A/N: If you just read the entire story and are coming to this chapter straight from the previous one...sorry! It is a shorter one, especially in comparison to the monster I posted previously. (Well, it was a monster chapter in MY books...I usually aim for 3,000-ish words and that one was over 4,500 without the author's note...)
Either way, I hope you enjoy the chapter. It just worked out that it's shorter. But it's fluffy. And everyone likes some good fluff once in a while, right? :) And there is action coming up next chapter, and plot! Well, there's always plot, it's just not always moving as quickly in some chapters. :P
Me no own Avengers. You no sue. 'Kay? Sweet.
Amrita blearily opened her eyes as the sun shone on them, signaling it was daytime once again. She groaned quietly, rolling over to try and go back to sleep, when she just about rolled right into one Bruce Banner's sleeping form. Startled, she froze, trying not to disturb him as she carefully scooted back so that she didn't feel like she was going to brush noses with him if she so much as twitched. How had he ended up in her bed? Her mind raced to answer the question, and she remembered suddenly everything that had happened last night, from Vishnu coming and restoring her memory, to her telling Bruce about it all and why she'd stayed, and how afterwards she'd been so exhausted she'd just laid down to go to sleep, and asked Bruce to stay with her so she wouldn't be alone with everything she'd just learned.
Apparently, he'd stayed the whole night. She guessed he must have been tired, too, because she'd figured he would've just stayed long enough to be polite and left once she'd fallen asleep. She studied his sleeping face, smiling to herself. The scientist was too nice for his own good, she thought. It would be much too easy to take advantage of that. She was glad she was a better person than that. She winced at the thought of being a 'person', though. Was she really?
Deciding that was something she could ponder later, she climbed out of bed, careful not to wake the sleeping scientist, and headed off for a quick shower and to get dressed for the day, finding the fact that she'd slept in yesterday's clothes a bit disgusting. She wrinkled her nose at her reflection in the bathroom mirror. Her hair was an absolute mess; she quickly yanked a comb through it and vigorously brushed her teeth before she got in the shower.
When she stepped back into the bedroom, dressed in loose cotton pants and a tank top and squeezing the water out of her hair with her towel. Bruce was just sitting up in bed, rubbing his eyes. Amrita stopped in her tracks as their eyes locked, and she could feel her face grow warm.
"Um," she stammered. "Sorry about last night. I shouldn't have made you stay."
"No, no. It's okay. You didn't want to be alone," Bruce said. "I can understand that, it's been a very…informative couple of days," he said awkwardly, running a hand through his already messy hair and yawning as he rolled out of bed, stretching his arms up over his head.
Amrita felt a surge of affection for the scientist, smiling at him involuntarily. Unfortunately, he caught the look she was giving him and tilted his head, smiling back, but his being a confused one.
"What, what's with the smile?"
Amrita shook her head, crossing the room and wrapping her arms around his middle.
"Nothing," she mumbled into his wrinkled dress shirt. "Just…thanks. For everything. For being you."
Bruce chuckled. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you had a crush on me," he teased, not realizing he'd hit the nail right on the head.
Amrita's face heated up to the point where she was surprised there wasn't any steam coming off of it. She tensed up, not saying anything.
Bruce instantly realized he'd said the wrong thing from her reaction.
"Amrita…?"
The redhead seemed to snap out of her panicked freeze-up and pulled away from him, all but running out the bedroom door.
"Amrita!"
She heard Bruce's footsteps pounding down the staircase after her as she made a mad dash for the kitchen, the only other place in the building she could remember how to get to off the top of her head. She didn't even think as she ran over to the coat closet in the hall before the kitchen and slammed it shut after her, melting the metal door hinges in place so they wouldn't budge. She could hear Bruce walk past the doors, not realizing she was in there, before back-tracking. She could see his shadow in front of the door, and her breath hitched. She felt sick to her stomach at the realization that he knew she liked him now. She didn't know what to do with that. Hell, she didn't even know what to do with her feelings towards him to begin with. All these revelations, they all pointed towards the fact that she shouldn't pursue a relationship with him. She was so confused, though. She'd had relationships with humans before. Why did the fact that she knew what she was have to change her ability to have relationships? She wanted to be able to be with Bruce, to get to know him better, and he her. She covered her mouth as she felt the hot warmth of tears in her eyes. Knocking sounded on the closet door, and she squeezed her eyes shut.
"Amrita?" Bruce called softly. "I know you're in there, and I think we should talk."
Amrita stubbornly remained silent.
Bruce sighed. "Alright, well, I'll talk. You can just…listen, I guess."
Bruce's shadow moved, and it sounded like he'd slid down the door so he was sitting with his back against it.
"It's okay that you like me," he said gently. "To be honest…I…I like you, too."
Amrita's breath hitched. It felt like the air had been snatched from her lungs. She would have wondered if maybe he was playing a trick on her, if she hadn't known how kind and caring the man was. It brought fresh tears to her eyes, though they were happy ones this time around. She stifled her sobs, listening intently to what he had to say.
"I wasn't sure when to tell you. To be honest, I'm not sure if I even would have, if it weren't for this…thing," he said. "Let's call it a happy accident."
Amrita smiled at that.
"When I found out who you were…or are, I guess…I just…" He sighed. "I was upset. And angry. I'm pretty sure I just about Hulked out at one point." She could picture the wry grin that she thought must be on his face at that point. "That's because I'd just realized how much I liked you. You're smart, witty, caring, and despite that you have a bit of a temper and can be kind of awkward at times," Amrita gave an indignant 'hey!' at that and Bruce just laughed, "I think you're a pretty great person, and I like spending time with you."
