Bruce, Enchanted | Avengers | PG | Bruce/Tony
Title: Bruce, Enchanted
Fandom: Avengers
Words: 2000
Rating: PG/PG-13 mayyybe for some questionable potential dub-con (very very vague).
Warnings: Spoilers for the movie.
Pairings: Bruce/Tony
Disclaimer: I do not own the Avengers, le duh.
Summary: Written for a prompt from avengerkink: Whether through magic or science or whatever, Bruce finds himself forced to obey any order given to him.
They don't find Bruce until it's too late.
Dr. Banner had vanished for around a month, citing his unused vacation days and a need to get away from SHIELD, away from the missions. Tony's narcissism gets the best of him when he asks Bruce sharply if the good doctor was scared of... well, whatever the two of them were becoming. Late lab dates and quantum physics chats had turned into something a little less intellectual, a little more physical, and a lot more pleasurable. Tony had been coming to terms with his bisexuality for many years, but for Bruce, Tony wasn't really sure where he stood on the whole "I'm having sex with Tony Stark" or the whole "I'm having sex with a man" thing. Bruce had been incredibly unilluminating on the matter, despite, or perhaps in spite of, the sheer volume of questions Tony asked him per hour. Tony tries not to talk about The Other Guy, even though he finds the Hulk scientifically fascinating simply because he'd prefer it if Bruce would remain on board with both the Avengers but especially with Tony himself. He had scared a lot of people away before, and Tony refused to add Bruce to that list. He can have a successful and fulfilling relationship, he can, he can.
Before he takes off, Bruce fights with Tony-one of those bitter, soul-crushing fights that leaves no winner. Tony thinks to himself that this is just one of those things that couples do, couples fight after all, but when tempers die down to a dull roar Bruce has this look of horror on his face that twists Tony's gut. Tony wonders how close Bruce got to letting The Other Guy out, and how hard it is to restrain the inner beast. Tony is about to ask, to beg forgiveness when Bruce stalks out of the room, and then Tony gets a call a couple hours later from Bruce. Bruce tells Tony that he's going abroad for a while and that's that.
Tony gets a long-distance call from Bruce late in the evening. "I might need some help in a few hours," Bruce tells him timidly. "I might need backup." Tony doesn't ask questions, but instead merely requests a location. As Bruce finishes telling him coordinates, Tony is already three-quarters of the way into his suit. "I'll be there in ten hours, tops. Probably less." Tony has JARVIS shoot Clint and Natasha a heads-up, as they had managed to get assigned to a mission in Vietnam and were far closer than Tony was to executing Mission Banner Back-Up.
"We can get there in around nine hours. Eight if Natasha can break this asshole sooner rather than later," Clint tells Tony as Tony begins his flight over the Atlantic. Tony hears something crunch in the background and Clint chuckles. "Eight hours, Stark. Any idea what Banner's up to?" Tony hangs up after grunting non-committally, but he has the semblance of an idea.
They find Bruce in Indonesia, barely conscious and alone. Tony hops in a raptor piloted by Natasha and Clint in Malaysia, and the three of them talk casual shop while Tony recharges his batteries (both literally and figuratively). Natasha touches down in an empty field next to a small village that match Bruce's coordinates, and Tony finds the house first using JARVIS and the close range tracker he had slipped into Bruce's pocket before his lover had left for good.
A small section of Bruce's hair has been shaved away, and bloodied staples ring around an incision recently covered. Tony watches as Bruce awakens groggily, wincing as the pain begins.
"I need," he tries to say. Tony shushes him as Natasha and Clint enter the room after securing the perimeter.
"What happened, doc?" Clint asks. Bruce doesn't avert his gaze from Tony for even one nanosecond.
"I need you to tell me not to change into the other guy," Bruce begs Tony. The way in which he says the words... it's not a request, or a fleeting desire. He says the words like a prayer.
"Don't change into the other guy," Tony tells him. Bruce closes his eyes, but a few tears escape his closed lids. The wrinkles in his forehead seem to melt away, and Tony wasn't sure if you could up and die from the release of sheer relief, but he was not of the mind to chance that kind of thing, especially with an all-too-recent hole in the head.
"We're gonna get you home," Tony tells Bruce as he hefts Bruce's limp body over his shoulder. "And then you've got some 'splainin' to do, Lucy."
