Catching Up.
This is a little something I wrote on my Tumblr a long time ago. Feel free to follow at
Disclaimer: I don't own the Avengers or anything associated with them. All I own are a lot of feels and a bit of a state of Marvel induced shock. Some Spoilers for Avengers Infinity War. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK! But as always, please read, review and enjoy!
Catching Up
"Wakanda?" Bruce asked confused. "Why there?"
They all were walking through the halls of the Avengers compound at as brisk a pace as hauling a wounded Vision would allow. Bruce had to admit, he really liked the facility and would loved to have seen more of it. But making sure Ross didn't know he was back had taken priority (he was going to have some serious words with Tony if he made it back about trusting that obsessive asshole with anything) and now reuniting with his old friends and…her, things certainly have been a bit frantic lately.
Truly in many ways Ultron was the beginning of one of the most eventful weekends of Bruce Banner's life.
And definitely the longest the scientist thought ruefully, reflecting on how much things had changed since he had been gone.
Steve gave him a confused look before answering.
"It's the most advanced country on Earth. Its been all over the news lately Doctor, where have you been?"
Wakanda? Most advanced country on Earth? What?
There seemed to be no end to the questions that kept popping up and no time for answers to any of them. Bruce was beginning to feel more and more grateful for all those years of calming exercises.
"Someplace without good TV reception," Bruce replied deadpan. He saw Natasha raise an eyebrow at him with a little bit of concern. Bruce pretended not to notice, now was not the time.
And he didn't want her to feel guilty…
He could tell Steve and the others didn't quite buy it but Steve took it in stride . "Well apparently Wakanda has a literal mountain of Vibrainium under it that they mined it in secret for centuries. Its helped advance their technology by at least 50 years ahead of everyone else at the least."
Bruce's eyes went wide.
"You're kidding me."
"Nope," Natasha cut in. "We've been dropping in and out of there since the whole Accords thing went down. It's gonna be nirvana for you there doc, they've got toys I don't think Stark has even dreamed of yet."
Bruce felt a small lance of worry for Tony pass through him and tried to reassure himself. That suit was far more advanced than anything he had ever seen working with Tony, he would be alright. But if only he could have helped if only he had…
His eyes lit up as he got an idea just as the Quinjet came into view.
"You guys get the jet ready, I need to grab something from here."
Bruce sped off down the hallway before anyone could ask him what he was doing. But as he rounded a corner he realized he really had no idea where anything was in this facility. Backpeddling, he leaned around the corner he just passed.
"Does anyone know where Tony keeps his suits around here?"
He could almost make out Steve's confusion, Rhodey's 'you've gotta be kidding me' and a small smile from Natasha.
She turned to Steve.
"Get us ready, we'll be right back," with that she jogged towards Bruce who had taken to trying to remember an old breathing exercise to calm his nerves.
"This way doc," she directed him and he followed behind.
She directed them in silence for a few moments through the complex, the air tense between them.
"So what do you…"
"So I heard that…"
They began at the exact same time. They both chuckled a moment before Natasha nodded for him to go first.
"So I heard that Tony and Steve fell out. I don't suppose it was just over creative differences?"
"What like a band?"
"Heh, that's exactly what I asked Tony."
She smirked but it was a bit sad. "In a way I guess you could say that. Rhodes fill you in on the Sokovia Accords?"
"Only a little bit. Basically the U.N. wanted more say in how we were deployed. Some rules and accountability for our actions. Makes sense."
Natasha raised an eyebrow. "But?"
Bruce sighed. "But I could see how it could go wrong. Especially with Ross in charge of the thing. I'm pretty sure he'd have some sort of fine print that says he gets to dissect me personally when he catches me."
Johanessburg still hung over him, both legally and personally.
"Nothing quite that extreme in the Accords but you're not wrong. Half the team got thrown into a facility called the Raft for awhile. Specially designed to contain enhanced individuals."
And probably a vibrainium cell with my name on it there too Bruce grimaced.
"So I guess Tony was feeling guilty and Cap didn't trust the institutions and things spun out of control from there?"
