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The first thing Natasha notices when she wakes up is the feeling of the very subtle rumbling.
Natasha slowly opens her eyes as her eyebrow furrows. She placed a hand on her stomach still tucked inside the comforters to feel if maybe she had made that vibration. Nothing.
A quick microsecond of terror flashes as she briefly pondered the possibility that the safe house was..not so safe. She bolted upright and placed a hand on the wall, feeling for any rumbles or vibrating to indicate something really wrong. To her relief, she felt nothing.
That still begged the question of where that feeling was coming from.
As she went to sit back down on the bed, the rumbling suddenly picked up slightly on intensity. She cocked her head a bit to the right of her and her eyes fell upon the massive lump. And that’s when she noticed it.
The comforter was slightly shaking, giving way to occasional jolts. The only thing visible sticking out of it were tufts of familiar blonde hair.
Natasha started to worry slightly. It was a known fact that Yelena was known to have frequent nightmares. However, this would usually result in Yelena thrashing sporadically in the blankets and kicking profusely.
Natasha should know, she had the bruises to prove it.
But the sight she was met with didn’t look like that. Rather than kicking and throwing the blanket off, Yelena had it up all the way to her neck and was practically cocooned inside it. Natasha got up on her side of the bed and slowly padded over to Yelena’s. She crouched down to where she knew her face would be sticking out.
Yelena appeared to still be asleep, but now Natasha could also hear the barest hints of teeth chattering. So she knew now that it wasn’t from a nightmare, but rather being cold.
However, this didn’t worry her quite as much as when she managed to get a better look at her face.
Natasha noticed that Yelena looked way more pale than usual. Her eyes looked puffy, her nose was tinted a slight pink, and her lips looked drier and more cracked. Natasha also noticed that Yelena was doing her best to cover as much skin as possible, given that the blanket was also covering her ears. She took the blanket and lowered it a bit and noticed her ears also had a slight pink tint to them.
The sudden movement of exposing her ear out caused Yelena to start to stir. The teeth chattering quieted a bit as Yelena stuck a hand out from under the covers barely to wipe her eye. As she slowly opened them, she was met with emerald-like greens staring back at her. Rather than getting startled by it like she normally would, she just lay there with a cute dopey grin plastered on her face.
“Mm morning sestra” Yelena mumbled out. Natasha would normally find the sentiment endearing and savor the moment of Yelena being sweet and not mischievous. But right now, she was way more concerned with Yelena’s state as being the culprit to this niceness.
Natasha’s eyes softened a bit as she reached to brush a strand of hair out of Yelena’s face. Her hand jolted a bit when she felt Yelena’s cheek. Yelena was too out of it to notice the sudden movement, thankfully.
“Morning, sestrichka” Natasha leaned her face in and planted a kiss onto her sister’s forehead. She felt as Yelena leaned into the touch and let out a very soft moan of satisfaction.
However, as Natasha pulled away she had a look of concern on her face.
“Yelena, you’re burning up.”
Yelena crinkled her face in confusion, but there was nothing but sincere worry behind her sister’s eyes.
“No way, I’ve been freezing my ass off since earlier this morning,” Yelena responded back. Natasha took in the sound of her voice a lot better now and noticed that she sounded more raspy than usual as well.
“You have a fever.”
Yelena wrinkled her nose a bit. Her golden green eyes looking more bloodshot than if she were just sleep deprived.
“Bah, I don’t get sick, I’m made of ma..mar..” Yelena started to stray off as her face contorted, Natasha’s eyes widened a bit as she went to duck down from being right in her face.
Luckily though, Yelena managed to cover her face with the blanket before she sprayed everywhere anyway.
“Achoo! Marble.” Yelena sniffled after, noting how clogged her nostrils felt. She hated the feeling.
Natasha came back up to her face, noticing how red her nose really looked now, she raised an eyebrow at her. Yelena just casted her gaze downward.
“Ok, maybe I’m a little sick.”
“No shit.”
