outofshadows | The Morning After Meme

[ Getting injured was one thing. Getting injured and losing consciousness due to blood loss in an unknown location was another infuriating thing altogether. Not to mention intolerable. By them and mostly by her.

But, they had her tracked. They'd find her soon.

It was early morning when she finally came to again. Fingers moved involuntarily, then eyes beneath her lids roamed back and forth. A short few moments later, she took a quiet breath in before opening her eyes. Instantly her brow furrowed when she tried to move and felt the searing white hot pain. She wasn't where she was last, and this wasn't a place she was familiar with..

Without giving herself much more time to gather her strength, Natasha was rolled up and forward to sit up. ]

[ She would not have much time at all to gather her bearings before a hand landed against her clavicle, pressing her back quickly into the sheets. Even less time before a familiar face hovered above hers, a warning in those cold blue eyes to remain still and silent without having to say a word.

The room was nondescript, rough white stucco walls and only the bed and a rug as furnishings. Curtains hung lopsidedly against the window more as a privacy precaution than any shield against the elements, though sunlight was streaming through moth-eaten holes in the rough fabric. The Soldier cocked his head before glancing down at her injuries, already bound and bandaged while she'd slept. Already it appeared her sudden movement had earned a spotting of red against the clean white. ]

[Her overwhelmed mind didn't even have a chance to register the surroundings when that hand commanded her attention. Natasha let out a gasp, and green eyes darted from gloved fingers to the face looking down at her from above. Natasha blinked once, twice, before her expression twisted into confusion.

For her, she had no doubt that she'd see him again. Whether it was that split second before her eyes closed forever, rendering his mission accomplished, or for that brief second when there was a flash of another arrogant smile. But this. This was a situation the spy never anticipated.

Eyes shut, and she knew there was little she could do. The bruised muscles in her stomach alerted her to where her injury was, and the new pain she felt was of her own doing by moving as quickly as she did. There simply was no option to get up and go, nor protect, or fight against whatever it was he had planned for her.

She wet her lips and spoke, voice barely above a whisper from misuse and lack of strength.]

You know they're looking for me.

[Not a threat; a simple statement of facts. A warning.]

You know if I wanted you dead, you wouldn't have opened your eyes.

[ Hopefully that's enough for her to understand the conditions of this meeting, before he moves his hand from her chest. He has no desire to fight her, or to cause her further damage. His mission is...is no longer what it was. Things have become complicated, and Hydra's hold on him wanes with each day. The more he learns, the more he manages to decide for himself.

He's broken protocol already by saving Steve Rogers. That alone is enough to earn his decommission should they ever lay hands on him again. What's one act of additional treason added that?

The Soldier shifts back to rest at her side, seated on the edge of the cot as he watches her carefully, eyes sweeping from injury to her face, waiting. ]

[ Brows lift, a sign she understood before he even said it. Of course, the curiosity of wanting to know why he hadn't burned on her mind. She wasn't Steve, and what history they did have was wiped clean from his mind without so much of a trace.

Well, that was what she had hoped for, anyway. Him remembering was dangerous. For her, not so much for him. ]

But you don't want me dead. Why's that?

[ Eyes blinked open again and Natasha focused on the ceiling for half a second. Why that question? she asked herself silently, though it was quickly reasoned that there was likely an easy answer to that and it came down to him using her to get to Steve.

Natasha turned her head and looked at him while waiting for him to answer. ]

[ Ever the skilled liar. He can't take her surface reactions for truth, but he has been lied to for many years. He thinks he knows the signs by now. ]

Because I know who you are. The leaks weren't hard to follow. Official channels did their best to sweep everything from public access, but I know how to make the right people talk.

[ He studies her quietly for a moment. The bright green hue of her eyes, her deceptively delicate fingers and feet. That was the conceit of the Black Widow, a small, delicate thing with a deadly bite should you be fool enough to draw close. There had been dozens of girls who vied for the opportunity. The woman lying on the sheets was the remnants of that program. All that was left of all those bright eyes filled with fear.

And when she defected, they seemed smug in sending him after her, as though it sent a message or made some poetic irony. He hadn't known why, hadn't cared when he put a bullet through her outside of Odessa, and the mission had been scraped like all the rest once he returned. But there are no coincidences, not anymore. ]

Then you know it doesn't matter. Everyone knows who I am now.

[ She replied slowly and no sooner than he finished. He was getting too close now, his eyes holding an unmistakable familiarity that had her schooling her features into something indifferent and unreadable. There was that instinctive need to protect herself; hide herself away even though she wasn't really sure who she was. James knew. But, he wasn't him.

Not yet, anyway.

Natasha spared a few long moments, regarding him carefully with her gaze holding his until she shifted a little in discomfort. ]

So you know who I am. What now?

I trained you.

[ That's what the text says, what the frightened technician had managed to burble through the blood in his lungs. He stares hard at her, unflinchingly. ]

I trained you and they separated us. Why?

[ Who she is matters because she has answers. He doesn't need to keep her, if they're looking for her. Whoever is looking for her is free to find her, once he's gotten the answers he needs. ]

[ In the seconds before he answers, there's a pull inside her chest that causes her brow to dip so slightly it would have been hard for anyone else, but him, to notice. With it came a flooding of images, memories and shared moments that should have been lost to her. But, like they seemed to be resurfacing slowly for him now, hers came back the moment she saw him in Odessa; moments before he fired.

Silence hung in the air between them like dead weight. There would be no lie good enough to convince him to drop the subject. But, the truth wouldn't be enough either. Sadly, she had no other choice; no escape this time. ]

My training had been completed. You were no longer needed.

[ That was what they had told her, but she had known the real reason why. ]

That's not all.

[ There's no threat to his voice. It'd be unnecessary at this juncture. He's nearly killed her twice, and hasn't. He could easily do her harm, and she knows it. It's more important to be able to see through these facades of hers to the heart of the matter, and she will come clean eventually.

He has the patience to wait her out. He has all the time in the world, now. ]

Tell me.

Why are you doing this?

[The words were soft and breathy and her eyes left his to focus on something not so intense. Looking into them, even though they held no familiarity of her were the same eyes that she looked into when they sparred, or as they passed each other in the hallway. Across the dining hall.

In the shower.]

It was a long time ago.

Edited 2014-09-09 22:21 (UTC)

You have answers I need.

[ There are too many holes, too many blanks left unfilled, and piecing things together one step at a time is all that the previous months have been. That, and extracting vengeance on the ones who unleashed him on the world, who manipulated him into doing their bidding.

Natasha was no different. She of all people might understand what it was like to be taken apart and put back together again as something else, something not entirely you. ]

[And she did. Better than anyone else and it was a time in her life she would never ever be allowed to forget. The blood on her hands - the blood she was commanded to take for them - was forever stained on them. It couldn't be washed away.

Nor, could she become the person she thought she might have been if they hadn't taken her away from her life all those years ago. That's something they had in common; each of them knew what the other had been through.

He was the closest thing she knew to normal.

When she spoke again, it was with that understanding that he sought.]

We got too close and they found out. They didn't want you compromising me.

[What they didn't know was that he already had.]

Edited 2014-09-10 04:15 (UTC)

The Morning After Meme

bucky barnes/the winter soldier

early days or post tws - your call!

post tws then!

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