Author's Note: Here's the ointment for your slow burn, apologies for that. I'm including HuggaHulk decorated bandaids to cover those burns with. Welcome to the story, Bregje, and continue to enjoy the ride!
This chapter is for Adsdragonlover, because I laughed hysterically when you told me you shipped these two like Fed-Ex. Glad you didn't say UPS. They stuck a box in my mailbox today that took me fifteen minutes to wiggle back out. Bastards don't ship like we do... *sniffle*
Chapter 20:
Bruce was almost positive he came up with an appropriate way to really apologize to Natasha. She wasn't avoiding him at all, but her openness from recent weeks had become almost nonexistent. After five days he and Tony had crafted something in the lab that Bruce thought might bring her back around. Mostly she just didn't strike him as the 'flowers' type of woman and he decided she was more the type to be appreciative of something more prudent. Someone like Natasha would prefer something useful, something that she could fight with, and Bruce was sure he had come up with just that. It wasn't exactly tested, being that Natasha and her new uniform were required for the full effect, but what testing they had managed was terrifyingly effective.
Fortunately Natasha was in the perfect place to bring the gift and so he made his way down to the gym. She was currently using Thor as a punching bag when he walked in and the Asgardian seemed thrilled by the fact she chose him to spar with her this morning. The demigod also had no qualms with putting Natasha down hard on the mat, something she also seemed thrilled by if the grin on her face after Thor helped her back up was any indication.
"A valiant effort, Natasha," Thor told her with appreciation. "You are a warrior of equal repute to those of Asgard," and Bruce was sure that the compliment wasn't at all necessary and then Thor topped it off by holding his fist out towards her.
Natasha's eyebrow quirked up as she looked from his fist to his face.
"Is this not how one shows respect after a match of physical prowess?" Thor questioned with a ruffled brow, "Barton informed me that fists of bumping were all the rage on Midguard."
Bruce covered his mouth and bit back a laugh as he watched Natasha's face show the hilarity she found from Thor's statement, then she did something he never imagined he would see, she gave Thor a fist bump.
"Doctor Banner appears to want your attention," Thor informed her and Bruce released a weary and nervous breath as Natasha glanced over in his direction.
He watched as she studied him for a moment before she came over to him, "What's up, Doc?" It was teasing and teasing was definitely a sign of things being a little better between them for the first time. He wouldn't have thought her greeting was teasing if it weren't for the fact she had found him watching Bugs Bunny the night before and had given him a rather bemused look before sitting at the other end of the couch and watching it with him in silence.
Much as he didn't want to, Bruce floundered a little as he pulled the two tiny metal rods with little hilts on the ends from behind his back, and then he held them out to her. True to character, she looked a little confused at the two blackish-silver rods with a little bow around them before she took them from his hand, "What exactly are they?" she questioned.
"They're uh...they're batons."
"Oh?"
"Stun batons, sort of, with extra kick, like your cuffs... but stronger," Bruce offered up in explanation. "It's sort of a see it to understand it type of thing. They're for, you know, when you run out of bullets," he tacked on for good measure.
He could see Thor looking on with interest at the new weaponry as Natasha pulled the bow off and settled one baton in each hand.
"They work without the uniform too but they're stronger with the upgrades that Tony gave to your suit." He leaned forward and pointed with his index finger, "Just squeeze there."
Bruce took a good three steps back as she squeezed the little rod hilts where he said and a slanted little smile formed on her face as the batons formed from them with a little cackle of electricity. "Alright," she stated as she glanced back up at him, "That's actually neat."
He shrugged sheepishly at that, "Still needs to be tested with your uniform though, you know... to make sure it's fully effective."
Natasha gave a small nod as she released her grip a little and the batons retracted. "You made these?" she questioned with curiosity.
"Well, yeah, but Tony helped."
She smirked a little, "Of course he did, he's Tony."
He smiled a little at that.
"Did you want to test them now?"
Bruce nodded, "Yeah...I mean, if you want to."
She didn't seem to notice his awkward and unsure answers to her questions, but then again she rarely ever did, or maybe she just expertly ignored it. He really couldn't be sure with her sometimes. "Absolutely," she agreed with a grin, "I'll be back with the right wardrobe."
