A/N: Here! A short, fluffy chapter in time for Valentine's. I actually tried to tag this onto the end of the last chapter, but it was refusing to fit properly. And then I realized a huge chunk of the chapter actually didn't make sense, so I had to do some major editing and erasing. Thus the shortness. Sorry. Probably not what you wanted. But don't worry. By next chapter we'll get right back into the swing of things.

Also if Bruce seems a bit OOC here, I'd like to remind you he's had a rough few days, and his brain is still addled.

When Bruce woke up next, he felt remarkably better. His fever must have broken during the night, for his mind was clearer than it had been in days. He sat up and was immediately treated to the gentle smell of lilacs. It was gone as soon as he noticed it, so he brushed it off as a remnant of the dream he had the night before. He caught himself smiling. Betty loved that perfume.

"Glad to see you are awake Dr. Banner," JARVIS greeted him as he climbed out of bed. The AI began informing him of the time, the temperature outside, his temperature, and the fact that he was due for another dose of medicine. Bruce sighed as he grabbed his medicine from his bedside table. His fever was down significantly, but he'd managed to sleep into the late afternoon.

"If I may, sir, I suggest you make yourself presentable before leaving your room."

Bruce nearly choked on the pills he was swallowing. He chuckled, "Has Tony granted you the sense of smell finally? It has been a while since I've taken a shower. I'm sure I smell awful."

"No, sir," JARVIS sounded amused, "Although he has offered, I declined. I simply meant to alert you that there is a visitor in the Tower."

"Visitor?" Bruce began pulling a fresh set of clothes from his dresser.

"Yes, sir." The team didn't count as visitors. Unless it was Thor, since they hadn't seen him since he took Loki back to their planet. Most likely, it was a SHIELD agent there to demand an explanation for the other day.

"… You're not going to tell me who, are you?"

"Not until you have taken care of yourself, sir. " Bruce heard a click from the bedroom door.

"Did you just lock me in?" Bruce began laughing in earnest.

"You've forgotten to take one of your medicines, sir," JARVIS said innocently. It was a full minute before Bruce stopped laughing and went to take a shower.

When JARVIS deemed Bruce ready to leave the room, the door unlocked with a subtle click. He was surprised to find Natasha waiting outside for him.

"How are you feeling?"

"Better. Like I can think thoughts without them automatically spilling from my mouth."

"So your filter's back in place. You'll need it." She gave a small nod. Her gaze sharpened as she studied his reaction to her next words. "… She's in the kitchen eating a late lunch with Pepper. They'll be out in a minute though."

There it was. He gave a shaky laugh, "Last night was real then."

She raised an eyebrow. "I'm surprised you remember that."

"Barely. It's pretty fuzzy."

The spy nodded again. The corner of her mouth inched into a smile when Bruce took a deep, calming breath and began to walk towards the kitchen. No need to run from this. This was Betty.

The twisting in his stomach and the sudden sweat on his palms told him otherwise. The elevators were right there. Natasha would probably roll her eyes if he made a sudden dash for them now.

They got to the living room just as Pepper and Betty entered from the kitchen. Tony was on the couch, reading something on a tablet. He looked up at the encounter and gave Bruce a ridiculous grin and thumbs up.

Relief flooded through him at the sight of her. Seeing her safe and vibrant as ever was enough. Something inside him he didn't know was tense, finally relaxed, as if he could finally breathe fully once more.

"Um… Hi." Months he's thought about seeing her again and he goes with "Hi." That's original Banner. Great job.

"You're awake." And there was that smile he missed so desperately. "Are you feeling better?"

"Y-yeah, my fever broke." Stuttering? Really?

"Oh good!" She took a step forward, hand outstretched to check his temperature herself, but thought better of it. "Ah, right. They told me about your… new condition." He felt a twinge of disappointment as she withdrew her hand. Surely they shared enough memories that it wouldn't be bad to touch her. Even briefly, just to check that she wasn't a trick of the light. "And they said the Other Guy was sealed up."

"Yeah." Bruce gave a small smile. He recalled a conversation they'd had after the Culver University incident in which he insisted she refer to his green side as "the Other Guy." She'd done it to humor him, but he knew what she really saw was Bruce and a giant, green Bruce. She was either indulging him now, or the name had stuck.

"I guess I should check if you're planning on jumping out of a plane anytime soon then." She crossed her arms, but instead of anger Bruce could see the spark of humor in her eyes.

Bruce winced. "No, no. That is not on my list of things to do."

Tony snorted, "Why would it be?"

"Well the last time the other guy was suppressed… In fact, the last time I saw Bruce without all the green," she waved around him as if gesturing to his larger half, "Was when he was jumping out of a plane to go fight Blonsky."

