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WHO: Betty Ross
WHERE: Near House 40
WHEN: February 3, Late Evening
OPEN TO: OTA!
WARNINGS: None, but will update as needed.

There hadn't been any reason to worry, in the end.

Nat's back, of course, but as tired as she is, Betty wouldn't exactly blame her if she hadn't noticed that the house had a few more shelves than when she'd left, and that the kitchen cabinet project they'd been working on was entirely complete - as if her roommate had suddenly found herself with some insomnia to deal with.

Now, it's late and the sun has long since sunk beneath the horizon. The moon is barely a sliver in the sky; there will be a new one tomorrow. Betty's sitting on the porch steps - in the spring they should see about reinforcing them, she thinks. Ginger the cat's slipped outside and is rubbing against Betty's ankles. She's a cat person, so she reaches down to give the cat a quick stroke, even though her eyes are still fixed on the sky.

"You haven't smoked since Harvard, Betty," she mutters. "And you don't even have the means to start it up again now."

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There was something to be said for being home. Well, as home as this place had come to be. The trip back from the mountain shrine had been hard on everyone, and frankly Reeve found himself thankful that he had a bed, had heating, had lights back. Granted most of his personal possessions were still at the southern farm site, and he'd have to head back down there soon. But for now he was reveling in 'technology' such as it was.

Of course, there was something strangely confining about the house as well. All the time at the farm site, all the time walking back here across country, it reminded him of his childhood. Of the wonders of nature. Which was why he was out of the house for the evening, taking a walk away from the more populated parts of thee village, away from the houses and the concerns of people so he could just enjoy the fresh air.

When he notices the woman he intends only to give a brief nod to show he had noticed her. Except... Except there is a cat and that gets Reeve to stop.

"Good evening, miss. Enjoying the stars?"

It's true. Cats are, scientifically, only second to dogs when it comes to being human magnets. Ginger's a girl, so she's not as showy as the male peacats, but she makes up for it with an utterly aloof countenance. She sniffs in the direction of Reeve, and then steps delicately down the steps. Betty's not nearly so interesting as new blood.

"I am," she says, and smiles. "Enjoying the night air? It seems like half the village is still passed out from the, uh, adventure."

He crouches as the peacat approaches. Strange beast, but he's seen them around and he smiles as he offers a hand for her to sniff at.

"I am. I found on the way back down that it was better than I remembered. Of course it's better than home. But after all that, it makes sense. Those that can sleep, will."

"Home must not be a thrill." Ginger is great, she thinks, but she misses her ridiculous marshmallow fluff of a cat, Clyde, and she misses morning coffee and suffering through a morning jog.

Well, maybe not the last one so much. "Do you always have trouble sleeping?"

"I do not remember noting that I was having trouble with sleep. But I can absolutely see how that conclusion comes about, and it is correct. No, I do not. Well..."

He smiles as strokes the feline with a gloved hand.

"When you discount the fact that I often miss sleep due to work, which is less trouble and more personal restraint, also no."

Not in a while. The nightmares don't plague him as much as they should. Except they do right now.

"I'm pretty good at looking at evidence and drawing conclusions from it," Betty says with a faint smile. In fact, you might say that's the basis of my entire career back home." And something she should get back to, even here, she thinks, glancing at the dark blue band on her wrist. She promised Tony she'd see if she could figure out how the wrist bands are connecting to their biological selves.

Not at midnight, though.

"It's late and you're out walking, not the usual activity of someone who drops off as soon as their head hits the pillow. Of course, it's late and I'm sitting on my porch with a peacat, so you might say we have that in common."

"Then I think I'm not likely to be judged," he smiles as he strokes the peacat.

A scientist, he has to conclude. Someone who would claim the whole evidence and drawing conclusions had to be something along those lines.

"Any particular reason you are awake?"

"My roommate got caught by the fox...kitsune, by the temple on the way down," Betty says. She pushes her hair back again needlessly. It's clearly a habit brought on by nerves, and the nerves are probably brought on by two weeks of worrying but pretending not to worry about a Russian superspy who definitely could take care of herself.

"She just got back earlier tonight, and while she's passed out in bed - obviously - I'm wide awake."

"Yes, as was I. And I was lucky enough to be moved closer it turned out," Reeve hums as he picks the 'feline' up and moves toward her, still petting the thing, scratching behind the ear.

There is a lot to consider now, including how you get past the being awake.

"I hope she gets what rest he needs."

Betty smiles a little. It's a friendship that, she expects, would be found extremely weird back home, but she and Nat are friends nonetheless. They're starting to know who each of them are, and it's not just who the world sees. "She'll definitely get some of it," she says.

"What about you?" She asks. "Do you think you're going to sleep tonight?"

"Like as not, I won't. But such is something we must adjust to here."

With the feline in hand he settles down onto the bottom step, stroking the creature as he looks back over his shoulder at Betty. His offers her a smile.

"You?"

