bakerstreet | that awkward meme;

that awkward meme;

THAT AWKWARD MEME WHEN
Congratulations, your character's shame is now a spectator sport.

RULES:
o1. Post your character ( name | series | any preferences ).
o2. Characters tagging in: ~~Pick~~ roll for a prompt.
o3. The character setting up the scene can be either the cause, or the unfortunate witness to the awkward situation. Have fun!

That awkward moment when...

o1. You're trying to slink away with your partner’s valuables after a one night stand only to wake them up in the process.
o2. You send a message with your confession, raaage, embarrassing questions or compromising pictures to the wrong person.
o3. You forgot about a birthday or anniversary and now have to pitch a cheap gift bought in five minutes off the nearest 7/11 as a symbolic expression of your feelings.
o4. You lost your wallet and have to charm a perfect stranger into paying your tab.
o5. You spill your wine on the event special guest half an hour before they're due giving their speech.
o6. You need to get rid of your date/groupie/coworker to assume your superhero identity and go save the day in the nearby building.
o7. You can’t stop hiccuping during someone's heartfelt confession of undying affection.
o8. You kidnapped the wrong person.
o9. You have to get your very drunk friend out of a public place fast, and they're not exactly cooperating.
10. You blame grave illness to cancel on meeting someone, only to run into them an hour later.
11. You slip ~~on a banana peel~~ in the middle of your amazing performance or even more amazing shounen attack.
12. You get matched on a blind date with someone who dumped you. Twice.
13. You call out the wrong name when things get hot and heavy.
14. You have to prod this person whether they like-like your friend without outright saying it, because said friend is apparently ~~five~~ too shy to ask on their own.
15. You run into someone after choosing your clothing or doing your make up during a blackout.
16. You have to ask a favour of someone you publicly lambasted twenty minutes ago.
17. You wake up to find someone's been watching you sleep.
18. You answer the door in your lingerie to surprise your special other, only to find it’s not them calling.
19. You try the polite greeting your friends taught you in a different language, only to find out it’s actually a grave insult or a hilarious proposal.
20. You accidentally walk into someone showering, singing aloud, enjoying their personal time or anything else you feel like putting together.

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“Something like that,” Bruce said, though he would never even consider comparing himself to Mother Teresa. It was just easier to drop the subject than to try to downplay it all, especially since he wasn’t so sure she believed him. He had a moment of doubt where he wondered if she thought he was just making it up to make her like him, but he quickly pushed the thought away. Even if she did think that he wasn’t going to stop her.

“That’s good, because they didn’t seem very interested in talking,” he spoke of the Chitauri, glad to move on even if it was to an event that hadn’t exactly been pleasant. Not that it mattered a moment later when Darcy was suddenly babbling and Bruce could only stare at her with eyes wide and brows raising higher and higher with each word.

His brain might have even shut off for a second when she admitted to possibly falling in love with him.

That couldn’t be right, she’d only met him less than an hour ago, and a good chunk of their time together so far had been spent in silence on the motorcycle. Maybe she really was drunk and was just better at hiding the usual signs than most people, or she was a dreamer who believed in love at first sight, or a girl who was used to men treating her poorly so as soon as one of them is nice to her she thinks it’s love?

Or, more likely, it was all a joke. Unfortunately it had taken Bruce up until she started talking about marriage to click in, so he had just been staring at her dumbfounded for the rest of it.

He didn’t know what to say or how to react, but as the words sunk further in a slow smile spread across his lips. And then he was laughing.

Edited 2012-11-14 18:00 (UTC)

For a moment she was convinced that Bruce - or Dr. Banner, as she was sure the restraining order would refer to him as - was about to show her the door, but then he smiled and she smiled in return.

The sound of his laugh was a bonus, and she smiled a little wider. Little by little she thought he was loosening up, which was good since that meant he wasn't annoyed. And considering the time of night and the inconvenience she'd heaped on him he had really good reasons to be annoyed.

She let out a small laugh of her own and crossed her arms, before trying to look stern. "Wow, way to let a girl down easy, Bruce."

The laughter seemed to break the tension of all the previous awkward conversation, and Bruce felt himself relax a little, or as much as Bruce Banner ever relaxed, at least.

