The Younger Agent - Natasha Romanoff x OC

Chapter 87 - Warehouse Worries

Eleanor had been sitting so deep in thought that she hadn't noticed the super soldier opposite her watching intently as she chewed her nails to shreds with a large frown on her face. "What you thinking about?", Steve leaned forward in his seat to show his genuine interest in her answer, but he accidentally ended up scaring her as she snapped back into reality and practically jumped out of her skin.

"Jesus Christ!". Steve winced at the accident and waited for her to finish looking around at her surroundings again, she had gotten pretty far into her head, and when she did eventually turn back to Steve she looked like a deer caught in headlights, which only caused a frown to appear on his own face as well. "She hates me", Eleanor rushed out and started to chew on her nails again, far more aggressively this time around. Steve shook his head and moved his flimsy chair next to Eleanor's, getting her attention again.

"She could never hate you", he spoke firmly. The young woman pursed her lips and felt like she was on the verge of bursting into tears, she promised that she would never leave Natasha and she had done it. She hated herself for it, so why wouldn't Natasha? "No, she will. She does. We promised to never leave each other and I have, and now I'm also on the wrong side of the fucking law, Steve! So even if on the off chance that she doesn't hate me, it's not like I can just go back to her now we are gonna be separated and then she will start to hate me for that-".

Steve clearly saw that Eleanor was spiralling, anyone would be able to see it. At first, he wanted to just let her get all of her feelings out, but she was just getting more and more worked up, and as for her breathing, she was on the verge of hyperventilating. So, he put a stop to it. "Hey, hey, El-", he spoke whilst she finished her sentence and placed a hand on her shoulder, "She could never hate you. She loves you too much to ever hate you". "But-".

"No. No buts", he interrupted, "You have been with her through thick and thin, through both of your highest highs and lowest lows. She could never start hating you over this, she had a similar view to you on the accords, she will understand, El. She will understand, especially when we can uncover what the hell that 'psychiatrist' was trying to do, okay? I promise you she will understand, and I promise that you will not have to go on the run when all of this is over. We will all be okay", he launched off into a mini-speech that ended up being very reassuring.

Eleanor nodded her head with newfound determination. They would be okay, they just needed to do the job. It was for the greater good. Surely Natasha would understand. There was still a little voice in her head feeding her with doubts, but Steve's voice was louder, and so she listened to Steve's voice. They would get the job done so that she could get home to her wife.

At seeing that she had calmed down, Steve wrapped an arm around her to give her a warm side hug, before standing to look through a gap in the wall. A helicopter had started flying nearby and so he wanted to see that it wasn't heading in their direction. Though he didn't get much of a look before Sam shouted through, "Hey, Cap!". Steve and Eleanor sent each other a knowing look before taking off at a jog through the warehouse and into the section to the side housing a demobilised Bucky.

He was shuffling around trying to find a comfortable position as he gripped onto his metal arm stuck in the contraption, "Steve", he managed to get out in a voice like sandpaper, his voice rough from just waking up.

Steve had seemingly gone from friendly older brother giving advice back to super soldier mode in a matter of seconds as he stared Bucky down, speaking in a very Captain America like voice. "Which Bucky am I talking to?". There was a brief and tense pause where Bucky was trying to think of what to say. Eleanor looked back and forth between the two soldiers with her arms crossed over her chest, trying to figure out if there were any signs that Bucky was showing that may trigger Steve to know that he isn't in his Winter Soldier state, but both seemed to be rather stoic in their expressions.