Bruce wakes up in Tony's bed, incredibly disoriented and confused. Tony runs out of the bathroom where he had been shaving to reassure Bruce that everything was okay.
"We're in Stark Tower," Bruce says slowly. "You picked me up."
"Not exactly a cheap fare from Indonesia," Tony says, raising an eyebrow. "So what's up with that casual neurosurgery? You know. The one you neglected to tell me about."
Bruce raises his hand to the shaved section of his scalp, daintily pressing his fingertips for tenderness or swelling. "The only thing you need to know is that I'm safe to be around now," Bruce sighs, letting his hand fall.
"I think you need to tell me what's going on," Tony says, anger rising.
"Mind your own business," Bruce growls back.
"Tell me what happened," Tony snarls, and something in Bruce's eyes glazes over just slightly.
"I invented a neurological microchip that makes me obedient," Bruce says in a rush.
Both Bruce and Tony blanche, Bruce horrified at his honesty, Tony horrified that Bruce would consider this behavioral modification necessary.
"... What," Tony says in the most intelligent way possible. Bruce bites his lip distractingly, and Tony is distracted.
"I was tired of guarding myself around the team," Bruce says quietly. "I've been researching ways to get rid of The Other Guy. For good." He looks at up at Tony from under lidded eyes. "I'll understand if the Avengers Initiative doesn't need me anymore."
"You're not quitting the Avengers," Tony says offhandedly, but Bruce prickles and Tony realizes that he just forced Bruce into staying in the Avengers. "I mean. If you want to be in the Avengers, there will always be a place for you. Erase whatever I just said beyond that." Bruce relaxes.
"I'd appreciate if you didn't tell the rest about my new... condition," Bruce breathes as Tony slips into bed behind him. Tony nuzzles his face into Bruce's back between his shoulder blades. "You can't tell them, Tony," Bruce presses, and it feels to Tony like his lover is holding his breath.
"I wish you had told me before." Tony's voice is muffled against Bruce's skin, and it's muffled by Tony's confusion.
"You would have tried to stop me," Bruce mutters.
"I would have tried to help you," Tony lies, because of course he would have tried to stop Bruce, because even though The Other Guy terrifies Tony sometimes, even though The Other Guy has ruled Bruce's life in such horrible ways since the gamma ray accident, Tony believes in The Other Guy just as much as he believes in Bruce. That night, Tony mourns.
Bruce's new health condition doesn't take very long to leak out to the team: Natasha and Clint both know something's amiss from the get-go, as they had accompanied Tony on the initial rescue, but thus far Tony has kept his promise not to disclose Bruce's secret.
"I need more arrows," Clint drawls as he strolls into the lab, Thor and Steve in tow. Natasha is sitting on a lab bench with her feet dangling off the side, ordering new grappling hooks on her phone. Tony is looking over Bruce's shoulder as Bruce constructs a prototype for a new Avengers boat-plane-submarine when Clint slams his empty quiver down next to Natasha.
"If you were less liberal with your arrows, then I wouldn't have to make you new arrows," Bruce sighs, unmoved by Clint's machinations.
"If I were less liberal with my arrows, Thor would have one leg," Clint snarks, and Thor chuckles.
"Verily, what Eye of Hawk says is truth," Thor nods.
"No more arrows this week, you've gone over your quota," Bruce says, peeling his face away from his prototype.
Clint groans. "Blow me, Banner."
Tony stiffens as Bruce stands and approaches Clint at a swift clip. Bruce has already dropped to his knees and reached for Clint's pants by the time Tony yells out, "Bruce, stop it!"
Clint has an odd look on his face that is a mix of horror and jubilation.
Natasha gets it first. "No way," she breathes.
"Bruce appears to show great affection for you, Clint," Thor nods, oblivious.
"Stand up, Bruce," Clint says slowly.
Bruce stands.
"Pirouette," Clint tries.
Bruce raises his arms over his head and twirls, rather ungracefully. Clint starts to giggle, and Bruce glances at Tony with an intensely miserable look on his face.
"What's going on, Bruce," Natasha asks.
Bruce looks at the floor. "I made myself safe."
Bruce tells them about the microchip, voluntarily this time, albeit grudgingly.
"You knew about this?" Clint asks Tony, who nods absently.
