Flashes

one.

"Ya tebya lyublyu.", Natasha says under her breath and Bruce means to say it back but suddenly gets lost in her eyes and lips and the smile she always seems to give only him and the way her closeness makes him dizzy and the smell of her perfume fills his nostrils as he presses a kiss to her red hair and somehow the "I love you, too" turns into "Will you marry me?".

She says yes while their lips colide.

two.

Bruce proposes in Russian and his tongue gets tied and his accent is so awful Natasha can't stop laughing and he just gets even more nervous and keeps playing with his fingers as she's holding the ring but there's something in the way her eyes shine and in the wideness of her smile that manages to calm him down, although it seems like he doesn't breathe until she responds with a da and puts the ring on her finger.

three.

She's lying in a hospital bed with an IV in her hand and three broken ribs and he should be mad because she promised she'd be careful but he's honestly just relieved that she's alive.

"Sorry.", Natasha says but Bruce shakes his head. She never has to apologise to him.

He takes the medical chart from her bed and starts to read through it. After a while, his eyes catch something at the top. "Natasha Banner?"

"I used your last name for the hospital records, I hope you don't mind."

He smiles. "Keep it."

He might not have meant it as a proposal, but she takes it as one, a smirk on her face.

four.

"Marry me.", he says at 2 a.m when she's playing with his fingers as her head is lying on his chest and she's listening to his heartbeat and it's somewhat between a statement and a question. It's the dead of night and the silence has never felt more deafening and he's not expecting an answer - he isn't, really - but he still feels like a massive weight has been lifted off his shoulders once she kisses him and whispers yes.

five.

"Ty vyydesh' za menya?", Bruce proposes in Russian and it's as fluent as he could manage after practicing it for what felt like years. It leaves his mouth as effortlessly and as filled with love as when he says her name and filled with more passion than any kiss they've ever shared.

"Da.", Natasha replies and he's never felt happier in his life.

six.

He promises himself he'll do it the right way, the normal way; dinner and a long, practiced speech and getting down on one knee and the whole "Natalia Alianovna Romanova, will you marry me?", but they've never done anything normally so she ends up finding the ring in his sock drawer ("Seriously, Banner, you kept it there?", Tony aks in disbelief later and Pepper shuts him up with a "Want me to tell them where I found mine?") and he ends up proposing to her in the middle of a bedroom at Stark Tower with an improvised speech that's mostly rambling until she kisses him.

"Of course I'll marry you, you idiot."

seven.

She needs to leave again and he grabs her lightly by the waist, pulling her closer to him and kissing her.

"You better come back in one piece.", Bruce says as their foreheads touch and she smiles with eyes half closed.

"Or what?"

He pauses for a moment. "Or I'll marry you."

She looks up at him and her smile widens.

eight.

He proposes in hindi, once, because he knows it's one of the few languages she doesn't know and he hasn't taught her those words yet so he doesn't have to fear rejection.

Natasha is a fast learner, though, so the next time he whispers "Mujhasē śādī karōgī?" under his breath, she replies with "Hāṁ." and a smile.

nine.

"What are your thoughts on marriage?", the words are those he never truly expected to hear from her - especially not while he's in the middle of reading one of his science journals - but she asks him and he looks up at her whith his brows furrowed.

Bruce shifts in his seat. "What are your thoughts on marriage?"

She takes a sip of her coffee, shrugging. "It sounds.. tempting."

He puts the journal down and takes off his glasses. "Do you want to get married, Natasha?"

"Is that a proposal?"

He pauses. "If you're willing to excuse the absence of a ring, then.. yes, it's a proposal."

Natasha gets up from her chair and moves to sit next to him. She puts her feet up on the couch and leans her head on his shoulder. He picks up the science journal, putting his glasses back on as he leans on the couch.

"My answer's yes, by the way.", she says with her eyes closed and it's a bit muffled by the cup she brought up to her lips to take another sip of her coffee.

Bruce smiles.

one.

Bruce Banner and Natasha Romanoff exchange spur-of-the-moment vows during a battle they don't think they'll get out of alive. It seems fitting.