It had been a few days since Bruce came aboard the Hail Mary. The astrophage situation was getting closer and closer to being solved, or at least that's what Grace liked to say. Bruce was sitting at the lab table, hunched over a computer, diligently reading the screens. Ilyukhina’s uniform hung off his small frame. It was the only uniform that didn’t entirely swallow him in fabric

Grace hunched over his own notes, papers strewn everywhere around him as he sat on the floor. He hummed a soft tune as he worked. He glanced up at Bruce and watched the man work for a bit. Grace had vague memories about the guy that grew stronger the longer Bruce stayed. Grace chewed on his pen. “We should get to know each other. Since uh, we’ll be spending a lot of time together now.”

Bruce didn’t respond and kept working. The good old “if you ignore it, it’ll go away” method. Grace however was not going away any time soon.

“So… What’s your favorite color?” Grace asked, mindlessly scribbling now just to look busy to Bruce. He knew the question and the questions to come were a bit elementary but they were good ice-breaker questions for a reason darn it!

Bruce ignored Grace for a while before sighing quietly and muttering something to himself. “I don’t know. Yellow I guess.”

Grace bit down on his lip to hold the snicker he felt brewing. Here’s this big intimidating guy who held a ravenous beast that could crush cities in a matter of minutes inside him sitting in front of Ryland and his favorite color was yellow? “Any secret hobbies? Like uh… I don’t know knitting?”

“I used to read a bunch of science magazines. Don’t have time for hobbies anymore.” Bruce grumbles as he works.

“What did you do before uh- Hulk came around?”

Bruce was quiet for a bit, typing away. “I was a military weapons scientist.” He said after a while.

Grace winced slightly at that. Bruce seemed like such a smart man, wasting his talent for violence. “Right, what kind of things did you make?”

“Radiation bombs.”

“Did you uh enjoy that?” Ryland asked hesitantly.

“Not particularly.”

Ryland let out a quiet sigh of relief at that.

“And your family? You must miss them right?”

“No. Dad was a drunken monster who beat me and murdered my mother.”

Grace quieted down and just went back to work. The reports didn’t really mention that stuff. Grace remembered seeing Bruce in the papers a lot when he was still in academia. The “Leading Radiation Expert of the Century” they would call him. His research on gamma was truly extraordinary. Heck, the man had 7 PhDs for God’s sake! Bruce Banner was a genius in Grace’s book.

But after a bit Bruce’s name stopped popping up and the Hulk replaced it. He remembered seeing the news of the first sighting of the “Jade Giant” once. The press documented every destroyed town, death, and theory during the Hulk’s first years until they just couldn’t keep up. Destruction was the Hulk’s calling card and it took years before Bruce’s name was officially tied to the beast.

Grace put those thoughts aside for now. They needed to focus on saving Earth. Rocky scampered around on his side of the xenonite, tinkering with his own little device. Grace looked over to the wall and watched Rocky curiously. “Whatcha got there, Rock?”

“Make device to read human device screens. Makes screen texture. Rocky read texture, Rocky read data.” Rocky began tinkering with his device once more.

Bruce looked up and watched the two chat for a bit. “Is it a scientist too?” He questioned.

“Rocky isn’t an it!” Grace raised his voice, slightly offended. “Rocky is as intelligent as we are and you should treat him with some respect.” Grace huffed.

“So is he a scientist?” Bruce grumbled.

“No. He’s an engineer. Makes things that we can use for the mission. He’s an incredible engineer actually!” Grace was about to go on when Bruce interrupted.

“That’s very fascinating, but we should really get some progress in before we start asking him for any tools. Make sure we have a plan with data to back us up.” Bruce typed away, doing whatever calculations he did.

Grace sighed before nodding. “Yeah yeah, we’re working as fast as we can.”

“Well, it’s not fast enough.”

“You’re just like Stratt.” Grace mumbled.

“Who?”

Grace paused in his work when he noticed Bruce’s hands had stilled. “Uh… Stratt. Eva Stratt. She’s- She was the top dog of Project Hail Mary. Real bossy lady who wanted results fast no matter the cost. You remind me of her a bit.” Grace fiddled with his pen. “I wonder what she’s doing now…” He mumbled to himself.

Bruce said nothing and resumed his typing.

“Grace help Rocky get ball, question?” Rocky chirped after a bit. “Want to test device on Banner’s data.”