"I told him not to turn into The Other Guy," Tony sighs. "I figure I was owed an explanation from the start, but I had to demand it before I got diddley-squat." Tony isn't hurt that Bruce kept this to himself, that he didn't trust Tony one goddamn iota. Really. He wasn't hurt.
"Make me more arrows," Clint grins.
Bruce puts his head on the table and tries to recapture free will. He fails, and begins brainstorming novel mechanisms for arrows laden with explosives.
(Later on, Clint will apologize in a drunken haze to Bruce about The Arrow Incident/The Banner Revelation at Natasha's behest, and he will tell Bruce that he knows what it's like for someone to take his brain and play, and he's fucking sorry that Bruce has had to subjugate himself to this mindfuck of a treatment or whatever Bruce is calling it today, but Clint knows and he's sorry and he won't ask Bruce to make him any more arrows. Unless he really, really needs them.)
Tony is falling. It hasn't been the best of days.
It started with what could have been morning sex that turned into an argument of epic proportions. Bruce had almost flipped the bed in his rage, but now the rage was this completely unbridled animal that was no longer tempered by the fear that The Other Guy might make a surprise appearance. Tony relished the fact that Bruce could let loose, but Bruce's anger scares him sometimes, though he'd never admit it.
So from the fight to the rogue planes sky-bombing Boston, it wasn't exactly the best of days. This mediocre day had gotten significantly worse when something had short-circuited inside his new suit (new Mark, new problems: this time, wind deflection) and now he was tumbling at an alarming speed toward the ground.
There's no one to catch him now.
And then he hears a roar.
Tony flips over and over in the air, but he sees flashes of a man morphing into a gigantic green rage monster below: a man who had beaten the self-designed microchip implanted in his brain by a back-alley neurosurgeon in order to save him, Tony Stark.
The Hulk catches Tony and they collide safely with the ground.
"Good work, buddy," Tony sighs in utter, blissful relief. "Knew you had it in you." The Hulk roars in freedom, and somehow, Tony knows that this weird, intense adventure in obedience is finally over, and he's fine with that.
"Kiss me," Tony whispers later that night. Bruce leans in. "That wasn't an order, you know," Tony clarifies.
Bruce kisses him long and slow, tongue feeling around the inside of Tony's mouth, lips hungry and lusting.
Bruce smiles. "I know."
Fandom: Avengers
Words: 2000
Rating: PG/PG-13 mayyybe for some questionable potential dub-con (very very vague).
Warnings: Spoilers for the movie.
Pairings: Bruce/Tony
Disclaimer: I do not own the Avengers, le duh.
Summary: Written for a prompt from avengerkink: Whether through magic or science or whatever, Bruce finds himself forced to obey any order given to him.
They don't find Bruce until it's too late.
Dr. Banner had vanished for around a month, citing his unused vacation days and a need to get away from SHIELD, away from the missions. Tony's narcissism gets the best of him when he asks Bruce sharply if the good doctor was scared of... well, whatever the two of them were becoming. Late lab dates and quantum physics chats had turned into something a little less intellectual, a little more physical, and a lot more pleasurable. Tony had been coming to terms with his bisexuality for many years, but for Bruce, Tony wasn't really sure where he stood on the whole "I'm having sex with Tony Stark" or the whole "I'm having sex with a man" thing. Bruce had been incredibly unilluminating on the matter, despite, or perhaps in spite of, the sheer volume of questions Tony asked him per hour. Tony tries not to talk about The Other Guy, even though he finds the Hulk scientifically fascinating simply because he'd prefer it if Bruce would remain on board with both the Avengers but especially with Tony himself. He had scared a lot of people away before, and Tony refused to add Bruce to that list. He can have a successful and fulfilling relationship, he can, he can.
Before he takes off, Bruce fights with Tony-one of those bitter, soul-crushing fights that leaves no winner. Tony thinks to himself that this is just one of those things that couples do, couples fight after all, but when tempers die down to a dull roar Bruce has this look of horror on his face that twists Tony's gut. Tony wonders how close Bruce got to letting The Other Guy out, and how hard it is to restrain the inner beast. Tony is about to ask, to beg forgiveness when Bruce stalks out of the room, and then Tony gets a call a couple hours later from Bruce. Bruce tells Tony that he's going abroad for a while and that's that.
