Death was something inevitable that humans had to live with. They were born, they lived and then they died. It was how the universe had made them, and how life had been from the very beginning of man. It didn’t make it any easier when someone left the Earth, when they gave their body back to the planet that had given them life. Liam stood at the edge of the burial site, watching the casket lowered into the six foot hole they had dug. There were quite a few people offering platitudes to the four standing across the hole from the brunet, saying things like how good a man he was, and how he would be missed. But they were all people who had been afraid, their words meaningless and Liam could hear the truth beneath their words even as they spoke them. They hadn’t known Bruce Banner, hadn’t known the reclusive scientist whose world was a heavy weight on his shoulders, who was always blaming himself, who was always trying to redeem himself. They didn’t know the look of utter disapproval when a person he actually cared about did something stupid, or the scolding tone he took, or the way he gave that slight smirk when someone said something stupid. They didn’t know how many stupid jokes and riddles didn’t make him laugh, and the one or two that did. They didn’t know him as a human being, they knew him as the man that carried a monster inside him, ready to destroy the next person in his way.
Liam had never really known that side of him; perhaps he hadn’t known anything about him at all. He had never known the Hulk. He only knew how much Bruce had despised “the other guy” and how hard he tried to get rid of him. Liam knew that was what had caused this death, that he had succeeded but at the cost of his life. He wondered if in his last moments he was glad that he could finally rest or if he had been frightened of what would await him on the other side of that abyss. Liam stared blankly at the dirt as it was piled on top of that black casket, faintly having heard the sounds of voices saying their last words—Tony’s choked up joke, Steve’s heavy words, and the other’s quiet tones as well as he was a great warrior. He felt the grief acutely instead, like a vice grip that took hold of his lungs making it hard to breathe.
The lab back at Stark Tower would be empty. The coffee pot would be filled with nothing but black dregs. There would be several post-it notes on the table that Bruce would never read. He’d never get to shake his head as he glanced at them before throwing them in the garbage. Liam would never be able to barge into the lab and take coffee without asking. He wouldn’t be able to take a seat in one of the chairs when he was having a bad day and just watch Bruce work since that always had a calming effect on him. He would never be able to sketch out a drawing of the man when he wasn’t looking—his sketchbook had quite a few but he had always liked drawing him anyway. He’d put one of the charcoal drawings in the casket. Liam knew he would still walk into the lab tomorrow morning, like clockwork, out of habit and remember that Bruce wasn’t there anymore. He knew he was going to take a seat in one of the chairs and randomly mess with whatever the man had been working on before his untimely death. He knew that he was going to swallow back tears and hide himself beneath the one of the work desks like a child. Liam already missed him. Taking a deep breath he raised a hand to his eyes, wiping away gathering moisture.
“Goodbye, Bruce. I hope you’re happy wherever you are.”