“Yeah, sure bud.” Grace uncrossed his legs, did a little stretch, then went over to the airlock in the xenonite wall. He watched the airlock cycle through before Rocky climbed into his ball and detached himself from its station. He rolled over to Bruce’s chair and rammed into it.

“Hey! Watch it!” Bruce hissed.

“Give laptop!” Rocky demanded.

“I’m working on something important you know.” Bruce furrowed his brow.

Grace watched the two bicker for a bit before he took Bruce’s laptop and set it on the floor so Rocky could aim his device at it. “Thank,” Rocky said as he read his device’s screens. “Device work good good. Can hear many ‘color’ of screen.” Rocky stared at the device for a bit before trilling up at Grace. “You check data, question?”

“Uh no not yet, bud. But Banner is a smart man, I’m sure-“

“Grace check!” Rocky shrieked. “Banner could be setting trick! Hurt Grace!”

Bruce clenched his fist in his lap. “Listen. I’m only here to help you find a solution. Billions of lives are at stake and I won’t stand by and watch them die!” Bruce’s chest sharply rose and fell. He took a deep breath to still himself. “It’s the least I can do for all the damage I’ve done.”

“You mean the hulk?” Grace asked quietly.

Bruce just glared.

Grace frowned slightly. His watch beeped and he winced when he saw the numbers light the screen. “Ah- It’s been…. 43 hours since we’ve last slept.” He thought for a moment. “You can sleep first, Bruce. I still wanna double check my work before I hit the hay.”

Rocky stomped his foot. “Rocky watch. Rocky watch Banner closely.” His octaves were low whenever he talked about Bruce, Grace noticed. He still didn’t think too fondly of him. For good reason he knew, but still.

Bruce tensed up. “What?”

Grace quickly spoke up. “It’s a part of Rocky’s culture to watch each other sleep! They do it for the sleeping eridians' protection from outside-“

“No one is watching me sleep!” Bruce snapped. Bruce got up from his seat, tucked the laptop underneath his arm, and stormed off.

Grace watched him until Bruce turned a corner and was out of sight. He sighed heavily and turned over to an already pacing Rocky. “We’ll check in on him in a bit alright? Let him fall asleep first.”

“Rocky don’t trust Banner. Banner hurt Grace. Could sabotage mission.” Rocky thrummed.

“I don’t think he’ll do that, Rock. He seems… I don’t know.” Grace sighed. “Let’s just get back to work, we’ll check in after I promise.”

Rocky paced a little more before he rolled over to Grace and curled in. He tinkered on something beside Grace. After around an hour, Grace tapped his pencil on his papers. He stretched and then stood up. “Alright, Rocky. Let's go find-“

“In window room,” Rocky said immediately.

“Oh right. You probably knew that this whole time, huh?”

“Yes.”

The two walked off and found Bruce by the main big window, huddled up asleep. He had his knees to his chest and his arms loosely wrapped around his legs. The laptop was open in front of him, though Grace could tell sleep took over because of the random letters typed at the end. Grace looked over him. Bruce looked so frail in Ilyukhina’s old uniform. He sat in front of Bruce and laid out his work, Rocky did the same as he huddled near him. It saddened Grace a bit to think about Bruce’s history. Bruce was one of the best scientists he ever knew and Hulk destroyed that life too. Bruce was as much of a victim of Hulk’s as Earth was. But he didn’t see it that way did he?

Grace sighed and he started writing out some calculations. As he and Rocky worked, Bruce slightly tossed and turned in his sleep, muttering things to himself. Grace looked up to watch Bruce and he vaguely wondered if he was dreaming about Earth. Grace watched for a moment and as Bruce’s hands tightened around his legs and his knuckles turned a faint green, Grace tensed.

Rocky shuffled a bit in his ball, unsure why Grace was freaking out. “What’s wrong, question???”

Grace quickly scrambled over to Bruce, unsure how to deal with this. The ship couldn’t afford a Hulk wandering around. He quickly put his hand on top of Bruce’s and tried to gently shake him awake. Bruce woke suddenly. Grace couldn’t tell before with Bruce’s face in his knees, but Bruce was sweating a bit.

Bruce wiped his brow and looked around. “What’s wrong? Did something happen?”

“No no! It’s just-“ Grace went quiet, unsure if he should say anything. “It’s just that I wanted to ask you to check my work.”

Bruce sighed and grumbled a bit. “You woke me up to show me your work?”

