SHE AND BRUCE WERE WATCHING MOVIES IN HIS ROOM. She hadn't been in his room in quite some time, and had insisted that she keep him company as he tried to work through a slight cold that he had acquired due to his lack of any care or concern to his body, as well as the immediate decrease of stress levels after she was no longer close to imminent demise. It was a cold he was most acquainted with in his years of earning doctorate after doctorate, but it was still something he had yet to control.

"Drinking the soup faster isn't going to heal me faster," he pointed out as she shoved another bowl of chicken noodle soup into his hands, "But thank you."

She smiled, settling right up to his side, the two turning their attention to the screen in front of them, displaying yet another one of the long list of movies they had decided on. Their choices were eclectic, ranging from action movies—neither of them were too partial to them, but options were there—to horror thrillers—Bruce was always wary of how worked up they made him—to romantic comedies.

These were the ones she found the most interesting.

She shifted in her seat leaning more against Bruce, watching as the main character and the love interest ran into each other in the park, him walking a series of incredibly cute dogs and her on her way to her new job, the two giggling and her apologizing while tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, their eyes shining when they finally looked the other in the eye.

"Is there a telepathic connection occurring between them?" she asked, reaching out towards the popcorn bowl sitting in his lap, popping a few into her mouth.

Bruce laughed, shaking his head as he turned to look at her. "No, they're not telepaths. They just clicked when they first met, there was a spark between them."

"So like us," she said, watching as the two characters began to talk, him offering to escort her to her job, saying that it was on his usual route when, in fact, it was out of the way.

Bruce flushed, shaking his head and choking on his popcorn, coughing. "Uh, no. No, no, not like us, it's not the same."

"But you said there was an instant connection, a click," she said, frowning as she tried to understand why it wasn't the same, "When we met, we connected, you chose to save me, what's the difference."

"It's a...some could argue it was a deeper, universe based connection those two had," Bruce began, motioning towards the screen, "But, really, it's just a physical attraction, you know? They find the other attractive and the human, emotional connection will follow later, and that is what will solidify them."

She hummed, grabbing some more popcorn. "So it's us, but reversed. We have our emotional connection and later our physical attraction."

Bruce sighed, licking his lips as he leaned his head back. "You know, I don't...I don't think that's it, Marn. You know, our relationship isn't like theirs, it's not in the same vein."

She frowned, mulling over his words. First and foremost, she found herself gravitating towards the nickname. She was used to a variety of nicknames, but it was shocking to hear a nickname for her new name. Her name. The only name she had and the name she would stick with. So to hear a nickname for it was nice, especially when it was given by Bruce.

She rested her head against his shoulder, pressing herself closer towards him as the two watched the main character and the love interest part ways without any means of connecting each other, her going off up to her job, and him watching her go with a fond smile before going along his way back to his usual dog walking route.

She didn't understand how it wasn't their relationship. While only having known each other for a short amount of time, they were clearly connected, the two fitting together easily and caring for each other, him wanting to help her and her enjoying his company, it was exactly the same as their own relationship.

She had seen a good number of romance movies with Arabella, and she had found certain connections with her and the others of the complex in them, but Bruce more so than the others, and she had always assumed they, too, saw the similarities, so to hear him so vehemently opposed to her observation was borderline hurtful, and she reminded herself to say as much when she accumulated more evidence.

The two continued to watch the movie, and she found it didn't take long for her to collect more evidence, watching as the two ran into each other again by way of nothing more than fate, walking and talking for hours, not even realizing that it had grown dark, the main character swooning and calling to tell her closest friend, her sister, all about the love interest.

"They like to spend time together and they make each other happy," she pointed out, after telling him that it hurt her feelings the way he was so quick to dismiss that they could possibly have the same relationship as the people in the movies, "They understand each other and they're close, why don't you think that is the same relationship we have?"

"Because it's just not the same," he pressed, sighing as he ran a hand over his face, "It's—"

Before he could continue, their attention was caught by the main character who shouted towards the love interest, the two sharply parting ways after a misunderstanding involving the main character and another character from her work she was conflicted on her feelings with.

"I love you!" she cried, and the love interest froze, turning around to look at her slowly, the two breathing heavily under the weight of the confession.

"See?" Bruce cried, motioning towards the screen, "That's exactly what I mean, that's why it's not the same."

"Why not?" she demanded, only vaguely aware of the two characters passionately kissing in the background, "I never understood why the 'I love you's for the romantic leads were any more important than the 'I love you's the characters had with others. JARVIS told me that there were many different kinds of love, and even if there weren't, our love is just the same as theirs."

