Chapter 4
"I saw mommy kissing the Hulk"
(Two Tone Melody - The Preatures)
Day 2: Saturday, December 12.
NATASHA
Natasha waited until she heard Steve’s door closing to sneak into Bruce’s room. She could tell the man was still awake- the lamp on his nightstand was still on. She opened the door carefully but she found the man asleep, with his back against the bedframe and a book on his lap, his glasses still on and a song still playing on the radio. She smiled softly and walked towards him, carefully and silently so she wouldn’t wake him up, she sat next to him taking his reading glasses off and leaving the book on the nightstand. She observed him for a while.
Bruce was always focused on something, always worried about what could happen but right now he looked peaceful, like he had no worries at all. Natasha’s fingers traced the lines of his face delicately.
She kissed that wrinkle he had between his eyebrows, the one that was most prominent when he frowned in concentration when he was reading, her fingers ghosted his lips, the ones that had kissed her plenty of times, she leaned and kissed him softly.
“Nt’sha” Bruce mumbled waking up.
“Hey” she said, “Sorry to wake you up”
He shook his head, “I was just… resting my eyes” he then smiled, “What are you doing here?” he looked at the watch next to the lamp.
11:07 P. M.
She shrugged after a few seconds. In reality, she just wanted to lie down next to him for a while. But she wouldn't say it. Because Natasha Romanoff never shuddered, she was never shy, she never held hands, she never blushed and most certainly she never cuddled.
She just didn’t do romance.
But Bruce made her do all this things, everything that she had forbidden herself to do.
“Do you want to… Just“ Bruce put a lock of her hair behind her left ear, “Stay?”
“Yes” Natasha climbed the bed.
Bruce made a space next to him and Natasha accommodated, her head on his chest and Bruce embracing her. This felt better than she had imagined, she wanted to say, and oh she had imagined it. The warmth of Bruce’s embrace felt so right and there was nothing that could make her feel unwelcome about him.
She was about to drift into a dream when she heard it, a little bit above a whisper, as if Bruce thought someone might be listening to their little, perfect, beautiful secret.
“I love you” he said.
Her breath didn’t stop. It didn’t hitched. Still, she didn’t say anything.
“Goodnight, Natasha” Bruce kissed the top of her head and turned the lamp’s light off.
Day 3: Sunday, December 13
“That’s…” Wanda looked at Clint then back at Natasha, finally to the glass of orange juice in front of her.
They were siting in the kitchen counter while Clint flipped another waffle in the pan. She looked at Clint like asking him to say something.
“Why?” Clint asked.
Natasha shrugged, she really didn’t have any idea why. She loved Bruce, that was clear, it had been clear for her for a while now. Still, when she heard him say he loved her, she froze, the words weren’t able to leave her mouth, clinging to her tongue inexplicably.
Wanda took a sip from her orange juice and frowned to herself. She did that when she was trying not to get into people’s heads and Natasha appreciated that. Clint then put a plate with waffles in front of her and then for Natasha too. They had been the first ones to wake up.
“Want some eggs?” Clint asked Wanda, putting the bottle of syrup next to her plate.
“No, thanks” Wanda grabbed the bottle and squeezed a generous amount on her waffles.
“Maybe you panicked, it’s normal” Clint told Natasha.
“I do lo-“ Natasha started.
“Morning, delinquents” Tony entered the kitchen with a cup of coffee already in hand, “It smells like glory”
Natasha sighed looking at her plate, taking a small bite of waffles.
“Waffles!” Thor entered behind him.
“Even better” Wanda smiled at him, “Clint’s Waffles”
Clint smiled at Wanda and put a plate on the table full of waffles. He got a little excited cooking, Tony rubbed his hands and sat on the table. Thor grabbed a waffle and took a big bite. The Vision then entered the kitchen and sat quietly next to Tony.
“Thor, what the hell are you wearing?” Tony asked. Wanda giggled. Thor, who had taken a waffle to his mouth, looked down at his pijamas. A pair of adult onesies Darcy had sent him a few days prior. Reindeers peeing on an angry snowman and the words “Merry christmas” all over it, in other words, an abomination.
“Darcy’s early christmas gift” Thor smiled, his smiled faded a little bit when he stared at Tony’s expression, “What?”
“Nothing, It’s- um…” “I think it’s funny” Wanda intervened, “I am thinking of getting Pietro one right now” Thor grinned and Tony smiled, nudging Wanda’s shoulder softly.
Natasha smiled at them, she would text Darcy the picture she had taken of Thor a few seconds before, she had after all asked for them. Also, Wanda might get a really big present from Tony on christmas.
“Tony, There’s a really big package waiting for you” Clint told Tony pointing at a couple of boxes next to the elevator.
“What are they?” Thor asked.
“May I?” Natasha looked at Tony and pointed at the boxes. “Go ahead” Tony shrugged,
Natasha stood up and walked towards the boxes.
