Written for Marvelously Magical's Bingo 2018, for my square: Bruce Banner/Hermione Granger

Bruce crashed through the roof of the building and it felt as if he had been hit by a truck. He looked around frantically. He saw two men standing above him. "Thanos is coming!"

After an hour of explaining to the two men who Thanos was and what he pulled on the ship, Bruce sat on the couch in the den, a blanket wrapped around his shoulders.

"Here's the phone you asked for," Strange said, handing him a cell phone.

"Thanks," Bruce said, looking down at it. He had the number memorized, but he didn't know if she still had the number or if she would even answer if he called.

"Do you need anything else?"

Bruce shook his head, before punching in the numbers, and holding the phone up to his ear. It rang twice before he heard it click.

"Hello?" he heard, and almost cried. It was a voice he hadn't heard in almost two years.

"Hermione?" Bruce replied.

"Bruce?"

TWO YEARS EARLIER

Bruce didn't look up from his station as Tony walked into the room. He was used to Tony coming in and distracting him.

"This is where you'll be working," Tony said, as he walked into the room.

That caused Bruce to snap up and pay attention. Tony was giving a tour of the lab to a petite woman about his age. She had her brown hair pulled up in a messy bun, and she was wearing jeans and blouse, not very formal for a job interview. Though, since they had formed as the Avengers and turned Stark Tower into the Avengers Tower, Bruce had never seen Tony bring anyone through for a job interview.

"This is Bruce Banner," Tony was saying, "AKA The Hulk, aka my best friend, aka he'll be in here all the damn time."

The girl smiled and stepped toward him. "It's nice to meet you," she said extending her hand. "I'm Hermione Granger, aka the brightest witch of her age, aka I'll be in here all the damn time as well."

"Because Shield imploded, and we are no longer strictly supervised, the magical congress here in the States have sent Hermione here to kind of babysit us to make sure we're not a threat to the world," Tony explained.

"You're a witch?" Bruce asked, after releasing her hand.

She nodded. "Yes, I'm a witch, magic is real."

"You don't need to sell me on magic being real, Hermione. I'm a Hulk. I can pretty much believe anything at this point."

Hermione smiled up at him. "Good, because my mail gets delivered by owls, and I use a wand to do most tasks, I don't want to scare you."

Bruce couldn't help return her smile. "It won't scare me. And just so you know, I have a bit of control over when the other guy comes out, so you don't need to worry about him too much."

"What triggers the other guy?" Hermione asked.

"Elevated heart rate, surge of adrenaline, getting "angry."

Hermione nodded. "And you need to calm down in order to shift back?"

Bruce nodded. "Yes, that's the most difficult part. The calming down."

Hermione nodded again. "Right, well, maybe we can find something that can help you with that."

Tony let out a whoop of excitement and clapped his hands. "I knew this would be a good idea. I just had a feeling. Pepper and I have dinner plans, so I'll just leave you two to fall in love, I mean work together. Alright, peace out."

Tony left the room, and Bruce looked up at Hermione, embarrassed a bit to learn Tony was trying to set the two of them up, but he couldn't hold on to the embarrassment, and the two of them burst out laughing.

~BB~

He was concentrating so hard on the equations in front of him that he didn't hear her come in. It wasn't until she was right next to him that he knew she was even there for the day. They had settled into a bit of a routine for the last month, working quietly with some occasional breaks for some get to know you chats. He told her about the accident that turned him into what he was, she told him about the war and her torture. The more he got to know her, the more attracted to her he was becoming, which was something he wasn't sure he liked. He shouldn't get close to someone. He had learned that lesson with Betty. But, his heart wasn't listening. Neither were other parts of him.

"Hey," she said, walking up to his station.

"Hey," he replied.

"Any progress?" she asked.

He shook his head. "No, still running into some dead ends."

Hermione nodded, "You'll figure it out eventually."

"Yeah, I'm sure I will."