Yelena slightly pouted. She hated being sick. Even as a child she hated the feeling of being all stuffed up and having to constantly blow her nose. It became even worse after being sent to the Red Room though. Anytime she got sick she had to just suck it up. If anyone caught her slacking just because she wasn’t feeling good there’s a good chance she would’ve been disposed of. So she mustered all her strength and powered through. Nobody understood why on some occasions the normal training regimens would suddenly make her throw up, but they didn’t question it, nor did they really care.
But now she was out, and everything that she had taught herself for survival was slowly but surely dissipating. However, having to go through those tactics for so long definitely had an impact on her, and it was rather difficult to unlearn them, especially in such a short time. Natasha had the same struggles when she got out and defected, but she’s had much more time to unlearn those tactics. She had Clint to thank mostly for that.
But Yelena had just gotten out, after being there for over 20 years, and Natasha knew that it was going to take time for her to unlearn what she was taught. She would be there every step of the way though.
But right now, she was just being stubborn.
Natasha started to get up and Yelena flashed her a quick look of panic as she disappeared from her view.
“Where are you going?” She whined a little. Natasha simply walked over to the other side of the bed and grabbed the top of the covers.
“You need to break that fever so you should probably lose some layers.” Natasha states. Before Yelena can react, she feels the covers being swiftly yanked off of her. Natasha took the covers in her hands, quickly balling them up and disposing of them onto the floor out of Yelena’s reach.
Yelena’s eyes widen as she starts to curl in on herself, feeling the chill tenfold as more of her skin was exposed. Natasha felt bad watching as her little sister was clearly in distress, but she knew she had to in order for her to break that fever faster.
Yelena’s teeth start to chatter again as she moved to cross her arms over her body and bend her legs up toward her chest, trying to preserve as much body heat as she could manage.
As Natasha moved back over to the side of the bed she noticed the clothes that Yelena was wearing. She slightly smirked a bit at the sight.
“Is that my hoodie?”
Yelena looked up from her curled up ball position to see her sister smirking a little with her arms crossed and a slightly bemused look on her face.
“I told you I got cold.” She deadpanned as Natasha noticed her also wearing a pair of sweats, two articles of clothing that she never slept in because she would normally get too hot.
That told her everything she needed to know.
Natasha let out a sigh as she went over to sit down next to her sister on the other side of the bed. She placed a hand on her shivering sister and started rubbing her back very gently. Yelena’s shivering started to calm a little at her big sister’s healing touch.
“Sweetie, you should probably lose the hoodie too.”
Yelena’s eyes widened as she quickly flipped over to face her sister, who had a look of guilt on her face. She gave her the biggest puppy eyes and pout that Natasha had seen on her thus far.
“Please let me keep it, I’m really cold Tashka.” She begged her sister in the tiniest voice she could muster. Natasha’s heart cracked a bit at the total vulnerability, but she swallowed it down, knowing that she needed to do this in order to help her sister.
Natasha sighed in defeat as she sat up off the bed and walked toward the door, opening it and stepping out of the bedroom. Yelena sat up and watched as she exited. She was suddenly starting to feel the extent of how sick she truly was. Her entire body was wracked with aches, her head felt like a boulder had smashed into it a dozen times, and her face felt like someone was squeezing it so hard that it could pop. All of that on top of the chills.
Bottom line, she felt like total shit.
Yelena pulled her hands all the way into the sleeves of the hoodie as she sat crisscrossed on the bed, waiting for her sister to return.
Natasha returned a few minutes later with a washcloth and a bag of ice, she looked over at Yelena with pitiful eyes, taking in the horrible state her baby sister was in. Yelena’s eyes fell onto the bag of ice in her sister’s hand. She kept her eyes on her sister as she made her way over to her side, wrapping the bag of ice into the washcloth. Natasha started to run her fingers through her sister’s blonde locks, moving some out of the way to get to the back of her neck. Yelena stiffened a bit as the cold air was exposed to her skin. She felt as Natasha laid the wrapped up bag of ice onto the nape of her neck.