“Vision, man, there’s waffles” Clint said pointing at the waffles when he noticed Vision hadn’t taken any, “Get them while they are still warm”
“While there are still some waffles” Natasha added with a smirk, “Thor, slow down” Thor chuckled.
Vision shook his head softly, “I’m not really hungry”
“Well, more for Thor” Tony patted Thor’s shoulder and the man nodded happily. Natasha smiled and opened one of the boxes and pulled out the a crystal star.
“It’s a christmas star!” Wanda exclaimed, she stood up and ran towards Natasha.
“Those are the christmas decorations Steve and I bought” Tony said.
“It’s beautiful” Wanda grabbed the star carefully.
“I dn’t ‘ndrstnd” Thor said between bites.
“It’s for the top of the tree” she explained to him.
“Oh! Right! My dear Jane told me about this christmas tree and the presents” Thor nodded to himself, “Where’s our tree?” he asked, squeezing an excessive amount of syrup on his mouth.
“That’s just gross” Tony said and Thor laughed.
“Hey, Stark, Where’s our tree?” Natasha asked Tony.
“It’s on the tenth floor” Tony answered. The tenth floor was where all the parties took place, Pepper had designed it with living room and a fireplace.
“I haven’t celebrate Christmas in like eight years” Wanda mentioned to Thor.
“Then I’ll make sure you have a great time” Clint told her, smiling warmly.
“Morning” Bruce entered the kitchen.
“Clint cooked” Thor said, his mouth full of bacon now, "It's delicious"
“I can see that” Bruce said chuckling, “Hey” he then kissed Natasha softly on the lips.
She felt like screaming, it was happening now, the whole kiss in the morning, cuddle in the nights, telling each other “I love you”. It was official.
“Hey” she said back.
She could see Clint smirking with the corner of her eyes. Wanda smiled softly to herself and Thor nodded with pride, he then shrugged and kept eating, this time he put a spoonful of eggs on his mouth. Tony’s jaw dropped, also did his fork with a piece of waffle. Vision just blinked confused, like he always did when he saw displays of affection.
“I must leave now” Vision said, “Excuse me”
Natasha saw Wanda throw a glance towards the man.
Clint nodded, “Come back for dinner, eating is not the same with you and Thor fighting for leftovers”
Vision and Thor shared a glance and then laughed softly, “I will”
He then walked towards the balcony and flew away.
“There’s plenty of food” Clint said loudly, then he threw Tony a paper ball. He put a plate with toast and eggs in front of Bruce.
“Thanks” Bruce sat next to Tony, “I’m starving” he said grabbing a toast, before he could bite it, it disappeared from his hands.
“Morning” Pietro said, he leaned against the kitchen counter. And smirked at Bruce, who had realised he had taken the toast.
“Hey!” Clint exclaimed, “Here’s yours” Pietro grinned at him.
Natasha stared at both of them, she smiled softly to herself and sighed. Clint had told her about their thing a few months back, right after the first time it happened, and he asked her to keep quiet about it. She didn’t understand why, everyone knew and they weren’t being very subtle about it.
“Oh, no it’s fine” Bruce smiled, “That was impressive”
“See” Pietro grinned, “you, I like you” he pointed at Bruce Bruce smiled.
This time he grabbed a toast and took a bite fast. “Pietro is a bit of a pert” Wanda sat next to her brother, “He learned that from Clint” She grinned at both men, who whined at the same time.
“Children, children, eat your food and stop the fighting” Natasha said, rolling her eyes and affectionally ruffling Pietro’s silver hair.
“Wait a minute” Tony spoke loudly, Everyone stared at him, “you mean to tell me, Bruce and Natasha just made out in front of everyone and no one is going to say anything about it” Tony exclaimed, “Outrageous! There are children present!”
Pietro and Wanda looked at each other and laughed.
“Tony” Natasha rolled her eyes. She sat next to Bruce and grabbed his toast. Pietro chuckled.
“Let’s just take a minute to-“ Tony started and then Steve entered the kitchen, “Cap! Cap! Bruce and Natasha were kissing!”
“Oh my, like in the mouth?” Steve exclaimed, faking surprise.
Pietro then nodded to him, “Like mommies and daddies”
“And in front of children? Please Bruce, Natasha control yourselves ” Steve exclaimed, a small smiled on his face.
“You guys are idiots” Bruce said, but there was no heat in his words.
“Anyways” Steve said after a few seconds of silence, “About damn time”
“Yes” Thor grinned.
“Definetly” Clint hummed.
“True” Pietro and Wanda spoke at the same time.
“Twinning” Tony pointed at them. The twins laughed.
Natasha noticed Bruce trying to supress a smile behind his glass of juice. She was smiling herself, unable to contain the joy she was feeling, the fact that Tony was teasing didn’t even bother Bruce. She sat next to the man and kissed him on the cheek. He looked at her and smiled softly.
