(Bruce Banner x Reader): In Person
Summary: Reader is a strategic genius who strategizes missions and that is always talking in the team's ears, they become sort of friends w/ everyone but never meet. Bruce runs into her in the hallway and recognizes her voice
A/N: Apologies for any spelling and grammar mistakes
There was something about constantly being in the team’s ears that led you all to developing this weird sort of friendship. When you’d first gotten the job helping the Avengers with their missions you’d been so nervous about messing something up for them, but once they started talking to you you fell back into the strategic planning that you were so well known for.
Now, you never met the Avengers, they never actually saw your face, they just heard your voice in their ears, so they didn’t really know who you were, they just knew your voice and that you’d saved their asses time and time again.
As time passed you got into the habit of just chatting about things and making small talk when you weren’t giving them directions. You talked with them about your favorite movies (you were very upset when you found out that the team loved to watch the Sharknado movies), books, and music. Eventually you moved onto more personal topics, Steve would talk to you about what it was like coming out of the ice to being in a totally different world, Tony told you about his anxiety and worries about what was to come, Natasha would harass you for gossip about other agents so that she could use it as blackmail (you were one of her best sources). You always made sure Clint gave you updates on the kids (how they were doing in school, hitting milestones, etc), explained things about earth to Thor, and with Bruce you would talk about, well, you.
Bruce wanted to know everything about you, since he was The Hulk during the actually missions he would come back from the missions exhausted and trying to recuperate so he never had energy to talk much, but wanted someone to distract him and keep his mind off of the bad stuff. So that’s what you did, you told him about your family, your childhood, what your education was like, and what you wanted to do with your career.
At first it felt a bit weird, I mean, you developed such deep connections with each member of the team, yet other than Bruce they hardly knew a single thing about you. You knew their darkest secrets and truths about them that no one else could ever possibly know yet they had never seen your face. Which is probably why everyone found it so easy to confide in you, it was like you weren’t a real person. But you were, you are, and you had people that you would consider friends who didn’t know you, not really.
It was a cloudy Thursday and you were running late to work. The team didn’t have a mission planned so you hadn’t set an alarm but at the last minute they had decided to have a meeting about an upcoming mission and needed you to send them some of your plans and go over them.
As I rushed down the hallway to my office I pulled out my phone and frantically patched myself into the speakerphone in the Avenger’s conference room.
“Sorry guys, I just have to get to my office and then I can transfer my plans over to you and we can talk through them.” You said into your phone as you walked into your office, you put your phone on speaker and started to log into your monitor.
“No worries (Y/N),” Steve replied.
“Alright, I’ve sent you all of the blueprints and my annotations, can you see them?” You asked while rapidly clicking through documents and transferring them over.
“Yeah, where do you want to start?” Steve asked.
“Well, on image 3 do you see the layout of the building? I’ve traced out the 3 easiest courses of entry so you’ll have to be paired up, I’m thinking Natasha and Clint for the first one, Tony and Thor for the second, and Steve and Bruce for the third based on your combined skills and the entry points it’ll match easily with your strengths for optimal stealth.” You explain rapidly, going through the notes you had written down in the margins.
“Bruce isn’t coming with on this mission, since we’re going for stealth the green guy needs to stay behind.” Tony piped up on the line.
“Alright, well... the last track shouldn’t be any problem for you to do alone, Steve, and I can double check but everything else should be fine without him too.” You replied, quickly recalculating everything in your head
“Okay, we’ll continue to go over these and call if we have any questions, okay?” Steve said.
“Sounds good, I’ll send over new plans if I make any changes.” You said before hanging up.
You slumped back in your chair. You knew you should probably get used to this, I mean, working for a group of people with exceptional abilities like the team was bound to lead to stress and a certain level of uncertainty that you were just going to have to roll with. But you had to admit that it got to be a lot sometimes.
You spent the next few hours going over everything again to double check that it was all going to work and sent the team a few minor changes, just adjusted coordinates for drop off and pick up points, things like that are still very important and when they go wrong it can cost the team dearly.
You were just packing up your laptop and heading out the door when your phone started to ring again and you picked it up.
