Invisible To You (A Bruce Banner Love Story)

Chapter Fifteen - Rearrangement

        I quietly move through the hallways, sneaking around the corners and avoiding the elevators. I would have Jarvis erase me from the cameras after I finished. I had dropped the girls off at their apartment after dinner, and after making sure their mother was sober with James. Tony had spent the rest of the night  trying to figure out why I had reacted badly, but without letting the rest of the team know. Long story short, he failed, and I successfully avoided  his prying questions. Knowing Tony, he would forget pretty quickly. He didn't stick with things unless they really bothered him.

        I pad down  the stairs, my slippers keeping my footsteps quiet, and I silently edge the door open to the floor of the labs. I frown when I see the main lab lights on. Jarvis automatically shuts the lights off in a room if no one was in it. So who was down here in the middle of the night? Other than me of course. I flip the switch in my brain, and I turn myself invisible.

        The lab is completely silent except for the occasional beeps and whirs. I start to walk towards Bruce's lab across the room, when I hear a rustle. I freeze, even though no one can see me. I turn slowly, scanning the lab. There, face down on a lab table, is an asleep Bruce. He's all hunched over, and it looks really uncomfortable, but it's so cute and if I move him, he'll wake up. 

        Wait. Did I just say that Bruce was cute? Nope. No I did not. I did not think of Bruce like that. He's just a friend.

        I slowly creep the rest of the way through the joined lab and to Bruce's upside down personal one. I step into the lab and shut the door behind me, turning myself visible again. If I stayed invisible for too long, parts of my body would start to flicker. If I had adrenaline in my system, I could last longer, like in the battle with the alien creatures.

        I take the bottle of inadhesive out of my hoodie pocket, take off my slippers, and I lift myself to the ceiling using my mind, putting a few drops of the solution on the glue attaching a desk to the ceiling.  I do the same to the other legs, leaving the things glued to the table on there until I had it right side up. The table suddenly drops, and I catch it last second with my mind, the objects on the table only inches from the floor.

        I let out a shaky breath, not realizing I had been holding it, and slowly flip the table right side up. I look out the clear window on the door, and see that Bruce is still sound asleep. I lift myself up again, repeating the process. Without almost dropping anything else on the floor. I constantly check to make sure Bruce is still asleep, ready to hide at him from any moment. But he sleeps like the dead, not once stiring.

        Once I get everything heavy and large down from the ceiling, I start working on un-gluing the smaller things. Test tubes, microscopes, pencils, etc. It was taking a long time, and I could feel everything catching up to me. Being up so late and using my powers for so long had drained me, and I was yawning constantly, fighting to keep my eyelids open. I was almost out of solution to get rid of the glue, and almost done getting everything unstuck when I heard it.

        There was a groan and a rustle of paper from the other room. My exhaustion slips from me as I spin around, and see Bruce standing up and getting off of his stool, rubbing his already messy hair. Crap. Crapola. Crap and a half. What was I supposed to do?

        Wait. What was I thinking? I quickly turn myself invisible and go for the door. I quietly slip out of Bruce's personal lab, and start to make my way across the main lab, staying on the other side  while he was yawning and going over some papers. I freeze out of instinct as he glances up, and then back down at his papers. I start to let out a breath of relief when I watch him do a double take, staring right at the spot I was in.

        Bruce blinks rapidly, looking right over at me before standing up and walking over. I barely let myself breathe. He stopped a few feet in front of me, and I don't move a muscle.

        "Must be seeing things Banner." He says to himself after looking behind the table, making sure nothing was there. "Need to get out of dreamland." He mutters, walking back over to the other side of the lab. I quickly slip out, half running down the hallway to the staircase, not turning visible until I'm safe in my room.

        "Jarvis." I say taking a deep breath. "Erase any footage of me outside of my room in the last four hours."

        "Yes Miss Rose." I practically collapse in bed, curling up  next to Molly and shutting my eyes, ready to sleep until noon. Then my eyes snap open as I realize something. I left my slippers in the lab. Crap.

Bruce's POV~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

        I groan as I wake up, my joints popping. I had fallen asleep in the lab again, and that just did wonders for my back. I really needed to start sleeping in my bed, but this just sort of... happened. I sigh and gather all of my papers together that had been strewn around the table from my experiments. My still failing experiments. I was never going to be able to get rid of the other guy.

        I yawn and glance up and around the lab. Nothing unusual really. Everything was in it's place. The beakers, Rose, the high powered microscope. I look back down at my papers before freezing. Wait. Rose? My head shoots back up. There she is, standing on the other side of the lab, looking straight at me.

        But then I blink, and she's gone. I frown and stand up, walking over to the other side of the lab. She can't have just dissapeared like that. No one can. I look behind the table to see if she had ducked behind it, but there is nothing there.

        "Must be seeing things Banner." I mumble to myself. "Need to get out of dreamland."  I did not need any sleep deprived dream hallucinations in my life, on top of everything else. I walk back over to my papers, looking over the numerous equations that needed ironed out. What was I missing?

        I sigh, putting my head in my hand in frustration. I wasn't getting anywhere with this. Might as well start working on that tracker for the invisible woman that Fury wanted. Tony could help me out later. The only problem, was that my file on her, as limited as it was, was stuck to a table on the ceiling of the other lab.

        I head over to my personal lab anyway. Maybe the glue had weakened and I would be able to get it down.I yawn again as I step into the other lab, and what I see stops me in my tracks. My entire lab was right side up again. I take off my glasses so I can rub my eyes, but when I look up, it's still all normal. As if nothing had ever happened.

        I laugh when I look up. There was one single, solitary wastebasket still stuck to the ceiling in the corner of the room. So much for nothing had happened. I walk around the lab, picking up random items to make sure nothing was still glued down. Everything was scotch free. When did this happen? Everything was still upside down a few hours ago when I had fallen asleep, yet, here it was.

        I walk over to the table where the file lay, and as I reach to pick it up, I see something out of the corner of my eye. I grab the file, tucking it under my arm and walking over to the two purple fuzzy slippers lying on the floor. The only person in the tower who wore these was Rose...

Just a short little chapter... but the story must go on!