I think I need another "Let's see here..." thread.

[Zphal]

Tony blinked, bamboozled. "Never ever? Like, not even college? Cuz my old man won't get off my back about that. Says I have to get a higher education. What're those hoidy-toidy profs gonna do? Bore me to death too?" The teen gave an exasperated huff; that wasn't the half of it. "Still..." he mused, "I'm surprised. You test out or get a GED or what? I know school's as big a waste of time for you as it is me." He opened the door of the restaurant and held it for Bruce to go in first.

Bruce shrugged, " I was kinda taking online college courses all trough high school so I could just be done." he said smiling slightly, “I get my doctorate in may."  

[Zphal]

Tony stood there with his mouth open shell-shocked for a good three seconds. "What kind of 'doctorate' are you getting? You'd have to have a thesis, and like, a thesis committee and whatever else to get a doctoral degree. I mean," he laughed, "plenty of university's'll give out honorary bachelor's-- I could probably qualify for a few with the data I just got today, if I wanted. Er... if the data was complete, that is..." He was still kicking himself for installing a crummy signal device.

Bruce smiled cautiously, “Nuclear Physics, I didn’t mention it before because the way I was working I wasn’t set to be done until two years after we graduated from high school, so I didn’t think it was too important. But yeah, thesis is done, its based off of select individuals who have come in contact with Nuclear waste or explosions and gained specific unexplainable attributes." Bruce smiled, “the committee just has to review my thesis and then I’ll be Doctor Bruce Banner."  

[Zphal]

"Where the Hell were you the last few months...?" Tony muttered under his breath. He felt resentment and indignation bubbling up inside him as they entered the restaurant together. "Well congrats," he said shortly. He wasn't trying to be an a*****e. But Tony could only imagine how proud his father would be if he were as much of an achiever as his friend. Hell, even if he were /half/ the achiever Bruce was, the old man would be happy. His stomach churned. "I gotta go... I'll be back," he motioned at the back of the building, not saying what it was he had to go do before rushing off to the bathroom. He beelined for a stall, slamming and locking the door after himself.

Bruce frowned, sitting there a minute debating on if he should follow Tony or not. He sighed, walking into the bathroom and resting his hand against the door. “Tony..Bab-… Dude," he said correcting himself before he slipped up and called Tony babe. He didn’t want to get punched thank you very much, and Tony seemed pissed. “talk to me… What’s going on?"  

[Zphal]

"Jesus, Bruce, can't a guy take a piss?" Tony grumbled back, not having expected the other teen to follow him in. "Nothing's 'going on', okay? It's not like my dad's been pressuring me to pick a college the last year. Or like I took all the acceptance letters I got in the mail and shredded them. And it's /definitely/ not like I set up a bank account so I could transfer the money my dad put in my college fund to fake that I'll actually be attending somewhere in the fall!" As soon as he'd said it, he slapped both palms across his mouth; he hadn't told a soul about his plan and now it had just slipped out.

Bruce frowned, “hey… Your dad is an idiot." he said honestly, “you could get into any college in the world and they’d be lucky to have you… But if you don’t want to go then don’t." he sighed " you are the smartest person I’ve ever met and if your dad doesn’t see that… He’s pretty darn dumb" Bruce frowned “will you just… Can you come out here and talk to me. You don’t even have to talk if you don’t want id just really like to give you a hug if that’s okay."  

[Zphal]

Tony leaned his head back against the stall door, hugging his own arms. He eyed the lock momentarily, considering taking Bruce up on that, before he winced his eyes tightly shut as he tried to get ahold of the panic now flowing through him. If others found out and word got around... "Please don't tell anyone. I gotta do this."

"who am I gonna tell" Bruce said with a hesitant laugh, “you’re my only friend in the world." he frowned letting his hand fall off the stall door to his side. “do you need any water? Panic always makes my throat scratchy"  

[Zphal]

Tony took a few steadying deep breaths; gradually his nausea was subsiding... he was fairly certain that he wasn't going to puke now. He unlocked the door and emerged. "Hi," he greeted the boy on the other side shyly. "Thanks. I'm okay now."