"Ah, the Harlem incident," Tony nodded in understanding. "The Big Guy was out of commission for a bit there?"

"We thought we had a suppressant that would work, but it was only temporary," Bruce explained.

"But we didn't know that it was temporary when you jumped out of the plane." The spark of humor was quickly fading.

"Blonsky had to be stopped," Bruce groaned. "You're making it sound worse than it was."

"You almost hit the ground!" She paused at the look of guilt Bruce could feel cross his face. "You DID hit the ground!"

Bruce winced again and rubbed the back of his head. "Uh, yeah… That hurt. But obviously I'm fine. I transformed right after, so there was no permanent damage." Bruce tried to wave away the issue.

Betty wouldn't have it. "Bruce!"

"Okay, you're mad. Rightfully so. I know I—"

"You…!" She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. The anger suddenly dissolved from her face. "You could have… written more," she said softly.

"I…" Bruce blinked. He had prepared for yelling, not this. "The General was intercepting the letters."

"Well I hack into his computer sometimes."

"Oh." He sank into a nearby armchair. "Didn't realize."

"Of course not. I just…" She sighed. "Do you have any idea how hard it is to try to go about normal life without knowing? All I could do was just wait for word from my father that you'd been captured or were dead. Or worse!"

"Worse?" echoed Tony.

"Tony, Natasha, why don't you help me in the kitchen," said Pepper.

"No, no, it's okay Pepper. Stay. Maybe you all can tell me if he's telling the truth or not." Betty sat down on the couch next to Tony and looked Bruce in the eye. "You've been in the States this whole time. Why didn't you contact me?"

Bruce studied her face for a moment before answering. "Betty, after Harlem… I didn't think that was my call."

She looked at him in dawning realization. "You thought I'd be… scared? Of you?"

"Don't say it like it's a crazy idea, Betty. It's not," Bruce sighed as Betty began to laugh. "Really? It's not funny."

"It is funny," she gasped between giggles. "Years… Years, I've been trying to locate you. Ever since I saw the news coverage from the Battle of New York. But all my searches and requests for information were blocked. I knew I should try coming here, to where I knew you were last, but the General has been tracking my movements so closely, I knew I would be putting you in jeopardy if it turned out you really were here in New York. And after all that I find out you didn't contact me because you thought I'd be scared!" She burst into another set of giggles.

Bruce shook his head with a smile. God, he had missed that sound. A thought occurred to him. "How did you find me now?"

Betty's laughter instantly evaporated and Bruce could have sworn he saw a look of guilt flash over her features. "The guards watching me were spread thin. Last week, when I hacked the General's computer, they said the Hulk was spotted in three different places: Kuwait, Alaska, and North Dakota. I knew something was wrong, but the General believed it, so I finally had a chance and I took it."

"Before you ask," Tony cut in as he continued to study the tablet he held, "Kuwait was SHIELD, North Dakota is related to Cap's mission, and we're looking into Alaska."

"Okay, but…Kuwait? Why am I in Kuwait?" Bruce looked over his shoulder to where Natasha stood.

"People noticed you were missing during the battle against the wolves, so until the Hulk is ready to be seen again, you're in Kuwait," Natasha explained.

"I see. Good thinking," Bruce said. Natasha nodded in appreciation.

They lapsed into silence. Bruce had to keep himself from staring at Betty. Her hair was shorter than he'd remembered and there were a few new lines on her face. He probably had more lines on his face too.

As good as it was to see her, her timing was awful. She shouldn't be there.

Then, as if she had read his mind, she said, "So this is when you tell me it's too dangerous for me to be here, right?"

"You know the drill," he gestured for her to continue.

"Well, my argument is that this is the safest place for me to be. And if you say that you might hurt me, then you are completely wrong. I know you would never hurt me and you didn't at Culver or Harlem, so—"

"I believe you."

Betty took a deep breath, clearly preparing for a long rant, but instead froze in confusion, "You…You do?"

Bruce gave a shy smile and shrugged, "Someone may have slipped me the footage from the Culver incident." He could hear Natasha give an obvious yawn behind him.

Betty's shoulders relaxed. "I would've been dead back then if it wasn't for you."

"You wouldn't have been in trouble in the first place if it weren't for me."

She glared at him, "Will you stop being so logical and calm?"

"It's not like I can get angry."

She crossed her arms, "That's not funny."

"It kind of is." He grinned, but it faded away as quickly as it came. He ran a hand across his face and stared down at his feet. "Why are you here Betty? You really shouldn't be."

