Post by Natasha Romanoff on Jun 13, 2012 5:43:53 GMT -5
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Years ago, her very first lesson was that emotions were a weakness. Oh, it was fine to have them, as unpleasant as they could be sometimes – but to show them was the first mistake you could make. If your enemy could read your emotions, they held all the cards. It was a lesson Natasha had taken to heart, and one she was normally a master of.
Of course, Steve wasn’t an enemy. Steve was either an unfortunate victim of science and circumstance or the most beautiful human specimen that had ever been preserved.
… She hadn’t really decided which.
But one thing was certain: he would never aim to use the information he’d just read against her. And for that simple fact, it would seem like the lesson she’d learnt all those years ago was a moot point… but for some reason, it still made her wildly uncomfortable. Maybe she had lived too long holding all the cards herself. Maybe she just didn’t like to face her past, especially when it wasn’t on her own terms.
She opened her mouth to reply, but ultimately didn’t trust what she might say. She didn’t doubt him, because she knew he was practically incapable of lying, but for the first time she could remember, she was conflicted about the best course of action.
So she did the next best thing: she left the room. Her footsteps made no noise against the industrial tile floor, and once she was out of sight of the doorframe, she sprinted along the corridor back to the entrance, out of the shop, and melted into the early evening crowd. She would walk home, clear her head, and steer clear of Captain America for a few days if she could help it.
She’d survived this long by keeping her focus; it needed to stay that way.
* * *
