Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

Yelena Belova always believed that the first time something happened, it was a fluke, an accident of sorts. Second time, it’s a coincidence, an uncanny chance in this miserable game called life. The third time would be enemy action, and that’s a problem that needed to be addressed immediately.

Luckily for those who did it, they were only on the second. Still, she didn’t like patterns, especially ones that involved them in any capacity. Her team might have been a mess of walking disasters, but they were her disasters.

But somehow, Bob—who wasn’t even in the spell’s line of sight because he was home washing the dishes or something—took the hit.

No one realized it until they stumbled into Avengers Tower and found a small child cowering under the control panels, wide‑eyed and terrified. For a moment, nobody said anything. The kid, who was not any older than twelve, blinked up at them, lower lip trembling in a thick sweater that was practically three times his size. The sleeves hung past his hands, the collar drooping off one shoulder.

Yelena’s brain stalled.

She’d seen many crazy things before—seen people turned into dust only to come back five years later to her sister dead, the US president turning into the Red Hulk, a spaceship from another universe that confirmed the multiverse existed. Just two months prior, she was turned into a child herself and will personally tase anyone who brings it up again…besides Bob.

“Tell me someone else is seeing this,” Ava muttered, glancing toward the others.

“No, I see it,” Walker whispered. “I’m just choosing not to believe it.” 

“Same,” Bucky grunted, pinching the bridge of his nose. He rolled his stiff neck, assessing the situation with a new lens. “So that spell did, I presume, hit its intended target. Yeah, that about tracks for our week.” 

A moment later, Alexei stomped in from the helicopter pad after taking “much-needed candid shots” for their social media page, making himself larger than life as always and twice as loud. Yelena and the others couldn’t even warn him before he threw his arms wide in greeting.

“What is this? Why is everyone standing like they just saw Бабай, ah?” he asked, and then his eyes landed on the minor child hunched in the corner. His eyes practically lit up in delight, sparking across his face as recognition settled in.

Yelena hissed, “Alexei—”

“Is that Bob? Did he get hit with the same spell as Lena?” he laughed.  Before anyone could stop him, Alexei started forward, voice dropping several octaves in delighted disbelief. “Oh, look at him! So small! Come to Red Guardian, little comrade!” 

The kid flinched. 

It wasn’t dramatic—just a tiny twitch—but Yelena saw it. The way his shoulders hunched, like he was trying to fold himself in to appear smaller. His fingers twisted into the hem of the sweater, knuckles white. Alexei froze mid‑step, joy slipping from his face as fast as it had appeared. The silence that followed hit harder than any explosion. 

Right.

They’d all seen it, the flickering reel of Bob’s past projected in the interconnected shame room. It felt like a lifetime ago now, though none of them had managed to forget a single frame since. 

How his father’s hand raised more often than it rested, the shouting, the bruises hidden under those sleeves. None of them had spoken about it after, mainly because they hadn’t known how. But seeing that same terror reflected in the eyes of a suddenly small boy?

It hit like a sucker punch. 

Yelena stepped in before anyone could speak, her tone sharp enough to cut.

“Okay. Everyone, back up. Give him space,” she snapped, placing herself in front of Bob with her back towards the younger child. “Bucky, contact Dr. Strange. Walker, buy some clothes. Ava, pick up lunch for us, maybe something American.”

They all knew all these simple things could be ordered on their phones and would arrive in under an hour by Mel, but they also knew better. Yelena wasn’t giving out errands but buying Bob a little silence, a little space to breathe.

Because, unlike when Yelena was a child who trusted everyone she met, Bob had learned early that trust was dangerous. Earning it back would take more than words. It would take time, and quiet, and proof, and it didn’t help that they were off to a terrible start with him being de-aged in a strange place alone.

Ava gave a thumbs up, and with a click of a button, the white mask covered her face, and she was gone. Walker and Bucky went straight to the elevator and were out of sight in a matter of seconds.

“What about me, Малышка?” Alexei asked, pointing to himself.

“You…stay in your room,” she established. “And don’t come out until I say do.”

“What? Lena, but—”

“Now, Alexei,” she interjected.

She watched her dad’s shoulders slump, a look of exaggerated heartbreak spreading across his face. It almost tugged at her—almost. But she couldn’t risk him scaring the kid again, not when volume was Alexei’s default setting. 

It was only when everyone was gone that she closed her eyes for a moment to recollect herself. Then, she turned to him.

She couldn’t imagine what Bob was feeling right now, especially waking up in a world that never felt safe, even when he was grown. He peeked up through messy hair, lip caught between his teeth. He didn’t move, didn’t speak, just stared at her like he wasn’t sure if he was allowed to. 

Yelena crouched slowly, careful not to reach out yet.

“Hey. It’s okay, you’re safe. Nobody’s going to hurt you, okay?” 

It wasn’t one of her better speeches—too gentle, too raw—but it worked. The tension in his narrow shoulders eased, fraction by fraction. He blinked at her, still looking rather uncertain, eyes too big for his face and full of a fear that didn’t belong to a child so young.

The silence stretched, broken only by the hum of the Tower’s systems. Yelena stayed where she was, crouched in that space between closeness and distance, letting him take the steps instead. After a moment, he started to fiddle with his long shirt.

“Who are you?” he asked timidly. “W-where am I?”

Her mouth parted, ready to quickly reassure him that he’s safe because he’s with the Avengers.

Then, she did a quick math in her head.

If the Avengers had formed in 2012 to defend Earth when the aliens attacked New York, Bob wouldn’t have known who they were at his current age, even if she had said they were the New Avengers.

“You’re in New York,” she settled with and decided to sit on the ground, legs crossed. It seemed to ease him further to be around the same height now as he took a small step forward and stared at her shyly. “Do you know Stark Towers?”

He nodded.

“Yeah, that’s where Iron Man lives, right?”

Lived, but she wasn’t going to be the one to break that news. Not to a child already carrying too much fear for his size. So she just nodded, keeping her voice steady. “Yeah. That’s right. We’re his friends. We defend New York when he’s busy doing other important stuff.”

“Oh.” He shifted his weight, looking down at his sleeves before glancing back up. “So…do you help people too, then?”

Yelena gave another nod. “When we can.” 

“Okay,” he murmured, twisting the hem of his sweater. “That’s… good, uh…”

“Yelena,” she introduced.

He said her name as if it were something fragile, testing its weight on his tongue. 

“Yelena,” he repeated, softer this time, almost a whisper, like he was trying to memorize the sound, as though names might slip away if he didn’t hold on tight enough. Something in her chest tightened.

She’d heard her name said a thousand different ways—mocked, shouted, cursed—but never in a way Bob had ever said it just now. The same way he still says it even as a child who doesn’t know her—careful, steady, like the sound itself means safety. It sounded like he was chasing light with the word, like her name was something bright enough to hold onto. 

“You walked into a room; you made it brighter.”

Yelena looked away for a second, pretending to adjust her posture, because the weight of Bob’s tone when it came to her name had unexpectedly lodged behind her ribs by what her daddy once said. It was ridiculous, really. She was supposed to be the composed one, the professional.

Instead, a twelve‑year‑old version of her partner had managed to undo her in two syllables. 

When she looked back, Bob was still staring at her, eyes wide and searching, like he was trying to decide if repeating her name would make her disappear or stay. 

“Are you…” Bob trailed off, his voice wavered, “My friend?” 

Yelena hesitated, the question catching her off guard. Friend. It wasn’t a label she’d go with. But the way he said it, so small and uncertain, with anticipation tucked behind the cracks, made her answer come faster than she expected. 

“Yeah,” she said softly. “Yeah, I’m your friend, Bob.”

For the first time, he smiled. It was uneven and wobbly, tugging at the corner of his mouth like he wasn’t sure he was allowed to be that happy. His cheeks flushed pink, and he ducked his head, suddenly fascinated by the way his sleeves swallowed his hands. 

“How… how did I end up here?” he asked, voice barely above a whisper.  “W-where’s Mom?”

Yelena drew in a slow breath, considering her word choices.

She could tell him the truth, but what good would it do? That the spell someone had cast had backfired, that he’d been hit by what looked like an accident in a long chain of their bad luck when it came to them?

None of that would make sense to a frightened kid who’d just woken up somewhere unfamiliar. 

So she leaned back slightly, her tone cautious but kind.

“There was an accident. A little bit of magic and an awful amount of bad timing.” 

His brow furrowed. “Magic?” 

“Mhm, but don’t worry. We’ve got people working on fixing it to send you back home,” she settled for. “Your Mom has already been informed of your arrival, and thought you might like to stay in New York for a few days until things calm down.”

He hesitated, eyes dropping to the floor. “Right. Until things…calm down.” 

The word didn’t sound like comfort but more like wishful thinking. 

Shit, probably not the best thing to say.

“Until then, you’re going to stay here. We have unlimited food, TV, and toys that anyone would ever want at your age.”

He looked at her again, the uncertainty still lingering but softened now by a faint glimmer of trust.

“So…while they fix things, I can stay here? With you?”

She couldn’t help but chuckle. “Yeah, you can, Bob. You can trust me.”

Yelena found herself holding her breath, hoping that somewhere in the back of his mind, buried beneath the years he’d lost, those words would sound familiar. The same way she’d said them once before, in the Vault, when everything had gone to hell, and trust had been all they had left. 

Yet he continued to stare at her, eyes blank with innocent awkwardness instead of recognition.

Whatever flicker of memory she’d hoped for wasn’t there. Still, he nodded at the very end, slow and small. Gently, she held out her hand, and he instantly took it. If only she knew in that very moment, she had awakened a side of Bob she had never witnessed before.

“What do you mean Dr. Strange wasn’t there?” Yelena hissed, throwing daggers at Bucky like this was all his fault. “Doesn’t he live there in that building? How can he not be home? Wasn’t there someone else there who could find him?”

