Ever Enough *Tony Stark Love Story*

five.

Sweet nothing

I had been in the lab with Bruce and Tony for a couple of hours, and Stark has it out for calling me either 'Princess' or 'Pet', so as a result I started calling him 'Honey' or 'Hun', don't ask me how it happened. Long story short he asked me to get him something and called me 'Princess' and so I replied sarcastically with "sure thing Honey", and it has stuck. 

At the moment Bruce was continuously scanning the sceptre with a detector for radiation, I was mindlessly tapping on my phone as I chatted aimlessly to Stark about everything ; including music taste, and how we liked the same bands; as he looked over his monitors trying to solve some algorithms, "The gamma readings are definitely consistent with Selvig's reports on the Tesseract. But it's gonna take weeks to process" Bruce suddenly said, 

"If we bypass their mainframe and direct a reroute to the Homer cluster, we can clock this around six hundred teraflops", Tony added, 

"All I packed was a tooth brush" Bruce replied and I laughed slightly, 

"You should come by Stark Tower sometime. Top 10 floors all R&D, you'd love it" Tony said to Bruce, "it's candyland" he added afterwards,

"Thanks, but last time I was in New York I kinda broke... Harlem." Bruce answered shyly, 

"Well, I promise a stress free environment. No tension. No surprises..." Tony said before zapping poor Bruce with a mini electrical prod. That's when Steve entered the room  in a huff looking pretty pissed off with Tony, although Tony didn't notice as he looked at Bruce closely, 

"Nothing?" Tony asked 
 
"Hey! Are you nuts?"  Steve roared at Tony who ignored him and kept looking at Bruce, 

"You really have a lid on it, haven't you? What's your secret? Mellow jazz? Bongo drums? Huge bag of weed?" Tony asked and I laughed which caused Tony to smile at me and Steve to look even more pissed, 

"Is everything a joke to you?" Steve roared at the both of us, 

"Funny things are" I shot back innocently causing Tony's smirk to grow, 

"Threatening the safety of everyone on this ship isn't funny. No offence, doctor." Steve retorted in the same disapproving tone

"No, it's all right. I wouldn't have come aboard if I couldn't handle pointy things." Bruce replied nonchalantly,

"You're tiptoeing, big man. You need to strut!" Tony added and I smiled, 

 "And you need to focus on the problem, Mr Stark." Steve scolded, 

"You think I'm not?" Tony retorted, "Why did Fury call us and why now? Why not before? What isn't he telling us? i can't do the equation unless I have all the variables" he added, 

"You think Fury is up to something?" Steve asked sceptically yet curiously,  

"He's a spy, Captain. He's the spy. His secrets have secrets. Isn't that right, Princess?" He asked me and I nodded slowly as I processed his words, "It's bugging him too, isn't it?" He added as he motioned to Bruce,

"Uh... I just wanna finish my work here and..." Bruce tried to dodge the question,

"Doctor? A beat." Steve asked and motioned for him to answer the question,

" 'A warm light for all mankind', Loki's jab at Fury about the cube." Bruce started,

"I heard it." Steve interrupted and Bruce continued, as he pointed at Tony,   

"Well, I think that was meant for you. Even if Barton didn't post that all over the news." I let the words process before it hit, 

"Stark Tower!" I said aloud,

"That big ugly building in New York?" Steve added as Tony gave him a look, 


"It's powered by Stark Reactors, self-sustaining energy source" I said to Steve, before Bruce added, 

"That building will run itself for what, a year?" He asked turning to Tony, 

"that's just the prototype. I'm kind of the only name in clean energy right now" He replied smugly, 

"So why didn't SHIELD bring him in on the Tesseract project?" Bruce mumbled, refering to Tony, "I mean, what are they doing in the energy business in the first place?"

