#i mean. the black widow i panicked about a little but

[kyumisyumi]

Something something something eldritch Nikto something something something

I've sifted through so many ideas for this because I didn't wanna just pick a random eldritch creature from my box of horrors and slap Nikto's name on it. But also I don't feel like I have enough info about him(ironic, considering I write about him so much) to craft him into a creature. I watched some documentaries on eldritch horrors, dived into Russian cryptids and still drew blanks but here's what I managed

Rating: E for everyone who loves Nikto

Eldritch!Nikto x F!Reader

Word count: 1K

~Taking requests~

You weren't running from the consequences of your actions, more like briskly walking in the opposite directions. Looking forward all the way because backwards held the sounds of large dogs and angry men. Their boots cracking every twig and foliage along the way, voices interrupting the once peaceful ambiance of the woods. You could hardly tell whether the growling was from the hounds or the men. And really, who wouldn't want to run away from such a thing? Not run; walk. Quickly, very quickly. You were being smart, not cowardly.

No, never that.

You weren't cowardly when you snuck into that guardsman's post. You weren't cowardly when you tried to steal the gold he confiscated from the Miller's wife, the only woman that kept you fed while the streets were your home. You weren't cowardly when you defended yourself once he caught you. And you weren't cowardly when you accidentally bashed his head in with a clay pot. He should've worn a helmet, really. A guard should always have their helmet on! What was he thinking? Now look at you, running for your life and deluding yourself as if it would change the actions of the past.

Running.

You ran your mouth, ran your mind, but no matter how fast you moved, you couldn't outrun hunting dogs. Your fault, really, for trying to do so while wearing the long, ugly skirt you stole from someone's unattended clothesline. You should've maybe stolen the guard's old pants, you knew he had some because he mentioned wanting to give them to his nephew who was in combat training. Instead you dashed out the home the moment you realized he wasn't breathing, panicked by your first time taking a life. What were you thinking?

"I wasn't-" you spat a thick glob of blood out your mouth, it's red color staining the putrid black floor. Tears staining your vision and pain plaguing your mind. "I didn't mean to." You said it over and over again but it was little defense against men who'd lost a comrade because of you. A good man. A good man who stole from widows and bullied the elderly? It's weird how two people can look at the same person but see someone different. But that train of thought was halted by a kick to your stomach. And when one of the men took the final hit, the force of it sending you against the edge of the pit, you finally felt that feeling in your stomach. The one you hid away behind conversations with yourself. Locked away behind a naive expectation that things will either go your way or go away. Your first taste of true regret. Because you got a glimpse of where that attitude has lead you. That attitude that kept you going when your parents had left you. That attitude that kept you alive when your survival was in your own hands at an age where other children were being coddled and sung to. That attitude that protected you in the harsh village slum, now had you staring down into hell. 'The pit'; a giant hole defacing mother earth's perfect form. It's surface covered in black ichor, you couldn't tell whether the walls were moving or you'd been hit so hard your vision was thoroughly fucked. This was considered a punishment worse than death. Jokesters and troublemakers got a stern talking to. Thieves and crooks got jail time. Murders and adulterers got death. But the truly damned got the pit. The punishment didn't match the crime but judging by the hate filled glares of the men surrounding you, they didn't much care.

Or maybe they did care, they cared about you as much as you did yourself, these days.

That was a more comforting thought, maybe? Maybe not. Either way, thinking about it felt a whole lot better than thinking of the weightlessness you felt as you fell. Your vision quickly losing the greens and yellows of a gentle forest to being plunged into darkness. A darkness beyond description. One that surpassed what's seen when you close your eyes for the night. That surpassed the unconsciousness of sleep when dreams escaped you. A darkness that felt like death yet was somehow alive.

The walls were moving, they shifted uncomfortably as they felt the presence of another. Voices that whispered of uncertainty and conflict. Voices that yelled intruder and ones that yelled fodder. But one voice just hummed in curiosity at seeing the source of blood and spit and tears it tasted. He had consumed many of your kind but what little it had of you ignited interest rather than hunger. So it did not eat. Didn't wrap you in its tendrils and rip you apart into easily digestible pieces to be absorbed by its mass. The tendrils held you, confused by their many intentions and wants, before simply bringing you lower into the pit. To the very bottom that no other creature has ever seen. No other creature would ever be allowed near. Far too close to it's more vulnerable organs. But you wouldn't hurt it, would you? Wouldn't hurt them. Not with those blunt nails and teeth, not with those little limbs and severed ties to the natural order. You were weaker than it's weakest points yet you fought against his tendrils like you believed you could win. Struggled and resisted as if you had a fighting chance. 'Hush, little human.' It thought as it strangled you, only enough to render you unconscious. Give it enough time to build a prison home inside itself for you. Then build a form for himself more perceptible to your primitive eyes, he'd tried once before but the human face was so hard to mimic. There was so much anger inside you, more for yourself than for him. And Nikto couldn't understand it. There is only one 'you' inside that tiny, fleshy form. How can one be angry at their own/only self? That would be one of the first things he asked. He felt there was nothing a creature like you could teach him yet he had so much he wanted to ask regardless. Maybe once he had his answers he could finally consume you in peace. Maybe then the voices that called for him to spare you will quiet down. And the ones that screamed for him to bond with you will stop. Your body couldn't handle the things he desires... Could it?

Regardless, he has time. All the time in the world and beyond.

Silly human, getting yourself thrown down here, what were you thinking?

All in all, I didn't want to forget the eldritch and just make a monster.

[littyhoney]

Unexpected (part 2)

(part 1) (part 2)

Earth 42! Miles x Black widow Reader

(Enemies to lovers trope)

Summary: Can two vigilante ever work together? No,But the future proves otherwise.

You and Miles are standing side by side, looking down at the 2 boys who is tied up by Miles.

“Alright, first of all who are you?” you ask tilting your head at them.

“I-im uhm M-Mateo” the one with glasses says,then the other one speaks “I’m Louis..”

Miles roll his eyes before saying “Surname? So we can file some missing kids” he glares at the two boys who looks like they about to damp their own pants.

“M-Morales” “Morales” the two boys says in the same time, your eyes widened as you look to your side, to see Miles is frowning and confuse. Your head is panicking, Mateo called you ma like few minutes ago and Louis just called Miles…no way.

Miles looking at the two, how in the world they have the same exact surname as he is. They did called him dad before. The other one even called you Ma when he saw your face…he turn his to look at you and chuckle slightly. “Damn mami you can just admit it now”

Your eyes widened before you start to scold him “Admit what!? that you’re such an ass? I told you that every single day” you glare at Miles. You cant help but your face flushes as you piece another pieces of puzzle together “W-wait you two just called us mom and this little ass dad does that mean…we” you press both of your palm covering your face “Oh my god..”

“Whoa okay ma we do not talk about that please ma” Alejandro begs turning his head away feeling just as embarrassed as you are. Miles on the other hand is feeling smug at this information “Believe me mami once you give me a chance I will not disappoint you” he teases you.

“Okay you need to shut it before I-” Miles cut you off smirking at you as he tilt hos head to you letting his braid fall over his shoulder “Before you what?”. You just stand there with an angry expression at him, but your red cheeks says otherwise.

Mateo look at his parents who are in their teens, it is weird to see them being so mean to one another. His mom would not stop calling their dad profanity names while his dad would not stop flirting and teasing their mom. Mateo lean to his twin saying "why were our parents so mean to each other when they were our age?" 

Alejandro just chuckle before leaning back and says “They did say when they were younger they are competing one another” oh right, they are both the vigilante of Brooklyn. Alejandro back to the two bickering young soon to be couple “Hey we would appreciate it if you untie us?”

The two stops and you walk near to them “Right yeah sorry about tying you guys up” you reach down to untie the knot “He though you guys are carrying weapons or somethin” Alejandro shrug at the statement “Fair”

“So uhh is it true that uh wherever you come from that me and ‘him’ end up together?” you ask the two boys,you seem uncomfortable by the idea marrying that boy in the future but deep in you feels giddy to know that you do have a chance to have a happy life a happy family, maybe just maybe you gonna give him a chance.

Mateo face lights up at you before saying “Yeah! I mean,we are your children after all. Oh! Wait I can show you” he reach for his pocket pulling out his phone. He opens the phone then open up the gallery he shows you a picture that makes you stun.

“That’s you favorite photo, I took it when we were celebrating your 10th year anniversary together” Mateo smiles remembering how much their dad plan for their anniversary,he even recreate their proposal.

You on the other hand is taking in how much happier yourself look in the picture,no eye bags under your eyes after some sleepless night, your hair is longer and even though you reached 30 you look so…beautiful. Your eyes shift to the other person who wraps his arms around your waist giving a kiss to your temple with a close eyes and a soft smile on his lips. He is wearing a black tux while you’re wearing a beautiful classy dress,you wrap one of your arm around his neck while the other is on his bicep showing your wedding ring. You can’t deny that Miles aged like a fine wine, he’s looking much more handsome and his hair is much shorter.

“Huh you still have that pic?” Alejandro says as he look over his brother shoulder. He remembers how much of a fuss his dad when they were planning on the anniversary.

Miles is leaning over to look at the picture, his eyes focus on you. Well an older version of you. The tenderness in your eyes as you look at the camera showing your slightly reddened cheeks and your hair framing over you just perfectly. You facial doesn’t change as much but you look much more mature, they say woman fully blossom at the age of 30 and you did. He can’t believe that he is happy…out there living a life he once dream of. To go to prom, college and maybe date but his duty being the Prowler takes away most of that. He only focus on keeping his mom safe…being the man of the house after…

The peaceful moment gets interrupt when the same portal that is opened half an hour ago but this time its from the wall behind the couch. You and Mateo spring up from the couch while Alejandro and Miles come to stand beside you two. The portal is sucking in but much more gentler this time,like it is more controlled.

“Well I guess this is it then!” Alejandro says as he looks at the 2 of his much younger parents, “It’s nice to see you guys! Really! Not everyday you could meet a younger version of your parents” Alejandro says as he turn to look at the two. “Cmon Mat we gotta go!” he starts to pull the arm of his younger twin

“Bye ma!” He waves before jumping into the portal making it disappear.

After that, you and Miles just sit outside of the lair sitting by the edge of the rooftop. Looking at the vast city, waiting for the sunrise. The silence is broken by Miles when he asked “Do you envy them..”

You glance to your side before looking back at the city “Of the boys?”  Miles shake his head “No…of other us” you frown slightly before looking at him again “No,im more of…happy for them. At least I know the other me is living her best life,living the dream” you lean back on your hand smiling slightly.

“I envy myself…he got everything,a perfect family,a perfect partner and a normal life” he says as he pull one of his leg up letting the other dangle by the edge. “By the look in the pics,the city there seems more…safer” You chuckle “No doubt it be ourselves work keeping it safe…maybe,we can make it come true here” you say softly looking at him.

Miles look at you “But our methods are different…I kill for money, you defend for justice” you nod your head “That is true…but we can work on it,you do the killing and I do the tracking but,we will see if that person is worth killing or not. What do you think?” you tilt your head

“Right, if my bounty is one of the person you’re tailing for information il give you time before I finish the contract. Deal?” You chuckle and nod in agreement, “I guess we better start tonight then, partner”

(Somewhere in different Dimension)

“Aaah!” “Ow!” Both Mateo and Louis stumble out of the portal making them lay on their back on the ground

Louis open his eyes before looking up at the silhouette, his eyes focus on the brightness of the room to reveal their parents, His mom standing by him with her hand on her waist while his mom is standing by Mateo with his arm cross over his chest.

“Hey ma..” “Heyyy dad”

“You two are grounded!”

“5 Months!”

tag list:

@randomhumans-blog @baby-177pretty-girl @@corpsebridenightamare @

[arlana-likes-to-write]

Lightning Bug - Chapter 9

Master list of Lightning Bug 

Warning: mention of past physical torture, jealousy 

Word Count: 4k 

“Hey, sleepyhead,” Natasha said. “Wake up.” The AI notified her and Wanda of her panic attack and they came right away. When they opened her room, they found the girl curled up in her bed. The Russian knew her girlfriend was fighting the urge to wrap her arms around the girl. Instead, they sat on the edge of the bed, allowing enough space between the three of them. 

“Wake up, dorogoy (sweetheart),” Wanda whispered. The teen groaned and turned on her back, eyes fluttering open. Her eyebrows scrunched together as if she was confused about why they were in her room then it dawned on her. 

“You didn’t have to come,” she said with a sigh and sat up. Her back rested on the headboard and her knees were brought to her chest. “It’s not my first panic attack.”

“Well,” Wanda said. “It’s the first one you don’t have to deal with alone.” She rested her chin on her knee. 

“You don’t have to talk about it but we are here for you if you want to,” Natasha said as her blue eyes disappeared behind her eyelids and she took some deep breaths in and out. The Black Widow watched as she rubbed her hands up and down her legs. It wasn’t the first time she saw her do this. She wondered if it was a way to soothe herself. When was the last time she accepted a friendly touch?

“I met Steve and Bucky,” she said. Her eyes were still closed. “And Bucky,” her voice cracked as she said his name. “He reminds me of someone from my past, someone that used to hurt me.” She opened her eyes. “I guess I panicked when I saw him.” 

“That’s understandable,” Natasha told her. She understood the feeling. It took her a long time to separate the man that broke her arm during Red Room training and Steve’s best friend. She wondered if this was a silent confirmation that Wanda was right and HYDRA was part of her past. She shrugged. 

“Can-can I ask you both something?” She asked. 

“Of course,” Wanda smiled. “You can ask us anything.” She didn’t say anything right away and opted to pick at the pants she was wearing. 

“You’ve been hurt by people in your past, did you ever forgive them?” It was a heavy question, a complicated one too. 

“Yes and no,” Natasha answered. She forgave Melina and Alexei but she could never forgive Dreykov and the other instructors of the Red Room for what they did. 

“Is it okay if you can’t forgive them?” Wanda nodded. 

“If someone hurt you, you don’t owe them forgiveness. You don’t owe them anything.” She sighed, frowning slightly. 

“I wish people weren’t so mean.” Natasha smiled, nodding her head. 

“Me too, kid, me too. But I’ve learned that even in the darkest moments you’ll find the brightest stars.” To Natasha’s surprise, the teen’s lips turned up into a smile. 

“Yeah,” she said softly. “You are right about that.” 

“We wanted to ask you something.” The teen nodded. “I have to go away for a mission in 3 days and we are planning a trip to Iowa.” Natasha didn’t miss the confusion on the girl’s face. “Clint lives there with his family. We like to visit them from time to time.” 

“Would you like to join us?” Wanda asked. It was a topic of conversation that Wanda and Natasha went back and forth about whether they should invite the newest addition to the floor to Iowa. The Bartons were amazing people that had the unique ability to make anyone feel at home but on the other hand, they were high energy and full of excitement, especially Nathaniel. 

“Me?” She questioned in disbelief. “Why do you want me to come?” 

“Because you are part of this little family,” Natasha said. The teen didn’t look fully convinced. It broke her heart every time she thought so little of herself. “They have a daughter who is your age and two boys. It’s a big family that can be a little overwhelming but they are good people.” 

“Plus Kate and Yelena will be coming with us,” Wanda added. Relief washed over the young girl’s face. 

“Yeah, sure I’ll go with you guys.” Natasha smiled.

“We’ll let you get some stuff together. Can you be ready in 2 hours?” She asked. The teen nodded. “Awesome, we’ll find you when the Quinjet is all set.” They stood up and walked over to the door. Natasha looked back at her before leaving her room. “Thank you for trusting us.” She blinked back at the Black Widow. 

“Thank you for being the bright stars.” Natasha smiled and closed the door. She looked at her girlfriend. 

“She knew Bucky,” Natasha said as they walked back to their room. They had to get ready too. Wanda sighed. 

“She said Bucky reminded her of someone that hurt her,” Natasha grabbed Wanda’s arm before she could open their door. 

“How many men do you know that have a metal arm and that is over 100 years old?” Wanda rolled her eyes and opened their door. Natasha followed her, closing the door behind them as the witch sat on the edge of their bed. 

“If she knew Bucky and was with HYDRA, it’s not like we can ask her. She’ll shut down on us and she’s slowly starting to open up.” Natasha knew she was right. The Black Widow knelt in front of her and rested her hands on Wanda’s thighs. Wanda’s arms found a home around Natasha’s shoulders. “Iowa will be good for her,” Natasha smiled. The Barton homestead was the first place Natasha had ever felt at home. 

“It will be good for all of us,” Wanda began to play with the baby hairs on the back of her neck. Natasha could see the gears working in her girlfriend’s head. “What are you thinking about?” 

“It’s nothing,” Natasha frowned. “Well,” she sighed, biting her lip. “Have you ever thought about having something like the Barton’s?” 

“Like retiring?”

“Not necessarily retiring but having a place to call our own that’s not the tower.” Natasha began to draw circles on Wanda’s legs. 

“Is that something you want?” The Sokovian giggled, kissing Natasha’s forehead. 

“I’m asking what you want, moya lyubov' (my love),” Natasha wasn’t sure what she wanted. For the longest time, Natasha didn’t think she would have this; freedom. She had her sister by her side and the woman she loved, loved her back. But the idea of settling down did sound appealing. “Hey,” Wanda took Natasha’s chin in her hand and forced the Black Widow to look at her. “I’m not asking you to leave the Avengers right now. I’m home wherever I’m with you,” Natasha kissed Wanda softly. 

“I love you,” Wanda smiled. 

“I love you too. Now we have to get ready. You know Nate is going to run us ragged.” Natasha laughed and stood up, helping Wanda to her feet. While they packed for their small getaway, Natasha’s mind was racing. She has fought her entire life to one day clear her ledger, could she turn it off? But when she felt Wanda come up behind her and hug her tight, she knew she could give up Avenging in a heartbeat for her. 

*

You let out a shaky breath you didn’t realize you were holding. Your hands were shaking. On paper, you could get ready quicker than 2 hours but you needed to get your nerves in order. The first thing on that list was a shower. You stripped out of the clothes you were wearing and put the gloves in the sink. They needed to be washed. The cold water washed away the day. It was such a strange paradox how such a great day could change in an instant. You let the water fall over your body and focus on the good. You learned how to play chess. You got to see Lucia and Annie and you ate a blueberry muffin. You got out of the shower, dried the water off your skin, and changed into a long sleeve and sweatpants. You packed your bag with a few different outfits and a couple of books. Next, it was time to clean the gloves and brush your teeth. It was a nice feeling to rid your mouth of the metallic taste of your blood. You walked back into your room. “FRIDAY,” you said to the AI as you put your backpack on your shoulders. “If what happened today happens again don’t alert anyone.” The AI didn’t say anything right away. 

“I do want to advise you of the dangers of keeping your condition a secret from everyone.” The statement stopped you in your tracks. 

“What condition are you talking about?” You asked. 

“You have epilepsy or random seizures. Without proper treatment, seizures can cause substantial brain damage.” Oh.

“Thank you for your concern, FRIDAY but I’m fine,” you left your room and headed to the kitchen. You made a cup of tea with FRIDAY’s warning echoing in your head. ‘Without proper treatment, seizures can cause substantial brain damage.’ Is that what you were doing to yourself? Forcing yourself to have seizures? You sighed, stirring honey into your tea. The elevator opened and you watched Happy step onto your floor. 

“Just the person I was looking for,” he said, holding a shoe box in his hand. You raised your eyebrows at him. Why was he looking for you? “Here,” he placed the box down. “For you.” You set the mug down and opened the box. 

“What is this?” You asked. Happy sighed. 

“Now you are making me feel old.” You smiled. 

“Sorry,” he pulled out a machine that was attached to a pair of headphones.  

“This is a walkman,” he said. You took it from him. “And these are cassettes. Back in the day, this is how we listened to music.” He explained how it worked. “I know everything is an app these days but that can be overwhelming so I thought this could be a good start to your music introduction.” You were stunned. You never expected anyone to do anything nice for you, especially Happy. 

“Thank you, Happy. You didn’t have to do this for me.” He shrugged his shoulders. 

“It was just collecting dust. Enjoy it, kid.” He waved and walked back to the elevator. You looked through the box and decided on a random tape and put the box in your back to take with you to Iowa. Iowa. You’ve never left the city but your own choice. The HYDRA facility was in Canada and you snuck your way across the border to the city because it was the only place you’d known. You put the headphones around your beck and the walkman in your pocket. 

“Hey bud,” Kate said, opening the fridge and pulling out an energy drink. You weren’t sure when Kate decided to start calling you that but you liked it. It reminded you of the nicknames your brother would call you. “Are you excited to go to Iowa?”

“Uh yeah, I guess,” you answered. You weren’t sure how to feel about it. The archer smiled, opening her drink. 

“The Bartons are great,” she said. “They have the unique ability to open their homes to strays.”

“Strays?” You questioned. She nodded. 

“You’ll see.” 

*

You enjoyed flying. You listened to music and stared out the window at the world below you and made up stories in your head of everything you saw. It was relaxing and your eyes started to close and you fell asleep. No dreams haunted your sleep, it was peaceful. “Hey,” Yelena’s voice woke you up. There was no music playing through your headphones. You rubbed the sleep out of your eyes and took your headphones off your ears. The blonde smiled. “We just landed,” you nodded, putting everything in your backpack. “Are you ready?” She asked. You shrugged. 

“I’m not sure,” you told her. “How much do they know about me?”  