"It's not the same, Marnie, they're romantically in love, you don't love me at all, if there's any love at all between us it's platonic," Bruce insisted, turning in his seat to look at her, more serious than she had been initially expecting.

"No, I love you," she said, frowning at him, "It hurts me that you're telling me I don't."

"Marnie," he sighed, "You don't understand what love even is."

"But no one does," she insisted, reaching out to grab his arm, "And I do, Bruce, I thought you knew that."

He shook his head, taking her hand and removing it off his arm. "Marnie, I don't know what's gotten into you, but you don't love me, okay? You think you do just because I was the first person you connected with after you got out and I was the one who was able to save you from dying, this is just you mixing gratitude for love."

"If that were the case, I would have told Steve and Clint and Tony and everyone else that I loved them too, but I didn't, because I don't, not in that way," she insisted, frowning at him, "Bruce, I know what it's like to feel things."

"Yeah, but, Marnie, this is different, we're talking about something that takes a lot to understand, and we've only known each other for, what, not even three months, you don't love me," he insisted, and she felt her stomach twist and turn as she struggled to make him understand.

"No, I do, because I asked everyone already," she cried, running a hand through her hair, "I asked them what they believed it was like to love someone, and they described what it was like, not just platonically, but romantically, Clint told me especially, and it all fits."

Bruce shook his head, looking at her sadly. "Marnie...no."

She felt her chest twist as she stared at him, feeling tears well up in her eyes. "Why won't you listen to me, don't you care about me?"

"No, I do, I really do," he soothed, sighing heavily, "I just...this isn't just about you deserving more, it's simply that I can't take advantage of you like this, not when you don't understand—"

"I understand more than you think I do and you know it, Bruce Banner," she cried, wiping at the stray tears falling from her eyes as she struggled to understand why he was acting like this.

"I know," he said, looking her in the eye, "I know this, Marnie, I know. I'm just saying that this isn't love. This could be something on a smaller scale, just nothing too great to be love, I need you to know this."

She bit her lip, shaking her head. "Then why are you always blushing whenever I'm around and telling me I'm adorable and hugging me and-and I—I thought you—"

"It's not that I don't like you," he said, giving her a small smile, "Because I really do. But that's just the problem, now's just not the right time, and I'm not about to try and pursue something that you're not ready for."

"You don't get to decide that for me," she countered, crossing her arms, "It's up to me to decide whether or not I'm ready for something that I'm a part of."

"Of course,"  he said, nodding, "That is true, but take it from my perspective, here, Marnie. It's not that I don't like you, it's that now's just not the right time, and, as of right now, you need to understand that you don't love me."

"If it's not love, what am I feeling?" she asked, sighing as she looked away from him towards the TV where the main characters were talking, looking so happy, so in love, as there was no true way to describe it in other words.

"Something love adjacent," Bruce explained, "If we were decades younger, I'd say it's 'like-like,' or maybe a crush, but I'm not about to demean you, you're far past that level of maturity, emotional and otherwise."

"Thank you," she hummed, curling in on herself, much to Bruce's chagrin. She puffed up her cheeks before blowing out the air, the way she had seen Tony do at times. "I don't like this, it's confusing and it upsets me."

"I'm sorry, Marnie," Bruce whispered, reaching out to kiss her forehead, "But trust me, okay? It'll all sort itself out, then maybe next time we can sort this out. Or, hopefully, you'll find someone better, because there are better people ou—"

"I don't want better people, I want you!" she pressed, and Bruce seemed surprised by her ferocity, "I'm not going to change my mind, Bruce, I know other people already, and I'm closer friends with Clint, but I still like you, not him."

Bruce didn't seem to know how to respond to that, only allowing his smile to widen slightly and he held out his arms towards her. "We'll figure it out, okay? But for now, let's just settle on love adjacent and focus on you, not us."

After a moment, she moved, settling in his arms, sighing as the two watched the rest of the movie, frowning to herself. She understood what he was saying, it made sense to her from his perspective, but that didn't mean she had to like it.

But there was some truth to it, really; she didn't know the first thing when it came to anything of the sort like love. It was only three months ago that she realized it was something she should have felt all her life.

So she would wait. After all, now that she was going to live, she would have all the time in the world. But hopefully it wouldn't be that long.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

Yeah, ya'll, it just didn't seem right for them to get together in this book, not yet anyways, like they're clearly connected and care about each other more than just friends they're just not ready for a proper relationship just yet, but they're nearing there soon, so this is just to set up for that, you know what I mean?

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed!