Chapter Text
It’s most likely that any TV show you end up watching, a show that has been made for young people; highschoolers, young adults and such, will have the typical drama plotline, with it’s plot holes and the perfect unstained idyllic ending. And everyone lived happily ever after.
Except those who end up dead.
Or worse. Those who still are in High School.
And this is how Bruce had been feeling since he was eight years old and he had gone to live back with his father.
His father was a genius.
Doctor Brian David Banner, the physicist from the North Institute of Ohio, the genius. And if Bruce didn’t know any better, he was sure to be following in his footsteps, which utterly terrified him.
He’d rather be dead than end up being like his father.
At 10 years of age, Bruce had realized that his father was mean because he was scared that Bruce would be better than him, so he did the best thing he could figure out. Downplay it. He dumbed himself down, but it didn’t start to show until he started High School.
The first year? That was an almost normal one. He went to class, barely passed his tests and interacted with the people necessary to be invisible to who mattered, the adults.
“Morning Banner!” He glanced up, his glasses falling down his nose, at the sudden call, a girl whom he honestly had no remembrance of seeing, but he nodded his head in greetings anyways.
He went on his way and took the stairs by the elevators, not paying any mind to where he was going, but as always, ended up where he was meant to.
Practically everyone knew of the rooftop access their High School had, everyone knew any secret the school had to offer because that’s how teenagers work, they have no sense for safety or rules or anything that might mean obedience.
Luckily, no one went to the rooftop because that meant climbing three levels of stairs as there was no elevator access..his school was anything but adaptable for special needs students, really.
He sat in his usual spot and left the backpack on the floor. As it was a rooftop, it was usually colder than down on the streets but he was shielded by the small chimney and a few blocks of cement from some unfinished construction work. Lucky him.
“Why is it that I always find you here?”
“Because no one’s suppos’d to be here. Everyone else is too lazy for stairs.”
“I’m not too lazy for stairs, Banner”
“You’re telling me there’s something you’re lazy for, Natasha?”
“I’m lazy for math.” The girl replied, smiling innocently, knowing exactly which buttons to push to rile him up.
“Outrageous.”
The girl chuckled at his retort and sat down next to him, extending a handful of candy from her hands. “Thanks, Nat.” Bruce smiled and took them, having learnt that you don’t say no to Natasha Romanoff.
She was one of the first people who, for some reason, kept speaking to him for more than one week. He had moved not long after he and his father moved, after his mother’s dead. He was a year older than him because he skipped a grade, accidentally, but most of the time, Natasha seemed like the older one. She was wise beyond her years and she was a force to be reckoned with.
“I saw your grade in last week’s test for Mr. Thomson, by the way. When are you going to drop the act?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Bruce replied, avoiding her stare.
Natasha rolled her eyes, “You’re dumb.”
“Exactly. Thank you”
Natasha chuckled and shoved him with her shoulder, to which he responded the same way and it went on and on until Bruce accidentally slipped off and fell of their makeshift bench. “Sorry, not sorry.” laughed Natasha, extending a hand, again, this time to help the boy up.
“You’re way too strong.” Bruce huffed, straightening his glasses, which immediately dropped down his nose after they were released, making Natasha snort.
“You should really do something about that, or you will end up with an annoying tic.”
“What makes you think I don’t already have an annoying tic? It looks like a smurf, kinda tall and sometimes terrible, except when she gives me candy.”
“Hey!” The blue haired girl protested, not being able to stop her laugh. “But for real, Bruce, you’re way smarter than what you’re..acting like. You are smarter than some of the actual teachers here. I know.” She added, shifting her position to face his friend.
“I’m going to be 16 soon, I have to wait until then.”
“If you’re in any danger at home-”
“No. No, home is okay. I just have to wait for a few more years. That 's it. A few more years and I will be able to..”
“To what? Find a job? Leave?”
“Basically.”
“Well, I’m coming with you.”
“No, you’re not. You actually do have a chance, I’m..I don’t.”
“I don’t have a chance. I told you my story when I made you tell me about yours, and you still lied about most of it.”
