Bruce awoke from a dreamless sleep feeling more refreshed than he had in days. His alarm clock read 11:17 and the sunlight filtering past his curtains assured him that he slept well through the morning. Bruce sat up to stretch his stiff back with a tired groan. "Jarvis, is Tony awake?" he wondered, reaching for his phone.

"Not quite. Shall I get him for you?"

He shook his head, his attention now invested in a message from Natasha. "Just curious. Let him sleep." Bruce smiled at Natasha's late night text bidding him to sleep well. The message, sent at 3:32 in the morning, left him wondering if she had a rough night. "I'll be heading out for the morning," he announced. "If Tony needs me, I'll be getting lunch."

"Very well, Sir," JARVIS cheerily replied.

Bruce worked up a message to send to Natasha before leaving the comfort of his bed for a shower.

"I slept wonderfully, thank you. Would you like to join me for lunch?"

The text appeared when Natasha was checking over a debriefing packet for an upcoming mission. She didn't want to say no to Bruce, especially after his bad day, so she tucked the paperwork under her arm and headed out of her office. Natasha stepped into the nearest elevator and proceeded to give Bruce a call.

"Hello, Natasha."

She could sense a smile in his was a very good sign. "Doctor," she answered, not wanting to sound too formal with two underling recruits gossiping to her left.

"I'm sorry this is last minute, but are you free for lunch?"

"I am, actually," she confirmed. "I might be a while since I'm out in the city, but I have my car."

"You're not busy, are you?" he abruptly asked. "I don't want to bother you."

Natasha noticed the two agents accompanying her fall quiet. They must have been hungry for Avenger news. "It's no problem. Just needed some files."

"A mission?" Bruce wondered.

"Yes." She caught one of the recruits, a young woman in her early twenties, glancing in her direction. "Let me know a location."

"We can get pizza. Are there any good places near you?"

The elevator doors parted and Natasha was the first to step out. "We can go to the one down the street from your place. Give me twenty minutes."

"Are you sure?" he worriedly asked. "I don't want to make this difficult for you."

"You're not," Natasha promised. "I kinda wanted to see you, anyways."

"'Kinda?'" he chuckled.

Natasha rolled her eyes as she made her way down the street. "I really wanted to see you," she corrected.

"Much better," he laughed.

"I'll text you when I'm close, okay?" Natasha reached for the set of keys in her pocket as she neared her car.

"Okay," Bruce agreed. "Drive safely, Natasha."

"Good to know your appetite's back," Natasha teased as Bruce helped himself to a fourth mozzarella stick in addition to two slices of pizza the size of her head.

He smiled at her mid-chew. "Didn't have much of an appetite till now."

"You had me worried back there," she admitted, dipping her crust into a puddle of tomato sauce on her plate.

"The other guy gets ahold of things he's not supposed to. It happens… Makes me feel like a wild animal," Bruce sulked.

Natasha chewed a mouthful of food before speaking up. "I won't lie to you, Bruce. Yesterday could've gone to hell, but it didn't." He opened his mouth and she was quick to deny him a word in edgewise. "Iron Man lost a hand," she evenly stated as she looked him in the eyes. "Just Iron Man. Not Stark, and sure as hell not me." Bruce cringed. "Let's focus on what really happened." He continued to stare at her like a wounded animal and she carefully arched a brow. "No one was hurt. Let's keep this mindset, and don't you dare bring up 'next time,' Bruce Banner, or so help me…"

Bruce lowered his gaze, his fingers busy pulling apart a piece of crust. "For your sanity, I won't."

Natasha thought back to what she and Tony discussed while Bruce was sleeping. "You need to trust yourself more," she continued in a calm tone. "Do you think I'd be here with you right now if I didn't trust you?"

Bruce pursed his lips as their eyes met.

"The other guy's gotta be feeling the distrust. What if it's making him uneasy… feral, even-more so than usual," she added.

