He looked like hell. Between the dark circles under his eyes and his mess of curls, Natasha knew he didn't get any sleep. She sat down on the floor before Bruce as he rested atop his plush mat. "Why do I feel like this is gonna turn into nap time?" she joked.
Bruce smiled and fought to keep his eyes open. He couldn't do it, not even for a second. After spending hours on his feet, sitting was a relief to his aching back. He was tempted to lie back and fall asleep on the floor. "I knew this would happen."
"You're a mess, you know that?" Natasha snorted.
Bruce slowly exhaled through his nose. His head lolled forward as the need for sleep overcame him.
Natasha rolled her eyes as she reached out to grab his shoulders. "Bruce, this is ridiculous." When he didn't respond, she gave him a soft slap on the cheek.
His eyes fluttered open to find Natasha watching him with narrowed eyes.
"Get up," she ordered.
He blinked, his mind still in a thick fog from lack of sleep.
"Get up." Natasha uncrossed her legs and as she rose, she began pulling Bruce up with her.
Bruce groaned as he stood, but he couldn't argue with an angry Natasha. "I won't bother you. I can make it up on my own."
Natasha smirked as she continued to hold his hand. "Regardless, I'll still follow you. No offense, but I don't think you'll make it out the door without me."
He chuckled, but a part of him feared that Natasha was right. "I'm too old for these late nights."
Natasha didn't want to rub in that he was looking older than his real age. He was having an especially rough week. "I can make us dinner later on."
They reached the elevator and Bruce shook his head. "I'm already being a burden."
She lightly smacked his arm with the back of her hand. "You're not," she swore. "Besides, I've gotta cook for myself, you know. Won't be a problem to cook for two. How about six?"
Bruce smiled at her. "You'll be making rabbit food."
"God forbid I eat healthy," she snorted.
The elevator's bell dinged upon reaching Bruce's floor. He gave Natasha one final smile before preparing to leave. "I can take it from here."
"You sure?"
"Positive. Thank you."
"I'll call you if anything important comes up," Natasha added. "But hopefully you'll be sleeping through the day."
"Possibly," he laughed. Bruce took a step back to ensure the doors wouldn't close.
"Night, Bruce," she smirked.
"I'll see you tonight, Natasha."
"Does Stark even know about this?" Natasha asked as Nick showed her a video file on his laptop.
"He's the one I got it from," Fury began as he clicked the play button in the screen's lower left corner. "Hacked this straight from the hospital's security feeds. Check the nametag if the face doesn't look familiar," he lectured, pausing the screen when an older man dressed in military garb entered Ross' room.
The uniform was the only thing Natasha recognized. It was the same uniform she had seen General Ross wear. As if on cue, Nick zoomed in on the man's regulation name sticker on his chest. Glenn Talbot. She knew that name from a Hulk-out report years back. "He knows Bruce."
The Director knowingly nodded. "That's not all…" He pulled up the officer's file where a red stamp reading "deceased" boldly rested beside his name.
"He's dead."
"No one's ever really dead in this line, Romanoff. You know that-people are full of surprises."
Natasha scanned the file, spotting Ross' name several times throughout Talbot's file. "If he's dead on public records, why is he roaming around without a cover?"
"He's not," Fury gravely stated. He opened up Talbot's official file for the Widow to read.
"So the other file's a fake?"
Nick nodded his head. "I recognized him immediately so I started digging. Found the deceased file in the military databases. That particular file was deleted the exact day it was created… I checked some more records and found this." He pulled up a newspaper article of a Hulk attack from nearly ten years ago. "Same dates. Now, this could be a coincidence, but my gut's telling me this was a lie Ross fed to Dr. Banner…Maybe to frighten Banner away for killing one of his men…" He paused. "So he could set a bigger plan into motion…"
More lies were going to push Bruce over the edge. "I can ask him, casually bring up the name…" Natasha mused. "And if he mentions him dying..." she paused. "I want to be the one to tell him the truth." Natasha could already see the watery pain in Bruce's eyes when she had to tell him the truth about Talbot.
Bruce arrived right before six, Natasha's provided time. She mentioned pasta during a recent phone call, so he brought along some red wine as a gift.
She answered the door for him with a dishtowel in one hand. "Hey," she announced with a forced smile. Natasha was doing her best to put up a happy façade. She had been dreading having to break the bad news all day. "Sorry it's just pasta," she said as she allowed him in. "Kinda boring."
"I love pasta," he laughed before presenting her the wine.
She accepted the bottle and went to set it on the counter. "You didn't have to."