“You still lied about most of it, too. You said you were a trained to kill, yet I have to see you kill Missy Routhens for spilling paint on your shirt two weeks ago.” He smiled, knowingly at her, to which she rolled her eyes and punched him, softly, on his shoulder. “Ouch. You wound me, Shostakov..or should I say Romanoff?”
“Shush. If someone hears you, we’re dead meat.” Nat rapidly cut, looking behind her to check if anyone had joined their impromptu early-lunch, thankfully they were still by themselves.
“I’ll eat meat again the day someone actually wins a fight against you.”
“Oh man. My dad-He was so mad when you wouldn’t try his sticky barbeque ribs, that was amazing. You should self-invite to my home more often”.
“Excuse me for being worried over your whole week of no contact. I thought you’d finally be sick of me and just wanted to clarify for myself.”
“So you decided to sneak into my house, climb the tree to my window and-” Natasha broke her own sentence with chortles, not being able to continue, that had been a memory Bruce had hoped with all his might they both would soon forget, which was not likely to happen.
“If you’d told me you were a family of spies, believe me, I wouldn’t have done it.”
“Don’t kid yourself, you would have.”
“Yes, I would have. I was worried”.
“Cute.” Natasha smirked, winking playfully at him.
“Ew.”
Their combined chuckles settled into a nice silence between the two kids, both staring at the buildings in front of them with no need to break the peace.
“Why are you here so early? You’re missing all the fun on the US Constitution.” Bruce asked after a few minutes.
“Nightmares. Couldn’t sleep but Melina made me come anyways. I’d rather fall asleep on the rooftop than in class. You?”
“Nightmares, too. I don’t really mind where I fall asleep but I..I had too much on my mind. My neurons were-”
“- going haywire.” they finished the sentence at the same time, to which they both chuckled, Bruce tugging at his hair nervously.
“I think I’ve never seen you with your hair this long.” Natasha mentioned, leaning her head on the top of her knees.
“Wanna cut it for me-Nevermind. Forget I said anything” Bruce rectified himself before actually asking the question, knowing the girl’s wild ideas and feigning a terrified shudder.
“I can cut your hair, if you want.”
“You’ll probably take revenge on me and do something horrible to it, like dye it blue.”
Natasha smiled rather evilly. “No. No. I will dye it pink. No fun to see a boy with blue hair. Pink with blonde ends.”
“Pass.”
Another bout of silence extended between them before Natasha broke it this time. “I never thanked you for listening, that day. Even if some of it were lies.”
“If anyone should say thank you, it should be me. I cried.” Bruce shrugged his shoulders, his checks getting a soft dusting of red.
The girl frowned at what his friend had said, “Your mother died, if you didn’t cry, I’d be worried.”
“Your mother died an- Nevermind. Putting my foot in my mouth again.” Bruce hit himself with the palm against his forehead, closing his eyes and pinching the bridge of his nose, his glasses dangling dangerously from his ears.
“In my defense, I think never knowing her and having Melina helped quite a lot. You have your monster of a dad. And, okay. It’s good that we talk about this and stuff but I refuse to let this turn into a my life is terrible your life is terrible fest.”
“And what do you suggest we do, oh wise Natasha of the Russian fields?” He exaggerated with an improvised accent.
“Please, never do this accent again, ever. And…let’s be spontaneous! What’s something you have always wanted to do that you have never done?”
“You’re gonna get us arrested. I can tell.” Bruce laughed.
“You have never gotten arrested so you want to get arrested?” Natasha asked, confused.
“No. And for your information, I’ve been in the backseats of two different police cars. the backseat is where arrested people go.” Bruce informed.
“Now we know who the bad influence is here, thank you for clarifying, Mr. Banner”.
“To answer your question..I know I talk a lot about leaving but I do really want to keep learning..look for scholarships, that kind of stuff.” He whispered so low that Natasha almost couldn’t hear him, she smiled in sympathy.
“You could still do that.”
“If my father ever finds out..I told you what he did.”
“You have other options. The police-”
“The police tried, but he has contacts in high places. When I’m 16. we’ll see.”
