Chapter 1
“You need to pull yourself together.” Kate’s stern glare rested firmly on her mirror.
Her newly acquired drivers license had been put to use with an extravagant all purple Dodge Challenger that single-handedly set her back most of her trust fund but she didn’t care. It looked cool. Sue her.
Her problem wasn’t the car. Kate narrowed her eyes at the mirror. No, it was something much worse.
She slowed to a stop, pulling up just outside an all too familiar building before turning off the engine and heaving a big sigh. Her eyes drifted back to her mirror.
“I hope you’re ready for a tough conversation. Oh, and you better be ready, because we’re staying no matter how uncomfortable things get.” Her finger raised, now joining her pep talk with pointing. “We are taking responsibility because we are good, responsible people.”
Lucky whined, lowering his head a little and giving Kate a pleading look with his big brown eyes.
The archer wavered a little, finger deflating before she steeled herself. “Don’t give me that look. This is your own fault and now you need to step up and own it.”
Her hand found the door and pulled it open before poking back inside to glare once more at the mirror, pointer finger back with a vengeance. “I raised you better than this.”
Feeling proud of her stern mom skills, Kate got out of her car and opened Lucky’s door, before walking them to the building in front of them.
Lucky’s head was down, tail tucked, the epitome of shame but Kate wouldn’t budge. She really did raise Lucky better than this.
The little bell above the glass door tinkled as Kate pushed it open, greeted by the familiar chorus of barking dogs and pleasant chaos that she’d come to expect from the doggy daycare.
Pats for Pets, it was so aptly named. A cute little sanctuary where New Yorkers could leave their pups to enjoy while they’re away.
Kate, of course, checked the reviews regularly, made consistent visits, calls, follows the website to make sure it truly was the best place for Lucky. He was the bestest boy and as such needed the bestest place to play and enjoy.
Now though, Kate sent a disappointed look to Pizza Dog, who couldn’t even meet her eyes, she wasn’t so sure.
Not about him being the bestest boy, no of course not, that wouldn’t ever change. She wasn’t so sure about this being the best place for him.
The pair approached the front desk, Kate taking a moment to glance over the white fence separating half of the room from the large open area filled with dogs and toys galore, all the good boys and girls playing amongst themselves happily.
“Hey, Kate Bishop?” The receptionist sounded familiar, almost melodic, name tag reading Wanda and a polite smile across her lips.
“Yeah,” She stretched out her hand for a shake, “This is Lucky.”
“Oh, I know.” Wanda laughed lightly, shaking Kate’s hand. “I spoke with you on the phone about his, umm, issue.”
Pizza Dog whined, lowering his head further.
“Oh god, I’m so sorry about that,” Kate spoke sincerely, free hand on her heart. “I really didn’t- Lucky’s usually really well behaved and- he’s never had this problem before and he’s a rescue so I didn’t even know if he was neutered or-“
“It’s fine, Kate. Don’t worry about it.” Wanda soothed the frantic explanations, sensing Kate’s building anxiety. “We’ve seen our fair share of inappropriate behaviour in some of the dogs in our care. It happens. It’s natural.”
Blowing out a breath, Kate let out a nervous laugh, shoulders relaxing for the first time since she’d received the phone call.
“The only problem you might have is Fanny’s owner.” Wanda added sheepishly, mentally sighing as Kate’s shoulders tensed once more.
“What? Why? Who is it?” The archer fired off rapidly, Lucky plopped his butt down in a sit, resigning himself to the fact he probably wasn’t going off to play anytime soon.
“She’s not bad,” Wanda replied gently, “She’d just a little protective of her dog, is all. That’s a good thing, she’s a great owner. Yelena can just be a little-“
“Which one of these bastards impregnated my dog?”
The words, almost a battle cry, drowned out the tingling of the bell. Both Kate and Wanda’s gaze, and the eyes of every pup in the daycare snapped to the frenzied blonde stood in the doorway.
Yelena’s eyes were burning, Chest heaving and hand clenched tight on the knob of the door. Her hair was loose and fell around her shoulders but it was slightly mussed, cheeks tinged as if she ran here. She wore an all black outfit, jeans and a t-shirt covered by a long yellow plaid trench coat and was that a gun in the waistband of her pants-
“Yelena! You’re here earlier than I thought you’d be.” Wanda hurried out of her seat to stand between her and Kate. The archer’s eyes finally dragged themselves away from the blonde’s overpowering presence to appreciate the cutest, most fluffiest American Akita stood nicely by Yelena’s side.
Kate liked all dogs. Big dogs, small dogs, fluffy dogs, short-haired dogs. All dogs were, in Kate’s eyes, good boys and girls. This dog though, was one of the most adorable little guys she’d ever seen - outside of Pizza Dog, of course.
