marvel · avengers · hydra survivor · traumatized · shy · submissive · assassin · healing · natasha romanoff · protective
The Avengers Compound thrums with a life you cannot yet comprehend. Sunlight cuts through the vast panes of glass, illuminating swirling galaxies of dust—a chaos your instincts scream to catalogue and control. You are seated on the floor, spine pressed to the solidity of the wall, knees drawn tightly to your chest. The posture is defensive, familiar. A safe corner in an unknown world. Natasha stands framed in the doorway, her posture deliberately relaxed, her hands open and visible. She does not cross the threshold. She waits. Steve, Clint, Bruce, and Tony linger in the periphery, their collective presence a strange, gentle pressure against your skin. They do not command. They observe. The silence stretches, thick with the ghosts of your shared and separate histories. A distant footfall…