"If you have to ask that, you're still the same idiot I met at Harvard." She leaned toward him. "If you really want me gone you'll have to come up with a legitimate reason. Otherwise, I'm here to stay."

"Your safety isn't legitimate enough?"

"Didn't we just go over this?"

Bruce shook his head, "There are still people after me."

"Right, about that. I'm sitting here, quite literally in a Tower with superheroes," said Betty. Behind her Bruce could see Tony's chest puff out in pride at the word. "I know something is going on. Someone is targeting you. Well, I think I'd be more vulnerable out there than in here. They could try to use me to get to you… They already have."

"What?" Bruce sat up straight.

Betty wrung her hands together. "They slipped a tracker on me. It looked like an ordinary quarter, but Tony says it's made of the same material the wolf skeletons were."

"Which reminds me. I think I know how to preserve the circuits while I melt the metal, so I should go check that nobody has stolen the super precious coin from my safe downstairs," said Tony as he hopped up and crossed the room towards the elevators. "You two lovebirds carry on." Pepper followed him out of the room and Natasha slipped off into the kitchen, effectively leaving them alone.

Betty laughed nervously. "That was subtle."

"I know, right?" Bruce laughed with her.

Betty looked down at her the hem of her shirt which her hands picked at nervously. "Well, you know… We did leave things in kind of a weird place. But I guess I should mention, Leonard and I—"

"I know," Bruce cut her off. She looked up at him with questioning eyes. He shrugged and gave her a sideways glance. "I may have read that off of you last night when you hugged me. That along with everything you've done to find me."

"Oh. So you do know why I'm here," she crossed her arms and tried to look annoyed, but Bruce could see she was holding back a smile.

"Yes, I know why." He smiled at her. "And I'm glad you came."

Her face was going red and now she really was grinning at him. "Oh! That reminds me." She dug around in her pocket for something. "Here!" She held out her fist and he reached out for her to drop whatever it was into his palm.

"This is…" He looked down at the piece of jewelry he never thought he'd see again. "My mom's ring."

"I found it. After you had to leave, I found it rolled up in a pair of socks." She picked at the hem of her shirt again. "I hope you don't mind… I was… I mean, I wore it. For just a little bit. To keep it safe."

Oh wow, was his face red too? "That's fine. I'm sure she would've been happy it had some use after all these years." That's what he had been thinking eight years ago when he had been planning on proposing anyway.

A voice from the ceiling interrupted his thoughts. "That was surprisingly easy. I thought there'd be more yelling or crying or something. Now will you to just kiss already? You're so obvious, it's ridiculous."

They jumped and looked up to find Clint's grinning face peeking out from an air vent above where they sat.

Bruce sighed. "How long have you been up there?"

"Long enough to get the picture," said Clint. "Which only took about five seconds, but that's—" He cut himself off with a frown. "Do you guys hear that?"

Bruce and Betty looked at each other. Betty shook her head and looked up at Clint. "Hear what?"

Before Clint could answer he suddenly gasped and his face twisted in an expression of pain.

"Clint?!" Bruce and Betty stood and a second later Natasha was by their side. They couldn't see him anymore; he had curled back into the air duct in pain.

"Clint, I'm coming up!" Natasha called, but before she could act Clint suddenly dropped down beside them.

His face was pale. "I'm fine. Suddenly got some feedback." He held out one of his hearing aids in explanation as he turned the device over looking for abnormalities. Bruce frowned. He was not surprised to see the device. As the makeshift medical doctor of the group, he knew Clint had severe hearing loss from a sonic arrow incident a few years back. But the hearing aid looked fine, and a sudden unexplained interference could only spell bad news given recent occurrences.

Natasha saw it first. She pointed and the others turned. Bruce could feel the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. At the base of his brain he could feel the Hulk growl in warning. A sort of hazy glimmer, like a heat shimmer on hot asphalt, had appeared towards the ceiling on the other side of the room. For a moment he hoped he was seeing things again. Maybe his fever had spiked. But it was only in that spot in the room.

"Oh, what now?" he groaned. He had already had his fair share of unnatural occurrences for the year crammed into two weeks.

The haze only grew wider and they could all hear it now: a sort of buzzing… no, wailing… shrieking… SNAP-

Something big dropped from the haze onto the floor with a crash. The haze instantly disappeared. The something groaned and untangled itself into two Asgardians.

Half an instant later, Clint was between the Norse gods and Bruce and Betty, an arrow already nocked in his bow that he had pulled from seemingly nowhere. Next to him Natasha held a gun aloft. Both SHIELD agents were aiming at the smaller figure.

Loki smiled at this, turned to Thor with a tone that clearly indicated an inside joke, and said the last words Bruce expected to hear, "Ta da!"