Black Widow: Dark House

10. "Monsters"- Katie Sky

Bold Italics- Russian

Italics- any language besides English

**- thoughts/ memories

**Natalia slowly became aware of her surroundings, but she didn't open her eyes. She felt a bed underneath her, clothes on her skin that were not her uniform, and air softly landing on her as if being pushed by a fan.

It took a while before she had the strength to open her eyes. When she did, she stared up ad a whirling ceiling fan surrounded by puke green wallpaper that has been plastered to the ceiling. Slowly she started to move each major muscle group, sensing soreness, but no debilitating pain.

Natasha shifted more, realizing she was under a blanket and sheets. She sat up, groaning feeling stiff. How long had she been out?

Wait... How did she get here?

She shouldn't be here; she should be dead. This shouldn't be happening. She looked around the room, which was just a regular grungy hotel room that you could find on any downtown main street. There was a table in the far-left corner that was piled with her suit, weapons, and the case that had been her objective.

Their objective.

She looked on the night stand next to her and saw medical bandages, rubbing alcohol, a suture kit, as well as other medical things. She also saw a bottled water, which made her aware of how parched she was.

Reaching over she opened the bottle and chugged it in less than twenty seconds. She noticed that there was another door, leading to a bathroom, but it was shut and she heard the shower running.

Bottle in hand, Natalia stood up, taking notice then of her grey sweatpants, black sports bra and black tank top. Someone had dressed her. She looked back at the door and slowly approached. She knocked first but heard no answer.

As she slowly opened the door, suddenly the front door to the room opened. Her reflexes mixed with the lethargy she felt from her wounds were not a good mix, but she couldn't help by try to defend herself from the would-be attacker. So she did the only thing she could.

She expertly threw the water bottle, watching it zoom through the air... landing squarely in the middle of Ana's forehead.

Ana was stunned for a moment, before opening and closing her eyes, "ow?" she said, almost as if she didn't know if the blow had actually hurt or not.

Natalia let out a sigh, "Fuck you scared me!" she said, leaning against the wall for support

"So you threw a water bottle? What if I actually had been an enemy? Was your plan to horrify me with the amount of plastic pollution on the earth?" Ana chided, quickly closing the door and then picking up the water bottle to throw it in the trash can near the door.

"I thought you were in the shower!" Natalia exclaimed, frustrated already.

"I was going to, but we were out of towels" she said, holding up four neatly folded towels in her grasp, "I had to go get more."

Ana slid past Natasha and opened the bathroom door, the steam pouring out as she did.

Natalia went in with her. Privacy was non-existent in the Red Room, so this was not out of character. Still, Natalia could not help but take notice as Ana started to remove her clothes.

"How did we get here?" Natalia asked, her eyes a bit wider than they should have been as Ana removed her bra, revealing tanned breasts with dusty nipples.