Darcy steered clear of both Tony and Bruce after that. Tony because she was a little bit angry with him, and Bruce because there was no way that he hadn't figured out that Darcy had met the Hulk before after the incident in the lab. She technically hadn't outright lied to Bruce about knowing the Hulk. However, like the time she didn't mention the newly formed dent in the family car until after her mother had noticed, omitting information is essentially the same thing as lying.

Soon or later she knew she was going to have to face it. If fate had asked her, however, she would have requested it not be in an elevator. Elevators just bred awkwardness, and plus there was the factor of not being able to escape said awkwardness because you were in a box with solid walls in every direction.

Darcy was already in the elevator, at the time empty and with its doors closing, when a hand reached through to stop them. She felt her eyes widen when she saw who it was, and then looked promptly down at the floor. Bruce Banner gave an uncomfortable cough, pausing at the opening, probably deciding whether or not he should get on.

Flicking her gaze for a brief second to his face, she sucked in a breath and said, "Oh just get in here already."

Bruce complied, picking a spot that was the furthest away from Darcy.

After passing two floors by without a sound, she had figured that he wasn't going to speak at all. Then on floor 5 his voice cracked into the silent space. "So you've run into the other guy before?"

Darcy was so shocked that he was speaking to her at all she said the first sarcastic thing that came to mind. "Oh yeah, we've met on more than one unfortunate circumstance."

There was a beat of silence, then "I'm sorry."

The man's voice sounded so distraught that Darcy forgot her decision to avoid looking at him and snapped her head up. "What?" she asked, voice high. He looked... guilty. Sad and guilty. Seeing his face made it all click. "Now slow your roll Mister! The Hulk didn't cause those unfortunate occasions."

A small scoffing noise told her that he didn't believe her.

"Bruce, I'm telling the truth. He didn't cause any of them, he saved me."

There was a beat where she watched him process the information, rubbing a hand roughly on the back of his neck. "Really?" There was a little glimmer of hope in his voice that made Darcy's heart break.

"Really," she said, trying to impress upon him how serious she was. "I'd be dead now... on more than one occasion." She started counting on her fingers, wavering back and forth when she was trying to decide if that one time really counted, then clarified, "To be precise - four times."

That sobered Bruce a bit, and he didn't look so upset anymore about Darcy meeting the Hulk. Then he fully registered what she'd said and instead got upset with her.

"Four times? Darcy you need to be more careful! What were you doing?"

Dary vaguely realized that the elevator door had opened and shut twice already at their designated floor. Maybe she should have just let the dude continue thinking the Hulk was a menace instead of defending him. She tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ears and cleared her throat in preparation of defending herself, not at all how she thought this conversation would go when Bruce stepped onto the elevator.

"Newsflash!" she shouted. "We live in New York City. We get attacked a lot. Bad things happen. It's not my fault." Darcy crossed her arms over her chest and huffed.

Bruce removed his glasses and pinched his nose. "I didn't say it was your fault. But you've only been working here for what... 10 months?"

Surprised that he knew that, Darcy just nodded.

"We've only had four attacks in the last 10 months, so that means you've been outside every single time?"

She nodded again, shrugging. "I tend to have bad luck. Runs in the family."

Darcy had used a similar excuse on Jane before, who had practically had developed a coronary explaining that that wasn't how genetics worked. Bruce Banner seemed to be having similar thoughts run through is science-minded brain but he didn't voice them.

"Okay," he said slowly. "But why are you out walking around during the day that much?"

"Food." At Bruce's confused look she realized she was going to have to elaborate. "It's part of my job to make sure Jane eats. I pick us up lunch every day and sometimes supper if she's going to be here late working on a project." Darcy didn't think it was pertinent to add that Jane was always working on a project. From the way Bruce was acting, he probably would have something to say about her venturing into some of the seedier parts of town on her own to get a late night dumpling order from the cute little Chinese restaurant a few blocks away, or picking up a pizza from the authentic Italian place on the other side of the city.

