Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

The thing about Kate Bishop is that she would never shut up when nervous.

Yelena had learned this about forty six seconds into her first conversation with her a few years back, and had saved the information on a part of her brain between others of Kate's quirks, slotted tightly between loud and overexcited. The running live commentary was a fact that was constantly present in her day by day whenever she had to be focused. And even in the very few, rare moments she got to fight side by side with Kate, there was an ongoing conversation with herself that Yelena could very much still hear even while being almost a street apart.

"— that one was too close. Way too close. I’m gonna need you to take down the—"

“I see him.”

"— because he’s like, really on the left—"

"I see him, Kate Bishop."

Yelena had twisted her head to the side and caught a glimpse of something shiny in the reflection, her hand had reacted faster than her brain and the man had been taken down an instant later with a widows bite in the chest.

“Okay. Okay. Yeah, thank you.”

It had been like that for at least twenty minutes. The threat was just a really stupid group of men with an incredible dangerous access to stolen Stark weapons that had once again caused commotion on a flour block radius of lower Manhattan. By then it had become a weekly occurrence, and the two of them had been too close by to let it go for another hero, getting coffee together when the first distress signals were sent, so it meant that they were handling it together.

The coffee thing had also become a weekly occurrence. Once Yelena was settled into the Watchtower during the first week as New Avengers, she had come in contact with Kate after pulling it off since the Void situation, far too nervous for what her reaction could be. She had tried to shown her worry for Kate and hide it away at the same time to not sound desperate, only to end up getting closer to her anyway, the archer being far too charming to slip away without her noticing.

Now, the two of them were handling and holding things back on a ground level while waiting for any other hero to make an appearance to give them a hand, if that even was going to happen, both of them practically back to back while Yelena tried her best to push away the group on their right and Kate handled the left. All in a non practiced choreography that they had taken very little time to fall into, passing information back and forth without comms or sometimes, just by pure instinct, following each others rhythm.

To Yelena it could be considered a natural reaction and maybe some overconfidence that came with it, normally she would try to do the same with her team, only getting successful a few times and most of them only being with Ava, who was one of the only ones that paid enough attention to her surroundings. In Kate's case, she was probably also too overconfident and, as a natural sharpshooter, extremely aware of her opponents positions.

“Three coming down the alley on my right.” Kate had charged an arrow, pointing in the opposite direction while Yelena turned a few steps away to take care of the three men coming at them.

Kate had send a trick arrow flying to the right, covering Yelena's back from whoever had been coming from that side and charging towards them next.

Even if there was confidence in both of their movements, there was also a lot of trust in each other, knowing there wouldn't be damage done if the other was on the opposite side of the trigger, or string in Kate's case.

"There's one behind the—"

“Yes.”

Yelena didn’t have to look to know, it was a sixth sense that she had gained after so many years of stealth, even if Kate also looked like she had gained somewhat of an extra sense by the way she would aim without looking and still get the target properly. Many years of archery probably did that and Yelena had been impressed the first few times she showcased her talent.

When Yelena turned around after taking a fourth man, Kate was looking at her with a slight tilt of her head and a look somewhat affectionate towards her. "You’re kind of terrifying, you know that?"

"Thank you."

"It not really a compliment."

"I know. Thank you anyway." She smiled, big and utterly proud for Kate's words.

The fight was too long for just the two of them, but it was resolved much quicker than it was expected with the amount of people that had been involved in it. Most of the ones that were still conscious were tied to lamp post in the same street, and Yelena and Kate tried their best to not be around by the time the police arrived to that location, leaving the seventeen people that witnessed the whole thing to give their statement about how they took a small army by themselves instead of getting caught in the middle of interrogatory and paperwork they were not up to do.

The first time it happened, Yelena would recall later, was that same evening, or at least the first time it went extremely viral as to reach them eventually, even if neither of them was well aware of the situation happening on social media at the moment. Yelena nor Kate were much aware of what internet thought of them besides the basic stuff that was the general public's opinion, Yelena because she had no interest whatsoever in doing a deeper research on herself and Kate because she didn’t have the time to check her phone sometimes.

After the fight they had stood in a Chinese restaurant five blocks away from where the main focus of the problem had been while waiting for their order and checking on each other’s superficial wounds. Both of them barely suited properly for the occasion and sporting casual clothes rather than their usual suits, ruined by then.

Afterwards they found a perfect place to eat on top of the rooftop of a building nearby, both of them already making a habit to ran away from the public's eyes whenever they were out, consciously looking for a moment of peace. Yelena ate her lo mein from the container in silence while watching Kate count her remaining arrows with a frown that let Yelena instantly know she was upset about the outcome.

"How many?" Yelena asked, a glimpse of a smile in the tone of her voice.

"Four," Kate answered, looking at the perfectly placed arrows next to her. "Which is enough for a few things—" She grabbed them back after checking if there was any remains of anything else in her quiver, shaking it roughly to check for something else in its contents but finding nothing.

"For what?" Yelena's tone was almost teasing.

"For some things." Kate responded back quickly, avoiding eye contact and acting as if the tip of the arrows were something otherworldly and worthy of admiration.

"Name one." Yelena pushed, smile no longer hiding behind her words.

Kate sighed, pointing back to her with a gloved finger as if she was trying to hold Yelena back from saying anything else. “Don't.”

Yelena only laughed slightly at it, letting the topic down and reaching out to pick some of the chicken in Kate's open container that she hadn’t touched since she had passed it on to her, picking up a small piece and eating it without expecting permission from Kate. There's quietness afterwards.

Yelena had learned that New York was never really quiet, but there were moments and places that made it seem peaceful even in the heart of it. It took her some time to appreciate the strangeness of it and even longer to accept that maybe a friendship with someone outside her work was a good idea and a perfect opportunity to share those moment with someone.

Kate Bishop, even after she had searched for her and were in contact with each other more often than not, had found her way back into her path when her team was announced for the first time after they helped in some retrieving information from outer space thing. And if Yelena had to admit it, their team was much cooler than their own, but she hadn’t said that to Kate and wasn't planing on doing it either. The New Avengers and the Young Avengers, as silly as the name was, were presented personally and privately in an uncomfortable long meeting where the only thing Yelena had found enjoyable had been talking to Kate in person again. That had been almost two years ago.

Ever since then they had been sharing some information with each other about missions, even if they didn’t get to go together and only paired up when in close proximity to where the problem was, and even then, the public interaction was at a minimum when not necessary.

Of course, the impersonal relationship that they were supposed to have didn’t stop Kate from reaching out to her. Offering that one drink she once proposed mid fight and starting a long and unfinished line of get-together's either of them wanted to end.

"So," Kate started, not looking at Yelena while she grabbed her chopsticks from the bag. "How was DC?" Yelena buffed, humming under her breath as she went in to grab her next bite.

"Absolutely boring." The New Avengers had been invited for a public appearance at the White House, just to play the part in the entire entertainment they had to do with being government friendly and to showcase that they were actually following the rules they were imposed. Not that they had implemented any of them, always working under the excuse of having to make quick decisions when they were in the middle of a mission and doing whatever they thought was good enough for a solution.

"What?" Kate asked, almost incredulously. "I saw pictures the other day, you looked like you were having a nice day during the first meeting."

"We were making fun of Alexei," Yelena said quickly, then shrugged.

"Nothing new there," Kate answered, chuckling. "What did he do?"

"Trip on his way in and almost made Walker break a wall before we even met anyone. It was a good laugh."

Kate hadn't met her team on a personal level, at least not by herself. Ever since the first time both teams got together, Yelena had relayed everything that happened on the Watchtower to her, or at least everything that she found funny enough or thought Kate would like to hear about. Besides that, there had also been a few short trips to different levels on the tower to show Kate what the building looked like from inside after the archer had told her about the amount of times she had imagined it when she was young.

So, without being part of the New Avengers, Kate always knew what the personal situation was like. The archer had become, unknowingly, the person Yelena turned to whenever she wanted to talk after a long day or just someone to share little parts of her life.

"Where did you see the pictures?" Yelena asked then, mostly out of curiosity.

Out of all the things she liked about social media and the internet in general, it was the creativity of people when it came to others that they didn't know, and even more when it was about heroes. People were usually sickly obsessed with anything that revolved around them, so it was purely entertainment for her, almost to the point of laughing out loud whenever she saw something about her teammates that was too funny to resist.

"Social media, obviously, Kamala showed me a few of them and then I saw others." She moved her hand in the air. "Didn't you see any of them? I'm surprised with the amount of times you have searching up others." Kate had called her a stalker a few times, jokingly enough to make Yelena notice it, but sometimes she wondered if maybe she still took things too far, only to be reassured of her personal investigations when they came in handy and she received different kinds of praise for it.

"I don't like searching myself."

Kate knew the reason for it too. She had done it a few times in the beginning, finding her own information too easy to be found with a simple search, making herself anxious over it after being so long working in the shadows. It became less pressing when she realized she was actually liked by the general public, even if she was seen as a more serious person than what she actually was, she preferred it like that though, it worked better for her own personal image and privacy.

Then she started avoiding it for different reasons. Mainly because she had taken over the Black Widow name after the world thought it would be good for the legacy to be carried by her, and so she started being called like that. She heard it on the street, on TV, read it on social media and the news outlets. It was all over in different places and it was the worst reminder she could have gotten. People had moved on, but she hadn't done it yet.

Searching up her name also came with comparisons that had no pity or consideration for her. Every single one of them dragged her sister's name to every single place she went, making her avoid the topic as much as possible.

