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Hanging upside down isn’t so bad, Yelena thinks. Legs twined around the bannister, vertebrae clicking apart as she’s stretched by gravity, a faint buzzing in her head as blood pools there.
Yup, not so bad at all.
Plus, it makes watching The Great British Baking Show more fun. Or, well, watching Kate watch The Great British Baking Show. Every thought or feeling she has passes across the curves and planes of her face — and often out of her mouth as well. And in this case, the reaction to every triumph or disaster. It shouldn’t be so fascinating — it should be like reading a book in large print.
And yet.
Maybe it’s just the novelty of being able to be around someone like that, without thinking about how she has to lie to or manipulate them. Maybe.
She’s still here, in New York, long past any reason to stay. Long past the time it’s sane to remain in the same place, become predictable, be where anyone could find her.
Or so her training whispers in her ears.
Maybe that’s why she’s found a fondness for hanging here. It quietens things in her head. Makes things meditative. And, hey, at least she has a choice about what voices she has to obey these days.
“Want some more popcorn?” Kate asks, pausing the program and getting up. “Or do you want something else? Am I just pushing my pro-popcorn position on you and not really giving you a chance to respond? What do you want, Yelena?”
Lucky barks, and Kate glares at him. “Yes, we all know what your vote is for.”
Yelena shrugs. The motion is different this way up, letting herself relax a little before pulling her arms back up again. “Popcorn’s fine, Kate Bishop. And you can keep the bowl.” She smirks. “After all, it’s only generous as a guest to allow you to practice your aim more.”
Yelena laughs as Kate’s jaw drops in outrage. “One time!” Kate says, holding up a finger. “I’ve missed your mouth one time, when I wasn’t even looking at it. And how do I know you didn’t move or close your mouth, just to embarrass me?”
Yelena snorts. “Like I need to do anything to embarrass you. It’s much more fun to watch you accomplish that all by yourself.” She winks at Lucky. “Looks like you’ll be eating well tonight.”
A determined set of Kate’s jaw, mischief sparkling in her eyes replaces outrage. “Right, that’s it,” she says, advancing on Yelena with hands outstretched.
It’s weird, how Kate either doesn’t seem to realise the danger she’s in, approaching Yelena this way, or she doesn’t care, for some reason trusts that Yelena just won’t take advantage of the way she’s leaving herself open. It gives Yelena an odd knotted sensation in her chest she doesn’t know what to do with.
So she relaxes, waves her hands in the air and drawls, “Oh no. Whatever shall I do?”
Kate pounces on her, hands grabbing at her side. There’s a moment — a long moment — when Yelena just feels the sensation as it washes over her, disconnected as though it’s happening to someone else. But then she claims the feeling, relaxes enough to actually be tickled. Giggles, jerks around like a pendulum.
“I will get my revenge on you, Kate Bishop, when you’re least expecting it,” she threatens, even as her chest bubbles with delight. It’s a decision she made, a decision she could make, a decision she trusted Kate to make and that’s…
And that’s worth so, so much, that she doesn’t even know to phrase it exactly.
Kate’s phone buzzes, and she stops her assault to look at it. She makes a face. “Do you want to put that on hold? Some of my friends are in town and want to meet up at a club.”
Yelena twitches away from Kate, not feeling ticklish at all. “But how will we survive without knowing how well those cakes are cooked?” she asks as laconically as she can.
“Eh, it’ll wait.” Kate looks up at her. “Unless you’d prefer not to? We can stay in if you want.” But her stupid face clearly indicates that she hopes Yelena will say yes, with her stupid wide, pleading eyes and stupid pout.
“Ugh,” Yelena says. “Ugh,” she repeats louder, just to let Kate know exactly what her feelings on the subject, even as she pulls herself upwards, grabs hold of the bannister then drops lightly to the ground. “Fine. Let’s go see your stupid friends.”
