Disclaimer: Any recognisable characters, places and plot ideas belong to their respective owners. Not me.
A/N: I hope this makes sense. Bruce/Hulk is a hard character for me to write. So, I hope I did him justice. Please enjoy reading the story and leave a review if that is what you wish. Thank you.
Bruce wasn't a people person.
More so after his first transformation (into big green and angry), and the ones he had after that.
People had frightened him. Not the conversations he'd have with them. Not being in the same room with them.
Just the thought that he might hurt someone else (he already hurt the woman who meant the most to him; already lost the only person who mattered to him). That he might kill someone. That he wasn't in control of his actions. That he didn't know what he did when he woke up, ripped clothing strewn around him.
So he traveled to another land, immersed himself with the foreign sounds of another language, adjusted to a drier, quieter climate. And it was okay. But he was lonely.
He helped out. Saved the lives of those he could, because maybe each good action he made, he would wipe away some of the sins and the pain he had caused in the past.
But the anger simmered below his skin. It never really went away. And sometimes he heard it growl in his head. He wanted to let it out. But he doesn't, because that'll mean he's given in. And that means he hurts people.
And he isn't a people person, but he still cares. He still feels the guilt from last time. Bruce wasn't a people person, because he can't be.
Hulk wasn't a people person.
Hulk probably couldn't even be considered a person. He was a thing; an unlocked, feral part of Bruce. He didn't need human interaction. He didn't even recognise people as people. They were just obstacles in the way of his goal; something to smash, to remove from his path.
But Hulk felt lonely too. He didn't have a word for it though. The only thing he thought of was 'Where pretty?'. He didn't even know what that meant. He just needed to find the person he was searching for; a puny human with brown hair and grey eyes (Betty Ross. The one Bruce had loved. The one that Bruce loves. But cannot. Because Bruce wasn't a people person). But she couldn't be found. He couldn't hurt her (he didn't want the risk. He didn't want to hurt her by accident. Or be hurt by her. He wouldn't be able to take that, not at all. Not again).
Then red flames came and uplifted his world, in the form of a dangerous woman who worked for an agency similar to the one who tried to kill him.
He wasn't a people person.
But he felt hope during their talk. Maybe, he wasn't alone after all (He could see her guilt, the people she's killed, when her gun was pointed at his face. Maybe she was trying to clean up her past too. Maybe she made mistakes as well. Maybe she wasn't alone. Not like him. Maybe she originally wasn't a people person, but she had learned to be). Bruce wasn't a people person because he can't be. But maybe he could learn to be.
Hulk wasn't a people person.
He didn't like or dislike the 'Red Pretty'. But she was an obstacle; an obstacle in the way of his goal. To destroy the flying machine that tried to kill him. Release the anger, remove the threat. Protect Bruce at all costs. Because he was Bruce, if there was no Bruce, there was no Hulk.
Bruce wasn't a people person.
But he enjoyed his time with Tony Stark. It made him feel human. Like a person. He wasn't treated like a monster. Like someone who wasn't a people person. He was just Bruce. And that's all he really wanted to be. Because maybe in the end he could be a people person. He could feel himself making the transition already.
Hulk wasn't a people person.
But he couldn't let the 'Metal Man' be hurt. He treated Bruce like a people person (giving him the way to become one, inching him along). Bruce liked the feeling, so he did too. He felt the same as Bruce, just in a primitive less controlled way.
So he caught the 'Metal Man'. He couldn't let him be hurt. Bruce needed people. So he did too. He felt something strange; maybe being a people person wasn't as hard as Bruce thought it to be. 'Metal Man' wasn't scared of him as Bruce after all. There was hope yet.
Bruce wasn't a people person.
He was just a tired scientist, with a scary green monster inside of him. A man who under persuasion from an annoying billionaire moved into a building almost as tall as the Empire State building and probably worth just as much. He hid on his floor (or he attempted to. He wasn't all that successful. His housemate was Tony after all) but Tony would force him out. He talked to him. Integrated him into conversations and accepted him. Wanted his opinion on things, actually cared about what they were. Gave him the company he needed, drew the inner people person that had been buried deep inside him, out into the world. Allowed it to grow.
When the remaining Avengers moved into the tower, Bruce finally was a people person.
He could tell jokes. He could laugh. He could just be. He could be with people and not expect to wake up, with them dead or hurt around him. He was not lonely. He could be a people person because he was allowed to.
Hulk wasn't a people person. But Bruce was, so Hulk learned to be.
The next time there was a battle. Hulk allowed 'Bird Man' to ride his shoulder. He helped the 'Star Man' smash monsters. He didn't punch Thor. Because finally, he too was allowed to be a people person, among people who wanted him to be, who allowed him to be.
Bruce wasn't a people person, and neither was the Hulk in the beginning. But they had learned to be.
And with the help of Tony and Steve maybe he could teach Natasha and Clint a thing or two. Because he knew from experience that without the chance of becoming a people person, he wouldn't be the man he was now.
He was was good. He didn't hurt others. He was in control. He'd found the 'Pretty' (Betty Ross, his beautiful wife) after searching for so long. She accepted him (even the green side) and forgave him. He had a family.
But most of all he learnt that nobody really starts as a people person (and that's okay).
And that it's hard to teach yourself to become one. But at the end of the day, it is the most rewarding thing in the world, because without people persons, people wouldn't be able to exist in the first place.
Fin.