THE AVENGERS: THE SECRETARY AND THE SCIENTIST
Chapter I: "Lunch Break"

Written by Abri Isgrig (Lady Jekyll) and Diane N. Tran (tranimation)

This started off as a conversation with my friend Abri Isgrig (Lady Jekyll) and I, discussing how we honestly thought the romantic relationship between Tony Stark and Pepper Potts was doomed to fail, even though we, in truth, adore the characters to death. We felt, instead, that Pepper was better matched with the character of shyer Bruce Banner, specifically the portrayal from The Avengers (2011). I suppose you could call this a "crack pairing," which I generally avoid as a die-hard canonist, but it honestly does not help my cause when both Gwyneth Paltrow and Mark Ruffalo starred opposite of each other in the romantic comedy, View from the Top (2003), where they were adorkably cute together, and will again in the upcoming romantic seriocomedy, Thanks for Sharing (2012), which further fuels our obsession with the BruPep romance...

Originally, she wrote "The Secretary and the Scientist" as a gift to me and I was forever thankful to her for her kindness and generosity for it. However, she recently was having trouble with the second chapter, therefore I offered my assistance and ended up expanding it. With that, I went back, played around, and expanded the previous chapter as well. Special thank-yous to Liz Hartley (weapon13WhiteFang) for being our ever-reliable Grammar Nazi as always!

Synopsis: Six months following the alien invasion of New York, Bruce Banner is forced to play peace-maker between Tony Stark and Pepper Potts after their messy break-up and soon realizes he is the middle of an emotional situation beyond his control. Canonical (Movieverse): Friendship/Romance: On-going. Rated K for unadulterated cuteness.

The Avengers © Marvel Comics

Pepper Potts, the ever-respected CEO of Stark Industries, was playing waitress again. Not that she minded, but no one else in building wanted the job — in fact, every one of them flat out refused it — because the recipient of the meals was one Dr. Bruce Banner.

When it was announced that Tony Stark had offered Banner a high-end job in the Research and Development at Stark Tower six months ago, she thought nothing of it. Banner had the expertise, the imagination, and the genius for the work; but, to her great surprise, his mere presence caused the turnover rate at Stark Industries to skyrocket. Nearly forty-percent of the workforce resigned. For months, she accounted the cost and loss of employment, from recruitment to replacement, from productivity to performance, networking and strategizing within the company management to keep the newly-founded Stark Tower afloat and under operations as smoothly and efficiently as possible, despite being currently understaffed.

Of course, she had other problems as well.

Digging her nails into the plastic of the meal tray, she was reminded of Tony's raunchy wrong-number text message that was sent to her cell phone by mistake this afternoon; third time this week to be precise. That no-good, worthless, philandering son of a—!

Pepper paused at the entrance of the laboratory and took a deep breath to collect herself, as she punched the key-code and walked inside.

"Afternoon, Bruce," greeted she, making her way across the room toward a labcoat-clad man hunched over his work desk hidden behind several pilings of colourful test tubes and bulky, old books.

The figure didn't acknowledge her presence, but remained slumped over the desk, a pencil weakly clutched in one hand and the other laid across a pile of scribbled papers. Settling aside the tray for a moment, Pepper felt a surge of panic, recalling a mention of Bruce's suicidal tendencies, but he couldn't have possibly...

She tiptoed toward his ear. "Bruuuucce?"

The physicist stirred and sat up, his lungs filling with pungent air of chemicals, his greyed hair looking as though it made friends with a light socket, and his glasses dangling precariously off one ear. He blinked blearily, squinting against the light, and yawned.

"Timezit?" asked he, thickly.

"Half-past noon," she replied with a lopsided smirk. "How long have you been working?"

Bruce straightened his glasses and rolled his head on his shoulders, cracking the vertebrae in his neck audibly.

"Since Tuesday."

"How long has it been since you've last eaten?"

"Since—," he paused in mid-sentence with a stretch and another yawn, "—Tuesday."

Pepper shook her head a little and pushed the tray before him.

"Eat, please. You must be starving."

Lifting the lid on the tray, he beamed in delight at the simple meal of a sandwich, a salad, and green tea the redhead had brought him. Simplicity was good. Simplicity made him happy.

"Thank you," he said, unscrewing the lid to the thermos of green tea, pouring a cup, and handing it to her. He searched around for a clean mug or cup for himself, but none could be found. The scientist selected a round-bottom volumetric flask from one of the chemistry sets, turning it over in his hand in examination, shrugged, and filled it halfway with tea.

Pepper let out a laugh and Bruce blushed, forming a tiny smile, raising his "glass" in a toast. Smiling in return, she lightly clinked her cup against his makeshift one and watched him eat.

"Did I miss anything while I was asleep?"

"Not really. It's the usual thing: Supervillain from space, giant robot, city rampage, the customary 'I will destroy you' speech, fire and brimstone, that sort of thing."

Bruce peeked over his glasses, stopping at mid-chew of his sandwich, at her words with a grave, fretful expression creasing against his brow. But as he watched her break into an amused grin, he caught himself breathe a sigh in relief and closed his eyes.

"That wasn't funny," he mumbled dryly.

"Yes, it was. You'll laugh about it later."

The scientist couldn't help but betray a smirk, as she predicted, and continued his attention on his meal.

Pepper smiled again. He could, at least, take a joke.

When she first met Banner, she knew him exclusively by reputation and it was a reputation the world knew of: The man who could turn himself into a beast, or was a beast who could turn himself into a man? Either way, she doubted if he knew the answer — and it was difficult for her to imagine any sort of "evil" could come out of this unassuming, introverted little man.

Nonetheless, when people had the occasion to be around him, they were so cautious of their words and actions, so hesitant, so false, that it seemed pointless to talk to him at all. Therefore, Banner kept to himself, selecting a little corner of the laboratory, out of sight and out of mind. He was a man who was fully aware of his reputation, a man who was fully aware of the amount of power he possessed, and he willed himself not to use it. Bruce Banner was the loneliest man in the world, by choice — and yet he was perhaps the bravest man in the world as well.

At that moment, her cell phone rang, interrupting her chain of thought, and an ever-grinning image of Tony, which appeared mock her at the same time, popped up onscreen for an answer.

"Are you alright?" inquired Bruce who just finished stuffing a forkful of lettuce in his mouth. "You seem a little...tense."

"It's…nothing," she replied lowly with a frown. "Relationship issues."

For a moment and only a moment, she saw the all-too-brief bite of pain flash before the physicist's face, but she couldn't be certain. He guarded himself so well, always afraid to bump into anything, always afraid of conflict, always afraid to lose that sense of control that held the fragile cracks together, that she felt guilty for feeling angry or sad around him because he had it so much worse than she.

"I'm sorry. I don't want to burden you with any of my stupid problems."

"No, it's okay," he assured her with a shake of his head and a meek smile. "If you ever need, you know, somebody t—t—to talk to, Pepper..., I'm a really good listener."

Pepper tilted her head curiously, betraying another lopsided smile and a faint chuckle. She was so accustomed to Tony's colossus ego, boisterous charm, and restless personality that Bruce's polite humility, bashful sweetness, and restrained demeanour felt refreshing and welcoming, even if it was necessity on his part.

She stood and picked up his empty tray before taking her leave. "Thank you, Bruce, I'll think about it."

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