Tony gets a long-distance call from Bruce late in the evening. "I might need some help in a few hours," Bruce tells him timidly. "I might need backup." Tony doesn't ask questions, but instead merely requests a location. As Bruce finishes telling him coordinates, Tony is already three-quarters of the way into his suit. "I'll be there in ten hours, tops. Probably less." Tony has JARVIS shoot Clint and Natasha a heads-up, as they had managed to get assigned to a mission in Vietnam and were far closer than Tony was to executing Mission Banner Back-Up.
"We can get there in around nine hours. Eight if Natasha can break this asshole sooner rather than later," Clint tells Tony as Tony begins his flight over the Atlantic. Tony hears something crunch in the background and Clint chuckles. "Eight hours, Stark. Any idea what Banner's up to?" Tony hangs up after grunting non-committally, but he has the semblance of an idea.
They find Bruce in Indonesia, barely conscious and alone. Tony hops in a raptor piloted by Natasha and Clint in Malaysia, and the three of them talk casual shop while Tony recharges his batteries (both literally and figuratively). Natasha touches down in an empty field next to a small village that match Bruce's coordinates, and Tony finds the house first using JARVIS and the close range tracker he had slipped into Bruce's pocket before his lover had left for good.
A small section of Bruce's hair has been shaved away, and bloodied staples ring around an incision recently covered. Tony watches as Bruce awakens groggily, wincing as the pain begins.
"I need," he tries to say. Tony shushes him as Natasha and Clint enter the room after securing the perimeter.
"What happened, doc?" Clint asks. Bruce doesn't avert his gaze from Tony for even one nanosecond.
"I need you to tell me not to change into the other guy," Bruce begs Tony. The way in which he says the words... it's not a request, or a fleeting desire. He says the words like a prayer.
"Don't change into the other guy," Tony tells him. Bruce closes his eyes, but a few tears escape his closed lids. The wrinkles in his forehead seem to melt away, and Tony wasn't sure if you could up and die from the release of sheer relief, but he was not of the mind to chance that kind of thing, especially with an all-too-recent hole in the head.
"We're gonna get you home," Tony tells Bruce as he hefts Bruce's limp body over his shoulder. "And then you've got some 'splainin' to do, Lucy."
Bruce wakes up in Tony's bed, incredibly disoriented and confused. Tony runs out of the bathroom where he had been shaving to reassure Bruce that everything was okay.
"We're in Stark Tower," Bruce says slowly. "You picked me up."
"Not exactly a cheap fare from Indonesia," Tony says, raising an eyebrow. "So what's up with that casual neurosurgery? You know. The one you neglected to tell me about."
Bruce raises his hand to the shaved section of his scalp, daintily pressing his fingertips for tenderness or swelling. "The only thing you need to know is that I'm safe to be around now," Bruce sighs, letting his hand fall.
"I think you need to tell me what's going on," Tony says, anger rising.
"Mind your own business," Bruce growls back.
"Tell me what happened," Tony snarls, and something in Bruce's eyes glazes over just slightly.
"I invented a neurological microchip that makes me obedient," Bruce says in a rush.
Both Bruce and Tony blanche, Bruce horrified at his honesty, Tony horrified that Bruce would consider this behavioral modification necessary.
"... What," Tony says in the most intelligent way possible. Bruce bites his lip distractingly, and Tony is distracted.
"I was tired of guarding myself around the team," Bruce says quietly. "I've been researching ways to get rid of The Other Guy. For good." He looks at up at Tony from under lidded eyes. "I'll understand if the Avengers Initiative doesn't need me anymore."
"You're not quitting the Avengers," Tony says offhandedly, but Bruce prickles and Tony realizes that he just forced Bruce into staying in the Avengers. "I mean. If you want to be in the Avengers, there will always be a place for you. Erase whatever I just said beyond that." Bruce relaxes.
"I'd appreciate if you didn't tell the rest about my new... condition," Bruce breathes as Tony slips into bed behind him. Tony nuzzles his face into Bruce's back between his shoulder blades. "You can't tell them, Tony," Bruce presses, and it feels to Tony like his lover is holding his breath.
"I wish you had told me before." Tony's voice is muffled against Bruce's skin, and it's muffled by Tony's confusion.
"You would have tried to stop me," Bruce mutters.
"I would have tried to help you," Tony lies, because of course he would have tried to stop Bruce, because even though The Other Guy terrifies Tony sometimes, even though The Other Guy has ruled Bruce's life in such horrible ways since the gamma ray accident, Tony believes in The Other Guy just as much as he believes in Bruce. That night, Tony mourns.
