Who: Bruce Banner, Betty Ross When: Friday, June 1, as the Summer Ball winds down. Where: Starts out at Maresh Palace, but mostly on the streets of Tumbleweed What: Bruce walks Betty home and the relationship is among the topics of discussion. Warnings: Low Status: Complete in Gdocs
It was getting late and Betty wanted to get home. It was the weekend, so there wasn’t any school the next day. But she still had a routine. At first, Betty didn’t know how to tell Bruce she wanted to leave, she didn’t want him to think she expected him to leave with her. She had a good enough sense of direction she could find her way back to her apartment. She would have to take off these heels first, though.
Betty had lost sight of Bruce. She finally found him talking to an attractive young man who went by the name of Rick. She appeared behind Rick and he caught her in his eye and excused himself.
Betty took a step forward to Bruce. “I’m going to head home. It was nice. The dancing… it was nice.”
From the expression on Betty’s face, he could tell she wanted to tell him something, so he patted Rick on the arm and said to him, “Hey, I’ll catch you later. Text me, okay?” He flashed a smile and went over to to where Betty stood. There were women at the ball who were dressed much more glamorously, with fancy gowns and jewelry, but for Bruce, Betty’s unstated beauty won, hands down.
The first thing Bruce did when she told him she was leaving was to check his wristwatch. “Oh yeah,” he said, “It is getting a little late.” He then looked up at her and his face fell - even though they hadn’t been hanging out together the whole time, Bruce was disappointed for it to end. He scratched the side of his face and asked, “How are you getting home? There aren’t many taxis in town, but I can call for an Uber? Or else…” he paused, taking a gamble with the suggestion, “The weather’s nice out tonight. Maybe I can walk you home? Do you live far from here?”
Betty was holding a clutch (which made her feel naked from not having her huge saddlebag of a purse) and she held it to her chest when he suggested walking her home. “Oh, I live one council over.” She watched him for a moment, trying to be cool about asking her for more time. It reminded her of when they first started to date-- except he had more confidence back then. This Bruce was skittish and she didn’t miss Ballsy Bruce as much, but timid Bruce made her sad.
“We can do that. If you don’t mind leaving?” In her heels, she towered over him, being just about two inches taller than him in sneakers. She reached down and pulled the shoes off, not caring about how gross it would be to traipse through the streets in bare feet.
Did he mind leaving? Bruce looked over his shoulder and around the room they were in; the crowd was thinning down and the evening’s fun was drawing to a close. And as wonderful as it had been, chatting with friends, eating amazingly prepared food, and even dancing a couple of times, it wouldn’t be as nice knowing Betty wasn’t around.
If asked, Bruce would’ve said that ‘Ballsy Bruce’ had the crap kicked out of him by the Hulk, but it was more to the point that this brash and arrogant part of his personality had filtered into Hulk’s consciousness, making it his own, along with all the bottled up anger and resentments Bruce had kept below the surface. Bruce slid his hands into the pockets of his trousers and told Betty, “Yeah, it’s okay. I ought to be heading out, myself. There’s that party for Tony’s birthday, tomorrow, and I said I’d help out.”
The way Betty removed and held her shoe brought a smile to his face - how refreshingly practical and unpresumptuous of her! This was part of her personality that he always found attractive. “Come on, Cinderella,” he joked, giving a playful nod at her shoes, “Let’s go before I turn into a pumpkin.”
The shoes were strappy and she was able to loop her first few fingers around one of said straps. Betty was already padding towards the door, swinging the shoes at her side. She let out a heavy sigh, “Your metaphor is flawed, Banner.” She grinned at him even still, and escaped out the door she once came through.
Once in the night air, she took a deep breath. Many things were the factor of this: a lot of people, an uncomfortable dress, and Bruce fucking Banner’s presence in her life again. “I wish it felt like this year round. Sunny and warm during the day, cool at night” She was babbling, unsure of what to say to him.
“I wouldn’t say that,” Bruce teased about his metaphor. “A big, green pumpkin? And, instead of smashing pumpkins, it’ll be the pumpkin that smashes.” Bruce thought he was being clever, and this sort of teasing helped to reduce the awkwardness that he still shared between him and Betty.
Actually, Bruce was a bit surprised that she agreed to let him walk her home. The streets of Tumbleweed were pretty safe, even at night, and Betty was capable of taking care of herself, so there wasn’t really any need for him to accompany her… except that maybe she wanted his company. In which case, Bruce considered there still might be hope for a relationship? Or was that wishful thinking on his part?
“Have you ever been to Texas before?” he asked. “I was given an offer for a full scholarship at Rice University in Houston, so I came for a visit, even though I’d already decided I was going to Harvard. I just wanted to travel before starting my education.”