“The gazing again” Pietro shook his head.
“I think is adorable” Tony hit his shoulder softly, “Don’t get all green with envy, kid”
A small chuckle bubbled from Thor, then Steve snorted followed by Wanda. Clint finally laughed loudly and Pietro then understood.
Bruce shook his head and laughed softly, “Nice one, Tony” he rolled his eyes.
“Always a pleasure, my friends”
“Hey, why don’t we go ice skating today” Natasha asked.
“I’m in!” Thor raised his hand before Natasha finished the sentence.
“Me too” Clint said copying him.
“Me three” Wanda said raising her hand.
“If Thor is going, I’m definitely going” Tony raised his left arm while he patted Thor’s shoulder with the other one.
“Why not” Steve shrugged. The room fell silent as they all looked at Bruce. The man was ignoring them, while he put another toast on his plate, he took a bite and stopped mid chew. Natasha nudged his shoulder soflty. Bruce lifted his gaze.
“I don’t-“
“Man, come on” Tony sighed.
“Really-“
“Brucey” Clint pouted.
“Know how to-“
“Banner” Thor grinned at him.
“Skate”
“Bruce” Natasha said.
Bruce’s eyes wandered around the room, all of them where looking at him. He then looked at Natasha and sighed.
“Fine”
They all cheered, Thor getting a little too excited and throwing his cup of juice he had on the floor, Luckily for him Pietro grabbed it before it hit the ground. They all continued eating breakfast.
“it’s going to be fun” Natasha whispered to him.
Turns out it wasn’t. Not for Bruce at least. Natasha couldn’t contain her smile when the man kept falling on the ice, it was like watching that scene where Bambi first sees ice all over again, the most frustrating thing was that Bruce didn’t want help, he insisted on trying to do it alone.
Thor, for Tony’s deception and surprise, got a hold of it quickly, he himself didn’t get in the ice, staying outside with Wanda who was reading another book, Natasha could see Tony was trying hard to start a conversation with the young woman, the witch looked rather disappointed that Vision wasn’t present and only gave short, monosyllabic answers to Tony. Natasha felt a little bad for him.
Pietro was with Steve talking, while Clint skated. The icerink was all for them, since Tony had reserved the whole place for five hours. Bruce groaned when he fell for the fifth time. Natasha skated towards him.
“give me your hand”
“I can’t quite get a hold of this” Bruce smiled nervously, taking Natasha’s gloved hand.
The woman noticed Bruce's fingers were wet from the melting ice and the tips were almost purple.
“Your hands must be cold” She mentioned.
“Forgot my gloves” he was about to let her hand go but she grabbed his hands between her’s and rubbed them carefully, trying to warm the up a little bit, “Sorry” Bruce said quietly looking at his hands between the woman’s.
“Want to skate with me?” She asked. He nodded, “put your weight on me” He leaned against her and she started skating slowly.
Bruce smiled at her.
“Can you teach me how to skate?” he asked against her hair.
“Of course” He smiled, they stared at each other for a few seconds, “Bruce, I-“
“Hey! There’s hot dogs and pretzels!” Tony yelled, waving the giant pretzel he had on his hand.
Natasha sighed.
“Hungry?” Bruce asked smiling softly.
“Sure, why not” They all took their skated off and sat on the booths outside of the rink.
Steve and Tony were watching Thor and Pietro ate three hot dogs at the same time, Wanda shook her head taking a bite from her pretzel. Clint was next to them eating.
“Pietro, can you get me napkins?” Wanda asked.
“Sure” He was about to stand but Natasha stood up.
“I can go get them” she smiled, “Want something else?” She asked Bruce, the man shook his head, unable to speak with his mouth full.
Natasha nodded and left.
There was an old man replacing the empty napkin container, She waited for him to finish but the man seemed to have trouble closing the container.
“Let me” she offered.
"Thanks" The man smiled, "You and your friends having a good time?"
"Lots" Natasha nodded.
“My wife and I loved skating” the old man mentioned, Natasha nodded trying to close the lid.
“Yeah, it’s-“
“It’s very fun” he said, “too bad the place is closing down”
“That’s-” she said, finally closing the container.
“My wife and I met here” the man then started walking away, “I loved my wife, I told her that everyday”
“That’s… great” she said, more to herself.
Natasha stared at the man until he left. She then sat back next to Bruce, leaving the napkins on the table. Clint grabbed a couple and offered them to Wanda, then he gave a couple to Pietro.
“Who was that?” Bruce asked, taking a bite from his hot dog.
“The… owner, I think” Natasha answered biting her pretzel.
“He looked familiar” Bruce mentioned.
Natasha hummed, the old man’s words still on her mind.
"So weak, so in love that I wanna scream, take me or break me just make it a thing"