A/N: Hi everyone! After getting inspired by Joss Whedon's incredible Avengers movie, I had to jump on the fanfic bandwagon. Here it goes! This story is rated T for language and later thematic elements (mentions of violence). Many thanks to the lovely community at The Beta Branch for their thoughts, suggestions, and beta reads.

Specular Reflection

Chapter 1

If someone had told Bruce Banner six months ago he would save the world, move to New York City, and befriend a SHIELD agent, he would have laughed nervously and left the country. The Other Guy didn't play well with government agencies and Bruce wasn't particularly fond of them himself. He had no great desire to spend his days rotting in some concrete cell, drugged up to his eyeballs. Bruce had long since resigned himself to the fact that it was better to live in some godforsaken slum and do a little good with his life instead.

But then the thing with the Tesseract happened, and he and the Other Guy were thrust rather dramatically into a strange new world. By the time the dust settled over Manhattan, he was no longer alone and on the run. He was part of a team; an Avenger. Talk about a paradigm shift.

They were all staying in Stark Tower (despite the ongoing repairs) because nobody but Steve had any other place to go. "All" usually meant a subset of Bruce, Tony, Steve, and Natasha. Clint came and went. Rumor had it that he had a place in the Bronx. Nobody knew for sure because the agent remained largely aloof from the group. He spent most of his time on the roof or on the makeshift shooting range in the basement of Stark Tower. Bruce privately suspected that it had something to do with his actions while possessed by Loki. He hadn't worked up the courage to ask Natasha about it. She tended to be sensitive about Clint and he always tried to be extra nice to her make up for the Other Guy's actions on the helicarrier.

One morning, Bruce emerged from his new lab to make a cup of tea (Tony had hijacked and subsequently dismantled his hot pot for an urgent project). His head was buzzing with ideas. He still couldn't believe it was his lab: he had a new gas chromatograph and mass spectrometer; a state of the art wet chemistry set up (if he ever felt the need to indulge in some wet chemistry) and fume hood, centrifuges, a sample preparation area, plus all the fancy tools and glassware and expensive reagents he could ever want. He even had windows!

None of it was really equipment Bruce needed for his usual research, but it was all his! The mass spec and GC would almost certainly get moved back to the materials division. As they had to renovate another lab before they could move them, Bruce got to keep them for the time being and it just killed him to waste instrument time.

Bruce eagerly mulled over the possibilities while he waited for the water to boil. He could probably come up with something to do on the mass spec. Isotopes were not his thing but that was okay. Maybe he'd even be able to get a quick paper out before Tony finished bullying SHIELD and the City of New York into letting him build a proper radiation lab. Even better, maybe he could convince Tony to let him do some of the characterization work on the "starkium" powering the ARC rector in his chest. He grinned at the thought. That would be fantastic.

It felt good to settle down again. Banner hadn't been this happy since the accident. Even the Other Guy seemed content.

The sound of his name pulled him out of these pleasant thoughts. Bruce looked up. He overheard the sounds of an argument. Arguments were not uncommon in Stark Tower (Tony and Natasha butted heads on a daily basis), but he noted this one as unusual because: firstly, it was whispered and secondly, instead of arguing with Tony, Natasha was arguing with Clint. It sounded like they were out in the hallway. Bruce froze.

"I'm serious," Natasha's voice said. "I think you should talk to Banner."

Clint's voice sounded irritated. "Not now, Nat."

"Do you want to get off probation or not?" Natasha demanded heatedly. "You need to deal with it or you'll be on desk duty forever. You can't bullshit psych on this one. It's too important."

"I told you, I'm fine."

"Please. All you do now is go to the range and brood over that damned video. Do you know how many times you've watched it? Because I do. You are not fine, Clint. Talk to Banner."

Clint made an exasperated noise. "The guy's a geek, Tash-"

"Yeah, a geek who's killed people because when he loses his temper a giant green rage monster takes control of his mind. You're right, Clint, I don't know what he could possibly have in common with you."

Bruce winced silently. Natasha's words had hit a sensitive mark. Evidently, Barton felt similarly because he let out a low hiss.

"Don't give me that look. I think Banner might know a thing or two about dealing with what L-"

"Don't say it," Clint snapped.

"Loki did to you," Natasha finished. Bruce imagined her crossing her arms stubbornly over her chest. "Don't tell me you're afraid of Banner?"

"That's rich, comin' from you," Clint muttered mutinously.

Bruce knew the jab stung them both, but Natasha it slide. "Clint. How could it hurt?"

"If I talk to him, will you lay the hell off?" the other agent asked sullenly.

"Yes."

"Fine."

Bruce edged silently out of the kitchenette and returned to the lab. His good mood had deflated into something much more pensive. He'd suspected Clint would find him eventually and ask, but he'd never imagined Natasha would put him up to it. He supposed it made sense. Both he and Clint had been forced to do things against their will that went against their very natures: Clint by the force of Loki's magic, and Bruce whenever he lost his constant battle with the Other Guy. But still, he wasn't quite sure how he felt about discussing his transformations with someone else. There was something intensely personal about the experience that was hard to articulate.

So Bruce was somewhat surprised to find that he had actually been looking forward to seeing the laconic marksman by the time Clint finally made his way down the lab. The chimes Bruce had attached to the door jingled when he opened it, startling the agent. The scientist looked up from his computer and smiled.

"Hi," he said, before looking back at his code. He could watch Barton through the transparent monitor while he worked.

"Doctor," Clint said by way of greeting. He eyed the chimes with suspicion.

"Bruce," Banner corrected him pleasantly. "I'm not that kind of doctor, Agent Barton."

