#throwback to Otakon 2015 when I first heard of the term #scibros. #commissions #tonystarkfanart #hulk #brucebanner #chi_studios #chibistyle https://www.instagram.com/p/B4xJ8UUHpcX/?igshid=puzhsg0wd6ty
In which Tony finds out that Bruce knows sign language and Pepper kicks his ass at dodgeball.
Read on AO3 here. Read on tumblr below the cut.
In Tony’s sixth hour, there’s a deaf boy. He’s new, from what Tony can tell. He’s never seen him around before this year. Tony’s never bothered to talk to him because he doesn’t know much sign language; some of the alphabet and a couple key phrases like “thank you” and “how are you doing?” Natasha, Pepper’s best friend, is apparently really good friends with him and Tony finds it interesting to watch them sign to each other during class. From what Pepper told him, the boy—Clint—can read lips very well and does have twenty-percent of his ability to hear, but Natasha likes to sign what the teacher is saying to him when she has the chance because it makes it easier for him and it’s fun for her to practice her signing. Sometimes she learns something new. Tony’s seen Natasha and Clint talking to Steve on a couple occasions, both of them teaching Steve certain signs. Sometimes Tony wants to ask if they’ll teach him, too, but he knows that Natasha doesn’t particularly like him.
Today, Tony decides to be a little shit and cut his second hour to go visit Bruce and Pepper in gym class. It’s been a week since Bruce spent the night at Tony’s house, and he’d been over to hang out after school twice after that. Both times they’d played video games or practiced for the speech that Bruce, by the way, fucking nailed. Sure, his voice had shaken and he could have made more eye contact, but he got an A- on it! Tony had clapped the loudest for him.
Tony’s glad that the gym teacher is fucking oblivious to everything happening around him or else he’d get kicked out of that class faster than he’s ever gotten kicked out of any other class. Since he was already wearing a T-shirt, Tony simply grabbed a pair of basketball shorts that had been in his locker for an indistinguishable amount of time and stuck those on. Bruce’s face when Tony had slipped into the locker room and snuck up behind him had been priceless. When he’d waited outside the girl’s locker room for Pepper and attempted to scare her, she hadn’t even flinched.
Now, since the teacher apparently didn’t make any plans for the day, he has them picking teams for a dodgeball match. Tony gets picked first, much to his pleasure. Pepper is picked not long after him (by the opposing team, damn it) and Bruce is picked near the end when not many people are left and ends up on Pepper’s team. This doesn’t surprise him. But when the last three kids are being picked, Tony realizes that Clint is among them. He ends up being the last one, but even as the last one, both teams are hesitant to pick him.
“You take the deaf kid,” Tony’s team captain says to the opposing team’s captain. “I don’t want him.”
“No fucking way, man,” the other says. “He’s useless! He won’t be able to hear when I shout orders.”
“When do you shout orders in dodgeball?” Pepper asks, looking at her team captain with distaste.
The captain stammers over his words for a moment. “Oh, I do, trust me,” he says, and Tony has to fight back condescending laughter.
“Look, if neither of the teams want me, I’ll just sit out,” Clint speaks. Tony had never heard him speak before. His words are slurred but still understandable. Tony feels a strange sense of admiration toward him.
Unfortunately, Clint speaking only adds fuel to their fire. The captains mock his speech and so do a few other students. Tony looks at Pepper and Bruce, asking with his eyes, “Can you believe this shit?”
“Can’t wait until the archery unit,” Clint says. “I’ll kick all your asses then.”
“That a threat?” Tony’s team captain asks, his eyebrows raising. “Better not give the deaf kid any arrows, he might kill us with them.”
“Uh-oh, deaf kid’s going crazy!” Pepper’s team captain laughs.
“What the hell did he ever do to you?” Tony speaks up, stepping up to his team captain. “How about you leave him alone? We can take him. If he gets knocked out, he gets knocked out. It’s not fucking hurting anyone, so why don’t you shut the fuck up and just add him to the team?”
