AN: Okay, so I realize that the story is a little wonky, but please just roll with it. Also, to my guest reviewers, I understand, but that's fixed in this chapter, don't worry. And thanks for reviewing!

Oh, and yesterday was 4th of July, so... Happy Late 4th!

I don't own the Avengers.

I slowly pulled away from Bruce, fearing the worst. One look at his face made me duck my head down quickly. Don't get me wrong, the kiss was...

"Wow." I look up to see Bruce is staring at me, with his face a bright shade of red.

"That was..." and then he leaned in and kissed me again. You see, the first kiss was very innocent. It was mostly to keep him quiet for a moment, but this... This was... interrupted.

"For shit's sake Banner, she just woke up. Get off the girl." We stopped abruptly, and Bruce literally climbed off of me... oops. Now who interrupted the best kiss I've ever had? Where did I put that whiteboard...

"Excuse me, sir. Who the hell are you?" I'll have to thank Bruce properly when my voice comes back.

"Dr Banner. Give us a moment." Poor Bruce, his face was still beet red. Who ever this guy is, he scared my sweet darlin... I mean Bruce... Mad Eye Moody over here scares Bruce. Priceless.

"Miss Thomas, I'm Director Fury, allow me to fill you in on the recent chain of events. Two days ago, a man made an attempt on your life. Thanks to you, he was captured. We interrogated him, and he claims to have acted under hypnosis. We have our suspicions as to who the... leader is. As we believe, this was part of something bigger. They were going to kill you or enlist you. We would like to enlist you into the Avengers initiative. The file's on the nightstand. You leave for Avengers tower in the morning. Also, your mother is one of our agents, and you graduated early."

And with that, he left the room without actually explaining anything that had happened.

I didn't bother to look over at the file or reach for it... I didn't need to. I'll have this finished by morning.

As it turns out, three of the Avengers I already know about, Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America, Hawkeye and the Black Widow didn't have much information on them, top secret, but what I didn't know about was Bruce. Apparently, Bruce was an Avenger, but in the packet, most of the info had been scribbled out, in its place was a post-it note saying 'Ask your boyfriend.' He's not my boyfriend...

Currently, I'm sitting on the edge of the hospital bed in a button up with jean shorts, waiting for Bruce to pick me up. I have been cleared from the sterile dungeon, and my voice has started to come back. It's still a little crackly, but it's better than nothing.

"Anna, hey! Ready to go?" Ah, here's Bruce now.

"Hey!" I greet him with a hug. "Ready when you are."

Bruce nodded and held out his hand, which I grabbed, and we walked to the private plane that would bring us to the airport, from there we have a limousine, courtesy of Tony Stark, that will bring us to the tower.

I was gripping the armrests on my seat as tightly as I possibly could, and swearing under my breath every so often.

"I take it you don't like to fly?"

"Now what makes you say that? I'm just peachy!" My voice was practically dripping with sarcasm.

"Over the years, I've found that distraction helps."

"Like what?" Now I was genuinely interested.

"How old are you, Anna?"

"What?" What?

"How old are you?"

"I'm eighteen... What about you?"

"I'm twenty six." Not too bad of an age difference...

We sat there awkwardly for a few minutes, neither of us knowing what to say next. Well, I guess now's as good a time as ever.

"Hey, Bruce? Can I ask you something... personal?" I hope I'm not about to be crossing a line with my next question...

"Of course... is everything alright?" Oh dear...

"Everything's fine. Look, yesterday, Pete the Pirate asked me, well told me, to become an Avenger. He left a file for me to look through with information about the rest of you-"

"I see. Look, if you don't want to be near me-"

"What? I was just asking what made you an Avenger. It wasn't in your file and I was curious." What in the world? Bruce let out a sigh of relief.

"Oh, that's all. Um, well, it's a bit of a long story..."

"I could use a distraction." Bruce then proceeded to tell me about his gamma radiation accident, and how he became the Hulk. As he told me this story, his voice steadily got softer.

"So if you don't want anything else to do with me, I completely understand." I couldn't think of anything to say. How could he even think of such a thing?

"Bruce, I would never..." I just shook my head and placed my hand on his knee. "I would never, ever leave... unless you wanted me too that is, I mean I wouldn't be like some crazy stalker lady pretending that we were married, when in reality you had a restraining order against me or something. Not that you would have to, I mean-" Those lips...

"I'm sorry." Don't be

"For what?"

"I couldn't resist, you're very cute when you trail off, you know that? Besides, I couldn't get those lips off my mind at all last night..."

"Funny, because I find that these lips would be better somewhere else..." So we're gonna be those people who can't keep their hands off each other... I'm good with that.

"I don't know what it is about you Anna, but you bring out a different side of me. I know that probably sounds weird, but-"

"No! It's not weird at all! I know exactly what you're saying. Trust me, I don't know what it is, but when I look at you, I feel like a completely different person."

"Really?" Bruce's smile took up his whole face.

"Really."

"Please fasten your seat belts. We will be landing shortly." Bruce got up and let me sit by the window. He said that it was I sight that I would not want to miss, and he was right. The New York skyline was beautiful.

"Pete the Pirate?"

