Work Text:
Gimme your body
Won'tcha give me your sweet soul
Love when you take over
I love when you take control
"Quoi ? Non ! Je ne vais pas aller à une autre conférence de presse ! Je suis déjà aller à une la semaine dernière. ... Ne me raccroche pas au nez ! Non, ne-" [1]
Bruce could barely believe the scene he just witnessed. He just so happened to be walking into the lab in Stark tower and he certainly never expected to be greeted with this. Tony arguing on the phone with Pepper was a normal occurrence - Of course it was Pepper. That much was obvious from Tony's tone - But Tony arguing with her in French? Now that was definitely something new.
Bruce didn't even know that Tony knew French.
When Tony started speaking again - still not taking any notice of Bruce - the doctor stood there silently and listened. He wasn’t eavesdropping! No, he was simply letting Tony get out his frustrations before he walked in.
"Jarvis, cette femme me rend fou !" [2]
"I'm sorry, Mr. Stark." The AI responded, "Would you like me to put on some music to help you drown out your frustrations?"
"Oui, s’il te plaît." [3]
Jarvis then promptly brought up one of Stark's music playlists and as soon as the music started to play Tony immediately took a deep breath and let it out. He then turned around and saw Bruce standing there at the lab door.
"Oh, Hi, Bruce... Uh, How long have you been standing there?"
"Uh, I just got here." Bruce lied.
Tony noticed that he seemed a bit... tense. "Ah... What'd ya need? Aren't you usually asleep at this time of night?" He replied, glancing down at his watch, only just now realizing that it was almost midnight.
"I... I was going to ask you a question about one of the prototypes we were talking about earlier today…” Bruce stuttered out, trying his best to recenter his thoughts and hoping that it was glaringly obvious how thrown off he suddenly was. “But... uh, you know what? Never mind. I think it can wait." He turned around, making his escape out of the lab.
"Wait, but-" Tony tried to stop him but he didn't get to him in time before he walked off.
Bruce had long forgotten his reason for going to the lab in the first place. Right now, all that was on his mind was "When did Tony learn to speak French?" and why was he using it to yell at Pepper? And even more importantly, why did he feel so... flustered - to the point where he forgot his original question?
Bruce had always liked French - It was a wonderful, beautiful language - but he had never had that sort of flustered feeling as he did when he heard Tony speak it. It seemed strange to the doctor when he tried to reason it out logically. His subconscious tried to supply its explanation but Bruce quickly pushed that thought away. "No, you do not have a weird… thing for French... no." He did have to admit that the way that the French language sounded with Tony's voice - "Okay this is bad. You are NOT about to fantasize about Tony speaking French and saying your name - Stop. Don't... Oh boy." Well damn. What was Bruce supposed to do about this? “Just... Just leave it alone. Yeah. Pretend like nothing even happened. Yeah... Like that'll work…”
It wasn't unknown to Bruce that he liked Tony. Tony was his closest friend, one of the only people who hadn't treated him as a threat and tip-toed around him at all encounters, and the only person for quite a while that Bruce actually felt comfortable around. He didn't feel like he had to constantly be on alert. He felt like he could just be himself around Tony, and no matter what happened, Tony didn't care. The billionaire was carefree and joked around with him, and Bruce appreciated that. He loved that even despite all the destruction that the other guy had caused in the past, Tony treated him like he was just another person. More recently, however, Bruce did feel slightly different when he was around Tony. Perhaps it was an unconscious feeling at first, but it slowly seemed to make its way to the surface of Bruce's mind and it stayed there without showing any sign of receding away.
Perhaps Bruce liked Tony more than he realized... But then how could he know that what he was feeling was attraction? It had been a long time since Bruce had a strong friendship with anyone, what if it had been long enough that he simply forgot what that felt like?
Perhaps... But then again, he would say that the rest of the team were his friends too. Of course they were not on the same level as Tony, but there was still a sense of camaraderie between them, right?
Maybe... But it’s only been Tony that has made him have this strange self doubt. If he was honest with himself, the last time he had this strange fluttery feeling was… back when he was with Betty. And, well, that certainly had to mean something, right?
Probably… at the very least it showed that he was much more open to Tony than he was with anyone else. If anyone else on the team ever tried to stand just slightly too close to him, or attempted to touch him in an unexpected way he would probably retreat out of instinct. However, with Tony, he had gotten quite used to his personal space constantly being invaded by him. Tony wasn’t shy about casual touches; A hand on Bruce’s side when he walked behind him, a slightly too long lingering when he would hand Bruce his coffee cup, even the occasional hug that lasted longer than it probably needed to though neither of them ever seemed to mind. Perhaps they were both just touch starved. That was a possibility, right?
Most likely... And, yeah, so what if he happened to occasionally let his mind wander and imagined what would happen if there was more between them than simple touches of hands or hugs that felt warm and nice and comforting and safe. So what if he sometimes caught himself spacing out and fantasizing about how it would feel to interrupt Tony during one of his ramblings by walking up to him and, without a word, planting a kiss right on his lips. That didn’t mean he was in love with him… right?
