Either Way You're Still You - Bruce Banner x Reader

One

The clock read 6 am in the morning, so I leaped out of bed a threw on a bathrobe. For the past week, the mail had arrived between 6.02 and 6.08. I knew because I had waited for that letter, that cursed letter, every day. Obsessively, I counted down the seconds so I knew exactly when I should expect the mailman to arrive. His name was Preston. That's how pathetic I was for this letter. I was on a first name basis with the mailman. I was desperate to find out whether I was the one student out of the thousands who applied to get this unique scholarship. 

If I was accepted, I would be allowed to work personally with Tony Stark and his associates, have access to his advanced labs and apply for personal funding to aid my project. I had sent a comprehensive report of my latest scheme to Stark's office which consisted of my almost incoherent hypothesising. I had designed a rough outline for a microcomputer so small that it could be inserted into a five hundred and forty atom fullerene molecule of carbon and injected into the bloodstream. The computer was designed to interpret a sample of DNA and travel around both the circulatory and the lymphatic system, eliminating any cells it found that didn't correlate with DNA.  In a nutshell, it was a cure for cancer. 

The main issue I had encountered was concerning how to construct my hypothesised computer and my solution was to create another machine to do it for me. However, computers with the capability to construct more of it's kind never went down well in the scientific community, in addition, I had no degrees or even a secondary education to my name. I had learned everything I knew off the internet from the depths of my minuscule box apartment. 

I tripped over some unidentifiable rubble as I flicked the coffee machine on. I needed my lifeblood. A knock on the door startled me and I rushed to open it. It was only 6.01. I flung open the door to see Preston standing with a grin on his face and holding out an envelope with the Stark Industries logo printed neatly in the corner.

"Delivered to you floor first today just to see your face when you got this."

My stomach tightened in anticipation and I felt my heart rate increase. It took all my willpower not to snatch the envelope out of his hand and feverishly tear it open. I threw my arms around his neck and pulled him into a hug. 

"Thank you."

Without closing the door, I drew away from him and ripped through the thick paper and pulled the letter out. Squinting to read the fine print, I read it aloud to him. 

"Miss L/N. I am delighted to inform you that you have been selected to participate in my own personal course for young scientists based on your ability, initiative and most importantly, the style in which you work in." I read the words out so fast that I didn't pause for breath and was shouting by the time I finished the sentence. I flung my arms around Preston and smiled into his shoulder for a while until he cleared his throat. 

"I have to deliver to all of Park Avenue, so if you'll excuse me, Y/n, I have to go." 

"Right. Sorry. I've just been waiting for something like this for years. Have a good day." 

I closed the door and sank to the floor and read the rest of the letter. 

The style in which you work in. You have a very similar thought process to my own and I look forward to working closely with you. You are expected to be at Stark Tower before 1pm today - Tony Stark. His signature stretched flamboyantly across the page. Today? He wanted me at 1 pm today? I felt like I should have been offended by his late notice but in all honesty I would jump off a cliff for this opportunity.