"True," Kae agreed, starting to work on dinner. "Let's see, everyone's back, so I'll need food for all of us. Plus about five extra servings for Thor and Steve. I think I'm going to make a few things."

"You do that," Elaine said absently, going over a few things in her head. "Yell if you need extra hands."

"Will do." Kae waved Elaine off, seeing as she was distracted, and went back to cooking.

Elaine made her way out of the kitchen, going over some things in her head. She would give Tony a few days to wrap his head around things, and if he didn't do anything by then, she would do something herself.

Kae had dinner ready a little later than normal, and she went to go see if Tony would come up to dinner. He did, albeit reluctantly, to grab some food.

Elaine glanced over when she saw Tony come upstairs, and then went back to her pondering.

The tension at dinner was very easy to sense, although nobody explicitly said anything about it.

Tony ate his dinner quickly before retreating to his lab again, getting back to work.

Kae sighed when he left but didn't say anything.

Elaine watched him go as well, but didn't follow. Tony would brood no matter what anyone said, right now. Getting up from the table, she put her plate in the sink and went to settle on the couch.

Kae cleaned up after dinner quietly, letting everyone else drift off on their own while she did dishes.

Bruce stayed behind to help Kae with the dishes.

"What's going on?" he asked quietly.

"Tony found out some personal things," Kae said carefully. "That he's not too happy about knowing. He's sulking."

"Must have been something really shocking," Bruce observed. "He hasn't bounced back like he usually does after working with his bots for a while."

"Elaine also denied him alcohol. I'm sure he thinks he's not nearly drunk enough to deal with this." Kae shook her head. "Honestly, I think he'd be better off being drunk for a little while and getting over it like he usually does."

"Physically, it's healthier for him not to have the alcohol," Bruce pointed out. "What surprises me is that he let her take it. He has to have a small liquor store hidden all over the tower, there's no way for her to have confiscated it all."

"Maybe he was just waiting for her to be gone," Kae said with a shrug. "And you really want to make him go cold turkey on his liquor?"

"It's impossible for that to happen," Bruce said. "If it could, Pepper would have already managed it."

Kae nodded. "Well, it'll be easier for us if he just drinks the night away, has a hangover tomorrow, and works through everything on his own."

"I'll go and check on him later," Bruce said. "If he's drunk himself unconscious, I'll let you know."

"Please do," Kae said mildly, setting the now-clean dishes out to dry. "So I can come help get something into him."

"Alright," Bruce said, nodding.

Kae finished with the dishes and sighed, rubbing her forehead briefly. "Damn, a drink actually sounds kind of nice right now."

"Go ahead," Bruce commented. "I doubt you'll try to drink yourself into the floor like Tony does."

Kae shot him a brief grin and floated over a bottle of rum for herself, getting some apple juice out of the fridge and mixing a drink.

Bruce couldn't help but grin a bit.

"You're getting good at that," he commented.

Kae grinned. "Like I said, I've been practicing. I mean I couldn't not practice; the Professor would kill me. Or at least lecture me very sternly."