“They know about your rules against touching and that Natasha offered you a place at the tower.” 

“Okay,” you followed her to the back of the Quinjet where the others were waiting. You let out a shaky breath as the ramp lowered. At the bottom were a man, a woman, and a girl. You recognized the man right away as Hawkeye and you put the pieces together that the woman next to him was his wife and his daughter. You let the others walk down the ramp first with you at the back. Wanda hugged the woman while Natasha hugged Clint. Kate brought the girl underneath her arm. 

“Where's the little man?” Kate asked. 

“We thought it would be better for Cooper to distract Nate. He has a lot of energy,” Her mother said. She smiled at you. 

“Y/n met Clint, Laura, and their daughter Lila. You’ll meet Cooper and Nate later.”

“It’s nice to meet you,” Clint said.   

“Hi,” you whispered, giving them a small wave. 

“Why don’t we go inside and get you settled in,” Laura said. “We have some time before dinner.” They began to walk to the two-story white house. You stood in the back with Lila standing next to you. You kept catching the girl looking at you with a smile. You smiled back. 

“We are a little tight for space,” you heard Clint say. He looked at you, over his shoulder. “Who would be more comfortable sharing a room with?” You didn’t expect him to ask you. You fully expected to be just thrown into a room. 

“Uh,” you said, looking at Natasha and Wanda. “Can I stay with you guys?” Natasha nodded. 

“Of course, kid.” 

“Lila can help you set up an air mattress,” Laura said. Clint and Laura opened the front door of their home when you heard laughter. You turned around and saw a young boy running over to the group. He was looking behind him and he ran into your legs. Your body tensed up at the sudden and unexpected contact. The boy looked up at you and blinked up at you. His arms were still wrapped around your legs as he caught himself from falling. 

“Woah,” he said. “Where did you get that scar? It’s like Harry Potter!” 

“Nathaniel Pietro Barton,” Clint said. “Come here now.” The young boy peered behind your legs to look at his father but he didn’t let go of you. You felt your heart pounding against your rib cage. You let out a shaky breath to push away the tingly feeling in your hands. 

“Hey,” you said to him. He looked back at you. “You might want to go see your dad. You don’t want to get in trouble, do you?” He shook his head and let go of you. 

“Nate!” Another boy, much older than Nate, came running around the corner. He was breathing heavily with his hands on his hips. “What did I say?” You looked back at Nate, who was hiding behind Natasha’s legs. 

“To stay in the barn with you,” he stomped his right foot. “But you were so boring.” You fought the smile that threatened to form on your lips. 

“But we talked about why you had to stay in the barn,” Laura said. Nate sighed. 

“Yes,” he mumbled. “I’m sorry.” You saw Yelena looking at you. Her eyes asked a silent question, ‘Are you okay?’ You nodded. 

“Thank you for apologizing, Nate,” Wanda said. “Y/n met the other Bartons. Nate and Cooper.” 

“Sorry about him,” Cooper said. You smiled. 

“It’s alright,” Kate grabbed Nate and put him over her shoulder as she walked into the house. He laughed and tried to wiggle his way out of her hold. 

“Come on,” Lila said as she closed the door. “I’ll show you where you are sleeping.” You hesitated slightly but followed the girl up the stairs. She opened the second door on the right. You stepped inside as she walked over to the closet. The room was simply decorated. You noticed there were pictures of Natasha and Wanda with the Bartons. “I’m sorry about Nate,” Lila was setting up an air mattress. You took your backpack off and knelt to help her. “He gets excited when everyone comes to visit.”

“It’s fine,” you said, attaching the pump to the air mattress as Lila plugged it in. You turned it on and the sound only startled you slightly. As the mattress inflated, Lila pulled out some pillows and blankets. You turned it off once it was fully inflated. “It’s cute that he gets excited to see them.” You were used to kids his age and they were easier to deal with in your opinion. They had an innocence about them that made it easier for you to be around. All they cared about was if you were a good playmate and didn’t judge based on appearance. Lila laid a sheet down on the mattress. 

“He was pretty jealous that you get to live with them,” she said with a smile. “How is it living with the Avengers?”

“Different,” you told her. “They are..” you trailed off. 

“Crazy,” she filled in the blank for you. You giggled but nodded your head. You stood up and grabbed a picture on top of a dresser. It was of a younger Natasha and Clint with a brunette you didn’t recognize. You heard Lila walk over to you and look at the picture. “That’s Maria with them back in their SHIELD days.”

“They’ve known each other for a while,” you said, putting the photo back in the correct place. “Natasha and your father,” she nodded. 

“Nat has been a part of my life since I’ve been born.” You frowned for a split second but tried to cover it up with a cough. “Do you want something to eat? Dinner isn’t for a while.” If she noticed your mood switch she didn’t comment on it. 

“Yeah,” you said. “If that’s no trouble.” The last thing you ate was a blueberry muffin. She nodded.

“I’ll show you where everything is,” you followed her to the kitchen, trying to ignore the feeling of jealousy that was showing its ugly head. 

*

You opted to stay on the edge of the conversation and observe how everyone interacted with anyone. Nate was attached to Wanda, wherever she went he was close behind. He liked watching her magic. Lila and Cooper hung out with Yelena and Kate. Laura, Clint, and Natasha bounced between everyone as they caught up with one another. Laura asked you questions and tried to bring you into the conversation but you couldn’t help but feel like you were intruding. When Laura walked into the kitchen you followed her. “Can I help?” You asked. 

“Sure, I won’t say no to help when I have to feed this group. Can you grab stuff for a salad in the fridge?” You nodded, silently thanking her for allowing you to help. You were getting antsy and needed to do something. You opened the fridge and pulled out different vegetables. Laura gave you a cutting board and knife. “Cut up some peppers, lettuce, oh and,” she went back into the fridge and pulled out a block of cheese and strawberries. “These too. Thank you.” You washed the fruit and vegetables and began to cut everything up. 

“I should be thanking you,” you said. “You are opening your home to me.” Laura chuckled. “Did I say something funny?” 

“No, you didn’t,” she said. “Natasha said you were the polities 15-year-old she’s ever met.” Oh. You placed the food you chopped into the bowl. 

“I wasn’t aware she was meeting many 15-year-olds,” your joke pulled a laugh out of her. It made you smile. 

“Well I don’t know what she does in her free time but she is correct and,” her pause made you stop what you were doing and look at her. She was looking at you. “I’m sorry about Nate. They told us about your rules.” You went back to cutting the food. No one ever apologized to you. It was always your fault. “And about his question sometimes he talks without thinking.” 

“It’s okay, Laura,” you were grateful you had tea and took a nap on the flight over or you would have lost control of your powers. You would have never forgiven yourself. 

“How are you liking Iowa?” She asked you. 

“You have a very beautiful home and family,” you said. “Iowa is quiet. I see why you built a home here.” Laura smiled as you began to clean up the mess you made. 

“Now that you’ve been here once this place is your home too.” The simple statement stumped you. But you smiled at her and of your head. Home. In less than a week you’ve been given two places to call home. You found yourself surrounded by a strange group of people. 

*

Dinner was pasta with a bolognese sauce, salad, and garlic bread. When everyone wasn’t eating, stories were told. You learned that Clint was sent to kill Natasha and that is how they met (Yelena said it was a story that was told all the time) Kate ran into trouble with the Tracksuit Mafia and that’s how she met Yelena and Clint. 

Once the food was eaten, you helped collect the dirty dishes and you, Kate, and Yelena did the dishes and put the extra food away. “Let’s watch a movie!” Nate said, jumping up and opening the TV cabinet. You were getting tired. You’ve had a long day. 

“I’m gonna head to bed if that’s okay.” Natasha looked at you. Her eyes were looking over you to make sure you were okay. 

“That’s fine, kid,” the Black Widow said. You nodded. 

“Thank you for today,” you said. “Good night.” A chorus of goodnights followed you up the stairs. You changed quickly into different clothes and when you were putting your clothes away, you noticed you had a few text messages. You pulled out your phone and lay down. They were all from America. 

‘How’s Iowa?’

‘The floor is too quiet without all of you.’ 

‘I may kill Steven. He’s annoying me.’ 

‘I miss you.’ 

You stared at the last message she sent you. Three simple words made your heart skip. You smiled and sent your reply. 

‘Iowa is good. The Bartons are nice. Please don’t kill anyone.’ 

Your fingers hovered over the keys. 

‘I miss you too.’ 

You put your phone underneath your pillow. You stared at the ceiling with your hands behind your head as your mind went back to the question Nate asked. He wasn’t the first to ask about your scar. You remembered Peter asking about it. You turned on your side and stared out the window. When you were younger, your mother called you a mistake, a curse that was put on the family by the Devil. She said a family friend knew she was pregnant before she did because he had a conversation with God. But the conversation wasn’t a good one. God told him that you were going to be evil. So your parents kept the pregnancy a secret from everyone to avoid public scrutiny. You weren’t allowed to leave the house unless it was to go to church and you had to hide in the basement when parties happened. At 6 years old was when you were given the scar. 

It was impossible to keep you hidden from the entire world so a few of your father’s close work associates knew who you were. They were tasked to keep you in line when your parents weren’t around. You were home alone with Brian and Caleb was almost home from school. He ordered you into the kitchen to make him food. You weren’t going fast enough and he wouldn’t stop yelling. You let out a small surge of electricity and broke his phone. 

The next thing you knew he pushed you to the ground and covered your body with his. He held a knife to your face and began to crave the lightning bolt on your face. It was Caleb, who got the man off of you and gave you some basic first aid. That was the origin of the scar but people from different homeless centers and HYDRA always seemed to find a way to prolong the scar. 

You tightened the blanket around you and closed your eyes. You prayed for a peaceful night. 

_

taglist:

 @looie

[gabbyzeyla]

Hi guys!! So, I'm new on this awesome app, and I wanna try to write a few marvel stories for you! My name is Gabby and Loki's my favorite marvel character!

Also, this is my first ever story, so any tips will help! This story contains a lot of TW so be careful!!

I'm open to requests, but they WILL take some time cuz I'm still in school! Any likes, shares or followers definitely help!! Thank you guys!!! 💚

---------------------------------------------------

CAKE

!!TW!! this story contains mention of and/or very detailed or not so detailed talks of: abuse, rape, self harm, needles, shotting (very likely), shouting/screaming, all kinds of emotions, hospitals (very likely) LET ME KNOW IF I MISSED ANY!

1. The Nightmare

It was around 3 am. As you laid on the bed, next to the famous Black Widow, who was curently watching over you, you started moving and moving in the bed, signaling Natasha that it's happening again. What's happening again? You having an nightmare about all the things those men did to you before Nat had rescued you. After noticing, she sat up, now sitting on the bed, and tried to wake you up, by calling your name, not risking to make the whole thing even worse by touching you.

"Malysh, wake up sweetie. C'mon, wake up..wake up..."

After 10 more minutes of trying to wake you, you finally did. Not in the most pleasent way, but you did. After the painful scream that you woke up with, you began panicking, as a sign for Natasha to come in front of you.

"Malysh? Sweetheart, are you okay? Can I touch you, Kaya? Is it okay if I touch you?"

You shake your head, telling the Black Widow you did not want to be touched right now. True, the people who hurt you were only and only men, but that doesn't mean you're perfectly okay with women, either. And Nathasha understood that, she truly did.

"Alright, that's okay, I understand that. Would you like a glass of water, malysh?"

Again, you shook your head, your hands still slightly shaking, but you're no more hyperventilating.

"Okay, that's fine. Can I touch you now? Can I hold your hands, malysh?"

You nod this time. You're feeling better, and your breathing is normal again. You're still a little tense, but 'baby steps do matter', as Nathasha said.

"Ok, you ready?"

You nod again. She reaches out to you, but you flinch and back away quickly.

"It's okay, it's okay. I won't hurt you, ok? You're safe here, malysh."

You nod, a sign to make her know you got the message.

"May I touch you now? Do you feel alright with it?"

You nod, this time you were sure you could bare the skin contact. It may not be a big deal for others, but for you, it was a huge deal. You were still very scared it was just a dream or that you haven't actually escaped the hell hole and the memories of your suffering there still felt very real to you. Nat was patient. Oh, how patient she was. She stayed with you since she rescued you, with no one pressuring her to do it. She chose to do it. As did the men who made you suffer. Now holding your hands, the famous hero lets a small smile slide across her face. It was reassuring. She knew that very well.

"Come on, malysh. Let's get you back to sleep."

At the mention of sleep, you shook your head. You didn't want to go back to sleep. No, going back to sleep meant getting nightmares again, and you for sure did not want that. These nightmares hurt you, mentally the most, but it almost feels as they also hurt you physically.

"That's alright. We can stay up a little longer if you want."

You nod at that. A night without 3 to 5 nightmares sounded like heaven, even thought it meant staying up all night. You didn't mind it as long as you got away for this night with only 2 nightmares, the one you recently got and the one you had a few hours ago, at 1 am, maybe? You lost track of time, but Natasha surely didn't. The heroine cared for you, spoke so soft, calm and caring and you felt safe with her. Well, more safer then you ever felt in your whole life. You still had your doubts sometimes, but the romanoff always reminded you that it was normal after eveything you went through. She also told you many many times that you had gone through so much more then her. You didn't quite believe her, but she reassured you again and again, never stopping from making you feel safe with her around you.

After some convincing and a lot of promises from Natasha, she finally got you to go back to sleep. After making sure you fell asleep, she just laid there, next to you, and looked at you with such a caring expression, like she wanted someone to look at her when she fell asleep.

Then, it was clear to her. She cared for you like a daughter, or like a sister. The romanoff wasn't quite sure which was it, but she did know she loved you.

[braveclementine]

Returning Home

Warnings: Angst and fluff

Copyright: I do not own any Marvel characters or locations. However, I do own my OCs, which consist of Penny Fury, Elizabeth Nelson, Elijah Chan, Katya Venice, Violetta Moscow, Lan Le, Josh, Trang Tien, Ahni Jallow, Mai Ito, and Ghaida Kashual as well as other OCs that will come up throughout the story.

This one was a little better. It's much darker blue than I was hoping and I would actually switch the colours. Replace the gold with ice blue and the dark blue with gold. But other than that, I mean it looks a lot better than the other one it originally made. 

🌝😯 𝐒𝓣ᵒ𝐑𝕐 🏇🌛

They stayed for a while, until Steve and Bucky walked in on Elizabeth and Loki sleeping in a bath of ice together to stay cold, and it was decided that they should return to the states and back to the Avengers Tower.

Besides the weird tracking dinosaurs, there was nothing else that had troubled them on their vacation and Penny was excited to get back to work. She had missed the Avengers that had stayed behind like Scott, Hope, and her parents. As well as T'Challa and the Asgardians.

She was also missing Heimdall, who hadn't been down to see them in a long while. Loki had explained privately that Heimdall didn't want to see Elizabeth, because he loved her to much to see her looking at him without love.

Penny wasn't sure that was the smartest move on the all-seeing Gods' part. She felt it would be better for him to establish a connection with her soon. Especially with Mateo growing up without his father.

But Penny didn't say anything. She remembered what Elijah had said about a powerful memory could bring Elizabeth's memories back. Maybe. . . just maybe, Heimdall knew something they didn't.

She collapsed on top of her bed on her face, groaning. She barely got two seconds of peace before Natasha had thrown the door wide open and was collapsing on her bed as well.

"Cuddle me." Natasha demanded, laying on her side, her stomach protruding largely.

Penny rolled over on her back and then let Natasha lay in her arms. "What's up sweetheart?"

"I have jet lag and I want you to hold me." Natasha demanded, not opening her eyes.

Penny chuckled at that. "Sleep tight. Don't let the bedbugs bite. I love you"

🧘‍♀️🫰 ＴⒾ𝓶ε ŜкⒾⓟ 🚿🤟

"Hey," Violetta said softly as Penny walked into the Italian Black Widow's bedroom. She was curled up on the bed, watching Bones on her laptop, eating Cherry Cordial Ice-cream. She was wearing a purple tube top so that nothing was covering her large baby bump, and her hair was pulled back in a loose bun. She looked tired as well.

Penny was holding Chamber in her arms and smiled at the girl, coming over and gently easing herself onto the bed. "Hey."

She felt Violetta rest her head on her shoulder, snuggling into the albino woman. Penny gently placed Chamber on the bed so that she could help Violetta get comfortable in her lap, and then picked Chamber up once more.

"How are you feeling sweetie?" Penny asked softly, using her free hand to rub soothing circles on Violetta's back.

"Mmm, okay." Violetta hummed, putting the ice-cream aside and snuggling into her more. "I'm a little worried though. There's still roughly three months, but I think I'm getting contractions. I- I don't. . ." Her voice wobbled. "I don't want to lose my baby."

"Vi. . ." Penny said softly, looking down to capture the worried, almost panicked look in her brown eyes.

"I mean. . . I don't know how to do this." Violetta's voice sounded choked. "Like, Bruce has never had a kid. We don't know what the Hulk gene is going to do. What if. . . I can't lose this baby Penny. I can't."

"It's okay." Penny said, letting her hand rub Vi's shoulders again. "They're just Braxton Hicks contractions. You can get them up to 20 weeks before you're due. You're okay Vi. And if you're still worried, let's go down to the lab and ask Stephen or Dr. Cho or Bruce to run tests. You don't have to be scared alone."

Vi nodded, fingers tightening a little on Penny's shirt. "I'm sorry."

Penny giggled, "There's nothing to be sorry for silly. I'm happy you confided in me. Now, what do you want to do?"

"Let's. . . I want a professional to tell me everythings okay." Violetta breathed out. "I just need to know for sure, one hundred percent, that I'm not losing this baby."

"Okay." Penny said softly, picking Chamber up in one arm again, sliding her fingers through Vi's. "Come on. I'll go with you."

"Thanks." Violetta said sniffing. "Give me a second."

Penny smiled endearingly, watching Violetta wiped under her eyes, checking her face in the mirror.

"You don't have to hide your emotions." Penny whispered softly.

"Natasha can." Violetta said simply, patting under her eyes with a tissue. "And I want to be just like her."

"She's your role model?" Penny asked softly.

"Always has been, even when I was in the red room. She was famous, amongst us. The best Black Widow that the KBG had. I dreamed that I could be just like her. I. . ." Violetta sighed. "I performed my missions perfectly, killed so easily, because I hoped they would put me on a team with her. I climbed ranks faster at the age of thirteen than anyone ever had in the Italian red room. I was the prized assassin."

Penny stood up now, coming up behind the Italian and hugging her from behind, resting her chin on her shoulder, letting her talk.

"I took countless lives and for what? Good people, bad people, it doesn't matter anymore. I've killed so many people. . ." Tears leaked from Violetta's eyes again and she buried her face in her hands. "For what? Simply so I could meet someone. For selfish gain. I don't know anything about the people. Wives, Husbands, soulmates, children, families, pets. . ."

"Vi." Penny said firmly, coming around to the front now, cupping her face with her free hand. "It's in the past now. All you can do now is continue to move forward. Just keep walking. Now, you work to save lives." Penny kissed her gently on the lips. "Now, come."

Penny took Violetta's hand once more, this time not waiting for her to dry her face. Violetta went with her easily and the two of them went down to the lab.

"Hey Penny, Vi." Tony greeted them, barely looking up for a second before back down on his robot. Trang was fast asleep on the couch in the corner of the room, a blanket over her body, her glasses on the side table. Bruce immediately looked up from where he was working, walking around the table to approach them.

"Vi?" Bruce asked in concern and Penny let Bruce fold Violetta into his arms, "What's wrong honey?"

Vi sniffed and Penny said, "We just want to check and make sure the baby is healthy. She said she's getting painful contractions and she's worried. I think their just Braxton Hicks, but we want a professional opinion."

Tony was paying attention now, leaning on the box, a wrench still in his hand. "Trangs got the same thing going on. I thought maybe it was a side-effect from the magical pregnancy stuff. I talked to Thor about it and he said they're Braxton Hicks. But I can still call Stephen up and he can give you a check up?"

Violetta just nodded and it didn't take long for the Wizard to show up and ease Violetta's concerns in under ten minutes.

Violetta surprised Penny by bursting into tears and immediately hiding her face in her hands, even turning her shoulders towards the guys as though to hide from them.

"Ah Vi." Bruce said softly, hugging her from behind, resting his lips on the top of her head. Trang was starting to stir on the couch now as well.

"Hey." Penny said softly, taking Vi's hand into her own.

"Sorry. Hold on. One second." Violetta muttered, mopping furiously at her face.

"Miele!" Natasha's voice suddenly sounded through the room and Penny looked up to see the red head near sprinting- as best she could while pregnant- over to Violetta's side. Penny smiled to herself, noting that Natasha had spoken Italian in her concern, not Russian.

"Wait, no." Violetta hiccupped, trying to hide her face from Natasha now, rubbing under her eyes furiously. "I'm sorry."

"Stupida." Natasha said fondly, sitting on the other side of Violetta. Tony and Stephen both retreated to Trang's side, whispering quietly to her. Penny sat at the foot of the examination table. "You don't have to hide your emotions."

"I'm not weak." Violetta muttered, wiping her eyes once more, looking frustrated.

Natasha brushed her fizzy brown hair back from Violetta's face. "No, you're not weak Мед." Nat slipped back into her Russian nickname fondly. "Showing emotions is never weak."

"You don't." Violetta huffed, covering her eyes with her hands now, since the tears wouldn't stop.

