The Tease - Natasha Romanoff x y/n (female)

Chapter 18 - A Red Room Assassin

Point of View: Y/N

After you left Fury's office you felt torn. While you were still frustrated at earlier, as well as him digging up your past, you also knew he was right and his honesty hit home with you. Your whole life you had been ordered to do things, the blame always resting with the people giving you directions. But now, you felt confronted about your own actions, he was telling you to take responsibility. It scared you a little at first, you felt shaken by it, but the more you thought about it the more you appreciated that you finally had responsibilities.

Although you knew he was right with what he'd said, the thought of facing Skye, or "Daisy", didn't appeal to you either so you went straight to your room and stayed there most of the day. Wanda came by in the afternoon to check you were alright, and stayed for a bit. You spoke briefly about the events of the morning and Wanda sympathised with you, soon turning to cheering you up. You watched some tv before Wanda left to spend some time with Vision. Just before dinner you heard a gentle knock at your door.

"Come in." You said, watching as the door slowly opened and Nat stood in the doorway.

"You coming down for some food?" She said, seemingly a little concerned. It was clear this was a check up, after the meeting with Fury.

"Thanks.. but I think I'm just going to get some rest." You said, showing her a faint smile before turning back away. There was a pause, Nat didn't say anything for a few moments. She was calm and collected almost all of the time, never giving much away and never saying something unless it was necessary.

"He really did a number on you, huh?" She said, a warm smile on her lips. You glanced back at her, sighed and nodded your head slowly. "He sees something in you, you know." This line surprised you, you frowned back at her slightly before glancing away.

"But why?" You asked, Nat looks confused at this. She crossed her arms, frowned, and leant her shoulder on the door frame. "Why waste any time trying to help me, when you could just get rid of me? I don't know what any of you see in me." This thought had been running through your head for the last few days. This caused Nat to pause again for a moment, she looked at the floor and then glanced back at you. Her green eyes scanned across you as she tried to read what you were thinking.

"Because the easiest thing to do isn't often the right thing to do, y/n." She said, calmly. "Besides, if you didn't want to be here you would have tried to leave by now. You really think I believed a pair of handcuffs would stop a Red Room assassin?" She smirked at you, you let out a small smile and shook your head at her.

It was nice to finally have an honest conversation, just the two of us. I think she genuinely cares slightly, and I don't want to let her down after her and Tony backed me up to Fury.

"I'm going down to eat, I'll see you in the morning." She said, nodding at you as she slowly closed the door behind her. You lay back down in your bed, closed your eyes and drifted off into a sleep - feeling drained by all of the emotions of the day.

- Over the Next Month -

With a new found perspective, over the coming weeks you felt something you didn't get to feel often - determined. Determined to improve, determined to impress and to make up for your actions. Coulson's team had left during the afternoon on the day you met with Fury, but the building felt tense for a few days after. Wanda continued to spend time with you and the two of you grew closer as friends.

You also grew closer to Steve, who had asked you about Bucky from your time at HYDRA. You hadn't undergone the same things as Bucky, but you knew who he was and you'd completed missions with him before. Steve told you about how even he had got out, and was finishing up his time in Wakanda, undoing what HYDRA had done to him. It comforted you to know that a number of the members of this team had come from HYDRA or the Red Room and were making a life for themselves - this fuelled your determination to do the same.

You continued to train with Nat every morning, Clint would join you too, as well as Steve and Sam sometimes. After the meeting with Fury, Nat seemed more trusting of you. It clearly took seeing you a little vulnerable to convince her of your strength, and that maybe you had a shot at turning things around. She was still hard to read, but the two of you had grown slightly closer with all the time spent together. You began to understand each other more, but the butterflies and the odd flirtatious joke never went away - as much as you'd hoped it would have. You would still glance at each other now and then, when she entered a room you felt your spirits lift slightly and you smiled more often. You were still adamant that this wouldn't last forever, however a small, yet growing part of you, kind of wanted it to.

You started to grow as part of the team, even making dinner with Wanda one night for everyone, and for the first time in your life you started to feel a part of something bigger. People asked you questions, and listened to your answers. People were honest with you and trusted that you were honest with them. There were no lies, no deceit. It was the most at home you had ever felt - even if home was over 5000 miles away.