Cornelia Street - Avengers

New World

"Can you hear me? I'm in California dreaming about who we used to be. It's no secret that the both of us, are running out of time."

(Hello, Adele)

...

Natasha knelt before her, fastening the ankle tracker around her ankle, as gently as she could be. Alyona still didn't know which name to respond to, or which name to refer to herself as. Alyona didn't seem right anymore, no, it was the name given to her by her captors. But in saying that, neither did Lucia fit her.

She had never been called that in the life she could recall, but it was the name engraved on the last gift from her Mama. She bit back that thought, taking a deep breath as she looked around her new apartment. 

It was small, with a white, blank kitchen to her right and a near-empty living room with a white brick fireplace and a small bedroom to its left. The sofa was threadbare, and the bedroom had less elbow room than the shower, but it was hers for now.

Off the dining room, there was a small balcony and courtyard with a view of the entire city. That was nice at least. It had windows that let in the sunshine, and the walls weren't made of echoing concrete, instead a light brown brick or white paint. 

Natasha had already taken her through the basics, her phone, debit card and a subway pass, one which she had no idea how to use. She had also been told that an 'Agent Coulson' would arrive in the morning.

"I still don't know what name to call myself, what name to tell people," she said softly, already feeling comfortable in the presence of someone who had supposedly known her since childhood.

Natasha chuckled softly, "Whatever you want. You can make your own choices now, own it."

She smiled. "This amount of freedom feels strange, foreign. Part of me thinks I don't even deserve it."

"You say that with an ankle monitor on?" Natasha smiled, as she adjusted the monitor's tightness on her left leg. "Does that feel alright?"

"That's fine, thank you," she replied, stepping back as Natasha stood up. She was surprisingly short, a couple of inches below her.

"I had one too, but mine was slightly more noticeable," Natasha smiled, but the girl just nodded. She was in such an intense daze, that she didn't know if she would ever come out of it. "You get used to it eventually."

The noise outside her window was overwhelming, Siberia was so profoundly quiet, all you could hear was the howl of the wind, the clank of machines or training instructions. This world was filled with cars, loud people yelling across streets, and the stench of sewerage. And music too, which she loved. 

On the way here she pressed her face to the car window, listening as deep soulful sounds invaded her senses. It was so profoundly different from the strange Russian radio station which would loop continuously on the empty base.

"What did you call me... when I was younger?" She asked as Natasha walked back to sit on a chair at the table. Her green eyes dimmed for a second as she watched the girl whom she hadn't seen since before she was level school-aged. The redhead ran a hand through her hair, tiredly. The girl who was so brutally dragged from her in Cuba, under the sweltering sun and smell of fumes. 

Who clung to her leg, only to be ripped away from her view by men in uniforms. The little girl who used to climb into her bed at night, who was so afraid of the dark that nothing would soothe her but her biggest sister. Through blue eyes and dark lashes would ask her to pour the milk into her cereal because it was too heavy.