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The Safeword is Sarsaparilla	By : PlumBat Category: Marvel Verse Movies > Avengers, The Views: 5882 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own The Avengers, Tony Stark, Bruce Banner, Pepper Potts, Jarvis, Rhodes. None of that is mine, and I make no money from writing about ‘em!

Chapter List
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The smell of fried onions and spices fills the spacious living room. Tony is reclined on a couch. He inhales through his nose, eyes closed, savoring.

Pepper pads into the kitchen on bare feet and leans in the doorway. She is wearing a thin, low-cut white shirt and her favorite cut-off jean shorts. Bruce's back is to her as he moves between various pans and pots. "You sure you don't need any help, Bruce?"

He turns towards her, face open and graced with a lopsided smile. Sweat plasters the fringe of his hair to his forehead. He is also barefoot, shirt untucked, first several buttons undone to reveal a patch of dark hair. "I'm running low on ways to say 'thanks, but no', so if you could help me think of some more that'd be helpful."

Pepper snorts. "Have it your way. It smells *amazing* in here, by the way. I didn't know we had all these spices."

Bruce turns back to his various creations-in-progress and resumes stirring and flipping. "You didn't, I found a great little shop a few blocks away. Here, actually, try this and tell me if it's too spicy." He turns and holds up a wooden spoon filled with something red flecked with green.

Pepper walks up but stops short, so that she has to lean rather far forward, purses her lips and blows on the curry. She flicks her eyes up to Bruce's face for a split second and feels a gratified flush when she sees that his eyes are fixed somewhere lower than her face. She reaches out and clasps his wrist to hold it steady, then laves at the curry with her tongue like a cat. She is fully, completely aware of Bruce's solid presence just inches from her in a way that she wasn't moments ago. She sucks the last of the curry off the spoon, then releases his wrist and slowly leans back. "It's perfect," she purrs.

Bruce clears his throat. "Ah -- good, good!" Pepper glances down at his lips, so soft-looking for a man's. Bruce shifts in place, looking as if he'd like to say something but isn't sure what. "Okay, I'll, uh, keep it just like that then." He turns back to the stove. "Shouldn't be more than another twenty minutes."

Pepper saunters back into the living room, chewing on one knuckle and grinning. Tony raises an eyebrow at her. She smiles wider.

When the food is ready, Bruce brings it out to the low table one dish at a time, and sets cold beers by Tony and Pepper's plates. Pepper takes a large armchair for herself, pushing it up to the table. Tony stays on the couch and Bruce settles in next to him. They dig in.

"I can't believe you made this whole feast by yourself!" Pepper says.

"Yeah," Tony says through a mouthful of naan. "Mm. This is just awesome. Wow. Seriously." Chewing. "So good."

Bruce smiles and takes a sip from his glass of mango juice. "It's simple stuff, really."

"MM, and this beer is *perfect* with this," Pepper says.

"You can have mine, if you want," Tony says. He took a small sip of beer to be polite, but has since gotten himself an actual drink.

"Ha, no." Bruce says. "Not a good idea."

"C'mon, one --"

"Tony," Pepper says. He shuts up.

They work their way through the meal slowly, chatting about a hundred different things. By the time the food is mostly gone, they are all comfortably slouched. Pepper has turned sideways in her chair, letting her feet dangle off one side. Bruce is curled up in a loose ball in one corner of the couch, Tony sprawled lengthwise across the rest of it.

"Um, Tony?" Bruce says.

"Mm?"

Bruce glances down at his bare foot, which Tony has begun rubbing up and down with his sock-covered toes. He looks back up at Tony. Tony's face is neutral. He slides his foot up along Bruce's pants leg.

"What's up?" Tony asks, expression unchanged.

"Uhm. You don't do subtle, do you," Bruce says.

"I don't know what you're talking about, I'm well known for my subtlety. Tell him, Pepper."

Pepper makes a vaguely pleased, non-committal sound. Bruce looks at her, takes in her shy smile, and looks back at Tony.

"So, you guys are trying to seduce me," Bruce says slowly, with just a hint of a question at the end.

Tony props himself up and looks at Bruce, his calf now pressed against Bruce's leg. "Do you mind?"

"Well, I'm flattered. But it's not going to work."