“I’d rather not be a pity-pick,” Clint says, shrugging. “I’ll just sit out if it’s all the same to you, Stark. Thanks, though. It was a valiant effort.”
“Y’know, my stomach’s not feeling so great right now,” Bruce says. Tony cocks his head in confusion. “I think I’m gonna sit out, too.”
“Great,” Pepper’s team captain says. “Two for two. One deaf kid and one weirdo.”
Tony fumes at that. It’s one thing to pick on Clint for being deaf (that’s not to say that Tony wouldn’t make a few jokes about it if he were Clint’s friend, but they would be good-natured), but it’s an entire other thing to pick on Bruce.
“Can we just start the game?” Tony asks. Man, did he pick the wrong day to crash Pepper’s gym class.
Once the teams are on either side of the gym, the coach blows his whistle (seriously, if he’s paying attention, why the hell didn’t he intervene?) and the game begins. Tony can’t help but repeatedly glance over at Bruce and Clint sitting on the bench together, and for a bit, their mouths move as they talk. Eventually, though, they’re both signing.
Even Bruce.
Huh. Tony didn’t know that Bruce knew sign language. He wonders if Bruce had known anyone who was deaf when he was younger. Maybe that’s why he knows it? Or maybe he just taught it to himself for kicks. Either way, Tony thinks it’s impressive and he can’t stop looking at the way Bruce’s hands move so gracefully and fluidly, like they were meant to move like that and he just wants to—
WHAM!
Tony feels himself fall onto his ass, a hand flying to his head where the ball hit him, right on the forehead. He glares at the other team, attempting to find the ball-thrower who’d hit him so aggressively. When he sees Pepper grinning triumphantly back at him, he throws his hands up in exasperation.
“Seriously, Pep?” He calls. “That was a headshot! Aren’t those against the rules?”
“Not if the coach doesn’t see it,” Pepper says, winking. To Tony’s dismay, the coach is, once again, not paying any attention to what’s going on around him, but rather reading a copy of Sports Illustrated.
“Damn you, Potts.” Tony shakes his head as he stands up, making his way over to where Bruce and Clint are sat on the bench. His forehead is warm where it had been smacked and the second Bruce and Clint see his face, they’re both cackling. “Ha ha, yes, very funny. I’ve got a giant red mark on my forehead, don’t I?”
“Red is an understatement,” Bruce giggles. “It looks angry, doesn’t it?” He asks Clint. Clint nods, dissolving into laughter again.
“Great. This is what I get for skipping class to come and see you guys. I love it.” Tony takes a seat on the bench next to Bruce, crossing his arms over his chest. He looks over at Clint. “You really don’t seem to give a shit that no one wanted you on their team.”
Clint shrugs. “Why would I want to be on a team that doesn’t want me?”
Tony nods. “I guess that makes sense. Still, though. They said some shitty stuff. Don’t know if you caught all of it, or…” He gestures to his ears, a smirk on his face.
To his relief, Clint actually laughs. He didn’t know if that joke would be taken well or not. “I caught most of it. Thanks for speakin’ up, though. That was cool.”
“Yeah, well,” Tony says, shrugging. “It’s not a big deal. You’d have done the same. Right?”
Clint purses his lips. “I dunno, might not have. I mean, if it were the exact same situation, then yeah. But if you were getting picked on for being an ass, then probably not.” He grins.
Tony supposes he can understand that. “Fair enough. By the way, Bruce? I expect you to teach me some of that shit the next time we hang out.” Tony pokes Bruce in the arm, and Bruce winces, rubbing the spot he’d poked. Tony hadn’t meant to poke it so hard. He has to remember that Bruce is sort of constantly covered in bruises.
“You taught me how to give a speech, so it’s only fair,” Bruce says. “You can teach yourself the alphabet until we hang out next. It’ll make it easier.”
Tony beams, nodding in satisfaction before looking back out at the game happening in front of them. A couple more kids have fallen in the time they’ve been talking, and as they watch, more and more come crashing down. Pepper is still holding her own, much to Tony’s delight. Bruce makes a comment on how Pepper looks like she’s taking the game way too seriously and Tony reminds them that she’s the one who gave him the angry forehead. Of course she takes it way too seriously.