“I’m sorry,” he said, still smiling at her as the elevator came to a stop. “I haven’t exactly been proposed to before. That’s new for me.”

When the doors slid open he motioned for her to step out first before following. He led her to a room and opened the door, flicking on the lights to reveal a bedroom. “You can have my room for the rest of the night. I’ll find somewhere else and we’ll get you back to your own place in the morning.” He paused a moment. “Or later this morning. The afternoon. Whenever you wake up.” And there he was being awkward again.

"Hey, it's new to me too," she said, giving him a small shrug. "But after a night like tonight, it seems like a good idea."

She followed him down a hallway and blinked when he turned on the lights to a bedroom. Her eyes darted to his face for a second, unsure of whether or not she'd just flirted her way into a sketchy situation, but then he offered up his room and she relaxed.

She patted him on the shoulder. "That's really sweet of you, Bruce, but there's no way I'm kicking you out of your own bed. I'll take sofa city. But I am gonna steal that big fluffy pillow right there. Don't try to stop me, you don't want to see me get violent."

“If you’re going to propose to every man who helps you out... well, if you stay here very long you’re going to end up making a lot of proposals,” Bruce replied. One of the perils of living with a bunch of superheroes: saving people was what they did, though the rest of them moreso than Bruce himself. At least he had stopped himself from saying ‘every man who is nice to you’ because that would have been unwittingly suggesting things about her character that he didn’t necessarily thing were true.

He looked a bit lost when she told him she would take the sofa. It wasn’t like he had a lot of experience with being chivalrous, but he was pretty sure he wasn’t supposed to let her sleep on the couch. “No, really, I insist,” he said, putting a hand on her back to gently guide her toward the bed. “You’ve been up all night, you need the sleep. I was sleeping before this so I’m not really tired. It’s fine. I’ll probably just read.”

Also not necessarily true, and he’d also gone and reminded her that he had been asleep until she woke him up. Negative points for chivalry attempt.

She lets out a low laugh and looks up at him and raises her eyebrows. "Who said I would ask every man?" She said, tilting her head to the side. "I've got standards, Bruce." And okay, is she smiling at him a little too long? Crap. She is totally crushing on Bruce Banner.

She looks away from him and out towards the windows looking over the city. "Anyway, hopefully I won't need rescuing again anytime soon. Though at least I know who to call if I do."

The feel of his hand on her back sends a small, electric thrill up her spine and for a moment all she can say is, "...okay." But then she snaps out of the moment and shakes her head, turning towards him. "That doesn't make much sense. You were sleeping and then some spaz woke you up at three in the morning and now you're not tired anymore? If anything, you should be more tired."

She looks around the room. "Okay, compromise. I'll sleep here under the covers and you can read on your side over the covers and if you fall asleep, you fall asleep in your own bed and I don't have to feel guilty for kicking you out. And you don't have to feel guilty for not being a gentleman - which by the way isn't even in question here. And it will just be that weird night when you shared your bed with some strange girl. Except, I promise despite everything you've seen tonight, I'm not that strange."

Bruce ducked his head when she kept looking at him. He knew there was no bad intent behind it, she wasn’t watching him for any sign of the other guy, but somehow the way she was looking at him made him even more nervous. He hadn’t actually spent much time alone with a woman since Betty. In Calcutta he hadn’t really socialized, he had just treated people and slept, or at least tried to. He was still getting used to Pepper being around so much, though she was easy to get along with and feel comfortable around.

No matter how he analyzed it, this was completely different.

“Well if you do, at least next time the call will be meant for me.” He’s not even sure how that’s better, or even what he’d been trying to say with that, but at least she had agreed to taking the bed... only to quickly turn around and take it back. “No, I’m not, really. The bike ride woke me up,” he tried to protest, but she was already working on a compromise. It was a decent compromise, actually, but he still felt the need to protest. She shouldn’t trust him if he couldn’t trust himself.

“I’m sure you’re not, you seem very nice,” he said. Clasping his hands in front of him he rubbed them together, a nervous habit. “It’s fine, really, I don’t mind the sofa. I’ve slept on worse.”

Darcy frowned as she watched him. He looked like he was beginning to get agitated as as much as she didn't want to push him, she had a very clear idea of what was wrong and right in this situation and the fact that he'd already gone so out of his way for a complete stranger was weighing heavily on her.

