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Autumn leaves crunch underneath boot heels. The cool wind blows wisps of red hair around in a frenzy. Streetlamps are the only thing illuminating the ground as the pair approach their house.
Its the first time they’ve been home in days. Both Wanda and Nat had been sent off on a week long mission. They were supposed to have returned home yesterday, but a delay in the mission and a repair on the quinjet pushed the return back another day and a half.
When their quinjet touched down late into the night, the pair had considered staying at the compound for the night and returning to their home outside the city in the morning. However, they missed you. Something in the back of their heads told them they needed to go home now.
This isn’t the first time they have left you alone while they were both on mission, but coming home was different this time. They could feel it as they walked up the pathway to the front door.
Wanda reaches out to stop her wife, and her brow furrows.
“What is it?”
Something is wrong. Thats what she wants to say, but instead she just shakes her head and continues on.
They’re tired, exhausted from a long mission. That’s why they miss the early signs.
Natasha slips the key into the lock, and chills run down her back. She pushes the door open quietly and steps inside.
They expect you to be asleep, tucked away upstairs amongst a mountain of pillows. It’s the only way you can sleep when they are not home.
The first thing that hits them is the temperature. It’s just as cool indoors as it is outdoors. As they make their way into the house, everything looks as it should. From down the hall, they can see the kitchen light is still on.
“Milaya?” they call out quietly so as not to spook you.
“Lyubov?” but they get no response.
The two follow the light into the open floor plan kitchen/living room, and that’s when they see it.
The house is wrecked for lack of a better term. Broken dishes are scattered across the counters and floors. A kitchen chair is turned on its side. The sliding glass door to the backyard is shattered, glass littered everywhere. Drawers are open. The tv and all electronics really are gone.
Most importantly, you are nowhere to be found.
“Y/N?!”
They call out for you in unison and still receive no answer.
Wanda runs for the stairs, following the sound of your thoughts that get louder with every step, “Y/n?!” She takes the steps two at a time; Natasha is right behind her.
“Y/N?!” they cry out. Running into your shared bedroom, they still don’t see you. “Y/n?” The room looks just like the downstairs. Drawers are pulled open; objects are thrown about. The closet door hangs slightly open.
Wanda runs to it, “Y/n?” Throwing the door open, she reveals you curled up on the ground. Your hands and feet are tied together. A scarf is tied around your head, gagging your mouth.
When the door opens, you expect to see the people who did this to you, back to finish the job. You look up wildly and scramble away from the door the best you can. Relief washes over you when you see your wives standing in the door way.
Tears stream down your face, and you reach for them with your wrists bound together.
Wanda kneels before you, “detka! Are you ok? What happened?” She pulls the scarf away from your face, “what happened? Who did this?” Sobs erupt from your hoarse throat. She moves on to untie your hands while Natasha cuts through the binding around your ankles.
Once you’re free, you crawl into Wanda’s lap and cling to her tightly.
“You’re safe y/n; we’re here,” she wraps her arms around you, tightly cradling your body to hers. “You’re safe now,” she rocks you back and forth.
“We’ve got you,” Natasha runs her hands up and down your back. Making eye contact with Wanda, she whispers, “We need to sweep the house, make sure there’s no one left-”
“Go,” Wanda nods, “I’ve got her.”
Natasha presses a kiss to the back of your head. The last thing she wants to do is leave you right now, but Wanda is here. She has to make sure that you’re alone in the house. She also needs to call Steve. They need the team on this to find whoever is responsible. Reluctantly, she stands and exits the closet.
Wanda watches her wife pull her gun before leaving the closet, closing the door behind her. She then turns her attention back to the wife in her lap. She pulls away to take a look at you. She feels anger build in her as her eyes take in every bruise and cut that riddles your body.
“Milaya, can you look at me?” Despite her anger, she is soft as snow with you, “what happened, love?”
You shake your head as you bury yourself into Wanda’s neck.
Wanda tries to blink away tears; it hurts her to see you in pain. She feels helpless. She needs to know some details in order to help her wife. With the state you are in, communication is near impossible. Wanda has another option, but she can’t bring herself to make you live it again.
“Can you tell me, please?”
Sobs still rack your body as Wanda rocks back and forth. She knows she has no other choice.
Wanda presses a long kiss to your temple, “may I look?” She kisses your temple again to help you understand her question, "in here?"
There’s a pause. Wanda regrets she even asked, but somewhere between your cries, you manage to nod your head. Granting Wanda permission.
“Ok,” Wanda holds you a bit tighter and kisses your head, “I’m sorry.” Reluctantly, she hovers her fingers over your temple. Red wisps dance between her fingers before they sink beneath your skin.
