Chapter 3

She's in it from front to back, with no intention of standing still or staying back, but now there's Bruce and Bruce is… Let's just say she doesn't want to take her eyes off him even for a second.

Yeah, he's here, and yeah, he sounds about ready to be scientifically in it with them, but if she takes her eyes off him, he might just disappear again. And if he disappears again, they'll be one team member short again, and him leaving will also open that wound again, but the team-member-short thing comes first.

So, in short, she's not letting him out of her sight, no matter what he says.

'You're coming with us,' she states even though he just finished telling her that he wouldn't be going anywhere.

Her words surprise him enough to look up fast, put on a look of confusion and ask, 'Who, me?'

'Uh-huh,' she lightly smiles at him, because it's really him.

After all this time, it's Bruce, and he's the same as he's always been around her – she's missed seeing him being himself.

'Wh – Why?' he asks with a frown. 'I thought - Can't I stay here and think of something else in case that doesn't work?'

That, is them going to Wakanda for their advanced technology, but as much as she can trust that he'll do his best to figure it out, she just won't risk leaving him behind. She's thought about it in the span of minutes talking to him and now she won't let it go.

'Come on, Bruce,' she says, 'you'd love it over there. The tech's the selling point. Besides, don't you want to see where they fail so you could improve it from there?'

Shaking his head and looking away from her, maybe a little embarrassed, he says, 'I'm not able to do it, Nat. Vision came from Ultron's mishap. At the core, Ultron was mostly Jarvis and Tony's. I'm way out of depth here. I could try and speak to Tony again, I - I - I could try contacting him in space, but he'd been sure the Avengers broke up, so I'm not sure how that will go. What happened while I was gone?'

'We broke up,' she answers with another light smile, using the humour to lighten everything that's happened since the big combat.

'And you stayed with Steve?'

His question is innocent enough, and he's only asking based on what he walked into, but should she take that as a hint somehow? But hint or not, now isn't the time to get into that. So much happened for her to get into it now.

'I'll make you a deal,' she leans down to him. 'You come with us...' her eyes stay pinned on his for a good measure of time, just to drill it in which skillset she's using to persuade him. 'And... I'll tell you all about it once we beat Thanos.'

'I can't go,' he tells in her a small, defeated tone, which annoys her to the point if getting up and crossing her arms over him.

'You're coming with us, Bruce,' she demands, 'it's not up for debate,' and then she turns and heads for the door.

Mentally, she kicks herself for again pushing him to do something that he doesn't particularly want to do, but then again, Bruce as she knows, him never particularly wants to be involved in anything. He'll get over it, she hopes, as he always does - he's a big softie under it all, and can never really give up the chance to help. Still, she's worried that she's pushing him too hard too soon when he's just coming to terms with everything, and when she moves to the open area with the others, she immediately looks for Steve for his take on it.

'And?' Steve meets her with, his eyes flicking behind her in question.

'What?'

'Bruce,' he clarifies, flicking his head in the direction that she just came from. 'You convinced him, right? You know we'll need the Hulk.'

'Steve...' she looks at him, genuinely surprised at him as her heart seems to miss a beat. 'You banked on me talking him into coming with us?'

'You're better at it than anyone else,' he answers her honestly. 'And no, I wasn't banking on it, I was only hoping for it. So, what's it gonna be?'

'He needs fresh clothes,' she answers, deciding not to beat around with a subject that's making her react like this – like no one else should notice her influence on Bruce.

'So, he's coming?' Steve confirms.

'Yep,' she says, even not being one hundred percent sure about it herself.

Nodding appreciatively, he then asks, 'And you, are you okay?'

'Getting ready to fight a big baddie is my thing, Cap,' she says dismissively, finishing with a wink and then steps past him.

She waits until she's out of everyone's sight, and is sure no one is watching her, to let out a long breath to celebrate her stunning composure under Steve's innocent questioning.

