Y E L L O W  R O S E

Natasha went easy on her. It was easy to tell, and Elena hated it. She could see it in the way she moved, in the way she held herself. While she herself was out of breath, Natasha stood without a single bead of sweat. It wasn't laziness the way Natasha dodged her punches, but years and years of training.

Gritting her teeth together, Elena made one final push. If she wanted anything out of this failure, it was to at least catch Natasha off guard. One second would have done it fine. She knew her blows were slow, weak even. She couldn't do anything to change that, not at that moment at least.

Against Natasha, the only thing Elena might have had was her brain. What years Natasha had spent with a punching bag, Elena had with a book. A medical textbook per say.

Elena's back slammed onto the tumbling mat, and she stiffened. Natasha towered over her. She shook her head. "You're fighting me," she said. "Not taking a test."

"Seven to zero" came Clint's voice. He was clearly bored, voice dragging on as if he was asleep.

As Natasha began to stand, Elena made her move. She shot her hand out, scrambling onto her feet. Her fingers pressed into Natasha's neck, an inch or so below the ear. The vagus nerve, one of many pressure points.

Natasha yanked away, eyes flashing. She grabbed her head, and Elena stepped back. Sharing a look with Clint, Natasha chuckled. "Seven to one," she said. "I should have known you'd go for a pressure point."

Elena placed her hands on her knees, catching her breath. She nodded, adjusting her glasses. "I still have a lot of work in front of me."

Natasha grunted in agreement. Stretching, she cocked her head to the side. She seemed to be lost in thought, not that Elena could tell. All she saw were the cells.

"Elena?" Natasha finally said.

Elena glanced up. She didn't need to see Natasha's eyes to know that she was choosing her words carefully. The goosebumps on her arm told her that. Clint, she noticed, had left the room. Probably Natasha's doing. Sighing, Elena took a seat on a bench. She could tell where this was going. "What do you want to know?" Her voice was quiet, timid almost.

"What's it like to see the cells?" Natasha sat next to her.

"You don't want to know about Lieselotte?"

"Are you willing to talk about her?"

"No."

"Then, tell me about the cells. What're they like?"

Elena mumbled her answer. "Weird."

Natasha laughed. "Weird?" she echoed. "That's it? Just weird?"

"I guess it's like having microscopes as eyes except you can't zoom out. At a distance, everything is blurry. But if you focus, the cells are crystal clear."

"And you can see all of them?"

"I'm fairly certain. I'd hate to count all thirty-seven trillion of yours. That would take way too long."

"Sounds tiring."

Elena leaned forward, rubbing her wrist. She tilted her head to the side. "I suppose it can be overwhelming. Very overwhelming. It's just a lot, you know?"

"No."

Taken aback, Elena sat up. "No?"

"No." Natasha sighed. "I don't know anyone else who has something that is remotely even close to seeing cells. It's hard to imagine that it's possible."

"I guess it is a bit far-fetched, huh?" Elena mused. "And yet you believe me?"

"I don't see why you would make it up. You haven't been seen in years from what I gathered. If it was a hoax, I don't think you would have lasted that long. And it was an accident for you to emerge."

Elena didn't answer. She stared at the cells of her hands. Here she was, in the middle of a training room, talking to an Avenger, a stranger no less. It was odd how someone she barely knew trusted her more than old friends. Suddenly, Elena felt bad for the first time she had met Natasha. She had gone off about needing to handle her situation alone, that no one would help.

But there were people that wanted to help. Natasha did, Steve did, the Avengers did. Elena bit on her lip. Maybe she didn't have to do anything on her own.

Maybe her old friends weren't real friends.

The thought made Elena gag. She couldn't fathom it. Really, her old friends were good people, great ones even. It was her fault that they left. She had taken it too far. Because no one liked an arrogant snob who thought everything they said was right. Because no doctor should call their patients a flaw.

But she hadn't called the patient as a whole a flaw, just their cells.

Elena winced, hitting her head with a hand. She was still making excuses, and she hated it. She hated it so much.

"What's wrong?" Natasha broke the silence, looking over in alarm.

"Nothing, just thinking." She answered, maybe too quickly.

"Elena—"

"Lieselotte," she cut her off. "She wants to meet with me at the site where I contracted this curse."

Inhaling, Natasha straightened. "When?"

"Halloween night. Cliche, I know."

Natasha didn't look too amused. She stood. "We'll catch her," she said.

Elena looked away, a strand of hair falling over her eyes. She stared at the cells. There were so many options to choose from, so many paths she could take. In the end, they all led back to two sides: the Avengers or Hydra.

The Avengers were kind to her, or as kind as they could afford to be. They listened to her. They wanted to help. Friends, they were. Elena hesitated. Friends may have been too much, but acquaintances didn't feel right. She pushed her glasses up. Perhaps, it was just her. She didn't want new friends. She wanted her old ones.

Cringing, Elena pushed the thought away. What was wrong with her today? It was the second time she thought about her old friends.

The Avengers were just people she was living with. They were people she could talk to. No more, no less. Choosing their side would lead to goodness in the world. But they didn't have the cure she so desperately wanted.

Hydra did. The cure laid in their hands, and they just so happened to be evil. Being the Black Moon she was named for didn't appeal to her in the slightest, but again, she wanted that cure. She needed it.

Before she met the Avengers, before anything happened, Elena would have done anything for the cure. She would have run across the continent, would have climbed the highest mountain. She would have traveled across worlds. With no hesitation.

What had changed?

Elena turned back to look at Natasha. She realized that she had been watching her for quite some time. Elena shrugged at her. "She won't be easy to catch."

"Nothing is easy," Natasha said. "You have to work for everything."

"Yeah." Elena thought back to the hours on end she spent with a book. "Yeah, I know."

Natasha watched her for a moment longer before turning away. "I need to speak with Steve. I trust you can find your own way back to your suite?"

Elena blinked in surprise. Standing, she rubbed her wrist. "You're not going to watch me?"

"I trust you," she said, "for the most part."

Elena wanted more than anything to smile at Natasha, but she found that she couldn't. Trust. It was a powerful word. It was meant to go two ways. It was a mutual thing. It was the first step of friendship.

She watched Natasha leave, and even after she left she stood there. Elena looked down at her shoes. Natasha trusted her, but did she trust her?

Elena wanted to say yes. She wanted to think that she had someone she could trust. She had told Natasha about the cells and Lieselotte. She had accepted that she wanted to help. But was that trust?

Was it really when she had kept the most important piece of information to herself?

Elena closed her eyes. She was one of two survivors from the experiment four years ago. Lieselotte, the other. The Avengers didn't know that.

Tony and Bruce were geniuses. If she told them what had been done in the experiment, they would figure it out. They would know what Lieselotte was trying to do.

But she didn't tell them. Some part of herself wanted to protect Lieselotte at all costs.

Because again, she wanted that cure. She was selfish like that.

Elena brought her hands up to her head, muttering it to herself. "Damn it if friendship is hard," she cursed out loud. Sighing, Elena sank back down. She bit down.

I trust you.

She swallowed hard. No, Natasha," Elena whispered. "You shouldn't trust me." 

...

I'm just not going to edit this anymore. What's the point? It's only fanfiction. It's totally not because I absolutely despise editing and that it gets on my nerves. 

Someone needs to tell Elena to get out of her head. You'd think she had enough of herself and thinking after four years of doing just that, but nopeeeeeeeee. 

...

Oh my god. I meant to publish this chapter this morning. Turns out, Wattpad didn't post it. Ashdfosaskldaojsdiklsdfwejsdkejfskdnmskl