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Natasha knew the twins didn’t like Tony and, really, she could understand. It had been Tony’s weapons that had destroyed their home and killed their parents when they were kids. And, according to Pietro one day, it had been then that Wanda had stopped talking. Natasha couldn’t blame her, either, she’d been so young and faced with so much trauma, it wasn’t surprising that she’d just stopped talking.
But anyway, she hadn’t expected to find the twins snooping through Tony’s lab one day. She’d been looking for Stark to ask if they could get some more equipment for the training room (not that she needed to ask because she would get what she wanted anyway), but had stumbled upon the Maximoff twins instead.
What their intentions were, Natasha had no idea, but she wasted no time making her presence known to the pair anyway.
“Looking for something?” She asked, knocking on the open door.
Pietro dropped some files and Wanda span around, a metallic box gripped tightly her hands.
“Uh, no,” Pietro said, his and Wanda’s eyes flicking to each other briefly, “we were just leaving.”
While he sped over to Wanda and gathered her in his arms, Natasha stepped further into the room and shut the door with her heel with just enough time to spare before the two could leave the room.
“Then what are you doing in here?” She asked casually.
She didn’t particularly care unless it harmed herself or the team. In fact, she wouldn’t mind seeing Tony’s face when he came back to his lab and saw his belongings out of order and his paperwork on the floor.
“Nothing,” Pietro denied again.
“Yeah, sure, and those papers just threw themselves on the floor,” Natasha rolled her eyes.
With a huff, Pietro put Wanda down again and crossed his own arms. Wanda looked down at the device still in her hands and Pietro looked at her.
“We do not trust Tony Stark,” Pietro said with a sour expression, like he didn’t want to tell her anything at all.
Well, Natasha had kind of expected his answer. While the twins now knew that it hadn’t been Tony himself who’d killed their parents, it had still been his name on the bomb that had fallen into their home. It was normal to have some kind of leftover mistrust for the man, even after everything they’d been through with Ultron and the battle in Novi Grad.
So instead of getting mad or kicking them out of the room, or even telling them to pack their bags like it looked like they were expecting her to do, she nodded and approached them. She didn’t miss the way Wanda tensed up or the way Pietro took a minute step closer to his sister. Her heart clenched slightly, but she ignored it.
“I get that,” she began, much to the twins’ apparent surprise, “what happened to your parents was... unforgivable. I know you must still be angry and I’m sure you’re still looking for someone to blame. But I don’t think this is the way to go about it. Snooping around in other people’s belongings, looking for a reason to blame Stark all over again.”
Pietro scoffed lightly, “how would you know? If we are not angry and looking for someone to blame, then what are we?”
“Sad,” Natasha shrugged slightly. “You have to let yourself grieve. Properly.”
Pietro clenched his jaw and turned his head away slightly, breaking their eye contact.
She turned her attention to Wanda and held a hand out for the box in her hand, giving her a look that suggested she should pass it over now.
Wanda sighed in a way that sounded more like a huff, but held the box out anyway in offer. Natasha took the box from her and smiled.
“Thank you,” she said.
“Whatever,” Pietro muttered.
Natasha looked at the box in her hands. She had no idea what it was. It was a steely grey colour and definitely metal due to its coldness, and there was, from what Natasha could tell, some kind of pale light shining faintly from the edges of the cube.
It was a strange box and Natasha could understand now why Wanda had picked it up.
“Come on,” Natasha said. She glanced at the clock on the wall. “Training is in half an hour.”
The twins nodded without saying a word.
Natasha made to turn around and head for the door, intending to put the box on the shelf on the way out, but then something happened.
The box in her hands glowed brighter from its edges and as Natasha looked down, she immediately closed her eyes as light exploded from the cube. She wanted to drop it, but for some reason, she found that she couldn’t.
It was like she was entranced.
“Natasha!”
When Natasha came to again (she was sure she’d been unconscious but didn’t know for how long), all she could hear was a faint ringing. She groaned and rubbed her ears, accustomed to the noise but still bothered by it.
There were hands on her that she pushed away upon noticing them, not wanting to be touched until she knew who it was.
As her hearing began to come back to her, she could hear someone’s familiar voice.
“Wanda? Wanda? Sestra, are you okay? Come on, Wanda, wake up.”
Wanda? Oh right. She’d been with the twins. The box had glowed and clearly knocked her out. And Wanda too apparently.
“Natasha? Are you okay? Wanda? Come on you two.”
That must be Pietro.
Though her ears were still very faintly ringing and she could feel the beginnings of a headache behind her eyes, Natasha decided to make it known that she was awake now.
She rubbed her eyes before opening them and almost flinched back at the sight of Pietro above her, peering down at her with pinched eyebrows and a frown.
When he noticed her staring back up at him, he seemed to deflate and then he ran his hands through his hair in relief.
“I was so worried,” he told her as he helped her stand, “are you okay? Are you hurt?”
Natasha frowned. Pietro had never been this worried about her before.
“I’m fine,” she told him then winced as her voice came out all sore and scratchy, and... accented. What?
Her eyes widened in surprise and her heart skipped a beat.
Slowly, she looked down at herself and, to her horror, she didn’t find her own body. Unlike the training gear she’d been wearing when she’d entered Stark’s lab, she was now wearing jeans and a grey jumper, along with a multitude of heavy rings on her fingers.
