Work Text:
-Reader Info: Y/n does NOT loose or rip her clothes when she shape shifts. She can speak telepathically when an animal, not a Wanda situation where she can read minds but when y/n speaks as an animal you can hear her in your head. Y/n can do this so either a selected person or group can hear or everyone within hearing distance. Y/n cannot read minds so the ppl talking to her have to speak out loud for her to hear.
Reader Backstory: y/n was originally homeless with her mother but a Hydra agent or head comes across them and finds out the little girl is a perfect subject for a new Hydra experiment, project ECHO (Enhanced Contingency for Hostile Operations). In other words she was supposed to be a fail safe in case the winter soldier project didn’t work. But the experiments gave her shapeshifting powers which allowed her to escape. She escaped bc Hydra wanted to give her powers b4 they turned her loyal to them but that ultimately was their downfall
-Scene Idea 1: the avengers raid a Hydra base to find it was an entire base trying to create project ECHO. Most of the base was abandoned but not all. After taking out the guards and Hydra agents they get inside to find the base to be some sort of lab. Tony or someone downloads the files on a hard drive and then the avengers destroy the base. They return home and look over the files. They find Project ECHO, Enhanced Contingency for Hostile Operations. The avengers read it and see that this person was supposed to be a backup for the winter soldier, some freak thinking they have another winter soldier on the loose until someone speaks up, probably Nat bc she didn’t loose her cool, and says reading it how the enhanced escaped after successfully gaining shapeshifting powers. But Hydra didn’t get the chance to make her loyal. They find a different file stating her name, DoB, and even a scrappy picture of the woman’s face. Within the files and downloads there were videos, which someone clicked on only to find out they were just videos of the experimentation process. They turned it off in disgust, and decide they need to find this shapeshifter b4 Hydra does.
-Scene Idea 2: Natasha returns to her private apartment exhausted and flips onto the couch. Liho appears next to her with her food bowl in her mouth. Nat groans and complains about Liho being needy but ultimately gets up and gets her food. Liho, not happy about eating hard food, scratches at the fridge door. Nat’s like seriously? And gets Liho some leftover chicken. Liho eats that happily and Nat goes to take a shower and get ready for the night while thinking about how she came across Liho. Once done Nat hops out dries off and puts on some underwear and one of Clint’s shirts that’s too large for her. Nat makes her way to her bed to find out Liho is in the middle of the bed stretched out sleeping. Nat falls asleep curled around her cat.
Scene Idea 3 Part 1: Natasha is off on a mission so Clint is left taking care of Liho but Liho pretty much hates everyone except for Nat so hisses and bites Clint while he tries to take care of her. Eventually Natasha returns home banged up and bleeding in the middle of the night. Liho runs to the bathroom and drags the med kit to Natasha but she passed out on the floor from either blood loss or exhaustion or both. Liho noticing the severity of the situation meows to wake Nat up but she doesn’t so Liho grabs Nat’s phone and tries dialing Clint and meows for Clint’s help. But Clint being stupid Clint thinks nothing is wrong and hangs up. At this point Liho can either turn into a human and help Natasha and risk being found out or run across town and get Clint from the tower but risk losing Natasha. Liho then finally gets her paws moving and dials Clint once more, Clint starts to get upset so Liho moves the phone next to Natasha’s face so he can hear her ragged breathing, Clint realizes something might seriously be wrong and rushes to head over to Nat’s apartment. But Liho knows it will take at least 10 minutes of time Natasha doesnt have so after some thought she turns into a human for the first time in 2 years. After getting her bearings she uses her medical knowledge from Hydra and patches Nat up the best she can b4 she hears Clint at the door. Liho/y/n quickly turns back into a cat. Clint rushes in and sees Nat on the floor halfway patched up and Liho with bloody paws and quickly moves. Clint finishes patching Nat up, at least enough so he can transport her into the tower. In his rush he leaves Liho behind.
Scene Idea 3 Part 2: Nat wakes up in a hospital bed and Clint berates Natasha for being injured and not going to the tower first. In his rant he reveals that if Natasha didnt patch herself up and call him she cldve bled out. Nat is all confused and is like I didn’t patch myself up at all nor call you but keeps those thoughts to herself. Natasha then explains the mission and how Hydra got involved. Eventually Nat is released from the med bay despite Clint’s annoyance of her needing rest. Nat is like I’ll rest when I get back to my apartment so Clint drives her home knowing that Nat probably just wanted to check up on her cat despite Nat denying it. Natasha enters her apartment to find it a mess with dried blood and an open strewn about med kit all over the place. Liho comes bounding up to Natasha, the blood on her paws now dried but still there. Nat cradles the cat and looks confusedly at the med kit and disregarded phone on the floor. Ultimately deciding that she probably did call Clint and patch herself up and that she probably just forgot about bc of the blood loss, Nat begins picking up and cleaning the mess. At the end everything is cleaned up except for Liho who is still covered in blood. Nat then picks up Liho and takes her over to the sink to wash the blood off of her. At first Nat is surprised that Liho didnt put up more of a fight bc she thought cats hated water, but then decided that Liho is a special case. Ends with Natasha sleepily carrying Liho to her bedroom and falls asleep with her arms around her cat.
