Bruce is nervous. He had gotten a double mastectomy and had started T over the summer. He knows his friends won’t judge him, but he’s heard the stories and is still scared.
He walks onto campus, glad that no one notices him or gives him strange looks. He sees Peter and Tony in the middle of the quad, talking science, and Bruce walks up to them. “Hey, guys.” His voice is cracking a little; the kind of voice crack boys get when going through puberty, but he doesn't mind it because it means he's on his way to becoming a man.
“Hi,” Peter replies. If he notices anything different about Bruce’s voice, he doesn’t say anything.
“Hey, Bruce,” Tony says. And he’s polite—for once—and doesn't directly ask about Bruce’s voice. “How was your summer?”
“Good,” Bruce replies. “Got a double mastectomy. Started T, which I’ve been wanting to do for a while now. So my summer was pretty good. How was yours?”
“Boring,” Tony says. “My parents weren’t around, as usual. Sometimes, it seems like only Jarvis cares about me. He took me to a Star Trek convention, though, so the summer wasn’t all lost.”
“I got to work on my radioactive spider experiment. That was fun,” Peter says.
“What is the radioactive spider experiment?” Bruce asks.
“One particle of unobtainium has a nuclear reaction with the flux capacitor, carry the two, changing its atomic isotope into a radioactive spider,” Peter says. Tony bursts out laughing. “Okay, but seriously, I want to see if giving radiation to a spider will give the spider increased life span or if it will die.”
“Sounds...interesting,” Bruce says. He’s never liked spiders—and probably never will. “Hey, Steve!”
“Hi, Bruce,” Steve says. “Meet Bucky. He’s new here, but he’s in his third year, like all of us.”
“Why does it sound like you’re going through puberty?” Bucky asks.
And there it is. The question Bruce knew would come out of someone’s mouth today.
“I started T over the summer. My voice should even itself out in a few months. By finals, my voice should sound less cracky.”
“Good. You don’t want to be sounding like that forever,” Clint says, walking up to the four, holding hands with Natasha. Natasha gave a small wave to the others.
“Hello, friends,” Thor says, walking up to the group.
“Hi, Thor,” Bruce says. Thor looks at Bruce, obviously confused. He’s not used to hearing Bruce’s voice sound like that. Bruce rushes to explain, “I went on T over the summer. That’s why my voice sounds like this.” Thor nods, but Bruce can tell he doesn’t really understand.
Bruce knows there are going to be misgendering professors and judging stares from anyone outside his social circle in the future. But right now, all he cares about is his friends.