[1] Just A Normal Girl | Avallone the Avenger

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

"Coffee?" Bruce said, putting the jog on to boil. I nodded and nestled into the cushion on the couch. "Why were you getting an early breakfast?" I asked him, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes. He shrugged his shoulders. "I was going to get out of the tower for a day, you know just do some looking around. I planned to be gone before anyone knew but then I saw you, and the rest is history."
I laughed and replied, "Recent history." Then an awkward silence stretched between us while the jug boiled. "How many sugars do you have?" He asked when the jug made a noise, telling us it was boiled. I held up two fingers and added, "I like to keep it sweet. Oh milk as well, thanks." He nodded and handed me my cup of coffee.
"So, when did you go out there last night?" Bruce asked me. I looked out the window and replied, "I don't know. I think it was around midnight. It could have been earlier or later, I can't quite remember." He made a noise and we sat there in silence.
"What do you want for breakfast?" I asked him, standing up and walking into the kitchen. He followed me, protesting. "You don't need to make me breakfast, really. I can make it myself or even buy some." I shook my head and waved him off. "Go sit back down. I'll make you breakfast." He sighed and returned to the lounge.
"Any specific foods that you are craving at this very moment?" I asked him. He thought for a minute or so before saying, "I guess. Bacon and eggs on toast sounds good right now." I nodded and started making breakfast.

"Here ya go." I said, putting his breakfast on the table. He smiled and commented, "You know that you didn't have to have breakfast with me. I will be fine by myself." I shook my head and said, "No, no that wouldn't do. I feel indebted to you for saving my skin out on the balcony there." He laughed slightly and took a bite of his food. "Mmmm. This is good." He complimented me. I smiled and said, "Well then Mr Banner, since I made you so great a breakfast, maybe you would allow me to spend part of the day, if not the whole, with you."
Laughing, he put down his breakfast and picked up my formal style of talking, "Yes, I do believe that would be quite nice. I didn't think that spending the day alone would be as delightful as spending the day with you, miss Avallone." I laughed heartily with him and cleared up the dishes.
"What time shall we be off then?" I asked him. "Whenever you are ready." He replied. I nodded and said, "I'll leave the dishes for the others, a sure sign that we have left and go get changed out of my PJ's. If you do not mind." He laughed and waved me off to my room. "I'll meet you down at the bottom in ten minutes!" He called.

~

I ran towards the elevator quietly and was in the bottom before my ten minutes was up. "That was quick. And you look very nice." He said, complimenting me. I laughed it off and said he looked quite good himself and then we were off.
We walked down a random street, I don't know the name. It was very busy and we decided to go sit somewhere. "How about that little park over there?" He asked me, pointing to a strip of green grass that opened up into a quaint little place. I nodded and we weaved out way through the people.
"This is cute." I said, sitting down on a bench that was tucked behind some trees. He nodded and grabbed a leaf. "So, how long have you lived in New York?" I asked him, trying to make conversation. He looked at the ground. "Well, I moved here when I was called to be an Avenger. Originally I was in Calcutta, India but when Natasha came and got me for the Avengers I decided to move here." He waved his hand motioning that he moved to New York.
"So, are you going back?" I asked him. He shook his head. "I have a life here now, new friends. People who care about me." He sighed and stopped. Suddenly he turned to me and said, "Enough about me, what about you and your life in New York? Surely you must know my background, but I fail to know yours."
I looked at my feet, "Okay." I whispered before plunging in. "At home, life was okay. I mean my dad and my mother were together and they didn't have other issues." He flinched but I kept going. "But my dad, he just wasn't all there. I don't mean that he was stupid, I mean that he didn't really care much me. He would ask me how I was but I knew he wasn't really listening."
I sighed. He looked at me to keep going, the curiosity burning in his eyes. "I liked being home, more than I liked going out. At school or anywhere the kids teased me. They used to call me all these names. And after a while I started to believe them. And then came the nights when I was left alone. One thing happened after another and one night, I found myself in hospital. I had struck a vein with a razor blade and I was bleeding uncontrollably. In the hospital, sometimes I was happy and sometimes, I wasn't. The doctors stared to notice and they did a few test and found out why. I was bipolar."
I felt the tears welling up in my eyes. It was hard talking about it. "The nights I spent there after I learned about my mental illness were the worst nights of my life. It's not that people were mean to me, no, they were lovely, it's just that, well, the things that people had called me, I had started to believe it. I hated myself. Every chance I could get I would try to end my life."
Bruce sighed sadly. I looked over at him. "You're not the only one who tried that." I placed my hand on his shoulder and we sat there in silence. We did talk a little more about our pasts and sharing our hopes and dreams for the future as well. I had found a friend in someone I would have never expected.

"Thanks Bruce." I said, pulling him into a hug. "I had the best day I've ever had in a while." He smiled and hugged me back before we walked into the tower.