Bruce frowns when Tony gets serious because he's trying to see where Tony's talking about him, but he mostly just sees Tony. It clicks for him where Tony might be pulling all his faithful determination from; maybe he wants a place to heap it, since he can't heap it on himself, and Tony's full of so much faith and idealism that it's breathtaking. And it must be exhausting for him.

"Oh, and that somehow makes you unexceptional?" He almost rolls his eyes but catches himself. "Because you're one of only two people in the world who I could really believe have felt that way, the entire time they've known me."

He knows there are people here who are accepting of him, but honestly he doesn't know if he can count them in this when they don't really know what the Hulk is capable of.

But if Tony's going to dig deep enough to compare his relationship with his father to the Hulk's relationship with Bruce -- it takes Bruce a few seconds to see how Tony's framing his argument, but he eventually gets here -- then he can at least pay him the respect of listening to it and not just brushing it off.

"You think the Hulk needs my approval?" he asks, confusion clear. "Why would he care?"