Chapter One
Few things brought Natasha Romanov moments of happiness, but there was something about the moments before a mission – where the jet would fall into silence and they all knew what should happen next. What should happen and what happens sometimes does not quite add up. She supposed that there were more parts of her than she would like to admit that she could thank her upbringing for. Some things they had taught her could not so easily be stripped away.
This mission would be simple. Get in, do what they must, then get out. They were letting this base stand, learning from it more than they could if they were to bring it to its knees.
Her eyes find the darkened skies beyond Clint’s shoulder as he starts the descent towards the buildings hidden just behind a ridge. They’d spent the last three days locating this place, and without the help of someone on the inside, it may have been days or weeks until they got the intel that was needed.
“Game faces people, we’re closing in.” Clint announces.
Nat takes a sweep of the jet, Steve was already standing, moving to watch the forest grow closer in front of them. Her eyes finally fall on Wanda, the last person on the jet. She looked small in her seat, eyes staring out the front window.
Natasha hadn’t thought she was ready, had told Steve that so many times before they had headed out on their first mission just weeks after Sokovia had happened. Since then, though, Wanda had proven she was more ready than any of them had given her credit for – though she suspected that it may be her anger that was pushing her. The chips would fall, and the anger would give way to something else far too soon Nat feared.
“Everyone knows what needs to be done, coms on, let's get this over with without incident.”
When Natasha had noticed the first time it could have been brushed off as nothing more than a misconstrued moment in time – but it had happened again, and again it was happening now. The little witch had somehow gotten under her skin and it was making for a distraction that she could not afford now.
“Nat, are you moving in?” Steve came over her earpiece.
“bout to make the drop, who do you think you’re working with Rogers?” She is met with a laugh from the other end.
The gunfire that had been ringing out in the distance suddenly grows closer - from the left ridge. Her blood runs cold. “What’s happening over there?” She continues feet from where she is to drop the package that their man on the inside would retrieve. Sneaking into hydra bases seemed to be child’s play recently, but something was wrong here.
“They’re going after the little witch.” Came Clint's reply over the coms. Before she can even make her mind think of an action plan her feet are carrying her towards the fray.
“Nat, stand down, we need you to get back to the jet,” Steve says from higher ground – someone needed to make sure that their return package made it back to the compound.
“You get it there, I’m closer and I’m not leaving anyone behind.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence there, guys, really, I can’t handle this at all,” Clint says firing off a few arrows perfectly taking out the Hydra agent’s mobility. “I’ll get the little witch outta here.”
Normally Nat would already be headed to the jet, ready for extraction, but her feet pounded harder against the forest terrain. This is what was happening, she was distracted from the mission – because she was worried about her.
By the time the fight comes into view, Clint is wounded and Wanda is holding off more agents than they would normally have on any site. They must have known they were coming. They knew she was coming.
“Clint, get me to her.” She orders as she flies into the opening, drawing the attention away from Wanda for a moment. Not her smartest move, but she had the best marksman alive covering her ass. She flies through a handful of them but gets caught across the cheek with a bullet, grazing her. She reaches the 6 agents trying to make their way past the shield Wanda had erected. Clint takes out two, Natasha takes out two more, as she turns to get the last two away from Wanda one of them lands a kick to her ribs, knocking her into the ground with a thud.
What happens next, she can’t be certain of. The two agents and all remaining ones in a twenty-foot radius are flung back by a red flash. She winces, turning her eyes to Wanda – who looks back, eyes glaring red before they fade back into her usual green.
“where the hell was that hiding?” Clint says, stumbling from his hiding spot. “You know, could have saved us a lot of time.”
“She doesn’t know how to control it yet,” Nat says quietly attempting to pull herself to her feet, wincing as she does so. “Damn.”
Wanda is at her side in the next second, pulling her gently to her feet. “Are you okay.” She is quiet, but clearly concerned.
“Yeah, this is nothing. Fairly sure Barton over there has done more damage in practice.” She jokes, doing her best not to show much more pain.
“Everyone back to the jet before they wake up and decide on around two,” Steve says, out of breath from having moved in to take out anyone else on their way in to join the fight.
On the flight home Steve and Clint man the controls. Nat sits slumped against the bench seat she’d fallen into the second they were on the jet. For a moment she thinks the younger woman would sit closer to the boys, but with a glance at the older woman, she plants herself beside Nat. Well, the kid was persistent, she’d give her that much. Nat’s brow arches in question but doesn’t say a word, waiting for Wanda to speak.