Rings that were familiar to Wanda Maximoff, not herself.
What the hell?
She turned from where she stood, hoping she was imagining things, only for her eyes to land on a very familiar figure unconscious on the floor. Herself.
“No,” she muttered in shock then slammed her jaw shut when a foreign voice left her mouth.
“What’s wrong, sestra?” Pietro asked, placing an arm on her shoulder that she quickly shook off. He looked hurt by the action. “Wanda?”
“Pietro,” Natasha turned Pietro, “this is going to sound crazy, but I’m not Wanda.”
“What? Do you gave concussion?” Pietro rose a hand to touch her head, but Natasha batted it away.
“No, listen,” Natasha huffed, “it’s me, Natasha. I think Wanda and I swapped bodies. It must have been that stupid box.”
For a moment, no one spoke. Natasha and Pietro stared at each other in silence, neither one willing to even blink, until eventually Pietro snorted and laughed.
Natasha threw her hands up and stalked away from him as he laughed, only returning to his side once he’d calmed down.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” he chuckled, “what, that little box swapped your bodies?”
“Yes,” Natasha said, refusing to back down.
“Huh,” Pietro hummed with a smirk, “see, I did think you were pronouncing my name wrong. But, hey, I thought concussion.”
“I’m not pronouncing your name wrong. And I don’t have concussion,” Natasha crossed her arms.
Pietro tsked, “Yes, you are. It’s Pietro.”
“That’s what I said. Pietro,” Natasha repeated.
“No. Pietro.”
“I just said- Pietro.”
“No, no, Pietro.”
“We’re saying it the same!” Natasha snapped.
“No, yours is a little off,” Pietro told her.
“No, it’s not.”
A groan interrupted Pietro before he could say anything and he and Natasha turned their heads to look at Nat- Wanda on the floor.
She was slowly sitting up and rubbing her head, eyebrows furrowed and a frown on her face.
“This is so weird,” Natasha muttered to herself.
“Maybe we should do something before she sees herself standing next to me,” Pietro suggested.
“You’ll have to be quick,” Natasha shrugged.
“Is that a joke?” Pietro chuckled.
Natasha didn’t get the chance to respond because, as she blinked, he’d zoomed over to Wanda and knelt down in front of her.
Natasha couldn’t tell, but she guessed he’d obscured Wanda’s vision of her own body standing a few feet away.
As she watched the pair talk in hushed voices, she wondered whether Wanda still had her powers or if she had them now.
It couldn’t hurt to check, right?
She looked down at her hand (or rather, Wanda’s hand) and turned it this way and that. How did she activate Wanda’s powers? Was it... a thought thing? Did she have to think about it? Or flex a muscle?
She’d trained with Wanda before, and yet she now realised she didn’t know how her powers were activated. Maybe she should know. She was sure Steve probably did. He was always very involved in training, always wanting everyone to be at their best and pushing them to their limits yet never over.
Watching her hand intently, she tensed up and shook it a little. Nothing, still. Maybe Wanda did still have her powers, no matter whose body she was in.
Come on, she thought with mild annoyance, work.
Suddenly, her hand flared red and Natasha startled. Her eyes widened and she shook her hand frantically like it was on fire, until the red disappeared. She looked up at the twins, hoping they hadn’t seen.
To her relief, they hadn’t.
So, they must be tied to her emotions. She would have to be careful to keep her emotions in check. Wanda clearly had that part perfected, to an extent (minus a few outbursts here and there).
For Natasha, it would be just as easy. As long as Tony Stark didn’t bother her. Then again, if she was in Wanda’s body, he probably wouldn’t. He rarely bothered Wanda or Pietro, unless he was actively looking to annoy everyone that day.
Soon, as she remained in the background with her arms now crossed, Pietro helped Wanda to her feet and they crossed the room to meet her where she stood.
”Hey,” Natasha greeted Wanda.
It felt like a bad dream as she and Wanda stared at each other, the pair of them residing in the other’s bodies. But she tried not to think about it too much.
Wanda pulled a face before schooling it quickly and nodding at Natasha.
”We need to hide this from the others,” Natasha told the twins seriously. “If they find out we were in Tony’s lab and we messed with his stuff? We won’t hear the end of it.”
”But how will we fix this? You swapped bodies!” Pietro emphasised. “I don’t know what we can do.”
”We’ll figure it out,” Natasha said confidently, “I promise. Until then, we have to act like each other to avoid suspicion.”
”Okay, that shouldn’t be too hard, no?” Pietro didn’t look very hopeful.
”Right. And that starts with training. How long were we out?” Natasha directed her question to Pietro.
”About fifteen minutes?”
”Good, so we’re not late. We should go now, though, otherwise we will be.”
Natasha didn’t wait for an answer from the duo as she spun on her heel and headed to the exit to Tony’s lab.
As she stepped out of the lab, it felt immediately like a weight had just been placed on her shoulders. Her stomach seemed to drop to her feet and she felt sick very quickly. Her palms became clammy and her throat, though it was already scratchy and sore, was suddenly dry.
She’d never felt like this before. Not in years anyway. Definitely not since joining the Avengers.
Was she feeling Wanda’s emotions? Even though she was occupying Wanda’s body for the time being, was she still feeling as if Wanda would if she were back in her own body?
