Work Text:
Kate Bishop was putting together a team.
Her first recruit had been Kamala Khan, Ms. Marvel, a young hero from Jersey City with powers similar to Captain Marvel. But this team needed more than two people, and her other two potential recruits were based in Chicago and here in New York. For the moment, Chicago was too far a trip, so she arranged for an old friend to set up a meeting with this potential recruit inside of her office.
Kate didn't expect the office to be at the very bottom of an apartment building. The very bottom, as in, ground-floor bottom. As she reached her friend's office, she could hear a conversation outside the door. Was it her potential recruit? Their voice sounded younger than she expected.
And the conversation was about…potatoes. Small potatoes. Big potatoes. Something about the New Avengers.
Kate wondered how Clint and other Avengers like Captain America felt about these New Avengers.
She knocked on the door. "It's me, Yelena."
"Me who?" Yelena called back.
"Hawkeye."
"You do not sound like Hawkeye. You sound like little girl who loves to press all the buttons in elevator."
Kate rolled her eyes. "It's Kate Bishop."
"Kate Bishop, come on in!"
Kate pushed the doors open and…found herself inside a sauna, but without the smoke. Sitting shoulder-deep in water before her was Yelena Belova—the new Black Widow. Standing with their back turned to Yelena was the potential recruit. Their front was turned toward Kate—
—and so was their six-pack.
"Damn!" Realizing what she just said, Kate covered her mouth. She looked up, slowly, to meet the face of her recruit. A crime fighter who, despite having been framed for murder years ago, cleared their name through their dedication to keep New York City safe. "Spider-Man?"
"Well, Tarantula wouldn't look this good in trunks," the web-slinger said.
"I don't think the Tarantula would continue to wear his mask in a hot tub," Yelena said. She ignored the look, or rather turn of the head, Spider-Man gave her.
Spider-Man turned back to Kate, pointing a finger at her. "Hey, you're that girl who helped Hawkeye…the other Hawkeye take down the tracksuits on Christmas."
Kate smiled. "Yep. He even called the world's second greatest archer."
"Doubt it," Yelena said, ignoring the look Kate gave her. "Look, look, I've got a busy schedule and more clients coming in later today. Spider-Man, get back in the water. Kate, get undressed."
Kate raised a brow. "Excuse me."
"So, she'll know you don't have any weapons on you," Spider-Man explained, "other than the bow and arrow on your back, of course."
"And," Yelena stretched out the word, "to have a relaxing soak at the same time."
Yelena pointed at the folding screen set up in the corner. Kate looked at it, at Yelena, and at Spider-Man.
She gave Spider-Man a once-over, walked toward the screen, gave him another once-over, and said, "turn around."
He turned around.
A minute into Kate undressing and hanging her suit over the screen, Yelena shouted that Spider-Man was looking, to which he argued that he was not.
At least, not until Kate stepped from behind the screen in a modest two-piece that matched his briefs. She assumed it wasn't the lingering kind because it was too brief and his lenses in that mask, from footage she's seen of him, didn't move. Or, he was just that good at hiding body language. She had to agree with Yelena on the mask. It was a little creepy that he was still wearing it in the hot tub.
Speaking of Yelena, Kate realized why she was shoulder deep in the water. "You're not wearing a bathing suit or any swimwear, are you?"
"It's my office," Yelena said with no shame, "I can do whatever I please. Now, please get on with whatever it is you wanted Spider-Man for."
"You want me for something?" Spider-Man asked, turning to Kate.
"Well, you see, I'm putting together a team and—" Kate leaned back and stretched her legs out. Just as she raised her feet above the water, Yelena coughed and looked at her with a deadpan expression. "What?"
"She doesn't like the whole propping your feet up," Spider-Man said.
Kate scoffed and sat up straight, returning her attention to Spidey. "Like I was saying, I'm trying to put together a team that handles… medium-scale threats. Not Avengers-level, but Avengers adjacent. And I already have one recruit, Ms. Marvel, who's still a fish out of water, but she's worked alongside Captain Marvel and Nick Fury."
She noticed Spider-Man move his head at the mention of Nick Fury. "And there's another recruit who I haven't met yet, but she's incredibly smart. She's even invented her own version of Tony Stark's armor at MIT—"
He moved his head again.
