Meanwhile, Bruce has spent most of the day in the lab.

He has nothing he needs to be doing in the lab, but, to be fair, he has nothing he needs to be doing outside the lab, so he might as well hang out in here for now.

He's flipped through a number of different projects. He's done some more research on the anti-hypnosis agent that Yelena brought. He did a little digging on Peter Parker's Spider-Man web fluid – which is very impressive for a high school student, he must admit. He's gone back and looked over some old projects – his brief studies of the scepter, for one; research into his own genetic makeup and the effects of his failed supersoldier serum, for another. He wouldn't say he's accomplished anything, really, but sometimes, it's nice to just sit back and study for the sake of studying.

It's getting late, but he's not all that tired, so instead of going to bed, he decides to take a look at some of Tony's latest projects. He's been working on designing a whole bunch of new rooms for the compound, and it will be interesting to see how far he's gotten on that. How long does he have to wait until they have their own movie theater? Their own bowling alley?

But then he stumbles on something else; something Bruce hasn't seen him working on before, but it looks like he's modified the file as recently as yesterday. Bruce isn't necessarily one to snoop on other people's private workings, but from the file name, he has a feeling he knows what it is, and he wants to take a look at it before Tony does something stupid with it.

So he opens up the file, and in front of him, a holographic image of an upgraded Spider-Man suit appears. Bruce furrows his brows. This is... interesting. It keeps the same color scheme as the red-and-blue homemade suit he wears now, but it's a whole new, very different take on it.

He zooms in on different parts, making mental notes of all the different features that Tony's added to it. An AI, obviously – one that comes with a training mode, it seems. It will be interesting to hear what exactly this 'training mode' consists of. The goggles are a good touch. It sounds like Peter really needs something to help him focus his senses like that.

"Hmm," Bruce hums thoughtfully. He exits out of the file and stands up. "FRIDAY? Where's Tony?" They should pick a day for Peter to come up to the compound – preferably after Tony walks him through the ins and outs of the suit and its capabilities.

"Mr. Stark is at the bar," FRIDAY replies. "He does not seem to want company right now."

Bruce furrows his brows. That's... weird. He seemed like he was in a pretty good mood while they spent the night researching the serum. Maybe he's just tired. They're getting a bit old to be pulling all-nighters. "Is he okay?"

"He's okay," FRIDAY assures him. "Just drinking himself into a stupor."

Bruce frowns. "I'm going to go check on him." Just to be safe. Just to stop him from wrecking permanent havoc on his liver.

So Bruce tidies up the lab, and then he's off on a little journey to check on his friend. He doesn't tend to take a lot of trips to the bar – it's a bit out of the way of everything else, and he suspects that's on purpose; that it's mostly there for parties, of which they have had a grand total of zero since they moved here.

When he reaches the bar, Tony, of course, is already there, sitting on a stool with his head on the countertop. There's an array of different drinks on the counter, but the glass next to Tony's head is empty, save the few drops on the bottom from his last drink.

Bruce knocks on the doorframe, just so he doesn't startle the guy. Tony doesn't even twitch. Bruce pauses, the corners of his lips turned downward in a frown, and after a pause, he cautiously approaches his friend, taking a seat on the stool next to him.

"Tony?" Bruce says uncertainly.

Tony turns his head toward him. His face is flushed; his eyes are red and unfocused. But before Bruce can say anything about it, Tony asks through slurred words, "Am I a bad person?"

Bruce furrows his brows. "Of course not," he says. Of course he's not a bad person. Where would he even get that idea? What in the world is going on with him?

"Of course you'd say that," Tony mumbles. "'Cause if I'm a bad person, then you're a bad person, too, and you're not gonna admit you're a bad person."

Bruce cocks his head to the side. He'd almost be insulted if it wasn't so incredibly clear that the guy is in the middle of a complete and total drunken mental breakdown. He wonders briefly if the alcohol caused the mental breakdown, or if the mental breakdown led him to down far too many drinks in one night.

"What's going on, Tony?" Bruce asks gently. He's not necessarily one to play therapist, but in a situation like this, he feels like he can – and probably should – lend an ear. It looks like the guy could use it.

Tony groans and brings his arms up on the bar, burying his head in them. "I hate the subjectivity of morality."

Bruce pauses.

"Is there... a reason for that?" he asks. Does one need a reason for that?

"I can't do anything right," Tony mumbles. "I suck at being a superhero, but I also suck at not being a superhero, 'cause what's the point of quitting half of it? I quit 'cause I wanted to stop hurting people, so instead, I decided to work in the lab and help the others hurt people in my place, 'cause that's so much better."

"Tony, no one's getting hurt," Bruce says.

"Ross begs to differ," Tony says. "Romanoff and Barton already tore apart Budapest – and right after we got the UN off our backs about the Accords. The optics are..." He groans and shakes his head to himself. "And I'm not just letting them do this; I'm helping them; I'm encouraging them. So anything that goes wrong is still on my head."

Bruce frowns. He's not wrong; that's the problem. They did help the others with this mission. They could have refused to reverse-engineer the antidote, and that may have been the end of it. The team wouldn't have tried to tackle the Red Room and all the Widows on such a big scale with just a handful of vials of the antidote to use.

He just... doesn't know how to explain that what they did was good. The world will be a better place without the Red Room in it – and this is something they couldn't give to someone else to handle. It had to be Natasha and her sister. No United Nations-sanctioned army has the knowledge or the capabilities to do this.

Tony sighs "Maybe I should've suited up and joined them. I mean, what kind of jackass just goes 'I figured out the problem. You guys have fun risking your lives for it'?"

"You're not a jackass for not wanting to fight anymore," Bruce tells him. "You did your time. You're allowed to stop."

"Well, I feel like a jackass," Tony mumbles. "I should've either suited up or stayed out of it, but no, I had to half-ass the fight and half-ass my retirement, 'cause I can't do either of those right, apparently."

Bruce is quiet for a moment; then, as an awkwardly lame attempt at a joke, "Well, if you half-assed both of them, you still used your whole ass."

Tony huffs at that.

"It's not too late to suit up and join them if you want to," Bruce tells him. At least, he's assuming it's not too late? It won't be too late until the Red Room is gone, he'd guess, and he'd like to think someone will call when that's done?

Tony lets out a long breath. "I already told Pepper I wasn't going to do this anymore."

Bruce nods in understanding. He doesn't want to do this anymore, either. He never wanted to do this, really – the fighting aspect, obviously; he doesn't mind the science side of it – but especially after the whole mess with the Accords, he really doesn't want to do this anymore. But that's easy for him to say. He didn't get here by fighting tooth and nail the way Tony did, and he's not giving up nearly as much as Tony is to stay out of it.

Finally, Bruce just asks, "Is there anything I can do? Can I get you something, or... I don't know, distract you, somehow?" If he can at least get him away from the alcohol, he'll consider it a success.

Tony sighs and lifts his head off his arms. "You wanna play Mario Kart?"

Bruce gives him a halfhearted smile. "Sure. I'll play Mario Kart with you." With his track record with the game, he could use the practice – and with how much Tony's had to drink, maybe he even has a chance at only coming in 11th place today.