𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗦𝗜𝗥𝗘𝗡 | 𝗡. 𝗥𝗢𝗠𝗔𝗡𝗢𝗙𝗙

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And, she really needed to sleep. Natasha was right about that because, despite her earlier displays of self control, Truth still didn't trust herself with Natasha. Because, now her inducement was feeding off of her anxiety, and she felt it slowly rising back to the surface.

It took a lot of restraint to not flinch away from Natasha's hand.

As though recognizing that, Natasha lowered it.

"Okay," she said. "What can I do?"

Truth released a breath, the tension draining from her body. Knowing that Natasha was on her side meant a lot.

At least she didn't have to do this alone.

"Maybe...more sandwiches?"

Natasha gave her a reassuring smile and stepped aside.

"Okay. More sandwiches."

Truth nodded, but didn't move, too lost in the emotions emanating from the woman in front of her. There were still the lingering feelings of fear and displacement, but overtaking those were compassion, an undercurrent of worry, and a lot of determination. In her own emotional distress, Truth was overwhelmed, unable to look away.

Down the hall, Heidi popped her head out and meowed. Truth took a small step toward the bathroom, her eyes still on Natasha.

"Ten minutes?"

For some reason, it took Natasha a moment to find her voice.

"Ten minutes," Natasha agreed.

Ten minutes later, they all piled into a grey Ford C-Max that laid unused in the garage. It belonged to Truth's uncle, but since he was hardly ever in the States, the twins liked to use it for their own purposes when they were off duty.

"Are you sure you don't want me to drive?" Natasha asked as Truth settled into the driver's seat.

"I'll be okay. I've still got a bit of adrenaline, and it's really only a twenty minute commute. Our worst enemy is traffic."

The drive truly could've been worse. They made it to the Southwest Quadrant of D.C. in twenty minutes, with an extra five minutes spent maneuvering through the crowded streets to get to their destination.

"Is this S.H.I.E.L.D. too?" Natasha asked as they pulled up in front of an apartment complex, handing one of the last of the sandwiches back to Heidi, who was steadily growing to like the other assassin more and more.

"No," Truth answered. "This was Michael's first ever safe house, though we probably use it too often for it to be fully secure. It's more of a second home while we're in D.C."

"Like, when you want to take a break from S.H.I.E.L.D.?" Natasha guessed.

Truth sighed as she pulled the key out of the ignition.

"We like S.H.I.E.L.D., don't get me wrong, but...we wanted to be sure that we had things that weren't dependent on them. We wanted to have an out just in case, and this is one of those outs."