Yelena let out a hiss and a low groan. She started to move her hands over to try and cover her skin from the cold sensation racking through it. Natasha batted her hand away gently. Yelena then started to try and tuck her head into the hole of the hoodie like a turtle. Natasha suppressed a giggle.
“Lena, stop, you need to cool your body off,” Natasha chastised softly, trying to hide the slight smirk on her face at her sister’s childish antics.
“Like hell I do, I’m freezing not boiling!” Yelena retorted back, still trying to dodge the offending bag of ice.
“You’re freezing because you have a fever, your body is trying to regulate your temperature back to normal,” Natasha tried to explain, “I’m just trying to speed the process up a bit.”
“What you’re doing is trying to torture me!” Yelena exclaimed back in response. Natasha’s face paled a bit as she took in her words. She dropped the bag momentarily and went to grab her sister’s face gently in her hands. Yelena’s eyes softened as she stared back at her big sister’s soft features.
“Lena, I would never EVER do anything to hurt you,” Natasha told her sternly but sincerely. She felt as her sister’s cheeks felt like they were on fire, indicating that her fever was spiking instead of going down.
Natasha was really beginning to worry now. If she didn’t get Yelena’s fever down soon she was going to be in danger. It wasn’t like she could just take her to a doctor considering she was still a fugitive on the run. Besides, she knew her sister would likely fight her the entire time. Both for her stubbornness and for her fear of doctors brought on by the Red Room.
So she had to cool her back down on her own.
Natasha sat the bag down and gripped Yelena’s shoulders as she pressed her cheek against her sister’s. Yelena closed her eyes pushed into the gentle touch, relishing the feeling.
“Malyshka, you need to take the hoodie off.”
Yelena pulled her face away, she looked at her with pitiful eyes that looked like they had tiny tears in the corners of them.
“No...”
“Please I need you to trust me. Do you?” Natasha questioned with slight trepidation. Even in her sick state, Yelena could sense her sister’s hesitation and doubt seeping through her tough exterior. She raised her hand a little and caressed her sister’s cheek.
“With my life.”
Natasha exhaled sharply out her nose. She closed her eyes and relished the feeling a bit of her little sister’s comfort and reassurance. She grabbed Yelena’s hand with her own.
“Then please take it off.”
Yelena’s lip began to quiver as she slowly removed her hand and placed them both on the bottom of the hoodie. She reluctantly started tugging it upwards, her body started shaking as more skin began to become exposed. Natasha grabbed the top of the hoodie to help Yelena’s head out of the top hole. With shaky hands, Yelena managed to tug the hoodie completely off. Natasha swiftly took it and tossed it off to the side. Yelena, with her top covered in nothing but a tank now, immediately shot her arms up to cover her exposed skin as she violently started to shake. Her face was beet red as she shut her eyes tightly.
Natasha had to do something. She couldn’t stand seeing her baby sister in such a
distressing state. She started to move over to lay down. As she did, she beckoned her sister to follow.
“Come here.”
Yelena was still violently shaking but looked over and did as her sister asked. She started to crawl over to where her sister was laying, doing her best to not move her arms from across her chest. Natasha took ahold of her shoulders and helped glide her over and lay her down on her chest. Yelena opened her eyes as she felt sudden warmth radiate from the cheek that was laying on her sister’s chest. She felt her arms start to recoil and wrap themselves tightly around Natasha’s body. Natasha wrapped one of her arms around Yelena’s head and the other she used to gently rubbed her back.
Yelena’s shaking immediately started to placate, feeling a rush of warmth start to course through her being smooshed against her big sister. Natasha ran her hand through Yelena’s hair, gently scratching at her scalp every so often. Yelena hummed in contentment as her eyes started to close.
“ Ya ponyal tebya, Malyshka .”
Those reaffirming words were the last ones Yelena heard as slumber took over.
