The Meaning of Trust: Brutasha

A Talk

The next morning Bruce wakes up in an unfamiliar room. He looks to his right when he feels something stir next to him. Bruce finds Natasha sleeping in a chair next to the bed. He smiles to himself and takes a look around the room. The first things he notices are two framed pictures sitting on a desk across the room. The picture on the left is of all his friends and family, the Avengers, and the other picture is just Bruce and Natasha. That's when he knows where he is, Bruce is in Natasha's room.

Bruce starts to sit up when he feels something keeping his hand down. He looks at his hand and finds Nat's hand holding his while she sleeps. He carefully releases his hand from her grasp as he silently gets out of her bed. Bruce walks to her closet and finds one of his old sweatshirts Natasha had stolen; he, of course, planned on returning it, but he needed a change of clothes. Luckily, he knew that Natasha had more than one of his sweatshirts. Bruce had is own collection of clothes in her room, despite never having been in her room for longer than 30 minutes at a time. He supposes he broke that record last night.

He opens a few drawers looking for his clothes while also trying to respect Natasha's privacy. Bruce eventually finds a dress shirt and a fresh pair of khakis, but he doesn't find them with much ease. He had to search through more drawers than he had wished. He came across discarded photos, paraphernalia, and some of Natasha's clothes too.

Bruce was especially embarrassed when he opened a drawer and found quite a few pictures of just him. What really did him in was a letter on the top of the stack of photos. He felt immensely guilty, but he read it.

"Bruce, I hope you're doing well and aren't just cooped up in your room or library. Before I left, I asked Tony to take you out every once and a while, so I hope he has kept up with his promise. Anyway, I just thought I should try and reach you to tell you that it'll be a little longer than three months. It'll probably be close to four months before I can get back home to you."

Bruce felt a strong urge to cry when he read the last line as he remembered the phone call he received when he was waiting by the car at the convention almost five months ago.

"I haven't read your letter, and I don't plan on it, but whatever is in it, I hope I'll hear it one day. Anyway, I miss you. I don't think that there is anything I wouldn't do to get back to you. And Bruce, I know you can struggle to get sleep sometimes. I need you to promise me that if you have had trouble sleeping, tell someone. Tell Tony. He promised me that he would take care of you while I am gone. One last thing, I'm okay. I promise I'm coming back in one piece, you just need to have faith in me, please.

"Love, Natasha."

Bruce wiped the tears from his eyes and carefully slipped the letter back and rummaged a little more through the drawer. That's where he is now, looking through the drawer quietly. He finds another unopened letter, but the paper is different, it's creme with no address. Bruce immediately recognizes it as the letter he gave to Natasha in the airport. He quickly picks it up and puts it in his pocket.

Bruce grabs the clothes he found and heads to the bathroom to change. He undresses and slips on the clean, white button-down then slips his fresh pair of pants over the tail of the dress shirt. After putting his belt on, he slips on his light gray crew neck. Finally, he slips his glasses onto his face and runs a hand through his curls. Before Bruce leaves the bathroom, he takes a look in the mirror and chuckles when he sees his reflection.

Bruce walks out of the bathroom still smiling at the fact that he looks like he did in college, especially with his Penn State sweatshirt. Bruce glances over to Natasha who is still asleep in the chair. A pang of sadness hits Bruce's heart and he walks to her side to carefully pick her up and place her in her bed. Bruce tucks Natasha in and is about to leave her room when he remembers what she did for him. She sat in the chair for hours just watching him, she stayed up to make sure he was okay. Bruce decides to do the same. He takes a seat in her chair and watches Natasha as she rests. Eventually, Bruce takes Natasha's hand in his and drifts off into a deep thought about how happy he was to be back.