Her voice was quieter, gentler than what Bruce was used to. It led him to notice that her smile wasn't reaching her eyes. "It wasn't anything expensive," he promised with a chuckle. Bruce watched her back as she opened up the wine. "Natasha?"
"Hmm?"
He moved to her side and observed the side of her face. Her eyes briefly acknowledged him, but she was quick to break their stare to grab two wine glasses. "Something happened…" he noticed. Natasha was still and Bruce' thoughts went straight to the General. "Oh my God…What happened?" He leaned against the counter and brought a hand to his face.
Natasha watched him, feeling equally stressed about their current situation. But Bruce needed the truth. "Glenn Talbot," she began in a low voice. Bruce watched her with a bewildered stare. His wide eyes were those of a guilty man's, of one whose crimes of the past returned to bite him in the ass… Natasha had been there before.
"Is that still being hung over my head?" His voice began to crack and he quickly lowered his head.
Natasha reached out to grab his shoulder. The look of shame across his face told her all she needed to know, and that Nick's theory was right. "You didn't kill him." She felt him tense beneath her touch.
"It was an accident…" Bruce hardly remembered anything from that day. It had to have been ten years ago, at least. All he knew was that following his Hulk-out, the General came to him explaining that a bullet intended for him ricocheted off the Hulk's body and into one of his own men, Glenn Talbot. "But I killed him…"
"He's alive, Bruce." Natasha swore she saw a flicker of green in his eyes as he gave her a wild glare.
"Don't try making light of this," he growled, his jaw tight.
Natasha hardened her stare to mask her own uneasiness. "I'm not lying to you, Bruce." She turned away from him to grab a copy of paperwork she stashed into her purse. "Fury had this idea…" She couldn't bear to look at Bruce as he grabbed the photocopied file from her hands. "That his death was being used against you. He thinks Ross had something big planned…"
"Oh my God…" His fingers trembled as he skimmed through Talbot's file regarding his whereabouts for the past decade. He had been working with the military since the incident that Bruce believed to have killed him. The false file labeling Talbot as "deceased" was at the back, along with a newspaper article regarding the Hulk. Bruce flipped back and forth between the first pages of the real and fake files.
"You're not a murderer…" Despite that reassurance, Bruce's face was pale. He looked more horrified than anything.
"He…" Bruce set the papers aside so he could rub the bridge of his nose. "He has my blood sample…Talbot."
Natasha's throat constricted.
"He's had my blood all these years… He managed to steal a sample years ago. I thought…" He vaguely recalled a fire, and he could clearly remember the cold disappointment in Ross' eyes when he told him he killed an officer. "I thought that when he died, the sample went with him... But no. This is what he and Ross have been doing all these years. Studying my blood, developing their own…Creating another monster…"
Natasha was at a loss for what to do. What was she supposed to tell him when his worst fears were coming true? That the Avengers would fight through this? He would only laugh and disregard any hopeful words she had to offer. Another monster… The thought lingered with Natasha as her mind brought forth memories of little girls dressed in white with guns in their tiny hands and a stranger's blood painting their starched dresses. Natasha subconsciously reached for Bruce's clammy hand.
His eyes flickered to her face and the building panic laced with rage faded as he looked into her eyes. He had never seen the Widow look so terrified… Not since his helicarrier incident-he had a very vague memory of her face the moment before he lost control. The look in Natasha's eyes felt more haunted than fearful. "Natasha…" She didn't deserve the burden of his troubles.
"I'm fine," she hollowly lied. Natasha imagined her own tiny finger pulling the trigger on a woman begging for her life. All the while, a man's voice was laughing as he admired his prized monster.
He felt her fingers clench around his. "Did something else happen?" Bruce was almost afraid to ask.
Natasha loosened her grip as she stared into his dark eyes. "We'll track Talbot down. He must know where Ross is. We'll find him if he can't," she promised in a low voice.
Bruce bowed his head. "I still can't believe that he's alive…Or that any of this is happening, for that matter…"
Natasha watched him in her peripheral vision. "I would've preferred telling you after dinner." She wasn't hungry anymore, and she assumed Bruce wasn't either.
He was silent for a moment. "Was this bothering you that much?"
A pause. "Yeah."
Bruce managed to smile. "I wish it didn't… I was looking forward to dinner." He turned to her, but found that something still seemed to have her shaken. "It kills me to worry you like this."
Natasha shook her head. "It's not you." She paused."I mean, it is, just not what you think."
He awkwardly laced his fingers with hers. "Can I do something to help?'
Natasha stared down at their intertwined digits. "Fight the good fight with me…" She watched him from beneath her lashes. "We'll get through this. I've seen hell-we both have. Moments like these always pass."
