Bruce thought it was unlikely that level of trauma was something he could ever get past, but hey, he had mountains of trauma he hadn't come close to getting passed. So he would just keep surviving and trying to keep sane. Without the constant fear of hurting people here, that would help. He couldn't help, he had no strength, but he also couldn't turn on them. He told Nat that he was a threat to everyone, to her included, but now he was a threat to no one. The body count would stay at its current high horrific number.
He just huff-laughed at the weed comment and shook his head. "I might be able to smoke it for the first time, that's what I'll become, our resident pothead." Bruce was such a clean kid, who never made trouble, who never smoked or drank, he studied and he avoided. He did try a huge mix of medications and herbs and biological serums when fighting off the Hulk, and all of it much heavier than something as simple as marijuana. But that seemed ridiculous.
You're all I've got too, you know. It wasn't something to make him feel better, it shouldn't, it should make him sad, that he was all Tony Stark had now. He was a very poor substitute for the people Tony had before, for Pepper, for Rhodey. He would have to do his best to help fill those holes, to take the responsibility of being All Tony Had seriously. They were functional and intelligent. Bruce knew it was selfish, to be so grateful to mean that much to someone else, but he was not a healthy individual, and he wanted to matter.
Bruce held onto him and laughed again, but it was more just a gasp in and out of breath, sniffing. "No, no, it is. I messed up. I thought ---" He just shook his head. "I thought I was helping, it's so ridiculous now, looking back at it." Looking back on it as if it was years ago, when it was so close a time to his real memory. "After Johannesburg and Ultron, I knew I was bad for you, for the team." Not thought, knew. He had equal responsibility for the murder bot, he made the Avengers look terrible, dangerous. Cap and Tony, they could be forgiven by the public, they could salvage it, but making excuses for him, for the Hulk? "I didn't want to drag you down with me. I thought if I was just gone, it would be easier for the team to move on." The world could see him as the bad element.
There were tears now, and he just gave up on trying not to accept them. "I should have stayed. For you, if no other reason. And if I had, maybe things would've been different, maybe whatever happened to the Avengers wouldn't have." And he wouldn't be on a slave planet and the Hulk wouldn't have had his life for two years. If Banner for once made a good choice instead of running.
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He just huff-laughed at the weed comment and shook his head. "I might be able to smoke it for the first time, that's what I'll become, our resident pothead." Bruce was such a clean kid, who never made trouble, who never smoked or drank, he studied and he avoided. He did try a huge mix of medications and herbs and biological serums when fighting off the Hulk, and all of it much heavier than something as simple as marijuana. But that seemed ridiculous.
You're all I've got too, you know. It wasn't something to make him feel better, it shouldn't, it should make him sad, that he was all Tony Stark had now. He was a very poor substitute for the people Tony had before, for Pepper, for Rhodey. He would have to do his best to help fill those holes, to take the responsibility of being All Tony Had seriously. They were functional and intelligent. Bruce knew it was selfish, to be so grateful to mean that much to someone else, but he was not a healthy individual, and he wanted to matter.
Bruce held onto him and laughed again, but it was more just a gasp in and out of breath, sniffing. "No, no, it is. I messed up. I thought ---" He just shook his head. "I thought I was helping, it's so ridiculous now, looking back at it." Looking back on it as if it was years ago, when it was so close a time to his real memory. "After Johannesburg and Ultron, I knew I was bad for you, for the team." Not thought, knew. He had equal responsibility for the murder bot, he made the Avengers look terrible, dangerous. Cap and Tony, they could be forgiven by the public, they could salvage it, but making excuses for him, for the Hulk? "I didn't want to drag you down with me. I thought if I was just gone, it would be easier for the team to move on." The world could see him as the bad element.
There were tears now, and he just gave up on trying not to accept them. "I should have stayed. For you, if no other reason. And if I had, maybe things would've been different, maybe whatever happened to the Avengers wouldn't have." And he wouldn't be on a slave planet and the Hulk wouldn't have had his life for two years. If Banner for once made a good choice instead of running.