Scarlet Widow One-Shots

Sweet Dreams

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Nights were the worst for the Avengers. It was the time where the nightmares crept in, recounting the worst of everyone’s past; their fears, their hopelessness, their insecurities. It was especially rough for Wanda, who not only lived through her own worst moments, but also had the privilege of experiencing everyone else's fears whose minds she had infiltrated when she had followed Ultron. 

Natasha knew this pain well. Wanda didn’t say much about it and was pretty cheerful during the days after getting to know everyone and meshing with the group, but her room was across from the Sokovian’s so she knew what she portrayed during the day did not last during the night. On multiple accounts, Natasha had either been awakened by the screams of the Sokovian or had already been awake, unable to sleep due to her own nightmares, and had heard the wimpers drifting across the hall.

After some time at the compound through practicing and general conversations, Natasha grew a soft spot for Wanda. Of course, she didn’t let onto it, but the woman had wormed her way into a special place in Natasha’s mind. With the increasing affection that had grown for the woman, it became harder to stand by and let her live through the trauma in her dreams. She never woke her, unsure of how Wanda would react, but she knew she wanted to do something and once the decision was made, she put it into action.

A little known fact to the team about Natasha was she loved to bake. She would do it in her downtime or when she became restless, the science behind it giving her a comforting structure to the time spent doing it. It also helped that she had a major sweet tooth and would thus be rewarded by sweet treats when finished with her efforts.

This would be the perfect way to alleviate her guilt for not being able to bring herself to go in and comfort the suffering Sokovian while also wasting the time until the sun rose and scared the nightmares away. Natasha decided she would make the girl Sokovian baked treats and leave them at her door to find in the morning. She told herself the reasoning behind leaving them at the door instead of giving them to her directly was due to her not wanting to embarrass her for knowing she had been suffering each night, but secretly she just wanted to make the girl happy and have her identity be a fun mystery for the girl to figure out on her own. She liked the idea of being Wanda’s little secret.

Stopping that train of thought before she let it get far enough to analyze the true sentiment behind it, Natasha began hunting down the ingredients for the chosen dish. She decided to go with krofne today. They were a Sokovian version for doughnuts and seemed like a good comfort food to start with. Natasha mixed the wet and dry ingredients together, stirring the yeasty dough by hand, preferring to use a spoon instead of an automatic mixer to avoid waking up the floor, but also to keep her mind and body occupied with the task.

Once everything was incorporated, Nasasha put spoonfuls of the dough in an already heated pan with oil, frying the dough into perfect fluffy balls, finishing them off with powdered sugar. Natasha seemed happy with the completed job, taking a bite of one of the krofne before cleaning the dishes she had used. After all, a chef always has to taste their food before serving it. Satisfied with the way the goods turned out and putting away the now clean dishes, Natasha grabbed the plate of goods and set them in front of Wanda’s door. She contemplated writing a note to go with it, but decided she would leave it up to Wanda to figure out where they came from, not wanting to risk giving away who had made them so early on.