Bruce's new health condition doesn't take very long to leak out to the team: Natasha and Clint both know something's amiss from the get-go, as they had accompanied Tony on the initial rescue, but thus far Tony has kept his promise not to disclose Bruce's secret.
"I need more arrows," Clint drawls as he strolls into the lab, Thor and Steve in tow. Natasha is sitting on a lab bench with her feet dangling off the side, ordering new grappling hooks on her phone. Tony is looking over Bruce's shoulder as Bruce constructs a prototype for a new Avengers boat-plane-submarine when Clint slams his empty quiver down next to Natasha.
"If you were less liberal with your arrows, then I wouldn't have to make you new arrows," Bruce sighs, unmoved by Clint's machinations.
"If I were less liberal with my arrows, Thor would have one leg," Clint snarks, and Thor chuckles.
"Verily, what Eye of Hawk says is truth," Thor nods.
"No more arrows this week, you've gone over your quota," Bruce says, peeling his face away from his prototype.
Clint groans. "Blow me, Banner."
Tony stiffens as Bruce stands and approaches Clint at a swift clip. Bruce has already dropped to his knees and reached for Clint's pants by the time Tony yells out, "Bruce, stop it!"
Clint has an odd look on his face that is a mix of horror and jubilation.
Natasha gets it first. "No way," she breathes.
"Bruce appears to show great affection for you, Clint," Thor nods, oblivious.
"Stand up, Bruce," Clint says slowly.
Bruce stands.
"Pirouette," Clint tries.
Bruce raises his arms over his head and twirls, rather ungracefully. Clint starts to giggle, and Bruce glances at Tony with an intensely miserable look on his face.
"What's going on, Bruce," Natasha asks.
Bruce looks at the floor. "I made myself safe."
Bruce tells them about the microchip, voluntarily this time, albeit grudgingly.
"You knew about this?" Clint asks Tony, who nods absently.
"I told him not to turn into The Other Guy," Tony sighs. "I figure I was owed an explanation from the start, but I had to demand it before I got diddley-squat." Tony isn't hurt that Bruce kept this to himself, that he didn't trust Tony one goddamn iota. Really. He wasn't hurt.
"Make me more arrows," Clint grins.
Bruce puts his head on the table and tries to recapture free will. He fails, and begins brainstorming novel mechanisms for arrows laden with explosives.
(Later on, Clint will apologize in a drunken haze to Bruce about The Arrow Incident/The Banner Revelation at Natasha's behest, and he will tell Bruce that he knows what it's like for someone to take his brain and play, and he's fucking sorry that Bruce has had to subjugate himself to this mindfuck of a treatment or whatever Bruce is calling it today, but Clint knows and he's sorry and he won't ask Bruce to make him any more arrows. Unless he really, really needs them.)
Tony is falling. It hasn't been the best of days.
It started with what could have been morning sex that turned into an argument of epic proportions. Bruce had almost flipped the bed in his rage, but now the rage was this completely unbridled animal that was no longer tempered by the fear that The Other Guy might make a surprise appearance. Tony relished the fact that Bruce could let loose, but Bruce's anger scares him sometimes, though he'd never admit it.
So from the fight to the rogue planes sky-bombing Boston, it wasn't exactly the best of days. This mediocre day had gotten significantly worse when something had short-circuited inside his new suit (new Mark, new problems: this time, wind deflection) and now he was tumbling at an alarming speed toward the ground.
There's no one to catch him now.
And then he hears a roar.
Tony flips over and over in the air, but he sees flashes of a man morphing into a gigantic green rage monster below: a man who had beaten the self-designed microchip implanted in his brain by a back-alley neurosurgeon in order to save him, Tony Stark.
The Hulk catches Tony and they collide safely with the ground.
"Good work, buddy," Tony sighs in utter, blissful relief. "Knew you had it in you." The Hulk roars in freedom, and somehow, Tony knows that this weird, intense adventure in obedience is finally over, and he's fine with that.
"Kiss me," Tony whispers later that night. Bruce leans in. "That wasn't an order, you know," Tony clarifies.
Bruce kisses him long and slow, tongue feeling around the inside of Tony's mouth, lips hungry and lusting.
Bruce smiles. "I know."