Fic: Tea is Drunk to Forget the Din of the World
Title: Tea is Drunk to Forget the Din of the World
Fandom: The Avengers
Characters/Pairings: Bruce Banner, Darcy Lewis, Phil Coulson, Tony Stark, Clint Barton. Hints at Clint/Coulson.
Rating: G
Summary: Three times Bruce made someone tea and the time someone made it for him.
Disclaimer: All the characters you recognise do not belong to me, it’s all Marvel’s and I’m just playing with them.
Notes: For my avengers_tables table (picture prompt: tea cup) and 15genres1prompt, the genre was fluff and the prompt was chemistry. Title is a saying by T'ien Yiheng. I'm not sure why I like the thought of Bruce and tea so much either.
Date Written: 31.01.12
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1. Darcy
Darcy became Bruce’s assistant as well as Jane’s at SHIELD. He’s not entirely sure how it happened, probably Darcy just became bored and decided one highly strung genius wasn’t enough and she needed to constantly pester help one that could turn into a very angry monster if she pushed too much.
Darcy seemed to know the limit though. Whilst she may not understand everything that Bruce did, and he did try to make things simple, she was helpful in her own unique way.
Even though it seemed as if she never went to her classes, Darcy was still a political science student and did have a lot of assignments to do.
Darcy was run down, she’d been coughing and sneezing for the last week and whilst the sneezing seemed to have stopped, the hacking cough had not. Bruce found her in his laboratory hunched over her laptop, books piled either side of her and looking miserable.
“You should really get some rest,” Bruce said, sitting down across from her.
“I can’t, paper’s due tomorrow,” Darcy’s voice was hoarse and Bruce found it painful to listen to let alone what it must feel like to have to use it.
He studied her for a moment as she went back to work, a cough interrupting her focus every few minutes, before getting up and leaving her to it.
“Here,” Bruce placed a cup and saucer on top of the smallest pile of books next to Darcy.
She blinked up at him behind her glasses, “What is it? Coffee?” She sounded hopeful before peering into the cup.
Bruce smiled, “No it’s tea. Chai tea to be precise, it’s supposed to help suppress coughs or so I’ve read.”
Darcy looked hesitantly at the cup before picking it up and taking a sip. Her eyes closed and she sighed. “Thanks boss.”
“No problem,” Bruce squeezed her shoulder and left her to her paper.
2. Coulson
Bruce was working late in his lab when he realised that he hadn’t given Coulson his mission report. He sighed and gathered his notes, making sure they were all present and in order. If he handed them in now then perhaps Coulson wouldn’t realise that they were late.
Unfortunately Bruce had forgotten how much of a workaholic and a perfectionist Coulson was.
“Good evening Doctor Banner, I presume that’s your mission report.” Coulson said without even looking up from the papers on his desk.
Bruce looked down at the file in his hand a smiled, “You’d presume correctly,” He walked over and placed the file where Coulson pointed. “What keeps you here so late?”
Coulson finally looked up from the files in front of him and rubbed his forehead, “The fact that Loki has turned the Statue of Liberty into a giant ice cream cone as well as the fact that many tourists took a swim in the Hudson after the tour boats became giant rubber ducks, is the reason I’m here so late.” Coulson sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, “What about yourself Doctor Banner?”
“Experiments and the fact that I lost track of time,” Bruce smiled in sympathy as Coulson continued to massage his forehead, “Headache?”
Coulson snorted, “I’ve had worse.”
Bruce nodded and left Coulson to his work. Less than ten minutes later he was back bearing a cup of steaming hot rosemary tea. He set it down next to Coulson’s stack of papers, careful not to knock anything over.
“It’s supposed to help reduce headaches.”
Coulson looked at him quizzically before drinking some of the tea. He nodded his thanks before turning back to his work. Bruce smiled and left Coulson’s office, pretending that he hadn’t noticed Clint curled up on the sofa at all.
3. Tony
Steve was out of town on Avengers business and that made Tony even more of a pain to deal with than normal. No one had seen him since Steve had left and they only heard the odd explosion from his workshop.
After two days of complete silence from Tony’s workshop, Bruce thought it was time to investigate. Stark was awake and judging by the dark circles under his eyes he had been for the whole six days that Steve had been away.
“Tony-”
“What Banner? Can’t you see I’m busy! Not that one JARVIS, the Mark VI armour!” Tony looked as if he was pulling apart his suits’ in thin air. It was dizzying to watch the images spin around Tony as he waved his arms like a conductor, pulling bits of information from thin air and throwing others away.
Bruce sighed and left him to it, only to return shortly after with the biggest mug he could find filled with steaming hot tea. He wafted the steam towards Tony who turned and glared at him. “If that’s not coffee, I don’t want it.”
“It’s Lavender Tea,” Bruce said, ignoring the face Tony pulled, “And you will drink it or else I’ll tell Steve that you can’t look after yourself.”
Tony snorted, “I am an adult you know.”
“Act like one and drink the tea,” Bruce forced the mug into Tony’s hands. “It’ll calm you down. Do try to get some sleep, Steve’s due back tomorrow afternoon and you’ll want to look your best.”
Tony peered at him from over the mug, “Have you been taking lessons from Coulson on how to be a manipulative bastard? Or Pepper?”
Bruce declined to answer; instead he chuckled to himself and was pleased to see Tony stretch out on the couch as he left.
+1 Clint
Bruce groaned and put his head in his hands. None of the formulas were working as they should be, his results were all over the place and he hadn’t managed to leave the lab in what felt like days.
His heart monitor beeped at him. Bruce glared at it, daring his blood pressure to rise anymore. He felt like tearing his hair out, he did not have time for Hulk right now.
Bruce rubbed his eyes and started at the sight of a cup of steaming tea in front of him. He looked up to see Clint perched on the edge of his desk, waiting for Bruce to notice him.
“I got you tea,” Clint grinned, “It’s Green Tea of some description - I never even knew there were so many types of tea - but anyway, it’s green tea because it matches Hulk and it‘s supposed to be calming and reduce stress or something.”
Bruce blinked bleary eyed at the cup before taking it and having a sip. He closed his eyes in bliss.
Bruce smiled at Clint, “Thanks.” He was pleased to note his monitor had stopped beeping.
Clint smiled back, an honest smile, “No problem big man.” He clapped his hand on Bruce’s shoulder before jumping off the desk and leaving Bruce to it.
Bruce inhaled the steam from the tea and sighed. He looked around the lab, it could wait for a few hours he mused, and followed Clint out of the room.