Memories- Bruce x Reader Chap. 6

You walked through the doors to the lab just in time to see Tony absent-mindedly lean on an active Bunsen burner and then reel away, hissing in pain at his now burned hand.

You were quick to grab him, taking his hand in yours to as you pulled water from the air to coat it and then blew on it gently until a thin layer of ice developed on the waters surface to seal it around the hand and cool it.

You left him to stare at his now frozen icepack-like hand without a word and went to turn off the burner as he frowned, “Are you trying to give me gangrene Icicle? Cause I’ll have you know I really like these fingers. A lot.”

You rolled your eyes, “Calm down Robocop. I’ll unfreeze it in just a second… not that it’s actually frozen anyways. There are much better ways to mess with you than that.”

Bruce watched the exchange silently, shocked by what had just happened and how casual the two of you acted over it. True to your word you stepped over and took Tony’s hand, rubbing it between both of yours as the ice and water quickly turned to steam and revealed that the burn was gone.

Tony looked at his hand in awe and then at you as did Bruce and you sighed, “Stop looking at me like I just preformed some sort of voodoo magic.”

“You sorta did though. I’m cured.” Tony pointed out, flexing his hand.

You rolled your eyes, “Science, Tony. I cured you with Science.”

He didn’t seem to be paying attention, so you let out an exasperated sigh and went to your monitor to check on the results of tests you’d set to run before you left, unaware that Bruce was eyeing you carefully. Once he’d had a moment to think it over he quietly asked, “What happened to you (F/N)?”

You lifted your head with a quirked eyebrow but couldn’t tear your eyes away from the screen, distractedly offering, “Hmm?”

“You just froze Tony’s hand, I think some sort of explanation is in order.”

You looked up and opened your mouth to answer when Tony suddenly wrapped an arm around your shoulder, squeezing you to him, “Icing here accidentally turned herself into a freak when working late in the lab one night.”

You shoved him playfully as a slightly annoyed smirk crossed your face, “Icing? That’s a new one.”

Tony grinned, “It’s cause it has the word ice in it and it describes you to a T.”

You raised an eyebrow at him and he explained, ”Your cool and sweet with the potential to be sexy…” he leaned into seductively purr in your ear, “and oh so naughty.”

You grinned as you let out a laugh, “Good one Stark. Very creative.”

He stepped back to give a little bow as Bruce glared at him, he didn’t care for how close the two of you were or how comfortable you seemed with Tony’s antics.

Bruce cleared his throat as a reminder that he was still there and you waved a hand at Tony, “ Hey Pretty Boy, would you go get us some tea please?”

Tony was about to deny your request but upon seeing the glare coming from Bruce and the pleading look from you he changed his mind, “As long as you don’t mind if Irish it up a bit.”

You rolled your eyes, “Whatever. Just go.”

Once he was through the door you turned to Bruce, “Stop it with that look.”

“What look?”

“The I-don’t-like-how-familiar-he-is-with-you jealous look.”

“That’s not-“

You laughed softly, “I know you far better than that Bruce. It’s the same look you got just before you punched Francis.”

~~~~Flashback~~~~

You and Bruce had been dating a number of months when you introduced him to one of your artist friends, a Francis Jones. At first Bruce thought nothing of it, he seemed like a nice guy and a good friend, and Bruce felt secure in saying you only had eyes for him so there was nothing wrong with you having male friends.

This changed when he went to surprise you at the campus painting studio and found you dancing to some Latin music with a very touchy Francis as you engaged in some playful back and forth banter.

Bruce cleared his throat and you spun to grin at him before he asked, “What exactly are you two doing?”

You laughed as Francis wrapped an arm around your waist and answered, “Dance break. Stiff muscles are an artist’s worst enemy, not to mention (F/n) can sure shake those hips.”

You gave him a playful shove, “Of course I can. My teacher had the hypnotic hips of a god.”

“Well you were a very attentive student then. One of my best and certainly the most beautiful.”

Bruce couldn’t believe what he was hearing, you were openly flirting with this man and him with you right in front of him, but you just laughed and grabbed his hands, “Come on Bruce. We’ll teach you. Having some dance breaks in the lab might actually be a good idea.”

You gave him that small grin that he knew was only for him and he reasoned that all this was this… this Francis’ fault. You wouldn’t do this to him intentionally. No. He refused to think that of you, you loved him and he loved you.

You tugged at him but he didn’t move and Francis swept up behind you to pull you away and give you twirl ending in a dip, “I think our hot moves broke your adorable boyfriend (F/n).”

The second your hands had left his Bruce started giving Francis ‘the look.’ You noticed but as Bruce had never had that expression before you didn’t know exactly what it meant. At least you didn’t until Bruce’s fist made contact with Francis’ cheek just as he finished talking to you, causing him to reel back and drop you to the floor, as Bruce shook his hand. He hadn’t thought it would hurt that much- actually he hadn’t really thought about it at all.

You glared at him, barking, “What the hell Bruce?” but Francis took it surprisingly well, “No it was my fault. It would seem your boyfriend has a little bit of a jealous streak.”

Bruce was still glaring at him but his eyebrows shot up when you flopped back on the floor to laugh as Francis gave a soft chuckle. You barely managed to get out with some gasping breaths, “Bruce, sweetie, Francis is gay. Soooo gay.”

You stuck out a hand for him to help you up as you composed yourself again, placing a hand on either side of his face, “I love you Bruce. When my friends and I flirt like that I can assure you with one hundred percent certainty that it is harmless. Especially with Francis.”

He looked unsure so you grabbed one of his hands and placed it over your heart, “Feel that? I promise it beats for you and only you. If it really bothers you that much I wont act that way any more.”

~~~~End Flashback~~~~

Bruce remembered that day clearly, he and Francis had become pretty good friends after that and you had been right about his god-like hip shaking. You offered to change but he never asked you to, he didn’t want you to change who you were. So instead, when you saw him get ‘the look’ you kissed him and pressed his hand over your heart to remind him of your words because no matter what they were true.

You both realized you were staring at each other, lost in the same memory, and you went pink, turning to mess with your monitor as you explained, “ Despite his demeanor Tony is just a friend. A good one too. When all that happened he was there for me, stopped Fury from treating me like some sort of test subject. Please give him a chance.”

Bruce tilted his head, curious again, “Did you really do this to yourself (F/n)?”

You sighed, “I guess in a way but in all honestly it was an accident. Part of the reason Shield recruited me was to work on altering genetics, messing with DNA, similar to what they were doing with the super soldier project back in the day with Cap. After a while I shelved it because it was dangerous and I didn’t want any of my team getting hurt, especially when we were unsure of the consequences, but I made a deal with Fury a while back and my end was that I had to start it up again. So I did, working on my own, and exactly what I was afraid would happen happened. I was working late and vial of my newest test suddenly shattered and the chemicals went gaseous, I guess it was more unstable than I thought. The lab was closed off from everything else in case such an event should occur but I was exposed and well… now I can control the elements.”

Bruce nodded, slowly processing all that you had said as he asked another, entirely different, question, “Was there ever anyone-?”

You cut him off, turning to look him in the eyes, “Anyone after you? No. I dated, sure, but it never seemed right.”

Bruce was about to delve further into that when Tony burst through the doors with Captain America, aka Steve Rogers, right behind him.