angermanaging | IC contact (TuShanshu)

[Bruce is the last person Hayley expects to be sending this message, but he's the only one standing by process of elimination and it actually worries her a little just how few 'friends' she really has. Clark and Lois would have come first, normally, but the recent events with the rock have her trusting them a little less and Bruce is the only one she thinks can actually protect her, whom she trusts not to tell anyone about her request, and whom she's confident won't try anything. Not certain, but confident.]

Hey. [A beat.] You know I would never ask this if it wasn't super important.

[She pauses awkwardly. This message is clearly an uncomfortable and difficult one for her.]

Could I maybe stay in your suite tonight? Just for the one night. I'll sleep on the floor with my taser and I won't bother you, but I just.. [She trails off.] Please.

[The fear in her voice is meant to be hidden, but it's still noticeable, nearly akin to the level of her first mention of being abused.]

[Compared to the last couple times they'd seen each other, Bruce is much more his normal self. He's adjusted to the idea that she knows the vague outline of one of his secrets, and that it hasn't been brought up since then gives him some faith that it won't be in the future. As long as it remains unstated, he can go back to treating her like he did when they first met.

There is a lingering tell in how that conversation has changed his attitude toward her, however, in how immediately this concerns him.] Sure. I mean-- of course. What is it? Is someone after you?

[He doesn't make the immediate leap to Malicant's post, though it's a plausible enough explanation. His own history makes him think who's chasing you? instead of taking the incorporeal Death spirit as cause for alarm.]

[There's a pause as she shifts uncomfortably. This is probably the hardest thing she has done on the turtle and she kind of hates Bruce all over again for the fact that he's the one she's calling.]

No. Not exactly. [She huffs, immediately burying some of that vulnerability behind her walls.] I'm fine, okay? I just want to stay somewhere else tonight.

[Resenting someone for things that aren't their fault is not unfamiliar to Bruce. He has thick enough skin not to take it personally.

After a second of silence, he relents.] Alright. I usually get home after dinner. You can come over.

... I'm sure you don't want my help, but-- [An audible exhale.] If you need something, then you should ask. [It's not a unilateral offer, he's not that naive, but it's at least a suggestion. A statement that he'd listen.]

[She knows she should say thank you, but she just can't bring herself to do it in this moment. Playing nice be damned. He already knows too much about her anyway.]

Ask.. who? You? [Skeptical as hell.] Because we're obviously best friends.

[Hayley knows it's not his fault, but she can't help it. She's scared and feels powerless, which makes her angry in general. That she has no one else and is having to turn to Bruce is only that much worse.]

[It's a valid point, but he's not daunted. Bruce has always been very clear on who deserved help, and it was a separate issue from anything else, in his mind.]

We don't need to be friends, [he counters calmly. Bruce's altruism may seem out of place in his character, but he wants to make a positive impact wherever he can. Not to balance the scales for the other things he's responsible for, no, that sort of thinking was never going to work. It was just because he needs to, for his own sanity. For his own belief that he's not a monster. He has to do something good.]

[She wants to point out that she can't really ask for help from someone without trusting them and that, well, she doesn't trust him. But it all seems counterproductive. Besides, that would mean admitting that she does need help. Which she totally doesn't.]

I'll see you after dinner.

[Well, if that's the way she wants to play it...]

Alright. WA-1C.

[It's a few hours after dinner when Hayley shows up at Bruce's door, closer to bedtime than any meal. She second guesses the decision a few times both before leaving and on her way, but the truth is that she just doesn't want to be alone tonight and there's no one else she really trusts right now who's not angry with her.

Hayley loiters at his door for a full ten seconds before she finally builds up the courage to knock, glancing around and hoping no one sees her. She has a reputation to uphold, after all. The girl's in her usual Converse, jeans, and red jacket, her messenger bag slung over her shoulder. While the idea had crossed her mind that bringing a blanket might be a good idea, wandering all the way from the Metal Sector to Water with a blanket in her arms was just too unappealing. Instead, she simply hopes that Bruce has some excess.]

[He does have a few extra, and has the couch set up with them neatly folded on the arm, a pillow propped next to it. It's visible through the doorway when Bruce opens it, his apartment a small, spartan, bare place that matches poverty of its surroundings. He hasn't acquired many possessions, and what little there is seem to be odd curiosities, tea pots or tech that he's tinkering with.

He has a white tank top, an open short sleeve shirt, and kedan style pants on, his normal sitting around at home clothes, and can't help a brief look of curiosity over her as he wonders what this all is about.

But he knows better than to leap right into that. Bruce merely takes a step back and gestures her in.] You can have the couch. Did you eat?

[It's not a dad question (God forbid); it's a polite inquiry, given the smells drifting from the kitchen. Bruce tends to eat late, after getting caught up in work.]

[Hayley slides awkwardly through the door, trying somehow to remain unnoticed and thus less likely to be addressed, despite the very obvious necessity of their communicating. Her eyes never leave him, her back never meets him. It's not that she doesn't trust him, per say, but, well, she doesn't trust him. Just because he can provide the closest thing she has to a safer place doesn't mean that it is safe.

