Day 8: Setting — Quinjet
“I can’t believe you,” Bruce muttered, his nose an inch away from Natasha’s stomach wound. “Why do you keep doing this to yourself?”
They were just the two of them on the Quinjet, after Natasha got him to partner with her for her mission. Partnering being patching her up after.
“I don’t do it to myself,” the spy retorted. “The people I fight do it to me.”
“You go on the fights,” he reminded her.
“Then take it up with Nick,” Nat said. She winced as Bruce tugged the needle through her skin. “Ow.”
Bruce sighed. “And this is why I keep telling you to take a break every now and then. I’ll only be available for so long, Natasha. Soon enough, Tony’ll release me from my vacation time.”
“Then let me hire you,” Nat replied, leaning forwards as Bruce approached her back with antiseptic wipes. “Be my personal doctor.”
Bruce chuckled. “I’m pretty sure I already do that.”
“But officially!” Natasha laughed as the cold wipes touched an uninjured part of her skin. “I need my personal doctor to be on call and not next to Tony making murderbots!”
Bruce rolled his eyes. “One time.”
Nat turned to him with pleading eyes. “Please? For me?” She batted her eyelashes.
“You’re being ridiculous,” Bruce laughed.
Natasha kept her eyes on him as he walked back in front of her. “Just consider it.”
“Fine,” he sighed. “But I’d rather you put me out of work by not being hurt.”
Nat rolled her eyes. “You know I can’t do that.”
Bruce exhaled and kneeled down to the spy’s hanging foot.
“Sprain?” she asked.
“Yep.” He stood up. “Like it or not, doctor’s orders, you are going on sick leave.”
Natasha frowned. “How about no.”
“How about you either take the leave now and keep it short,” Bruce said, “or take a half-year leave after you inevitably exceed your limit and crash from the sky, Icarus?”
“You did not just call me Icarus.”
“I did.”
Natasha sighed. “But there are things to do!”
“Like rest,” Bruce said sternly. “Or I’ll be recommending a different doctor for you.”
Natasha mock-gasped. “Now, don’t be hasty.”
“Rest.”
“Do I have to?”
“Absolutely.”
Nat pouted.
Bruce sighed. “How about I stay with you on your leave? Will that make you happy? Will you go on leave?”
Natasha brightened. “Yes.” She grinned, hopping off the examination table against Bruce’s protests. “A Bruce Banner vacation.”
“Yay.” He tried shepherding her back on the table to no avail.
Nat hip-checked him playfully. “Sit down.”
Bruce chuckled. “I’m not the patient here,” he said.
“I’m getting us drinks.” Nat turned. “Unless you don’t want me to have a drink with you.”
“I didn’t say that.”
Natasha grinned and grabbed her thermos. She went back and poured them a cup. “I only have one cup.”
“We can share,” Bruce said. He smelled the tea. “Chamomile?”
“Yeah.”
They sat in a silence while they slowly drained the thermos.
“What do you want to do on your leave?” Bruce asked her.
Natasha smiled. “You.”
Bruce groaned. “Not what I meant, Natasha,” he muttered into his hands.
Nat laughed. “The look on your face.”
“You’re not serious.”
“On the contrary, if we’re using the fancy words,” Natasha deadpanned. “But I digress. Do you like cheesecake?”
Bruce spluttered. “You can’t– you can’t just–” he sighed. “Yeah, if it’s the good kind of cheesecake.”
Natasha smiled at him over the rim of the cup. She poured out a new cup and handed it to him.
The sunlight filtered through the Quinjet windows as they flew by the sunset.
“You look handsome with the light hitting your face like that,” she commented off-handedly.
Bruce choked. “What– sorry–” he coughed a few times. “What?!”
Nat shrugged. “You looked nice and it deserved to be said. What?” she asked when Bruce just looked at her.
“Nothing,” Bruce sighed. “Has it ever occurred to you that you flirt a lot?”
Natasha thought for a moment. “Just with you. With everyone else, not really.” She toasted a new cup to Bruce’s stunned face. “What, you thought I did this with everyone?”
“I–” he frowned. “If not, then why me?”
Natasha got that ‘you’ve-got-to-be-kidding-me’ look on her face. “Oh my god,” she muttered. She looked up, straight into Bruce’s eyes. “Dr. Banner, has it ever occurred to you that there’s a reason why people flirt?”
Bruce nodded. “Yeah. They–” a look of realization dawned on him. “Ohh.” He blinked and looked between them. “Oh.”
“Yeah, ‘oh’,” Natasha huffed.
Bruce stared at her. “Um.”
“Yeah?” Nat asked resignedly.
“I… I reciprocate.”
Natasha looked skeptical. “Do you?”
Bruce swallowed. “Yeah.” He hesitated before steeling himself. He leaned forwards about five degrees. “Can I–”
Natasha closed the rest of the distance and kissed him softly. She pulled away and smirked at Bruce’s look of frozen surprise.
“– ask you on a date?” he finished, a little lamely.
Nat smiled at him. “Sure.”
Bruce blinked. “Okay.” His eyes darted around the Quinjet.
“Okay.” Natasha laughed again. “I’ve got to say, uh, I thought you’d be less shocked.”
Bruce ducked his head. “Yeah, I haven’t really gone out… much. Not since Betty. And that was a long time ago. I’ve forgotten how to date, actually.”
