Summary: Nick Fury stops by to update Bruce Banner on the events of Civil War

Storm in a Teacup

Nick Fury was making tea in the kitchen when Bruce Banner got home. It took some effort to forego the obvious comment of reports of the man's death having been exaggerated. Just the thought of it, though, made him miss Tony.

He pushed that thought aside and stuck to the more important question, "Are you here to bring me in?"

"Do you want to go in?" Ex-Director Fury looked only mildly interested in Bruce, despite sitting in Bruce's crappy one-room apartment, drinking Bruce's tea out of a mug that was decidedly not Bruce's.

Did the man really come with his own mug to break into Bruce's apartment?

At least that left Bruce's own, lone mug still available for him to use.

"Not really, no," Bruce finally answered after he had his own tea and could sit on the bed facing the chair that Fury was in.

"Good. Because I'm actually here to ask you to stay away."

"And now I'm suddenly wondering if maybe I should go in after all."

Nick Fury had a remarkably attractive grin, Banner found himself noting. It was a flash of strong white teeth against his dark skin and had real humor to it.

"That's the problem with working with smart people. You have to question everything."

"Except when they don't question nearly enough. Case in point: the Avengers are being blamed for a suicide bomber they failed to stop?"

Fury shrugged. "They did make it worse than it would have been."

"Are there no Good Samaritan laws in Nigeria?"

"Not in this case. Would you expect them to apply to foreign-national vigilantes? Why you all decided it was a good idea to make yourselves a celebrity group and publically acknowledged organization is beyond me."

Bruce sighed. "Tony made it seem like a good idea."

"He does seem to have that ability. And with me and Coulson both dead, there's no one able or willing to try to hold him back."

Bruce considered asking whether Coulson was actually dead like Bruce had assumed right up until now or dead like Fury was dead. But upon consideration, that knowledge wouldn't change anything and couldn't be relied on anyway. So he let it go.

"So, why are you here, again? I assume it wasn't just to ask me not to do something I didn't have plans to do anyway."

And there was that smile again. Bruce busied himself with making his own cup of tea.

"I'm here to keep you informed on the current state of affairs."

"Really?"

"Really."

"I do have access to the news."

"The media is a tool - a valuable tool that is often used for the betterment of humanity, but still just a tool. And it's currently being wielded quite skillfully. Which implies to me that General Ross is not the one doing the wielding, even if he is involved."

"General Ross is around?"

"Oh yes. And blaming the Avengers for losing track of you, too."

"Oh god. That's, I don't even know how to respond to that."

"Personally, I'm impressed. He's a shit strategist, but he's a pretty amazing politician to still be in the position of power he's in."

Banner laughed. It was that or cry or rage, and the other two weren't great options right now.

"So who is wielding it?"

"I'm not sure yet. There are a lot of possibilities. And Stark has been pulling a lot of strings recently to prevent Ultron from being tracked back to him and the Avengers."

"It wasn't the Avengers who made it. It was just him and me."

"Ultron was made under the auspices of the Avengers. If there'd been a proper investigation, then maybe Captain America could have disavowed responsibility and it would have been Stark's and your problem."

"Steve wouldn't have done that."

"No, he wouldn't. He didn't have anything to do with Ultron, but Steve Rogers wouldn't abandon anyone on his team. You and I know it. Stark, however, doesn't."

"He thinks it's his responsibility."

"He thinks it's his responsibility," Fury agreed. "And he didn't want anyone to know that there were repercussions, so he hid those repercussions from the rest of the team. And that has put him firmly under the thumb of one General Thaddeus Ross."

"You think Tony would turn me in if I went to him now? Are you trying to make me angry?"

"No, I'm trying to make you safe. I've worked in the intelligence field for my entire adult life. I can tell you that blackmail is the easiest method of coercion out there, more successful than either threats or bribes. Find a man ashamed of himself, and you've found a man you can change into someone else."

Bruce really didn't want to think of Thaddeus Ross changing Tony into someone he wasn't.

"Why are you telling me all of this? It's not to keep me safe."

"It's also to keep you safe."

"But primarily…?"

"To keep the world safe. And the world needs the Avengers. And the Avengers need someone they trust to know what's going on. Not right now, but later, when they pull themselves together and come to you to confess. You need to know enough to keep them honest."

"Okay. So what do I need to know?"

"Stark having issues is once more the big news. But I also thought I'd bring you a copy of this."

This was apparently a two-inch thick government document of some type that Bruce was fairly sure he did not want to get a copy of. He made no move to take it and Fury tossed it onto the table where it landed with a thud.

"What is that?"

"That is a notarized copy of the Sokovia Accords."

"And why would I want a copy of that?"

"You should see what's in it. And maybe keep an eye on what's not."

Bruce finally pulled it towards himself, but kept his eyes on Fury. "Why don't you summarize it for me." It wasn't a question.

"Sure: some group of idiots were given a bunch of busy work and that's the results. It doesn't do anything, and every nation that voted for it knows that perfectly well."

Bruce blinked at that. "Huh. I guess that makes sense of how they got international agreement so fast."

Fury grimaced in agreement. "Yeah. There are detailed descriptions that go on ad nauseum about what exactly constituted an enhanced individual, the lines between enhanced prosthetics and regular prosthetics, and between someone naturally falling on the high end of human standard abilities versus enhanced."

"What does it conclude?" Bruce asked with morbid curiosity. People had spent decades arguing about which people were disabled and which were differently-abled and what that distinction even meant. Now a multi-government body was going to throw super-abled into the mix and come up with a definitive answer?

"It depends entirely on what paragraph you happen to be reading at the moment."

Bruce closed his eyes for a moment through sheer second-hand embarrassment for whoever had to have their name connected to this. "I should have expected that."

Fury was grinning again when Bruce opened his eyes. "And that's not even getting to the question of registration and oversight."

Bruce groaned. "And how about enforcement?"

"Extremely vague and remarkably brief. And no budget."

"So why exactly does anyone care about it at all?"

"The one real danger is that it is so vague. Any country, or potentially even a suitably wealthy individual, could implement pretty much any enforcement policy they could afford."

"That's not nothing."

The look Fury gave him was deeply judgmental. "They are entering foreign nations while either carrying of being weapons of mass destruction. The United Nations is not going to protect every overpowered individual who decides they know better than the various ruling governments."

Bruce had to acknowledge that Fury had a point.

Fury must have seen it on his face too, because he stood abruptly and announced, "Well, I'm off. Have a good rest of your day, Doctor."