She merely smirked at his PUMPKIN SMASH! Joke. “You’re hilarious.” Back in the day, she would have giggled and gave him a dreamy look. She was kind of happy she was free of love for him. Betty was tied to it for too long.
“I lived in Houston for a little bit. Military brat,” she said while tapping her chest. “That was the lonliest and hottest summer of my life.” She didn’t want to go into it, but it was within the first year of her mother dying.
“Rice University. Yeah, Harvard was the better choice,” she said with a smile. “So, Bruce, what have you been doing since The Battle of New York?”
Bruce knew from when they knew each other and were dating before about her life, including her mother’s death at an early age, and how as a child she would travel from military base to military base with her father, the general. Bringing up these topics would be a total mood killer, so Bruce thought it best to avoid them. “I can guarantee Tumbleweed’s going to be hot, but hopefully not as boring.” He flashed a smile to show that he was trying to keep the conversation light, and hopefully this worked. “This is my first time in this town, too. When the portal brought me through, we were on that cruise ship. Has anybody mentioned that to you, before? Going to different, fictional ports of call?”
Since the Battle of New York? Bruce slid his hands into the pockets of his trousers as he continued to stroll beside Betty. “Well,” he began, thoughtfully. “There was a lot of publicity, as you can imagine. I managed to avoid most of it, but when you’re around Tony Stark, it’s inevitable. Because of the Other Guy’s participation in the Battle, the army agreed to back off me, and I started to work in the R & D division of SHIELD, in addition to the projects I was tinkering on with Tony, at Avenger’s Tower. Uhhhh… I was invited to lecture at a handful of major universities, and I helped establish a hospital for the underprivileged in Calcutta.” He tried not to sound like he was bragging, especially with that last achievement. “I started building up my credibility again, in the science community. Oh.” As an afterthought, Bruce added, “And the Avengers went on missions to help take down HYDRA.” He glanced at Betty and realized this might be before her time, so he elaborated, “After it was discovered they’d infiltrated SHIELD.”
Betty looked up into the night sky for a moment and moved her lips. As if she were asking her mother to keep her calm. “I didn’t contact you… after the battle. I thought you would contact me when you were ready. You seemed happy. I thought all I’d bring is my father’s attention.” She switched hands between her shoes and her clutch, still padding along the sidewalk. Betty hoped there wasn’t any broken glass coming up. Hopefully Tumbleweed was clean.
“So you became an Avenger.” A team of special people to protect the world. Of course Bruce would find a way to make the Hulk useful. She just regretted that she wasn’t part of that. Not part of Bruce’s life, but a part of the Hulk’s major debut. She helped create the thing.
“Anything else I should know about, since we’re being open and honest about our lives?”
“That was probably for the best,” he muttered. “Even though my ass was covered by SHIELD, your dad did took every chance he could to make my life miserable. Mostly petty things, like withholding information or cooperation with the projects I was working on, but he was just waiting for me to slip up so he could crack down on me with a big fat, I told you he was a menace.” He gave a halfhearted shrug. “In the end, he turned out to be right.”
Bruce shot her a sheepish glance, then looked away. “I was stalking you on social media.” He grimaced because he knew how bad this confession sounded. “It sounds creepy, but I didn’t mean to. You had a Facebook account, and your name automatically popped up as somebody I might want to Friend, and so I… uhhhh, so I clicked to see what you were doing. You do pretty good for yourself, in the future. You become a highly recognized and esteemed leader in the area of Cellular Biology.”
Betty made a face. She felt a little betrayed, but in this day and age, Facebook stalking seemed tame. She didn’t mention that her relationship status never changed from Single since Leonard.
“Yeah, yeah. No one knows I helped with the Hulk though, so that’s a secret. I’m sure I’d be getting a lot more papers published if people knew that.” She didn’t sound bitter, she wasn’t even sure if she wanted people to know about that. “I’m happy just teaching. I like it.”
The expression Betty made was noted by Bruce, who immediately felt even more guilty. Betty’s relationship status was one of the first things he naturally looked for at the time, and he noticed she was still ‘single’, but cold feet prevented him from messaging her to find out how she was doing. The thought that they were both interested in reaching out to each other but did nothing to actually do it made Bruce realize the opportunity that was lost, and how special this chance was that they had in Tumbleweed.
“I always knew you’d make a great teacher,” he blurted out. That’s because she was a great student. “Did you, uhhh… get that job? The one you were running off to get to the interview?” He was referring to the time they met to chat at Starbucks.
