Coincidences- Bruce x Reader Chpt. 9

Bruce couldn’t help but admire you in his clothes as you stood on the curb waiting for the car you’d called, he’d loaned you a purple cotton t-shirt and a dark grey button down as well as an army green canvas jacket. Pants and shoes had been a little more difficult, he’d gotten lucky when he found the pair of black skinny jeans Tony had given him in an attempt to “hip up” his style at the back of his closet but the shoes were a different story.

You had stood staring at your sock clad feet for a bit before coming to a conclusion and asking him to “Wait here” while you skipped over to the elevator. You came back less than fifteen minutes later with a pair of black flats in hand, “I left these in the lower lab a few days ago. They aren’t exactly snow worthy but they’ll have to do.”

Everything, even the pants, fit you loosely but the fact that you were wearing his clothes was satisfying all on its own. If he was honest with himself, he would open up his entire closet to you if it meant you would wear his clothes on a regular basis but unfortunately for both of you, Bruce wasn’t honest with himself. In his mind there were far to many things standing in the way of anything like that ever happening if you even wanted it to happen with him at all.

You turned to look at him with a wide grin, “Where should we go?”

He shrugged and you tilted your head thoughtfully before exclaiming, “Oh! I know! We can ask Jarvis!”

You pulled out the phone Tony had insisted you carry because it was better then your generic ‘smart’ phone, and after you took out the tracker and tweaked it a little it definitely was, “Jarvis love, where would you suggest we go for clothing?”

“Mr. Stark prefers-“

“No no no. If I know my brother he goes far too flashy…hmm… how about Pepper? Where does she prefer to shop?”

Jarvis gave you a location and you and Bruce were off, shortly coming to a group of shops with a reasonable amount of people and then picking a store that looked to have what you needed in the style you liked.

He was beginning to understand why you didn’t want to shop with Tony. Your brother like to put on a show, to have the undivided attention of the entire store, but you were quiet and pensive as you moved about to collect some things to try on, almost avoiding the staff who occasionally tried to help you.

You flashed him an apologetic smile as you slipped into a dressing room, leaving him to wait while you made sure the things you’d grabbed would look good. You chatted with him to pass the time, asking about his schooling and his thoughts on Shield and the other members of your team, and then popped out with a neat stack of clothes to hand to an attendant, “I’ll take these and if it’s alright I’d like to wear this out.”

The woman nodded and took your things to the register while Bruce looked you over, you had on a pair of form fitting denim jeans, a loose gray blazer, a black wool outer coat, and, underneath it all, his purple shirt. You gave him a small seductive smile, “I do hope you don’t mind about the shirt. It just such a lovely purple color I couldn’t help myself.”

He shook his head rapidly, “I don’t mind at all. It’s a good color on you.”

You grinned widely and then swished away to pay as Bruce lost himself in his thoughts. He was elated that you’d decided to keep his shirt as part of your outfit, if you’d asked he probably would have just given you the shirt all together. The purple did look good on you. He delved deeper into his curiosities and observations. You were definitely a Stark, there was no doubt about that since you had Tony’s propensity for causing trouble and acting promiscuous, yet there was something else about you, a sort of quiet reservation that kept you from going as far as your brother did. You enjoyed showing off but seemed to dislike being in the limelight. He wondered if it had to do with your abilities.

You appeared in front of him again with a thoughtful look on your face, “Bruce? Quick question. Would you go all green and fretful if say… someone shot at you?”

“Umm… yeah that would definitely do it.”

He began to ask why as you glanced over his shoulder and quickly cut him off, “And if I locked you in a closet for… I don’t know. An hour give or take?”

“I’d probably be annoyed but other than that-“

“Option two it is then,” you said, shoving him into one of the dressing rooms along with your bags, shutting the door, and melting the lock shut before he could do anything.

The two men with reflective sunglasses you’d noticed outside the store were getting closer and you prayed to whatever god you could think of that they hadn’t recognized Bruce as you slipped out to the street. Luck was on your side as they quickly followed you without a backwards glance and you let out a relieved sigh.

You’d run into these types before, they were part of some organization that you could never remember the name of and picking them off would be easy. All you had to do was lead them somewhere a little less populated to avoid civilian casualties.

