was essentially inviting a stranger to dinner without even telling such stranger who the invitation was from. He also made it out to be overly formal and creepy. Tony was beginning to feel like one of his many suitors.

So Tony invited Bruce to a Charity Fundraiser, one that he wouldn't be able to refuse.

"Dr Banner!"Tony had swerved his way through the crowds, dodging hands that would come out to grip his shoulders, hoping to grab some of Anthony Starks attention and slither into his wallet and pants. Tony may be young, still getting use to the galas, balls, banquet dinners and blind auctions but he was very knowledgeable when it came to avoiding touch and contact that was unwelcome.

"Tony- I mean, Dr Stark."Bruce had stuttered and Tony could feel the shakes in the mans hand as they shook, Tony's grip firm and excited, a grin plastered on his face which he isn't sure is the nerves or the alcohol.

"Oh please, nobody calls me Dr Stark. People seem to think if they start calling me by my Dr title that it'll undermine my father."Tony has rolled his eyes, setting his empty tumbler onto a passing tray. Howards old associates preferred not to call Tony but anything more than his name, to call him Doctor would just be insulting to Howard's memory. It would make it out that Tony was in some way shape or form better than his dead father. "It's Tony or nothing."

"Nothing it is."

"Funny."A smile makes its way to Tony's lips and it's not entirely fake either. An ache seems to form somewhere deep within Tony because just a measly couple of seconds of Bruce's company has made Tony realise just how lonely he has been.

"I'm sorry about your parents. I wanted to contact you to reach out my condolences but you're a hard to reach man."Bruce's voice had been so sincere and sympathetic and it would've make Tony's heart hurt if it wasn't for the fact that his heart stopped hurting years ago.

"Time passes, people heal."He had shrugged, almost dismissively.

"Yes I know but-"

"Enough about me! I'm sure you're sick of hearing about me, god knows the media loves to talk, I'm an interesting person after all. I want to hear about you! Tell me, Dr Banner, what has been going on in that beautiful mind of yours?"

"Call me Bruce, please."He hadn't changed, he'd just matured, gotten a bit older looking, a bit more handsome. There was still a skittish quality about the man, but that was nothing that Tony couldn't deal with. The heels on Tony's dress shoes made him a few inches taller, but without they would stand at the same height. Hair knotted in tight dark coils and rectangular glasses that Tony can't help but notice that he takes off to clean even when they're not dirty.

"Nonsense, Dr Banner is far sexier."It's playful, harmless flirting and smirking as he hooked his arm around Bruce's own, dragging the man out from the crowds of entrepreneurs and money hungry business men on the look out for Tony. "I heard, through the gossiping grapevine that is Harvard's research department that someone is meddling with cybernetics."

"I-no, of course not! I'm not, I-"Bruce had stuttered and became flustered in just a manner of seconds and Tony would have felt bad if it wasn't for the fact that it was a tell tale sign that Tony was in fact correct.

"Bruce, shh, if you are then you're exactly the man that I'm looking to talk to."

And so they had talked, Tony had dragged the pair away from the hustle and bustle of a charity event that he could no longer remember the known cause for and had taken the liberty of taking Bruce to his favourite 24 hour diner. They had talked over coffee, used sugar and straws to draw out equations and make make-shift blue prints and diagrams and had emptied their ideas at that diner booth until the sun was rising and the city began to bustle again.

And it had felt so good to be talking to someone who thought the same way as you did. It had felt even better to be able to talk about inventions, ideas, plans, dreams that you never thought you'd be able to do and for Bruce to tell you how you could do it. He made everything that Tony thought was impossible, possible. Tony could talk for hours to Strange about his ideas, his inventions and dreams and as much as Strange was smart, he didn't understand. But Bruce did.

Bruce became Tony's go-to brain, someone who Tony could rely on to talk to about inventions and specs, to have a look at his latest prototype or test out one of Tony's newest inventions. The only person that Tony could trust was Tony, but sometimes when Tony couldn't trust Tony, he trusted Bruce.

"Dr Banner! Oh don't give me that face, we're in a professional environment, if I don't call you by your title then we just have to treat you like a patient and Stephen over here has appalling bedside manner."Tony had motioned vaguely to the man that stood a short distance behind him, tall and slender, keeping a close eye on Tony who animatedly stands in the middle of the nurses station of the hospital floor.

Tony had been called in as a consult on a peculiar case that an intern had thought would spark his interest. It hadn't. But Tony has already cancelled a meeting and ducked out on a board assemble to make it to the hospital, so he stayed long enough to keep an eye on the patient before lumbering the file on a passing doctor in exchange for the coffee they were carrying. Doctor Strange was just unlucky enough to have been on the floor when Tony was passing, sipping his stolen coffee.

"Stephen?"Bruce queried quietly, dipping his head as he approaches Tony, piles of pages tucked in an arm pressed to his chest. He had looked frantic and maybe that's because Tony had called for him urgently or maybe more for the fact that he's taking on a workload that he can't manage on his own. And there was still so much more to do, work to edit, others to publish, paperwork to sign, moving vans to hire...

