Summary: Natasha's acting strange but Steve isn't sure why. She seemed fine before classes but now, driving home with Maria in the backseat, she's sitting perfectly still and silent. She also seems to be keeping something from him, something that's never happened before.

Trigger Warning: mentions of sexual assault

The first thing that indicated to Steve that something was wrong with Natasha was the way she walked a little further away from him than usual. It wasn't terribly noticeable, but he was used to feeling her arm brush against his every now and then as they walked and it was definitely not happening now. The second thing that gave it away was how she didn't say anything from the moment he met her at the flagpole to the moment the three of them—Steve, Natasha, and Maria—arrived back at the apartment.

"I'll be upstairs," she muttered before disappearing.

Steve glanced at Maria but she shook her head and shrugged, just as clueless as he was.

"Maybe there was a surprise test in some class," Maria suggested.

Steve sighed, but he didn't have a better idea. Usually, when it came to pop quizzes, Natasha complained from the college all the way to the apartment about the unfairness of it. However, Maria seemed to think it was a valid excuse, so he didn't push it. Maybe it was just a really bad quiz.

Within the next two hours, everyone else had returned to the apartment from their various schools. Clint went to a community college nearby while Tony and Bruce went to some Ivy league school Steve couldn't remember the name of. He tended to tune out whenever Tony tried to brag and Bruce got embarrassed whenever someone asked him where he went. Thor went to a tech school near Clint, meaning they often carpooled together while Steve, Maria, and Natasha went to a university only five minutes away. Having everyone live in the same apartment made it easy for them to stay friends even while all going to different universities, something Steve was incredibly grateful for.

"I'm headed out with Pep," Tony announced five minutes after arriving at the apartment. "Don't expect me back."

He wiggled his eyebrows and the group groaned from around the apartment.

"We don't need to hear about every time you and Pepper have sex," Clint told him.

Tony smirked as he walked out of the apartment. A minute later, Maria came hopping down the stairs, dressed nicer than usual. Clint whistled and Maria glared at him.

"Where are you headed?" he asked, leaning against the counter.

"Out," she answered vaguely.

Clint frowned and she grinned cheekily before grabbing her keys and leaving the apartment as well. Bruce and Thor left an hour later to join Thor's new friend and study. Even though Bruce went to a different school, he was going along to help them study. He had always been excellent when it came to science but Thor lacked in that category, so he made a good tutor.

"Looks like it's just you and me, Steve," Clint said, settling down on the couch.

He tried glancing at Steve's sketchbook, but Steve pulled it out of sight.

"Hey, where's Natasha? You didn't leave her at school, did you?"

"No," Steve replied, looking at the drawing he was currently doing of her. "She's napping, I think. Tough day."

"Ah," Clint said.

Steve finished up his drawing then nodded at Clint as he got up to leave the living room.

"You leaving too?" Clint asked, frowning up at him from where he was sprawled out haphazardly.

"We'll see," he said vaguely.

Clint rolled his eyes as Steve walked up the stairs and returned his sketchbook to his room.

He paused as he passed Maria and Natasha's room. After a second, he took a step forward and knocked on Natasha's door. She didn't respond and he frowned. He tried again. This time, he heard shuffling on the other side of the door, but there was still no response.

"Nat, I know you're in there," he said softly. There was more shuffling, but the door didn't open. "Please open the door. I just want to make sure you're okay."

"I'm fine," she replied.

He heard her sniffle and frowned.

"I'm coming in anyway," he told her, slowly opening the door.

He shut it behind him then looked up to see Natasha cross-legged on her bed, blankets wrapped tightly around her. Her eyes were red and puffy and she sniffled again, rubbing her nose with her blanket.

"I'm sick," she lied.

Steve raised an eyebrow. He wouldn't have believed that even if he hadn't already had his doubts.

"Sure," he replied, humouring her for the moment.

He walked over to her bed, sitting down beside her. When she tensed, he became even more confused.

"Natasha, what's going on?" he asked worriedly.

"It's not important," she said, slowly relaxing beside him.

He offered her his hand, palm up, but she didn't take it like she normally did when she was upset. Instead, she shifted away slightly and brought one of her knees up to block him from getting closer.

"Hey, whoa," Steve exclaimed quietly, raising both hands above his head. "I'm not gonna hurt you, you know that."

He looked at her, a hurt expression on his face, and she nodded as tears welled up in her eyes.

"I know," she whimpered, burying her face in her blanket.

Steve resisted the urge to wrap his arm around her, thinking about how she'd shied away from his open hand. She shook slightly as she took a shaky breath and wiped at her face before looking back up at him.

