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Maya slipped into her darkened New York apartment a little after midnight. The glow of streetlights lit the room through the open curtains in eerie yellow streaks. Maya turned on the light, tossing her keys onto a table that was ringed with dust.
She had lost track of how many months she had been away. Something caught her eye, and Maya frowned. There was a half-empty glass of water on a shelf, next to a small, potted plant, the leaves growing lush and green.
Cold wariness crept across the back of Maya's neck. She had been gone for months, and the plant should have been dead.
She had turned off the intruder alarms when she'd left. It was an unexpected gust of wind that made Maya turn to find a figure on her balcony, pulling open the sliding door.
Hawkeye.
Maya's muscles tensed, ready to fight. The figure in the doorway froze, Kate Bishop's large eyes staring at her in surprise.
Then slowly, she lifted her hands. "You left town," Bishop signed.
Maya's brows raised sharply. The signs were sloppy, but her meaning was understandable enough. "You speak sign language now?"
"I learned a little." Kate hesitated, then repeated, with emphasis, "a little."
Maya couldn't quite keep the flickering confusion from her face. "Why?"
Kate shrugged. Maya didn't say anything else, staring at her, until Kate added, "Are you back?"
Maya raised her eyebrows, not even bothering to give the obvious answer.
"No." Kate huffed, getting visibly frustrated. "Group. Back."
She meant the gang, Maya realised. Except there had never been a gang of her own, just Wilson Fisk's empire. But that was gone. Fisk styled himself a politician now, and Maya wanted nothing to do with his new game.
Truthfully, she wasn't even sure why she had come back to New York.
Maya only shrugged. Bishop seemed to take this as an answer anyway, her eyes glinting in the darkness.
"Good. I won't fight you again."
Won't. Wouldn't? Or was she simply telling Maya to behave? "Hero," Maya signed, a little derisively. Then she added, "We'll see."
Bishop nodded. Maya wondered what conversation the woman thought they were having. She didn't ask, only watched as Kate stepped back through the window into the cold New York night, and fell smoothly from view. When Maya peered through the window she could see Bishop standing on the sidewalk, yanking at her zipline and tucking it away, before disappearing into the street.
*
Two nights later, Maya put on her uniform and went into the street. She didn't really know what she was looking for. She didn't know if she'd found it when she saw the flashing lights of a car alarm. There was a woman standing frozen in the blinking glow of the headlamp. There were two men in front of her, and unmistakable under the streetlights was the sharp edge of a knife.
Maya's lip curled into a silent snarl. Two. Not much of a fight. Still she dove forward, leaping off her prosthetic leg. The first man went down easily. The second rounded on her with his teeth bared, and then he too was staggering back at the force of Maya's hits. She grabbed his wrist, wrenched it till she could feel his bones ceding to the pressure, and the knife fell easily from his hand into her own.
He took one last scared look at her, then ran off, disappearing into the night. His companion had already gone.
Maya gestured. Go.
The woman hastily clutched the handle of the car door, then scrambled into the driver's seat, speeding off.
Maya turned around at the sensation of heat on the back of her neck. Kate Bishop was standing in the road. She was wearing her own suit, the armor with purple across the chestplate. Maya found that this time, she was oddly unsurprised to see her. Their eyes met. The light on the distant corner changed from green to red, and Maya realised that she was staring.
She scowled, breaking the spell, and began to sign. "What are you doing here?"
Bishop shrugged. "I was following you. From 68th Street."
Maya hadn't noticed, and that irritated her more than anything else had. Bishop didn't seem like she should be good at tailing anyone, too clumsy and innocent-eyed, and yet Maya had seen how gracefully she fought. Maya asked, "What do you want?"
Bishop tilted her head, watching Maya's hands carefully. Then she only pointed at her, which didn't clear up anything at all.
A car drove by, honking at their presence in the road. Bishop stepped closer.
Maya's hand came up, ready to block a punch, but Kate only plucked her phone out of the small pocket in the skirt of her suit. Kate frowned down at
Maya could have said something, or taken it from her. She should have simply left.
"There," Bishop signed as she handed the phone back. Maya's bare fingers brushed the cool black fabric of Bishop's gloves. Her bow and quiver remained at her back. "We're friends now."
Maya blinked at that. Bishop's grin was warm and disconcerting.
Maya looked down, and saw the phone was open to her short list of contacts. There was one new one, with one message already sent to the listed contact. Kate.
*
Maya went home, and put her armour away. As she looked at it, there was still a buzzing in her head, telling her there was something that she was supposed to be doing. She had been dreaming of it, dreaming of her mother speaking to her, since she'd returned to New York.
She didn't go out into the streets for three nights. On the fourth, Maya's phone flashed as the message came in.
Kate. She tapped it open.
There was a time listed, and an address. If you want some real action. Tomorrow night.
Maya stared at it. She wasn't friends with Kate Bishop, or partners. Maya had her family, and she didn't need anyone else.