And she was gone pretty quickly with that statement. It wasn't often he saw actual interest or excitement from Natasha but that had been one of those moments where she showed her version of both. Well, her version of interest and excitement anyways; her version being a sly little grin and brighter than usual eyes. It seemed that the whole 'give her weapons, not flowers' idea was more effective than he originally planned.
"Hello, Doctor Banner!"
Bruce turned to glance at Thor as the man walked over towards him, "Hey, Thor."
"Might I ask you a question?"
He almost wanted to say no, almost, but Thor had said it so formally that he found it was impossible to do that. "Sure..." he supposed it couldn't really hurt any.
Bruce knew his initial thought was wrong when Thor gave him a rather shit-eating grin, "Are you courting Lady Natasha?"
He choked out a cough at the question as he stuttered out a response, "Uh...no. No...I'm not—I'm not courting Natasha."
"Oh, I see."
"Why—why would you ask that?"
Thor gave a shrug at that, "It is merely that you have just performed an Asgardian courting ceremony for female warriors."
Bruce stared at him in shock, "Courting ceremony?"
"Indeed. It is customary when courting our female warriors that one bestows upon them a weapon of great value," Thor explained and Bruce almost wanted to face palm. "Is that not a custom of Midguard?" the demigod questioned.
"Not that I've been made aware of..." Bruce answered.
Thor nodded at that, "Understood. Regardless, you seem to have made her quite happy."
"You think so?" Of course he had the barest idea that he had done so but it was good to know she seemed that way from the perspective of someone besides himself.
There was a smile from Thor as he nodded again, "I do indeed, Doctor, and now I shall take my leave for your testing for the last time I was involved in testing of a Stark-crafted weapon there was an explosion of fiery proportions that still has not healed fully on my backside. I think I would very much like to avoid that happening once again."
Bruce snorted out a laugh as the Asgardian took refuge inside the elevator and thankfully he didn't have to wait around long for Natasha to reappear in her catsuit.
"Alright, let's see what we've really got to work with here," Natasha stated as she gripped the hilts of the batons. A little grin formed as they extended again, this time with a more enhanced blue cackling around them that matched the blue wiring that Tony had put in her suit to charge up her Widow's Bite cuffs for more 'oomph', as Tony put it. "That looks...potent," and she was giving them an admirable little look.
"Yeah, just don't poke me with them if you can avoid it. Tony did that and it really wasn't that much fun," Bruce told her dryly.
Another little smile curled on her lips, "I wouldn't do that but somehow I'm not at all surprised that he would." She inspected the blue electricity on it as she held it a few inches from her face, "Are they lethal?"
"They can be," Bruce admitted with a small shrug, "You adjust voltage with your suit. How much you produce from the suit, goes to the batons. Tony put a chip in them that should, in theory of course, activate and enhance with your suits wiring..."
"Nice," she commented with appreciation. The batons retracted again and she eyed her suit in curiosity, "Now we just need to make something for the suit that holds them."
Bruce chuckled at that, "Knew I forgot something."
Natasha placed the hilts down on the nearby bench before she came back over to him, "Bruce, you didn't have to do this."
"Sorta did..." he disagreed.
"Because you kissed me?" she questioned. It wasn't said with any ill-feelings; no anger and no sadness. She didn't wait for an answer, she just tilted her head a little as she tried to gauge what he was thinking, "Which part of that morning is this apology actually for, you know, just so I'm clear?"
He hesitated at that, not sure if there was a right or wrong answer to it.
"I get it, you know?" she said next and he frowned a little. "I saw," she added as she pointed from her eyes to his. "You didn't have to run, Bruce. I understand why you did but you don't have to do that with me. You never have to do that with me."
Maybe...maybe not. It was nice to hear her say it though. "That's not exactly an easy thing to explain..." Bruce finally told her with a sigh. "Sorry I almost turned green when I kissed you?" came his rather self-deprecating humor and the tiniest little smile played at her lips with it. He rubbed at his eyes wearily before he made eye contact and his next statement came out of it's own volition, "You make my heart beat faster, Natasha." There was this befuddled little look on her face as she tried to comprehend what he just said and he gave a sheepish shrug, "Not... in a bad way, I mean it's not good... but you just, you just do. It's good...in a really—really bad way."
