a collection of my writing involving Natasha Romanoff
masterlist
❀ - fluff
🌩 - angst
✾ - hurt/comfort
☆ - 1k notes or above
Platonic!Reader & Natasha
Captivity ❀
Summary: The Avengers think they know the reader, but a mission gone wrong proves they really don’t (Reader & Avengers)
Old Friends ❀
Summary: You and Natasha were friends in the Red Room, but what happens when you meet outside it?
Overworked ❀ ✾
Summary: Being ill and having an unrelenting work load wasn’t a great combo, but the Avengers help you out (guardian!Nat and best friend!Wanda)
Seduction? What’s that? ❀
Summary: Natasha has to seduce her target, but that’s more troublesome than it seems (aroace!reader)
Little Sister ❀
Summary: You're the adopted child of Alexei and Melina, and then one day your sisters stop by (Natasha Romanoff & Yelena Belova & Sister!Reader)
Alone Again 🌩
Summary: You thought the Avengers would be the friendship group that finally lasted, but you should have known that they never do.
omnia vincit amor 🌩 , part 2 🌩 ❀ part 3 ❀
Summary: Natasha and Y/N are best friends, but friendships change when relationships start. (aroace!reader & WandaNat)
only ones who know 🌩 ❀
Summary: Fairy tales portray love as a saviour, the key to escaping a miserable place. Stuck in the Red Room, the reader wants to try it. (Natasha Romanoff x Reader, aroace!reader)
So...you’re a bat ❀
Summary: You move to a new town for work, you need a house... you didn't expect a housemate to come with it.
wish i’d never grown up 🌩
Summary: Natasha adopted you as a baby, and now she gets to see you grow up (Natasha Romanoff x daughter!reader)
until their true meaning is goodbye 🌩
Summary: the avengers were your family, the ones who raised you, who supported you, who took care of you. so when did that change? (Avengers & Teen!Reader, specifically Natasha as their guadian)
will you stay here with me? (more angst version) 🌩
if it’s not too late (the happy version) ❀
Summary: Natasha finds out you’re graduating, but is it too late to get back in your life? (until their true meaning is goodbye - part 2)
‘cause lately i’ve been feeling kinda lonely 🌩 ✾
Summary: The Avengers make the perfect family, they’re kind to you and never do you wrong. But sometimes it’s just not right. (could be read as romantic too)
we could be heroes 🌩 ✾
Summary: with Natasha dead and forgotten to the world, your hurt leads you down a path she never wanted for you. It's up to Yelena to stop you before it goes too far. (Natasha Romanoff x daughter!reader)
déjà vu ✾
Summary: After Age of Ultron, the team are left with the decision of what to do with Wanda, and they’re not in agreement. Natasha becomes staunchly defensive of the witch, remembering her own fate at SHIELD was decided in a similar manner. (also Reader & Wanda Maximoff)
At Your Service ❀
Summary: As a trainee mechanic, you apply for an apprenticeship at Stark Automotives on a whim. What you don’t expect is for Tony Stark to reply personally with an offer to train you, and if that wasn’t enough, a certain redhead also takes an interest in your sessions. (Natasha Romanoff & Reader; Tony Stark & Reader)
Operation WandaNat ❀
Summary: Natasha Romanoff is your best friend – a best friend who most certainly has a crush on your sister. So when she brings her sister back to the compound, you’re delighted to finally get an accomplice to help the two Avengers confess. (Natasha Romanoff x Wanda Maximoff & Maximoff!Reader & Yelena Belova)
Romantic!Reader x Natasha
Mysterious Girl (Series - complete) ❀
Summary: A mysterious figure saves your life...twice, and becomes an integral part of it.
Afterlife 🌩 ❀
Summary: Reader dies on a mission, but keeps watch over Natasha as a ghost.
In the Background (Series - discontinued) ❀
Summary: You’ve been dating Natasha in secret since her early days in SHIELD, and you’ve been in the background of all her missions since.
The Jeff Fictional Universe ❀
A collection of short stories revolving around Jeff the land shark (Natasha Romanoff x Reader & Jeff the Land Shark)
Til Death Do Us Part 🌩 ❀
Summary: Natasha is falling in love with someone she can’t be with, someone who might not even exist.