Bruce waited in silence until he heard a clunk, looking over to see that the one closet door's hinges had fallen off, and the door tipped back into the closet as Amrita shuffled out, plunking herself down on the ground next to him. She wordlessly wiped the tear tracks from her face and turned to him.
"For what it's worth…I think you're pretty great, too."
Bruce grinned. "Good, because I was thinking that maybe we could make a team. We'll call it the Pretty Great Squad, and it'll be like this super-exclusive club that everyone wants to be in but nobody gets invited into, and it might end in world domination—"
Bruce promptly shut up due to the fact that Amrita had leaned forward and pressed her lips to his. It was gentle and feather-light, but it was a kiss. He smiled as she pulled back.
"You call that a kiss?"
Amrita looked insulted.
"I'd like to see you do better," she challenged.
"I thought you'd never ask," he winked, cupping the back of her head with his hand and leaning in to kiss her again, more firmly this time. His skin tingled as she placed her hands on his chest, pressing her fingers into the wrinkled fabric of his shirt. She sighed happily into the kiss, and he realized he felt happier at that moment than he had in years.
Of course, the moment couldn't last.
"What the—!"
The two broke apart to see Tony standing on the other side of the kitchen, bags of groceries in hand, staring on in shock; not at them, but behind them. Pepper peeked out from behind Tony, grinning proudly at them.
"What the hell did you do to my closet?" Tony demanded, before he got a horrified look. "You didn't…you know…did you?"
Amrita took off one of her slippers and chucked it at the billionaire's head, and it hit home with a loud slap.
"Oh, that's it, sister. I may have interrupted a moment, but you are so getting it."
Bruce sighed as Amrita squealed and ran away from the raging billionaire. Pepper just shook her head.
"Well, at least you can't say there's ever a dull moment around here," she joked as she started putting Tony's long-forgotten groceries away in the fridge. She gave the scientist a wink. "And congratulations, by the way. It's about damn time!"
"Give me an update, Agent Hill," Director Fury said as he entered the main tech area of SHIELD headquarters, black trench coat sweeping behind him ominously.
"Dr. Rowman's tracking algorithm is complete, we're just keying it in to our systems now," Hill said. "We should be able to track anything and everything that may have come out of the rifts."
"About damn time," Fury muttered. "We've had too many of those things over the past few days for me to be able to get a good night's sleep."
Agent Hill straightened from where she'd been leaning over one of the tech's shoulders with a grim look on her face.
"Unfortunately, sir, I don't think this is going to help you in that regard…"
Director Fury fixed her with a weary look before giving a small sigh and motioning to the tech.
"Bring it up on screen."
The tech nodded, and a screen came up showing a world map with almost the entire North American continent covered in ominously glowing red dots, all converging on a single point.
"Motherf—! Get me Romanoff and Barton," Fury barked, storming out of the tech area with Agent Hill close on his heels.
"On it," she said, patching into the communications system through her earpiece and contacting the two agents. "They're en route; they'll meet us on the launch pad, sir."
Fury had to resist the urge to tap his foot impatiently as the elevator ascended to the top of the building. He and Agent Hill emerged onto the roof top moments before Natasha and Clint did. When the two super spies arrived, Fury was giving orders to a Quinjet pilot. He turned to them, nodding brusquely and motioning to the jet.
"You two are going to Manhattan," he stated in a tone that brooked no argument. "We have a level one emergency that needs our attention. You're to round up Banner, Stark, and Mehrotra and get them out to as remote a location as possible. We have reason to believe Mehrotra is attracting some bad attention," he said, pulling out a tablet and displaying the screen the techs had shown him earlier. "And I mean a lot of bad attention."
Their eyes widened fractionally before they regained their cool exteriors.
"Yes, sir," Barton said, glad he'd grabbed his bow and quiver of arrows before rushing up there. He glared enviously at Natasha. She'd already had her full Black Widow garb on when Agent Hill had called on them, having been just about to go out on a different mission. He guessed someone else would end up covering it for her. He frowned, though, uncomfortable doing a mission in his civilian clothes.
"Relax, Clint. I stored an extra set of your uniform in the Quinjet last time you forgot to put it on," Natasha said nonchalantly, uncannily sensing what it was he was so concerned about.
Clint gave her a look. "Don't you mean the last time I didn't have time to put it on before a level one emergency came up?"
"No, I'm pretty sure I mean last time you forgot it."
"Enough squabbling, children. Get on that damn plane and do your job," Fury ordered. They both snapped to attention, nodding.
"Yes, sir," they quipped in unison, clambering up into the Quinjet and buckling in.
"Bet you five bucks the doctor takes care of them before we even get there," Natasha said coolly, flipping on the controls.
Clint gave her a confused look. "What, Banner? Of course he would, why the hell would I try and bet against that? That's just idiocy at its purest form."
"Hmm? Oh, no, I mean Dr. Mehrotra," Natasha clarified. "Why would I even try to get you to bet against Banner? Now that is idiocy at its purest form," she said as they began take-off, the force pulling both of them back against their seats.
Clint gave her a weird look. "What the hell are you talking about?" he asked. "I wouldn't exactly put her in the same fighting class as the Hulk. I mean, sure, she's a fire-starter, but that doesn't mean she can wipe out a frickin' army of other-worldly beasties bearing down on her."
Natasha scoffed. "I didn't think you were that misinformed, Barton… Still, though. Yea or nay?"
Clint chortled.
"Yeah, alright. You're on."
Natasha smirked.
"Good. Now get us Stark Tower on the comm. I believe everyone else will want to know that they should be expecting visitors any moment now…"