She wondered then if Wanda had her own confidence and self-assurance. Were they feeling each other’s emotions though they were in each other’s bodies?
Weird.
Taking a deep breath, she made her way through the hallway, considering what she would do or how she and the twins could fix this mess.
By the time she and the twins made it to the training room, they had five minutes to spare but Natasha was feeling less confident about everything.
On their way to training, they’d run into Vision. The synthezoid didn’t train as often as everyone else, what with being a robot and all. It seemed almost as if he’d been brought into this world with the knowledge and know-how to fight and defend himself, and others.
Of course, he still trained with them most days but today wasn’t one of those days, and they’d run into him as he’d been heading to common area to read.
Unfortunately for the trio, he’d stopped upon seeing them and tried to engage them in conversation.
It was then that Natasha remembered that, being in Wanda’s body, she couldn’t talk. Well, it wasn’t that she couldn’t talk, it was more that she shouldn’t. Because Wanda didn’t talk to anyone. She was mute which meant that Natasha had to follow that around everyone apart from the twins.
The interaction would have been fine except for the fact that Vision had addressed them all, including Wanda who was in Natasha’s body. Wanda who clearly still wanted to remain silent no matter whose body she was in.
When Vision had addressed them all, only Pietro had replied which had seemingly struck Vision has odd as his eyes lingered on Wanda (or Natasha, to his eyes).
It was only thanks to Pietro that they’d gotten out of the situation without making anything worse as he’d given the (partially truthful) excuse that they were going to be late for training and had sped them half-way to the training room.
Since then, Natasha had been thinking about the fact that she was practically voiceless until she could get back into her own body. Sure, she could talk to Wanda and Pietro but the other Avengers? Steve? Clint? Sam?
No. She couldn’t talk to any of them.
And Wanda? She wouldn’t talk to them. She didn’t want to talk to anyone, not even in Natasha’s body where no one but Natasha herself and Pietro would know it was her speaking.
Natasha couldn’t help but think this wasn’t going to go well. Soon enough the others would figure out something was wrong and they would have to face the consequences of not only going into Tony’s lab when he wasn’t there, but also messing with his stuff and accidentally swapping bodies.
She only hoped that Wanda could keep up the façade and do well enough in training today so as to not break their cover. She hoped she herself could too. Using Wanda’s powers was going to be hard, but maybe she could get away with not using them today.
The five minutes soon passed as the trio got on with doing their stretches and preparing for training. By the time Steve and Sam arrived, the three were ready to get on with it. They couldn’t wait to get out of there and work on changing back.
To Natasha’s dismay, Steve quickly called Natasha up to the front of the training room to help. It was a usual occurrence for Natasha go help Steve with training the others, what with Wanda, Sam, and Pietro being the newest recruits.
Sometimes she didn’t help him, and she worked with the others during training. She’d been hoping he wouldn’t ask her to help today.
She watched from the corner of her eye as Wanda hesitated (and God was it weird to see that expression on her own face) before seemingly remembering whose body she was in and slowly making her way over to stand beside Steve.
“Right, I just want to start by saying that you all did great in training yesterday,” Steve began. He had his arms crossed over his chest as he looked over at the three in front of him. “But Nat and I noticed a few things you could all improve on.”
Steve looked beside him to Natasha (Wanda) who looked up at him and rose a brow.
Shit. Wanda wouldn’t know what the hell he was talking about.
Nervously, Natasha crossed her arms and then sighed with relief when Steve looked away from Wanda who was stubbornly keeping her mouth shut.
“Ahem. So, yeah. There are just a couple of things we noticed that could use some improvement,” Steve continued. “Mainly, I think it’s just, Wanda, Pietro, it looks to me that the two of you are relying on your powers too much during combat. I mean, it’s great that you have so much control over them, but I want you both to be confident enough to fight without them.”
”What makes you think we’re not?” Pietro questioned.
Natasha nodded her head beside him. That was something Wanda would do, right?
”Look, if there was ever a situation where the two of you couldn’t use your powers, I just want to know you’re still able to fight and protect yourselves,” Steve said.
Natasha heard Pietro sigh behind her. She didn’t mind fighting powerless for now because, well, she wasn’t Wanda and she didn’t want to lose control of her temporary powers by pretending she was.
“All right, fine,” Pietro begrudgingly agreed.
“So it’s settled. You and Wanda will sparr without your powers today. Sound good?” Steve looked at Wanda, who shrugged and nodded.
Natasha winced. Wanda looked too uncertain. She was never uncertain with her decisions.
Thankfully, if Steve noticed the unsure expression on Wanda’s face, he didn’t say anything. Instead, he focused his attention on Sam and began to give some tips. There wasn’t much the man needed to be told, but Steve and Natasha had come to the agreement yesterday that he could possibly work on his stance when in hand-to-hand combat.
So that was his task today while Wanda (Natasha) and Pietro were to work on combat without their powers.
Reluctantly, as Steve gave the order to begin their training, Natasha turned to Pietro. In the background, she heard Steve talking to Wanda. Sam made his way over to a punching back and began to train.
Natasha shuffled her foot back and brought her hands up, settling into a defensive position while Pietro repeated the action.
“Go easy on me, huh?” Pietro asked.
