Dr. Bruce Banner (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
the_other_guy) wrote2014-04-18 02:21 pm
the_other_guy) wrote2014-04-18 02:21 pm
Entry tags:
nobody said it would be easy, nobody gives you guarantees...
He shouldn't have been this nervous. He shouldn't have been this anxious.
Bruce was both anxious and nervous.
It hadn't even been two days yet, but Bruce was trying to get settled. He had an apartment, money, everything he could possibly need to live his life...except for the fact that he hadn't had a life to live in five years, give or take. Walking the streets, getting his mail, buying groceries...none of it was anything he knew how to do anymore.
When he saw a cop car, he still reflexively stopped in his tracks and turned away to keep his face from being seen. When a voice called out too sharply, he still felt his heart rate jump. Hearing his own name was just plain miserable, as was evidenced from a bad encounter that morning with a neighbor he'd just met, a bright-eyed seventeen year old named Allison.
Bruce had been on the run so long, he didn't know what it was to stop.
He was trying to focus on that now, given that there was nothing in the apartment to eat, and he didn't want to live on takeout. It was an experiment, a trial to see if he could establish a routine. Routine was a good way to keep control, and exposure to the aggravations of a semi-normal daily life would be a solid means of maintaining homeostasis: remaining functional without an incident involving the Other Guy.
Step one in his experiment: grocery shopping.
All in all, it was a successful venture. He still needed to see about getting new glasses, but his eyes didn't bother him overly much as he squinted at a few labels, and shot a few dirty looks at the local boy who seemed to be dead set on blocking the juice aisle for as long as he possibly could. He got jostled, held up, complimented on his shirt (something about it resembling one that a guy named Todd Chad wore), and nearly shortchanged at the register. He left the grocery store with four bags, correct change...and came nowhere near pushing his stress limits.
It was the first time Bruce actually had fun grocery shopping since well before the accident...since he'd still been with Betty.
He let the wistful pang of missing her wash over him with a sigh, brought back to himself only as a young man in a hoodie jostled him from behind as he stood just outside the entry of the supermarket. He paused, then glanced to the side...
"Not a bad lift!" he called out to the young man...or rather, a young woman, now identified by the rather stylish high-heeled boots she wore. "But I've been mugged twice and pickpocketed half a dozen times, so I've seen better!"
Turning more fully towards the culprit, still facing away from him, he raised an eyebrow. "Now you gonna give me back my wallet? Or am I gonna have to call the cops?"
Bruce was both anxious and nervous.
It hadn't even been two days yet, but Bruce was trying to get settled. He had an apartment, money, everything he could possibly need to live his life...except for the fact that he hadn't had a life to live in five years, give or take. Walking the streets, getting his mail, buying groceries...none of it was anything he knew how to do anymore.
When he saw a cop car, he still reflexively stopped in his tracks and turned away to keep his face from being seen. When a voice called out too sharply, he still felt his heart rate jump. Hearing his own name was just plain miserable, as was evidenced from a bad encounter that morning with a neighbor he'd just met, a bright-eyed seventeen year old named Allison.
Bruce had been on the run so long, he didn't know what it was to stop.
He was trying to focus on that now, given that there was nothing in the apartment to eat, and he didn't want to live on takeout. It was an experiment, a trial to see if he could establish a routine. Routine was a good way to keep control, and exposure to the aggravations of a semi-normal daily life would be a solid means of maintaining homeostasis: remaining functional without an incident involving the Other Guy.
Step one in his experiment: grocery shopping.
All in all, it was a successful venture. He still needed to see about getting new glasses, but his eyes didn't bother him overly much as he squinted at a few labels, and shot a few dirty looks at the local boy who seemed to be dead set on blocking the juice aisle for as long as he possibly could. He got jostled, held up, complimented on his shirt (something about it resembling one that a guy named Todd Chad wore), and nearly shortchanged at the register. He left the grocery store with four bags, correct change...and came nowhere near pushing his stress limits.
It was the first time Bruce actually had fun grocery shopping since well before the accident...since he'd still been with Betty.
He let the wistful pang of missing her wash over him with a sigh, brought back to himself only as a young man in a hoodie jostled him from behind as he stood just outside the entry of the supermarket. He paused, then glanced to the side...
"Not a bad lift!" he called out to the young man...or rather, a young woman, now identified by the rather stylish high-heeled boots she wore. "But I've been mugged twice and pickpocketed half a dozen times, so I've seen better!"
Turning more fully towards the culprit, still facing away from him, he raised an eyebrow. "Now you gonna give me back my wallet? Or am I gonna have to call the cops?"