insurgents | OPEN POST.

He watches her silently as she moves around the room and gathers her things, stuffing them all into her suitcase. He's all too familiar with what she's feeling, both by having felt it and having seen it in other people, and it's not something he likes much. She might not be at risk of turning into a literal monster like him, but he's seen what anger can do, how it can eat someone from the inside out without them even realizing it.

And there's no point to it, either. He doesn't want her to be like this on his behalf, it's not worth it.

Once she's all ready to go, he steps closer to her, one hand settling on her arm and another cupping her face as he leans in to kiss her again, pulling away once he no longer feels that anger brewing inside her anymore. At least not as strongly.

"I appreciate you defending me, but I don't want you to be angry for my sake. Please?"

She lets out a sigh and nods, smiling a little though it's not exactly a happy expression.

"That whole zen thing you do can be a real pain in the ass sometimes, you know that?"

He smiles a little, brushing his thumb over her cheek.

"Those feelings aren't worth holding onto, trust me. Just let go, you'll be better off."

And he doesn't want her to be angry for his sake, either. It's a normal feeling to have sometimes, but it's not good for her to let it sit and fester.

Dropping his hands to hers slowly, he pulls back.

"Let's go."

"Yes, Master Yoda."

She takes his hand and leads him out of the room, and after that checking out is a simple matter that doesn't take much time at all.

"So, where is your place?"

He can't help chuckle at the comparison, following after her as she checks out and steps outside. He gestures towards the way they came from before, then starts walking, headed to where they'd met.

"Just around the corner of that little café. It's not far."

Then again, nothing is in this place.

"I really feel like I've been punked. I have no idea what my tipster thought I'd find here."

Not that she isn't glad that she came, but still.

Bruce, on the other hand, is already one step ahead, theory-wise. This place is small and insignificant, some days they don't even get warm water or electricity - he seriously doubts she'll find anything useful about this IGH here.

"Let me guess," he looks over at her with a bland smile. "It was an anonymous tip."

She raises an eyebrow at him, curious but at the same time rapidly coming up with theories of her own.

"You think you know who it was."

"Oh, I'm pretty sure I know who it was."

Maybe not specifically, but he has a close enough guess.

"You think it's a coincidence that you found me? I don't."

"No, it probably wasn't."

Maybe someone thought the Hulk too might be the result of IGH experimenting, but who would really have the resources and skills to track Bruce down apart from the people they are both thinking of now?

"Are you sure you want to do this, then? Play into their hands?"

She has to ask, even if the thought of leaving this place without him is torture.

"What else can I do? They know where I am now, they'll know where I'll be, no matter where I choose to go."

At least if it's SHIELD who knows, he has just a little more trust that they won't do him harm, or try to use him for some obscure purpose. Doesn't mean he won't be cautious - knowing Fury, he'll probably want him to join the Avengers again, and he can't do that. Not right now, at least.

"At least I won't be alone."

"They're probably hoping I'll get you back to heroing."

Which, admittedly, would be very much in keeping with her character.

That doesn't mean she likes to be used.

"Well, that's their problem, not mine."

He doesn't say it in an aggressive or unpleasant tone, just matter-of-factly. Maybe one day he'll rejoin the team, he might even help if there's ever another worldwide crisis (let's be honest, those are pretty common these days), but for now he just can't do that again.

"There's a new team now, isn't there? I'm sure they'll do fine without me."

"I hope you'll tell me what happened sometime."

Not that Bruce had ever been the most keen on being the Hulk in service of the greater good, but something pretty bad must have happened if it made him decide that he couldn't do it at all anymore.

"I'll tell you know, if you want me to. I don't mind."

It's still something he's working through, but then, so is every incident with the Hulk for the last ten years. But it's not something he's truly uncomfortable telling Trish about - it might be good for him to share all that with her, actually.

"It might help me... Understand."

Why he left her. Why all these months of heartache had to happen.

"Alright."

With that single word, he knows exactly what she means, and understands why that's one of the reasons she wants to know. It's the least he can do for her, right now. In a way, he might even owe her this. Still, he's not sharing it out of a sense of obligation, but because he trusts her, and it's something he wants her to know.

"Well... When Ultron went rogue, he went down to South Africa to get vibranium from an arms dealer there. He had these twins with him, they had powers-- the girl could get into people's heads. Make them see what she wanted them to see, manipulate things and use that against them. She did it to most of the team, but when she tried to do it to me... She couldn't control the Hulk."