Bruce sank back in his seat in contemplation. "This goes back to the theory that we're Yin and Yang," he mused. "Given it's true…" He heavily sighed. "The other guy isn't helping with trying to balance me out. Don't you think he'd want to help me feel less stressed?"

"Maybe you should work harder on those breathing techniques."

"The music and breathing haven't been helping. Rather, we've yet to see any results," Bruce stated.

She threw him a quizzical stare. "So we're giving up?"

His lips raised in an apologetic smile. "After all you've done for me, no," he swore. "I'm not giving up. Not on you, and not on the other guy…"

"And not on yourself."

Bruce slowly nodded. "Not on myself," he repeated.

Natasha twirled half of a mozzarella stick in a bowl of marinara sauce. "Want me to make you a new CD?" she offered with a smile.

He chuckled, shaking his head. "I'm happy with my current one, but thank you."

"Promise you'll call me if you need me. Don't feel like a burden, because you're not," Natasha reassured. "Hell, I'm the one who really needed to see you today."

"May I ask why?" he thoughtfully requested.

She shrugged, eying her plate of food. "I needed to know how you were holding up. I've seen how badly these Hulk-outs drain you."

Bruce sensed an uneasiness in her tone, a feeling he knew all too well. "I feel much better," he softly promised. "Especially now. I really do need to go easier on myself. Stress is never a good thing."

Natasha nodded in agreement. "I leave in three days, you know," she continued. "And I'll be gone two days tops."

Her last mission surpassed what she had told him, but Bruce couldn't complain to her about work. Things happened, and he couldn't blame her for that.

"I know I couldn't get in touch with you last time."

"You're not obligated too," he assured.

"But I want to," she winked, raising a piece of crust to her mouth. "Gotta make sure this long distance thing works out between us."

"So this doesn't concern the others?" he wondered after she took a bite.

Natasha shook her head and replied after swallowing. "I'm trying to balance us out, first."

"I thought we wouldn't work as a couple." He hid any hopefulness from his voice. Between her desire for bedroom intimacy and his mean green other half, Bruce couldn't see them working out.

Natasha observed as Bruce lowered his head for a bite of his pizza. "We could," she mused, eyes refusing to leave Bruce's graying curls. "I don't all the time get what I want," Bruce had said during their first encounter. Natasha felt a mutual tie bonding them in that moment. She never expected to become so fond of the doctor, but now that she had, she couldn't help but feel obligated to help him get something he wanted. "We can do some sightseeing," she hummed. His life was too short to not get one piece of happiness. "Travelling the globe…Just you and me."

He brought a napkin to his lips and chuckled. "Is that what you see us doing?"

"I really don't see us being a normal functioning couple. Seems kinda boring."

A corner of his smile fell. "I'd give anything for boring." Bruce sank back in his seat, his mind sorting through the "what if's" in his life if he never became the Hulk. He never would have met Tony, or even Natasha without the Hulk. His life could have been a dull one as regular Bruce Banner, a simple scientist with a girlfriend whose father hated him solely for having captured his only daughter's heart. "What would your life have been like without S.H.I.E.L.D?" he countered, his own brain still lost in thoughts of what could've been.

S.H.I.E.L.D. was only one chapter of her upbringing. Assuming Bruce wanted to know where she would be in life as a "normal" person, she answered with the first thing that popped into her head when she considered the direction her life could've gone in. "A dancer."

"Ballet?"

"The star of the show," Natasha nodded. "I'd have instructors from New York recruiting me for their shows. I would've made it big."

"You were that good?" To think that someone who had everything, only to lose it all made his heart ache. Fate had a cruel way of making bad things happen to good people.

Natasha saw the guilt brimming in his eyes and she forced a weak smile. "I was alright." She honestly wasn't sure how good she was. Having been fed nothing but lies her whole life made her distrust the opinions of those claiming she was "brilliant" and "born to be a star." "A girl can dream," she nonchalantly replied.