It sounded stupid to him and he regretted saying it for just a few seconds, but then her eyes softened exponentially as she seemed to let the words sink in. It seemed to be the first time she was actually a little speechless, at least when it came to anything he had said to her, and Bruce wasn't all that sure what to think now. Apparently he didn't need to read her to know what she was thinking though because her fingertips clutched the front of his shirt and then she carefully pulled him towards her so that his mouth met hers.
And Natasha's lips pressed ever so gently to his own. It was nothing overwhelming, nothing crazed, and she didn't push for more like she had in his bed.
Nonetheless his whole mind went into this little fog for a few seconds before he remembered he should do something besides stand there like a brainless moron. She didn't give him much time to return the kiss when he finally got the sense to, about one second of kissing her back was all he managed before she pulled away. It was probably a good thing given the rate his heart was beating at already and he had a feeling that she knew and that she backed off for that exact reason. Her one hand still gripped his shirt and the other was on the back of his neck while her nose remained just a fraction of an inch from his.
"What was that for?" he managed to wonder aloud after a few seconds of getting his senses back.
Natasha smiled a little, "We're okay, Bruce."
That was perfectly clear to Bruce as he stared at her and took a few deep breaths. "This can't work, Natasha..." he tried to warn her. "I can't really have this..." he motioned between them, "you know...more."
"I don't need more," she stated with a small shrug as she released his shirt from her grasp. "Until that morning I didn't even think I wanted...this, whatever this is," she explained with a small shake of her head, "I'm okay with whatever we are, Bruce."
He frowned at that as she settled the hand that was on the back of his neck on his arm instead. "You should want more than that..." he insisted.
Natasha gave him an odd look at that. "I'm not used to wanting things at all," came the unexpected admittance. "And as for more? That's not something I even know how to do, which is probably why this is okay with me," she finally explained. "We've had a conversation about my emotional capacity before, Bruce. It's not very extensive," came the reminder.
Bruce remembered it pretty well. That day she had gotten a tranq to the back of the neck and he had gotten a bullet to the head. The same day he had asked her how long she'd been in love with Clint and she had given him to most incredulous look. "You're capable of more than you think you are," he insisted, or at least he thought she could be if she would just let herself.
She got a little closer in that moment as the tip of her nose brushed his and he flushed a little, "You offering to prove that to me?"
"Natasha..." there was an obvious note of warning in his voice but if she noticed then she was rather keen on ignoring it.
"Were you sorry you kissed me, Bruce?"
"It shouldn't have happened..." and even Bruce knew that wasn't much of an answer.
And Natasha didn't disagree. "Maybe that's true, but it did," she reminded him. It was hard to concentrate with her as close to him as she was right now. "I lied to you the other day," she told him next.
"Lied?"
"I'm not sorry," she explained with a small shrug, though she did back off a little and put the tiniest amount of space back between them. "I only thought about the fact you ran and not why you did it," she finally stated.
Bruce shook his head a little at that. "I didn't really explain it that well," but he really wished he had.
Natasha gave him a rather endearing little smile, "You didn't have to, or rather, you shouldn't have had to." She narrowed her eyes a little as she studied him and it made him a little nervous, especially when she asked her next question, "What do you want, Bruce?"
She had said that she was someone who didn't want for much and the hard truth was that Bruce found that he wanted a lot of things, most of which he knew that he couldn't have. Natasha had slowly and then very suddenly become one of those things, although from her stance at the moment, he was beginning to question how out of range she actually was. "I don't know—it really doesn't matter," he heaved out in a sigh.
"If it matters to you it matters," she said softly.
"Does it matter to you?" he dared to ask.
She blinked a few times at the question and he supposed it was a little weird. He once again hadn't really emphasized on what he meant but she decided to answer it in her own way, "You've started to matter to me." That left Bruce with a strange feeling that he hadn't had in a long time and she said it so matter-of-factly that he actually believed her. Then she spoke again, "Is this something you want to try?"