There was still a small flame of curiosity somewhere inside her, that seemed to glow with heat every time she laid eyes on Kate Bishop.
*
She'd recognised the address Bishop sent her. It was a warehouse that used to be one of Fisk's, though she wasn't sure who owned it now.
Bishop sat beside her on the roof of an adjacent warehouse, the concrete structure rattling occasionally from the vibrations of a passing train. The icy wind whipped Maya's hair into her face, and she blinked against the sting of the cold.
She was trying to focus all her attention on their target. The warehouse sat still across the road, with no sign of action. Bishop kept drawing her attention, shifting her hands, kicking her feet against the roof. She had pulled an arrow out of her quiver, and was running her fingers up and down the shaft in an idle rhythm. Maya eyed the arrow warily, wondering if it was one of the trick arrows she and the other Hawkeye had deployed at Rockefeller Plaza.
Maya tapped her on the shoulder to turn Bishop's face to hers, then signed once. "Stop."
Bishop only grinned at her.
Maya couldn't help rolling her eyes. Before she could say anything, Bishop turned her head in the direction of the highway. There was a pair of headlights moving quickly through the dark, and another pair behind it. Two heavy trucks approached, and began to maneuver themselves next to the loading gates.
Bishop glanced back at her, cocking her eyebrows. "Ready?"
In answer Maya only raised her grappling hook, and hurtled herself from the roof down to the ground.
There were half a dozen men, leaping out of the cabs of the trucks, and appearing from the back with guns drawn. She downed two men in quick succession with hard kicks, and the two more charged towards her in unison. When she sent her fists out in either direction a third appeared, reaching for his weapon.
Her fists collided with her closest opponents with a crack that rattled her spine. She bounced up to face the other, a man in a gaudy yellow jacket, but before she could move the man was shaking, his mouth falling open with pain.
One of Bishop's arrows jutted from the ugly jacket, emitting a visible jolt of electricity.
Mays stepped back, without touching him, and looked back to where Bishop was dispatching the last man. She grabbed his gun, tossing it easily into the distant darkness, and knocked him out with a sharp elbow jab.
When Bishop stood with her bow clutched in hand, fighting to catch her breath, she realised Maya was staring at her. Kate flashed a small, relieved smile.
The fight was done. Maya shone a light into the back of one truck, reading the labels of the boxes sitting there. Medical supplies, pallets of them, diverted from the hospitals where they were meant to be.
Bishop tugged at her elbow. When Maya looked up she pointed past the gate, to where a fleet of flashing lights were approaching. The police were on their way.
"Time to go," Maya said.
Bishop nodded, slinging her bow onto her back, breathing hard to catch her breath.
Together, both women ran.
*
The message came through before she made it home, her phone vibrating against her hip.
That was fun.
Maya bit her lip on a smile.
*
A few more days went by before her phone blinked again. It was Kate. Can I come over?
Maya looked around her, to the apartment that was a museum to a life she no longer lived. She hesitated, her fingers lingering over the keyboard. Finally she sent back, Can I visit you?
The answer was swift. Bishop's address, and a heart symbol. Maya scooped up her keys and her motorcycle helmet as she left.
Bishop lived in a building with a doorman, bronze trim and polished marble floors. She opened her door wearing a wrinkled sweatshirt and her dark hair tied in a messy ponytail. There was a bruise on her face, blooming red and blue from her cheek up towards her eye. One of the goons from the warehouse, Maya thought. She reached out to touch it. Kate flinched for a moment before holding still, her eyes meeting Maya's. Her gaze was filled with something deep and patient. It was a look Maya hadn't noticed before, something she found she wanted to fall into.
She called the spirits of her family to her, and felt the warmth at her fingertips. The bruise melted away, until only Kate's flushed pink skin remained.
Kate put her hand to her cheek, pressing gingerly. She didn't look surprised. "Thank you," she said.
Maya nodded
Inside the apartment, against the closed door, Kate kissed her. This needed no words. All Maya's understanding was in the urgency of Kate's mouth on hers. Maya's hands slipped to cradle Kate's waist, and she jerked her body forward with an abruptness that made Kate laugh against her mouth. Kate kissed like she fought, her lips parting in fearless invitation to accept the hot press of Maya's tongue. A needy heat swept over. Her fingers crept up the base of Kate's back, underneath her shirt, stroking bare, warm skin and feeling Kate shiver in response.
She still wasn't sure why she had come back to New York, but she thought that just maybe it had been for this.
*
Maya woke from a dream in which her ancestors were talking to her, their ghostly hands forming unreadable omens. Maya gasped as she came awake, and Kate Bishop was beside her in the warm, soft sheets, staring at her in the darkness.
"You okay?"
Maya nodded. Kate pulled her back into bed, before Kate's whole body shuddered with a yawn. She curled up against Maya's side. She fell asleep in the blink of an eye. Dawn was coming. Maya thought that she might stay until the morning.