"I should probably look into that once my decryption programmer finishes breaking into all of SHIELD's secure photos." Tony said, and I smiled smugly before mumbling to myself an, 

"I knew it!", Tony looked at me for a second in a confused way before Steve spoke, 

"I'm sorry, did you say...?" He looked a bit taken a back,

"JARVIS has been running it since I hit the bridge. In a few hours we'll know every dirty secret SHIELD has ever tried to hide." He says again in the same smug manner, "Blueberry?" He asked Steve holding up the box of blueberries he had been munching on, Steve ignored him,

"Yet you're confused about why they didn't want you around?" Steve said knowingly,

"An intelligence organization that fears intelligence? Historically, not possible." Tony replied nonchalantly, 
 
"I think Loki's trying to wind us up.This is a man who means to start a war, and if we don't stay focused, he'll succeed. We have orders, we should follow them." Steve said, his soldier side taking dominance as per usual,

"Following is not really my style." Tony replied again and Steve smiled,

"And you're all about style, aren't you?" Steve said and it looked like it hit a nerve in Tony. 

"Of the people in this room, which one is; A) wearing a spangly outfit, and B) not of use?" Tony retorted,

"Steve, tell me none of this smells a little funky to you?" Banner adds as he tried to diffuse the tension,

"Don't listen to Capsicle, he doesn't know what he's talking about" I whispered in Tony's ear and he smiled at me, 

"Wasn't going to" He smiled again, as Steve took in the possibility of Bruce being right but  shaking it off none the less.

"Just find the cube." Steve said harshly before walking (or should I say storming) out of the lab,

"That's the guy my dad never shut up about?" Tony asked in disbelief when Steve was out of ear shot, 

"The guy's not wrong about Loki. He does have the jump on us." Bruce replied,

"What he's got is an ACME dynamite kit." Tony said "It's gonna blow up in his face, and I'm gonna be there when it does." he added,

"And I'll read all about it." Bruce said,

"Uh-huh. Or you'll be suiting up like the rest of us" I added smirking knowingly,

"Ah, see. I don't get a suit of armour. I'm exposed, like a nerve. It's a nightmare." Bruce replied,

"You know, I've got a cluster of shrapnel, trying every second to crawl its way into my heart." Tony said as he pointed to his Arc Reactor, "This stops it. This little circle of light. It's part of me now, not just armour. It's a... terrible privilege." Tony added,

"But you can control it." Bruce replied glumly,

"Because I learned how" Tony said,

"It's different." Bruce added, I stayed well away from the conversation. I did not want anyone knowing what I could do, and I knew just how it felt not being able to control something so powerful, in all honesty I feel for the Doctor, I mean what had happened to me was big. But what had happened to Bruce was much worse. I watched silently as Bruce tried to read the computer screen, but Tony slid the data aside with his finger so the two could see face-to-face.

"Hey, I've read all about your accident.That much gamma exposure should have killed you." Tony said,

"So you're saying that the Hulk... the other guy... saved my life?" Bruce asked even more glumly "That's nice. It's a nice sentiment.  Saved it for what?" Bruce asked again trying not to get angry,

"I guess we'll find out." Tony replied, "Isn't that right, Princess?" He said turning to me. I could feel the tears brimming my eyes as small flashbacks of eight years ago replayed in my head, oh God, I felt as if I was going to have a panic attack, "Princess?" Tony asked again, slightly worried now. 

"I've gotta go." I said suddenly and walked out. 

"Princess!" Tony called out, "Isabel?!" He tried again saying my real name now. I kept on walking still able to hear him follow me and so  took of in a slight jog. 

I kept on running until I couldn't hold the tears back any more, I fell to the floor as I tried desperately not to cry, not to shake, not to feel. I couldn't stop. I was a wreck.

I suddenly felt a pair of arms wrap around me and rock me back and forth. I didn't have to be a psychic to know it was Tony, I don't know why I did, but I fell limp in his arms, tears streaming down my face as he whispered sweet nothing's in my ear. And for the first time in a long while I felt safe. Tony felt safe.

*EDITED 30/08/17*