Both of you slip into your mind to find the all too painful memory.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Light peers in through the kitchen windows. The clock reads 9:30 am.
The smell of coffee fills the air. As you enter the kitchen to pour yourself another cup.
Aside from the birds singing outside, it’s quiet, near silent. It always is when Natasha and Wanda are away. They were supposed to be home yesterday, but they will be home today.
You’re lost in the warm thoughts of being together again when the sound of shattering glass makes you drop your mug.
Looking up, you see three men entering the house through the broken glass doors. They look just as shocked to see you as you are to see them. The only difference being the utter fear in your eyes.
It happens so fast.
All three of them rush you at once. You run, trying to reach the panic button disguised as a light switch, but you don’t make it.
One of them grabs your shoulder, while the other grips your shirt. Not giving up, you thrash in their hold, still trying to get to that switch, one of many spread throughout the house.
It was Natasha’s idea, but Wanda was onboard immediately. You hadn’t really felt they were necessary, but the look in their eyes changed your mind.
You’ve witnessed the nightmares. The ones that have Nat sitting up, sobbing in the middle of the night. The absolute worst ones. Her worst nightmare is not that her past has caught up to her. No, her worst nightmare is that her past has caught up to you.
Wanda insists. She’s making new enemies by the day since she joined the avengers. After losing her parents and her brother, she begs you to agree. “I can’t lose you,” she whispered, “please.”
So you agreed to settle their worries. The hidden points all throughout the house did in fact make you feel safer. If you’re ever in trouble, you know you can push one, and your wives will come save you immediately.
If only you could reach it.
You fight and fight, but the switch is just out of your reach.
You can tell these aren’t any enemies of your wives. Their fighting is weak and sloppy. They’re barely holding on to you, and there’s two of them against one of you.
Just because these aren’t trained fighters/assassins/secret agents, doesn’t mean they can’t still do considerable damage.
You’re reminded of this when one strikes you in the back of the head. You stop fighting then. You try to keep fighting for your wives, but your vision is going blurry and your body isn’t responding to you like it usually does.
After that, you’re not really aware of what’s going on around you. The men are yelling at you, asking questions, screaming at you and you’re not hearing any of it. The screams then mix with blows, a fist to the face, throwing you from wall to wall, and eventually a few kicks to the stomach.
By the time it’s all over, you are alone in the bottom of your closet. You remember there’s a safe button on the side of the shoe rack, but one attempt to shift closer to it erupts into deep pain everywhere.
Taking in the situation, you realize you’re tied up at the hands and feet. A scarf gagging your mouth. You’re completely alone, with no way to go get help or cry for help…
… and no idea when your wives will be home to find you.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Suddenly, you are back on the closet floor with Wanda’s arms around you.
The thrust back into the present is violent. More violent than Wanda is used to.
Your sobs return with a new ferocity. Gripping Wanda even tighter, you try to convince yourself that it’s over. Nat and Wanda are here. You are safe.
Wanda feels a rage she has never known. Watching the memory, Wanda knows these intruders were not a part of any organization. They were just a few greedy civilians. They beat the love of her life and left her for dead. All over a couple valuables.
“I tried,” your lilting voice draws Wanda’s attention back to what’s most important, “I tried to reach the switch.”
“Sh sh sh,” the witch pulls you closer to her careful not to pull too hard. “I know, shhhh. You did the best you could detka,” she whispers in your ear, “I’m so sorry we weren’t here moya lyubov.” Tears spill down her face at the thought of what could have been. “I’m so so sorry.”
“Please don’t go again,” you scramble as close to her as possible, “please don’t leave me.”
Wanda pulls away just enough to cup your face and look into your eyes, “I am here, and I am not going anywhere ok?”
She waits for you to nod your head.
When you do, she continues, “we are here with you. You are safe. We are gonna get you taken care of. Ok?”
There’s a knock at the door, and panic seizes you again. You cling to Wanda trying to put as much distance between you and the door as possible.
“Shhhhh,” Wanda rubs your back to calm you down, “it’s just Nat, detka.”
You peak out of Wanda’s beck to see your other wife kneeling in front of you.
“Natasha?”
“I’m here, lyubov,” the widow reaches out for you, and you crawl into her arms. She holds you so gently, you forget the brutality her hands are capable of.
Wanda mentally relays what she learned from your memory. Not the whole thing, but the important details. When Nat is fully caught up, she grips you just a bit tighter, never wanting to let you go again.
“There’s no one else in the house,” Nat says more to Wanda than to you. You are so far buried into her neck, you can’t hear anything but your cries and the beating of your heart. “I called Steve,” she continues, “he’s gathering a team. They’ll be out here shortly to investigate.”