Once inside, she edges awkwardly around the invisible bubble surrounding him, keeping equidistant as she moves farther into the room and glances briefly about at the surroundings and how he's decorated his suite. It reminds her too much of her own, only cleaner. So few things to speak to the man he is, his tastes, or who he might desire to be. His suite is as hollow as his perceived identity, as her own tastes and preferences.]

A little. [It's a safe answer, one that allows her to accept or deny any offer or request upon elaboration.]

[Bruce doesn't take the distrust personally. He wouldn't even if he didn't know what he knows, but he does, so he especially doesn't mind it. If anything, he approves of it. She's not in any danger from him (he even questions whether the Hulk would attack her-- he seems to have stopped short of hurting kids before) but maintaining the attitude is wise for her.

Shutting the door, Bruce pads over in bare feet toward the kitchen. It's such a small apartment that it's just across the living room.] I made stir fry. Nothing fancy. You can have some, or... not. [There's a supreme lack of unconcern over her choice as he ducks into the kitchen proper, taking the pan off the warmer on the stove and moving it to a trivet on the counter.

Two simple bowls are set out, and two sets of chopsticks, and two cloth napkins, but they're laid out in stacks and the places aren't set.]

[Hayleys hands wrap tightly around the strap of her bag as she watches him cross the room, unmoving until Bruce passes the threshold into the other room. Then she follows, keeping him in sight as she pauses in the doorway. Her eyes again scan the room and she notices the pairs of dishes left out, wondering if he always leaves them out or if he preemptively included her.]

I'll have some. [She answers as she watches him.

After a beat, she tears herself from the comfort of distance to move over to the counter. Wordlessly, she begins physically separately the pairs into two distinct sets, while psychologically picking apart her and Bruce's overlapping issues and assigning them to separate identities. They are not the same and they do not understand each other solely because of similar childhoods.

As she finishes setting the two places, she spares a small frown over at him.] You know you don't have to take care of me, right? I don't want you to and I know you don't want to, so.

[He'd preemptively included her, because while Bruce might not enjoy socializing, per se, he does know how to do it when he puts the effort in. Consideration doesn't cost him anything, and smooths things quite a bit.

It's definitely true that they aren't the same. There's some undeniable similarities there, made perhaps more influential in their relationship by the relative rarity of finding them in another person, but there's far more differences. It's almost as if the points of commonality are so unexpected that they dominate their interactions.

Bruce is much more on his game today, compared to the last two times they'd spoken-- the dream, and before that, that entire revealing conversation-- and he isn't fazed at this comment. He merely retrieves a set of overly large serving chopsticks and starts to ladle out vegetables, tofu, and noodles.]

If you don't want to, then don't accept it, [he says, with the kind of unflappable calm of someone who can meditate at the drop of a pin.] But I don't mind it. I don't think of it as taking care of you.

I want the food. [Her retort is immediate and almost defensive. It's not that she's even super hungry, but his insistence that she not accept if she doesn't want it, as if she would ever accept something solely for the sake of being polite, bothers her. She chooses to assume he's talking about the food, because the alternative is too hard to argue.

While Hayley is also more level than their previous two interactions, she's still not quite at peak performance. It's not that she's been down for ages. Bruce seems always to catch her at the low troughs of her waves these days, rarely seeing her when she's actually on top. So long as Lex remains the opposite, she'll be satisfied; she already knows enough of Bruce's secrets not to feel the need to play him for now.

Hayley lets out a small huff and continues with more calm.] I just wanted to be clear, okay? To.. make sure we understand each other, or whatever.

[Because it's already bad enough just being here. Merely asking to show up required swallowing her pride, but arriving and spending the night in this place is a form of self-degradation she never thought she would arrive at. It's only her continual reassurance to herself that this is essential self-preservation that keeps her here.

Hayley takes a seat and frowns down at her food, mind drifting back to their time in the dream together. When she speaks again, it's distractedly.] Do you sleep? Regularly, I mean.

[He means about the food and in general, but Bruce doesn't see it as insulting her. He just means to express his equanimity with the idea of being rejected, to make her feel freer to do it if she wants to. It doesn't need to be a fight with him-- despite prior evidence to the contrary, in the push and pull, the tug, of their relationship to date-- and he'd rather it not be. How to go about conveying that to her effectively, he isn't sure, but Bruce is trying.

He's had to degrade himself too many times merely for base survival to think twice of her doing it here. It's saner if he doesn't see it as degradation, if he thinks of it as pure practicality. The same way he'd gotten through all the begging he'd had to do from time to time, all the reliance on the kindness of people whose language he didn't even speak, barefooted and mostly naked and still given to him.

Hayley asking him to stay the night was an asylum he granted with very few questions asked. Maybe some part of him felt compelled to pay it forward.]

I know that you don't need anything from me, [he answers with slightly raised eyebrows, as if questioning why she'd feel the need to state it, it's so obvious. Bruce takes his seat and snaps open his own eating chopsticks, as unflappable as ever.