Natasha was silently for a long time and then finally whispered. "It's not a sign of strength that I don't show emotions. It's a sign of fear. Fear to show my emotions because. . . I mean I don't have to tell you what they do in the red room." Nat pulled Violetta into her arms.

Penny felt hands on her shoulders and looked up to see Stephen behind her. He kissed the top of her head. She tilted back a little to kiss his cheek and then motioned to Chamber, who he took silently in his arms.

"I want to show my emotions." The Russian said to the Italian. "You're so much stronger than me, to be able to do so."

Bruce very slowly wrapped Violetta in his arms, pulling her into him from behind, while Natasha hugged her from the front. Stephen slipped his hand into Penny's and she allowed him to lead her from the room, the two of them heading upstairs on the elevator.

"You okay?" Stephen asked softly, raising her hand to kiss the back of it.

Penny looked up at him and smiled gently. "I love watching everyone make progress. I don't know, something about seeing Violetta and Natasha open up to each other little by little excites me."

Stephen chuckled then as the doors opened. He lifted Chamber a little more in his other arm and then said jokingly. "No wonder you and Elijah get along so well."

Penny giggled, the two of them settling on the couch. She leaned on the arm of the couch and watched as Stephen cooed softly into Chamber's ear, making orange butterflies dance on his fingers while Chamber giggled.

Penny felt eyes and looked up to see the God of mischief leaning against the wall, a small, secret smile hidden behind his fingers as he watched his soulmate with the little boy. Loki looked up, meeting Penny's eyes and winked, but stayed quiet.

"Are you going to join us or watch from the kitchen?" Stephen chuckled without looking over. Penny glanced between the two, slightly surprised, as she hadn't seen Stephen look at Loki.

Loki sauntered over, rolling his eyes playfully, scooping Chamber out of Stephen's arms, settling on the floor by Stephens' feet with him. "One day I'll sneak up on you."

Stephen chuckled, reaching down so that he could place his hand on his head. He reached his other arm over, placing his hand on Penny's upper thigh. His fingers rubbed the inside of her thigh slowly. Penny shivered a little at the sensation.

Penny rested against the couch, watching Loki cradle Chamber in his arms. There was a tenderness to which he held the child and Penny tilted her head a little. "Lokes? Are you. . . okay?"

Loki sighed and Stephen ran his fingers through the long black locks again in a comforting way. "I had a daughter once."

Penny blinked in surprise, but said nothing. Loki got up off the floor, sitting down on the couch, keeping his eyes only on Chamber.

"It was many, many years ago. She would be. . . thirty-seven I believe in human years. She wasn't actually mine, but I raised her. I. . ." Loki drifted off again. "I never wanted to raise her. I just. . ." Loki shook his head, looking off at the wall.

Penny reached over, squeezing his hand, "It's okay Loki."

"I just wish I had done better." Loki sighed, now meeting her eyes. "I swear I will do right by all of our children Penny. I will be the best father possible, I promise."

Penny smiled and Stephen smiled affectionately at him. "Just be yourself with the kids Lokes." Penny whispered softly. "That's the best you and the best father version of you. Being yourself. You can't do anything about the past, but you can do right by the future."

She leaned up and kissed him on the lips.

"Now then," She whispered softly, wanting to help him forget. "How about we head on upstairs, lay Chamber down for a nap, and then fool around in the bed?"

Loki cupped her face softly, seeming to be looking into her soul. "I'm not saying no but. . . " He hesitated, looking anxious.

"Bubs." Stephen said softly, "What do you want?"

"I kind've. . ." Loki looked away, blushing furiously as though embarrassed, "Kind've just want to lay in bed with you two and Chamber. I kind've just want to watch him for a little bit. And just. . ."

"Cuddle." Stephen finished, kissing his cheek. "Then that's what we do. Penny?"

Penny smiled, kissing Loki again. "I love it." 

[loverdude]

Last week when I got home one night there was a black widow on our apartment door and it was a whole thing and then just now when I got home there was a giant wolf spider on the door why does this keep happening to me HGSLDKJFKHGSDFJDHGKJ

[natjennie]

Whats your deal OFMD S2 opening scene?

ok GREAT question sorry it took me a minute to answer. here are some ideas because I'm really extra:

I'll put the text below the cut in case those are hard to read

A choppy ocean, camera in and out of waves, night, dark, splashing, gasping breaths as Lucius’ head breaches the surface. He’s shaking and spluttering, frantically thrashing, looking around horizon, sees nothing, starts panicking, cursing, very dangerous feeling, quick cuts. Then, he sees a dinghy with a few occupants at the very edge of the horizon and starts screaming for help and stede’s voice screams back “Lucius? Is that you?” and lucius deadpans “you’ve GOT to be kidding me” and, as a bonus, a sopping wet red handkerchief smacks into the side of his head as he “what the FUCK” cut to some of stede’s old stuff as flotsam in the ocean, spelling the title card

Very similar mary monologue from e10, talking about the joys of being a widow for the second time, how free she is to love doug, how now the kids know and can talk about it openly, everyones happier. “The one thing they don’t tell you, though, is how often your dead spouse turns up at your door” as she opens the front door to stede standing in the pouring rain, barely holding his hand over his face to conceal himself with the swede, olu, buttons, wee john, black pete, and roach all crowding around behind him, looking around nervously as he smiles and goes “there’s been a bit of a situation” then cut to an extended sweeping pan of all the pirates spread out around the house with maps and books open, mary bent over a plan being written by stede, offering notes as doug serves tea to the crew, alma and louis running around playing with some of them, asking about pirate stuff, zoom to one of the pages spread across the table that reads “our flag means death”

Spin on that ^ but the monologue ends with something like “though I could use fewer men showing up in my living room” and it’s blackbeard, looking like absolute shit, dramatically stepping into the candlelight to reveal the scruffy beard, the makeup, “the widow bonnet, I presume?” “you’ve heard of me” “oh I’ve heard all about you” parallel. He has izzy/fang/ivan/etc watching the kids and doug, has a chat with Mary about stede’s death, series of miscommunications, finally they’re on the same page about stede not really being dead, being on his way back to some “ed” guy he loves, they work everything out, become kind of friendly and she’s like “your names not really blackbeard though, right?” and he says “heh, suppose not, no. I’m Ed” as he leans forward to shake her hand and her eyes widen, fancy classical violin music as “our flag means death” is spelling in the tea spilled from her dropping her cup in shock

Another parallel im sorry (insert the girls when theyre finding parallels meme), izzy rant of “its been almost a fortnight since blackbeard returned, and I’m beginning to believe stede bonnet may have been more of an asset than he originally appeared” with a horribly indignant growl in his voice, compilation of blackbeard being a real hot mess, throwing things, breaking shit, drunk all the time, burning ships without even getting the loot, breaking into tears in the middle of doing something intimidating, etc. izzy comes in to the old quarters and ed is wrapped in a little cocoon of stede’s finery, wailing, chucks a bottle of rum at izzy and it smashing against his head and he leaves and growls “enough! Ivan! Fang!” and they meet him off to the side and he sighs and goes “find me stede fucking bonnet” as they mutter assent, trails up to the mast, up to the stabbing heart flag, new flag under that says “our flag means death”

[adarlingwrites]

Leave it to the Wind

Summary: Between deadlines, an awful transport system, and aswangs lurking about in the shadows, you have much to worry about as a college student in Manila, and it's so much that your social life is practically dead. Your wind people roommates want to help you remedy that.

Words: 9343

Relationships: The Kambal/Reader (Crispin/Reader/Basilio)

Warnings: Adult content, alcohol, brief scene of sexual harassment

Author’s Notes: God, the fandom is so thirsty for the Kambal, and so am I. Finally, some Filipino himbo representation.

The premise is: Hannah and Amie decides to play matchmaker. Hilarity ensues. Smut ensues. Please be nice, I based the characterizations of the character on the Netflix series and Trese wiki pages since I couldn't get my hands on the original comics yet oof. Some words, like terms of endearment and curse words, will remain in Filipino. Translations are provided. Reader is AFAB and is referred to with female pronouns.

Reposting this from AO3 with all three chapters in one post. A Filipino (Taglish) translation is in the works!

I

You don’t know how they managed to convince you, to be honest.

You rarely ever go out at night anymore. So many strange incidents transpire in Manila’s narrow streets. Just recently, you’ve heard of a new story about a tikbalang who allegedly participated in illegal street races.

So when your roommates and friends Amie and Hannah invited you for a night out, you hesitated. You gave them every excuse you can think of; you needed to do laundry, you needed to study, you needed to finish a project, and so on.

You know that the two of them are wind people, but you can’t help but think. Which of the various stories you had been hearing are real? What else in this world you haven’t witnessed yet?

“Aw, you’re such a buzzkill! Pretty please? You don’t go out with us as often. Enjoy yourself a little,” Amie whines, lying on the sofa of your living room.

On the other hand, Hannah turns to you with a mischievous grin on her face. “C’mon, get dressed already,” she commanded. “There are some total hotties we’d like you to meet! One of them might catch your eye!”

“I told you, I don’t need a relationship. You two try this every week. How do you even know so many people?” you retort, laughing softly at yourself.

“Well, our night lives are active,” Hannah retorted. “Don’t forget our sex lives!” the other added. Hearing those words, you felt your face get flushed with heat.

You needed a good fuck.

“Damn it, fine! As long as you pay for me.”

They finally got you to say yes.

As the night went on, you went to several bars, and you swore that you had explored every crevice of the city. It doesn’t help that the guy Amie and Hannah were with, a tall, dark and handsome man with flowing locks of black hair, drove like a demon. You got around quickly in no time.

Around an hour after midnight, you’re all exhausted from a night of dancing and mingling. None of the people your friends introduced to you caught your attention. At that point, you just wanted a stiff drink to unwind.

Voicing it to your drinking buddies, they nod in agreement.

“I know just the place, in Malate,” the man you’re with said. “Quiet. Discreet. I can take you there, if you want.”

“You mean The Diabolical, right? Let’s go! Text Crispin and Basilio, they might be hangin’ there too,” Amie croons.

A chuckle escapes your lips upon hearing their names. “Huh? Were they named after the characters in Jose Rizal’s novel?”

“I think so? Whatever! But seriously though… Those two can totally make you scream their names louder than Sisa ever did! Best lay I ever had!”

The remark made you laugh so hard, you swore you can be heard in the next city. “What the fuck! Amie, gaga ka, Sisa was their mom! The context of that scene was rough.”

Hannah’s mischievous grin spreads on her face once more, and she gently elbows your side. “Well, if you’re lucky, in this context you’d be crying their names while your eyes roll to the back of your head.”

You’ll never admit it, but you had hoped all their teasing would come true.

It didn’t take long for the four of you to reach your destination. As you enter The Diabolical, a strange chill envelopes you. The air feels different inside; it’s almost as if you stepped in a different world. Perhaps it’s the alcohol, but when you looked around, you saw a duwende sitting by the bar. Or was it called a nuno? At the end of the bar, you saw them; two men both dressed in black suits. One has short hair, while the other one has longer, reaching past his shoulders. However, they’re facing away from you. Only the back of their head and part of their cheeks were visible where you stood.

You snapped out of it when the man you three are with spoke up. “I’m gonna call it a night. Have fun, you three.”

“For real? Wow Maliksi, this is the first time I ever saw you wanting to leave early. Aren’t you gonna stop by and say hi to Alex?” Hannah asks him.

“Maybe next time,” Maliksi answers back, a somber expression on his face. “Oh em gee, did you two fight? Wait, what are you two?” Amie asks.

“Whatever. It’s complicated. I don’t wanna talk about it.”

Your friends nodded and let Maliksi be. He waves at your group, and heads out the door. The engine of his car roars to life, and his car screeches away.

As the car moved farther away though, it seems that the screeching of the tires turned into hoofbeats.

Perhaps it’s just your imagination.

“Amie! Hannah! Have a drink! Hey, who’s that with you? Is that the person you’ve been wanting us to meet for ages now?”

Your head turns to where the voice was coming from; one of the men in the suits, the one with short hair in particular. You finally had a good look on their faces.

Twins?

“Crispin! Meet our friend! This is…”

As Amie and Hannah introduce you to the Twins, you can’t help but stare. You took the sight of their features in; they’re tall, with broad shoulders, and hard muscle underneath that black suit and white tie ensemble. They have wide noses with a high bridge, prominent bone structure, and a prominent widow’s peak.

Merciful Bathala, they’re gorgeous.

What caught your attention the most are their eyes. They're pitch black, save for the small reflection of light.

Are these people even human?

“Stare at them like that any longer and they might melt,” Amie teases. The two of your friends are giving you an ear-splitting grin due to your reaction to the Twins.

“I, uh-” you stuttered, and you could feel the heat rising in your cheeks.

“Hey, don’t be shy. You can sit between us, miss. We’re all friends here,” the twin with the longer hair says. If the other one is Crispin, then this must be Basilio.

Behind you, your friends are already giggling. They took their places next to the twins and leaned on their biceps. Across from you, the bartender comes to take your order.

“What’ll it be, kid?” he asks.

For some reason, you’re panicking. Maybe it’s because of the alcohol in your system. Or maybe it’s because you’re sandwiched between the twins. “Uh, what would you recommend, manong?”

Laughter erupted from the twins. “Hank, she called you manong!” Basilio teases while grinning like a fucking dog. “Geez, are you really that old?” Crispin eggs him on, giving him a shit-eating grin. Hank takes a wet rag he uses to wipe down the countertop and strikes the two down. “You goddamn assholes!”

You couldn’t stop yourself from laughing with them.

“Ow! Alright, we’re sorry, we’re sorry. Get them the best seller, Hank. We’ll pay for their tab,” Basilio says, and Hannah and Amie squeals with joy.

“Oh em gee, you boys are so sweet! Thank youuu!”

As Hank prepares you a drink, you try conversing with the twins. “You two seem fun to have as drinking buddies.”

Hank turns around to reach a bottle from the shelf. “Those two are mischievous little shits, that’s for sure. You know, when these two were kids...”

“Hey man, don’t embarrass us like that in front of our new friend,” Crispin whines.

While the three continues fucking around, you leaned back slightly to glimpse at Amie, who was trying to get your attention for a while now. She points to her phone, and you fetch yours from your bag.

You read your group chat with them. “Soooo, do you like, like them?” Hannah’s message said.

“You’re into them aren’t you? You got so shy around them, it’s so cute!” Amie’s message said.

“Right? It’s rare to see you so flustered!”

You typed away furiously at your phone, cautious to not let the twins beside you see the conversation.

“Well, they’re an improvement from the ones you introduced me to earlier. Easier on the eyes, too…”

Your friends giggled, and as their drinks arrived, they stood up. “Girl, we’re gonna leave you with them, there’s some super hot tikbalangs who just came in the bar. Byeeee!”

“Hey, wait!”

They didn’t heed your words and went to sit on the tikbalangs’ laps.

Fuck, tikbalangs are real? Is Maliksi a tikbalang too?

“And off they go, flirting with those beasts after they’ve used us for drinks,” Crispin laments, voice dripping with light-hearted sarcasm.

“It’s not like it’s the first time we got used by them though,” Basilio adds, cringing.

You can’t help but laugh.  “Yeah, I’ve heard.”

Basilio’s head whips towards you, sweat gathering on his brow. “Seriously?! Shit, what did they say about us?”

“All good things, don’t you worry,” you answered.

“Nah, I need to hear what they said word for word,” the twin with long hair responds. “This is making me paranoid!”

Crispin moves closer to you, Basilio puts a friendly arm around your shoulder, and you can only smile. All of you are inebriated and if you were sober, and if someone else dared to get this close to you, you might’ve slapped them. But you feel good about the Twins, and your roommates never put you in harm’s way, so your trust for them extended to the brothers, somehow.

“Just tell us already,” Crispin slurs. “Tell us what they said about us. We’re curious.”

“Fine, fine. Okay, Amie and Hannah mentioned your names when Maliksi suggested that we head here to drink. Then, I mentioned that your names came from Rizal’s novels.”

“Then Amie said,” you continued, pausing briefly to come up with an impression of your roommate’s speech. “‘Seriously though… Those two can totally make you scream their names louder than Sisa ever did! Best lay I ever had!’ Fuck, it was so messed up!”

“That’s messed up, alright,” Basilio sputters, his face a deep shade of crimson. “I’m this hot and those are the only details they can spare?!”

“Ok, but that Sisa joke was kind of funny though. But it was still fucked up,” Crispin adds, and he takes a sip of his drink.

“Hold your horses, the story’s not done yet,” you say. You’re starting to feel more confident around the two.

Your conversation went places, until you found yourselves drinking until three in the morning, and at that point, it’s only just the four of you in the bar; Hank, the Twins, and you. Even Hannah and Amie are nowhere to be seen. Knowing them, they probably took the tikbalangs they were flirting with back to your apartment.

They didn’t even wait for you. Looks like they’re really setting you up tonight. Maybe they wanted the apartment to themselves tonight, and they got exactly what they wanted.

You had planned on getting up to go to the restroom, but when you tried standing up, you almost fell from the chair. The Twins caught you before you landed face first against the floor.

“She’s had enough to drink,” Hank comments. They set you on a chair with a backrest. “How will she get home? We can’t send her off in a cab at this rate. The train doesn't run this late either.”

“Hannah left her behind too,” Crispin adds.

“Hey, how are we gonna deal with this?” Basilio asks. “We can get you home once we sober up a little. It’s fine if you-”

Basilio never got to finish what he was going to say, because you nodded off against his stomach, and puked your lunch out.

You don’t remember anything after that.

When you awaken, the sun is already high up, and the first thing that greets you is the fan in the ceiling. Your muscles are screaming at you, and your throat feels dry. Memories of last night came crashing back and you started sweating in horror. Maybe it’s just a drunken dream, but it felt all too real.

You were flirting with these gorgeous twins, had too much to drink, and at some point puked all over one of the twins’ shoes.

And now, you don’t know whose bedroom you are in. You check yourself, and you’re still wearing the same clothes, with nothing out of place. There are no bruises or marks on your body either. You looked around you, but there was no one else in the room.

The doors crack open slightly, and you see two pairs of void-black eyes.

“I… um… good morning?”

“It’s… already 2 in the afternoon,” one of them says. He has long hair. This one is the twin you threw up on.

“Why don’t you have some lunch?” the other one said.

You just nodded and said nothing else, ashamed of yourself. You threw up on one of them and now you’re eating at their table. You just wanted the ground to swallow you alive.

“Sorry for puking on you last night,” you near-whispered to Basilio after you swallowed your first bite of food.

The silence broke when Crispin roared with laughter, tears pooling at the corner of his eyes. Meanwhile, Basilio was glaring daggers at his brother. He’s frowning like a child whose toy got taken from him. “Sure, keep laughing, kuya.”

“I’ll never show my face here again, I promise,” you say to them, hiding your face behind your hands.

“What’re you talking about? Forget about it. We’re friends now, right?” Basilio tells you, smiling. “But next time, vomit on my brother too.”

“No one’s throwing up because I won’t be allowing any of you to get wasted that bad ever again,” Hank announces as he enters the room with a carafe in his hand. “Bossing’s not gonna like it if the bar ends up smelling as bad as Basilio’s room. Here, have some coffee.”

“We should introduce you to bossing next time too. She’s not here at the moment,” Crispin adds. “Let’s do this again next week.”

The invitation made you smile, and you poured yourself a cup of coffee. You continued eating the rest of your meal.

“...my room doesn’t smell that, right?” Basilio asks after a few moments of silence.

“Gago, it stinks so bad. It’s why we made the guest stay at my room, because if she stayed at yours she could’ve died from how bad it is,” Crispin exclaims. “Seriously, how can you live with bringing women to your room at that point?”

“Kuya, you’re embarrassing me to our guest!”

Translations for non-Filipino speaking folks:

bossing: a somewhat affectionate way to say “boss”. Comes from the old tradition of adding -eng or -ing to ones name to make a nickname, e.g. Luciana - Lucing

Gago/gaga (ka): (you) idiot/moron - someone stupid, foolish or ignorant

Tikbalang: creature from Filipino mythology similar to a centaur. They are hulking beasts with a horse's head.

manong: a term for endearment to an elderly male relative, or elderly men in general. Originally an Ilokano term referring to the first born son in a nuclear family.

kuya: big brother. Can be used to refer to one's own older brother, someone else's older brother, or an older peer or male acquaintance.

II

Author’s Notes: This chapter was heavily inspired by Bita and the Botflies' song Manghuhula.

Warnings: brief scene of sexual harrassment

After washing up, the Twins accompanied you to the gate, exchanging glances at each other behind your back. Little did they know, you definitely noticed it.

“Wait,” Basilio says, tapping your shoulder lightly with a large hand.

Crispin takes his phone out of his pocket. His younger brother proceeds to do the same. “Give us your phone. We’ll add our numbers, and you can text us if something happens,” he says.

“Or when you get home safe,” Basilio adds.

You look at the two of them back and forth. “This isn’t just an elaborate excuse for the two of you to get my number, right?”

Neither of the two spoke, giving each other a nervous glance.

Their reaction made you laugh out loud, and you took out your phone from your bag. “Here. I’ll give you my Facespace too.”

With the tension broken, the three of you exchange a chuckle. You punch in your number in their phones, while they did the same to yours. Crispin looks over his brother’s shoulder and frowns.

“Epal,” Crispin says to his brother, snatching your phone away from him. The older twin types something in, and it’s the younger one’s turn to stick his nose in. Basilio attempts to get the phone back, cursing all the time.

