Neither Bruce nor Natasha had left med bay in the last two days. They were both exhausted and in need of sleep in a real bed, but found the door to Bruce's room locked and his name removed. Natasha's to was likewise unavailable and her temper was rising to a boiling point when JARVIS said, "Ms. Romanoff, Dr. Banner, Captain Rogers wishes for me to inform you that your personal quarters have been moved to the sixth level."
"Thank you JARVIS." Bruce said leading his ticked off companion back to the elevator.
"I hope to hell Steve moved all of the shit from my room himself." Natasha said bitterly, "He wouldn't stop blushing for another seventy years."
"I'm quite sure I don't want to know dear." Bruce said a little pink himself and escorted her out onto their level. Sure enough half way down the hall on the left side was a door with nameplates reading "N. Romanoff- A, SO" and one below it reading "B. Banner-PhD".
"Look Bruce we're fancy now." Natasha quipped eyeing the door with distaste.
"A, SO?" He asked confused.
"Avenger, Special Operations." She explained scanning her card and letting them into the room.
"Does Avengers not imply special operations?" He asked still confused following her into their new space.
"There are only three SOs in the building. Fury, Hill, and myself. They felt like it was better then putting 'we're here to spy on all your asses' on the plaques although that one did get my vote." She said dryly.
Their new quarters were a full flat with a kitchen, living area, guest suits, and a large master with a huge master bath. All of their things were moved in apart from three boxes that read in large red lettering "N. Romanoff. DO NOT OPEN. DO NOT OPEN. DO NOT OPEN." sitting on the bedroom floor. Natasha couldn't help herself she busted out laughing.
"As long as there are no human body parts in there I don't want to know." Bruce said tiredly taking off his glasses and setting them on the nightstand rubbing his eyes.
"There are things in there that resemble human body parts does that count?" Natasha purred coyly stepping out of her shoes.
Bruce groaned and collapsed side long on the bed saying, "I'm too old for this."
Natasha laughed and stripped down to her sports bra and underwear before joining him on the bed. She forced him down to his boxers and the pair crawled into their king size bed and drifted off to a better sleep then either had had since the incident at Start tower began three days ago.
Bruce and Natasha woke late that night into the early morning unsure of what had woken them. Natasha jumped out of bed quickly and dressed in a sports bra and running shorts before sneaking out their front door her 9mm S&W M&P 9c raised and ready. She edged out the front door just in time to pull her gun on Vision who was making his way down the hallway. Vision stopped and raised his hands the feint sounds of sobbing and Natasha's deadly silent gip on her 9mm the only thing between them.
Natasha raised an eyebrow lowering the gun, but not taking her finger off the trigger before Vision explained, "I have JARVIS alert me when she is upset in such a away. It happens more often than one might suspect. Her brother was her heart and she his sole. To loose something like that is to loose one's self. I try to comfort her and I find that I do not need as much sleep as most." He explained.
"I'll leave you to it then." Natasha said with a nod lowering her gun completely and relaxing before saying on her way back to her shared room, "But I want to see both of you at 11am tomorrow after breakfast understood?" Vision nodded and the pair went their separate ways.
11am the next day came to find Vision and Wanda waiting for Natasha in her office. Natasha had stayed behind scoping them out and hoping to see if Vision left her room with her or met her there. As she had suspected, he had never returned to his own room. At 11:04 Natasha came strolling into her office on the team's day off.
"You vanted to meet us?" Wanda asked looking up at her pointedly.
"I'm your new hall buddy." Natasha observed to which Wanda raised her eyebrow and nodded, "When was the last time you slept through the night?" She asked the younger woman.
Wanda snorted, "Vwhen I was a little girl. I 'aven't slept the night through since Tony Stark blew my parents brains out."
"Understandable. When was the last night since he found out that Vision hasn't had to come to your room to comfort you because of nightmares about your brother's death?" Natasha asked pointedly.
Wanda crossed her arms and refused to look at the other Russian. "It's been every night." Vision supplied a guilty look on his face about outing his friend, but knowing well it would only get worse if Natasha had to interrogate them.
"Have you ever had one person that was so much a part of you you don't even know who you are without them?" Wanda asked Natasha in a cold dead voice not looking at her.