Spies and Secrets ❀ ☆
Summary: Natasha has never met her handler, she couldn’t give you their name or identify their face because she doesn’t know it. When she rants about this to you, her wife, you have to laugh… because you are her handler.
A Study of Silence 🌩
Summary: Your life of married bliss is failing. A moment of heated arguing finally reveals the reason Natasha is pulling away from you, so you offer her the choice: stay or leave?
i’ve built my dreams around you ❀
Summary: You find out Natasha’s never been to a Christmas market. Considering you work at one, you do what any good partner would do: make her go around with you.
No Reader
Family Dinner ❀
Summary: Natasha's families finally collide, whether she wants them to or not. (Platonic Avengers)
Halloween Party ❀
Summary: Wanda and Natasha bonding over being supernatural at a classic Stark Party. (Natasha Romanoff & Wanda Maximoff)
Summary: Natasha Romanoff is your best friend -- a best friend who most certainly has a crush on your sister. So when she brings her sister back to the compound, you're delighted to finally get an accomplice to help the two Avengers confess.
Word Count: 2451
Pairing: Natasha Romanoff x Wanda Maximoff; Yelena Belova & Maximoff!Reader
Warnings: Pietro is dead, 'there was only one bed', scheming, and a very slight innuendo at the end.
A/N: This was a very fun dynamic to write, I hope you enjoy it!
»»————- ★ ————-««
“I thought I might find you two here.”
You recognise Natasha’s voice, your best friend coming to join you and Wanda, but you don’t turn to greet her. Instead, your focus lingers on the grave before you. “It’s been a year today.”
The soft tread of boots on the soil ensures you aren’t startled when her red hair invades your vision, finally drawing your attention from the grave to the flowers Natasha sets down, and eventually to the woman herself.
“I, um, didn’t think you’d come here, Nat,” Wanda murmurs. Her bowed head could easily be mistaken as a figment of her grief, but you notice her attempts to smooth her hair and the way her eyes follow Natasha’s every move, so when her eyes catch yours, you raise an eyebrow with a hint of a smirk. She uses her unique, all-powerful telepathic abilities to tell you to fuck off.
If Natasha notices the silent conversation happening around her, she doesn’t comment on it. Instead, she pulls a flower out of the bouquet before rising to her feet and presenting it to Wanda, “I know what it’s like to lose a sibling, through death or…otherwise. I didn’t want you to go through it alone.”
“Thank you, Nat. Wanda and I appreciate it,” you say. Wanda stammers out an agreement and almost melts when Natasha shoots her a sympathetic smile. “You should go look for her, you know. Yelena.”
Natasha smiles, but shakes her head, “We didn’t leave things on the best terms. Besides, I’ve been on TV, I live in a very public location, and it’s been years since I took the Red Room down; if she wanted to find me, she would.”
“If Pietro were still alive, I’d do anything to be reunited with him,” Wanda says, casting a sad look at her twin’s grave before she turns back towards Natasha, “I know you’d do the same, so find her.”
“The team-”
“-are on hiatus until Tony and Steve get their egos in check. Wanda and I can handle things in your absence, so please just go look for her.”
After minutes of contemplation, Natasha decides: “I’ll tell you if I find anything.” Then she runs back to the Compound, leaving just you and Wanda at your brother’s grave.
“So…” you began, “are you going to miss your girlfriend?”
“Just because Pietro’s gone, doesn’t mean you have to take his place, idiot.”
“I’m the eldest, I had that place before the both of you were even born, thank you very much. And I don’t hear you denying Nat’s your girlfriend-”
“Shut up. She’s not! Why don’t you ask yourself that; you’re the one hanging out with her all the time. I don’t even have a chance to talk to her without you hanging around.”
“Because we’re friends, Wands, and I don’t blush the second she smiles at me.” You shrug, then point at the flower she still holds, “but if you want some space to give her flowers of your own, then you should have just asked…” Wanda scowls and you worry her next move will be to chuck you across the field with her powers, something you hope to avoid. So, after one last smirk, you hurry back to the Compound; Natasha needed teasing for the affection she’d just shown towards your sister.
You’d regret it one day, when they finally get together and learn to team up against you, but that day won’t come without your intervention so, for now, you’ll keep it up.
