a/n : here's a little treat for y'all bc i'm going thru it and needed this myself lollll
please comment, vote, and react!
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"I DO NOT DESERVE THIS TREATMENT!"
...Is what Pietro's shouting at the top of his lungs as Spencer wrestles him back down onto the bed.
Context? There's not much. It's 8 AM, Spencer hasn't slept in like a million years, and Pietro's trying to be a dumbass and take a walk.
Which he literally cannot do. Besides the massive, deadly stab wounds in this guy's chest, there are 3 healing holes in his legs.
So no, Spencer isn't being mean when she summons Hulk's strength to pin this guy to the hospital bed - she's being thoughtful.
"You can't just walk this off!" she shoots back, adjusting her footing to keep his knees locked to her. "You're so incredibly-"
"Handsome-"
"Stupid!"
"Strong-"
"Shut up!" Spencer shouts, finally, her eyes matching Pietro's. Her hands have his wrists pinned to the mattress. Her hips are hovering just above his abdomen. He struggled a little in the beginning, but she begins to recognize the look on his face - he's enjoying this.
"I can't stay like this, dragă," he pleads. It's a move of a whine, but Spencer just rolls her eyes, not letting him move anyway. The lack of reaction from her causes Pietro's eyes to roll, and he jolts again, trying to shove her off. He lets out a groan when his efforts fail. "If you're going to do this, dragă, you might as well-"
Spencer moves a hand off his wrist to slap it over Pietro's mouth. His eyes widen before they crinkle.
"Don't even say it," she mutters, glancing at the door to make sure no one was standing there.
With his newly freed hand, Pietro raises his hand to brush her hair out of her face.
The last two days have pretty much been Spencer and Pietro alone in the hospital room. Everyone else had left on another mission - Natasha, Clint, and Wanda to find James Barnes. Well, Bruce is technically there - he stayed behind to make sure Pietro was doing alright, and mostly because Spencer didn't want to be alone.
They haven't left the hospital room since Pietro got there. Which Spencer knows is driving him insane - not even slowly, just surely. He's always fidgeting and fighting both the Banners to let him out.
Bruce is all like, "the wounds you've sustained are extremely" blah blah blah, which Pietro usually tunes out. But then he'll turn to Spencer and beg her instead, to which he'll hear (in a slightly more annoyed tone) "do you listen? The wounds you sustained are extremely" blah blah blah.
He's pretty sick of it.
Spencer opens her mouth to say something nice - like "you're pretty" or "thanks for saving me", but Pietro's eyes shoot to the glass doors of the hospital room, and in a blur of blue and silver, Spencer is standing back on the ground.
And Pietro's groaning.
"Why would you do that?" Spencer demands, shoving him by the shoulders back onto the bed.
Pietro opens his mouth to answer, but the opening door to the room answers for him.
Bruce is standing in the doorway with a clipboard, only glancing up momentarily.
But then his eyes focus on the little streaks of blue and silver, and he blinks. Once. Twice.
"Hey," Spencer calls, sitting back in the chair, smiling up at Bruce who was resuming his walk-in. "Is everything ok?"
"Everything's fine," he promises. "I just have to do a little check-up," he says with a little nod at Pietro, who begins straightening up against the head of the bed. His eyes flicker back to Spencer. "Have you eaten yet?"
He's asking about lunch. In reality, Spencer hasn't eaten breakfast, lunch, or dinner from the night before, but she just shakes her head instead of explaining all that.
He wants to say something, but he doesn't. Instead, Bruce turns back to Pietro with a little sigh, the two matching eyes for a moment.
"You haven't been moving too much?" Bruce checked as he pressed his stethoscope against Pietro's chest.
He was wearing a loose athletic shirt and sweatpants - he'd nearly killed Clint earlier for suggesting he wear one of those stupid medical gowns. Instead, he'd sent Clint off to grab his clothes.
Then when the subject of someone having to help him change came up, Pietro kicked Clint out of the room and made Spencer help.
(Which was very uncomfortable for literally... everyone involved.)