“It’s not that simple, he’s currently in another dimension, or whatever it is sorcerers do,” Bucky muttered, collapsing onto the stool. “Wong said he’s ‘unreachable,’ which I’m guessing means ‘busy saving reality again,’ but I did leave a message.” 

“Who the hell is Wong?” Walker asked, poking at the control pad like it personally offended him. He wasn’t sure what half these glowing buttons did despite living here for years now but messing with them still felt more productive than doing nothing.   

“The leader of Masters of the Mystic Arts,” Bucky answered while Yelena started pacing.

Walker’s face scrunched together, looking at him like Bucky had just started talking like someone from the 1940s. “You’re kidding. ‘Masters of the Mystic Arts’? That sounds like a bad comic book title. Am I supposed to understand what any of that means?”

“It’s one of the Big Three.”

“Of course it is,” he groaned, rolling his head around his shoulders. “I presume wizard? Are they the same as sorcerers now? Actually, why don’t we name them as magic? Doesn’t that sound better and broader of a category?”

Ava decided it was the perfect moment to phase into the room and right next to Walker, making the man practically jump out of his skin. Bucky was barely able to hold back the grin while she tapped the button, the white mask drawing back.

“Why don’t we call them magicians while we’re at it? Maybe they can pull out a functioning brain out of your helmet while they’re at it,” she answered with ease.

“Christ, woman, how long have you been there?” Walker demanded, still clutching his chest. 

“Seeing as you constantly remind me that I can’t hold it for longer than a minute, do the math and I’ll let you use that big head of yours if brain damage hasn’t already taken over what little real estate’s left,” she fired back, just in time for Bucky to snort.

“The entire minute. I’m surprised that you haven’t tried holding it longer so you can gawk—” He didn’t get to finish. Ava’s fist shot out in a blur, connecting squarely with his ribs. Walker doubled over with a sharp groan. “Ow, Jesus, woman!” 

“Language, you used to kiss America’s ass with that mouth?” Ava said flatly, crossing one leg over the next and holding up two bags. Yelena made a beeline for it to relieve the flickering across her face for the first time all morning.

“Thank you.”

“Bob’s usual order is there and yours. Of course, vanilla shake for him,” Ava attested, giving another thumbs up.

“What about the rest of us?” Walker chimed in, and she scowled.

“Can you wait for even a bloody moment before making this about you?” Ava shot back, digging through the bag she had on her lap. “If you must know, yours is in here. The kid gets priority. Try not to cry about it because I didn’t forget about you. Unfortunately.”

Walker scowled, muttering something under his breath that Yelena didn’t care enough to decode with the current problem that, frankly, she was annoyed no one seemed as concerned. On the other hand, Walker was quickly appeased with the presentation of a double cheeseburger and a cup of soda.

To which he only took a sip, and then his entire face scrunched.

“Is this diet?”

“Congratulations, Captain Cardio, you can taste the difference like most Americans when it comes to their soda. Next time I’ll bring you a salad and a participation ribbon,” she deadpanned. “I also stopped by and got you a cup of your usual coffee, Bucky. Hot black coffee, no milk or sugar.”

Ava offered Bucky a simple cup of hot coffee, who looked surprised.

“You got my order right.”

Ava arched a brow. “Please. You order the same thing every time you’re stressed.” 

Their hands lingered a second longer than they should have. Ava’s fingers brushed the edge of his glove where his fingers protrude. It’s soft, brief, but enough to send that flicker of awareness sparking between them. Neither of them looked away right away; they just paused. 

“Thanks,” Bucky said finally, voice low, rougher than usual. 

“Sure,” she replied, already looking away.

Her face stayed perfectly composed, but the faint blush creeping up her ears told a different story. Bucky focused on his coffee, though his hand tightened around the cup just a little too much.

Huh.

Across the room, Yelena clocked the entire exchange from the corner of her eye and then opted to do nothing more but sigh. She didn’t have time for this and definitely didn’t have the patience to watch whatever slow-burning nonsense was brewing between them. 

Confessing was very easy and straightforward; why dance around it?

“How long do you think Dr. Strange will be gone for?” Yelena questioned after setting the burger and fries out neatly for Bob when he was back.

“It’s hard to say,” Bucky admitted, rubbing the back of his neck with his Vibranium arm. “But if there’s a silver lining, Strange already knows the spell to fix it. Shouldn’t take him long to fix this once he gets back from…wherever he is.” 

“Where’s Bob anyway?” Ava asked inquisitively, looking around.

“I made him take a shower first before eating,” Yelena replied, reaching for a napkin to wipe her hands. “Figured clean food tastes better after you're warm and helps him relax so we can have a briefing first.”

“What is there to brief about?” Walker asked through a mouthful of burger.

Yelena looked unimpressed.

Yelena raised a brow. “You mean besides Bob turning to a kid, whoever is behind this magic, the interdimensional vacation of the only guy who can fix it—no, nothing important at all.” 

Ava chuckled. “Don’t overwhelm him with big words, Yelena. He’s still chewing.” 

Bucky hid a smirk behind his cup. “And doing it loudly.” 

“Haha, shit on Walker day again, huh?” he grumbled, wiping at his mouth with the back of his hand, much to the two women’s utter disgust. “I’m so glad to see team morale is absolutely thriving.” 

“Don’t flatter yourself,” Ava maintained. “We do this even when you’re not here.” 

At that, Walker only grinned smugly. “Aw, you guys talk about me?”

“Mostly as a cautionary—”

“Lena…can I come out now?” Alexei called from the intercoms, his tone dripping with sadness and theatrical despair. “I promise to be on my best behavior around the little Bob. Aren’t we all supposed to be a team?”

Yelena groaned and slanted her head back toward the ceiling.

“Sometimes, I don’t think we’re even Avengers with a Z but a kindergarten,” she muttered.

“It’s about to be with how many times we’ve been hit with that stupid spell,” Walker mused, shoving fries in his mouth and wagging his brows playfully. “Hey, who do you think is next? Should we take a bet?”

“Don’t even joke about it,” Ava hissed.

“I bet Bucky would have been an adorable kid, wouldn’t you agree?” Walker smugly rodded, the grin evident in his voice. Yelena rubbed her temples, heading over to the control panel and pressing a button that connected right to Alexei’s room.

“You can come out, but you’re using indoor voices. Я не шучу. If Bob gets scared, that’s it, you’re back in there until Strange returns,” she maintained firmly into the mic. The intercom crackled as something heavy clattered in the background, followed by an unmistakable thump.

Ava didn’t even look up from the chicken bites she got.

“He tripped over his own stupid boots again, didn’t he?” 

“No doubt,” Yelena murmured, rubbing her temple while she heard him marching towards them. “Okay, Alexei, we’re going to do a practice—what the hell are you wearing?”

It took exactly two seconds of silence before Walker choked on his fries, Ava blinked like her brain had short-circuited, and Bucky just stared with coffee halfway to his mouth. There, Alexei stood by the doorway, chest puffed out, wearing what could only be described as a massive brown bear onesie. It was complete with floppy ears and a fuzzy tail. To make it worse, he was also wearing a pair of oversized black sunglasses.

“Ta-da!” Alexei announced, throwing his arms open with the confidence of a man who thought this was completely normal. “Friendly! Soft! Approachable for a small child! Because I am a smart man with an equally smart solution, I decided to dress up as a bear because who doesn’t want to hug a bear?”

Does he just have that lying around?

Yelena stared at him, expression flat enough to rival stone. “You look like a rejected mascot.”

“He actually looks like he’s about to lure people into his broken limo,” Walker scoffed.  

“Ah, but you must feel it, so very soft like hugging a bear!” Alexei exclaimed.

“I don’t want to hug a bear…or you,” Yelena assured, shaking her head.

“Come on, one hug for your papa?”

“No.”

“Lena, we haven’t hugged in a while and—”

“I will not hug you in a bear costume,” Yelena cut in, tone clipped. 

He clutched at his chest in mock heartbreak. “What kind of daughter denies her father a hug?” 

“The kind whose father looks like he escaped from a children’s birthday party,” Ava remarked. 

“The kind who looked like the Santa suit didn’t work out, so you downgraded to Party City bear,” Walker muttered, smirking around a fry. Alexei gaped at every single one of them in dismay, like they personally spat on him and his entire lineage.

“You—”

Suddenly, a small voice echoed down the hall.

“Yelena?”

Whatever tension or headaches Yelena had before disappeared when she saw Bob poking his head out from the hallway. His hair was still damp and sticking up in every direction, his long woolly sweater that Walker picked up still seeming too big in his small frame.

Her expression relaxed instantly as she ushered him over. “Hey, девочка. You all clean?” 

“Yeah!”

It was then that the rest of the team realized Bob didn’t even glance at anyone else. Not at Ava, and definitely not at Alexei, Bucky, or Walker—like the rest of them were just background noise he’d decided wasn’t worth acknowledging.

He only looked at Yelena. 

His wide eyes found hers with that same timid focus he always had around her, like she was the only safe place in a room full of strangers. Yelena’s lips twitched into something dangerously close to a smile as she brushed a bit of damp hair off his forehead. 

“You hungry, Bob?” she asked, her voice instinctively softening in a way none of them ever heard when directed at anyone else. Bob nodded shyly, but he didn’t even try to climb onto the high stool.

He just frowned and made a show of struggling to get on.

In an instant, Yelena was already scooping him up with practiced ease and setting him there like it was the most natural thing in the world. He barely weighed anything in her arms; still, she adjusted him carefully, making sure his feet didn’t dangle too awkwardly off the seat. 

Across the room, Walker raised a brow. “Pretty sure he’s old enough to climb.”

“Hush,” Ava hissed.

The team watched as Yelena pushed the plate of burger and fries toward Bob, her entire posture shifting with shoulders relaxed and expression soft. It was almost disarming to see her like that, gentleness replacing all that dry bite she usually carried. 

