Body and Soul: The Endgame Fix

Part 12: Reemergence

Summary: Naps are over! Natasha explores some of the upstairs and discovers a few things that Bruce has to explain. Sirius is a good boy! Nat goes to town.

Notes: It's the early afternoon of Monday, October 30, 2023.

They probably would have slept for a while, but about twenty minutes later, first Bruce's phone on the desk pinged and then Friday interrupted them. "Excuse me, Dr. Banner and Ms. Romanoff, I need to remind the doctor that Mr. Parker is due to arrive in about an hour. I also need to inform you that your canine companion is awake and doing some damage to a rug in the mudroom."

"Thank you, Friday," Bruce responded. "Well, so much for resting. Spider-son and fur baby are on the schedule," he said with a small sigh. "The dog I was expecting, but Peter has an open invitation and probably just wants to talk. Tony left some things here for him, so he may stay for dinner. Are you feeling up to dealing with them or do you want to rest some more?"

Natasha was actually feeling quite good, energized, even. "Let's get cleaned up. I want to meet Sirius, and I wouldn't mind seeing Peter." She kissed Bruce, and they extricated themselves from the bed.

She hadn't seen the master bathroom yet, so it was a bit of a surprise to observe the scale of half the plumbing fixtures. There were two sizes of toilets, a bidet, and two vanities at different heights. "Don't laugh, this was Tony's suggestion, so I just went with it when Pepper agreed with him. The closet is on the other side. It's bigger than some of the apartments I've lived in."

"I'll stick with the bathroom for now," she said. The walk-in shower was Hulk size, but there was a second set of valves and showerheads at multiple heights. In one corner of the tiled room with another window view was a soaking tub with a beautiful fresco wall along the other side.

"Oh my. That's beautiful, Bruce. It . . . it moves!" Natasha said with surprise.

"Kinda like Harry Potter photos, huh? A couple of artists from New Asgard came and worked on it and some other spots. Pretty amazing, huh? That's Yggdrasil, the World Tree, in the middle."

"I see. Those are the Nine Realms, but it's different from what you'd normally see. Did you say, 'New Asgard'?"

"Right, what was left of Thor's people and the survivors from the Statesmen settled in a small section of Norway. I was able to snap more of them back. Angry Girl, sorry—old habit, Valkyrie is their ruler in Thor's absence." Nat looked at Bruce with horror. "No-no, he's not dead. He left with Rocket, Nebula, and Quill's crew to find Gamora. It's kind of involved, but Thor was alive and well ten days ago . . . unless Steve screwed something else up," Bruce added under his breath as he rolled his eyes. "Sorry, there have been a ton and a half of surprises lately, and not all of them are as wonderful as you, Nat."

She nodded her head and went back to the mural wall. There were smaller scenes depicted along the sides. "Is that Sakaar?" she asked as she looked at a series of images on the left.

"The idealized Disney version," he said, feeling a little embarrassed. She was looking at Hulk in full gladiator attire, strutting and working up the crowd.

"Do you still have the leather kilt or helmet?" she asked with mischief in her eye.

"No. Just the memories and lessons learned," Bruce answered soberly.

Natasha cocked her head to the side and continued to study the arena image. He'd only told her Hulk had been in control for over two years when they'd talked about it before, so she didn't know many details. "Explain the gladiator motif to me," she said gently.

"Well, it's what I did. Hulk smash. I smashed a lot. Professional fighting. I was the Winner of the Contest of Champions and defended the title for over a year." He wanted to be truthful, but he still had many mixed feelings about Sakaar.