Pepper’s team wins. Clint mutters something about how he would have won the game in half the time that it took to win for whatever team he’d been on. Bruce says something to him in sign language and Clint signs “thank you.”
When the game is over, Tony joins the rest of the class for some basic exercises such as walking around the gym for an unGodly amount of time, stretching in ways the body should not be able to stretch, and heading over to the weight room to walk on treadmills (as if that’s not the same exact thing as walking around the gym, holy fuck) and, y’know, lift weights. When class is over, Tony returns to the boy’s locker room with Bruce. Of course, Bruce heads to the stalls to change back into his regular clothes while Tony just changes in front of everyone else. There are a few boys who seem to want to stay as far away from Tony as possible. Tony knows it’s because he’s openly bisexual. He doesn’t care. If it will make homophobes uncomfortable, he’s all for it.
Pepper tells Bruce that she thinks it’s really cool that he knows sign language, and that she took the class on it her junior year but forgot a lot of it over the summer. Bruce offers to teach both her and Tony at some point.
Well, ‘some point’ becomes every Tuesday after school. Bruce’s dad is never home until later in the evening on Tuesdays, so he doesn’t have to worry about his dad wondering where he is every Tuesday. It just becomes a thing that they do. All three of them hanging out at either Tony’s place or Pepper’s place (more often than not, it’s Tony’s mansion) and eating a snack while Bruce teaches them sign language. Sometimes they don’t even do that. Sometimes it’s just the three of them hanging out together, watching movies and talking or working on other homework, or Pepper talking about a girl in one of her classes named Maria Hill whom Pepper seems to think is really cool and wants to hang out with her soon. With how much time they all spend together and how much they tell each other, they quickly become the three musketeers and Tony is just brimming with happiness at that. He especially loves the fact that over the next month and a half, Bruce gets more and more comfortable with him to the point that instead of asking if he can spend the night, he just up and tells Tony he’s going to come over and hang out or spend the night. Tony’s waiting for the day that Bruce is so comfortable with him he won’t even let Tony know before he comes over.
It’s a Tuesday and Pepper has to leave a little earlier than usual because she promised her dad that she’d help him with some office work before tomorrow. After hugging Bruce goodbye and giving Tony a kiss on the cheek, Tony shuts the door behind her and they both return to Tony’s room so they can collapse onto his sofa and pick out whatever show on Netflix they want to binge next. Bruce lies perpendicular to an upright Tony, his head on his lap. He’s (thankfully) gotten progressively more comfortable with physical contact as well. So much so that even Pepper is allowed to toss her feet onto Bruce’s lap or lean her head on his shoulder while they’re watching movies. They have a really good dynamic going on, Tony thinks. It’s nice.
Bruce asks Tony if he wants a chip from the bag sitting on his stomach and Tony simply opens his mouth, gesturing to it without taking his eyes off the TV screen. Bruce just snorts and reaches up to shove a chip into Tony’s mouth. Tony grins cheekily as Bruce lowers his arm again. When he glances down at him, the sleeve of his hoodie is riding up and Tony can see the large, white scar at the top of his wrist along with some smaller healed scars that were definitely self-inflicted. Tony swallows.
“Hey, Curly?” He asks. Bruce looks up at him with an inquisitive expression. “You haven’t made any… any new ones, right?” He gestures to his arm.
Bruce’s expression hardens. “‘Course not.”
Tony hears the hesitancy in his voice. “Bruce…”
“They’re not that new,” Bruce snaps, pulling his sleeve down over his hand and balling his fist in it. “I haven’t done anything in, like, almost two weeks. And they’re not even that bad.”
Tony sighs. He knows that while he’s at least two years clean, Bruce still struggles with this kind of thing. It breaks his heart. “Why do you do that?” Tony asks with a furrowed brow.
Bruce hesitates. “I… don’t know. It’s a habit, Tony. I can’t just stop doing it with a snap of my fingers.”
