That was devastating. Bruce could think of a few reasons why it happened. None of them excuses, just rational analysis. It came down to trust. Steve didn't trust that Tony wouldn't react badly, wouldn't try to hurt his friend. He didn't trust their friendship in comparison. Whatever trust had started to build, it wasn't enough. For Tony, that was devastating. He wanted to be trusted. Bruce didn't want to be trusted, personally. He didn't trust himself, he couldn't imagine asking others to. But it mattered to Tony, what the team thought, what the world thought, making a tangible difference, making up for his mistakes.

"Yeah, I don't know anyone who would handle it well. You were triggered by the situation and then by the video. Whoever his Zemo guy was, he was very astute. I wonder how he understood everyone's minds so well." A question that wouldn't be answered, but sometimes an outside view was capable of seeing what people close to it was not. You hit this pressure point and this one, and it explodes. Bruce was the last person to judge anyone for reacting badly in a situation. He literally tore through cities because of his poor anger management.

Bruce sighed and rubbed Tony's arms, trying to keep him in the moment, not lost to the memories. "So you fought them, the team split up, Cap and the others went on the run, and that's how things were until Thanos." He met up with them then. He told them they looked great, but they did look awful, just great in terms of him being glad to see their faces. "I get why it was hard to call him now." Bruce did instead. There wasn't time to ask questions, but it also was the end of the world. Bruce would have said as much even if he had context. Some things trumped personal issues. "That is all ... really fucking bad, and I'm kind of an expert on really fucking bad." He rarely swore, so when he did, there were good reasons.