"Nat, what happened?" Steve asked, more concerned than he'd been before.

He kept his hands tucked away as she broke down again. It took everything in him not to wrap his arms around her protectively, trying not to upset her even further.

Sometime between her sobs, she twisted around and buried her face in Steve's chest. He took that as an open invitation to hug her and hastily wrapped his arms around her. She melted into his touch and shook even harder as she cried.  In an attempt to soothe her, he ran his fingers through her hair gently and kissed her head occasionally. It took a while before she calmed down, but eventually, she was no longer crying. Even once she'd stopped, she didn't pull away and instead chose to stay tucked in his arms and pressed close against his chest.

"I didn't go to the library today," she said quietly, her voice shaking as she spoke.

At first, Steve was confused, then she continued on to say, "I didn't want to deal with Rumlow, but he followed me behind the main building and cornered me."

Steve could have sworn his heart stopped at that moment. He knew Rumlow had been bothering Natasha throughout the school year and he hated being reminded of it, but clearly, things had escalated if she was now in tears talking about it.

"Oh, Nat," he breathed, hugging her a little tighter as she continued.

"I told him to leave me alone, but he didn't listen," she said. She paused as she took a deep breath. "I think he was on drugs or something because he's not usually so aggressive, but he didn't seem to like me telling him off." Her grip around him tightened and her whole body tensed. "He grabbed me, pushed me against the wall, and bit my neck. I tried to push him away, but he was stronger than I thought. He reached..."  She struggled to continue. "He grabbed between my legs...  He..."

"It's okay," he assured her, peppering her head with light kisses. "Did you go to the hospital? I can take you now if you—"

"No, he didn't..." She took a shaky breath. "He didn't get that far."

Steve was relieved to hear Rumlow hadn't been able to get too far. He was already planning on making the guy's life a living hell. If Rumlow had gone any further, Steve was pretty sure he would have just sent him straight to hell. Nevertheless, Natasha was clearly shaken and right now the only thing he could do was comfort her.

"Some guys came around the corner before he could," Natasha explained quietly, relaxing just a little. "They scared him off and made sure I was alright."

"I'll have to personally thank them," Steve mumbled.

Natasha nodded against his chest then slowly sat up. She stayed pressed against his side, her legs folded over on his lap as she curled against him. The room was silent aside from Natasha's occasional sniffles.

It wasn't until a few more minutes had gone by that Steve remembered Natasha saying Rumlow had bit her neck. He frowned to himself, wondering if it was a bad idea to bring it up now. However, if he'd managed to bite hard enough and cause her to bleed, they should probably clean it out and cover it up. Even if it hadn't bled, it was almost a given it had left a mark that Natasha would not want to others to see.

"Nat?" Steve asked softly, brushing her hair over her shoulder. She hummed. "You said Rumlow bit you."

Beside him, she tensed and Steve wanted to apologise, but he didn't.

"I know you don't want to think about it, but we should probably make sure he didn't make you bleed."

"I don't want the others..." she trailed off, but Steve knew what she meant.

He nodded and kissed her head.

"I'll go get the first aid kit," he said, moving to stand up.

She hesitantly let him go and wrapped more blankets around herself after he'd climbed off her bed. He made sure to shut her door softly and make his way downstairs to their first aid supplies without drawing Clint's attention. Luckily for him, Clint had headphones on and was playing on the PlayStation with some online friends of his, so Steve was able to get everything he needed without being noticed.

When he returned back to Natasha's room, he walked over to the edge of her bed and gently brushed her hair back. Sure enough, a large bruise shaped like a bite covered the right side of her neck. There were two small punctures on either side of the bite that Steve carefully cleaned with an alcohol wipe, then he covered the whole thing with a bandaid.

"Now you can come up with whatever story you want," he murmured, brushing the bandaid smooth over her neck then gathering up the trash. "Say you got a nasty spider bite and are gonna be the next Spider-Man."

Natasha didn't laugh, but she did smile which was enough for Steve. He kissed her temple before leaving the room to throw away the trash where no one else would bother looking. When he returned to Natasha's room to see if she wanted him to stick around, she reached out and waved for him to join her on the bed. He did as he was told and not even a second after he'd settled down, Natasha was back in his arms and he was surrounded by blankets.

"Better?" he asked, looking down at her before slowly wrapping his arms around her. She nodded and he relaxed.  "Alright."

"Thank you," she muttered into his shirt.

"Anytime," he replied, smoothing a hand over her hair and looking down at her warmly.