"Why not?" Tony asks.

"Are you -- ?" Bruce tips his head back and looks at the ceiling. "God, I would... you *have* to realize how crazy this is."

"To be fair to Tony, it was my idea," Pepper says. "Don't feel pressured; it's fine if nothing happens, it completely is. We just both really like you."

Bruce shuts his eyes and says nothing, doesn't move. A full minute passes.

"Honey, shit, did we break him?" Tony sounds genuinely concerned.

"If things go wrong, I could *kill* you," Bruce sighs, head still tilted back, eyes still closed.

"Newsflash Big Guy, I could -- er, alright, I probably couldn't kill you without spending a solid day thinking through how to do it."

Bruce frowns slightly. This means that, if Tony is being honest, he hasn't yet tried to come up with a fail-safe plan to kill him.

"I could kill Pepper, though, easy," Tony says.

"Hey!" Pepper says.

"The thing is, I wouldn't," Tony continues. He shifts forward and puts a hand on Bruce's leg. "And you wouldn't either. You said the heart rate thing alone isn't a problem anymore. So what are you afraid of, that feeling good is somehow going to piss you off?"

"Are you going to just avoid all human contact forever?" Pepper gently joins in. "I don't know about you guys, but if I don't get any I start to feel like I'm going to rage-out myself. So that seems counter-productive."

Bruce opens his eyes and looks at her wearily.

"God, when you look like that I just want to hug you. Is it ok if I hug you?" she asks. He responds with something between a shrug and a nod, then glances at Tony. His friend gives him a small, encouraging smile.

Pepper unfolds herself from the chair and walks around behind Bruce, whose back is against one arm of the couch. She puts her hands on his shoulders and nudges him. He obliges, scooting towards Tony, and she slides onto the couch behind him, wrapping her arms around his chest from behind. He scrunches his eyes shut again and lets out a huff of air. She lays her cheek against his shoulder.

After a few moments, Bruce speaks. "Don't get me wrong. I'm certainly... It's not like I haven't thought... about." Bruce sighs again. "Yeah. You two are both..." He opens his mouth, closes it. "Heh, wow, this is hard to talk about."

"Take your time," Pepper says.

Tony begins massaging one of Bruce's feet. "This okay?" he asks.

"Yeah. Mmf, that is more than okay, that is great."

Pepper feels Bruce relax a little against her. He opens his eyes and looks somewhere off to the left.

"The thing is, I don't know if it would just be. Sex. To me. You guys are basically my only friends, aside from Rhodes. So, one, I don't want to screw that up, and two, I don't know if I can do casual."

"No one's setting any rules here," Tony says. "I can't promise anything, but I think we're both open to, y'know, whatever. And, actually, scratch that, I *can* promise one thing. We won't stop being your friends."

"Exactly," Pepper says.

"How can you guys not get it?" Bruce says. "What happens if it doesn't work out? How could you ever feel safe breaking it off with me? People can go to really dark places when relationships fall apart. And I don't do dark well. That sounds like a nightmare, 'Hey, I'd like to end this, but if I do, I might get smashed into a wall when the guy I'm with turns into someone big and strong and mindless and --'"

All the tension is back and then some. Pepper hugs him tighter.

"That won't happen," Tony says. His hands have stilled, and his eyes are locked on Bruce's face. "Aside from the fact that I KNOW you have more control than you think. We can keep things chill. Rule number one, an *insane* amount of chillness. Rule number two, we talk about things. Everything. No surprises. People go crazy when they're blindsided. So we won't let that happen. And we'll take it slow, on the feelings, if there do end up being feelings. Cause, y'know, I do like you -- I like you a heck of a lot, Bruce. But right now we're just talking about some physical stress relief, so to speak. And like the lady said, are you really prepared to be celibate forever? I mean, what's your plan here?"

"When was the last time you got laid?" Pepper asks, running her fingers through the hair just behind Bruce's ear.

"That would be about six and a half years ago," Bruce says.

"Jesus," Tony mutters and winces as if in actual pain.

"The stuff you're bringing up is all reasonable to think about," Pepper says. "But I actually do believe," she pauses and kisses the rim of his ear, "that we can figure this out. We can be smart and brave and head bad things off at the pass. I mean, danger is a thing I know about; I date Tony Stark."