Grace nodded and didn’t ask about the annoyance on Bruce’s face as they started working once more. Bruce’s eyes moved across the pages, his pencil making slight tweaks every once in a while. “Some of these mistakes are a bit juvenile. Are you tired? You sure you’re in the right headspace to be working?”

“What?!” Grace’s face reddened and he snatched the paper away and read over Bruce’s tweaks. He had to admit his mistakes were a bit stupid, but Bruce hadn’t shared any of his work yet! “Okay well, can I tweak yours?”

“I already checked my work about 3 times, I think I’m all good.”

“Ego much?” Rocky trilled, putting the words Grace taught him to good use.

Bruce soured at that. “I don’t have an ego! Besides, I’m just saying that I don’t need to be checked. I’m pretty sure I know what I’m doing more than the guy with amnesia.” He jabbed a finger at Grace.

“Grace Rocky been here many months. Much progress. Banner only here a few days. No Progress. No boss of Grace Rocky.” Rocky stamped his foot. “Banner think because Banner a strong science human, can toss Grace around!”

“I’m not-“ Bruce sighed heavily. He pushed his laptop into Grace’s chest and stared. “Go on.”

Grace blinked then he looked down at the laptop and started looking through it. He made his own tweaks to Bruce’s work, making slight faces as he did so. Bruce was a bit confused at the face. “What? What is it?”

“Oh, it’s nothing! It’s just- oh eugh… that's not-“ Grace typed away all his corrections. “Ooh.. hmm, I mean it’s something,” Grace said with a nervous smile.

“What?!” Bruce snapped, his cheeks turning a slight pink. They played tug of war with the laptop for a bit until Bruce was the eventual winner. He frantically looked over Grace’s critiques.

“It’s just that you’re using a different formula than me. Sure it’s technically the more advanced one, but it’s also the incorrect formula for what we need, see?” He pointed to an equation that he had fixed up. “Did you take any astronomy classes by any chance?”

“Just in highschool…” Bruce mumbled a bit sheepish.

“Ah, I see! Well, I can teach you. I took a few classes alongside physics. You took physics though right?”

When Bruce nodded, Grace went on about astronomy formulas and the different formulas they needed to be working with for the mission. Bruce sat quietly, viciously taking notes. He nodded, asked questions, and said the occasional “right”, “mhm”, “yeah”. Bruce wouldn’t say it out loud, but he had to admit Grace was a pretty good teacher.

Authors Notes

My english teacher started reading ts lowkey… He really likes PHM.

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Bruce’s eyes felt heavy. He felt so tired. He just wanted to rest for a bit. He tried taking a deep breath from his mouth, but choked on something. His eyes shot open and thats when he noticed the tube. He choked and gagged as his hands flew up to rip the tube out of his throat.

“Warning! Movement detected. Please remain still.” A female computerized voice spoke calmly, but it panicked Bruce nonetheless. A robotic hand held Bruce onto the bed as he thrashed around, desperate to be free. When he finally ripped out the tube, tossed it across the room, and yanked out all the other wires that were hooked onto him, he staggered around the room before dry heaving.

Bruce curled up in a corner of the room and watched as the robotic arms reached out for him. Bruce rubbed his hands over his face and breathed in harshly. He looked around and saw nothing but white walls and a strange ladder leading up to an open hatch.

“Oh god oh god oh god- Tony, what did you do???” Bruce cursed to himself underneath his breath. Was this another one of Earth’s Hulk contingency plans? This weird white room with a weird robot watching over him? Bruce panicked as his eyes darted around but he froze when he heard something coming up from where that hatch was.

He heard skittering and heavy thuds. He listened closely before he saw…someone? Descending the ladder. “I’m sorry for Armando! It’s just a medical bot I assure you!” The man said as he finally reached the bottom. Bruce squinted at him. The man had scruffy blonde hair and stubble, glasses that looked too loose for his face, a yellow jumpsuit halfway worn and tied around his waist, and a stupid science pun tshirt. He cleared his throat and slowly approached Bruce, though he looked a bit worried about something. “I’m Ryland. Ryland Grace.” He held out his hand towards Bruce. “You’re Bruce right? Bruce Banner? I’ve seen you in the papers-“

Bruce lunged forward and grabbed Grace’s arm. He flipped him onto his belly and shoved him against the wall, holding his hands behind his back. “You work for SHIELD, is that it?” Bruce snapped, tensing up. “Pretending to be a civilian for them? Or maybe this is another one of Ross’s Hulk capture attempts? Or is it-“

“Woah, woah! I-I don’t know what you’re talking about! We just-“

“We??” Bruce paused as he heard footsteps upstairs. Heavy footsteps. He tightened his grip on Grace’s arms. “How many of you are there exactly???”