Shit, Okay, yeah… He most definitely had more feelings for Tony than just those that close friends share. He really liked Tony. It hadn’t fully clicked in his head until this moment but yeah… it all made sense now.
God, what had he gotten himself into...
Tony found it incredibly odd and out of character for Bruce to run out of the lab so suddenly like that. Why did He seem so frantic to leave? "Jarvis, could you pull up the footage of the lab from when I was arguing with Pepper."
"As you wish, Sir." Jarvis responded, bringing up the correct footage. Tony watched the screen and after a few moments he saw Bruce approach the entrance to the lab, but upon hearing him arguing with Pepper, stopped and simply stood there. Tony wasn't mad about Bruce eavesdropping. Hell, Tony had eavesdropped on the conversations of all the occupants of the Avengers tower once or twice around. Tony continued watching the footage, focusing his attention on Bruce, who was standing very eerily still, as if frozen in place. His eyes fixed themselves on the images of Banner, studying him and trying to figure out why Bruce had acted so oddly.
"Huh... so he heard me arguing with Pepper." Tony said to himself. "But that's not unusual... why would that make him act so weird and want to run out of the lab?"
"Perhaps I could offer an explanation, Sir?" Jarvis said.
"Yeah, sure. Whatcha got?"
"It is probable that Dr. Banner acted out of the norm because of the fact that you happened to be using the French language in your argument with Ms. Potts."
"And?" Tony said to the AI, "What does that have to - Oh, wait... I never did tell him I knew French, did I?"
"Not according to my records, sir."
"Thought I did... Hmm... But still, why would me speaking French make him -" Tony stopped mid sentence and was silent for a moment. "Ooooh..." Tony mumbled, speaking to himself now rather than to Jarvis. "Oooh Oh! Oh this is good. This is very good."
This new information that Stark had discovered allowed him to quickly make a plan. It was clever. Very clever, Tony had to say. And he was sure it would work. It was foolproof.
Tony’s plan was one that he hoped would be the thing that would finally allow him to tell Bruce how he felt about him. Tony liked Bruce. Like, really liked him. He’d even go so far as to admit that he was utterly in love with the man. He hadn't felt these sorts of feelings since he first met Pepper. Of course, his and Pepper's relationship didn't really work out well. Creative differences that neither of them could accept in each other drove them apart, and it was mutually agreed that they were much better off as just friends. But with Bruce, Tony knew that there wouldn't be any of those slight disagreements. They were already really close friends. Bruce was the closest friend that Tony has had in a very long time. He even said to Pepper once, "I don't have friends, plural. I've just got one, really." Most people just couldn't put up with his constant sarcasm and joking way of looking at life. Bruce did though. He understood Tony's personality and accepted him, eccentricities and all.
Tony's plan would be a slow one, but it would all be worth it when it works out in the end. It involved him using the French language now that he discovered that it seemed to be a favorite of Bruce's.
He started off subtly, using French only occasionally to say "Bonjour" to Bruce as he entered the lab, or using the french replacements for swears. Instead of saying "shit," Tony would yell out "Merde!" He then progressed to using french insults when Dummy would do something wrong again.
Bruce noticed these occasional uses of French, and somewhat questioned why Tony seemed to be using it more often than he had heard him before. It still surprised him that Tony even knew french. It just wasn't something that Bruce would think would be one of his skills. But, then again, Tony was always full of surprises. And that was one thing that Bruce liked about him. He never knew what to expect next from the engineer and there was never a dull moment when he was around him.
Tony slowly started to increase the amount of French he used, going from single words to short sentences. When he needed to ask Bruce a question or two about the project they were working on, it wasn't uncommon for him to suddenly start speaking in French and then quickly switch back to english. He knew that Bruce spoke French, so he would strategically pick moments to change languages. The switch was easy for Tony, and it was amusing to watch Bruce's reactions as the two languages mixed.
The plan continued to the point where whenever they were alone together, in the lab or otherwise, he would only speak French. Tony was no longer the English speaking "genius, billionaire, philanthropist" but had become a proper Frenchman. And at this point, he knew that it was getting to Bruce.
Oh, it was getting to him bad . He didn't have to be a Sherlock Holmes to figure that out. The flushed cheeks and awkward downwards glances he observed were just the pieces of the puzzle all falling into place. It was only a matter of time before the plan could go into its final phase.
Bruce didn't know what Tony was trying to do, but it needed to stop. It wasn't that he minded that Tony seemed to only speak French to him now - he was rather good at it, even the accent was spot on - but it was the fact that it was making it exceedingly difficult to keep his newly realized feelings a secret. Bruce would always have to think twice before he spoke to Tony in fear that something might slip out. Bruce may have romantic feelings for Tony and have the undesirable urge to kiss him senseless, but that didn’t mean that the feelings were mutual. It became increasingly unsettling, and Bruce had this constant battle going on inside his head. He wanted to tell Tony, he really did, but he didn't want to lose him as a friend if the feelings were not reciprocated. Bruce didn't want to risk losing the best friend he ever had. Inside, his mind kept saying, "But if he does feel the same, You'll be so much more than friends." And he had to admit that was true... yet he was still reluctant to say anything, fear overtaking any confidence.
