Marvel One Shots

A Quiet Love

College!AU

Professor Banner x TA Reader

Bruce Banner x Mute!Reader

WARNING: *MONSTER LOVER MENTION*

Everyone was so scared to say or do the wrong thing around him. Everyone but me.

It was common knowledge that Doctor Bruce Banner, shy microbiology professor, wouldn't hurt a fly. It was the other guy they were all worried about. Unlike them, I had a lead into the hearts of both the man and the monster.

__________FLASHBACK__________

I was born mute into a family with three older brothers and two loving, supportive parents. I was the only mute in our family ever. ASL was my first language, my entire extended family learned to be able to better communicate with me. I only started trying to make any type of noises when I started school and it was a state requirement I go to speech therapy. I was only able to produce squealing noises at first. Even now, I am only able to make noises, no real words. Moans, groans, squeals, and chirps are what I personally choose to call the four communications I can use with my voice.

When I had first introduced my parent's to Bruce, He was still learning the finer points of ASL. He had always been a hand-talker. So, it was hard for him to be able to 'listen' to what I was saying since he associated his own hand movements with certain emotions or mental states. For example, the sign for help is your signing hand (the hand you most naturally write with) in a thumbs up position on top of the palm of your other hand. Then both hands are brought up. Bruce associated this signs with anger for the first few moths we were dating. Meaning, he always thought he did something wrong whenever I would ask his for help with an oral exam or making a call for me. What he didn't realize was that facial expressions were very important in ASL. So, if I was mad, he would be able to tell pretty quickly.

It didn't take long for Bruce to become conversational in ASL. He wasn't fluent, and likely wouldn't be. It was like any other new language or dialect, it takes a lot of work to even be able to have a conversation. And, since he only had to 'hear' my ASL, he didn't really get as much practice as most people who are forced to pick the language up later in life. Hulk, on the other hand, had absolutely no idea what my weird hand movements meant. That became easily obvious whenever he was fully in control. He would just tilt his head to the side and simply mirror the motions as if following an order. Hulk, however, was able to sense what I needed no matter his inability to understand me. Call it instincts. He knew when I was cold, tired, hungry or scared without having to even look at me. And he was easily able to decode any other need or mental state based on a few seconds of observing my actions.

Bruce seemed to be able to decode even my shortest of vocalizations from the moment I was comfortable enough with him to start trying to talk to him. That was something not even my own parents could do. My eldest brother, Marcos, could as well. But it was mostly guess work on his part. It was genuinely like Bruce could read my mind when I vocalized anything. Despite the rather large age gap, I saw Bruce as a lover far before we ever even hugged each other. We decided that, to help keep future drama to a minimum, home life would be left at home and vise versa. No work talk when we were able to spend time together, and no water cooler gossip about our relationship at our respective jobs.

I had been dating Bruce for over a year before i was paired with him as his Teacher Assistant as a part of my masters in education degree. I personally think its stupid that I was put into a university level class in a program for people who speak and hear when I was currently set to work at the deaf/blind school a few miles away as soon as I graduated. Our lives were very separate prior to the pairing. Other than a few dates a week, or an impromptu takeaway dinner or two, we mainly texted or video called. The life of two busy adults, you know? After I started working under him in the professional sense, I couldn't help letting my mind wonder to other ways I could be under him. Ways he hasn't indulged in in over a decade, since the HULK became such an immediate threat to anyone he loved. But, we were still waiting for the right time to act on that type of dream.