He will never not resent what Wanda did, back then. She might have had the best of intentions in mind, but her playing with his mind touched a nerve of his, all the more so when in the end it caused all the death and destruction that it did.

"He went on a rampage through Johannesburg. Tony had a suit built especially to fight the Hulk, but during that fight, the city was... God, it was torn apart. There was just... There were so many people there, scared, little kids, and I..."

He cuts himself short then, cupping his mouth and slowing his steps for a moment, then rubbing over his eyes, he shakes his head.

"I wanted to leave after that. I was going to, I was never planning to even be in Sokovia. After it was all over, I just... it was too much. I couldn't go on. And the whole world remembered Johannesburg then, they probably still do now. I don't think me being back on the team would be welcome by anyone."

Bruce isn't the only one resenting Wanda right now. Trish feels anger rise up in her throat like bile, but she tries to keep her cool for Bruce's sake. He asked her not to be angry for his sake, she will do her level best to honor his wishes.

"I saw the news reports..."

But she hadn't been scared of the Hulk, she had been scared for Bruce.

"I'm so sorry, Bruce. And I know you told me not to get angry but... I kind of really wish I could punch that girl in the face right now."

He'd been plenty scared himself, locked away inside the monster, unable to do anything. Sometimes he still wakes up with memories and visions of that day, gasping and sweating, immediately having to struggle to get his heart rate back under control.

At least he doesn't have those nightmares much anymore, thankfully.

"Don't. She didn't... it wasn't on purpose. It was never her intention to hurt any innocent people, and she thought she was on the right side, back then."

He might have his issues with Wanda, but he can recognize that much. He saw for himself how she just wanted to help and save people - just the same as he. Doesn't mean he'd ever be able to trust her, though.

"Right, because how could innocents possibly be harmed by taking you out of the equation and then unleashing the other guy."

She takes a deep breath and pulls a hand through her hair, aware that she needs to calm down.

"Sorry. Mind control is..."

To call it a sore spot doesn't even begin to cover it.

He gets where she's going, he does, but at the same time, he's been stuck on that same thought for a while, and he's worked his way through it. He resented Wanda for a while, he went so far as to outright threaten her in a display of calm and quiet anger that he didn't remember showing in a very long time.

It took him nowhere, though. And he knows it was wrong of her, dangerous, stupid, but it wasn't evil. She didn't do it with the express purpose of hurting anyone. Well, aside from the Avengers, whom she saw as an enemy at the time.

"I know. And I've been in that place for a while, festering in my own feelings, but nothing came of it. It was just better to let go."

And recognize, in the end, that she was fighting for the same thing as they were.

It's going to take Trish a while longer before she lets it go. The months of pain and sadness, not to mention the endless questions both from the media and her listeners.

If you are a celebrity and your boyfriend ups and leaves you after a traumatic event, you don't get to mourn it in private.

"I will. I just need some time to process that someone messed with the mind of someone I love again."

And there are no guarantees that she will ever be able to look at Wanda (should that ever happen) and not see Kilgrave.

Bruce hasn't even thought of that yet, how she's probably had to deal with one too many people asking her about him. Sure, there were a couple of calls during her program, but they hadn't been that many, and he didn't think that she'd have been bothered about it even more than that.

"It's not the same. I mean, with Kilgrave... Wanda's not like him. At all. I get it'll take you a while, I'm still working through it myself, but that's an important distinction to make."

And little does he know yet, or he would tell her, that Wanda is part of the team now, an Avenger herself.

"If she's nothing like him then she better not mess with anyone's head ever again, friend or enemy."

Some things no one should have the eight to do to anyone, regardless of the situation.

He tips his head in a small nod, deciding to let the subject drop for now. If she wants to know more about what happened, she can always ask, but for the moment he's covered most of the bases, he thinks.

Besides, they're passing the café just now, and he nods toward the corner just a few feet ahead.

"We're here."

It's a tiny door and a narrow flight of stairs that take them to a dingy flat that's a little more than a room with a mattress on the floor, a couch in one corner, and a minimally equipped kitchenette. It's clean and tidy for the most part, but it's still far from impressive, though as they step inside his main concern is with gathering all the sheets of paper scattered around the room. All of them scribbled and written on, some with long paragraphs, others with nearly everything scratched out, and a couple even crumpled up.

Should've definitely remembered all his unfinished letters to her, good job Bruce.

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