One afternoon when Bruce was entering the lab he heard music playing. That wasn't the unusual bit, but what was odd was the type of music. It wasn't what Tony normally listened to. This wasn't Black sabbath or ACDC or anything remotely in the same genre. This was a much slower softer song.
Listening closer, Bruce heard the vocals of the song.
Wait... was that? No, it couldn’t be… Oh, no he was right. That was Tony's voice...
Tony was singing the song... In french, of course.
[4 ] “Nous serons comme des amants, Pour le reste de nos vies
Je n'aurai pas à courir, Bébé, vous n'aurez pas à réfléchir à deux foisIls vont prendre le pied, Nous allons sage du monde
On dirait Octobre, Un futuriste sait
Notre, code fantaisiste curieux furieux.
Tony turned around as he sang and saw Bruce standing at the door. He smiled at him and said, "Salut, chéri." [5] He watched closely to see if the use of the term of endearment would raise any sort of reaction from him.
"Tony, c-can we please stop the bit." Bruce said. This needed to stop now, one way or another. Whether that be with confrontation or with affirmation he wasn’t sure, but he’d take either one at this point.
Tony caught the slight stutter and nervous tone in Bruce’s voice. He kept up the charade, tilting his head in confusion and furrowing his eyebrows a bit, "Stop what, Bruce?" He replied, in English this time.
"With the french! You've been using it much more often than is necessary."
"I thought it was a good thing to be bi-lingual?" Tony said, “C’est juste un peu de fun.” [6]
"Well, it is, but..." Bruce looked down at the floor before he continued, trying to calm his rising heart rate and only finding minimal success. "Why have you only been speaking it while you're with me?"
"Because I know you like it." Tony stated simply, a bit of a sly smirk forming on his face.
Bruce looked up from the floor. Tony’s words caught him off guard and frankly made him even more nervous. "I - Wha... what?"
"You like it when I speak French to you, don't try to lie." The smirk on his face grew as he walked and continued moving closer to the doctor.
"I-I have no idea what you're talking about." Bruce shook his head slightly, trying to defend himself. His effort appeared fruitless however.
"Oh I think you do." Tony was right in front of him now, almost too close for comfort, yet, as previously mentioned before, Bruce was used to that sort of behavior from him, so he didn't back away. Or was it that he didn’t want to back away? "I saw the footage from when you walked in on me arguing with Pepper on the phone." He lowered his voice to nearly a whisper, reaching forward and grabbing Bruce by his arms, just above his elbows. "I saw how you act, Bruce."
"Tony, I-"
"Shhhh." Tony hushed him, leaning forward and speaking softly into his ear, once again returning to the use of French. "Ne dit rien. Juste ferme tes yeux." [7]
"T-Tony -"
"Fait moi confiance, Bruce." [8]
Bruce's eyes fell closed, partly involuntarily and partly in anticipation of what Tony was going to do. The doctor had a good idea of what was about to happen, and he couldn’t decide if he actually wanted it to, or if he was mad that it was going to happen like this, instead of how he imagined it so many times in his head. When he felt Tony's hand slowly slide up his arm and place itself at the back of his neck it only served to heighten that overwhelming tension that was bubbling up around them, threatening to overflow. Part of him wanted to open his eyes, but the other part was yelling at him not to. The sides fought, but ultimately the internal conflict was short-lived when Bruce sensed Tony getting impossibly closer to him, the proximity causing him to gasp.
The next thing he knew, he felt Tony's lips meet his. And that feeling was enough to cause all his thoughts to quickly disappear from his mind. All of the previous doubt, the lingering fear, and the last shred of uncertainty utterly vanished in that moment, being replaced swiftly with the thought of, “oh my god, wait, yes this is actually happening right now!” Tony moved his other hand to Bruce's back, pulling him closer to him. The doctor was frozen in place for about 3 seconds before he responded, raising his hands, rather unconsciously, and tangling his fingers into Tony's hair. They both let themselves detach from the world around them, surrendering to their deep feelings they held for the other. It seemed to last longer than either of them could comprehend. Their minds were both lost in the sensation, trying to enjoy it to the fullest extent possible. And oh did they. They only parted when the need for oxygen grew and they both had to take a breath to not pass out. They both felt light headed, but it wasn't from the lack of air. The deep kiss eventually receded to a soft peck and then finally stopped altogether when they each took a step back, yet refusing to let go of the other, eyes remaining closed.
For a few moments, all was silent in the lab, aside from the pair's heavy breathing. Neither of them knew quite what to say, so when Bruce spoke all he could say was, "...Sacre-bleu."
Tony chuckled a bit, "Bruce... Can I say one more thing?"
"Only if you say it in French." The words escaped him before he even knew what he was saying, but that didn't make the sentiment any less true.
"Je t’aime. Je t’aime de tout mon cœur." [9]
Bruce smiled at this and couldn't help but to pull Tony in for another kiss, a sudden rush of confidence flowing through him now. “I love you too.”
We'll be like lovers
For the rest of our lives
I won't have to run around, baby
you won't have to think twice.