MCU Imagines

City of Stars (Natasha Romanoff/Reader)

"Nat! Stay with me please!" You hold the love of your life in your arms. She was bleeding out, her blood soaking your clothing. A mission had gone wrong, leaving you stranded with a mortally wounded Natasha.

She reaches her hand up to your face, stroking your cheek, "I know I never say it, but you need to hear it at least once." She inhales deeply, her breath and voice becoming weaker, "I...I lov-" Her hand falls away from your face and her eyes become unfocused.

"NO!"

You shoot up with a cry as you come back to reality. There were tears streaming down your face and your breathing was ragged. You get enough control of yourself to lean over and turn on the lamp next to you. You lean back against the headboard, trying to calm yourself down. You glance over at the other side of the bed, which was empty as it had been for the past month.

Natasha had accepted a mission to go undercover in Russia. You didn't know the specifics, as it was slightly above your clearance level. You were stuck in D.C. running simple home missions, trying your hardest not to argue with Agent Coulson. You wanted to be promoted by the end of the year so that you and Nat could both be on the same clearance level and start working together more. It would mean fewer nights of you waking up alone from a nightmare.

You reach over to your nightstand, grabbing your phone but keeping it connected to the charger. Natasha had texted you yesterday, letting you know that her mission would hopefully be done in a few days but you couldn't wait any longer. You needed to hear her voice.

Your nightmares were always worse when she wasn't sleeping next to you with one of her arms wrapped around your waist and the other wrapped around a knife. You knew you would be breaking protocol and that if Coulson or Fury ever found out, you'd probably be fired, but you didn't care. They knew you were dating, in fact, the second you started dating the Russian, you had to tell them, and yet they still sent her on no phone call missions for long periods of time. You knew that she was one of their best agents, but couldn't they at least allow her to call you once a week?

You press on your contacts app and then scroll down to find Nat's name. You click on her name and then hit the call button. You unplug your phone, which allowed you to bring it up to your ear. It was 3 AM here, which meant it was 10 AM in Moscow, hopefully, she would be awake but not working.

Luck seemed to be on your side this early winter morning because Natasha answers her phone, "(Y/N)? Why are you calling me? It's..." She does a quick calculation in her head, "It's 3 AM at home."

"I just needed to hear your voice." Your whole body relaxes at the sound of her. You could hear people in the background on her end, so you hoped that you weren't interrupting anything, "I know I shouldn't be calling you and that if Fury somehow found out I'd be fired but I really needed to hear you."

"Nightmare?"

"Yeah." Your eyes close and your slide down the headboard, stopping once your head reached the pillow, "I only needed to hear your voice, so you can get back to the mission."

You can almost hear the smile through the phone, "I was actually going to call you at a more reasonable hour and tell you this, but I suppose now works. I'm at the airport right now. My flight takes off in about half an hour. My mission ended earlier than expected, so I get to go home. I have to do my debriefing with Nick when I get back, but I should be home 6 PM your time."

You could almost cry in relief. This past month had been difficult. Your relationship had been growing more and more serious; it hadn't even been 6 months since the two of you decided to move in together. You both had yet to say the three magic words, but you didn't expect it to ever happen. Both of you knew that you loved each other and didn't need words to reassure it, "I'm glad you're coming back, Tasha. I've missed you."

"I've missed you too." A muffled announcement in Russian comes from her end, "That's my call for boarding. I'll see you soon, okay? Could you text Clint and tell him I'm coming back? He'll kill the both of us for not telling him."

"I'll tell him in the morning. I was already going over to his place to have brunch, so I'll just bring the news with me." You had been going over to Clint's apartment at least once a week since Natasha left. Him and his dog, Lucky, had been keeping you company.

"Alright. Sneak Lucky some bacon for me. I gotta go now. Bye!"

Your phone beeps as you lower it from your ear and plug it into your charger once again. You slide back under the comforter, pulling it up to your shoulders to keep the cold out. You don't think you had ever been so relieved in your entire life. As you start to drift off to sleep, now unworried about nightmares, you have a passing thought about suggesting to Natasha that you get a cat to keep you company when she was gone.

This time, instead of dreaming of Nat's death. You dream of her coming home to you and a Russian Blue kitten named Antosha.

When you

leave

it storms.

The sky

screams

and weeps.

You

come home

and it is

painted

once

more.

-Tyler Knott Gregson-

Disclaimer: I don't own Marvel characters. If I did, Natasha would have more emotion than smirk. The chapter title is inspired by the song City of Stars by Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone.