"You're chipper today, Banner boy," Tony drawled as he settled before his computer.
Bruce smiled at him before resuming work at his own station. "I slept well," he shrugged.
Tony stretched in his leather armchair. "Bet I slept better."
"Was Pepper visiting?"
Tony waved a finger at his work partner. "You're crossing boundaries."
"Sorry," Bruce chuckled, "sorry."
"Jarvis!" Tony ordered. "Show me yesterday's footage."
"I actually reviewed it earlier," Bruce interrupted.
Tony raised a brow in interest. "Someone had a busy morning."
"I'd certainly call it that," he agreed.
Tony put the Hulk video footage on mute and began to absently watch. "Hey-dinner later?"
Bruce smiled widely to himself as he remembered the plans made with Natasha. "Sorry, Tony, but I've already made plans."
"Romanoff?"
Bruce attempted to hide his grin behind his monitor. "We've, uh, had this planned for a while."
Tony could smell that lie from a mile away, but he chose to let it slide. He had yet to see Bruce grinning like such a fool.
"Veggie burgers, huh?" Natasha smiled as she left her coat by the door. She came casually dressed: jeans and a red V-neck.
"It's something simple, but I can promise you they'll taste good."
"Can't beat a good burger." She lingered by the counter and reached for a tomato. "I'll cut this guy up."
Bruce checked on the burgers he had searing in a frying pan. "If you really want to." He smiled at her. "Knives are in the drawer by the sink."
He lowered the stove's temperature and found himself watching her and taking countless mental pictures. Bruce caught her giving him a smirk before bowing her head to focus on the tomato. Natasha's hair followed the motion of her neck, blocking her face from his view. Bruce caught himself acting on an urge to tuck the stray curls behind her ear. Natasha's eyes flickered to his face as the tips of his fingers caressed her ear. "Sorry," he breathed. "Thought it would help…"
She smirked and drew her face close to his. "It's dangerous to approach an armed woman." He chuckled and she rested the knife on the counter.
"I'll remember that," he promised, refusing to break eye contact for even a second.
"Did you wanna kiss me?"
Bruce's lips parted as the tips of their noses began to touch.
"Kiss me," she urged.
He lowered his gaze to her full lips.
Natasha hummed and tilted her head.
Bruce leaned forward, allowing for their lips to touch. He was quick to deepen the kiss which led to Natasha's arms around his hips. Bruce placed his hands over her wrists and brought their lip-locking to an end.
"Don't tell me this is getting you hot and bothered," she snorted.
He shrank away from her touch and brought his folded hands close to his gut. "This is what you've signed up for…"
Natasha casually shrugged. "No one said we had to make out twenty-four seven, Banner."
"Dinner, cuddling, hugging… We're just a normal couple, aren't we?" he asked with a hint of bitterness in his tone. A thought had crossed his mind during their kiss. What if their "dating" front was all part of a lesson Natasha was teaching him? Her own way of demonstrating that they wouldn't work-couldn't work…
"I like those things," she honestly answered.
"Do you?" Bruce wondered if he was the only one being paranoid. Being with her felt wrong, rather, dangerous. He could feel it in his gut. Something wasn't right…
"I'd like to feel normal, really," she admitted, turning to resume slicing up the tomato. "Not entirely normal. I guess what I'd really like is a break from playing the hero. Just for an hour a day, maybe longer…"
"And you secret boyfriend is your escape?" he flatly asked.
Natasha gave a subtle shrug in reply. "This isn't working, is it?"
"You knew it wouldn't," he assumed.
She took his hand in hers. "Maybe there's a life where things worked out. A life where it was just you and me. No responsibilities, no reminders of the past…"
He forced a smile. "That would be ideal."
"Sorry, Bruce," she sighed, squeezing his hand. "This is all on me," she swore. "Don't blame yourself for this."
"I never said I was blaming myself," he answered with more coldness than intended.
Natasha pursed her lips. He was edgy. That wasn't a good sign. She broke their stare with a turn of her head. "I'll leave."
Bruce shook his head as he gripped her hand. "Stay. Please." She continued to look away in disinterest. "I've made enough for two…" He was finding his false grin difficult to maintain. "Please?" He had no intention of driving her away for good.
She removed her hand from his grasp and resumed cutting the tomato. If staying would help him remain calm, then she wouldn't leave. "How'd those pants hold up?"
Bruce moved to the fridge to gather more condiments for the burgers. "They held up surprisingly well." The subject change immediately put his mind at ease.