Grace wriggled around underneath Bruce’s hands, trying to twist out of the man’s grasp. His glasses slipped down his nose and he quickly bucked his head up to try to get them back up. “I-It’s just me and my crew mate Rocky!”

Bruce thought for a second. He stared Grace down and watched him twitch and squirm underneath him.

Grace took a deep breath, trying to steady himself. “Do you…know where you are?”

Bruce scoffed. “If I did I don’t think I would be this confused, don’t you think?”

“Right, right. Uh… I can show you!! Just- let me go and follow me?” Grace mumbled. “Please?” He quietly added.

Bruce eyed him over before hesitantly releasing Grace and watching him go up the ladder. Bruce followed after a minute or two. Grace was there pacing around before seeing Bruce. He took another deep breath. He pointed over at something. “Just… Look.”

Bruce slowly walked over, constantly looking over his shoulder at Grace. His eyes widened when he saw a window, then an inky well with light speckles strewn everywhere. Space. This was Earth’s plan for him? Send him off to die in a rocket? He couldn’t say he disagreed, hell this was probably the right thing to do for a monster like him.

But he was still scared.

Bruce’s breath quickened and before he knew it, his head felt light and his heart felt like it was going to explode out of his chest.

“Woah woah! Easy!” Grace walked over and put his hand on Bruce’s shoulder. “I know- I was like that too when I first learned I was in space. Trust me, it’s gonna be alright.”

Bruce looked over at Ryland and he could’ve swore Grace tensed up a bit at the eye contact. He saw a slight green reflection in Grace’s glasses and immediately tried to calm himself down. “I… I’m sorry. I-“ Bruce stammered, but he shut himself up and took a deep breath.

Grace calmed down as well. Then the skittering noise returned. Bruce flinched and his eyes started to dart this way and that. He looked and looked, expecting this “Rocky” guy. When he finally located the source of the skittering and thuds, he was a bit taken aback. He stared at a strange rocky being with 5 legs. It paced around its side of the wall, trilling awfully. He walked over to the wall cautiously and crouched down.

Rocky thrummed and Bruce heard a computer start speaking. “Human awake now! Human hurt Grace, question?! Rocky saw fight in bedroom. Grace okay, question???” Rocky banged angrily on the wall at Bruce.

“I’m okay, bud!” Grace chewed on his lip and glanced at Bruce then at Rocky. “Rocky, this is… Banner. He was the anomaly you and Mary detected yesterday.”

“New word, question?”

“Banner, word for a strip of cloth or paper to display. That’s his name.” Grace points to Bruce.

“Ugly name, statement.” Rocky stomped.

Bruce looked from Rocky to Grace and then back to Rocky and then back at Grace. “Seems friendly.” He muttered sarcastically.

Grace huffed. “Can’t blame the guy for being worried, you shoved me against a wall and started screaming at me.”

Bruce rolled his eyes. Bruce stood up and looked over to Grace then walked around the lab. “Why are you even here? In space I mean. Without a crew too is strange.”

Grace looked down at his feet. “I uh… There were 3 of us originally but 2 of us died on the way here. We were sent to deal with the astrophage situation. The little alien microbes that are dimming the sun. Thats all I really remember… Oh and I’m a teacher! A middle school science teacher!”

Bruce raised an eyebrow. “The government sent a middle school science teacher to deal with the end of the world?”

Grace flushed a bit. “Alright, “Mr Fight-Now-Ask-Questions-later”! I used to be in the academia for your information! I have a PhD too! I think- Mary calls me ‘doctor’.” He remarked defensively.

Bruce walked over to the metal lab table and looked around at the equipment. He fiddled with some beakers. “What have you and your “crew” learned while you’ve been up here then?”

Grace sighed. “Rocky and I have been conducting as much research on astrophage as we can, but we still need to get definitive samples from the Petrova line. You do know what that is right?”

Bruce hums. “Vaguely. I know it has something to do with IR light but… the details are lost on me.”

“That’s partially right. Infrared is what the little suckers emit when they travel from the sun to venus. They toot to scoot basically.” Grace says with a small smile.

Bruce stares unamused.

“Ah… ahem- anyways. It’s their pathway basically. Rocky’s solar system has one too so his planet is going through the same problems Earth is having. Sun dimming and all.”

