I wish I could update this story frequently, but I don't update my other stories properly, so it's unlikely and I won't say that I will. At any rate, Bruce/Lily is one of my main otps and I love them to death and there's not enough fics for them, so here's my sad contribution.

The inspirations for this story, including characters, settings, and background plots, belong to their original creators, obviously, but the new ideas are mine.

Enjoy!

CHAPTER 1

Lily Evans, despite her origins, found herself almost entirely immersed in wizarding culture by the tender age of 18. And while she could function in the non-magical world, most likely, she definitely preferred to live fully in the wizarding one. And in that fashion, she desperately wanted, as did many of her classmates, to follow wizarding tradition and travel the world before continuing her education.

Several of her friends clamored to accompany her, but Lily refused. "I want to learn about myself," she explained. "And I can't do that with other people there. At least not as effectively."

Many more of course, called her a coward to not stay and fight, the war growing ever more dangerous and requiring more fighters every day. But she couldn't stay. She knew she probably should, but despite her love for wizarding Britain, she couldn't put fighting a war at 18 above her safety and the safety of her family. As a target, she'd put people at risk with just her presence. And she didn't have a deep enough personal tie to keep her there through that.

And so, directly after graduation, she left, much to the relief of her well-informed and worried parents. And she enjoyed herself immensely. By September, she found herself in Argentina.

And that's where this story really begins, though we'll skip over the dull early awkward romance stuff. To sum up, Lily Anne Evans watched Dr. Robert Bruce Banner treat a young injured child with care, then worked up the nerve to speak to him. He was a bit awkward and looked as though he might want to leave, but she convinced him to tell her about the country and some of the other places he'd been. She stayed with him for another few months and then left to finish up her world tour. Then a little over a year after their first meeting, they reunited passionately. And Lily got pregnant. Bruce panicked.

-o—

"Bruce, calm down, please," Lily said over Bruce's labored breathing. "Love, this isn't the end of the world."

"You're 19!"

She just looked at him, one eyebrow raised.

"Do you want to keep it?"

"Yes," she answered, "but I don't expect you to play a large part because I understand exactly why you might not want to. Bruce, shh, this is alright."

He gulped and nodded, the green tint of his clenched knuckles fading as his breathing slowed. She didn't know all of it, but she knew he wouldn't want to put a family in danger. After a few minutes of quiet, Lily continued. "Bruce," she touched his shoulder gently, "I'm okay with this, really. Nothing like what happened to you will happen to our child. We'll make sure of it, right? No radiation accidents, is all." She smiled softly and he nodded, looking concerned and trying not to wince at the flashback to his abuse-filled past. She kissed him. "I'll find a job and we'll make this work."

Bruce nodded again, looking a bit numb.

O

Lily settled in a nice wizarding community in Brazil and got a job in a shop while she worked on studying Charms to complete a mastery. Bruce flitted around, helping people where he could and remaining unobtrusive, visiting when he got the chance. After little Harry was born, he visited even more often, up to the point where when his son was two, he was living with them most of the time. And this was when he realized that the wizarding world was a wealth of information and he started reading all he could get his hands on, in between helping people.

Harry was babbling Portuguese and English interchangeably, which was adorable to Bruce and frustrating for Lily, as she still had trouble transitioning between the two languages.

It was when their son was three that Lily received an urgent message from Gringott's Bank and she left Harry with Bruce to go to England. Bruce had protested at first, but when faced with the fact that England was still in a huge bloody war against Voldemort, he decide that his alter self was the lesser of dangers for his child at the time. He was still scared spitless and the Hulk hovered just under the surface, a requiring a constant inner monologue to keep at bay.

When Lily returned, it was with another child, the same age as Harry, who had a fresh scar on his forehead shaped like a lightning bolt, partially hidden beneath his blond hair. It was clear that she'd been crying and Bruce immediately rushed to comfort her.

When the children were asleep, she spoke to Bruce. "His name is Neville. His mother was my best friend, but she's… she's dead now, and his father suffered extreme spell damage and the healers don't expect a recovery and… I had to take him. Bruce, I had to."

He nodded and hugged her, providing physical comfort in the best way he could. It took Neville quite some time to adjust, but Harry was friendly and appreciated the new playmate and eventually, clumsy Neville found his niche amongst the community of children in the area.

There was an incident though—a big green incident-and when Bruce ran to the Middle East, Lily took the boys back to England, agreeing to meet later.

O

Lily's return to Britain was met with shock, mostly. A lot of the community resented her for leaving, but others understood and simply welcomed her back. When they saw that she had two boys, though, one of which was the wizarding world's savior, suspicion abounded.

"His name is Harry," she told Mrs. Fortescue while she sat in the ice cream parlor, watching the small group of children play in the street. "You know Neville, of course. Alice was Harry's godmother. He never had a godfather, but that's alright. At any rate, the boys love each other like brothers and it's working out fairly well."

