Work Text:
Contrary to popular belief, 80% of being a hero was patching up wounds after a fight.
Unlike Spider-Man’s super healing or Captain America’s shield, Kate barely had body armor and certainly not any super powers. So her body was hurting pretty much all the time.
Don’t get her wrong, she still loved it. More than a year after meeting Clint, she was now being referred to more and more as the new Hawkeye and she was starting to make enemies .
Enemies!
Kate Bishop had bad guys that feared her! How awesome was that?
She was still the best damn archer’s New York has ever seen and she was getting better at one on one fighting with all the lessons Yelena was giving her.
It was a thing that started a couple of months ago, when they happened to be at a fast food restaurant at the same time three guys tried to rob it. After the fight, Yelena had pointed at her under everyone’s wide-eyed stare and said,
“Tomorrow, we are beginning sparring lessons, Kate Bishop. You are good but I can make you better.”
Since then, they used the time they had together by watching movies, getting drinks or wrestling each other in the middle of the living room. Normal stuff.
Things were good between them.
Yelena was taking another break from rescuing Widows all over the world after a mission that ended particularly badly. Yelena hadn’t been able to retrieve her in time and she ended up dying in the blonde’s arms. The woman took it really hard, barely speaking or eating for a few days.
It only took a full week before Yelena told her what happened instead of multiple months so Kate knew they were definitely at a good place in their friendship.
Even though calling each other friends seemed to minimize how good they were together in a way that Kate couldn’t explain it. What word do you use to describe the person you trust the most in this world, the person you spend practically every moment of the day with?
All she knew was that Yelena had been at her place for over a month now but the place she was taking in her heart was bigger than most.
The blonde also ditched the couch downstairs, claiming a spot in the bed upstairs At first, it had been to help Kate through the nightmares. Next, it was to help Yelena through her nightmares. Then, it just became a thing that they didn’t talk about and just did.
Like how it was Kate’s job to go grocery shopping but Yelena would cook and they do the dishes together. Or how Yelena walked the dog in the morning but it was Kate who had to make the coffee for when she got home.
It was easy falling into a routine together.
They’d wake up in the same bed, ate breakfast together, did whatever they had planned today like hanging out with Peter, whom Yelena was starting to like more than tolerate, they’d train and then they’d eat dinner together in front of a tv show or a movie before they’d go to the same bed to fall asleep.
They had spent Christmas at Clint’s. It had been kinda weird at first because Yelena did try to kill him a year ago but Laura was nothing but inviting and the kids loved the blonde. Kate remembered how nervous she was the moment before knocking on the door.
Clint had known she was spending a lot of time with her and it took both of them a while to get used to it. One time, she had told Yelena her mentor was coming to visit that weekend and the day after, the woman was gone for over a week.
It was all pretty dramatic but she respected that they weren’t ready to talk it over. It made sense. After all, she didn’t know what they even talked about to convince the assassin not to kill Clint.
On Christmas Day this year, after the young ones had gone to bed, Clint and Yelena talked for more than an hour on the porch. Kate had tried to pry information out of Laura but she made the archer realize some things were better left between the two of them.
This was their thing. Kate could let them have it.
Especially since after that talk, it was way less awkward between Kate’s two favorite people and they had actually had lots of fun.
Kate had given Yelena a box set of different hot sauces and the blonde had given her a vest she had customized herself with a place to put her quiver in and attach her bow so it wasn’t always in her hands.
A pretty good Christmas, if you asked her.
New Year’s was with Peter who was still pretty much alone. He had found a way to become friends with Ned and MJ but they weren’t as close as Peter would like them to be and it broke Kate’s heart to see him like this. He had told her what happened to him a year ago and she couldn’t imagine herself at that age doing something like that.
She admired him a lot.
And that night really made him and Yelena bond a lot. Both a bit tipsy, they found a way to convince Kate it was safe to let Peter swing around the block with Yelena in his arms. Five minutes later, they both had crawled back through the window with the biggest smiles on their faces and their hair messy from the wind.
So now, two weeks after New Years and her whatever-it-was with Yelena being so stable, she convinced her to let her tag along when Melina had called to tell her they got a sighting of a Widow here in New York.
