p • r • e • s • s • u • r • e

nervosa

"Why not?"

"Because there's no point."

"And there's even less of a point to staying cooped up in here. Come on."

Tony paused, glancing around the room. 

"Fine..." He slid off his chair and double tapped the finger of the gauntlet; it retracted into a large ring.

"Grab a coat, it's cold."

Tony found himself sitting on a bench only half covered in bird shit in the middle of December, drinking bland hot chocolate next to Bruce. He's decked out in not just a fleece, but a full blown down comforter of a jacket.

"Tony, it's forty-five degrees out."

"Exactly. It's freezing."

"No, it's very much not."

Tony heard excited female whispering in his left ear and it filled him with dread.

He had a wife and a daughter. Such noises usually meant they were plotting something.  

"Oh my god, are you Tony Stark? Can I take a selfie??"

Tony squeezed his eyes shut as if summoning the effort, billion dollar smile plastered across his chapped cheeks.

"Yeah, sure thing."

Bruce cringed at the performance. He was out of practice, too-his flinch when one of the girls hugged him was obvious, even under the coat. People started turning around, started talking in hushed tones. A few pointed. As if Tony were an escaped animal at the zoo. 

He wrapped an arm around his friend's shoulders and they took the nearest exit down, quickly melting into the crowd. Tony threw horns up in the air as they descended the stairs. Behind him, people cheered and returned the gesture. He vaguely remembered a time when he'd enjoy something like that. 

They ducked into a small cafe. The woman inside had just flipped the 'open' sign, and was hurriedly wiping down a table.

"You guys are avengers, right?"

Tony didn't even bother holding back a small sigh, and the lady's smile to faltered. She was older, though, and he thought there was a good chance she wouldn't harass them.

"Yeah, we are. He's uh...he's having a bad day, do you mind if..." Bruce gesticulated, not quite sure what he was going to say next but hoping his hands would do the explaining. She nodded and smiled assuredly.

"Of course. Sit down wherever you guys want."

"Thanks."

They took a high table near the window, which-in retrospect-was a terrible idea, but the tactic of hiding in plain sight seemed to work in their favour. It helped that the place was relatively well-hidden. Still, Tony was one of-if not, the-most recogniseable person in the world, and the idea of people clamouring outside the window like kids at the zoo made him slightly nauseous. He watched Tony's parka slouch down behind his back as he shimmied out of it. 

"You okay?"

"Always," Tony bit.

"Sorry about what happened back there."

"It's ok. No one recognised you," he said, but he was not sorry. 

It seemed Bruce understood his good fortune. 

"Yeah, thank god I'm the wrong colour for it right now."

The lady from earlier handed them menus.

"Can I get you guys anything to drink?"