"I know that," Kate said, this time looking back at her. She stayed quiet, and Yelena didn't mind the silence for a moment. "I do search you up, you know." The admission was made as if it was a secret, a whisper to Yelena as if they were not the only ones sitting on the roof.

"Do you really? What do they say about me?" She was, honestly, far too curious to keep herself away from research, but she made the effort anyway. "I hope they talk about great things."

"Oh they do talk about you. A lot." Kate's words came out almost rushed in comparison with how they were before. Yelena watched as she stuffed mouth with her food before she got the chance to make her next question.

"What is it about?" She saw Kate chew slowly, her mouth not opening to talk and instead she looked to the front.

"Well," she said, trying her first words after swallowing. "It's a mix of many different things, all of them good obviously. Or well, most of them at least." She stopped, then looked back at Yelena and continued. "I mean at least I think they are good, they are kind of funny sometimes but people really likes you." She nodded quickly, her face contorted into a weirdly frown that she tried to dissolve with a smile. It didn't work really well, and it almost sounded like she was trying to convince herself of her own words too. "I imagine you would like them too."

She stood up then, abruptly pulling herself after leaving her food container on the floor. The sudden movement made Yelena realize how close they had been before she stood up, now watching from her position as the archer got her stuff together and dusted off her pants.

"What are you doing?"

"I forgot I had a meeting with the kids, America said she had some stuff she wanted to go over for a mission and so—yeah, the others want to give a hand too." She pointed behind her, as if the general direction was a good enough excuse. Yelena squinted her eyes at her, frowning in the process of doing so.

"Today is Thursday." Yelena stated.

"Yeah, it is, it's been a very long week, right?"

"It's school week." Kate stopped mid picking up her arrows.

"Yeah, so?" The archer didn't look at her, instead, she looked like she was trying to do everything but.

"The kids have school tomorrow and they all live in different areas, how is the meeting happening?" She stood up then, picking up her own empty container and then Kate's, finding a few pieces of chicken still left behind.

She looked up at Kate, eyebrow raised, noticing the nervous tells she could easily pinpoint on her. If it wasn't because of her training, it would be because of her ability to understand Kate without needing words after so much they've shared with each other.

"FaceTime."

Yelena, even with a solid answer, didn't trust the suddenness of Kate's departure.

"I thought we were going to have a girls night today." Yelena was pouting a little, something she would tell herself was an act, but she enjoyed the time with Kate too much to say otherwise.

"I'm so sorry, 'Lena. Can we reschedule it for tomorrow? I can even go to the tower if you don't want to come to my apartment." Yelena instantly shook her head, preferring the privacy of a singular apartment rather than the constant sensation of people being around her room in the tower.

"I'll go to yours, but you owe me for leaving so soon." She pointed with her chopsticks still in hand, positioned perfectly to grab the little pieces of chicken still left from Kate.

"And I promise I would make it up to you tomorrow, everything is on me." She was already turning around when she said it, getting closer to the edge of the building and far from Yelena, the change had already felt visible.

"You won't cook, would you?"

"I will!" Kate said, her legs crossing over towards the fire scape. "I'll make you mac and cheese and I'll make you the best syrniki ever!" The promise was tempting, even if she knew it was a deceiving tactic. "I'll text you when I get home, please do the same. Bye!"

Kate disappeared down the stairs of the fire escape, Yelena was able to hear her descend with the heavy and fast pace she had taken on the metal stairs, her boots marking her steps.

Kate was weird most of the time, just as much as Yelena thought she could be after all the times she had been called that by her teammates, but there was something about the way Kate acted that always left Yelena with the need to know more, to know what else was there that she could find about her, and overall, what was so important that she didn't want to tell Yelena and had instead given her an excuse, a poorly made one at that.

Yelena liked Kate, had liked her since the first time she had entered her apartment uninvited and was still accepted for dinner. She found her interesting and much more capable than what most people had given her credit for, she had proven herself even when she didn't have to, and Yelena appreciated that in people.

Even so, she was not satisfied with her answer, but gave her the push she needed to plant the idea in her head.

Her teammates had already left for bed when she had decided it was time to sleep herself.

Yelena had stayed behind in the common area of the penthouse to keep herself entertained with a movie until it was far too late to make it count as just a few minutes of time she let slip between her fingers to finish whatever she was watching.

She had turned off the lights that were not automatic, walked all the way to the elevator and then to her own room, and once there, she decided that even if she was going to be in bed, she didn't need to actually sleep.

She doubted for a moment, pacing around her room and looking at the walls as if they had any answer. She went to the bathroom, brushed her teeth and processed the thought for a little longer.

It was still going to be her choice, anyway, whether she wanted to do it or leave her imagination to do the work, any option would lead to a different outcome, and she didn't like either of them.