Natasha sighed, Bruce was the most stubborn person she had ever met, and her sister was a ten year old girl obsessed with the fact that Unicorns were real, but the unicorn searchers just don’t know where to look. A soft giggle escaped her, to which she instantly covered her mouth with her hand.
“Something you wanna share with the class?” Bruce raised his eyebrow, having noticed her slip.
“Yelena. She told me animal researchers were stupid because they haven’t found the unicorns yet, which means that unicorns are smarter than us because they know how to hide.”
“I won’t be surprised if in twenty years she finds a real one.”
“I thought you were a scientist.”
“Technically. I’m a fourteen year old high school student. Not a scientist yet.”
“Okay, Not-a-Scientist yet, so if I said the sun is a planet?”
Bruce groaned and threw his arms over his head, laying down on the floor, Natasha cackled with glee next to him. “I couldn’t resist.”
“You know it’s very different.” Bruce said, for what appeared to be the millionth time in a short period of time. “The sun is demonstrated to be a star because of its characteristics. Meanwhile, we haven’t found a trace of the Unicorn species, so, we could still be able to find it. There could be a 50-50 chance but we don’t know because we haven’t found it. Yet.” He stressed, wildly moving his hands around.
“Okay, genius. Why do you think we haven’t found unicorns yet?”
“Maybe your sister is right and they’re just avoiding us. I’d avoid humans if I could, too.” Natasha laughed and covered her face, stifling her uncontrollable giggles. “Narwhals do exist. Captain America exists too, well..existed.”
“Are you comparing Captain America to a Unicorn?” Natasha giggled.
“I’m just saying, Captain America wasn’t a possibility before they..made him. We could always make a Unicorn.”
“How? I hope you’re not gonna breed a..rhino with a horse..”
Bruse pursed his lips, his face going slightly pale. “Ew. Natasha, that’s gross. Ew.” After that, it was Natasha, whose face went red and eyes wide. “I didn’t even mean in that sense, you gross!” She pushed him again.
“We could always glue a cone to a horse’s head. Bam. Unicorn.” Bruce snorted.
“I say we do that for Yelena’s birthday. Find a bunch of horses and glue small cones to their heads.” Natasha proposed, shifting again to a sitting position, to which Bruce followed shortly after.
“And then we get arrested for vandalism. Perfect plan.” Bruce finalized, unimpressed.
“Deal.” They both shaked their hands, smirking despite the dark clouds over their heads.
“We can invite my cousin Jen and watch both of them go bonkers with the uni-glued-corns.”
Natasha hit him on the arm. “Stupid pun. Great idea, but stupid pun.”
“How very sticky of you.”
“God, you’re a nerd.”
“Takes one to know one.” He sang.
“Okay, Princess Leia.”
Bruce harrumphed loudly. “It’s autographed! She signed it herself!” He protested, having been teased more than once by Natasha for his Princess Leia Organa poster he put up on one of his bedroom walls.
“Relax, I think it’s adorable. Your first little crush.” She teased him, wriggling her finger against his cheek, Bruce didn’t waste a second on batting her hand away, ending up holding her hand tight so she’d stop trying to escape to bother him again.
“Another thing you want to do that you have never done’” Natasha insisted, her hand still trapped by Bruce’s.
He let go and immediately wrung his own hands together in his lap, moving his eyes to the horizon again and smiling sadly. “Everyone wants to leave Ohio. I don’t think I want to, thought.
“Me either.” Natasha agreed. Ohio had been sort of her salvation. Her ticket away from hell. She’d always be glad her..parents changed their minds at the very last moment. That plane ride that never landed where it was supposed to land, now a far memory in a hidden box inside her head.
Natasha likes to think that she would’ve left Ohio soon after first getting there, she would have escaped and found her own way, but then she met her found-family, she found a new friend…it didn’t seem too bad now.
And if Bruce were to stay in Ohio..She wouldn’t mind staying too.
For Bruce, it was different. His mom had died here, in Ohio, sure. But most of the best memories he had with here were made here, he also had his aunts and his dear cousin Jen. He lived with a monster, but that monster was his normal, he was used to it. He wasn’t used to change..and well, he had Nat in Ohio.
If Natasha stayed? He’d most likely stay too.