VII's 12 Days of Winter Writing

Day 6: Caffeine Withdrawal

Natasha sat on the examination room table as Bruce stitched her up for what seemed like the millionth time.

The doctor sighed. "As much as I enjoy your visits, Natasha, I don't like how we keep meeting like this," he said with a small smile.

Natasha feigned confusion. "What do you mean, doc?" she asked. "With your face being five inches away from my chest and me partially undressed?"

Bruce shook his head. "No." When he spotted Nat's smirk, he realized what that sounded like. "That's not what I meant."

"But you said it," she teased. Natasha grimaced as he tugged at her wound a little harder. "Don't be like that."

"Sorry," he murmured. When Bruce was done, he looked up at her. "But seriously, Natasha, please be more careful. Every time you have a fight, every time you go on a mission, you seem to come back with injuries worse than the last one."

Natasha kept her teasing smirk on. "Do you care?"

"Of course. You're my teammate. And patient." Bruce hesitated. "And a friend."

Nat smiled.

"All jokes aside though, your blood pressure's a little high," Bruce said, reading from his computer. "Not horrible, but if it does turn out to be something, I'd like to catch it before it gets out of hand."

Natasha leaned forwards, disrupting her new stitches. "Really? But I do healthy stuff!"

Bruce shrugged. "It's your blood. Just stay off caffeine and you'll be fine. I'll write you a note excusing your withdrawal symptoms." He turned back to his computer screen and glanced back to her. "Did you just rip your stitches?" he asked exasperatedly.

Nat smiled at him still, guileless.

Bruce sighed. "Hold still while I fix this."

After a few minutes of him redoing her stitches, Natasha spoke up. "So, how do you plan on stopping my coffee intake?" she asked.

Bruce didn't look up from his task. "You're supposed to do that yourself."

"But what if I don't want to?"

"Then you don't want to and you'll be coming back later when you faint."

Nat wrinkled her nose. "I don't faint."

"Yet," he reminded her.

She rolled her eyes. "What if you regulate me?" Nat offered. "You stick with me for a while and stop any stuff I try to get."

Bruce huffed. "You want me to stick with you for about two to nine days to make sure you don't consume any caffeine?"

"Yeah." Natasha stared at him. "Have a problem with that? Cause I have a doctor's note."

The doctor sighed. "Fine. God knows I work on vacation days anyway." He finished her sutures. "Don't touch them."

Natasha hopped off the table. "And if I do, I'll have you with me to fix them."

Bruce rolled his eyes. "I'll clean up here and I'll meet you outside." He started washing up his things.

Natasha grinned. "Or I could just stand here and watch you."

"You could do that too."

A few minutes later, Bruce and Natasha emerged from the examination room, Nat grinning triumphantly while Bruce followed her with a sigh.

After stopping by the kitchen to have their dinner, they walked to Natasha's door.

"I guess this is where we say our goodbyes for the night," Bruce said, rubbing his neck.