“You know.” She starts, meeting her eyes. “I would have been able to get us out of there. You could have avoided this.” She reaches out, gently holding a gauze pad to the cut running across Nat’s face. “Another moment and that bullet could have ended you.”
There’s a tenderness in her eyes that causes Nat to look away – the little witch was crawling under her skin.
“I’m alive.” Is her reply.
“And I’m glad for it.”
The only answer Nat gives the younger woman is a slight smile as she covers Wanda’s hand with her own. She’s happy that the other occupants in the Quinn Jet are focused on the skies ahead of them; hiding the softness in her eyes was becoming increasingly hard when the younger woman was looking at her the way that she was. Looking at her like she was not the monster that she saw in the mirror.
Mm, she didn’t have as much control over herself as she would like to think.
“We’ve got a few hours; you guys should get some rest,” Steve says from the front.
Nat shakes her head; she could sleep when they got back to the compound. She was in too much pain to settle down, and her mind was busy trying to work out how in the hell Hydra knew they were hitting that base, and if their man on the inside somehow had gotten himself compromised.
“Nah, I want to find out how they knew we were coming, and why they focused on Wanda.”
“They see me as a weapon.” Wanda offers as the simple answer.
“Over my dead body,” Nat says already pulling up records on the base. Steve just looks at her, but Clint smiles from the front, shaking his head at the skies.
“Well, if you keep pulling stunts like running into the danger, and they may just go over your dead body,” Wanda says smiling. “But thanks for the chivalry.”
“Shut up.”
The next hour passes with Nat doing all she can to figure out where Hydra could have gotten their info, there were very few people that knew they were going anywhere, even less than knew what it was they were going for. She’d suspected a leak somewhere, but no one that knew could have been the leak. And Tony having a leak in his system seemed even less likely with Friday constantly running things and Jarvis on the inside.
She hated not knowing. With a heavy sigh, she pushed herself away from the screen table, instead deciding to lean against the wall.
“Could they be tracking her powers?” Clint asks, out of options. He and Steve had switched places a while back.
“I don’t see how they could – but after all that we have seen over the years I would be surprised if there is some way to track her signature.” Sometimes, just sometimes, she missed the days of simple spy work. Aliens and magic were out of her league.
“Either way,” she looks to the younger woman, asleep in one of the seats, curled into it with Nat’s red Jacket draped over her. “We need to figure it out.”
“Nat it could have simply been opportunistic, they saw she was there and tried to take her. She wiped the floor with them, if they were after her wouldn’t you think they would send in some bigger guns?”
“Yeah, well I’d rather not worry.”
“You seem to do that anyway when it comes to her.” He was bold, and he knew it. Grinning at her like he knew the secrets to the world. Or at the very least her world.
She eyes him for a moment, not sure how she should react to that. No one had said anything about how close she had become to the younger woman until that moment, not that she was open about it. It didn’t sit right with her. Like Clint saying it out loud somehow made it tangible. She hated how that sat on her.
“She’s young and the world has been hard enough on her; a caring team behind her is the least we can offer.”
Clint knew when to push her, and this was not one of those times. “Mm guess you’re right.”
Nat moves away from the wall she’d been leaning on, and instantly regrets the movement as her feet seem to drag a bit. “Maybe some shut-eye will do me some good.”
“Sit down before you fall,” Clint says shaking his head at her.
“Yes, mother.”
She rolls her eyes before falling into the seat across from Wanda. She watches as Clint makes his way back to the front to keep Steve company. Her eyes track back to the sleeping woman a few feet from her, tracing over her face. She seemed so peaceful like this, and Nat found it hard to look away from her. She’d known for a few weeks now that she’d slipped up and let someone else in, someone that had no business being close to her at all.
She’d blame Steve for forcing them together later. Right now, she needed to sleep.
“Hey, pretty lady.” She feels a groan pull from her chest as someone shakes her arm gently. “Time to wake up.” Her eyes slowly open to Wanda looking down at her. “We’re home.” Says the little witch before stepping back.
“Thank god.”