She rounded another corner as she nodded. "That's the gist of it. It only got worse when Bucky reappeared on the scene, framed for bombing the U.N. summit." She shook her head. "It was a mess all around. We all played it completely wrong and ended up getting played by a man named Zemo."
"Who's he?"
"Sokovian intelligence officer. Blamed us for the death of his family. He couldn't kill us so, he tried to get us to kill each other. Almost worked."
He thought of the exoskeleton on Rhodey's legs. How could they have let any of this happen?
She stopped in front of a very solid looking door.
"Here we are. You need his password?"
"Nah I got it." A few seconds later the door opened and Bruce stepped inside the armory.
Numerous capsules containing armor or likely a variety of support equipment were lined out in the hall. Most of the armor's were variations on the standard design but with Thanos coming standard wasn't going to cut it they needed some more muscle…
"Your turn for some information doc. What do you need a set of armor for?"
Number, 6, number 7, number 8…
"Long story short? I can't Hulk out."
Number 9, number 10, number 11…
"Seriously?"
Number 12, number 13…
"Yeah, he and I are having a bit of a thing. And no Hulktile dysfunction jokes please, I think I could literally hear Tony coming up with at least 5 in his head"
Number 14.
"Well it does explain why you're going for the hummer version of an Iron Man suit."
Tony had certainly kept up with the upgrades to the Hulkbuster. It was almost unrecognizable from the last time he saw it. He quickly moved to a console and began to program a flight path.
"Compensating much?"
"For my lack of Hulk, oh yeah."
He typed in some commands for a few moments.
"There, I've programmed it to follow the jet for awhile. Should land not too far from us when we get there."
"Got everything?"
"Yeah I think so."
"Good, let's go."
They began to head out together. Nat still with a small smile on her face.
"So how long have you been having this issue?" she asked in an oddly doctor like tone.
He rolled his eyes. "Come on Nat."
She smirked again and he realized that despite all the unresolved…things between them, they were slowly falling back into the banter they used to have.
There were still a lot of things to work out but this was…nice.
On the jet
"You can't get your hulk on?"
Bruce tried not to groan at, what was his name, Sam? As he explained to everyone his condition. It was more than a bit strange to be back in the Quinjet again, knowing it had nearly been 3 years but it still felt like Sokovia was barely even a few days ago. Particularly with some of the new faces.
"Yeah, tried to help Tony out back in New York but its just not happening no matter what I do."
"Hence the Hulkbuster." Steve nodded. "Stark let you use it?"
"It's still coded to him but I can reprogram it to accept me too. It'll just take a little time."
"It's a good call, we may need the firepower. But even if you crack it are you sure you can use it?"
Bruce nodded. "I can figure it out. Might not be able to use it quite as well as Tony but it'll work."
"Um…" the woman next to Vision piped up from their secluded corner.
Oh yeah, her. Bruce thought. He had been doing his best to ignore her.
"If worse comes to worse I probably could…"
Half remembered screams and frightened dust covered faces assailed Bruce as he shot her a glare of pure murder.
"You even think about getting into my head again and I'll turn you into a scarlet smear on a wall."
Everybody looked rather uncomfortable for a long moment.
Bruce closed his eyes and took a deep breath, years of guarding against rage had completely slipped for a moment. In some ways, it was a relief to actually be able to get spontaneously angry and not have to worry about waking up in the middle of nowhere and hear about billions in property damage and injured or dead people.
In other ways, well…that was whole other ballgame.
When he opened them they were all still looking at him cautiously, except Nat who seemed more concerned than anything.
"Sorry. Yeah see? Not even a bit of green. And even if I agreed, whatever the hell is going on between him and me, you'd probably make it worse. That's the last thing we need."
"I hope you can figure it out doctor," Steve said as he settled back into his seat. "From the sounds of it, this is gonna get hairy."
The Quinjet was ridiculously fast, but it was still hours to go until Wakanda. Most of the group opted to take a quick nap. Steve, Sam and Rhodey, trained soldiers, managed to fall asleep almost instantly and in positions where that should have been almost impossible. Wanda had finally nodded off huddled next to Vision, who had told Bruce that while he didn't sleep, he did like to conserve energy. Especially since he was still injured.