"And risk going green?" he couldn't help a sardonic little laugh, "Natasha...that's a terrible idea and we both know it."
There was a tiny hint of saddened amusement in her eyes as she watched him before she finally bothered to respond, "I'm not going to jump your bones if that's what you're afraid of, Bruce. That doesn't matter to me."
"It doesn't?"
Natasha gave the barest semblance of a shrug, "It doesn't mean anything to me."
That was depressing in an entirely new way and although he supposed he shouldn't be surprised, it still brought about that tiny reminder that she had enough skeletons in her closet to match and even exceed his own. "How would...this...even work?" he dared to ask.
It was sort of sad in its own way that the only way they could explain whatever had suddenly grown between them was by calling it 'this'. He supposed for two people who weren't exactly savvy with relationships, what 'this' was, was probably as close as either of them could manage. "Figure it out as we go," she suggested with a small smile, "Practice?"
"Practice?" he chuckled a little at that.
"If you want. Everybody needs practice," she added innocently.
Bruce smiled a little at that, "So—so what, we just—just run with it?"
Natasha leaned in closer again and he could feel her breath leave little puffs of heat on his mouth, "I'd like that." It was like she was looking right through him in that moment because her eyes searched his before the next the next statement left her lips, "But something's still wrong...what is it?"
"It's just that-that since you kissed me back..." he finally mentioned, "I look at you and—and you could have anybody that you want. I'm trying to look at myself through your eyes right now but all I can do is ask myself why."
"What do you mean?" She actually sounded confused and Bruce almost couldn't believe it. "Oh," and she seemed to catch on at least a little bit by the sounds of that. "Is this an age thing?" she asked with a smirk.
"No, well...sort of. That's—well that's one thing." And of course he was stammering, he felt like he always was around her, but as per usual she seemed to be enjoying it. Chicks apparently dug that according to her.
It seemed she did too, even outside of her shower, because Natasha gave a small laugh as she shook her head, "So it's everything then? Age, awkward dorkishness, your angry alter-ego?"
"That about sums it up."
"None of that bothers me, Bruce. If it did then I would have never kissed you back in the first place."
Bruce huffed out a small laugh. Of course none of it bothered her. She had proven a few times that she had no qualms with the Other Guy and the fact that the Other Guy seemed to have no qualms with her was one of the only reasons he even thought this had some chance of being something like she was suggesting. He still didn't trust himself and the Other Guy, but for whatever reason, Natasha seemed to trust both of them. It drove him just a little bit crazy at times, especially since he hurt her last time, even if he had saved her life. "You're..."
"I'm what?"
There were any number of words for what she was: beautiful, stunning, gorgeous, young. "Breathtaking." She looked a little surprised as she blinked her eyes several times and he rested his hand on her cheek, "You know you are."
"Nobody's ever said it quite like that," and he figured it was the right word to actually use because she leaned forward and pressed the smallest kiss to his lips. It wasn't like before, though it was still gentle; this one was soft, simple and innocent and he didn't hesitate long to comply and return the movements of her lips. It didn't send his heart rate sky rocketing into dangerous territory like the last two, but it did still kick it up a notch as he rested his hands on her waist with a bit of uncertainty.
The moment didn't last long and heat shot straight to his face when someone in the open doors of the elevator cleared their throat. Both Bruce and Natasha pulled away and turned to look at Tony who was wearing a rather smug little grin as he looked at their proximity. Of course, Natasha's closeness and the fact they were on the training mat didn't help matters much. "Well—this is all so very Fifty Shades of Green and all but our All-American Applepie Captain thinks he's got a solid lead on another HYDRA base," came Tony's entertained interruption.
Natasha, to her credit, seemed completely unfazed by Tony's interruption as she turned her attention back to Bruce himself. She rolled her eyes a little for only him to see before she geared herself into full-on business mode as she turned to Tony with a mask in place, "And this one is real?"
"His ghost of a friend hit it, they hit back...It's all rather disastrous, so you know, just another day in paradise."
"And Barnes?"
