He probably shouldn’t be hugging him. If anything, he should be pushing him away, and there’s a large, rational part of Tony that wants to do it for him. Just grab him by the shoulders and push him back and out the door and as far away from the mindless killing machine that the movies say that he is as he can get him. But the weak, scared, lonely part of him won’t let him be a good man and do it. That part of him wraps his arms around Bruce and hugs back. Not hard, he doesn’t know how strong he is and he knows that movie vampires generally are stronger than people, but enough to let him know that he isn’t just phoning it in.

It’s okay. Bruce is right. They’ll be fine. They survived aliens. They can survive this. He nods, feeling more of the tension start to ease away.

And then what Bruce has actually said filters through the morning’s upset.

Pulling back, he eyes him with equal parts disbelief, surprise, and some kind of uneasy discomfort. “There are vampires here? Real, actual vampires? Seriously? Vampires? Here? And you never told me?”