After a long argument of whether Yelena should do it or not, they both ended on the compromise that she could go if Kate could come with her and Yelena would continue her well-deserved break afterwards.
And the mission had gone well.
For the most part.
They managed to fight off the Widow without hurting her, the only person getting a hit being Kate when she didn’t pay enough attention to her surroundings and got a cut to her stomach and her ankle twisted.
But she couldn’t let Yelena know that.
Because she knew the other woman had noticed the knife and Kate knew that she should’ve noticed the knife too because that was what Clint and Yelena had been yelling at her about for a year now.
So the brunette was way too stubborn to admit that blood was slowly dripping down a wound on her stomach, hiding it with her arm and leaning her weight on her other foot.
Yelena was whispering to the Widow who still had red dust particles all over her face and even though the archer couldn’t hear what they were saying, Kate’s heart was still beating fast against her sternum at the sight.
Yelena Belova, assassin, self-proclaimed monster much to Kate’s dismay, was on her knees talking softly to the redhead on the floor. She was reassuring her, probably explaining to her what was waiting for her in the safe house where a bunch of Widows resided. Kate knew what it was like to have Yelena close to her face, low voice letting out comforting words with an accent that felt like honey in warm milk.
Kate didn’t have close to a clue what it was like to wake up after mind control but she was pretty sure having Yelena at the end of it helped in some sort.
After a few minutes, Yelena helped the woman up and turned to Kate. She stood up straighter, feeling the flash of pain coming from her ankle. She smiled through it and let the women walk over to her.
“I am going to wait for the ride to the safe house with her, it’ll be safer this way.”
“Okay,” Kate said and then reached out to take Yelena’s hand. She had bruises from the punching bag in the apartment and Kate caressed them with her thumb absentmindedly. “Be careful. I’ll wait for you at home.”
Yelena looked at her in a way that Kate couldn’t pinpoint, which happened a lot recently, and nodded. “Always.”
“It was nice to meet you!” Kate rushed to say to the frightened redhead before they turned around and the latter gave her a smile that seemed more like a wince. Yelena chuckled at her and gave her one last look before turning at the end of the alley and leaving Kate alone.
She looked at the cut in her suit, seeing the big red gash and let out a long awaiting grunt of pain.
“Yelena’s gonna be so mad,” she muttered to no one before taking out her phone and texting someone that could help her.
She waited 15 minutes in the cold, blue fingers playing Candy Crush on her phone and sitting in the middle of a dark alleyway before she heard a familiar sound. Seconds later, a red and blue figure landed in front of her, taking off his mask.
He really should be more careful about this, considering how it ended last time.
“Hurt yourself again, Kate-niss?” He teased her instead of saying hello and she groaned, extending her hand so he would help her up.
“You have to stop calling me that,” she said, the pain blinding her for a second when she got up. She had flashbacks of the three of them in Peter’s apartment, watching The Hunger Games and Peter’s grin when he noticed the two similar names.
“And you have to stop getting hurt.”
“I’m so not hurt right now, I don’t even know what you’re talking about.”
He laughed, taking out his phone. “Okay. I have Yelena’s number, right? I could just–”
“Stop!” she exclaimed, making a move to grab his phone but he dodged it.
“God, it’s so easy with you,” he said with a smile splitting his face in half. “You know, this would be easier if you didn’t hide every time you got hurt from your little girlfriend. You really need to be more careful.”
Kate blushed furiously. “She’s not my girlfriend. And says the guy who is not wearing his mask right now.”
He realized she was right. He put it on and pointed upwards. “Ready, m’lady?”
“Ugh,” she answered, knowing she was going to hate the next few minutes. He put his arm around her and she took a breath before he shot out a web and sprung them to the sky. She closed her eyes, feeling the pressure of the January winds around her and focusing on not throwing up.
Kate used to describe herself as an adrenaline junkie before she knew what it was like to swing in the air with only one arm carrying you and some chemically made webfluid.
They finally landed in front of her apartment, Peter being conscious of her twisted ankle and letting her down delicately. She put an arm up around his shoulders and limped to her front door.
“Hey buddy!” Peter said to Lucky who ran to them like he had been craving affection for days. The boy went to his knees to pet him while Kate jumped on one foot to get to the couch.
