"So, business or pleasure?"

Bruce Banner didn't actually jerk up from his chair. He's worked far too hard and far too long to slip up in a place like this, for a reason as idiotic as a woman approaching him without making a sound.

For all his efforts, he came pretty close. She gave him a questioning look.

"A little of neither," he finally said and sipped from his drink. Non-alcoholic. "Why are you asking, Miss..."

"Susan." She gave him a little smile. Friendly, if very deliberate. "No reason, really. It's just that I've heard you speaking English just now. It's been a while since I've heard anyone speak English..."

So that's where this conversation was going. Bruce felt compelled to shove her away and just leave the bar, but he was here for a reason. He's been in one place for too long and there was certain paperwork he needed in order to leave. It wasn't like he had anything to do while waiting. "Business for you, I assume?"

She nodded and sat down on the tall chair next to him. "Not the best place to be stationed, but that's life for you."

"Well, I wouldn't know," he half-lied.

"Of course not. I guess you're just sight-seeing after all?"

"I guess you could say that."

"How soon are you planning to leave?"

Now she just sounded like she was interrogating him. Not with the clean professionalism of a secret agent, but in the slightly rabid way he would expect of a tabloid reporter. He might have mistaken her for a local if he hadn't heard her speak, but only if he wasn't already paying attention. There was something too clean and controlled about the way she held herself. SHIELD must have lowered their standards since they first started hounding him.

"Say, Susan," he said, not without humor. "Is this an interrogation? Because I have to warn you, those usually don't-"

"I'm not here to interrogate you, Mr. Banner," she retorted, quietly, before he could finish. She clearly understood that he understood, but it didn't seem to deter her in the slightest. "All I need is to make sure you're gone by the end of the week."

"And why would you want that?"

"Because something big is going to happen. A battle. And your presence..." she trailed off.

"Would complicate things for you," he finished for her. "The thing is, Susan, I don't want any trouble. Your superiors must have told you that."

She nodded.

"So then, I will do what you said. I will pick up and leave and never come back to this town." He started to lean closer to her. "And in return, you will leave me alone. It's as simple as that." He didn't feel the need to mention that he was planning to leave anyway.

She nodded once more, looked at him for a long while and finally walked away, her heels too silent on the wooden floor.

That didn't go too badly.