Bruce was finally happy with his life. He didn’t feel the need to run anymore, no more looking over his shoulder, he had friends and a stable place to live, and he had finally admitted to himself that there were things that he wanted. He wanted Clint. And Clint....well, Clint seemed happy to give him everything he wanted.
It took months, after the Battle of New York, the archer had just appeared in the labs one day, arguing with Bruce that he needed to take a break and eat something. The blonde had even brought food down to him, so Bruce relented, leaving his research to join Clint at the small table in the corner. Bruce wasn’t naive, he was well aware he had an attraction to the man. Clint was the epitome of sly smirks and goofy offhand comments, but he was also firm muscle and built arms and a sharp jawline. So Bruce was silently happy that someone like him took the time to sit and spend time with him. Clint was asking him questions about the experiments he was doing, and after an explanation or two Clint would offer some kind of suggestion that Bruce hadn’t thought of himself, because as self deprecating as the archer was, he was actually very smart. The scientist wasn’t sure how they went from eating lunch together once or twice a week to Clint showing up every day, some days dragging Bruce out of the lab to walk the city together, but he wasn’t complaining either. The other Avengers would give them knowing looks, and Clint would make Bruce chuckle by flipping them off. They had been hanging out for almost six months when it finally happened. After they ate, Clint closed the distance between them and pressed the softest of kisses to Bruce’s lips. If he hadn’t been hyper aware of their proximity, he might’ve missed it. But he didn’t. And when Clint tried to pull away, Bruce pulled him right back.
At first Bruce hadn’t wanted to label it because he didn’t want to get hurt, but after a mission where Clint got hurt and medical wouldn’t let him in until Clint yelled from the room that he was gonna kick someone’s ass if they didn’t let his boyfriend in, Bruce figured he could live with labels like that as he suppressed a grin at the techs stepping out of his way.
Now it was a full year after the battle, four months into their relationship, and Clint and Natasha were another SHIELD mission together. Clint hadn’t wanted to leave, Bruce hadn’t been feeling well and he wanted to stay with him, but Bruce kept telling him it was fine. Bruce had assumed he just had a stomach bug. Tony kept him company in the lab while they were gone, but even he was growing concerned with Bruce’s nausea.
“Brucie bear, we’re science bros. Just let me try to help you.”
And that’s how Bruce found himself in this position, watching Tony read the results of the tests he ran with Helen Cho five or six times, glancing at Bruce, and then reading them again.
“Tony, what is it?”
“Uh, well first I want to say that Helen thinks the gamma radiation changed your body more than we initially thought.” Bruce nodded tentatively, he was aware that they could never be one hundred percent certain what the radiation had done. Tony cleared his throat, aiming for a cheerful smile and missing by a mile, “Well, uh, congratulations Bruce! You and Birdbrain are having a baby!”
Bruce felt his brain screech to a halt, “A ba- I can’t have a baby, Tony! I have a dick!” Tony blinked, smile wavering before he continued.
“I am well aware of that, Bruce, I just spent a lot of time up close and personal with you to get everything for the tests, but I’ve checked the results over and over, and you are pregnant.” Tony looked down at the papers again, trying to figure out a way to reassure his friend that everything would be okay, but when he looked up Bruce was gone. “........fuck.”
With a tiny iota of hope, Tony went to Clint’s apartment in the tower first, and then to Bruce’s when it turned up empty and found Bruce’s go bag missing, before he finally asked JARVIS. “Sir, Doctor Banner has left the building. He did not specify when he would return.”
“Thanks, J. Can you contact Maria Hill? We need to reach Clint as soon as possible.” Tony was still clutching the results in his hand, blaming himself for not being more tactful, when he ran into Steve. “Cap! I need your help. I need to break some news to Clint.”
It took another day before Tony got a response from Maria, and all she said was that Clint and Nat were on their way back. When the Quinjet landed, Tony and Steve were waiting at the end of the ramp, not quite missing the way Nat’s eyes narrowed as she shared a look with Clint. The archer sighed, stretching his sore muscles after the ride home, “Did Bruce lock himself away in the lab again?”
Tony and Steve shared a look before Steve turned to the assassins, “Not exactly.”
Clint’s face hardened in less than a second, and as he took a step toward them, Nat stopped him with a hand on his shoulder, turning her own murderous gaze to the men in front of them, “You have three seconds before I let him go.”
Tony paled as he took an unconscious step back, “I was just trying to help him. Honest. I wanted to help him cause he was still feeling sick, and we couldn’t figure out what it was because Helen said it wasn’t a stomach bug so we ran some tests and-“
“You did what!?” Clint growled, Steve held out his placatingly.
