Never Alone Again |N.R|

The truth.

I let Rue sleep for hours, but it eventually got to 4pm and if she slept any longer there was no way she'd sleep overnight. So I closed my laptop and put it on the nightstand before gently shaking her shoulder. After a few goes she began to stir, "Rue come on, you need to wake up." A groan of protest escaped her lips and I had to stifle a laugh. She took a while to come back down to earth, stretching her arms out and yawning widely before pushing herself up to a sit.

This was when I noticed the bruise forming on her temple, definitely fresh, a result of her sparring with Bucky no doubt. Rue seemed to catch me staring as she lifted a hand to the green patch of skin, wincing when she pressed a little too hard. "Jeez, Bucky got me good."
"Yeah he did. That'll teach you for taunting him, and not keeping your guard up." I said the last few words in a jokey tone, hoping she'd catch on and not take it as me complaining about her training too intensely again. I was pleased when she shot me a playful glare, failing to keep the smile off of her face though. "Hey, watch it" she countered, drawing a laugh from me, one that I didn't even try to stifle this time.
"Or what? You really think you can beat me? I'd love to see you try." I didn't mean a single word of that. Rue was a skilled fighter, relentless, and I truly didn't want to ever fight her outside of a training session. Not that that should ever have to happen.

"I'm guessing there's a reason you're here." Straight to business, not that I expected anything less. She was too clever for her own good sometimes, her intuition hard to believe.

"I've been jumping to conclusions about you, about why you're training so much and why you're keeping to yourself. Correct me if I'm wrong but you're just preparing yourself for our next mission." I waited for Rue to reply, to either confirm or deny my theory. I truly didn't know whether I was right or wrong, I was just following my gut as well as the words I'd shared with Clint.

"I need to be ready, always. We don't know when we'll make the breakthrough we need, so I want to make sure I'm prepared."

"I'm sorry I didn't realise that, and that I threatened to ruin it for you. I hope you know that I wasn't trying to hurt you, I honestly thought that I was protecting you."

"It's okay, I understand." Rue laid down next to me, resting her head on my shoulder as she spoke.

"But as much as you want to be prepared, you need to look after yourself too. I'm not going to stop you from going on that mission, but if you get hurt overworking yourself then you'll ruin your chances. Please just promise me that you'll give yourself the chance to rest as well, and don't be afraid to talk to me if you need to. I know you like to bottle things up but I'm always here for you, I want to make sure you're okay."

"I know. And thank you, for being here." Although Rue didn't want to carry on talking I knew she'd heard me, now it was just up to her to decide whether she accepted my help or not. There was no more I could do. "Always" I replied, feeling her snuggle into my side even more.

Rue was older now than when I first met her, than the day Tony found her unconscious on the street. But she seemed more vulnerable now, like I needed to protect her from both the outside world and herself. So as I held on tight to her I felt an overwhelming responsibility to guard her with my life. She needed me now more than ever, even if she was trying to convince herself otherwise.

Rue's POV

I hadn't expected Natasha to be so level headed when she spoke to me. After some thought I came to the conclusion that she must've confided in someone, probably Clint, which I was grateful for. The arguing had become too much, I lacked the energy for it at the moment. So I was glad that it had simply been a conversation, although it still left some things unsaid. At least we were near enough on the same page about it all. I wasn't pushing myself so far as a form of punishment, or at least I didn't think so, I wanted to be more than prepared for the fight ahead. No matter how big or small.