The New Houseguests – Bruce
Drabble series of various Avengers interacting with Shepard after the events of the Shepard and the Soldier. Character/relationship-development centric.
"" = talking
'' = inner thoughts
Disclaimer: Neither Avengers nor Mass Effect is mine.
Bruce woke up in increments, brain still hazy with sleepy
warmth. It had taken over a year for his body to become re-accustomed to the luxury of his sinfully comfy bed, but now he couldn't imagine how he ever scraped by without it. He slept like the dead when the nightmares let him be.
Every now and again he'd worry about growing too soft and complacent hidden away from the world in Tony's seemingly impenetrable tower. Between the companionship he'd found in the Avengers and the near addicting stability he'd come to crave from finally having a stationary home, Bruce feared he wouldn't be able to survive going on the run again. He knew it was inevitable, but he had so much more to lose this time. He did his best not to dwell on it.
Groggily fumbling for the glasses perched haphazardly on his nightstand, Bruce sat up and shoved the frames on his face. Vision suitably restored, he proceeded to adorn a hideous, fluffy green robe and worn purple slippers (courtesy of Tony and Clint, respectively) before making his way to the communal living room. He was halfway done with brewing his first cup of coffee before he noticed the lack of people present in the Tower. He found it more than a little suspicious, considering Rhodes had popped by the other day to visit for the weekend.
After determining that this was not a situation he wanted to address without some coffee in his system, Bruce stoically turned his full attention to the steady drip of ambrosial caffeine and let his mind drift peacefully.
Twenty minutes and half a cup of coffee later, Bruce finally felt properly prepared to inquire about his friends' latest shenanigans. While it was possible they'd simply left for something completely mundane and harmless, previous experience insisted otherwise.
"Do I want to know what everyone's got up to this morning, JARVIS?" Bruce queried at AI in a worryingly Zen tone.
A semi-guilty pause prefaced the AI's response. "I highly doubt it, Dr. Banner."
Bruce's face remained carefully neutral as he continued. "I assume they have the situation under control since you didn't feel the need to wake me?"
"Affirmative, Doctor. I would not have hesitated to wake you had I deemed Sir and the others to be in need of assistance." JARVIS insisted reassuringly.
A barely audible sigh escaped Bruce's lips as a previously unnoticeable layer of tension melted from his posture. He took a steadying sip of his coffee before making his way to elevator.
"Looks like today's gonna be a lab and meditation day for me, JARVIS. Let me know if the situation with the others changes." He blinked blearily at the panel of buttons in front of him, and smiled in quiet affection when his destination was selected automatically and the doors shut with a soft whoosh of displaced air. "Thanks." Bruce murmured sheepishly.
"It was no problem, Dr. Banner." JARVIS assured in cheeky amusement.
An untold number of hours later, Bruce's serene contemplation of a series of nonsensical graphs and fluctuating numbers was interrupted by his AI companion.
"It would appear as though our wayward residents have returned, Doctor."
Immediately, Bruce snapped to attention and stared piercingly into the nearest camera that acted at JARVIS' eyes. "Are they – "
"Aside from a few rather nasty scrapes and bruises, everyone is completely healthy and in one piece, Dr. Banner. The medical staff is seeing to them now." The AI interrupted knowingly.
Resignedly, Bruce pushed up his glasses one-handed to rub at his strained eyes. "I assume Tony is being his usual cooperative self?" The scientist grumbled sarcastically.
"Indeed, Doctor." JARVIS confirmed, reluctantly amused.
Levering himself up in an alarming chorus of creaking joints, Bruce began to make his way to the medical wing of the tower. "I'll go check up on him. Wouldn't do to have a repeat of last time." He mumbled distractedly.
"My thoughts precisely, Dr. Banner." JARVIS responded long-sufferingly.
Luckily for Bruce, it appeared as though most of Tony's injuries had been seen to without incident before he arrived. The man in question was sitting down and grumpily poking and prodding at a lumpy bandage on his shoulder to the ire of the nurse glaring at him from across the room. His irritated expression morphed into a nearly manic grin when he spied Bruce's approach. Leaping to his feet in an ungainly scramble of limbs, Tony threw himself at Bruce before slinging an arm around his shoulders and latching on like a limpet.
"Brucie Bear," he crooned, "you would not believe the show you missed this morning! It had everything – drama, mysterious strangers, a kidnapped damsel, tearful reunions, the whole shebang!" Bruce was pulled along unresisting as Tony began walking them towards the elevator. "But you know what it didn't have? Food. I am practically famished. When was the last time I even ate?" The inventor mumbled as he absently scratched at a row of butterfly stitches bisecting his cheek.
