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Alexei is returning to the communal floors after wrapping up the weekly sparring session he has had with Barnes. While his super soldier buddy ducked into the showers for a quick refresh, Alexei chose to wipe off the sweat with his T-shirt. There isn't any time to waste because an extra-large bucket of popcorn and an equally oversized coke are awaiting him. The Late-Night Show with Will Adams is scheduled to air a special episode on the New Avengers tonight, and Alexei wants to be ready to shout profanities at the ridiculously huge television and maybe throw popped corn kernels in its direction at various intervals. A man has to have hobbies.
He's humming to himself, lost in his head, and walks with firm steps into the living room area.
But all be damned because when he makes towards the couch, the super soldier instincts tell Andreovitch to jerk his head towards the bar.
Now, Alexei considers himself an experienced spy, capable of picking up someone's presence long before entering a room. Unfortunately, this is the team's Ghost, who can go undetected even by the best assassins should she choose so. Silent as a grave, even as she…
The Red Guardian has to rub his eyes before heeding the scene playing out.
Starr has Bob seated on the bar - an open bottle of champagne discarded nearby - and stands between his parted legs, hands fisted in the collar of his shirt, pulling his head down to meet hers. Alexei worries for the lad for a hot second before realizing he's kissing Ava with the same intensity as she's kissing him. Bobby’s short intake of air resounds in the open room when he breaks the contact momentarily, and that breaks Alexei out of his stupor.
“Nope,” he says to himself and the room. More to himself, honestly.
He mechanically turns in place and starts walking towards the elevator, making brief eye contact with Bob, the latter's face rapidly coloring as the pair finally notices they have company. Had company - Alexei is getting the fuck out.
Bucky chooses that moment to come up on the floor, cocking his head to the side in silent question when he notices the old Guardian's hasty retreat. Alexei stops by Bucky and tries to articulate his confusion, but Starr's infuriating laugh reaches his ears before he gets a word out.
“What's wrong, old man?”
He stands straighter, rigid as a door, but risks taking a look at his comrades.
Ava is facing him, leaning comfortably on Bob's now closed legs. Her eyebrow is cocked and a provocative smile is plastered on her face. Alexei scoffs. Bobby, instead, has his palms over his face, hiding behind the top of Starr's head, a keening sound coming from his closed lips. Looking closely, his neck and collarbone are visible, red as the Soviet flag.
Alright then.
Next to him, Bucky snorts, coming to some sort of conclusion.
Alexei Andreovitch Shostakov cannot take any more shocking discoveries, so he dashes into the awaiting elevator and mashes the buttons, admiring the lift's carpeted floor. Minimalist design - horrible. He awkwardly stands there for a few moments.
The closing doors’ ding gives him just a tad more courage to look up one last time. Maybe he has hit his head while training earlier, and all that transpired in the last ten minutes has been an insane fever dream.
Instead, through the rapidly closing gap, he spots Barnes near Ava and the lad, speaking in hushed tones. His metal hand is rummaging through Bobby's hair, while Starr stands on her tiptoes to reach the soldier's lips and-
The doors seal shut.
-
Alexei hasn’t forbidden - or generally has any issue with teammates fornicating. On the contrary, he deems it great for the team morale. It would be arrogant to do so, considering he and Melina have tumbled plenty of times during the 1992 mission, and even lit the flame once more when the family liberated the brainwashed Black Widows.
What has him in a dilemma, though, is the fact that Ava Starr has been making out with Bob, and Bucky seems to also play a part in that.
Starr, whom Yelena has cheerfully referred to as her “girlfriend” for the past couple of months.
The old Avenger plops on the edge of his bed and rubs at his temples.
What adds to the confusion is the fact that Bobby’s mental state has been improving recently, to everyone's delight. He assumed it had been due to the lad's now-comforting relationship with Walker. Alexei has walked into the two men snuggling on the team sofa more times than he has fingers to count on. John, for all his rough exterior and even rougher first interaction with Bobby, has shown incredible patience towards the younger man and the team - and him especially - have been rooting for them to find peace in one another.
How short-sighted has Alexei been.
The Red Guardian sighs gravely and turns to gather all the pillows scattered around his room. He stacks them one on top of the other, forming a soft tower which precariously sways until he stabilizes it with a hand. It's roughly Lena's height. He then turns to dig for the O.X.E-inscribed agenda that he shoved under the bed last week, pulling it out and ripping out a blank page.
He's no artist, but the sketch he does of Yelena's face- yeah, he's no artist. It will do, though.
Alexei uses the sticky label of his deodorant to fasten the drawing on the top pillow of his tower. In the wardrobe mirror, he stares at himself and his makeshift daughter.
He needs to practice the conversation he's going to have with Yelena. There's no way he’s fucking this up for his baby girl.
Lord, he does not want her to suffer. She has gone through enough: losing Natasha, the blind desire for revenge that followed, and losing herself. He's to blame for leaving her alone, too scared not to hurt her further, too much of a coward.
“You are her father,” he says to the mirror, then turns to pillow-Yelena.
He looms over her this close, too intimidating for this type of conversation. Alexei takes a step back, then another, and another, and then stops. Still no good. The Hulk could probably fit in the distance between him and pillow-Lena.