Bruce smiled wrapping his arms around Tony tightly. “its your life… Do what you want to do, and if you don’t know yet, do whatever feels right."  

[Zphal]

Tony accepted the hug, squeezing back. "I know, it's just... if my Pop finds out..." the boy shook his head. There'd be plenty of time to iron-out the details later, and that included worrying about getting caught. For now it was nice to know he had someone on his side, supporting his decisions and willing to keep his secret. "Let's go actually eat now. I've got you covered," Tony said, pulling out his wallet as they exited the bathroom.

Bruce nodded, “so, food." he said trying to change the subject subtely. “what’s good here?"  

[Zphal]

"Well see, that's the cool thing about most Mongolian joints," Tony said as he handed over a twenty to the cashier. "They give you a bowl and you walk down the buffet line, see, right there?" Tony pointed, "And you pick out which ingredients you want and how much. So like, I remember you don't eat meat except chicken or whatev. So just skip the beef and pork and stuff. Once you have what'cha want, the guy at that giant round grill cooks it for ya. C'mon!" He tugged Bruce's arm excitedly as they were given their bowls, heading straight for the pork, zucchini, mushrooms, and onions, proceeding to heap noodles on top of it all, along with sauce.

Bruce smiled, eyeing the display in front of them carefully spooning small portions of a few things that looked good into his bowl, topping it with noodles and following Tony. “so, what’s been new with you?"  

[Zphal]

At long last, Tony felt a smirk pull across his face. "Besides Palladium-core rockets? I've been teaching DUM-E how to play drums-- you should'a seen what he did to my original drumkit; I had to re-program his sensitivity. And U, that's his little brother, I built him this year and he's a big improvement, lemme tell you, I've been teachin' him bass." Tony nodded, seeming very pleased talking about his creations. "They weren't too good at first, but they've really improved. You oughta hear 'em!"

Bruce laughed, “leave it to you to make a robot band." he said taking his fingers trough his hair, “what kind of music?"  

[Zphal]

"Where else am I gonna find band members willing to play along with me?" Tony grinned through the joke, handing his bowl off to the chef, who began to stir his meal on the grill with a wooden stick. Tony licked his lips at the sight of steam wafting up. "We play mostly hard rock," he answered. "But we take requests." He winked.

Bruce grinned, so maybe he hasn’t screwed up this… Whatever this was as bad as he thought he had. Had this been a date it might even be going okay. Except it wasn’t a date… Right? “you know I listen to whatever." he said handing his food to the chef.  

[Zphal]

Soon they were both being handed back their freshly-cooked food. Tony scouted out an empty table for two to sit at. "So, does that mean you wanna come back to my place later?" he asked, looking at Bruce hopefully as he broke his chopsticks into separate sticks.

Bruce choked on the noodle he had just shoved in his mouth. “uh—" he coughed"sure why not." he said trying to convince himself that just because he wanted it to be a pickup line didn’t mean it was.  

[Zphal]

"Cool cool," Tony bobbed his head with a smile, chowing down on his meal. "So, what'cha think? Good, huh?"

Bruce nodded,"delicious" he said after chewing his food and swallowing. “almost as good as cake."  

[Zphal]

"Aw maaan, cake sounds uhh-MAZING right now!" Tony's eyes went wide. "We should totally grab dessert on the way back to my place." If possible, he began to scarf down his noodle dish faster.

Bruce grinned," cake might be my favorite food in the entire world" he said, calmly chewing his broccoli.  

[Zphal]

"Mm," Tony made the noise with his mouth full, nodding. He finished off his meal with a final slurp of noodle and pushed the empty bowl away from himself. "Waitin' on you then, Brucie," he grinned, poking the other boy on the nose with his chopstick.

Bruce laughed, “well excuse me for actually chewing my food." he quipped taking another bite.  

[Zphal]

"You're excused," Tony joked back, giving the other teen a light kick under the table. He leaned over to spy into Bruce's bowl to see how much food was left in it.

Bruce kicked at him lightly under the table, “hold your horses, Mr. Impatient." he laughed taking another measured bite, “I’m almost finished"