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A heavy hand landing on his face wakes Bruce quite abruptly from a deep slumber. He tilts his head back instinctively, preventing the twitching fingers attached to it from poking his eyes out as he opens them. In all fairness, there are worse ways to wake up (he’s had plenty of experience) but he decides that this is still not high on his list of preferred methods.
As he drags himself slowly into a state of complete wakefulness, he notices that there is none of the pain that would often accompany him if this were a post-Hulk coma. In fact he feels blissfully relaxed. The bed he’s in presses softly against the bare skin on his back, balanced by the weight of Thor’s arm draped loosely over his chest. Ever so carefully he rolls onto his side, bringing his face mere inches away from Thor’s.
The top half of Thor’s face is bathed in the glow of a sunbeam that slants in through a crack in the curtains, highlighting long strands of hair that have fallen out of place. The ends flutter up and down with Thor’s snores, falling almost to the point of inhalation before they’re blown back up by his breath. Bruce reaches out gently to smooth them back out of Thor’s face. His fingers begin to trace a slow line downwards, fingers feeling the softness of his hair until they hit the scratchy, gradually-thickening stubble on his jaw.
When he stops, hand splayed on Thor’s cheek, two blue eyes are staring back at him. They hold eye contact for a moment longer, before Thor shuffles and bows his head, burying it under Bruce’s chin and letting out a deep, contented sigh through his nose. There isn’t a need for words between them, not with the level of comfort and intimacy they share. Silence is comfortable to Bruce.
Unfortunately, it can’t last.
He breaks it quietly. “We need to get up.”
“Good morning to you too.” Thor mutters into his collar, placing a kiss there. A moment later he lifts his head up and does it again, this time against Bruce’s lips. It deepens and Bruce lets himself relax into. Arms wind over broad shoulders. Legs intertwine. Chests press together.
When he feels that enough time has passed (admittedly much more than enough - in his defence Thor is very hard to resist) he cups both hands around Thor’s face and pushes him back. Thor’s eyes are filled with adoration and Bruce’s eyes are soft. But he tries his best to sound serious.
“We. Need. To get. Up.”
And before Thor can make him an offer too good to refuse, he sits himself up and pulls the sheet away from his body. As he stands he can feel Thor’s eyes on him but he pretends to remain oblivious to it while he scans the room for wherever he left his clothes. He finds them draped over the chair by Thor’s desk, left in a messy bundle with his shirt after their hasty removal. The corner of his lip quirks and he throws a quick glance back to Thor, who has curled up under the sheets once more.
With an affectionate roll of his eyes Bruce picks up and then throws the nearest item of Thor’s clothing at him. It hits with a satisfying amount of accuracy, spreading right over his head.
“I’m pretty sure you said you had somewhere important to be this morning.”
Thor’s voice is muffled by the fabric. “Official audience with my father, yes.”
“Well if you don’t get up you’re going to be late.”
Sighing dramatically, Thor yanks the clothes down from his face.
“My priorities have changed. We should just stay here. In bed.” There’s a look in his eyes that’s almost enough to make Bruce stop doing up the buttons of his shirt and crawl back under the sheets.
Almost.
“Okay, you stay here. I asked Heimdall to show me the Bifrost so I’ll be back in a couple of hours.” This is his first time on Asgard and he’s not going to give the wrong impression. It’s almost a necessity if he’s hoping for this relationship he has with Thor to last (or else it could get very awkward very fast).
“Abandoning me for Heimdall!”
“Can you blame me?”
It looks as though Thor is about to argue. But then his face contorts, caught between considering and disputing.
Bruce chuckles. “Oh come on, you know I love you.”
Thor freezes.
Bruce furrows his brow, not quite catching on for a second. In his head he replays the end of the conversation.
And that’s when it hits him.
This is the first time he’s ever said he loves Thor out loud.
He wracks his brain to past instances, but comes up blank with any where he may have said it sooner. Oh, this is bad. They’ve been officially together for long enough that he should really have said it before now. How can Thor even stand him?
But, after a brief moment of stunned silence, Thor's face breaks out into a beaming smile. “I know.”
He’s reassuring him. Reassuring him because, for some reason, Bruce is so out of his depth here that he needs reassuring and Thor knows this, understands and that’s exactly why Bruce loves him -
He clears his throat, and tugs the collar of his shirt straight. “That’s good. I mean --” His brain is buzzing and yet words elude him as he struggles to respond.
Fortunately, Thor interrupts him by putting on an exaggerated show of trying to get dressed without actually leaving the bed. When he’s done he holds out a hand and Bruce obligingly reaches out to pull him up.
Instead he ends up lying across Thor’s chest with lips pressed to his and arms around his shoulders.
“I love you,” Bruce says when they part. Just because he can now.
It’s like a dam has been broken and the words come bursting our of him so naturally.
“I love you too,” says Thor. It’s not the first time for Thor but there's something in his voice that feels... different.
Bruce grins and pulls himself up once more, this time dragging Thor up with him.
"Come on. Audience."
“Only if we can come straight back here after it's over."
Bruce tilts his head, pretending to think about it, a small, teasing smile tugging at the corner of his lips.
“Only if you promise to be the one to get me up next time.”
With that he pushes himself off Thor’s chest and disappears out the door, feeling lighter than he’s ever been.