Beauty and The Beast ~ Hulk Love Story ((Book 2))

Chapter Ten

It was late morning when we all started to wake up. The sun was bright coming from the glass windows of Avengers Tower. I came into the living room area which was still trashed from the fight last night. I was still in Tony's shirt and athletic pants. My hair was no longer up in a bun though. I had straightened it when I had gotten up. I had even up, fixed my hair, did some workouts in the gym, and made myself some breakfast. I was munching on my toast as the others joined me. I was sitting down at the desk with a thin glass computer screen in front of me. I glanced up when Thor and Steve came over to me. "What this?" Tony questioned as he walked over to where Thor and Steve stood together at the edge of the desk. Steve handed it over for Thor to look at it. I stretched up a bit to try to peak. Thor tilted the pad down in my direction giving me an easier view. My stomach churned a bit at the image of Strucker dead on a prison bed with the word 'PEACE' smeared in his blood on the wall beside him. I looked away quickly. After Thor and I were done looking at it, Thor pushed it into Tony's chest a bit roughly. Tony was taken back a bit but it was clear that Thor was still angry with him.

"A message," Steve answered. "Ultron killed Strucker," Steve explained the image on the pad. Tony flipped the pad around and looked down at it. Bruce joined the little pow-wow looking over Tony's shoulder at the pad.

"And he did a Banksy at the crime scene, just for us." Tony handed the pad away to Natasha who was standing behind me. She examined the picture for a moment.

"This is a smoke screen. Why send a message when you've just given a speech?" She asked in disbelief. I looked around at the others.

"Strucker knew something that Ultron wanted us to miss." Steve pointed out to us. An idea popped through my head.

"I bet he..." I paused my sentence. I turned to the computer in front of me. I pulled up the search bar and typed in 'Strucker'. The screen flashed 'No Files' to tell me our electronic files on Strucker were gone. "Everything we had on Strucker's been erased," I told the others. Bruce leaned down to look at the screen as well. I gave a half smile up at him. We had gotten to actually fall asleep next to each other last night, though with all the tossing and turning he did I doubt that Bruce actually slept at all. Steve told us that he hadn't deleted everything. I almost mentally groaned at the thought of flipping through a thousand paper files. Tony lead Thor, Steve, and Clint down to where he kept the files. Bruce went to follow them, but I caught his hand stopping him. He glanced back at me. "Can we talk for a minute?" I asked in the sweetest tone I could manage. The color practically drained from Bruce's face. I stood quickly not wanting to keep him in suspense. I tugged him along in the opposite direction that the others had gone. They would okay without us for a few moments. I found an unoccupied side room. It looked like a small office with a nice view of the city through large open windows. I moved over to the windows thinking about how I wanted to bring up my question. I could practically feel the nervous energy coming off of Bruce. I turned to face him. "Bruce, It's not bad. You can calm down." I smiled calmly at him almost trying to project my calming energy across the room to him. "I just wanted to see if you were okay. You were really restless last night," I explained. Bruce's nervousness didn't lessen with my question.

"Oh... Um... yes..." He stumbled over his words for a minute. I tilted my head to the side. It was clear he was lying, but I don't know why. I stayed quiet and tried to read his face. "It's just..." He stopped. I could see a soft pink tinge to his cheeks. He looked down at his hands which were fiddling nervously. "I haven't slept beside anyone in such a long time. Especially not a beautiful woman..." He admitted finally. I practically fell over laughing. I grabbed on to the railing that was on the window to keep myself stable on my feet. I used my free hand to hold onto my side which was starting to hurt as I laughed. Bruce looked at me in a confused manner.

"Bruce, I grew up on a Hellicarrier. My best friends were stone cold assassins. Natty was the last person I slept beside and that was when I was like 10." I spit out when I finally controlled my laughter. Bruce chuckled to himself. "Bruce, love. This is new to both of us. We're going to have to figure out these things together. If there's something that doesn't make you comfortable, just tell me. If you don't want to share a room or a bed. We can work something else out. I'm sure there's a couch somewhere I can crash on. Or I can return to my own apartment." I tried to be calm and understanding.