"Doctor Stephen Strange. I keep telling him he should change his name to Doctor Sourpuss but he doesn't seem all that into it."Tony had looked over his shoulder just in time to catch a glimmer of a smile on Doctor Strange' face, it quickly turning into a scowl once noticed that Tony was looking over his shoulder. The fellow doctor straightens his spine, standing tall as he grabs a tablet off a nurse at the station.

"8 a.m sharp, Tony. They're not as patient as I am."

"And when have you ever been patient?"Tony has turned, eyebrow raised and a slight smirk gracing his lips as he had looked at Stephen. Things between them were still new, Doctor Strange was still new and Tony was just still exploring this new and dangerous territory. Doctor Strange goes to open his mouth, to make a comment but Tony beats him to it. "I'll bring the brains, you bring the coffee. 8 a.m."

"So are you going to tell me what that was all about or should I just head home?"Bruce had asked when Doctor Strange has left, Tony turning sharply around with a gasp.

"Oh! You're just the man I was waiting for actually, I've seemed to have misplaced my Tablet however- no wait, there it is."Tony started brushing papers off of the StarkTab, blowing off Cheeto dust that was stuck to the screen when he was working over a patients chart on his 2 minute coffee break. "I have a million and one things to go over with you. I was thinking I can show you to specs here, maybe the labs, you can meet the team and then we can work on something, something small probably because you usually go back to H on a Wednesday, I'll get a jet to organise it and-"

"Wait, slow down Tony. One thing at a time."Sometimes talking to Tony is like having a conversation with a hyperactive toddler on a trampoline in the middle of a gun fight because the man talks the fast. It's not the first time that Bruce has witnessed the man have a conversation that no one can understand but Tony. Tony looked up, eyes wild with excitement. "The specs for what exactly?"

"I figured it out, Brucie!"Tony had proceeded to shove the StarkTab in Bruce's un-expecting face, the man taking it and scanning its contents, brow creased. "It hit me last night, or the day before, I can't remember but it was like some sort of epiphany! The cybernetics weren't the problem, it's the nerves. Anyway, I got everything sorted, labs, a team, one that you will be leading of course when I'm not around-"

"Wait what?"

"Bruce you know how much I hate to be interrupted."

"I'm sorry but, but Tony, I can't do that. I can't do that for you."The tablet is being set down on the counter in disbelief and astonishment, Bruce suddenly feeling cold to his core, especially when he sees Tony's face. "Tony, I'm so happy and so proud for you but- but I can't be apart of your research team, and I truly can't lead your work. It's not mine. It's not my thing."

"What do you mean it's not your thing, you gave me the idea! You helped me, Bruce. You and I spent weeks and months looking over designs, worked on prototypes, tested it, and now you're telling me it's not your thin-"

"I'm moving, Tony."The trigger had been pulled, the dam broken. Tony had paused.

"What?"

"Virginia. They saw my research, they're giving me a Research Grant, Tones. My own building, my own team, my own piece of groundbreaking research that isn't from piggybacking off another intelligent mind."Bruce had wanted to do this more delicately, mostly for the fact that he knows how hostile Tony can get when it comes to things like these. People he gets used to being around just suddenly packing up and leaving. A note pressed to the fridge, a pat on the back, a 'we'll meet up soon, Tones, I swear!' and then never seen again.

But sometimes the best way to get through Tony's self loathing skull is just to be brutally honest

"You can do both."

"I don't want to."It's almost like a kick to the chest, straight to the Arc Reactor and Tony had thought he'd prefer that more. Tony didn't like to share his things and for him to openly and willingly want to share something important with Bruce, just to be turned out, hurt so much.

Tony grabbed for his tablet, tucking it under his arm with the rest of his misplaced and handled sheets. He'd sort this mess out himself. There were still kinks to sort through, permissions to be granted, money to summarise, young doctors to meet and greet, labourites to explore and kit out. So many things to do. On his own. Just like aways. Just like how it'll always be.

"Tony..."Bruce had reached out as Tony began to leave, leave to do all of these tasks and more. People to see, things to look at, maybe take a look at that car rusting away in his workshop that he's been avoiding for years, update JARVIS, play with DUMM-E, tinker at You. Spend time with robots and A.Is that can't leave him.

"Just go, Bruce. You must have other things to do than to piggyback off my intelligence."

And Bruce had left, because that's what he wanted to do, not because Tony had told him to.

But it wasn't the last he heard from Tony Stark because upon arriving at his newly furnished home in Virginia, a car had been parked in his driveway, one that Bruce could surely not be able to afford with a salary like his. A bright yellow sticky note stuck to its windshield, engineers scrawl handwriting;

Stop piggybacking and be groundbreaking

Tones x

P.s I couldn't stand to see you take the bus to work

Omg look at her go, she fucking updated! I'm so sorry that I took so long. So many things have been going on in my life and now Covid-19 has decided to come along and as an essential worker, I haven't exactly had time to sit down and write.

But what did you all think? I'm gonna start writing more, I swear. Written in blood.

What did you think of the Tony and Bruce bonding?

Are ScienceBros one of your broships? What's your favourite Broship?

Who's excited for some drama? Cus I am (;

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Peace✌🏼