Straight Escape

Prettier Than Poison

She grinned.

The injured little girl knew exactly what she had to do. And for now, she just let her brain shut down and slipped into unconsciousness.

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Moscow, 2:36am.

Home, sweet home.

The woman scoffed at the thought. If anything, Russia was far from feeling like Natasha Romanoff's home. The cold wind blew through her red hair and she held a sigh. The man next to her rolled his eyes and she fought the urge to kick him with his shield.

What a discreet duet.

Out of all the S.H.I.E.L.D agents, Fury had decided to pair her with Steve Rogers for an undercover mission. Captain America, the most indiscret agent to ever walk the earth.

But at least Natasha was sure that she'd have a good backup if a fight was ever to occur, which was most likely to happen if Steve kept watching his surrounding every two seconds. Not that she was scared of fighting alone anyway.

Their mission was simple, sneak into one of hydra's old hidden basements and take whatever's left. Weapons, people, anything. It was supposed to be quick and easy.

But of course, everything had to go completely wrong.

First of all, when Natasha thought about "people", she was expecting hostages, prisoners. Not completely insane and armed ones.

If Steve hadn't blown their cover earlier, it was most certainly done by now. A red haired woman in a suit and a big guy with a shield with the us colours on it, fighting loudly - on Steve's side.

What a successful mission.

As good as the duo is together, the struggle to fight the agents was real. Natasha ended up loosing Steve's sight as they started fighting on their own. Gunshots echoed through the cold and dirty corridors, but the red haired was out of reach, sneaking out of the basement with a stolen gun in each one of her hands.

The night was dark pitch black, the only source of light came from a street lamp meters away from here. But Natasha was used to this, she knew how to locate herself.

Well that was until she tripped on something.

Or someone.

Judging by the weak whining, that's definitely someone.

Natasha kneeled down and groped on the floor until her fingertips touched what felt like hair. Long hair.

"Steve!" She whispered loudly, hoping that he was somewhere close so she wouldn't have to deal with it by herself.
And after a moment, he did show up. Except he wasn't alone.

"We have to go, hurry up."

Steve came running besides Natasha before stopping right in his track when he saw her almost sitting on the freezing ground.

"You hurt?" He was panting, clearly wanting to make this conversation quick and rush to the quinjet. When Natasha didn't answer, his gaze just followed her hand that was touching something.

"Whatever this is, we got to go now. This place's about to blow up."

Steve quickly kneeled down next to Natasha and picked up the thing off the ground before they both started running to the quinjet.

As they were now far enough from the place, Steve took advantage of the light and safety to look at the living being in his arms. A small little girl in a dirty piece of clothing, eyes wide open, seemed frozen in his tight grip. He let her go and sat her down on the steps at the quinjet's entry.

She seemed weak, sick even. Her face was so pale that she looked like a ghost and her blond hair was tangled and full of dirt. But the worst part was the condition she was actually in. Her arms and legs were red, almost bleeding, her cheeks were stained with dry blood.

But there was no more room for any further analysis of the mysterious child, a loud band echoed through the creepy night and made Natasha and Steve's head turn. The girl jumped.

The old basement was burning down due to the explosion, most likely caused by Steve. And they just watched it, not having the intention to go back in this hell hole to try and see if there was anything left to save. The fire blazed out the now haunted building, illuminating the three people's faces.

And the weak little child.

Just snapped.

She threw herself on Steve and started to scratch him everywhere his skin showed, trying to claw his eyes out.

She was nothing compared to him, everything she did wasn't worth anything, but the look in her eyes was enough to make both Steve and Natasha doubt.