"No, no. That's not it." Bruce stopped me. I paused looking up at him. "I... There..." He stopped again. He looked pained as if he wanted to tell me something but didn't know how. "I don't want to accidentally hurt you. What if I have a dream that sends me into Hulking out. I could very well injure you and I wouldn't be able to live with myself. Do you know how much I beat myself up after I fought with you and Thor on the hellicarrier?" He explained. The pain was evident in his eyes. Bruce only saw himself as a monster still. Even if he had feelings for me, he would always have the fear that the smallest thing would set him off and he could hurt me. I moved across the room with all the confidence I could manage. I stopped right in front of him and grabbed him by the sides of his face. I pulled his face down to be able to kiss him. My lips gently pressed against his. Bruce tensed for a moment but finally melted into my kiss. I rose onto my tippy toes to deepen the kiss. Bruce's hands hesitantly lifted until they found a comfortable place on my hips. My hands moved from his cheeks to the back of his neck. One of my hands slid up tangling my fingers into his black hair. He reacted by pulling my body closer to him which made me smile into the kiss. I uncautiously let my tongue run against his bottom lip. I was still new to this but I let my body take the lead and followed my instincts. Bruce's mouth opened the slightest bit. He himself was getting lost in our movements and let himself enjoy what was going on instead of letting his fears stop him. Our tounges met and tangled together. My fingers tightened in his hair tugging lightly. A small growl rumbled from Bruce's chest in response. As quickly as the kiss had started it was gone. Bruce had forcefully used my hips to create space between us. His hand quickly went to the side of his head and his eyes squeezed shut.

"Bruce I-" I took a step towards him. My heart clenched in my chest. My hand was reached out towards him.

"Don't." He growled over at me causing me to stop dead in my tracks. I didn't want to push him. I stood silent for a moment trying to give him time to compose himself the ways he knew how. I hadn't known I was crying until I felt a tear tickle my cheek. In the back of my mind, I redirected the blame of the situation onto myself. I had been the one to start the kiss, I had been the one to put Bruce in the situation that caused him to have to control himself, It was my fault. I put my hand over my mouth and stumbled back a bit. My heart clenched in my chest. Bruce, now that he had calmed down, looked over at me. "Aero... I..." He tried to find the words to use. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to push you away. I just didn't want to hurt you..." He tried to calm me without getting to close to me. The walls that had been knocked down were now back up with force.

"No, That was my fault. I'm sorry..." I spoke quickly and hurried around him and out of the room. I could see the others returning with the boxes. I ducked into the half bathroom that was thankfully nearby. I splashed a bit of water on my face and took a few deep breaths. I had to calm myself. I didn't want the others to ask too many questions. I composed myself and exited the bathroom. I joined the others in the room. My eyes landed on Bruce who had rejoined the group before me. I quickly averted my gaze and moved over to Natasha who was thankfully working on a different box then Bruce.

"Are you okay?" Natasha asked. She had always been able to read me. I glanced away from her and tried to focus on the box between us. I purposefully blocked out the boys' conversation. "Forreal, Ro. What is wrong?" Natasha laid her hand on top of mine stopping me from retrieving another file to check through. I looked up at her. She had such a big sister concerned face on. I let out a tired sigh. I adjusted the way I was standing so that my back was to the guys.

"I kissed Bruce..." I admitted in barely a whisper. Natasha let out a small gasp. I scowled at her causing her to fall silent quickly. I glanced over my shoulder to see the boys chatting away. They hadn't been paying attention to us. "We were kissing and I..." I stopped. I couldn't for the life of me understand why I was telling Natasha this. "I accidentally pulled his hair and he reacted.... badly." I dropped my gaze. She gave me a sympathetic look. I shook my head. "I can't worry about that right now. We have to deal with Ultron." I tried to focus on the work ahead of us. I pulled another file from the box scanning over the words for anything that stood out. A perk of my super speed was the ability to process information at an accelerated rate. I sped through a few files taking my mind far from the incident in the other room.