—————————————————
A few hours later Yelena started to stir. She immediately noticed how she was feeling the cold mattress against her skin rather than the warmth of her sister. Yelena sat up immediately scanning for Natasha. She started to panic slightly as her eyes started darting everywhere in the room looking for any sign of her sister. Her head was beginning to get dizzy at the constant whipping back and forth, and she suddenly felt her breathing become hitched. There was no sign of her. Yelena suddenly felt helpless as tears started to form in her eyes. She was alone. She was still cold.
She wanted her sister.
Natasha walked back through the door a few minutes after and immediately spotted her sister silently weeping. She dropped the bag she was carrying and rushed right over to her side.
“Lena, are you ok? What’s wrong?” She asked in a panicked state. She cupped her hands around Yelena’s face. She observed how her sisters breathing was a bit hitched and started to piece together why she was so emotional.
“You weren’t here.” Yelena whispered brokenly, sniffling a little. Natasha wrapped her arms around her baby sister, resting her chin on the top of Yelena’s head.
“I’m sorry, I thought I could slip out and get back before you woke up,” Natasha apologized to her. Yelena still felt really warm against her skin. She wasn’t shivering quite as intensely as before, which Natasha took as a good sign. But she still very obviously had a fever.
When she felt Yelena’s breathing start to return to normal, Natasha unwrapped herself to retrieve the contents she had thrown onto the ground in a panic to console her. Yelena watched with curiosity as she pulled one of the contents out of the bag. As soon as she spotted the offending bottle, her face crinkled in disgust.
“No.”
“Yelena.”
“Don’t ‘Yelena’ me! I’m not drinking that crap!”
Natasha sighed a bit as she held the bottle of liquid medicine in her hand. She knew from the minute she picked it up that there was gonna be a fight. No matter, she was gonna take it regardless.
Natasha sat the bottle on the dresser and sat down on the bed in front of Yelena. Her arms were crossed in a very defensive position, much like a child pouting.
“Lena, I know you aren’t a fan of drinking medicine, but it was all they had that would help with all of your symptoms.” Natasha tried to soothe her. She placed a hand on Yelena’s cheek, which she leaned into heavily.
“Still no.”
Natasha sighed a bit, but then smirked. She came prepared.
“I thought you might say that.”
She got up and went back over to the bag and pulled out the other content. Yelena’s eyes fell on a sight much more beautiful. Natasha’s smirk grew as she pulled out a full size Snickers bar. She watched as Yelena’s eyes bulged, slightly chuckling at the reaction.
“Thought I might sweeten the deal for you,” Natasha said with a straight face. Yelena wrinkled her nose a bit at the pun but giggled in spite of herself.
“That was terrible.”
“Whatever.”
Yelena rolled her eyes but reached her arm out to try and grab the candy. Natasha moved it out of her reach swiftly.
“Ah ah, first you take the medicine.”
Yelena pulled her arm back and looked up at Natasha with her infamous pout. Natasha just scoffed.
“That’s not gonna work on me.” She told her still holding the candy bar out of her reach. Yelena sat back and crossed her arms.
“Whatever, I can just take it.”
Natasha snorted and quickly covered her mouth, Yelena narrowed her eyes in challenge.
“You can certainly try,” Natasha challenged.
Yelena went to stand and lunge for the bar. Natasha just stood still and placed it behind her back. She witnessed her baby sister wobbling as she approached her with predatory eyes. When she went to lunge, she simply fell right into Natasha, who caught her with her free arm.
Yelena wiggled out and tried to reach behind her sister, who simply sidestepped. Natasha kept her arm wrapped around her sister, chuckling slightly.
“Yelena, sit back down before you hurt yourself,” Natasha scolded lightly. However, her sister persisted. Natasha took matters into her own hands and guided her back over to the bed. Yelena, in her sick state, simply fell right onto the mattress, having exhausted what little energy she had out of her body. Natasha set the bar down onto the dresser and pulled out a spoon. She sat on the bed crossing her legs and poured a generous amount of the liquid medicine onto the spoon. Yelena eyed her with intensity.
