Holly Potter and the Midlife Crisis (Hp x Mcu) by Enigmaris

Chapter 44: The Beach Episode Part 3

Summary:

Bruce wakes up stressed and Holly finally gets the meet the strongest Avenger.

Bruce woke with stiff shoulders.

This was not necessarily unusual.

Bruce was known to fall asleep in his lab, contorting his body into positions that were far from healthy. Once in Grad School, he'd fallen asleep upside down while waiting for some of his samples to finish running. The janitor had woken him up by poking him with his broom to make sure he wasn't dead. So, he was no stranger to waking up sore.

This was not that sort of sore.

This was the sort of sore that Bruce knew to relate to the Hulk. Somedays the Hulk was just more active, he wanted to come out to do things, and in Bruce's sleep he'd stiffen and hold back as much as he could, resulting in a lot of stress pain. These sorts of days had become less and less frequent since Bruce's day out with Holly what felt like months ago. Not only was his introduction to the adult werewolves of New York inspirational but Holly's conversation with him about who and what the Hulk was had changed how he dealt with the Hulk.

If Holly was right and the Hulk was a person, a child, then Bruce had been going about this all wrong. He honestly couldn't think of a time that the Hulk had been active and had a good time. It reminded him of his own childhood, how difficult that had been, and how angry he'd been as a result and things made so much more sense.

Step one to testing Holly's theory was treating the Hulk with kindness instead of fear and hatred. During his meditation he would try to explain to the Hulk why he didn't want to Hulk Out, not because the Hulk was bad but because he was big and New York was crowded. Bruce loved people and he didn't want to see any of them scared or accidentally hurt. He stopped called the Hulk bad or dangerous but rather blamed the environment they were in for the problems that the Hulk could cause.

Just that one change of perspective made a world of difference.

The Hulk stopped fighting him as much, Bruce got fewer migraines, even his transformations hurt much less overall since the Hulk wasn't fighting him both ways.

This was the first time he'd woken up with his stress pains since beginning that new meditation method and Bruce wondered why. They were on the beach, things were relaxing and no one was in any danger. Nothing should be stressing Hulk out. Bruce groaned and rolled out of bed. He looked out the window at the beach that was calmy lapping along the shore. They'd all stayed up pretty late last night and gotten drunk with Holly when she'd gotten back from her conversation with Death.

The only person who hadn't gotten drunk was Ron, but that was because he was focused on watching his new baby. But Bruce had gotten drunk, even Steve had with some magically enforced whiskey that managed to overcome his insane metabolism. Holly hadn't really enjoyed the whole 'hey guess what you're immortal!' thing and Bruce couldn't blame her. So, she'd insisted they drink the night away and refused to entertain any wonderings about what it would mean to be 'Life'.

It wasn't malicious by any means. Hermione was clearly brimming with questions and theories but even she understood that Holly needed time. So they'd drank and they hadn't talked about immortality.

And now Bruce had woken up, not with a hangover but with Hulk related stress pain. Why?

He stumbled out of his room and made his way to the common area where all of their food was served by what amounted to faceless world-renowned chefs. A majority of the team was already there, and those who could get hangovers were being cured with a few quick spells. Holly was laying back in her own chair seated in a corner, sunglasses and a hat over her face to block the morning sun from her sparkles.