“You’re going to break her phone, gago,” the older twin curses, pushing a palm against Basilio’s face. “Then let it go! You’re the epal, I wasn’t done yet,” the younger one snaps back.

You give them a look of irritation, and check out what they’re arguing about.

“What the hell are you two grown-ass men fighting about?” you ask as you butt in to look at what they’re doing.

A loud snort bubbles from you as you see it; Basilio added “the hot twin” next to his contact name. Crispin added “the hotter twin”. Now, the former wanted to outdo his older brother.

Against your better judgment, you say, “You’re twins. You look like each other. You’re both hot. Now stop fighting over my phone.”

Perhaps it’s the afternoon heat, but there is a tinge of red in their cheeks after your remark. You waved them goodbye as you got in a tricycle that’ll get you to the nearest train station.

The MRT, in some strange miraculous twist of fate, isn’t as packed as usual. It’s still populated, but there were a few seats waiting to be taken. You sit down somewhere away from direct sunlight, and you take out your phone to tell Hannah and Amie that you’re on the way home.

The first thing you see is a text from Basilio. Then, a text from Crispin. You tell them both that you’re on the train now, completely forgetting about messaging your roommates. To pass the time, you launch the Facespace app and decide to look up their profiles, only to find out that they’ve already sent you a friend request.

Upon seeing Crispin’s profile, you did your damn best to stifle a laugh.

His work description says “works at the Krusty Krab,” but that wasn’t the craziest thing about his profile. At first, the Bible verse in his bio caught you off guard, thinking that someone like him didn’t seem religious, but when you quickly looked up “Ezekiel 23:20,” you did your best not to howl with laughter.

Basilio’s isn’t any better.

In his work description, he put “Model at For Her Magazine,” and “edi sa puso mo.” Then you scroll down to see a thirst trap of him pulling his shirt up with his teeth, and you can feel the heat rising to your cheeks again. Well, at least that work description is believable.

They’re- what was that term your younger university friends were using again?- himbos.

They’re definitely himbos.

Arriving at your place, you slot your key inside the doorknob and twist. As you enter the door, the heavy, musky scent of sex and sweat hits your face, and you regret getting too wasted last night and losing your chance to hook up with one of the Twins.

Or both.

Both?

Regardless, at least they’ve invited you again to hang out next week.

You raise your eyebrow and cross your arms at the scene before you. Cans of beer litter the living room, and your roommates are taking a nap by the couch. A tikbalang comes out of the bathroom, glamor off, and you snort as you watch him duck under the door frame because of his massive height.

“It’s already four in the afternoon. Time to go, big guy.”

He nods awkwardly in acknowledgment, morphing into his human disguise, and exiting your apartment.

You sit between your roommates, rousing them from their sleep. “I’m not going to clean this mess up,” you tell them, motioning to the trashed state of the living room, and reaching for the remote to turn the TV on. You just want to take a shower afterwards and sleep in your own bed tonight.

After rubbing the sleep from their eyes, your roommates near-tackles you on the couch, a curious, excited look on their faces. You forgot all about what you were watching and stared at them in surprise.

“So how did it go? Did you get to hook up with any of them?” Amie asks.

“Or both of them?” Hannah adds.

“Gaga, nothing like that happened.”

The two of them let you go with disappointed looks on their faces. “So sayang! Here we were thinking you finally have a sex life,” one of them says as you lean back on the backrest, closing your eyes as they continue to pester you for details.

“Why are you two so determined to get me to screw someone?” you finally snapped, amused and irked at the same time.

“Because you’ve been doing nothing but totally stressing yourself out! See how super fun it is to let go every now and then?”

“Thanks for the new drinking buddies, girls, but I have my fingers to keep me company. Hookups are too much work,” you lie to them, eyes still closed.

“That’s a toe-curling, full-body orgasm you’re missing out on, girl!”

“That’s assuming that the person I’m with knows what they’re doing,” you retorted.

One of them pokes your side with an elbow, and you assume it’s Hannah. “The Twins do.”

You opened your eyes, and you guessed right; it’s Hannah. You give her a look, before rolling your eyes, appearing to look disinterested. The smirk tugging at the edge of your lips says otherwise, though.

“So what happened last night?” Amie asks.

“I got wasted and threw up on Basilio’s shoes. Then, I ended up sleeping in Crispin’s room. When I woke up, they fed me and sent me home,” you tell them. Your roommates giggle at the story.

“Ah, speaking of which, I gotta let them know I got home,” you said off-hand, and somehow the remark only spurred your wind people roommates on.

“Yieee, you’re friends with them on Facespace already!” Amie quips, leaning in to see what you’re typing. Playfully, you move your phone away from her to conceal what you’re typing.

“Make a group chat with them!” Hannah exclaims, taking your phone away from you. You tried taking it back, but Amie joins in the mischief and blocks you from doing so.

When you got your phone back, the deed was done, and the chat was renamed to a single eggplant emoji. The like button was replaced by an eggplant emoji too.

Panicking, you add your roommates to the group to avoid looking suspicious, and swiftly type up a defense.

“Please ignore that, Hannah made this chat using my account.”

The teasing never stopped after that.

Weeks passed and you never bothered to change it, though.

It’s been about two months since your first encounter with the Twins. You’re becoming a familiar face at The Diabolical, going every Saturday to see them. Sometimes Hannah and Amie didn’t accompany you anymore. You’ve met the Twins’ bossing a few times, who turned out to be none other than Alexandra Trese. You’ve heard of her exploits and the two imposing bodyguards who were almost always with her. It surprised you that they’re none other than the Twins you knew, but it made perfect sense. Those two were jacked, and those muscles aren’t only for show.

Of course, because of your increasing presence in the bar, it didn’t take long for the rumors to circulate. Word on the street is both of the Twins had a thing for you, and neither is making a move out of consideration for the other. They are waiting for you to move.

You elected to ignore them, perfectly happy with your arrangement of having two handsome men to keep you company while you unwind. The thought of getting together with one of them, or even both of them did cross your mind a few times, however.

Ultimately, you wouldn’t know what to do if the day comes that you’ll have to confront how you feel and choose between the two.

Do you have to?

Crispin and Basilio are twins, but they’re distinct from each other. The older is more serious, with a dryer sense of humor, while the younger is goofier, and somewhat softer. One complements the other, and they’re both good company despite their differences.

Speak of the devil. Your phone buzzes and you see that the eggplant chat is active. The Twins are inviting you to The Diabolical again.

“See you guys at eight,” you type in. Someone reacts with an eggplant to your message. Then the next few messages were nothing but eggplant emojis, followed by Basilio sending “#TeamTalong”. Crispin cusses him out for it, but sends the same message right after.

Yeah, that became a thing among the five of you.

You and the wind girls got dressed and took a taxi to the bar, your favorite jacket draped over your shoulders. Pressured by your roommates, you wore something nicer tonight; a black faux leather dress that hugs your figure deliciously. The shiny fabric added to the effect. The six bottles of Pulang Tikbalang beer the three of you shared before going out might’ve contributed to your newfound bravado.

But now that you’re actually wearing it outside your apartment, you feel a little reluctant.

“Maybe wearing this is a bad idea,” you mutter to no one in particular, tucking a lock of hair behind your ear out of self-consciousness.

Amie taps you from behind. “Oh hush, that outfit is totally sexy,” she comments. “Finally ready to get dicked down tonight, girl?”

“Shhh, gaga ka, manong driver can hear you.”

That didn’t deter them from making more inappropriate comments, much to the manong's ire.

It’s nine already when you get there, you’re in the Philippines after all. The merriment is already in full swing when you step through the door. Hannah and Amie went ahead and sat next to their lay of the week. The Twins wave you over from their usual spot, but before you can reach them, a man you’ve never seen before tries to get your attention, snaking an arm around your waist.

“Hey baby. You’re a regular here, right? Want to drink with me?”

“Sorry, I’m here with someone else,” you tell him, moving away.

“Ah, here to see the Twins? Why don’t you ditch them for a change of pace and come with me, babe?”

“Not interested,” you flat out said. “Please move, or I’ll make you move.”

To your surprise, the man drops his glamor and reveals himself to be a kapre. He looms over you, cigar in his mouth, and you can feel the tension rising. People are starting to stare, and your friends took notice of it too.

“Try,” he huffs, puffing smoke to your face. You give him a sour glare while trying not to cough.

Before your roommates or the Twins could come to your aid, you panicked and saw an empty bottle of Pulang Tikbalang on a nearby table. Emboldened by the alcohol in your veins, you shatter the bottle and point the jagged edge at the hulking beast, hands shaking. You are a tiny thing compared to the enormous creature before you, after all.

“Don’t you dare look down on me.”

“Already doing that, honey.”

“I’m not your honey,” you say as you press the edge against his stomach, not enough to draw blood, but hard enough to hurt.

“I love it when they fight back,” the kapre croons.

Under the haze of alcohol, you were more than ready to shove the edge in, consequences be damned.

Before things could escalate, Crispin takes the broken bottle off of your hands and steers you away from the stranger, while Basilio steps in to defuse the tension. “Hey, why don’t you back off, pal? Our friend said no. You wouldn’t want us to tell our bossing to ban you from the place because of this misunderstanding now, don’t you?”

Heart in your throat, you turn to the Twins, then to the kapre. The tree giant pauses, looking at the three of you, then smirks.

“Heh. Fine. But if you torpe whelps don’t make a move, I will.”

The giant puts his glamor back on and skulks away.

“Wow, what a jerk! He only left you alone when the boys stepped in,” Hannah quips, tossing her hair in indignation.

“You almost didn’t need rescuing, but I’d hate to help Hank mop the blood off the floor later,” Basilio comments, nudging you gently with an elbow. His eyes go a little lower from your face, and you see him look away.

You realized Crispin hasn’t let go of you yet.

“C’mon, let’s just go,” you tell everyone. Crispin proceeds to remove his hand away from your shoulder, and you take your usual seats by the bar.

The bar is loud, but the silence between the three of you is deafening. Even Hank seems to have taken notice, eyeing your usually loud and cheerful group.

“What’s up with you three? What happened back there?” the older man asks, leaning over the bar top.

“Just a handsy kapre who couldn’t take no for an answer. I won’t let it spoil the night,” you answer him.

“That’s the spirit. Holler if he tries something like that again, I’ll have him kicked out,” Hank replies, setting down three ice-cold beers in front of you guys.

Yet somehow, the conversation never livened up.

Three bottles of Pulang Tikbalang later, you’ve had enough.

“This is about what that kapre said, isn’t it?” you finally say, slightly pissed.

The Twins look at each other with guilty expressions, and simultaneously nod.

“Do you boys wanna talk about it?”

They look at each other again. “Shit, this is awkward,” Crispin comments, scratching his head. Basilio nods in agreement, uncharacteristically silent. “We didn’t want to pressure you into anything you didn’t want to do,” the older twin continues.

“Look, I don’t want to ruin my relationship with my kuya just because we’re interested in the same girl,” Basilio says. “Same here,” Crispin adds.

“So we were waiting for you to make your own move,” Basilio continues.

“Ah. So the rumors are true,” you sighed.

“We’ll accept whatever outcome there is. If you choose me, or Basilio, or neither because this is fucking messy, we totally get it,” the older twin says, leaning back to stare at the ceiling.

Now the decision rests in your hands.

“Why don’t we talk about this somewhere more private?” you ask them.

You watch as both of them gulp. “Where do you wanna talk?” Basilio asks.

“Anywhere private.”

“I just cleaned my room earlier. Why don’t we continue this there?”

You nod, and they lead you away from the bar.

Looks like it’s going to be a long night.

Translations for non-Filipino speakers:

epal: in Filipino slang, usually refers to a person who inappropriately presents himself in a situation or butts into a conversation.

kapre: a tree-giant from Filipino mythology. Often described as very tall, dark, and hairy. Almost never seen without a cigar.

sayang: literally means waste. Can be used alone as an expression similar to "what a waste!"

torpe: someone who cannot spit their romantic or sexual feelings out to a crush or love interest

III

Author’s Notes:

Warnings: Smut. Filthy smut. Writer-is-definitely-going-to-the-second-circle-of-the-Seven-Circles-of-Hell-levels-of-filthy smut. Bawal bata, tulog na. If you're under 18 please turn back.

After the door closes behind the three of you, you sit on the bed, while Crispin sits on a chair near his brother’s desk. Basilio locks the door, and leans against it, unable to look at you.

“Right. So. How are we going to deal with this?” you ask them, crossing your legs.

“Don’t ask us,” Crispin says, swiveling the chair to face you. “You’re the one caught in the middle after all.”

Curse his choice of words.

“This is too weird,” Basilio speaks up. “If you want me to unlock the door, just say the word. We can walk out of this like nothing happened.”

“And then what? Things are going to be awkward between the three of us, I just know it,” you say to him, palming the back of your neck. “Things might get awkward with Amie and Hannah too, and I live with them. I don’t want our tropa to disband just because of relationship drama.”

“What about Amie and Hannah? Is it because we have history with those two?” Crispin asks.

“They’ve been trying to set me up with either of you. The fact that they also slept with you in the past also doesn’t help. Shit, this is messy.”

“Er, um,” Basilio stutters. “That might’ve been our fault.”

You furrow your brow and cross your arms. “Keep going.”

The Twins look at each other, as if gauging who should explain the situation. “So, we remained in contact after being used as a prize for bossing’s race with Maliksi, right?” Crispin starts.

“Uh huh.”

“Well, they mentioned a third roommate in passing and joked about lending us to her. Of course we blew them off, then Amie showed us a picture of you. We got curious and asked them to introduce you,” Basilio continues.

“I didn’t expect us five to become friends. And now we’re in this mess,” Crispin adds.

You look at them back and forth, and laugh in resignation. Elbows digging against your lap and palms pressed against your face, you rub your face and run it through your hair. “Amazing. Just amazing. See, I have a problem too.”

The Twins didn’t respond, eyes fixated on you.

“I like the two of you.”

You feel the air shift around you. Basilio’s standing upright by the door now, and Crispin straightened up too. The room is so quiet, you can hear them gulp in anticipation for what will happen next.

“There. I said it. The reason why I haven’t made a move at all is because of this exact moment that I was dreading. I didn’t want to choose,” you admit, feeling the blood rush to your head. “I just wanted for us three to stay like that, drinking buddies sprinkled with sexual tension.”

“And you’re in the middle, enjoying our attention,” Crispin says, crossing his arms.

“Selfish, I know,” you admit, head hanging low.

This is it, the moment that can make or break you three.

“Us three. If only...” you whisper, only for the words to fall flat on your tongue

You stand up, gathering your things and carrying your bag. “Nevermind. What a mess we’re in. I’ll go so you two can sort things out between the two of you. It’s been a fun ride.”

Basilio doesn’t move from the door, and behind you, you can hear Crispin getting up from his seat.

“We can still make this work, right kuya?” Basilio starts, looking over your head to give his brother a knowing look.

“Yeah, I think so,” Crispin replies. “What was that you said? The three of us?”

Your eyes widen, and you look at them back and forth. Their bodies are dangerously close to yours. Now you’re literally caught in the middle.

“I- uh…”

“I think we can work out an arrangement,” Basilio whispers, one hand moving to hold yours.

“Only if you want to,” Crispin adds, his breath kissing the back of your neck.

“I don’t want to lose either of you,” Basilio adds.

“Same here.”

Damn it all.

Giving in to your darkest, most hidden desires, you lean in to capture Basilio’s lips with yours, leaving his black eyes wide open in surprise. They flutter close, and he savors the kiss, slipping a tongue in. Then you turn to Crispin, and you give him the same sweet kiss as well.

“Damn, I didn’t mean like, now,” Basilio mutters, feeling the front of his trousers get tighter as he watches you make out with his brother.

Bringing your attention back to the younger twin, you loosen his tie, while you push out your ass to grind against Crispin. “Are you complaining?”

“Not at all.”

“Wait, are you sure about this? All of us drank tonight… we don’t want you to do something you’ll regret,” Crispin says, moving his hips away from you. Basilio pauses too, and wraps his hands around your wrists to still your hands, a look of concern on his face.

“Kuya’s right.”

“I’m a grown woman. I might’ve had a few bottles, but I know what I want,” you reassure them, waiting for the two to make a move. “I know I want you two for months.”

Basilio lets go of your hands and lets you do as you please, a cocky smirk on his lips. Behind you, you can feel Crispin’s gloved hands reaching for the zipper of your dress. “Really? How much do you want us? C’mon, say it,” Basilio asks, moving in to place kisses on your neck.

“I wanna hear it too,” Crispin whispers against your shoulder, and he punctuates it with a light kiss.

All of a sudden, you felt shy at the prospect of confessing your fantasies out loud. “Why don’t I just show you boys?”

“Oh no, you’re not getting out of this one,” Basilio teases. “Consider it as payback for throwing up all over my shoes.”

“You’re still- ah!- mad about that?” you ask him, gasping in the middle of doing so when you felt a hand snake between your legs from behind. The older twin slips his fingers past your underwear, circling your clit with slow strokes.

“Not mad, I just want things to be fair,” Basilio teases, pulling your dress down. He gives your breasts a squeeze, fondling and rolling your nipples until they harden, and he seals his lips over your right one. Crispin moves from behind you and he takes his place next to his twin, lathing his tongue over the left. All four of their hands pawed at your flesh greedily.

You were at a loss for words because of how good they’re making you feel, soft moans bubbling from your throat.

“Speechless already, huh?” Crispin mumbles against your skin.

“Ngh! The wind girls weren’t lying, you two know what you’re doing,” you gasped, face flushed as you watched the Twins lavish their attention on your breasts.

“Shhh, stop changing the subject. Play along, or neither of us will make you cum,” he adds, pausing to give you a teasing lick, and resting his tongue on top of the hardened bud. On the other hand, Basilio is sucking like a starved babe while squeezing your still clothed behind.

You fake a scoff of indignation and grin. “Fine. I- oh fuck- want you two so much, I’ve been fantasizing for weeks.”

Basilio pauses to address you. “Describe them.”

You’re a little mortified, but the alcohol in your system pushes you to be bolder. “I imagined Basilio punishing me for ruining his shoes.”

“And how did he do that?” Crispin’s voice.

“He asked me to suck him off,” you start, and a pinch on your bottom from the subject of your fantasy tells you that he wanted to hear more details. “He fucked my face while pulling my hair and told me how good I was the whole time and that he forgave me.”

“What about me? What fantasies did you have?” Crispin asks again.

Your breath hitched in your throat but you pushed on. “Hearing how you scolded Basilio, I imagined you taking me from behind and saying the meanest, dirtiest things possible.���

The Twins looked at each other, and stopped, their lips leaving your breasts with a lewd pop. “You want to make them all come true?” Basilio asks.

Cheeks burning, you give them a curt nod.

The two of them lead you to the bed, where Crispin puts you on all fours, and he takes his place from behind. On the other hand, Basilio is standing near the edge of the bed, the bulge in his pants inches away from your face. You stare at it, licking your lips.

As you undid Basilio’s pants, he shrugs off his suit jacket and takes off his tie, then he takes off his dress shirt, revealing his abs and the trail of dark hair on his lower abdomen, disappearing into his briefs. From behind, you hear fabric shifting, then Crispin peels your panties off of you. He brings a gloved hand against your skin in a loud smack, making you cry out.

“Ah, wait, we need a safeword,” Crispin mentions, soothingly squeezing your skin.

“What about Eternos?” Basilio suggests, and Crispin cocks an eyebrow. “Wait, you mean, like the game?”

You stifle a laugh. “I’m fine with it,” you say to them, and they take it as a signal to continue.

The older twin dips a gloved finger between your folds, gathering your wetness, and tsked. “Look at you, already so fucking wet. You want this so much, huh?”

You nod frantically, then Basilio stills your head. “Open your mouth, baby. Tongue out.”

You oblige, and Basilio fishes his cock out of his briefs. Your eyes grow wider as you take in the sight of it; girthy, with a nice length, and a few veins running on the underside. You wonder if Crispin’s is the same. The twin in front of you lightly smacks his member against your tongue, and you proceed to lick it, running from the base to the tip, slicking it with saliva. You swirl your tongue around it, then try to slide it in your mouth as smoothly as possible.

As Basilio begins to breathe harder with each bob of your head, Crispin pulls your ass towards his face, and a choked moan escapes your lips as you feel his mouth on your heat, toying with your folds before he finally finds that sensitive nub. The older twin proceeds to lick and suck at it, eating you out like you’re the best damn meal of his life.

Meanwhile, you push a palm against Basilio’s thigh to make him pause, and before he can ask you if you’re fine, you take his balls in your mouth and fondle him with your tongue. Your hand pumps his neglected cock as you did so.

“Shit! Your mouth feels so damn good,” he hisses, breathing hard. When you take his dick back into your mouth, Basilio gathers your hair and uses it as a handle, watching his length disappear in your mouth over and over, his black eyes hazy with lust and his mouth whispering words of praise.

Crispin looks at his brother with a hint of envy, cock painfully hard against his trousers. He unzips it for relief, and proceeds to stroke himself as he continues to prepare you.

“Hey, Basilio, got any lube?”

“Um, there’s- ungh- a bottle of it under the pillow.”

“...you keep lube under your pillow? What the- and condoms? Can’t you put them in your drawers or something?”

