I've been fighting with this one a long time, and figured it was just about damn time to post it. there's a few time jumps; hopefully not too confusing.

enjoy.


Natasha spread her hands around the mug of coffee and lifted it to her nose to inhale its aroma. She took a sip, brought the mug back down to rest on her lap, then looked at Bruce. "You sure you don't want any?" she offered.

Bruce shook his head. "I'm good. Thanks though."

"It's good coffee. Not that American sludge Steve likes to drink," she countered as a playful smile curled on her lips.

Bruce smiled at her joke, keenly aware that this was likely the most relaxed he'd ever seen her, though he didn't doubt she was still fully aware of everything in the room — the exits, the potential dangers, the possible weapons. She'd had an aura of practiced calm about her when they first met, though it had quickly evaporated when faced with his exploratory threat. Now, though, she could relax a little around them. She was still guarded, but not as much as in the early days of knowing her. A small part of his mind whispered, Or at least she's very good at pretending. "Yeah, Tony said you were a fan of good coffee," he replied, opting to ignore the silently whispered words.

"Are those the words he used, or are you paraphrasing to be polite?"

It wasn't exactly a surprise that she'd have expected Tony to be crass in his description of her coffee habits, but Bruce suspected she was enjoying it all the same that she'd guessed correctly.

"He might've used the phrase "coffee snob" when he mentioned it to me," Bruce admitted with a smile. "Though he also said that he respected you for that," he added.

"Respect from the Tony Stark. My, my, my. Such praise," she quipped, tone dry as she arched one eyebrow fleetingly. She lifted the mug to take another drink before she continued speaking. "I have a question for you."

He wasn't surprised by her curiosity; he knew she was always collecting information. "Shoot."

"When you're the Hulk, are you still aware at all?"

"You're asking if I'm still consciously aware, but unable to do anything?"

"Something like that, yeah."

He shook his head. "Not really...but kind of."

She arched an eyebrow. "That's not very scientific."

He shrugged. "It's hard to know for sure because I don't really remember it. I have...fragments, but it's disjointed and I can't make sense of it most of the time."

Natasha's expression was thoughtful as she took another sip of her coffee, as though she was mulling over his answer. "I think part of you is still in there, even if you don't remember it. In Harlem, the Hulk recognized Betty," she said finally.

Bruce blinked, momentarily dumbfounded that she knew about Betty and New York. Somehow it had never occurred to him that she'd know about it. "That's in my file?"

She shook her head. "I was there. Fury assigned me to watch you, cover your tracks when there were breadcrumbs left, and keep Ross off your trail. Plus someone had to clean up the mess that Dr. Stern left behind."

Bruce blinked in surprise again. "I didn't know you were there."

She smiled. "I don't make it a point to share details of classified operations I'm involved in."

"No, of course not," he agreed with an amused smile.

"But my point is: I think the Hulk has some semblance of your memories."

"Huh."

"I think we can use that to try to key a particular phrase, or a touch, or something to try and trigger a state of calm to let you change back to you. On your terms, errr, the team's terms, I guess."

He shook his head immediately. "It's too dangerous. The Other Guy is too unpredictable."

"Only because you haven't let anyone get close enough to form any attachment," she countered calmly.

He shot her a look of disbelief. "So, you want to what…become friends with the Hulk?"

"Something like that," she agreed with a nod, then took another drink of coffee.

"That's nuts," Bruce said, shaking his head and dismissing her suggestion altogether.

"Well, when you put it like that, yeah a little," she admitted, though he noted she was still sporting an amused smile. "But there's evidence here that it can work, Bruce. He listened to Cap in New York and didn't try to hurt any of us, and as I said, he recognized Betty and didn't hurt her."

"Yeah, and he almost killed you on the Helicarrier," Bruce reminded her. He'd seen the footage; if it weren't for Thor, she wouldn't be sitting in front of him.

"Yeah, I haven't forgotten," she said dryly, arching an eyebrow for emphasis. "But that was before you or he really knew me. Now we've fought alongside one another. We can start to show him even more that I'm no threat to him."

Bruce shook his head stubbornly. "I don't like this."

"Look, it's in our best interest to try and find a way to control the Other Guy."

He wondered for a moment if anyone would ever be interested in just him. Just Bruce. Tony came close, perhaps, with his interest in his various expertises.

