Natasha watched as Bruce left to see his ex-girlfriend, Betty. He told her that Betty had called him and wanted to catch up. He had been on edge all day, but Natasha had trouble telling if it was nervous because he was excited or dreading it.
She felt an unwanted pang of jealously. While they had gotten closer in the last several months since joining the Avengers, they were just friends.
She had been spending more and more time with him while they were perfecting the lullaby, a method used to calm down the Hulk and bring back Bruce. All of that time they spent together was intimate in its own way and built on trust.
When they weren't practicing the lullaby the two of them had movie nights, she would crash the lab, and he stayed with her when she was injured.
If she was being honest with herself, she really liked him.
He was cute, nice, smart and actually listened when she talked. He understood her in a way that none of their teammates seemed to get. The feeling of being made into something you never asked for.
But because of her past and the way she had been raised, there were times when her feelings for him scared her.
Natasha had been abused and brainwashed until she broke out of her programming from the Red Room. By the time she met Bruce she was trying to be a better person and wipe the red out of her ledger.
From what Bruce had told her, Betty was a woman who had her life together, even with her father looking over her shoulder. She and Bruce were both scientists, had a history, and from the footage Natasha had seen, the Hulk wouldn't hurt her.
If Betty made him happy, then Natasha would get over him. It would take a bit of time, but she would.
Natasha didn't realize how long she had sat there nursing her beer until Bruce had walked into the kitchen.
"Hey," Natasha greeted.
"Hey," Bruce replied, his voice giving no indication of how the night went.
"So, how'd it go with Betty?"
"It went okay," he said as he grabbed a bottle of water and sat next to her. "I feel like we've grown apart and she doesn't understand the Hulk scenario. She kept saying that she sees me on the news and that I saved the world. But that's not me, that's Hulk."
"Did you tell her that?"
Natasha knew he hated it when people called him the Hulk, or even implied it. The Big Guy hated being called "Bruce" or "Banner."
"Yeah," he said. "She apologized, but it struck a bit of a chord with me. Several years ago when I was on the run, I found her again and we were kind of back together. When I broke up with her it was because of the Hulk and my need to get the whole thing under control. Then I kept going on the run and realized my life is too dangerous for her. I always thought if I got it together then I'd go back to her, but that's not the case anymore. Besides, she wants things that I can't give her."
Natasha didn't ask for him to elaborate. It was between him and Betty.
"Do you think it's really over or are you just running?" she challenged him. She knew he was a runner, and if being with Betty is what he really wanted then she was going to make him stop.
"It's really over."
"I'm sorry," Natasha said feeling bad that Bruce couldn't have what he thought he wanted for so long. She kicked herself for her petty jealously earlier.
"It's fine. I've known for a couple of years now, even if I wasn't ready to admit it." Her face must have been too sympathetic because he said, "I'm going to be okay, Nat."
She couldn't help the flipflop her stomach did when he said her nickname. He had been calling her that for a while now. She only let people she was comfortable with use it, and she was comfortable around him, as terrifying as it was.
"Seeing her again gave me the closure I needed," he continued. "I can finally move on." Then he looked at her in a way she couldn't quite place. He cleared his throat then looked at the table and said, "Um I should go to bed. Night."
"Night, Bruce."
She watched him as he left the room and got up to pour out the rest of her drink.
Natasha knew that whoever Bruce gave his heart to again would be the luckiest woman in the world. But she knew it wouldn't be her.