"Gone as far as we can tell but he definitely put the whole place in a tizzy," Tony mentioned with a small shrug, "It'd probably be a good time to jump in and finish what he started."
Bruce watched as Natasha inclined her head to the side a little in agreement before she actually did so vocally, "If we're lucky I can put a knife in Strucker's eye when we get there." And he thought her heard her say something about her new baton going somewhere unseemly under her breath, but he wasn't certain.
Tony gave a whistle of appreciation, "Thatta' girl. Rogers is in the lounge with Wilson and Thor."
She gave a small nod to that and Bruce watched as she turned and glanced at him with a face that told him they weren't quite done talking. He supposed they weren't since he had still never managed to actually answer her before Tony-interruptus came into the gym. The truth was, he still wasn't quite sure what was she was offering. He didn't know what 'this' was or what it entailed other than the fact it clearly involved kissing, something that she did really well, and something he grew to like more each time. Natasha grabbed the batons from the bench and was gone on the elevator before he had a chance to stop her.
He sighed a little as Tony came up to him with a devious look and his hands innocently stuffed into his pockets, "Give it to me straight, was that some indication that I need to ask Jarvis if my eyes will bleed before I enter a room you two are occupying?"
"Wha-? No..." he groaned out with a shake of his head, "Tony—just don't."
Tony chuckled a little, "I'll let this go for now because we've got places to be. Let's go, it's time to strut, Big Green."
"Strut?" Bruce questioned. It took a second before the realization hit him, "No. No, no, no. I'm not going," he insisted.
Tony held out the gamma pants, "Put on your Big Girl pants, Bruce. There are tanks, several of them." It shouldn't have surprised Bruce that there was a sense of excitement about the said tanks from the billionaire and yet it still did, causing him to sigh. "Tanks and bunkers and computers to hack, oh my," he quipped next. "Red already proved that she can handle the Big Guy in a tense situation. It's already been field tested like it or not, twice as a matter of fact," Tony reminded him. "I'm forever and eternally in her debt for the last one by the way," he added and Bruce knew that Tony was studying his reaction. "Give this a chance, Bruce. You can stay off-scene, wait things out unless there's an emergency," and his friend gave a small shrug before he got on the elevator that came back down, "We'll be in the lounge for another ten minutes if you change your mind."
He blew out a frustrated breath as he watched the elevator doors close and take his friend to one of the upper floors. This was apparently the day of seeing how many curveballs Bruce could take at the plate before completely losing his mind. Natasha and whatever this was. Tony trying to get him to willingly bring the Other Guy out into play in an actual fight for the first time since New York. He would be putting a lot of stock in faith, something he didn't have much of in his entire life; faith and trust in a certain redhead being able to tame his other half after a real battle.
Bruce wondered if he said no if she would think that was something against her. As wary as it made him, he wanted to tell her before that he did want whatever this was, that as nervous as it made him, he wanted to figure it out. Maybe this could be a way to show her rather than to tell her. He double-checked that he was alone before he changed pants into the gamma pants(which really... they needed a better name), and if this was to become a thing, probably more pants.
He folded up his normal pants, ran his hands through his hair, then got onto the elevator and traveled up to the lounge. He made it inside with about a minute to spare and arrived in the doorway just in time to hear the teasing that was taking place between Natasha and Sam. Tony was rolling his eyes at the conversation while Steve just had this knowing little smile as he shook his head.
Sam was playing with fire.
"So...you called me Sam," he reminded her with a cheeky little grin.
Natasha had her eyebrow quirked just slightly with her arms folded across her chest, "Feeling nostalgic about it, Wilson?"
Sam waved that off, "Nah, no. Just noting the day where I became Sam to the great Natasha Romanoff."
"Don't get too excited, Birdbrain," Natasha told him with a little smirk playing on her lips, "I was just being friendly since I thought you were about to drop fifty stories and become a pizza on the pavement."
Sam grimaced at the mere thought while Thor bellowed out a laugh.
"Nice imagery, Romanoff," Tony looked a little proud by not just the 'pavement pizza' but also the new nickname.