»»————- ★ ————-««
Unfortunately, your sister never did get to woo Natasha; she planned and plotted and schemed, but when the two actually ended up in a room together, Wanda stammered out only excuses to leave.
Then, before the two had even had another proper conversation, Natasha disappeared. She told you (and only you, much to Wanda's disappointment) that she'd found a lead on her sister, then two hours later she was gone.
"Maybe when she's back," you tell Wanda in consolation, "you'll get there one day."
But that future day stretches further and further away as Natasha's leave of absence continues to extend: from days, to weeks, to two months later, until she finally returns to the Compound.
Wanda senses it first, before the assassin even steps into the building – something to do with 'feeling telepathic energy' (sometimes you regret not joining HYDRA with the twins; it seemed awful but you would have liked cool powers). Regardless, you heard her cry of "Natasha is back!" and followed her to the door… albeit at a slower, less-crazed pace.
It means you enter the foyer just in time to see Wanda stopped in her tracks by a knife-wielding blonde. "Get that knife away from her!" you yell, even if Wanda can protect herself more than you ever can. Your skills are, luckily, not tested when a familiar face enters and forces the newcomer's hand down to their side.
"You're the guest, сестра, act like it. They're friends."
"Natasha!"
"Hey again, Wands, it's good seeing you again…"
The blonde looks between the pair, her eyes narrowing and her head tilting slightly before she looks up at you. You shrug; at least someone else sees it. Then she coughs, a clearly fake 'let's break this up' kind of cough that does its job and snaps Natasha back to the present.
"Oh, right, yes, this is my sister, Yelena. Yelena, this is Y/N, and their younger sister, Wanda."
Wanda frowns slightly at the way Natasha introduces her, until you subtly elbow her side and nod towards Yelena, encouraging her to shake the Widow's outstretched hand.
"It's nice to meet you," Yelena remarks, "I've heard a lot from Natasha already."
Both Wanda and Natasha look sheepish then, and you sigh, moving to shake Yelena's hand. She possesses a knowing smirk and looks from you to the blushing pair; this time, you confirm her suspicions with a nod.
"Pleasure to meet you, Yelena, I do hope you're staying; I'm sure we'll find plenty to talk about."
"Oh I'm sure we will."
»»————- ★ ————-««
Yelena did stay, in a move that did wonders for your sanity, though she found herself growing closer to Wanda than to you, thanks to their matching ages and your already close relationship with her sister. But that didn't deter the gossiping between you two; if anything, it encouraged it.
There were no secrets within the newly formed quartet: Wanda whines to you about her crush on Natasha, Natasha whines to Yelena about her crush on Wanda, then you and Yelena meet twice a week to laugh over the new comments your sisters had made. Not to mention the teasing between both the sibling duos and the friendship duos: you messing with Natasha, and Yelena doing the same to Wanda.
It was truly against both yours and Yelena's best efforts that neither Wanda nor Natasha had clocked each others' feelings yet – you weren't subtle about pointing it out to them.
Eventually, after a lengthy conversation with Yelena, and possibly a few too many vodka shots, the two of you decide to take the matter into your own hands. While your sisters are preoccupied planning the last minute details of their mission, you and Yelena approach Steve with a plan of your own; the biggest surprise of all being how quickly he agrees.
"Are you sure this will work?" Yelena asks.
"I've seen hundreds of shows and books where it happens, trust me."
"There's always the fall back after the mission is complete; it'll work one way or another."
"Are you sure you're okay with this, Steve?" the man had happily interjected, but you still felt like checking, "this doesn't seem like…your kind of style…"
"Meddling in relationships? Bucky and I have been doing it since '29; and now I have experience of what happens when you wait too long. I'm all in."
"Good. Then the plan's all set?"
"All ready to go; I'll keep you two informed… if your sisters don't kill me on the way home, that is."
Yelena shrugs, "I can't guarantee that they will not."
"I'll take the risk."
»»————- ★ ————-««
You waved Steve, Natasha, and Wanda off on their mission the next day; it was supposed to be fairly risk free: they would fly out and stay in a hotel overnight, then explore an abandoned HYDRA base for leads the next day. Though there was always a risk of things going wrong, it was safe enough that your… suggested adjustments were approved and set in place without Natasha or Wanda knowing, given they were the two parties involved.