26Chapters

It kind of surprised her that Bruce came to find her some twenty minutes after she left him, but not really. She kind of knew that he'd cave, but she also kind of feared that he'd refuse. It's weird how that was, two opposing things happening in her brain at once and making her a little nervous for what he'd say to her. He only made a comment about 'being made to wear Tony's clothes again' when she handed him a fresh set, which later forced her to nick a shirt and jacket more to his style from the nearest store.

After that, as he got into normal operating gear, opening his laptop and putting his headphones on, she gave him as much space as he needed. Her eyes wouldn't stray too long away from him, though, occasionally looking up to find him consulting with Rhodes or giving Wanda apprehensive looks. She told herself that it was okay to let him alone for a while, give him some time before bombarding his space for a small chat, and it really was okay to watch him speak to everyone else, but there's something about now.

Something that's different.

Something that's to his taste.

Something that's totally got him puppy love looking.

And yeah, that something bothers her a little bit.

She guesses that they're only discussing Vision away from everyone, and being scientists, they'd understand each other way better than anyone else on the team... Now if only Shuri would stop looking at him rather than at the rubick's cube that he's using for a demonstration. She gets it, he's smart and when it comes to science, they never get the stuttering man that he can be, only the straightforward one, complete with facts and logic to act as his backbone, but –

'You too?'

She recognises Okoye's voice instantly, and she turns to her side to meet the woman's waiting stare, but what she finds is an uncharacteristic look of understanding.

'What?' she wonders.

'You look displeased. That one,' Okoye tilts her chin in Bruce and Shuri's direction. 'He's playing with a puzzle for Wakanda toddlers.'

Laughing a little, she answers, 'He's like that.'

'He is an Avenger?' Okoye looks at her. 'Are you sure?'

Okoye is no-nonsense, not easily impressed and easily disgusted, so she sees where it could be mistaken that someone like him could fight in big battles. Shre'll see later, he'll get to showing them at one point or another.

'He is,' she answers proudly, turning back to watch the interaction across them.

Not only is he an Avenger, he is also incredible, both as the Hulk and Dr. Bruce Banner when he isn't the Hulk.

'He is strange...' Okoye says looking at Shuri responding to him. 'And awkward and ridiculous.'

She smiles about that and being astute in observing people, she gets where Okoye's reasoning for strange, awkward and ridiculous come from, but as much as he isn't really those things, he kind of is, and so very adorable because of them.

26Chapters

From the moment that the first attack happened, she knew that they would all have to fight. Vision will get that stone out, but in the meantime, she needs Bruce. In the middle of T'Challa giving out orders and putting everything into place, she moves to Bruce and specifically looks at Shuri.

'You got this, right?' she asks Shuri.

'Sure,' the other woman half-heartedly responds, since she is too invested in Vision.

It's enough for her and she quickly takes Bruce by the arm, absently sliding her fingers to circle his wrist and begins to pull him with her, only for him to resist.

'What are you doing?' he asks, genuinely clueless – which he can totally be.

'Shuri's got this,' she points out to him. 'I know you want to stay here and see her do this, but you know we need the Big Guy right now.'

That should be obvious after the first attack, but watching for his response, she sees his spirit drop somehow, like she just forbade him to do something.

'Nat, I...' he seems to struggle, effectively dropping his wrist from her grasp.

Okay, she knows what's going on here; she'll fix it.

'Shuri,' she quickly turns to the small scientist, 'make Bruce a video of your process. Don't leave anything out, okay? He'll love to see it later, and Bruce, you better follow me out there.'

After that, she moves past him, pulling a Steve and banking on her influence on him to be enough.

'Natasha, wait, I'm coming!'

It worked, she thinks in relief, just barely closing her eyes with thanksgiving as she stops her steps for him to catch up with her, only picking up her feet when he comes to her side, but not without turning up the corners of her mouth just a bit.

