Widow Sisters and Friends (Restoring Our Broken Hearts)

You Will Always Be Mine

Natasha apparently felt the same way, and she gently reached out to the girl. Antonia stiffened instinctively, looking as if she might attack just from the pure fear that someone was going to hurt her. Antonia's gaze slight shifted to Yelena, seemingly trying to gauge a proper response based on how Yelena seemed to react to the entire thing. Yelena just looked at her reassuringly, knowing Natasha would not ever do anything to injure the girl and wanting to make Antonia understand this fact about the redhead.

Natasha carefully made contact with Antonia's shoulder, her hand soft with care and concern. Antonia froze stock still, and Natasha ran her hand up to gently rest her hand on the side of Antonia's neck, just stroking the skin there with her thumb.

As soon as she did that, Antonia almost looked as if she might cry from the sheer tenderness of the whole thing.

"We'll talk about anything you want to," Natasha assured her, and Antonia swiftly scrambled to try to pull the walls back up that she always was forced to keep throughout the entirety of her life. However, she still looked positively wrecked, and when Natasha removed her hand, Antonia's body slightly chased the touch.

Yelena felt a small tug of something odd inside of her, but she immediately wrote it off as pity for her fellow widow.

"If it is not too much trouble," Antonia very tentatively began, her voice firm but at the same time, so utterly and terribly vulnerable. Natasha nodded easily and encouragingly, her head lowered a bit so she could peer into Antonia's face from where the younger girl had bowed her head somewhat from her timidity and uncertainty.

"I would like to speak with you alone," Antonia quietly admitted, and she froze a bit, her gaze growing slightly steely as she no doubt tried to prepare herself for potential rejection.

"Sure. Whatever you need," Natasha agreed quickly, nothing but kindness in her features, and Antonia loosened up a bit, her posture significantly less rigid.

Yelena could not deny the slight shock and offense that came over her at the fact that Antonia did not want her there, especially since Yelena had been through the exact same things as she and Natasha. But Yelena made sure it did not show up on her face or in her body language. She glanced between the two slightly before nodding, her gaze lingering on Natasha.

"I'll leave you two to it," Yelena spoke, and Natasha glanced gratefully in her direction for just a short moment before redirecting her focus on the girl before her and starting to head somewhere more comfortable to speak with her.

Yelena watched them for a moment before heading off in the opposite direction, for some reason finding herself feeling something that she had never exactly experienced before.

However, she pushed the emotion away, looking forward to when she and Natasha would have some time together and she could perhaps subtly pry some information from Natasha about her conversation with Antonia.

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But that emotion came quickly flooding back in when she discovered that Antonia would be staying with the two of them for a week or so. Natasha had seemed excited for her stay, and Yelena could easily read the guilt that the redhead was carrying.

Yelena tried to tell herself that it was only that sense of obligation that was fueling Natasha's desire to spend time with Antonia, but this tactic was not doing much to reassure her when Natasha kept focusing so much on the brunette.

It started growing frustratingly obvious that she was never going to spend any time alone with Natasha except for at bedtime, and they could not talk for nearly as long as Yelena would like because they had to go to bed at a normal time because Natasha insisted on making Antonia comfortable since Antonia got up early. It was no doubt a habit from her time in the Red Room, and despite the fact that Natasha was not an extremely early riser, she wanted to do anything she could to accommodate the guest.