“If you won’t take it willingly, I’ll just feed it to you,” Natasha simply stated. Yelena’s mouth gaped a bit in offense.
“I’m not a baby!” She protested.
“Really, you sure are acting like one.” Natasha replied back with a slight tease in her tone. She started to move the spoon over toward Yelena’s face. Yelena in response closed her mouth as tightly as she could, not having any intent of that spoon finding its way in.
“Yelena come on, it’s one swallow and you’re done. Please?” Natasha pleaded with her, starting to grow a little impatient. Yelena simply just stuck her tongue out and immediately pulled it back into her mouth, closing it off again completely. Natasha gave her an unamused look.
“Real mature.”
Yelena smirked a bit, a little too pleased with herself. Natasha tried moving the spoon over to her mouth and she simply turned her head away from it.
“Yelena, open your mouth.”
“Mm mm”
“Yelena.”
“Make me.”
Natasha narrowed her eyes a bit at the challenge. She cast her daze downward a bit before smirking herself. Yelena kept her eyes focused on her sister, scanning for any kind of possible trick up her sleeve.
“Alright, you win.”
Natasha simply moved over to the side. Yelena kept a very strong gaze on her, not trusting that she was truly accepting defeat. If there was one thing she knew better than anyone, it was to never underestimate Natasha Romanoff.
Yelena furrowed her brow as her sister scooted over close to her, their shoulders brushing a bit. Natasha has an unreadable expression on her face, which annoyed Yelena to no end. However, after a few beats of silence, Natasha finally cocked her head a bit to the side and gave her sister a tiny little smile. Yelena melted a little and very briefly let her guard down to smile back. Natasha immediately turned her head back, facing forward completely.
“Pockets are overrated.”
Yelena immediately snapped her head up and her jaw practically hit the floor. Her eyes as wide as saucers as she glared at her sister.
“WHAT!?”
In a swift motion, Natasha lunged the spoon still full of medicine directly into Yelena’s mouth, moving a hand to cover it before she had a chance to spit it out. Yelena gagged as she forcibly swallowed the liquid down. She cringed as it burned going down her throat.
Natasha smiled wryly, tilting her head a bit as she waved the now empty spoon in the air slightly. “Thank you for your cooperation, sestrichka .”
“Ack! Blech!! Are you insane?! You could’ve killed me!!” Yelena screamed out, gagging at the lingering taste in her mouth.
“Don’t be so dramatic.” Natasha told her, putting the spoon away with the medicine. Yelena narrowed her eyes, still coughing a little.
“It tastes like spoiled cherries and crushed dreams.” She whimpered out.
“I know it’s not that tasty, but it’ll make you feel better.” Natasha stated. Yelena looked over at her with betrayal in her eyes. She pouted again.
“That was a very mean trick.”
“You’re fine.”
“ Cyka .”
Natasha rolled her eyes as she got up off the bed and headed over to the dresser, she picked up the candy bar and pretended to inspect it, turning it around multiple times. She pulled her eyes back up to her baby sister that looked like she was about to pounce again.
“You know, I’m not quite sure you deserve this,” Natasha expressed with way too much mirth and mischief.
“What?! I took the stupid medicine like you asked!” Yelena exclaimed.
“True but you fought me the whole time and then you called me a bitch so…” Natasha continued as she started to peel some of the wrapper.
“Ok ok! I’m sorry.” Yelena apologized quickly. Natasha gave an amused chuckle at her baby sisters frantic and desperate state, knowing she wasn’t going to actually not give it to her but thought she still deserved a little payback.
“Alright fine, I guess I’ll show you pity since you’re ill,” Natasha contended as she graciously tossed the bar onto the bed right in front of Yelena. Yelena leaped at it, grabbing it with both and hands wasting no time tearing the plastic off. Natasha went and sat on the edge of the bed, watching with pure adoration as her baby sister tore into the snickers bar, a look of absolute euphoria on her face.
