Dark Arrow

Chapter Fifty Five

Knowing Rain was back and yet still refusing to see her was weighing heavy on Nat's heart. Rain always believed that Clint was her best friend but that was never the case for Nat. Rain had given her a chance when no one else had and knowing she was so close but yet so far...it hurt. 

Sitting in the compound with the silence rattling around them didn't help matters, so when Steve found her he wasn't at all surprised to see the tears falling down her cheeks. 

"How is she?" Nat asked, rolling her head to look at Steve. 

"Scared. Thinks it's safer for her to be alone right now." 

It didn't matter how much Steve argued that she needed other people around her, or that no one was scared of her in the slightest. 

Nat finally looked at Steve, seeing the wearied look on his face. "Is that why she's avoiding everyone?" She asked, wishing she could get Rain to see the love that surrounded her. 

"Honestly Nat, I've never seen her this bad." 

Even when they lost, when any chance of getting everyone back had gone, Rain still had a sparkle in her eyes, a hope hidden deep within her heart. That was gone now. 

Nat sighed. "I used to have nothing. Then she took a chance on me, convinced Clint to make a different choice. I can't lose her too Steve, I just can't." 

"Give her some time. She'll come back to us." 

"Just make sure she knows she's not alone." 

"She'll never be alone again." Steve vowed. 

He'd let Rain down in the past, let her suffer alone and now the consequences of that choice were going to take more than one night of holding his girl to rectify. He wouldn't let her down again, because if he did there was a chance that they'd lose her for good. That she'd go so far down the rabbit hole that there would be no way to follow. 

***

I knew in my heart that talking about what happened to me would be a good start, but every time I tried the images came flooding back. The pain. The scars. The hopeless feeling that I'd never make it out of that warehouse alive. It was too much, so despite the begging in Steve's eyes, I couldn't give him what he wanted.

I missed Nat, more than she realised, I had since the day I left. Yet the idea of being around anyone other than Steve right now filled me with dread. He could handle my powers if I lost control, other people didn't have the same tolerance he did. 

"I just need some more time Steve." 

He sighed, leaning against the doorframe. "It might help if you spoke about it." 

The last few days had been the same, him asking me questions, me refusing to talk and then him kissing me, distracting me and trying again a matter of hours later. While I wasn't opposed to his distraction technique, this was different. This time he was pushing, more conviction in his voice. 

Yet my answer was the same. No. 

Not because I didn't trust him, but because I knew him all too well. 

"So that you can torture yourself with the details? No." 

I didn't need new powers to feel the guilt rolling off him. It encompassed the room, sucking out all the air with it. 

"I'm sorry for how I was before you left." He looked away from me, shaking his head. 

"I know you are and you're blaming yourself for what happened to me." 

"If I hadn't walked away that day on the beach..."

I couldn't stand the physical distance between us, so I walked over to him. My arms snaked up around his neck, pulling him close so he had to look at me when I spoke to him. 

"I would've still gone to find Dr Cho, and I still would've looked for other ways." 

Nothing Steve could've said or done would've changed the path I set myself on. I needed him to see that, to see that no matter what mistakes we both made, I was always going to make that mistake and we would've ended up here regardless. 

"I could've stopped you," he argued back. 

"I don't hate the power I have Steve. I just need to learn to control it." 

My powers were as much a part of me as my hearing loss was. A mistake that led to life changing circumstances, I could wallow in it or I could accept it and find a way forward. 

Steve rested his forehead against mine, his long eyelashes resting against his cheek as he sighed. "What do you need me to do?" 

"Be by my side." 

His eyes fluttered open, his love for me staring right back and warming me from head to toe. 

"Always." 

This time when our lips met, I held nothing back. I let him in completely and when his tongue lashed against mine I pulled down all my walls, felt my powers settle and gave up any notions I had that my place was not by his side, because it was. It always had been, even when I was too stubborn to see it. 

With ease he picked me up, wrapping my legs around his waist and carried me to our bed. MY desire pooled between my legs, the scratching of his beard irritating my skin only driving my need for him higher. 

He pulled away, just long enough to push his hard length against me and smile at the moan that fell past my parted lips. I'd never tire of the way he set my body aflame with a single look, or the way he made me feel like I was the most beautiful woman on Earth. 

My vanilla asshole saw every side of me, and he loved every part. Something he proceeded to show me as he meticulously rid us of our clothing and pressed soft kisses from my ankles up to the apex of my thighs. 

The feel of his breath across my wet centre had my back arching before he'd even touched me. 

"Who do you belong to sweetheart?" He all but growled at me. 

"You." 

"And who do you need right now?" 

I knew what he was asking. There was two sides to Steve, the soft cuddly side that the world saw and then there was the one that could have me screaming his name and feeling his marks for weeks. 

I knew what I needed and so did he. 

"I need you Captain." 

His mouth turned up, smiling up at me. "Now be a good girl and tell the world whose tongue you're cumming on." 

He took my clit into his mouth, sucking and nipping at the sensitive bud as he gave me what I wanted. He wasn't gentle, he was a man starved, hungry for the taste of me. I was the only form of sustenance that he could stomach and he ate up everything I gave him with a steel grip on my hips. 

It took roughly the whole of two minutes before his name was a cry on my lips, his title screaming out into the air and when I came he didn't stop. He speared three fingers inside me, growling in satisfaction at how wet I was for him. 

If this was how he wanted to heal me then I wasn't totally opposed to it.