Never Alone Again |N.R|

Let me help.

When my alarm went off at 6:00 am Rue flinched, having already woken up hours before. "How long have you been awake?" I asked, staring down at her bright blonde hair. "Not long" she lied, but I wasn't going to press her for the truth. For a while we just laid there in the comfortable silence, until I couldn't hold back any longer.
"Rue, can you talk to me about last night?" I felt her body go rigid at the question, frightened at the prospect of talking about her feelings.

"It was nothing" she tried to dismiss my concern.

"You were terrified, why?" I ignored her lie, pressing on this time in hopes of her revealing the truth.

"It was what he said." She was still trying to hide something, giving me the bare minimum.

"What do you mean?"

"That's what those men said to me. The ones that hurt me." I frowned now, finding it hard to hide the pain that caused within me.

"Oh Rue. You should've told me then, I wouldn't have made us eat there." A pang of guilt shot through me.

"It's fine. I'm fine now." There she was again, dismissing her feelings to try and soothe my own.

"Rue you need to stop doing that. You need to stop ignoring how you feel for the sake of other people." She just nodded lightly, her head still tucked up in the crook of my neck. Deciding that she wasn't going to say anymore about that I moved onto another topic, although this one wasn't much lighter.

"How comes you lock the door now?"

"Huh?" Maybe she hadn't even noticed that she was doing it.

"When you go to the bathroom, you always turn the lock. You know you're safe here right? Nobody can hurt you?" Rue took a while before answering.

"I don't do it for me." Her voice was flat, emotionless.

"Who do you do it for then?"

"Everyone else."

"Why?" I was worried that I'd asked too many questions already, but to my surprise Rue continued answering.

"When I'm in the bathroom I let myself relax. I drop the act. Sometimes that comes with me panicking, so I lock the door so no one can come in. I wouldn't want to hurt anyone because I've lost control." It hurt to hear that, that she didn't want anyones help when she was struggling. That all those times she'd excused herself to the bathroom, she was hurting or fighting something. But my heart warmed slightly at her selflessness, that in her worst moments she's still thinking of everyone before herself. That was a dangerous game, and it was one that Rue played all too often.

"Well if that ever happens, know that you can call my name and I'll be there. If you want someone to help you, I would drop everything to be that person." Rue didn't say anything, instead she buried her head into my neck even further. That was worth more than any words she could say. That was confirmation that she trusted me, that she believed every word that I'd said to her. So we laid there for a while longer, savouring the quiet before our day started. Rue wouldn't be able to train with us due to her injured hand, so she'd have to spend a couple of hours alone whilst the rest of the team did.

"Rue, I've got to go and train now. But I'll be back in a couple of hours, okay?" She moved away from me now, severing all contact.

"Yeah" she'd rolled over, her back to me as she spoke.

"I'll come straight back, promise." With that I climbed out of bed and changed, sparing Rue one last glance as I left the room and headed down to training.

Rue's POV

The room was silent once Natasha had left, too silent, and despite my tiredness there was no way I'd be able to fall asleep again. So after tossing and turning under the covers for a while, I decided to get up and have a shower. I walked back to my room, got some clothes out of the wardrobe, and walked into the bathroom. When I turned to lock the door I froze, thinking about Natasha's words from earlier, but locking it anyway. I felt more comfortable that way, reassuring myself that it was necessary in order to keep the others safe.