"It's not just about the Hulk, Bruce," Natasha said, interrupting his thoughts. "In this line of work, you don't have many people with shared experiences. It can make having friends hard," she added, her voice softening just a little.

He blinked, realizing she'd somehow drilled right down to his worry. He wonders for a moment how many friends Natasha Romanoff had.

"Wanting to find a way to handle the Other Guy and getting to know you better as a friend are not mutually exclusive."

"You know, it's a little eerie how easily you can read people," he said.

She flashed him a smile. "Yeah, I've been told that a time or two. Drives Fury crazy when I'm two steps ahead of him."

"You can do that? With Fury?"

Her smile widened. "On occasion," she offered vaguely, and Bruce shook his head in disbelief. "Look," she began again, circling back to their earlier topic. "I don't know about you, but I'm hoping we're not ever needed to fight another army of aliens. But if that's not the case and we are needed again for something, then we're probably gonna need the Hulk. If it's a crapshoot whether we can control the Other Guy after the battle, then it's a tough call. If we can figure out a way to maybe control him, or have some trigger to get you back, then it's less of a dangerous play. It could save lives."

She can't be serious. This is... It's insane.

"The science supports it," she added with a knowing look before finishing the last bit of coffee in her mug.

He shot her an unimpressed look at her attempt at manipulating him. Oh, that's dirty pool, Romanoff, he thought. But her words echoed through his mind. The science did seem to support it. He paused for a long moment before he conceded, though only slightly, "What exactly did you have in mind?"

She leaned forward, clearly happy with his concession and her success. "I think we start with a phrase. Something that catches his attention."

He put the pieces together quickly of what she was planning. "You want to try to brainwash the Hulk?" he said, unable to believe she'd be so bold.

She scoffed like she was offended at the simplicity of it. "Not exactly, but you're getting closer."


"This is a dumb idea, Nat," Bruce said, repeating the same sentiment he'd reiterated several times over the last ten minutes.

"Probably," she conceded with a nod of her head. "But if it works…think what it'll mean for you."

"It's an awfully big 'if.' How sure are you that this can work?" he countered, still worried.

"You're the one with like a dozen PhDs. You tell me."

"It's not my area of expertise. If it's anyone's, it's yours."

Natasha grinned. "Then I say let's give it a try. I'll keep the panic button on me, if I need it, I'll press it to buy myself some time to get out of the room."

Bruce hesitated. The possibility of her inside a Hulk-proof room alone with the Other Guy was not overly appealing. "I still don't think it's a good idea."

She rolled her eyes. "Noted. Now let's go. I have lunch plans with Pepper."


Bruce blinked almost frantically as he looked around. "Did it work?"

Natasha snorted, apparently amused. "Well, you're not a Hulk, so…" she said dryly with a slow, drawn-out shrug.

"You know what I mean. Did you…?"

"Not directly. I definitely got his attention though. And he didn't try to smack me into a wall, so…I'm calling it a win."

Bruce blinked as he tried to process what she told him. He felt a distant grumbling in his mind, though it wasn't angry. It was intrigued. Apparently, the Hulk didn't hate Natasha after all.

She continued explaining what had happened, and he listened, feeling a faint warmth of hope bloom deep within him. Maybe she was right. Maybe they could convince Hulk to allow the change back on their terms.


Bruce came to and found Natasha and Tony staring down at him in concern.

"You alright, Bruce?" Tony asked, holding out a hand to help him up.

"What happened?" Bruce asked, slightly panicked at the sight of debris all around him. He'd specifically been staying out of the fray, cognizant that a hulk-out could be devastating. He took Tony's hand and got to his feet, finding himself a little unsteady. "Was I the Hulk?" he asked, even though he had a pretty good idea the answer was yes.

"Yeah, an inadvertent trigger of some kind. Still going over the footage to pinpoint it," Tony explained. Bruce was surprised his reply was straight to the point and lacked any quips.

"Did I hurt anyone?" Bruce asked quickly, looking down at his clothes and then around him for signs of injury to someone.

Natasha answered this time. "Nope. It kind of seemed like Hulk just wanted some time to run around, to be honest. Burn off some energy or something."

Bruce blinked as he processed. "Well, that's…" he trailed off, unsure what exactly it was. "Good, I guess?" he added uncertainly.

