He couldn't quite figure out how he'd landed in Greece, of all places. He supposed it made sense, in a way, as Sokovia was in Eastern Europe, but to crash on an island undetected? With the Other Guy's track record, that was impressive. Sure, Tony's tech could hide the Quinjet. But the Hulk wasn't exactly known for being silent. The island itself was uninhabited by humans, although there were some goats and birds. There was plenty of fruit on the island, as well as a freshwater lake in the very center. He had enough food and water to live on the island for a long time. Bruce had decided to call the island Lyssa, after the greek goddess of mad rage. It seemed fitting, somehow.

 He built himself a little shelter out of some trees that the Other Guy had ripped out of the ground. He also used the metal and technology from the Quinjet to make himself a television of sorts, although it was absolutely terrible. He then spent a lot of time simply thinking. He thought about his terrible childhood. He thought about his years as a scientist. He thought about the accident and the events immediately following it. He thought about everything he had left behind after taking off on the Quinjet. But most of all, he thought about Natasha. 

He felt terrible about leaving her behind, but he knew that Ross was looking for him. Just after Natasha was kidnapped by Ultron, he had started combing the web, looking for any signs of the automaton. He had been looking through government files he had hacked into, trying to see whether anything was obviously missing, when a file called Gamma Weapon: Hulk Soldiers caught his eye. Clicking on it, he had been horrified to find that Ross wanted to find him and experiment on him. Ross planned to figure out how to make another Hulk so that the general could use them as weapons in war. If there was ever a threat from an opposing army, dropping a Hulk in the middle of their lines would decimate all opposition. So Bruce had planned on retrieving Natasha quietly, and slipping away. Of course, he should have predicted that Natasha wasn't going to leave while the job wasn't finished. And then, she pushed him off of a cliff, and Bruce and the Other Guy knew that they had to leave before Ross showed up. 

Then, after a couple of months on the island, the Civil War started. In a strange way, Bruce was glad he had left the team before the Accords were put forward. He didn't know what he would do. On one hand, he could see where Tony was coming from. He didn't want to cause needless destruction. On the other hand, Ross was the general negotiating the Accords. If he signed, Ross would immediately experiment on him. Bruce had known Natasha would be torn as well, although not for the same reasons. So when Bruce heard about the airport fight between the Avengers on his terrible television, he wasn't surprised to hear that Natasha had switched sides and let Steve and Bucky escape. 

However, he was rather concerned when Ross declared that they would hunt down the Black Widow and bring her to justice. And then, something surprising happened. As he sat watching the television nervously, hoping that Ross wouldn't ever find Natasha, the Hulk decided to offer his input. 

'Krestovina smarter than stupid Thunder man. She not get caught.' Naturally, Bruce jumped to his feet after the shock of hearing the Hulk actually speak in his head. Bruce was also surprised once he realized that the Hulk had not called Natasha by her name, or even a simple nickname. 

'Did you... did you just call Natasha Krestovina?'  Bruce heard the Hulk snort in amusement.

'Da. Means spider.' The Hulk sounded rather smug as he responded to Bruce's question. Bruce was completely astonished. Yes, Bruce knew how to speak Russian. But he could speak many other languages as well. It made sense that the Hulk could at least kind of speak English, as he could understand it pretty well. But Russian? Out of all of the languages he could have chosen, why Russian? He asked the Hulk as much.

'Hulk likes Krestovina. Krestovina from Russia. Hulk likes Russia. Transitive Property.' Now Bruce was sure the Hulk was laughing at him. First, the Hulk used Russian words. Then, the Hulk cited the Transitive Property. Bruce was starting to believe that the Hulk actually was him. At that thought, Bruce's face darkened. Absolutely not. He was not like his father. He couldn't be like his father. The Hulk was. Right? He thought back to his words to Natasha at the Barton farm. The world just saw the Hulk, the real Hulk for the first time. Was that the real Hulk? Because the Hulk Bruce was talking to in his head didn't seem like that. And even though the Hulk was turning out to be pretty smart, Bruce wasn't sure that the Hulk was good at lying. There was only one real way to find out. Bruce sat down, and started to talk with the Other Guy.

A month had passed with Bruce conversing with the Hulk daily when he showed up. The kid, that is. Not the Hulk. The kid was pretty strange. He washed up on the shore with a duffel bag. He said his name was Percy Jackson, and that he was sixteen, turning seventeen in almost three weeks. He showed up about a day after reports of a gigantic storm in Athens, looking as if the weight of the world was upon his shoulders. He said that he was trying to protect those he cared about by staying away from them, and Bruce could understand that. It hurt Bruce to see people as young as Percy being forced to leave family behind for that purpose, but he knew that it wasn't that far fetched. 

The kid reminded him of himself, in a way. Percy had swirling sea-green eyes, not unlike Natasha's or the Hulk's, and they were full of sadness and determination. A mix of emotions he saw in Natasha's as well. Perhaps that's why he liked the kid so much. Percy reminded Bruce of both himself and Natasha. Someone who the world had beaten down, but who would always get up. Someone who would move mountains to protect their loved ones. Someone who wouldn't go looking for a fight, because they thought they could put people in danger. Bruce looked at Percy, sixteen and self-isolated, and swore that he would stand by him. 

Like Tony, Percy formed a bond with Bruce extremely fast. The Hulk agreed with him. Within a week, Percy had become someone Bruce was extremely close to. Surprisingly, Percy probably understood him better than Tony did. Tony had always seen Bruce as more as a science partner and a friend, not exactly a family member. Bruce couldn't really count on Tony to help him through his emotions, as Tony enjoyed pushing his buttons. But Tony had been a good friend, regardless. Tony had done his best to help Bruce, although offering to beat your friend's alter ego into the ground wasn't exactly the normal suggestion you would hear from a friend. 

But Percy was more like a little brother. Bruce knew he could trust Percy to have his back. He was easy to talk to, and was able to sense when to pry and when not to, unlike Tony, who could be like a bull in a china shop. In turn, Percy would volunteer little snippets of his own life. He was like Natasha in that way. Neither of them told Bruce everything about themselves. But they could understand him, and he could understand them. And as Percy Jackson sat next to him on a beach on an island called Lyssa, Bruce Banner knew that there were at least two things that he and the Hulk could agree on. First, no one touches Natasha Romanoff. And two, they'd always have Percy Jackson's back.