Basilio doesn’t give his brother a response and focuses his attention on you. You gasp against his cock as you felt a cold, gloved hand prod against your asshole, and goosebumps formed on your flesh as you felt the cold lubricant smearing against your entrance. Crispin pushes his lubed thumb in, and you cry out in pleasure, your jaw opening wider for Basilio to claim. Then, two more fingers prod at your pussy, and you swear you can see stars as they slid in. The older twin toys with you while eating you out, and you feel a knot forming at the base of your stomach, threatening to uncoil at any moment.

You couldn’t take it. Basilio’s cock slides out of your mouth and you look over your shoulder, moaning and panting.

Crispin pauses from eating you out to ask you a question. “You’re gonna cum? You wanna cum on my fingers like the filthy slut you are?”

“Yes, please, please, let me cum,” you begged, and with a devilish smirk, Crispin dives right back in to finish the job.

You squeezed your eyes shut as the pleasure inside you exploded, shameless moans coming from your throat as your first orgasm hits you. Basilio watches the look of pleasure on your face as Crispin makes you cum, making his cock twitch.

“Now that’s how you please a woman,” Crispin teases, shooting his brother a challenging look while wiping your juices off of his face.

“Wait until it’s my turn,” Basilio replies, smirking.

Panting, legs wobbling, you didn’t get to rest as Crispin takes his cock and slides it in you. In front of you, Basilio cups your face and directs you back to his cock, smirking. “You’re doing so well, baby. You’re taking us like a champ, you know that?”

“Fuck,” Crispin hisses from behind you. “You like this, you little slut? You like being fucked by two cocks at the same time?” he asks you, each word punctuated with a hard thrust.

Now you’re really caught in the middle.

Basilio’s panting heavily now, his thrusts becoming erratic against your mouth. You know he’s close, and you brace yourself for what’s coming. Eyes screwed shut, he lets out a low groan as he spills inside of your mouth, his cum painting your tongue white. You try to swallow it all, but a few stray drops dribble down your chin. The younger twin cleans you up, and kisses you deeply, not minding his taste on your mouth. He sits on the bed to catch his breath, and allows you to rest on his thighs.

Behind you, Crispin begins to rut faster, his thumb still in your ass as he pounded you. You writhe and cry against Basilio’s lap, bracing yourself from each harsh thrust. The younger twin pets your hair, but he moves his hand away when Crispin pushes your head against his brother’s lap.

“Take it all of it,” Crispin groans. “Ungh, you make me so horny, you little slut.”

Not wanting to miss out on the fun, Basilio gets an idea.

“Hey, kuya. Hold her up.”

Crispin blinks before obliging his brother’s request, clamping a hand around your throat. “Is this fine?” he asks you, and you nod a few times. He tightens his hold and pulls you to his toned chest, your hair sticking to his skin from your sweat. Basilio kisses you, then latches on one of your breasts. One gloved hand fondles and pulls at your nipples, while the other moves south to stroke you.

“Ah! I think I’m gonna cum again…” you choked, face red and tears forming at the edge of your eyes.

“Say our names,” Crispin whispers against your ear in a low growl.

You mutter their names at first, but it turns to full blown cries as your climax fast approaches.

“Crispin! Basilio!”

It hits you so hard, your eyes roll to the back of your head. You cried shamelessly, and Crispin places a kiss on your open mouth, tongue slipping in and teeth clashing with yours. He pulls out and finishes on your back, cock resting between the valley of your cheeks, still half-hard.

The Twins move to clean you up, looking around for tissues and anything to wipe you with.

“So,” Basilio says. “One more round?”

Your eyes widen, and you look down to see that Basilio is hard again.

“How- what the fuck? What are you two?”

Crispin sighs. “Hannah and Amie never told you? We’re demigods.”

“We don’t get sick and our injuries heal really fast. Talagbusao is our dad,” Basilio adds, and you give him a disbelieving glare.

“You didn’t need to let that last detail slip out, gago,” Crispin berates him as he pulls you close to his muscular chest. He lay down on a pillow, one arm propping his head up.

After a few seconds of silence, you say something. “At least let me have some water first.”

“Right.”

The Twins stare at each other.

“One of us has to fetch it,” Crispin says.

“What? Why me?” Basilio complains, scratching his head.

“Because I’m older, and I’ve worked hard to give her two orgasms in a row.”

“Hey! I’m sure that last one was thanks to me.”

You groan, grabbing a pillow to cover your face. “Ugh, please don’t turn this into a competition about who made me cum the most. Just get me my water, pretty please, Basilio?”

At the request, Basilio smiles and dresses haphazardly to get it for you. “Don’t start without me.”

You close your eyes with a smile. Crispin buries his face against your hair and plays with it. “You have him wrapped around your finger, you know?”

You chuckle at the remark, and Crispin kisses your temple. “Just don’t hurt my little brother.”

“I have no intention of hurting either of you,” you tell him.

Basilio comes back with a pitcher and some glasses, and once everyone’s hydrated and ready, the night continues.

The Twins spoil you with their attention, hands roaming your body as they planted kisses on your skin. Basilio sucks on your collarbone, biting experimentally and leaving marks that would darken in the morning, which draws a whine from your throat. Not wanting to be outdone, Crispin kisses your back, then the back of your neck, and he found a sweet spot that made you moan at that place where your ear connects to your neck. Basilio observes this and does the same to the other side.

“Hey, um, can I do it in your ass?” Crispin whispers in your ear, almost sheepishly, and you stare at him for a few seconds before nodding.

“Sure. Be gentle. And use a condom.”

“Of course. You go on top. What’s our safeword again?” he asks you, testing your knowledge.

You roll your eyes and try not to laugh. “Eternos.”

“Good girl,” Basilio says.

Flipping yourself around, you lean into Crispin’s lap. “Here, let me help,” you say as you grasp his cock and start to pump. The younger twin behind you reaches for the lube and prepares your ass. You sigh with pleasure as you feel the cold sensation of the product on your skin. Crispin sighs as you slide his length between your lips, head bobbing up and down, and you feel him grow inside your mouth. You give the tip a small lick before doing the same thing you did to Basilio, cupping his balls with your mouth and fondling them with your tongue.

“I want you now,” Crispin rasps, tugging your hair to get you off of him.

You smirk, turning around to give him a great view of your ass. He reaches around for a condom, finds one, and tears the foil open. After sliding the rubber down his shaft, he positions himself against your hole, pressing against the tight ring of muscle. You wince in pain as he starts penetrating you, prompting him to squeeze more lube to relieve your discomfort.

“Relax,” Basilio instructs you, planting soothing kisses at your jaw. You did as he said and unclenched your muscles, entrusting yourself to the two of them.

As Crispin pushes past the ring of muscle, you sigh in relief, discomfort replaced with the feeling of fullness. You lean back into his hard chest, a soft sigh leaving your lips as he starts to move. Meanwhile, Basilio kneels between your legs, rubbing your clit with the head of his dripping cock, but he freezes before he slides it in.

“What?” you ask with concern.

“We’re out of condoms.”

“Just pull out,” you tell him with a strained voice, gasping as Crispin moves inside you.

“No, you don’t understand. We’re demigods. Our… um.. Yeah, we’re really potent.”

You smirk at him. “I’ll ask the girls for something in the morning,” you say against your better judgment. “It’s a risk I’m willing to take. Cum all over me.”

His cock twitches at your last suggestion.

“Ugh, Basilio, you’re really killing the mood here,” Crispin strains to say, holding you gently by the neck. “I pulled out too, remember? Make up your mind already. I wouldn’t mind having her to myself for now, though.”

“Not a chance,” Basilio retorts, sliding the tip of his cock past your folds and pushing inside.

A loud cry rips from your throat at the sensations, feeling stuffed to the maximum as two cocks start to pump inside you. Crispin’s grip on your neck tightens, while you tangle your hands through Basilio’s hair, pulling him closer and kissing him.

Soon, The Twins find a steady rhythm, syncing their movement so you can feel the full force of their thrusts. Basilio throws one of your legs over his shoulder and begins to massage your clit with his thumb, while Crispin fondles your breasts with his free hand, using the tip of his fingers to roll, squeeze, and pull at your nubs. With every thrust they give, you clench, drawing a groan from both of them as they felt themselves being squeezed by your muscles.

“Oh God,” you whine. “Fuck, you both feel so good.”

“Say our names,” Basilio growls, and you oblige.

You chant their names like a prayer, underscored by the slapping of skin as the Twins fucked both of your holes. Hearing their names only spurred them on, and their movements became more desperate, sweat rolling off of your bodies.

“Basilio! Crispin!”

Underneath you, Crispin gropes at your breast harder, beads of sweat rolling off of his forehead and dripping to your skin. “Your ass feels too good, I’m gonna cum,” he hissed between clenched teeth, and you silently thank Bathala that he’s near his limit. The lube is starting to wash off.

With a few more rough thrusts, he cums, shooting inside the rubber. Crispin cups your jaw and kisses you, deep and sweet, tasting your tongue. You’re on the verge of climax now too, and you give Basilio a desperate look. He understood what you meant.

The younger twin thrusts harder and faster while still rubbing that sensitive nub between your legs furiously, and the older one helps by stimulating your nipples once again. The bombardment of sensation is too much, and you feel white hot heat racing through your body as you cum one last time, voice hoarse as a throaty moan escapes past your open mouth.

The spasm of your muscles is enough to send Basilio over the edge too, pulling out of you and spilling his load all over the mound of your pussy, and your stomach. You feel Crispin slip out of you too. Basilio leans in to kiss you, almost tenderly, but still full of desperation, tongue and teeth.

After a quick cleanup and another drink of water, the three of you lay in a heap of limbs, exhausted. Crispin doesn’t shift at all, content on letting you lie next to him, while Basilio moves next to you, effectively sandwiching you between the two of them on the narrow bed.

Everyone is sated, and with your eyes growing heavy, you wanted nothing but sleep.

“So, who’s better?”

You don’t know who said it, but you raised your hand to give him a middle finger. “Tangina niyo, you’re both good. End of discussion. Now please let me sleep.”

Thank Bathala that they did.

The next morning, all three of you wake up sweaty, stinking, and really, really hungry.

“Good morning to you two,” you sigh, snaking your arms around theirs. Each of them gave you a kiss on your temple. “Damn, I’m starving,” you said, sitting up. “Let’s take a shower and grab something to e-”

Underneath the three of you, the bed’s legs give out, and a loud thud can be heard throughout the house. As you three scramble for purchase, frantic footsteps are approaching, and the door bursts open.

“What was that? Crispin is missing from his room and-” Hank blurts, toting his good ol’ triple barrel shotgun "Ama, Anak, at, Espiritu Santo". Funnily enough, when he sees the tangle of limbs before him, he utters the same words and quickly turns away. Alexandra arrives shortly after, gives them a quick glance, and shuts the door.

Breakfast with their bossing is filled with a mortifying quiet.

You barely touch your food, embarrassment burning your cheeks, and you shoot a glance at your twin lovers.

“Next time, lock the door,” Alex finally says, getting up from the table with a coffee in her hands. She’s too fucking exhausted to deal with this.

“It’s Basilio’s fault!” Crispin yells after her. Basilio made no attempts to defend himself, knowing that he forgot to lock the door again after he came back with the water.

Grumbling, you finally take a bite of your breakfast, jacket draped over your shoulders despite the heat to hide the bruises on your body. “The girls are gonna have a field day when they see me like this.”

“I need to replace the bed,” Basilio mumbles, stuffing his mouth with rice.

The three of you looked at each other, and laughed.

“So, see you next week?” Crispin asks with a smile, and Basilio gives you a pleading, doe-eyed look.

“Yeah. See you two next week.”

Translations for non-English speakers:

tropa: ground of friends. People you chill with

tangina niyo: Filipino profanity. Roughly translates to "you sons of bitches"

Ama, Anak, at Espiritu Santo: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It’s Hank’s weapon’s actual name in the comics.

[nothoughtsonlynat]

Fancy Labs and Covert Operations (N.R.)

The Billionaire’s Daughter masterlist

Word Count: 2.1k

*large sections in italics means it’s in German*

You strut down the hall with your head held high and a bright smile on your lips. Are you panicking on the inside? Maybe a little, but your new coworkers don’t need to know that.

You knock on the tall glass door and your boss waves you inside. You enter the extravagant office and shake his hand. He motions for you to take a seat and says, “Welcome to Bremen Logistics, Miss Stark. We’re very excited to have you here.”

“I’m very excited to be here, Mr. Meier. This is an amazing opportunity,” you say with a polite smile. You aren’t just saving face though; Bremen Logistics is the leading engineering company in America. It’s based in Germany, but its American divisions are just as successful.

“I will be here if you have any questions. My assistant will take you to your lab. It should be stocked with anything you might need, but if not, feel free to let someone know. You will have any and all resources available at your fingertips. Good luck,” he says. His thick German accent makes it a little difficult to understand what he’s saying, but you get the gist of it.

“Thank you so much, Mr. Meier.” A scrawny young man with glasses hurries into the office; he must be the assistant. He almost looks scared.

“If you could follow me, Miss Stark, I’ll show you to your lab.”

“Right, thank you.”

<//>

The only thing in your mind as you enter the lab is holy shit. One section of this room is worth more than your entire existence. “Oh, I can definitely work with this,” you say with a smirk as you walk through the lab, running your hand along the counter.

“Good, I am glad you like it. This is basically your lab, but other scientists will pop in once in a while. You won’t be sharing often, but maybe once or twice a week,” the assistant says.

“That will be fine. Thank you.”

“No problem. Have a nice day, Miss Stark.” He leaves the lab hurriedly, and you furrow your eyebrows at his demeanor. The boss seems nice enough, at least.

<//>

A few hours later, you’re looking through a microscope and taking notes when you hear an interesting conversation coming from the lab across the hall. Apparently, nobody here realizes that you speak German.

“Meier needs these calculations by the end of the day for some new weapon. Don’t screw it up again or we’re both dead.”

“You’re the one who messed it up last time, not me. Are they finally invading that base?”

“I think so, which means we need to get this done.” 

The two scientists walk down the hall and you can no longer hear them. You lean against the counter and blow out a breath. What were they talking about? You don’t think that this company manufactures weapons. And what base is getting invaded by whom?

You close the lab door and pull out your phone. You hesitate before clicking the contact. It rings a few times before she picks up. “Hey, what’s up?” “Hey, Nat. Do you know anything about Bremen Logistics?”

“It’s a German engineering company, that’s about it. Why?”

“Well, that’s my new job. And something just seems off about this place.” “Hold on,” she says. You can hear the clacking of keys in the background for a few minutes. “I can’t find anything, Y/N. They seem like a clean company, and there’s no obvious dirt on Meier. I can dig deeper if you want, but it’ll take a bit.” “No, don’t bother. I’m probably just being paranoid.” “If something seems off then you should just leave. It’s not worth the risk,” her concern seeps through the phone, and you can practically hear her frowning.

“It’ll be fine, Nat. You wanna come check out the new apartment tonight?”

“Definitely. Text me when you’re out. I’ll see you then.”

“Bye, Nat.”

You hang up the phone and bite the inside of your cheek. You’re probably just making a big deal out of nothing, right? You shake your head and return to your work. Maybe you’ve just been spending too much time with Iron Man and Black Widow. Yeah, that’s it.

<//>

Your shift is over at 5:00 (17:00). The building is only a ten-minute walk from your apartment, so you didn’t drive. You send Natasha a text as you walk down the street. She responds almost immediately saying that she’ll be at your place in twenty minutes. You smile at the message and slide your phone back into your pocket.

Sure enough, twenty minutes later, you’re sitting on your couch when you hear a motorcycle approaching. You peek out the window and see the redhead you’ve come to love like so much in the past few weeks.

There’s a knock at the door and you answer it immediately. “Come in, m’lady,” you say with a cheesy grin.

“Why thank you...my fellow lady? What would I call you?”

“You’re such a dork,” you say with a laugh.

“You have no room to talk, Stark,” she says with that smirk of hers.

“I can’t exactly argue that.”

She walks further into the apartment, looking around. She hums in approval. “It’s nice.”

“That’s it? ‘It’s nice’? I pay a lot of money for this place, woman. It’s more than nice.”

“Oh, is that why your truck is a piece of crap? Because you put all of your money into this apartment?”

“Okay, that’s it, get out. You are no longer welcome in my humble abode,” you joke, pointing to the door.

“No, no, no. Wait, no, baby, I’m sorry. Please don’t kick me out.” You know she’s just kidding, but the way she says ‘baby’ still makes your cheeks turn pink.

“Okay, fine, I’ll hold off on the divorce papers. But you’re in charge of dinner.”

“Deal. What do you feel like eating?” You.

“I don’t care. I’m starving, I’ll eat anything. It’s gotta be takeout, though.”

“Why? Do you not trust my culinary skills?”

“Well, that and I have absolutely no food in this place.”

She raises an eyebrow at this and walks over to your fridge. She opens it and stares at it for a few seconds before saying, “huh.”

“What does ‘huh’ mean?”

“There are two cans of Celcius in here, and that’s literally it,” she says as she turns back around to face you.

“I haven’t had time to do groceries. Don’t judge me.”

“I’m judging. How does pizza sound?”

“Pizza sounds excellent.”

As she orders the food, you think about Meier and the company. What the hell are they hiding? Something is definitely off about it. You try to focus on relaxing with Natasha, but your train of thought keeps drifting back to the scientists’ conversation. It was only your first day, and you know you shouldn’t jump to conclusions, but you have a bad feeling in your gut. 

“Hey, you okay? You seem distracted,” Natasha says as she sits on the couch next to you. You hadn’t even noticed that she had gotten off the phone.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just tired, that’s all.”

“Are you sure? This isn’t about the suspicious new job?”

“No, I’m good. Really, Nat. I just wanna eat pizza and watch SVU with you.”

“Well, that I can do. The pizza will be here in half an hour.” You nod and grab the remote to pull up Hulu on the TV. You can feel Natasha looking at you, but you ignore it. She’s definitely worried about your phone call earlier, but you pretend not to notice. There’s no sense in making a big deal out of this before you have anything concrete.

<//>

The next day of work is probably even worse than the first. It’s the jitters of a new job, plus the sneaking suspicion that the company is into some shady stuff. As you’re waiting for some test results to come back, you’re standing in the lab, fiddling with the lapel of your blazer. The beeping of the machinery startles you from your thoughts, and you rush over to it.

You’ve been on edge all day, looking at everyone through a lens of skepticism. It’s a good thing you’re a good liar actress.

You hear voices coming from across the hall— it’s the same scientists from yesterday.

“The weapons are being manufactured as we speak. All calculations were correct. Strucker is very pleased with our work.”

“That’s a first. He’s never happy with anything we do.”

“Yes, that’s because you’re usually an imbecile. The base has been infiltrated and that’s-”

The door to the other lab closes and you can no longer hear what they’re saying. Strucker? That name sounds familiar, but you can’t put your finger on it. A base was infiltrated; what does that mean?

Later that day, you’re doing some math on a whiteboard in the lab when it hits you. Strucker- you’ve heard people talking about him at the tower. He’s HYDRA. You suck in a sharp breath when you realize that you’re most likely working for HYDRA. You put the cap on the marker and erase the calculations (you’d rather not help HYDRA any more than you already have). You walk over to the computer and crack your knuckles. Is this the stupidest thing you’ve ever done? Probably. Is it going to get you killed? Maybe. Are you going to do it anyway? Without a doubt.

You hack through firewall after firewall, trying to find some hint of an explanation. Just when you’re about to give up, you hit the motherload. There are about ten encrypted files.

You decrypt each of them in a matter of minutes; this is practically child’s play for you. You exhale slowly as you read through the files: HYDRA locations, leaders, blueprints, and plans. This is extremely useful information. You download the files on one of your flash drives and slip it into your pocket.

You clear your computer, completely covering your footsteps along the way. You look around you, reassuring yourself that you just did that without anyone noticing (not that there’s anyone in the lab with you). So you infiltrated HYDRA on accident and successfully stole intel without attracting attention. What the hell are you supposed to do now?

<//>

As soon as you get home, you close all the curtains and look for a place to hide the flash drive. You take a small bottle of lotion from under the bathroom sink and empty it. Once all the lotion is cleaned out, you wrap the drive in a towel and shove it inside. You put the lotion all the way in the back and close the cabinet. You catch sight of yourself in the mirror and give yourself a thumbs up.

The next thing you do is purely precautionary. Is it necessary? Not at all. But you are a Stark, after all. You sit at your desk in your bedroom and design a set of devices that will interfere with any bugs that might be planted in your apartment. If anything is detected, it will send you an emergency signal so you can get the hell out of there.

As you’re setting up the last device, your phone rings, scaring the crap out of you. You see Natasha’s name light up the screen and you panic. You can’t tell her, she’ll definitely make you ditch your operation. It’ll be a long time before they can get an agent inside Bremen, and you already have pretty high clearance. You can’t not answer either; you never ignore her calls.

You answer the call on the last ring and say ‘hello’ in what you hope was a steady voice.

“Um..hey? Is everything okay? You sound weird,” she says.

“Yeah, no. Everything’s fine. Great, even. Yeah, I’m good. Things are cool here, what about you?” You cringe and face-palm. What happened to being a good liar?

“You’re acting really strange, but I’m gonna let it go. Unless something else happened at work?”

“No, nothing happened. I’m fine, really. I think I’m gonna turn in early tonight, though. Long day.”

“Oh, okay. Goodnight, then.” She sounds genuinely disappointed and you feel like a terrible person. The last thing you want to do is hurt her feelings.