"Okay, now you're just trying to make me feel guilty," she said, gesturing towards his hands. "Seriously, Bruce, I know this is your... loft or whatever, and usually that would entitle you to make the rules, but you're not sleeping on the couch. Not after everything you've done for me tonight."

She moved to the bed and began fluffing up the pillows on the side of the bed nearest the table with the lamp and a bunch of books. "Now, come make yourself at home in your own home. Just... pretend I'm not here. I'm invisible. I'm a ghost."

She moved to the other side of the bed and pulled back the covers. She sat and slid off her shoes, tucking them under the edge of the covers before looking back up at him.

She gave him a small smile before whispering. "I'm not here, I was just a really awesome dream."

Bruce could tell by her expression as she looked at his hands that he wasn’t handling this well at all. That was actually a severe understatement for just how poorly he was handling this. Perhaps stating that he’d slept in worse places wasn’t the best idea, but then tonight seemed to be riddled with bad ideas all around.

Darcy certainly wasn’t one to take no for an answer, and maybe he hadn’t had many relationships, but even he knew that to continuously argue with a woman when she had her mind set on something would just be wasting his breath, and he wasn’t really one to put his foot down and insist, especially if it would only upset her.

Glancing back over his shoulder at the sofa in the other room, when he turned back she was already crawling into the bed, a sight which he took a moment to absorb and appreciate. In Calcutta there had been one night when the loneliness and need had become too strong and he’d taken a local woman to his bed, but she had been the first since Betty and the last. Seeing Darcy there now caused a stirring in the pit of his stomach that he tried hard to ignore. Luckily her ceaseless talking was both hard to ignore and undeniably charming. By the time her whispered words reached his ears he couldn’t help but laugh again.

“You’re a very stubborn woman, Darcy Lewis,” he said, hesitating a moment longer before approaching the bed. Sitting gingerly on ‘his’ side of it, Bruce slipped off his own shoes.

"You have no idea," she said, grinning back at him. She pushed herself back against the headboard, not entirely ready to slip into a sleeping position. Actually, now that she was here, she wasn't really that tired. The events of the night kind of had her wound up and the dread of knowing that when tomorrow came, her adventure would be over.

She pulled the covers up to her waist, covering up the skirt and tights she was wearing and crossed her arms over her chest, though it was hard not to notice that seemed to make her cleavage extra noticeable. She pulled the covers a little higher, as Bruce slipped off his shoes, but then stopped, taking another glance downwards before glancing over at Bruce. She lowered the sheets to her waist again and recrossed her arms. Sometimes you had to use what God gave you.

"So," she said. "What are you reading?"

Setting the shoes carefully against the nightstand, Bruce turned slowly to swing his legs up onto the bed. Settling against the headboard and the recently fluffed pillows, he finally forced himself to look at Darcy again now that she was snug under the covers of his bed. Well... part of her was. It was very hard not to notice her ample cleavage on display and he quickly averted his eyes, glad for the question to focus on.

“Oh, well, this one...” he grabbed blindly at the stack of books that Tony had thrust at him the other day and told him to read. He took the one from the top of the pile and held it up before even glancing at it himself.

The cover read Fifty Shade of Grey.

“...is not mine.” Quickly discarding it, he sorted through the titles ranging from ‘Twilight’ to ‘Pride and Prejudice and Zombies’ to a genuine Harlequin romance book before finally finding one of his own. “This one is.”

Rabid: A Cultural History of the World’s Most Diabolical Virus

Darcy thought she caught a brief look downwards and felt a small thrill of victory. Whatever Bruce might be - hero, tortured soul, genius scientist - he was also human. She raised her eyebrows high and then let out a little snort as he held up the notorious book. "Oh, really?"

She laughed when he practically tossed it aside and shuffled the books on his bedside table around. "That's quite a selection you've got there, Doc," she said, leaning over to get a look at all of them as he moved through them. She put her hand lightly on his shoulder as she peered over it.

She hummed when he pulled out the book he was actually reading. "That should put you to sleep in no time."

She grinned, nodding towards the table. "Mind if I borrow one of those? I think the adrenaline of escaping Star Wars guy is making it kind of tough to sleep."

