He could hear the crunch of her bones inside his hand. He could hear himself shouting for the monster to stop until his throat was raw and his voice hoarse, but the creature never stopped. He had to watch through the creature's eyes as he crushed the life out of the only person who could ever understand him, the first person that Bruce had ever trusted with his condition, the only person he could share his emotions with. He had to watch as her blood made its way through the cracks of giant fingers, looking black against the green skin. He tried to coax the hand open but it only grew tighter as the seconds went on, the crunch of bones getting louder until it rang in his ear.
Bruce jerked up, awoken by the sudden and very loud clatter of tools. Shit, he hissed under his breath, clutching a handful of shirt over where his heart was located. He couldn't help but think of the dream he was in seconds ago; it was just so vivid to him. Bruce took a couple deep breaths before releasing his shirt. His eyes scanned the room for the source of the crash while his hands fidgeted with the sweat drenched covers. When he finally got himself free from the cotton prison he rubbed his legs over twice with his thumbs as an attempt to calm down. Bruce took twenty minutes to do his morning routine, something that takes two minutes on a good day. He had a tough time steadying his hands in order to put his belt on but eventually he got it. With a quick look-over in the mirror and a slap in the face, Bruce made his way into the common room of the ever lively Avengers Tower.
The second Bruce stuck his head out of doorway the Iron Man suit flew past, looping around couches and tables. Bruce quickly made his way into the sidelines of the commotion giving Thor a nod of acknowledgement, which was reciprocated. The two watched in half-amusement, half-annoyance as the suit missed the wall by a hair and shot up to the ceiling, colliding with the chandelier. Bruce pinched the bridge of his nose as the chandelier and the suit hit the ground (which earned a hearty laugh from Thor), shattering the glass and knocking off the helmet, revealing a messy haired teenager underneath it.
"Peter," Bruce said with a parental tone, "Did Tony let you use his suit?" The teenager swallowed and puffed his cheeks out a bit, something Bruce had noticed Peter did before he told a lie, and turned himself around so that he was lying on his side.
"Uh... yeah." Peter smiled awkwardly and reached his arm out to grab the helmet.
"Alright," Bruce said, waving it off. He really didn't believe that Tony would let that kid use his suit, but he wanted no part of it when Tony found out. With the memory of that morning in the back of his head Bruce made his way to the elevator with the intention of finding a quiet place to read, or maybe just to sit in silence, he hadn't decided yet. Bruce considered both ideas as he waited for the elevator doors to open. He decided to go to the kitchen and make some coffee or tea. Bruce walked in the larger-than-normal elevator room and punched the floor number for the kitchen. The doors began sliding closed and a second before they closed completely he heard an unmanly shriek of surprise that he could only assume was Tony discovering the mess Peter had made.
By the time Bruce reached the kitchen floor he had decided that he wanted to get something at that little café Steve goes to and just sit in the sun. Besides, the kitchen was too crowded. Natasha and Clint were having a serious, no word conversation and he didn't want to intrude. So Bruce stayed in the elevator for thirty more floors until he hit the bottom.
"Set my location as New York Coffee." The Avengers, especially Bruce, were adamant about telling JARVIS, Tony's AI, where they were going if they left the tower just in case they were needed and no one knew where they were at.
Bruce chose a cute little table in the outside seating that was hit by sun and overlooked the Avenger's Tower, which looked like a strange type of beautiful in the golden rays. The café was almost empty; there was only he, two men sharing a basket of fries and chatting about whatever sport was in season, and a young woman about four years younger than himself who was quietly working on the crossword puzzle in that week's newspaper. Bruce blocked out the sports chatter and closed his eyes, leaning back in his chair as he breathed in the smell of freshly baked croissants. After a good three minutes of complete tranquility, Bruce noticed the quiet mumble that was the sports talk had ceased. He popped open one eye to check it out, and what he was greeted with was the barrel of a gun, held by one of the men who were having the sports conversation, less than an inch away from his forehead and the young woman holding the man's arm aggressively.
"I don't think that's a very good idea," the woman had an unusually threatening tone even though her voice was higher than most womens'.
"I'd leave babe, it's going to get a bit messy," he rammed his shoulder into her chest, causing her to stumble backwards into a table. The man turned his attention back to Bruce, who was paralyzed in fear of unleashing the beast. With a smirk he cocked the gun, prepared to pull the trigger, but the sound was all she needed. The clicking of the gun seemed to remind her of the urgency of the situation because within a second of the sound she had pushed the table into his knees, rolled over to Bruce and encased the two in a bubble of pure energy.
Bruce stumbled over his words, "I- what is goin-"He took a deep breath which turned into coughing fits. Bruce held onto his chest and began breathing fast and ragged breaths. The two men began firing at free will at the little bubble. The bullets made faint noises as they hit the force field and fell to the ground. With each dull sound Bruce's anger grew, until he felt the rage take over and his body begin to swell. The woman looked down to see what was going on with Bruce when she noticed the green tint of his skin.
"Oh my god please not right now." She held her arms higher up above her, her muscles flexed and her arms shaking, giving more power to her shield. She tried the best she could to calm him down, "Bruce, hey, hang in there." With each hit on her bubble there was a little grunt of frustration, which did not help her in trying to console the man who was seconds away from becoming a rage monster in a confined space. Bruce lost more control as the seconds ticked on, his arms swelling and his shoes beginning to tear. To keep his balance he grabbed the woman's thigh, intending to hold on for dear life with his swelling hand, but as soon as his hand made contact with her thigh, the swelling receded. Bruce felt a rush of energy tingle through every single vein in his body, go through his feet, and up to his head, and suddenly all the anger, frustration, fear -all of it- was gone just like that. Bruce fell back on his knees and looked up at the woman who just gave him a miracle. She was so focused on her shield, having to wait until they ran out of ammo, and damn did they have a lot, before she could safely move herself and Bruce somewhere else.
When the firing ceased she popped the shield instantly, and stood up from behind the half-shield of a table. She was quick and ready to act, but they were a mere second ahead of her, and one of them had saved the last bullet for her. She received a shot to the shoulder, to which she responded with plan much different than the one she had a second before. Anger boiled from her toes to the tip of her head and she quickly snapped their necks with a simple snap, added for dramatic effect. Bruce looked up at her with disbelief.
"What, why didn't you do that before?"
The pain from her shoulder was blinding, her vision was literally blurred, and there was a ringing in her ears. She swayed around trying to get a sense of stability, but eventually fell over. Luckily, Bruce caught her and the last thing she saw was Bruce's concerned face before everything went black.
A/N: OHMYGOD. That took me five hours to focus and write. It's sad because it's only 1.5k words but whatever, accept my hard work. I know I'm not the best writer but I'm so tired of Bruce being portrayed as the Hulk instead of as his own person outside of the movie, so I had to create a character who could get rid of the Hulk but not make it completely non-existent, u feel me? Alright well, I have this entire story planned out chapter by chapter so I will finish it but the amount of time it takes me to update will rely on reviews so if you want another chapter REVIEW! Thank you!