Bruce felt that little smile growing on his lips as Natasha sauntered just a little closer to Sam and added an affectionate little tone to her voice as she pressed a hand to his chest, "Falcon is too intense, I think I'll just call you Pigeon." And the fire was playing back.
"Good grief..." Sam mumbled out.
Steve was chuckling even as Tony and Thor hooted out laughs.
Of course it was Natasha who knew he was there before any of the rest of them. Her eyes turned towards him as she gave Sam a playful shove away and she glanced him up and down inquisitively before she settled her gaze on his pants. "You're joining us?"
Bruce felt all eyes shift to him. Center of attention was not his favorite thing and he blew out an awkward little breath before he met her eyes and nodded. "If that's alright with you, since...you know, you're sort of the key to this working," he added. He wasn't sure, but he hoped his voice conveyed the meaning behind that.
Her eyes blinked several times in the span of two seconds but she seemed to have read between the lines. That rare yet real smile graced him with its presence just a moment later. "You already know the answer to that," she assured him.
"I'll just uh... stay back though, unless I'm really needed..."
Natasha and Tony nodded their easy agreement to that.
Steve was the one who spoke up, "Really glad to have you joining us, Doctor Banner. It'll be good to know we have another heavy hitter on deck just in case things go a little sour."
"I'm sort of acclimating to things going a little sour," Bruce deadpanned with a mediocre little shrug.
To his relief, another little smile played at Natasha's lips, though she was doing a fine job of hiding it from the eyes of any of the other men in the room. Whatever this was, it wasn't going to be an open thing and that was something he could be grateful for. Nonetheless, Bruce knew that Tony was like the bull who met the china shop, and he was definitely going to have to talk to his friend about that, especially if he wanted one friend to survive the wrath of the other.
Moments like this he was sort of glad to have such a short list of people he wanted and trusted himself to be around. Juggling Tony and Natasha was no small feat, especially when he didn't want the latter to murder the former.
Other than Natasha and Tony's rather simplistic hack of satellite feeds above the base and Steve's thoroughly thought out plan of attack, the flight on Tony's jet to the base on one of the islands of the archipelagos, which were some miles off the coast of Africa, was rather mundane. Natasha herself was their expert on terrain of the area and the islands themselves, but that being said she wasn't thoroughly well-versed with the areas, only having one prior mission and not in the exact area that was their current destination.
This wasn't a season she enjoyed being on the archipelagos either. Volcanic eruptions, warm rain in hotter weather that hammered your skin and did little to leave you refreshed, and harshly uneven terrain to trek; those were the more notable events she recalled from her and Clint's last trip to one of the islands(that and a very eventful landslide that she was keen to pretend never happened). Weeks of chasing slave traders through an island that was vast amounts of jungle and equal amounts of Saharan desert, with one rather ill-timed monsoon, was enough for one lifetime and the island she was looking down at now seemed to fair no better in the wet season.
The base was built in the midst of the jungle, little buildings hidden into nooks and crannies of the expanse of trees and well-hidden to anyone that wasn't actually looking for them. It was no wonder HYDRA had been so irritatingly hard to find when the only way they could even find that the buildings connected to each other were when Bruce set up geothermal scans. At least she thought that was what he said he was doing. The small buildings above ground turned out to be manned guard posts and bunkers that led to the true base that lay beneath the surface, branching out through a vast numbers of tunnels, and if Bruce's scans were any indication then this wasn't likely to be easy.
"Alright. Stark, Thor... you guys get down there and get ready to draw them out," came Steve's orders.
Natasha barely managed not to roll her eyes when the two men exited through the side door and took flight with Tony's parting comment of, "I thought there were tanks. They cannot be hiding tanks in the jungle."
She caught Bruce's small but weary smile as the scientist shook his head and she returned it, just barely, before Steve could turn to her and see it. By the time the supersoldier was facing her, she had her mission mask on again as he spoke, "Romanoff, Wilson, you ready?"
"To have Pigeon carry me off into the sunset?" Natasha joked dryly, "Never been more ready in my life."
She heard Sam groan while she watched Bruce hide a little smile behind the screen of his StarkPad.
