Chapter 4
-------
Doesn't want to sleep. & can't.
Russia is still sketchy. He can't really.... It's there, and he doesn't wanna touch it. Yet.
3am blinked slowly on the clock, green digits taunting him.
There's a picture of Natasha Romanoff in his notebook and he can't.... He can't figure out why.
3:03
He knows about her, knows of her. Hell, the brief files he did get himself to read at the library say damn near enough. A kill list close (close) to his, and enough trouble to amount to a life too close (close) to his.
He knows she's from Russia but....she looks his age. There can't be any possible way she was back in Russia; he remembers the Red Room but he remembers they didn't cryo-freeze any of the graduates. Just did the regular, horrible inflicted horrors that the Soviets did.
The HYDRA Moscow branch were cruel, aggressive but they were army trained.
They were nothing compared to the teachers in the mainland.
He pictures the nuns in the church he went to, the schoolyard where he saw them teach. Pictures that, but demonized and 30000x worse.
3:20
Still doesn't explain why he has a picture of Natasha Romanoff in his notebook that he can't take off.
She just sits there. Eyes asking "You know something, you know. You're almost there."
Gives up at 3:55, tries to sleep again.
It still doesn't explain why he has a picture of her.
.....Why it feels right.