100 Marvel One Shots✔️

Pretty >> Bruce Banner X Reader

Title: Pretty

Paring: Bruce Banner X Reader

Warnings: science, self esteem issues, Hulk feels, friends to lovers, fluff, angst. Also, features Superfamily (Tony/Steve).  

Spoilers: nope! I've not yet seen Thor: Ragnarok. 

Requested By: kristaoptimusprime (Krista). Hope you like it!

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Some days he has no idea how he'll do it, but every single day it still gets done. That's the great Bruce Banner for you – he seems to be a mix of healthy scepticism, dad jokes and scientific formulae, but when really, he's just a guy. Someone who made mistakes, like any other human...but instead of them being just a scar of the past, they are his present. His future. Dr Banner scouted you when you completed university with a fresh degree on biochemistry and evolutionary development, and while it was quite exciting to be an official scientist working with the Avengers, it was even more exciting that you were his lab partner to work on more humanitarian projects...and make sure there were less of those projects like the Ultron disaster.

You think highly of your lab partner, just like you do of all the people you are surrounded by in the facility; it was an honour that you were to work alongside world renowned scientists like Dr Helen Cho, Dr Jane Foster...the list goes on. Apart from how amazing the job was, though, you did love working with Dr Banner.

Which meant, for his former lab partner...

"Dr _________, be honest," Tony Stark waltzed into the lab, like he owned the place. Well, he did own the facility, but still. Being humble never killed anyone. "What's messier, my life, or my hair?"

You glance up from the computer monitor where you're sequencing a genome, and frown. Like always, his hair is flawless, gelled the right way that makes all the women who read the weekly tabloids' panties get wet. "No comment." You reply, focusing back on the genetic code, where you're trying to figure out how to replicate the same arrangement of genes that was required for the experiment. When you glance up once more from your screen to see that Mr Stark is still standing there, expecting an answer, you sigh. "Okay, uh, your life?"

He makes a noise like a groan. "Uh, wrong. Neither. I'm great."

Bruce harrumphs from the Bunsen burner and beaker of the genetic solution before him. "Don't let Pepper hear you say that, Shell Head."

Tony smacks his lips together, and in retaliation, says, "C'mon, Bruce, what's messier, your life or your hair?"

It's only now you notice there's a small tinge of green above his collar, and pausing your sequencing program, you place a hand on your lab partner's shoulder. His dark brown eyes meet yours, and without words shared, you see the edge being taken from his stare, the pigment leaving his skin. He takes a deep breath – in through his nose, out through his mouth – and gives you a kind smile.

"Thanks, _________," he nods.

Tony doesn't get an answer to his question.

You're in the library, making some serious headway through the latest book in the series you love. It's your day off, after all, and when you're not being a total nerd in the Avengers' laboratory, you're being a total dork in the library, in a world of the author's, surrounded by the fictional life you would all but die to be a part of.