Words are cheap, indeed - Bruce has never been one to take words for what they were. Far too long has he been tricked by words, things that can mean so many other things, one of the many tricks of the trade that people use and have used on Bruce to try and get what they want. Truthfully he hates them, sometimes.

He tenses even further when Tony leans in close, far too close, and Bruce wants to tell him to back off, please-- but then there's the brush of lips against his, gentle and barely there but it makes him pause anyway because--because he doesn't know how to respond to that. Inimancy is something that's been long gone from the list of things Bruce is good at, not that it ever had a lasting place at the start.

"Don't," he breathes out, trying to be rational, to be logical, but since when did anything logical apply to Tony Stark? Bruce squeezes his eyes shut and attempts to steel himself again, trying to hold himself together when he can feel a part of him wanting to splinter apart. "I know you're not."

Tony was never the problem, after all. He was.