Inside Voices ▷ Bruce Banner | ✓

12 - LOOSE LIPS

ONCE SHE GOT USED TO SPEAKING HER MIND, IT WAS ALL SHE COULD DO. After Tony told her to speak her mind, he was constantly reminding her to, the first instance being at dinner when she had finished her food and wanted seconds, but didn't know how to ask if she could eat more. It had been forced out of her, really, Tony continuing to ask her what she wanted, and while Steve had told him to ease up, he knew that she could handle it, and she did.

It was strange, it was as if someone was still forcing her to do something under the guise that it was her own choice. 

She said as much to Tony—which was truly her decision, funnily enough—and the man had faltered, looking completely stricken, and had left abruptly, heading to his room and not leaving for the rest of the night.

 She had been sure she had done something wrong, on edge the rest of the night, prepared to be dragged away at any moment, ready to face the consequences for upsetting the man, but nothing happened. Nothing at all.

"Tony just felt bad," Bruce explained, when she had stiffened as Steve brushed past her on the way to his room, the blond not having slept in some time, "He wanted to help, and he doesn't always know whether he is or not, and when you told him that, he felt like he failed."

She felt her stomach twist, and she found herself crying, "This is why I don't speak out of turn."

"No, you have to keep talking," Bruce said, without as much fierceness as Tony, but just as firm, "I mean, you do what you want, but you'll hurt Tony more if you don't talk. But trust me, you're not in any trouble, and you won't be, I promise you."

She worried on her bottom lip, looking into Bruce's eyes, and if she had found the words, she would have called them kind. "Promise?"

"Yeah," he said softly, nodding, "You know what a promise is?"

She nodded, having heard it multiple times when she was still fully conscious, her masters promising her things she couldn't remember, because they never kept their word, and they once said promises meant nothing unless money was involved.

But Bruce wasn't like her masters. Bruce wasn't in charge of her, he was nothing like them. He might know more than her, but he wasn't above her, no matter what her brain told her. If he promised, he meant it.

"Okay," she said, glancing towards her door, "Can I sleep now?"

"Of course," Bruce said, stepping out of her way to let her go, "And listen. You don't have to do anything you don't want to. You don't have to talk, but you don't have to stay silent."

She sighed, her back aching as she tried to make sense of all she was told. "That doesn't help at all."

The last sound she heard as she closed the door was the sound of Bruce laughing.

º º º

"Why are you always staring at Tony?"

Steve turned pink, looking over at her from where he had, in fact, been staring at Tony, the man having his just left, his large array of second breakfast sitting in front of him, barely touched, the large man's mind seemingly elsewhere, though he had been pulled back to reality by a woman who was finally exercising her right to free speech.

"He worries so much about us, but there's no one to worry about him, 'cept Pepper, but she's not always here," Steve explained, rubbing the back of his neck, "And, I mean, I haven't been around long, and he gave me a home. Sure, I was put up in an apartment, but he gave me people, I—"

The man paused, staring down at his food. "I just really appreciate everything he's done for me."

She nodded, unsure of what to say, but Steve seemed a lot more relaxed now that he had gotten that off his chest, and when he looked over towards her, she tried to mimic Bruce and Clint's smiles, which were always nice to look at; Arabella's had too much life to try and mimic so early on.