The strategy was cliché and over done, but you wanted to see it play out, booking the pair of them into a room with only one bed. Of course Steve would never dream of sharing a bed with a lady, so he'd have to take the single while they share a double, possibly even confessing their feelings in the night. You didn't actually think it would work, despite what you told Yelena, but you'll take any opportunity to mess with your sister and your best friend.
Then there was Plan B, the backup strategy you hoped for sure would work: at the end of the mission, when the base is confirmed to be empty, the two women will enter a room that 'accidentally' shuts and locks behind them, forcing them to sit and talk until Steve comes to the rescue.
And to make things even better, you don't have to wait long to find out how it goes. The quinjet touches down the following evening; Steve is the first to walk out, with a sheepish bow of his head that tells you nothing important. But Yelena sighs, and you realise that you must have missed something.
"You got cau-"
A hand roughly shoves Yelena back, cutting off her assumption while simultaneously proving it correct. The hand was Natasha's; you only caught a moment of their exchange before your sister did the same to you, dragging you by the ear away from your ally, Yelena, and Steve, the accomplice who got himself caught.
"This was your doing, wasn't it?" Wanda chides the moment the two of you are alone. The Sokovian accent arises with her words, as it always does when her anger is prominent, and it is only then that you contemplate whether meddling had been a good idea after all.
"You have to give more information than that," you taunt further. Why? You don't know. Winding her up is just an occasional need, a familiarity that you're sure she enjoys more than she lets on.
"The one bed? The locked room? This has you written all over it; especially when I'm stuck with Tasha."
You don't miss the slip of a new nickname, but you also decide to wait until later to comment on it. Now is the time to come clean. "Well, uh… did it work?"
A blush rises immediately to Wanda's cheeks, and you realise this list of 'things to tease her about later' is growing large enough that you'll soon need a notebook to keep on top of it. Still, you wait for Wanda to confess it herself, which she does with a shy nod.
"The one bed thing, it made us talk, we were more open than usual. Then in the locked room she was frustrating herself looking for ways to escape, I told her then, to make her take a break and just talk to me."
"Sweet little Wands making the first move! I never thought I'd see the day!"
"Shut up," she groans, though you know by the restrained smile that she doesn't mean it, "I'm still mad at you for meddling."
"It wasn't just me, you know!"
"Oh I know, Tash is scolding Yelena right now and Steve's already had it. You all better be sorry."
"We did you both a service, and do we get a thanks? Nooo, reprimanded instead," you mutter with an accompanying eye roll.
Wanda catches it and glares. "I will blast you through this wall right now-"
»»————- ★ ————-««
Despite Wanda’s words, and Natasha’s faux disappointed look when she passes you later, you know neither of them hold true resentment over the incident; the amusement of acting cross displays in their eyes and in the upturned corners of their mouths, even if they hide it in their expressions.
It only takes a day after that for things to settle back into the old routine, with only a slight difference stemming from the dating Avengers. You and Natasha go back to training together and watching movies afterwards, while Wanda and Yelena do the same – it is only when your two activities overlap, and the flirting begins between the new couple, that you exchange one assassin for another and hurry away from the scene with Yelena.
It’s a necessary move since, as the months pass, Wanda and Natasha only grow more carefree in their expressions of affection, something which comes to a head in the common room one evening, while playing a game of truth or dare:
“Has anyone ever made you scream?”
If Tony’s question aimed to draw out stories of your childhood pranks on Wanda, then it was severely misjudged; you had spent many nights comforting your younger sister as Stark’s bombs rained down on the city, and you worry for what Wanda’s reaction will be. You prepare to defend her, but then she smiles, and you think she’s getting ready to scold him herself. Wanda glances at Natasha and the assassin smirks into her drink; it’s an odd reaction, you think, until you realise what Wanda is actually going to say:
“Nat’s made me scream; almost every ni-”
“Ah stop! Stop! Enough! I don’t need to hear about my sister like that. God.”
Yelena storms out, dragging you with her by the wrist. Since you still face the group, you take this as your opportunity to fake disappointment, shaking your head slowly at the couple. You do eventually turn and walk beside Yelena, once you’re out of sight, and follow her back to her room. The two of you take the places that have become your designated spots in times such as these, and she offers you a drink.
