The bookstore was really full today, Bruce couldn't tell if it was because of the new books coming in or for the fact that there's a special on the coffee, and believe it or not the coffee was to die for, especially the person working at the Cafe.

"well….if it isn't the only guy at this place keeping me sane" she said from behind the counter with the biggest smile on her face as he approaches her

"on the contrary I think you're the one keeping me sane" he said with a small smile "bad day" she stated with a smirk, looking up from the register and leaning forward putting all her weight on her elbows

"let's just say I can't wait to go home tonight"

"same here, but you know it's our day to lock up right, yesterday was Wanda and Tony and tonight it's yo-"

"you and me" he says with a warm smile she smirks coyly leaning further over the counter

"don't get any idea's mister banner"

Bruce pulls back from the counter out of pure embarrassment and watches as she laughs at him and smiles realizing how happy she looks.

"the only idea's I'm getting is that I need to get back to work before I get fired, you're a big distraction miss Romanoff"

"I assume that translate to, 'you think I'm easy on the eyes'" she smirks as she walks around the counter to walk him out

"everyone thinks your easy on the eyes, I saw Clint choke on his water when he saw you come in this morning" she looks down, almost sad because he dodged the answer she was looking for. Maybe she's trying too hard, she thought. she's had a crush on him for as long as they've been working together but couldn't work up the courage to tell him and not for lack of trying, cause she's tried and he just really seems dense at this point and before she could drown herself in her thoughts they stopped at the staircase outside the Cafe that leads up to the bookstore and she heard him speak again

"but yes, you are easy on the eyes Nat" he says leaning against the wall and staring her right in the eyes. she gets butterflies hearing him call her by her nickname, he only ever called her that when he was trying to reason with her but this new feeling of infatuation made her nickname roll off his tongue with much more ease and she liked it "and I'm not just saying this because I wear glasses" he says softly, almost like he knows not to startle her out of her thoughts but she hears him and laughs all too sweetly while still holding his gaze.

"you're not so bad yourself," she says brushing her knuckles over his chin. he turns to round the corner and smiles at her one more time before heading up the stairs.


It was 6:30 and Natasha was locking up the Cafe and made her way up the stairs, jacket and bag in hand with a red velvet cupcake with white frosting, he's favorite, she thought while walking three more flights of stairs passing the original bookstore to meet him at his own little space that came with the promotion he got when he started running the bookstore. she pushed the door open and was met by him leaning against his desk with a book in his hand and immediately looked up when he noticed her presence "miss Romanoff" he said clearing his throat and giving her the biggest smile while setting the book down on the desk behind him "whatcha reading there banner?" she says after putting her bag and jacket on the couch and moves toward him "I think the real question is, is that a red velvet cupcake?" he says smiling coyly "depends… are you going to share?" she was now in front of him and looking him right in the eyes Bruce leans forward, so close that his practically in her personal space and she's looking up at him Natasha feels as though he's about to kiss her and doesn't know if she should move in even closer or wait for him to make his move but before she can plan out the scene in her head he speaks again

"with you" he keeps her eyes on him and watches her eyes turn glassy almost as if she's expecting him to do something so he works fast and snakes his hand around to grab the cupcake "I don't think so!" he laughs as he moves back, cupcake in hand and smiling all too happy about his little trick She regains focus about the situation unfolding and looks at him doing a little victory bop with his head before pulling back the wrapper and taking a bite "banner!" she scolds while laughing at the way his acting, boy was he cute she thought to herself. "my days of bringing you red velvet cupcakes are over banner!" she says with sass "huh, why…. because I won't share?" he says it saldy but in a joking sort of way "yes, friends share things with each other Bruce"

"okay… then what do best friends do?" he say this while walking slowly towards her and thinks to himself how beautiful her hair is, it's short and red and he doesn't know why it draws him to her even more but it does and it's probably the reason he only likes red velvet cupcakes, but he'll never share that secret with her. Natasha's eyes are glassy again, he wonders why it always does that when his close to her, he wants to make an assumption that she likes him but he would be lying to himself if he said she could actually see them as more than 'just friends'

"they share….things….too" she says and is shocked that Bruce considers her a best friend the same way she has. Natasha moves away from bruce tired of being sent mix signals and moves towards his desk and picks up his book Bruce stands there unsure if he crossed the limit by calling her his best friend and turns when he hears her voice

"if I never met you" she reads the title to him and she turns the book around and observes the cover "I wouldn't have pegged you for the romantic type" smiling still staring down at the book "what can I say, Mhairi McFarlane touched me" he says it in a teasing tone and moves towards her and takes the book from her hand and slowly holds her hand for a little longer than expected and looks at her gorgeous green eyes. he's never really looked that them properly and he can see her physically trying to hold herself together, there's a connection, he can feel it, he hopes she feels it too, it's warm and happy and he wants to take her hands further in his but the moment is ruined when she clears her throat and pulls out of his half grasp on her hand and walks over to the couch Natasha hates that he's making her feel this flustered and hot. she wants to tell him how she feels but the words don't seem to be able to form in her mouth.

She turns to face him and wants to tell him but is distracted at his brown orbs that seem to take her in from head to toe. His hair was one of his best features she thought, how she would kill to touch it, play with it and with that thought she stops dead in her tracks and retreats to the couch and picks up her bag and jacket "I have to… i gotta go, it's getting late" she heads for the door before he could protest

"wait, nat" he tries to reason, she won't budge "Nat!" he tries again "what's wrong? talk to me" he says now running after her down the stairs and is met with her back and the front door of the building being shut.