"It's true, she does; the woman is insanely lucky," Tony adds. Bruce snorts out something like a chuckle.

"So we don't have to do anything. We really don't." She kisses him again. Bruce feels his breathing begin to speed up and wonders when he started to get hard. "But don't let your fear of yourself make you isolate yourself more, because I really do think that'll just make things worse."

"I want to kiss you so bad it can't possibly be legal." Tony's voice is low, his eyes intent on Bruce's.

Bruce takes a deep breath. He looks heavenward, then looks back at Tony. His voice a strange blend of nonchalant and nervous, he says, simply, "Sure." To his surprise, rather than rushing him Tony leans in slowly, places one hand on Bruce's thigh and brings his lips to the place where Bruce's shirt exposes his chest. He kisses him there once, inhaling his warm, male scent. Bruce places an unsteady hand in Tony's hair, the texture softer than he would have imagined.

Tony draws himself up and then he's kissing Bruce on the mouth. Someone is kissing Bruce for the first time in so, so long and that person is Tony and Bruce is utterly absorbed, all of his fears slipping to the back of his mind. Lips yielding quickly to the gentle caress of tongues, scratch of beard against skin ignored. It's slow, soft, warm and perfect, and then suddenly it's harder but still controlled. Bruce feels Pepper's mouth on his neck and her hand slipping up under his shirt to caress his stomach. He leans into the touch and the kiss simultaneously, and, when he shifts, the fabric of his boxers is rubbing against him and he hitches at the sudden pleasure, which knocks his teeth into Tony's.

Tony pulls back, grinning, lips wet. "Too much?" Pepper is undoing the buttons of his shirt.

"No. Just... good. But can we sit up?" he asks. They reposition themselves so that they're upright, Bruce sandwiched between his two friends.

"C'mere, you," Pepper says in a husky voice. She places one hand against the cheek farther away from her and draws Bruce in for a kiss. Her mouth is hot and sweet and insistent against his and he yields completely, taking what she has to give. She wraps her other hand in his hair and tugs gently. He breaks the kiss with a throaty "ahh!" and breathes sharply back in through his nose. Pepper and Bruce exchange a look. Then she goes back to kissing him. When she pulls away, his face is flushed, lips parted. She smiles at him and says in a low voice, "Let's take a second to talk about safe sex practices. We're both clean --" she glances at Tony, "shockingly enough -- as of the start of our heretofore monogamous relationship. How about you, mister?"

Bruce shakes his head as if to clear it and gives her a bemused smile. "Right, uh, good idea," he says. "I'm clean, as far as I know. Um, I’d prefer to use latex for any--" he swallows. His voice comes out higher-pitched than normal on the next phrase, "--penetrative sex, uh, other than oral, I guess?"

In what seems like no time at all, Tony is on his knees in front of Bruce, undoing the other man's pants. He pulls out Bruce’s achingly hard cock and leans forward without a second thought, his lips sliding over the throbbing flesh. He begins to suck, bobbing his head and savoring Bruce’s shocked sounds of pleasure. Pepper is still beside Bruce on the couch and she kisses his neck, caresses his chest. Bruce's body is rigid, his eyes squeezed shut, one hand clamped on Tony's shoulder, the other on Pepper's thigh. He comes quickly with a strangled shout and Tony swallows it all, licking the last of it off his lips when he pulls away.

As Bruce relaxes back down from the high of the orgasm, he looks almost as if he's in shock. Pepper gently pushes him down onto the couch, where she and Tony take turns kissing him, stroking his hair. He just lets them at first, but then he begins to kiss back, and then to grope at Pepper's breasts. Her shirt comes off and Bruce latches onto one of her breasts with his mouth. With one hand he caresses her stomach, slipping his fingers down to brush against her waistband.

Grinning, Pepper lies back on the couch and shuffles out of her shorts. Bruce pulls off her panties and presses his mouth to her wet pussy. His tongue moves slowly across the folds of her sex at first, then faster, lapping at her clit. She moans appreciatively, her toes curling in pure delight as she lets out a series of increasingly heavy sighs. Tony, who had been watching, rapt, on the floor, kicks off his pants and steps up beside her, clad in his shirt and boxers. He smoothes her hair back from her face. Pepper reaches out and frees his hard cock, moaning around it as she takes it into her mouth. He wraps his hand in her hair and helps her work him. His eyes rove over her pale skin and Bruce’s dark head moving against her. He comes just before Bruce makes her do so, both of them gasping.