Steve stoically ignored her joke as he looked to Bruce, "You'll land in the clearing a few clicks West... if there's a Code Green—"
"Yep... I know what to do if someone calls for a Code Green, Captain," Bruce offered up with a sigh.
If it was called for then Bruce would exit the jet, bring out The Hulk, and traverse the jungle in havoc-wreaking fashion to the base. Beggars couldn't be choosers and there was no plan for what the Other Guy would and could accomplish, he was a wild card and even Steve knew that. The Hulk smashed. Period.
"Alright. Let's go."
Natasha snickered at the way Sam and Bruce stared open-mouthed when Steve did a backwards free-fall out of the jet with nothing but his shield. Not even a parachute.
"Take it this isn't the first time he's done that?" Sam questioned as he came around behind her and locked his arms around her waist.
"Mmm..." she agreed, "Star spangled show-off."
She heard Bruce chuckle and Tony snorted out a laugh over the comm just as Sam and herself flew out the door of the jet as well. This was one hell of an experience and it most certainly beat out the using of parachutes. Regardless of enjoying the wind in her hair and how freeing the experience actually was, she managed to keep her face an infinite void as he brought her down to the ground beside Steve who had taken cover behind the overgrowth of leafs and vines that flowed from one of the trees of the jungle. She bent down beside him and watched over his shoulder as Tony and Thor landed outside the door to one of the one-room buildings furthest away, which really wasn't all that far.
"Ten bucks says Stark plays Shoot to Thrill to draw them out," she whispered in Steve's ear.
She heard the supersoldier trying to contain a chuckle before he held a hand up to her, "Back in Black."
She arched an eyebrow up at that and smirked before she gave his hand a small shake over his shoulder. Clearly Steve had gotten quite up to par with AC/DC over the months and she wasn't sure if she found that to be more amusing or the fact that he actually made a bet while on a mission.
Within the next thirty seconds, 'Back in Black' met their ears and Natasha groaned a little as she murmured a quiet, "Dammit..." Much to Steve's dismay and Sam's utter amusement, she tucked a ten dollar bill into the back pocket of Steve's suit.
"Where did you even have that?" Sam huffed out quietly in disbelief.
"Don't ask her that..." Steve informed his friend, "Never ask her that."
Natasha barely held back another smirk as her eyes shifted from building to building, watching as dozens of HYDRA soldiers poured out from all but one of them. She locked eyes with Steve and nodded her head in that direction, watching as he nodded his agreement. Herself and Steve were the only ones going in unless things went 'sour'. Sam had deemed the outdoors a better fit for him, saying that his wings weren't really fit for tunnel systems. She didn't entirely disagree with the theory and so she and Steve stealthily made their way towards the one building that nobody had exited. He waited at the door as she peaked in through one of the rather cloudy windows. It was near impossible to see inside and she clenched her teeth a little as she made out grainy shadows pacing inside. She held up one finger at Steve, then a second, a third, and finally a fourth. She saw him nod from the corner of her eye and then he kicked in the door within seconds of it.
He rushed in and Natasha slid in a few moments after when all four sets of eyes were locked onto the supersoldier rushing them. Two men were down when Steve had slammed them into each other by their foreheads. He was fast enough that none of them could react to his presence right off the bat. Steve was in the middle of taking down the third target when the fourth guard seemed to get a handle on the situation. He lifted his gun to the side of Steve's head and Natasha pounced on him from behind like she was a predator finding it's prey. She pulled the wire of her garrote tight around his throat and the gun clattered to the ground as he fell forward under her weight. Instead of waiting for him to choke out, she grabbed a fistful of his hair and slammed his face into the concrete floor. His nose gave a satisfying crunch and left a crimson stain on the dirtied gray of the floor as she retracted the garrote and stood up.
She arched an eyebrow when the guy wriggled through it and tried to get up. Natasha pulled one of the baton sticks from her pocket, squeezed the hilt, and gave the man a 'love tap' on the side of the neck. She grinned a little as he trembled and seized and fell back down unmoving. She gave the baton an affectionate little look before she retracted it and slid it back into her pocket.
