sixthiterationlogs | [MINGLE] One-Man Show

This is a familiar moment for him. Memories can be faded or they can be bright, and too much of the time Bruce allows the bad ones to fix brightly and cruelly in his mind. But this was a good night. This was when they felt less like colleagues and more like friends, like family. It's bittersweet, now that he knows they might never get back to this place. Here in the village, they might. It's what he hopes. He remembers their talk, just before this, that led to that particular flirty look between them, and he smiles.

He glances over at Nat and steps over so he's right next to her. He doesn't want to bring attention to inner turmoil she might be feeling by taking her hand or touching her, but his quiet level of support is simply standing close, letting her lean into him or away if she chooses. "Hi," he murmurs, all his attention on her. "Remember everyone's face when Vision lifted it easily?"

It was a good night. It was such a good night, and as Bruce steps up next to her Nat reaches out, taking his hand in her own, lacing their fingers together. Support as much as it is affection. He needs that, right now, if what's been shown in his own vision is what she thinks it is. The nightmare he's been living with for months now. Her fingers squeeze his, and the smile she gives him is faint and ghostly.

"Nobody could believe it. I thought Thor was going to faint," she answers, voice low. "But it was...things were good, then. It's easy to forget, but things were good." And they could have been so much better. If they had just...but she's never been one for regrets.

"We're going to fix it, Bruce." She's still looking into what's now just a simple path, a faintly Japanese-styled shrine. Still seeing those videos, maybe. "We'll fix it. There has to be a way to undo what he did."

Bruce is so thankful that she reaches out to him, and he takes her hand without hesitation, so glad they're in a place where they instinctively gravitate toward each other now. If he could go back and shake his former self and tell him to ask her out now, now, he would, but also that would be too late as that night Ultron was already being created. But they're here now, and he lifts her hand, kissing the back of it sweetly, and then simply holding it.

"He also made himself a cape just like Thor's. I think we all know which father he chose to take after." It is a joke sometimes for Bruce, that he, Tony, and Thor were all parents to Vision in a way, the closest thing to them the android had. He didn't get to know Vision himself, and he's sorry about that, from what little he did get to see. "Yeah, things were good, some of the best times of my life." He knew that was true of all of them, and it's why they kept trying to make the dream work.

He nods. "We're going to have to." The other option was just too bad. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you, but it's bad enough Rhodey, Tony and I have to live with it."

"I know. It's not like you've been keeping a secret from me, Bruce. I didn't ask, and you know if I'd wanted to know, I would have found out." Probably by asking Rhodey to give her the rundown, honestly. He's always known how to give a mission report. Her fingers squeeze his lightly, the ghost of a smile passing over her face.

"You can tell me everything when we get back, if you want. Go through the whole thing. Everything I've missed. And we can start working on a plan, for when we get back."

Bruce couldn't lie to her directly, so he didn't bother. She was right. The information was there if she wanted it. "I haven't told Thor," he says, glancing around. Thor isn't there, so he still won't know. He feels intensely guilty about keeping so much from his friend, and it shows now, like all his emotions do. "He doesn't know that Asgard was destroyed, that most of his people are dead. It's just ...." He sighs and shakes his head slowly. "I don't think knowing that will do anything other than hurt him."

It's selfish, he knows that. He can't bear to hurt him that way. The Asgardian is so sunny tempered, to take out that light would be too much. "I'll tell you all I know. I think the wizards might be a first good stop. We have wizards in our world now, by the way." Or they always did and he never knew.

"You're right. Honestly, he's still getting used to being human, or humanish. And then there's Loki to consider. I don't think you're doing the wrong thing, not telling him," she says, filing that news away as well. Asgard, destroyed? Most of the Asgardians dead? She can't even imagine what that would take. Apparently, whatever's coming.

Wizards merits a look at Bruce, then a shrug. "Sure, why not? Aliens, gods, superpowered rocks, why not wizards, too." You have to laugh, right? "Tell me everything, when we get back to the village? I haven't pushed. I know it's hard to talk about. But if we're going to come up with a plan, I need to know."

"Loki knows and agrees. We've talked about it." Which of course means that Bruce and Loki have agreed on a thing and are therefore on the same page about something, and that doesn't make him overly happy. The two of them reached a point of accepting each other and having a polite distance, and he'd like to keep that. "I'd be suspicions of his motivations, but honestly, I think he doesn't want to be the one either. They only just managed to get to a good spot again." Bruce rubs his free hand against his jaw. "He's from at least my time or a little after."