"Uh, I'll vote for it being a point on the plus side," Tony said, nodding. "And it was definitely good there's no one around for miles. Not like we wanted to advertise we were here, you know?"

"How did I turn back? How am I here?"

Tony grinned widely. "Oh, that's thanks to our resident super spy, here."

"Nat?" Bruce said in surprise, turning to look at her.

"Guilty," she answered with a smile. "Turns out the Big Guy likes pretty things."

Bruce's frown deepened. "What?"

She gestured to the picturesque view of the setting sun. "I know we haven't had a chance to really test it out further, but I thought why not, you know? So I was just talking to him—"

"In a super soothing voice. Like, think spa voice," Tony interrupted. "But not condescending," he added quickly after a beat.

"What did you say exactly?" Bruce asked, refocusing on Nat.

She shrugged. "Anything, really. Didn't mention you obviously because that's usually a trigger for anger, but I was trying to find something to get his attention. Eventually I made an offhand comment about the sun getting low and he turned to look at it."

"And then she decided to get closer to him, for reasons unknown," Tony chimed in, not unlike a child tattling on their sibling.

"He wasn't hostile," Nat argued. "He was calm."

"Yeah, but past behaviour sort of meant you were betting everything on that assessment," Tony argued. "And we both know you've been wrong before with that sort of thing."

She glared at him for a moment and ignored the comment, refocusing on Bruce. "The Big Guy wasn't showing any signs of anger or frustration so I thought I'd try to get a little closer, maybe to help convince him I'm not a threat."

"Nat," Bruce said with a squeak, aghast that she'd put herself at risk like that.

"It was fine," she soothed. "He was content to let me be near him. We stayed like that for a few moments, just quiet, looking at the sun. And then he looked over, and I could see he was curious."

Bruce immediately realized where the story was going. "No, Nat, c'mon. He's not— He's a Hulk. A literal giant rage monster. Tell me you didn't—"

"He was gentle," she insisted.

"For a Hulk," Tony interjected with a smirk.

Nat shot him another glare. "He was curious. He reached out his hand like he wanted to touch my arm, so I held out my hand and let him."

Bruce's jaw dropped. "You what!?"

She smiled. "I told you, he was gentle. He was more curious than anything. He touched my hand for a couple seconds and then got up and lumbered off and we heard the change back to you."

"And here we are," Tony finished with a clap. "If you ask me, I think Big Green's got a crush."

Bruce exhaled heavily and brought his hand to his face, massaging his temples for a moment. "Promise me you won't do that again," he demanded.

She shook her head immediately. "Are you kidding me? This is proof it works. I think if you and I work on a specific touch sequence—"

"Ohhh, dirty," Tony interjected and then yelped when Nat managed to smack him. "Ouch. Alright, comment withdrawn," he murmured while rubbing his arm where she'd hit him.

"If we can come up with a specific sequence that we familiarize you with, we might be able to use it with the Big Guy to trigger a change."

He considered it. On the scientific side, what Natasha was proposing wasn't crazy. It had some merit. But on the safety side of things... it was unquestionably ludicrous.

"Just think about it. Tony's got some footage of it. You can see how gentle he was. I swear to you he wasn't trying to hurt me."

"You have footage?" he asked Tony, who nodded.

"Yeah, most of it, I think. We can review it back home at the lab, but she's not lying, Bruce."


"Holy shit," Bruce murmured as he watched the footage unfold as Nat had described. The Hulk did seem curious, and he saw no evidence of genuine rage.

"My, my, I didn't know you had that kind of language in you," Nat teased. She had her feet up on a desk and was peeling a clementine idly as she watched him.

"He's definitely curious," Bruce agreed.

"I told you," she replied with a shrug before popping a piece of orange into her mouth.

He turned to her. "You're serious about doing this?" She nodded as she continued chewing. "In controlled circumstances only," he said, and Tony and Nat's eyes lit up in excitement. "There will be backup plans, and contingency plans—"

"Those are basically the same thing," Tony interjected.

"And we only do it here in the room." Bruce realized his phrasing and held up a hand to stop Tony from making another inappropriate comment. Tony pouted at being denied an easy quip.

"I can live with that," Nat said, kicking her feet down and standing up. "When do we start?"


believable sequence of events? did you enjoy the Bruce perspective?

as always, comments are very much welcomed and appreciated.

more to come. 😊