Walker leaned over to Ava, muttering, “She’s completely blind when it comes to that kid.” 

“Well, yeah, what did you expect?” Ava responded quietly, eyes softening for a moment.

“It’s funny how child Yelena was so shy, and Bob is the complete opposite when it comes to her,” Bucky muttered.

“Lena was much cuter as a child,” Alexei grumbled, crossing his arms, but it only made him look somehow more ridiculous in his brown bear getup. Yelena rolled her eyes at them and then turned to get her hot sauce from the cabinet.

Only then did Bob glance up from his burger, and the entire room seemed to dip a few degrees colder. His gaze swept over them, sharp and unblinking, like he was silently daring anyone to say something else. 

For a kid, it was unnervingly adult-like. 

Yet as soon as Yelena turned, he immediately masked it up with a grin.

“Oh,” Ava muttered under her breath, breaking the silence. “So it’s like that.”

Without needing to say anything more, all four of them knew it was going to be a long, painful stretch of days—or maybe weeks—before Dr. Strange got back and turned Bob to his rightful age.

“Yelena, Yelena, Yelena!”

If you were to ask Yelena to distinguish the difference between little teenage Bob and Fanny when she just brought the American Akita home from the shelter, the answer would’ve been more complicated than she’d admit. 

They were both quiet at first—skittish, careful—but desperate to trust.

They both followed her, eyes full of questions she wasn’t sure she knew how to answer. 

And of course, seemed to be wary of most people, even though Yelena had tried in the four days to get him warmed up to everyone else. He seemed to be shy around Ava at most, but avoided Alexei, Bucky, and Walker altogether. It made sense, given his terrible history with his father, which made Yelena wish she were the one who punched him in the Shame Room. 

However, she supposed that she couldn’t complain too much about it.

Especially because Bob was downright adorable, sprinting toward her with something clutched tight between his palms. Yelena had been half-focused on her phone, trying to finish a report while the rest of the team handled a field op—apparently, she was the only one capable of keeping Bob entertained without a disaster. She’d taken her usual spot in the corner chair of the lounge, the one that always seemed to soothe him, when he came running towards her.

And of course, when it came to him, she always gave him his full attention.

“Watcha got there, Bob?”

When he reached her, he opened his hand, revealing a small, messy origami bright pink crane. It was lopsided, one point slightly smashed in like it had lost a bar fight, but there was so much effort in it that Yelena couldn’t bring herself to laugh. 

“It’s for you,” he said, shy but proud. “I made it last night. I read in a book you got for me that if I make a thousand of these folded cranes, I can make a wish, but…I want you to have it!”

She knew that somewhere in her Bob, that little kid was still in there.

She could see it in the way he was always eager to please, desperate for reassurance that he was doing something right and was being useful. The same boy who flinched at every little noise now lit up like that American holiday that blasted so many fireworks at the slightest bit of praise. It broke her heart a little and made her want to guard that spark for as long as she could.

What? She was only human.

“Thank you, Bob, I like it a lot,” she said, reaching out to gently tap the crane’s wing and then the top of its pointy head. “But…are you sure you want to give it to me? You don’t want to keep it for your wish?”

Bob rocked gently on his feet, teetering from his toes to his heels like he couldn’t decide whether to run or stay put. He nibbled at his lower lip almost bashfully, eyes darting everywhere but at her.

“No,” he said finally, voice trifling but sure as he shook his head. “I’ll just make more and…” His fingers tightened together for a heartbeat before he looked up. “I… think you deserve it more than me.”

Yelena blinked, and for a second, all she could do was stare at him. He said it so earnestly, like it was evident that the idea of her deserving something good wasn’t foreign at all. For a second, she couldn’t help but think of that “meme” Walker had sent in their group chat:

“I've only had this dog for a day and a half, but if anything happened to him, I would kill everyone in this room and then myself.”

It was very fitting because she only knew this version of Bob, but would do anything to preserve that crooked smile and that look of enchantment in those dark eyes, which only she seemed to notice were blue when the sun hit them directly.  

She closed her fingers around it.

“Thank you,Bob. I’ll take very good care of it,” she said softly. “Oh! That reminds me, I got you something, too!”

The thought made her grin; she’d nearly forgotten about the order she placed the night before.

“You got me something?” Bob chirped, his earlier shyness all but gone, eyes wide and glinting with excitement.

“Mhm, give me a second, I’ll get it for you,” she said, pocketing her crane. Then, she pushed herself up from the chair and headed toward the many boxes Mel had hauled in this morning. When one basically “owned” Valentina, it meant the entire team could go on a thousand-dollar shopping spree in the middle of the night without even losing sleep.  

Bob followed her with his eyes, rocking again on his toes, barely containing his delight.

After finding what she was looking for, she ripped open the box and then turned, holding it up proudly. All the while, the blood from Bob’s face completely drained, and the tiniest pout appeared on his face.

“What…is that?”

 “What do you think it is? It’s a guinea pig onesie, so you and Cucumber can match!”

Okay, fine—her daddy did look kind of funny and adorable in his stupidly fuzzy bear costume, so she was inspired alongside when she was reverted to her age and was shown many photos of herself as a child.

It only seemed fair she had something to remember this very moment, yes?

“What?” she asked, catching the look on his face as he blinked at the onesie like she’d just offered him a live grenade. “You don’t like it?” Her tone was casual, but there was a flicker of something uncertain in her voice, a rare doubtful moment she didn’t bother hiding. “Should I return it?”

Bob’s eyes widened immediately.

“No, no, I love it!” he blurted, shaking his head so fast that a few strands of hair fell into his face before he ran up to grab it. His hands clutched the fuzzy onesie awkwardly, like he was trying to convince himself, too.

Yelena raised an unimpressed brow, though her lips twitched dangerously close to a grin.

“So you put it on for me to see?”

He hesitated—just long enough for her smirk to deepen—then sighed in defeat. “Yeah. Okay.”

In less than fifteen minutes flat, he wasn’t just in the onesie but also had Cucumber bundled in his arms too, the guinea pig squirming with the vague indignation of a creature who hadn’t signed up for this kind of modeling career.

And that’s because he didn’t.

The hood of the fuzzy brown-and-white suit sagged a little over Bob’s face, the rounded ears flopping to the side while he sat on the couch with Yelena, taking a million and one photos on her phone.

“You are adorable,” Yelena said, grinning behind her phone as she angled for yet another shot.

“I am not adorable,” Bob protested, cheeks flushing pink beneath the oversized hood.

“Oh?” she teased, lowering the camera just enough to raise a brow at him. “If you’re not adorable, what should you be then? Cute?”

“Not cute either,” he said stubbornly, crossing his arms as much as the fabric allowed.

Yelena bit back another laugh, shaking her head fondly. “But you are cute, kind of like Fanny.”

The name slipped out before she could stop herself, and she realized how long it’s been since she spoke to anyone about the puppy she used to have a long time ago, shortly after she lost her sister forever.

“Who?” he asked, momentarily thrown.

“Oh, the puppy I used to have,” Yelena answered, a hint of fondness woven into her voice as she sat beside him. She threw the phone next to her, kicked off her shoes, and put them on the table.

If Ava were here, Yelena was sure she’d scold her for “dirtying up” the furniture again, but Ava wasn’t, which made it fair game.

Bob tilted his head curiously. “Do you miss Fanny sometimes?”

“I miss her sometimes, yes,” she said after a beat, her tone thoughtful. “She was so cute, but I know she’s happier now with her new family. Plus, we have Cucumber! Little rodent prince over here.”

In response, the guinea pig started to squeak, somehow even louder.

Bob snorted, looking down at the guinea pig nestled in his lap.

“He’s cute,” he said quietly, petting the tiny tuft of fur on Cucumber’s head. Then, more firmly, “But I’m not or adorable.”

Why was he so hung up on that?

Yelena wasn’t too sure.

“Mm, is that right?” Yelena asked, feigning curiosity. She angled her head to the side, studying him the way one might appraise a painting in a museum. “Then if you’re not cute or adorable, what are you, Bob?”

Bob frowned, uncertain.

“I don’t know,” he grumbled, almost seeming upset, and Yelena wasn’t entirely sure why. Yelena studied him for a moment, eyebrows knitting slightly. The humor in her expression lessened when he didn’t look up.

“What’s wrong with being cute?”

Bob shrugged, fingers fussing with Cucumber’s tiny ear as if it were the most important thing in the world.

“It just means you don’t take me seriously,” he mumbled. “People call puppies cute. Or little kids. I’m not…” he trailed off, lips pressing into a thin line. “I mean…I’m kind of…I’m not…that young.”

And that’s the thing that broke Yelena’s heart.

He is a child, and yet, with his rough childhood and trauma, he was forced to grow up too soon.

“Okay, then…how about handsome?” she offered.

“Handsome?!”

Bob’s face went crimson almost instantly, color flooding to the tips of his ears. He opened his mouth, but no actual words came out, but a slight, strangled sound that might’ve been an attempt to breathe altogether.

Yelena blinked, caught off guard.

“Woah,” she said, leaning forward slightly. “Are you okay? You look like you’re overheating.”

He squeaked, then cleared his throat and tried again, voice cracking a little.

“I’m fine!”

“No, you’re not fine,” she said firmly, reaching over to press the back of her hand against his forehead. She wasn’t sure what provoked it and wondered if it had something to do with the spell. “You’re all red. Are you okay? Are you suddenly not feeling well?”

“I’m fine,” he said again, but it came out higher-pitched, his entire body stiff as a board. Then, with the smoothness of a person desperately trying to change the subject, he blurted, “C–can I see a photo of Fanny? If you still have one, I mean.”

Yelena paused mid-motion, hand still halfway extended.

“What?”

