[If she's being honest, it was a little bit of a litmus test. There are soldiers, men like Steve and Bucky, Clint, a number of the people she knew from SHIELD who were good people and just as blinded by Hydra. And then there were the ones that tended to fall victim to bravado, men like Rollins, some she'd worked with back when she'd been in the Soviet Army. But he passes, and so while he doesn't get a smile, she eases just a touch, seems a little less like she's drawn too tight over her own bones.]
Romanoff.
[It's that habit, working with a military organization -- last name or her code name are more common. She doesn't give him Black Widow not because her name is more familiar, but more that there's always been a lot tied up in the title the Red Room gave her. People make assumptions, and while it's who she is in a way that's deeper than blood and bone, she hardly knows which way is up in this place.
She takes his hand, and matches his grip, and there's a glint in her eyes because there's a familiarity in the callouses as she shakes his hand. Someone that knows what the fight is like, at least. It makes her voice a little lighter, even if she doesn't smile, a tilt of her head to the side.]
no subject
Romanoff.
[It's that habit, working with a military organization -- last name or her code name are more common. She doesn't give him Black Widow not because her name is more familiar, but more that there's always been a lot tied up in the title the Red Room gave her. People make assumptions, and while it's who she is in a way that's deeper than blood and bone, she hardly knows which way is up in this place.
She takes his hand, and matches his grip, and there's a glint in her eyes because there's a familiarity in the callouses as she shakes his hand. Someone that knows what the fight is like, at least. It makes her voice a little lighter, even if she doesn't smile, a tilt of her head to the side.]
Well, let's find out then.