A/N: I adore the Bruce/Natasha storyline in Age of Ultron, especially because it leaves a lot to the imagination as to how they got so close since the first Avengers. A fanfic writer's dream! I hope you other BruceNat fans enjoy this first installment of what I've imagined for them (and if you do, I'd love to know ;)).
Many thanks to my beta reader, malintzin, without whose encouragement I might not have attempted to write for the MCU. She may just have created a monster.
1. We Meet Again
"It's been a while… Agent Romanoff," Bruce said, by way of greeting, peering owlishly at her behind the lenses of his glasses.
With a slight smile, but without moving from where she stood in the doorway of the lab, mindful that he hadn't moved toward her, Natasha replied, "Memory could be rusty, but I thought we were on a first name basis? Even before there wasn't a SHIELD to be an agent of."
The last part she added to gauge his reaction; Bruce had always been, at best, wary of the agency.
As it turned out, he was right to be.
He ducked his head, one hand reaching up to tug at the hair curling over the collar of his lab coat. "Yeah…I just thought…" His eyes flicked up to meet hers again. "It's been a while."
Twice now he'd said that. Although it was the truth, Natasha had been a spy for so long that the truth sometimes chafed. This was one of those times. The hint of accusation in the words, despite his uttering them in his careful flat tone, that she should've seen him before now. As if she didn't have enough regrets in her life without feeling guilty for neglecting Bruce Banner. Then again, the slight hesitation before he'd addressed her, the formal use of her title, the physical distance between them, might mean he'd have preferred more time pass between encounters.
Finding out which it was, was kind of the point of her being here now.
Before she could say anything, he took off his glasses, slipping them into the breast pocket of his lab coat-alongside a couple of pens, she noted, with some amusement-as he stepped around his workstation.
"Well, Natasha," he said, approaching her, "to what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?"
A friendlier greeting, accompanied by a smile, but there was still that hint of wariness in it, as well as in the light grasp of his fingers around hers as he accepted her handshake-briefly, before he wove his own together again-which unsettled her.
Fortunately, she was a skilled enough actress that she didn't sound it in the least when she replied, "Actually I hoped it wouldn't be just a visit."
She paused, waiting to see whether the scientist would work out her meaning.
"You want to move in."
"Just till the storm passes," she heard herself explaining, hastily.
Before she came here, Natasha prepared for a number of reactions from Bruce about her desire to take refuge in Avengers Tower. Incredulity, however, had not been one of them. She also hadn't anticipated feeling like an adult announcing to her parents that being out on her own hadn't worked out and she needed to come back home to live with them. Not that she had experience with parent-child relationships.
Maybe it was that of all the rooms in the Tower, the lab was strictly Bruce's domain. On the other hand, his body language wasn't that of someone who was totally comfortable in his surroundings. But was it ever?
"I tried weathering it on my own, but all my covers are blown, and my usual network…"
Her words trailed off as she searched for the correct ones to describe this unique situation she'd found herself in, for the first time in her life without anyone to tell her where to go and what to do there.
"Isn't a working net?" Bruce suggested.
She gave a puff of a laugh. "Something like that."
"What about Barton? I thought you two were…?"
Unclasping his hands, he gestured vaguely at her-at her necklace, she realized, touching her fingers to the arrow pendant- before tucking them into his pants pockets.
In fact Natasha had gone to the farm for a couple of days after the hearing, but hadn't stayed long.
"Clint's got his own back to watch."
More importantly, Laura's and the kids'. What kind of Aunt Nat would she be if she put them in any more danger than they were already in? Not to mention, the sudden lack of employment left Clint with time to finally get around to building that tool shed that had been on his honey-do list for…how many years now? Laura must be in heaven, having him home for the foreseeable. Either that, or his obsession with remodeling would have her wishing for another mission.
"Anyway," said Natasha, coming back to the lab, its sleek tech the antithesis of the Barton home her thoughts had wandered to, "it's more like the storm's weathering me, between the arrests and assassinations…"
The lines of Bruce's forehead twitched at that, a muscle flickered at the curve of his jaw. In spite of her deep steady breathing, her heart accelerated behind her ribs. Was he thinking of the information that had been released about her? About the people she assassinated?
"Maria told me-well, she told Tony and me-things were rough out there for SHIELD agents. Former agents."
He had no skill whatsoever at schooling away a blush, and as his cheeks reddened, his gaze flickered from hers again. He leaned over one of the nearby workstations, feigning distraction with something on one of the displays as he fumbled in his pocket to take out his glasses.
"I wondered if you were in danger," he said, more softly. "I mean, not that you can't handle yourself…I've seen that up close and personal."
"I had a couple close shaves with HYDRA. Maria persuaded me to stop taking unnecessary risks and come here."
Bruce snorted. "Sorry…I just…Maria's got a weird sense of humor. Avengers Tower a risk-free environment?"
"Well, HR's not really her thing."
"Yet she persuaded you to take Tony up on his offer."
He was in a mood-or several-and that Natasha couldn't get a solid read on him only supported Maria's claim that she was worn out and needed this.
"That still depends," she said.
"On?"
"You."
She hadn't been aware that during the course of their conversation, she'd moved closer to his desk, that he'd come around the front toward her, until Bruce took a step backward, one hand on the glass surface.
"Me?"
"Yeah."
He ran his hand over his chin, the silvery stubble rasping against his palm. "It's not my tower, Natasha." He let out a short bitter laugh. "Hell, I don't even pay rent."
"Good to know, given my current state of unemployment."
Bruce looked at her, but his eyes were obscured by the glare on his glasses. "I'm sorry about your job."
"Are you? I know how you've always felt about SHIELD."
"That's impressive, considering I don't even know how I've always felt about SHIELD." He smiled, gently. Sadly. "Losing your job sucks."
The image of him, dressed in that shabby suit, prowling around that shack in Calcutta, came suddenly to the front of her mind, along with the memory of the lurch her heart had given at the sight, which hadn't strictly been from fear of the Other Guy. It hadn't occurred to her until now that Bruce had experience with this very situation. Not just with finding yourself out of a job, but with being unable to trust the people you thought you could.
"Lucky for us we've got this Avenger gig on the backburner, huh?"
"Mmm," came Bruce's noncommittal reply as he crossed his arms.
Of course, just because he was empathetic didn't mean she'd put him at ease.
"This is Avengers Tower, Natasha. You're an Avenger. You don't need to ask me if you can stay here."
"I know. But I do need to ask you if after everything that's happened…Are you okay having me for a roommate?"
Bruce's lips curved slightly in a bland expression, creases deepening at the corners of his eyes as he contemplated her for a long time in silence. Natasha gave her head a little shake to flick her straightened hair back over her shoulder, and tried not to feel hurt that he didn't have an answer right away. That he had to weigh his decision, and her, and might find her wanting. That was, after all, what she was giving him a chance to do.
Finally, he asked, "Are you clean and quiet?"
Was that one of his dry jokes? Natasha answered as if it were.
"I doubt you'd even know I'm here."
"Then you're way ahead of Tony," Bruce said, "and I've lived with him for two years without incident."