The car ride to the tower was less eventful than the airplane ride. I had never been to New York before, so I kept looking out the window and pulling on Bruce's arm excitedly. I forget that he practically lives here and has already seen all of this, but he just smiled and laughed.

We were supposed to go directly to the Avengers tower, but Bruce got an idea instead. He whispered something to the limo driver, and refused to tell me where we were headed.

"It's a surprise." He kept saying.

We stopped and got out in front of an apartment building.

"Bruce, what are we-"

"Don't worry, this isn't the place. Do you mind walking a bit?"

"Which way?" Where in the world...

"Okay, close your eyes." I quirked an eyebrow in confusion. "Please?"

"Alright." I closed my eyes, and Bruce led me by the hand. We didn't go very far, probably just around the corner.

"Okay, open them." I opened my eyes and saw that we were at a little coffee shop. I don't quite understand how, but it was beautiful.

"I could use some coffee after that plane ride," I said with a laugh.

"Well, I was just thinking that we kind of jumped ahead of ourselves a little bit. I mean we haven't even been on a date yet, but maybe we could have one now." Bruce was blushing awkwardly, and rubbing the back of his neck with one hand as the other was wrapped around mine. I gave his hand a reassuring squeeze and smiled.

"I'd like that."

We laughed and talked and carried on for a couple of hours. Eventually, Bruce got a phone call from Tony, so we started walking back to the tower.

"There it is."

"Wow! I mean, I knew it was big... but wow!"

"Well, we had better go inside. Tony sounded pretty pissed. He doesn't like to be kept waiting you know."

"I figured." I said with a laugh.

We walked across the lobby and into an elevator.

"Jarvis, can you-"

"Mister Stark informs you that you have five minutes to make your way to the main living room."

"Could you help us with that, J?"

"Yes Mr Banner."

"AI system?"

"Yep... you know, most people don't take it as well."

"Most people don't fool around with Bruce Banner." Right after I said that, the elevator doors opened, so Bruce had no time to react. Standing in front of me were Tony Stark, Captain Rogers, and Miss Potts.

"Hello! You must be Anna, I'm Pepper Potts, that's Captain Steve Rogers, and-"

"You know who I am."

"Nice to meet you Miss Potts, Captain Rogers, Mister Stark."

"Oh great, she talks like the Capsicle over here." Tony said irritatedly and rolled his eyes. Steve came up and shook my hand.

"It's nice to meet you Miss Thomas."

"Call me Anna."

"Call me Steve."

"Now Anna, you're probably exhausted from the plane ride, so Tony will show you your room. I went ahead and got some clothes in there for you, but we will definitely have to go shopping soon."

"Oh, I can't ask you to-"

"This way." Tony called. "You too Bruce. I did some remodeling."

We walked back onto the elevator, and Tony started talking a mile a minute.

"Alright, your room is on this floor," he pointed to a green button, "This is Thor's floor when he's here, this one's Nat and Clint's floor, Spangles' floor, and mine and Pepper's floor. This is the gym, that's the indoor pool, and that is recreational..." he went on and on and on until we finally off on my floor.

"This was originally Bruce's floor, but I'm sure he wouldn't mind you moving in. First door on the left is Bruce's room, first on the right is yours. You can show her around from here." Tony winked at Bruce before the doors shut on the elevator.

"Is he always that bad?" I asked with a laugh.

"Sometimes worse. Would you like a tour?"

"Might as well."

"Alright then. Let's get started, and please, stop me if you have any questions. Although, I don't think there's much to question." We started walking around the apartment, I guess I can call it that, and I soon learned where everything was.

"What's in that room?"

"This one? Nothing important."

"Well now I have to know."

"Are you always this nosy?"

"You'll get used to it."

"It's a private study."

"May I go in?"

"You wouldn't like it."

"What makes you say that?"

"It's mostly science type stuff in there."

"Are there books?"

"Hundreds."

That was all I needed to hear. I reached for the handle, but Bruce stepped in the way.

"What's so bad that I can't see it?"

"Look, if you can get the key from me, you can go in okay?" Poor, forgetful Bruce.

"Deal." I got the key pretty quickly.

"Alright, go on in then. I'm gonna wait out here."

Bruce wasn't lying. The walls were covered in book cases, and in rows across the room were tables covered in beakers and test tubes and formulas.

"You're quite the mad scientist, you know that? So what are you working on?" Bruce stood there for a while, not saying anything.

"I'm trying to find a formula that will... get rid of the, uh, the Other Guy." You just had to see what was in that room. Gosh I'm an idiot.

"Bruce... You don't have to do that. You're not a danger to anyone. You have it under control."

"How can you think that? Hell, I've only known you for a day. What was I thinking..."

"Bruce, please don't do this."

"I'm going to go to my room. Make yourself at home."

"Bruce-"

"I'll talk to you later, Anna."

What did I just do?

Okay, so let me explain myself on the ages. I know that Bruce Banner is pretty old, but you know what? It's my story, I'll change what I need to haha. Also, some people might still think that that is still a big age difference, but my uncle is eleven years older than my aunt, and they are the happiest couple I have ever seen, so I'm okay with how the story's going. Please review with your thoughts and opinions, because I love hearing them, positive or negative. Once again, thank y'all so much for reading, and I'll be sure to update soon.

~Elaine