Chapter Text
Bruce sat criss-cross-applesauce on the floor, his two physics textbooks and laptop spread out before him. He pushed his glasses up his nose and squinted at the screen before putting them back down. His back ached and his fingers were freezing cold. He’d just gotten out of his night class, and went straight home to begin working on more homework. He loved learning it was just the studying that got to him. He wanted to learn everything about everything and he wanted to know it all right this second and he became very easily overwhelmed with all there is to learn and how he was unable to just absorb it all at once. His phone buzzed twice against his thigh. He pulled it out and he shut his laptop with a snap.
Hey honey its mom. Just wondering if you’re able to come home over Christmas break? Send me your academic calendar so I know when your breaks are. Love you. -Mom
She still signed her texts as if they were emails. Bruce found this endearing. He let himself flop backward and lay flat on his back on the hard ground. The blue light of his phone illuminated his face as he tapped out a reply to his mom.
Of course I’ll b home 4 the holidays. wouldn’t miss it.
He scrolled through Instagram, still laying on the ground. He paused on a picture someone from his study group posted. Four shiny faces smiled up at him through the screen. It was captioned “Nite on the town” wine glass emoji, toasting glasses emojj, party horn emoji. Bruce sighed and locked his phone, placing it on his chest. He closed his eyes. It’s not like they were excluding him. They’d asked him to go. But his anxiety was so bad especially in new places and most certainly in a bar and he didn’t know anyone well enough so they could be his security blanket for the night, so he’d declined their group chat invitation. He could feel his chest tighten just thinking about being out. His phone buzzed on his chest, startling him. It was his mom again, of course.
Okay sweetie. Also let me know if you’re bringing anyone with you so I can get the guest room ready. She followed this with three eyeball emojis. She didn’t even try at subtlety anymore.
She followed with another message:
If not, my friend Miranda has a son who just broke up with his boyfriend. Also, your old friend Katy moved back to town after dropping out of culinary school. Let me know if I should invite either of them.
He couldn't help but laugh. It was a tired, sad, a little-exasperated laugh, but a laugh nonetheless. He knew his mom meant well and he loved her more than anything in the world. She’d been through so much. They’d been through so much. He would never ask her to be anything other than what she was, and right now that just happened to be a meddling mother. His phone buzzed again.
Sorry if I’m overwhelming you. Just don’t want you to be lonely. I love you.
She was right, he was lonely. But relationships were never really his thing.
He sighed and ran his hand over his face. He was so tired of worrying her, of disappointing her. He knew she was proud he excelled at school but let's face it, he excelled because it was all he had. Academia was merely a distraction from the fact that his only real meaningful human interaction came from his once a week study group. (That is, unless you count his morning trips to the coffee shop where the baristas chatted him up and he awkwardly answered while trying not to spill his coffee and get out of there as fast as he could). Not quite the riveting social life one imagines when they think about being a college student.
He sat up and gathered his textbooks and laptop, stacking them on top of each other before standing up. He was lucky, he thought as he took in his little apartment. When his father died he and his mother had donated most of the money and kept just enough for Rebecca to keep her home and live comfortably and for Bruce to have some money to live off of. His apartment wasn’t nice by the usual standards, but it wasn’t bad either. It was his favorite place in the world. He’d filled the kitchen, small living room and his bedroom with plants. Scientific diagrams and famous quotes were plastered on the walls. If he liked something, often it went up on the wall whether that be by tape, or if it was too big, he placed it on a cubed shelf on the wall. He has 3 bookshelves. Two in his room, which made it a bit hard to get around, if he was being honest. The other was in the living room. The one there was filled with an assortment of books, the most recent were books he was reading for his English class. There were novels, old textbooks. Textbooks he didn’t even need but had found at a thrift bookstore and looked interesting. The two in his room were more organized. One was completely filled with biographies. The top shelf autobiographies, the middle shelf science biographies and the bottom celebrity biographies (we all have our vices). The other shelf wasn’t really a bookshelf it served more as Bruce’s nightstand and general storage place. There were, however, multiple self-help books that he was hoping would help him discover methods to help him be less… whatever he was.
He had just placed his laptop and textbooks onto this shelf when his phone began to ring. What else could his mom want to say that she hadn’t already? He tried not to be irritated as he pulled his phone from his pocket. To his surprise, it wasn’t his mom, it was one of the boys from his study group.
“Hello?” He said uncertainly, sure that the boy had called the wrong number, or more likely just straight up butt-dialed him.
“Hey. Uh. Bruce? It’s Thor from study group. I’m so sorry to bother you but uh. I was supposed to be our designated driver tonight and all night I was drinking this punch right? And it was delicious but then I tried to stand up and got really dizzy and long story short the punch was not, in fact, virgin and now we have no way of getting home. Could you maybe come get us?”
Bruce paused for a second, lowering his phone to his thigh before sighing. “Yeah sure. Where are you?”
“We sent the address is in the group chat earlier if you wanna get it from there.”
“Oh yeah..right. Thanks.” Bruce felt his cheeks get hot and he was glad that Thor was on the other side of the phone and couldn’t see him blush. He cursed the fact that he embarrassed so easily. He copy and pasted the address into his GPS and texted Thor that he’d be there in 10 minutes.
The night air was cold. The fur on the collar of his jean jacket wasn’t doing much to keep Bruce warm. “C’mon C’mon C’mon.” He muttered to his heater as he flicked on his blinker. He hoped his car would be at least semi-warm by the time he picked up his drunk study group pals.
