（ and she knows it, too. knows that his look is intended to excoriate. like a wolf at the door, he's hungry for something of her.
no one who survived what he survived would have a taste for having things taken with nothing offered in recompense, either.
natasha's silence isn't nearly so long. she says, lightly: ）
Well, I was never the Winter Soldier.
（ i was never brainwashed. not the way he was. not the way the widows that came after her were. unforgivable sins are just that. hers, and hers alone. the why of it isn't important. she still did those things.
she wets her lips. then carries on, as lightly as before: ）
I try not to. Some nights I'm more successful than others.
（ she hated staying at the avengers tower. it was too big, too open, too — stark. it was almost easier, when she was on the run with the others. when she knew steve or sam would be up, keeping watch out the window. she could say she was living for them, then. that always made it easier. she never quite got the hang of doing things for just herself. there always had to be a caveat. ）
no subject
no one who survived what he survived would have a taste for having things taken with nothing offered in recompense, either.
natasha's silence isn't nearly so long. she says, lightly: ）
Well, I was never the Winter Soldier.
（ i was never brainwashed. not the way he was. not the way the widows that came after her were. unforgivable sins are just that. hers, and hers alone. the why of it isn't important. she still did those things.
she wets her lips. then carries on, as lightly as before: ）
I try not to. Some nights I'm more successful than others.
（ she hated staying at the avengers tower. it was too big, too open, too — stark. it was almost easier, when she was on the run with the others. when she knew steve or sam would be up, keeping watch out the window. she could say she was living for them, then. that always made it easier. she never quite got the hang of doing things for just herself. there always had to be a caveat. ）