If she was hiding her pain, then she hid it well. Bruce always had a difficult time doing that. "All things happen for a reason, right?" he quietly asked, more so to himself.

"You think we'll make something more of ourselves as Avengers?"

"I certainly hope so." After the battle, the Hulk was being viewed as a hero rather than a monster. Bruce never imagined that such a thing would happen, and it terrified him. All he needed was for one bad incident to set him off and let the city see the Hulk's true colours. Living as a fuse always left him on edge. He needed control over what he became if he wanted to be able to sleep soundly at night and remain in the people's good graces. "The other guy needs to want to be an Avenger. I can't force him, but I'll do what I can to help." He glanced up at Natasha with guilty eyes. "I don't want a repeat of what we went through. Losing lives…" he heavily exhaled. "It's hard." His lips formed a thin line.

Natasha reached beneath the table to pat his knee. "Then let's do our best to not lose anyone."

"Easier said than done,' he breathed.

"Life can be a bitch like that."

"I've got something great planned," Tony announced as he strutted into Bruce's lab one afternoon.

"I take it you're referring to the party," Bruce grinned. He set down his tablet pen to devote his attention to his friend.

"I am, and I'll spoil nothing." Tony stole a peek at Bruce's monitor to give his latest statistics on a new Iron Man suit a once over. "Romanoff back from her deal yet?"

"She'll be home later this evening." Bruce turned away from Tony to re-focus himself on work. "She received your party invitation two nights ago."

Tony chuffed. "Never called back to RSVP."

Bruce rolled his eyes. "She's been away, Tony. She doesn't let distractions interfere with her work."

"So you spoke with her," the inventor countered with an arched brow.

"She called this morning. During her 'off time,' I assume…"

"As long as we get the big six there. You call Rogers?" Tony quickly added.

"He's happy to come," Bruce stated. "And he'd like for there to be no hard feelings between you two."

"Done deal," Tony replied. "Now let's focus on this little idea of yours. Enlighten me. What was this big revelation of yours?"

Bruce grinned, eager to tell Tony about his latest idea. "What if we create something to help Iron Man out when he's in a tight spot?" The idea came to him after thinking about Iron Man's lost hand. "A dispenser of spare parts, say, a hand?" he flashed his partner an awkward smile.

"Or a regeneration suit!" Tony's idea was a tad more complex than Bruce's, but he was always "go big or go home."

Bruce laughed. "If that's where you'd like to start, then so be it!"

"Good attitude," Tony complimented as he approached the nearest computer.

"Don't tell me your new bed's already giving you trouble."

Bruce stirred at the sound of a familiar voice and wondered if he was dreaming. A hand lightly jostled his shoulder and Bruce allowed his eyes to open. He let out a groan as he straightened his back and adjusted his crooked glasses.

Natasha laughed and leaned against the edge of his desk. "You never answered your phone."

He blinked and watched her with a dumb look while wondering if he was dreaming.

"This your new bedroom or something?" she teased.

Bruce finally grinned and felt for the phone in his pocket. "Sorry-I must've dozed off. What time is it?"

"After seven thirty."

He turned to his left to where Tony was last working, but found that he was gone. "Looks like I've been abandoned…"

"Stark?" she wondered. "Saw him on the way in. Pepper was with him."

Bruce slowly nodded. "That's good." He laughed. "I'm glad. I was worried they were fighting."

"I take it you didn't eat," Natasha continued. "Wanna go grab something?"

He rose from his chair with a wide smile. "I'd like that." He quickly checked his phone to see four texts and one missed call from Natasha. "Did I have you worried?"

"I figured you were up to something like this," she smirked. "Figured I'd swing by and make sure you ate something."

"That's awfully considerate. And the mission," he added, eager to bring the attention to her. "How was it?"

"Boring," she said with a shrug. "Now tell me more about Stark's party…"