Dr Bruce Banner (docbrucebanner) wrote in thedisplaced, @ 2018-02-21 13:05:00 |
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Entry tags: | !log/thread, bruce banner / hulk (mcu), natasha romanoff / black widow (mcu) |
Who: Bruce Banner and Natasha Romanoff
When: Backdated - February 13 - After Hulk/Bruce's arrival, not long after this exchange
Where: Medical bay, in the cruise ship
What: Natasha first speaks to Hulk, then Bruce
Rating: PG-13?
Status: Complete in gdocs
The room was definitely not created with the Hulk in mind: his gigantic form took up a good portion of the space, and the ceiling was far too low for him to stand. All he could do was sit on the bed, which instantly flattened under his weight. The longer he waited, the more irritable he became, and the tablet that the ‘robot ghosts’ had given him (which fit into the palm of his hand like a pocket calculator would to any normal sized person) was only agitating him even more with people telling him things that he didn’t understand. It made him feel stupid, and he hated that feeling. Hulk was not slow! And he’d fight anybody who even suggested it.
When the door opened, Hulk’s head sharply turned in that direction, and upon recognizing who it was, his angry features softened for a moment. But only for a moment, because it was quickly replaced with a deep scowl and a frustrated huff as he turned away.
“Stupid machine,” his deep voice rumbled, taking his aggression out on the tablet, tossing it aside, though not at Natasha. It hit the opposite wall, clattered against the floor. Did it break? Hulk could care less. He drew his knees up against his chest and rested his mighty arms there, staring at the blank wall. “What do you want?”
It didn't surprise Natasha that the Hulk could speak more than he had before. If what Thor said was true, that the big guy was stuck like this for a year or more, then it made sense. Eventually, he would learn too. Someone had given the big green guy a haircut. How the hell had that happened?
Natasha smiled just a little while formulating her strategy. If he wasn't going to look at her, then she was going to have to talk a bit more to get him to trust her. Even if it was just for a moment.
"Saw you on the network and thought I'd come down and say hi. It's been a while."
The Hulk’s vocabulary had developed during the last two years, as did his his mental facility, but he still had trouble articulating what he felt. And right now, with Natasha in the room, he felt pain. Not the sort of pain he experienced when Thor struck him in the gladiatorial ring, or when the Grandmaster zapped him with that tethering device that kept him from escaping after he’d first arrived on Sakaar. But an inside pain that he couldn’t shake off, much less explain. Instead, it made him more upset.
“Hrmph,” the Hulk grunted, squaring his shoulders while turning further away from Natasha. “You said hi. Now you can leave.” Hulk then suddenly blurted out, “You make Hulk leave, and Hulk does not want to go.” This wasn’t exactly the problem, but it was something more concrete that he could latch onto.
"You know I'm not going to leave, big guy, so you may as well turn around and face me." She still didn't completely trust the other guy. Reasoning with him had gotten easier since the lullabye, but if he was refusing, then there was a whole lot of danger to deal with.
At least he wasn't smashing everything in his path, but she couldn't guarantee that would continue.
"Come on. Let me look at that new haircut of yours."
The sound of Natasha’s voice had a calming effect - Hulk had been trained by Banner to respond that way, and although she could not see, his facial features softened, as did his heart. But then… Banner! The thought of puny Banner, weak, stupid, always trying to keep him down, always forcing him to sleep, made Hulk angry all over again. His eyebrows furrowed, and he scowled deeply. This was to help fortify himself against any trick Natasha might use on him to get him to leave. So, when he quickly swung around to face her with a snarl, he thought he was ready to fight… not with his fists, but by the force of his will.
The boat rocked a little more than she'd like with that turn, but she'd been trained to withstand a whole lot more. For this to work, she couldn't be timid or quick to run. She had to stand here, confident and gentle. Almost tender even. Natasha knew that was what had drawn her to Banner in the first place. This misunderstood scientist who had a seething rage beneath everything he did. They weren't heroes like Roger or Thor or even Clint. Banner and Stark and Natasha all had histories they'd like to atone for.