“Don’t worry,” Kate says confidently. “It’ll be like dipping fries in chocolate spread — something you wrinkle your nose at until you try it.”
It is, in fact, nothing like fries and chocolate spread. The loud beat, dim lighting and crowded floor mean that pretty much anyone could creep up on her and have a decent chance of succeeding. Kate could probably do it and, well, that’s a little unfair. She’s gotten a lot better at not announcing herself when she doesn’t want to, but still. Being here makes her feel anxious and exposed, her brain buzzing with trying to take in all the angles, identify any threat before it manifests.
Not that she hasn’t been trained to operate in these kind of environments, but… but… But maybe that’s it — treat this like it’s a job, and everything will fall into place.
It works, mostly. She takes down names and faces of Kate’s friends, gathers information on the targets, laughs at the appropriate places, makes a few jokes and tucks away a few valuable nuggets of information about Kate for later use. Kate gives her a few odd looks, but that’s something she can handle later.
It’s fine. She’s making a decent impression on Kate’s friends, she’s acting within the bounds of normal, she’s keeping them safe. She can do this.
And that works up until one of Kate’s friends — a girl called Greer — grabs Kate by wrist and drags her upwards. “Come on,” she says. “Let’s go dance for a bit.”
Kate gets one of those wide-eyed hopeful smiles on her face, looking around at the rest of the group and people start moving. Her gaze catches on Yelena and her eyes get even bigger.
Yelena feels an uncomfortable writhing in her chest and masks it, shrugging. “Eh. I think I’m going to stay here and watch you make a fool of yourself.” She flashes her phone. “And maybe take pictures.”
That causes a narrowing of her gaze at least as Kate points to her eyes, then at Yelena, but doesn’t seem offended or upset or anything else as she turns and heads off to the dance floor. Without Kate there, the people left don’t seem to have any interest in including her in their conversation. Which is fine, because it’s easier to keep on mission that way, easier to monitor Kate.
Kate’s dancing dorkily with her arms above her head, flailing all over the place, and Yelena doesn’t even realise that she’s smiling until she disappears into the crowd on the dance floor, and Yelena can only catch occasional glimpses of purple. And it’s fine, it’s completely fine, because Kate can look after herself and it isn’t as though she’s in danger anyway because this isn’t an actual mission and…
She’s on her feet and moving towards the floor. It’s easy enough to find a guy to dance with by smiling just so, and guide him to just the right place where she can use him as cover while still observing her target. Her chest settles down as soon as she’s got eyes on Kate and, honestly, this isn’t so bad.
Until Kate catches sight of her — despite her best efforts — and, really, she would be more annoyed at herself if it wasn’t for the impish grin that instantly springs across Kate’s face as she moves in.
“Couldn’t live without me?” Kate says into her ear and luckily Yelena’s self possessed enough not to shiver as the breath from Kate’s mouth caresses her cheek.
Yelena forces a laugh out. “Wanted a better view of the ongoing disaster you mean.” Kate pouts and Yelena feels something soft and warm unfold within her. “But maybe it’d be even better close up,” she adds as she leaves the guy she had been dancing with and joins Kate.
And it is. It is fun. Maybe even better than fries and chocolate spread. She can’t quite bring herself to completely let go, to completely lose focus of the rest of the world, but it softens to a gentle hum rather than a roar she has to keep track of. And Kate dances even more dorkily, to the point where Yelena occasionally has to dodge her, so energetically that she develops a faint sheen that occasionally glitters in the dim light. Yelena laughs and laughs and isn’t sure why and then…
Then Kate leans in towards her, probably to shout something in her ear, but the angles don’t quite add up and her face ends up just centimetres in front of Yelena’s before she stops. They both stay there for a moment, frozen, and Yelena can feel the pants of Kate’s breath against her face. Kate’s eyes flick down towards Yelena’s lips before a look of panic spreads across her face and Yelena…
Yelena leans in and kisses her. And, just for a moment, the outside world is completely silent.