Bruce strengthened his grip. "You're speaking from experience?"
The smallest of smiles crept across her lips. "Years of experience."
Bruce gave her a genuine grin before leaning in to give her a kiss. "Can I help distract you?"
Natasha lightly pressed her forehead to his. "How far?"
A corner of his lip twitched. "Until I reach my limit." Her stare was intense as he waited for her to say something in reply.
Natasha wrapped her arms around his neck. "Couch?"
He nodded, eager for something to distract him from the military, from the possible danger, from the Hulk... Bruce Banner only wanted to have a single normal moment to free him from his building stress. He pulled Natasha's body close as she straddled his lap. Her hot mouth hardly left his lips while his hands caressed her sides.
Natasha touched the back of his neck, her hand adding pressure as she attempted to lie back and pull him down with her. "You can pull away if it's too much," she breathed, relaxing against the couch cushions.
Bruce kept one leg on the couch while the other foot stayed on the ground for balance. His body leaned over hers, his fingers accidentally touching the exposed skin of her middle. "I'm okay," he promised.
She reached between their bodies to pull up the edge of her shirt.
He glanced down to find her top pulled up high enough to expose her bra. His lips formed a thin line and Natasha stretched her rumpled shirt past her hips.
She softly laughed. "Was that enough of a distraction?"
He smiled with a breathy chuckle. "I…A little…"
Natasha watched his face with a small grin.
Their eyes met and Bruce felt his chest constrict. He held more than respect for her than she would ever know. She was the strength he didn't have, the support he needed… He averted his gaze as emotions he hadn't felt since Betty began to pester him.
"Bruce."
He shook his head as he stared down at her face with a kind smile. "It's nothing." He carefully brushed a stray curl away from her face.
Natasha observed him with an intense gaze. There was definitely something on his mind, and the warm, tender stare he was giving her told Natasha how he really felt. She was thankful his mind was distracted from his worries, but the last man to give her the same doting eyes had a bad ending.
The backs of Bruce's fingers were subconsciously stroking her cheek as he continued to watch her face. "Now isn't the time for this," he murmured, pulling his hand away.
Natasha pursed her lips. The back of her brain was still seeing a pair of tiny hands gripping a pistol. "It's a nice distraction…"
Her voice sounded unusually distant. It was too unsettling for Bruce's taste. "I didn't think my mess would worry you like this." He leaned back to sit in a proper, upright position.
She continued to lie back on the couch while staring up at the ceiling. "It's not you."
"It seems that way," he noticed.
Natasha propped herself up on her elbows. "I was just thinking about the past."
"Bad things," he assumed. She opened her mouth, but he was quick to stop her. "Don't... I don't need to know," he assured her.
She flashed him a weak grin. "Bruce…I need this distraction. More than you know..." She paused. "Pretty selfish, huh? Maybe we should eat…" When Bruce didn't answer, she sat up, ready to tend to the pasta that had probably grown cold. He grabbed her arm and pulled her close for another kiss. Natasha hummed and eased back against the couch cushions.
"I can use a distraction, too." His hand awkwardly rubbed her side and he wasn't sure if Natasha's smirk was genuine or mocking.
"This is making you uncomfortable," she deadpanned.
"No." His hand stopped to rest over her ribcage.
Natasha grabbed his hand and placed it over her breast. His cheeks turned a bright red as his muscles tensed. "You're uncomfortable," she snorted, lowering her hand.
"Obviously." He drew his hand to his side and turned towards the kitchen. "We should have dinner."
"Do you want to touch me?"
His face turned a deeper shade of red. His mind was now far away from his Ross worries. "I…" He paused to clear his throat. He did want a distraction…
"Is it because you love me?"
He turned to her with innocent puppy-like eyes. "Are you angry?"
She let her fingers run through his curls. "I sensed this coming."
Bruce felt his neck lowering beneath her hold. "I thought you'd be angrier."
She flashed him a casual smirk. "I can't be mad at you. You've got good taste."
He didn't bother to attempt a smile. "So this isn't awkward for you?"
She gave him a shrug. "It has me a little concerned."
"Is Fury opposed to relationships like this?"
Natasha sighed, allowing a laugh to escape her. "Only if the relationship interferes with work. But I think we'll be okay… "
"So you consider us to be an item?"
Her hand trailed down the side of his neck. "I told you these things get complicated."
"But you…" He watched her carefully. "You don't feel anything?" He wondered if Natasha would drop the "L" word. A growing part of him hoped she would.
"I care about you, Bruce. A little too much," she admitted. There was a pause. "You make me consider the romance package, Bruce, but all I see is a mess waiting to happen."
Because of the Hulk. "I respect that."
