Bandersnatch

Marvel Fluff Bingo 2022

Prompt: Body Sharing

It's not like he wasn't familiar with the concept. Hell, he'd made his own Jekyll-and-Hyde comparisons more than a few times. The problem was that he wasn't sure exactly how well the Big Guy would handle the idea of actually... seeing someone. Romantically. Oh sure, there was Betty, but the fact was that back then the two of them were constantly at odds. And it wasn't like he'd seen her in years, so yeah, this would be the first time.

It was always Big Guy to Bruce. Sometimes Mean or Jolly Green. Sometimes Bob, if he was louder that usual--that name always seemed to make him laugh and calm him down. But the other name, "Hulk"... it just seemed dehumanizing. At the end of the day, he and the Big Guy were the same person.

Sort of.

They'd worked out an arrangement. Sort of.

At least now he could watch scary movies without bursting out of his clothes.

They'd come to a tentative alliance, Bruce and Mean Green. But in some ways, the Big Guy was very childlike, and large life changes upset him. So Bruce had to.... gently approach the subject.

Externally, the body of Dr. Bruce Banner was laying on his couch in his living room. The mind of Dr. Banner, on the other hand... that was a little harder to pinpoint.

Part of his effort to communicate with the Big Guy was to create a mental area where they could speak. It was all just fancy visualization, of course, but it seemed to work. It changed every time one of them initiated conversation, and today, it was a patch of jungle. Bruce could hear birds cawing and monkeys chittering in the trees. He began his hunt for his counterpart. It usually went like this; a five to ten minute search as each of them settled in to talk. Every now and then, a bird would let out a scream, startling him, and Bruce would jump a foot in the air. The third time this happened, he heard a deep and booming laugh. As he felt his heart settle back into something like a normal rhythm, he turned around and there he was--all eight feet of him.

"Jesus!" Bruce said laughing along with him. "What's with the Amazon? Between you and the birds I'm going to die in here!"

"Hulk wanted change of scenery. Island was boring. No mermaids," responded the giant, pouting.

"What, and you think there's gonna be mermaids here? This is our head, big fella. There's not gonna be any mermaids here unless we *put* them here," replied Bruce, and the big guy muttered a reluctant agreement.

"What Banner want?" he asked, sounding amicable enough. Like everyone else, the Big Guy had his own mods--anger might have been the initial trigger, but these days he was able to feel other things at once. Today, he seemed to be in a good mood.

"Well, uh. Hm. I.... what's the best way to put this...." Bruce stammered. "So.... you know how... Remember Betty?"

"*Duh*," came the reply. The two of them shared all of Bruce's memories and feelings and experiences from before one became two, and this was no different. "We gonna find her?" he added, sounding a little concerned.

"No no no no no," said Bruce. He waved his hands in a frantic gesture trying to underscore the fact that that wasn't what he had in mind at all. "It's just... there's someone that makes me feel the same way she did. And I was wondering if you would be okay with trying to... you know. See him. Romantically speaking."

The big guy's eyes lit up.

"Tony?" he said, seeming a bit excited.

"No not--wait, how did you know!" Bruce said, only *slightly* upset that he hadn't had the chance to make the announcement.

"Not *stupid*. Big guy watch. He make you--" and here, the big guy put his hands on his chest, tilted his head coquettishly, fluttered his his eyelids, and sighed. He was the perfect parody of a smitten schoolgirl.

"Hey!"

"Well it true," he said matter-of-factly, and shrugged. "I not care if you kiss. Big guy like Tony too." A mischievous smile crept onto his big green face. *Oh no,* thought Bruce.

"Big guy get to go on date too?"