She huffed when she sat down, taking off the black vest Yelena had gotten her and her purple top to see the extent of the cut on her stomach. When she looked at her friend, he was looking at the ceiling with his hand under his chin and she rolled her eyes.
“Calm down, I’m wearing a sports bra,” she said and he looked at her, red on his cheeks. He walked to her, inspecting the gash with careful eyes and hummed.
“Not too deep so you won’t need sutures.”
“Thank God,” Kate said, leaning her head back and trying to regulate her breathing after the fight and the swinging.
“Your first aid kit still in the bathroom?” he asked while moving towards it and he came back in seconds. “You know, Yelena’s gonna notice that bandages are mysteriously disappearing.”
“I buy new ones as soon as I use them,” she said, the ends of her ears turning pink. “I’m not proud of it.”
Peter chuckled, sitting down at the coffee table on the other side of her injured foot to lay out the things he needed.
“Isn’t she like a spy or something? You sure she doesn’t know already?”
Peter didn’t know a lot about Yelena, just that she used to be a Black Widow and was Natasha’s sister.
“If she knows, she hasn’t said any- shit!” she said when he started cleaning her injury with the antiseptic wipe and he gave her an apologetic glance. “She hasn’t said anything.”
“Well, you guys don’t talk a lot.”
Kate frowned. She was usually told the opposite by everyone she had ever met. “What’s that supposed to mean? We talk– we talk plenty. I mean, we spend every day together, we live together!”
He shrugged, still focused on his task.
“Yeah, but have you guys actually talked about the fact that you’re living together? And what happens when Yelena starts her job again and you go back to school? And don’t get me started on the feelings you have for her.”
“Feelings? What feelings? I don’t- I don’t have feelings for– Peter Parker, I have no idea what you are talking about and what you’re trying to play but that is not funny. Never, in my life, have I thought– I mean, I just can’t believe that you would–” she sighed and Peter simply looked at her. She knew what she felt for Yelena was far deeper than she tried to convince herself it was and she was very aware that the flutter in her chest whenever Yelena laughed or the butterflies in her stomach every night as Yelena twitched closer to her when she slept weren’t very platonic. “Fine, I have feelings for Yelena.”
Once again, the words seemed so pathetic compared to what she felt about the other woman. She searched her brain for a way to describe the way Yelena made her better in every way, got her through each other and made sure she was the last thing she thought of every night before falling asleep. All she could find was the word love in its most simple and terrifying sense.
She loved her.
“I thought you knew,” he said after a beat and got back to bandaging her.
She sighed her fingers playing with the hourglass pendant on her necklace out of habit. “I did. I just– I guess, I didn't want to admit it.”
“Why?”
Because Yelena was an assassin that got most of her life stolen from her by mind control and was now on a path to save everyone else affected by it so she doubted that she had time for a silly little romance in her life.
“It’s complicated.”
“Always is, right?” he said, a longing look in his eyes and then patted her shoulder. “Done.”
She looked down, pleased by his work and knowing that even though it would hurt for a while, she had gone through much worse. Maybe it would leave a big scar if she were lucky. Scars were always pretty badass.
He stood up at the same time that Yelena opened the door, the dog rushing to the door for a second time. Peter froze and Kate was pretty sure they both looked like deers caught in headlights when Yelena looked up from greeting Pizza Dog and took in the scene in front of her.
“Am I interrupting something?” she asked with an eyebrow quirked up, putting her coat away and Peter shook his head fervently. He shoved her purple top on her chest to hide it while Yelena crossed her arms.
“No! No, I swear. We were just– I wasn’t–”
“Pete, calm down. She’s joking.”
On cue, Yelena barked out a laugh. “Oh, that was so funny. Kate Bishop, did you see his face?”
Kate breathed a small laugh while Peter looked at her with wide eyes. He rubbed the back of his head and took a small step, hitting his calves on the coffee table.
“Okay. Well, I’m gonna leave you guys to it,” he said and cleared his throat before whispering something that Yelena definitely heard. “Just talk to her, dude.”
Yelena watched him as he walked by her. He flinched when she made a sudden move towards him to scare him and belted out another loud laugh. Peter chuckled awkwardly and looked back at Kate after one last pet to Lucky.
