Broken Cages (MCU)✔️

Meetings and Decisions

It didn't take me long to fall asleep after Peter left. I woke up to my alarm blaring at 8:30 AM. Although I was up, I did not move until a knock sounded at my hallway door. I took too long to shuffle out of bed because, by the time I opened the bedroom door, Natasha was already placing a plate of toast and fruit on the table.

"After you eat and change, I will bring you to Nick."

Not even a hello, but honestly, that didn't surprise me. Natasha seemed all business most of the time. I sat at the table and picked at the food before me. The interrogation would happen soon, and I was still determining how I would handle it.

I didn't notice Nat had ever left the room, but she was holding fresh clothes for me. She looked disappointedly at the food I was moving around. "Everything is going to find Katya. I am just going to leave these here with you, and I will be back in 20 minutes." She dropped the clothes on the table.

Yeah, everyone keeps saying that... I thought. It was confusing. It was like they all had a say in my fate but also, at the same time, no say at all. Was I a prisoner? Some strange guest?

After she left the room, I pushed the food away and took the clothes into the washroom with me.

It only took ten minutes for me to finish up in the washroom and look presentable. I had not been given any beauty products, but the moisturizers brightened my face slightly, and I used the lip balm liberally on my cracked lips. My eyes were still somewhat bloodshot from throwing up multiple times in the span of a few days, but at least my skin hadn't broken out yet.

My hair was manageable. It had dried throughout the night and returned to its dead-straight look. Although I grew up quite blonde, the brightness had faded over the years. My mother argues I am still blonde, but I was verging on a brunette at this stage. I believe the same thing had happened to her and that she had been colouring it red for the past few years for a different effect.

I sat in front of the toast and fruit that Natasha had placed for me. If I put something in my mouth now, it would surely come out nasty, and I didnt want to risk that. I shoved it to the side and stared at the door. I didn't want to leave the room. I knew what to expect here. What were the rules out there? How could I get them to not send me back to my parents?

When the door opened and Natasha was on the other side, she looked at my food as if she was upset that I hadn't touched it. I almost laughed; that is one thing she and my mother didn't share. "Come on." she gestured at me to follow her.

I sighed and stood up, feeling every muscle in my body. Some of my bruises had been more pronounced this morning, but I think the tightness was mostly from nerves.

I fell into step with Natasha, and we ventured lower into the building. My nerves kicked up ten times; the lower you go into a building, the more likely you are to be wasted, at least in my experience.

Two doors swung open to reveal a larger room than I expected. There was a table where two men and a woman were seated. There was another chair next to the three and one on the other side of the table. Two men stood on either side of the room. To my right stood a man I recognized from the kidnapping, and to the left was Barnes, someone I deliberately avoided looking at.

I scrutinized the three newcomers, my gaze darting between them. The first thing that caught my attention was the man's eyepatch; it gave him a pirate-like appearance, contrasting with his dark, ashen skin, hinting at a life devoid of sunlight. He exuded an aura of authority; he was clearly in charge and knew it.

The second man sported neatly groomed hair on his head and face, a lack of balding or wrinkles, making him seem younger than he appeared. However, his confidence and sense of power were unmistakable. He sat close to the blonde woman, who possessed striking features and eyes that were both kind and calculating.