Betty nodded, “I got the job. It’s Biology, they had an opening. I wanted to do something a little more specific, but that’s fine.” She watched him as he walked, and nudged him with her shoulder. “Of course I got the job, what a silly question. I thought you were smart.” A small smirk curled onto her lips and she looked down at her feet. Still no rocks or broken glass. Her toenails were painted blue.
“Bruce, I don’t want you to use me as a way to get your old life back. If you want me to be in your life, I want it to be for me. Can you promise that?”
Bruce couldn’t help but chuckle when she nudged him, exaggerating his reaction by pretending to stumble and rubbing his shoulder. “Ow!” he laughed, then said, “Something better will come up later, just see. There’s nothing tethering any of us to Tumbleweed, so even if it’s away, you ought to take advantage of it.” He noticed how Betty was looking down and so he followed her line of sight to her feet. Bruce didn’t like the idea of her walking barefoot, but short of carrying her, there wasn’t much he could do. “I could bring out the Other Guy to carry you,” he suggested, not really meaning it, “but that might draw too much attention.”
What Betty said next wiped the smile from Bruce’s face and caused him to become introspective. He took a deep breath and breathed it out through his nostrils, then told her, “I can’t help but be nostalgic when I’m around you. It reminds me of simpler times. And though I wish I could go back, I know it’s not possible. Too much has happened.” He paused to scowl just a little to think about their missed opportunities. “But, I can promise you that,” he reached out and took Betty’s hand to give it a reassuring squeeze. “Moving forward, from this point onward.”
Instead of letting go, Bruce kept holding on, lightly, giving Betty a chance to break contact if she wanted. To distract them, Bruce’s lighthearted mood returned, “I have no idea where we are. I haven’t been in this part of town, before.”
Betty shook her head, “No no, don’t bring out Hulk for me. He might not recognize me after all this time and squish me.” She didn’t know about his short lived ‘thing’ with Natasha or how the Hulk recognized her after two years. She gave him a silly little smile, hoping he’d know she was joking. Bruce or the Hulk would never hurt her. Betty was sure of it.
She nodded sadly, “Yeah, too much has happened. Moving forward, yes. Know me now, not what you remember of me.” She let him take her hand, and even linked fingers with him. It was innocent-- they were old friends.
“Oh, I’m right up here,” she pointed with the hand holding her strappy shoes. “I can see my place from here,” she reassured him.
“Cool, that’s great. That wasn’t so far at all.” Bruce was glad because it meant Betty wouldn’t have to walk barefoot much longer, but at the same time she was holding his hand, and he didn’t want that to end. This was ridiculous - Bruce’s heart beat fast and he felt light headed, but in a remarkable way, like he was young again. That’s when he realized he was still head over heels for Betty. And while he promised her he wouldn’t try to relive their past, be decided that he’d do whatever it took to let Betty know he was serious this time. And if that meant regaining her trust, so be it.
“Still coming to the Tony birthday party tomorrow?” he asked, hopefully. “You’ll be able to check out where I’m living, and hey! More free food!”
“I’ll be there,” she said with a slight tone of persistence. She squeezed his hand to make sure he knew she was only being Slightly Annoyed with him. When he first came back to her, after the first Hulk incident, he was much softer. Eager to please. He wasn’t always like that. But that was okay, she didn’t mind the slight change. Bruce was still there.
They reached her door a few moments later and she slipped her fingers out of his. She fumbled with her clutch to get a key with no keychain out of it and turned to look at him. “Thanks, Bruce. I’m sorry.” Someone was going to get hurt in this, she thought. She hoped it wasn’t her. “I’m sorry I didn’t get into contact with you. We’re here now, though.”
Bruce didn’t really want to Betty to go inside her apartment, and it did didn’t feel right to ask her if he could come in with her for a drink this soon. But to know that he’d be seeing her tomorrow made the sting of separation a little easier to take. He watched her fumble with her clutch with a wry smirk, which disappeared with her apology. Bruce momentarily hung his head and nodded slowly. “I’m sorry I didn’t, too.” It wasn’t the first time he told her this, and definitely not the first time he felt like this, but it didn’t make his statement any less poignant. “Let’s uhhh… let’s just take it from here and see how it goes? People are coming and going from Tumbleweed all the time,” and the inference was that either of them could disappear at any given moment. “Let’s just make the most of what we got, and see how it goes.”
Giving Betty a look with his puppy dog eyes, he mustered enough courage to quickly lean forward to give her a quick kiss upon her cheek. Hopefully, that wasn’t being too presumptuous, he thought, as Bruce backed away slowly, still looking at her and shrugging his shoulders as if to say I couldn’t help myself. “Good night, Betty.”
Betty smirked and in a sing-song voice, said, “Good night, Bruce.” And she disappeared into her apartment building.