The corner of Barton's mouth quirked. "Make it Clint." His keen eyes roamed over the lab before settling on the scientist again. "What's with the bells?"

"Oh, that's for Tony," Bruce explained with a chuckle. "Among his, uh, other habits, he thinks it's fun to sneak up on me. I think it's his way of making me feel welcome."

"Seems a little low tech for this place," Clint observed. He hiked himself casually onto an open place on one of the lab benches, being careful to ensure he faced both Bruce and the door.

"I asked JARVIS to warn me when someone came in, but Tony just overrode my commands. He can't override my chimes though," Bruce said with another chuckle. He appreciated the fact that Tony treated him like a normal guy, but his nerves had limits. "So what can I do for you, Clint?"

Clint shrugged. "Nothing, I'm just checking out the labs. Security stuff."

It was probably a lie, but he didn't call Barton on it. Bruce knew this because SHIELD had called him in the previous week to go over security protocols. To his humiliation, it turned out security protocols was just SHIELD-speak for Hulk contingency plan. They tried to make it sound boring so Tony wouldn't be around to stick up for him. Tony had been livid when he found out and had a shouting match with Director Fury about boundaries and "my tower, my rules".

The scientist decided to throw his cards on the table. He didn't want to pressure the archer, but he wanted him to realize that they both knew why he was here. The trick was to do it in such a way that he could plausibly deny having eavesdropped on the two agents, but was clever enough to get Clint's attention.

"Wanted to see what we geeks were up to?" Bruce asked without looking up. He made sure to linger a little on the word 'geeks'.

That got Barton's attention. He looked up sharply. "What?"

"Sorry, did I say something wrong?" Bruce replied, innocently looking at him over his glasses. Clint studied him with narrowed eyes. After a moment, the agent smiled ever so slightly. Satisfied, Bruce gestured at his computer. "Mind if I…?"

Clint shrugged. "Knock yourself out."

Bruce adjusted his glasses and went back to his code. His fingers flew over the keyboard (he made Tony give him an actual keyboard; programming was irritating enough without dealing with a touchscreen), but he kept an eye on Barton through the monitor.

The sniper let him get through another twenty lines or so before asking: "What are you working on?"

"I'm writing a program to automate some data analysis," Bruce said without looking up. "It's a pain to do manually."

He got another ten frustrating lines (really, he should make Tony do this, he was a much quicker programmer than Bruce could ever hope to be) before he heard the chimes tinkle and realized the agent was gone. The scientist smiled a little. It was scary how quietly the SHIELD agents could move and Bruce knew he wasn't even trying.

Clint dropped by a few more times throughout the week. He sidled into the lab with a quiet "Hey Bruce," or a simple "Banner," before hauling himself onto the same spot on the bench where he could see the whole lab. Bruce noticed he favored that place, and started keeping the spot intentionally free of clutter. Sometimes they chatted a bit, usually about neutral topics like Steve's latest battles with technology or Tony's latest public antics. Sometimes Clint simply watched him work for a little while before leaving.

His actions gave Bruce the impression he was being gradually sized up. He didn't mind. People who knew about the Other Guy tended to be wary around him, but he didn't get the impression there was anything personal about it when Clint did it. The sniper was just naturally cautious. His presence was unobtrusive and it was sort of nice to have company. With the exception of Tony, everyone else tended to avoid Bruce's lab.

They finally made progress on the fourth visit. Bruce was still trying to make his program work, and it was getting irritating. Clint appeared with his soft tread. They exchanged the usual pleasantries. The agent settled himself on his perch, and Bruce went back to his code. Maybe this time it would work.

Suddenly, Clint blurted: "Is this all you do?"

Bruce blinked himself out of his coding trance. "What, sit in front of a computer? I'd say about 90 percent of it, yeah."

"Oh," said the sniper with a vague air of disappointment.

Bruce clicked the compile button and grinned lopsidedly at Clint. "Expecting something a little sexier?"

He got a slight smile in response. "Yeah. Stark talks about this lab like it's his kid or something."

"I'll show you around while this compiles, if you want," Bruce offered. "We've got some pretty cool toys. The optics lab down the hall is the best, though."

"Optics?"

"Lasers. Big ones," Bruce said with a smile. He couldn't go wrong with lasers. Everyone liked lasers.

"Got nothing better to do," Clint said, hopping down from the bench.

Bruce gave him a quick tour of the lab. To his credit, Clint at least pretended to look interested for most of it. He spent too long describing his current pet project: a smaller version of the detector that he and Tony had built to find the Tesseract that he was developing for use in satellites. To make up for it, Bruce took Clint down the hall to the optics lab to show off the lasers. He fired up one of the big ones and let Clint blow holes in a variety of materials ranging from marshmallows to half-inch steel plate. The agent seemed to enjoy that.

By the time they returned to Bruce's lab, the computer was beeping insistently. Bruce checked the monitor and swore under his breath. His program was bugged. He didn't recognize the error either. He turned and nearly jumped out of his skin because Clint had suddenly materialized six inches behind him. "Geez, Clint!"

"Sorry," Clint said, not looking the least bit repentant. He looked over Bruce's shoulder at the screen. "What happened?"

"It's still bugged and I don't understand why," Bruce sighed. "I'll make Tony go through it later. He'll probably program it to whistle Sexy and I Know It or tap dance or something when it finishes processing, but at least it will work."

"Good luck with that," Clint said with a hint of sarcasm. He lingered in the doorway for a moment before he disappeared and said: "If you get sick of staring at a computer, come check out the range sometime."

To be continued! Thanks for reading. Please review! :)