“See you Kate-niss! Bye miss scary lady!”
Yelena turned to her, a smile still on her face from her own joke. “Ah, that boy. I like him,” she said and Kate didn’t have time to react to how happy that made her that Yelena’s face turned angry. “Теперь скажи мне, что случилось ( now, tell me what happened ).”
Kate knew the basic words of Russian now but not enough to understand what Yelena had just said then.
“I agree, we should just go to bed. What a day, am I right? I am so tired. Are you tired? Ah, I cannot wait to be in bed and sleep for hours and hours and–”
“Kate.”
The archer sighed. “I’m fine, Yelena. Just got cut and twisted my ankle a little.”
She shut her eyes, waiting for the long speech of how irresponsible she was, how she shouldn’t have come and how Yelena will never allow her to come on one of her missions ever again. Instead, she felt the couch dip next to her and opened her eyes when she felt fingers inspecting her now bandaged wound.
“No sutures?” she asked quietly and Kate shook her head even though Yelena wasn’t looking at her.
“No.”
She hummed, brushing her fingers over Kate’s skin. The brunette watched her do it, observed her lean fingers and permanently bruised knuckles and the black and purple string bracelet Kate had made for her that was now a part of Yelena’s look.
She had made it for her without worrying if Yelena would actually wear it but it still touched her when the blonde looked at it and lifted a wrist with a small “ that better not expose me in an assignment, Kate Bishop .”
Yelena’s hand moved to her legs resting on the table.
“Which one?”
“Left.”
Yelena got up, grabbed an icepack from the freezer with Lucky following her and sat down at the same place Peter was a couple of minutes ago.
“I’m gonna take off your shoe. It’s gonna hurt,” she instructed and Kate nodded. Yelena untied her shoelaces to make it as loose as possible but the boot still grazed against her ankle. She winced and Yelena didn’t even spare her a look. “You deserve that.”
She rolled her eyes, staying quiet and inhaled sharply when the ice touched her skin.
Yelena sighed, ran a hand through her hair and intertwined her fingers together, looking at her lap. “You have to be more careful, Kate.”
“I am!” Kate replied, offended even though it was a plain lie.
“You’re not,” Yelena stated plainly. “You think I don’t see? Last week, the bruise on your collarbone, before, the cut behind your ear. I see all of it. And I see how you pretend it doesn’t hurt so I don’t notice.”
Kate shut her mouth, ashamed that Yelena had seen through to her so easily and then finding herself stupid to think an expert in body language wouldn’t have caught on. It was almost offensive getting lectured by a woman who had so many scars, Kate didn’t even know where she would start to count them but she knew that was the opposite of what she needed to say right now.
“It’s part of the job.”
“Don’t you think I know?” Yelena exclaimed loudly and then huffed, shaking her head. “But I also know you could do better. Kate, I– Я не знаю, что бы я сделал, если бы с тобой что-то случилось ( I don’t know what I would do if something happened to you ).”
“I’m a big girl, I can take it! I’m not the pathetic child you think I am” Kate argued, annoyed that Yelena thought she was so helpless.
Yelena’s jaw clenched. “That is not what I meant and you know it.”
“Do I?”
“You do all these dangerous things and you never care about the consequences!”
“Of course I care!” Kate puffed and gestured at her. “And I could say the same about you.”
They were interrupted by the sound of Yelena’s phone going off and they looked at each other for a moment while it rang until the blonde picked it up.
“Melina,” she greeted, moving to the couch so she could be next to Kate, their thighs close but far enough to avoid touching.
“Did you do it?” Yelena’s mother asked, the accent heavy on her tongue.
“да ( yes ). She should arrive to the safe house soon.”
“It went well?”
Yelena glanced at her briefly, Kate trying out a small smile. “Кейт немного поранилась, но все обошлось ( Kate got hurt a little but everything worked out ).
“ты так строг с ней. ты всегда с теми, кого любишь ( You are so strict with her. You always are with those you love ).”
“ты не знаешь, о чем говоришь ( You don’t know what you’re talking about ).”
“Я думаю, что знаю больше, чем ты, мой ребенок ( I know more than you think, my child ).”
