𝑩𝒍𝒐𝒐𝒅 𝑴𝒐𝒐𝒏 ✘ 𝐍𝐀𝐓𝐀𝐒𝐇𝐀 𝐑𝐎𝐌𝐀𝐍𝐎𝐅𝐅

{1¹¹} {ALLY}

∆ {1¹¹} {ALLY} ∆

VENUS AND NATASHA didn't dare to look away from each other. Their gazes were locked, forest green against deep gold, their faces as blank as their minds as they tried to think of something to say. They most definitely had a history, and Natasha seemed more affected by the thought of that than Venus. The redhead was leaning forwards, putting her weight on her elbows, resting on the table between them, while Venus held her relaxed, slightly lazy, but indifferent posture, trying to seem as unbothered as she could by what was going on.

Both of them were void of any emotion as they stared at one another, trying to evaluate what was going through each other's minds, which was a mixture of slight curiosity and relief that they'd each other. Natasha was slightly wary of the other woman, not entirely sure if she could trust Venus, not because she couldn't trust the woman herself, but because of the conditioning she'd received in the Red Room. Venus, on the other hand, knew she could trust Natasha with most of what she wanted to tell her, though maybe not everything. They'd both kept each other's secrets quiet for years, and seemed that Natasha hadn't mentioned her to SHIELD at all. Though, whether or not that that was because she didn't remember her, Venus wasn't sure, but the sentiment more if you disregarded that. Not that either of them were particularly keen on the idea of sentiment.

Venus had slipped her hand out of her handcuffs as soon as she'd sat down, her arms now comfortable crossed over her chest, attempting to seem as relaxed as possible while Natasha kept her focused, more intense posture, her eyes gleaming with intrigue at the possibility of becoming close to someone who'd helped her so much in her past. Regardless of what they felt about one another, they were both sure of one thing; neither of them were going to show any form of recognition or sentimentality until the other conceded to do it first. Neither of them were planning to do that soon, so the blank looks and eyes gleaming with unspoken words would probably continue for a while, until one of them finally lost their makeshift game of lies and emotional suppression.

Fury cleared his throat, clearly not appreciating the fact that no-one was paying the smallest amount of attention to him, something that he clearly wasn't used to, being the director of SHIELD. He was used to having everything focused on him, including the consequences of everything that everyone in the agency did, no matter how minute that the action seemed at first, things would nearly always escalate out of hands, and he'd have yet another mess to clean up.

"So," he began, making sure to make his voice a slight drawl, wanting the blonde woman opposite Natasha to think that he was as relaxed as she was, and wasn't too bothered about her lack of reaction and habit of being both infuriating and intimidating at the same time, all while doing the surprisingly testing task of doing nothing at all.

"Let's start simple. What's your name?" Fury knew that the woman wasn't going to answer anything particularly complex, and instead starting with something that probably wouldn't give them much information at all, especially if she'd grown up like Natasha, whose file had been almost bare when they'd taken her in 2 years ago. The woman didn't move at all, continuing her staring match with Natasha and showing no interest in answering his query. Natasha, however, shifted slightly in her seat, and something in her eyes changed, and the woman moved her head in a barely detectable nod. There was another moment of taut silence, before the string that seemed to be pulled tight through the air, singing with silence, were slowly severed as Natasha opened her mouth and answered the question, her voice ringing out like a bell in Venus' ears, as if it was both the clearest yet the most indistinct sound that she had heard in years. Perhaps it was because it was the first time that anyone had said her name in years, or maybe it had to do with who it was that uttered it, into the discordant quiet of SHIELD's interrogation room.

"Venus Vadyaeva." Fury turned his head sharply towards the pair of two,  clearly not expecting an answer. After all, he hadn't gotten a response in a month, and now that Natasha was here, the woman - Venus, seemed much more inclined to share sensitive information that could help him make a decision about her. He could use that to his advantage -  use Natasha to get her to talk. It wasn't particularly nice, morally speaking, but these were two highly trained assassins that had grown up in an illegal institution dedicated to producing women like them, with no compunction for morality. Venus nodded slowly in confirmation, before turning her gaze to Fury, breaking her and Natasha's delicate balance of unequivocal, yet ambiguous challenge. 

"Does that mean anything to you?" It was the first time that Venus had spoken directly to Fury, keeping her question cool, with a hint of smugness to it. Fury knew that he'd only got that information because he couldn't do anything with it, but with the pompous tone that lilted on the edge of her words, he found himself invoked, and starting to lose what little fortitude he'd  managed to endure with her over the past month. Instead, he forced himself to keep himself as calm as Venus looked as he replied, praying that she didn't notice the way that his voice wavered with annoyance as he spoke.

"Not right now, but I'm sure it will in a few hours." She didn't seem bothered by the insinuation that he was going to look her up and find out everything he could about her; then again, she never seemed bothered. Her charade would have to end at some point, he figured, and her stony calm façade would fall with it.

But what he didn't know, was that that already happened. It always occurred, every night. Venus would feel her protections begin to collapse, her mind would start to deteriorate as she sung herself to sleep in a cacophony of her own doubts and broken dreams, ones that she'd been raised not to have. No-one knew about that, even Natasha, who had presumed they'd stopped months before she'd left the KGB for SHIELD. They all assumed that Venus was fine, that she was as stone cold and rigid on the inside as she was on the outside, that she'd grown into the character she'd played all these years. In truth, she had been starting to, but then she had realised just how like the weapon she had been trained to be that she had become, and the nightmares had gotten worse, and she'd begun to break down. Over time, it'd been getting worse, and now, it was at the point that she could barely look at herself without being reminded of what she'd done, who she'd killed, and being taken back to that dark, cold room, and reminded of the quiet words that had been whispered to her, that had urged her to do their bidding. She was haunted by her past during the night, taunted by ghosts she recognised far too easily, daunted by her own memories, but during the day, she was fine. She had learned to quiet her demons, to keep them supressed at the very back of her mind, until she was alone in the dark and had time to think. Then, she wouldn't be able to hold them back anymore, and they would surge over the floodgate that she'd built into her own mind, and she would suffocate in her own horrors, drenched with heaviness and fear of her own head and what it held.

Venus Vadyaeva was drowning, and there was no-one here that could help her.

{A/N:} So, I wrote this whole chapter in about two hours, actually pretty happy with it. Yeah um, not happened but it was more about the sentiment and stuff in this chapter. I promise more stuff will actually happen soon, it's going quite slow at the moment lol. The song's a kinda sad one that I've been enjoying lately, again more about the sentiment and emotion than the sound, though I like the way it sounds too.

But yeah, pls comment, vote, let me know what you think, etc, and I'll see you next update.

Thanks for reading,

1485 Words

Written: 25 / 01 / 2021

Published: 25 / 01 / 2021