Yeah, but the number one person Bruce has had to deal with calling him a monster post-incident has been... Bruce. He shakes his head when Tony starts trying to compare the things he's done, the person he's been, to the Hulk, and he slips a hand free of Tony's so he can hold their hands together in a pile, squeezing them together gently, but then he can't argue with Tony's last point. People don't grow until they learn; he knows that pretty well, doesn't he?
"It isn't as easy for me to see him... me, us, the way you do, Tony." He drops his eyes and bites his lip, trying to figure out how to answer, trying to find where it fits in Bruce's philosophy of himself, of life. In a way it's kind of like Tetris, he's realizing. He thought he only needed straight pieces and was trying to cram those in, waiting desperately for something that's probably never going to come to complete him, when there's a slightly different shape coming in that could work instead, if only he could accept it.
And who said Tetris was a waste of time?
"We're lucky to have you," he says quietly. "He and I both. I'm pretty sure he and I hate each other and I'm not sure how that could ever be resolved, but you're brave to want to stand between us."
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"It isn't as easy for me to see him... me, us, the way you do, Tony." He drops his eyes and bites his lip, trying to figure out how to answer, trying to find where it fits in Bruce's philosophy of himself, of life. In a way it's kind of like Tetris, he's realizing. He thought he only needed straight pieces and was trying to cram those in, waiting desperately for something that's probably never going to come to complete him, when there's a slightly different shape coming in that could work instead, if only he could accept it.
And who said Tetris was a waste of time?
"We're lucky to have you," he says quietly. "He and I both. I'm pretty sure he and I hate each other and I'm not sure how that could ever be resolved, but you're brave to want to stand between us."