Never Alone Again |N.R|

Forgive me, please?

Natasha's POV

It was early when I woke up, 6:13 am. I immediately noticed that I was alone, Rue was no longer asleep in my arms. She wasn't anywhere else in the room and she wasn't in the bathroom because the door was wide open. I was meant to be at training in just under 20 minutes so hopefully I'd find her before then. Desperate not to waste anymore time I climbed out of the bed, although my body was sluggish, and left Rue's bedroom. I had no idea where she'd be, maybe in the library, so I headed in that direction. That was when I bumped into her as she was walking the other way. I immediately noticed her still tired eyes that were now puffy from crying.

"Hey Rue, where'd you go?"

"What do you mean?" She was looking down at the book in her hands, barely listening to me.

"When I woke up you were gone. It's early so I thought you'd still be asleep."

"I had things to do. Sorry, I'll ask for permission to wake up next time." She was being sarcastic and her tone was sharp.

"I didn't mean it like that Rue, you know that."

"Whatever, what do you want?" That was when Steve rounded the corner and shouted my name, both Rue and I looking in his direction. I told him I'd be one minute.

"I want to talk to you Rue, really talk to you." She shrugged, but before she could answer Steve shouted again.

"Nat, we need to get to training. Tony said we needed to be a bit early today. Come on otherwise you'll be late." I nodded at him before turning back to Rue. She wasted no time in speaking up.

"Looks like you haven't got time for me, isn't that new." She rolled her eyes before walking away, continuing on to wherever she wanted to go. I just stared at her back as she walked away as an overwhelming feeling of defeat swept over me. I had no choice but to head to training, but the second I finished I'd find her again. I need to get through to her, because the sarcasm was only being used to deflect my genuine concern.

Rue's POV

I didn't want to talk to Natasha, not today, not ever. I'd never trusted anyone before, she was the first person I truly relied on and she threw that away like it was nothing. She broke my trust like it never meant anything to her in the first place. And for that, she'd continue to get the silent treatment along with the odd bitter comment.

I decided to go and read my book out on the balcony that led off of the kitchen. I hadn't been outside recently as I'd spent most of my days in the library, so some fresh air and sunshine was needed. I also figured that it'd be the last place Natasha would look for me so that would give me time to think of what to say to her.

It had been an hour or so when Clint came outside and joined me, sitting down on the chair across from the sofa I was on. I didn't spare him a glance at first, predicting that he was going to tell me to talk to Natasha.

"Hey Rue, how have you been doing?" He asked softly.

"I'm fine. How are you?" I still didn't trust that he wasn't asking these questions for Natasha's benefit, and that everything I said to him was going to be relayed to her.

"I'm alright, my injuries healing up nice. You going to start training with us all soon?"

"I think I'm good, I'd rather do it on my own." I kept my eyes on the book in front of me.

"But you're a part of the team now Rue. That means training altogether." I could feel his eyes on me, intently waiting for my response.

"Maybe in a few days."