Bruce nodded along as Grace went about explaining the astrophage problem and his identity board and all of the fun Eridian biology he’s been learning to share back with Earth. Bruce fiddled with a pen as he listens, but he’s not entirely focused on Grace anymore.

“Hulk hate scientist. Almost as annoying as Banner. Hulk want out! Smash stupid scientist!” Bruce shudders as Hulk bangs at the insides of his head.

“I know, I know. But the ship is too small for you.” Bruce whispers to himself, but really its to Hulk.

“Puny Banner and puny scientist man!” Hulk rattles around inside, causing a slight headache for Bruce. “Hulk want to crush Stark! His fault Hulk in space! Hate him for sending Hulk here!”

Bruce clutches at his head, murmuring to himself. Grace pauses in his rant about how Eridian’s have such interesting cultures. “Hey are you alright?” Grace asks, a bit confused.

“I’m fine. Continue.”

“Armando should have some painkillers for your head if you want?”

Bruce thinks for a bit. “I’ll pass. We should really get to work on this astrophage problem anyways.” Bruce stands up and walks over to a cabinet and pulls out a laptop. “You have data on astrophage right?”

“Y-Yeah uhm. Right. Let’s get you some clothes first though.” Grace says as he guides Bruce back down to the dormitory for something to wear.

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Authors Notes

Idk how long this fic is gonna be so just buckle up for the ride if you’re invested!

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Heres the navigational stuff tho, smooth sailing!

“I am truly sorry for what we’ve had to do. We had no choice. When you get angry, Bruce, you are a force of destruction.” Tony’s voice spoke calmly, but there was that Stark confidence he always seemed to radiate. Strange, Reed, and Blackbolt stood behind watching. Observing. Quietly.

Hulk growled as the video played in front of him. He recognized the people on screen as soon as he saw the video flicker on. Hulk balled up his fists, the metal restraints buckling instantly under the force, electricity pulsing as the Hulk thrashed around the spaceship in a blind rage, fumbling for an exit.

“We’ve picked your location carefully. A planet full of vegetation and no one you can hurt. You always said you wanted to be left alone… May you finally find peace.”

Hulk smashed the console that emitted Tony’s incessant yammering. He heaved slightly, pausing in his destruction before his face scrunched up again as he destroyed the ship. It didn’t take long before the ship finally gave out and crumpled in on itself, shooting Hulk out into the vastness of space.

Hulk’s eyes widened as he sucked in a breath and held it as he floated around aimlessly. He flailed a bit, trying desperately to grab onto something, anything to keep him from floating off. Hulk watched helplessly as the ship’s wreckage grew smaller and smaller as he drifted into the vastness of space.

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“Grace! Something big stuck on ship!”

“What? Rocky, we’re nowhere near any sign of life. Other than Erid and Earth, theres nothing out here for lightyears, bud.”

Rocky stomped around annoyed. He angrily banged his fists against the xenonite wall. “Grace! Do EVA! Now!”

Grace groaned loudly. “EVAs are exhausting work for a false alarm you know?” He rolled his eyes but went over to the airlock to put on his suit. “If there’s nothing out there, you owe me a soda.”

“No understand last word.”

“Don’t worry about it!” Grace called out as he exited the ship, even though he knew Rocky could hear him just fine. He peeked out into space. It still scared him, how empty space was. He was glad to have Rocky with him. He pulled himself out of the airlock and gripped onto a nearby handrail. He looked around the hull of the ship, but didn’t see anything. He grumbled and turned on his radio. “There’s nothing out here, Rocky.”

Rocky’s voice sparked through the radio. “Grace not close enough. Near fuel bays.”

“Fuel bays..” Grace absentmindedly nodded along and sighed. “Roger that, captain.”

“Rocky not captain.”

“I know, bud. Earth figure of speech.”

“Understand.”

Grace pulled himself along the handrails, closer and closer to the fuel bays. Should be right on the dormitory now… He thought to himself. He gave the hull a gentle knock. He heard Rocky’s startled trill on the radio before a returning knock. Grace chuckled to himself. When he looked up towards the fuel bays, he stiffened slightly. There was something…big..sticking to one of the fuel bays. He couldn’t make out what it was exactly but it was the bright green that had him interested.

Grace cautiously moved closer. He was right on the fuel bays now when he froze. Not only was the big green blob, enormous, it was humanoid. He recognized it. Grace sucked in a panicked breath as the Hulk slowly looked up at Grace, staring similarly like a wolf does as it stalks its prey. Hulk slowly uncurled himself from his grip on the hull and slowly moved towards Grace.