Natasha smirked and swung at him. For a moment, it seemed as if Pietro were about to use his powers to escape her blow, but at the last second, he remained where he was and ducked out of the way.
With her past training, Natasha was prepared for his next move and quickly managed to block it before catching herself and trying to lay off him for a moment.
Wanda didn’t have her training. No matter how much Natasha trained her, she wasn’t anywhere near her level yet.
A couple of times, Natasha let Pietro get a hit in then returned them with just enough force to not seem suspicious.
Meanwhile, she kept an eye on Wanda who seemed to be sticking to Steve’s side, almost unsure what to do now that she was on the other end of the spectrum.
Natasha didn’t know if Steve or Sam had noticed the difference in hers and Wanda’s behaviour, but if they had, they hadn’t said anything yet which suited Natasha just fine.
When training was over, she was quick to grab Wanda and Pietro and leave the damn room.
Hours passed as the three desperately tried to find a way to reverse the body swap. Natasha even had Pietro return to the lab to retrieve the cube that had started everything in the hopes of getting their own bodies back.
But it didn’t work and Natasha ended up throwing it in her bedside drawer to forget about it for the time being.
They spent a while on the computers in the hopes of finding something to help them, but they came up with nothing much to their frustration.
Eventually, night rolled around and the three Avengers became too tired to research their current situation and decided to call it a night.
Due to the body swap and not wanting to draw any suspicion, Natasha had to stay in Wanda’s room until she was back to herself and vice versa.
Reluctantly leaving Wanda in her own room, she left and headed down the hallway until she came to a door with a fancy, scarlet ‘W’ imprinted on it.
She stared for a moment at her palm, fingers littered with silver and gold rings, then lifted it to the scanner beside the door. She pressed it flat against the scanner and, a second later, the door slid open to reveal Wanda’s room.
It was exactly as Natasha would have expected from her. She’d only been in there a few times, but that had been when the twins had first joined the Avengers. It hadn’t changed a bit since then, though.
There was a desk pushed up against the wall, nearby the door, with a mirror and a corkboard that held pictures of Wanda, Pietro, and their parents. There was even one, in the centre of them all, of Wanda and Natasha.
It was a picture that Clint had apparently taken a couple months back when the two hadn’t been paying attention. She and Wanda had been drinking hot cocoa with marshmallows late at night in the kitchenette when neither of them could sleep, and Clint had been watching a movie with Sam and Steve.
When they hadn’t been paying attention, laughing quietly at some joke or another (or rather, smiling in Wanda’s case), Clint had apparently seen and captured the moment. He’d then sent the picture to Natasha and Wanda the next morning.
Clearly the latter had printed it off at some point and stuck it to her picture board. The sight warmed her heart and she found herself smiling at the picture for a moment before turning around and shutting the door to the bedroom.
It felt beyond weird to be in Wanda’s room without the other woman, but she had no choice if she was going to keep up the façade until everything was back to normal.
So, with that in mind, she took a deep breath in and made her way over to Wanda’s clothes drawers to find some shorts and a t-shirt to sleep in.
It took a whole five minutes before she found something decent to wear. Either the woman hid her shorts and vests well or she slept naked. The thought made Natasha pause and raise en eyebrow to herself before she shook her head and proceeded to change.
She tried her damned hardest not to look down at the body she was occupying to take a quick peek and by the time she was dressed in the red shorts and white vest, she was damn proud of herself.
There was a part of herself that Natasha always tried to suppress that liked to look at women as they passed by. While she liked men and could see herself with one (if she had a normal, hero-free life), she also liked women just as much. Sometimes she even thought she might like them more.
There had been a time in her life, years ago, when she’d looked at Maria Hill and thought damn. But, to her great relief, she had a great pokerface and had managed to keep her feelings in check until her minor crush passed.
She’d even felt the same for Wanda when they’d first met, albeit a little stronger, despite the fact that they were on opposite sides of the metaphorical battlefield. Then those feelings had been quickly suppressed when Wanda had brought back her memories of the Red Room.
Of course, when Natasha learned that Wanda and Pietro had only joined Ultron because they thought Tony had killed their parents, she’d forgiven them for the damage they’d caused, both physical and mental. They’d soon come to their senses when they learned Ultron’s true plans and changed sides to stop him.
When Natasha had next seen Wanda, encased in red and carrying a fury in her eyes as she took down robot after robot, spraying the streets of Novi Grad with vibranium, there had been a whisper in her mind that whispered, maybe.
But those childish feelings had quietened down in the months after Novi Grad, after the Maximoff’s had joined the Avengers. There were still a few occasions where she found herself looking at Wanda and wondering, if she were to act on these feelinsgs, would the other woman reciprocate them?
Still, they were only fleeting thoughts and feelings and Natasha knew that, with time, they would soon disappear.
With a sigh, Natasha climbed into Wanda’s bed (and hell, if that wasn’t weird to think about) and closed her eyes.
The next morning, Natasha regretfully awoke in Wanda’s bed. She wasn’t back in her own body nor was she any closer to solving the mystery of getting back to her own self.
A frustrated groan left her then she winced as her throat burned like an inferno. Note to self, she thought, try not to talk. Shouldn’t be hard considering she was Wanda now and the woman was mute.
Unless, of course, Pietro spoke to her. It seemed Wanda’s muteness didn’t extend to him as he hadn’t seemed surprised at all when she’d first regained consciousness yesterday.
