Cuddly as a Cactus || Bruce & Faith
the grinch-like statement coming from her doesn’t surprise him. in fact he actually kind of mirrors her sentiment. the holiday season just doesn’t do much for him. he doesn’t have family to spend time with, outside of the avengers, and he isn’t big on receiving gifts–mostly it just makes him feel weird. he’s always appreciative of course but he’s awful at buying gifts himself and he’s horrible at expressing his emotions so he prefers to just keep away from gift exchanges.
❛ i’ve been contemplating going off the grid for christmas this year. nat would be pissed but… ❜ he shrugs. ❛ she’d get over it. ❜ a part of him wants to go through with but another part of him hates that he has a tendency to just leave when things get hard. he wants to outgrow that but at his age he feels it isn’t likely he will. ❛ what about you? no big plans, i’m assuming? ❜
She grins, at that. Small and pirate, but definitely there, "Yeah, right. How'd going off-grid work for ya last time?" but the truth is she feels bad for him. He's the Hulk, he's an Avenger and not the favorite of the bunch, either, which Faith just doesn’t get. Thanks to Tony Stark's epic 'coming out' as Ironman, Banner has nowhere to hide --- Bruce Banner is the Hulk, and everybody knows it. He should've stayed in India. She doesn't know much about how they tapped him but she knows that.
And Faith should've stayed in that cabin, never let herself be talked back into the 'hero' life to begin with. She's out of place in New York, and she feels it in her bones. Feels bound in her bones, actually. Like somehow the combination of Avengers tech and the bustling city are clipping her wings. Harder to have a secret identity here.
There's a pause and Faith puts her feet up on the theater seats in front of them, crossing her ankles a little cock-eyed so as not to obscure their balcony view of It's a Wonderful Life. No one else in the whole place, save for a guy sleeping on the first floor. Matinees just aren't what they used to be. She's barely even hushed when she folds her arms and asks, "Can't go off-grid, they'll track your ass down but... could disappear. Big city. Plan to skip out, myself. Whadda you say, Braniac? Hmm? Couple days, nobody even lookin' for us. Could be fun."