Alexei steps forth again and crouches. From his angle, he can see a drool stain on the corner of the pillow that serves as Yelena's neck. All be damned, she's not a toddler, this wouldn't work either.
“Whatever, let's see how I can word this,” The Red Guardian mumbles, his fingers rubbing at his chin.
He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. Inhale, exhale, clear his throat. He peels open his eyes and stares at the cartoonish portrayal of Yelena's face.
“Sweetling, I have to tell you something,” he intones gravely, counting two seconds between each word. Inhale, exhale. Inhale again, deeper. “Your girlfriend has been cheating on you with your teammate and with your friend, who's also your teammate's boyfriend, who also probably has no idea that his boyfriend has been cheating on him with your teammate and your girlfriend.”
The monologue picks up speed towards the end, and Alexei is suddenly out of breath. Inhale. Exhale.
This sucks. He sucks at this. It would be better to have Valentina's assistant have this conversation. But no, that's too impersonal. Yelena is his daughter, and it's his responsibility, whether he’s going to potentially break her heart or not.
That thought alone breaks his own heart.
He bares his teeth and stomps in frustration. Pillow-Yelena crumbles to the floor.
-
When the Sentry lost control in New York and pulled most people into the Void - Alexei had not been afraid. He head-on trusted his daughter and followed her into the shadows to aid Bob in facing his other side. He has no regrets in doing so, even if he had to come face-to-face with some of his deepest insecurities. The winds turned in their favor afterwards, with the team working and sticking together for a greater cause.
He really hopes he won't be the one to bring it down.
Alexei stands at the door of Yelena's bedroom, the O.X.E. agenda gripped in his hand. The ‘speech’ he spent twelve hours and thirteen pages on is scribbled inside.
He raises a hand and knocks firmly. Stands back and closes his eyes.
There's no immediate answer, but his trained hearing picks up rummaging from inside. He knocks again.
“Lena?” he calls out for good measure. “I've got something to talk about.”
Still nothing.
Then, a thud, further into the room. Not too loud, but not quiet enough. He hears it well.
Alexei is an old man, but thanks to the super soldier serum, his heart beats as true as a youngling. It beats very fast at the moment.
“Yelena? I'm coming in,” he ignores all proper etiquette rules.
The New Avengers’ de facto leader's room is a complete mess. There’s bedding all over the floor, sheets and pillows scattered alongside a diverse amount of clothing. Yelena's phone is charging on the nightstand, except the charger is not plugged in. Alexei frowns - he knows Lena is not a careless person.
“Wait, wha… Dad?” A squeak so unlike his daughter rings from the far-right corner of the room.
Alexei Andreovitch Shostavok’s eyes follow that direction. He then freezes.
He's an experienced military man, and like his time serving in the Soviet Armed Forces, he objectively and detachedly observes the situation.
There's his daughter, hair ruffled and lips swollen, eyes wide as saucers. She wears a shirt too big for her, long sleeves rolled at her elbows. There aren't any pants on her. Moreover, she's not standing on her own, no.
Yelena Belova is held up and pinned to the wall, her legs hooked around John Walker’s torso. Jonathan, who is wearing the opposite of Lena - sweatpants but no shirt. The next Captain America, whose head is turned to the side to annoyingly regard the person who dared disturb the pair in their making-out.
The Red Guardian's agenda drops on the floor with a thud.
His super soldier comrade, who Alexei swears is happily dating Bobby - whom he caught sucking face with his daughter's girlfriend who has also kissed Bucky Barnes who -
Nononono -
He's not going down that train of thought again.
“Удачи!” Alexei salutes, then backs off and shuts the door. Good luck.
From behind the door, he hears a muffled but loud, “спасибо!”
Thanks, answered his comrade.
-
“So let me get this straight as a rifle. Ava is your girlfriend, but she's also dating Bucky and Bob, who have been dating you and comrade John, who is also…ugh,” Alexei drops his head between his hands. He’s sitting heavily on the team sofa, the rerun of Will Adam's New Avengers episode playing on low volume on their huge television.
Yelena laughs and pats his knee.
“There, there,” she soothes.
The knot in Alexei’s chest loosens slowly.
Laughing, the Red Guardian does it a lot. Booming enough to rattle windows, assure his allies and frighten his foes.
His daughter's laughter is more reserved, but honest. It sounds good coming from his baby girl.
“Lena! You know what this means?” He throws his hands in the air. “Three more people need to sit down for The Shovel Talk!”
“Oh my god,” Ava comments from the back of the sofa where she is perched. Yelena rubs her forehead.
“Bobby! Lad, come here for a second,” he calls out. Bob starles from his seat in the armchair, dropping Alexei's agenda which he has been reading through. The boy yelps when Alexei tries to grab at him and sprints out of his seat towards Bucky, who had been minding his own business. He strategically hides behind the former Winter Soldier.
“I'm good!” Bob says, wrapping his arms around Barnes’s waist to use him as a living shield.
Walker huffs from his seat on the floor. Alexei reaches to ruffle his hair because he’s old and because he can. It just annoys his unwilling target.
Yelena is still smiling at his antics. It suits her greatly.