never leaving your side || romanogers

Chapter 24

Natasha was a nervous wreck the whole next day.

She didn't show it much at all, but Steve knew something was wrong the moment she stepped onto the beach. Natasha was biting her lip slightly and gave a nervous half-smile when he'd tried to take a photo of her.

Steve finally gave up watching from afar after Natasha repeatedly ignored his attempts at grabbing her attention. "Tasha, what's wrong?"

Natasha snapped her gaze around, her green eyes piercing oddly into his. "Oh, Steve. I'm going to miss you. I love you, ok? I don't say that enough. I love you, I love you so much."

Steve melted into her embrace for a few seconds, but quickly reeled back. "No, Natasha. What is wrong?"

"Nothing, nothing. Just remember what I said, ok? I'm going to take some photos now. See ya." She strolled around and walked back towards the towels.

Oh well. Steve thought. Natasha had a lot of moods, maybe this was just another one of them. She'd be back to normal tomorrow. He cast one last look at Natasha and ran back into the water.

Natasha quickly swept her clothes into her suitcase with one arm while the other rapidly tapped through her phone. She had to erase as much evidence of her working with the Avengers as possible, so that meant deleting everything on her phone, every photo, every note she had made to remind herself of some important event. Her finger hesitated at the delete button, and she wondered what the odds were of her team getting hurt if she kept the photos, but then she tapped delete, and confirmed her action. Following that, she removed the SIM card, and flushed it down the toilet just to be safe. It was night now, and she had to move fast. 

After her phone was taken care of, Natasha moved on to her appearance. She needed to look like she was willing to go with the Red Room without a fight, so she couldn't bring wear her suit. Instead, she slid on a pair of jeggings, casual enough that it wouldn't look suspicious, but comfortable enough that she could still fight. Over that, she wore a long t shirt that had once belonged to Steve, and then a hoodie that she had stolen from Clint long ago. To complete her surrendering look, she added a pair of high tops that she had gotten from Tony as a Christmas present a few years ago. They were black and red, and had a small logo of a spider on them. Corny, but nice.

Swallowing back any regret or anxiousness, Natasha pushed her suitcase full of clothes back into the closet where it could remain hidden after she left, and lifted her mattress carefully. The note she had written was still sandwiched between layers of down. She carefully folded the paper in fourths and clipped on polaroids she had taken that afternoon. Natasha knew that no one would ever replace them in her heart, and that she had to remember their faces, what they looked like and sounded like. Her pictures did just that. She placed the letter on the nightstand and yanked the arrow necklace from her neck. If she never came back, she wanted them to have it. After all, she still had the bracelet.

Looking at Pepper and Jane sleeping softly one last time, Natasha slipped out of the room, the lock clicking quietly. 

"Let's go." She whispered quietly to Yelena, who was waiting patiently outside the lobby in the dead of night, as promised. Heart heavy, Yelena led Natasha to the aircraft that may have just sealed her doom. 

"But I am not afraid." Natasha said quietly, gripping the wrist with the bracelet tightly. I am not afraid.

Many long hours later, the plane jerked as it landed. "Wake up." Yelena glanced nervously at the guards surrounding them, but they were still nodded off. "Look, Talia, I've got a plan. You have to listen and follow my instructions. We're tight on time."