A Common Theme
Summary: A light-hearted and very tongue-in-cheek look at two lines that have grabbed many a fan's imaginations and tugged mercilessly. No offense is meant! I just kept seeing the lines, and I wanted to play with them.
Disclaimer: I did not write the original screenplay, comic boards, or any other part of Marvel that used these lines in the first place.
The Red Room, Russia
Natalia Romanova, not yet Natasha Romanoff, not yet (officially) Black Widow, SHIELD operative and super assassin, sat in the cold, unyielding and unwelcoming office of her instructor. The chair beneath her was a crude wooden excuse for seating, meant to make those sitting on it uncomfortable. She was being scrutinized mercilessly.
"Ms. Romanova. Your little friend told us all about it. I'm afraid you've been compromised."
She gulped. That little traitor had told their teacher about the cheat sheet. Her fingers curled into her palms, her fists already thirsting for revenge.
The instructor, a tall and lean man in his fifties, short-cropped hair and fierce features, reached for the desk and drew out his hated and feared red pen. She watched in horror as he took pen to paper and wrote "0, F, for cheating" on the paper, followed by a similar mark inside his grade book.
"You now have red in your ledger. This will not go away. You'd best play nice for the rest of your time here because you can't just flunk out here."
Natalia's eyes focused hard on an object that was not this man, and she simply nodded. There was a moment of silence that stretched on uncomfortably; finally, the man said curtly, "You are dismissed."
…
Natalia found the girl on her bunk, her pretty blonde curls splayed over the flat pillow. She was not really sleeping, and Natalia found herself hating the girl for even thinking to pretend, for even thinking that the poorly execute ruse would work on her.
When Natalia walks away, the girl is not so pretty, and red stains the girl's hair the same way that red marker now stained her file in the central office. She felt a little more pleased, or at least self-satisfied.