“So,” you begin, “how long are we staying ‘angry’ this time?”
“Hour or so? The horrified sister act takes its toll.”
“We could always stop pretending.” You say with a deadpan expression; Yelena stares back with the same, until the two of you break into laughter.
“As if,” Yelena laughs, “how do we double down next time?”Bringing Yelena home might have been Natasha’s worst mistake. She and Wanda would never be free of your scheming.
A/N: Hi everyone! I'm on holiday at the moment and don't have too much time for writing, but my next fic is close to being finished and here's this in the meantime: it's a bunch of my headcanons about Jeff the Landshark that haven't explicitly made it into my JFU fics yet.
Send me an ask if you have any of your own headcanons about Jeff, I'd love to hear them and see if they'll fit into future stories! Have a good day y'all and I hope you enjoy!
Warnings: vague mentions of death, not proofread.
➼ Jeff was experimented on by MODOK. This one is pretty canon to Jeff’s official comics since MODOK officially created the land sharks, but in my mind, it went a lot deeper than that. Jeff doesn’t really remember any of it, nor does it affect him anymore, but he’ll still get a bit nervous in lab environments and snap at people who get too intrusive, even if he doesn’t know why he does that.
➼ He’s a mix of a bunch of animals – a shark most obviously, but he has the behaviour of dogs/cats and the toe count of guinea pigs, to name a few.
➼ Jeff understands every language, but he can only speak his own. He doesn’t expect anyone to speak his language because of this, but he can get frustrated that they don’t even understand his language. Especially with Natasha.
➼ When you first got the ability to speak to animals in the JFU, Jeff was the first animal you could understand, but you had gotten so used to answering Jeff’s mrrrs with random assumptions that you didn’t even notice. Jeff also didn’t notice because you had actually been fairly good at guessing what he wanted. It was only after a few days and a long speech by Jeff that you both had the moment of realisation.
➼ Jeff cannot read; you and Natasha have tried to teach him but to no avail. It became a challenge between the Avengers that anyone who teaches Jeff to read would win. Tony got closest to winning, but you later realised that Jeff was just reciting a section of the book which Tony had taught him to memorise, and he still couldn’t read anything else. Bruce decides that Jeff is just biologically incapable of reading full words.
➼ Despite this, Jeff can write a few short words/phrases; mainly his, yours, and Natasha’s names.
➼ Even if he can’t read words, Jeff understands all the letters of the alphabet individually and is convinced that the letter ‘E’ is written backwards (Ǝ). Any attempts to correct this are met with a scolding from that land shark and a lesson on how to ‘write it properly’.
➼ Somehow, Jeff has even set his phone keyboard to have a backwards E. Nobody is sure how he managed this, or even why he changed it, since he types in his own language and only uses the letters ‘m’ and ‘r’.
➼ He will sometimes ‘correct’ Natasha and your mission notes to have ‘the proper Ǝ’ because he doesn’t want you to look bad or be embarrassed. This leads to Maria Hill and Fury sometimes even writing their Es backwards since they’re so used to seeing it and reading it as if it were normal.
➼ On the topic of Jeff’s mental abilities: Jeff can only count to 4, since he has 4 fingers on his front hands (he only has 3 toes on his back feet, but that’s another matter – see ‘Class Pet’ for Jeff’s reaction to this information)
➼ If Jeff tries to count above 4, he reverts back to 1. This has led to some issues when you asked Jeff to scout out how many soldiers there were during a mission (Jeff had stowed away, but he was put to good(?) use). You went out expecting an easy fight, only to be confronted by 13 soldiers and a realisation that Jeff cannot count.
➼ There aren’t many foods that Jeff won’t eat; he’ll happily root through the trash for an extra snack, however, Natasha cooked for him once and that is where he draws the line. He immediately taught himself how to cook and he is excellent at it, and will often step in to cook when Natasha says she will (much to your relief). He is not so good at cleaning up after himself – but you leave that chore to Natasha.
➼ Sharks have some understanding of what Jeff is saying when he swims with them, but he has a ‘land accent’ and sometimes they find it easier for you to translate for Jeff, much to his annoyance.