"No. I have been alone my entire life." Natasha assured her.
"You're not alone anymore." Vision observed.
Natasha snorted, "But I know exactly who I am without him. We all do."
Unable to refute the validity of that statement the pair were silent for a moment before Wanda finally spoke up, "I watched my whole world get torn apart in one day. I waited days for that bomb to go off and for me to just be torn away with it, but it never did. He was the only piece of that world I had left and he's gone. For so many years it was just me and him. He would have done anything to keep me safe, and he did. That's why we signed up for the experimentation, that's why we became what we did. We did it for our city and our past, but we did it for each other, so that no one could ever tare us apart. People often thought us odd, too close to be brother and sister, they said things about us, things that weren't true, but that I can't blame them for thinking. People have learned to hate themselves, find he flaws in themselves and pull at them until they pull themselves apart. We were one person, and when instead we accepted the flaws in each other and promoted the strengths we became on single entity more powerful and self assured then any one person could ever be. Yes, I loved my brother as more than just my brother, I loved him as myself. To me they were one and the same; I lost my self."
The room was quiet for a moment as Wanda's eyes flickering red with rage and pain held Natasha's so resolutely neither woman could break away. "So then what is left? Who is sitting in that chair looking at me? If it's not Wanda and it's not Pietro, who are you?" Natasha asked her with so much resolute calm in her voice it was bordering on cold.
"I don't know." Wanda said angrily through gritted teeth.
"Then figure it out." Natasha said turning to walk out of the room, "And you," She said looking over her shoulder to point at Vision, "Report to Dr. Banner's labs two hours before dinner starts." she instructed before exiting her office.
Natasha made her way down to Bruce's lab letting herself in and earning herself a soft smile as she propped herself up on one of the bench tops while he finished tinkering with an odd looking helmet. Standing up to face her he asked, "So are they together then?"
Natasha smiled a little at him calling her ace, "No not yet, but they will be. That's why I'm having him come down to your labs tonight at 5 for some tests and Q&A. I don't want any surprises when they do decide to take things a few steps further."
Bruce turned a little pink and stammered, "I'm really not a doctor... I'd really feel more comfortable if..."
"Ya ya I know you feel weird asking Vision if he can have sex, doesn't matter you made him you get to make sure he doesn't make any more of him." Natasha said waiving a hand as if to pass of his worries as he turned more and more pink. "That's not why I came down here, we need to talk."
Bruce squirmed even more if possible and grumbled, " Tony's right, those words should be removed from women's vocabularies."
Natasha chuckled pacing her palms on either side of his face and kissing him softly, "Did I ever tell you I adore you, you dork?" He chuckled and relaxed a little and she continued, "I asked JARVIS to show me the video from when I went under the bots on this last mission."
Bruce sighed and grumbled again, "JARVIS is doing all sorts of personal favors these days."
"Yes well you and I both know what I saw. Pepper's the only reason you didn't go all green on me and I wasn't around to bring you back. We can't risk him coming out every time I get hurt."
"You can't ask me not to watch Natasha, I can help you out in the field over the coms and I would be just as likely to loose it not knowing anything." Bruce explained.
"I know." She said, "Let me talk to him."
"No I can't do that. You know I can't do that it's not safe Natasha."
"He won't hurt me, we'll go out in the woods and I just want to talk to him."
"You can't talk to him Natasha he's a monster." Bruce argued voice rising into a yell.
"Don't you dare talk about him like you know him." She yelled back, "You think he's some sort of monster that's taken over your life, but he's not. He's a part of you. We all have our own Hulk inside us. That part of our brain that's all anger and pain and the need to fight and kill, but it's also that part that makes us need to protect those we care about. I'm the one he listens to, I'm the one he follows without question. Let me deal with him."
"You have no idea what it's like having him inside me, having him take over, having no control and waking up only to see the death and destruction he's caused and to know it's all my fault." Bruce said voice low and deadly cold.
"He needs a purpose, a goal or outlet of some kind Bruce, you can't just keep him locked in there and expect to be able to control him." She said more softly.
"This conversation is over Natasha. I'll see you at dinner." Bruce said finally and turned back to his project.