Fighting The Past - Natasha Romanoff x Reader

Chapter Fourteen

Y/N could feel the hostility that was radiating off of every person in the room as they walked in, following behind Wanda and Yelena. The rest of the Avengers were gathered in the meeting room at the top of Stark Tower, the building that Y/N had attempted to bring down not so long ago, clearly nobody had forgotten about that incident.

Running a hand through their hair, Y/N flipped it out of the way as they made sure to meet every person's gaze with a lazy arrogant grin. They noted how Bucky Barnes looked ready to leap across the table at them, but clearly he had been given a strict warning against it as he was sat between Steve Rogers and Sam Wilson.

During the flight back from the Raft, Wanda had been the only one to speak to Y/N. Yelena had made it clear she had no intentions of making small talk and focused on flying the Quinjet instead. Wanda had explained to them what had happened to Natasha or at least what they believed had taken place.

Natasha had been on a solo mission, she was following up a lead on an illegal trade of alien weapons taking place. She had been due to give an update at the start of the week but missed it, Clint had then attempted to get hold of her but there was nothing. So Yelena and Bucky had travelled to Budapest almost immediately, when they'd arrived at the hotel Natasha was meant to be staying in they had found the place completely trashed. Yelena had found a Black Dahlia flower left in the centre of the bed and had immediately told the others.

They had spent two days searching the city but had been unable to find Natasha even after retracing her steps. When they had returned the whole team had come together and the decision had been made that they would have to reach out to Y/N. It had been their signature found in the room and whilst they knew it couldn't have been them that had done it, it was agreed that Y/N might be able to tell them who was behind it.

Y/N had taken in all the information but had not given any indication as to whether they had any ideas who would do it. For now Y/N didn't have any intentions of being overly helpful, not when they couldn't 100% trust any of these people not to screw then over at any opportunity. They sat in silence for the rest of the flight and Y/N began going through everything they knew about previous clients and the links between their assignments. Perhaps there would be a lead amongst that which would give them somewhere to start.

"Thank you for joining us Y/N" Tony was the one to break the tension in the boardroom as he stood up and gestured for them to sit in on the empty chairs at the large circular table.

"I'd say it's a pleasure but I would be lying" Y/N shrugged as they dropped down into the chair, thankfully Wanda had agreed that restraints wouldn't be necessary, not with that glowing red rune now in place of Y/N's forearm. 

Yelena and Wanda moved to the other empty chairs and sat down, Yelena was clearly still unhappy about Y/N's previous comments to Wanda and had refused to speak to Y/N at all since. 

"So earth's mightiest heroes have screwed up and need little ole me to bail them out of the shit show they're in. Does that sound about right?" Y/N spoke, their eyes lighting up with amusement at the way everyone in the room bristle at the comment. 

Steve cleared his throat, and turned to look at Y/N. 

"Nat was more than capable of dealing with the mission on her own, it's not uncommon for any of us to work solo when it's required. But yes something has gone wrong and the fact that your signature of a Black Dahlia was left in the trashed hotel room does make us believe that you could be the key to finding Nat" Steve explained as he activated the screen at the end of the room that displayed the photos and videos that the others had gathered when they'd gone to Budapest. 

Y/N focused on the screen, systematically assessing each thing they looked at, taking note of all the things that it told them about what had happened.