Chapter 2
“I just don’t know what to do anymore.” Kate huffed. Her head rested in the palm of her hand, elbow propped on the table as she swirled her fork around the remnants of scrambled eggs and the crusts of toast left on her mostly emptied plate.
“Yelena hasn’t reached out and she’s not answering any of my texts, I don’t know where she is and even Wanda said she had no idea if Yelena put down a fake number or not because she doesn’t even have her real number in the first place.”
Lucky tilted his head at the panicking human, smiling up at her dopily with his signature wink.
Kate let out a sigh, stabbing her left over eggs with the fork and feeding them to Lucky. She watched with a small smile on her face as his tail wagged excitedly.
Pizza Dog was much more than just a dog to Kate. He was her best friend. One of the only constants in her life that had been there for her no matter what.
Kate Bishop, at her core, was a sunbeam of a girl. Always smiling, laughing, always happy, and that happiness infected everyone around her.
When Eleanor was arrested, Kate Bishop lost her smile. The whole world lost colour and the sun felt just that bit darker. Clouds just that bit greyer.
One time, after coming home from a particularly brutal meeting about the future of Bishop Security she felt dead on her feet. Kate remembered throwing off her jacket and heading straight to bed when a low bark caught her attention. Turning, she found Lucky with his face stuck in a box of pizza rolls from last night, whipping his head back and forth in an attempt to free himself.
That was the first time Kate had laughed in months.
“I wish we could do more, buddy.” Kate scrubbed behind his ears with a forlorn expression. “I’m so sorry.”
Lucky whined at that, licking at Kate’s fingers with wet slobbery kisses, eliciting a laugh from his owner.
Abruptly, Pizza Dog perked up, staring over Kate’s shoulder and out of the window just behind the booth. He barked, yipping loudly and pawing at Kate’s knee.
“Lucky, shh, shh!” She glanced up, sheepishly smiling at the waitress who glared at her over the coffee pot. “They’re gonna kick us out if you make too much noise. What is it, buddy?”
Pizza Dog didn’t bother with explanations
- though it wasn’t as if he could’ve explained himself even if he wanted to. He just bowed his head for a moment before taking off towards the door.
“Lucky-“ Kate was cut off, dragged from her seat by the leash tied around her wrist. She hastily threw some cash on the counter before being pulled out the propped open door and out onto the street. “Hey!”
The Pizza Dog paid no mind to his owner’s calls, sprinting across the thankfully quiet road and through the gates of the dog park just opposite the cafe. It was a good business idea; dog friendly cafe just outside a dog park. Though Kate doubted Lucky held interest in the financial capacities of the locations.
He yipped loudly, slowing down enough for Kate to regain her footing and untangle the leash from her wrist, before planting his fluffy butt in the grass with his tongue lolling out.
As if summoned, a blur of fluff launched forward, barreling right into the golden and knocking the leash from Kate’s hand. The Akita yelped excitedly, tumbling around in the grass with Lucky, licking kisses all over his fur.
Despite her bewilderment and anger at being dragged halfway across an open road, Kate couldn’t help but coo at the two doggies rolling around in glee. Unhooking Lucky’s leash, Kate took a moment to wrap the thing around her arm once more, smiling at the sight. Instinctively, she reached into her pocket and took out her phone, snapping a quick picture.
“Delete that.” Came a voice from behind, rapidly approaching. Kate didn’t even get a chance to turn when her phone holding hand was captured in a vice grip. “Are you deaf? Delete. That. Photo.”
Unsatisfied by the lack of movement, Yelena merely plucked the phone out of Kate’s hand and deleted it herself. Only releasing the brunette when she was finished, handing back the phone with a glare.
Kate blinked hard a few times before she spoke. “What is wrong with you?”
“Excuse me?”
“What is actually wrong with you?” Kate let out a disbelieving laugh. “You insult me, ignore my texts, my calls, and then when I take a harmless picture, you put your hands on me, take my phone and insult me some more? What the hell?”
Yelena bristled at that. Hands crossing across her chest as she surveyed the brunette up and down with a disdainful glare.
This time, the blonde’s hair was tied up in an intricate braid. She actually wore colour this time; a white top, cropped at her navel paired with a baggy pair of jeans and the same yellow plaid overcoat. Her sense of fashion reminded Kate of an abstract painting; random and unpredictable, colours mismatched and completely different from everything else Kate had ever seen before. Her mouth dried, eyes immediately drawn to the silver glint of a belly piercing just visible from the cropped shirt.
Kate decided that she liked Yelena’s sense of style.
“Is that an issue, Kate Bishop?” One blonde brow raised pointedly. “You seemed to have no issue laying hands on me the last time we met.”
“That-“ Kate felt her face heat up, like it so often did when she encountered the blonde. “Look the point is, I just wanted to take a picture of the dogs being cute, okay? You’re telling me they don’t look adorable together?”