Bruce snorted. "Is that your way of subtly asking me to cook something for you?" He inquired in mock offense.
Tony twisted away to face Bruce head-on and put a hand to his chest in faux outrage. "Bruce! Green Bean! I can't believe you would make such a baseless accusation!" Here Tony adopted an innocent and beseeching expression. "But also yes, please, I think my stomach is eating itself."
Bruce's eyes rolled skyward in irritation, but the slight upturn of the corner of his mouth gave away the man's mirth. "I suppose I can warm up some leftovers from the other day if you tell me about what everyone was up to this morning." He allowed magnanimously.
A slightly more serious expression flickered across Tony's face as they arrived at the Avengers' floor. "Yeah, there's definitely some stuff you're gonna want to know." Tony muttered uncomfortably.
Bruce was reduced to staring in open-mouthed astonishment when Tony finished his recollection of the day's events. Impatiently, Tony leaned around his stunned friend to snag and rescue the now slightly singed leftovers. He'd managed to wolf down half of his plate before Bruce snapped out of his befuddled fugue.
"So you're telling me," Bruce squeaked out, eyes wide and tinted green, "that we've got a former Hydra assassin and a dangerous unknown who'll be living with us in the Tower for the foreseeable future?!"
"I feel like you're overlooking the benefits to this." Tony mused thoughtfully around a forkful of food.
"Benefits?!" Bruce hissed indignantly, skin turning incrementally greener. "Tony, I get that Barnes is Steve's friend and I understand that he hasn't been operating under his own power. And I fully support helping the guy, preferably from a safe distance. But inviting him into the Tower? Our home?! He almost beat Steve to death, Tony!" Bruce roared, gripping the counter in a vice grip.
Tony had stopped eating and was staring at Bruce with a piercing expression, silently prompting him to continue.
A frustrated snarl twisting his face, Bruce flailed his hands uselessly at Tony, "And let's not forget what either of them could do to you! You're so vulnerable outside of the armor, Tony." Despite his obvious anger, Bruce grasped one of Tony's wrists with exceeding care. "It's bad enough you invite monsters like – " Bruce cut himself off abruptly and stared with fierce concentration at the sight of his green-tinged flesh against Tony's tanned wrist. He closed his eyes and forced himself to take several deep breaths before releasing his grip on Tony.
"Monsters like what, Bruce?" Tony asked, eyes dark and shadowed.
When he opened his eyes Bruce's skin was back to normal but he could still feel the Hulk as he writhed in agitation just beneath the surface. "You know damn well what." Bruce sighed in resigned exhaustion. "You worry me, Tony. You keep letting dangerous things close to you and some day you'll pay for it."
A terrible silence lingered between the two before Tony decided to break it. "First of all," he began neutrally, "I'd like to remind you that neither yourself nor Jolly Green is a monster. Between the two of you, you've saved countless lives, my own included. I know the Big Guy and he would never hurt me. You need to stop putting yourself down for things that aren't true. Second of all," he continued as Bruce guiltily met his gaze again, "I'm not an idiot. I know Barnes and his buddy are dangerous. That's why Natasha and Steve are gonna take turns shadowing them for the next few weeks to make sure they're not a threat to us or themselves. And JARVIS will have eyes on them at all times to boot. I'm not just giving them free-run of the Tower." Tony insisted, his expression emanating sincerity.
Lips pursed unhappily, Bruce reluctantly conceded the issue.
"And don't think I'm gonna forget about the fact that you still think you're a monster. We've been over this before Bruce, and someday I will convince you that there's nothing wrong with you or the Other Guy."
Bruce's shoulders hiked up around his ears as he kept his gaze firmly on the floor.
Taking note of Bruce slowly withdrawing inside himself, Tony abruptly decided to switch topics.
"But enough of that mushy stuff. Did I mention that Natasha and Steve saw that Shepard chick turn invisible? They're pretty sure it's not an ability either, she's probably got some sort of cloaking device. Can you imagine the applications if we can convince her to let us study that…" Bruce's apprehension slowly faded as Tony continued to babble and theorize about Shepard's infuriating tech. Before long he found himself fully immersed in a technical debate that ended with the two of them retreating to the lab for a day of sciencing and experiments.
Despite the fact that he was now sharing his living space with two additional people, Bruce didn't actually encounter them until nearly a week and a half into their stay.
He'd been up late in Tony's lab on yet another research kick when he'd decided to stop by the kitchen for warm drink before calling it a night. Upon reaching the correct floor, he'd noticed faint lights flickering from the direction of the entertainment system. The glow haloed the silhouettes of three heads sticking up over the tops of the couches and chairs.
