The Phantom (Black Widow x Male Reader)

Midnight

(Y/N) POV:

It was around midnight and I couldn't sleep.

The team had neutralised the base, contacted the authorities and flown back over to the compound in a matter of hours. It was a long and boring journey where I had to explain the whole story about Astrikov over and over so that everybody understood what the hell had happened.

Afterwards however, me and Natasha retired to our apartment on site where I laid down and got treated by her for my wounds. She helped me to take a shower and then we went to bed. I say we went to bed because I didn't sleep. Natasha very quickly drifted off and rolled over onto her side of the bed but I didn't. I stared all night.

I stared firstly at Natasha and thought about how lucky I was. I stared at the ceiling and let my eyes trail over the slight indentations on the ceiling made when I decided to throw knives around as a joke to cheer up Natasha after a stressful day. I stared at the alarm clock counting down the seconds until the next minute rolled by. I stared at the furniture, the window, the shadows on the walls and then back at the red hair that lay sprawled over the duvet pulled over Natasha's shoulders.

I stared but didn't sleep.

I wasn't sure how long I stayed like that but I eventually rolled out of bed, put on some proper clothes and went outside for a walk. I strolled through the corridors using my thumbprint to open the doors as I went, until the harsh metallic surface of the compound interior was replaced by the vast green openess of the outside field. I continued my walk through the grounds breathing the crisp air and slowl heading towards the edge of the forest surrounding the compound. I found one of the many battered and beaten pathes through the edge of the forest and I followed it dipping in and out of the deeper woodland like the path itsself was unsure of whether it was leading back to the clearing or out into the wilds of the New York forests.

That was until, at a part in the path where it was brushing against the edge of the clearing where the compound was located, I noticed Wanda. She was sat alone on a medium-sized boulder staring down at her fingertips which were creating thin strands of red magical material  between them. She moved theses trands between her fingertips and was like a spider weaving her web. I walked towards her and stepped on a branch. Instantly she flung a nearby pinecone at me with her magic, looking suddenly at whoever had surprised her.

I caught it in my hand and looked incredulously at her. "Good night to you too sister dearest." I joked but only a ghost of a smile lit up her face.

"Couldn't sleep either?" She asked and I shook my head. She shuffled over on the boulder and gave me room to sit beside her. So I did.

"Whats keeping you up?" I asked her and she just looked down at her hands for a moment before explaining. " I was just thinking about that night. The night everything changed for me. I just kept wondering what would have happened if you had just kept searching for us. If I had called out for you or for someone. All of this might've not happened..." As she said this she began to create those paper thin lines of power between her fingertips, and I must admit there was a certain entrancing quality to them that postponed my responce by a few moments.

"Do you regret it? Not calling out for me?" I asked her and she paused in thought.

"Pietro would still be alive. Ultron would never have been born...It wouldn't have been the worst world to live in." she admitted but I shook my head. I could never agree to be in a world where I had never known Natasha.

"Anyway, why are you here?" She asked me and I leaned back slightly to look at the starry night sky.

"I honestly don't know. I just can't seem to get my mind to fall asleep." I told her and she nodded back whilst leaning down and concentrating on the ever-shfiting strands of flourescent light between her fingertips.