𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐑𝐓𝐘-𝐅𝐈𝐕𝐄 — couples therapy

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 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄 𝐒𝐄𝐄𝐌𝐄𝐃 𝐒𝐋𝐎𝐖𝐄𝐑 nowadays for Emilia, as though every moment she was awake she had to force herself through a sticky haze to simply get on with her day... Then there were the nights; those were even worse.

 After months of occupying a room mere doors away from Tony and Pepper within Avenger's Tower, Emilia still had torturous dreams of the events that had passed them by. In the midst of the night when the moon glared through her window and the stars twinkled in their taunting manner, Emilia's eyes would flicker behind her lids.

 Hands would curl into her covers, clawing at them as though she were a wild animal, and tears would stream down her cheeks, soaking her pillow as flashes passed her by. She could almost feel the grains of ash and dust on her fingertips when her mind ridiculed her and made her relive their loss once more.

 Thanos would enter her dreams, seeming even more imposing than he had been... and that gauntlet on his hand would glint beneath the dull light of Titan. She could have sworn she felt the fire on the side of her face once more, she could have sworn she heard sweet Peter Parker's voice call out for his mentor, begging him to help... She could have sworn that Stephen faded beneath her touch once again.

 Every night was the same.

 She'd wake with a gasp that tore at her throat; she'd choke and splutter as cold air forced its way into her lungs like an invasive parasite. Her vision would be fuzzy from the tears and constant fatigue. She was always surrounded in the darkness of the early hours, left all alone to breathe through her pain and tear at her hair with shaking fingers.

 Some nights, as though it were muscle memory, her hand would fly out and grasp at the cold side of her bed... Reaching for somebody who was no longer there, reaching for a ghost who could not reach back.

 There had been times in which Pepper would knock on the door and Emilia would feel the familiar swell of guilt in her gut for waking the pregnant woman who had already begun to show.

 Nights where Tony would tear himself from his work in the lab to check on her.

 Even the chime of F.R.I.D.A.Y.'s voice would ring out in concern.

 Emilia was certain that if Bruce hadn't been swamped with perpetual fatigue, he'd have shown up too. The Doctor, upon Tony's request, had also joined them within Stark tower. It seemed that the billionaire hadn't been lying when he'd brought up Emilia and Bruce working together once more.

 And work together they did. The two physicists had put their minds to a new project... Converging the two beings that lived within Bruce's body. Bruce and the Hulk's relationship had always been strained; Bruce had always deemed the green being as a monster only capable of chaos and destruction, and the Hulk had become tired of people viewing him through such a distorted lens.

 They were two beings that were so starkly different; the meek as a mouse scientist, and the towering green beast who packed a heavy punch. The problem was that they couldn't see eye to eye. Bruce was scared of the Hulk and what he could do, whilst the Hulk was jealous of Banner and finally tired of only being called upon when people needed his brute strength.

 They treated one another like a virus.

 But when Bruce finally sat down with Emilia and talked her through both his journey and the Hulks, did he finally realise that the Hulk had been evolving far faster than Bruce himself. There were small moments dotted around within their journey that Bruce finally inspected with a closer eye; back in twenty-twelve, it was Hulk that had plucked a plummeting Tony from the sky and laid him on the ground, only to roar in denial when he thought the Avenger had fallen.

 Until then, the Hulk had only ever shown an interest in preserving himself; the very reason Bruce had always struggled to keep him subdued when his emotions spiked.

 Then there was Natasha; Bruce had once held feelings for the woman, and somehow even the Hulk had begun to take notice for it was Natasha that would coax him out of his rage. The 'beast' had even gone on to save Nat towards the end of their mission... only to flee.

 That had been the moment of realisation for Bruce; the Hulk had fled in a Quinjet for just one reason; he knew that no matter what he did, he would always be deemed a threat.

 The Hulk had been attempting to change, yet Bruce scarcely permitted that part of himself to take authority out of fear, when, in reality, it might have given the Hulk an opportunity to truly change what he was and how the world perceived him.

 Bruce had trailed off when his accounts had finally caught up to Thanos' appearance, and though he had expected a tense silence to follow his wake, he was surprised when Emilia stood from her stool and spoke, "Maybe it's time for the two of you to meet half-way. No more Bruce or Hulk, rather Bruce and Hulk."

 Bruce still hated the tone of her voice; devoid of all light and entirely soaked in the sadness that made her lips tug towards the ground. He scratched his neck, "You mean... Combine us?"

 "I mean a middle ground; embrace that part of you rather than push it away. The Hulk might have started out as somebody who valued self-preservation above all, but now that just isn't the case. He left the planet just so he couldn't be a threat; I know how that feels. You can't just push it away, you have to accept it."

 The clearing of a throat caused Bruce to hop from his stool, eyes clamping sought as it tumbled to the ground with a harsh clatter.

 "Bruce, dear, don't wreck my lab," Tony whined as he stuffed a hand in his pocket. He strode forth and swiped the chair from the ground, raising a brow at Bruce's timid smile before patting his old friend on the shoulder. He clicked his fingers and pointed towards Emilia, "She's right. Maybe it's time for the brains and the brawn to come together; imagine that — the big green guy with PHDs and lab goggles."

 Bruce pondered, his eyes hardly straying from his hands as Tony continued to busy his own. The billionaire tidied away papers with new ideas, pieces of metal that had been carelessly tossed aside, and screwed his nose up at an old mug of coffee that seemed to be growing its own ecosystem.

 Emilia waited patiently — just as Bruce had always done for her — until his eyes snapped up and he nodded his head in agreement whilst a newfound spark of determination glittered in his kind eyes, "How do we do this?"

 Tony's mouth parted before promptly closing. He might have been able to create an intuitive suit from scrap metal and a blow torch, but merging Bruce and the Hulk? That was a new ballpark entirely.

 Emilia hummed, her head cocking to the side as she thought in silence. She too had absolutely no idea where they'd possibly start but the three minds in that room were some of the smartest; they'd figure something out in the end.

 It might have been selfish, but Emilia was suddenly elated at the prospect of a new project; it'd allow her some freedom from the horrific thoughts that weaved into her mind when nothing else occupied it. She was glad for the distraction to come, and she prayed that the words that came in the form of a baritone whisper would finally allow her some peace and quiet.

 Stark, from the seat he'd suddenly tossed himself in, grinned to himself, "Couples therapy? It's working wonders for me and Pep."

 Bruce offered him an unamused glance, though Emilia couldn't help but agree with the tease.

 "The problem is that you and the Hulk don't get along... So..." Emilia shrugged and ignored the slow, cheshire-like grin that began to form on Tony's lips, "Maybe it's not such a bad idea. We'd have to figure out the scientific side too... get into a gamma lab to keep an eye on the both of you, after all, we don't know how this could affect you or the Hulk."

 Bruce didn't seem deterred, it was almost as though the idea of finally being able to find a middle ground with the being that shared his body prompted him to finally take action and find the solution. He still resented Hulk, hell he resented himself too; they could have done more when Thanos came, he knew they could have... So now he'd make sure it would never happen again.

 "Let's do it." He said as he slid back into his seat and pulled a notebook closer to himself, "Reconciliation should probably come first... Then the gamma..." He looked to Emilia, "Are you ready to get back to work?"

 A rare smile blossomed on her face; the mere thought of working inside the lab with Bruce by her side again made the weight on her shoulders suddenly lighter, "Promise I won't leave this time."

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DATE: 30/12/2022

:·ﾟ★ science bros (plus emilia) is actually what keeps me alive.

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