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"Wow, you ever take your pet dolphin for a swim in this thing? It's huge."

"Um, no, my dolphin has his own lake, thank you very much."

Bruce expects him to smile but he's dead serious.

"You're kidding."

"Morgan likes dolphins! What was I supposed to do?"

"Ohmygod."

Bruce takes a basket and dumps its contents into the bath.

"Are you fucking kidding me."

"What??"

"Flower petals??"

Bruce blushes.

"It's...it's nice."

Tony laughs and wraps his arms around his neck.

"You're adorable, you know that?"

Without hesitation this time, the engineer drops his silk robe and climbs into the tub unceremoniously.

He drops his head back and listens to Bruce taking his clothes off as well and settling down on the other side.

It's quiet, romantic.

"I think there's a flower up my butt crack," Tony points out.

Bruce guffaws.

"What the fuck?"

They both crack up.

"Where do you want to eat?" He asks.

Bruce stares at the ceiling in thought.

"It might take some string-pulling, but I can get us a table at Cipriani's."

"What? No, are you-Cipriani's? What is wrong with-no!"

"Why not?"

"For the same reason you don't have to randomly take me shopping, or work obsessively over developing a suit for hulk, or any of that shit."

"I just want to spoil you," he counters.

"I know, and I'm okay with that-in fact, I'm grateful-but you don't have to, you get that, right?"

The engineer blinks, not saying a word, lingering on the tender inflection in his voice.

Bruce pulls him close in the water.

"Tony, you are more than enough."

"I-I..." He stares down at the water.

"Don't you get that?"

He meets Bruce's eyes.

"No, no I didn't. I figured...I don't know. Thank you, though..."

"Tony I don't give a damn about your money or your past, or that your skin gets kinda ashy and gross, or that you tried to kill Bucky, or even the fact that you practically own the government."

He tilts the billionaire's chin up to meet his gaze.

"I care about who you are right now."

They feel like teenagers, and their wrinkles and creases in their weathered yet supple skin only added to the euphoric out-of-touch reality of things. Like they and the water were the only real things in that tub, and the walls and the city around them were merely abstract. Their bodies melt together and Bruce is ready to give himself over until a single, scarred finger blocks his lips.

"I'm hungry," he states, clambering onto the heated stone floor and toweling off his body, then vigorously rubbing at his hair as he walks away.

They change and head down to the car.