I had some Bruce feels, OK?
Bruce had never really felt safe.
Sure there were those few times he vaguely remembered from when he was a child, before the drinking and the abuse from his father. Though those memories weren't exactly plentiful.
But the simple fact was that Bruce was never safe as a child. He would always have countless bruises on his arms or knees. His father was very good at making it look like an accident. And he dreaded going home everyday from elementary school, knowing he'd either walk in on his mother getting it, followed by him. Or his father would just simply be drunk and hit the nearest person in the house.
Bruce never blamed his mother for not keeping him safe. She was always there after a beating took place. She always tried to make it better for the awkward child who didn't really understand what was happening. Bruce remembered the times where he and his mother would hide in the closet, or sometimes the bathroom, and she'd tell him a story about one day when they would run away and be safe.
Too bad the one time they actually tried got her killed.
So Bruce was forced to move on without the small comfort his mother gave him. Eventually someone found out about what was happening at the Banner household, taking a now eleven year old Bruce away and put into foster care.
He was supposed to be safe now, right?
It turned out that no one wanted to deal with an abused, awkward, extremely shy teenager for too long, sending him away again and again for a different family to deal with the kid. His OCD of everything having to be in a specific spot didn't help him stay in one place either really.
He never felt safe with the constant fear of being sent off and starting all over again stirring his mind.
When he eventually moved on to college and met Betty, things got a little better. She made him feel like he wasn't totally alone at the campus. He wasn't exactly one hundred percent safe with her either.
But he supposed that if you had a thing for a general's daughter, no one would really be safe.
Bruce never expected to feel safe after the Hulk incident. Betty was now afraid of him, Ross always on his back. Bruce was always on the run, always was forced to be cautious, always being hunted. That wasn't safe, not by any means. He was always completely alone. No one to help him, no one he could even talk to without putting them at risk.
So he tried ending the constant feeling of not being safe.
And of course, that didn't work.
Even with the Avengers on the helicarrier, he wasn't truly safe. Ignoring the lunatic god who was planning to kill them all and enslave the human race, SHIELD had a cage. Built specifically for him. Built specifically to kill him if needed. The Director always said he trusted Bruce but was ready to shoot him without hesitation if he felt threatened.
Bruce never really blamed him.
He agreed to move into Stark Tower, reluctantly, but he only felt fine there. He wasn't safe, not with SHIELD in the same city, but he was defiantly more comfortable there then hiding in some foreign country.
It was Darcy Lewis, surprisingly, the changed the way he felt around people. She was obnoxious and loud and messy and out going and everything the scientist was not. Somehow they ended up to be perfect for each other. And she wasn't afraid of what he could do. She loved Hulk almost as much as she loved Bruce, it took a while, but Hulk eventually loved her back too.
"Hey, hey, Bruce? Focus in me ok? Look at me." She was always very calm when the scientist was close to the breaking point. Bruce called her insane for not just running away, but Darcy Lewis was not one to just abandon someone if she could help them. He would bury his head in the crook of her neck and she'd run her finger through his hair gently, calmly.
"Yeah, just focus on me." It was that first time. That first time that Bruce was so close to losing it that he realized it.
He loved this insane woman more than anything.
And he finally felt safe.
He finally felt safe, with her.