“How is it?” She asked gently.
Yelena looked up at her from her chewing, their eyes reciprocating the same love and adoration radiating off of each other.
“It’s good. Really moist.”
“Yea well that’s what candy tastes like that isn’t 5 years old.” Natasha responded with playfulness. Natasha scooted over a bit to sit right next to her sister. Yelena leaned her head onto her shoulder as she continued to savor her treat. Natasha cocked her head a bit and placed a tiny kiss onto the top of Yelena’s head before moving her own to rest on top of it. She wrapped her arm around Yelena, beckoning her to move closer. Yelena obliged and scooted a little bit further into her. Natasha sighed in contentment.
“Can I have a bite?” Natasha asked teasingly.
“Nah. Get your own.”
Natasha gasped in mock offense, moving her head away a little to face her sister, definitely noting the shit eating grin on her face.
“Hey! I paid for it!”
“And then you gave it to me so it’s mine now.” Yelena replied cheekily. Natasha shoved her shoulder playfully, being mindful to not shove too hard knowing her body was probably still weak.
“You little brat, I’ll remember that next time you ask for something of mine.”
Yelena giggled at her sister’s reaction, knowing that she was just messing with her. Natasha moved both of them to the headrest and laid her back against the board, while Yelena’s was mostly leaned into her body.
Yelena finished the bar and did end up leaving the last tiny piece for her sister. She claimed that “she was full” which Natasha knew was obvious bs but went along with it anyway. The two sisters laid there together in contentment as Yelena was starting to drift off ti sleep again. Natasha grabbed her head gently in her hands and moved it onto the pillow before placing her own head right next to her sister’s. She draped one arm over Yelena as she snuggled her as close as she could as she was starting to feel a bit groggy herself. She could still feel the heat radiating off of Yelena’s body but for the first time that day she was not shivering.
———————————————————————
A few hours later Natasha started to stir, and the first thing she noticed was her arm was drenched in sweat. Disgusted a bit, she pulled her arm back and immediately noticed how Yelena’s body was covered in sweat. Natasha felt her heart start to flutter a bit as she went to place another kiss to her sisters forehead and, to her utmost relief, Yelena’s temperature was normal again. She leaned her face against her sister’s, not caring about the sweat anymore, and relished in the sound of her baby sister’s breathing.
Yelena started to stir as well and felt the pressure of her sister’s face smooshed against her own. She gazed upward with a tiny smile.
“I’m not cold anymore.”
“Your fever broke.”
“Is that why I’m drenched in sweat?” Yelena took in how sticky she felt, she motioned to sit up and Natasha moved over so she could. Yelena started wiping her hand across her arms trying to get some of the sweat off. Natasha sat up with her head propped up on one elbow, her immense grin not leaving her face.
“How are you feeling?” She questioned Yelena.
“Still a little sore but nowhere near as bad as before.” Yelena responded. Natasha got up and went to fetch her a towel to dry off some of the sweat. When she returned Yelena was sitting up crisscrossed on the bed and she was very thankful to see that Yelena’s color had come back to her face. Her nose was still a little red but her eyes didn’t look near as puffy as they had earlier. Natasha felt a wave of relief wash over her as she made her back over to the bed and started dabbing the towel on Yelena’s back and forehead, getting as much sweat off as she could.
“ Ty istselil menya, sestra ” Yelena whispered as she leaned her head back a bit. Natasha froze for a moment as her heart swelled so unbelievably as she took in her baby sister’s sentiment. She placed the towel down as cupped her hands around Yelena’s cheeks and pressed their foreheads together.
“ Ya sdelayu vse dlya vas, moya sestrichka .”
Translation
Ya ponyal tebya, Malyshka- I’m right here, babygirl
Ty istselil menya, sestra- you healed me, sister
Ya sdelayu vse dlya vas, moya sestrichka- I’d do anything for you, my baby sister