Safe Place

4: Bruce Banner, Heartbreaker

Natasha's POV:

For whatever reason, as I shut Wanda's door, I felt a wave of sadness wash over me. She has so much pain inside her, so much grief. All I want to do was protect her from that. I need to protect her, and the long dark hair that hides her face, and those tear-filled ocean eyes.

Shaking my head to clear my thoughts, I make my way to the kitchen, in need of company. Everyone is in there - Tony's arguing with Steve, Clint's egging them on, and Rhodey is trying to break them up. Vision is deep in discussion with Thor, who's found another box of PopTarts - strawberry this time - and Sam is listening with quiet interest, nibbling on a piece of toast.

I half expect to see Bruce there, with a cup of milky tea and a newspaper, tucked away in the corner. The wound is still fresh.

I still miss him. And yeah, it's only been three weeks or so, but it hurts like it was yesterday. 

Tony glances up. "Hey, Romanoff," he says, pouring himself what is probably his fifth cup of coffee. "What's up? You look like your puppy just died."

"I'm fine," I reply, but it takes effort to make my face emotionless. After years of practice, hiding how I feel is usually second nature, but today I feel unsteady.

"What is it? Is it Bruce?" he prods. 

"No," I snap. Everybody's eyes widen - they all know by now that if I'm angry, they'd better watch out. But I've been working on opening up more. "I mean - sorry, guys. Yes. I don't know. It's everything."

I sink into a chair, and Steve sits down beside me. "Wanna elaborate?" he asks.

I groan and bury my face in my hands as everyone gathers around us. "I just - okay," I start. Being emotionally honest goes against literally everything I've ever learned. Finding the right words is a struggle.

Clint touches my back, and I relax the tiniest bit. "Okay," I say again. "Yeah. It's Bruce. I...I know he thought that he was doing the noble thing, running away to protect everyone, but he shouldn't have. We need him, and -"

"And you need him too?" Tony finishes, wiggling his eyebrows. Steve elbows him in the ribs, hard, and he winces.

"Shut up, Tony," I spit, rising from my seat. He quickly backs up several paces, hands raised in surrender. 

"Whoa, sorry, sorry. Chill, Widow. Sorry. It's just - I just -" He started to laugh. "Who would have thought, you know?"

Rhodey cocks his head. "Who would have thought what, Tony?"

He keeps laughing. "The zen, gray-haired, tea-drinking nerdy scientist! Bruce Banner!" Tony exclaims, choking on his coffee in all his excitement.

"Bruce Banner what?" Thor asks in bewilderment, looking up from his plate of pink-frosted breakfast pastries. Sam starts shrinking backwards.

"Bruce Banner,"  Tony announces, sweeping his arms out wide, still chuckling. "Bruce Banner broke the Black Widow's heart! Everyone, step right up and see Bruce Banner, heartbreaker! He's broken the coldest heart of -" Clint grabs him around the neck and slams him into the floor, face-first. Sam yelps in fear as Thor whoops.

"Hey!" Rhodey yells. "Calm down, guys, all right? Just calm down!"

Clint elbows him and he stumbles back into the counter, caught off-guard. 

Steve tugs Clint off of Tony, who's on the ground clutching his bleeding nose, but Clint shrugs him off and shoves him away. Tony lets out a groan, and Clint whirls on him, holding a butter knife to his face.

"God, Tony! Don't you ever know when to just shut up? I swear, it's like you calculate the worst thing you can say at any given moment, and then you just say it! Do you not care? Do you not want people to like you? This must have been what happened with that ex-girlfriend of yours, huh - you just kept pushing her buttons until one day she decided she was sick of you! You're lucky we're not all leaving like she did!"

Tony's face goes blank, but his eyes look glassy and his jaw clenches. Blood continues to trickle down his chin.

"That's enough!" Steve yells. "Both of you! Stop it!"

"I say, let them fight it out," Thor interjects from his perch on top of the counter. "It's healthy!"

"No, not healthy. Very not healthy," Sam says nervously, still slowly backing away. Wimp.

"It's -" Steve whirls on Thor. "What are you talking about?" 

"Clint, you'd better be very careful what you say about my best friend," Rhodey growls, starting to summon his War Machine armor. Clint hisses.

"Guys!" Steve half-yells, knocking a very anxious Sam to the side and balling his hands into fists. "Calm down!"

"Excuse me," Vision interrupts politely. "But I believe we should all stop and take a minute."

I look at my friends. Tony's bleeding on the ground, Clint is poised above him with a knife and shooting eye-knives at Rhodey, Rhodey's glowering at Clint, Steve's glowering at everyone, Sam is cowering behind the couch, Vision's standing in the center of the fight, and Thor is obliviously eating a Pop-Tart.

Everyone goes silent, just staring at each other, wondering how it all came to this. Tony's wiping blood off his face with a paper towel, and Rhodey is grudgingly helping him. Sam turns tail and rushes out of the room. Steve, always the calm and rational one, has started to pace around the kitchen island.

What happened to us?