He sighs wondering what it is that he did, was it about the cupcake? Did he say something? Did he do something? well whatever it was he was going to find out tomorrow, he didn't want to bombard her phone with missed calls because he knows how much she hates people crossing their limits and invading her privacy when she wants to be left alone and she clearly wants to be alone right now. so he gave her the space she needed


The next day Bruce showed up to work and saw the Cafe was still locked so he decided to head up stairs and unlock everything in the meantime until she got there but she never showed and Kathy was behind the counter instead of her and now he was certain he messed up and needed to know where she was "hey…hey Wanda, so you know where Natasha is, I've been looking for her all day" "Someone seems a little anxious, something wrong? you two are normally in separable" "last night she sort of just freaked out and ran out on me, so now I think she's a avoiding me" he says lowering his head on the counter "hey lover boy, calm down…her shift doesn't start for another half an hour" Wanda was now full of smiles "you like her don't you?" "why didn't you just say so" he laughs lightly "you're dodging my question" "what?" "do you like her?"

"well… um… I think I do.. I mean… I don't know okay, what I need is to talk to her and ask her what she was thinking last night to run out on me like that! does she know how much I care about her?" he takes a breather and keeps yelling to Kathy about the situation "I always drive her home but no! last night she wanted to leave without me… what if something happened to her Wanda…. I couldn't live with myself if that happens.. you know what? I need to go look for her at her house! if the boss comes, tell him I went to see a supplier.. " and before he could turn around Wanda asked" where are you going?" "to tell Natasha I love her" he breathes it out and it's almost as if a weight was lifted off his shoulder by the confession "i'm going to get my best friend"

Bruce turns around and is met by Natasha standing in the doorway and staring at him with tears in her eyes. his first instinct is to move towards her but his feet feel stuck and he feels anxious all over again and it doesn't seem like she's willing to make the first step either. Bruce hears the swing door to the kitchen behind him close and it's a signal that Wanda left to give them space and feels a little at ease so he moves towards her, all the angry feelings rushing back to him of how she ran out on him and made him feel so helpless and how she shut him out and didn't even bother explaining to him what it is that he did and with that he walked towards and grabbed her by her wrist pulling her towards the stairs "Bruce?" she says and he immediately turns soft by her voice but holds on until they reach his office space

"Bruce, you're hurting me!" she says and he drops her hand immediately and opens the door to the room and gestures her into the room with his eyes and she complies in silence.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to grab you that hard" he says apologetically and she turns to face him "are you okay?" "I've been better" she says looking down "look….you can't just…walk out on me like that, I was worried sick" he moves closer with the tiniest steps "I just needed some space" she says finally meeting his eyes "last night was a little too much for me"

"That's the thing!, you left and didn't even tell me what I did" his hands move to his front and he starts fidgeting with his fingers "if anything happened to y-"

"I'm sorry I scared you like that" she in front of him now and meeting his gaze, brown eyes on green and she moves her hand to his cheek and lifts his head further up "you didn't do anything wrong… as a matter of fact, It's me… I can't-" she takes a deep breath and moves her hand to his chest "I can't handle these feelings I have for you" Bruce is shocked, not for the mere fact that she just confessed her feelings for him but because she actually felt the same "you… um...you like.. me?"

"no" she answers simply and Bruce wonders if he wasted his time and he just lost the best thing and could've happened to him and lowers his head "no, it's way more complicated than that….i lov-" she pauses mid sentence and Bruce moves her hand from his chest to intertwine it at their side as a gesture for her to continue "I love you" she breathes against his skin and he swear he feels like his floating Bruce tilts his head and crashes his lips into hers and pulls her flush against him, his hands going around her waist and hers around his neck, she parts her lips to give him access into her mouth and his tongue moves in with ease and he does the same and she nips at his lower lip. She can feel him smiling against her and they part for air, both of their breathes ragged and he moves down to her neck and kisses her softly and bites in the most sweetest ways possible, it feel so good and she doesn't want him to stop so she lifts her neck up further to give him more place to kiss and mark her.

The feeling of him this close was intoxicating and Natasha wouldn't have it any other way and judging by the way Bruce was holding onto her told her he felt the same, this was where she wanted to be…with him...in his arms….holding on, onto something so good that she's wanted for so long and he was definitely worth the wait The next thing Natasha knows she's being pushed against the the desk and lifted onto it and he pulls away from her neck and she immediately misses the contact

"hey" he says feeling a little embarrassed that she now has three light red bruises on her neck

"hi" she lifts her hands and rests them on his shoulders and catches a glimpse of her watch realizing her shift started 20 minutes ago "oh my gosh…I'm supposed to be at the Cafe right now"

she tries to push herself of the desk but he stops her by laying a hand on her thigh "someone would've come up here looking for you, im sure Wanda got enough of a hint to know you'll be up for a while" he says trying to keep his laugh in "you reckon" she laughs with him now.

Bruce's face becomes serious as he moves to stand further in between her thighs "please don't ever run out on me like that again, okay?"

"I promise" she strokes her fingers through his hair and it's everything she imagined it feel like, soft and light and it smelt like vanilla "but seriously though I need to go do my job, I wouldn't want to get fired because I was found making out with the bookstore stud upstairs" she smirks and kisses his nose "so you think I'm a stud now" he laughs and helps her off the desks "you should get down there too and help out your fellow readers" she jokes "I'd rather be up her helping you out" he says whole kissing her forehead She moves around him and he catches her hand holding on and he follows her out the door and down the stairs til they're outside the bookstore doors "knock yourself out now banner" and he smiles at that. He watches her leave and head further down the stairs to the Cafe and calls out before she turns and is out of sight

"nat"

"yeah?"

he leans against the wall and breathes "I love you"

"I love you" she said back and smiled while walking down the rest of the stairs and Bruce swore he could be dreaming.

She was everything he wished for in a woman and not to mention she was easy on the eye as well.