Chapter 2

That not much has been taken by the years cements after everyone leaves, giving him the room to think about what they need from Vision.

He'll get to thinking about it in a moment, but for now, staring at his open hands, he just wants to remember them being so nonchalant, as if nothing ever happened to him and no time ever passed. He's grateful that they didn't wring out his return or flood him with questions about it. Although from a logical point of view, they couldn't have done that anyway - missions and other necessities can't ever be put aside for personal matters. Still, he appreciates -

'So…' comes her soft and testing voice, cutting right through his thoughts and making him whip his head up in her direction.

Either he does that too fast or the sheer sight of her is that powerful, because he loses his breath while pushing his mind to remember if it somehow missed her leaving with the others. It wouldn't surprise him if it did, and so he shows her a sheepish smile to make up for it.

'Natasha.'

'Bruce,' she returns as she moves inside in unhurried steps from the door.

When she reaches him, she takes a relaxed seat on the tabletop next to his chair, giving him an eyeful of her exposed thigh. It's not naked exposed, just in his plane of sight exposed, which is why he looks at it for a minute before realising what that might look like to her. To correct it, he quickly looks up at her face and into her eyes to find her staring at him. Her stare can be quite intense when she means it to be, but this one is relaxed, giving her eyes a glow reminiscent of their last moments together.

It's like she wants him to know something.

The problem is, he can't know whatever it is yet.

He still has the world, his absence surrounding that moment and its aftermath to process before he can even begin to jump back to the place where he left off. For that reason, he clears his throat in the hope that she would stop looking at him that way as well as clear his mind of their last moments. The image doesn't budge. If anything, it stubbornly thuds on the sides of his head so much that he tries another distracting method - looking at her head.

'Your hair,' he notes, keeping his eyes there for an extra measure of safety.

'And yours,' she remarks with her signature amusement, her hand darting out to flick some of his hair to prove her point.

He doesn't mean to, he doesn't think to, actually, it just happens that he moves away from her touch even though it's too late to dodge her hand.

'Uh, sorry,' he scrambles to apologise about it, but she shakes her head at it. 'What – Uh – Is it too grey? I guess I did age a lot in two years.'

Better he says it than she mentions it.

'That wasn't what I meant. It's shorter than it used to be.'

Well, he didn't know. He just assumed that his grey is more pronounced and more visible than anything else about him. It was one of the first things that he noticed about himself when he managed to look himself in a mirror, and now that he's brought it up, he wonders if she doesn't like it. Both the colour and the length. It's not that he'll grow it back longer, but add that to the list of things that he wants to know about her.

'Yeah. Yours looks great,' he tactfully redirects from speaking on the changes that creeped up on him while the Other Guy was in charge.

Also, her hair does look great. He likes it, it suits her and she's still as beautiful as ever with it.

'And?' her eyes flick up to his hair again, but she says nothing about it. Instead, the corners of her mouth turn up as she returns to him to ask, 'What have you been up to?'

'Oh, nothing,' he shrugs, shifting his eyes away from hers. 'Just the other guy mostly. Only, really.'

'For two years?' she asks, sounding shocked.

Looking down, one part understanding her shock amd being ashamed of his own weakness against the Other Guy, he answers, 'Yeah.'

'But you're back?' she asks.

Her question is simple enough, straight to the point, in fact, but there's something tight in her voice. Something almost tangible that as soon as he brings his eyes back to her, he rises from his chair to stand beside her. A large part of him wants to touch her shoulder, but he restrains himself. Looking at her, sure, it would be easier to say that he is back and that he's here to stay, but the truth is, she just asked a very good question and too layered even for his clever brain to solve here where they are.

'Natasha…' he weakly starts, just as weakly backing away to give her enough room to stand on her feet. 'Can I even guarantee that?'

'It doesn't matter,' she tells him, her tone soft and sympathetic. 'Do you want to be?'

Oh, Nat, his eyes roam her face.

She has a way of physically positioning herself close to him, of leaning into his personal space, of asking him straightforward yet difficult questions, of suggesting impossible things as she feels like is necessary, of taking as much freedom as she wants when it comes to touching him, and he started to believe her before two years passed, but now...

Does she want him back?

'It's not that easy, and you know it,' he answers. 'The Other Guy's always needed.'

Before she believes that it's easy as answering that, she should remember that she pushed him the last time, needing the Other Guy more than she wanted him. What difference will it make if he wants to be back, but the others need the Other Guy?

'Bruce…' she seems to lament, maybe wanting to start apologising.

She shouldn't, though, please.

She gave him hope once, and until a few moments ago, he'd been willing to return to where they left off, but the thing with Vision came up and he just can't. Not anymore.

'It's uh… Forget it, Natasha,' he shakes his head in denial. 'I've lived like this for a long time, so don't worry about it. I uh, I need to get moving with this Vision thing. Science stuff,' he ends off with a shrug.

'Yeah,' she agrees in a soft rasp, visibly swallowing. 'I'll go with you.'

'I'm not going anywhere.'

'You know what I mean,' she counters, slightly amused apparently.

Yeah, he does, and he's truly warmed that she wants to spend time around him, but he's not going to get invested in it this time. He'll keep his distance - it's better that way.