For a moment, when she came back and looked at her made up bed and even under the comforting sensation that filled her for being on her own space, she was hit with the usual wave of grief that hit her every time the topic had been close to be mentioned. The little frame with the only picture she had with her sister looking back at her from the nightstand.

What would Natasha say to her?

It was a question she had tried to ask herself multiple times in the past without successfully getting nowhere. No matter how many times Bucky had tried his best to make sure he shared everything he knew about her, and no matter how many stories and anecdotes Clint Barton related to her. Her sister, she liked it or not, was not someone she had gotten to meet as well as she would have liked.

This time, though, she considered that maybe she would have pushed her to do what she wanted, as she had always done. Like when they were kids and she would push her to do as she pleased as long as she stayed safe.

And if she wanted to do research on herself, out of pure curiosity, she could do it. There couldn't be anything wrong about it, she was just making sure everything that needed to be private was still private.

She sat on her bed, lights turned on, her face illuminated by the bright screen of her laptop as she started to quickly search up the familiar logo between her apps. It was so easy to start a research on someone, and it was probably even easier to do it on herself, considering she had turned into a public persona.

Her first google search didn't drop anything interesting. As Kate had said, there were the recent photos in Washington, as well as the most popular ones that popped up on the image search. Nothing she didn't know about or that was interesting.

She went through a few articles, reading her name over the rest but finding also nothing much interesting to read about herself. Nothing too exciting to notice about any of the writers either, they were mostly common reporters that searched for the best news when there was not much to use, after all, Yelena refused to give any private interviews yet.

Her last resource was social media, which had been a result she didn't want to open when she first started going through the links.

Her name and alias was repeated more times than she could count, all of them from different people with more incorrect opinions than anything else. She disliked half of them, and would have given them actual dislikes to their comments if there had been an option for it, but she had to behave like an adult and an Avenger, so she referred from it.

Even so, after all the terrible commentary and the overly exaggerated comments from people who were idolizing her, she found one of the most interesting ones she had seen so far.

The first one of them, a short one, saying stuff she didn't understand without the needed context, but none of it seemed to be necessary.

What the hell was that?

She could only understand the Black Widow and Hawkeye part, mostly because it was obvious and because of the very intense amount of comments the post had. What she couldn't understand was the soulmatism thing. What was even soulmatism.

"What—" she whispered to herself in the room, her eyes going from one point to the other on the screen, trying her best to read as many comments as possible, as if the original one would disappear.

The post was from that day, so it was probably talking about what they had done to stop the group of people a few hours ago. There was no other reason, and maybe Yelena understood why it would look different from someone else's perspective because yes, they didn't share comms with each other. But soulmatism? She thought it was a bit much. It was all simple level of knowing each other and how the other works, bodily communication. Easy for two heroes.

The next one she thought was a bit wilder.

Fire escape video? Yelena didn't have to go too far to find about it. A short few seconds of video taken from an uncomfortable angle of that same evening when she had been eating on the rooftop with Kate right before she was left behind. It was, as the comment had said, a video of essentially just Yelena passing the food container to Kate, who had reached out without looking or saying anything as she tried to get her bow to retract again to save it back again.

It was common, and such a normal thing for them to do, many people did that too. It was already a practiced movement since most of the time they would get themselves something to eat for their lack of time to cook. She was being a nice friend and just passing Kate her food, what else did people see on it?

She didn't have to go too far to understand what people were trying to say.

Most of the users she had seen, if not all of them, were strangely supportive of a non existent relationship between her and Kate Bishop.

To say she had been left with an open mouth was an understatement.

There were thousands of pictures of them together, some of them manually created by people, some other real ones taken out of context and others were just short videos or people trying to pinpoint something that was really not there, no matter how much they insisted on it.

She had seen it before, mostly when she had made a few searches on her teammates, they were all paired with each other in one way or another, and she had found it so funny and interesting how people could twist things like that. Of course, she had been part of some of those, but on a smaller scale and she never paid much attention to them. Now, though.

Was that why Kate Bishop didn't want to get into details about what she had seen about her? In case she got mad about what people thought of her?

She was never meant to be totally open to the public, she appreciated having a public role but liked her life private, they were not compatible positions, but she had been doing good with it so far. Of course, that didn't mean she couldn't take things with a little humor.

She read some more, getting extremely convince about telling Kate she had searched herself and found most things she probably didn't want to show her, not knowing if maybe Kate had been the one uncomfortable with the situation.

Was the archer uncomfortable with people looking at them like a couple? Kate didn't strike her like the type to be a hater over different types of relationships, or a homophobe as they were referred as. But Yelena didn't want her to be on edge with her, she liked having Kate as her friend and she would make sure to tell her the next time to make sure she knew there was nothing to worry about, and that she found whatever the thing on social media was, totally funny.

She would read some more, of course.

Ah.

She was so not getting sleep that night.