The Nightlight
They had given you a room. Not a cell. A whole room to yourself. When Wanda had shown it to you, she watched with an amused grin as you paced and inspected every small part of it.
After your shopping spree you had a set of coloured pencils, paints, markers and a whole host of mechanical pencils, rubbers and even a premium sketchbook. Wanda had insisted after she caught you drawing in the communal lounge.
*flashback*
“Hey y/n have you seen my-“ Wanda said walking into the room pausing by your shoulder. You were sat drawing on a piece of scrap paper. So involved in it you hadn’t noticed her presence. “Wow.” Wanda said unintentionally. You flinched, not having heard her get closer.
“Sorry.” Wanda said with a small smile cross grimace. “That’s really amazing y/n” she said pointing. You grinned sheepishly and cover it with spread fingers the tips of your ears turning pink. Wanda reached over your shoulder and pried your fingers away with little resistance. The drawing was Wanda in the kitchen cooking pancakes from earlier that morning. “You really have a skill y/n.” Wanda said smiling softly. “Im defiantly talking to Steve about getting you some more art supplies. You cant keep using this” she gestured to the 50c mechanical pencil you were holding. You frowned “why not?” You said and Wanda laughed.
“Its not very artist-y i honestly don’t even know where you found that. Tony hates cheap stationary.” She grinned.
“I think pepper keeps replacing Tony’s fancy pens with them. I caught her swapping them and she explained his pet peeve and how hers is him not turning up to meetings so this is her payback.” You grinned. Wanda looked slightly shocked.
“You met pepper?”
“Yeah after breakfast i was looking for tony to thank him. She gave me one of them” you grinned.
*end flashback*
It had now been almost 24 hours since you first arrived. The team was adjusting to your presence but most weren’t at the compound. Clint was with his kids. Nat was on a mission but was supposed to be getting home soon. Bruce was in his lab. Bucky and Sam had to go on a mission with Steve. Wanda and you had been spending time together. And tony seemed to be getting mad about something and had locked himself in his lab where pepper had been bringing him food between her meetings claiming he can’t live off coffee. Peter was busy with school and Kate and Yelena were who knows where.
The last 24 hours had been frustrating for tony, he was desperate to know how you were enhanced. But Friday didn’t know either just saying you had modified genetics and since tony had freaked you out in the med bay, aside from thanking him, Wanda and Natasha had barred him from seeing you until you were better.
It was now 11pm, you had stayed up late and started a new drawing. You tossed and turned for a bit, as nice as it was you were unused to a bed and it was too soft to sleep on. After a few minutes you grabbed the blanket and a pillow and moved to the floor. Sighing it felt more familiar. It wasn’t long until the exhaustion caught up and you drifted off.
Nat had just gotten back. She had a drink of water in the kitchen and had showered at the safe house before coming back. Now she just wanted to slip into something comfy and go to sleep. She caught the elevator back to her floor. She shared the level with the other girls, you and Wanda and sometimes Yelena when she stayed at the tower. There was also the spare room which was Kate’s when she was here.
Stepping off the elevator nat chuckled at the flickering lights and muffled sounds from under Wanda’s door. She had obviously fallen asleep watching sitcoms again. Nat carefully opened the door, whispering to Friday to turn it off once she saw Wanda asleep. Friday turned it off and nat turned out the light before leaving. Wandas little red nightlight glowed softly. Since Pietro died she found the dark suffocating and it was always so much worse when she woke in a cold sweat from a nightmare in the dark. Nat was the only one who knew as she suggested and bought it for Wanda after calming her down one night.
Nat’s feet carried her down the hall she pausing at your door listening for movement to see if you were sleeping. She frowned. Small whimpers could be heard past the door. Just as nat placed her hand on the door knob a blood curdling scream came from within the room. Nat was inside in an instance. Almost panicking when she saw the empty bed until her gaze lowered to where you sat shaking on the floor. She slowly came to your side. Tears were streaming down your face. White knuckled hands gripped the blanket as you shuddered with each uneven breath you drew. Your eyes were flitting fast around the room the darkness drowning you.
Nat was by your side carefully she pried your hands from the blanket replacing them with her own hands. She squeezed them to try and draw you back. Nat looked into your eyes, her mouth was moving but you heard no words. Nat’s breathing was exaggerated and subconsciously you began to mimic it.
“Good thats good. Your doing so well y/n.” She said and you nodded tears still streaming down your face. “Fri, lights at 20%” then the lights began to slowly become brighter. You flinched and nat went back to comforting you. Neither of you had noticed Wanda standing in the doorway. After a few moments you threw yourself at nat. She stiffened not expecting it before relaxing and wrapping her arms around you. You sniffled and buried your teary face in her chest.
“Shh shh shhh” nat said rubbing her hand up and down your back softly. Nat looked up for the first time nodding to Wanda. Wanda nodded back mouthing “is she ok?” Nat nodded mouthing back.
“Nightmare.” Wanda nodded again and came and sat beside nat. Wanda began drawing shapes on your thigh. Soon small snores came from Nat’s lap as the two realised you were asleep.
“Should we move her to the bed?” Wanda asked.
“Its more comfortable than the floor. But for some reason she was sleeping on the floor when i came in.” Nat frowned.
“Understandable i did the same when I first came here. Its more like a cell. Shes more used to it than the bed.” Wanda explained. Carefully nat shifted to stand with you in her arms. Sleepily you clung to her. Wanda chuckled.
“Need any help?”
