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Bruce took a deep breath to calm his nerves before entering the private waiting room, a coffee in his good hand and another coffee held between his arm and chest. Natasha was the only one in the room, sitting in a hospital chair with a magazine open in her lap. She glanced up when he entered, a small smile forming, and he wondered if she had any clue how it sent his heart racing even faster.
"Hey," she closed the magazine, putting it to the side.
"Hey," he cleared his throat, "I got you a coffee. The one, uh, not in my hand. It's from the café, not the hospital coffee." Lord knew they'd had enough of that crap. Tony would be rioting soon enough, once Bruce cleared him to have his vice of a beverage.
"Thank you." When he was close enough, she freed it from his arm and took a sip as he settled into the chair beside her. She blinked, head tilting just barely. "You remembered how I like it?"
He shrugged his working shoulder, trying to fight down the heat rising to his cheeks. "I do." He liked to hang onto the little details. It had something to do with spending years off the grid, then suddenly being part of this team - he remembered so many small things about them that they themselves didn't often recognize.
"That's sweet." She complimented, taking a other drink. "How's Tony doing?"
"He's doing okay. Better than I expected, if I'm being honest. As long as he doesn't over stress himself, he should be okay enough to go home in a few weeks, I hope." He almost couldn't believe he was saying that. Barely more than a week ago, Tony had died in front of him after wielding the Stones, something Bruce fully understood was mentally and physically straining - and not meant for a regular human.
But Tony had never been a regular human, he supposed.
"That's good."
Bruce hummed and sipped his own coffee, "We also talked." He paused, trying to gather his words, and her eyebrow raised.
"About what?"
"Well..." He put his coffee on the table where he could rub the back of his neck. "I guess it was more of advice than a talk. He's gotten wiser, I guess. I think it's because of the kids, not the age." He was rambling and he knew it. Natasha knew it too, by how her eyebrow climbed higher. "We talked about you... and me."
The pieces clicked in her eyes. "Oh."
"Yeah." He forced himself to take a breath, forced himself fo say what had been going through his head on repeat. "Nat, losing you was the hardest thing I've ever had to go through. I don't want it to happen again."
"We're not going to live forever." She replied quietly.
"No, we won't, but I'd rather spend the life I do have with you."
"There are things you still don't know about me, Bruce. Things I'm not ready to tell. I don't know if you would want to handle that, want to be a part of it-"
"I want to be a part of your life. I want to be with you. There are no secrets you could have that would keep me away." He reached out and grasped her hand, giving it a squeeze. She returned it. "You can tell me on your own time, or never at all, but your secrets - they're not you. I fell in love with you. Every bit of you."
Maybe it was a bit more than he was planning to say, but it was all true. She had to know that, not only from his words but from his eyes. His heartbeat was the only sound as she analyzed his face for a lie that she wouldn't find.
She put her coffee on the table, next to his. He had the fleeting thought that they looked right together. "I thought of you every day after you disappeared."
"I promise that'll never happen again."
"It better not." She gave him a stern look before her face softened. "I've spent my entire life not getting attached, of not allowing my feelings to come up. I broke the rule with when Clint recruited me. I broke it with the Avengers. And I broke it with you." She squeezed his hand again. "This is going to be tough to figure out, but I'm willing to try, if you want to."
A small, loving smile spread across his face. "I want to."
"Then let this be the beginning..." She leaned closer. Before he could process what she was doing, she'd kissed his cheek, "...of something rekindled."
It was the perfect word. They'd loved each other before, even if they hadn't said it, then the ember of it smoked. Now, it burned between them, flickering and hesitant and nervous as love could be. Their relationship wasn't going to be a walk in the park - they both had their scars, their wounds, their past experiences that would make loving each other difficult-
But Bruce had a feeling that they were going to be just fine.