Wanda runs her fingers through your hair and makes eye contact with Nat. “She panicked when you knocked on the door. I don’t think she can take that many people right now,” she speaks directly into Natasha’s mind.
The widow nods in understanding. “Love,” she pulls away to get your attention, “can you look at me?” She wipes the tears from your face as your breathing starts to settle again. “Do you want to stay at the compound? We’ll get out of here before they get to the house. How does that sound?”
“We can have Cho check you out and get you tucked into bed before the rest of them get back,” Wanda tucks hair behind your ear, “would that be ok?”
You nod your head, knowing you don’t have a voice.
Wanda presses a long kiss to your forehead, followed by a few more, “come love.” She stands, and you whimper at the loss of contact. “I’m right here,” she reaches down to you.
Together, they help you to your feet, “neither of us are going anywhere. I promise you that.” Natasha has an arm wrapped around your waist, “do you think you can walk?”
Nodding, you take one step just fine. The next step, however, has your ankle rolling underneath you and your body crumbling to the floor in pain.
Quickly Wanda and Natasha catch you before you hit the ground. Natasha takes you into her arms as gently as she can and carries you down to the car.
Much later at night, more like very early the next morning, they finally have you tucked away between them in their bedroom in the compound.
Natasha first carried you to the med bay. Cho bandaged your wounds, wrapped your sprained ankle, and checked you for a concussion. Once you were cleared, Natasha carried you up to their bathroom where Wanda was already drawing a bath.
Now, you are clean and warm, with your wives on either side of you watching over you protectively. Sleeping with help of medication.
Wanda lies beside you; her chest acting as your pillow. Her fingers filtered through your hair that smelled of her shampoo.
Nat lies behind you. An elbow on the pillow props her head up enough for her to look down at you. A hummed melody floats from her throat to your ears quietly to keep you asleep. She traces patterns on your back careful to avoid any tender spots. Careful kisses are placed on your shoulder.
Knowing they won’t be able to sleep, they will sit in this bed and watch you sleep for however long you need them to. Neither one willing to leave this room.
They only ever use this room if they need to crash after a late night mission. Ever since the three of you moved into the house, they would much rather come home to you. You have only slept in here after one or two of Tony’s parties when everyone was a little too drunk to make it home.
Sitting up, contemplating the night’s events, Natasha can’t stop imagining what could have happened if they had stayed at the tower instead of going home to you.
“But we didn’t,” Wanda stops Natasha’s thoughts with her own.
They lock eyes, Nat counters, “she would have been like that all night.”
“But she wasn’t,” the witch stops her again. She looks down to you and strokes your cheek. “We can’t go down that path. We're here now. She's here now, and she needs us-"
As if on cue, you begin to writhe in their arms. You break out into a cold sweat, and your breathing spikes. Your face crumples as a nightmare grips your entire body.
"Shhhh, detka," they coo, "you're safe. You're ok; it's not real."
They try to gently shake you to wake you up. However, afraid that you were going to hurt yourself, they ended up just holding you still.
"Wake her up, Wanda."
The witch nods and quickly does so. Your eyes spring open as you frantically look around the room.
"Hey look at me," Wanda cups your cheek, "it's just us, detka. You're safe. We're in the compound; no one can hurt you."
"I think they're here. Are they here?" your voice croaks in between ragged breaths.
"Shhhhh," Natasha runs her hand up and down your arm, "they're not here. The team found them. They're on their way to the raft now. They will never hurt you again."
You collapse against your wives, falling into tears again. They hold you until your sobs reduce to hiccups, wishing they could take this pain from you.
Eventually the three of your breathing syncs, and you are almost calm again.
"Hold me tighter," you whisper, "please."
Of course, they oblige, burrowing as close to you as possible.
"We love you," Wanda presses a long kiss to your forehead.
Natasha echoes into your ear, "we love you so much."
For the first time tonight, a small smile graces your face, "I love you."
"You need to sleep as best you can, lyubov."
Your entire body tenses at the thought. You can't sleep. You don't want to risk reliving the nightmare again.
"I can give you a good dream," Wanda offers. Her fingers trace patterns on your arm.
Once again, you relax back into the embrace of your wives, nodding gratefully.
With a wave of her fingers, Wanda plants a memory in your subconscious. She chooses the night Natasha proposed to you and Wanda, one of the best nights of your lives.
"Sleep, neither of us are leaving."
They both kiss your head again, whispering reassurances of their love and protection.
Your eyes slip closed, and you drift off to sleep feeling safe and oh so loved.