Edited 2012-11-27 19:11 (UTC)

Bruce could feel his cheeks grow warm as he rifled through the books, though that might have also had something to do with how she was leaning on him now. It only made it that much harder to ogle her.

“They’re from Tony,” he explained, as if that made it all better. Unfortunately that wasn’t explanation enough for anyone outside of the little group they had formed here. Natasha would have accepted it as explanation enough. “He claimed I needed to broaden my horizons.” Bruce was pretty sure he hadn’t meant it.

At her quip he looked down at his book again, only now realizing how strange it probably made him seem that this was what he read in his downtime. Then again, Darcy was aware of his... condition, so strangeness should not be a surprise. “It’s actually very... no, you’re right. It’s better than sleeping pills.”

Smiling a little, he gestured toward the remaining books. “Help yourself. I’m not sure any of them will compare to the adventure he was offering, but be my guest.” Sometimes, yes, even Bruce Banner attempted jokes.

Is... that a little warmth she detects on his face. She bites back a smile, feeling her own face warm the tiniest bit at the effort and the fact that her crush is kind of multiplying at ridiculous rates right now.

She nods when he agrees that his choice of nighttime reading is pretty snooze worthy, but then again it's not like a polisci major is going to have much in common intellectually with a specialist on gamma rays.

She laughs a little as his joke, reaching past him and almost picking up Twilight. She doesn't want to seem too young, though the fact that she's here due to being completely irresponsible is hard to ignore. She picks up Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

She shifts around in bed for a moment, getting comfortable before propping the book up in front of her. She reads the first two sentences before she finds herself glancing over at him.

The silence too quiet.

"We should start a book club." She reached up to touch her glasses a little nervously, though her tone conveyed none of it. "To widen our horizons."

When she reached past him it only brought her even closer, so close he could smell her hair. There was something that smelled akin to strawberries or some sort of fruit buried beneath the smell of smoke left by the club she had spent the evening in.

He smiled a little at her choice, breathing again once she settled back to her own side of the bed. While she shifted around, he picked his reading glasses up from the table and slipped them on. They must have made quite the picture, each of them propped up against the pillows, sitting side by side and quietly reading... or attempting to. Perhaps ‘pretending’ to was a better description. The silence was definitely uncomfortable and Bruce was grateful when Darcy broke it, throwing his own words back at him.

“Yes, well, it would certainly give us something to talk about,” he said. Realising how that sounded, he quickly closed the book in his lap and looked over at her. “Not that I haven’t been enjoying our conversation, but I suppose it would be a more structured conversation on a specific topic, something that we would both be knowledgeable on having read the same book.”

She pressed her lips together, her brow arching up the tiniest bit. Even though he quickly backpedaled Darcy was reminded of just who she was talking to. And just how out of her league she was.

Bruce Banner was a genius. A genius with serious issues, but super smart anyway. She hadn't even graduated college yet.

"Yeah," she said, giving him a small smile. "What you said."

She swallowed, looking down at her book and then over at his. "Except, you know, I probably wouldn't' be able to stay awake through something like that. What else do you like to read?"

Edited 2012-12-05 08:36 (UTC)

Bruce felt bad having clearly insulted her, but he had no idea how to take it back without making it worse. He hadn’t meant to insult her intelligence, she seemed like a smart girl and her major certainly wasn’t for someone with a diminished mental capacity in any way. He had simply meant that they didn’t seem to have much in common to discuss, so having a book to talk about would certainly get past that hump and... was that a joke? His own jumbling thoughts were interrupted when she mentioned not being able to stay away. It could have just as easily been an insult, insinuating he was boring, but he chose to laugh anyway.

“I suppose you wouldn’t, though I promise somewhat more exciting books than this,” he replied, holding up the one in his hands.

Now just because he liked to read about the history of diseases didn’t mean he couldn’t enjoy a good bit of fiction every once in a while. Sometimes the escapism of a good story was just what he needed during those tough times. “Sometimes I enjoy a good adventure book, like Clive Cussler.”

"Good," she says grinning at him. "Because I usually don't read books like that unless they're assigned to me."

Way to remind him of your age, Darcy. She wonders if she's actually just making a huge fool out of herself for even attempting flirting.

"Clive Cussler?" She lets out a little laugh. "That has to be a pseudonym. Either that or he's the Dirk Diggler of the literary world."

