Forgotten Ghost | Natasha Romanoff

Chapter 91: Time Travel!

''This is really not necessary, you know. I can do this myself,'' Natasha laughed.

Katya had pulled Natasha to the edge of the bed, sat her down and crept behind her, braiding her hair. She had been dying to do that for days and today she had finally grabbed her wrist and pulled her out of the bathroom. 

''You like it when I do this. So stop moving around or I'll mess it up.''

Natasha hummed, chuckling. ''So bossy.'' But no matter what she said, it did feel nice to have her hair done, Katya's nails gently running over her scalp, carefully tugging strands into the tight braid down her back. She could see her focused eyes in the mirror on the wall, not missing one single hair. 

The longer Natasha watched, the more she disappeared into her head. Today could be a big breakthrough, the day their whole lives changed. And it was impossible to miss the optimism, especially when Katya was out of bed before she could. Katya was nervous, Natasha could see that, but it was understandable. 

''What do you think?'' she finally asked when Katya had reached her neck. There was no need for explaining her question. 

Katya sighed and sat back on her calves, avoiding the green eyes in the mirror staring at her intently. ''I think that I don't know what to think. Do I have confidence it could work? Yes, 100%. Do I have confidence in Bruce? Not really.'' No offense to Bruce, but they needed the smartest mind for this, and that was Tony. She asked for the small elastic Natasha had in her hand and tied the perfect braid off. ''You?''

''I think that this is crazy,'' she admitted. The sun shone through the blinds, leaving bright strokes on the floor by her feet. 

Katya wrapped her hands around Natasha's shoulders from behind, her chin on her shoulder. ''But that's not why you have had that frown since you woke up.''

There was a short silence where Natasha had to collect her thoughts and Katya simply waited patiently. ''What if it doesn't work? What if all this hope is false?'' She gently unwrapped Katya's arms and stood, pacing in front of the mirror. ''What if we have to go back to work tomorrow, knowing we tried everything but still failed. Knowing we have to do this for our entire lives?'' That fear sat really deep.

Katya shook her head and scrambled from the bed, stopping the pacing by taking her hands. ''I don't want that for us, Nat. We didn't go through shit our entire lives just to end up in the deepest pit ever. If this fails, we disappear, we leave everything and go. To hell with responsibilities and expectations,'' her voice slowly got louder, the frustration seeping through. ''I can't do it again, I can't go back. It will kill me.''

Natasha studied the blue eyes in front of her for any kind of lie, but everything Katya had said was true. So without doubting it for a second, she responded, ''Deal.''

''Wait, really?'' Katya asked, beyond surprised it was that easy to convince her. ''That was just an outburst of frustration.''

Natasha smiled, ducking her head slightly to capture Katya's eyes again. ''But you meant every single word.''

For some reason, Katya felt guilty. Guilty for thinking about it so easily. Leaving their job behind wasn't a simple decision. It would mean dropping all the people who needed their help and trusting others to pick it up instead. ''Baby...''

''No. I feel the same, but I didn't want to say it. This place, it's eating me alive.'' She hesitated before continuing. ''I just don't know if I can leave it all behind. Who are we without the Avengers? What would we do?''

Katya grew more confident now that she wasn't the only one feeling this way. Gently, she tugged some baby hairs behind Natasha's ears. ''Whatever the hell we want. We'll figure something out, and if it doesn't work, we'll try something else.''