Scene Idea 4 Part 1: Nat is at the tower when Liho thinks abt how she turned into a human. Thinking it felt nice to be a human again Liho or y/n leaves the apartment and turns herself into a human in the ally. She then wonders the streets. Tony gets an alert from Jarvis that y/n is currently in NYC manhattan and tells the team. The team then head out and chase down y/n. Y/n notices that she’s being followed and turns a corner and shifts into a large dog and starts to make a break for it. Nat cuts her off but y/n doesnt want to hurt Nat so makes no move against her, however when Clint comes and shoots an arrow, that didn’t directly hit y/n but instead just grazed her shoulder, y/n turns hostile. Y/n then turns into a bird and goes to attack Clint or whoever when Nat then attacks. Nat shoots her with a tranquilizer and hits. Y/n screeches and starts falling towards the ground. And the last second she turns into a mouse and falls into the sewer and lands in the water. Switch to Nat getting mad at Clint saying she had the situation under control and now that y/n was in the sewer they cldnt get to her so headed back to the tower. They regrouped and talked strategies. Nat knew that y/n made no move to attack her but was hostile with the others so decided to keep it a secret that there was a tracking device within the tranq dart. Nat then went to the gym within the tower to let off some steam.
Scene Idea 4 Part 2: After a few hours had passed Nat guessed the tranq should’ve worn off by now so checked the location. To her surprise it was at her apartment so headed there. She entered with her gun raised but lowered it once she saw Liho on the back of the couch licking herself. Nat decided that if there was anyone here Liho wldnt be so relaxed. She went to pick Liho up, Nat’s gun now holstered, when she noticed Liho licking at a wound. Inspecting it further it was the same wound Clint gave that shapeshifter with his arrow. Nat frowned and started fearing the worst, she then went to touch Liho’s side where Nat hit the y/n with the tranq and tracking device, and sure enough there was a bump that wasn’t there b4. Nat freezed, suddenly everything made sense, why y/n didnt attack her when she had the chance, why the tracking device led to this apartment, why Clint came to help her when Nat knew she didn’t call him. As to why the hell this imposter/shapeshifter helped Nat instead of leaving her to die she hadn’t a clue. But right now that didn’t matter.
Scene Idea 4 Part 3: Liho- y/n noticed Nat freezing and meowed at her wondering what was wrong. Nat took a step back and when Liho jumped onto the ground, Nat pulled her gun and pointed it at Liho- y/n. Now it was y/ns turn to freeze, she mewled patheticly, hoping that Natasha wld forget so they cld go back to what they once had. Nat then speaks hesitantly and is like are you y/n y/l/n? And y/n nods, still a cat, actually nods. Y/n then speaks to Natasha telepathically and is like please don’t shoot me, I mean no harm. Nat freaks for a solid second b4 calming down quickly realizing the voice in her head was her cat- the shapeshifter, y/n speaking in her head. Nat’s like why are you here?, gun still raised. Y/n’s like you helped me and gave me a home, speaking like the answer was obvious. Natasha is now thinking that she is compromised bc this person lived with her for over 2 years and knew all her secrets. Y/n then speaks up and is like please don’t hurt me bc she sees that Nat is tense and the gun hadn’t left her. Nat sighs and lowers the gun realizing that if y/n wanted to hurt her she wldve done it already. Natasha then says something like can you turn into a human? Bc Nat’s slightly freaked out abt the voice in her head and that she can’t read a cats body language like she can a person, but she’d never tell or admit that to anyone. Y/n nods slowly and shifts into her natural human form. Natasha watches this happen and looks over y/n. Nat takes into account the scars littering her body, the dark brown hair which looks nearly black, the dark green camo pants and the gray tank top she’s wearing. Her injury from Clint now bleeding again. Natasha was about to speak again when her phone started ringing, Nat looks over to y/n and sees her looking positively terrified, terrified of being found out, terrified that she would have to do something she’d regret in order to escape. Nat notices all of this and slowly picks up the phone and brings it to her ear, not wanting to cause the woman in front of her to run or worse attack. Clint on the phone starts talking immediately asking where she’d gone, Nat responds saying she went back to her apartment and then asks why. Clint replies saying Bucky and Wanda returned from their mission and that it’s movie night and asks if Nat was gonna join them. Natasha then looked over at y/n and said no, she has stuff to deal with. Clint asks what stuff but only receives silence so is like alright, cya tmrw and hangs up. Y/n then asks, why didn’t you tell them about me? Genuinely confused. Nat eases up and is like bc they can wait, plus that shld be patched up. Y/n follows Nat’s gaze to her shoulder wound.