“Fanny! Your puppy,” he said quickly, eyes darting everywhere but her face. “You said she was cute, so I just… wanted to see what she looked like.”

She frowned slightly, more out of surprise than anything else.

“You pick now to ask about my dog?”

“It’s… relevant!” he insisted, clutching Cucumber like a shield.

It was enough for Yelena to snort, pulling back altogether to get her phone.

“You are very strange, Bob, but I mean it as a compliment. Are you sure you’re okay, though?”

“I’m fine.”

So bossy sounding.

Scrolling through her photos—which mainly consisted of half-blurry shots of her teammates, screenshots of mission reports, and blackmail material of Walker sneezing mid-bite—she finally found what she was looking for.

“Ah, there you are,” she murmured, tapping the screen before turning the phone toward him. “Here. This is Fanny.”

The image showed a young American Akita sprawled upside down on a couch, tongue lolling out, one ear bent at an impossible angle. Yelena couldn’t help the faint smile tugging at her lips as Bob leaned closer to look.

“She really is cute,” he admitted quietly, and there was genuine gentleness in his tone that made her glance at him instead of the picture.

“Да. She was a menace, too,” Yelena said, snorting. “Chewed through two pairs of boots and tried to fight a mirror once. Bravest идиот I ever met.”

Bob chuckled, still staring at the picture. “She kind of looks like she smiled a lot.”

Yelena paused, her thumb hovering over the edge of the phone.

“Yeah, she did,” she said after a moment. “Do you want a dog one day, Bob?”

“I think they’re cool,” Bob said, his voice picking up with that spark of anticipation that always crept in when he let himself imagine things. “They can protect people they care about, like a watchdog.”

“Hm,” Yelena hummed thoughtfully, lips quirking. “That is very cool.”

“Yeah! A normal-looking dog, but secretly an overseer, and he’d be called Normie!”

She chuckled, amused. “Normie?”

“Yeah, because he looks like a normal dog but isn’t!”

“Ah,” she nodded solemnly, playing along. “A super dog, yeah?”

“Yeah! And I’d have another called Night, because he disappears when the lights are out!”

Yelena grinned widely, unable to help the paradox of it. “So we’ve got Normie, the super dog, and Night, the stealth dog. Sounds like you’re building an animal superhero team.”

Bob laughed at that—a big, unguarded laugh that made something tug tight and warm in her chest. “Yeah! But they’d all listen to you because you’re the leader of this team, so it makes the most sense!”

“Very smart, Bob,” she said and reached over to ruffle his hair. “But you may need to remind  everyone else, they still have trouble remembering that concept.” 

There were many things the former Captain of the United States Army's 75th Ranger Regiment and a founding member of the New Avengers was sure about. For example, Alexei’s snoring was so loud that he could hear it one floor up from his quarters.

The fact that Ava Starr has a big ass crush on Bucky Barnes, who was emotionally constipated. Meanwhile, he still carried himself like someone allergic to human connection. Guy could survive wars, mind control, and interdimensional chaos, but heaven forbid someone asked him to talk about his feelings or take a compliment without flinching.

Then, of course, Yelena’s bias towards Bob compared to everyone else, and vice versa.

In her eyes, she was certain that Bob could do no wrong.  

It was cute and all, hell, he was still wearing Olivia’s ring despite her leaving and taking their son. However, he couldn’t help but notice how overly clingy the kid was. Not in the harmless, shy way most kids got around someone they trusted, but in a way that felt… off. 

In an almost unsettling sense and only more noticeable now as they approached their first week in living with de-aged Bob.

Bob always clung to Yelena’s sleeve as if it anchored him here, his gaze flicking to anyone else who got too close. It wasn’t fear, exactly. Walker had seen fear plenty of times before—on battlefields, in interrogations, in his own mirror when the feeling of not being good enough crept up on him.

This was something else. Something…possessive and watchful. 

He was practically glued to her hips at all times whenever the opportunity presented itself.  

Whenever Yelena so much as stepped out of arm’s reach, the kid’s whole body tensed, like he was tracking her without moving. And for all her instincts, Yelena didn’t seem to catch it, or maybe she just refused to. To her, Bob was just a scared kid in a too-big sweater who needed protecting right now.

But someone who had three badges of excellence to make sure he’d never forget one of the worst days of his life in Afghanistan, aside from losing his best friend, taught him always to trust his intuitions.

And everything in his body screamed that something ain’t right with this variant of Bob.

He had a gut feeling, and after almost a week of observing him, Walker was confident.

Rubik's cube in hand, Bob was working away while Yelena was finishing her mission report.

Every few seconds, Bob would glance up. It’s brief, but enough for Walker to notice. His small hands kept twisting the Rubik’s cube with a precision too clean for a kid his age. No hesitation, no muttering the colors under his breath the way normal ones do.

Just smooth, mechanical turns until another side clicked perfectly into place. 

Then the kid’s eyes would flick toward Yelena again. Not only to make sure she was still there, but to monitor her. Like he was recalibrating every time she moved an inch in or out of his periphery. 

He had seen how Bob behaved a handful of times when he was alone with Yelena.

Happy and experiencing the most significant highs of his life.

This was the complete opposite of it, to the point that you would never have believed they were the same person. Though, then again, this was a man associated with bipolar disorder, anxiety, and depression.

Walker leaned back on the couch, drink halfway to his mouth, trying to look casual. He caught Bucky’s gaze across the room, and it seemed he had noticed the same thing, judging by the slight crease between his brows. 

“Kid’s focused,” Walker muttered once Bucky decided to take a seat next to him, too quiet for Yelena to hear. Though with her headphones in, she probably wouldn’t have picked it up anyway.

“Yeah,” Bucky said, voice low. He placed his elbow on his knees, looking a bit too exhausted. Bucky couldn’t help but wonder when the last time he even rested. “Too focused, but I suppose he’s just nervous. Wouldn’t you be if you were turned into a child?” 

“Careful, you’re starting to sound like Ghost now,” Walker grinned, and if he didn’t know better, he could’ve sworn Bucky’s jaw tightened.

“Guess that’s not the worst thing to sound like,” Bucky muttered before he could stop himself. His tone was low, almost under his breath, but Walker had spent too many years in the field not to catch it. “And her name is Ava, Walker.”

“Huh,” Walker reached for his coffee and finally shut his phone, eyes cutting to Bucky’s side profile. “Didn’t know you were such a fan of our team’s only quantum anomaly. Care to share with the class?”

That earned him one of those trademark side-eyes, the kind that could freeze a man solid.

“Don’t start.”

“Start what?” Walker asked, too damn entertained by how fast the soldier’s stoicism cracked around the edges. “You’re the one out here quoting her verbatim lately. You made the same face she does when she’s working out a plan. Chin up, eyes narrow, real intense-like.”

“You’ve been paying a little too much attention there,” Bucky deadpanned, but there was color creeping up the back of his neck, faint enough that it’d pass in dim lighting. Unless, of course, you were trained to notice those things.

So maybe, just maybe, there was a shot for these two—one who weaponized sarcasm, and the other who thought smoldering counted as communication. Walker couldn’t help but wonder how long it’d take before one of them actually made the first move.

His money was on Ava.

Barely.

Yet right now, there’s a more important task at hand that he has been theorizing.

“You ever seen a kid that still?” Walker asked under his breath. 

Bob’s head tilted slightly, as if he’d heard them. His fingers never stopped moving, plastic clicking softly in the otherwise still room. He glanced at Yelena again, the faintest twitch of something unreadable passing through his expression, and then back to the cube. 

Unlike his thirty-something-year-old counterpart—the one who tried to be helpful whenever he could and treated accidents like it was some personal record-breaking achievement—this version of Bob was too quiet. Too contained. 

The adult Bob would’ve talked nonstop, offered commentary, maybe even teased Yelena to get a reaction, which caused everyone to try not to gag at how disgustingly in love they were. This one didn’t say much at all. No unnecessary noise, no stray movements. Just that damn Rubik’s cube turning in his hands like muscle memory he shouldn’t even have. 

Bucky shook his head. “No. Not one that wasn’t trained to be.” 

That brought a heavy quiet between them. Ava actually phased halfway into the doorway before realizing she’d walked into yet another unspoken standoff between them in the last three days and immediately retreated. 

“Yelena thinks he’s harmless,” Walker muttered, keeping his tone neutral. 

“Again, she’s not wrong to want to protect him,” Bucky said evenly, though his jaw flexed once. “But…I agree that she’s not seeing what we’re seeing.” 

 “That’s what worries me,” he finally said, his voice dropping. “Sometimes the ones who look harmless are just waiting for someone to turn their back.” 

All of them knew Bob would never hurt Yelena. In some scary capacity, they knew he would sacrifice every single person in the world for her. He was going to trap everyone in their shame room eternally before Yelena walked in to save him, and the others followed her in.

This teenager, though?

Walker wasn’t so sure, and based on his conversation with Bucky, they were on the same page.

Suddenly, Bob’s eyes flicked up at that exact second, meeting his. 

And for reasons he couldn’t explain, Walker felt the chill settle all the way down to his bones.

His gaze lingered long enough for his stomach to flip. Then, before he could process why, the air shifted. The room he was just in disappeared, and the sound of the Rubik’s cube faded altogether. 

He was standing in the middle of a familiar town square.

His heart started to thump wildly, taking in the surrounding area he knew all too well.

The street stretched out before him exactly as it had that day, with gray skies cracked with light, the air sharp with metal. He could smell it again, the sweat and iron, the fury that had burned hotter than reason.

“Where is she?!”

Suddenly, a man was running out when a younger version of him threw the bright, spangled shield.  It bounded back right before Walker slammed it hard onto Flag Smasher’s chest. People are gasping, watching in horror as he collapses.

“It wasn’t me,” the man—who Walker now knew was called Nico—screamed in fear. “It wasn’t me!”