When Bruce finally noticed what Darcy had two minutes ago - that the elevator doors were closing and opening repeatedly on their floor, he sighed and motioned for Darcy to step out first.

Their conversation was far from over, though.

"Why don't you just get them delivered here?" he asked, like it was an obvious solution.

Which maybe to Bruce it was, but Darcy didn't see the same problem as him. She shook her head fiercely. "First, the place I get our lunches from only deliver if we buy a certain amount. I'm not giving into that business strategy bull crap trying to make me spend even more money. Second, sometimes I just need a break from the lab. I get some exercise... I don't snap Jane's twiggy little neck when she complains about Thor one too many times. It's a win-win."

Bruce did not see it that way. Darcy decided that she really didn't want to be doing this anymore because the more she talked to Bruce, the more she felt like an idiot, so she started heading to Jane's lab. An arm stopped her progress though and Bruce started pulling her in the other direction. For a moment Darcy considered pulling back, but Bruce, like the Hulk, had seemed sometime in the last five minutes to make her is personal mission. Not entirely surprising because she was awesome.

Bruce's grip as he dragged her to his lab was gentle but firm, and she decided that maybe she could stand talking with him a few more minutes.

One hour later they had come to an agreement. Although why they needed one in the first place was still a little lost on Darcy, she could kind of sort of see Bruce's point about safety, although she wouldn't admit that to him.

Basically it worked out that Darcy would now be in charge of ordering lunch for everyone from then on. Tony had shown up towards the end of the conversation and was somehow weirdly on Bruce's side. From the smirks he kept sending Darcy, she figured it was more to annoy her than because he was actually concerned about her safety, but whatever. And since she would be ordering lunch for everyone, there would be enough to meet the delivery requirement, solving that perceived problem and allowing Darcy to stay inside.

Then Bruce, with a 25% awkward/75% totally cute blush and averting of eyes, offered his and Tony's lab up for a place that Darcy could take a break from her best friend's Norse god romance problems.

Tony, being the super helpful guy he was, even handed over a credit card to pay for the previously mentioned meals, and at the same time stating that it didn't appear that she would need the code to the lab since she already seemed to know it. Darcy kept her lips sealed on that one, having made an oath to a very protective British-speaking AI that she had to uphold.

While it all sounded well and good, Darcy was a tad confused about how Bruce or Tony benefited from this agreement though. Sure, they wouldn't have to get their own lunch, but then they'd be at Darcy's mercy for ordering. Also, they had to know that she wouldn't be her usual perky, bubbly self when she came down to their lab, but quite the opposite. Darcy hadn't thought there was a man in existence who would knowingly subject themselves to that, but here were two. She couldn't help but think there had to be an ulterior motive to all of this.

When she voiced this out loud though, Tony just rolled his eyes like the answer was obvious, then left, leaving Bruce to fend for himself. In answer, he jabbed a thumb at the retreating Tony and said with a lopsided grin,"Maybe I need someone to distract me from hurting Tony."

Darcy let out a snort of laughter at Bruce, who was surprisingly funny, and couldn't help but think that it was the start of a beautiful (if somewhat tentative) friendship.

So I think I'm going to change my plans a bit for this. I've had a few commenters ask about knowing more specifics of how Darcy met the Hulk. I wasn't planning on doing anything with that (was just going to leave it ambiguous), but I'm always up for a challenge. And writing the Hulk character fully-realized is definitely going to be a challenge for me.

I've changed this into a series, which I decided to name after this fic which inspired it all: Her Big, Green, Guardian Angel.

So it's (probably) going to be:

1. Prequel scenes with Darcy meeting the Hulk
2. Story about Darcy becoming tentative friends with Bruce (which is what you are currently reading)
3. Then... later stories about Bruce/Darcy, exploring their growing friendship and probably turning it into a little something more... thoughts?

Sorry for the switcheroo. I don't really think things through, I just DO. And what started off as a one-shot has slowly progressed into a whole lot more.

I've just started writing chapter 3, which I think is going to be the last part of this story. We'll see when I reach the end, but that should be up soon-ish.

Hope you are enjoying this so far. Let me know what you think!