Natasha rose from the bed and stretched, revelling in the feeling of her joints loosening up. Perhaps Wanda needed more training, she thought. Maybe she could take the woman with her on her morning run.
Sam and Steve were too talkative anyway, especially for so early in the morning. It would be good to have a running partner who didn’t talk her ears off at six am before she’d even had her coffee.
As she went through Wanda’s drawers again and chose some clothes she thought Wanda would wear, her eyes fell on the en suite. She gulped. Technically, she didn’t need to shower. She didn’t plan on remaining in Wanda’s body long enough to need to shower, but she still needed the toilet and she definitely needed to freshen up.
Damn it, she cursed to herself.
An hour later, Natasha trudged out of Wanda’s bedroom. She did not want to think at all about what she’d just had to do. All she wanted to do was find the Maximoff’s and get everything fixed. ASAP.
It didn’t take long to find Pietro chilling in the communal area with Vision, Sam, and Steve. There was no sign of herself (read: Wanda) among them which was only slightly frustrating, but that couldn’t be helped for now.
When she spotted the team eating waffles, bacon and eggs, her stomach growled. She rolled her eyes and shuffled over to join them in the kitchenette, quickly grabbing a plate and adding food to it.
“Morning, Wanda,” Steve greeted her.
It took a second for Natasha to register the greeting aimed at her, but once she did, she looked up and smiled at him.
“Sleep well?” Sam asked.
Natasha nodded at him. It was true. To her surprise, she’d had the best night’s sleep in a long time. Whether she’d dreamt or not, she couldn’t remember but it didn’t matter. She’d had almost nine hours of uninterrupted sleep, and that was fine by her.
“Great,” Sam said.
There was something on his expression that suggested there was more to his question than she knew, but there was no chance to push further because then Steve spoke beside her.
“Hey, so things have been pretty quiet the past week and we were thinking of heading out. You know, grab a coffee or something?” He said. “Just spend some time together. No training. Call it team bonding, if you will. What do you say?”
“Sounds good to me,” Pietro agreed, “Wanda?”
Natasha nodded again. Her jaw ached from how tightly she was clenching it. She desperately wanted to say something, no matter what it was, but without risking compromising her situation, she had no choice but to remain silent.
”Awesome. We just need to ask Natasha then. I’m sure she’ll come, right?” Sam asked.
“Of course she will,” Steve said.
Yes, she will, Natasha thought.
“We can go and ask her,” Pietro offered, rising from his seat. “Right, sestra?”
Natasha shrugged, giving off the impression that she didn’t mind.
“Are you sure?” Steve asked.
“Of course,” Pietro said, “besides, it will be quicker this way. You’re too slow.”
Sam snickered around a mouthful of food.
“Hey, watch it,” Steve pointed jokingly at Pietro.
The latter rose his hands in surrender as he backed up.
“Sorry, old man,” he said with a smirk. “Come on, Wanda. Let’s go and find Natasha.”
The duo remained in silence as they left the communal area and headed through the compound back towards the women’s bedrooms.
They waited until they got far enough away before Pietro spoke.
“I was looking all night after I went to bed, but I could not find anything,” he said, defeated.
Natasha shrugged. Whatever. They still had time. After going for coffee with the others, they could research some more. And, if it came down to it, Natasha would take apart the stupid box that had done this to her.
“Can I ask you something?” Natasha changed the subject and looked at Pietro as they walked. Her throat protested the words, but she pushed passed it.
“About me or Wanda?” He asked warily.
“Wanda, I guess,” Natasha said, “or both.”
“... Sure,” Pietro nodded.
“When I regained consciousness yesterday, you didn’t seem surprised when I spoke even though you thought I was Wanda,” Natasha pointed out.
“Yes,” Pietro nodded.
“So... Wanda talks to you?” Natasha asked though she now had her answer.
“Yes, she does,” Pietro confirmed. “Not all of the time; only really when she feels like it. She is quiet, even with me, but sometimes she talks to me. I suppose she has always been quiet, even before she chose to be mute.”
“She’s alway been quiet?” Natasha further questioned, curious now. “Even when you were kids? Before... everything?”
Pietro nodded, casting a look behind him as his face fell. When he faced ahead again, he had a frown on his face, brows furrowed and lips downturned.
“Our father... He was not a good man,” Pietro admitted quietly. “He would hit us a lot. If we did something wrong or said the wrong thing. Even when we were not doing anything and he’d just had too much to drink.”
He fell silent for a moment and before Natasha could say something (like apologise that he and Wanda had faced that abuse), he continued.
“Wanda began to become closed off. More and more quiet; afraid if she said or did something, papa would hurt her,” Pietro went on. “We did not know at the time that we weren’t doing anything wrong. Papa was just a drunk. Our mama tried her best, tried to draw Wanda back out of her shell by taking us out on trips into the city, but, you know, Sokovia has never been a good country for site seeing.”
“I’m sorry,” Natasha said sincerely.
She’d known, of course, that the twins had volunteered to be experiments of HYDRA and anyone with a brain would know what that entailed. They would have had it rough during that period, however long they were with HYDRA.
But she hadn’t known anything about their life pre-HYDRA and pre-missile. She’d thought they’d had a good life, or as good as it could get during a war and with missiles dropping left, right, and centre.
