Never Alone Again |N.R|

I'm sorry.

Everyone had headed to the kitchen to catch up, only Clint and Bruce headed to the Med Bay to treat his wound. I stayed in the kitchen for a few minutes, roughly explaining my findings to Wanda before leaving her with the notes and heading back to the library. I'd made sure that Natasha hadn't seen me leave so that she couldn't follow me. The library had become my safe place, and I didn't want her ruining that.

I stayed in there until it was late, before heading back to my room. I stopped outside Natasha's. As I stood there I pulled her jumper off, placed it on the ground outside her door neatly before knocking.

Natasha's POV

When I'd entered my room it felt cold, as though nobody had been living in it. That didn't seem right since I though Rue was going to be staying here whilst I was gone. My suspicions were confirmed when I noticed the neatly made bed. Nobody had slept in it in days.

Just as I began to worry about where Rue had been sleeping or whether she had been, I heard the familiar knock on the door. Hopefully she had come to talk.

"Come in" I said, waiting for the door to open.

"Rue, I've told you before you don't need to knock." I climbed off of the bed and opened the door. No one was there. That was then something at my feet caught my attention. I leant down to pick it up, unfolding it as I stood. It was my jumper, the one that Rue had been wearing.
I needed to talk to her.

A few moments later I was standing at Rue's door, knocking lightly.

"Rue, please can you talk to me?" All I heard was silence.

"Please Rue I need to explain." Quiet again, not even the sound of footsteps or her bed covers moving.

She didn't want to speak at the moment, I understood that. I'd just have to wait until tomorrow.

(-)

I'd fallen asleep quickly last night. I was tired from the mission, but I found myself worrying about Rue the very second my eyes opened. From the looks of it she hadn't slept in days, or if she had it wasn't for very long, and she'd been spending all of her time researching her powers. It wasn't fair that I'd broken my promise, but I just wished she'd talk to me because if she wasn't doing that she wasn't talking to anyone. Hopefully she'd be in the kitchen since it was nearing breakfast time.

When I entered the kitchen my heart sank a little, Rue was nowhere to be seen. But Bruce was leaning against the counter reading something on a tablet so I approached him, he had been the only one here with Rue whilst we were gone.

"Hey Bruce, can I talk to you?" He removed his eyes from the tablet and looked up at me.

"Yes of course Nat." He stayed leant up against the counter whilst I took a seat on one of the stools.

"How was Rue whilst I was gone?" He took a moment before replying.

"She was pretty good the first couple of days. I think she slept for most of the first night."

"What about after that?"

"As far as I know she hasn't slept since that night, not in a bed at least. She didn't sleep again last night, I saw her in the training room running on the treadmill at about midnight."

"Was she eating at least?"

"Again, she did for the first couple of days. But everyday after that she either ate nothing or barely anything. I know you couldn't do much Nat, but she was relying on you being here. Every time you pushed it back a day I could see it hurt her. She doesn't talk to anyone like she talks to you, so if she isn't talking to you nobody knows how she's really doing." Bruce had said exactly what I was thinking, which is exactly what I didn't want to hear. Rue hadn't slept or eaten properly in four days, and she was still training despite that. I was right last night when it felt like nobody had been in my room in days. Rue hadn't even found comfort in being in there, and I couldn't help but feel like that had something to do with me letting her down.