Scene Idea 4 Part 4: Natasha sits y/n down and begins patching her up, deciding the wound wasn’t deep enough to need stitches. During this Nat notices how y/n is quiet and still looks terrified. So Nat speaks and is like you don’t have to be scared yknow? We won’t hurt you and we won’t lock you up either. Y/n’s unsure of this but doesn’t say anything. Nat speaks again saying something like I gotta take the tracker out, can you take your shirt off and lay back. Y/n’s hesitant at first, not wanting Nat to see her scars but ultimately gives in and slowly peels off her tank top. Nat’s breath gets stuck in her throat. The amount of scars that littered this woman’s body was insane. As y/n laid down on the coffee table, Nat cldnt help it as her fingers started tracing y/n’s scars. Nat traced a long scar that went from the side of her belly button horizontally across her stomach. Once Nat started touching y/n’s scars, she realized what she was doing and pulled her hand away with a quick sorry. Y/n replied with a small and quiet it’s okay. Natasha then found the tracking device imbedded into y/n’s side and said this is going to hurt. Y/n let out a small smile and said something like iv had worse, just get it over with. Nat took that as permission and began cutting out the device as y/n hissed in pain. Nat said sorry once more as she pulled the tracking device out and began stitching up y/n.
Scene Idea 4 Part 5: Once she was done patching her up, y/n asked, what’s gonna happen now? Nat looked out the window and noticed it was getting dark and late so she replied, for now we sleep and in the morning we head to the tower and figure the rest out on the way. Y/n replied with okay and watched as Nat disappeared behind her bedroom door. Y/n knowing she wasn’t gonna get any sleep without Natasha by her side she turned back into the black cat formally known as Liho and laid down on the couch. Nearly every night for the past 2 years y/n slept by Natasha’s side, the only exception was when she was on a mission that went overnight which didn’t happen often. Bc of this Liho-y/n was used to sleeping next to or with Nat, and when she cldnt y/n didnt get much sleep. And now that Nat knew the truth, the fact is that y/n probably wld never get to sleep with Natasha again. So y/n curled up on the couch as Liho and took in the last time she wld probably ever be in this apartment again.
Scene Idea 5 Part 1: (Nat lent y/n some of her own clothes, and when morning came, y/n switched back into human form b4 Nat came out of her room so she doesn’t know that y/n spent the night as Liho) Natasha knew that y/n didnt get any sleep the night b4, Nat knew that bc she didn’t get any sleep either. Too bothered by the fact that she’s been hosting a stranger in her apartment for 2 years now. But that’s just the excuse she used to convince herself was the truth that she cldnt get any sleep. The real reason being the same as y/n’s, Nat was too used to having someone sleep beside her, someone to ground her from her nightmares, someone to watch over her while she slept. Even if that someone was a cat, it was something at least. Now, on the drive back to the tower Nat knew the team was gonna have questions, questions she didn’t know the answer to and questions she didn’t want to answer. Nat pulled into the garage and told Jarvis to tell the team to gather into the conference room as she found y/n. Nat just so conveniently left out the part that y/n was with her as well. So Nat and y/n headed up the tower and exited the elevator to find everyone already sitting down. The room went into chaos noticing that y/n was Nat. Some wondered how Nat found her, others complained abt her not being in a cell, and a few of them just said nothing and waited for answers. Natasha quiets them down and explains she put a tracking device on y/n, to which she then followed her and asked her to come in and y/n agreed as long as she wldnt be locked up. Y/n is confused as to why Nat is twisting the story but then realizes that she probably wants to keep y/n being Liho a secret, to which y/n is completely fine with that. Tony or someone gets mad that Nat put a tracking device on y/n without telling the rest of the team. Nat quickly shuts that down as she explains how everyone was quick to attack without even asking a single question. That shut them up and they then discuss what’s gonna happen with y/n. Y/n shuffles back and forth on her feet as the team talk like she’s not even there. Wanda looks directly at y/n knowingly. After some discussion they decide to let y/n live in the tower and offer her protection from Hydra.
Scene Idea 5 Part 2: Natasha shows y/n to her room which is just so conveniently place right next door to Natasha’s.