"I like where we're at now… But if you're ever ready for anything physical…"She playfully smirked and Bruce groaned in protest. "Don't hesitate to initiate anything."
"It's too soon…"
"How about when this passes?" She raised a questioning brow.
Bruce lowered his head and chuckled. "You're very adamant about this."
"It might relieve some stress…" she hinted with a wink. "Ever try it?" He turned his head to the side to exhale. "It helps me," Natasha continued. "And I think we could both use that kind of distraction right about now…"
He gave her a quick smile. "Dinner's getting cold."
"I have condoms."
He felt her tugging at the end of his shirt and Bruce knew he couldn't avert the topic at hand.
"We can try…"
Bruce wanted to say no. It was a risk, a major one, but her offer had him aching with need. He wordlessly stared down at her, reassuring himself that he knew his limits. Anger was key to triggering the Hulk, that much was certain. An elevated heart rate transformation was all in his head…or so he wanted to believe. Anger had been the only thing to set off the beast in the past.
"Or not," Natasha calmly finished.
Bruce groaned as he lowered his head to kiss her. "I won't make any promises. If I need to stop…"
She propped herself up on her elbows. "Then stop. I trust you."
The walk to her bedroom was a blur to Bruce. Natasha had stripped free of her shirt, then her jeans before digging through a nightstand drawer. He couldn't take his eyes off of her: her creamy skin, her matching grey underwear and bra, the faint scars tainting her smooth skin… Bruce felt like a fool as he unbuttoned his own shirt. She was beautiful. He had always seen that, but seeing her stripped down and watching him with a lopsided smirk made him feel self-conscious. As he undid the last button and crawled into bed with her, Natasha eagerly helped him peel off his shirt.
"Take your time," she whispered into his ear.
Bruce felt a familiar nagging in his pants. He dumbly nodded as Natasha's fingers trailed down his chest, past his naval, and straight down to his zipper. An indecisive moan escaped him, forcing Natasha to stop. "No," he whispered, "I'm fine."
Natasha hummed in approval and kissed him while tugging his pants down his thighs. His briefs were the next to be pulled down, but Bruce grew shy and insisted that he could finish undressing on his own. Natasha's smirk didn't lose its cockiness as she watched him sitting over her bed's edge, kicking off his underwear with the condom in hand. "You sure I can't help?" she wondered, throwing her bra to the floor.
He sucked in a deep breath as he rolled the rubber down his shaft. "I can handle this, thank you."
Natasha sank back against her pillows to peel off her panties and toss them aside.
Bruce slowly turned to her, his eyes roaming her naked body and noticing one particular scar near her belly.
She didn't mind his ogling, nor did she care. She had no right to, especially since she was hungrily eying his erection.
Bruce felt his entire body flush when he noticed where her eyes were roaming. "I swear I'll be careful."
Natasha watched him with bright eyes. "Okay." She leaned back and welcomed Bruce to crawl over her.
He took his time with kissing her until his hand felt bold enough to cup her breast. A soft moan escaped Natasha and she instinctively raised her hips until she could feel his length where she needed it.
"You're okay," she breathed. "Bruce…"
Never had he been so keen on hearing his name.
She quietly laughed as she locked her ankles around his hips.
"Second thoughts?" he wondered, his eyes meeting hers.
The tip of her nose rubbed against his. "No."
"You laughed," he reminded her with a grin.
Natasha cupped his cheeks and took in a deep breath of her own. "Look at us. Stripped down with nothing to hide…" She could smell his aftershave, his generic soap… "Never thought we'd get this close, is all."
Bruce chuckled. "Only in my dreams."
"You dream about me?" she playfully wondered.
He shyly grinned. "On accident."
Natasha reached between them and let her fingers brush his length. "This small talk's really killing me..."
A shock ran through his body the moment Natasha's fingers touched him. He moaned and reached for his pulsing length. "You're okay with this?" he asked with a needy whimper.
Natasha's expression softened as her hands warmed his cheeks. "More than you know." She bit down on her lower lip when she felt Bruce's tip rub against her entrance.
"This…" Her heat left him breathless. "Won't get awkward?"
"Only if you make it," she winked. "You feel okay?"
He responded by sinking into her core, forcing a prolonged moan from Natasha.
She arched her hips towards his and found herself locking her arms around his neck and not wanting to let go. As he sheathed himself inside of her, and their bare chests were inches from one another, she wondered if he could hear her racing heart. She could. The rapid beating was pounding in her ears. Unless that was his heart. The thought disappeared the moment Bruce began to thrust his hips in a slow, careful way that felt so typical to his nature. "Oh, God…" He was grinding against her clit, turning her into a weak mess as pleasant shocks ran through her.