Kate played with her fingers, an intense curiosity to know what they were talking about swallowing her. It only got worse when she saw Yelena’s cheeks redden by whatever Melina was saying.
“Kate, Уважаемые ( dear ),” Melina’s voice called out and Kate perked up.
“I’m here.”
“You have done wonderful job. Thank you for helping. I know Yelena gives you hard time but don’t let her.”
“Don’t worry, I can take her,” Kate said with a wink towards the blonde who was mysteriously quiet at the moment. “She says she takes care of me but I take care of her.”
“How about you both take care of each other,” the woman suggested before they heard a muffled masculine voice in the background and Melina’s voice became clear again. “Alexei and I are waiting for you two to come. You are welcome anytime.”
“I would love that,” Kate said, her heart growing ten sizes at the thought. Yelena’s parents wanted to meet her in person, not just on the phone. That seemed pretty big.
She was pretty sure Clint never met them.
She was so going to throw that in his face later.
“We’ll think about it,” Yelena grumbled, taking back the phone and muttering her goodbyes in Russian before hanging up.
For some reason, Kate’s mind was replaying Melina’s “ how about you both take care of each other ” on a loop, thinking about the fact that it had been just another one of these things they do together. She took a breath, turning to her right to grab Yelena’s hand.
She didn’t want to fight. Certainly not about this.
“I know you worry about me. I worry about you too. Every time you leave for one of those missions, I… I get so scared. I barely sleep through the night and I just think about how risky what you do is and how you could get hurt and it scares me so much. I don't know what I would do if one day, you just don’t get back to me. And maybe it makes me selfish because you’re out there doing hero stuff and–”
“I am no hero.”
Kate’s mouth snapped closed, not expecting Yelena’s quiet interruption.
“You are to me.”
“Kate, you are the only one that could ever say that. I have done such bad things– I’m a monster.”
“Not all monsters do monstrous things,” the archer replied, eyebrows frowned. “What I’m trying to say is you need to give yourself a break.”
“And you worry about me,” Yelena said, almost like she was trying to convince herself that Kate was telling the truth.
The archer squeezed her fingers. “Of course I do. Yelena, I–” Her heart picked up a pace and she hesitated for a second before diving all in. “Я тебя люблю ( I love you ).”
Yelena clearly had not anticipated her to say that because her thumb over Kate’s hand froze their movements and she looked up.
“What?”
“Was that- Was that not I love you? Did I say something else? Oh God, I’m such an idiot. I’m so so–”
“Kate. Kate,” Yelena stopped her, a small smile on the corner of her lips. “You got it right.”
“Oh. Okay.”
“The accent is bad but it was fine.”
Kate let out a chuckle. “Right. Well the point stands.”
“You love me,” Yelena stated again and the archer could see the cogs turning in her brain.
She wondered if she was the first person to ever say that to Yelena.
Kate nodded. “Like it’s the easiest thing in the world,” she breathed out and then leaned back a little, worrying she was crossing boundaries. “But it’s okay if you don’t feel the same! I’m not saying that because I’m expecting you to love me back or anything because I know you have a lot to deal with and–”
Yelena cut her off with her lips. Kate made a surprised sound before closing her eyes, kissing her back. She took control of the kiss, the other woman not having that much experience in the field and guided her mouth on hers. Yelena sighed against her lips when Kate cupped her cheeks and the latter felt warm hands on her bare waist.
The archer took her bottom lip between hers and pulled away to change angles, relishing in the way Yelena chased after her instantly.
When they pulled away, breathless, Kate leaned her forehead on Yelena’s. She waited to see green eyes before smirking.
“Did you just shut me up with a kiss?”
“It worked, no?”
“You’ve been watching way too many movies,” Kate said, her skin burning with desire where Yelena was still touching her.
“Your fault.”
They stayed silent a moment, Kate’s eyes fixed on Yelena’s mouth that she just wanted to taste again.
“So…”
“я тоже тебя люблю,” Yelena murmured, voice barely above a whisper. She nuzzled her nose on Kate’s cheek and the latter felt her heart skip a beat.
Kate grinned before it fell from her face. “Wait, that means you love me too, right?”
Yelena kissed her again.