At the next stoplight, he clicked on the radio and turned the volume on low. At least there would be something to soothe the awkward silence that was inevitable.
“I’m here.” He texted the group chat. Natasha responded with an emoji and Thor wrote: “Be right out.”
He saw a group of four people leave the bar and figured it must be them. Thor threw open the door and the other three, Nat, Steve and Clint all squeezed in the back together and Thor took front seat.
“Thanks for doing this Bruce, my good man.” Thor smiled. His teeth were stained a cherry red and he reeked of alcohol. How he couldn’t tell that the punch was spiked, Bruce didn’t know.
“No Problem,” Bruce said. “So who am I taking home first?” He looked in the rearview mirror to see that Clint was already asleep, his head nodding on Steve’s shoulder.
“Uh. Clint lives by the laundromat and Nat and I live on campus.”
“I live the farthest.” Thor yawned. “Sorry about that.”
They shook Clint awake when they made it to his house, and campus wasn’t that far from the laundromat. Before long it was just Thor left.
“I don’t know about you but I’m starving.” Thor sat up, which pressed them closer together. He was much larger when he wasn’t slouching. Bruce could feel the texture of Thor’s corduroy jacket pressed against the jean of his own. “I’ll buy us food if you’re willing to stop before you take me home. I kinda live out in the sticks.”
“Sure. I’m actually pretty hungry.” He laughed awkwardly. “I actually forgot to eat dinner.”
Thor sat up even straighter. “Forgot to eat dinner? How does one “forget” to eat dinner?”
Bruce laughed, less awkwardly this time and ran his left hand through his hair, his right on the wheel. “Well, I had my night class and then I was studying for one of my other classes and time just...got away from me I guess.” Thor shook his head. “So you’re telling me that you declined a night out on the town with me and the brilliant three to study and you didn’t even manage to have dinner? That’s it. I’m buying you dessert too.”
Thor directed Bruce to a burger place he knew was open all night. They ordered multiple burgers, two fries, and Thor insisted on soda and milkshakes. Not one to say no to free food Bruce didn’t complain. Thank goodness for multiple cup holders.
“So” said Bruce with a burst of courage “tell me more about yourself other than the fact that you’re a lousy designated driver.” Thor threw his head back in a thunderous laugh. “Hey! I told you what happened it wasn’t my fault.” He shook his head and turned smiling toward the window.
“What can I say about me. Well, I’m getting my bachelors in mythology and folklore with a minor in classics and ancient history. But right now I’m just getting my Gen Eds out of the way. Also, before you say it, I see the irony in a guy named Thor studying mythology. What else what else...Oh! I have multiple half-siblings and a few full ones. I like to drink on the weekends. I’m devilishly handsome what else....”
Bruce chuckled and Thor looked at him. Was it his imagination or was he looking at him... fondly? Bruce blinked and shook his head.
“You know, it's funny. We’ve been in this study group since the start of the semester and we hardly know each other.” Thor commented as he leaned back in his seat.
“It is weird when you think about it. Anyway, what about you? I mean, you’re obviously a great guy. Carting around a bunch of your drunk classmates when you definitely could have just told us to find our own way home. Or like, pretended to be asleep and completely ignored our messages. And you don’t need to mention that you’re also a big nerd since you already told me you spend all your free time studying.”
“What an astute observation. Are you sure you’re not the one who should be getting their science major?”
“No but truly, studious boy, tell me more about yourself.”
Bruce drew in a deep breath. What do you tell someone you hardly know about yourself? What parts of yourself are okay to reveal at this point? It was always things like this he struggled with. It was like he always had to wonder what would a normal person say? or how would a normal person react to this? Honestly, it was a bit exhausting
“Well, I’m an only child. Just me and my mom, Dad is...not in the picture. I’m working on science bachelors right now but eventually, I wanna get a couple PhDs”
Thor choked on his milkshake. “A couple?”
Bruce shrugged. “Yeah but we’ll see.”
Thor settled back into his seat and pulled his milkshake from his lips.
“You sure are something Bruce.”
Bruce placed his hand on Thor’s shoulder and shook gently. “Hey. We’re here.” Thor yawned loudly and stretched, his long arms spanning from window to window of Bruce's tiny car.
At the same moment that Thor sat up, Bruce turned his head. Thor's face was inches from his. He could feel the warmth of the other man's breath on his face. He could still smell the cherries that lingered on his breath. He couldn't stop his eyes as they darted to Thor's lips, pausing a moment too long. He gulped as a tremor went through his body.
Thor didn't seem to notice. He leaned back a bit and smiled. “Thanks for the ride Bruce my good man.I really owe you one.”
“You already bought me dinner."
“Yeah but that benefits me more than you. Now you can’t say “Hey pal buy me dinner first” if I try any moves.”
Bruce felt his face getting hot and hoped it wasn’t getting red. God I'm such an idiot he thought.
Thor ruffled Bruce’s hair which in theory he didn’t like. It was something made him feel like a kid. But with Thor it felt affectionate. It felt like camaraderie.
“Anyway thanks again. Maybe next time we hang out I’ll be a little more sober and you’ll be able to enjoy yourself with me instead of being my uber driver.” Thor opened the door and got out, waving goodbye as Bruce pulled out of his driveway.
Bruce’s face was still hot.