Ducati requested: Bruce was injured, and Natasha comforted him.

Some kind of Adoration

The mission was as good as over. The next Hydra base was down, but there was no trace of the scepter. Again. At least they had one base less. Now all Natasha had to do was go to the big guy and calm him down. They've developed this 'lullaby' about a month ago and it was working better every time.

Natasha followed the sounds of destruction, till she found him kicking debris and tearing trees out of the ground. "Hey, big guy." She called out to him gently and he immediately turned to her, snarling. Then he seemed to recognize her and his glare softened. "Sun's getting real low." After taking off her glove she extended her hand, watching him patiently as he hesitated but eventually came closer to copy her movements.

She slowly ran her fingers over his wrist and hand, holding his gaze and watched as he stumbled backwards and slowly shrank down to his original size with less green skin. Nat gave him a minute to come down again, before approaching him. "You okay, doc?" Bruce just groaned and rubbed his temple as an answer.

She helped him up, put his arm around her shoulder and led him to the jet. But they didn't get very far. Natasha stopped abruptly, having heard something. "What? Is something wrong?" Asked Bruce, looking around, trying to find whatever caught her attention.

Before Nat could react, someone shot them. Her instinct reacted instantly once she heard the sound and her reaction was to cover Bruce with her body and push him to the ground. Once she spotted the last Hydra agent she grabbed her gun and shot back, killing him instantly.

Sighing, she turned back to Bruce below her and noticed him holding his side. She quickly got off him and inspected his wound. "Let me see." She mumbled, it's not like he had another chance. The bullet went right through him. She had to stop the bleeding fast. Looking up, she noticed his eyes turning green again. "Don't touch it." His voice was distorted, but he obviously fought against Hulk.

"I won't." For these kind of situations Natasha always had a pair of disposable gloves with her. After putting them on, she looked through her pockets for something to help him. "You might need some new pants, doc." She said, as she also took her knife out. "Why...?" He asked and Nat answered by cutting off a big part of his pants.

Then she pressed the cloth pieces on his entry and exit wound to stop the bleeding. "It's gonna be okay, just don't go green on me, okay?" Bruce just nodded, hissing at the pressure on his wounds. If he transformed he surely healed faster, but then they'd all have to deal with the big guy and he'll sure as hell be very angry then.

This was kinda weird because normally she's the one who got hurt and Bruce patched her up. "Tony, we need some help here. Bruce is hurt." Said the redhead over the comm and immediately got an answer from him. "On my way."

The cloth was quickly soaked in blood and just didn't stop. She cut off another big piece of his pants then and pressed it on his wound, too. Then she bandaged him up quickly and heard Tony landing close to them. His face plate went up and he quickly joined her on Bruce's side. "What happened?"

"He's been shot. The bullet went through him and he's bleeding too much." Tony nodded and helped Bruce up, half carrying him back to the quinjet. "We need to bring him back, before our jolly green friend shows up." Natasha informed Clint and the others what happened and that they had to take off the second they stepped into the jet.

The timing was as perfect as ever. As soon as they're in the jet they were in the air already and flew back to the Avengers Tower.

Tony helped Bruce on the table and while he lay there, Natasha noticed that his bandages were soaked in blood. He was still bleeding. The guys gathered the medical equipment and right when she wanted to help them, she felt a hand on her arm holding her in place. Natasha looked down at Bruce's now brown eyes again, though they still had a tinge of green.

"Stay." His voice was normal again, too. Nat shot a quick glance at the others, deciding that they could just bring her the stuff. "I'm not going anywhere." She promised, looking back at him. "Just stay with me, okay?" The scientist nodded and then Nat began to peel off the soaked bandages, after putting on new pair of disposable gloves and throwing away the old ones.

The boys helped her patching Bruce up. At least they were able to stop the bleeding, now she just had to stitch it up. During the whole procedure his eyes turned back to green. "Bruce, I need to disinfect your wound again. Stay calm." He didn't stay calm though, he screamed from the pain and moved around so much that the boys had to pin him to the table.

She and Clint switched places then, like a perfectly oiled machine. While he began to stitch Bruce up, Natasha discarded her bloody gloves and tried to calm him down. While Thor held him down, she gently traced her fingers over his arm, like she always did with Hulk. The other hand went up to his face and turned his head to her.

"Look at me." She said with a gentle voice and he did, his eyes were dark green and the rest of his body slowly turned green, too. "You're gonna be okay. You just have to fight it a bit longer. We're home soon." At her words Bruce's eyes turned slightly brownish and there was a glimmer of longing in them, too.

He stopped wriggling around and she looked at Thor and Steve to let him go again. They nodded back and let go, but stayed close in case he freaked out again. Nat checked Clint's work and saw that he was done with the first one. Time for round two. "Okay, you need to turn around now." Nat and Clint helped him turn around and they repeated the procedure. Clint taking care of the wound and Nat distracting Bruce.

This time was obviously not as painful as the first try. Or maybe it's because of her little distractions. She was still gently running her fingers over his arm —that had goosebumps all over it now— and her other hand was still cupping his cheek. Natasha couldn't see his eyes though, because he's shut them as tight as he could. "Everything's fine." She told him reassuringly, before glancing at Clint's direction.

The archer just nodded, silently telling her that he's done with his work. Nat nodded back and turned her attention back to Bruce. "How are you feeling?" Bruce grumbled and finally opened his now brown eyes, looking at her intently. "Like shit." The spy gave him a little smile and stroked his cheek. "But you did it."

"Because of you." He replied quietly. His eyes were full of emotions but Natasha didn't have the time to analyze them all because he closed them again, his hand reaching for the one on his face and interlacing his fingers with hers. Nat wasn't quite sure what to do with this, but didn't find that unpleasant.

"That!" Came a sudden loud voice from the cockpit. Tony let JARVIS fly the jet and turned to everyone. "Was. Amazing." And all of a sudden the tense atmosphere vanished and the others came to her. "It really was." Agreed Steve, looking just as impressed as everyone else. "Yeah, I thought big green's gonna wreck the jet." Clint sighed relieved and patted the redheads shoulder.

"It was indeed very impressing!" Said Thor with a wide grin on his face. Nat didn't really agree with them, after all facing the big guy was a bit more impressing that this here. "Could it be that you and Banner—"

"Nat and Banner?" Interrupted Clint the god of thunder and laughed. "It did look like it." Said Tony thoughtfully. That's when Nat stopped listening to the guys. Sighing, she pulled a chair to her to sit on and watched the sleeping Bruce. She wouldn't ever admit it to anyone, but she might have certain feelings for him. Surely just some kind of adoration, because they both went through a lot in their lives.

And it was nice to have gained his trust this much, training the lullaby...He wouldn't do all this —plus holding her hand like this— if he didn't trust her.