“No, I know that,” Tony says. “God, I know that. It took me a long fucking time to get clean. But… I don’t know, it just doesn’t make any sense to me why you would do it.”
“How does it not make sense to you?” Bruce asks, and Tony can hear a bit of defensiveness in his tone. Uh-oh.
“Just— I dunno, your dad already hurts you enough,” Tony says, shrugging helplessly. He’s probably just digging his own grave at this point. “It doesn’t make sense to me why you’d want to add more pain to what he deals to you already.”
Bruce is quiet for a moment, unmoving and unwilling to make eye contact with Tony. When he finally speaks, it seems forced. “There’s a lot you don’t know about, Tony. Stay out of it.”
“Um, no,” Tony says, unable to believe that Bruce expects him to just… not care. “I’m not going to stay out of it. You’re my be— my friend, Bruce. I want to make sure that you’re okay.”
Bruce suddenly sits up, turning and looking at Tony with a set jaw and a cold stare. “I’m fine. This isn’t a conversation I want to have right now. Actually, I think I’m going to head home.”
Tony curses himself for even starting this conversation in the first place. Bruce is already standing up and grabbing his school bag, gathering up his homework and shoving it inside. “Shit, man, you know I’m only trying to—”
“I don’t care,” Bruce interrupts. “I’ve had a long day, okay? I just want to go home and be alone for a while.”
Tony bites his tongue, irritation rising within him. “Fine,” he says curtly. “Pardon me for trying to fucking help you.”
Bruce doesn’t give Tony a response. He simply gathers his things, and leaves.
In which Bruce accidentally has a conversation with Howard Stark and Tony comes up with yet another nickname for his curly-haired friend.
Read on AO3 here. Read on tumblr below the cut.
At two-thirty in the afternoon, Tony wakes up to find that Bruce is definitely not in his bed and for a moment, Tony thinks that he dreamt all of last night. Then he sees the bag of Sour Patch Kids on the floor and, well, that’s enough proof for him. Now to just find where he went off to.
His lab? Nope. Any of the billion bathrooms? Not that Tony can tell. Kitchen? Nothing. Then he hears talking from the living room. Oh, great. Bruce got wrapped up in a conversation with his mom.
Only, that’s definitely not his mom.
Howard Stark is currently sitting in the living room, a cup of coffee in his left hand and a book in his right. It’s angled downward so that he can talk to Bruce. Tony freezes in the doorway upon seeing this.
This is weird for a lot of reasons. One, Tony rarely ever sees his dad. The most he sees him is either when Tony goes to Howard’s lab to steal a tool of his or when Howard is roaming around the house doing God only knows what. Two, Howard isn’t the type to engage in conversation with someone of little importance, and especially not a teenager. It’s shocking to Tony that his father is actually bothering to make eye contact with Bruce while speaking to him. And three (but the list goes on), Bruce has daddy issues. It’s strange that Bruce is sitting here having a civilized conversation with Howard Stark, a father that Tony has mentioned is not the best, without stuttering or looking down constantly. Tony doesn’t know if he should be proud of him or not.
From what he can tell, Howard is in the middle of talking about whatever project he’s working on at the moment when he notices Tony and stops talking. Bruce blinks, turning and spotting Tony in the doorway.
“Tony, hi!” Bruce says, a smile forming on his face. Tony can see something in his eyes that makes him furrow his brow. “Your dad was just telling me about the cars he’s been working on.”
“That right?” Tony offers a smile that doesn’t reach his eyes.
Howard nods, closing his book and setting it off to the side. “Yes,” he says, “but I should really be getting back to work. I have a conference to attend later today and I need to be ready.” He stands, awkwardly looking at Bruce. “It was nice to meet you, ah… Bruce.”
“Nice to meet you too, Mr. Stark,” Bruce nods, giving an awkward smile of his own.
