You walked through the large campus courtyard, carrying several textbooks in your arms. It was a cold day and the wind was threatening to swoop all of your spare pages into a whirlwind of paper. You placed one hand on the hat on your head, to keep it from being blown off. You noticed a group of large, muscular guys walking towards you, pushing and shoving each other playfully. You groaned internally. These knuckleheads were the piranhas of this college, acting as if they were still in high school, making it hard for everyone else to remember that they weren’t. You steered to the left, walking alongside the small stone walls which most students used for benches. You weren’t far away enough and the leader of the pack, Brian (you couldn’t remember his last name), placed a large, dust-bin sized hand on your head, pushing it down and smacking the books out of hand.
“Ha, nerd!” he exclaimed, snickering with his idiotic henchmen. They continued walking, jostling each other on the way. Your glasses slid down your nose and toppled to the ground. You heard a crunch and moaned. Covering your eyes, you thought please don’t be broken, please don’t be broken! You peaked out between your fingers and sighed with relief. It was just some dead leaves. You didn’t have the best hearing so it was pretty hard to distinguish between the sounds. That was you; bad hearing, terrible eyesight, and even worse social skills.
Kneeling down, you began picking up the black, hipster-like frames and the books that had scattered across the pavement. Slipping the glasses on, you could finally see semi-clearly, without the world looking like you were underwater. You were so preoccupied that you didn’t notice a pair of feet standing in front of you in black Converse. You glanced up to see a boy, holding a familiar book. Okay he’s not a boy obviously, he looks about 19. You straightened up to meet his height, but you were still shorter than him. He smiled kindly, his white teeth contrasted against his tanned skin.
“Is this yours?” he asked, handing you a Chemistry book.
“Yeah, thanks,” you said shyly with a small smile, taking the book from him. You tucked it under your arm and began picking up the rest of the books. He knelt on one knee next to you, gathering the sheets of paper.
“So, I’d pull the ‘Have we Chemistry together’ line but I’ve never seen you in my classes,” he grinned, clearly slightly proud of his joke. You rolled your eyes (in a friendly way) and took the papers from him.
“Good one, but no, I don’t actually take Chemistry as a subject, I just study it separately,” you said.
“Wait, who voluntarily studies Chemistry?!” he said incredulously, still smiling.
“I’m really awful at it, so I’d fall behind in a class; it makes more sense to me this way.”
“You’re really something, aren’t you?” he said. You presumed it was rhetorical. Once you had gathered all your things, you took a moment to realise how attractive this guy was.
“I didn’t catch your name,” you said, slightly flustered as a strong wind tussled the guy’s dark brown, curly hair.
“Bruce. Bruce Banner and you are?” he said, holding at his right hand.
“(Y/N) (Y/L/N),” You took his hand and shook it gently, feeling a slight jolt run through your skin. His hand was surprisingly warm, considering the weather.
“Nice to meet you, (Y/N),” He said sincerely. “Cold hands though, what’s up with that?”
“Well, you know what they say; cold hands, cold heart,” you said, attempting to look serious. Bruce squinted at you for a second and then burst out laughing. God his laugh is adorable. You smiled and shook your head. He sat down onto the low wall, still smiling brightly at you. Was that an indication to sit beside him? You sat anyway, setting the stack of books beside you. You couldn’t help glance at his hands. He was fidgeting, did he actually look…nervous? He looked like he wanted to ask you something, but then like he changed his mind about the question, shaking his head.
“So what course are you taking, if you’re not doing Chemistry?” he asked, his brown eyes (almost the same colour as his hair) meeting yours.
“Uh a Creative Writing course,” you said quietly, blushing slightly. You disliked talking about your hope of becoming an author, mainly because you got one of two reactions; A) “Isn’t that kind of unstable, what would you even get out of that, can you even write?” and B) “Oh my god, write a book about me!”. You never knew what to say to either one. You hadn’t very well written a book, more like a couple of chapters of fanfiction. Bruce was different though.
“Wow, that’s really interesting, do you know what kind of books you’d prefer to write?” he asked, looking genuinely intrigued. Your blush grew deeper, this boy was impossibly cute.
“Mainly fiction, I don’t see myself being a Biographer or anything like that,” you looked down at your shoes, not realising you had been shaking your leg for a while. This happened a lot when you were nervous. “So what about you, I’ll presume a science course, yeah?”
“Ah yes, I’m hoping to be a Physicist, with a little of the other sciences mixed in there, of course,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly.
“I can see it now, ‘Dr. Banner, scientist extraordinaire’!” you exclaimed, grinning. His eyes crinkled with laughter.
“Well I don’t know about that, but one can dream right?” His smile was contagious. You gave him a knowing look and pursed your lips slightly. Once again he began to look nervous, like he was having a debate inside his head. “Would you…uh…like to get coffee or something?” You looked at him quizzically and his eyes widened, a faint pink began glowing on his cheeks. Was that what he was getting all worked up about? Wait; WAS THAT HIM ASKING YOU ON A DATE?!