Once inside Nat doesn’t bother to stick around, knowing the boys could cover the debrief to the rest of the team. She just wanted to shower and maybe find some pain meds depending on how much pain the water washed away the ache in her bones. Of course, her quick escape had nothing to do with the fact that she wanted to get away from Wanda.
“Friday?” She asks the empty room, knowing the AI could hear her no matter what. It had freaked her out at first – almost having someone always there with you. She’d grown used to it over time.
“How can I help you, Miss Romanoff.”
“Could you run background on all the known agents at the Belize base we covered?” She starts stripping away her weapons, then pulls at the zipper on the suit.
“That may take some time.”
“As long as it takes is fine Friday, just let me know when you’ve finished, yeah?”
“Of course, miss, I’ll let you know the moment it’s done,” Friday replies.
“Thanks.”
She manages to peel the top half of her suit pulled away, leaving only her bra covering the upper half of her body, before getting interrupted by a knock at the door. A heavy sigh escapes her, and she bows her head in defeat. “Is a shower too much to ask?” she mumbled as she crosses the room, contemplating just ignoring whoever it was until she had the filth of the day washed away.
Nat pulls the door open doing her best to look annoyed at whoever was bothering her. The sight she’s met with causes the corners of her lips to curve into a smile, that she does well to hide. Standing there doing nothing to hide the shock on her face is Wanda. The younger woman’s eyes trail down the length of her.
She could have made a smart-ass comment, but she decided on just finding out what the witch wanted. She was exhausted and her composure wasn’t always at its best when she was exhausted. Still leagues above others, but little enough that she wouldn’t be too comfortable.
“What are you doing here?” She knows she sounds as annoyed as she looks standing with her hand resting on the door, eyes boring into the younger woman.
“Oh, um. I had a question.” Her eyes move down again, and Nat finds herself wanting to see more of that look on her face. “I can just come back another time.”
“Relax Maximoff, I’m not naked.” She watches Wanda swallow hard and realizes it may not just be the immodesty that was getting to her. She wonders how much she could get away with showing before Wanda either ran away or tried something – then mentally scolds herself. Composure Romanoff, damn!
“Do you not trust me?” The question seems to catch them both off guard.
“Where is this coming from?” Nat arches a brow, all former thoughts hiding themselves away somewhere in the back of her mind.
“On the mission, you should have gone back to the jet, I had it under control.”
Okay, so that’s where this was coming from. She was right she should have gone back to the jet; she should have let Clint get to her – not that she needed the help. That is not what happened though, she’d went against protocol, went against her base instinct, and could have risked getting their info out of the base, and getting what they needed in.
“What happened to you being grateful?” Nat asks.
“I am.”
“And yet, here you stand in my doorway.” Perhaps she was too harsh but being harsh was easy in the face of whatever else was happening to her.
“Why did you do it in the first place?” Wanda asks head tilting to the side ever so slightly, in a way that Nat needed to get away from. That wasn’t a question she’d even answered to herself.
“Come in.” Nope, that is not what she wanted to say. Letting her arm fall away from the door Nat turns, allowing her the space to enter. Maybe not the best option but closing the door in the young woman’s face was probably going to raise more questions than she was willing or could answer.
Wanda follows her room not hiding the fact that she’s looking around at everything. Nat suddenly feels uncomfortable under her scrutiny, there had only ever been one other person in her room, and that was Barton. This felt strange to her.
The room itself was free of clutter but held more personal items than one would think of her. A few pictures around – mostly of the Barton clan, a couple of trinkets, and paintings. All in red and black of course. Even her bed – dressed in red silk sheets, and a black duvet. She watches as Wanda arches a brow at that.
She needed to get whatever this was over with because thoughts of Wanda and that bed were storming to the forefront of her mind.
“Look Wanda, I’m sorry if I gave you the impression that I didn’t think you could handle it.” She says grabbing the arms of her suit that are hanging at her side, crossing them in front of her, and tying it off, clearly, she wouldn’t be getting to that shower anytime soon. Wanda watches the motions, eyes traveling over her bare skin again. The skin she finds burning under those green eyes.
Not bothering to hide what she’d been looking at; Wanda finally reaches Nat’s eyes. “If not that then why not just go back to the jet.”
Was she fishing?
“I was worried and against my better judgment went to help.” She pauses. “Should I not?”
“Help?”
“Worry.” Nat corrects, possibly giving out more than she had to offer. Watching as shock dances over Wanda’s face Nat thinks it may be something Wanda would take.