He decides to answer the question honestly, since it's pertinent to her staying here tonight, which he's already agreed to.] Yeah. I can manage it if I meditate for a while first. I'm a light sleeper, though. Very light. I especially wake up to doors opening.

[All that old paranoia at work. Bruce offers a half-shrug as he starts to dig into his food.] It won't freak me out or anything if you wake me up.

[Hayley's expression perks at his first reply, a splash of surprise before the more even calm returns again, watching him and trying to predict and understand him anew. She appreciates his seemingly complete understanding of both her inability to trust and of her needs in general, as a teenage girl with the history she has.

She also resents him for that, for getting her more than most people do - certainly more than her own family. It's not his apathy about the whole relationship; she respects that for what it is and delights in the freedom it brings. But he's not the one she would want to understand her, if she could choose. He's too unknown, too risky.

The girl drops her gaze to her food, slowly reaching out to take the chopsticks and break them. Finally, eyes glued to her utensils, she mutters.] Thanks.

[Then she's poking at her food. Her face screws up with concern and confusion until recalling her question, his answer. It's not what she was asking exactly, not the answer she was looking for. In some small, immature way, she appreciates that he answered wrong because maybe he doesn't know her quite as well as she thinks sometimes.

Instead of correcting him, asking him how he deals with the nightmares or learns to sleep through the night, she offers him a smile.] Okay, cool.

[He's honestly not sure if he's being played, at this point. He doesn't know how to take her smiling at him at all, however innocuously meant. It might not be innocuously meant.

Bruce isn't going to puzzle over it. That thanks was somewhat sullen, very teenager. He decides to push a little in between bites, because the truth is that he is still curious, and his help isn't contingent on obtaining answers but that doesn't mean he isn't interested.]

Do I get to know what inspired this? [He gestures between them with his chopsticks.] Asking to stay here. Or should I just, pretend it never happened?

[He will accept the latter. Really.]

[Hayley finds the short-lived silence both comforting and disconcerting at once. She appreciates not having to ask or answer questions for once, but she also isn't comfortable enough with Bruce just to exist in the same place with him without speaking, to trust that each of them is content. When he speaks, she immediately becomes some level of reserved and defensive, but she also feels the smallest sense of relief.]

Maybe both. [She offers with an exaggerated grin, before taking another mouthful of food as a distraction. After the chewing and a sip of water, she shrugs noncommittally, feigning a nonchalance that she clearly doesn't feel.

Hayley shuffles her food idly around her plate, staring down at it, thinking of what words to use. After a beat, she looks up with the same facade of apathy.] With the whole dream thing and then the Big Bad Wolf stalking the network.. I guess I just didn't want to be alone, you know?

[Bruce can't really relate to that feeling. He always wants to be alone-- or so he tells himself. The reality is that he's been alone for so long and so many years, decades, really, stretching back before the Hulk and interrupted only by Betty, that it seems normal to him. What he expects. He's never going to find solace or trust and the fact that he is, here, in some small measure finding it on the turtle, is still bizarre to him. Not something he's gone looking for, when solitude is what feels safe.

He understands desiring company as a common attribute to the rest of humanity, though, and nods.] The dreams were... unnerving. [That's a vast understatement. Death had given Bruce a much, much deeper respect for Malicant than any coyly worded network post could.]

Well, I'm not really great company, but at least I gave you food. [It's his own awkward attempt at lightening things a little, trying to steer them away from the seriousness he'd inadvertently started to lead them into.]

[Hayley's choice to seek company is more a logical decision of necessity than it is an emotional one. Some part of her is scared and doesn't want to face their potential demise alone. As distant as she tends to be, keeping most relationships shallow, she's still used to being around people and engaging with them. Living alone has made her time in the dark before sleep more intimidating somehow.

Yet, the practicality cinched any potential desire not to be alone. Hayley, for all her fight, is still a very small teenage girl who knows very little about magic and even less about combating literal super powers.]

I didn't choose you for your company. [She replies, mirroring his lightness while intentionally hinting that her being here is a very conscious choice, that it was meticulous as anything else she does. Hayley trusts Bruce more than most, truly, but she also trusts the Hulk to protect her -- not by actually protecting her, but by fighting off anything larger while she slinks away.]

[After another bite, she adds with an unusual level of normalcy:] Thanks for dinner.

[The Hulk would protect her, more than Bruce gives him credit for. He has a special weakness for children-- and for women-- and Hayley is young enough that she counts for both. That Bruce himself sees her as someone to protect, despite all evidence to the contrary at her needing it, solidifies that fact. She's undeniably safe with him around.

Bruce would still argue it if he knew that's what she was referring to. He has a blast radius with a high likelihood of collateral damage, and he has not nearly enough faith in the Hulk's moral choices to count on him. As it is, he assumes she means he was convenient, for a variety of reasons. It makes sense to him. Everyone has to do things they aren't thrilled about for practical purposes, him more than most.

He simply acknowledges her with a brief,] Don't mention it.

IC contact (TuShanshu)

audio; encrypted 60% → after the Malicant post (aug 19th)

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assume from here? unless there's anything else you wanted to cover