Grace stumbled back, but didn’t let go of his iron grip on the handrail. The Hulk was mere feet away from Ryland now. He cocked his head at Grace now. Grace softened slightly. Hulk gestured down at the hull.

“Wha…” Grace mumbled before it clicked. “Oh- Oh! You want to- oh. Uhm…” He cleared his throat and turned his radio to broadcast out towards Hulk. “You want to come into the ship?” He asked, his voice quavering slightly.

Hulk stared at first, as if lost in thought. Then the giant nodded slowly. Grace switched his radio off, then nodded. He gulped slightly as he made his way back to the airlock with the Hulk following. He hoped Rocky wouldn’t be too startled by Hulk, God knew he was.

When they got to the airlock, Grace looked at Hulk, then the airlock, then at Hulk again. “Eh…” Grace turned on his radio. “I think you might be too big. Is there anyway you can- crap what am I saying? Nevermind.”

As Grace got lost in his thoughts about how to get Hulk inside, he noticed the creature moving out of the corner of his eye. He turned over and saw Hulk’s vibrant green skin fading into a duller peach. His muscles shrinking into that of a malnourished husk.

Grace watched, a bit amazed at the transformation. It wasn’t until the scrawny man started flailing around, holding his throat wheezing that Grace snapped out of his trance. “Oh god, hang on!” Grace quickly grabbed hold of the man before he floated off and dragged him into the airlock.

The man stopped flailing and went limp.

Once the airlock was cycled, Grace quickly took off his helmet. “Hey, are you okay???” Dumb question to ask a man choking in space, he knew. He tried feeling for a pulse, but the man was cold and limp. Grace teared up a bit. The first human contact he’s had in so long was dead.

Rocky staggered as close as he could from his side of the wall. He watched carefully. Grace cleared his throat and wiped his eyes. “He’s… He’s dead, Rocky.”

Rocky shifted from foot to foot. He tapped on the wall gently, trying to get a better scan. “Not dead. Heart very faint. Almost dead.”

Grace’s eyes widened, his smile getting bigger. “Oh thank goodness!” He sighed with relief and examined the man in his lap a bit more closely. He was so thin, his ribs showing almost cartoonishly, he looked frail. His hair was a long mess and his face looked like it had been unshaven for a while. Grace chewed his lip. “This guy looks…rough.” He mumbled.

Grace scooped the man up and exited the airlock. He headed towards the dormitory.

“What Grace do, question?”

Grace tucked the man into his bed, making sure he was in a comfortable position. “He’s gonna be here a while. Best to make him comfortable, right, Rock?”

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Authors Notes

Yeah I just came up with this on a whim ngl

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Fair warning tho, this is a mix of my own head canons as well for all Bruce/Hulk and Grace/Rocky.

So after Bruce is shot into space by the illuminati, Hulk breaks out of the ship and ends up in space. HOWEVER instead of landing on Sakaar he bumps into the Hail Mary and sticks onto their hull. Rocky and Grace are alerted of something big on the hull so Grace does an EVA. He sees Hulk on the hull and initially freaks out because “why the heck is the Hulk in space??? Oh god- this can’t be happening-!” (Because the Marvel universe is canon in this au so Grace knows about superheroes and junk.)

Hulk kind of shrugs Grace off and points to the airlock to be let in. Grace calms down a bit before letting Hulk inside. However Hulk is too big to fit into the airlock so he shrinks down into Bruce, who then starts to suffocate in space. Grace tries to get Bruce into the airlock fast enough but Bruce suffocates and dies right as he enters. Grace freaks out and is about to toss Bruce’s dead body out when Rocky says he hears a very faint heart beat (because of Bruce’s regen abilities).

So they keep Bruce :D

Bruce just stays on the Hail Mary with Rocky and Grace and they carry out the story of PHM, fall in love, and eventually go to Erid. (Hulk is kept inside Bruce for the journey on the Hail Mary because of how small the ship is.) The Eridians make slight adjustments to the og bubble and make it tall enough to where even Hulk could roam carelessly if he wanted. They live there for the rest of their lives until Grace dies, leaving just Rocky and Bruce, who has a significantly longer life span because of Hulk. Rocky prompts Bruce to leave since Grace wouldn’t have wanted Bruce or Hulk to die in this bubble since he has the power to leave.