“Medical tests, Clint.” Steve was trying his best to hold his Captain America face, but the combined glares of Widow and Hawkeye were giving him pause, “Tony was just trying to make sure he was okay.”
“Then what happened?”
Tony glanced at his feet, “He didn’t like the results. He ran off.”
Without another word, Clint skirted by them, brain already working through what could happen and where he could be. Natasha caught up to him after no doubt giving each of the other men an earful, not saying a word to her partner as she restocked her go bag and waited for him to finish as well. She handed him a paper that she no doubt stole from Tony as she got into the drivers seat of the car, and waited as he skimmed it.
“Bruce is-“
“Yup.” She kept her eyes on the road as she went zooming through traffic, heading toward the most direct route outside of the city, “I’m sorry he didn’t get to tell you.”
“He’s probably freaking out.” Clint said quietly. “He told me he has been terrified to get close to anyone, because he feared what he could do to them. Imagine how he feels knowing that he has a living being inside of him?” They shared a quick look as Nat pushed the gas pedal down further.
Clint was glad she came along. Not only because he needed someone to remind him that this was good news, but because he was too worried about his boyfriend to be useful in checking for sightings of him without being aggressive. It took them another three days to find the last town he’d been seen in.
Natasha had come back to the car after charming an elder farmer, convincing him she was looking for her older brother. She drove Clint to an abandoned one bedroom cabin on the outskirts of town, “Guy says he has seen smoke coming from the chimney here, but no one is supposed to live here.” She made her way around the back of the cabin before Clint could reply, but he moved himself to the front door, knocking solidly against the flimsy wood.
He heard nothing inside, but he waited. The door opened slowly, revealing the dark shadow of a man that looked exhausted.
“Bruce.” Clint said quietly, still waiting, Bruce’s shoulders seemed to tense and then relax, “Nat’s around back.”
Bruce nodded, leaving the door open as he moved back into the house, slumping into an old chair by the fireplace. Clint walked in, carefully sitting against the wall next to him. Nat appeared in the doorway, but instead of coming in, she inclined her head to the car and shut the door. Clint just waited, arms relaxed on his knees in front of him. Finally Bruce spoke, “I’m sorry.”
“You have nothing to be sorry for.” Clint told him, hoping that his boyfriend would believe him. “I should’ve been here. You shouldn’t have had to hear that news alone, let alone from Stark.” Bruce sniffled, swiping haphazardly at his eyes under his glasses, “Come on, Freckles, talk to me. Why are you sorry?”
“Because we- we’ve never talked about this! I didn’t even know this was possible! You should be mad! Why aren’t you mad?”
Clint’s brow furrowed, “Why would I be mad? Yeah, this is kinda nuts, but I probably would’ve approached about kids someday anyway. It’s not adoption like I would’ve planned, but it’s gonna be our baby. Part me, part you. Why would I be mad at that?”
“I ran off, Clint. How can you be so calm about any of this? I freak out, and I left.”
Clint shrugged, “I wasn’t home. Technically, you didn’t leave. You left Tony. Your science bro has been going all kinds of stir crazy worrying about you and the little one by the way.” The archer smirked, tentatively holding out a hand that the scientist clung to immediately. “It’s gonna be okay. We’ll figure it out as we go, and we’ll figure it out together.”
“How could you want this?” Bruce’s voice was so small, wavering though he tried to hold it steady, “How could you want this with me? I have a monster in me and-“
“No you don’t. Jade Jaws is my friend, and you are the love of my life. How could I want this with anyone else? Who else deals with me hanging around all the time? Who else still wants me to hold them after I spent days with blood on my hands? Or when I hide away in the vents and need someone to remind me that just because Steve got annoyed doesn’t mean he’s gonna kick me out? Who else is there that can take all the bad I have with all the good and still love me? There’s no one but you. And I wouldn’t want there to be. Because you are the only one I want to hold, and when I go into the vents yours is the only voice I want to hear, and half of your good outweighs all of your bad, whether you see it or not. I love you, Bruce. And I want to go on this bizarre adventure with you.”
The other man finally broke into a small smile, “Geez, when did you get so sappy?”
The archer huffed a laugh, “Being a father brings it out I guess.”
“I’m sorry I wasn’t there to tell you myself.” Bruce offered, sliding to the ground to sit with his boyfriend as the other opened his arms and legs, wrapping himself around him.
Clint pressed a kiss to his messy brown curls, “It’s okay, baby. This way I had time to process the news myself.” They sat together in silence for a while before a car horn echoed around the deserted area, and they broke apart chuckling, “We should go before Auntie Nat comes in here and kicks my ass.”