“You know my powers, have felt them more than once, there’s no need to worry about me.” She smiles then. “But that makes you human.”
Nat’s arms fall away from where they had been crossed over her chest and she reaches behind her, leaning on her dresser. “What’d you think I was before, a robot?”
“Definitely, yes.” She laughs and Nat cannot help the smile as she watches the joy fall over the younger woman’s face.
That was something she had rarely seen in Wanda’s time with them.
“Uh, well. I should leave you to whatever it is you were doing.”
“Washing away the gross.” She says making a face.
“suppose I should go do the same.”
“Well.” Nat sniffs at the air. “I can smell you from here, stinky.”
Wanda mocks hurt and points a finger. “That was very rude, Miss Romanoff.”
“Awe, should I say I’m sorry?”
“Mm no, I don’t think that will be enough,” Wanda says, stepping forward slightly.
Composure.
“Well, you could join me?” She regrets it the moment it leaves her mouth, or maybe she should have at least. Either way, making Wanda uncomfortable wasn’t her best plan.
“Full of Chivalry.” She smirks, moving forward again – because Natasha could handle that. “You’d probably look phenomenal wet.”
Nat watches her hand reach up, breath catching in her throat. Wanda passes a finger over Natasha’s lips.
“But I won’t be one of those women,” Her voice is quiet, her body pinning Natasha to the dresser.
Her ears ring, and the world falls flat around her as Wanda leans in, holding her gaze until the last possible second. “Prekrasnaya devochka.” She presses a kiss to Nat’s cheek, and then she’s walking away, before there can be any reaction.
Natasha watches her leave, and the world comes back to her.
No, Wanda wasn’t one of those women, and she wouldn’t make her one.
“Shower. Cold. Shower.”
She breaths out all the air in her lungs with more force than necessary. She shouldn’t have let any of that happen, shouldn’t have let Wanda get so close because now she wanted more. Every rational thought in her body was losing out to the burning on her cheek where Wanda’s lips had touched.
The shower had done nothing to ease the ache in her bones, and even less to ease the one between her legs. Little witch had lit a fire that Nat needed to put out – before it consumed her and her composure went the way of her willpower in the presence of the younger woman.
The sun was rising by the time she gave in and slid out of the bed, still wondering what the little witch would look like all wrapped up in those silk sheets. Letting out an audible groan at the thought she pushes it away, realizing that Wanda had gotten under her skin, and that morphing into a sexual attraction she was having a hard time ignoring were two vastly different beasts.
Pulling on some shorts and a pullover stark industries hoodie, Nat makes her way from her room, down the hall into the living area, but stops before breaching the archway. Sitting across the room on one of the couches is Wanda, holding a steaming cup of team, watching the sky bleed from navy to orange as the sun rises.
She leans on the wall, arms crossed and head resting against the wall. “Damn it, Romanoff.” She whispers to herself because she can’t pull her eyes away from Wanda.
Normally no one would be able to sneak up on her, least of all Tony Stark. And Yet.
“Watch it, Romanoff, you may start drooling in a second.”
Nat doesn’t give him the satisfaction of showing he’d gotten the drop on her, instead levels him with a steely glare. “Shut up, Tony.”
“Ou, I’m wounded. Where are those sharp-witted comebacks, Romanoff?”
“Too tired.”
“Too distracted more like it.”
Nat can’t help but look up at Wanda again, who’s now giving them both a curious look. She settles on Natasha's eyes though, something in them that the older woman couldn't read. Nat smiles at her, hoping she won’t ask what they were saying.
“Nothing to be distracted about.” She shrugs, tearing her eyes away from Wanda.
“Oh, no? So, you didn’t almost get yourself killed protecting what didn’t need to be protected?” his lips pull back into a tight smile and Natasha wants to slap him.
“Won’t happen again.”
“I’m more worried about her mental state – it hasn’t been so long after all.” Nat knew he was talking about Ultron, about Wanda almost tearing them apart, about Wanda’s sheer power – uncontrolled and wild – when her brother had died.
“You actually think I’d mess with her head?” She knew she’d said it too loud, knew her anger and seeped out more than it should have. “Screw you, Tony.”
“Good Talk.” She hears from behind her as the floor beneath her feet passes quicker and quicker.