InsaneJournal

Who: Bruce Banner, Robert and Rosalind Lutece
Where: Bruce's lab
What: being restless
When: 12/16, nighttime
Warnings/Rating: pg-13
Status complete

It was a late night but the twins found themselves restless. Rosalind paced endlessly, and Robert spent his time doodling. They were both thinking, generally, about the same thing. They’d come to America for opportunity. Not just the opportunity to get away from the bigoted dean who’d set out to make Robert’s life at Oxford miserable, but the opportunity for something more, something real.

They just had no idea how to find it.

After a while they decided to head to the think tank. Bruce was probably there, this was well within his normal hours. If he wasn’t, at least they could get some work done.

High above shooting stars arced across the sky, and Bruce glanced up, but dismissed them. They were more important, the Luteces. Bruce smiled at them, as he opened the door. “Come in. I just started a beaker of tea.” And as he ushered them in, sure enough, a large beaker, the gallon size, was bubbling atop an industrial flame, the color of the liquid a cheery red and purple. The room was warm as opposed to the outside temperature,. Bruce enjoyed some seniority with the think tank and had an office and lab space with both inner and outer doors, allowing him to leave and come at all hours.

The Luteces inhaled deeply, relaxing visibly as they made their way into Bruce’s office. Was there anything more soothing than a warm lab and the promise of a hot cup of tea? “If we’d thought we would have brought digestives.” Robert noted ruefully.

“Next time.” Rosalind said while shedding her wool jacket. “How have you been, Bruce?”

He took their jackets, and then put them on a malformed piece of metal that functioned like a coat rack. It was made of a star metal he had yet to figure out. The one time he had managed a change, it had melted into this configuration, and released a new kind of sub-EMP that had somehow caused every energy source around to double output for a moment. This had been another reason he got assigned this lab space. It was shielded. “No worries. like you say, next time.” Bruce smiled as he Settled to a lab chair and then gestured to them to join him on two more..

The Luteces took the offered seats with a nod. “Thank you.” Robert said with a sigh. He was still trying to get over the cognitive dissonance from the dreams. It was beginning to damage his calm even when it wasn’t an active problem.

Rosalind remained standing so that she could pour out tea. “What’s keeping you up, Bruce? Something fun?”

“Well. I do work quite a lot, but yes, these days, I also play more. The good lady Jean Grey Doctor of Psychiatry, is dating me and vice versa. And I find I am appreciating this quite a lot.” He dug into his ice chest, pulling out a small case of tree cakes. “Sugar?”

Just then the tea beakers hummed and he set the case down as he went to pour the tea.

The Luteces tried to look happy for Bruce when he talked about Jean, but they failed in unique ways. Robert’s smile was too slow, and he didn’t look at Bruce. Rosalind’s lips barely moved. They both dutifully took a cake and waited for their small beakers of tea.

“She’s a beautiful woman.” Rosalind offered, after a drink of tea.

Robert nodded in agreement. “Even I’m a little jealous. She seems quite nice as well.” They both sounded very glum.

“Okay, what’s bothering you?” Bruce looked at them as he brought their beakers over, then collected his own. “Are you okay?”

“It’s been five years since I’ve so much as squeezed someone’s arse.” Robert noted, bluntly. “The dreams are becoming a literal pain and there are so few adequate outlets for the emotions they incur.”

Rosalind nodded. “It’s partially our fault. Singularly we’d do well enough, but. . . we need a lover who can love both of us. We don’t come separate, we’re a matched set. It’s so hard to find handsome, bisexual men who have a twin fetish that doesn’t involve incest.”

“All the good men are straight or married.” Robert lamented.

Rosalind sighed. She wished she could get over Killian. Most of the allure was that she couldn’t have him, she was sure, but knowing that did not make it go away.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t realize. I was so lost in science that I forgot what relationships and sex was even like for a long time.” He winced. “Maybe another Dreamer will come along and fill that role?”

Despite himself Robert snickered. “I don’t care if they’re a dreamer or not. I just wish we could find someone to love us.”

Rosalind nodded, sighing softly.

Somewhere a shooting star shone brightly for a moment, then winked out. Inside the rooms, Bruce smiled softly to them both. “Then I hope it does happen for you both. I hope that whatever happens, it finds you both safe and happy.” Bruce nodded. That was what mattered most to him.

“I don’t think it will ever happen.” Rosalind said with a sigh. “We’ve been looking for years, it’s part of what informed our decision to move here.”

“You can’t give up.” Robert said softly, switching the tea to his other hand so he could squeeze Rosalind’s. “There’s somebody out there for us, I’m certain.”

“It might. You never know. There is a strange power here. And I believe it could do anything.” He had to believe, in a way.

“I suppose we’ll see.” Rosalind admitted, after a moment. She didn’t want to start another fight with Robert.

He smiled at her. “We’re too pretty to be old maids.” He teased. He wanted to help her see the bright side and have hope.

Rosalind smiled at him. “If we are we’ll just adopt a hundred cats apiece and call it a day.”

“So I win either way.” Robert noted, smugly.

“You two are just too cute sometimes. Now drink your tea and smile a little. Today is the day the new findings from the Science and technology institute in France come out, and we can see if others agree with us or are wrong and need to be corrected.” His voice was teasing and he was grinning as he watched them. Sometimes, he felt a little like an almost dad to these two, and sometimes just like a friend. Either way, he was glad to have them in his life.

They were more interested in science than their woeful romantic lives, so that did a very good job of distracting them.

Bruce smiled, and as he turned toward the rest of the lab, talking to them, he wished that they would find happiness. Somewhere out in the night, a brilliant shooting star flared and winked out, in a move that would have made him blink. But for him, and for them, it was instead a peaceful night.