Do not read if you haven't seen the movie! Contains Spoilers.. please don't do this.
The movie made me really sad and this is my therapy. Hope you like it! I wrote this one so I can be healed from the pain caused by "that" scene. It also helps me overcome the thought of not watching it ever again. Sharing this and hope this helps you too :)
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A couple of hours have passed since the set up of the time machine outside the woodland remains of Upstate New York. The time has come to execute the plan devised to finally return the stones to where they belong.
Bruce, alongside Steve, opens up the briefcase that contains the most powerful gems in the entire universe. They're beautiful to look at, all shining, all glowing, all mesmerizing. His eyes darts and fixes on the small orange stone on the leftmost side of the case. Out of all them, it is the one he's certain he'll never ever forget. The sorrowful memory comes back to him in an instant, shooting several stabs inside his oversized heart, the pain creeps all over his chest; it is excruciatingly hard to bear.
There has always been something between him and Natasha. Unspoken but clearly felt and regardless of the years apart, it remains. It was always there. It never left.
"When I snapped my fingers, I tried my best to get her back. I miss her so much," Bruce says with deep sadness. It still continuously breaks his heart into a million pieces.
"Me too," Steve quietly tells him back.
Both of them remain silent over the next few minutes. Her voice saying see you in a minute echoes inside his mind. He never expected it to be the last time. But then she didn't come back. For a moment he did not believe it. He consciously didn't want to believe it. He fell down to his knees. He was devastated. He asked the others to use the machine again, begged them to reverse time, plan and do it again, prevent this one from happening. But it's already over and done.
Regret always comes in the end, he thinks. The should have and could have thoughts of his cannot get anymore pathetic now.
The arrival of Sam and Bucky distracts him temporarily, and the captain leaves him for a while to welcome them.
He lightly sweeps his huge green fingers over the glowing gems and he picks up the last one. He places it carefully on his palm, looks at it longingly, sadly breaths out, "Natasha."
His eyes starts to damp as he continues, "I wish you'd come back. I want you to come back, please."
Steve pats him on the back, Bruce shyly wipes the tears that fell on his face. He recomposes himself, then reminds the captain that he should put the stones back to exactly where they got them.
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Steve manages to return all the stones to their proper place. The farewells their old friend gave them are brief but beautiful.
"I'm happy you lived the life you've always wanted Steve," he sincerely tells him.
"Thank you, Bruce. I wish you would too. It is never too late to start over. I hope you'll find what it is that'll make you happy, you deserve to be happy," the 80 year old captain replies. He shook his hand and waved him goodbye.
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Bruce goes back to his private and secluded home somewhere in Atlanta. The keys were blown up to ash in the facility and he has no other way in but to smash the door. Pieces of wood scattered everywhere as he made his entrance.
"It was actually not locked," a familiar voice informs him. He searches for the source and got surprised with what he saw.
"Who are you?" he asks suspiciously.
"You know who I am," the person replies quickly, and steadily stands in front of him.
"If you are playing games with me, this is beyond horrible. You should reveal yourself now. You know, I can easily remove the life out of you," he says grimly. "I'm going to ask one last time, who are you?"
"Bruce." The words said so softly. It made his heart sink, he missed the way his name is said like that. "It's me, Bruce. It's really me."
"How is this possible?" he asks, completely flabbergasted, he's unguarded now but still he's not conviced.
"When the stone was returned to Vormir. I reappeared. Then I saw Steve, he told me everything," she answers, glancing up at him, half smiling.
"Why were you not at the facility with him then? He was there. Why didn't he tell me of this?" he questions as he tries to deduce if it is indeed true and possible.
"We could have done that but he can't stay and live in the 70's if we did," she explains. "The closest I had was in New York. I re-lived all those years again Bruce. I stayed low, corrected a few mistakes here and there. It was dreadfully long, but I waited. Better there than staying dead in Vormir."
A flow of overwhelming emotions run through him. It is her.
"Oh, Natasha," he says as he steps forward to hug her. He wanted to do it tightly as he missed her so much but then he remembers he has Hulk's body with him. "Where will you go now? I mean, I'm really happy to see you and all. But, ugh, the facility is shut down and I don't have Fury's number."
"I, uhm, If you don't mind, I actually want to stay here," she tells him, waits and watches for his reaction on it.
"Well I do have a spare room. It's small but you could stay as long as you like, or until you decide on what you want to do from here," he informs her genuinely, gestures over the door on the other side of the room.
She steps in closer, places her hand on his. "I mean, stay together."
Bruce pauses and tries hard to process what she just said for more than three minutes, as if he cannot comprehend the words she just told him.
"Together? Uhm, you do see that I am a huge green guy, right?" he asks her, chuckling nervously.
"I know you have the serum. I'm sorry but I did a little snooping around when you were out. I know you can control when and when not to be the Hulk. You have full control over it now," she replies, and sees his eyes widen in complete surprise.
"Uhm, well, yeah you're absolutely right about that. But are you sure? I mean, we kind of suck at this, really," he tells her bluntly and they both laugh.
"I know, we suck, so bad," she says before she cuts off the rest of her laughter. "But now there's no more war, no more fights, no more avenging. We already won."
Bruce inhales deeply as he takes in everything she's telling him. He wants to be with her too. But he still has another thing in mind to ask, "Are you sure this is the life you want?"
She looks at him, eyes clear and certain. "Tony took a page out of Barton's book. Steve took one in his, and I don't know about Thor, but I want to take one out of that book and experience it for myself too. With you. But only if you want it too."
Of course he does want it too. The statement and the expression on her face makes him want to run over to his lab, inject the serum, go back to being a regular sized Banner and kiss her full on the lips.
"Bruce?"
"I'm sorry," he says and quickly sees the disappointment on her face. "No, no, no, I mean, yes, I do want that. I want to be with you. You have no idea how much pain and regret and sorrow I had when you..."
She shakes her head, stops him from completing his sentence. "I know and that's all in the past now."
He nods and asks her to stay and wait for him there. He makes it into the lab, shakes in excitement as he injects the serum into his arm, a few seconds afterwards he shrinks back to his human body. He rushes to his room to find regular sized clothes.
"Don't bother," she says from behind him. He felt her come close, her soft hand find it's way around his waist, his heart beats fast, but he doesn't need to worry about that anymore. He turns around to see her, cups her face in his hands.
"I missed you, Natasha and I really, really, really, really want to kiss you right now," he tells her in all honesty.
She smiles sweetly and says, "Would it surprise you if I say that I really want to kiss you too?"
He chuckles at that, leans in close and their lips finally meet.
The end.