"I noticed your pants didn't split," she remarked with a snort.
He chuckled. "Would you like goat cheese on yours?"
"Go for it," she nodded.
"So, uh, Tony tried waking me up. Black Sabbath?" he continued, hopeful that their conversation would carry on without any awkwardness.
"Metallica," she corrected. "Is he holding up?"
"I think Pepper spent the night, so I'd say yes." He grabbed two plates and laid out open hamburger buns on each one. "How about Clint? And Steve? Have you heard from them lately?"
"Barton's enjoying vacation time. Pretty sure Rogers is wandering Brooklyn."
"I take it a get-together is out of the question," Bruce mused, settling a piece of lettuce and a patty over the two bottom buns.
Natasha pitched in by adding sliced tomatoes over the creamy cheese. "Ask Stark-he's always up for parties. I'm sure he'll assemble the boys."
"Are you not interested?"
She shrugged and followed Bruce to his dining table with a bottle of ketchup. "Are the Avengers required to have exclusive parties?"
Bruce frowned as he set the plates before two adjacent chairs. "Is it Tony?"
Natasha sat and grabbed herself a napkin. "Partially," she admitted. "He's a bit much when it comes to parties. You'll learn," she promised.
"You're not much for people, I take it."
She gave him a quick grin. "A little of that, too."
He laughed. "How about some wine?"
"Love some," she nodded, setting a napkin beside Bruce's plate.
Bruce found an unopened bottle Tony gave him as a housewarming gift and poured two glasses. He handed one to Natasha while giving her an awkward smile.
She returned the gesture and held up her glass to his. "To Betty?" she offered.
He pursed his lips and nodded. "To Betty."
Natasha tapped her glass against his and felt an added guilt kick in as she drank. Her inability to maintain a relationship ruined his already bad day. "Bad" seemed like an understatement. The man had a complete breakdown, and she had to dump salt into his open wounds. Natasha set her glass aside to take a bite of her burger. "Not every day I get a healthy burger," she joked. "It's good."
"Nowhere near as good as what you're used to, right?" he chuckled.
"The worse it is for you, the better it tastes," she lectured. "But this isn't bad. It's gourmet compared to all that fast food."
"You don't seem like the fast food type of girl," he noted.
Natasha reached for a bottle of ketchup and squirted some over her tomatoes. "I treat myself every once in a while. Call it a guilty pleasure."
"Interesting," he mused before taking a bite of his dinner.
"Everyone's got their guilty pleasures," she told him after swallowing a bite of food. "Care to share yours, Doc?"
Bruce smiled to himself as he eyed his burger. "Guilty pleasures," he repeated. "I'd have to say… medical dramas, crime dramas…"
Natasha rolled her eyes and snorted. "Dr. Banner's a fan of Dr. McDreamy?"
He chuckled and nodded his head. "I've seen quite a few episodes."
Natasha raised her glass to her lips. "Didn't see that coming."
"Are you going to tell me you're a rom-com kind of girl?" he teased.
She took a sip of her wine. "Depends. Usually can't stand them. Same plot, every one of 'em."
"The happy endings are always nice."
Natasha caught Bruce longingly staring into his glass and she forced herself to choke back a witty comeback.
"Never like real life." Bruce brought his attention to her and smiled.
"Life's not all bad." Natasha picked up her burger. "For every bad thing, there's always gotta be something good coming."
His eyes softened as he watched her. He felt that those words were aimed directly at him and it made his admiration for the woman grow. "We all deserve a happy ending, though." He noticed her eyes narrow as she bit into her food. "Call it sappy, but I believe in life's silver linings."
Natasha had nothing to say in return. She resumed her dinner and noticed Bruce take her silence as his queue to follow suit.
"Are you sure I can't walk you home?" Bruce asked for the third time as he carried their plates to the sink.
"I've got it," Natasha promised. "Don't worry."
He nodded. "I don't suppose I'll see you tomorrow."
"If you need me, call," she urged.
Bruce rested the plates in the sink before walking her to the door. "I really do appreciate today. Thank you."
"I hear that from you way too much."
"Better than 'I'm sorry?'" he joked.
Natasha didn't laugh. Instead, she went in for a kiss that ended as suddenly as it started.
Bruce innocently blinked as she ended their moment.
"Goodnight, Doctor," she told him with a small smile. Natasha turned on her heel and heard him reply with a shy "goodnight." She was giving him mixed signals, and they were starting to make his head hurt.
"You killed your mother, you know that, you sonuva bitch?"
