[Closed] So now you bring me your bruises

[animalhats]

Characters: Molly Hayes (animalhats) and Natasha Romanoff (tendnottoweep)
Date: June 9th/10th (not long after Tony and Steve's introductions)
Location: Wood Sector, in Molly's assigned suite (that she's never used)
Situation: Molly is freaking out over Iron Man and Captain America being here after everything that happened back home. Natasha noticed the yelling on the network and is tracking her down to make sure she's all right.
Warnings/Rating: Uh. 12-year-old freaking out to a russian spy?

[ Molly might have overreacted to Tony Stark and Steve Rogers arriving in Keelai. There's a tiny, rational, totally drowned-out part of her mind that knows it. She could have said nothing, she could have just avoided them instead of shouting and expecting that to do anything good.

But in the end, Molly is a scared little girl, and scared little girls who haven't had "proper responses" drilled into them for years can generally be expected to not respond rationally to something like this.

So she shouted at the console, and then she shouted at Rikki when the older girl tried to calm her down, and then she ran out of the suite and maybe slammed the door harder than necessary out her way out. She's taken shelter in the safest, secretest place she knows of right now - the suite that she's never actually lived in, in the Wood Sector. There's no reason anyone would think to look for her there, she thinks, not anyone who doesn't know her well anyway. So she's pulled the blanket off the biggest bed and is curled up in it underneath the dining room table; sniffling, trying not to cry even though she's alone, and failing miserably at it.

The door's shut and locked, but it's not exactly a difficult lock to pick, should one be so inclined. ]

Comments

[tendnottoweep]

[ Well. It's not terribly hard to put the pieces together from that. She doesn't like the implications, but the actual reasons are pretty clear unless she or Molly is terribly mistaken on some point. ] And you weren't registered. [ It's not a question - just a soft sigh, as she uncrosses her legs and leans forward, cupping her chin in one hand. ]

He can't do anything to you here, if that's what you're worried about. Neither of them can.

[animalhats]

Nuh-uh. They would've sent us back to foster care.

[ Molly huffs a little, quietly ] I guess... [ Yeah, logically, she knows there isn't registering or foster care here and that there's... not really anything they can make her do. Which makes her feel kind of stupid for flipping out.

But she's still scared. ]

I wish they'd go away.

[tendnottoweep]

[ Natasha slides gracefully off the chair to sit cross-legged on the floor - not coming into Molly's little shelter without invitation, but closer and there for comfort if she wants to reach out. ]

I feel that way about some people too. [ Loki, mostly. ] Maybe they will, and maybe we're stuck with them, but I doubt they'll come and find you. And if Rikki has the Captain over... you can come stay with me for a while. He'd never make it past the booby traps.

[ She's joking. Probably. ]