Feeling generous, Bruce approached his friends to offer them a share of the tea he intended to brew before bed. He stopped just short of the figure in the armchair he'd identified as Steve. His brows lifted in surprise when he got a closer look at Cap's face.
The guy had the goofiest abashed grin on his face. His eyes were crinkled in happiness as he sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck. Without his standard serious and stressed appearance, Cap looked at least ten years younger (sometimes it was distressingly easy for Bruce to forget how old his friend actually was minus the time spent on ice). Suddenly ashamed to realize he had never before seen anyone elicit such a genuinely delighted reaction from the generally dour blond, Bruce firmly resolved to rope the other Avengers into making more of an effort to cheer Steve up in the future.
"You gonna stand there all night, or take a seat?" A wry voice addressed him from the couch.
Tensing at the unfamiliar voice, Bruce whipped his head around to his left to see the couch occupied by his two new infamous houseguests as opposed to his teammates. It'd completely slipped his mind that there were strangers in the Tower.
Barnes was sitting at the end of the couch closest to him, expressionless eyes boring into Bruce's uncomfortably. Despite his unfriendly demeanor, the man's posture was loose and relaxed as he allowed his limbs to sprawl haphazardly over his seat. Quickly averting his gaze from Barnes' unnervingly intense stare, Bruce instead turned his attention to the source of the voice that initially spoke to him. He blinked in confusion for a moment, briefly mistaking the dimly illuminated redhead for Nat before correctly identifying her as the mysterious Shepard.
"Come on Scruffy, you're missing out on all of the glorious spandexed patriotism." She gestured impatiently at the TV screen from next to Barnes, her bare feet kicked up irreverently on the low coffee table to her front. "We don't bite, I promise." Barnes finally shifted his gaze from Bruce to give Shepard a faintly censorious look.
Quickly noticing her companion's accusing stare, Shepard threw her head back against the couch cushions and gave a petulant groan. "Okay, but that was one time! You can't honestly still hold it against me, James." Shepard crossed her arms sullenly.
"You bruised my hand. It lasted for a day even with my healing factor." James accused, indignantly.
"Hold up now," Steve paused the movie on screen to devote his now rapt attention to the topic at hand, "the hell were you two doin' that ended with the moron over here bein' bit?" His eyes were glittering with unrepentant mischief.
Shepard tilted her head down and mumbled something incoherently.
"What Jaws over here is tryin' to explain so eloquently," James drawled mercilessly, "is that she got a little testy when I tried to grab one of her cookies."
A disbelieving silence descended over the group as Shepard seemingly attempted to dissolve into the couch in mortification.
"Was that a euphemism or something?" Bruce blurted out unintentionally.
Steve immediately began to cackle uproariously while Shepard buried her face in her hands in an unsuccessful attempt to stifle her unladylike snorts. Barnes, on the other hand, looked as mortified as Bruce felt. Even in the poor lighting, his face was noticeably red and embarrassed looking. He huffed and smacked Shepard's arm irritably, forcing her to fall over onto her side as her body continued to convulse with the power of her suppressed snickers.
"I'm so sorry," Bruce babbled unthinkingly, "Tony must be rubbing off on me more than I thought."
The two chuckleheads immediately erupted into another round of giggles. Even Barnes chimed in with his own low sniggering. Replaying his words over in his head, Bruce could only sigh and cover his eyes in mortification. 'This is why you can't talk to people.' Bruce chastised himself humorously.
"Phrasing!" Shepard managed to choke out around her wheezing laughter.
"I'm actually surrounded by children." Bruce's complaint was muffled as his hand slid down his face in exasperation. His embarrassment was only equaled by the inexplicably surreal feeling he got from the sight of the infamously deadly Winter Soldier laughing over an unintentional gay joke.
Finally recovered enough to speak, Steve turned to Bruce with a face-splitting grin.
"Come on pal, take a seat and join the show. Consider it an order from your beloved team leader." Steve finished mock seriously.
Resigning himself to another late night, Bruce sighed as he took a seat on the empty couch to Steve's right. "Alright, what am I in for?" He addressed his companions guardedly.
Steve idly started the movie back from the beginning as Shepard answered him. "Scruffy, allow me to introduce you to the wonderful world of Captain America." She announced grandly.
As the beginning credits started and the music began to play, Bruce could only stare in gleeful horror. "Is that – "
"It is." Shepard confirmed gravely, an unholy glimmer in her eyes.
"Welcome to the 80's rendition of Captain America." Barnes finished in unrestrained delight.