Clearly, she’d been wrong.
“When the bomb dropped on our house and when the men pulled us out of the rubble two days later, she stopped talking completely,” Pietro continued. “I was worried. I tried everything to get her to talk again, but she refused. I didn’t know whether she missed papa, but she cried every night for two months, holding mama and papa’s wedding rings.”
His words caused Natasha’s heart to clench and a painful lump to rise in her throat. A sensation of longing overwhelmed her suddenly though she had no idea where it had come from or who it was for.
A thought struck her as she swallowed the lump in her throat.
“She has pictures of him in her room. On the corkboard,” she told Pietro.
“I know,” Pietro sighed, “I have seen them... It was her idea to join HYDRA. We did not know they were HYDRA at the time, but she still agreed to Strucker’s terms. I did not want to leave her alone so I joined too.”
“You thought they were SHIELD, right? What did they promise you?”
“They promised us a way to kill Tony Stark and avenge our parents’ deaths,” Pietro revealed. “That was one of the first times I heard Wanda talk since the bomb all those years ago. She agreed to their terms because she wanted to avenge our parents’ deaths. Not just mama. Papa too.”
Natasha mulled over that for a moment.
“I’m sorry,” she said again.
For what, she didn’t know this time. Perhaps the fact that they’d had a shitty life from start or that they’d felt pressured into joining HYDRA just to gain some semblance of closure after their parents’ deaths.
But clearly they hadn’t gotten it because, just yesterday, she’d found them snooping through Tony’s lab.
That was something to come back to, she decided.
Pietro shrugged.
“Ah, it doesn’t matter,” he said with pursed lips. “We are not with them now. We are with you guys, the Avengers. Doing good. Making up for everything we did with HYDRA.”
Natasha rose a brow then nodded, deciding she didn’t want to get into that at the moment. Perhaps she’d ask Wanda later instead.
“Come on, let’s get Wanda,” Pietro said.
With a nod, Natasha followed after him.
Going out for coffee with the others was great. The weather was nice, not many people stopped them (most of them probably thought they were on a mission, to be honest), and the coffee shop Sam stopped them at was pretty quiet.
However, it seemed Steve had also invited Tony along. Rhodey, too, but Natasha had no problem with that.
It was Tony that bothered her considering her current predicament. It seemed Wanda felt the same too as she wouldn’t stop glaring at the man.
And God if Natasha herself didn’t feel like punching him straight in his smirking, cheshire face. Her fist clenched, other hand gripping her coffee cup with more force than necessary. It was a miracle the mug hadn’t shattered already.
A tap on her shoulder brought her attention to Wanda who nodded her head towards the ladies bathroom.
Natasha sighed and set her drink down to follow Wanda.
When they entered the bathroom, Wanda checked all of the stalls to make sure there was no one there then locked the door. Natasha rose an eyebrow.
Then Wanda came to stand in front of her and took one of her hands in her own. Natasha’s heart skipped a beat and she almost collapsed right there before gathering her bearings and wondering what the hell was wrong with her.
It felt strange to stare back into her own eyes, back at her own body and face, and not be looking in a mirror. It felt like an Outer Body Experience and, in a way, she supposed it was.
“You must calm,” Wanda said.
Natasha frowned before the realisation that she’d just spoken struck her and her eyes widened. Her surprise lasted for a second then she schooled it.
“I am calm,” she replied.
Wanda let go of her hand and took her by the shoulders, turning her to face the mirrors behind her.
“Your eyes are red.”
To Natasha’s surprise, her eyes really were red. It was weird as hell, especially because she wasn’t even in her own body and she could see it standing over her shoulder.
But the glowing eyes was also a more of a pressing issue and she blinked a few times to try and get rid of them, but they stubbornly remained.
Eventually, she huffed and moved away from Wanda and the mirror.
“I can’t help it,” she grit out. “It was Tony’s stupid box thing that did this to us. I just want to beat the living shit out of him.”
“You could do that,” Wanda said, and Natasha turned to see her smirking, “but then they would know. We would never stop hearing about it.”
Damn it.
“You’re right,” Natasha admitted. “But what do we do? Because we’re not getting any closer to figuring out how to change back.”
“We will figure it out,” Wanda said. “Tony Stark will never know. Your eyes are back to normal now, too.”
Natasha sighed and looked into the mirror, relieved to see her eyes (Wanda’s eyes) back to their blue colour. She was renewed with hope at Wanda’s words, too. They would fix things themselves. No one ever needed to know.
But... maybe they could ask Clint to help them? It wouldn’t hurt to have one extra mind poring over books and the internet with them. Plus, he wouldn’t tell anyone.
With a sigh, Natasha looked back over to Wanda and almost a did a double take at the expression on her face (her own face). It was distinctly uncomfortable.
“What’s wrong?” She asked.
Wanda awkwardly pointed at the stalls and Natasha almost facepalmed.
“... I have not gone today. I did not want to... you know.”
“Christ.”
After Natasha had convinced Wanda that it was okay to use the toilet, they returned to the table with the other Avengers who joked about how long they had been in there. Though nothing had happened, Natasha couldn’t help but the heat rising to her cheeks anyway. And, looking over at Wanda, she could see her doing the same.
Whatever that meant, Natasha didn’t know, but she almost wanted to find out.
