[ EU ] Bruce Banner has n't slept in days , he comes home one day to find a stranger in his house . The stranger introduces himself as Tyler Durden .

I got off the bus and jogged the last half mile to the house. Maybe a little bit more of physical exhaustion would help. Joe Fixit grumbling all day had already provided all the mental exhaustion I needed. 
 
 All I wanted was a nice hot shower to get the smell of chicken processing plant off me. It was boring work. It was tedious work. Boring was good. Tedious was good. It was hard to get mad at boring or tedious. 
 
 I had a nice little sweat going when I could see the house. I'm not in the best shape. Really, I'm quite frumpy. I've always neglected an exercise routine. It never seemed a priority during the day. Always something else to worry about. Like getting the smell of chickens off me. I slowed down, and let the wind cool me down. Maybe I would be able to sleep tonight. It had been almost a week. 
 
 The problem with tedium is that the mind just keeps spinning. The math keeps rolling in your head. I could n't write everything down at the plant. I had to wait until I got back to the house. I'd filled out countless notebooks. The whiteboard was full again, and I had even started writing on the walls. A bad habit I know. Once a week, I scanned them and used a deaddrop email and sent them to Reed. He'd parse through them and use what he could and forward the rest. 
 
 The door was unlocked. I was getting forgetful. There was n't anything valuable in the house anyways. Anyone who could understand the math could have it. Anyone who could n't, would n't bother. 
 
 I walked in, and lounged on the couch was a man. He looked like Stark. 
 
 Fuck Stark. Arrogant prick. No no. Tony is a friend. That's Fixit talking. 
 
 The man sitting there did n't look like Tony Stark, he felt like Tony. He was Blond though. Confident. Drinking? I could smell the alcohol from the door. Tony had n't drank in years. 
 
 `` Ah, you're back. How was the plant?'' He smiled, like a devil. `` About ready to quit that chicken coupe yet?'' He stood, tossed me the bottle. Scotch, cinnamon infused. It smelled good. 
 
 This felt familiar. It felt right. 
 
 `` Not yet'' I replied. i walked over to the kitchen and grabbed a glass and ice. 
 
 `` I'm liking the formula you have here on the south wall, Bobby my Boy'' Bobby.... That's right. I was using Robert while I was here. `` So, what's the deal. Why you wringing chicken necks. You diddle the wrong dean's daughter when you were a prof?'' 
 
 Who was he... What lies had I told... So many towns... He knew me. He seemed so familiar. Play it safe. Best to let him build his own assumptions. `` Something life that.'' Fake smile. Look uncomfortable. 
 
 `` This is good scotch.'' It was really good scotch. A couple more of these and I'd be out. I downed the first one, poured a second, and topped his off. I sat on the other end. 
 
 `` I told you. Your old buddy Tyler Durden has got the best hook ups in the county. Sooner or later you'll believe me.'' Tyler Durden. Familiar. Ca n't place it, but the scotch is helping warm me up after the walk. 
 
 `` That's right, dry county.'' I said, just to keep talking. I could feel the boredom going away. This was the first person I could talk to who seemed to be running at the same speed. Everyone else was in a different gear. Not a bad thing, but it's just hard to communicate with folks who do n't have the same intelligence. There's maybe two dozen people on the planet I can have a normal conversation with. Most of them in New York. Stark is Stark. Reed is often out of my league. Pym has his own issues. Parker is young. But Tyler... I do n't have to hold anything back.. I do n't have to deal with the entire purple pants thing. I can bitch about the chicken plant. We can drink scotch. We can talk math a little. He might not get it but he listens. 
 
 `` Hey man.. Wan na go to the old quarry an throw some old dynamite in?'' 
 
 Joe Fixit perks up. Hulk perks up. I perk up. I'm not sure if it's the scotch or not, but man does that seem like a good idea. 
 
 `` Hell yes I do. Do we have more scotch?'' 
 
 
 
 
 