Afterwards, clothes partially back on, Bruce leans back on the couch, a hand covering his eyes. Pepper is snuggled up under the crook of one of his arms, eyes mostly shut. He strokes her soft hair absently. The smell of Indian food still lingers in the air, now overlaid by sweat and arousal.

Tony comes back into the room with a glass of water and sets it down in front of Bruce. "Hey, you all good, Big Guy?"

Bruce brings his hand down and smiles ruefully. "I'm sorry; that was wonderful. I just can't help but think about what I might not have lost if I'd had this much control years ago. It's stupid. Thank you, guys. Seriously."

Tony settles onto the couch on Pepper's other side. "While gratitude is not an uncommon reaction in my sexual partners, give yourself some credit, man. I know this was a leap of faith for you. It's kind of a big deal."

"That's what she said," Pepper yawns.

Bruce smirks in response. He goes back to his own room that night.

*

The next day, Bruce doesn't appear in the lab. This isn't that unusual; it's not like they have a punch-in clock and regularly scheduled shifts by any means. There's no reason whatsoever to worry.

Tony wastes the late morning running tests that tell him nothing he couldn't have guessed. Eventually he finds himself down in his workshop, parts scattered around him, sketching out designs for new weapon mods. That, at least, is absorbing. Mostly.

He sighs. "Jarvis?"

"Yes, sir?"

"Where's Bruce right now?"

"Dr. Banner is in his room, sir. Shall I patch you in?"

"Absolutely not."

"As you like, sir."

Not a half an hour later, Tony looks up, startled, as the door opens. Bruce slips in, hands in his pockets. "Hey."

"Oh hey," Tony says. He gives Bruce a quick smile, then looks back at his sketches, not seeing them. He's pleased at how calm his voice sounded. At least, he thinks it sounded calm? He's not actually sure. Damn it.

Bruce comes over and peers down over his glasses. "Better guns, huh?"

"That is the idea."

Bruce sits on the edge of the desk across from Tony. "Anything you're particularly excited about?"

Tony glances up at the amused edge in the other man's voice. His mouth curves into a lopsided grin as he notices the direct, appraising way Bruce is looking at him. That and the way he's sitting, legs casually spread. "There are definitely one or two things that I think merit further investigation. Here," he stands and moves to Bruce's side, holding up a random sketch, "let me show you." Their shoulders are touching.

Bruce leans in. "Hmm. Looks shoot-y."

Their faces are so close, Tony can smell Bruce's aftershave and feel the heat coming off his skin. "So," he says. This time his voice definitely does not sound calm. "Six and a half years, huh? That's kind of a long --" Bruce's lips cover his, and he makes an inarticulate sound into the other man's mouth. Warmth, softness, falling, tender. A hand cradles the back of his neck. He returns the gesture, wrapping an arm around Bruce's waist, settling his hand on the small of his back. Tony resists the urge, somehow, to crush his face into Bruce's and lets the kiss stay gentle for several long moments.

When they break apart, Bruce takes off his glasses and hooks them into his shirt, then brings up a hand and caresses the side of Tony's face. "Just wanted to make sure I didn't dream that last night," he says.

"Do you dream about me and my beautiful girlfriend a lot?" Tony asks.

Rather than answer, Bruce kisses him again, more deeply this time. They wind up on the desk, sweaty and laughing, running their hands along each other’s still-clothed limbs. Bruce pulls away, looking oddly apprehensive.

“I’m not sure if--”

Tony cuts him off. “It’s okay, we don’t have to--”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“It’s not that I don’t want to, I just...”

“Too fast?”

“Yeah. Heh, which seems dumb, considering.”

Tony traces his fingers over Bruce’s lips. “Later?”

“Oh yeah.”

The workshop is equipped with its own washroom and they clean up quickly, then go out for Chinese, talking about Tony's weapon concepts in earnest this time.

*
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The Safeword is Sarsaparilla