26Chapters

The silence brought on by seeing people disappear before their eyes, carried on through seeing Thanos disappear to wherever he chose to go. As they went back to their transport, only the sound of moving feet and the occasional breath could be hear. It was even worse for her, walking beside Steve carrying Vision, because it just didn't feel real.

Soon, they nodded their goobyes to the remaining people in Wakanda and were boarding their flying craft back home. Not a single one of them said a word to the other, and it was like they were all accepting that nothing else can be done. It was more evident when one by one, they took off for their various rooms, the sound of firmly shutting doors speaking what their unspoken words never did.

Speechless, disbelieving and very unwilling to do what everyone else was, she sat in the boardroom for as long as she could, thinking about nothing and everything all at once. But then it got to be a bit too much, which is why she is here at this door, holding her breath just before she enters.

There's nowhere else to go to, she reminds herself.

Thor, he's... And Steve is... Even the new guy, Rocket is... Not to mention Rhodey, who's...

Only Bruce would take her in.

It's her hope at least, that's why she forgoes knocking and enters, softly closing the door behind her as her eyes catch him standing at the window.

'Nice view?' she announces herself.

She's pretty sure that he heard her coming in, but it's still good manners to let him know. Seeing as he's just wrapped in a towel, it's safe to assume that he just came from the shower and to clear his mind, he's looking out at the nothingness below the tower.

He turns around and says, 'Nat, it's you.'

'It's me,' she offers him a smile and then walks all the way to him to stand next to him. 'What's on your mind?'

He shakes his head and looks back out the window again. She might be wrong, but she'll guess that somewhere in that brain of his, he is blaming himself. It's obviously not her job to make him feel better, although she feels it right to do something for him at least. The first part is purely her feminine style, which is moving her dominant hand behind him to run her finger at the bottom of his back from one end to the other. He pulls in a sharp breath, but he also looks at her, which is a win in her book.

'You didn't turn green,' she states, wondering if that's his mind's work right now.

Giving her a wry smile, he asks, 'You noticed?'

'Why?'

She shouldn't ask that, because when she led him away from Vision, he had to explain his doubts about the Big Guy making and appearance. He didn't get into specifics, but they didn't have the time either. And then she saw it for herself how he struggled to even begin changing shades. But if he's beating himself up about losing due to him, then she can at least try to reassure him.

'I can't,' he shakes his head.

'We had a Code Green,' she carefully reminds him, which makes him look away.

'I know. The Hulk, he… He met Thanos before. It's a combination of things, I think,' he returns his face back to her. 'His and mine. We both failed.'

'Hey...' she instinctively touches his face, making him look at her. 'I'm not judging you for not.'

'I am,' he confesses, reaching to pull her hand from his face like he's disqualified from her touch with that. 'We failed, and Thanos did it. He used the stones, even with all of us.'

It breaks her soul how right he is.

Despite all of them, all their very best and all their willpower, Thanos still won.

'We tried our best,' she whispers.

'It wasn't enough,' he softly condemns – not the others, not her, but himself and Big Guy, maybe believing that his effort could have made the difference while the others assembled.

She looks at him and she won't be the one to break him from his head, and she won't try, but being alive, he can't live like that.

'I've been thinking about what we lost,' she tells him.

He agrees with a nod, 'Half the population.'

'And we survived, Bruce,' she laughs mockingly. 'Why us?'

After everything that they both regret, left to continue regretting what they've done, why them? Clint as well, how did they survive while the innocent had to go? It had to be them who survived? Was Thanos so sadistic that he strategically wished those who had regrets and couldn't truly be happy to be left behind. Was his plan to leave them, so they would dedicate their lives to trying to make up for their mistakes and that way take care of the earth?

'Heh!' he laughs. 'What were the odds, right?'

They look at each other and then she makes her decision to lean close to him. Yeah, the rest of the world burned, and yeah, they feel terrible about it, but since they survived, doesn't it count for something? Isn't indicative of them having life to live? It's messed up in a way that she wants to live so close to half the population disappearing, but she's alive and who knows for how long.

