The thunder rumbled overhead as the rain continued to fall softly, weighing down her soft hair as she waited for the man she had come to call friend to wake up. She'd draped her coat over him, not minding a little drizzle. But she had to admit; it wasn't how she'd expected to spend her birthday.

Her brother and father had gone to her place earlier in the day with balloons and a cake. She'd still found it weird how much her brother had grown. She still thought of him as the little boy she'd finally gotten to know when she was in high school; now he was finishing college and engaged. They'd left early in the afternoon (it was a long ride home) and she'd returned to her peaceful, quiet life. That's not to say she didn't enjoy her family, she did, but she'd never been one to make a big deal of her birthday and she enjoyed her solitude on a rainy day. She'd stripped down to an oversized t-shirt, made some tea, grabbed a book, and curled up with Eri, her cat, at her feet, listening to the soft, steady beat of raindrops.

That lasted about twenty minutes until Stark pounded on her door, making her jump and spill her cooled tea on her shirt.

Somehow, things took a turn for the worse, and now she was here in the old part of New York while the all-famous Ironman helped the city clean up.

Lucie sneezed, finally feeling the effect of the rain. She stood up from the fallen column, slipping on some loose cobblestone as she made her way to Banner. She nudged his arm while brushing back his dampened hair from his forehead.

"Bruce," she sang quietly. "Wakey-wakey, Mr. Banner."

He inhaled sharply, letting her know she broke through his slumber. Smiling to her self, she sat back on her heels as he opened his brown eyes and turned to look at her. "I'm kind of cold and you took my only coat, so I'd appreciate it if we could head home."

He smiled at her. "But home means different things to us."

She rolled her eyes and closed them, giving him the 'okay' to get up and put on the coat properly. When he was done, he took her hand from her lap and pulled her up.

She opened her eyes and they made their way out of the half-destroyed alley in silence. She stuck her hands in her pockets, trying to defrost them from the cold rain, and took a breath. "So you know we have to talk about this, right? What happened back there?"

He shrugged. "I'm not really sure at the moment."

"I can tell when you're lying, that's my job you know," she pressed.

A pause. "It's your birthday, why don't you take the day off?"

A short laugh. "Everything has been quiet for god knows how long so everyday as of late has been a 'day off.' So we're talking about this."

They turned a corner and started looking for a cab. "Well," he started. "It was a mix of things-"

"Give me something I don't know, Banner," she said, knowing he was avoiding the root of the problem.

"Well Tony, you know Tony…" he hesitated. He still wasn't comfortable talking to her about these occurrences. If it were anything else, sure he'd talk. But he was still embarrassed about the hulk.

"At least as well as you do at this point, but you've never let him bother you that much. So next." This was how she was with Bruce. Very 'get to the point,' because he avoided it if she wasn't.

A cab pulled over next to them. He opened the door and she stepped in before he closed it and got in on the other side. "Stark Tower," he said as the cab started moving. "And would you mind turning on the heater? We've been in the rain for awhile."

"Bruce…"

"What? No clipboard or anything?" he asked.

"Bruce."

"Alright, alright, I'll talk."

"Thank you." She smirked and waited.

"Remember what I told you in our last session a few weeks ago?"

She frowned. "Well you told me a lot so…"

He smiled. "That's true, I think I had a little too much to drink that night."

She scrunched her face up playfully. "Mm I think that's more of a perspective."