➼ Jeff hopes to find other landsharks like him one day… little does he know that he’s the last of his kind. The others attacked civilians in an invasion orchestrated by MODOK and were put down by the Avengers; Jeff was saved by being the runt of the litter and was left in his cage rather than being sent out with the others.
400 year old Jeff headcanons (these aren’t all canon to the JFU, but it’s a fun version of Jeff that @wolferine and I brainstormed in discord.)
➼ Jeff is 400 years old but nobody believes him; they even go as far as to call him a baby constantly since his appearance has never changed.
➼ He was kicked out of the landshark group because he ate all their food. Jeff is exceptionally hungry for a landshark. He spent some time in the sea after that and befriended the oldest greenland shark, who was still just a pup like Jeff at the time.
➼ Jeff still goes to visit his friend from time to time, glad to have had someone with him for his whole existence.
➼ When you and Natasha take Jeff in, it is the first time in his 400 years of life where he has been content to settle with a family for their entire lifetimes. The Avengers promise that their children will look after Jeff when they’re gone, like a tortoise (once they realise Jeff isn’t a baby).
➼ Jeff replies to any scolding with ‘I’m older than you’ or ‘respect your elders’, much to Steve’s annoyance because that’s usually his line, but now he’s being called a youth by a tiny, round, short legged shark.
➼ The other Avengers expect Jeff to scold Thor when he comes to Earth and calls Jeff a baby on their first meeting, but to their surprise, he just accepts it. Jeff mentions later on that he met Thor roughly 350 years before during a battle on Earth. Thor doesn’t believe Jeff is that old until he finds a portrait of the battle back on Asgard, and spots a familiar landshark in the drawing; he still doesn’t believe it can be Jeff and assumes it is just Jeff’s ancestor, so Jeff bites him in annoyance – that spurs a memory and Thor suddenly realises that it was Jeff who fought in battle with him (because Jeff had accidentally bitten Thor in the heat of the battle, and he’s been bitten by so many creatures in his life that he instantly recognises the landshark bite.)
Hi Peppa, can you write Nat and YN taking Jeff to Disneyland to see the new Avengers Campus? And then he gets upset because there are no statues/rides/mascots dedicated to him yet, so his parents take him on the rollercoaster (for his first time!) to distract him?
-Translated by Wolferine from JƎFF
This fic has been a long time coming lol, but it's under a year so that's something!
Thank you, JƎFF for blessing my asks with your presence, and thank you to @wolferine too for translating it, I hope you enjoy the fic 😌
Click the link here to read Disneyland: A Jeff Adventure!
Summary: Natasha is falling in love with someone she can’t be with, someone who might not even exist.
Pairing: Natasha Romanoff x Reader
Word Count: 1829
Warnings: Death, mentions of blood, talk of depression, Nat is not really taking the best care of herself.
A/N: I don’t know how this one will go down. It’s a bit different to my usual style, but 3rd person and present tense felt better for this, so that’s what I’ve gone with. Please leave a comment/reblog and let me know what you think! :)
(oh also the Russian is from google translate, so it may be wrong)
————————————————————————————————–
Natasha had been little more than a toddler when she first heard it. The voice that comforted her on her deathbed, a figure that ebbed and flowed between invisibility, but whose presence she had always felt. They had tended to her, comforted her with the first gentle touch she had ever known, and treated her with a care the Red Room had never shown.
Natasha assumed the figure was her nurse, pulling her from the verge of death just to send her back to the torture of her training. But she saw them again, over and over through her youth, had conversations and shared jokes, talked through her days, and lived to make her friend laugh. Looking back she knew the friend, the figure whose care and comfort lured her back into life, had been no older than a child themself, just a friend that no others could see.
These days, Natasha was too old for imaginary friends. If she admitted that she still heard hers, she would be taken out of the field immediately and sent for a psych eval, which is why she didn't tell anyone. She's fine. She'll manage. She doesn't need a psychologist.
"Maybe you do," the voice says. Natasha groans, she doesn't need an imaginary voice to judge her too. "You're talking out loud," it continues, "and you're bleeding out. Again."
"And I don't need judgement when I'm at my weakest."
"That's the only time I can offer you judgement. It took a lot of energy to keep you living past 5, you know, so stop courting death."
