Who: Bruce Banner and Darcy Lewis Where: Bruce’s apartment What: Dates with lasagne When: Saturday 24th August, night, 8pm Rating: TBD, likely low Open: No Status: Google doc / incomplete
Bruce fiddled around in the kitchen after putting an exhausted Jacob to bed with his favourite stuffed toy dinosaurs and bacterium plushies. Bruce himself had bought Jake a bed but there was only so much space and he needed to get the spare room cleared out to make a proper bedroom for his son. He thought even though the situation was probably only temporary, he had to make Jacob feel loved and safe and at home in the Tower. Darcy was another difficulty. Bruce knew why she was having trouble with adjusting to the fact she had a son here. He was sure she wasn’t intentionally avoiding him and now that she’d started to bond with Jacob, Bruce’s feelings for her were growing rapidly. Maybe it was just biology but there was something about seeing her hand-in-hand with Jacob that made Bruce want her more. He knew though that she was far too good for an old fool like him.
Still, he owed her after today so he pulled the homemade lasagne from the oven and set it in the middle of the dinner table. Jacob was long asleep from his big day out and Bruce had set the dinner table for him and Darcy to enjoy dinner in peace with a bottle of wine. “There. Hope you like a lot of cheese. I used whatever I had left.” he chuckled.
-----
Darcy had, surprisingly, stay quiet and in the background while Bruce went through the night time routine with Jacob. She wasn’t familiar with it and even though things hadn’t been disastrous on her outing with the little boy, she didn’t even really know what Jacob would have wanted or needed so she was fine to watch.
Once he had gone to sleep - much faster than she’d expected - Darcy was a little relieved. She really hadn’t done terribly and Bruce wasn’t rushing her away for being too talkative or annoying yet. All and all the day so far seemed like a bit of a win. She just hoped she could make it through dinner the same. “‘Course, cheese is like….cheese. Never too much.”
-----
Bruce chuckled and cut a couple of portions from the scorching hot dish, burning his fingers as a string of mozzarella stretched out from the pan. He sucked his singed fingertip into his mouth and slid the slice of pasta bake onto Darcy’s plate. He’d made a quick salad to go with it too but he didn’t figure her much for a salad girl. “Here, be careful.” He plated up his own portion and sat down at the table, “It’s really hot.”
The wine was poured and he was a little nervous as to what she thought of his cooking. He could make Indian food like a dream but with most other stuff he wasn’t that great. Bruce had a tendency to put too much weird stuff into things to give them more flavour and the less said about his baking, the better. “So, how was the park? Bad as you thought?” he chuckled and sipped his wine before taking a bite.
-----
Darcy couldn’t help watching him, probably a little too focused on his hands and especially on his finger as he sucked on it. She squirmed a little bit once she realized she was staring and just waited for her food.
“Terrifying.” she mumbled around a bit of food, blushing when she realized she’d both spoken with her mouth full and said it without thinking. She swallowed and sighed, “I mean uh, he was great, taught me how to hang upside down on the monkey bars. But then he was hanging upside down on the monkey bars so that was kind of...heart-attacky.” she rambled a little bit, taking a few bites of the salad too. She’d eat just about anything so his cooking didn’t bother her at all and as long as she wasn’t expected to rely on salad for her whole meal she was fine with that too. “So uh...do work while we were gone?”
-----
Bruce ate his dinner and listened to her, smiling inside as she started rambling. It was adorable that she thought she wasn’t motherly when being terrified for a child hurting themselves was probably the most motherly thing possible. “I wouldn’t worry too much about the monkey bars, Darce. I get terrified when he uses the step ladder to see to brush his teeth in the morning. It’s just a thing.” he sipped his wine and served himself some salad.
“I got a little work done, made dinner…” he waved off with his hand, looking at her intently for a second. Her demeanour was a little intense too and he could feel the tension between them but he wasn’t sure if it was good or bad. “Thanks for not getting him killed though.”
-----
She blushed under his gaze, always feeling a little young and a little naive when he stared at her like that. She knew how brilliant he was, knew he’d been through more than she’d probably ever know, so it was hard for her at times, not to feel a little small, insignificant around him. She quirked her mouth into half a smile, sipping her wine too. “I still give him most of the credit there.” she told him, shrugging a bit. “Thanks for making dinner.”
-----
Bruce shook his head again, “Don’t mention it. Least I could do after you took care of him. I think he really likes you, even though it’s confusing for him.” He ate some more of his dinner and thought. His eyes raked over the curve of her jaw and her pink lips. Bruce shouldn’t be having those kinds of thoughts, ever, about her. She was innocent and young and he was old and broken. He’d just drag her down to his level and kill the spark of life inside her when she saw what he really was. “How are you, Darcy? I’m sorry I forget to ask sometimes.”
-----
“Well, he didn’t tell me to stop talking or leave him alone all afternoon so...usually good signs with me.” She shrugged, still wrapping her brain around the fact that she suddenly had a six year old son who was kind of already smarter than she was. She shrugged again at his question, honestly not sure how she was most of the time. “I’m okay I guess.” she told him, taking another bite of food to give her a moment to think so she wouldn’t blurt out too much, too fast. “I mean, I’m still not sure if this place isn’t just some weird dream or something, but I usually have more friends in my dreams so...I dunno. I’m just really weirded out a lot of the time.” she bit her lip for a second then looked up at him. “You?”
-----
“Freaked out a lot of the time.” he took a breath and ran his fingers through his hair. “I can’t do as much damage here, which is a relief, but it’s also isolated from the world I knew. My thesis can’t just be published for Tony to read.” Bruce chuckled. “I think you’re doing good, Darcy. Better than most do.” he said softly, wanting to note he was proud of her for stepping up to the plate. “Okay, so it’s an adjustment, sure…” he shrugged, “But there’s good people here. They help each other and we help them. I never thought I’d get to have a son, Darcy. I always thought it was out of the question since the accident.”
-----
“Couldn’t you just like...make him read it?” She asked, one eyebrow peaked up a little. She looked back to her food and took a few more bites with his compliment, she’d been taught early enough not to fight it when someone gave her praise but most of the time she still didn’t think she deserved it and knew how to respond even less so she just distracted herself briefly and jumped on to the next subject as quickly as she could. “Why not? I mean, it’s not genetic is it?”
-----
He pushed the food around his plate, tilting his head, “Nobody but Pepper handed things to Tony. He’s an engineer, anyway. Physics and biology is my forté.” Bruce longed for his properly equipped lab, for his test samples and findings. He loved science almost as much as his own son. He saw Darcy almost blush as he complimented her and found it adorable how she quietened up. “The tests say it’s not but sometimes you daren’t believe it until it happens. I hope Jacob is proof of those genetic tests. Like, Steve’s enhancements are genetic: his children will be half superhuman, that’s for certain but my changes are more dramatic. It’s cellular but not genetic? I’m not even sure if it’s truly possible but then there’s Jacob and he’s perfect, Darce. So perfect.” he said in a rambling rush.