"You've been working out," she commented, making a note of that in her head. Stronger other guy, might be something to talk with the others about. "How'd the fighting go?"
Unlike Thor’s methodology, Natasha didn’t start immediately with the lullaby, which went in her favor. Hulk had anticipated she would, but when she led with topics that were of interest to him, it caught him a little off guard. Still suspicious, he narrowed his eyes at her. “Hulk fight giant wolf on pretty colored bridge. Wolf was five times the size of Hulk, but Hulk still win. Killed wolf and helped Thor’s people.” As he continued, he started to get more enthusiastic. “Then giant fire monster appear, and Hulk wanted to fight him, too!” Disappointment crept in when he told her, “But Thor said no. Needed to leave.” Hulk was convinced he would’ve been able to stop the fire monster, too.
"Sounds like you guys had a hell of a time without us." Natasha had moved on with her life, but that didn't mean the sting of being abandoned had really lessened. She'd never really discussed it with Banner when he'd been around before, both of them preferring to pretend as if it never happened. She was alright with that game, but each time he showed up, it was like having a flare-up. "We had a big fight, all of the Avengers. It wasn't pretty. I had to go on the run."
“Who fought Avengers?” Hulk demanded to know, assuming the enemy was HYDRA or some other bad group or person. Immediately, his protective instincts arose. “If Hulk was around, you wouldn’t have to run. Hulk would’ve crushed them!”
"No, big guy. We fought ourselves." It had never been Natasha's intention to let it get as far as it did. As Clint once stated: she was a spy, not a soldier. Following rules and orders had wiggle room to her, and outright combat and infighting among the people she trusted had shaken her. "People wanted to tell us who to fight, where to fight, and when to fight. They said we couldn't do it if we didn't have supervision. Some of us agreed, some of us disagreed. Then someone from … Sokovia… set us up to destroy ourselves from the inside."
And it worked. Boy, had it worked. That stung more than anything else.
Hulk’s confusion registered on his face. “Don’t... understand.” Sure, there were sometimes disagreements, and Tony might get frustrated at, say, Steve and make some cutting joke, but the idea that the Avengers actually fought one another just didn’t make sense. “Avengers are a team. Avengers are…. friends.” He lowered his head, his anger giving way to sadness. It didn’t matter why they fought as much as they did
You had to catch the other guy in a quiet moment for this to work, and Natasha saw her opening. Her voice was soft, hopefully soothing to the other guy when she said, "Sun's getting real low."
Before Hulk’s sadness could give way to anger toward the person who Natasha said had set the Avengers up to destroy themselves, was the perfect opportunity for her to use the lullaby. Hulk’s thoughts were too wrapped up to even realize what she was doing, and unconsciously (or to be more exact, it was Bruce’s consciousness pulling through), Hulk lifted his hand out toward Natasha for her to touch.
A small set of touches on his hand finished the lullabye. Now she just had to wait and see if Banner would come out. If he didn't, well, she was going to need to start running and hope the ship tried to protect her the way it had protected others during the Atlantis attack. She gave the other guy a small, crooked smile, whispering, "Thank you."
Hulk looked up at Natasha and the expression in his eyes were tender - they no longer reflected the Hulk, but had shifted into Bruce, signaling the change had begun. All of a sudden, the Hulk’s gigantic form convulsed. There wasn’t anywhere for him to go except to roll on his side, writhing. The transformation to and from the Hulk was always traumatic, but turning into Bruce always felt worse since Bruce was the one with the conscience that was disturbed by and regretted the actions done by his alter-ego. Hunched over, the body deflated before Natasha, green fading, returning to ‘’normal’, leaving Bruce half naked and twitching on the floor, one arm wrapped around his torso, the other across his face. This was always a precarious state, where he was at his most vulnerable… dazed, confused.
