Avengers Imagines

Bruce | Swimming

Bruce POV -

I sat in the lecture theatre, rather high up. Where science usually swarmed in my head, she had taken over. I watched her intensely, unable to concentrate as the lecturer droned on and on. It was never droning for me unless it was in the class with her. I'd much rather talk to her than listen to all of this. Gamma radiation. Who needed to listen to that? I'd never experiment with it myself, knowing its effects on cells, and thus I she immediately clouded my mind.

The back of my pen tapped the wood of the desk, the soft sound filling my ears to only serve as a second distraction. I loved the way she stared intently at the teacher. It was as though she could remember, or was trying to remember, everything that the lecturer said. She was definitely more studious that I would ever be, distracted - in a good way - by her.

My head turned to the side as I deliberated what I'd just thought. Was that a little too creepy? I was essentially breaking down her body language and trying to get a grip on her psychology. Maybe I should've majored in that instead. My mind took off in a tangent.

I shook it softly as I returned to looking at her. She was beauty encapsulated into human form. Well, at least to my eyes she was. How could anyone not like her?

I listened to the tapping of my pen, the droning of the lecturer and the ticking of the clock at the front of the room. Then finally, the lecture was called to an end. I was immediately out of my seat, shutting my books and my laptop, packing them into my bag. I slung the bag over my shoulder before purposely throwing my pen down to land right in front of her feet as she tried to exit her row.

She bent down, picking it up. Here was my chance. She looked straight up at me before holding it up. "Is this yours?" she asked, taking a step up to stand on the second row below me.

I smiled shyly, trying to not get flustered in front of her. I wasn't sure what to do now. "Uh. Yes. I'm Bruce." I wanted to face palm. Or go and die in a hole. Way to be subtle, Bruce.

She handed it to me, smiling. "I'm (Y/N)." I loved the way she smiled

I smiled at her. "Thanks, (Y/N)." I already knew her name, not that I'd disclose the many hours of subconscious Facebook stalking. It had started off with a mutual friend and those annoying messages on my feed about 'people you may know'. I'd scrolled through that for a while until I'd seen her and I had to admit, being so clever and so beautiful weren't something attainable by most, girl or guy. She'd intrigued me with her amazing grad score. My inner nerd had been very pleased with my choice.

She looked at me questioningly for a second before being called away by her friend. Wasn't that the guy who was sitting next to her? Were they together? I didn't stand a chance if they were. What kind of girl would go for the shy, nerdy and quiet guy? Those were three things that I hated, but found rather good for academic achievement. No girlfriend meant to distraction, right? But this crush already had me looking away from the blackboard.

She turned back to me from looking at the guy waiting on the ground level. "See you around, Bruce," she said, smiling as she took off down the stairs and out of my life. At least it felt like that.

- time pass -

It was lunch and I'd say down next to genius child Tony Stark. He had friends, sure, but being a little kid didn't earn you much female attention. That being said, him still being a kid also didn't earn him a seat with the cool guys that played sports and failed academics. I'd learned to pity them after a while. There was nothing wrong with sport, myself having gone for runs at least once every three days for her past five years. But there was something wrong when that was all you could do.

Then she walked in, going to sit with that same boy.

I sighed, watching her laugh at some most likely petty joke he was making.

Tony looked at me. "Dude," he said, catching and drawing my attention back.

I looked at the kid in front of me. "Yeah?"

"What are you looking at?"

I looked back to (Y/N), sighing yet again. I was completely infatuated.

"Her," I simply said, letting myself day dream as I subconsciously played with my food.

Tony shrugged as he took a good look at her. "She's cool."

I fought the urge to laugh at him. He was so young and every word that came out of his mouth was almost impossible to take seriously. To me, he was a twelvie. That was until he gave me a vital piece of information. "She goes swimming at 6am everyday in the school gym," he said.

I grinned. "Thanks, man."

He grinned back. "Anytime, Banner." He was truly a twelve year old. I also happened to forget to ask how he knew that as I left the cafeteria.

-time pass-

It was 5:30AM. I'd woken up pumped, but groggy at the same time. Two conflicting opposites. I sighed at the muddled feeling in my brain as I put on some swimmers before adding a towel and going to walk to the gym, goggles in hand.

As I arrived, I realised I was the first here, being earlier than the 6am she would arrive at. Even the swim team weren't doing laps at this horrid hour. I hesitated for a moment before dropping the towel and trying to gain some confidence.

I walked to the diving block, got up on it, and inhaled the smell of diluted chlorine. I took in another deep breath, before diving. Ouch. Belly flop.

As I surfaced, I looked to see if anyone was looking. Thankfully there was still no one.

I looked again, this time to spot her, and found her walking into the change rooms. I began to do some laps to show off some 'swimming technique'.

I'd timed it perfectly to reach the diving block when she came out. I was breathing rather heavily after only two laps. That was a little bit sad and even I knew it.

She frowned, looking down at me from dry ground. "Bruce? What are you doing here?"

Well. There were two options here. Tell her that I was essentially stalking her, or lie. Guess which one I chose. "I always swim at 6am in the morning. It's so weird that I've never seen you here before." As I said it, I looked around. The pool was completely empty aside from the both of us. This sounded like the worlds worst planned lie.

Her face turned from confusion to acceptance, though I knew it was to keep my ego intact. "Oh. I must've been too busy swimming," she said.

I nodded. "I uh, I'm doing breath training so maybe our surfaces never aligned." I was digging myself a grave.

She giggled. That lie had been pushed way too far. "Oh ok. Cool. That's probably it."

I nodded again, resisting the urge to smash my head into the tiles of the pool wall. Kill me now. I wished lighting would strike and I'd fall unconscious. Or I could wipe her memory. Any of those options would have been great about now.

She got into the water into the other lane and we got swimming after a couple of awkward words.

-time pass-

"So are you coming tomorrow?" she asked as we dried up with our towels.

I really didn't want to wake up so early. But for her, anything. "Absolutely. I come everyday. 6am is the best time to swim!" My laughter was forced but she didn't seem to notice it.

She smiled. "Great! I'll see you then!"

"It's a date!" I called a she walked away.

The moment I realised what I'd said, I wanted to go and throw myself off a cliff. Why, Bruce? Why do you have to have word vomit and why does it have to be embarrassing every single time?!

This time, I face palmed.

Who had a 5:30am wake up call tomorrow? One stupid Bruce Banner did.