Bruce had learned to manage his emotions well. He had to. The Other Guy always searched for an opening. A weakness in Bruce's armor to break free from. But this?
Not even the Other Guy could hide him from this. He stared down at the body. He couldn't even bear to call it Tony's. His friend. Best friend. The first person to know who he truly was and face him with no fear. To greet him with a warm smile and gentle understanding. To spend long hours in the lab together simply seeing what they could do.
He couldn't bear to admit he was gone.
He knelt before the man he loved. Yes, he loved him! It was pathetic of him to love someone like Tony Stark as deeply and desperately as he did, but he hadn't gotten a choice.
The warmth in his eyes was gone. The light from the arc reactor, from his heart, was out. And Bruce couldn't bear it. The battlefield had cleared. Only he and Tony remained in the ashes. His head fell to rest against the all too still chest of his friend and then the tears wouldn't stop.
He had watched the man's wife weep; his pseudo-son sob. And all he could do was sit and cry. The one man he so desperately wished to survive. To live a long, happy life with a loving family and dear friends... was the one man not going home. And he cursed the world.
What good was all the knowledge Bruce had, all his PhDs and college credits, if he couldn't even keep his dearest friend from dying. How could he call himself a 'hero' if he couldn't even save the one man he wanted to protect the most?!
He felt the anger boiling in his blood, but the Other Guy was quiet. Perhaps he, too, was mourning. After all, they were one in the same. He wept for what felt like hours. His chest ached and his throat felt raw by the time the tears finally stopped.
Perhaps, he thought, he should not love at all. For every love he's ever had ended in tragedy. The walls around his heart that Tony had so cleverly built his way in to began to reinforce themselves. They grew thicker and taller and stronger. He couldn't let anyone in. It would be too much.
Bruce rose to his feet, staring at the body. And just like the body, his heart was buried.