Okay, now she was beginning to ruin the moment. "I like a good adventure," she said, slowly. Only it came out sounding way more like an attempt at seduction than a statement. Something completely unintended.

She felt her cheeks warm and looked away from him. "I mean, muder mysteries, spy novels, cloak and dagger stuff. I'm all over that."

Assigned, right, because while Bruce read things like this for his own interests in his spare time, Darcy was still in college so why would she want to read anything like that unless it pertained to her school work? Not that most people would find a book like this interesting anyway.

Feeling a bit old and more unusual than, well, usual, Bruce set the book aside, as clearly reading just wasn’t going to happen tonight. He did manage a laugh at her joke, though. “Why, because all alliterative names must be pseudonyms?” Bruce Banner asked, smiling over at her so she would know he was just teasing. At least his name sounded better than Dirk Diggler, though thinking of that character and that film in context with the sultry tone Darcy’s voice had suddenly taken on just turned his mind in another direction, one he had been trying to avoid. Luckily she moved on and elaborated, smoothing over the moment pretty efficiently.

“Yes, precisely, those are exactly the works of fiction I tend to enjoy,” he responded quickly. “I probably have one, somewhere, I can just grab it...” He sat up, intending to leap up and go search his bookshelf.

"What? No!" Darcy said, taking a second to get his joke because she had gotten a little too caught up in the smile he'd given her. God, what had she gotten herself into? She was crushing so hard on Bruce right now that she was pretty sure it was written on her forehead in neon flashing lights. "I like your name."

She just needed to play it cool and get through tonight and sharing a bed - sharing a bed - with him without making a total and utter fool out of herself. Which she wasn't sure she hadn't ruined already, but had no intention of making an even bigger fool out of herself over.

She reached over and put a hand on his arm to keep him from getting up. "Don't worry about it, Bruce," she said, giving him a small smile. "We'll work it out in the morning." She cleared her throat. "I should probably just get some sleep and let you get some reading done. Sorry if I'm being a pain in the ass."

Apparently the smile hadn’t been enough to make it clear he was only teasing, as she seemed rather distressed that he might think she was insulting his name. Bruce chuckled a little and dropped his eyes to his hands which he folded in his lap.

“A colleague once suggested I change my name to David, but he offered no explanation as to why other than it’ll sound better,” Bruce said. It had been a strange conversation, that was for sure.

Before he could swing his legs over the side of the bed and get to his feet, Darcy’s hand on his arm stopped him. Looking first at her hand and then at her smile, he nodded slowly. “Right, he said, settling back against the pillows. “You are not being a pain at all, it is simply... you are the first guest I’ve had here and I’m afraid I’m not a very good host under any circumstances.” Let alone ones like this. “But yes, we should probably both get some sleep.” It was time to give up the pretense of even trying to read, and it would be rude to keep the light on while she was trying to sleep.

"David?" She shook her head. "No, no. Bruce is much better."

She watched him as he relaxed back against the pillows, feeling a small thrill shoot through her at his words. "I'm your first guest?" She repeated slowly.

That meant that he wasn't in the practice of bringing women home. It meant something. The impulse took her completely by surprise, so she couldn't have stopped herself from leaning over and kissing Bruce on the cheek even if she'd wanted to.

"Goodnight, Bruce," she said slowly, feeling her face warm. "Thank you for rescuing me." She gave him a small smile and then snuggled back against her own pillows, closing her eyes just so that she could pretend like she hadn't just done what she had.

Bruce suddenly felt very silly, almost childlike, for admitting she was the first guest he had had in this room. Would she think him completely anti-social? Or perhaps just plain boring?

“Yes, I... am not the most social person,” he admitted. He thought she would laugh, perhaps take a good natured shot at him; he had not expected her to kiss him, and it showed clearly on his face. Watching her flush and smile, he could say nothing until she closed her eyes and snuggled into the bed. He watched her for a moment longer before removing one of the pillows from behind his head so he could lay down more comfortably. Folding his hands over his stomach, he stared upwards at the ceiling for a moment, a smile slowly curling his lips. “Good night, Darcy,” he replied quietly.

He was suddenly very glad she had texted the wrong number that evening.

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that awkward meme;

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