For onteamdyson
New York is just like he'd remembered it. He walks by some of the places the Hulk had damaged in the war with the Chitauri, and some are still under construction. Harlem, too; he can walk through the streets and see the seams of his visit, of that night with Ross and Blonsky and Betty. He doesn't remember it. He woke up later, somewhere far away, and looked it up through the news. What he'd done with Blonsky and what he did with the Chitauri weren't that different. He'd been saving Harlem then, after all. Smashing and saving -- really not that different at all. The debris has to fall somewhere.
The tower is the same too. The same big, plush floor all to himself, everything too expensive and too new for him to ever feel like he could really live here. And too free. Tony doesn't ask for anything, except that one quiet little request that sneaks in at the corners of their conversations. Stay. That's the same too. That was the way they were then, before Arkham, and that's the way they are now. Tony gave him so much then, and he gives him so much now, anything he could ask for within reason, which is the same thing as anything he could ask for, because Bruce would never be that outlandish. In the end he never asks for anything.
When he watches Tony and Pepper together, just as they were then when he was last in New York, Bruce averts his eyes and doesn't ask for anything.
When he packs up and leaves, he brings nothing with him that he didn't buy himself. The room is pristine, neat, just the way it was when Tony first showed him around. He just quietly collects his things and folds himself out of Tony's life. It isn't his Tony, anyway. This is Pepper's Tony, a Tony untouched by Arkham, and Bruce doesn't belong here anymore.
The trouble is, after Arkahm? He's unused to being on his own. Ducking from corner to corner, crashing here and there, jumping at the first sign of trouble; it's hollow and it lacks the thrill it gave him before. He was running to freedom before; now he's just running, but he can't escape something that he doesn't even have.
It's hard to track her down without a last name, but Bruce knows what it's like to exist in the cracks of society, and he finds her. Canada's nice anyway, preferable to the US; he's glad to leave those borders behind, to drift through places likely to contain Kenzis until he finds her. It's an accident, actually, spotting her on the street, but then he pursues her, follows her throughout the day. Watching.
Is she his Kenzi?
The tower is the same too. The same big, plush floor all to himself, everything too expensive and too new for him to ever feel like he could really live here. And too free. Tony doesn't ask for anything, except that one quiet little request that sneaks in at the corners of their conversations. Stay. That's the same too. That was the way they were then, before Arkham, and that's the way they are now. Tony gave him so much then, and he gives him so much now, anything he could ask for within reason, which is the same thing as anything he could ask for, because Bruce would never be that outlandish. In the end he never asks for anything.
When he watches Tony and Pepper together, just as they were then when he was last in New York, Bruce averts his eyes and doesn't ask for anything.
When he packs up and leaves, he brings nothing with him that he didn't buy himself. The room is pristine, neat, just the way it was when Tony first showed him around. He just quietly collects his things and folds himself out of Tony's life. It isn't his Tony, anyway. This is Pepper's Tony, a Tony untouched by Arkham, and Bruce doesn't belong here anymore.
The trouble is, after Arkahm? He's unused to being on his own. Ducking from corner to corner, crashing here and there, jumping at the first sign of trouble; it's hollow and it lacks the thrill it gave him before. He was running to freedom before; now he's just running, but he can't escape something that he doesn't even have.
It's hard to track her down without a last name, but Bruce knows what it's like to exist in the cracks of society, and he finds her. Canada's nice anyway, preferable to the US; he's glad to leave those borders behind, to drift through places likely to contain Kenzis until he finds her. It's an accident, actually, spotting her on the street, but then he pursues her, follows her throughout the day. Watching.
Is she his Kenzi?