“Goodnight, Nat. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

You spend the next two hours making a plan. Hack their system, plant bugs, gather intel, avoid raising suspicions, and find out who Natasha’s boss is so you can give them the intel. Sounds easy enough.

[midgardianweasley]

Keep you safe

Keep you safe

Natasha Romanoff x Fem!Avenger!reader

Summary: When the civil war breaks out among the team, what happens when you find yourself and your girlfriend on opposite sides of the fight?

Warnings: Extremely minor cursing, angst, injury, ends in fluff

Word Count: 1.8k words

Message/ask if you’d like to be added to the taglist <3

Requests are open!

“Vision, you can’t keep her prisoner here” I announced to what seemed like a brick wall. The S.H.I.E.L.D. meeting was only this morning and already it felt like the team was beginning to drift. Tony and Steve were fighting, not being able to agree on where they stand regarding the Sokovia Accords and whether we should sign our rights away. Wanda, not being a US citizen and having been a big part of the incident in Sokovia, has been put under Vision’s watch for protection. But from what i’ve seen, I think Wanda can protect herself just fine.

“It’s not imprisonment, Y/N, this is for her safety.”

“Safety? She’s fully capable of walking to the shops on her own.”

“I think some members of the team would disagree, Nata-”

“Don’t, Vision. Please.” I sighed, rubbing my forehead, the stress going straight to my temples upon remembering the events from this morning with my girlfriend.

Nat and I had just walked out of the meeting room, thoughts flooding both of our heads. We were exhausted, the emergency meeting not giving us enough time to wake up with a coffee before having to be fully functional. My head was resting on her shoulder, her head on top of mine as we stood in an abandoned corridor, revelling in the peace and quiet. It was a few minutes before one of us decided to speak up.

“You okay, голубка?” She whispered, pressing a gentle kiss to the top of my head before returning to her previous position.

“Mhmm, I think so. My head is officially fried though and it’s not even 9am yet.”

“We’ll get some coffee in us soon.”

“I think we’ve earned it” I mumbled, earning a slight chuckle from the both of us, returning back to the silence for only a couple of minutes before a thought crossed my mind.

“I feel bad for Wanda. She must feel terrible.”

“I know. Hopefully this whole Accords business can be of help.”

“Well, that would be nice, but we’re obviously not signing that.” An airy laugh left my lips, amused at the idea of signing away any freedom we could have for ourselves. I felt Nat’s body go rigid beside me, suddenly feeling tense. I pulled away slightly and looked up to see a frown taking over her features.

“You’re not going to sign?” She spoke, suddenly sounding more awake, albeit still having a gentle tone, but I could feel the disbelief behind her words.

“I wasn’t planning on it, no. Are you?”

“I feel like it would be a good idea. Maybe we need a little more guidance to go about our missions.”

“This isn't guidance, Nat. This is essentially locking us away just without the bars.”

“It’s protection.”

“It’s losing our freedom!” I bluntly responded, almost shocked that we weren’t on the same page about this. We both stood across from each other now, arms crossed and staring into each other's eyes, all tiredness beforehand gone and replaced with fire.

“I need some air” She groaned, walking away towards the exit, signalling the end of that conversation.

“Nat-”

“I’ll see you at home, okay?” Not giving me a chance to respond, having walked out the door before I could utter a word. I guess coffee is the least of my problems now.

Lost in my daydream, I hadn’t even noticed that Clint had walked in and was currently fighting Vision. Wait, Clint?

“Clint? I thought you retired?”

“Ah nice to have you back.” He choked, currently caught in a headlock with Vision. I stood next to Wanda, the two of us sharing a look of confusion. “We need to go, Cap needs us.”

“You can’t overpower me, Clint.” Vision spoke, still holding his grip.

“I know i can’t, but she can”

I looked beside me once again and saw Wanda beginning to use her powers, and before I knew it, Vision had fallen to the ground..and further until we could no longer see him.

“We need to go” The archer rushed, taking Wanda by the hand and leading her outside. I was yet to be clued in on what exactly was going on, but I knew one thing, this couldn’t be good.

---

It was absolute chaos everywhere. Steve, much like Tony, had recruited a small team of his own, some familiar faces, some new, the ant guy was pretty cool. However, there hadn’t been much time to admire the different skill sets and powers that had been brought to the table before both sides had run towards each other. Especially considering seeing the recognisable assassin on the other side had brought on a wave of sickness, fighting her was the last thing I wanted to do.

While Bucky had taken to fighting who I assumed to be Blank Panther and Sam was in the air, I’d stuck to helping Steve, not wanting to get involved in the fight Clint was having with Natasha. This teenager had started shooting webs at Captain, and while I know he was on the opposite side, I had to admit, he was pretty good at fighting.

“He also said to go for your legs” He chuckled, again shooting webs at the supersoldier and holding him back from retrieving his shield.

“Hey Spidey” I called, gaining his attention.

“Hi”

“Might wanna drop the Captain, yeah?”

“I can’t. I gotta impress Mr Stark”

“Look, this isn’t your fight, you don’t know what’s going on” I tried to reason, falling onto deaf ears, or just stubborn, as he then shot his webs at me and tried to pull. His eyes shrunk in confusion as he couldn’t flip me, my power of immobility coming in handy.

“Why-” He groaned, still trying to flip me. I lifted my hands, grabbed the webs and flung him into one of the loading crates that were scattered around, my super strength making the impact a lot harsher, but not enough to cause major injury.

“Thanks Y/N” Steve spoke, a quick nod of approval was shared before I caught a glance of another fight going on. Wanda’s holding a crate, trying to take someone flying above it out, completely oblivious to Vision starting to come towards her. Looking down slightly, I saw who was directly underneath.

“Shit” I mumbled, running as fast as I could towards them, avoiding gunfire and punches along the way.

“Language!”

“Sorry! Jeez” I directed towards the man now running in a different direction.

Vision was much closer to them than I was, no matter how quickly my feet took me. It was no use trying to warn Wanda, I wouldn’t get there in time. I had to go with plan B.

“Nat! Move!”

She quickly turned and caught sight of me, giving me a confused glare that didn’t last long before I pushed her away from where she was standing, out of harm's way.

“What the hell Y/-” She hadn’t managed to finish her sentence before her eyes widened in horror at the large crate suddenly falling from Wanda’s hold and onto me. My arms lifted quickly to hold it, slightly wobbling due to not being in the centre of it.

“Is there anything behind me?”

“Wha-”

“Is there anything behind me?!” I spoke more urgently, not knowing how much longer I could hold it.

“No, no you’re clear.” Natasha responded, I thanked her silently with a nod.

‘Okay. you’ve got this. One. Two-’ I thought to myself.

With the remaining strength I could have gathered, I bent down slightly and pushed, sending the metal hurling upwards while I ran forward. Overestimating how high i’d thrown it, the bitter reality hit me, quite literally as it fell onto my leg, sending me face first towards the ground.

“Wanda!” Was all I could hear before I felt my head placed in someone’s lap and the world went black.

---

My head pounding like a hammer had been a lovely wake up call, followed by a throbbing pain in my leg which I'd looked down to see was lying along a row of pillows. My eyes darted around the room and I recognised the photo on the bedside table beside me. It was a photo of Natasha and I standing in the rain laughing at a joke we can’t remember anymore, but it must’ve been funny according to the huge smiles on our faces. The love in our eyes was enough to make galaxies jealous.

A knock on the door had interrupted my train of thought, opening before I had a chance to respond, Natasha walked in, a guilty look taking over her face.

“Hi”

“Hey. You okay?” I questioned, earning a smile and a scoff to come out of The Black Widow’s mouth.

“Am I okay? Really?”

“I-”

“You ask me if i’m okay when you’re lying there with a broken leg and just woken up from being knocked out, because you decided to throw yourself into danger.”

“You had a tonnes worth of metal about to fall on you. Forgive me if i didn’t want a squished girlfriend.” I defended myself, not entirely certain on how this is turning into being my fault.

“You could have died”

“But I didn’t”

“But you could’ve, Y/N!”

“Love-”

“I can’t lose you” Her voice broke. Only then had I managed to really take a look at her. Her eyes had clouded over, her hair was all over the place, her nose running slightly. A pang of guilt hit me, not knowing that my action had affected her so much.

“Can you come here? Please?” She hesitated, but soon made her way round to the other side of the bed and sat herself down, making herself comfortable in my arms that I held open for her, hands immediately going to run through her hair. Small sniffles could be heard in the otherwise silent room, each one having a kiss pressed against her head in response.

After a couple of minutes, the silence was broken again.

“I’m sorry, moya lyubov, I didn’t mean to scare you. I just wanted to keep you safe.”

She turned her head up slightly to look at me, a small smile playing on her lips

“I know. i just panicked. I want you to be safe too.”

“I’m okay. I’m here. I promise.” I kissed her head again. “How does a bath and a movie sound?” A small sigh left her lips at the suggestion.

“You’ll join?”

“I’ll join”

A small but passionate kiss was exchanged, followed by a few quick pecks before the redhead walked off towards our bathroom, the sound of running water filling the air not long after.

No matter the mission, the fight, the argument or the disagreements, we’ll always protect one another. We don’t need the Sokovia Accords for that.

taglist: @the-dumbass-that-throws-knives

[quietlyimplode]

do you take fic requests bc if you do could you do something like how in bw nat flinches when dreykov goes to hit her the first time and maybe when clint first meets her or something all she does is flinch and super submissive??

Hey Anon. Not sure if this is exactly what you’re thinking; I think there’s a strong correlation between why Natasha flinched and Dreykov being the ultimate abuser; I think that she would be able to differentiate him and Clint. I’m not sure she would have as violent reaction to someone she didn’t know, because that reaction (I think) is one borne of repeat trauma. Sooo this is a 5+1 touching on that reaction.

Warnings for: child abuse, child death, red room musings, domestic violence, child trafficking, black widow spoilers, and ptsd. (3045 words)

Forged.

.

1/

Everything is so overwhelming. There are girls screaming, men with guns. She holds on tightly to Yelena and makes her stand behind her.

The guns have lights on them and she can’t follow them all.

There’s so many people, it’s loud, and confusing and Natasha just wants to cry.

Pain only makes you stronger.

But her chest hurts. It’s a ball of panic that hasn’t gone away since Mama Melina said she was sorry.

She tries to school her face so that it’s devoid of panic; but it’s hard. Yelena is holding her hand hard.

It happens quickly.

They grab Yelena and she yells and screams for her, tries to pull her back but they hit her in the face.

Disoriented, she loses track of her sister, the pain in her heart intensifies in panic and she catches sight of blonde hair. She rips the picture in her hand, and runs over to her.

She knew it was going to happen. She didn’t think it would be like this. She thought they could stay together.

“Take it.” She yells. “Take it.” And shoves it into Yelena’s hands. She’s pulled away and so is Yelena.

She can’t help the feral noises that break free from her body.

She doesn’t cry though.

Pain only makes you stronger and she is in so, so much pain.

She’s lined up with the others and is made to step forward.

She sees him; the man from Cuba. The one Papa Alexei embraced. He walks up to her.

He smells of cigars and strong cologne and it takes everything she has to hold his gaze and not turn up her nose.

The man grabs her head, and she flinches hard against his hands. He gets closer and there’s something in her that remembers this man.

“The Red Room is your home now,” he tells her and looks her up and down, gaze lingering.

He pushes her into a line with 3 older girls and she bites the inside of her mouth as hard as she can to stop herself hyperventilating and panicking.

Pain. She reminds herself.

Pain.

.

2/

There’s four girls with her. The biggest of the guards is closest to her and three more stand over the others. Of course, they think it’s her, that she’s the ringleader. They’re not wrong, but it does make her think that she should perhaps try and stay under the radar a little more.

They’re all standing in front of Dreykov who exudes anger. She can count the number of times on her hand that she’s had to stand in front of him, this is the first time in her nightdress. She’s self conscious all at once and she crosses her arms around her body.

“Stand front!” The guard yells, gun in her face. She startles, as she drops her arms down to her sides, fists clenching.

Svetlana glances tentatively at her and she bows her head.

Dreykov hasn’t said anything and they’re all awaiting punishment. She knew she shouldn’t have smuggled in the Nutella but she was so excited about the new taste, the deliciousness of the spread that she could share.

He turns to face her and her blood runs cold.

“Kill them.” He says looking directly at her, his face curled in a snarl.

Her eyes widen and she shakes her head hard.

He laughs.

“Fine.” He looks to the other four.

“Kill her.” He says and ducks his head towards Natasha.

Svetlana is closest, the guards step back as she steps forward, intentions clear and Natasha can see the smile that plays across his face.

Sadists.

She’s old enough now to know to use the environment to protect herself as well, knows this room and, has taken stock of all the things in the room that could be used as a weapon. She assumed, of course, that they would be used against her, not that she would have to use them against the others.

The first punch comes from Odette, a kick from Sevenya, and attempted restraint from Clara and Svetlana. Natasha protects her head, trying to find an opening where she can get one of the girls between her so the other three have to go through her first.

It’s Clara that she throws on the floor in the way of Odette and she narrowly avoids a letter opener thrown at her head. It clatters for the floor and she scrambled back to pick it up. Holding it in front of her, she looks at the others. It’s not malice on their faces but fear.

Dreykov looks on in amusement and then looks at his watch.

Natasha waits for Odette to attack again. She was always the most impulsive. She spins to the side and kneels and feels the letter opener slice across her femoral artery, she knows she’s hit it when the gush of blood accompanies it.

She has no time to ponder it as she tries to pull the weapon out, Clara is on her again. Natasha kicks up catching her under her chin, the sound of skin hitting skin, her bare foot tingling. She pushes Clara back, adrenaline fading and fatigue setting in for all of them. Sloppy punches end up in hair pulling as Natasha swings her legs up and around her neck. Maybe if she knocks her out, she won’t have to do it.

“Enough.” Dreykov’s voice is clear and she detects the anger on it.

He pulls his gun and shoots Clara and Odette.

She flinches at the sound and almost vomits as she sees Clara take her last breath.

“Leave now. You have no place in the world, as such you may take nothing and have nothing. You will be searched on entry and exit.” He says, enunciating every word.

Natasha attempts a glance at the other two girls but they won’t meet her gaze. They all know what being searched means.

The bodies of Clara and Odette are dragged out one door as they leave through another.

.

3/

Natasha stretches. The apartment on the west side is sunny and she lays on the floor basking in the heat like a cat. She should get up and get something to eat, her stomach letting her know that it’s time, but this position is so relaxing and soothing that she ignores it; just for now. Closing her eyes she listens to the lull of slow paced music she put on earlier.

She given herself two days to do nothing. She’s sure that she’s off the radar and knows that her body and her mind needs rest. If only it worked that way.

Being on the run isn’t new. Being a fugitive from the red room and staying low is fine. She just needs to decide what she wants out of life; these are the bigger decisions that she’s putting on the back burner. Just for now.

The sun sets low and the slow growl of her tummy, lets her know that it’s truly time to get up; tend to herself and find the Thai place that knows her order when she walks in the door. A fact that she’s not sure she should be worried about.

Pulling on a jacket, she turns to set her own locks, and then moves to the door to lock it with her keys.

A bang, the sound of flesh hitting flesh and a yell make her flinch hard, dropping her keys to the floor. A flash of a guard and her head whipping back from a punch is almost identical to the sound she just heard, and it takes her a second to get her breathing under control. Natasha feels the hair on the back of her neck stand up, knowing the likelihood of what she’s just heard.

She’s got a choice to make.

Help, and potentially expose herself.

Do nothing, and more red on her ledger.

Bucking courage, she walks inaudibly down the hall. Locates the sound where there’s the faint sound of crying and the low rumble of a mans voice.

She knocks, loudly and confidently.

There’s silence, before the door opens ajar, and she pushes it into his face and walks in.

“Bitch what do you think you’re doin?” Comes the drawl as he follows her.

“Did you hit her?” She asks voice low and dangerous.

“What?”

“Did you, hit her?” Natasha points to the crying woman, whose face is swollen and red.

“Who do you think you are?” The man stands over Natasha and stares down at her. She cocks her head and stares back. He goes to grab her and she turns her body, grabbing his hand and twisting, making him drop to his knees.

She twists again hard, and he grunts and cries out. There’s a strong smell of cologne, the same as Dreykov and she snaps. She breaks his hand and punches him in the face. Hears the crack of fist against cheek and shouts at him.

“How dare you?” She grunts at him, standing over him. She punches him again.

“You think it makes you more of a man?”

There’s blood on her knuckles.

The woman is asking her to stop; and she’s crying harder.

Natasha knows what she’s done, she’s not upset with herself.

She squats next to the man with the broken nose and bloodshot eyes; blood spattered making for a gruesome scene. She gets close to his face.

“Nod if you can hear me.” She says. He nods; a short dip of his head.

“I will kill you if you ever touch her again.” She promises.

“I know where you live.” She nods to the mechanic jacket hanging, “I know where you work.” She stands up.

“I will be watching.”

 

4/

Clint watches Natasha playing chess against herself and holds up the takeaway.

“Come play against me,” she invites and he laughs.

“You think you can take me?” He asks.

She finally looks up to him and grins.

“Always.”

He puts the paper bag down on the stove and laughs as she sets it up again.

“I haven’t won once, doesn’t it get boring playing against me?” His eyes twinkle at her as he looks at her, both of them smiling.

Natasha opens as she always does by moving her pawn. Clint copies her move.

She’s about to make her second move when they’re interrupted by the smoke alarm chirping and a small flame coming from the paper bag on the stove.

He laughs. Says something about not knowing the stove was still warm and waves the tea towel across the smoke alarm.

It takes him a moment, but he realises she’s not joking with him. In fact.

She’s frozen.

“Natasha?”

There’s a whine and a choked noise.

“No. Nononono.” She looks at him wide eyed.

“Make it stop. Make it stop.”

He’s scrambling now.

“Please?” He looks to where she’s looking, the smoking bag, a flame.

“Make it stop.” She repeats again.

His heart drops and he finally gets the tiny flame under control, dumping it in the sink. She’s staring where it was. Eyes blank, body tight.

He moves over to her and reaches over to her.

Natasha flinches at his touch; his hands retract quickly.

“It’s ok, Natasha.”

The haunted look doesn’t leave her face but she stands and moves away.

“Yeah, it’s ok.”she repeats back.

She leaves for the bedroom and he follows her tentatively,

“Just. Give me a minute.” She requests and shuts the bathroom door.

He sits on the bed waiting for her to emerge. He stays until he hears the tap run, and the door unlock.

When she emerges she looks the same as before, face relaxed, mask on.

“You ok?” He asks, tentatively.

“Fine.” She nods.

Clint nods with her.

“What do you wanna do now?” He asks tentatively, not really knowing what to do next. The fact that she’s freaked out on him and managed to pull herself back together in the space of ten minutes is suspicious, and he feels he needs to walk on eggshells around her.

She shrugs and melts into the couch, knees to her chest.

“Wanna tell me what that was?” He ventures, sitting next to her.

“No.”

It doesn’t leave any space for probing, so he stops talking. Let’s her figure it out herself.

She uncurls herself and stands.

“Actually. I’m just going to go home.” She nods to the chess set. “Thanks for the game.”

He stands alongside her.

“You sure?” He asks, it’s not right he knows. He should keep her here, make sure she’s ok. But. They’re not there. He’s not her confidant. He’s not the one she goes to.

Natasha nods.

“Thanks.” She grabs her coat and makes for the door, passing through the threshold, pausing slightly.

“I’ll see you tomorrow.”

By the time he reaches the door frame, she’s gone.

 

5/

Natasha has done hard things in life. She knows she has. Her whole childhood was lucky survival, and she knows it. But this. This is intentional bravery and even if she dies she knows it’s the right thing.

Being in front of him, is possibly the hardest, most confronting and perhaps masochistic move she could have taken, but given the short time frame Melina gave her, she didn’t see another way.

As he talks to her.

As he goes to touch her face.

It takes all of her not to react.

To be still.

To remember to breathe.

She asks about her mother because she can’t help it, and he tears the knife through her soul.

She wasn’t unknown. She was Natasha and all the other mothers who fought for orphaned little girls. She buries it deep, masking her face, unable to stop her eyes watering.

He makes Antonia uncover herself, and she’s ripped apart again.

Natasha carries the scars of her death on the inside. Antonia carries them on the outside.

She can’t believe what she’s hearing, seeing and wants with every once of her being to say she’s sorry. Of all the deaths she’s being responsible for, Antonia’s is the one she needs to atone for the most.

She’s alive and it’s simultaneously the best and worst thing.

Dreykov taunts her as she knew he would and sends Antonia away. It’s enough to make her mind flip back to the plan.

Finally, the opportunity to shove a gun in his face. She knows it won’t work. But the little voice inside her head thought maybe, just maybe she would be stronger than the pheromone lock. She wasn’t strong enough as a child to fight back when they took her from her bed, or when she wanted with every once of her being to protect others; but she thought maybe being separated from him, being older, grown; she wouldn’t be subjected to the same weaknesses.

She was wrong.

She can’t pull the trigger.

She can’t stab him through the heart.

And as he touches her and peels the knife from her fingers, she can feel the panic welling inside her.

She’s traipsed into the lions den, full of confidence but she’s nothing compared to science and manipulation. Despair fills every inch of her as he’s close enough to smell. The old sickly cologne that haunts her nightmares, that makes her snap into rages when she gets a whiff of it on any other man, and as it’s paired with the smell of a cigar, she’s torn back to him grabbing her face and telling her the Red Room is her home.

