Chasing Ghosts | Natasha Romanoff

Chapter 115: A Snotty Saturday

Is this late? Yes, but it is technically still Tuesday because it's before midnight here. Did I check this chapter? No, so it probably has mistakes. If you do see one, no, you don't. Is this also the length of two chapters because I don't know when to stop? Yes :) Anyway, enjoy!!

June 25, 2028

Katya

When Katya woke up at seven, Natasha was still fast asleep beside her. Looking positively disheveled—red hair everywhere, tangled together, one strap of her tank top hanging off her shoulder, and her mouth slightly agape—it was cuteness in its purest form, and Katya couldn't help but postpone her plans of going to their home gym for a minute of staring at the scene.

Natasha looked warm, she noted, her cheeks and nose red, the bedcovers pooled around her hips like she'd kicked them off in the night. Usually, her body was immune to warmth or the cold.

But all that may have to do with the visitor that snuck into their room overnight. Liho had taken advantage of the open door and the fact that Natasha lay on her back, and had spread her long, pitch-black body out on the woman's chest. The cat looked more than content, her head stuffed into the space under Natasha's chin, a paw resting on her cheek.

Katya chuckled quietly. Liho was a real mama's girl, always looking for attention from her favorite human, pushing her head or butt into Natasha's face to demand cuddles. And the brunette knew the animal felt really smug with herself for claiming this premium sleeping spot, but her wife looked like she was about to overheat.

Carefully, she slipped out of bed, trying to rustle the bed as little as possible. Natasha surprisingly didn't move a muscle. "Liho," Katya whispered, surprised to see the cat pick up her head for once, though sleepily. "You're suffocating my reason to live. Come on. Food."

That was the key word.

Katya held her breath as Liho lazily scrambled off Natasha's chest, afraid it would wake her up. The redhead's face scrunched up, an incoherent mumble slipping past her lips. For a moment, she shifted in the bed, dropping one of her hands to her stomach in a half-conscious gesture, but then she sunk back into the mattress, motionless.

Katya breathed out.

Stuffing her feet in a pair of socks, she followed after Liho, silently closing the bedroom door behind her.

After feeding two supposedly starved cats, she came back. Natasha and her still-red cheeks had not moved an inch. Her slow, even breaths filled the silence every five seconds or so, and Katya listened closely as she tiptoed around the room, freezing whenever there was a break in the pattern. But Natasha never woke up.

Very slowly and very carefully, Katya removed the covers from Natasha's feet to hopefully help cool her down a bit, and then slipped out the room. She felt strangely proud of herself as she walked down the stairs for the second time that morning, knowing her wife got some well-deserved rest while she got ready for a morning of her absolute most-hated thing: cardio.

Surprisingly, she also got through that whole training undisturbed. It neared eight, and usually, Natasha didn't lie in bed alone for more than thirty minutes, max. By now, she'd been asleep alone for more than an hour.

Worry bubbled in Katya's stomach as she wiped the sweat from her forehead with a towel and kicked her sweaty running shoes off. Only Liho and Mimosa greeted her in the kitchen, watching with their big eyes as she stumbled up the stairs, legs tired.

Natasha had turned to her side, and it was only now that the room had gotten brighter that Katya saw the sheen of sweat on her forehead.

It wasn't that warm in here, was it?