Darkened Shadows

Chapter 7

I don't scare easily, growing up training to be an assassin will do that to you - but being led by an actual assassin, and tailed by a fucking witch down a pristine hallway that somehow screams 'home' and 'work', made me uneasy. That and the fact that neither of them were saying jack-shit.

Sooner than I expected, we stopped briefly in front of a door before quickly entering the room behind it. The room was someone's bedroom, probably Natasha's as she immediately walked over to the closet and started digging through it. Wanda closed the door and stood behind me as I had stopped before fully entering the room.

The room was simple, neutral colors, but it wasn't boring, it was professional. Simplistic and modern. It was spacious with a large grey bed, like an actual bed. On the wall opposite the bed was a giant screen with a dresser on the floor beneath it. There was a swing chair hanging in the corner and a shelf filled with books right next to it. The most personal thing about the room might have been the potted plants scattered here and there.

"Shadow?"

I jumped and faced Natasha who had seemingly been trying to talk to me for a minute or so. "Sorry, what were you saying?" Shit. I was letting my guard down way too fast, but I could already tell that this place was leagues better than Hydra.

She was looking at me with a face that said she knew exactly what I was doing and what I felt. The sense of longing for a normal life, but not wanting to get too attached, just in case it didn't last.

"I was just asking what you would like to wear, considering your shirt isn't really one anymore."

I looked down at my chest and really considered the shredded fabric that was barely keeping me covered.

"Um, I'm not sure, this is all I've ever worn, only, it used to actually be a shirt until Banner tried fixing me up the best he could. I'll take anything you give me." I didn't know jackshit about clothes. I only ever wore what was thrown at me by a passing guard.

It was at this point that I finally noticed that Wanda had moved from behind me to the chair swing. "Well then, why don't you try a couple things and see what you like?"

I considered her words before finally answering.

"Why?"

"Honey you've seen your shirt-"

"No," I interrupted the redhead, "Why are you trying to help me? Why are you showing me kindness? Bruce, Tony, you two, any of you? Why? I'm just some fucking freak that you found while raiding one of the bases of your number one enemy. I don't deserve any of this. I don't understand."

Once again, Natasha looked at me with this sense of knowing, and I was done.

"And why the fuck do you keep looking at me like that? Like you know the shit I've been through? Stop it!"

"Because I do. I grew up in the Red Room."

Oh shit. I had heard about the Red Room. Hydra had considered sending me there a couple of times, but they didn't like the thought of letting their favorite pin cushion leave their sight.

"Kids deserve to be kids, and none of us got that. I, like you, was trained to be an assassin from a very young age, and had things done to me that no one should go through. Wanda's family and country was torn apart by war and death, so she signed up for what she thought would help avenge her parents, but ended up with more than she bargained for. Something I learned way too late in life is that everyone deserves happiness in some form or another; especially those who have never had it before."

I just stared at this woman and tried to process that with just a couple sentences, how she had managed to change my perception of her. She wasn't a ruthless assassin turned good guy, she was a victim trying to accept that she wasn't a bad person by nature.