'We lived,' she repeats more to convince herself of her choice than remind him.

'We'll keep living,' he adds.

'Do we keep doing that miserably forever?'

She doesn't want to do that. After what she went through, fighting with one half of the Avengers, not knowing what became of him, missing him and blaming herself for making him turn against his will, to being on the run, to going back to Russia and all that happened there, only to return to Thanos, can't she catch a break? The world's been spinning, and she's been exerting herself to keep up with it, so can't she just give in?

'It's fair.'

'Is it?' she wonders.

He touches her face and she leans into his touch, only for him to say, 'Not to you. You've done everything you could.'

She places her hand over his and they look at each other for a while. Like this, she expects him to ask her what she's doing, but he only strokes her face.

'So did you,' she tells him and then puts her hand on his waist. 'It's fair to...' she runs her hand down his chest, suggesting, 'Live a little.'

'Nat, I can't,' he says, but she has already reached for his face.

'Why?'

What's left to think about?

'This loss doesn't equal to any hope for me. Or us. Any of us. All it means is that we will have to do our best to improve our mistakes and never allow anything like this to happen again.'

She understands him and she hears him, but they freaking survived! They went two years without seeing each other, to being genocide survivors. And maybe right now, she doesn't want it rubbed in her face how they failed. A little distraction would be welcome.

'You talk too much, Bruce,' she says, deliberately moving in and kisses him hard on the lips. He vocally protests her kiss, so she pulls back to tell him, 'I won't push you, but I want you to know that I want this. Whatever this could be. If you want it too. We survived and...'

So much happened, so can something else just be a little light for her?

'I can't give you anything. I've been away for two years,' leaves his mouth in a strained voice. 'How could you possibly think that we could – Why? I can't give you anything.'

'I'm not asking you for anything,' she shakes her head to convince him. 'I'm the last person to ask for anything. Bruce, just as we are, I'm okay.'

'That just it, Nat,' he turns from her for a bit and turning back, he continues with a pained expression. 'I can't give you anything now as it is. I can't even turn into the Hulk.'

'I think you can give me something,' she whispers, slowly bringing her hand up from his chest to hold one side of his face for physical leverage as she leans in for a lighter kiss this time – nothing long or hard.

'See?' she asks while pulling back, but he refuses her with a headshake.

'I can't. I'm sorry.'

Yeah, she can see it on his face.

'Okay, sure,' she nods, a little disappointed as she takes a big step back, but still a good sport enough to try again. 'So, um, we could talk. You wanted to know about why we broke up in the first place. You know, you never said why the Big Guy's stopped being in charge.'

'Nah,' he refuses. 'I don't want to talk about that Guy. He failed us. I just don't understand. I mean I do, but he's never been a coward. That's always been me, not him. How can I trust him again? We used to have an understanding, an agreement, and he broke that. More than once. He's – He's –'

'Don't be too hard on him,' she begins, struggling with whether to touch him or just let him be.

To that, he chuckles nervously, imitating how she'd stepped to him that time and says, 'That's my job, remember?'

'Bruce...'

'No, you're right,' he makes a turnaround. 'That guy had his fun for two years. I should forget about him for a while. Screw him! He didn't care about me either.'

'So, we talk?' she asks just so she doesn't have to defend the Big Guy from him. 'About anything. I don't mind. I just don't really want to be on my own right now.'

'Yeah, sure,' he agrees fervently. 'Uh... I'll just put on some pants and you - You take a seat,' he gestures to his bed. 'Unless you were thinking of talking somewhere else.'

'I'll sit,' she smiles at him.

She hopes that in staying, she can somehow make him feel less responsible for what Thanos did, and in the process get him to see that she does want him to stay whether he can become the Hulk or not. No matter what, she really doesn't want to lose anyone else in this world - him especially, he's special to her.