"Your daughter is more strict than you," Pietro mumbles with another look of exhaustion that makes Bruce smile a little. He glances at Spencer who looks up from her phone to give Pietro a look.
Then she turns to Bruce. "He's got a death wish," she tells him, seriously, which makes Pietro scoff. "Have you heard anything from Mom?"
"I just got off the phone with her," Bruce announces, and Spencer sits up a little straighter in her chair. Even Pietro looks at him, awaiting his words. "She's booking her flight now," Bruce says. "I'm not sure she believes me - about finding you - but she's coming."
Spencer nods. She's not sure why, but she feels a sinking kind of dread in her stomach. It makes her feel guilty.
Pietro notices her reaction, and so does Bruce.
"Has Natasha said anything?" Spencer moves on. "About the Mutant. Mystique. Has she said anything about when we are allowed to visit?"
Bruce glances at Pietro before frowning down at Spencer. "I'm not sure that's a good idea-" he begins but is cut off by Spencer.
"Good ideas ended when that bitch got me kidnapped," Spencer snaps. Pietro raises his eyebrows, his eyes growing wide, as his arms settle behind his back. "I want to speak with her."
Bruce contemplates this. He nods. "I'll see what I can do," he tells her, turning away to check the monitors. "Natasha's still on that mission," he reminds her. "I'll speak to her about it." His eyes flicker down to Pietro. "Any irritation? Pain?"
Pietro shakes his head, looking back up at Bruce. "I am bored," he tells the man, very seriously.
Bruce lets out a little sigh. "I know," he promises. "And I'm sorry. But at the rate you're healing, you should be out of here soon."
"What is soon to you?" Pietro pushes.
"A day," Bruce says. "Or two. I think then you'll at least be able to rest in your apartment - Spence?"
"Hm?"
"Have you been to your apartment yet?"
Apartment. That's what Tony called the huge loft he'd gifted to Spencer the month before she started her internship. And while Pietro technically had his own "apartment" two floors above, all the avengers technically stayed at the compound or their own residences, so Pietro was free to join Spencer anytime he felt.
"Not yet," Spencer admits, looking away.
Bruce nods - not that Spencer sees it. He's been trying to get her to go back, to get some sense of normalcy again, but she's so hell-bent against it. She won't even leave Pietro's side - she won't leave the room. She stays rooted, right where she is, right by his side.
He tries to remind himself that Spencer has no reason to trust this place. The Avenger's residency has betrayed her safety twice now. She'll probably never want to stay in this place again.
Bruce's chest feels like it's caving in.
But she won't leave Pietro's side. She won't step foot out of the room.
She doesn't give much more attention to Bruce - she really can't. Spencer loves him, and she's glad she's back.
"How is the mission?" Pietro asks, and Bruce turns his attention to the young man. "Did they find the Soldier yet?"
"James," Spencer corrects in a small tone.
Pietro tries not to sigh.
"They haven't," Bruce tells the two of them. "But they've got a few leads - Natasha says Wanda's doing very well," he mentions discreetly, his eyes still on his work. Spencer knows he's doing what he can to put Pietro at ease without making him feel patronized.
Pietro swallows the information with a little nod, and Spencer's pinky discreetly brushes against his thumb.
"I'm going to get your dinner," Bruce says to Pietro, then his eyes shift to Spencer. "Yours, too."
"I'm not-" Spencer starts.
"It wasn't a question," Pietro interrupts. At the same time, Bruce says, "You're going to eat it."
The two men exchange a look.
Spencer feels betrayed.
✯✯✯
BRUCE HAS GONE TO BED.
Maybe? Spencer's not sure he even really sleeps, but after he and Pietro practically force-fed her noodles, he disappeared for a while. The sun had been set for a while, and there's a quiet hum over the towers.
His absence gives Spencer confidence she didn't know she had. It's not that she's not comfortable around Bruce, it's just... she's more herself around Pietro. He saw her when she couldn't remember anything, and it's just... she's brutally bare in front of him, ya know? She's got nothing to hide.
