Natasha Romanoff OneShots

lost in the fire - NR

Warnings: car crash, fire, mentions of death
Word count: 4.1k

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Yelena Belova and Y/N Y/L/N were some of the best drivers that Formula 1 had seen. Mercedes had set records with the first ever all-female driver line up and were Red Bull's fiercest competitors.

Under the guidance of Toto Woolf and the rest of the team at Mercedes, they had had a teammate on the podium for every single race of the season. Yelena was in the running for the World Championship... well, she would be with who her race engineer was.

Natasha Romanoff was the head strategist for Mercedes for years until she made the move to Race Engineer last year, and she never looked back. She preferred having contact with her drivers and she and Yelena had a good professional relationship, putting sisterly squabbles aside to focus on the main goal for the team.

Y/N Y/L/N was brought in as an emergency replacement during the middle of last season and Toto had decided to keep her permanently. Not only did the young driver catch the attention of the press, she also caught Natasha Romanoff's eye.

She was feisty, fast and courageous on the track, making overtakes that seemed impossible to onlookers. She shot down all negativity and sexism that she faced in interviews and held her trophies above her head with pride for everything she had achieved, quickly becoming an idol for young drivers across the world.

Nat was quick to fall for her, and Y/N soon followed. Their relationship was kept quiet and only a few members of their team knew, including Toto and Yelena. They stayed professional and unbiased and Natasha purposely didn't swap places with Y/N's race engineer Peter Bonnington. Guiding her sister was one thing, but her girlfriend? Too risky.

But having relationships with both of her drivers, Natasha often found herself a mess of nerves during each race weekend. Formula one was extremely dangerous, but her girls were sensible. They didn't race recklessly and they left the room they needed. Plus they didn't race each other too much, unlike other teams she could mention.

The Bahrain race was Y/N's favourite. She adored night races and something about the lights illuminating around the circuit got her excited. But she kept her cool, qualifying in P2 alongside Max Verstappen in P1, beating her by 0.02 of a second. Yelena was in P6 after an issue with her steering that was making her car difficult to handle around the corners.

But the blonde Russian had a fire in her stomach and she had her sights set on P1. She remained iron focussed during the race build up, running over the plan for the race with Natasha with a stony expression, fully in race mode. Natasha was the best coach and settled her nerves so she could drive the best she possibly could. She felt the cameras on her but refused pre-race interviews. The Russian didn't need any reporters riling her up before the big race.

Y/N left Yelena alone after they did their ritual little handshake. She knew Yelena would race hard, but Y/N also wanted that P1 spot and her biggest focus was getting a good start and pulling ahead of Verstappen before turn one. A good start would set her up for the rest of the race and winning would mean she'd become a threat to the championship title. A world championship in a driver's first year was almost unheard of, but Y/N Y/L/N loved attempting the impossible.

Her gloves gripped the wheel as she set off on the formation lap, keeping control of the car whilst also weaving to warm up her tyres. Being on the front row was good, but her tyres also had longer to cool down as all the other drivers made their way around the track too. She heard Peter's voice through her radio but part of her still wished it was Natasha. They didn't get much alone time during the race weekend because the cameras and reporters were everywhere and they couldn't risk getting caught. It was a small price to pay but it hurt Y/N more on weekends like this.