"You okay, Spider-Man?" Kate asked.
He looked up. "Yeah, yeah, I was just thinking…about stuff. Sorry, go on?"
Kate nodded. "Well, you've worked with the Avengers when you were a teenager. You became a hero when you were a teenager. Pretty much an inspiration to Ms. Marvel and me. And over the past years you single-handedly reduced the crime rate in New York. Sure, that Daredevil got Fisk arrested, but you took down Tombstone, the Maggia, Scorpion, and so many other goons."
"So, you want us to be like Young Avengers?" Spider-Man asked.
Kate pursed her lips. "Well, Ms. Marvel would be the youngest. I'm in my twenties…and you are?"
"Twenties," Spider-Man said.
"Right, so maybe Young Avengers wouldn't be a lasting name."
"I suggest Thunderbolts," Yelena said.
Kate and Spider-Man looked at her when she said that, but otherwise ignored the suggestion. Yelena simply sipped her glass of tea.
"Anyway, what do you think, Spider-Man?" Kate asked. "We could get more recruits, keep more Avengers gear off the streets, and build a network. Captain Marvel, Captain America, Falcon, Ant-Man, Wasp, War Machine, Winter Soldier—"
"And the New Avengers," Yelena reminded.
"And the New Avengers," Kate said with a roll of the eyes, "are still out there, but they haven't been together-together since everyone returned from the blip. They're off doing their own things while every day more and more Avengers tech gets into the hands of these petty gangs and crime families. Together, we could put a more of a stop to that."
Now, Spider-Man's lenses shut halfway. Even Yelena leaned forward, curious at what Spider-Man would say, despite knowing his answer from their own meeting.
The wall crawler stood up and walked out of the water. He looked over his shoulder at Kate. "I'm sorry, Kate, Hawkeye, I'm not really looking to be part of a team right now. And I have my own investigation going on right now."
"Then maybe you could use some—"
"No!" He saw Kate jump and he breathed. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to yell. I…need to do some things on my own for a while. And what I'm dealing with now…it's too dangerous to have a partner involved."
Kate watched Spider-Man gather his suit and two mechanical objects. Yelena whispered to her that those are where his webs come from and that they're not a superpower.
As Spider-Man pulled the door open, Kate stepped out of the water, and he stopped moving to see what she wanted. Kate reached toward the side of her shorts, then remembered she wasn't wearing her pants. Quickly she went to them and dug out a piece of plastic from the pocket.
Spider-Man accepted it from her. "What's this?"
"In case you change your mind…or ever need help." She gestured her thumb toward Yelena. "Cuz, obviously, Yelena was helping you out with something, right?"
"And," Yelena spoke up, "it does make more sense for a small potato to work with an even smaller eggplant."
Kate winced and turned around. "Excuse me, eggplant? Smaller eggplant?"
Yelena smirked and leaned back, kicking her feet up. "Because you're the second Hawkeye, Hawkeye."
"I'll keep the card, Hawkeye," Spider-Man said, getting Kate's attention and surprise, for he was already back in his suit. "I'm not looking to join a team, but it doesn't mean we can't support each other."
Kate smiled. It was better than a rejection. "Yeah, exactly. And if you reconsider the whole team thing, it's not like a 24/7 thing, you know. We all have lives to get back to, right."
"Lives, right," Spider-Man said. "Well, I've got gotta get back to my thing."
"Of course." Kate watched him leave the room and close the door behind him.
"An eggplant leading a team of small potatoes." Yelena laughed. "There's poetry in that somewhere."
Kate looked over her shoulder and leered at Yelena. "An eggplant and small potatoes. So, what does that make you?"
Yelena leaned back and raised her hands behind her back. "A big potato."
Kate looked down at where the rest of Yelena's torso was cut off from the water. She could still make a shape under the surface. "Nah, I think you're more of a small potato. Two small bags of potatoes."
Yelena blinked and looked down at her chest. Then she looked back up at Kate with a glare in her eyes. "Goodbye, Kate Bishop."
Kate smiled and got herself dressed. Before heading, she looked over her shoulder and said, "Nice seeing you again too, Yelena."