"Smoking's bad for you anyway. You have the cat to take hits of at least." The voice might have seemed like it was coming from no where, because Bruce can be very quiet on his feet. He's exhausted from the trip back. He's not exactly in the best shape, although he's probably in the best shape of his life, but Bruce's best is not anything compared to others. The entire trip was harrowing and unnerving, and for someone with as high an anxiety level as Bruce, triggering. The journey was probably worse than the memory, honestly. The latter he'd already lived with. The former was new.

He's likely added some silver to his temples from the past week alone, and he has circles under his eyes, but he still manages a smile for Betty. Usually Bruce avoids petting the cats, but he takes a seat next to Betty and deliberately strokes his hand along Ginger's spine. Yep. He needs it too. Peacats for all.

"I thought I was aware how old and out of shape I was, but guess what, I'm more of both those things that I expected." He glances over at her, his tone dry.

"Ginger would definitely object if I picked her up anywhere near my mouth." Besides that, Betty's been catsitting. She knows most of the places Ginger has been. She leans down and strokes the cat's back and snorts as she flops over.

"Neither of us were particularly athletic even when we weren't old," she says. To be fair, neither of them are really about to head to retirement homes. "Hiking down a mountain wasn't a required activity back at Harvard."

"If we had to lick the cat to get the same feeling, we'd probably have less takers." The ease of petting an animal made it almost absurd not to without major objections. Bruce is usually wary of anything that could biologically alter him, even temporarily, but he gave up on that since arriving here. No Hulk to worry about, although he is pretty sure there's no paranoia aftermath of the cat drug. So far.

"The Outing Club sure seemed to think it should be. Their enthusiasm was exhausting." Bruce smiles as the peace starts to ripple through him. He can see why Tony's a little too attached to Elton at times. "I got good at running for awhile there. When they found me in Brazil, I had a very daring escape. Running along rooftops even." He doesn't have to say who they are. She knows who they are. And Bruce only runs to avoid the Hulk, not the people after him. "I have several blisters at the moment, and I'm one of the lucky ones."

Betty can't help but laugh a little, but when she speaks it's not about weird magical soothing cats - lovely as Ginger is - but those memories of Harvard. Life had been easier then, she thinks, for both of them. In the years when she was just a little beneath her father's notice, and before then Colonel Ross had realized just how brilliant her smart best friend at college was.

"There was a certain segment that thought I should go to Bryn Mawr for college," she says. Bryn Mawr is, of course, an excellent school, producing many brilliant women, but she's fairly sure that segment was thinking she'd graduate and marry a West Point grad. In short, they both know who that was. "But honestly, they climb that mountain every year, and I just couldn't face it." A pause. "You have a first aid kit at your house, right?"

"It's a great school, but at the risk of sounding like that alumnus, it's not Harvard." They had a reputation for a reason, but he does know that it was a boy's club. Betty proved herself without a doubt as an equal to any of them, but it was an uphill battle at times. "And obviously, we would have never met, and my life would've been a different kind of disaster." Betty was Bruce's best friend, she saved him in more than one way, and whatever came after, nothing could make him regret it. He smiles at her with all the fondness in his heart.

"I do, although I've moved. Temporarily, I'm planning on seeing if Peggy and Liv want to start our own little house. There wasn't enough room with Pepper here, but I'd live in a snowbank if it meant having her around." Pepper is one of his favorite people, and it made Tony so happy. Bruce finds that he doesn't want to live alone again. He stands and offers her a hand up. "Want to come over for a bit? I have tea somewhere."

"It's a brilliant school and has produced many brilliant women." And it's very clear from Betty's calm and definitely practiced neutral tone that she's got a lot of colleagues back home who are products of the Seven Sisters. "But no, there's a reason Hahhvard is Hahhvard." Some of it's tradition, a lot of it is reputation, but it's both that tradition and reputation that attract so many bright minds to it, and in turn help it keep it there. Besides that, Betty has some very fond memories of Cambridge.

Her eyes widen, though, as she lets him help her up. "You don't want to move in with Nat?" It's clear that its a few seconds after she says it that she realizes the implications, and her cheeks turn a little red in a way that has nothing to do with the cold. "I mean, I could move into the inn for a bit, or find someone else looking for a roommate."

"I already ran into that obnoxious problem where I casually drop Harvard into talking about myself and then wonder when I became that guy. Only to realize I've always been." She understands though. When you work that hard to get into a place like that, it becomes something special. And Bruce went to college when he was still practically a kid, so his loyalties were to classrooms first, everything else secondarily.

Bruce blinks at her and blushes slightly himself, shaking his head. "Uh, no. We're ... early." He still hasn't figured out how to fully navigate his ex and his girlfriend living together, but it's been working out. He likes knowing Nat is around to protect Betty and that Betty is a brilliant wonderful person that Nat could use as a friend. It's awkward for him, but beneficial all around. Still, he smiles at Betty, gesturing toward the house he was currently staying at so they can walk in that direction. "I really am glad you're there, Betty, seriously. It's good. I know it's weird for all of us, but luckily we're all very good at adulting."

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two billion years later