I hate myself for relapsing, but I love Bruce too much, and I love Mark Ruffalo's Bruce too much.
This story is told in alternating storylines: it's Bruce Banner/Betty Ross, with some interludes occurring post-Avengers.
DISCLAIMER: I do not own the characters used here, nor do I own the concepts of the Marvel cinematic universe, but I do own this particular arrangement of words.
Bruce's life changed drastically when he joined the Avengers – he had been successfully hiding for three years before Natasha Romanoff showed up in Calcutta (with several squadrons of backup, even though the other guy hadn't made an appearance in some time). He still isn't on the government's good side, and he still needs to be cautious, but he has a little room to relax, thanks to S.H.I.E.L.D. He still moves around fairly often, uses false names, and rents rooms that he would have scoffed at in grad school (a time in his life when he could live off a loaf of bread and a jar of peanut butter), but he doesn't have to worry as much.
The main thing that cuts down on his anxiety is Natasha. Between their eventful meeting in Calcutta and the time he – the Hulk – almost killed her on the helicarrier, Bruce and Natasha have…well, become friends (sort of. Natasha doesn't exactly have friends). She watches his life so closely that even mild-mannered Bruce Banner is uncomfortable. But since he doesn't even have a personal life for her to spy on, he doesn't object to her keeping tabs on him.
Once a month, Natasha buys a top shelf bottle of gin and he orders takeout. He's happy to have the company, even if their conversations are about work or him (Tasha knows everything. Her experience, cool practicality, and the gin are better than therapy).
Sometimes, Clint will check up on him, but Clint is the kind of person who has to keep busy, so Bruce is often a layover between jobs. Bruce accompanies Clint to batting cages and sports bars, and lets the archer sleep off his hangover on the duct taped couch in his crappy apartment.
Bruce doesn't spend much time with Steve at first, but they have a mutual respect for each other. After Bruce gets over the captain's kind of irritating perfectionism, and Steve realizes that the scientist slash monster is not the sum of his parts, the two men form a solid friendship. Bruce likes the peace and normalcy of their nights spent watching sports and drinking cheap beer, and afternoons spent tossing a football or wandering museums, getting Cap up to speed on the modern world.
Thor, of course, has gone back to Asgard permanently. Bruce kind of misses him. It's funny to watch the nigh-invulnerable god try to navigate the world below (also, Thor's inexperience makes him a perfect target for Clint and Tony, giving Bruce a break from being the object of their childish antics). Thor is honest, and one of the few people who doesn't seem to be bothered by the other guy. Bruce even helps Clint and Tony brainstorm for the next time Thor makes his appearance.
Bruce visits Tony frequently, often for days at a time, and these visits serve several purposes. Both of them need the company – to feed Tony's damaged ego and fill the holes in Bruce's mostly solitary life – and despite Tony's near constant chatter, Bruce enjoys the days they spend tinkering and experimenting, even if he's just trying to help Tony design a hologram for Jarvis that looks like a maxim model (Pepper is extremely disappointed in Bruce for helping). These visits are never boring and often stressful, but Bruce is finding it easier to control himself in everyday situations the more time he spends around Tony.
He really does like Tony, and they really are friends, but there is no way Bruce would ever tell him that these visits double as lessons in anger management.
Pepper is a welcome distraction from Tony – Bruce fiends Pepper is easy to talk to, a balance between Tony and Natasha, his two closest friends, on nearly opposite ends of the spectrum. Pepper pours them both a glass of wine and they complain about Tony, sometimes while watching his latest stunt on the news.
Bruce likes the avengers because he feels welcome. He's still hiding, but he likes not having to hide from everyone.
Tony is complaining (whining, really) about Pepper. Bruce isn't listening because he's going through a desk piled with Tony's discarded or half-finished ideas (and seriously there is nothing Pepper have possibly done that is anywhere near what Tony has put her through).
Bruce's attention is jerked away from the exhausting work of sorting through Tony's creative mind by a problem from Tony's personal life, interrupting with a lavish story that practically screams "look at me!" Tony is almost literally begging for Bruce's attention.
Tony is the woman in this relationship.
Bruce looks at him over the pair of wire rimmed glasses that are sliding down his nose. "She says you're not romantic enough?"
Tony is fiddling with some small metal object, but Bruce isn't sure what it is, due to the placement of his glasses. "You haven't been listening." Definitely not a question. "Last week – "
"I was listening." Bruce waves his hand to make him shut up before he starts again. "Just do something less showy; I dunno." He shrugs and prepares to dive back into the pile.
"Oh, so do you have any ideas, green man?"
It's times like these – when he's distracted, from work or exhaustion – that the stupidest, most thoughtless things come out of Bruce's mouth.
"Better than anything you can come up with."
Tony stops fiddling and arches an eyebrow in surprise. He was not expecting his pestering to come to anything. "I'm sorry, what was that?" He cups his hand to his ear, egging him on, because certainly this is better than any direction he could have steered the conversation.
Finally fed up, Bruce straightens and pushes his glasses up. "It's not hard to be romantic." He leans over the desk, raising his voice. "It's not rocket science, Tony!"
Tony stands up and claps loudly, throwing his arms out wide. "Bring it on, then!"
Bruce rolls his eyes. "No."
Tony tilts his head to the side and fakes a pout. "Big bad green rage monster afraid to lose a bet?"
And that was how Bruce Banner ended up taking Pepper Potts on a date with Tony Stark's credit card.