#i was accepted. had a bunch in scholarships. did a tour and fell in love. it was amazing

[dragons-and-yellow-roses]

Hello can anyone tell me what college is like

[brutashaswin]

hey, do you still take a prompt for fic/ficlet? I have this headcanon where Bruce is a shy and quirky college professor and Nat is his extrovert lab assistant. Bruce eventually has a crush on Nat and asking her out for a date but fail miserably because he has no idea how to ask someone. Turn out that after all this time Nat has been asking him out too but Bruce is clueless. btw, I love your works!

Hi Anon, and thank you so much! I’m always open for fanfic requests! Sometimes theytake me a few days to a week, but I love doing them.  I really like this prompt/headcannon and Ihope you like what I did with it! :)

Did…Did You Just AskMe Out?

Have Been AllSemester, But Thanks for Noticing.

 Chapter One

Professor Banner sat alone in his office, sipping a cup ofhot tea. He was drowning in ungraded piles of essays, lab reports, and examswhen he heard a knock at the door. Bracing himself and rubbing his temples, hecalled, “Come in.”

A red-headed woman, wearing a blush pencil skirt and a warmsmile, poked her head through the door.

“Professor Banner? I’m Natasha Romanoff, your new labassistant.”

Bruce turned around in his desk chair, and was dumbfounded whenhe met her eyes, which were unlike any sort of beauty he had ever seen before.

“Wow, um…” he stammered, as she raised an eyebrow inexpectant confusion. “I’m, uh, I’m Doctor Banner…”

“Oh, trust me, I know.” She said cheerily, stepping insidethe office and closing the door behind her. “I’m a huge fan of your work ingamma radiation. When I saw that your lab had an opening I just had to apply!”

“Wow, thanks. You’re a, uh, grad student in the physicsprogram, then?”

“Double major, actually. Russian studies and dance, with minorsin criminal justice and Latin for good measure.”

“Wow.”

She chuckled good-naturedly and said, “You keep sayingthat.”

“You’re just…incredible. Do you ever sleep?”

“Well, when not running solely on caffeine and sugar, mydreams are filled with pirouettes and italic languages.”

“I remember that. I finished my 5th PhD lastyear.”

“See, people say it’s crazy to stay in college for thislong. But I’ve got the scholarships to keep going, and I adore learning, so Idon’t see why I should stop.”

“That’s…exactly how I feel.”

A comfortable silence fell between the two as they smiled ateach other in mutual understanding. It was then that they realized that thiswas about to be a very good semester.

Chapter Two: A FewWeeks Later…

“Bruce!” Natashacalled after Professor Banner as he was about to leave the lecture hall. Heturned around, and began to stammer nervously. (Despite spending the entirelecture with her sitting at his desk, shooting him longing looks over the stackof papers she was grading.)

“Oh! Hi, Natasha…uhm…what can I do for you?”

(What was it about this woman that made him so inarticulate?)

“Well, I had an extra ticket for the school performance of Cymbelinetonight, and I was hoping you’d want to come with.”

“Oh, that’s, um, really, nice, Natasha. But I, uh, got abunch of…exam questions to write and um…I don’t think it’d be a good idea.”

“Oh, okay.” Natasha replied, her face falling slightly. “Well,if you need help with that, I can always skip the play…”

“No, no. That’s okay. Go have fun, and I’ll, uh…see you tomorrow?For the 10:00 lecture?”

She smiled slightly and nodded. “Okay, see you then.”

He watched her walk away, her French braid gently swayingacross her back and her heels clicking on the lecture hall floor.

Chapter Three: TheNext Day

 Bruce walked into the lecture hall to find Natasha at thewhite board, holding a cup of coffee in her right hand and writing equations onthe board with her left.

“Morning!” She said cheerfully, not taking her eyes off theboard.

“Hi…” He murmured shyly, smiling at the elegant curve of herback as she stood up on her toes to reach the top of the board. He caughthimself staring and cleared his throat, which caused her to look at him quizzically.

“So, um, how was the play?”

“Oh, it was great! My little sister, Wanda, she’s anundergrad freshman, and she somehow managed to get cast as the Queen. So, I hadto go show her some support.”

“That’s awesome. You’re both into theatre then?”

“Well, ballet is more my specialty. I toured as part of theSwan Lake cast a few years back.”

“That’s so cool! Swan Lake is actually one of my favorites.”

“Well, I was just in the ensemble, but it was a lot of fun.Plus, I have to pay those student loans somehow, right?”

Bruce chuckled. “Right.”

“Actually, I was thinking. I had some ideas for the finalproject that I wanted to run by you, so if you were free after this, maybe wecould…grab a coffee? Or something? I know this cute little café that would beperfect, it’s nice and quiet.”

“Oh, no. No need for that. You can just leave them on mydesk later and I’ll look over them.” He replied nonchalantly as he flippedthrough his lesson plan.

Much to Bruce’s confusion, Natasha looked dumbfounded at himfor a moment, before seeming to shake herself and turning back to the board.

“That’s fine, then.” She said pleasantly. “That works, too.”

What was with her cheeks turning all red just now? It seemedmore like she was asking him on a….

A date! Oh god, she has just asked him on a date! And heturned her down! The most interesting, beautiful, intelligent woman he’d evermet just asked him on a date, and he turned her down!

He was about to turn around and accept her offer, when herealized that the lecture hall had just filled in, and dozens oftwenty-somethings were looking at him expectantly, waiting for class to start.

Chapter Four: TheNext Day

 Bruce arrived early to his classroom, nervously pacing theaisles and holding a single sunflower in his hands.

Natasha opened the door, wearing a pretty yellow wrap dressand a messy bun, and was taken aback when she noticed Bruce.

He looked in her eyes, desperately searching his brain forsomething to say.

“Uhm…I was wondering if you were free tonight, Natasha.”

He stepped closer to her as her expression softened inrealization.

“I am.” She said teasingly, closing the distance betweenthem. “Did you have something in mind?”

“Uhm…maybe, a dinner? With…with me?”

“Doctor Banner, are you asking me on a date?”

He took a deep breath, gathering his courage.

“Yes.” He said, holding out the sunflower to her. “I am.”

Natasha took the flower out of his hand with a smile andstuck it gently in her hair.

“Then I accept.”