Taking her phone out under the table, she opened her messages and sent one to Clint.
Need your help. Avengers Compound. Something weird has happened.
After a few more messages and more convincing, Natasha managed to get Clint to come back to the Compound and help them.
“You told grandpa?” Pietro asked upon seeing Clint there.
“Hey, I’m not that old!” Clint defended himself.
“You are retired,” Pietro shot back.
“Doesn’t mean I’m old,” Clint grumbled. “Anyway, Nat hasn’t told me much yet. I don’t even know why I’m here.”
“Good, then there is time to go back home. Tell Nathaniel I said ‘hello’.”
“Just Nathaniel?”
“He’s my favourite,” Pietro said and crossed his arms.
“Only because he’s named after you,” Clint crossed his own arms.
“Tsk. Okay, fine, and the other two,” Pietro relented.
Then suddenly, he and Clint were at the door. Pietro opened it and held a hand out with a raised eyebrow.
“Nice try, but I’m not leaving,” Clint said with a smirk.
Pietro stared him down.
“Look, whatever is going on here, I won’t tell anyone,” he looked at Natasha (or who he thought was Natasha), “and have I ever broken my promises?”
Wanda shrugged, sitting on Natasha’s bed.
“Come on, I just want to help,” Clint sighed, “tell my why I’m here?”
Natasha took a deep breath and, ignoring Pietro’s look, began to explain.
“Wanda and I swapped bodies,” she said, much to Clint’s surprise. “There was a box in Tony’s lab that Wanda and I both held. It exploded or something and knocked us out. When we woke up, we were in each other’s bodies.”
For a moment, there was silence. No one spoke as Clint stared at Natasha in Wanda’s body, then he took in a deep breath and ran a hand through his hair.
“Shit,” he breathed.
“Yeah,” Natasha agreed.
“Have I ever mentioned you guys swear a lot?” Pietro interrupted.
“And you don’t?” Natasha retorted.
Pietro made an agreeable face.
“No, hang on,” Clint said, “you two swapped bodies? Why the hell does Tony even have a body swapping - box?”
“Who knows? All I know is that me and Wanda are in each other’s bodies and no one can know until we change back,” Natasha said. “Do you think you can help us?”
“Why me? Why didn’t you tell, I don’t know, Bruce?” Clint asked. “He’s better at this stuff than I am.”
“Bruce hasn’t been seen since Novi Grad,” Natasha sighed, “Besides, even if he were here, he probably wouldn’t be able to keep it a secret.”
“You’ve got a point,” Clint agreed. He looked at Wanda who was still on the bed. “You know, I thought you were a little quiet. This makes sense now.”
Wanda nodded with a small smile. There was a woosh as Pietro zoomed over to sit beside her.
“Right, so how are we doing this? What do we have so far?” Clint clapped his hands together.
“Glad you asked,” Natasha smiled, “we have nothing.”
“Excuse me?”
Clearly, Clint was no more better at the whole body swap thing than they were. He seemed to be able to find more articles on the internet about it than they were, but that was about as far as it went.
For the second day in a row, they went through as many books and articles as they could find but found nothing at all. There was no mention of little metal boxes that could swap your bodies nor of any way to reverse a body swap.
It all looked like a dead end, no matter what they read or did, and by the end of the night, Natasha was beginning to lose hope.
She was almost ready to say screw it and ask Tony to reverse whatever his box had done.
It would take a great deal of preparation to swallow her pride and do it, but she was nearing that point.
Wanda seemed to be feeling the same judging by the way she was pressing the keys on her laptop a little too roughly and the crease that had appeared between her brows.
Eventually, when it began to near twelve am, Natasha decided to call it a night. Her eyes were starting to water from staring at a screen all evening and she didn’t think her mind could take anymore voodoo articles on the internet.
Pietro was the first to depart from her room, taking his tablet with him to continue researching. Clint soon followed him with the assurance that he would keep looking.
He bade her and Wanda a goodnight before leaving.
Natasha sighed, running a hand through her hair before remembering it wasn’t hers and stopping. Brunette hair fell into her eyes before she brushed it away quickly.
She turned then to see Wanda still on the bed. She’d moved from sitting on the edge to resting against the headboard, both legs extended and her laptop resting on her thighs. Well, Natasha’s but who cared?
Wanda wasn’t looking at the laptop anymore, though. She was watching Natasha.
A moment passed as they looked at each other before Wanda patted the space beside her and Natasha took the invitation. She crossed over to the bed and settled down beside Wanda.
“How are you doing?” She asked her as Wanda went back to her laptop.
She made a face and shrugged as she scrolled.
“Yeah, me too,” Natasha agreed, letting out a small breath. “It must be weird being in my body. I know it’s weird being in yours.”
Wanda nodded.
“I’m just ready for this all to be over so we can go back to normal,” Natasha continued.
Then Wanda tapped her arm to draw her attention. Natasha looked over at her and followed her finger to the screen. It was a website she was sure she could remember seeing yesterday.
She read it a little, eyes skimming over the text to get the gist of it.
She smirked.
A solution to the body swap in the form of a kiss. Childish, she thought with amusement.
“Yeah, I think I read that yesterday,” she told Wanda.
Wanda hit her arm slightly more forcefully then looked at the screen pointedly.
