010 :: Voice

[hulkbusted]

I'm down one physics student, which leaves me with a lot more ticking time. I hate to admit it, but it's getting pretty hard to tolerate.

I guess... what I'm trying to say is that I could use some company. I'm going to find a decent, Cage-free restaurant and lunch will be on me.

Comments

[fe_male]

[ there are probably better times and places to bring something like that up than when you're in someone else's house eating food they made and gave you

not that there are really good times for it in the first place ]

Wouldn't that be a singularly bad decision? That seems rife with potential blow back.

[hulkbusted]

I know you don't know me that well, and I... [least appealing admission he's had to make in years] ...did sleep with your girlfriend, which doesn't really speak well for me, but I wouldn't make an offer I thought the Hulk would make us both regret.

[fe_male]

[ He's just sort of going to look at you a little bit, because. Okay. Generically uncomfortable but interesting, at least. If for no other reason than this is still a friendship being worked out kind of backwards or something.

Back to the bowl with a small shrug a few seconds later though. ] If I wanted to hit you I would've done it back when I first found out.

[hulkbusted]

Just give me a little warning if you change your mind about that. We don't need to bring the Other Guy into it.

[He lacks Tony's sang froid to just go back to eating and has a sip from his cup instead.]

I'm sorry. That's not the kind of man I try to be.

[fe_male]

[ well if he doesn't keep eating what else is he going to do

it's just like how he doesn't know what to say to that. there aren't really any protocols he knows of for how to handle 'sorry i was legitimately cursed and screwed your girlfriend' ]

And here I'd thought the extent of the Jekyll-Hyde thing was obvious.

[hulkbusted]

[Ouch. All that trust he'd forged - will forge - might forge is crumbling, and the Jekyll and Hyde comment hits like a low blow.]

That's not fair. I'd never do something like that outside this place. I have more than enough reasons to hate myself already.

[fe_male]

[ when he said it, he'd mostly been referring to the more obvious, physical difference between Bruce and the Other Guy. Physically, mentally, outlook-on-life-in-generally. But you know, now that you've mentioned it, he's not that sorry. maybe he's more bothered than he initially thought.

although that last comment rings a pretty solid bell. ] You know what, this is great soup. I can't make anything like this, but I'll send you a few pizzas or something. [ Because he needs to leave. Like. four minutes ago. ]

[hulkbusted]

Yeah. Sure. [Conflict averse, that's Bruce, and this? It doesn't matter if it's not actually his fault, it still feels like it is, and that's enough.] The soup's no big deal.

[fe_male]

[ tony's not particularly conflict avoidant himself, but how perfect, two people who don't like to talk about things. that'll likely be at the very least attended to in some degree here shortly

maybe ]

Well. [ what do you really say here. he hasn't had that many genuine girlfriends to merit bothering with this whole situation. ] I can recognize something good when I find it. Regardless. [ which may or may not be a... well, not really apology, but at the very least a modicum of intellectual understanding, even if the emotional is far, far behind. ]

[hulkbusted]

[He's not sure what that was, but he'd never mistake it for an apology. Hell, it could be an oblique reference to Pepper. A minute ago Tony was throwing out the Jekyll and Hyde card.

Clearly what they need to be is mind readers for a day. Or something.]

You can come raid my fridge when you get sick of pizza. There's usually something good in there.

[fe_male]

[ slight pause, as he extricates himself from the seating area, having eaten most of the bowl he was given ] But I was sending you pizza. If I'm tired of pizza, why would I come to the guy I've been sending pizza. [ aside from wanting to hang out with the guy himself, of course. unspoken. ]

[hulkbusted]

To talk anti-electron collisions, I guess.

[It's kind of an invitation, since they've exhausted all the direct conversation in five minutes of discomfort.]

[fe_male]

[ He considers that, standing, but stubbornly still slurping at the soup.

He considers Bruce, seriously. More than he had done before.

So what's he really gonna do? whatever wave is playing against then there and ] Do you really want to know?

[ Do you really want to know? No, to be honest, most people didn't feel that was far. The point was being lost. ]

[hulkbusted]

[Does he really want to know what? No, he's afraid he really doesn't, but he owes Tony not just for what happened with Pepper, but for things that are past for him and future for Tony. He owes him for pointy objects and the simple expectation that Bruce would show up.

He swivels his chair to face Tony and shrugs.]

Yeah, I do.

[fe_male]

[ Owing all of that to a Tony that has yet to experience remotely anything that would mean that you owed him that, or he owed that to you, or anything in between. ]

Anti-electron collisions would be cool. But I need to talk to Pepper. She's the... the crux. Okay? I get cursed, whatever, I get it [ sort of ] so, you know. Whatever. I just process better. By myself. Unless you have something else to add. [ And he's not like, begrudging - if you really do, he's open to it, and obviously so. He doesn't actually want this particular friendship to crumble due to outside influences, no matter how cavalier about things he might appear. ]

[hulkbusted]

[What's he going to tell Tony? That the last thing he wanted was to end years of celibacy at the City's whim and with a friend's girlfriend at that? It's almost laughable. Does Bruce get processing better "by himself"? Only so much so that he's been processing all by himself for years.]

Do what you need to do. My door's open if you decide to take me up on that free hit or to talk anti-electrons or whatever.