(No, seriously. Nothing. Like, those memories all flooding back? Yeah, he knows everything about Spencer Rebecca Banner.)
Now, Spencer slipped onto the bed, tucked into Pietro's side. She's freshly showered and smelling like citrus and mint, and his face is tucked in her neck, his arm slung around her waist and his leg curled around hers.
He's not sleeping. At least, Spencer doesn't think so - his breathing is in sync with hers, and she's been carding her fingers through his hair for about five minutes, but he's not snoring yet.
But he's quiet. Unusually so. He's never really been this quiet.
(or this... clingy. Which Spencer doesn't mind. Not at all, it's just new.)
Spencer feels half selfish, but she breaks the silence to softly call out his name.
He shuffles a little at the noise, and she looks down to see his blue eyes blink up at her. "Hm?"
"Do you think I'm cursed?" she asks, in a whisper. It sounds like a joke, but she's deadly serious.
Pietro thinks about it for a second. "Oh yes, very cursed."
Spencer swears she can feel her heart skidded to a stop. Her eyebrows furrow into a line, and she almost wants to beat him up before she realizes A) he's already wounded and B) she did ask.
"HYDRA, twice," he recalls, his stupid voice all gravely with pebbles. "Hulk father, terrible choice in friends - not to mention, me-"
"You?" Spencer echoes.
Pietro peers up at her, feigning sameness. He nods sadly. "Ex-HYDRA experiment, poor communication skills, too attractive for his own good-"
Spencer laughs. Like really, genuinely laughs - the kind of laugh where she has to pull herself away from Pietro and sit up straight because the giggles are catching in her throat.
And Pietro is grinning. He lifts himself up, his face contorting a little bit as he does, but it completely dissolves when Spencer's eyes are back on him.
"You sound ridiculous," she tells him, and Pietro just shrugs, still smiling.
But then she remembers something incredibly important that she completely forgot.
"LEO!" she exclaims, looking at Pietro horrified. His eyes are searching her face for an explanation. "Our cat, oh my God, we left him-"
"Spencer, Spencer," Pietro calls, catching her waving hands. "He is a stray-"
"We abandoned him!" she cries out, but Pietro is not matching her level of horror.
"It is okay," he tells her. "We can... maybe we can go back - we can send someone back - please, Spencer."
She's freaking him out, she realizes. And she should settle down, she knows that, but it's just... how did she forget for so long? Trauma response, life or death whatever, it's a cat with no mom or dad and...
"We can go back," Spencer agrees, after a second. HYDRA, she remembers. "With everyone," she tacks on, settling back against Pietro. "And with guns. Lots of guns."
"Lots," Pietro agrees with a nod, pulling her back against him. Spencer lays her head against his shoulder.
"You know," Pietro says, and Spencer settles a little, looking at him questioningly. "You promised me a kiss."
Spencer purses her lips to hide her smile. "I didn't promise you anything," she denies, and Pietro rolls his eyes. She lets out a fake sigh of obligation, before pressing her lips against his.
(Sparing the details - it sparks. And yellow and red and orange. It's streaks of shimmers.)
After a moment or two, Pietro shifts, his palm moving to Spencer's hip, pressing her down.
Spencer breaks away to give him a look. Pietro, already irritated, sends her a look back.
"Stay," she tells him seriously. "You're going to hurt yourself."
"I will not-"
Pietro begins to argue, but Spencer cuts him off with another kiss, shifting so he's fully back against the bed.
She's hovering over him. Her hair is cascading like curtains at her side, and Pietro's eyes... they're only for her.
"Again," he whispers, and Spencer dips back for another kiss, her hand cupping his cheek.
Spencer's not sure how she survived the months without him. She's not sure how her memory ever let him go - even for a second. She's pretty sure she's not herself without him. She's pretty sure her brain let him go so she could, too.
Pietro's eyes are back on her. There's that little devilish grin again.
"Did you forget about the cat yet?"
Spencer kisses him again.
Jealous about a stray cat, she thinks. There's always something with this guy.