Bruce kept his head low, his lips lingering at her cheek as he took deep, ragged breaths. He knew he was going to be fine. Natasha's slick walls and constant moaning had yet to set him off. He was going to be okay… Bruce rocked his hips at a faster pace to sate the heat spreading through his crotch.
Natasha's fingers pressed into his sides. She was wary of scratching him, of getting rough, but it became harder to control herself as a pressure flared in her lower belly. Toes curled and legs trembling, she continued to cry his name in a hoarse whimper.
He purposefully slowed his thrusts to admire her face twisted with pleasure. She watched him through half-lidded eyes with flushed cheeks. He knew he would never look at her the same way, and as his member begged for release and his heart raced faster than it had in the longest time, he knew how he truly felt about her. Bruce swore he wouldn't say it-that would ruin the moment. But he wanted to, and if he wasn't careful, a breathless "I love you" was likely to escape him. "Na-!" He gasped, his eyes squeezing shut as his length seized.
Natasha's own body was teetering on the verge of an orgasm. "God, don't stop!" she begged.
"I-I'm…" His body lurched forward, but he was quick to pull out as his release spilled into the condom.
Natasha whimpered at the loss and for the unsatisfied nagging in her lower belly.
Bruce gripped his cock, his thumb tracing over the rubber to feel Natasha's juices.
She rolled onto her side, her hair in a disarray as she gave him a smirk. "How do you feel?"
He managed a lopsided grin before he exhaled. "Better…"
Natasha laughed and slowly sat up. "Good to know."
He smiled, but started to shy away from the bed. The condom's wetness was becoming uncomfortable. "I need a minute to clean up…"
"We can shower together," she suggested.
Bruce found himself giving her body a quick once over while wondering if he was dreaming. "Alright…"
Natasha ran a hot shower, her gaze fixating on Bruce every few seconds as they stood beneath the shower head.
"I didn't, uh, hurt you, did I?"
She rolled her eyes as she reached for her body wash. "No. You didn't." But she would welcome him getting a bit rougher if a second chance ever came around.
"Good." His body was still as he watched her lather the soap onto a bath sponge.
"Think we'll do it again?" Natasha winked as she began massaging the soap into her skin.
He tucked a wet lock of hair behind her ear. "I'd like that."
She let her soapy fingers wash the apex of her thighs.
Bruce dumbly watched until she offered him the sponge with a teasing smirk.
"The pasta's cold," Natasha announced as she checked the pot she had left on the stovetop. "Probably soggy, too."
"I don't mind." Bruce fastened the last two buttons on his shirt as he watched Natasha strut around in her bathrobe. Only a bathrobe.
She turned to him and snorted. "Let me heat it back up before feeding you cold spaghetti."
"Thank you," Bruce laughed. He wondered if he was crazy, but he swore there was a new twinkle in her eyes that he never noticed before.
"You wanna stay over?" She wondered, setting the stove on low while pouring in some tomato sauce from a jar.
"I should probably go," he decided. "Tony will worry."
"I wouldn't want him to ground you," she joked.
Despite his fun for the night, Bruce still had Ross and Talbot on his mind. "Another night. Once all of this is over…"
Natasha lowered her head and nodded. "It'll all be over soon."
He came home later than anticipated, courtesy of an unexpected union. Bruce hardly felt like the night was real. Between the news of Talbot being alive and sex without a single peep from the other guy, Bruce was still in disbelief. He wanted to say that he imagined the entire bedroom scenario-not a word was spoken of it during dinner. Hardly anything was said during dinner. The looming threat of a potential Ross-Hulk wasn't pleasant conversation, and even if Natasha did bring up sex, he would've wanted the subject changed. Bruce found Tony in the lab, tinkering on what looked to be a brand new Iron Man suit. "He looks nice."
Tony briefly turned to his partner, then to his suit, then back to Bruce when he noticed that his curls were even more of a mess than usual. "Back from Romanoff's?"
Bruce rubbed the back of his neck and felt that his hair was almost completely dry. "Yes." Tony was giving him a quizzical look and he wondered if he somehow knew what he was up to. The inventor was very attentive, contrary to popular belief.
Tony slowly turned around in his chair to give Bruce his full attention. "Fury told me she knows." Bruce's features hardened. "He told me about it when you were out…"
"Talbot."
Tony gave a nod. "You okay, buddy?"
Bruce felt a strong longing to return to Natasha's home where they shared a perfect moment of escape. "I'm fine. Heading off to bed…"
"We'll set this straight," Tony called after him.
"Goodnight, Tony," he mumbled back.