"I'm mad at you."
"I know," She stood near the edge of her bed, her head bowed slightly, and she was looking up at you through her lashes, but you didn't notice how dark her eyes were, "And I don't know if I care that much."
"I don't know what's going on," You started, shutting the door behind you with a click, and you put your hand up when she stepped forward, "But out there with Carol – that was weird and calling me your girlfriend? Nat, we haven't even-"
"I'm not the most patient person," She cut you off and you furrowed your eyebrows before she continued, her voice lighter than before, "And if you don't want to be with me, I'm not going to force you, but if this is more crap about what you said..."
"Crap?" You shot back after she shrugged, "Yeah, because knowing how my story ends and not wanting too many people I care about around for it is crap. Thanks, Nat," You deadpanned sarcastically, "Thanks a lot for that."
"I told you, I'm falling in love with you," She spoke lowly, and you rolled your eyes with a scoff, looking away because you still didn't believe her, "And you refuse to acknowledge or accept it, so maybe you don't care."
"Okay," You mused darkly, glancing back to her and she cocked an eyebrow where she stood, clearly interested in what you'd say next, "Say, you're not bullshitting me just to sleep with me and once you do, you'll be over this little infatuation," You didn't believe your own words, but you had conditioned yourself to for so long that it was second nature to pull them out, "And let's say, I've been feeling the same – say, we fall in love and then fast forward a year or three or five or ten and I fucking..." You sighed in frustration, not being able to finish it, but it didn't seem to matter to her because she was now right in front of you, pulling the arm you had raised to wipe a hand down your face to your side, pleading you to look at her.
"You're scared." She whispered in observation, and you huffed, wanting to point out how lame and cliché this all was, but she wasn't wrong.
"Yeah, and I'm starting to think you believe you can save me from this, when you can't."
"How do you know?"
"Because this is between me and my demons, babe." You smirked teasingly and you expected her to laugh or at least crack a smile for the lame attempt at a joke, but she only narrowed her eyes on you.
"Again," She shrugged before going over to plop down on the bed, "Don't care."
You sat next to her at the end of the bed, pulling down the hem of your outfit, and crossing and uncrossing your legs more times than you'd like to admit because you didn't handle silences well – like the one that soon fell over you both. You could feel that she was afraid to make the wrong move or say the wrong thing now and you had to squeeze your eyes shut for a moment to push off those emotions before they offered to send you into a spinner.
"Is it Yelena? Is that really what's going on?" You whispered carefully when you felt her tense with a thought that crossed her mind and she shook her head, so you pursed your lips with furrowed eyebrows, trying to think of something else, "Your parents? Did something happen to them?"
"Why is it so hard for you to understand that it's about you?" She whispered quietly and you fish mouthed a few times before she cleared her throat, continuing a second later, "I talked to Tony after you left yesterday," She took a while to continue and you readied yourself for some rough news, but it still surprised you when she continued, "And he um, he said that there's no cure to your spinners – you're always going to be dealing with them and when he said that, I just kind of..."
"I could've told you that." You scoffed teasingly and she gaped at you a bit, but you didn't miss how she scooted towards you just a bit.
"What?"
