Fragile: Bruce Banner

Chapter One

Bruce

My vision was always hazy after one of my episodes. I never really knew what I'd done right away. At first it was like I was just waking up from a bad dream that my mind was trying hard to forget.

"Bruce."

I blinked and turned my head to find the source of the voice. The world around me was still spinning, the blue sky whirling above me with streaks of white for clouds. I swallowed and blinked again. The world was slowing down now.

"Bruce. You're okay." Natasha's hand was on my cheek and she was leaning in close, her red hair like a curtain shielding me from the damage that I had undoubtedly done. She smiled when she saw that I was aware and pulled away. "He's okay," she called over her shoulder.

I sat up, still groggy and glanced around at the pile of rubble I was sitting in. The rest of the Avengers were standing not too far away, still in their fighting garb and my face got hot because I knew I was butt naked. Only Tony Stark and Thor were paying attention to me with Clint Barton and Steve Rogers not too far, talking quietly.

"Get dressed, Big Guy," Tony said, tossing a pile of gray clothing at me. "We have somewhere to be."

I raised a questioning eyebrow and Natasha rolled her eyes, pushing on her knees to stand.

"He saw a shawarma place," she explained.

I had no idea what she was talking about but tugged the sweats and t-shirt on and got to my feet. "Aliens?" I wasn't talking about the shawarma place--whatever the heck that was--but about what had happened earlier with Loki (Thor's evil adopted brother) and the portal in the sky that had allowed an army of aliens to flood in over Manhattan.

"Yes," Thor replied. "Loki will be taken back to Asgard and will be brought to justice. You no longer have to worry about him."

I ignored the pain behind my eyes as I followed the rest of the team down the street. Starting now, I was going to get small flashes of what happened while I had been the Hulk. It would take a little while until I would be able to piece together everything that happened.

I saw the aliens--disgusting little creatures riding what looked like mopeds around the city--and I saw people running and screaming. I didn't know if they were running from me or from the aliens but, being the Hulk, I didn't particularly care. I had one purpose right now and that was to get rid of the aliens.

"Are you okay?" Natasha asked, putting a hand on my arm and looking up at me with soft eyes.

I forced a smile and nodded. "Yeah I'm fine. What about you? Are you alright?"

She looked down at the sidewalk and nodded. "Yes."

"You're not hurt too bad?"

She looked back at me, smirking. "Are you worried about me, Bruce?"

I could feel my ears burning with embarrassment. I cared about Natasha, that was true. But I couldn't give her what she wanted. For some reason she cared about me and stuck around when other people ran screaming. But I didn't want to hurt her and, when people were around me for too long, they tended to get hurt.

She nudged me with her shoulder. "Don't worry. I'm fine. I'll be fine. We beat the bad guys and now we're going to get shawarma. What could be better?"

* * * * * * * * * *

After shawarma--which actually turned out to be pretty good--we all called it a day. Tony brought me back to his fancy house in Malibu, Florida, were I was greeted by Pepper Potts.

"You must be the Hulk," she said as we walked inside, taking my bags.

I nodded. "And you must be Tony's girlfriend. It's a pleasure to meet you."

She hugged me, kissing my cheek. "It's nice to meet you too, Bruce. Are you going to be staying here for long?"

I glanced at Tony. I didn't want to stay where I wasn't invited.

"Yeah," he answered for me. "He can have the guest room." Tony kissed Pepper lightly and walked past her with our bags.

"So your room will be just down that hall and the first door to your left," Pepper instructed, pointing to the hall that she meant.

"Thank you, Ms. Potts."

"Oh please," she scoffed, waving a hand. "Call me Pepper. Ms. Potts makes me feel like an old spinster."

I smiled. "Pepper. I think I'm going to call it a night."

"As well you should," Pepper agreed. "I think I'm going to put Tony to bed too. You guys had one hell of a day today."

I found my way to the guest room where Tony had already unceremoniously dumped my bag, and threw myself onto the bed that was covered in white sheets. The small room wasn't decorated and, other than the bed, the only furniture in the room was a small dresser. It was better than what I'd been living in before I joined the Avengers.

I sighed and closed my eyes. After being the Hulk for a good portion of the day, I would probably sleep most of tomorrow. With great power, comes great need to take a nap.

But I didn't fall asleep right away like I was used to. Something was bothering me but I couldn't think of what it was. Images of the fight with the aliens kept flashing through my mind.

The broken buildings.

Loki.

Aliens.

I was tearing through the alien army like the animal I was--ripping armor off the flying giants and tearing into them. I was jumping from building to building, gripping onto the concrete walls as I made my way around the city.

Then I see it out of the corner of my eye. It's a building and it's crumbling. There's a small voice in the back of my mind that reminds me what Cap said earlier: clear out the civilians. Somehow, this little voice gives me--a giant, green monster--a shred of human decency and I leap towards the building.

And it's just in time too. There's a girl. No, she's more a woman. And she's falling, the ground beneath her slipping away. I can tell she's scared. Slamming into her, I toss her back into the small part of the building that is somehow still managing to stand. I can feel her breaking beneath me--shattering as the monster that I am crushes her.

I force my eyes to open. I don't want to relive the rest of that memory. I don't want to look down at her broken body and know that it was me who killed her. A sob rises up in my throat but I don't cry. Instead, I stare up at the ceiling until sleep finds me.