a/n - this is kind of a filler chapter - sorry it's been delayed in updating! I'm revising for my exams and I just haven't had the time to update. I'm hoping to have a new chapter up soon. Sorry about the length of this. As I said, it's a filler chapter!

Now that Captain America was on board, Natasha was able to finish the SHIELD search on the Hulk, also known as Science specialist in gamma radiation Dr Bruce Banner. It turned out that Banner was in the humble city of Tokyo, and Natasha went off to find him.

"God damn it, Banner. Why do you always insist on coming to these places? First Calcutta, now Tokyo. I'm just going to say you like the Asian side of the world best..." Natasha murmured to herself as she stepped off the plane, dressed in the usual attire for the colourful city. The more she blended in, the better.

She took a minute to recuperate after the flight, and set off on the journey to find him. It turned out that he had resided in a small home just about 25 miles away from the airport - it meant a huge taxi payment in yen, but if Banner was happy with that, Natasha had no reason to complain.

Upon arriving at the home, Natasha made herself look as friendly as possible, and knocked on the door.

"Just a minute!" Came the response from the inside, and then the door was opened. "Miss Romanoff..."

"Dr Banner."

"Let me guess...they need me again?"

"They do, Doctor. Loki's back - we need to move. And relatively fast, too."

"Okay, just make sure he doesn't get anywhere to close to me. I don't want...I don't want to freak out like last time... Sorry, about that, by the way..."

"Don't worry about it. Those things happen, right?"

"Y-yeah...they do."

Natasha looked around and pressed her hand to her ear and spoke into it. "This is Natasha Romanoff, does anybody copy?"

"Steve copying. You got Banner?"

"I do, can you get someone to send a plane out? I am not paying another 10000 yen for a taxi ride."

"Its on its way, we're tracking your coordinates. Arrival time in approximately 3 hours and 50 minutes."

"Looks like we've got some time to kill..." Natasha said, rolling her eyes.

"We do..."

Pepper returned home to the flat, seeing Tony's note and smiling. "Seems you're gone for longer than you say," she said to herself, and looked around as she heard the light patter of feet across the floor - too light for Tony, and saw Elizabeta.

"Miss Potts? Can I speak to you please?"

"Of course - and please, call me Pepper," she smiled, going to the bar. "Drink for your troubles?" She asked, holding a bottle of white wine up.

"No, thank you, just a plain water."

"Alright, so, what's wrong?" She said, sitting down on the chair, patting the one next to her.

"Do you...do you think that Mr Stark- I mean Tony, doesn't like Loki?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well...he doesn't seem to be...well, happy about us."

"Well, there was some trouble a few years ago...and Tony seems to hold a grudge - you can ask him about that yourself - I don't think it's my place to talk about it."

"Uhm... Okay. Thank you, Pepper - I'm sorry I troubled you."

"Not at all - now, go back to bed, you'll never know what the next day brings," she smiled, drinking the rest of the glass of wine she had in her hand. "Goodnight, Elizabeta."