"Maybe death wants a girlfriend," Natasha smirks, before doubling over in pain, her hand shooting to grasp the knife slash in her side. But blood still poured through her fingers, dyeing her hand the shade of crimson she was all too familiar with.
"Alright," the voice says, irritation bleeding through, "alright, fine." Before her, the figure started to form, not quite the same as in her childhood, this was someone her own age, and yet, as she studies their face, the similarities emerge. The same concerned eyes, the same teeth just visible through the same parted lips, the same gentle touch.
"You grew up," Natasha smiles, reaching out with a weak hand to grasp her friend's arm. Their greyish skin flickers at her touch, seeming more opaque the longer her hand brushes it.
"So did you," they smile back. Swiftly, they reach behind them and pull the bed sheets from their place; Natasha's hand falls to the floor and her head falls back against the wall. The figure hurries, offering Natasha a section of the sheet to bite down on, which she compliantly does, before the rest of the sheet is wrapped tightly around her waist. Natasha's pained groan is muted by the bedding, but she's been through worse, both people in the room know it. "Grow up a little more before your date with death, alright? They don't need you so young."
"We'll see how today goes before I can make that promise."
"Your friends are on their way, life isn't done with you yet."
"What about you? Are you going to go again?"
"I can never stay here long, but you hear me in your dreams, don't you? You'll find me there."
"Will you stay until they come?" Natasha pleads, but the figure before her is already fading; she can make out every detail of the cabinet that their body previously obscured. "Do you even have a name? What do I call you?"
"You may call me whatever you wish. You'll learn my true name one day."
"жизнь. Life. Because you've been saving me since I was born, and because you're not done with me yet. I won't let you be." Natasha sees Life smile, the expression seeming to linger one moment longer than the vanishing body.
The door bursts open and Natasha blinks, wiping away the last trace of her saviour from her sight. But then Clint is rushing in, and he's talking to her, asking her questions, but she's not listening. Natasha's gaze never wavers from where Life once was. Clint finally gives up and carries his friend to the jet outside, she can be treated there, her wound mended. She will live.
————————————————————————————————–
Late nights soon became the highlight of Natasha's day. She hurries to bed each night and drags herself lethargically away from it each morning. Her saviour had confirmed it, that the voice was more than just her imagination, it was her childhood friend, her guardian, her Life.
She sees them in her sleep each night, talking about things beyond her future and her past. Natasha talks about her day, her thoughts and dreams, her aspirations. Her companion says little, never telling her their name or what they are, but constantly engaging her in teasing conversations, with jokes that only come from a lifetime of friendship.
Natasha never wants to wake up. Her teammates notice this. The Black Widow, once renowned for taking any mission without complaint and finishing it no matter what, now grumbling if a mission cut into the night or, even worse, was scheduled all through the night. A lack of sleep never used to bother Natasha, but now she couldn't go a day without it.
She acts differently, but Natasha remains a spy. She hears what the others whisper about her when they think she's not around. They talk of depression and trauma, of fear and regret. They place bets on who can take her to therapy.
But Clint disagrees. "He should know," Natasha thinks. He'd seen her at her worst, when she'd just been freed from the Red Room. It should have been her happiest time, but that institute was all she'd known. Without it she had no purpose, no expectations of life, and, worst of all, she'd lost the voice of her nurse, that first saviour who taught her what it was to be kind. Natasha had fought the therapist then. She knows Clint won't try to bring her back, he already knows she doesn't need it, and she won't take it if she does.
He disagrees with the others. "No," he says, "don't you see her excitement in the evenings? That's not a lack of energy, that's love. And I'm going to find out who to." True to his word, a few days later Clint confronts Natasha, but what could she say?
"Yes, I fear I'm slowly falling in love with the disembodied voice in my head. No, I'm certain they're real because otherwise you would have entered that cabin and found me dead, not wrapped up in a bedsheet."
Nothing Natasha could say would make that sound believable, and even Clint would force her into therapy for expressing that.
"I'm falling in love," Natasha says instead, talking slowly to stop herself from slipping up on her words, "with somebody I can't have."
Clint's expression morphs into sympathy, and he opens his mouth to speak before Natasha cuts him off. "That is the last I want to speak of it, so go tell the others you were right, and forget the rest of what I said."