“No. But i think i am going to stay here tonight in case she has another nightmare. Can you watch her while i get changed? Ill only be a minute.” Nat said, carefully placing you on the bed.
“Sure no problem.” Wanda said watching you start wriggling on the bed. Wanda sat down rubbing a hand on your back you sought her out and snuggled into her leg and went still once more aside from the steady rise and fall for your chest.
“Thanks Wanda.” Nat said. She left quickly and changed. Returning to find Wanda asleep with you curled into her side. Nat chuckled quietly slipping out and unplugging Wanda’s night light from her room and plugging it in into your room instead. She pull the sheets over the three of you and went to sleep. You slept the rest of the night. Waking in the cold darkness had been a bit too much like your cell and it had been what triggered the panic attack after the nightmare you had because it was like you were still there.
The next morning you woke to the feeling of arms around you. You stiffened before last night came back to you. You groaned softly and opened your eyes. Nat looked down at you from where she sat against the headboard of the bed reading.
“Morning sleepy head.” She whispered and grinned down at you. It must be Wanda’s arms around your midsection then you thought to yourself.
“Morning.” You said, morning voice quiet gravelly with the absence of moisture.
You noticed the soft red glow from the table by Nat’s side of the bed.
“Um. Nat?” You whispered.
“Yes y/n?” She said looking up again from the book tucked between her knees.
“You didn’t need to bring in a night light.” You blushed unsure how she knew about what you felt last night.
“Oh. Its Wanda’s.” Nat said and you seemed to deflate. “Why? Do you want one?” Nat said softly. You merely swallowed and her gaze softened more. “There’s nothing wrong with it y/n.”
“Its just… last night after i woke i couldn’t see and i felt like… like… I was back there.” You said. Wandas arms seemed to tighten around you.
“Thank you for telling me y/n I’ll be sure to order anther one today. Do you have a colour your prefer?” She asked placing in a bookmark to the spine of her book.
“Um not really. Just not yellow or orange. Red is ok. But the alarm lights in the cell. The ones that came on during attacks or when the siren went on was, were yellow and orange. So, please not those colours if thats ok.”
“That’s perfectly fine thank you for telling me.” Nat said.
“I said the same thing.” Wanda said from behind you and you chuckled slightly. Wanda withdrew her arms seemingly unbothered by the previous contact. You missed it almost. No. You defiantly missed it. Years without friendly contact had left you severely touch starved. So much so that you craved even the most basic touch. Wanda seemed to sense your change in mood.
“Y/n?” She asked slowly.
“Yeah?” You swallowed.
“Did you share a cell in hydra.”
“No? Why?” You said and Wanda frowned.
“Not once?” She asked and nat seemed to catch on but you still hadn’t.
“No.” You shook your head propping yourself up on your elbows.
“Y/n do you know what touch starvation is?” Nat asked placing her book on the bedside.
“Vaguely?” You said.
“Well you should expect a lot more contact from the both of us from now on sweetie. And daily cuddles from whichever one of us you would prefer.” Nat said softly.
“Ok.” You said softly averting you gaze.
“Hey.” Nat said softly using her finger to guide your head up by the underside of your chin until you locked eyes. “Its ok. Your safe now.” She said and after the moment passed Wanda slipped out from behind you. She walked over to the bathroom.
“Hey y/n do you mind if i use your bathroom.”
“Not at all. Go ahead.” You said. And Wanda smiled slipping inside and shutting the door. After a couple of moments the door opened again and Wanda’s head popped out.
“Y/n you don’t have any toiletries?”
“Um yeah? Hydra didn’t really send us many care packages.” You said.
“Friday order everything off my list on Amazon called basic toiletries.”
“Yes Ms Maximoff right away.”
“We will not have you using Tony’s tiny Ironman branded hotel soaps.” She said and grinned before disappearing inside again and shutting the door once more.
“So? Which ones did you get?” Nat said with a grin.
“What do you mean?”
“Tony being tony has made his shampoo and conditioners a collectable set. There are twelve different pictures of tony in his suit. He made some harder to find than others. Don’t tell anyone but I’ve been trying to complete the set since i first came here.” She grinned and you laughed behind you hand.
“I don’t know. Its his suit but its not. Its blue kinda?” You said.
“Omg you have the pepper set.”
“The pepper set?”
“Pepper would only let tony do something so self centred if she was allowed to be on one of them in her suit.” Nat grinned. “I’ll defiantly be taking them because i don’t have that one yet. Tony being petty made it one of the less common ones just to spite pepper.” Nat giggled. Your jaw dropped.
“Pepper has a suit?”
“Yeah but she doesn’t fight or anything. Tony wont let her. Its more a security measure. Just in case she needs to be protected.” Nat nodded. A moment later Wanda emerged from the bathroom.
“Im going to go start on breakfast.” She said.
“Don’t bother.” Nat said “Clint’s been in the kitchen since 5am. He wanted to surprise us with a visit and rub it in Tony’s face that he can cook without burning it.”
Wanda giggled. “Well in that case.” She said slipping back under the sheets. “Its time to start y/n’s daily cuddles.” You blushed deeply as Wanda snuggled up to your side.
“Is this ok y/n?” Wanda asked.
“Y-yes.” You said and Wanda smiled.
“Good.” She draped an arm over your stomach as she buried her face in your side.
“Wandas very cuddly in the mornings.” Nat chuckled. “Normally I’m the one who gets the cuddles.” She said.
“Well feel free to join.” Wanda mumbled and nat smiled placing a hand on your leg.