Nat smiled at him, tugging at his collar. “We can fix that,” she promised. “Now, about our vacation. What do you think, Mexico or someplace even farther away?”
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Bruce/Nat I'm a loser? Please?
Beatles Prompts
Pairing: Bruce/NatashaWord Count: 618
A/N: Disclaimer. I’m out of my comfort zone. This is not my ship. I will say that I did give it the same attention and respect I give ANY of the prompts I receive, however. Please, enjoy. :)
Not What I Appear to Be (I’m A Loser)
Natasha was in the lab again.
Bruce wasn’t exactly sure why she kept hanging around. She didn’t seem to be here for Tony. Surely she must have something better to dothan waste her time sitting in here. Playing with her phone and chatting with Darcy on occasion.
He tried to look busy and not like he was watching her outof the corner of his eye. He wasn’ttrying to be piggish. He really wasn’t. But the woman looked amazing no matter whatshe did. If she wore makeup or she didn’t. If she dressed up or dressed down.
His heart practically stopped when she came in wearing thoseyoga pants and tank top.
She was in a different league than the women who were out ofhis league. Two leagues out of hisleague.
He was so invested in staring at his computer screen that hedidn’t notice her approaching until she scooted a hot mug of tea towardshim. “Bruce…” she said quietly, beforeturning to walk back to the table she’d come from.
“Thank you…” he managed, before taking a sip and burning histongue.
Darcy swung by soon after, dropping off a box of files she’dgotten from the SHIELD vaults for him. “Yougonna ask her out, Doc?”
He frowned, “Who?” Heknew who.
“You know who…” she jutted her chin to the left, indicatingsome place behind her. “Natasha.”
He snorted, “Why would I do that?”
“Because. She’s beenhanging out in here for approximately three months off and on waiting for youto take the hint.”
“She’s not in here for me.”
“Who’s she in here for? She spends all of her free time here. She gets you tea. She tries totalk to you. It’s all so sad. Neither of you are the best with socialinteraction…well…in her case, REAL social interaction.”
Bruce shook his head, “She’s not in here for me.”
“Okay…” Darcy took his empty mug and sauntered away.
He looked over at Natasha before turning towards the box offiles. He swallowed thickly, his tonguestill smarting from the burn.
He sighed and looked over at her again. Her long red hair in a ponytail. A few stray hairs curled around the nape ofher neck. She was looking down at herphone again, perched on the lab stool. She looked almost feline in nature, the way she sat. Regally. Like she belonged here.
He was pretty sure Natasha could belong wherever shehappened to be.
He got up, crossing the room before he lost his nerve.
“Natasha?” he ventured, almost chickening out when shelooked at him. Those green eyes peeringright down into his soul. “I waswondering if…if you weren’t doing anything later…if you’d like to have lunchwith me?”
She didn’t say anything right away. “No.” Hegulped. Wow. That was…painfully blunt. “I mean…lunch was six hours ago. I’ll have dinner with you, though,” her lipspulled up slightly. Playfully. She was playing with him.
“Really?”
“Of course,” she said, like it was the most natural thing inthe world. “Did you have a place in mind?”
“Uh…” he hadn’t gotten this far in his plan.
“We’ll play it by ear,” she smiled again, reaching over tosmooth the collar of his shirt before pocketing her phone. “I’ll gochange. Meet me in the lobby in an hour?”
He nodded, still in disbelief that this was happening.
And when he met her in the lobby an hour later, she waswearing jeans and a top that looked like it had been made for her. Bright green and absolute perfection.
She smiled, reaching for his hand, lacing theirfingers. “Took you long enough.”
[part 2]
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Unpopular Opinion Post
Apparently the thought of Bruce/Natasha makes some people uneasy. They don't see any basis for it and Nat is supposed to be with Clint or Steve or Bucky and we're all supposed to be mad at Joss Whedon for hinting that she might be with Bruce. I even saw a post that begged Whedon not to 'turn her into a slut'.
I am a multishipper, personally. There are very few Marvel pairings I wouldn't give some kind of credit to or RP when the opportunity presented itself. I happen to think that the idea of Bruce and Natasha being together is a sweet one- she has to work to trust him because of the Hulk and he has to learn to trust her and himself because he's scared of hurting her. I've RP-ed them in the past and I intend to do so again. I'm hoping more people will get a feel for it after that scene in AOU, not to mention the thing with the Hulk.
However. I also think that the scene where they get up close and personal is going to be some kind of dream sequence. I heard blowing in the wind that Bruce is going to have a crush on Natasha, and that scene could just be the lonely Dr. Banner wishing there was more between them. Similarly, the scene with the Hulk could be both of them reaching out for contact with someone they've learned to trust and care for. That could be it. Plus, it looks like Bruce is wearing the same clothing in that scene and the scene where Thor, Steve, and Nat are in uniform. I'm kind of doubting that Nat would be so far away from him after a moment like that.
But regardless of any justification or theory or whatever, we have less than two months until we're going to find out. Tagging of ship hate has already begun and honestly, it's exhausting. If I'm going to lose followers for posting Hulktasha stuff, so be it. Because I've kind of wanted to write something for them since I saw the first trailer. It's all about respect, people. Not sure if anyone's actually going to read this or read this far, but I had to get it off my chest.
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