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Yelena Belova had developed a certain bad habit. No, it not that habit – the one where she tried drown out the noise in her head with drink and drug (though yes, she would concede that it was a bad habit that would send her to an even earlier grave) – It was the one that just maybe, possibly, could just be that little bit more destructive than all her others.
You see, Yelena had sticky fingers. A shiny lapel pin from a certain ambassador she was sent to assassinate? Well, he won’t be missing it as it sits with all the brooches and pins in a box under her bed. Files and hard drives that should have been blasted into smithereens? Flipped through once and then sat there collecting dust on her shelves.
To be fair, she did not know where this habit came from – definitely not the Red Room – but it really would hurt no one but herself if one day some employer discovered that there existed a pretty collection of trinkets that could be used to link them to their crimes. And so with every mission she came back from, her little museum of job trophies grew and grew until there was barely any space for anything else in her life.
Things like these are never a problem until, well, they become a problem.
***
“Is that thing alive?” John Walker asked, cocking an eyebrow as he eyed the carry-cage Yelena had perched carefully on her lap. Her duffle and backpack containing the rest of her life was carelessly thrown into the back with the other’s bags and luggage, but she had treated the carry-cage extremely carefully, worried about unduly distressing the little animal within. As the last person to be picked up, she had the dubious honour of being squeezed in the back with John and Bob.
Yelena shot him the most offended look she could muster. “Of course! Some of us know how to keep our little things alive.” Low blow? Probably, but she didn’t care. She had grown rather protective over the guinea pig she had picked up from OXE lab in Kuala Lumpur.
John spluttered, failing to find a suitable comeback. He settled instead for crossing his arms and turning his head away from her to glare out of the other window like a petulant child, and not the hardened man he was. Bob broke out into a wide grin and reached over John to fuss over the guinea pig.
“Does she have a name?” he asked innocently as he tried to poke a finger through the slim metal bars of the cage. The guinea pig trotted up to the bars and gave his finger an experimental sniff, delighting Bob immensely.
“G-Force.” Yelena said proudly. It had taken her a while to decide on the name, which had come to her in a stroke of genius as she was laying in bed that very night.
“G-Force?” Ava Starr, sat in the front seat, and John, whose petulance was short-lived, both whipped their heads back to stare at her incredulously.
“You know that’s the name of a movie,” Ava pointed out with a huff. “The guinea pigs were not called G-Force.”
“Yeah,” John chimed in, “the orange pig was called Darwin. You could have called your piggy Darwin.”
“Why am I being attacked for my choices? She is a brave agent who has survived battle by my side. We busted out of Malaysia together. She deserves a strong, heroic name, not some lame shit like ‘Darwin’. I don’t give you guys shit for your lame ass names – that you picked out for yourselves, if I can remind you.”
“Play nicely, Yelena,” Alexei admonished from the driver’s seat. “We don’t want to scare everyone away.”
“It would be really funny if the New Avengers broke up literally on the day they’re supposed to move in together.” Ava snarked.
“Oh fuck off.”
***
Moving into the Avengers Tower was a much quicker process than anyone had planned for. There was something to be said about the considerable lack of possessions that the Thunderbolts had brought with them. It was only late afternoon when everyone had unpacked their things, and were lounging around in a sitting room so newly furnished the smell of freshly dried paint still lingered in the air.
The lift doors opened with a soft ping, admitting one Bucky Barnes, who was fashionably late, claiming congressional duties in the morning he could not quite get away from. Yelena privately thought it was because he did not want to ride in any car Alexei was driving. She could empathise.
His gaze landed on the bunch, who looked relatively cosy and settled as they chowed down on takeaway from the pizza joint across the road. And then he saw it.
“What the hell –"
Yelena chucked her uneaten crust across the room with surprising force and accuracy. It bounced harmlessly off his chest (mostly harmless - it left a bright red tomato sauce stain on his white shirt).
“Don’t even start. Her name is G-Force, and she is my guinea pig.”
“That is not a guinea pig,” Bucky said incredulously as Alexei gently picked up G-Force and walked towards him, who instinctively took a step back. “That thing is the size of a small cat.”
“She is very nice,” he assured as he proffered the now snoozing guinea pig towards Bucky for pats.
“Where did you even get it?” Bucky asked as he gingerly stroked its back with his free hand. He relaxed a little when the animal did not wake up and continued napping in the warmth of Alexei’s large palm.
“We joined up in the OXE lab in KL. She was plotting great revenge; I could see the fire in her beady little eyes.”
“OXE lab?!” John exclaimed, suddenly horrified. “I thought you got her from some pet shop!”
“Do not sully my girl’s good name. She is not some common rat from a pet shop, she is forged from fire.”
“A literal lab rat from OXE’s top secret KL lab is just chilling in the Avengers Tower? And we’re okay with it?! What if it kills us in our sleep?!”
“If you get killed by a guinea pig, you deserve it,” Ava remarked. “Just make sure to die quietly and don’t wake the rest of us up. Be a good housemate.”
Bob shrugged. “I mean, technically, I'm an OXE lab rat too, and y’all are letting me crash up here,” he pointed out. “Plus, G is cool. See?”
Indeed, G-Force had woken up with the commotion and was sniffing Bucky’s metal hand with interest. Gently, Alexei transferred the animal into Bucky’s cupped hands. Her bright pink nose twitched a couple of times, and she fussed about a little, but ultimately curled up and settled peacefully into his hands.
The look on Bucky’s face was indescribable. The usual tension in his visage had softened imperceptibly, and there was something almost awestruck in his gaze as he watched the little rise and fall of the guinea pig’s body while it rested in his hands.
“Animals don’t usually like me.” He said quietly, after a long moment. Gingerly, revently, as if he were holding the most precious treasure in the world, he transferred G-Force back to her owner. Without another word, he grabbed his bags and disappeared down the hallway.
“We broke him. We actually broke him.” Yelena said, to the agreement of all who witnessed the scene.
“The pig isn’t that bad after all,” John agreed, reaching out to stroke her back. Lightning quick, she turned around and nipped his fingertips with a squeak.
“Ow! Bitch!” He cursed. “Fuck that, I take it back. Yelena, control your rat or I’ll –”
“Hey! Don’t threaten my sister!” Bob chucked a wad of used tissues in John’s direction, which John evaded with such vigour that one would think he was being shot at instead.
“Your sister?” Ava said, aghast. “Where the fuck did that come from?”
“Well, yeah, since we were both made in the same lab, that makes us siblings, no?”
“I think I’m going to stop you right there Bob, just right there.” Yelena said gently, picking herself up from the floor with every intention to retreat into her room. That was enough social interaction for the day.
“Take good care of my granddaughter!” Alexei quipped to her retreating figure, to which she flipped him the bird.
***
In the quiet of her own room, Yelena watched G-Force acquaint herself with her new enclosure, tunnelling under a huge pile of sawdust that sprayed everywhere. She couldn't even bring herself to be mad about the mess.
“Don’t listen to those mean people,” she said without any malice, “they don’t mean it, they love you. But not as much as I do, my little G.”
Half-heartedly, she expected G-Force to say something back (she didn’t forget what OXE was up to in Malaysia), but thankfully, her guinea pig, for now, was just a regular guinea pig that did not speak.
But it did turn around and squeak once, a sound that was so heart-meltingly cute Yelena was willing to believe that G-Force understood exactly what was going on around her.
And for the first time in a long time, Yelena found herself smiling when no one was watching.