Special Needs: A Bruce and Natasha FanFic

Chapter 21: What I Want to Hear

Bruce woke up with a start as Tony squeezed his shoulder. "We're just fifty miles out from the 'Queen City on the Ohio,' Sleeping Beauty. It's almost show time."

"Thanks," said Bruce. "Thanks for letting me sleep, too."

"No problem," Tony said as he adjusted the lighting and opened the window shades. "Have you gone over the TechUWear tutorial in the app?"

"Yah," said Bruce running a hand through his hair and yawning. "I think I can get in and out of them safely. If it's all the same to you, I'm just going to change out of them."

"Oh, come on. How about just turning the GPS off? I'm sure Natasha was all over that."

"Well, yah, you think?! She has a point. It's great for collecting all this data, but how well does it protect it?"

"Well, that is what we're trying to evaluate."

Bruce set his jaw. "Fine, you have a point," He said tightly, "but I'm still disabling it while we're at the doctor's office. Don't make me spell out why." He was already blushing deeply.

Tony snorted, "Not a problem, Stud."

Bruce let the dig go without a retort. His two main strategies for dealing with Tony when they had both made their arguments but were still at odds involved either stubborn silence combined with a deadly stare down or putting his foot down a little past what he wanted for a bottom line, then backing off a reasonable amount and ignoring the verbal digs that followed. He'd made choice "B" and gotten what he wanted then purposefully given Tony the barb to stick him with so he wouldn't have to flinch. Bruce knew he made a good straight man and Tony usually pulled his verbal punches, so none of this needling bothered him. It was all patterns and routine, which were his favorite ways of dealing with most of the world. Tony was always predictable when Bruce offered him up nice slow changeups high and down the middle because Tony would go for those every stinking time and pull to the left where it could be caught on the warming track. Inevitably, Bruce felt like a jerk afterward, but it was better than option "C", which meant he had lost control of his better judgment and been a sarcastic prick. So much for playing mixed sports metaphors with Tony.

Bruce looked out the window as the plane was descending, and he could see the rural farms turning into suburbs and wooded parkland. He had been born and lived in nearby Dayton as a small child, so much of the landscape looked familiar and reminded him of the mostly stable years he'd spent there near extended family when his mother had relatives close at hand and some real support. He was going to see one of his cousins in the morning who lived here and worked downtown. It had been years since he'd seen Rich, so Bruce was really looking forward to it since they'd reconnected through social media over the past several months. He was six years Bruce's senior, so he had some knowledge of his family during happier times.

Bruce remembered coming to Cincinnati to visit the Zoo and Botanical Garden and to see a Reds ballgame at the old Crosley Field that was long since gone and replaced twice over. Once he'd been ice-skating on Fountain Square with his cousins, too. He wondered if the city still did the outdoor skating rink in the middle of downtown. Well, he'd find out soon because they were staying in a downtown hotel on the theory they were safer in plain sight; however, the conference itself was on campus at the University of Cincinnati just a short ride north up the hill and away from the Ohio River. Luckily, there was a midwinter break, so most of the students would be away and avoid any craziness.

They were approaching the city from the northeast, so they circled around downtown and had a good view of the city. Bruce counted a few new skyscrapers and smaller buildings and parks, but the really impressive part was the Banks, the new riverside development that included state-of-the-art football and baseball stadiums, the Underground Railroad Freedom Center, a block of apartments and businesses, and a wide swath of parkland and outdoor venues between the seven bridges that tied the Ohio side to Covington and Newport, KY, on the south bank. Rich planned to show him parts of it tomorrow, but Bruce enjoyed picking out landmarks his cousin had mentioned from the air. The jet banked back to the southeast to approach the main landing strip at Lunken Field just a few miles from downtown. The pilot announced the weather was an unusually warm 50 degrees and sunny today as they made their final approach.