“Not mine?” Bruce raised an eyebrow.
Clint smirked, putting a hand on Bruce’s stomach, “I think you’ve got a better excuse than the other guy to keep people from trying to upset you for a while.” Bruce gave him a smile, taking his hand and grabbing his bag with his free hand, pulling his Cupid out to the waiting car.
They had about a month of peacefulness away from work, Bruce being assigned to stay home through the pregnancy since no one was sure if you would be a normal pregnancy length, and they didn’t want to risk the Hulk coming out because of what Bruce’s body went through for the transformation. Clint still had missions, but he would only leave if someone at the tower swore to watch over Bruce and the baby while he was gone, and in return Nat swore that Clint would always make it home. He wasn’t as careless in the field, made less rash decision. Nat threatened to knife Coulson when he made a joke along the lines of a kid being the only reason Clint was being as serious as he was about his job. Bruce and Tony read through every parenting book they could get their hands on, because the billionaire said he was going to deal with anything his science bro had to deal with, and Steve brought Pepper’s brains in to help him baby proof the tower. She added the instruction to JARVIS that if the baby ever crawled somewhere alone, the AI should notify the nearest team member. Bruce’s belly grew as the weeks went on, and Dr. Cho was nice enough to visit and perform ultrasounds in the safety of their apartments. A week before the predicted due date, there was an Avengers mission from SHIELD. Originally, the entire team fought to let Clint stay at the tower, but Fury said he was needed, but promised the mission would only last four days.
Six days later, the team still hadn’t come back, but Bruce felt pain, and he chalked it up to his worry. For three hours, he stayed in the common lounge area in case they came home, the pain getting worse until he realized he was experiencing contractions. Pepper had been staying with him while they were gone, and she rushed him to the medical unit where Dr. Cho and a staff were waiting. Pepper contacted Maria Hill, and when she demanded to be in touch with Clint she was redirected to Fury while he got Clint on the line. Pepper immediately pressed the phone to Bruce’s ear. “Cupid, it’s time.”
“I will be there as soon as I can. Remember to breathe, darling. Tell Pepper and Dr. Cho if you need anything, okay?”
“I-“ Bruce groaned as another wave of pain hit him, “I don’t know if I can do this without you, baby.”
“Yes, yes, you can. I am on my home.” Bruce could hear movement and yelling, before the sound of the jet engines, “We’re all coming back, we can finish this job later. We’ll be there as soon as we can, and I will be damned if I’m not with you through this. Can I talk to Pepper?”
Bruce nodded at Pepper to take it back, “I love you, Clint.”
“I love you, too, Freckles.” Pepper nodded along to Clint when she took the phone back, muttering affirmatives and then relaying everything that had happened and then Bruce’s chart before she hung up.
“Can I get you anything, Bruce? Do you want some ice? A cool towel?” Pepper’s hands fluttered, contradicting her forced casual tone.
Bruce gave a pained but sincere smile, “I’m okay, just- just please keep ear out for when they get here.” Pepper patted his hand, promising.
De. Cho waited as long she could before starting to prep for the c-section, getting Bruce medicated was going to be a hard task, because the Hulk burned through the medication so fast, so the anesthesiologist had to keep a watchful eye on his condition. Bruce was starting to get nervous as they strapped his arms down, but Pepper was still there, whispering soothing things. He heard the door gentling settling and couldn’t see Pepper, “Please don’t leave me.”
“Never, Bruce.” That wasn’t Pepper’s voice. But Bruce still knew it, and he could’ve cried when Clint’s grinning face came into view. “I told you get here as soon as I could.”
“You had to have pushed the jet to as fast as humanly possible to get here that quickly.” Bruce sighed happily, ignoring the weird tugging feeling on the other side of the curtain.
“Anything to be here for this.” Clint pressed a kiss to Bruce’s forehead. To Bruce, it felt like minutes before he was brought into a recovery room, and Clint was sitting in front of him holding the most beautiful baby girl Bruce had ever seen. Clint rubbed her light brown curls, “She’s got your hair.”
“And my skin tone.” Bruce said jokingly as his eyes caught her pale green skin, but he couldn’t help the soft smile on his face as he looked at her. “We have a baby.”
“We do.” Clint said with a grin, “The cutest baby girl.”
“I hope Nat and Pepper realize they have to help us a lot in the future.” Clint just kept grinning at Bruce, moving forward carefully with their daughter, to press a kiss to his boyfriend’s lips.
“You’re gonna be great, darling.” The archer said quietly as he pulled back, “And I’m gonna right there learning with you along the way.”
Later, Bruce was ecstatic to find out that their daughter had Clint’s piercing greyish blue eyes.