She's right. Shrug is the only response to that. "We can do that. It's maybe easier to talk about now that it's out there, because ... you saw it. That's hard to put into words, hard to explain." Bruce doesn't think that words can get at what it is to see half the world turn into dust. It'll always haunt him, but it feels like less of a horrifying secret at the moment. "We really did try our best though. Well, all of you did." He hates seeing himself in the suit, instead of the Hulk, who is more helpful in that situation. "He decided not to come out."

"You've talked about it?" Please pardon the healthy amount of skepticism buried beneath the careful neutrality in her voice, Bruce, but this is, in fact, Loki. Loki whom she wouldn't trust if her life depended on it. Maybe especially then.

The expression softens at the rest of what he says, though, and she leans into his shoulder, turning to look towards the rest of the group. "I know. It's hard to find the words to explain something like that, because the words there are don't seem big enough, or urgent enough. You can't describe something like that." She's quiet for a moment, processing the last.

"You have any idea why?"

"We talked about it in one conversation when I saw him here, yes. He confirmed we were from the same time, and that he doesn't plan on telling Thor about Asgard." Bruce didn't speak to him much more than that, and it's for the best. He might not be interested in smashing him at the moment, but they were also never going to be friends. Tolerance is the most he's offering. "I don't trust him, but I don't think he'll do it. Until he has a compelling reason to." Like backstabbing Thor's friends, possibly, but he does trust that Loki will do what benefits him.

He puts his arm around her, and a simple gesture of affection like this is more comforting him than any amount of words. Bruce sighs and closes his eyes briefly. "He's spent years in control of us, I think he was staging a ... protest of some kind. A strike. He might not be willing to fight my battles anymore." Which sounds insane, as it could lead to both of their deaths, but Bruce tried over and over. He had plenty of anger and adrenaline to set the Hulk off. "He's the most independent he's ever been, almost his own person now."

That's definitely something to consider. He had said he'd spent years trapped inside the Hulk. Years would be enough time for the Hulk to develop his own personality, his own preferences, his own sense of self. It didn't actually surprise her that given enough time, he wouldn't want to just be a weapon that comes when its called.

Natasha leans into the arm around her, and though Bruce might be surprised by the idea, it gives her as much comfort as it does him. "I don't think he'd let you die. Especially if he's that independent now. He's always been his own person. But you're still tied to each other, and he doesn't want to die." Maybe there's some way to look again at separating them. At giving them their own lives. Hulk and Banner have never really been two sides of the same coin; Hulk has always been something else, born from Banner, maybe, but not him. Don't they both deserve a chance at life?

Bruce's only hesitation over being glad about the Hulk being gone is entirely surrounding the fact he was starting to gain his own sense of self. It meant that it was wishing the non-existence of someone closer to a person than not. It wasn't as cut and dry as when he simply wanted to cure himself of the Hulk or strip him right off him. The choice was taken from him here, and he's thankful for that, it would've been more difficult to choose to remove him with that in mind.

"I'm sure if I was about to die, or dying, he'd be forced to come out. But it still means we didn't have one of our heaviest hitters during the fight, and we were already overpowered." Thanos, his generals, his crazy army, it was never good odds. "I did beat one of the generals in Veronica, but he could've made a real impact." And being willing to save his own skin instead of saving others is one of the reasons he still isn't to the level of a thinking rational person. He's like a toddler or a small child. "If I could give him his own full life, I would. Albeit with some major concerns and restrictions in mind."

From what she'd seen, she wasn't sure if the Hulk really would have made that much of a difference. He was strong, and he was fierce, but against the kind of power Thanos wielded...she isn't sure. But there's no use in saying that. Not here, not now, not with the bits and pieces she has.

Instead, she just nods. "I don't know. Maybe there's a chance for that. The technology they have in Wakanda is incredible. The things they've managed to do there...or maybe there's something magic. You did say we've got wizards now. But honestly, I'm just...glad you made it through. We'll worry about the rest when we get home. I know we'll find a way to fix it, Bruce." She isn't usually the optimist, but even this doesn't feel like blind optimism. They can find a way to fix it. She knows it.

Bruce smiles at her, finding one despite what they all went through, and pulls her in closer to him as a side hug. He leans in to kiss the top of her head affectionately. "I'm glad we both made it through." He really could not imagine having seen Natasha turn to dust. He wasn't sure he could come back from that sort of vision, so he did have sympathy for the others who had to witness it. They weren't together then, but she still was incredibly important to him. She was here with him now, in his arms, and that had to be enough.

For a moment he just closes his eyes and breathes in her hair, before letting it out. "Okay let's try to figure out what the hell is going on in the here and now." He knows they have their priorities.

[wrap on this one?]

[MINGLE] One-Man Show

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