She is home.

She tries to outrun it but he’s going to turn her back into a mindless automaton. Not with trigger words this time. Not with pain. Or fear, or even threats. It’s all chemical. She has no choice.

Her whole body shudders in visceral pain as he gets closer to her, talking to her, saying her name.

Her voice is low as she keeps up the charade.

Sever the nerve; and it will be ok.

Sever the nerve; and he will have no control.

But.

As he raises his hand to her, she can’t do it. She flinches away and she’s so disappointed in herself. Old habits, isn’t that what they say?

She’s 10 and her eyes are black.

She’s 11 and her body knows not to bruise so easily.

She’s 12 and can take a punch easily.

Natasha bites down heavily on her cheeks drawing blood. It’s grounding. He moves away from her and mumbles something about Melina.

Control.

Control the narrative. Make him say what she needs. This is not about her.

This is not about her trauma.

She breathes heavily as he reiterates the plan to her and she tapers the panic.

Bait him.

Make him cooperate.

She can do this.

She can do hard things.

+1

The television plays and the heater whirs as Natasha sits on the big chair reading her book. She sips the sweet drink she prepared for herself and pulls the blanket up. There’s a softness about the night, and it’s built on not having any competing priorities. Not having to be anywhere the next day.

She’s alone but it’s peaceful, and allows her to mull over the words she reads.

“Being kind to yourself is the greatest kindness.” Is the quote that sticks in her head, and, as she picks up the chocolate on her left, she’s knows it’s the truth.

For once, her brain is calm and she knows the safety of this place. Clint would call it a controlled environment but she prefers to think of it as safety.

In the life of a spy, there’s no place safe enough, no turning off the low level anxiety that always follows her around, but somehow; here, she can.

She looks out the window and admires the trees atop the mountain she can see, marvels in the low fog that gathers around and has a life of its own as it moves around outside in the darkness.

There’s no light pollution, except what’s coming from inside the house.

She glances at the time, glad she made the connection, the phone call she’s expecting not breaking the peace or make her flinch at the unexpected noise permeating peace.

Natasha sets down her book and picks up her phone. One minute.

Right on cue it rings.

She smiles.

“Hey.”

.

All my fic.

[davianos-blog]

👠Frank Castle x Black Widow reader👠 Platonic

⚠️Warnings: red room, kidnapping, abuse, just sad

Summary: After avoiding the question long as you can, you just have to face it. But you don't wanna but Frank makes you.

Big thank you to @buckyhoney where i got this idea from.

"Where did you learn that?" Frank asked after you putting down couple bounty hunters. You just ingnored the question and kept going.

A week later you were surrounded by Billy's men. You handled like it was nothing, and Frank just stared.

Where the hell was this girl from?

Sometime later you were sitting in the trailer. It was crappy place to be.

"This trailer sucks" Frank sighed while cleaning his injuries.

"I've seen worse." Y/n said.

"Like what?" Frank asked.

"The red room" she said withoit thinking.

"The red room?" Frank asked.

Thats when she realized her mistake. Nobody was supposed to find out.

"forget i said anything." She said.

"Don't walk away from this kiddo." He said.

"Oh but walking away is much easier Castle." She told and got up.

"Then tell me about it and walk away." For the first time he looked actually caring for the young child.

Memories flooded her mind.

Red room . FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT. You have no place in the world. I don't have place in this world. You're a killer. Your hands are in blood. It's everywhere. You killed him, his dead. 802. 8 0 2. Thats how many kills . Отчет о миссии. Готов убить ». Mission report. Ready to kill. Вы черная вдова. Маленький кроваво-красный паук. You are a black widow. A little blood red spider. Kill little blood red spider.

"Kiddo! What is the red room?" Frank was holding her shoulders.

"Where i was raised no trained." She said her russian accent coming out.

"You're russian?" He asked.

"No no, I was raised in Russia." She turned her head around covering her mistakes.

Why was she stuck. She was trained to this. Why was this happening?

"You were raised and trained in the red room?" Frank asked.

"Y/n Maximoff and Petrovna" she said.

"How the hell are they? Are they coming after you?" Frank asked little panicked.

She needed to get out. Frank's face looked wierd. Like it was... Dreykov.

"Отстань от меня. Get off me. Need to get out!" She yelled and pushed Frank.

Soon she was out of the door. Running she ran.

It was a beach calm one. There was a little memorial for Sokovia. Even in New York. It was Natasha Romanoff's wish. Lot of people lost their lives.

"Are you gonna kill me if i walk closer?" Frank's voice asked behind her.

"No, i don't think so" she said.

His steps were calm, for once. He sitted next to her.

"I never understood what this memorial was for." Frank admitted.

"Sokovia was a eastern europe city. It was destroyed in the battle of Ultron." She told her.

"I heard about that." He said.

"My father died out there." She said.

"Im sorry." He said to her with a calm voice.

"After that i was kidnapped to the red room where they gave me the last name Petrovna but Im not the only one who lpst something." She said .

"What do you mean?" He asked.

"When was time for my first mission i had to get to the inside of this city. So i went to the school. I knew her." Y/n said little sad.

"Knew who?" Frank asked.

"Lisa, your daughter. She was nice. I wish i could been her actual friend and not just use her to get inside." She said almost crying.

"It's fine. You never hurt her." He said and looked at the memorial.

"Tell me more about you?" Franks asked.

"I was born is Sokovia. My papa lost his parents at ten years old. He has a twin sister but my papa kept me as secret even from her. Papa was always making me laugh. And lets say I got somethng from him that i can never get rid of. In the battle of Ultron he saved an avenger and a kid. His name was Pietro Maximoff" she told when the little cries tried to get out of her mouth.

"What do you mean you got something from him?" Frank asked confused.

She got up and turned to him.

" C mon. Trust me." She said.

She made Frank take her hand and focused. Then she just ran. It was line of silver and they were back at the trailer.

"Did.. Did you just run that.... Your hair. It's silver." Frank said so confused.

"I know." She said.

Part 2?

[sur-un-fil]

Ink demonth 2022 - Abstraction

Does he always manage to ignore the horror of what he is doing?

( -> I write in French, and in this language " Faire abstraction" is an expression which means to ignore, not taking something into account (I don't think it is also the case in English). This is the meaning I chose for this topic, nobody said we had to keep the English meaning ;)

Chapter 6 : 1960-1963

Even after several hours and despite the fact that there was no blood left on his skin, he still felt bad.

She should never have come with her husband. When Joey had asked Connors to visit him, she had written that she had to babysit their daughters and couldn't get away to visit him. But when he opened the door, there she was, smiling beside Thomas, obviously very happy to surprise him.

He had known the second he saw her that he was going to have to kill her too and his chest had tightened. He had rarely regretted accepting Caym's last condition so much. The demon had promised him that he could continue to test the soul, and thus find guinea pigs without ever being suspected because of the disappearances, but only if he only killed Studio employees with his hands.

Of course. He had noticed that every time he asked the demon for something, it managed to turn his wish against him in one way or another. But he had been forced to resign himself. He still needed more donors, his research was stalling and he couldn't risk being slowed down by an police's investigation. Prison would mean the end of his ambitions. So he set about luring to his home and then murdering people he had known, worked with, spoken with, perhaps laughed with. He couldn't stop at that, and he'd always managed to ignore the feeling of familiarity when he'd met his former colleagues, to see in them only bodies without a past that he needed.

As for Allison, he would have widowed her without remorse, yes. He was still very angry with Thomas for trying to get the machine back. But he would have preferred to spare her. He liked her, and strangely enough, she had become attached to him too, even though they had nothing in common. But it would have been better for her if he hadn't liked her. He wouldn't have been so distracted and nervous, and wouldn't have made mistakes in a routine that was already well established. Because once they got into his house, Caym's powers kept people under their influence, and Joey could easily get them into the False Studio. They usually 'woke up' a little before Joey sacrificed them, as if the demon had wanted them to know what was going to happen to them.

That's what had happened at first. Joey must have invited them both in and watched reluctantly as the light went out of her eyes. He'd led them through the house to his kitchen, then through the door. They hadn't twitched when they'd found a yellow and black version of their old workplace next to his home, and he'd been able to tie each of them to the centre of a pentacle with no problem. They were as docile as sheep at the slaughterhouse. He had grabbed the axe he usually used, in a hurry to get it over with...

And she had looked up at him, a happy smile forming on her lips as she met his eyes.

"Joey, how nice to see you again!"

She looked down and frowned, discovering at the same time that she was shackled and the axe he was holding.

"What the... What are you doing?"

Joey didn't answer. But her husband growled and she flinched when she heard him, turning her head in all directions to try and see him. He was sitting a few feet away from her, in another circle. Joey could see the distress in her eyes when she noticed that he was also tied up. She was a smart woman, and she knew right away what he was going to do with an axe in his hand and two people tied up in a deserted area.

Instead of panicking, she quickly scanned the room, looking for anything what could save her. But there was nothing. The room was blind and no one here would move a finger to help them. They were far too afraid of him. Thomas began to writhe, trying to get loose, and Joey decided to end it. But he didn't have the courage to start with Allison, which would have been more merciful. He forced himself to look away from her fear-stricken face and towards his husband. He had to concentrate on what he had to do because he knew what she would say. They were all trying. Didn't they understand that he had already made up his mind, otherwise he would never have brought them here?

"Joey.... Please don't do that. We have little ones, remember? Twins who love their daddy, don't... I'm begging you. Please, Joey, don't! Not Thomas. Let us go, please... Please, please! JOEY ! PLEASE! JO..."

He was used to it. He knew how to ignore the shouting, the crying to keep a steady hand and his mind on his goal. He had things to accomplish, and while he was never purposely cruel, he had experimented with things that might seem inhumane to chilly minds. He should not have hesitated. But a second was enough, a moment in which his gaze turned to her, in which he tried to find a way to do otherwise even as he brought the axe down on her husband. Who moved. And instead of splitting his skull to bring about a quick death, he only managed to cut his left arm from the elbow down. His scream of pain filled the room, covering Allison's desperate pleas.

Joey was splattered with blood, on his chest but mostly on his hands. He immediately bent down to finish him off, his stomach twisting, thinking as much of the horror of what he was doing to her as of all the blood that would cloud the pentagram. Thomas was no longer screaming, but also begging to be spared, huddled around his stump, constrained by the pain and the ropes. Joey ignored him. He cocked his arm, drawing his axe back over his shoulder, and struck with all his might. Unfortunately, the blood on his fingers caused the handle to slip and the blow to his head was not enough to kill him right away. He had to take three tries to silence his groans for good. When he finished, Thomas' face was a bloody mess, he felt like throwing up and Allison wasn't even crying anymore.

He avoided looking her in the eye as he walked towards her, red with Thomas' blood. He had to finish. He raised the axe once more and she, who was so brave, did not find the strength to try and dodge to survive. The blow split her skull between the eyes, and as her body collapsed to the ground, the sound was deafening.

Now he stood in front of the little ink machine in his living room. He knew that the big one in the False Studio's had to digest the two sacrifices he had just given it, but he couldn't be satisfied or hope that the results would be successful.

Because tonight, with her screams echoing in his mind, he was unable to continue to ignore what his dream was really costing him.

NEXT

PREVIOUS

[keouil]

how you forget to be human

“so is she like,” scott hesitates. “cap’s first lady or something?” rated t. 2k+. steve/nat. also on ao3 / twitter / cc

Scott hasn’t been with the team for a long time, but he thinks he at least has enough working knowledge of how everyone operates.

The Winter Soldier—Bucky to Steve,  James to anyone who dared—quite frankly still scares the living shit out of him, and that’s Magneto on a good day. It didn’t take much to deduce he seemed wholly uncomfortable in his own skin, his jaw coiled perpetually tight and the rigid set of his shoulders always in alert. It was uneasy just being around him, his discomfort bleeding over others and charging the air around his space with its own brand of disquieting; but always, without fail, Steve cushioned whatever apprehension anyone aimed toward his bestfriend.

Most of it came from Sam, and almost always in good nature as if to ease the brainwashed supersoldier into some semblance of normality; and Scott would fear for Sam’s life every time he opened his mouth, were it not for the also very obvious fact the Falcon held his own and didn’t appreciate handouts and the three of them seemed to be getting along uniquely (if not a little oddly) well enough.

The witch was a small problem, however. Simply for the fact she was a witch and Scott is wary because history taught him they burned all of them down in Salem. 

He sees her wiggling those voodoo fingers around sometimes, almost unconsciously, and feels the hairs on his arms rise with every flick of her wrist. The energy around her isn’t suffocating the same way Bucky’s is. It was more a subtle nervous tingling; like she herself was afraid of the gravity of her own powers she had yet to have complete reigns on. Scott is oddly humbled by the fact and even empathises with her a little.

Steve keeps an eye on her and doesn’t bother hiding it, but it’s the archer who gets past her when it really counts. Clint Barton, who, surprisingly is the one he’s on the most similar wavelength with out of all of them: family man and all.

Clint Barton whose also friends with Natasha Romanoff.

.

.

.

Hawkeye who has simultaneously the most complex and impossibly simple relationship with Black Widow.

“I swear to god if you ring me up next time you’re out of goddamn Fruit Loops,” Natasha warns, digging through one of the five grocery bags on the kitchen island. She fishes for a few more seconds, before popping a colourful cartoon box out from under the bag and tossing it to Barton. “I’m bringing you in for real.”

Clint scoffs, placing the carton on the top shelf. “How many times have I heard that before?”

“Apparently not enough,” Natasha glares at him from her peripheral, scooping out Nutella and a pack of store-bought pryanik to lay on the table. Russian biscuits. For Wanda. “If I’m still stopping by an abandoned boarding house in the slums of Siberia every other week. Y’all grown men can’t do grocery shopping by yourselves?”

Scott blinks from his spot by one of the stools. 

Of all the things he expected to wake up to in hiding from 117 countries from possible charges of aiding and abetting a war criminal, Black Widow casually arranging and organising their weekly rationale was nowhere near the top of the list. She did this all the while supposedly fighting for the other team.

This one needs no introduction.

Scott knows who Black Widow is. Scott knows Captain America, after all. 

You don’t grow up in the land of the free without knowing his legacy even in minute passing. The man has been plastered on nearly every surface of the continent since the dawn of America. Scott has seen the news footages, read the official accounts, willingly devoured every single documentary or biopic helmed in honour of their nation’s greatest hero: he knows, down to the bone, the star-spangled man with a plan. 

A forgotten and revered and rebirthed war hero. 

How he came to know of her, however, is an entirely different story: because come the news footages, zoom in close enough you’ll see the infamous shield covering a much smaller and daintier figure; go over the accounts with a fine-toothed comb, they speak of a levelled dynamic between a commanding officer and a shadow leader; and, lest history not forget, the documentaries: Peggy, because behind every great man is a woman, Natasha.

“Now why would we do that if we got you?” Sam. He comes up from behind the hallway to playfully grin at Natasha before enveloping her in a small hug. She returns it easily.

Scott braces himself for what’s to come, because they came in a pair, and so: “Nat,” Steven Grant Rogers, in the flesh himself, pokes his head in not a moment later with a barely indisputable frown on his face. “You came here again?”

Natasha clicks her tongue at him. “Someone had to make sure you boys were fed.”

“That’s not— We can—” Steve stutters as he strides in, and Scott has to very carefully school his features into nonchalance because Captain America does not stammer. He sighs deeply before settling next to her, nudging her with his hip. “Tony atleast know you're here?”

Natasha gives him a pointed look. “Who do you think paid for all this?”

.

.

.

Scott watches their silhouettes grow smaller and smaller by the distance.

Even from afar, he can make out Steve’s absolute hulk of a frame: back impossibly straight in a way that bespoke authenticity, years of rigid military training drilled into his bones; only he seemed to mellow, somehow and very slightly, the fine lines of his shoulders angled in the direction of her voice. And Natasha: brave and lithe, nearly a head shorter and so much more smaller, facing forward in full confidence and a leisurely stride in her steps.

Siberia has a biting night air that seeps deep into the bone. But it’s also comforting somehow; all of them knowing, in one way or another, what it was like to be iced out from society. 

They were all huddled by the makeshift campfire Barton fashioned out of some wooden logs and a matchstick. Sam, in charge of roasting marshmallows, was gently coaxing Bucky into eating one and promising him it’s not poisoned. Wanda was handing out steaming cups of hot chocolate brewed from the pack Natasha brought in a few hours ago, a staple in her weekly grocery runs because apparently the kid witch liked sweets. 

Scott gingerly takes a sip from his mug, some of the warmth seeping into liquid courage he was building up for weeks now. He takes a deep breath before plunging himself into the waves.

“I can’t be the only one worried that the enemy has infiltrated our territory, right?”

To their credit, neither of them kill him on sight. 

Wanda pauses in levitating one of the wooden logs above the hearth, a single bark of kindling hovering uncertainly over the air. Bucky has an unreadable expression on his face when he regards him. A look passes between Sam and Clint, betraying nothing of their inner thoughts at his outburst.

The fire is nice and toasty, but the air is stifling now and Scott has never felt more the outsider than at that very moment.

Until Sam breaks into a hearty laugh. “Widow?” he shakes his head amusedly. “No, man, Steve and Nat are tight. They’re past stuff like that.”

Scott furrows his eyebrows in concern. “But isn’t she—”

“On Tony’s side?” Clint quips, poking at one of the planks. Wanda finally drops the floating bark, and Scott doesn’t miss the flash of something in her eyes when she glances at him from the other side of the fire. He thinks he saw a spark of red for a second. “Sure, I guess. Technically she’s Team Iron Man or whatever that means. But Natasha is also fiercely loyal, especially when it comes to Steve.”

“What does that  mean?” Scott asks in genuine confusion.

Sam opens his mouth to elaborate, words already forming on his mouth; before he seems to come to a belated realisation, blinks, and manages a nonchalant shrug. "Damn if I know,” he admits, turning over a puffy mallow and watching the crackles of fire burn its edges. “But she’s good for him. That’s all I care about.”

“And he’s good for her,” Clint returns easily, not an ounce of hesitation in his voice. “Maybe sometimes it’s just that easy.”

They hear the crunching of footsteps on snow creeping up behind them, and Scott takes this as his cue to stash the conversation for another time. 

He watches them stroll in together carefully.

Steve holds the gate open for her and places a small hand on her back as they advance in the small patch of woods by the backyard. Natasha settles next to Wanda, hands going up and down her arms to warm the younger girl despite being the one having only just gone out for a walk in the middle of Russian winter: because, and at this Scott is now confident, the jacket resting on her shoulders three times her size was keeping her warm enough.

.

.

.

The quinjet doesn’t start up right away.

Scott is slowly panicking, because the realisation that he was truly out of his depth at fighting in the next greatest civil war of the century notches above his pay grade only viscerally begins to take hold. 

He has a family back home, pets to feed, a little life saving every now and then; but never this colossal of a scale, never with the stakes stacked up so high against them, that it really could only ever be toppled down by the likes of fucking Iron Man and Captain America.

But Steve is still confident.

It’s so bloody obvious he was always going to keep at it, gunned down the concrete walls of the airport and clawed his way out of it brick by brick if need be. He was really and truly the good man underneath it all, and at the back of his mind, Scott still finds himself awed at the fact.

But he doesn’t know how on  earth  the man came out of that airport not visibly rattled, not at all unlike how Scott was currently feeling; and, as he processes the rest of their wayward expressions, he knew he wasn’t alone in thinking so.

“Cap,” Sam wheezes by the floor, fighting to labor his breathing with a hand clutched on his dislocated shoulder. “I still got the jeep parked outside. It’s not too late. We can hike the rest of the way.”

“No,” Steve replies, an edge of conviction in his voice. There is not a single tremor in his stubborn hands gripping the wheel. “That’s gonna hold us back days. We just need to be up in the air for now. We need—”

“A woman to come to your rescue again?”

This time, it’s Scott who sighs in deep relief at her voice. This time, Scott doesn’t fight the churn in his stomach at the prospect of having someone who nearly nicked him lifeless not even hours ago this close a range with them again. This time, she is not Black Widow, but simply Natasha Romanoff; Steve Rogers’ friend.

This time, Scott thinks, he will let them be easy just like that.

There was no more a sign of tremble in his voice or hands the entire battle, but at the lilt of her voice, he just crumbles. 

“Nat,” Steve breathes out when he turns to her, hands fisting at his sides in an attempt to regain control. Just like that, he unravels; so easily and without preamble in the face of her steeled strength. “I can’t get it to turn on— And I— We have to get Bucky—”

“Work through it, Steve,” she cooes in probably the most placating voice he’s heard of her, but she doesn’t move to touch him when she comes close. Her hands are going a mile a minute over the control panel, pushing buttons and lifting levers. Steve is hovering by her side like it's the only thing holding him together. “You know how to fly this thing, right?”

Steve is visibly taken aback and angles his body to face her. “You’re not coming with us?”

The question hangs in the air.

It charges the silence around them and quells any of their growing uncertainty, because, clear as it was of Steve’s well-founded and undeniable leadership skills: they also knew, intimately, she anchored him through it all.

Sam was putting pressure around Bucky’s human arm as he looked back and forth at them tensely. He could feel Wanda hitch her breath behind him.