Howard barely glances at Tony as he pushes past him out of the room. Tony is dumbstruck for a moment, just standing in the doorway until he hears Bruce let out a long sigh, like he’d been holding his breath for too long. When Tony looks at him, he’s got his face in his hands and his shoulders are slumped.
Tony takes the chair his dad had been sitting in. “What the hell was that?” He asks, eyebrows raised. “You were just talking to my dad.”
Bruce looks up at Tony, dragging his hands down his face. He leans back and huffs. “Holy shit, Tony,” he breathes. “I thought I was gonna die. Seriously. I came in here to sit down and maybe read or something, but I walked in and your dad was just. Sitting right there. And I didn’t want to be rude and just turn around and leave when he’d obviously seen me come in already, so I just stayed! I sat down and I told him I didn’t mean to bother him and I honestly don’t remember much else because I was too busy trying not to look like I was gonna cry.”
Tony blinks. “Well, you did a pretty good job of not looking like you were dying,” he says. “Your eyes looked a little pained, but that’s it. Something to work on.”
“Seriously, thank you for showing up when you did,” Bruce says, laughing a bit hysterically. “I didn’t know how much longer I could sit there for. I just— I didn’t wanna be rude!” He puts his face in his hands again. “Why couldn’t I have walked in on your mom? That would have been so much easier.”
“Fun fact: the second anyone enters the Stark household, your life takes a drastic turn for the worst.” Tony shifts in the seat, crossing his legs. He purses his lips. “Guess I shouldn’t be saying that to you, of all people.”
“Like I said, pain isn’t a contest,” Bruce sighs. “I ate cereal this morning. I hope it’s okay that I just… did that without asking.”
“Yeah, that’s fine,” Tony says, shrugging. “Remember? I said that you can take anything you want from in there whenever you want.”
Bruce thanks Tony, fingers pushing through curly locks again.
“Curly,” Tony says. “There’s another one.”
Bruce tilts his head. “Huh?”
“Freckles, Glasses, and Curly,” Tony says. “Three nicknames for you so far. That’s not counting my occasional usage of the term ‘big guy.’ When are you gonna come up with something for me?”
“You just gotta give me time!” Bruce laughs. “I’m not as clever as you are.”
“Don’t have to be clever to come up with a name like Curly.”
Bruce just groans.
When the time comes for Tony to take Bruce home, Bruce refuses to let Tony drive him. He insists on walking, telling Tony that it’s a nice day out and he could use the time to himself. Tony just thinks that Bruce is worried about his dad seeing him being dropped off by Tony Stark. It’s a valid reason, Tony thinks. Bruce’s dad seems to be the type that will look for any reason to flip out and throw some punches. If it’ll save Bruce some pain, Tony will let him walk home as much as he wants. It’s not far anyway.
When he’s alone in the kitchen, Maria catches him staring at the back of a box of Froot Loops. “You’re doing what’s best,” she says suddenly, making Tony raise an eyebrow in question.
“Context, please?” He inquires.
“For your friendship with Bruce,” she elaborates. “I walked by your room last night and heard you talking about the game you were playing. With the candy. It was cute.”
Tony blushes. “You seriously had to eavesdrop?”
“I didn’t have to, but I did,” Maria chuckles. “It was only for a second, don’t worry. I didn’t hear any of the answers from either of you. I only heard you explain it and I heard Bruce call it dorky.”
Tony groans, an irritated smile making its way onto his face. “Oh, my God. It was fun, though! He talked about his mom and his ex-girlfriend and I told him about how I like to model your clothes sometimes.”
“You wear my dresses better than I do,” Maria sighs.
“Damn skippy.”
“Anyway,” Maria says with a smile, “you’re doing the right thing, is all I’m saying, Tony. It may take some time, but he’ll come around.”
“I feel like him talking to Dad might have put him off a little bit,” Tony says, cringing.
“He talked to your father?” Maria asks, eyes wide. “Well. How did that go?”