Breathing heavily through his mouth, he lowered his arm to see... “Nat?” Everything that happened while as the Hulk was now like a fleeting dream that quickly dissipated and was forgotten upon waking. Anxiety mingled with his confusion. “Wha... what are you doing here?” He then gazed around at the unfamiliar room, trying to piece together where he was, what was happening. This didn’t look like the inside of Thor’s spaceship.
It worked. Natasha breathed a sigh of relief that she never outwardly showed. Internally, she was hoping this would be the last time she'd have to explain all of this to him. She trusted Thor; she just didn't trust him to not do this without some sort of fight. While the ship could handle itself, a person's anxieties were a different thing.
Natasha dropped to her haunches beside him. She held out her hand so that she could help him up off the floor. "You're not in our dimension anymore. We're all sort of ...stuck. Somewhere else." She paused and looked around. "How are you feeling? Need some water? A shirt?"
Bruce didn’t respond immediately, he was still looking around himself, and when Natasha reached for him, he was so wired that his initial and automatic response was to flinch. “Another dimension?” he groaned. “Not again. Urm. Water... yeah... some water would be good,” he added, realizing how parched his mouth was. He took Natasha’s hand to pull himself to his feet, holding on perhaps a little tighter than he needed. When he was finally standing he stopped and gazed at her as the fog cleared from his brain. “You pushed me into a pit!” he exclaimed, remembering the last time he’d seen Natasha.
Natasha opened her mouth, paused, then closed it again. "Actually, I pushed you off the city. It was in the air."
Now seemed as good a time as any to get that water he'd requested. With a furrowed brow, she turned away to do just that. Thankfully, all she had to do was ask one of the robots around for it. They'd snag it in a hurry. "Couldn't run away from an extinction level event, Bruce. I don't think you could have lived with yourself if you had either."
“Oh yeah...” It was all coming back to Bruce, his memories getting clearer. “Maybe so, but that doesn’t make it any better,” he started at it again. “You used me as a tool. Forced me into changing against my will when you know how that makes me feel.” He felt violated, and it hurt, especially when he’d thought that it might be possible to start a new life with a relationship with Natasha at the center. Bruce frowned. “I’m beginning to believe you only pretended to be captured as a lure to get me there so you could get the Other Guy to fight.” It made sense -- Natasha was a fully capable agent/assassin/spy - she could’ve found a way out on her own.
Ultron's greatest mistake was leaving her alive in the castle at all. She was fully capable, but she also knew when to play her cards. She'd played the damsel in distress, and it worked. Ultron had laid out his plan, showed her every card he had. She'd been using old school spy techniques to contact the Avengers, not just Bruce. They had to know where and what Ultron was planning. If it meant sacrificing her relationship with Bruce, then so be it. The world (and all those innocent people) was more important than either of their love lives.
Natasha's nerves were exposed though. She'd known the moment he shut off contact in the Quinjet that it was over. That what she'd done had closed that door, and after several years, she'd made peace with it. "I never planned to leave Sokovia until we fixed what we started or died trying. Yes, I knew I was pushing our relationship into the grave to do it. I knew exactly what I was doing and why. I've played this spy game a lot longer than you think, and I know when the odds are against us. I played the only card I had to save the world."
She paused for a moment, working her jaw. "I meant every word I said that day, at Clint's. But I couldn't run away from what we caused. I'm sorry that I used you, but if I could go back in time, I'd still do the same thing."
Run away. That’s exactly what Bruce had done. That was what he always did. But the worst thing about all this? Was that deep down, Bruce knew she was right, from saving Sokovia to ruining their relationship, and he hated it. Bruce scowled, then turned his face away from her out of irritation. “I should’ve known better,” he muttered, more to himself than to Natasha. Why did he even think he could have a relationship, much less an ordinary life, when every time he tried the Hulk stepped in and ruined it?