The younger John Walker stood over the terrorist without listening, eyes wild with that same grief-soaked rage that had ruined everything. While Walker watched on now, shame and mortification filled in.

This wasn’t right.

It wouldn’t have been what Lemar would have wanted.

He knew that now, but what did it matter?

Still, he felt his throat tightening. “Stop, don’t—”

But the younger version of himself didn’t listen. He just lifted the shield, but only this time, it wasn’t to defend but to end a life. The sickening crack split through the silence, and Walker flinched so hard it sent a tremor through his entire body. Disgrace clawed up his chest, hot and cold all at once, crawling down his spine until breathing felt like punishment. 

He worked on swallowing the lump down his throat.

“Bob?” he forced himself to call out. “Stop it, I know it’s you, alright? Come on, man.”

A beat of silence. 

Then, a growl. 

Low, deep, and menacing like something too big to be an animal but too raw to be human. 

Walker’s head snapped up, and this time, Nico’s dead body was gone; he was no longer in the town’s square. Even his younger self had vanished, replaced by shadow creeping along the edges of what used to be sunlight. 

And where Bob should have been stood something else. 

A monstrous shape hunched in the fog, blacker than the space around it. Its outline shifted like smoke, but its eyes—bright, feral—locked straight on him.  Walker couldn’t move. His pulse thrummed in his throat. 

For one terrible second, the beast smiled. 

“Walker? Walker?”

He blinked, and suddenly, he was back in Avenger Towers.

Bucky and Yelena were staring at him, Yelena shaking him while one knee was on the couch, while Bucky looked concerned, hovering over him. His lungs burned as if he hadn’t breathed in hours. He sucked in a ragged breath and blinked hard, trying to steady his focus. 

“What the hell…” he trailed off, his voice rasped, rougher than he expected. “What happened?” 

“You tell us,” Yelena shot back, but her tone wavered between sharp and alarmed. She straightened back, and that’s when Bob decided to gape at him from behind Yelena, his gaze timid. “You just froze like you were somewhere else. What the hell happened?”

That’s what he’s trying to figure out, but something told me it had something to do with teenage Bob. Walker swallowed the lump and forced himself to clear his throat before looking at Yelena. “Can I talk to you for a second with Bucky?”

Surprise flickered on her face for only a moment.

“Yeah, sure.”

“Without Bob,” he emphasized. “Grown-up stuff.”

Yelena turned back toward Bob, forcing her voice to soften. 

“Bob, can you stay here for a minute?” 

He blinked at her, wide-eyed and hesitant, and then gave a short, curt nod.

“Y‑yeah. Okay.” 

“Good, I’ll be right back,” she assured, reaching out and squeezing his shoulder before following Walker and Bucky out of the lounge. The moment the door clicked shut behind them, the air felt much heavier and quieter.

Bucky was the first to break it.

“Walker,” he said, tone low, steady. “You okay?” 

Walker dragged a hand down his face, exhaling hard. “Not really.” He hesitated, gauging their expressions before continuing. “Do…okay, this is going to sound crazy, but do you think—Bob’s dark side is still there? Like the Void?” 

Yelena frowned immediately. “The Void? No. Can’t be.” 

“Why do you think that?” Walker pressed, leaning forward slightly.

She crossed her arms, jaw tightening.

“Because when I turned five, I certainly didn’t have any muscle memory of trying to kick your ass when you tickled me as you have graciously shown me a few times,” she scoffed. “But…why are you asking? Did you get pulled into a shame room?”

Walker let out a shaky breath, rubbing the back of his neck and shaking his head.

“It felt like I did, but…I didn’t see Bob or the Void. I saw some weird, black creature.”

“Do you think it might be the Void in another form?” Bucky speculated, glancing between the two of them worriedly. This was certainly something no one could have predicted, and judging by the way Yelena’s expression tensed, she hated not having control of the situation. 

“We don’t know,” Walker murmured, shaking his head.

“I’ll reach out to Wong again and see if he can reach Strange before Bob accidentally Voids half of Manhattan and beyond,” Bucky countered, already taking out his phone. “In the meantime, will you be okay here?”

“Yeah, will you be okay, Walker?” Yelena asked.

“Nothing like living through one of your worst shames to get the day started,” he joked.

Yelena and Bucky ended up sharing a look. It’s one of those silent exchanges that spoke a whole conversation neither of them wanted to have out loud. At the end, Yelena extended a helping hand first.  

“Do you…want to talk about it?” she offered.

“Nah, I’ll be fine. I’m just going to need the day off to…settle down,” he went with and walked off first, followed shortly by Bucky. Yelena sighed and walked back to the lounge area. Bob was right where she’d left him, perched on the couch with his knees pulled close, fiddling nervously with his sleeves. The Rubik’s Cube lay abandoned on the table, half-solved and forgotten.

When she crossed the room, he lifted his gaze. 

“Am I in trouble?” he asked quietly. 

Yelena blinked, thrown off for half a heartbeat before a small, disarming smile broke through.

“In trouble?” she echoed, pretending to sound scandalized. “What would make you think that?” 

Bob shrugged, eyes darting down again. His voice was smaller now.

“I don’t know. It feels like… it feels like I did something. Something…bad.” 

That tugged at something in her chest, knowing that today was one of his low days. They came without warning, like clouds rolling in on an otherwise clear sky. Yelena took a seat next to him, turning her entire body so she would be facing him. “Bob, you didn’t do anything wrong, okay? I told you that we were having an adult conversation.”

The bottom of his lips started to quiver.

“Am…do I have to leave?”

The question stopped her cold. 

“Leave?” she repeated, blinking like she hadn’t heard him right. “What? No, of course not.” 

“I just… it feels like when people whisper about me, something bad happens after,” he professed, and his head ducked lower, his words barely audible. “I…I don’t think Mr. Walker likes me, or Bucky.”

See?

There was no way that Bob was doing this; she wouldn’t even humor the thought for a second longer.

“Oh, no, no, that’s not true. They’re not used to being around teenagers; all of them are secretly moody teens themselves,” she firmly stated, but knew she couldn’t let Bob fester with these feelings all day. “Look, I just finished my work, so how about we take a walk around Bryant Park? It’s a nice day, and we can get lunch together, yeah?”

He perked up slightly. “Really?”

She didn’t care that Valentina would scold her later if the tabloids snapped pictures and spun wild stories. None of that mattered when it came to Bob. She got up and held out her hand. “Yeah, let’s go.”

Bob quickly shot up, smiling for the first time all morning, and almost ravenously took her hand.   

“Yelena, you’re back!”

Even after a week and a half, she never seemed to get tired of how exciting Bob sounded smile greeting her.

A smile broke out on Yelena’s face as soon as she walked in from the deck, and Bob practically threw himself onto her. She instantly hugged him back, not caring in the slightest that she was absolutely sore and had grime in her hair from the first mission Val had sent her on this morning since she found out what happened to Bob.

Was it payback for speculations that arose three days ago? Yes, but worth it.

“Hi Bob. Did you have fun today with Alexei and Ava?”

He stared up at her, grinning.

“I was good.”

“Hm, I bet you were,” she chuckled, brushing a hand over his hair. “Why don’t you wash your hands, and we can make lunch together? We can make mac and cheese and dinosaur nuggets on the side. I’m starving, and that fight I had was so long.”

“Fight?” Bob squeaked and pulled away to evaluate her.  “Are you okay?”

Right.

She’d forgotten that Bob still flinched at the word “fight.”

To him, that meant “danger,” not a part of the job that comes with being an Avenger. 

“Hey, hey,” Yelena said swiftly, clutching his shoulder, which was usually enough to make him focus back onto her. “It’s nothing serious, okay? I got a few bruises, but look—” she flexed one arm dramatically, “still stronger. You should see the other guy.”

Actually, maybe not, given how he was right now breathing through a tube in the hospital.

That drew a small laugh out of him, and the tension in his shoulders eased. 

“Okay,” he murmured, smiling again. 

“Good,” she said, standing up. “Now go wash up before I eat all the nuggets myself.” 

“No, wait for me!”

He dashed off to the bathroom, and Yelena immediately turned to where Alexei and Ava were seated. Based on her daddy moping on the floor and the glances Ava kept throwing at her before, she knew exactly what was coming.

“So? How was Bob really?” she started.

“Well, he basically read all day, played chess by himself, cleaned Cucumber’s cage, and took him out for a walk around the floor and ignored us,” Ava retorted. “Or…I suppose I should go with pretending we don’t exist.”

Yelena’s brows bumped together at how out of character it was.

“Who? Bob?”

Ava rolled her eyes. “No, Scott Lang.”

The former Black Widow squinted her eyes at the name.

“Who?”

“Ant-Man?” Ava supplied flatly. “The guy who can shrink, communicate with insects, and turn into a sixty-five-foot man? Is that ringing any bells? Yelena, we should really work on expanding your social group.”

Her mouth hung open after her rather offensive comment.

“I do have a big social group,” she countered.

“How many contacts do you have on your phone?” she questioned without missing a beat.

“That is none of your business,” she shot back. 

Ava arched a brow. “So… less than ten, then.” 

“Eleven,” Yelena corrected proudly. 

“Not counting any of us?” she threw back, and Yelena pointed a finger at her accusingly.

“Hey, don’t sidetrack this conversation! How can lovable Bob be so anti-social?”

Perhaps they did something to make him like this.

Alexei finally took the moment to spring up from his fetal position, looking absolutely distraught. “Lena, he’s a thorn in my hero suit! He ignored me no matter how many times I tried to make conversation, and I swore he used his power to make all my best liquor disappear!”

Always so dramatic.

“Alexei, I’m sure you just misplaced them when you were drunk,” Yelena finished.

“Are you calling me a liar? How can you take his side over your папуля, Lena?!” he wailed and turned to Ava. “Ghost, help me out! Tell my умничка her what you saw so she knows I’m not lying!”