Clint nods, then walks off, leaving Natasha alone with her thoughts. She's not sure she enjoys it anymore, Clint's pestering would have been annoying, but now she has to face her own acceptance. She said she was falling in love, but that wasn't true. Natasha knows she is already in love, and there is nothing more she can do but continue to talk to her жизнь.
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The sky is foreboding, and the rock ahead of them looks deadly, but the return of half the population depends on Natasha and Clint climbing to the top. So climb they did. "Natasha," your voice says. The assassin startles, muttering "жизнь?" before she can catch herself. Clint turns to her and his eyes soften as he watches. Unbeknownst to Natasha, he had heard her midnight conversations, and the nickname she had given her love: ‘Life’.
"Are they here?" he asks her. Natasha nods. "No wonder you couldn't track them down. They project their voice into your head and follow us to Space's version of the middle of nowhere. That's not normal, Nat, what are they if they're capable of that?"
"You tried to find me?" The voice teases in Natasha's mind. The assassin blushes, a rare sight that has Clint turning away in fear of accidentally intruding.
"You don't speak about yourself, жизнь. I don't know what you are, I hardly remember what you look like, and you think I wouldn't try to find out more on my own?"
"The day you know will not be a good day, but I fear it is coming soon."
"It will be worth it all, anything that happens."
"Not for me," the voice says gravely, "I don't want the day to come."
Any reply Natasha could form was cut off when a spectral figure approached. The assassin's heart soars high, to begin with, convinced it is the figure she so rarely sees. It explains why their voice is so much louder on this planet after all. But the hood lowers, and a red-stained skull comes into view. It reminds Natasha of her own blood, the sight of it painting her saviour's sickly grey skin a lively shade of crimson red. One of them must jump, the spectre explains. A sacrifice. Natasha and Clint wouldn't be getting out of this together, as they had been for so many years. This time, one of them had to die.
————————————————————————————————–
"You're here," Natasha concludes out loud. This wasn't a coincidence, her saviour rarely appeared while Natasha was fully conscious, only at sleep or near death. And this time, they were louder than they had ever been.
"Yes," the voice answers, slowly, as if they don’t want to speak the rest, "and I wait at the bottom. But don't rush to meet me."
Finally, it clicks. The appearances weren't random, they followed a distinct pattern. In only one scenario was her "Life" always present, and if luck went her way, the scenario would re-enact for the final time. At that moment, she knows who they are, who she has been in love with all this time. Natasha doesn't falter, nor does she heed her saviour's advice. Natasha jumps. She falls. And she dies.
Clint sobs from above, knowing that losing in combat has cost him his best friend. But below, a whole different scene plays out. Natasha stands up, eyes instantly locking on the cloaked spectre before her. Beneath the hood, Natasha makes out a skeleton face, and boney hands peek out from the cloak's billowing sleeves. Looking closer, Natasha sees past the outfit, past the skeletal structure, and looks into your eyes, finding in them the ever-present concern that had saved her so many years ago.
“So you see me again.” They sigh, but to Natasha, their voice is a familiar comfort. “Hello, Natasha… My name is Death.”
Natasha beamed. “Yes I-” she trailed off when she saw the young girl, red hair braided just like hers. More specifically, she trailed off when she saw the child was still metres away with her back turned… because she wasn’t talking to Natasha.
“Oh, honey, I sure am! Would you like a picture?”
The mascot showed the girl how to pose. Together, they crouched to the ground with one leg bent and one straightened out to the side, then held an arm out as if shooting Widow’s Bites. The scarlet that coloured your Natasha’s face could be compared only to Wanda’s powers, and if you hadn’t applied her sunscreen yourself that morning, you’d have pulled her out the sun and told her it wasn’t enough. Actually, you thought, you should still do that…can’t risk it with a redhead.
But first, there was something more important to do.
You pressed it slowly, as if that might mute the sound completely, and yet…
*click*
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Not even any mention of Jeff in this snippet, sorry 😔 This WIP is based on a request I got from @wolferine about 10 months ago that I still haven't got around to writing. But I'll write it a snippet at a time if I have to 😅
WIP Game (everyone send me some more so I'll actually write)