Bruce drew his arms close to his chest as a slurred voice grew closer.
"A mistake from the get go."
A shadow loomed over Bruce's tiny body.
"She was an idiot for keeping you," the man's voice continued. He loomed over the child's trembling and hunched form with an empty bottle in hand. "You had her wrapped around yer fucking finger."
Bruce's wide eyes looked up to cower at a man's silhouette.
"Fuckin' mistake," he spat. "Fuckin' monster!" The man raised the bottle and proceeded to bash it over little Bruce's head.
He bolted up from the bed, chest heaving as he audibly panted.
"Dr. Banner?" JARVIS was quick to assess the man's distress. "Are you all right, sir?"
Bruce ran a hand through his hair. He felt sweat along his brow and he shook his head.
"Do you require medical attention?"
"No," he exhaled. "No, j-just leave me…" Bruce hunched forward in his bed and grabbed fistfuls of his tousled hair. He hadn't dreamt of his scumbag father in years, but he knew the cemetery trip was responsible for his nightmare. Deep breaths were hardly helping with calming him down. Thoughts of the low-life Brian Banner had taken over, raising his stress levels and making the idea of sleep impossible. Bruce checked his phone to find that it was just after three. There was one distraction coming to mind that made him leave his bed and get his morning off to an early start.
Bruce was surprised to find the lights of the communal lab on. He then spotted Tony slumped forward in his desk chair and he wondered if his friend was having a late night. "Tony?" he asked.
The inventor's head perked at the sound of his name. "Banner boy," he drawled.
Bruce froze in the entryway. The painfully familiar stench of liquor made his nose wrinkle in disgust. "This drinking isn't good for you, Tony," he mumbled as he cautiously moved to his work space.
"Sound like Pepper," Tony grumbled. "Don't nag me, Banner."
Bruce suddenly didn't feel welcomed in the lab anymore. He began to leave, but what sounded like a sob escaped Tony's throat.
"She doesn't get it…"
Bruce instantly turned to his friend.
"I was dead. I knew I was dead," Tony continued, reaching for a glass bottle on his desk. "She never even answered my damn call."
"Pepper?" Bruce gently asked.
"Should've died in that damn wormhole." He took a swig of his drink and slammed the bottle down. "Damn suit wasn't protecting me. Can't feel safe, can I?" he slurred. Tony sank further back into his chair.
"Have you been up all night?" Bruce asked. "You should get some rest, Tony. You want me to help you?" He took a step towards his friend.
"Quit kissing my ass!" Tony spat. "Damn annoying."
Under a normal circumstance, Bruce would've let the comment slide, but he wasn't in the mood to put up with Tony's drunken remarks.
Wheels of a chair rolled against the linoleum floor and uneven footsteps were soon to follow.
Bruce held his breath as his mind brought forth the mental image of one Brian Banner. He tightly shut his eyes as the stench of alcohol grew stronger.
"Brucey…"
A hand grabbed his shoulder and Bruce instinctively slapped the hand away.
"The hell?" Tony growled. In his drunken stupor, he gave Bruce a swift smack across the cheek.
Bruce's neck jerked to the side and in that fleeting moment, he felt the hand of his pathetic excuse for a father.
After that, Bruce Banner's vision went black as a threatening roar rang in his skull.
Tony stumbled backwards and landed on his rear.
"Sir!" JARVIS interrupted. "Shall I contact Ms. Romanoff?"
Tony muttered to himself as he struggled to rise to his feet.
"I highly suggest leaving the premise immediately." JARVIS advised.
Tony scowled, swearing under his breath, but then he spotted Bruce on the floor and the sober portion of his brain took over.
Bruce's form was hunched forward, his fingers clawing at the floor as his shirt grew too tight for his body. The man began to howl as his skin took on a sickly hue and his muscles bulged.
"Gimme my suit," Tony breathed.
"It is ready and waiting in your office," JARVIS replied. "And as for Ms. Romanoff?"
"Wha—you wanna get 'er killed?" Tony slurred as he stumbled out of the lab. "Put the room on lockdown." The glass doors were sealed shut as a muffled roar ensued. "Jarv," Tony continued as he ran down the hall. "Bulletproof glass against that guy. How long's it gonna hold?" He overheard something smash and cringed.
"Several decent punches should compromise it," the program stated.
There was a snarl, followed by a terrifying series of crashes. "Shit…" Too afraid to turn around, Tony continued to run until his office was in view. "Play Banner's CD, will you? And maybe tell Romanoff to wait outside…"