Chapter Text
After the dust settled and the bubble of festivities began to end, New York began to feel cold and empty to Kate Bishop. For the first time in a long time, she was alone. The only person who had any semblance of being a parental figure for her was residing behind bars. The guilt hasn’t quite caught up yet, it was buried under all the layers of Kate’s new suit. Her suit had been hanging in her closet untouched since she brought down Kingpin. For a moment, she had felt like she was capable of doing something, now she wasn’t so sure anymore. So she stuck to her routine, afraid that if she strayed from normalcy her facade would come tumbling down. Her mornings were reserved for long runs with Lucky through the nooks and crannies of the city. She memorized each street, each particularity until it was seared into her brain, stored neatly for future use. That was usually the only part of her day without disturbance as her afternoons and evenings were usually spent in the office. Her mother’s assets haven’t been settled yet, but Kate still kept busy with Bishop security in the hopes that it would provide her access to more leads on Kingpin’s whereabouts.
And so she tried her best to move on. She doesn’t answer the increasing amount of voicemails from Clint piling up in her voicemail. Kate didn’t want to think about any of it, Kingpin, her mother, Clint, or even Yelena. So she doesn’t think about it until she comes home after a long night at the office and finds a 5’4 Russian putting together a puzzle on her living room floor next to her dog. She stood at her door for a second and took in the sight before her.
“You took forever to come home,” Yelena greeted, her gaze still fixated on the puzzle. Kate scoffed as she hung up her coat, “didn’t know there was anything to come home to”.
Kate’s response had incited a frown from Yelena as she stood up gracefully and crossed her arms.
“There are plenty of things to come home to Kate Bishop. For example, I brought some cutlery. And a new puzzle! Do you know how much a good puzzle is worth these days?”
Kate glanced down at the puzzle in question, the box read 1000 piece Bengal Tiger Puzzle.
“What are you doing here Yelena?”
“I don’t know anyone else in New York,” Yelena admitted.
Maybe it was her lack of self-preservation or her stubborn nativity but she lets Yelena stay. Deep down Kate knew she was just tired of being so goddamn alone and she had a strong inkling Yelena felt the same. And, it was nice to know that Lucky wasn’t all alone whilst she slaved away at the office. The next day she comes home to a new rug, it was very eccentric and Yelena looks proud of herself.
“So…”
“What?”
“Aren’t you going to say something about the rug, Kate Bishop?”
Kate sets down the boxes of Chinese take-out that she had grabbed on the way home and sits down on the rug.
“It’s a nice rug, do you want me to pay you back?”
“Pay me back? No. No. It’s a gift, you let me stay here, I bring home new rug,”
Kate just stares, convincing herself that there isn’t any ulterior motive behind Yelena’s gift. But she was tired of convincing herself when everything she thought she knew about her family had been a lie all along. So she allows herself to get comfortable with Yelena, her resolve dissolving with every passing day. She reasoned that the blonde assassin was probably, much like her, just trying to carve her place in the world.
And the assassin carves. She carves and carves until there is a Yelena Belova-sized hole in Kate Bishop’s life that won’t go away. Soon enough their days start with two black coffees (one doused in creamer for Kate), a stack of peanut butter waffles, and a bowl of dog food (Yelena insisted that Lucky couldn’t keep surviving off of leftovers and pizza). Most nights, Kate comes home to Yelena and Lucky curled together on the couch with a new movie on. The Russian had excitedly announced that she was going to find, “the best movies ever made”. Somedays Yelena disappears into her own corner of the city somewhere and Kate doesn’t ask. She just welcomes her back with a drink, never pushing for an explanation or more than what she shares. She starts to learn more and more about Yelena, about her past, her family, her relationship with Natasha. Kate found herself missing Yelena whenever she was gone, a feeling that she wasn’t used to. Their conversations usually flow towards what Yelena and Lucky got up to during the day, the plots of the movie she was watching, and whether or not the trash had been taken out. They split most of the chores, Kate didn’t want the blonde thinking that she was lazy, and put extra effort into keeping their apartment tidy.
On a Tuesday night in March, Yelena welcomes Kate home from work with a bowl of pasta. “It’s a new recipe that I saw on the recipe channel,”
“The recipe channel?”
“Yes. The recipe channel, the one where the man with the white hair takes you to flavortown ” Yelena responds by fixing herself a bowl with extra hot sauce.
“Oh. Oh! The Food Network?”
“Yes. Anyways, I have to get some groceries after we eat, do you want to come with me?”
Kate shakes her head, “Sorry, there are some reports I have to look over tonight. Can you grab me some -”
“Takis and Salsa? I already put it on my list,” Yelena looks smug. Kate doesn’t know when Yelena’s extensive knowledge of her habits will stop throwing her off guard.
____
When Yelena returns to their apartment later that night, she finds Kate passed out on the couch with her laptop still open. She laughs quietly and throws her keys onto the counter, careful not to wake the sleeping girl. Not that it was hard, Kate was a significantly heavier sleeper than herself.
“Tsk Tsk, Kate Bishop. Snoozing on the job,”
Kate groans from the couch, she eyes the grocery bags from the couch as she stretches out like a cat.
“You’re back,” Her voice was still raspy from sleep.
“And you look like you got a lot of work done,”
Kate rolls her eyes at Yelena and puts her hair up into a loose ponytail.
“I got tired waiting for you,”
“Awhh. Kate Bishop did you miss me,” Yelena coos, Kate scowls at her.
“I was afraid my chips would go stale,”
So what if Kate missed her. She was the only other person that she interacted with on a daily basis, she reasons. And plus, everyone misses their roommate, right? Right.
“You wanna get ready for Grill’s party?” Yelena asks, gesturing towards Kate’s sweatpants.
Right, Kate had forgotten about the party that she had reluctantly agreed to. Yelena shakes her head and sighs.
“I’m leaving in 15 minutes with or without you,”
“You don’t even know Grills!”
“Well, then I shall find a bar, Kate Bishop,”
She throws on an outfit in record time, walking downstairs in a casual sweater and jeans. Yelena blatantly checks her out as they leave the apartment. She smirks as Kate’s cheeks turn rosy.
Grills warmly welcomes them into his house. There were many different LARP-ers, all of which surrounded Yelena immediately (they wanted to know what material her suit was made of). Kate follows behind her for a good part of the night, eventually retiring to the cooler on the patio which she finds stocked with beer.
Just as she sits down on one of the empty chairs, her phone starts buzzing.
Jack Duquesne
She answers, “Jack,”
“Kate. I don’t know how to tell you this,” he sounded shaken up.
Kate furrows her brows, “What’s wrong?”
The confusion settles in, Jack was one of the most composed people Kate had ever met. The man held it together even when she threatened him. What could he be calling about? Maybe he had a lead on Kingpin? Or maybe her mother’s assets had finally been settled by the court.
“Your mother…she had a heart attack. She passed away in custody last night. I’m very sorry Kate.”
Her mom.
No, it can’t be. It can’t.
Kate had put her in jail and now she was dead.
“Hello?”
Kate opens her mouth but nothing comes out. She could feel Yelena’s concerned gaze from inside the apartment.
She composes herself by taking a breath, “And you chose to tell me a day late.” she responds with her voice wavering.
“You’ll need to fly to Ohio, her body is being transported, you’ll stay at your grandmother’s house. I will take care of everything else,” Jack assures her.
Kate ends the call and cradles her face in between her knees, unable to stop the tears from rolling down her face.