Bruce wrapped his arms around himself, still recovering from the after effects of his transformation. He didn’t feel like belaboring the issue any more, but he needed to tell her, “You know why I left, didn’t you? The Avengers is better off without me. After everything the Other Guy did? I figured leaving would help take the heat off you. Does that make me a coward? Irresponsible and not willing to face the consequences of my actions? Guilty, on all accounts.” Bruce took a deep breath before continuing. “Then, I’ve been told, the quinjet got sucked into a wormhole, and I was spit out on this other planet called Sakaar. Kind of like what’s happened now, I guess.”
Needing a quick change of topic to distract him, Bruce awkwardly asked, “So. Tell me about this other dimension we’re in?”
There was a moment when Natasha thought to argue with him. Without the Other Guy, Sokovia would have been lost. The Earth would have been lost. Everyone would have been lost. She'd been content with that when she'd spoken with Steve about there being worse ways to go. She didn't want to die, but dying trying to save the world was something worthy at least.
Instead, she focused on his question. "Right now, we're on a ship in the middle of — well, Middle Earth. Dwarves, Hobbits, Elves, oh my. It does that sometimes. Bounces us around to other worlds. Most of the time we're in a place called Tumbleweed, Texas, and it is —" she gave a crooked grin to no one in particular "— exactly what it sounds like. Dusty town in the middle of nowhere Texas."
Bruce stared at her as if she’d completely lost her mind, but then shrugged his shoulders, tossed up his hands in a gesture that was a cross between a shrug and surrender, and gave out a small, stilted chuckle. “Sure, I’ll go along with it. Middle Earth, why not? Sounds more interesting than Tumbleweed. Who else is here?”
"A good chunk of us. Rogers, Thor, the Bartons, Vision —" Should probably stay away from Maximoff. She'd seen his reaction to her on the journals. "A bunch of people from our universe who you haven't met yet."
She paused upon realization. "You know how science is always trying to prove the multiverse? Surprise. That's a thing here."
As he listened to Natasha, something caught Bruce’s attention out of the corner of his eye, and he turned to see a tablet on the floor. There was some vague recollection of using a tablet as the Hulk, and while she continued to speak, he wandered over to the other side of the room to pick it up. Scrolling with his finger, he began breezing through the different replies. “I see what you mean,” he said, referring to her multiverse comment. “The Other Guy really wrote this?” he then asked, looking at Natasha and pointing to something Hulk had said to somebody. “That’s weird.” It was really the first time he’d seen the Hulk communicate so clearly before. “I uhhhh... think I’m going to need to look through this.” He paused and glanced over his shoulder at Natasha, then weakly told her, “Thank you.”
Okay, so Natasha remembered that feeling of being dismissed, just like when he'd shut off the comm in the quinjet. This time, however, she wasn't going to let it get to her. She gave him a smile, nodded her head, and turned to leave. The robot she'd asked to bring water returned. "Here's your water, Bruce," she said nonchalantly. "Let them give you the shot. It's just a vaccination. You can't get out of here without it. Catch you later."
“Huh?” Bruce was distracted by reading a conversation Hulk had with somebody named Amadeus, but he turned around again at what Natasha said, acknowledging both the water and the crew doctor (which he hadn’t realized was a robot yet). He gave her a nod, but as she turned to leave, he furrowed his brow. Natasha was a pro at many areas, and one of them was hiding her feelings from the rest of the world. Maybe because he had made a connection with her in the past, but Bruce could tell something was bothering her, and it wasn't that big a stretch of the imagination to know what that something was.
“Nat!” he called out to her before she left the room, but then hesitated. He had her attention, but he wasn’t quite sure what to say. Unlike her, Bruce often wore his heart on his sleeve, and his facial expression revealed how awkward this was for him, unsure, nervous, worried, but at the same time, tender. “Thank you, “ He’d already said the words just a few moments before, but they’d been dismissive. This time, they were heartfelt, hoping to convey the gratitude Bruce had toward her, despite their differences, hoping she understood without having to go into a long, potentially embarrassing explanation.
She nodded and smile, a little more earnestly, before disappearing around the corner. It wasn't much, but it was the beginning of restarting their friendship. That was better than any relationship she could have had with him.