Chapter 3
Standing in the small SHIELD bathroom, Yelena lifted her shirt and peered down at the kaleidoscope of bruising around her rib cage. She’s never going to admit it, but it hurts like a bitch. She taped her fingers to her ribs and inhaled deeply. Not broken.
Sighing, she continued her search for the small tin container.
She huffed as she stared into the mirror, before resting her palms on the aluminum counter top and leaning forward, eyebrows scrunched in confusion. She couldn't find it. Her eyes landed back on the unsightly mark, taking in the large purple bruise on her cheekbone. She was there, watching herself, but her mind was a million miles away. They couldn’t know. She wasn’t ready for them to know.
But Yelena felt a deep pull in her gut anyway.
Because two of Yelena’s favorite people on the planet were acting suspiciously weird towards her.
The changes were subtle, but extremely noticeable for an ex Red Room assassin.
It's Maria she notices first. Lately it seems like everywhere she turns Maria’s eyes are on her, watching and calculating. Yelena knows she wants to say something, or to ask her about something but is clearly trying to determine the best way to approach it. She wishes Maria would just come out and say it.
Yelena felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. She shook her head at the thought, before refocusing on the bag before her. Quick strikes in rapid succession, Yelena ignored the dribble of sweat making its way down her brow towards her eyes. She felt the goosebumps appear on her forearms and she knew for certain she was being watched. Her gut was rarely wrong once, never twice.
Yelena tensed, trying to slow her breathing and prepare herself for any danger. She scanned the room slowly, her eyes immediately catching on the small figure standing in the doorway of the training room, with arms folded in that typical Deputy Director stance.
She relaxed minutely, she was safe with Maria.
It would take pulling teeth to get her to admit it out loud, but she cared deeply for Maria. She could truly say that Maria was one of the best things that ever happened to Natasha and herself by extension. Maria protected her. And she was always willing to hear Yelena's side. It was more than anything she’d ever gotten from any supervisor.
Yelena shot her a smile before waving her over.
Maria ambled over to Yelena, a contemplative look on her face, and Yelena could tell that something was off. Maria was usually so stoic, mind resolute with a plan of action already created and thought through a thousand times over. Maria didn’t waver or second guess herself. So as she watched Maria’s face change from contemplative to slightly hesitant, coupled with the wringing of her hands and the rubbing of her neck, her behavior started making Yelena nervous.
She flashed her signature pearly white smile anyway and listened as Maria cleared her throat.
“Yelena,” Maria began, “you know I care so so much about you right?”.
Yelena felt her breath caught in her throat, before looking down at her toes and nodding slowly. Here it was, it seemed the other foot on the good in her life was suddenly about to come down, and crush her heart with it. The feeling of people other than Natasha caring for her was still so new.
She feels a pair of fingers under her chin, lightly pulling until steel blue eyes meet dark brown ones.
“I would do absolutely anything to protect you and your sister.” Maria paused. “You know that right?”
Yellena couldn’t help the hint of confusion that filtered through on her face. There was always a but in these conversations and she didn’t know why Maria was elongating breaking her heart with these questions.
She nodded anyway. She already knew of Maria’s protective streak when it came to her.
“And…and you know you can tell me anything right? No matter what or who it was about?” Maria asked, her eyes boring into Yelena’s.
Yelena swallowed hard but nodded anyway.
And suddenly she felt sick. Because now she knew. Maria wasn't here to tell Yelena something bad, she was trying to show Yelena just how much she cared about her, and was in her corner. The thought made Yelena all the more upset.
Because truthfully? Yelena knew she’d just lied.
Some things were just meant to be kept to herself and good people like Maria would never understand.
Yelena digs around in her SHIELD-provided backpack, and sighs in relief when her hands grasp the small tin container of concealer. She’d worked hard to get it. She opened it and began the slow, meticulous process of dabbing the concealer on the facial bruise. Normally she wouldn’t care to cover up such trivial marks, but she’d rather not explain where she got this one.
She was an expert at covering marks, and she wasn’t surprised to see her face looking as good as new when she was done.
She glanced at the clock on the opposite wall. Shit. She would be late.
Yelena began stuffing things into her backpack, already halfway out the door, a faint smile on her face at the thought of the upcoming reunion. She slipped her fingers into her pocket fishing for her cellphone to send a reminder text. If anything would be able to keep her mind off the past few weeks it would be them.
Bang!
She felt a hard jolt as she bumped into someone walking the opposite direction. Yelena let out a yelp while cringing at the sound of her items, in particular her phone, dropping and scattered on the floor. She gritted her teeth in annoyance, ready to round on the person who’d bumped into her,
“This bathroom is occu-”
She trailed off and relaxed immediately at the sight of very familiar red hair..
She grinned widely at Natasha, opening her arms expectantly. But it faltered slightly when she noticed that Natasha’s attention wasn’t trained on her at all. Yelena followed her line of sight, and her breath caught in her throat when it landed on the small tin container of concealer.
Fuck. There was absolutely no hiding that Natasha had seen it, and knew what it was. Shit.
Yelena didn’t want to deal with the onslaught of questions she knew would be coming. She shoveled everything back into the bag and quickly sidestepped Natasha before breaking into a sprint, yelling out that they would talk later and that she had somewhere to be.
She already knew Natasha wouldn't let the concealer go unnoticed.