Inside Voices ▷ Bruce Banner | ✓

14 - MORE TIME

BRUCE HADN'T BEEN OUT OF THE LAB IN A WHILE. She was told he came out to cook dinner, then went back into the lab, but considering how Clint was now using JARVIS to order in food, it was clear that the resident geniuses of the Tower weren't coming out any time soon, and Steve often voiced his concerns as to whether or not they were eating and sleeping, to which JARVIS promised to alert the Captain when it was necessary to cart the two to bed.

However, that morning—noon, more like, since that was often when she woke—Tony came out of the lab with a self-satisfied smile, hovering by the elevator with a confused Steve who was trying, and failing to convince Tony to take a nap, the shorter man insisting that they at least wait until the package arrived.

She stood there and watched them for a moment before deciding that she wanted to go and find Bruce, since she hadn't seen him in some time. She hadn't told them, because they weren't as severe as before, but she had had a few episodes between the time they had tested her last and that very moment.

She stepped through the doors, looking around the disheveled room filled with scattered papers and stacked files and wrappers and food. It was chaotic, but it seemed as though its inhabitants didn't seem to mind.

Looking to the right, she found Bruce asleep on the desk, a small alarm clock placed next to him. She walked towards him, sitting down on the chair next to him, resting her head as well, turning to watch him sleep.

His glasses were pushed up to the top of his head and he was snoring slightly, his back rising and falling with his even breaths, and he looked utterly exhausted, dark circles under his eyes and his jaw covered in stubble. It took her some time to realize that he had been working so hard to make sure that she was okay.

Reaching out towards the alarm clock, she tried to find a way to disable the alarm to let him sleep, only to find that she didn't know how to do that. So, with no other choice, she simply took out the batteries and put them in her pocket.

As she did, she heard the sound of the door sliding open, and found Tony smirking triumphantly, raising an eyebrow and pointing towards her pocket where she had just slid in the batteries. "I didn't know those shorts had pockets. Also, what're you doing, sweetheart?"

She pointed wordlessly to the alarm, because she did always find silence easier than having to speak. Tony leaned to the side, craning his neck and catching sight of the alarm. His lips melted into a soft, genuine smile as he rolled his eyes, motioning from her towards the door.

"Cute. But smart, okay, I'll let him sleep there, I'm heading to my room. But you get to explain to him why he slept for eighteen hours instead of the half hour he promised himself," Tony said, stretching, "Now scram, I'm gonna clean up first."

She smiled as she made her way out of the room, heading up towards the common area, the batteries jingling softly in her pocket as she climbed the stairs, finding Steve smiling down at a sketchpad, a large wooden box on the cushion next to him.

"Steve," she called out, though he had already looked up when she reached the top, "What're you doing?"

Steve smiled wider at her contraction, mainly because he knew she had picked it up from Clint and Arabella who were bent on teaching her common vernacular and colloquialisms. He motioned for her to sit down, picking up the box.

"Tony got me some art supplies," he explained, looking around for a place to put the box as she sat, only for her to take it from him and place it on her lap, and he smiled gratefully.

She looked down at the wooden box, finding an array of colored pencils in plastic holders which were stacked up on each other. Steve had opened to the back of the sketchbook in his lap and was testing all of the colors in a neat order.