Steve was already kneeling over by the stairs and waiting for her, shaking his head at her reaction to the weapon as she silently padded her way to the opposite side of the stairwell entry. She kept silent as he spoke over the comms, "How are things going out there?"
"Ohh, you know... bad guys, guns, boring stuff. All that tedious bullshit," came Tony's nonchalant comment and Natasha shook her head a little, "Really would have preferred a challenge. Like a tank."
"Right..." Steve muttered with a sigh, "We're going in."
"Aye, aye, Captain," Tony quipped next.
Natasha rolled her eyes this time as she followed Steve down the stairs. It still surprised her sometimes that someone as big as Steve could move almost as silently as she could, though it probably shouldn't given that The Hulk was eerily silent when he wanted to be. She knew that terrifyingly well after his game of cat and mouse with her on the Helicarrier.
"We don't know what's down here, Nat..." Steve whispered as he stayed just a few paces ahead of her, "We're going in blind."
She gave the barest nod at that as she followed him into the first tunnel. "Steve..." He paused in the tunnel and looked back at her, the warning must have been obvious in her tone. Much as she loathed to make her next admittance, to bring more light on something from her past, she knew that she needed to now. "If Constantin is here? He's got version of your serum in him..." and she could see Steve's eyes harden a little at that. "It's crappy compared to you or to Barnes...but it's effective," she felt him study her a little, like he knew there was more she wasn't saying, and she felt a little guilty, "You needed to know."
They both remembered the last time he had to deal with someone on his own level. Bullet wounds and broken bones and a horrifyingly broken Steve Rogers on a river bank of the Potomac, though in his defense, he had been more obsessed with saving his friend's life than saving his own. That same man watched her now until he finally nodded, "We'll cross that bridge if we come to it..." he finally told her.
There was the tiniest semblance of disappointment in his voice and she had to admit to deserving it. It probably wasn't a good time to go admitting she had the same affliction as Nikolao, and really, she was probably the only idiot in the world who would call it an affliction. Either way, she bit her tongue and followed him in silence once more.
When they came to the first door in the tunnels, she knew they didn't have the intel to just skip over it. Everything had to be checked, every door had to be opened, every tunnel searched from end to end.
The anticipation was nail-biting at best and she watched as Steve swung the door open cautiously before she went in high with her gun drawn and he went in low, his shield covering them as they entered. The feeling was all for naught when all the room revealed were rusted yellow-brown filing cabinets and nothing else. She heaved out a breath before she yanked a few cabinets open and flitted through them with her fingertips.
"Anything in those?"
She shook her head slightly as she skimmed through another, "Nothing important as far as I can tell..." Natasha moved to a third cabinet, then a fourth, then a fifth, each one yielding nothing that seemed of any value.
Until the last one.
She bit down on her lower lip as she pulled out a manila folder and she watched as Steve came up behind her to see what she had found.
"Why the hell do they have that?"
Natasha couldn't even find it in her to be surprised that Steve, the man who rarely cursed, had just done so. She shook her head a little with just as much wariness as he had shown before she glanced back down at what was written on the top of the tab.
Banner, Robert Bruce
She couldn't help the worried little voice in the back of her head that questioned why HYDRA would have a file on Bruce and that same niggling told her it didn't mean anything good. It told her what she had been hoping wasn't true. The possibility that Nikolao Constantin wasn't the only one working with HYDRA, that perhaps General Ross was as well.
She sucked in a little breath that Steve didn't seem to notice when he pulled the thick tannish-brown folder out that had been just behind Bruce's file, and she watched his eyes narrow and his brow furrow as he angled it for her to see. The folder itself was already familiar looking enough and she didn't need to look at the name to know what it said, but she cast her eyes to it anyways.
Romanova, Natalia Alianovna
Natasha sincerely hoped that wasn't what she thought it was but it looked dangerously like her Red Room file from a decade ago, the one that held sixteen years of her life, the one that she had never been able to locate.
Until now.
Now it rested in the hands of Captain freakin' America.
Sorry guys. If I didn't update now then you'd be waiting a few more days. Better something than nothing, right? While I won't have access to updating for two to three days, I will be able to write. So... when I get back, you'll have the rest of this.