Yelena frowned, staring at Ava, who sighed.

“Look, I’m not saying Bob did it, but I swore he…” she trailed off, seeming almost conflicted herself. “I don’t know, summoned something? A…damn it, I don’t even know how to bloody explain it, like a beast of sorts?”

“A beast?” Yelena echoed.

It sounded similar enough to whatever Walker saw.

“Yeah, except it had a bright light that it was hard to really make out exactly what it was,” she continued, waving her hands in the air erratically. “And the next thing I knew, he got some stuff he wanted from the very top counter without even moving an inch.”

“No, that’s impossible, he always asks for my help,” Yelena refuted, leading Ava to roll her eyes.

“That’s because it’s you.”

“Okay, pull up the feed, then,” Yelena opposed. “Let me see it myself.”

“We were thinking of it, but the cameras were conveniently malfunctioning when it happened,” Ava answered, and Alexei nodded in agreement. First, Walker was sent to his own shame room; then he saw a black “creature”; and now Ava says she saw a “beast”?

Even if Bob did possess the power of the Sentry and the Void, they still needed to remember that those weren’t separate entities. They were him—both of them—when his mania ran high and the crashing lows that came after.

So what the hell was everyone seeing? 

“That’s not the strangest thing. Do you remember that stab wound I had?” Ava continued and then removed her gloves. She rolled up her sleeve slightly enough to expose her wrist. “It’s gone.”

“Gone?” Yelena echoed. “What’s gone?”

“The wound I got that needed five stitches a few days ago,” she articulated, and Yelena realized what she was going on about. “It’s healed without any scarring or traces of it. I didn’t think it was possible, given my quantum energy in my cells, but when that light happened, my cells shifted,” Ava said, voice uneasy. “Not like healing—more like… resetting. Quantum frequency, cellular polarity, everything. I shouldn’t even be alive if that kind of energy hit me.”

“And I also felt so much lighter too, younger like a baby deer,” Alexei chimed in.

Yelena’s head snapped toward him, disbelief flickering across her face.

“You always feel like a baby deer when you’re lacking sleep,” she maintained. “Have you slept?”

“No, no, listen!” Alexei insisted, gesturing dramatically. “It was real. For a moment, I felt strong again, like when I was first given the super serum. My knees didn’t crack; my back didn’t ache. I even did a hundred push-ups without feeling a thing!”

Yelena sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Wonderful. So now we have a glowing creature that heals injuries, resets cells, and temporarily reverses the effects of aging on joints. Somehow, that does not make me feel any better. Have you heard what happened to Walker?”

Both of them nod.

“It’s not random,” Ava said quietly, her expression tightening, and she knew to tread carefully by the defensive look on Yelena’s face. “All of this started happening only around Bob. Whatever that thing is, it reacts to him. Or maybe because of him.”

Yelena caught the sound of the pattering steps and pressed a finger to her mouth with a glare.

“We’ll talk about this later,” she murmured.

They instantly pressed their mouths into a thin line as Bob came scurrying in and towards her.

“I’m ready to cook,” he announced proudly, beaming up at her with that grin that could light up the whole damn tower. Yelena’s expression softened instantly, playfully extending her chin down to his hand. “You washed your hands very thoroughly?”

“Twice,” he insisted, holding them out as proof.

“Good,” she said, ruffling his hair. “Then let’s cook, шеф. Ava, Alexei, I’ll talk to you later.”

Nodding, they left them be, and Bob immediately trailed behind Yelena to the kitchen like a small duckling. She couldn’t help smiling while watching him help around, making lunch. It was impossible not to when he was like this—bright, busy, full of life.

She loved her partner, but at times, she wondered what he would have been like if he had been given the love, support, and steadiness that kids his age deserved. But as she leaned against the counter, watching him hum under his breath, the back of her mind refused to quiet.

If Ava was right… if that light, that thing, was really him—

What if he didn’t even know it, and it was him?

What if every time he smiled like this, the world bent just an inch to keep it that way?

Yelena inhaled slowly, forcing herself to push the thought down. He turned toward her then, eyes optimistic, holding up the tray of frozen nuggets he methodically spread out for her approval.

“Is this okay?”

“Perfect,” she declared, matching his grin. “Keep this up, and you might be on lunch duty permanently.”

He laughed, and for a heartbeat, that was all that mattered.

She’s sure everything will work itself out, and if not, by the time Dr. Stange is back.

“So…we can collectively all agree that, after two weeks, we can say confidently that something which closely resembles paranormal is going on?” Walker probed, his keen eye darting between everyone in the room. “Right? Tell me I’m not crazy.”

Everyone grimly looked at one another and then to Yelena, who could only sigh.

She should have known everyone was waiting for her to come back after carrying Bob to bed, but there’s no denying it anymore.

“Okay, fine,” she begrudgingly admitted, staring at each of them with a stern gaze. “Maybe something is going on.”

“Maybe?” Ava echoed. “Yelena, I can confidently say something is going on.”

They all saw that shadowy-looking mass that stalked the halls at night, particularly hanging in front of Bob’s room.

Alexei had caught glimpses while getting midnight snacks a few times. Walker tried to take a photo, only for his phone to suddenly malfunction. Bucky had tried to follow it once, only to wake up hours later on the opposite end of the compound with no memory of what happened in between.

Then, there was the other creature that Ava and Alexei had mentioned before.

This one didn’t roam the halls at night or look like it was asking for trouble. As a matter of fact, it seemed to do the exact opposite, constantly wanting to help. Whatever had taken up quiet residence in the tower had started doing favors of sorts. Subtle ones, easy to miss if you weren’t paying attention.

Bucky came home from a mission with a burn along his side that would be gone by morning. Alexei’s missing gear had reappeared neatly stacked by his bed. Walker swore his lost knife materialized by the sink right after he’d cursed the universe for losing it.

But that wasn’t the craziest part.

Because sometimes, late at night, Yelena was certain she saw both of them darting just past the edges of her vision, like a quick flash of movement that disappeared when she turned her head. Once, she could’ve sworn she saw two very small dogs.

A tiny corgi wearing, of all things, a blue cap, and the other? A black silhouette of a corgi.

She kept that part to herself.

“Okay fine, сука! Something is going on,” Yelena grumbled, leaning back in her seat and crossing her leg. “I mean, it could be a coincidence if anything, no?”

There’s a beat.

“Lena, you have to agree it is off, no?” Alexei addressed.

“Yelena, you were the one who said anything that happens after a second coincidence is an enemy’s attack,” he relented. She cursed herself for a moment for ever saying that out loud. Bucky had an annoying habit of actually listening to her advice.

“Yes, well,” she snapped, waving a hand, “if it was Bob—big if—so what? He’s not harming anyone.”

“Yet,” Walker supplied.

“So what do you want me to do?” she threw at them, finding herself getting more and more defensive by the moment. “Lock him up? Hand him over to Val to…what, put a…a kill switch on him?”

“We’re not saying any of that,” Bucky interrupted evenly, lifting a placating hand. “We’re on your side, okay? We need to understand what’s going on before it gets out of hand and come up with a plan together.”

“Out of hand?” Yelena laughed, short and humorless. “You make it sound like he’s a ticking bomb.”

“Lena,” Alexei called quietly, “we know you’re…close with Bob, but not bad to be cautious, no?”

She balled one hand into a fist, slamming it down.

“He’s been through enough. If we start treating him like a threat, then congratulations—you’ll give him exactly the reason to become one, and Val would have gotten what she wanted,” she snarled. “Bob won’t do that.”

“Right, because your boyfriend can literally do nothing wrong, the perfect golden boy,” Walker snorted. “Do you even hear yourself right now?”

“Don’t talk about him like that,” she snapped, and there’s a growing urge to taze him with her Widow Bites to see him spasm on the floor was a bit enticing. The only thing stopping her from going through at the end was Bucky’s weary sigh from across the table.

“You really need to work on your objectivity,” Walker said, leaning back in his chair with that infuriating smirk that made Yelena’s blood pressure spike. “Every time he gets brought up, your logic flies right out the damn window, and I’m the only one who's going to call it.”

“That’s not the point, Walker,” she gritted out, and the tension slowly started to rise.

“The point is you’re blinded,” he shot back. “You’ve got heart-tinted glasses on with your boy—”

“Oh my God, would you stop saying that word?” Yelena barked.

“What, ‘boyfriend’? Sorry, it’s just hard to keep up,” Walker said sarcastically, gesturing wildly. “You defend him to no end, let him get away with things that you’d shit on us for instantly. You know the saying, if it walks like a duck—”

“Careful,” she warned, standing now, the chair legs scraping the floor.

“—and quacks like a girl in denial with her bias when it comes to her boyfriend—”

“Walker,” Bucky cut in.

“Then it’s probably your—”

“Yelena?”

The sound of that small, uncertain voice hit the room like a grenade. Instantly, everyone froze.

Yelena turned, her heart hitching in her throat. Bob stood in the doorway, hair tousled, still wearing the oversized hoodie he had fallen asleep in earlier. His eyes flicked between them, confused and almost heartbroken for some reason.

Shit, how much did he hear?

“Did we wake you up, Bob?” she prompted.

Yet rather than answering, he decided to ask his own.

“You… have a boyfriend?” he questioned softly.

The silence that followed was deafening.

Yelena’s mouth opened, closed, and then opened again, not exactly sure how to answer that question or what would be the best damage-control route for her boyfriend’s question that she currently had no idea was him.

“More like she has a very protective guard dog and that guard dog has two others—”

“Oh, will you shut up?” Ava hissed, taking the first thing her hand could reach, which happened to be a ceramic vase, and chucked it at him. Walker barely was able to catch it before it made contact with his face, gawking at her in horror.