With big, soulful eyes, a big wet nose and a huge doggy grin baring great sharp teeth. The thing was the cutest little killer in the world.
“Of course I am.” The blonde sniffed distastefully, eyes scanning over Kate’s figure, cold and calculating before turning to the cautious daycare owner. “You did not answer my question, Wanda. Which one impregnated my Fanny?”
“Sorry, your what?” Kate couldn’t help the little giggle that bubbled up her throat. She was immature, sue her.
That was, decidedly, a grave mistake. Yelena’s eyes snapped to hers and her cold apathy turned to frigid rage. The blonde looked down at Lucky, who wore his signature dopey grin at the sight of the newcomers, and she scowled further.
“Was it this one? This mutt?” Kate bristled at that, protectiveness over her pooch stirring inside her.
“Come on, Yelena, calm down.” Wanda tried, raising her hands placatingly. She went ignored, Yelena stepping past her to approach Kate and the latter readily meeting her in a stand off, inches away from one another wearing matching scowls.
Sensing the tension in the room, the dogs in the playpen began to grow rowdy, barking and yipping.
“Don’t call my dog a mutt. His name is Lucky.” Kate was frowning down at the blonde, who was a few inches shorter. A fact that grated Yelena to no end.
“Only a mutt would have so little self control to hump at any dog that crosses its path.” Yelena let a mirthless smile cross her face, mocking and intense. “I can see now he learned it from his owner. It seems the articles about you ring true, Kate Bishop.”
The archer felt her face heat up, flushing pink with embarrassment, humiliation and anger all at once.
Those articles were nothing more than cash-grabbers. Some click bait-y title with a scandalous photo to catch people’s attention. Sure, Kate did have a little heartbreaker streak in local circles, but she wasn’t the ‘sex-fiend, capital R, Rake’ the articles portrayed.
They were a point of immense humiliation for Kate. The fact that millions of people had read and seen those stories about her often kept her awake at night and to hear them thrown in her face over something so trivial?
It may or may not have grated on her nerves a little.
“Who the hell are you? At least people care enough about me to write stories, I’ve never even heard of you.” She erupted, stepping closer to the blonde who wore a look of aghast irritation, “To come in here and start talking about my personal life, insult my dog, I swear to god I-“
“You’ll do what, Kate Bishop? Call mommy for help?” The blonde pouted up at her, “I don’t think she will able to do much, seeing as she can not even be bothered to pay her taxes, leaving poor Katie all alone to handle her problems-“
Kate didn’t think twice about it, she wasn’t usually a violent person but her hand whipped out to strike the blonde and if Wanda hadn’t caught her wrist, the blow would’ve collided.
“Okay, that’s enough.” Wanda’s eyes were furious, burning, her pupils almost looked as if they turned red at her anger. “Yelena, go wait outside while I call Natasha. Kate, back off and go sit in the break room.”
The pair were reluctant to move. The staring match between them had grown terse and neither Yelena nor Kate wanted to be the first to break eye contact. The archer felt her heart pound with adrenaline, growing faster with every second she looked into those green eyes. Her teeth grit as she found herself unwillingly taking in every detail of the blonde’s face. The flecks of golden brown in her eyes, the twitch of her jaw as it clenched, the dilation of her pupils-
“Now.”
Concentration broken, Kate turned to look at Wanda instead, ignoring the colouring to her cheeks that was in place for a new reason. Yelena sent Kate a glare, her own face matching the archer’s hue of pink before the two looked down and-
“Fanny, каблук!”
“Lucky, get off!”
The two dogs were pulled away by their owners from where they had met, licking and nuzzling at each other with wagging tails.
Fanny let out a keening whine as she was tugged away, reluctantly falling into a heel position while staring up at her owner with a plea in her eyes.
Lucky yipped at being separated from the Akita, pulling a little at the leash as he set his sights on the whining dog. Wanting more than anything to go to her.
Yelena let out a few muttered words in Russian, sending Kate one last withering glare before turning to leave. Lucky whimpered and tried to follow after them, to which Kate had to hold him back with both hands. Fanny turned back to Lucky with another whine before she was out the door and the pair disappeared from view.
Blowing out a breath, Kate let out a disbelieving laugh before turning to Wanda. “Can you believe the nerve-“
“Kate, break room. Now.” She snapped, taking Lucky’s leash and pointing an unwavering finger at the door behind her desk. Kate felt her ears burn at the chastising before she reluctantly lowered her gaze and complied.
Once the archer was out of sight, Wanda sighed and looked down at Lucky, his endearing wink doing little to cheer her up.
“What’re we going to do with you, huh?” She cooed, ruffling his ears. “Little troublemaker. Couldn’t you have kept it in your pants?”
