003: Video

[hulkbusted]

[It's after the night siren and Bruce is looking frazzled, irritated, and... like he forgot that he'd been getting ready to sleep, since he's wearing boxers and glasses and apparently nothing else. As he settles his NV, a pair of mice skitter across the desk he's set it on. There are little movements in the background and Bruce has to stop and hop around, cursing under his breath as something apparently runs over his foot.]

Okay, look, the Darkness thing I'm up on, but is it common for random objects like, say, my pillow to turn into mice?

[ooc: Loki'd]

Comments

[hulkbusted]

[Bruce snorts, but he's still jarred by the reminder that there's a human/non-human "us and them" thing going on in his bedroom.]

I have a boatload of unnatural going on.

[symmachy]

[At least she's closer to human than some other immortals.]

Do you, now. [Cat-slit green eyes are back on him, as is her full attention.]

[hulkbusted]

What? The giant green rage monster isn't enough? [He shoots her a look before shifting his attention back to his hands again.] I've been alone since the accident. I hurt someone I loved when it happened and when I tried going back, I hurt her again.

[symmachy]

[She's silent for a moment, and looks away as well.]

I loved someone, a long time ago. He went to war while my sister and I fought one another. He couldn't stand up to an entire army on his own. I saw his body, I thought he was dead. I couldn't save him. [A beat.] Someone else did, though. He resented me for leaving him to rot in the service of another. And so he tried to kill me. [She stops abruptly. She didn't want to say that she'd killed him, for real, the last time they'd met. But if he asked, she wouldn't lie.]

[hulkbusted]

[Bruce tries to imagine Betty in that circumstance - nearly dying, hating him, trying to kill him, and the image evokes a pain so visceral that he almost expects to see the knife in his gut when he looks at himself.

He snakes a hand across the space between them and lays it palm up next to her leg in a silent offer.]

But he didn't succeed. Did you have to kill him?

[symmachy]

[Even a creature without the ability to feel knows when she should be hurting. Probably the only reason she had survived her encounter with Cuchulain was because she couldn't experience the same pain Bruce was imagining.

Haltingly, her fingers find his palm, her touch light and unsure.]

I did.

[hulkbusted]

[Bruce is so very defined by his feelings and wouldn't be able to comprehend her inability to feel if she tried to share it with him. He closes his fingers just enough to show her that the touch is still welcome.]

I'm going to be selfish and say I'm glad he didn't kill you. [He won't say he's sorry or that he's glad she killed him, but he can see some parallels with his family's history, and he would rather his mother had killed his father rather than the other way around.]

[symmachy]

[It isn't something that many people understand. So she doesn't try to explain it much.

Even after ten thousand years, Scathach still isn't used to touch that isn't meant to harm. Intimacy in any form is one of the few things that still makes her feel awkward. She smiles, almost laughing.]

I don't think that's a selfish thing to say. [But she isn't going to say she's happy about it. For her own reasons.]

[hulkbusted]

[With the smile as encouragement he shifts his fingers to twine with hers.]

I think it's selfish, since I'm choosing your life over someone else's because I think I'm happier with you here than I would be if he were here in your place. [He squeezes lightly and half-jokes] I don't hold hands with men.

[symmachy]

[It's strange, the comfort she knows the gesture should bring. She wished she could experience it. But she'll act as if she can, for his sake.

His hands are so much bigger than hers.]

That's just biased. You've never met him. [She returns the squeeze, though it's hardly there. She doesn't want to break him.] But I don't think he'd want to hold your hand, either.

[hulkbusted]

[He's breakable right until he isn't.]

I said I was selfish. I've had to look at myself and be very honest about my flaws. If I weren't, Loki would have a lot better chance of getting what he wants from me. [No one give this one a glow stick of destiny, okay?]

[symmachy]

[She'd prefer not to take it there just yet. And Scathach smiles. It wasn't often that she'd met a human who could admit his faults. She glances at their hands, then around the room, then at his face. Curiosity is there.]

What is it he wants, by the way?

[hulkbusted]

[He knows the feeling about not wanting to take it there, even with someone who feels comfortable wandering in the Darkness on her own.]

He wants to see the Hulk, and I don't think he wants to see him when I have let him out on purpose. He wants the whole shebang, indiscriminate rampaging and all.

[symmachy]

[Her eyes narrow. Wanton destruction (even if unintentional) was something that she'd never been able to abide. Now she does squeeze his hand a little harder, out of disgust with Loki.]

Someone needs to put that brat in his place.

[hulkbusted]

No argument here. Where's Odin when you need him?

[symmachy]

[Her lips purse.]

Dealing with his own trifles, I'm sure. He usually is. [Pause.] At least, the one I know.

[hulkbusted]

Each one seems a little different. Not that I met the Odin from my universe, just Thor and Loki.

[symmachy]

[She nods a little, releasing his hand so she can trace the lines on his palm.]

Do you know them well?

[hulkbusted]

[He opens his hand, fingers in a relaxed curl and watches Scatty's finger along his palm with an expression of mixed wonder and bewilderment. Occasionally his fingers twitch when she tickles him.]

No. I had a chance to... work with Thor to oppose Loki. We got off to a little bit of a rough start, but we got that worked out.

I told you about what happened with Loki.

[symmachy]

[Tickling. Something so simple that makes her smile. She can sense that he isn't used to this sort of thing either. It's comforting, somehow.]

I remember. I'm sure he didn't take it very well.

[hulkbusted]

[He'd convinced himself to never expect this kind of thing again.]

Surprisingly calmly, actually... [A thought occurs to him, but he dismisses it because he has no way to test its validity, either here or at home.] But who really knows what's going on in that head of his?

[symmachy]

[There are just so many lines on his hand to trace. And the veins up his wrist.]

No one I've ever talked to who knew him.

[hulkbusted]

[When her fingers stray off his palm, his heartbeat picks up and his lips part on a silent sigh before he carefully, reluctantly takes his hand away and puts it on his lap.]

Yeah. [He has to clear his throat.] He's six kinds of crazy no matter which way you look at him.

[symmachy]

[She's surprised by the movement, but not offended when she remembers that he tries to keep his heart rate down.

Besides, it meant she made that go up, which is amusing.]

Maybe seven. [She stands and starts to walk around the room, inspecting little things here and there. Out of curiosity, of course.]

[hulkbusted]

Easily seven. Probably more like a dozen. [Bruce watches her walking around, relieved that she didn't seem offended.]

I don't pick up knickknacks. [There are a few books he's picked up at the university library. Volumes on quantum mechanics and a couple of notebooks stacked alongside them. There's a backpack by the door, but other than it and the books, everything else is neatly stashed away.]