Soon enough, it was just Nat and Bruce again.
"You should get some sleep while you can Bruce."
"Who sleeps these days?"
She quirked an eyebrow at everybody around them.
He smiled sheepishly. "You know what I mean. I'm fine though so if you want to…"
"What are you not telling us?"
Her voice wasn't accusing, she was genuinely curious.
"If you really don't want to tell me that's alright. I know that I…" she closed her eyes for a moment. "I would understand if you're still angry at me. I made your choice for you at Sokovia. I broke your trust. And, it was still the right call, the team needed us, they wouldn't have been able to stop Ultron if we weren't there. But I do know that I crossed a line and I've been wanting to say I'm sorry for a very long time now."
Bruce had hardly even thought about the fact she kissed him and pushed him into a pit. Not even when he first woke up, he had been so worried about her after the initial shock of the transformation had worn off.
Had she been thinking he was mad at her for all this time? That was just…that was all wrong.
I leave for two years and everything goes sideways.
Quietly, he got up and stepped around the prone figures of his teammates and sat across from her, like she did for him just before Ultron and tentatively reached out for her hand. Their fingers wrapped around each other's gently.
"You have nothing to be sorry for. Its just…the reason I didn't want to tell you is, well one its such an insane story I barely even believe it and I didn't want you to feel guilty."
He took a breath.
"From what I gather, after Hulk took the jet he pulled up to go to space," he turned away for a moment. "I'm not really sure why. But when he got there, he must have gone through some sort of wormhole and ended up on a planet called Sakaar. While he was there, he became some kind of gladiator and that's just what he did. For two years."
Natasha eyes widened with shock as the meaning hit her.
"You were Hulked out for two years?"
Bruce sighed. The enormity of it all finally starting to hit him.
"Yeah."
"I'm…I'm so sorry Bruce I didn't mean to…"
"It's not your fault."
"How the hell is it not my fault that you were robbed of two years of your life?"
Bruce quickly tried to grasp for an answer.
"Think about it scientifically. We don't really have enough to form a real hypothesis yet, all we have are some observations. For all we know, maybe the wormhole did something to me. Or maybe it was a residual effect from getting my mind played with. We can't really say for certain that it had anything to do with…"
He was cut off when she all but engulfed him into a bear hug that nearly took his breath away.
"Stop," she said. "Just stop, its ok to be angry Bruce."
Almost dazed he wrapped his own arms around Natasha and they stayed like that for a few moments.
"I am angry," he said at last. "But not at you. I'm mad at the other guy, I'm mad at Wanda, I'm mad at myself, hell I'm even mad at Tony and Steve for letting the team fall apart. And honestly I'm scared too. Thanos beat the Hulk without breaking a sweat. Thor is gone and I just…"
His arms began to tremble and he took a few more deep breaths, just trying to ground himself in the moment, focusing just on the warm embrace he found himself in. It helped a lot.
"I just haven't had a moment to just think, to just process all of this, everything that happened. Sokovia was just a few days ago for me and hell I should still be reeling from that but there's just so much else and if I stop to think about it I…"
Natasha pulled back a bit.
"Hey, easy now, look at me Bruce."
He stared into her emerald eyes.
"We have a job to do. We have to focus on that for now. And afterwards? I swear, everything that's happened? I'll be there to help you process it. I promise."
He nodded and she leaned her forehead against his.
"Hell after everything I think we'll both have earned at least a month off. I'll bring movies and enough vodka to kill the average Russian."
They both got a chuckle out of that.
"That doesn't sound half bad."
"It really doesn't," she leaned back and Bruce could feel exhaustion finally catch up to him from the emotional roller coaster he had been on.
"Get some rest Bruce, I'll be here when you wake up, I promise."
He nodded already mostly asleep and once again he felt her hand wrap around his own and he squeezed back.
"I missed you," she said quietly.
"I missed you too," he said as he finally drifted off.
She stayed holding his hand for a long time, as if making sure he was really here to stay. With her other hand she gently moved a stray strand of hair away from his eyes before moving away from him back to her own seat to get some rest. She had a feeling she was going to need it.
And for the first time in 2 years, her nap felt truly restful