Lucky huffed, affronted and Wanda laughed at the expression, giving him a peck before sending him off to play in the pen with the other dogs.
——————————
“It wasn’t even my fault! She just waltzed in, started insulting me and Lucky and then she-“
“Okay, Kate, slow down.” Clint’s sigh was audible through the phone and Kate quirked a little smile, calming down as she could just picture him pinching the bridge of his nose in exasperation. “Where are you now?”
“The receptionist sent me to the break room to cool off. The girl’s probably still stood outside.” Kate melted further into the bean bag she sat on, throwing a tennis ball up and down with her free hand. “I just can’t believe she came in here and started bringing up all that stuff. This wasn’t even that, like, major. We could’ve been good co-parents to the puppies once they’re born, find them good homes and then we could go our seperate ways.”
“Co-parents? To dogs?” Clint spoke disbelievingly. “Yeah, sure. Do you need me to come down there?”
“No, everything’s fine. Don’t worry about it.” Kate felt herself grin, heart warming at the offer. “To think there was a time you told me not to call you and now, you’re willing to fly down here for the smallest issues.”
“Ha, ha, I’m hanging up.” Clint grumped, causing Kate to laugh. “Seriously though, Katie-Kate, are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’ll be fine.” The archer’s eyes drifted to her feet, recalling Yelena’s words as hurt churned around in her belly. She hadn’t told Clint exactly what she’d said, just that she’d brought up her personal life.
“Did you know the girl’s name?”
“Yeah, it was Yelena something. Her dog was called Fanny,” Kate scoffed. “Stupid name, but oh my godClint you should’ve seen her face when I laughed at it-“
“Yelena, Yelena Belova?” Clint interjected, sounding concerned.
“I don’t know. I think she knew the receptionist though, Wanda said she was going to call ‘Natasha’. Probably her mom or something.“
“Her sister.” Clint snorted at the thought while Kate sat up in alarm.
“You know her?”
“I know of her. Back when I was doing archery for the Olympics, Nat was one of the gymnasts. We hit it off quick and we’ve been friends ever since. She told me about her little sister, Yelena.”
“Okay, first of all,” Kate raised a finger, “Why have I never heard about Natasha? Second, why did you never tell me you had friends? and third, I probably shouldn’t have tried to slap her then, huh?”
“Wait, you did what?”
“Okay, I gotta go Wanda’s calling me now byee.” Quick fingers descended on her phone, quickly cutting the call before Clint could respond.
Wanda levelled her with an amused look, eyebrow raised as she regarded the archer. She shook her head as Kate gave her an innocent smile, opening the door wider for Kate to leave the room.
“So, what we were supposed to do was discuss a plan for what to do about our little issue.” She began, following Kate out to the main reception area. “But since you two can’t be in a room together without any screaming, I think it’s best if you resolve this issue over the phone.”
The archer paused as Wanda moved behind her desk, typing at her keyboard. Apparently, Yelena had been allowed to come back inside and she had taken to sitting on one of the plush green armchairs opposite the reception desk with a hostile look on her face.
She stared daggers at Kate, who tried her damndest to ignore it knowing Clint would kill her if she did anything too impulsive.
“Okay,” Wanda seated herself in her chair, reclining back with a sigh, “Yelena, Nat’s outside to come pick you up,” She opened one of the drawers nearby and handed her a small notepad. “Write down your number and give it to Kate. Calmly.”
“I thought you already had her number.” Kate said, watching as Yelena scribbled down a string of numbers with a little more force than was necessary.
“We have Nat’s number, Yelena-“
“Does not give her number to anyone.” The blonde finished. Dropping the pen back on the desk, she stood and stepped towards the archer.
Kate tensed, heart speeding up as the blonde approached. Uncertainty filled her and she half-expected Yelena to start attacking her for revenge.
Her hand reached down, gripping the waistband of Kate’s leggings and the archer immediately flushed, glancing between Yelena’s piercing eyes and the movement of her hand. She pulled them back, placing the notepad inside and letting them snap back to Kate’s waist, never breaking eye contact.
“You tell anyone that number, Kate Bishop, and I will kill you in a way that will drive whoever finds you to madness.”
And with that comment, she turned and walked away. “I will be back in three hours to pick up Fanny.”
Wanda, poor Wanda was too stunned to respond. Watching haplessly as she strolled out the door, bell dingling pleasantly with her exit.
Fumbling momentarily, Kate pulled the notepad from her pants and ripped off the page, putting it in the pocket of her hoodie. Even with Yelena gone, Kate’s face was still flushed, heart still racing.
If Wanda noticed the way she swallowed nervously before leaving, she didn’t comment.