Acceptance
Let me hold your hand
“Well looks like I was right, you just need to get laid, raging green problem solved.” Anthony said brightly.
Bruce rolled his eyes. It, of course, was not that simple. Even placated with contentment and sex, too much of a stress response could still be disastrous. However, it was a more promising result than he expected. He could enjoy himself in the right context, so long as he was not too stressed otherwise, which he knew already, but that did not mean he could safely risk the complications that came with getting someone else involved, let alone an ongoing relationship, and it was not too often that he actually found himself stress free.
“Or I could just walk around holding your hand.” Anthony said as he took his friend hand.
They watched the minute change on screen. Bruce rolled his eyes again and shook him off, idly faking annoyance.
It put him at ease that he could joke around like that. It was good having a friend who could talk about anything, without things getting awkward.
The man, however, did seem to have gotten on a bend of making mildly uncomfortable inferences since embarking on this pet project, and he wondered about that. He had always assumed Anthony was straight; the man had always seemed so secure in his sexuality. He realized, now, he did not know for sure what that was, just that he was secure in it. Of course, Anthony always seemed to be flirting with everyone to a degree. He seemed to flirt with everything, especially death and disaster. What was really making him uncomfortable was that those were real possibilities here; not that his one close friend might be hitting on him, but that death and disaster could really become part of the issue.
On the other hand, Anthony did put him at ease more than anyone did. The man was strong -more than physically- and more than capable of handling himself. He also doubted things could ever get awkward with him; not with the way he took everything in such an all encompassing, objectively interesting kind of light. It would be hard to feel awkward around someone if they never did. His company had always been liberating in that respect. Conversely, he had -in recent years- started to look a bit more delicate, not in character or appearance, but Bruce had never been happy about the nerve damage that kept assailing his friend, nor the self-destructive behaviours that compounded it.