“You want to try it?” Natasha chuckled, but her heart skipped a beat.
Somehow she was nervous, an occurrence that didn’t often appear. Not in those kinds of situations anyway.
Wanda shrugged noncommittally.
It was strange, seeing all of these expressions on her own face that she didn’t usually make.
But it was so like Wanda.
Despite not saying a word, she always managed to get her point across whether it be by her expression or via her actions. Either way, she was a force to be reckoned with most days.
She took no shit while still remaining one of the most compassionate women Natasha had ever known.
“Okay,” Natasha agreed quietly, “We can give it a go. I doubt it’ll work, but why not?”
The duo sat in silence for a few seconds, staring at each other. Natasha’s heart was pounding in her chest and she was filled to the brim with anxiety.
She couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt like this aside from the times she would wake from a Red Room nightmare. That was a different kind of anxiety, though.
“Do you want to or...” She asked Wanda.
Wanda moved the laptop off of her thighs and put it aside. Then she shifted so she was on her knees facing Natasha and God if that wasn’t a weird thing to see.
Moving, Natasha copied her move so she was facing Wanda properly too.
Surprisingly, it was Wanda who leant in first. Natasha followed her, inching forward and lifting a hand to place on her cheek. It felt weird seeing herself in front of her so she closed her eyes and kept going.
When their lips met, Natasha immediately melted into it, placing her other hand on Wanda’s hip. It took everything in her not to lay her down and strip her naked. The only thing that stopped her was the thought of seeing herself there instead of Wanda.
Eventually, before she could get carried away, she pulled back and opened her eyes. There was a light throbbing between her legs and she knew she would be blushing of she could see herself.
The thought that it wasn’t her own body feeling like this only made it worse.
However, she was quickly dismayed to find herself still staring at her own face rather than Wanda’s.
Wanda opened her eyes a second later and frowned at the sight too. She ran a hand through her hair.
“Well,” Natasha breathed, a distraction from the aching between her legs, “we may not be back in our own bodies, but I can’t say I didn’t enjoy that.”
Wanda smiled lightly and nodded.
She picked up the laptop and stood from the bed.
“You’re going?” Natasha guessed, slightly dejected.
Wanda nodded and shrugged.
“I guess it is pretty late,” Natasha agreed, “so I’ll see you tomorrow at breakfast?”
She then watched Wanda leave with a nod and a smile.
Once Wanda was gone, she placed her head in her hands and sighed. What was that? Was she suddenly catching feelings for the woman?
It took her an hour to fall asleep and if only occurred to her as she was on the verge of unconsciousness that the reason it was so hard to sleep that night was because she was in Wanda’s body sleeping in her own bed.
Damn it.
When Natasha woke, she felt completely disoriented. Sleep addled and heavy. She must have gotten at least eight/ nine hours sleep and she still felt exhausted.
She rubbed her eyes and groaned, not ready for another day pretending to be Wanda. How could she get by another day without saying a word to anyone other than the twins? How long would the façade last among the others?
Surely they would catch on soon.
With a grunt, she got up from her bed and shuffled blindly towards her en suite. She refused to open her eyes and let the sunlight in for as long as possible.
When she got to the bathroom, she closed the door behind her and leant against it with a sigh. The bathroom was just as bright as her bedroom, if not even brighter but she knew that she couldn’t keep her eyes closed for any longer.
Finally, she opened her eyes and blinked against the onslaught of artificial light. Too bright.
Once her eyes had adjusted, she moved over to the sink and tiredly stared at herself in the mirror for a minute.
Maybe she could dye her hair blonde. That would be a good colour, she thought.
Then realisation hit her like a truck.
Her face.
She brought a hand up to touch the glass, eyes widening and mouth tugging up into a grin.
She was back.
Back in her own body. Finally herself again.
“Holy shit, it worked,” she muttered.
Her mind veered back to the night before where she and Wanda had kissed in the hopes of swapping back but nothing had happened.
But now she was back in her own body.
And she had to see Wanda.
Running her fingers through her hair quickly, she then turned on the faucet and splashed cold water on her face.
It served as an effective method of waking her up properly.
Unfortunately, she had to forgo brushing her teeth because, as she belatedly realised, she wasn’t in her own bedroom or en suite. Swapping bodies meant being in the wrong rooms like they had been last night.
Once she was done and had left the bathroom, she headed straight for the door.
As she reached the it and pulled it open, she had to stop immediately lest she collide with the person on the other side of it.
She quickly came face to face with Wanda, hand raised and ready to knock the door that was no longer there.
“Wanda,” she smiled, beyond relieved to see her rather than herself standing in front of her.
Wanda smiled and took her hand then pulled her in for a tight hug. It took Natasha off-guard for a second, having not expected it but she quickly reciprocated.
When they pulled away, Wanda sighed and then moved forward again, this time though Natasha knew she was aiming for a kiss.
Natasha closed the distance between them, pressing her lips to Wanda’s for a second time in the past day. They stood in the doorway to Wanda’s room, out in the open for anyone who passed by to see, but Natasha didn’t care.
As she pulled back, she smiled.
“If anyone asks, we bonded over our shared love for sitcoms, agreed?” Natasha asked.
Wanda nodded and leant in for a second kiss.
It took the last of Natasha’s willpower to lead them back into Wanda’s room and shut the door behind them.