“Were you trying to kill me?!” Walker demanded, but Yelena didn’t even look in his direction. She barely heard them at all while she gestured for Bob to come for a hug.

Bob had stepped forward, the sleeves of his hoodie swallowing his hands, his expression small and crumpled in a way that twisted something deep in her chest. When he came to stand right in front of her without usually tackling her, that made things somehow so much worse.

Yelena sighed.

The others faded into background noise.

“Hey,” she said gently, crouching a little so her eyes could meet his. “Don’t make that face.”

He didn’t answer, only blinked up at her, looking like every word in the room had landed on his shoulders at once. It was unfair, all of this was unfair. He didn’t understand, and she hated that part of her couldn’t tell him the truth without it possibly coming back to bite her in the ass.

After all, Dr. Strange told everyone not to tell the truth of what happened when she was de-aged by the spell, and it seemed the same logic was applied here. However, she couldn’t bring herself to lie to him either.

“Yes,” she said finally, voice soft but steady. “I do have a boyfriend, Bob.”

Bob’s eyes widened just faintly, and his throat bobbed as if he wanted to say something but didn’t know what it should be. Instead, he murmured, “Oh,” barely audible.

The sound of it broke her.

Yelena hesitated, then reached out, brushing a strand of his messy hair from his face.

“Are you okay, Bob?”

“Is he… nice?” he asked after a pause instead, and it’s so sincere, so heartbreakingly innocent that it made Ava glance down at her hands, pretending not to listen. “Does…does he love you a lot?”

Her hand lingered on his cheek for just a second longer before she pulled it back. She doesn’t like being so vulnerable for everyone to see, but right now, she couldn’t bring herself to care. “He’s the nicest man I’ve ever met, and he loves me as much as I love him.”

Bob nodded slowly, eyes dropping again.

“Why…have I never seen him before?”

Yelena had to hold herself back from visibly flinching.

“He’s busy at the moment, but he’ll be back…soon.”

“I think he’s lucky,” he said softly. “Whoever he is.”

And before she could answer or try to comfort him, he turned and padded silently back toward the hallway, shoulders hunched, leaving Yelena frozen there with guilt sitting heavy and hot in her chest.

“Do…you think he’ll be okay?” Ava asked, and truthfully?

No one could answer it, not even Yelena.

The next few days leading into the third week were somber and quiet.

The fact that Bob didn’t send Manhattan and beyond into their shame rooms was counted as a win, but everyone was on edge. He refused to come out of his room, leaving everyone no choice but to set up a table by the side to put a tray for him.

Thankfully, he did take it, but bizarrely enough, no one saw Bob physically coming out.

Yelena was ready to break down his door and confess everything to him.

At night, she swore she heard tiny little puppy-whimpers skittering right under Yelena’s bed, but no matter how much she tried, she couldn’t find the pup-shaped blob. Sometimes, she’d see the other dog quietly watching her in the corner, but once she blinked, he was gone.

 She couldn’t help but feel like he was also dejected for some reason.

On the day that officially marked the third week, she couldn’t do it anymore.

With everyone gone and put on babysitting duty, she didn’t hesitate to march down the hall to his room finally. For the last few days, she told herself to give him space and pushing would only make things worse. But space had turned into distance, which then became silence, and then morphed into darkness.

If there was one thing she knew about darkness…it’s how enticing it could get.

“Bob?” she began, gently knocking on the guest room door. The young woman could hear shuffling on the other side, but no answer, so she tried to coax him again. “Bob, I just want to talk, okay?”

“About what?”

His voice was muffled through the small and thin door. It was the first time she’d heard him speak in days, and somehow that made her chest ache even more. “About the stuff I said a few days ago concerning my partner.”

It was then she felt something nudging at her ankles.

She looked down, and sure enough, there was a small, brown corgi staring up at her curiously, the short tail practically making his entire lower half shake with him. His small blue cape fluttered every time he wiggled, the fabric far too big for his tiny frame. He looked so proud of it, like some miniature hero waiting for his cue to save the day.

There was another nudge against her leg.

Yelena blinked and glanced down again—only this time, it wasn’t another brown dog of sorts.

At first, she thought it was just a trick of the light, maybe her shadow doubling back under the dim glow spilling from the hallway, but then it moved.

It was nothing more than a black silhouette of another, the same size and shape as the first, except his body was pure black. Two stark white eyes blinked up at her from that inky void, reflecting no light, only studying her in silence.

Yelena froze.

The brown corgi gave a short, happy bark, as if introducing a friend, while the dark one tilted its head, unblinking, curious. She didn’t know what to do, but didn’t answer before the door slowly opened and Bob peeked his head out.

Judging from the way he didn’t look startled, it seemed he had seen them before.

“Hi,” Bob mumbled, coming out and shutting the door tightly behind him. The two corgis scurried around his feet the moment he stepped out, the brown one circling him in a joyful figure-eight while the black one stayed close to his heel.

“Hi,” she said softly, offering a small, careful smile. “When were you going to tell me you adopted two little puppies behind my back? Sneaky, very sneaky, Bob. I think you might be cut out for spy work if I didn’t know any better.”

“I…” he trailed off, nibbling his lips. He rocked between his heels and back before the brown corgi yipped and flew to lick his face. He giggled, ruffling his feather and somehow, that didn’t surprise Yelena that both had powers. “Truthfully, I didn’t know if they were real or not when they showed up out of nowhere, especially because…well…”

He gestured to both of them, and she couldn’t help but chuckle.

“Yeah, didn’t think a super-pet would be possible until I’ve seen weirder, like a talking raccoon.”

His eyes widened for a fraction. “You’ve met a talking raccoon?”

“Met, fought alongside, argued with, same thing,” she muttered. “Long story. He bites.”

“Raccoons do that,” he laughed, and it was enough to make her chest loosen just a little.

“So…” she nodded toward the corgis, “I presume this is Normie, the super dog, and Night, the super stealth dog.”

“Yeah!”

Normie barked and bounded over, tail wagging so fast his whole backside threatened to spin out of control. He leaped up against Yelena’s face, licking with determined enthusiasm. “Hey, hey—okay, okay, too much love,” she laughed, trying to hold him back but already failing. “You’re lucky you’re cute, маленький герой.”

Yelena grinned faintly as Night padded forward. She gently offered her hand to him. Unlike his counterpart, he didn’t bark or jump. Instead, the inky pup slowly levitated and pressed his small, cold nose gently against Yelena’s hand. The touch sent a strange tingle through her fingertips, like static crawling over her skin.

Huh.

“What… did you want to talk about before?” Bob asked curiously, his voice soft but steady enough that it caught her off guard. It seemed like playtime was over, and Yelena offered her other free hand to him.

“Can we please talk in the common room?”

“Okay.”

Taking it, she led him down the hall and into the common room. The moment they stepped inside, both corgis bolted, or rather flew, ahead.  Normie took off like a chubby brown comet, zipping through the air in loop-de-loops, tail wagging as he barked joyfully.

Night followed, gliding behind him like a lazy shadow, silent and smooth, leaving faint wisps of darkness in his wake. The two collided once, rebounded, and went right back to their aerial chase as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

It was adorable; she wanted to snap photos and roll them onto their bellies for rubs, but there were more important matters to attend to. Yelena helped Bob onto his usual comforter in the corner, then plopped herself down on the beanbag chair they’d purchased two weeks ago.

She took a deep breath, clearing her throat, nerves twisting somewhere beneath her ribs.

How did you even start a sentence like this?

Hey, by the way, the boyfriend we were talking about?

Well, that’s the adult version of you, who is a deeply complicated, infuriatingly lovable partner?

That I’m going against Dr. Strange’s one order by telling you, but I hate to see you upset more?

“Bob,” she began, turning slightly to face him. “I need to tell you something important, and I need you to listen, okay?”

He nodded, serious all of a sudden. “Okay.”

“It’s about…” she hesitated, her mouth suddenly dry. “Well, like I said before, it’s about my partner.”

Tell him. Just tell him.

She swallowed. “The thing is—”

A loud crack split the air, cutting her off. Golden light carved through the room like lightning, twisting and folding into shape until a round portal spiraled open right in the middle of the floor. Normie and Night immediately stopped mid-air. Their ears perked up, low growls vibrating through the room as they floated protectively in front of Bob and Yelena.

“What’s happening?” Bob asked, terrified, and she groaned, standing halfway.

Yeah, what did she expect when it came to timing?

Out stumbled Doctor Stephen Strange…looking nothing like his usual composed self. His cloak of levitation fluttered unevenly behind him, torn and scorched at the edges. His hair was a disheveled mess, his face pale, and his eyes wide in barely contained disbelief.

“I—” he started, straightening his posture like someone who was two seconds from passing out. “I came as soon as Wong contacted me. I was in Hong Kong one moment and… then somehow in the Mirror Dimension fighting two weird dogs that look awfully like those two mothers—”

“Ay, no cursing!” Yelena clipped, trying to turn and cover Bob’s ears, but it was too late.

Bob tilted his head, uncertain. “Um… h-hi?”

The Sorcerer Supreme exhaled heavily.

“Hi,” he said, somewhat grim as he held out his hand to shake.

Bob just looked at it and then tightened his hold on Yelena’s shirt, trying to hide behind her.  Yelena sighed, pressing her palms to her face for a moment before shaking her head. “You have the worst timing, Strange.”

He whipped his head to her, almost offended.

“Oh, I apologize, Ms. Belova. Should I check your schedule next time before dropping in to what Bucky Barnes has stated was an emergency?” he quipped sarcastically. She resisted the urge to flash him the middle finger and turned before going down onto one knee.

“It’s okay, Bob,” Yelena said quickly, lifting her hands, voice easy-going but definite. “He’s a friend. He’s the one who’s going to fix the magic spell that sent you here in the first place and send you home.”

Bob’s face froze. His lips parted slightly, confusion twisting into something raw. “What?”