Hermione smiled and put her hand on his. He froze. She turned his hand over so that it was palm up, and slipped a vial into it.

"What's this?" he asked.

"Calming draught," she answered. "Except it's made for a very large, very green person."

Bruce looked up at her. "What?"

"It's made to calm someone down if they're hysterical. I made a few adjustments to the formula over the last couple weeks, and I think I have it so that if you were to become the Hulk, and someone were to get your attention, they can get you to drink that, and you'll be Bruce again."

Bruce stared at her. He knew she was working on something, but he didn't know what. "Thank you," he said quietly.

Hermione brought her hand up and set it on his back, rubbing it. "Don't thank me yet. We don't know if it will work yet."

"You still thought about me," Bruce said, "and that means everything to me."

Hermione smiled her infectious smile and stood up on her tiptoes. He realized she was going to place a kiss on his cheek, but he turned his head so that he could capture her lips with his instead. It was a risk, but he had grown bold with this gift, and it was a risk that worked out in his favor.

Once their lips had connected, Hermione didn't pull away, she went with it. Bruce turned and wrapped his arms around her body, pulling her flush with his body. She wrapped her arms around his neck, and opened her mouth to him, deepening their kiss. Bruce ran his hands down her back and grabbed her as bringing her flush against the quickly growing erection he was beginning to sport.

Hermione moaned into his kiss, and brought her hands down and around so they could snake their way into his shirt, making contact with his bare skin. He pulled back from the kiss, trying to catch his breath.

"Tony can walk in at any time," he said. "Wanna go up to my room?"

Hermione nodded. "Lead the way, Dr. Banner."

~BB~

"Finally!" Tony exclaimed later that week. "I have been waiting for you two to hook up since I hired her."

They were gathered in the lounge of the Tower with the other Avengers. Everyone finally had a night off at the same time, and everyone was just happy. When Bruce asked if Hermione wanted to stick around and meet the rest of his friends, she didn't even hesitate to agree. When they came in hand in hand, Tony had basically crowed.

Hermione fit in seamlessly with the group, and while he was chatting with Cap, she was over talking with Natasha about something, hopefully not some embarrassing story on his behalf.

"Hey, Banner," Thor shouted from across the room. "When will you and the witch be getting married?"

Everyone laughed.

"Next week, didn't you get the invitation?" Hermione shouted back.

"No, I got no invitation," Thor said, frowning.

"Really? Oh well, forget I said anything," Hermione said, before turning back to her conversation with Natasha.

"I like her," Cap said.

"Yeah," Bruce said. "I'm pretty partial to her as well."

~BB~

Hanging out in the lounge became a weekly thing with the Avengers, and Bruce and Hermione were growing closer and closer. In fact they had just exchanged those special words between each other. Bruce didn't think things could get any better.

And then of course, the shit hit the fan. Ultron gained intelligence and attacked their weekly hangout. He watched in awe as Hermione held her own against Ultron's attack with her wand, throwing curses and putting up shields between him and Utron's attacks. When it was over, and it was determined The Avengers needed to solve this problem, Hermione decided she needed to stay back and file a report with MACUSA.

He held Hermione in his arms, and she had her hands on either side of his face. "Remember, give Natasha or Tony that potion, it will help."

Bruce nodded.

"And come back to me," she whispered.

Bruce kissed her gently. "I will."

He did not.

PRESENT

"It's me," Bruce said into the phone.

He heard her start crying. "I thought you were dead."

"No, I wasn't. It's a long story, but I'm back."

"Where are you?" she asked.

"New York," he said.

"What's your address? I want to be there right now."

Bruce couldn't contain his emotions anymore. He gave her the address. "You don't know how glad I am that you're coming here. I need to see you. I'm pretty sure the world is going to end."

"I'll be there in less than five minutes."

"I love you," Bruce said.

"I love you, too."

Bruce hung up the phone and let out the breath he was holding. She would be here, and everything would finally be all right. Maybe things would be okay after all.

And then, the space ship appeared over New York City.

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