3. Abusive Parents
Bruce was walking down the street, just taking his usual amble through the streets of the city, taking in the hustle and bustle around him and observing people with normal lives go about their business. He enjoyed just taking in everything around him, pretending that he could fit in, but since the whole Avengers thing he noticed a few more people looking at him in the street. He didn't know if he was comfortable with that, but mostly they left him alone and often the look was not of fear, but rather just of general recognition.
He was jarred out of his happy wanderings by a sharp sound he knew well, and some not-quite-well-enough-hidden whimpering. He flinched as he remembered being on the receiving end himself. He looked across the street and saw a kid hunched in a protective position, flinching away from the woman with her hand raised. He must only have been 12 at the oldest. As he debated walking over, not wanting someone to misunderstand his approaching a young boy, the child looked over and caught his eye. His eyes widened. Bruce took that as his cue.
The boy looked at him and smiled as Bruce reached him. He held out his hand to the child, who shook it with a somewhat awe-full look on his face.
"Hey kid, I saw you recognise me, you want an autograph or something?" he said, before looking at the wary looking woman and shaking her hand, "Bruce Banner." Shaking her hand calmly took all of the willpower he had left. He looked down at the boy again and smiled, mentally running over the signs in his head. There were bruises, both fresh and old on his arms, partially covered by his t-shirt. His eyes were full of fear, and when his mother moved he flinched slightly. He had been that same little boy once, only it was his father, not his mother who took out his anger on him.
He turned to the mother again, patting his pockets, "I'm sorry, I don't appear to have a pen. Do you have one in your bag maybe?"
The woman looked at him and started to rummage in her bag, "Sure." Was she making eyes at him? He took her distraction as an opportunity to slide a card in the kid's hand, and used a sharpie to write out another number quickly. He closed the child's hand around it and motioned for him to put it in his pocket. As the mother was making frustrated noises he whispered to the boy, "Those are numbers where people can help you if you ever need it, and my number so if you ever need me or the Avengers you can call me right up and we'll come and get you."
The boy silently nodded, his eyes wide with thanks. He looked up again at the mother as she made a happy noise and produced a pen and a piece of paper. Bruce signed it at smiled at the mother to cover up the fact he'd just given her son the means to save himself by personal Avenger. As he walked away his eyes flickered green, just for a moment.