“I’m more of a tea girl myself but I can compromise,” you said, standing up. “Let me just drop my stuff in my dorm room.”
~time skip to your room~
You and Bruce walked into your dorm room. It was tiny, with two beds, two desks with chairs, and two wardrobes on either side of the room. You threw your books on the desk to the left. Your roommate, Natasha, wasn’t in at the time, and her side of the room on the right was significantly neater than yours. The window next to her bed was wide open and you sighed and tried to yank it shut, while kneeling on her bed. The hinges creaked and stuck, which was why it was a rare sight to see it open. You pulled with all your strength and the window swung shut, forcing you to stumble backwards, falling towards the floor. Suddenly, a pair of hands caught your waist, steadying you. Looking back, you saw Bruce, looking at you, his grip tightening as your face blushed furiously. Warmth spread through your body, from where his touch began. You stood up straight, turning to face him, his hands still in the same position. His face grew red and his brown eyes widened.
“Uh…thanks for um….catching me,” you whispered, terrified that you might scare him away. He took his right hand away from your hip and hesitantly brushed your cheek lightly with his fingers. Your skin tingled.
“Anytime,” he murmured, slowly leaning closer. He was so close; you could smell mint and sandalwood off of him. You took a deep breath, his scent like heaven. Your lips were centimetres apart now, leaning in closer and close-
“AHEM,” a voice coughed from the doorway. You stopped and turned your head slowly to see Natasha, leaning against the frame and smirking at you. “Interrupting, was I?”
You sighed as Bruce quickly dropped his hands, his face tinted pink.
“Your timing is as impeccable as always, Nat,” you said with a small smile. You turned to Bruce, slightly embarrassed. “So…coffee?”
“Oh yeah, coffee,” he said quietly. You walked past the mischievous red-head, nudging her lightly as she grinned at you. Bruce followed you out of the room as Nat winked at him. He looked down at the ground, blushing even more without saying a word. She shut the door behind him and you turned to face him.
“So where do you want to go?”
“I don’t mind really….but I have to do something first,” he muttered, meeting your gaze. You were slightly deflated that the moment was lost.
“Oh…okay,” you began to say when suddenly he leaned forward and kissed you on the lips. You were shocked to say the least, a shiver ran through your spine and you froze for a second. You could have sworn your heart had skipped a beat. He began to pull away, sensing your tension but you cupped his neck with one hand and dug your fingers into his hair with the other, pulling him closer. You deepened the kiss and he moved the rest of his body closer to yours. You melted as he wrapped his arms tightly around you. Everything you ever knew was lost when his lips had touched yours. Your mind was blank. There was him, only him.
After a couple of minutes, you both realised you were making out openly in a college dorm and pulled away for air. The immense grin on his face was enough to make you swoon a thousand times over and he took your hand in his.
“I had to do that at least once today,” he whispered, slightly breathless.
~ Epilogue~
You and Bruce sat cross-legged, facing each other on your bed, surrounded by open folders and textbooks. It had been two months since you first met him and he had asked you to be his girlfriend a week after that day. You hoisted a heavy book onto your lap and scanned the page quickly before he yanked it out from your grasp.
“Hey!” you exclaimed, folding your arms. “What did you do that for?”
“No cheating, come on, you know this,” Bruce laughed as you pouted. He had been tutoring you in Chemistry but you always got distracted by him, so it didn’t always work out in favour of learning the processes of the spectrometer but more towards a firsthand experience with anatomy.
“Okay….vaporisation, ionisation…fuck um…” you muttered under your breath, counting on your fingers. Then the trick popped into your head that you had learned from an old friend. “VIAGRA IS A SEX DRUG!”
“Excuse me but what?!” Bruce’s eyes widened and he burst out laughing. “I know we get a little carried away but no need to be so upfront about it.” He winked and you rolled your eyes.
“No, it’s a trick see, V.I.A.S.D., vaporisation, ionisation, acceleration, separation, and detection! Viagra-is-a-sex-drug,” you said happily and Bruce just smiled, shutting the book.
“Whatever helps you learn,” he smirked. “We can take a break now, if you want?”
“Yes please,” you growl, clenching his shirt in your hand and pulling him towards you. You were just about to kiss him when the door to your dorm swung open with a crash. You’ve got to be kidding me. Natasha stood at the doorway once again, with a blond, muscular guy standing behind her in a leather jacket.
“Sorry to interrupt-“
“Again,” you said with a hint of anger.
“You’ve got to leave, Clint and I need the room,” she said, arching an eyebrow, a smile playing at her lips. You looked at her quizzically and then at the aforementioned Clint. “Oh right, this is Clint Barton, by the way.” Clint raised a hesitant hand in a wave.
You rolled your eyes. Nat had the worst timing ever.