'They never learn, do they?' you thought, shaking your head. You assumed they targeted you because you operated outside of the Avengers and therefore you were seemingly more vulnerable and obviously without back up. Even when that was true, you could easily take them but they just kept tying. They were so bloody stupid.

You picked up your pace and something whizzed past you, followed by a lot of screaming and running people, causing you to mumble a string of profanities- looks like your were going to have this out in the street. Sodding Fantastic.  

You spun, dodging a couple more bullets sent your way as you growled and then sprinted towards them, close combat would lower the likelihood of some civilian getting caught in the crossfire. You couldn’t close the gap as easily as you would have liked, ducking behind a nearby car as they rained down whatever ammunition they had on you.

You went over your options. You knew their clothes were flame retardant from experience so that was a no go unless you could get close enough to actually hit skin, air would only keep them busy for a bit and you didn’t exactly want to go throwing them into any walls since you fully intended to hand both of them over to Shield for interrogation- why not exploit the new resources that came with your forced recruitment?

That left earth and water.

You pulled off your outer layers, like hell were you going to let them ruin your new clothes besides you needed to be unrestricted if you were going to neutralize them without just smashing them into the ground repeatedly. A bullet grazed your upper arm when you emerged again, causing you to hiss to yourself, “Bloody worst timing, (F/n)”

You’d officially had enough, the new pain along with your annoyance and anger over your now ruined shopping trip with Bruce caused you to lose control and quickly forget whatever plan you had just come up with. Incognito be damned this ended now.

Your eyes went silver as you brought a hand up, raising the stone and earth around you up from the ground to create a arena like circle around yourself and the two men. Now no one would get hurt...accept for you little friends of course. You seethed as you slowly pulled your hand into a fist and the two men quickly dropped their guns with squeal of pain.

You grinned manically, “Oh you daft little boys. Never bring heat sensitive weapons to a elementalist's fight.”

You dodged a knife and sent its thrower into the wall you’d created with a sickening little crunch in your unbridled anger, “I was giving you valuable advice, you twat. Listen to your betters.”

The other man pulled out something that looked like tranquilizer gun and suddenly found himself pulled towards you, flailing slightly and dropping the gun. You brought him towards you until he was inches from your face, “Tsk tsk… and here I thought you were brighter than your friend over there.”

He looked fearful and entirely panicked as you ran a finger down the side of his face with an evil grin, letting a layer of ice develop where you touched, “You poor thing. They didn’t warn you about what happens when I get angry, did they, dear?”

He shook his head and you leaned in to whisper in his ear, “When I’m done with you, I guarantee you’ll be begging for me to kill you. It’s point of pride really.”

You pulled away to look at his face and found him smirking but were unable to question it as you felt a pain shoot up your side. That was a terrible move on his part as you shrieked and immediately froze him out of both rage and pain, doubling over as you pressed at your side where he’d slashed at you with a knife. 

That was when Tony and the others showed up, Thor tearing a hole in your wall with his hammer and Tony landing in front of you, actually acting rationally for once, “(F/n), unfreeze him.”

Your eyes went back to their original color after a few deep breaths and then went wide at the scene in front of you. You waved a hand from your place kneeling on the ground with a clenched jaw and the man unfroze, only to be taken up by the collar by Captain America. It was then that Tony noticed you were bleeding from not one, but two places, “Capsicle, Legolas, make sure those two get to Fury, Everyone else find Jolly Green so he can come slap a patch on Miss Earth here before she bleeds out.”

You raised an eyebrow at your brother, “It’s just a flesh wound Tony.”

He glared down at you, “Like hell it is. Don’t try to butter me up with Monty Python references.”

Sighing, as you weren’t in any mood to argue with him, you helpfully offered, “I locked Bruce in the dressing room of that store there.”

Thor and Natasha went to retrieve him as Tony set into you about something or other and you started to feel woozy, pressing a hand to your forehead, “Tony.”

He didn’t seem to hear you so you loudly growled, “Shut it, you stupid prat.”

That got his attention and his mask flipped up so he could look at you, ceasing his little session of idle prater and scolding, “Kiddo? What’s with you? You’ve had worse-“

You shook your head, your vision starting to tunnel in and out, “Something’s wrong, Tony… That knife… or perhaps the bullet… I can’t think straight.”

You were vaguely aware of him asking you questions but you couldn’t even properly understand what he was saying and then everything went black.