Bruce Sees A Therapist (to be changed later)

25| Visitation From Some

Natasha glared at him behind her stinging eyes.

Bruce sighed again. "I'll explain. Betty heard that you were doing missions again, so she wanted to check up on you at the tower, but you weren't there. So instead of spending the day inspecting you, we talked. She invited us to her wedding." He shrugged. "It's in June. I told her I'll have to ask you."

Natasha was still glaring at him. "And this was when you were angry at me?" She asked in a voice that didn't match her hostile expression.

Bruce shook his head and scooted closer. "I wasn't that angry at you then. I— I missed you a lot, and I didn't know where you were half the time. I didn't know if I was ever going to see you again." He offered up a small smile. "I could never get mad at you for very long."

Nat stopped glaring, finally, and hit him on the arm. "Stop being so nice!" She groaned. "I can't get mad either, so either do this right or—"

Bruce kissed her.

Surprised, Natasha froze for a split second before returning the favour.

When he pulled away, she leaned onto his shoulder. "I don't like you very much," Natasha said grumpily. "You give me arrhythmia."

Bruce grinned at her, running a hand through his hair. "Do I?" He asked innocently.

Natasha hit him again, jokingly, and he burst into laughter. And then she started laughing as well until it fizzled out inevitably.

"I love you," she murmured to the March wind.

Bruce smiled, glancing at her. "I love you too." He said quietly.

-

It was the day. Meet the parents.

It would've been fine, except it was Natasha's parents that they were meeting, her for the first time.

Bruce glanced at her at the door. "You ready?"

Natasha nodded.

Bruce pushed open the doors to the conference room. Inside sat three people. A woman and two men.

The woman and the man that Natasha recognized as Alian were talking quietly about biology. The other man, Ivan probably, had been watching the door with an anxious look on his face.

Now he saw her.

Bruce hmmed. "Hi. Dr. Laine? Dr. Rexov? Mr. Romanoff?" He took Natasha's hand and made her take a step forwards. "This is Natasha."

Alian looked from Mila Laine and Ivan, open-mouthed. He shut it a second later. "You're Natasha?" He asked, swallowing.

Nat nodded mutely.

The older scientist stood up and offered his hand. "I'm Alian Rexov. Um, I was your father." He sat back down awkwardly when she didn't shake it.

Mila Laine was perhaps less awkward. "Hello, Natalia. I'm Mila. It's a pleasure to meet you," she said warmly. She looked at Ivan pointedly.

Ivan blinked. "I'm Ivan. Romanoff. But of course—" he sighed— "you already know that."

Bruce glanced at Natasha, trying to gauge her emotions. "You okay?" He asked her quietly.

Natasha nodded. She took a breath and asked the three her questions: "Why did you give me up?"

Mila's face immediately turned to compassion. "Oh, hunaja," she said, smiling ruefully. "We did not give you away." Her expression turned stony. "They took you."

She saw Natasha's disbelief. "We do not expect you to believe us. We did not even expect you'd agree to meet us." Mila let out a breath. "But that is the truth. They took you. We had tried— for years, to find you, until we thought our efforts were futile. Then you released those SHIELD files. It offered us proof that the rumours we had leads on were true."

Alian interrupted. "And then Dr. Banner here contacted us before we could contact you." He chuckled. "To be honest, we were just gathering our nerves."

Ivan was quiet. "We were scared." He said, finally. "Of how you would react."

Then they looked at her expectantly, and all she could think was, what do I say? What do I do? What do they expect from me?

Natasha squashed her emotions down wherever they came from. She looked to Bruce, who she knew could read her like an open book.

He knew what she was thinking. He glanced at his watch and pretended to be shocked. "Oh god, Nat, we have that thing with Tony in three minutes! Um—" he turned to the three. "I'm so sorry, but we have an event planned already and—"

Mila put up a hand. "It's okay. Go to wherever you need to go. We'll contact you again tomorrow if we should continue."

Bruce stood and extended a hand to Natasha, who took it gratefully.

"Thank you," she managed after they got into the hallway.

Bruce smiled.

They walked down the corridor.

"By the way," Bruce added. "That thing with Tony wasn't a lie. We do have to do something with him today. In a couple-ish hours."

"'Couple-ish'?" Natasha asked with a smirk.

Bruce shrugged.

They walked down the hallway, fingers intertwined and laughing.