Bruce had heard of local lawyer Tony Stark long before that night -- but he wasn't looking for him or anything at all when he finds Tony blindfolded, gagged, and bound up at a local munch party. Yet ever since that night he can think of nothing other than seeing Tony again. The more he gets to know Tony, however, the more he gets to understand both Tony's and his own insecurities. Insecurities that ruined his last two relationships. Insecurities he might not ever be able to overcome...
Waking up in that giant bed was just as alarming as it had been the first time, Bruce forgetting where he was and Tony so far away from him it took a minute to reorient himself. But then he saw him, sleeping peacefully, all spread out across the bed, and the way they fucked so gently the night before came back to him in an instant, as well as the cuddling and talking softly about nothing after Bruce cleaned them up, holding hands and laughing until they were both too sleepy to keep it up.
And now here he was, in his bed again, and he slid closer towards him, reaching out to tenderly brush the hair from his forehead. Tony was so handsome, so beautiful. Bruce’s whole chest felt sore just looking at him, like if Tony poked it just right it would bruise. He loved it, loved every painful second of it, loved the anticipation, the way it made him feel like everything was electrified and he was touching a live wire, riding out the current.
So much of his childhood he spent trying to deaden himself to his caring nature, burnt out from how his parents took and took and took from him until he had nothing left. But then he met Betty and... She gave it all back to him in spades. She appreciated every ounce of his affection, never asking for too much, and he didn’t know it could feel like that. Instead of feeling burnt out he felt invigorated. Loving her? It made him feel new.
When she left, he spent a lot of time trying to find that high again, ended up getting involved in the scene and learned some shit about himself that was hard to face, hard to look at too closely – that maybe his parents had abused him, both of them, in different ways. His dad with his alcoholism and his suicidal rants and his unchecked mental illness; his mom because she was just never there, working two or three jobs to try to keep Bruce in the house and sleeping a few hours in her car some nights, not even coming home. And it made him callous and jaded and hard in his romantic life, finding comfort in taking a partner for the night where he could express himself without worrying that someone else might take advantage of him again and leave him as tired and burnt out as he was by the time he left for college.
Yet then he found Nat and she was the same. She had been taken advantage of too, her caring nature abused by people who only wanted to take and take and take, and Bruce thought – maybe they weren’t a likely pair but at least she understood. Nat could stand beside him and make him feel validated and he could care for her and she would care for him in return. She wouldn’t hurt his heart.