“After Dad left the room, Bruce just about turned into a puddle,” Tony snorts. “He’d been scared shitless. Dad’s pretty intimidating, though, so that’s understandable. He is Howard Stark, after all.”
ok so i think about this 80s au a lot where both tony and bruce are trans and in high school and i really just like to imagine that bruce is so scared of not being recognized in public as a boy and he just. he gets validated by tony and pepper and their families a lot and that’s really good he’s so grateful for that but y’know that doesn’t stop him from feeling invalid all the time especially before he goes on T or gets top surgery
anyway he and tony are at the mall one day and they go into the puppy kennel place whatever the fuck it’s called and are allowed to choose puppies to play with in pens and tony picks a pitbull or a german sheppard and bruce chooses this barely-still-a-puppy white husky and the owners are like “ok but fair warning he was abused by a woman owner and doesn’t trust women so if ur thinking about adopting him then just be careful if u have any women in ur household” and bruce kind of panics for a second bc. he has a vagina. he has a fuckton more estrogen than he does testosterone. what if this dog is afraid of him bc he’s not a cis boy? he’s not really planning on adopting it but still
so anyway they go in the pens and the employees bring the dogs to them and the husky isn’t afraid of bruce!! he warms right up to him immediately and is all over him like an excited little puppy and bruce almost cries happy tears bc this dog is so good and he loves him so much but he can’t get a dog bc he still lives with his parents for another month before he turns 18 and bruce would never even consider trying to have a dog in that household.
so they leave the place and bruce is trying not to cry bc he loved that dog so much and he just wishes so badly he could take it home (also meanwhile tony is screaming internally bc the dog he picked out was so fucking cute too and he wants to take it home with him) but he’s resigned to his fate as a non-dog owner
until one day! like a week later! bruce comes over to tony’s bc tony tells him that he has a surprise for him as an early birthday present and bruce is like “waah u didn’t have to get me anything” and tony’s like “stfu i luv u and u deserve the world” and so tony takes bruce upstairs and to his room and closes the door and bruce is like ???? before tony walks over to his bathroom door and says “happy early birthday!!” and opens the door and the husky puppy!! comes running out!! immediately to bruce and bruce just falls to his knees and he’s lovin on that pup so much and ok yeah he’s definitely crying a little bit and tony tells him that he can keep him here for the time being until bruce’s birthday when he officially can move in w tony. bruce just hugs this fuckin pup and then stands and hugs the life out of tony and probably cries into his shoulder and thanks him a billion times and tony’s like “oh yeah i also got him a friend” and goes and fuckin opens his closet door and oUT COMES THE PITBULL PUPPER and bruce just laughs and laughs bc this is the best thing ever and he loves his dog and tony loves his dog and everything is good
after bruce moves in, tony finds bruce and the puppy passed out in bed together, the husky at bruce’s feet and sometimes even curled up right next to bruce and sometimes tony huffs and pouts because “that’s his spot” next to bruce but this dog makes bruce so fucking happy and that’s all he cares about and sometimes there’s just one big cuddle pile on the bed, bruce and tony all tangled together with their pups at their feet and they both feel safe
HAPPY BIRTHDAY GURL <3 <3 AW IT'S BEEN AN ENTIRE YEAR SINCE WE GOT RLLY FUCKING DRUNK AND GOT LOADS OF A*S AND GOT INTO UNI AND STUFF AW also i like ur new url
THANKS MAN THAT WAS A FUN NIGHT! Also yes new url it’s so close to being canon too like one letter
all day i have had to listen to my brother a) moping about missing his californian girlfriend b) flirting with this random australian girl around the pool on holiday and c) not understanding why i think this is ridiculous that's it that's been my day also i know it's lame but i love belle #basic HAVE FUN AT DISNEYLAND OMG
scibros replied to your post “has anyone seen/read the history boys?”
'It's not "Lest we forget", it's "Lest we remember" ... because there is no better way of forgetting something than by commemorating it.' i adore the history boys
omg i do too. it’s so interesting. i mean the actual lessons from the teachers are really interesting (like that quote lmao) and the characters are just so compelling. and also the ending is really cleverly done. also i think it’s so interesting the boys understanding of their relationship w/ hector!!