Natasha’s fingers keep flying away at the keyboard, until they feel the telling signs of an engine rumbling underneath and the overhead lights spurting back to light. The whole jet roars to life in the next second, heating fans whizzing and technical sounds beeping. She shifts some gears around and locks in a destination with the GPS navigation.

When she turns to look at Steve, it is then Scott forces himself to pry his eyes away and not bear witness to this part of his already over documented life. In that single moment of uncertainty, the what does that mean is meant like this: an intimate baring of a soul, heart, trust: in a way no words could ever begin describing or should even attempt to put to paper. 

It is friendship at the most intimate level, it is soulmates on the most soul-crushing departure, and it is the everything else that comes after.

“Not this time, Rogers,” he hears her say, and Scott doesn’t have to imagine the slight fracturing of his iron-clad footing in the world swaying ever so slightly, when he replies with: “Then I guess I’ll see you around, Romanoff.” .

.

.

“So is she like,” Scott hesitates. “Cap’s first lady or something?”

They’re some seventy feet off the air above the Pacific Ocean, the moisture from the ocean drifting up to the open barracks and making the air glisten around them. Bucky is fast asleep somewhere down the lower levels with Wanda keeping watch over him, upon the fervent insistence of Steve arguing he needed rest. It came as no surprise that he also self-assigned himself the first watch of the night. 

Sam is sharpening his knives, the grating sound of sandpaper slicing over iron piercing through the silent hum and drum of the night. 

“Please,” he scoffs, looking over at him. “If anything, Steve is her first lady.”

[s1rcus]

The Road to Love and Truth (Blackhill)

Rating: Teen and up

Words: 2827

Chapter: 2/2

Fandoms: Marvel

Characters: Natasha Romanoff, Maria Hill, Steve Rogers, Nick Fury

Additional tags: -

Summary: Maria struggles after her night with Natasha. She gets some good advice from Steve.

Authors note: Blackhill Bingo square I3 "Steve Rogers"

Story below the cut or in AO3 here

Maria still has a huge headache. She's been debating taking another aspirin to ease it down for the past 10 minutes, but it hasn't been too long since she took the first one and it might just not be working yet. The situation with Romanoff might not be helping either.

Without thinking she's making her way towards Phil's office. She's not sure why, she knows she won't talk about something like this to him. He's a good friend but she just can't talk about her sex life with him, less about feelings. Maybe he'll have some work she can do to distract her from the night before. She can't use her key card on a day off, (Fury has made it very clear she's not supposed to be doing work during any type of leave) so she can't go to her own office to continue work.

Phil isn't in his office. Now that she actually thinks about it, he has been on a mission since yesterday. She still needs something to distract her though. Maybe Fury would let it slide this once if she'd go do work, but she'd rather not see him right now. She decides to just go for a walk. Hopefully that'll clear her head a little.

------

The fresh air does help her headache and clears her head just the tiniest bit as well. She stands outside of the Triskelion for a short time and decides to go for a short walk along the river.

She keeps her eyes mostly on the water as she walks hands in the pockets of her sweats. She probably should've changed if she's honest, but she didn't want to go back to her room. SHIELD agents weren't that rare sight around these parts, but they definitely didn't go out in their gym clothes. She kicks around some pebbles every once in a while that are lying around the sidewalk.

She loses track of time, trying to just focus on nothing but the movement of the water. And she might have let her guard down, because she gets startled, when a hand taps her on the shoulder.

"Maria, what are you doing out here?"

"Jesus, Steve. Warn a girl next time."

"I literally yelled your name when I saw you. You're not usually this distracted. Are you okay?"

There's concern on his face and Maria doesn't like it one bit. She's fine, and even if she wasn't, everyone else needs to think she is.

"Everything's fine," she lies.

Steve gives her a long look, not quite believing her.

"You can always talk to me, you know? Whatever it is that's bothering you, I'll listen."

Damn Steve, and his kind heart.

"I know," she says.

"Okay, well I'm gonna finish my run. Come and find me if you want to talk about whatever this is," he says as he runs past her.

Maria just waves him off. She continues along the river for a while longer until her headache becomes worse again. Deciding it's best to just go back and take another aspirin, she turns around and heads towards the Triskelion again.

------

Eventually Maria realises she needs to talk to someone so she heads towards Steve's quarters and knocks on his door. He opens the door with a smile. They're good friends but it's quite rare she actually ends up on his doorstep.

"Hey, Maria. What's up?"

"I slept with Natasha," she answers as she pushes past him into his room. She sits on his bed, head in her hands. She hears the door click shut as Steve closes it.

"Not what I was expecting. How are you feeling?"

Maria groans at the question, "I don't know. I find out she's queer and few days later I find her in my bed. That's not how that should go. And worst of all I want to do it again, but I don't think I can just keep it at that."

"So you want to ask her out?"

"I think so?" She says and lays down on the bed so she can stare at the ceiling. "But I'm her superior, it's unprofessional, not to mention way too complicated. How am I supposed to be able to send her out there, if I'm worried if she'll make it back? How is Fury supposed to trust in me, if I get compromised because of her? Or what if I make the wrong decision, because I can't--" Steve cuts her off. She feels the bed dip, as he sits next to her on the bed and places a hand on her knee.

"Maria, you're forgetting one important thing, she's the Black Widow, she knows how to handle herself. Do you know how many times she's saved me out there? Because I've lost count by now. And Fury won't see you any differently if you start showing normal people emotions. Also stop worrying about 'what if's. Those are situations you can't know the answers for before it's too late. And for the record, I think you're already compromised. You care more about her than you know. Have for a long time."

"Fuck", Maria breaths the word out.

"Language."

"No, I actually fucked up."

"What did you do?"

"I just left her. She wanted to talk, and I just left her. I wasn't thinking clearly. I told her it was a mistake. Well it technically was because that was definitely not how I wanted that to go, but… I let her believe I don't want her. Shit!" She gets up quickly and starts pacing around. "I gotta go find her. Tell her that I'm sorry for how I treated her. That last night was great. Not that I really remember anything. To hopefully ask her properly out." She freezes on her tracks and turns to face Steve. "What if she says no? How am I supposed to continue working with her then?"

"Maria", Steve warns her.

"Right, won't know the answers before it's too late." She takes a deep breath. "Okay, I'm gonna go to find her. I wonder where she could be."

"At the gym with Barton."

"How would you know that?"

"Just a hunch."

------

She does find Natasha at the gym. She's beating up Barton at the mats. Maria decides to just stay by the door and watch, she'll notice her eventually. Natasha seems more tense than normal, maybe even a little angry. She doesn't move around as smoothly as she usually does. Her movements are a little more jacked, more forced. Maria realises that she's not fighting with a clear head. She's trying to push her feelings out. Maria was the reason the Widow's usually flawlessly smooth fighting style looked harsh and broken. It makes her heart twinge.

Eventually Natasha pins Barton down and he taps out. She gets up and her gaze shifts to Maria's. Maria physically flinches under her gaze. She quickly straightens her back and neutralises her face, when Barton gets back onto his feet and notices her presence.

"Commander," he coughs, eyes moving from Maria to Natasha and back again. After a couple of beats of silence he starts backing towards the men's locker room. "I'll just go then."

Maria just looks at Natasha, not really sure what she's supposed to say. Before she's able to say anything, Natasha turns on her heels and heads towards the women's locker rooms. That gets Maria on the move as well. She runs after Natasha and grabs her from the upper arm.

"Natasha wait," Maria says and Natasha stops on her tracks. "I'm sorry about earlier. Can we talk?"

Natasha turns around and Maria tries to look as apologetic as she can. Natasha just stares at her for a while.

"Fine. My quarters in 10."

Maria nods and drops her hold of the other woman. She didn't even realise she had still been holding her upper arm. Natasha eyes her quickly once more before she turns around again and heads out of sight to the locker room. Maria just stands still for a while, looking after her, until she spins around as well and heads out of the gym and towards Natasha's quarters.

------

Natasha is punctual as ever, and appears exactly 10 minutes later. Maria follows her silently into her room. Natasha sits down on her bed, one leg under herself while the other hangs off the edge. Maria is reminded of the morning. She stays standing near the door, but is faced towards Natasha. She's trying to figure out her words, even though she's been trying to figure out what to say ever since she walked out of Steve's quarters.

"Well?" Natasha prompts her.

"I fucked up. I'm really sorry for how I treated you. I panicked and I fucked up. I try my best to keep my private life and work separate, and I mostly live at work so… I'm having a hard time, to put it lightly. I also have never done this before."

"What? Been with a woman?" Natasha asks with a serious tone. It takes Maria a beat to realise she's not actually seriously asking that.

"No, Romanoff. You know that's not what I meant. I mean sleeping with a co-worker. Actually kinda never slept with anyone without being on a date first. And especially never had someone in my bed in a SHIELD facility."

"So I was your first one night stand?"

"About that, I wouldn't mind doing it again."

"Was I that good?" Natasha asks with a smirk.

"Natasha! I'm not talking about the sex. I'm talking about all of it. Everything since the mission. Spending time together at that bar and during the mission and also everything that came after."

"Wow. Is Commander Hill getting soft?"

"No,” she says. Taking a breath she continues, “I'd just like to see if this could become something. You're one of the few people around here who I can stand, and I actually had a really nice time yesterday. And I'm not regretting what happened after, so that probably says a lot."

Natasha gives her a small smile.

"What changed?"

"What do you mean?"

"You left the room in such a hurry and now you're here saying you don't regret it."

"Yeah, that. I might've talked to Steve and he had some good advice."

"You went to Steve?" Natasha's voice sounds almost scandalous.

"Who else would I go to? Fury? Do you think I have many friends around here? People who I could talk to?"

"Fair enough."

"So, if I'd ask you out on a date what would you say?"

"I would love to, but do you really want to go on a date? Because I feel like we're not the dating kind of people."

That was actually fair, she did always hate going on dates.

"What do you suggest then?"

"How about this?" Maria is really unsure about how she should feel about the smirk that follows that one simple question.

Natasha gets up and walks towards Maria. She stops when their chests are basically touching. She grabs Maria's hands and wraps them around her waist. Then she wraps her own arms around Maria's neck and rises up on her toes to kiss her. Maria basically melts into it. Eventually she lifts Natasha up and they move on the bed. Natasha seems very impressed that Maria can lift her. Maria might be a bit hurt about that.

------

When they decide to leave for an early lunch (neither remembered to eat breakfast), they're barely 100 feet down the hallway from Natasha's room, when they're stopped by a junior agent.

"Commander, Agent Romanoff. Director Fury wants to speak to both of you."

Maria and Natasha exchange a look.

"Did he say what about?" Maria asks.

"Not really," the Agent answers but there's a look on his face Maria doesn't like. It's like he knows something he shouldn't.

Maria debates for a little bit, if she should push and get some answers from him but decides against it. She dismisses the agent and starts heading towards the Directors office with Natasha.

They get a couple weird looks and smiles on the way there. They walk the whole way in silence. Both clearly trying to figure out what Fury wants from them.

Fury sees them immediately, which tells Maria that it's something important. She's getting nervous. Natasha is here as well, so her mind goes only to a specific direction, but how would Fury know?

"Director Fury, you wanted to see us?" Maria greets him.

"Hill, Romanoff. Has either of you checked the news today or any social media?"

Natasha shakes her head. She's been awfully quiet after they ran into that agent.

"No, sir. I haven't checked my phone at all today. Pretty sure it's dead anyway. I've been a bit distracted," Maria answers truthfully. There's no point in lying.

"Well, you probably should stay out of social media for a little while but that's just a suggestion. Do you have anything else to report to me?" His eye shifts from Maria to Natasha and back.

He knows. Maria takes a deep breath. She feels Natasha's hand touch hers, a sign that it's okay.

"Yes, sir. We, uh... Natasha and I are involved."

"Will it be affecting your work?"

"No, sir."

"Then I'm happy for you," he says with the slightest hint of a smile.

Maria is surprised and she can sense that so is Natasha. She lets her posture get a little more relaxed.

"Now to the real reason I invited you in," Fury says as he pulls some tabloid articles up on the screen behind himself. They're all saying basically the same thing: Black Widow at a gay bar with a mystery woman . Some of them have clearly done a better job with trying to figure out who this "mystery woman" is because a couple of them have actual pictures of Maria along with her name. And there's pictures. Pictures of them kissing, the intense looks they changed during that night and pictures of them leaving together.

"We tried to get them down before they spread too far, but clearly we didn't manage that. Anything about the Avengers' personal life spreads like a fire. I'm sorry about the situation it puts you in."

Both of the women just nod. There wasn't anything to say. Fury takes this as his answer and turns off the screen.

"Well then, you're dismissed. Hill, if you could stay for just a little longer?"

Natasha squeezes her shoulder a little before she steps out of the room.

"Sir?"

"No reason to be that formal anymore. This is just me checking on you. How are you feeling?"

"Well, that's a lot, but I think I'm fine. It's not the way I wanted things to go, but I guess it's good that it's out. If we wish to go out, now we don't need to worry if someone sees us or not."

"Okay, still I wish the situation wasn't this. I strongly suggest that you don't check any social media for the next few days. I know you think you can handle it, but there's gonna be some bad stuff there and I'd prefer the dust settles a bit first. Also if anyone, and I mean anyone, in SHIELD gives either of you a hard time because of this, let me know. I will handle it. It's out there, so everyone knows. I wish you could've handled this on your own terms, but the situation is what it is."

Maria smiles at him.

"Thank you, Director. I know I said it won't affect my work, and I truly believe and hope so, but if it ever seems like I'm putting her before the mission; pull me out of it, if possible. I know I won't be happy about it, but I need to know that I won't be making mistakes because I'm compromised."

"Of course. But I have full belief that you'll do great even then."

Maria nods and heads towards the door but Fury's voice makes her turn around before she gets to open it.

"Also, before you go. I am truly happy for you, Maria."

Maria smiles at him and nods her thanks and joins Natasha on the other side of the door.

Natasha hugs her as she closes the door. Maria circles her arms around her and presses her cheek against Natasha's head.

"That went better than I expected." She hears Natasha mumble against her chest.

"It did," Maria agrees.

"I'm so sorry about the articles though. If I would've just realised--" Maria quiets her with a kiss.

"Natasha, there's nothing you could've done about it. The second we walked in there everyone was paying extra attention to us. Those articles would be there even if we hadn't kissed. I'm just glad we did. I don't think I would've ever dared to take this step otherwise," Maria says. She looks Natasha in the eye and they exchange smiles. "Now, how about that lunch?"

[not-using-this1]

Accepting

Would you look at that finally a Yelena Belova oneshot?! Yes, I decided it was time to upload her on here again so she’s back :) 

This oneshot is actually from my wattpad (AssassinEssa) where I upload mostly all the time so if you want go check it out!

Hope you all enjoy this one ;)

Y/n tells Yelena that she likes women because she feels safer with her than her own family who she knows for a fact won't accept her. Yelena reveals her secret.

Warnings: mention of abuse, mention of torture, swearing (I think theres like only one in there)

Word Count: around 1600 words 

She couldn't hide this anymore, but she had to. Her family wouldn't accept her at all so there was really no point in telling anyone. She knew for a fact her father would practically disown her (not that he already hadn't) and her mother would just scream at her for hours and then try to set her up with multiple men. Of course she could withstand those things due to her past and the abuse she had recieved the whole of her childhood...but this could likely get her killed (her fathers ex-millitary and her mother and her don't even get along).

Thank fuck she was able to get away from her family due to a program...but that only put her through more torture until she became the woman she is today...although she is still fearful of her parents.

The only person she could trust and even feel safe around was Yelena Belova, although she is rather intimidating, the two women grew quite close during the whole program and after leaving it behind started to stay with one another.

Despite what other people thought of the blonde russian, Y/n knew her more than anyone else, including the black widow Natasha Romanoff. That's when she decided that enough was enough and practically ran over to Yelena' apartment in the rain without even calling or texting her first.

Yelena is her only home.

Y/N' POV

Standing outside of my favourite person' apartment, I hesistated for a moment. I don't understand why...I felt safe with her. Maybe it was the fact that I was scared even she might not accept me and then leave me all alone and I didn't want that.

No, she wouldn't do that to me and I know it, she may be well guarded and barely show any emotion but she's not evil, she understands me better than anyone just like I do her. Finally knocking on her door, I heard a loud crash and "der'mo" (shit). Before I could even open the door, Yelena had already opened it, a bandage wrapped around her hand. Of course I was worried but before I could even say a word..."Got back from a mission last night, cut my hand during it but it's fine."

Before I could even open my mouth to say a word, Yelena interrupted me as she let me in her apartment "Now, what's wrong Y/n?" I looked down at her hand with the bandage on it, still wanting to know if she is really okay and what happened...drive this conversation away from me and what I'm here for but I somehow don't think that will work. I sat down on her sofa, she followed after me sitting next to me, frowning at me...worried.

"You gave me a scare when you called me last night while I was still on this mission, I would've come to you but I had to finish it." She added. I wanted to say it but I was still so terrified that this could all possibly go wrong and I would lose the one person who has been through so much with me...we helped each other through so much pain, on missions emotionally and physically.

I tried to make sure I wasn't going to cry because well I rarely even cry much anymore, I honestly don't have much tears to cry because half my childhood I cried, because of how horrible it was...hence why I'm the way am I now with my ability to fight, spy skills and some very deadly moves.

I froze in place, didn't know what to say or do.

Yelena noticed immedietely that something was wrong, she grabbed my hand with her not-injured hand, I tensed up for a few seconds until I looked up at her, she gave me a small smile and that damn smile just made me calm down and ease up.

"Its okay Y/n, you're alright here." Yelena was clearly encouraging me but also reassuring me at the same time which is exactly what I needed right now. "I can tell you everything 'Lena but this...this might change things for us." I spoke truthfully. The thing is not only am I attracted to women but I'm in love with the blonde sat next to me. The woman who has stuck beside me since we were teenagers and when I was taken to the GRU (black widow program).

Yelena had never been easy to get along with at the start, she was willingly in the program and just wanted to be somebody...I understood that and then from their I guess our rocky friendship grew. But I knew back then that we loved each other...like we still do now and I want today to be the day to tell her.

Because her existence means the world to me.

"Look Y/n, I don't think what you're going to tell me would change anything. I won't hate you. I know these earlier memories of us are horrific but I remember you never giving up on being my friend during the program, you drove me absolutely crazy to the point we even fought phyiscally but at the end of the day we'd always patch each other up. What I'm saying is no matter what I could never hate or leave you not after what we've been through together." There was this soft tone in her voice, it was so calming and so soothing, she really did know how to make me feel safe, wanted and needed.

"Yeah I remember, I've mostly blocked out the bad memories to be honest but sometimes they come back up and I think that you'd react the same." Yelena nodded her head, she understood where I was coming from and that was clear. She knew that all she needed to do was be here and listen and that's exactly what shes doing.

"Do you remember when you and I got a little curious back in the dorms and we kissed?" I asked her, she looked at me and nodded knowing full well what I meant. "Yeah, I remember. It got you sent for a punishment." Yelena added, she frowned at me not looking very happy I bought up that one particular memory.

"Well that was because all my life I've known that I have liked women more than men since I was younger. In fact I've never even liked men. I have tried so hard to but I feel like I'm broken like there's something wrong with me." I finally got that part out of my system but the next part was going to be the hardest...if she accepts me.

Yelena gave me a smile and squeezed my hand ever so slightly, her thumb gently rubbing my hand in the process "You're not broken Y/n and there's nothing to be fixed. You are unique the way you are and besides no one is stopping you this is the 21st centuary my darling." Yelena spoke giving me a smile at the end, her voice soft as she let out a slight chuckle.

"I know but no one in my family would accept me and-

"They're assholes if they can't see that you're still you just because you are attracted to women, it doesn't make a difference and don't you ever put yourself down like that ever again. And besides you always have a place in my world and by my side." I cringed at that a little and laughed at how cheesy that was for the blonde because she's never like this that much.

"That's cheesy even for you Belova" I laughed, she looked at me and rolled her eyes removing her hand from mine "And I thought we were having a moment".

"Wait we were I just-" I panicked just a bit and grabbed her hand but in the process she dragged me down on top of her as she fell back on the sofa we were originally sat on. She playfully wrapped her legs around my waist and I couldn't help but whimper at the slight contact of me pushed against her. "Y/n?" Yelena asked sounding all serious for a moment.

"Do you maybe want a redo?" She asked me. I looked at her confused for a good few seconds not exactly getting the message "what do you mean by redo?"

The smirk on her face, however, told me everything. It was because of the fact I bought up that one memory. But I wasn't expecting her to say that to me. I didn't know how to exactly respond to her but even before I could even say another word she managed to flip us over on the sofa effortlessly and now she was on top of me, my legs wrapped around her waist this time.

"I really like you Y/n. Now kiss me before I change my mind." She states.

With that being said I wasted no time in pulling her down for a kiss, arms wrapped around her neck as she makes the kiss deeper, slipping her tongue in.

"How" she whispers as she pulls away but then kisses me again "would you" she adds bringing back in for another quick kiss "like to move in with me?" I was about to say 'yes' but I couldn't even say anything as she pulled me back in for another kiss.

"Yes of course."

"I'm so happy you told me that you liked women and I'm so proud of you. Because as do I." Yelena adds as she finally lets me sit up. "I'm happy to. Now can we sit and watch movies?" I asked her.

"Yes, but we won't be watching much." Yelena winked at me, I rolled my eyes at her but agreed.

I'm just so happy that I decided to finally tell her, it was worth it. She really does mean so much.