“Your mom’s waiting for you, remember?” she reminded him soothingly. “And she’s going to be so happy to see you. You deserve to be with her again, да?”

The silence that followed lasted only a second.

Then Bob stomped his feet.

“No! I don’t want to leave!”

The room erupted in chaos. Light bulbs flickered wildly, popping one by one in sparks. The window shattered, the floor shuddered, and the walls trembled as if something huge pressed against them from all sides, making them crack.

“Bob!” Yelena called out, instantaneously wrapping her arms around his small frame.

“Oh, hell,” Strange hissed, a golden mandala blazing to life in his hand before he threw it towards them. The golden mandala burst into a dome just as the ceiling cracked wide open. It sent broken beams and concrete dust raining down like a storm.

The sound was deafening—glass shattering, walls splitting, the groan of steel bending under impossible force—but inside the barrier, everything was dim and muffled, like the eye of the storm had swallowed them.

Bob clung to her, trembling so violently she could feel it in her bones.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to,” he wailed, his small fingers digging into her clothes. “I just…I just didn’t want to go home, and I’m going to be all alone again, and Mom won’t care and…and…”

He’s weeping now, and it broke the former Black Widow’s heart into a million pieces.

“Shh, hey, no, no, it’s okay,” she whispered fiercely, holding him tighter, protecting her as she did once upon a time to her younger self in the shame room. “It’s okay, Bob. You’re going to be okay, you’re not alone. I’m here. We stick together from now on.”

By the time the building stopped shaking, the mandala faded in time for the pounding of footsteps. Because of course, with Yelena’s luck, they would be coming back from their mission. Bucky burst into the room, followed by Alexei, Ava, and Walker. The moment they saw the scene of Bob’s shaking body, debris, and the flying corgis, they froze.

“What the hell?!” Walker hissed.  

“Is everyone okay?” Bucky demanded, his eyes falling onto Dr. Strange and then sliding over to Yelena, still trying to soothe a tearfully broken-hearted Bob.

“Lena? You okay?” Alexei asked, taking a step towards them. Normie and Night growled fiercely, hovering before them like guardians. Both of their eyes burned—one bright gold, one sharp white—energy crackling off them in chaotic bursts, but their message was clear to everyone:

Stay away.

Bob gasped between sobs, tears streaming down his cheeks.

“I’m sorry,” he whimpered, voice small and breaking. “I’m so sorry… I didn’t mean to… I don’t—”

“It’s okay, Bob,” she whispered, cradling the back of his head and running her fingers through his hair. “I told you, you didn’t do anything wrong. None of this is your fault, you hear me? Not one bit.”

“But…” he sniffled. “I…I accidentally destroyed the building and—”

“What, this old building? Please, it needed renovation soon anyway, was thinking of actually kicking Iron Man out and making our own little league,” she quipped, using her thumbs to wipe the wayward tears trailing down his face. “You just sped up the process, that’s all.”

Bob huffed a shaky little laugh between sniffs, the tension in his shoulders easing if only by a fraction. Normie barked softly, hovering closer like he was checking on him, while Night tilted his head, eyes still glowing faintly but no longer looking like it might try to Void Manhattan.

Was it possible, or would it just send all the animals to their shame room?

Yelena wasn’t sure, but certainly wasn’t going to try finding out for Cucumber’s sake.

Oh, and Bucky’s white cat that he thought no one knew he had.

“See?” Yelena murmured. “Even they know you didn’t mean to. You’re okay.”

“Yelena,” Bucky called, stepping carefully over the strewn debris. “You sure you don’t need medical—”

“If you take one more step, Bucky,” she warned without even looking at him, “those dogs are going to make a chew toy out of your boots and might try playing fetch with themselves and your Vibranium arm.

Bucky stopped mid-step. “Noted.”

Dr. Strange finally lowered his shaking hands, his cloak drooping tiredly behind him. “For what it’s worth,” he said after a long beat, “this could have gone much worse. The building still exists, so… congratulations.”

“You’re really bad at comforting kids, you know that?” Yelena muttered, pulling Bob closer to her side.

“I’m not here to comfort anyone,” Strange replied dryly, though his gaze alleviated when it fell on the boy, who looked rather remorseful for everything that happened. “Now…what should we do about this sudden predicament?”

“I got it,” Yelena answered. “Just…give me a minute, okay? Trust me.”

She doesn’t wait to get an answer before slowly bending down to one knee again, facing Bob.

She should have done this from the beginning.

“Do I really have to go?” he whispered, voice cracking as his small hands twisted the hem of his shirt. “I’ll be good, I swear. I won’t bother anyone. I won’t talk loudly, or take up space, or make a mess. You won’t even notice me, Yelena… please don’t make me go. I promise Mom won’t care, really. I think she’ll be happier alongside Fa-Father if…if I just left and never came back.”

Oh.

Oh, it hit her like being shot right in her heart.

For a second, Yelena couldn’t breathe.

The words, the way he shrank in on himself, promising to take up less space just to be wanted.

God, what did Bob ever do to deserve this?

It was no wonder he was so broken, so eager to fit in and change for others when he’s perfect.

He’s perfect just the way he was already.

“Hey,” she said softly, forcing her throat to work. She reached forward, brushing her thumbs under his tear-streaked eyes even as her own vision blurred. “None of that, you hear me, Bob? Don’t talk like that.”

“But it’s true,” he murmured weakly, still staring at his twisted fingers. “No one wants me, I don’t even have a family, I don’t have friends, I don’t have a future, I don’t even have a place to call home.”

The declaration nearly shattered her.

“Do you want to know a secret, Bob?” Yelena asked, placing her hands on his shoulder and squeezing them to make sure he was listening. “It was actually wanted to talk to you before, about my partner.”

Bob blinked through his tears, brows furrowing in confusion.

“Your… boyfriend?” he asked, the word coming out small and uncertain, like he wasn’t sure if he’d heard right or if this was just Yelena trying to change the subject. She only laughed, pulled away, cupping one hand and urging him to bring his ears close.  

She waited until he leaned. Her voice was barely more than a breath, soft enough that only he could hear it. Whatever she whispered lingered between them like something fragile and revered, something not meant for anyone else’s ears.

Bob froze.

For a heartbeat, he didn’t move, maybe even stopped breathing, and then his eyes widened as her words sank in. Confusion flickered first, then disbelief, and something else followed right after… a kind of quiet wonder that washed over his tear-streaked face.

“You…” he started and then swallowed. “R-really?”

“I wouldn’t lie to you,” she laughed, getting up and ruffling his hair. “I promise.”

That was all it took.

Then, the rest of the New Avengers watched in surprise as Bob nodded, scrambled to his feet, and practically ran up to Dr. Strange. He tugged at the sorcerer’s cloak hard enough that the sentient fabric snapped to attention with an indignant flutter.

“Hey!  Careful with—”

“I’d like to go now, please,” Bob cut off.

Dr. Strange blinked in surprise.

“Oh, uh—”

“Now, please,” he firmly stated, tears still glimmering in his eyes but replaced now with something steadier. Normie and Night snapped to life on either side of him, tails low and ears sharp. The air seemed to hum faintly as the two floated closer, positioning themselves like miniature sentries. Both gave low, synchronized snarls when Strange hesitated regarding the unspoken warning that left little room for argument.

Strange slowly lifted his hands in surrender, his eyes flicking from the corgis to Yelena.

“Right,” he murmured, tone resigned. “Okay, message received.”

With a precise flick of his wrist and a murmured incantation, he traced a glowing circle through the air. Golden sparks erupted outward and twisted into a perfect ring, the portal shimmering open to reveal what looked to be his office.

Bob turned back once.

Yelena met his gaze with that same small, steady smile.

“Go on,” she said gently. “They’re waiting for you.”

He hesitated only a moment longer, then took a breath, squared his shoulders, and stepped forward. Normie yipped once and floated at his side, while Night lingered briefly at the threshold before following.

Strange offered one last nod to Yelena, quiet but weighted with respect, and then the portal shimmered shut behind them. The golden sparks faded into still air, leaving only silence and the faint hum of dust settling.

Exhausted but also extremely proud of herself, Yelena sighed before falling onto her back on the ruined floor.

“What… just happened?” Bucky muttered after a long beat.

Alexei rubbed the back of his neck. “Did Bob volunteer to go with the magic man?”

“Apparently,” Walker sighed. “That was shockingly easy.”

Ava crossed her arms, studying Yelena.

“Okay, I’ll bite—what did you tell him that made him follow Strange that fast?”

Yelena took her time opening her eyes again and smiled at her.

“A home and a future to look forward to.”

Five minutes later, something no one thought was actually possible came true. Bob, in his all-wonderful right age, walked right back out of the same portal and a small brown corgi only. Yelena wasn’t even sure if he noticed or cared about the current state of the room, much less why he suddenly has a dog, as he swept his girl right off her feet in front of everyone.  

“I’m home, Yelena,” he whispered.

“Welcome home, Bob,” she hummed. Then, she tugged her Prince Charming down without hesitation, closing the distance the way she’d wanted to for what felt like forever. The others gagged—and it sounded awfully like Alexei wailing—before being carted off. She finally pulled away once they were alone, groaning. “Let’s hope there’s no more…de-aging spell after this.”

There’s a sprinkle in Bob’s eyes as he coyly tilted his head to the side. “What, was I too much?”

“What? You? Psh, no way,” she quickly exclaimed, shaking her head. “You were perfect and cute and adorable! But…I don’t know if I can do it again if I have to take care of the others, especially Alexei! Can you imagine?”

She found herself shuddering at the thought, making Bob laugh.

If only they knew that in less than six months from that very day, Ava Starr would somehow shatter that hope when she jumped in front of that very same spell that was aimed at James Buchanan "Bucky" Barnes.

However, that’s a story for another day.