The Forsaken Truth (Marvel's Avengers)

Rants And Laughs

"She needs space."

"Pepper sent me to check up on her, and you know how scary she is."

"Well, I'm a trained assassin and I'm telling you, she needs space."

A short while of silence, then, "I'm going in."

"She won't talk to you."

"I don't care."

The sound of the door opening had me immediately pulling the blanket over my chest and closing my eyes.

Feet softly pattered near and a second later, I heard Tony's voice as he spoke in a hushed whisper.

"Aylin?"

I maintained the farce of sleeping and a low sigh rang across the room.

"She's asleep." He said, sounding as if he had turned away.
"I'll just talk to her tomorrow, I guess."

No reply followed his statement, and my ears picked up on the sound of footsteps drifting away. Yet, when I reached out with my air abilities, I sensed the presence of a person nearby.

My eyes remained shut and I kept my breathing deep and steady, willing the woman to go away.

"I know you're awake."

Huffing in defeat, I dropped the act, looking at Natasha's amused face as she leant in the doorway.

I sighed before propping myself up on the pillows. "What do you want?"

"Nothing." A shrug and a pause later, she asked, "You okay?"

"Fine." I mumbled. "Just tired."

Natasha watched me with a hint of a smile on her expression.

"You do realize that I'm a spy, right?"

I simply nodded.

"I've been trained to detect lies. And right now, you're doing just that."

Silence followed her statement as I chose not to respond and the red head plopped down beside me.

"Rhodey will apologize." She spoke up again. "He knows he crossed a line."

I sighed again, dragging a palm across my face and suddenly feeling weary.

"I'm not mad at him."

"No?"

I shook my head, meeting her scrupulous gaze.

"It's not his fault, really." I told her. "I suppose one naturally becomes cautious, given the line of work you're in."

Natasha offered a slow nod and I smiled wistfully, leaning back against the pillows as she watched me.

"To be honest though, I kinda feel bad for you people." I said.

"What do you mean?"

"You're all too serious." I voiced. "With the exception of, maybe Pepper, I haven't once seen any of you laugh. Not even Tony, who acts like life itself is a joke."

She shrugged. "You just haven't lived here long enough."

"The average person laughs around 17 to 20 times per day." I pointed out.

Dude, why the hell do you even know that?

Thankfully, Natasha didn't question my weird knowledge of random and useless facts.

"Well, we aren't exactly average."

"No." I agreed. "But that doesn't mean, you aren't allowed to have fun every once in a while."