“Hey, we’ve decided to push the mission up to tonight so it looks like you’re going to have to stay the night.” Steve said on the other end of the call.
“That’s alright, it’s not like I have plans for anything.” You reply with a tired laugh. You walk back over to your desk and start powering all of your stuff up again.
“Jet’s taking off in 15 minutes so just make sure you’re ready by then, go to the bathroom or grab a snack quick.”
“Alright,” You reply, trying not to laugh at how much of a mom Steve can be.
Bruce hadn’t been meaning to eavesdrop on your conversation. He’d just been wandering around the compound like a lost puppy while the rest of the team went out on the mission. It’s not like Bruce really wanted to go on the mission, he never particularly enjoyed them, but there was something even worse than losing control of himself about the fact that he was all alone.
He’d just been walking down what he thought was just a hallway of empty offices and conference rooms that had been vacated for the night when he saw a door that was ajar with the faint glow of a lamp coming from inside. As he slowly crept towards the door he was able to hear the voice of a woman as she spoke in a clear, confident tone.
There was something about the voice that was familiar but Bruce couldn’t quite put a finger on it, he thought for a second that maybe it was just one of the agents that he’d had brief conversations with on missions and such but then he realized what he recognized the voice from.
“We’re not talking about Sharknado again,” She declared with a groan.
It was her. It was Y/N. After months and months of talking to her Bruce was actually in her physical presence. He was about to walk through the door and introduce himself, proclaim to her how wonderful she was, ask her how her day had been, just find any way of meeting her, before he realized that she was still working, that she was coaching the team, his team, through what was one of their most important missions to date. There was no way that he was going to distract her. To put his friends lives in danger.
So he did what was the only thing he could think of, and possibly one of the stupidest things ever. He sat down on the floor outside her office door, and waited.
And suddenly he was being shaken awake.
“Hey, are you okay?” A voice asked gently. The voice, her voice.
Bruce blinked his eyes awake and sat up slightly, “I’m fine, I’m fine,” He assured her quickly as he rubbed at his eyes so that his vision would clear up, “Sorry, I was planning for this to go a lot better than it is.”
“Bruce?” She asked after a beat, recognizing his voice and understanding why his face looked so familiar.
“Yeah, and you’re (Y/N), right?” He asked.
“Yeah, how could you tell?” She asked as she reached her hand out to help him to his feet.
“I recognized your voice, that’s actually why I was outside of your office, I was going to wait until your mission was over to talk to you, but I must have fallen asleep.” Bruce explained quickly.
“That’s so weird, I can’t believe you recognized my voice.” (Y/N) replied, shaking her head in disbelief.
“Why wouldn’t I, you’re important to me, and it was the only aspect of you I knew until now.” He replied, as if it’s obvious.
“Well, I was just going to head home and get some rest, but seeing as I ran into you, do you want to get something to eat?” (Y/N) offered, “I’m not sure what’s open in the middle of the night, but I’m sure we could find something.”
“We could eat here,” Bruce replied after a moment of consideration, “It’ll be a while until the team gets back so the kitchen free.”
(Y/N) grinned, “That sounds perfect, lead the way.”
In the kitchen Bruce got set to work on whipping up something for the two of you to eat
“Good, I love Quesadillas,” (Y/N) moaned after taking a bite of her food, “This is the best Quesadilla I’ve ever had.” She declared, mouth still slightly full of food.
“I know,” Bruce replies with a grin, “You mentioned it once, so I thought I would impress you with my cooking skills.”
(Y/N) blushed slightly, “I can’t believe you remembered that,” she replied, looking down at her plate.
“It’s nothing, I’m just good at remembering things,” Bruce replies with a shrug, even though he’s secretly very pleased that she’s happy.
Once you both finish your meal Bruce clears the plates and the two of you are sitting on the couch chatting, and just catching up when (Y/N) suddenly blurts out, “I think we should spend time together, in person more often.”
Bruce pretends to consider the idea for a second before breaking out into a grin, “I think so too, and next time we can actually go out somewhere, you know… not in the middle of the night.”
“That sounds perfect,” (Y/N) replies with a nod.
