[Ava hadn't really wanted a friend. She'd thought that she'd be safer on her own, had still mostly been planning to use the passports in her bag, once she thought she could get through an airport without getting flagged somewhere. She might be paranoid here almost to the point of something feral, but it wasn't paranoia when there really were people after you.]
Yes. When I first came out of stasis.
[She knows she wont leave if she lets herself focus on it, so she doesn't. If she indulges that part of her that wants to watch over Sana and make sure nothing touches her, that's all she'll do. And that's a big part of why this is vulnerable. Because it's giving him something that matters. And she's gotten better about that in recent months, but it's still.. rough. That sort of knowledge. When Sana means so much to her.
In the memory, Sana takes her to the kitchen, and after explaining the situation to the few other people, makes her a plate piled high with the night's leftovers, which the other workers had been moving into the refrigerators. Ava sits on a counter and eats her food, her attention almost hawkish. Sana talks more at her than to her, with Ava offering few words. Opening up to people was harder back then. She's starved, but she paces herself, and there's something about how she eats, how she pockets the rolls. That was Red Room more than living on the streets, even if she hadn't really understood the whys then. To be fair, she hadn't really remembered much just then.
Sana is good for her. She pushes, but not too much, seems to be able to tell the difference between boundaries and stubbornness. She smiles and laughs and tells a sly joke about how they never have cupcakes as she offers ava Jello instead. It's hours later, well after midnight when Ava finally leaves. Sana and the others finish cleaning up not long after. Ava's clearly feeling a bit better, and she trails after her; melts into shadows, slips along fire escapes. Doesn't overexert herself, but she follows her. Could probably have asked where she lived, but she hadn't really known how, not that night. She finds her window, and watches her for just a few minutes before slipping away. And she doesn't do anything about it that night.]
She looked fine. But that's all I could tell.
[In the memory, one night slips into the next. Ava steals a box of cupcakes from a grocery store, and in the end it's easy enough to slide Sana's bedroom window open, to wait for her, leaning the ledge. Sana almost screams, clapping hands over her mouth, and Ava looks bewildered. She says I have cupcakes as if that explains why she's in Sana's room in the middle of the night. But after a few moments Sana seems to recover, demands that Ava stays and share them in return for scaring her half to death. And she does. Sana talks, like she had before, and she even makes the small redhead smile. My name's Ava, she says, between bites of cupcake, as if that makes it less significant.]
I was sort of raised by spies.
[It's not quite a lie, but it doesn't really touch any of the important parts, either. But with how off-kilter she'd been back then, Ava felt the need to fill the air with some sort of explanation, try to stave off conjecture. It had been one thing to tell her group of SHIELD recruits about the Red Room and Ivan, it would be another to tell him, and so she doesn't. Not yet, anyway.]
no subject
Yes. When I first came out of stasis.
[She knows she wont leave if she lets herself focus on it, so she doesn't. If she indulges that part of her that wants to watch over Sana and make sure nothing touches her, that's all she'll do. And that's a big part of why this is vulnerable. Because it's giving him something that matters. And she's gotten better about that in recent months, but it's still.. rough. That sort of knowledge. When Sana means so much to her.
In the memory, Sana takes her to the kitchen, and after explaining the situation to the few other people, makes her a plate piled high with the night's leftovers, which the other workers had been moving into the refrigerators. Ava sits on a counter and eats her food, her attention almost hawkish. Sana talks more at her than to her, with Ava offering few words. Opening up to people was harder back then. She's starved, but she paces herself, and there's something about how she eats, how she pockets the rolls. That was Red Room more than living on the streets, even if she hadn't really understood the whys then. To be fair, she hadn't really remembered much just then.
Sana is good for her. She pushes, but not too much, seems to be able to tell the difference between boundaries and stubbornness. She smiles and laughs and tells a sly joke about how they never have cupcakes as she offers ava Jello instead. It's hours later, well after midnight when Ava finally leaves. Sana and the others finish cleaning up not long after. Ava's clearly feeling a bit better, and she trails after her; melts into shadows, slips along fire escapes. Doesn't overexert herself, but she follows her. Could probably have asked where she lived, but she hadn't really known how, not that night. She finds her window, and watches her for just a few minutes before slipping away. And she doesn't do anything about it that night.]
She looked fine. But that's all I could tell.
[In the memory, one night slips into the next. Ava steals a box of cupcakes from a grocery store, and in the end it's easy enough to slide Sana's bedroom window open, to wait for her, leaning the ledge. Sana almost screams, clapping hands over her mouth, and Ava looks bewildered. She says I have cupcakes as if that explains why she's in Sana's room in the middle of the night. But after a few moments Sana seems to recover, demands that Ava stays and share them in return for scaring her half to death. And she does. Sana talks, like she had before, and she even makes the small redhead smile. My name's Ava, she says, between bites of cupcake, as if that makes it less significant.]
I was sort of raised by spies.
[It's not quite a lie, but it doesn't really touch any of the important parts, either. But with how off-kilter she'd been back then, Ava felt the need to fill the air with some sort of explanation, try to stave off conjecture. It had been one thing to tell her group of SHIELD recruits about the Red Room and Ivan, it would be another to tell him, and so she doesn't. Not yet, anyway.]