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So here is the thing, their fight was just fucking stupid. They had had such a bad week and Yelena for the life of her couldn't pinpoint why they'd even ended up in this mess.
After not having a lead on the kingpin hunt for a fucking eternity they finally had something, or at least they thought they had.
The warehouse should have been easy.
They were both highly skilled in what they did, but even a Black Widow and her Hawkeye had their limits.
Apparently, those limits were thirty-five men in fucking tracksuits. And really Yelena should have been more careful. She should have been faster, and she should have anticipated that the huge dude had a knife, but alas, she hadn't.
Kate had. Of fucking course she had.
Kate noticed the knife a fraction before it was almost too late, and pushed Yelena out of the way.
But, because it is Kate Bishop, she really didn't account for her own safety before throwing herself in danger to safe another person.
So she ended up having a deep gash in her forearm. Said forearm was now resting on the bed beside her, thoughtfully cleaned and needly wrapped.
And of course Yelena was terrified. So terrified in fact, that she couldn't think straight. With Kate clutching her forearm, Yelena had gone wild to get them out of there in time. She managed, how she couldn't tell you, but she did it.
But in her emotional state, Yelena had lost her cool. She had made the terrible mistake and voiced all her insecurities and all her fears.
That someday, when Kate wasn't so lucky, she would get killed for being so reckless.
What Yelena failed to convey was her fear of losing Kate Bishop. Of losing the one true love in her life because if that happened, Yelena would not be able to recover.
And Kate, bless her, had gone completely off the rails. She herself had had the same thoughts about Yelena's safety.
Both not really seeing the side of the other. But having lived through the same. Yelena had in mind to go for a walk to cool off. To collect her bearings, except they had made each other a promise. To never leave. To never be the couple that ran from their problems.
That's how they ended up on top of their covers in their now shared apartment. Both starring at the ceiling not saying a word, laying close together but not touching.
Yelena had had the urge to cry when she was little. She had cried after being separated from Natasha, she had cried after losing her sister. Today, though, she had not let herself cry.
But she made the fatal mistake to glance at the archer.
Kate had unshed tears in her eyes. Blinking them away rapidly after noticing Yelena's gaze. The damage, however, was done, Yelena had seen and had already started to blame herself for hurting her archer more.
But now was not the time to beat herself up about that, she could do that later. Now was the time to make it better. Make it right.
So Yelena sat up against the headboard and looked at Kate expectantly. Kate was slower to get up, wincing along the way because her side had also bruised by now.
After they both sat up, Yelena moved her pinky slowly to link it with Kate's. The archer looked tense, but simultaneously relieved at the contact.
They sat in uncomfortable silence, pinkies intertwined.
"Yelena please say something." Kate mumbled.
"Time to be brave" Yelena mumbled to herself and made herself look up into Kate's searching eyes.
"Mой ястреб..." the nickname brings tears to both their eyes. Kate turns her hand to clutch Yelena's.
"Yelena, I"
"No, please мой ястреб, let me speak first. I need you to hear me out before you speak." Yelena pleaded. Kate squeezed her hand in answer, nodding for her to continue.
"I was selfish. I shouldn't have called you reckless, because you are not. Really you're not. You're my best friend, my everything. If something would happen to you I don't think I could survive. I am so grateful for your kindness and your partnership. But it also terrifies me endlessly." Yelena began to ramble. Forcing herself to take a deep breath and closing her eyes for a second, she tried to collect herself before choosing her next words carefully.
"I love you, мой ястреб." she said, helplessly shrugging her shoulders.
"I love you with all my heart and all my soul." Kate's blue eyes began to widen. They had never said those words to each other before. Yelena just admitting them so clearly was a shock to her system.
"Yelena what does that even ..:" Kate tried to speak, but Yelena's next words shut her up.
"I am so deeply in love with you that sometimes I think I will explode with all the love I have for you. Seeing you hurt, because of something I said is a thousand times worse than seeing you physically hurt because of actions I had a part in."
"Yelena they were my actions, I decided to do what I did, because I couldn't live with myself if something happened to you that I could've prevented. Don't you understand?" Kate whispered desperately. Yelena's eyebrows shot together in confusion.
"Kate, you were hurt because I was careless, because I was not good enough..." Yelena began to reason. But Kate quickly shakes her head. She squeezes Yelena's hand in hers tighter.
"You are not hearing what I am saying." Kate says. Starring into Yelena's eyes, and raising her uninjured hand up to cradle Yelena's cheek, Kate whispers gently
"I am in love with you too, you fucking moron. I can't see you get hurt as much as you can't see me get hurt. I am with you. I am on your team, on your side." Kate pleaded.
"Yelena, look at me." She tries to direct Yelena's gaze directly to her. And when their eyes look, both are incapable to breath. The intensity of their gazes to much to bear. But simultaneously not enough to convey their feelings.
Who moves first is a question that neither could truly answer, but the soft kiss that is mixed with their shared tears and their desperate breaths is a thing of beauty.
"Yelena I need you to understand that all of me loves all of you." Kate pleads with her. Placing their foreheads together. Leaning back a little Kate wipes at the tears that fall out of Yelena's eyes and roll down her cheek.
"I love you мой любимый" Yelena whispers. Kate smiles.
"мой любимый. What does that mean?" She asks. Yelena's ensuing smirk is maybe Kates new favourite expression.