Mrs. Fortescue smiled, but the smile faded as she asked what was obviously on her mind. "But Lily, dear, where's Harry's father?"

"Oh, he's in the Middle East somewhere. He travels a lot." Lily couldn't help but grin at the thought that Bruce might be able to come and find them soon, knowing that he could handle any danger. "Moves around for work.

Many more questioned Lily's lack of a husband, but her remaining friends supported her as she grew more and more worried at Bruce's lack of communication.

"He'll be back," Lily told Mary firmly. "No question about it. He probably just got held up somewhere."

Two months passed and Lily's boys had stopped asking when Bruce would join them, but Lily hadn't lost hope. She did send several owls to Remus though, asking if he would like to come and see Harry and Neville. It wasn't until the third letter that the man answered, but when Lily gleefully sent him their address and he arrived one day, Lily hugged her old friend enthusiastically.

"Remus, come in, come in! Come meet my sons!"

"Lily, you, you look very happy."

"I am," she replied, smiling. "I wish Bruce would hurry up and get here, but believe me, I am happy."

Lily proceeded to tell Remus all about everything she'd done since Hogwarts. Harry loved him and Neville was nervous, but he was shy around new people in general, and he warmed up to him quickly enough.

It was the next day when Bruce finally arrived, the letter with the address and directions clutched in his hand. He was shirtless, the pants he was wearing were two sizes too big and ripped, and the bag he carried over one shoulder was covered in mud.

When the door was opened by a sleepy Remus instead of his girlfriend, his jaw tensed. "Is… is Lily here?"

The werewolf reached for his wand and nodded. "Yes, who are you?"

Bruce's eyes may have gone a bit green. "Bruce."

Remus' eyes widened and he took a quick step back. "Oh! Lily!" he called, only slightly regretting the yell when he heard the sound of one of the kids waking up and falling to the ground with a yelp.

When Lily came down the stairs, followed by two young boys, she caught sight of Bruce and stopped short, breathing out his name with something akin to disbelief.

He smiled, looking a bit guilty at the dripping mud.

She bit her lip and ran forward, immediately tucking her face into his shoulder. "Bruce, thank Merlin you're home. Are you alright? Are you hungry?" She looked up at his face anxiously.

"Um, yeah, a bit hungry. And covered in mud. You are too now. Who is this?"

"Oh, this is Remus! We were friends in school. He was visiting yesterday and I let him stay on the couch." She giggled when Harry demanded to be picked up by his father and Bruce let go of Lily to oblige the kid.

"Ugh, Harry, you've gotten bigger." Harry giggled and started to babble excitedly about a dream Portuguese more fluent than his English.

When they finally got the boys back to bed with promises of getting to help Bruce make breakfast in the morning, and Bruce had emerged from the shower, Lily handed him a pile of clean clothes and then kissed him passionately. "Bruce, love," she asked through labored breathing as they broke apart, "what happened?"

He slowly pulled on the clothes and then sat down on the edge of the mattress. "It's… Ross was persistent this time. He had a team tracking me and I couldn't keep ahead of them. I think I lost them a few days ago."

Lily nodded and sat next to him, resting her head on his shoulder. "You need to find a way to not lose the mirrors I give you. I really don't like not knowing if you're okay."

"I know, I'm sorry. Maybe we could put a small one on a chain like a locket?"

She huffed a short laugh, then turned to put one leg over him and burry her face in his shoulder again, a warm, comfortable place where she could smell him and know he wasn't going anywhere. "Stay here with us, please."

Bruce kissed her temple and nodded. "As long as I can."

O

Breakfast the next morning was a messy affair. Pancake batter was on the walls, peanut butter, maple syrup, and jam was spread across counters, and two sticky children were running and yelling excitedly about lots of things between the legs of three very frazzled adults. It took quite some convincing to get Harry and Neville off to their writing lesson with Hannah and Susan, but when Lily took them through the floo, Bruce was left with Remus.

He had, of course, offered to leave, but Lily wouldn't hear of it, so the werewolf had stayed. "Lily talks about you like she used to talk about me. Why? I didn't want to pry earlier, but big green problem?

Bruce stared at him in shock. "What?"

Remus looked nervously at his feet. "Everyone used to call my… issue… my furry little problem. She said that you were off dealing with your big green problem and it was odd. Made me wonder."

"What issue?"

Remus swallowed, not meeting Bruce's gaze. "Lycanthropy."

"You're a werewolf?"

"…Yes."

"Oh!" Bruce's eyes widened dramatically. "An uncontrollable shift like that when prompted by certain conditions… I was trying to look into that!"

After a bit of awkward spluttering and hurried exchanged information, the two wound up talking about meditation to connect with their alternate selves. Lily got back with the boys a while later, the two of them immediately jumping up onto their dad, chattering about acromantulas and heroes. Remus was fairly obviously amused.

Please review and let me know what you think!

Thanks for reading!

-MP