There aren't many Bruce/Natasha stories and since they are one of my favorite pairings I decided to go ahead and write a story about them.
Natasha had been annoyed that she had been pulled out of the interrogation but the urgency of her first assignment proved to be more important. She was sent to Calcutta to recruit Dr. Bruce Banner. Ever since his accident Bruce had attempted to stay as hidden as possible. He decided the best way to do that was to settle down in a third world country and help others out. The other guy had not made an appearance for about a year and Bruce hoped to keep it that way. He hated knowing that he could lose control and the other guy would take over. Once the other guy appeared he had no control over his actions and anything could happen.
A poor young girl was hired to put on a charade to lead Dr. Banner to the outskirts of the town where Natasha could introduce herself and hopefully get him on board.
She watched the young girl she hired run into the house as Bruce quickly followed behind. The girl disappeared and she heard Bruce muttering something about being paid beforehand. Natasha decided it was time to reveal herself as she came up behind him trying careful not to startle him in any way.
"You know, for a man who's supposed to be avoiding stress, you picked a hell of a place to settle," she began as she examined him for any signs of stress.
"Avoiding stress isn't the secret." Bruce responded calmly as he took in her dark red hair and features. So they decided to send him someone pretty this time, he wondered what they wanted.
"Then, what is it? Yoga?" she asked in attempt to make small talk and relax a little although Bruce looked calm.
"You brought me to the edge of the city, smart. I uh... assume the whole place is surrounded?" He would have been truly surprised if she had actually come alone.
"Just you and me." She lied knowing very well that there were about 50 SHIELD agents outside. It would have been foolish to come alone to see a man who turned into a green monster when he got angry. Natasha hoped that the other guy wouldn't make an appearance tonight.
"And your actress buddy is she a spy too? Do they start that young?" Natasha was glad that Bruce was playing along with the small talk so she could think of a way to broach the subject of asking for his help.
"I did." Natasha continued to wonder when she should bring up the real reason she was here.
"Who are you?" Bruce finally asked.
"I'm Natasha Romanoff."
"Are you here to kill me, Miss Romanoff? Because that's not going to work out for everyone." Bruce looked slightly amused at the idea for some reason. If Natasha attempted to kill him it would turn particularly ugly for her and the backup she probably had waiting outside.
"No. No. Of course not. I'm here on behalf of SHIELD." Natasha quickly responded in an attempt to reassure him she wasn't here to kill him.
"SHIELD. How did they find me? "Bruce had hoped he had shaken SHIELD off his track for at least a little while but he guessed they decided to just leave him alone until they needed him.
"We never lost you, doctor. We've kept our distance, even helped keep some other interested parties off your scent. " Natasha confirmed his suspicion that he had never managed to evade SHIELD after all.
"Why?" Bruce asked although he had an idea why they wouldn't want to let him off the hook entirely. He was glad however that SHIELD had left him alone helped keep others off his trail.
"Nick Fury seems to trust you. But now I need you to come in." She was finally able to bring up the topic.
"What if I say no?" Bruce doubted that even if he resisted he would truly be given a choice.
"I'll persuade you." Natasha hoped he wouldn't read too much into those words even though she had to admit she wouldn't mind. If it came down to that, Natasha would do what she had to do.
Now Bruce realized why SHIELD had sent someone pretty to "persuade" him yet he didn't intend to take advantage of her. "And what if the... other guy says no?" The other guy was the main reason he didn't want to help out, he didn't think that anything he had to offer could counter the fact that he could destroy everything in just a second if he lost control.
"You've been more than a year without an incident. I don't think you want to break that streak. "
"I don't get always what I want." He had always wanted to help others and contribute to science instead he suffered an accident that turned him into a green angry out of control monster.
"Doctor, we're facing a potential global catastrophe." Natasha needed to convince him to join, without him it would be difficult to solve the crisis. If she failed Fury would live up to his name and she would have a whole other issue on her hands, failure was not an option.
"Well, those I actively try to avoid." The last thing he needed was to be in a stressful environment.
"This is the Tesseract and it has the potential energy to wipe out the planet." Natasha showed him the picture as an attempt to get him interested in their mission. Natasha couldn't help but admit she liked Bruce's humor and if you agreed to join in she would have someone interesting to talk to.
Bruce put his glasses on as he examined the Tessseract,"What does Fury want me to do? Swallow it? He still wasn't convinced that his participation could be of much use, yet he knew that if SHIELD really thought they needed him what he wanted wouldn't matter.
"Well, he wants you to find it. It's been taken. It omits a gamma signature that's too weak for us to trace. There's no one that knows gamma radiation like you do. If there was, that's where I'd be." Natasha watched Bruce run his hand over his wavy dark brown hair as he sighed.
To say that no one knows gamma radiation like him would be an understatement. His entire life had been affected by gamma radiation. "So Fury isn't after the monster and doesn't need me in a cage?" Bruce asked.
"No one's going to put you in a..." Natasha was cut short by Bruce as his fists slammed the table all of the sudden without warning.
"STOP LYING TO ME" he screamed in sudden rage.
The air was suddenly very tense and Natasha's gun was pointed at Bruce in split second and her heart started racing and her breathing quickened. She was shocked, she feared her that he had suddenly lost control and stared at him with wide eyes as if he was about to transform at any second.
"I'm sorry, that was mean." He honestly hadn't expected her to react so badly. "I just wanted to see what you'd do." Bruce put his hands up, "Why don't we do this the easy way, where you don't use that, and the other guy doesn't make a mess? Okay? "Bruce felt bad as he realized how much he frightened Natasha as her blue-green eyes appeared to be almost brimming with tears. Natasha... "He said slowly as he tried to calm her down. He would most definitely not try that again, he wanted to reach out to her and help her relax but with a gun pointed at him he didn't see that as possible.
Natasha finally lowered her gun. She let out a breath and wearily spoke into her earpiece telling the agents outside to stand down.
"Just you and me?" Bruce said looking slightly amused. Natasha on the other hand who had yet to recover her composure did not find it to be as amusing.
"Would you like to sit down?" he asked looking slightly concerned. He really hadn't intend to scare that much he just wanted to see how she would react and she hadn't reacted to well to his little experiment.
"No, no, I'll be fine but please don't do that again." Natasha said annoyed she didn't like being startled and she was angry at herself for being almost at the verge of tears. She really needed to get a hold of herself and she swore she would find some way to get back at him for this.
Please Review! This chapter is very similar to the movie because I decided to leave their first meeting as is. The next chapters will be very different from the movie. Thanks for reading!
