Eris ▷ s.rogers [1] ✔️

18.| SHE WILL BE LOVED

WHEN ERIS LEFT HER ROOM THAT NIGHT, she found Natasha waiting in the hall for her.

The woman was cleaning her fingernails with a knife and barely looked up as she stepped out. Eris froze, but tried not to let her surprise show, raising her jaw instead.

"Waiting for me?"

"Steve figured you might make a break for it."

"Maybe I'm hungry."

"In that case, I'm happy to show you to the kitchen."

Eris sat back on her heels and set her jaw. She was far too sleep-deprived and impatient for this. "I think it'd be better for everyone if I just left. Are you really going to argue against that?"

"Normally?" The woman sat up. "No. But our job is to keep the threats off the street. And I'd be failing my job if I let you walk."

Eris lowered her gaze. "You've seen the news?"

"I have."

"So what happens if they come here? For me?"

"You're not going anywhere."

"I can't tell if that's a good thing or not." There was a faint amusement in Eris's voice, but it was dry humor. Still, Natasha's green eyes flickered.

"I liked you, Schmidt. And I can recognize that you're pretty messed up."

Eris arched a brow.

"I've been messed up too." Nat lowered her gaze. "From what Wanda told us, just maybe from the same thing. You learn a lot of things from the Red Room. Compassion and mercy aren't one of them."

"No," Eris whispered. Something in her chest twisted. "They're not."

"Listen," Nat looked up. "Whatever's going on in your head might not be fully your fault. The things you did might not have been fully consensual. But that doesn't change the fact that you're a threat. You could go off at any time, Schmidt. On anyone."

Eris winced. The words were a blow to the chest.

Mostly because they were true.

"If we can, we'd like to help. But if you run off in the middle of the night, we can't do that. And if someone else dies, that's on you. Because if you don't try to change, then the chaos that follows is your own doing."

Eris shifted the pack on her shoulders. Hesitating for a moment, she let it drop to the ground, and sat opposite the woman, leaning her head against the wall. Nat's eyes glowed in the darkness.

She looked to be offering a small, faint smile.

"Good choice."

"Was it?"

"Well, you know what I mean."

Eris huffed. "Sure, I guess."

"Give it time, Schmidt, we'll figure things out. You know, though, in all the crazy things I've faced and done, I never thought I'd be sitting across from the daughter of the Red Skull."