𝑩𝒍𝒐𝒐𝒅 𝑴𝒐𝒐𝒏 ✘ 𝐍𝐀𝐓𝐀𝐒𝐇𝐀 𝐑𝐎𝐌𝐀𝐍𝐎𝐅𝐅

{2¹¹} {A LOVE LIKE WAR}

∆ {2¹¹} {A LOVE LIKE WAR} ∆ 

"ARE YOU GOING to say anything, or would you rather stand in my doorframe awkwardly for the next ten minutes until you decide to leave?" Natasha's voice jerked Venus from her thoughts, and she brought her eyes back to the redhead's green ones, searching them for a glint of emotion in hopes of deciphering what was going on in the woman's mind. Unsurprisingly,  she found nothing, and she wondered if this ever so slight frustration that nagged faintly at the back of her mind was what Natasha had felt any time that she had refused to give anything away at all. It was, after all, something that Venus had entirely perfected over the years. Instead of supplying an answer, however, Venus simply walked past Natasha and into the room, ignoring the redhead's minorly annoyed look in favor of tracing the stars on the calendar, as if some small part of her was afraid that they would fade, leave simply a dark sky. Perhaps just like the glimmers of light in Venus' eyes had faded, Natasha wondered, leaving only the cold, hard gold that she had become so unhappily used to in the past few years.

"I have noticed." Venus' words were quiet, considerate, but could be heard easily with the silence of Natasha's room. The woman who still stood by the door raised an eyebrow in confusion, her mind racing through a number of things that Venus might be talking about.

"I have noticed the way that you look at me, when you hope that there's still some part of the old me left. Like you want some part of that innocence and naivety and hope to still be in me. But you and I both know that that's gone, however much either of us may want it back. We'll never get it back. We'll never get our childhoods back, because of what they did to us. We'll never live our lives normally. We don't get a white picket fence, or a family. We will only get what we deserve, and that is nothing short of pain and bloodshed." Natasha's face grew steadily darker with each word that the other woman uttered, though some part of her seemed to understand, to agree with the darkness that had so clearly found a home in Venus.

"If that's all that you came in here to say-."

"It isn't, Talia." Natasha froze. Talia was something that only Venus had ever called her once or twice, when she was entirely losing hope and considering complying fully. Their usual boundaries would slip her mind because she was too pre-occupied with praying that no-one was listening, that they wouldn't get caught, because in those moments, she would do as much as she could to be the best student possible in the eyes of the Red Room.

"I want to do more, I want to be better, but I can't. Because they did this to me, soaked my skin in venom, because I wasn't enough. And I wasn't enough, because I was different, because I didn't take their words for granted. That made me dangerous to them, it made me expendable. But after my conditioning, I wasn't expendable enough anymore, and they had to have a reason to keep me around. So they trapped me, contained me in my own skin, and it's worked, Talia, and that's what I hate the most." Venus' words sent a shock through Natasha's body, especially the last sentence, because Venus said it with more emotion than anything that she'd heard from the golden-eyed woman in a very long time. She had dropped her stiff posture, and had rested her hand on Natasha's wall, which was trembling ever so slightly with her weight, which she had fully put on her arm. Something flashed in her eyes too, a flicker of a thing that looked somewhat like fire, but it was emotion, and it stunned Natasha more than the redhead could fully process. 

Each of her words had been bitter and cold, save for the last few, where her voice had quietened and shaken slightly, the detail so minute that Natasha just barely picked it up. It was such a contrast to the woman's actions in the past years, especially in Russia only hours before, that some part of Natasha's mind wondered if she had fabricated this in hope of it becoming true. Venus' mask had fallen rapidly, and some part of Natasha ached to see the woman she had grown so close to over the years hurt so rawly that she couldn't deal with it internally, in the way that had been drilled into them as they grew up. In a spurred moment, she stepped forwards and wrapped a gentle hand around Venus' upper arm.

She hadn't been expecting Venus to wrench her arm from her grip and take a swift step back, her hands immediately flying to the handle of her guns, which were still strapped at the waist, her face immediately shattering to stone, accompanied by her narrowing, cold eyes. The room froze, and it was almost literally as if Natasha could feel ice creeping around her from the chill that Venus seemed to give off. The two of them stared at one another for a good few seconds, before Venus' sudden façade crumbled, and a flicker of anger shot over her sharp features.

"Talia, you can't touch me." Oddly enough, it was in barely detectable fear that Venus spoke, and a pity that Natasha knew that the other woman would never want shot through the redhead.

"Venus, I'm not letting you go through this alone. I left you behind, and I'm never gonna do it again. You and I both know what it feels like when you don't have anyone, and you're never going to feel that again, because I'm always going to be here for you." Natasha had spoken relatively loudly, especially in comparison to Venus' quiet, careful words, and it seemed to have stunned the golden-eyed assassin enough for her to relax.

There were a few more moments of thick silence before Natasha once again spoke, at a volume that this time matched Venus'.

"Venus, there might be a way.. around it. To get past what they did to you - some of it at least. Fury knows a guy, he might be able to figure something out, just let me help." By the end of her sentence, Natasha knew that she was practically begging, but if it would rip Venus out of this cold stupor that she had been stuck in for three years, then  that would be enough. Venus relaxed surprisingly quickly, almost melting from her chilliness to a warmer woman who had a glint of hope in her golden eyes.

"Thank you, Talia." It was genuine, and Natasha knew because of the sparks that shivered through her at the sound of the sincerity.

{~}

NATASHA STOOD BEFORE Nick Fury, her face calm and posture collected, despite the almost staggering conversation that she had just held. He was watching her carefully, curiously, with a hint of admiration set in his eye as he waited for her to speak.

"I need you to call Tony Stark."

AUTHOR'S NOTE

Ha hey I'm back :). I'm trying to get back into the gist of updating this story more regularly while also moving through the plot efficiently and also focusing on all my other shit. But yh Venus finally caved after however many chapters and I'm ngl I love her. This was an interesting chapter to write so I hope you enjoyed it. 

Also, Damocles (my WandaVision fic) is 'finished' for now but I will likely be continuing with it when more of Phase 4 comes out :).

Thanks.

JABBERJAY_011

Written [07.06.2021]

Word Count [1300]

Published [07.06.2021]