Reluctantly, Yelena’s eyes trailed over to where the two doggies were bowing playfully at each other, tails wagging fast enough for them to take flight if they jumped.
Meanwhile, Kate’s gaze involuntarily fell to where Yelena’s tongue dug into her cheek as she contemplated the idea.
“You should not take pictures without asking.” Yelena settled on, dragging her eyes back to Kate’s. “A pet is an easy identifier for anyone searching for you. You, of all people, should be worried about this, seeing as your dog has one eye. It would be very easy for me to find you.”
“Okay, thanks- thank you for that. Not sure who’s searching for you or me, but I’ll uh, keep that in mind.” Kate nodded sharply, rolling back on her heels and offering the blonde a sheepish smile. “So . . .”
“So?”
“Seeing as we, you know, are finally in a position where you can’t avoid me any longer, I was thinking we should talk about our plan of action.”
“Our plan of action?” The blonde scoffed, “For what? The puppies?”
“Yeah.” Kate said matter of factly, deepening Yelena’s scowl. “I thought that was pretty, uhh, pretty obvious.”
“No, it wasn’t.” Yelena shot down. “And there is no ‘our plan of action’. We will not speak on this further until the pups are born. Then I will message you the invoice for vet and maintenance costs for Fanny and the babies, until I find them good homes to go to.”
Kate balked for a moment, boggling vacantly at the blonde until she realised that Yelena was serious about Kate and Lucky acting as mere sugar daddies to the pups.
“Are you kidding? You can’t do that. I’m not just going to let you ignore us for months and then have you send a bill. I’m not a bag of money.”
“Come on, Kate Bishop. Surely you can dig into your trust fund a little for a good cause,” Yelena pouted up at her mockingly and Kate hated herself for the glare she sent being locked on that pouty bottom lip. “Though I suppose with trials coming up, you don’t have much of a trust fund left to spare, hm?”
“Leave my family, and my personal life, out of this.” Yelena’s eyes widened slightly, lips parting as Kate stepped forward, eyes hard and cold. “I’m trying to be nice about this but I swear to god I can’t keep this upif you don’t help me out.”
There was a standoff for a moment. Kate’s chest heaving with anger and Yelena’s with anticipation, as the pair sized each other up.
Kate was instantly more aware of the fact that this time, there was no mediator. No Wanda to cut in if things got out of hand, no one to stop them if things really did get physical.
Her rational side told her to de-escalate, years of media and publicity training begging her to control herself but her monkey brain told her not to back down. For some reason, she believed Yelena would never respect her if she did.
Suddenly, Yelena’s eyes snapped to a point over Kate’s shoulder, a crease between her brows forming. In a blur of movement, Yelena’s hand wrapped around Kate’s wrist and she quickly dragged them both behind a tree.
“What’re you-“ Kate grunted as her back hit bark, Yelena’s hands enclosing on her at each side. The brunette’s eyes were wide as she stared down at the shorter woman who paid her no mind. Yelena peered from the left side, watching the figure in blacked out clothes look around aimlessly.
“Yelena?” The blonde blinked, snapping out of her mind to look up at Kate’s face, confusion rapidly turning into concern. “Are you okay?”
“Someone is following us.” Yelena’s mouth opened to explain further, before the look of concern on Kate’s face deepened and she stopped herself. Kate wouldn’t understand either way.
“Who-“ Kate peered her head past the tree to catch a glimpse of their tail, before Yelena’s hand pushed hard against her chest, pinning her to the bark.
“Shh.” If the blonde noticed the jackhammering of Kate’s heart beat, she didn’t comment. “Don’t look. You will give away our position.”
“We’re in a public park, Yelena. I’m pretty sure our ‘position’ isn’t all too hidden.” Kate’s brows furrowed as Yelena didn’t bother responding. Eyes calculated, scanning the surroundings of whatever was behind them. “Yelena. Yelena! I think I know who it is.”
That got her attention. The blonde’s eyes met Kate’s once more with a questioning look. Kate’s hand rose instinctively to cradle Yelena’s that remained on her chest, before she leaned over to peer at the figure. Yelena quickly retracted her hand at the reminder of its placement, a sheepish look flitting across her.
“Paparazzi.” Kate affirmed her guess. The man in black perked up as he caught Kate’s eye, he twisted the strap around his neck to bring the camera to his front. Kate ducked once more. “It’s just a paparazzi guy.”
“How did you know?”
“You learn how to recognise them after years of having them stationed outside your high-school every day.” She jested at the blonde’s skeptical look. “See the camera?”
“Hmm.” Yelena finally backed off, giving the brunette room and allowing her heart rate to gradually slow back down to normal.
Her eyes remained laser focused on the figure, despite Kate’s assurance.
“Military?” Yelena’s gaze wavered, flickering to Kate with an inquisitive frown. “One of my friend’s dads was military. He was always a little, uhh, on edge like that.”
“It is none of your business what I have or have not done in my past, Kate Bishop.” Yelena said coldly. “Excuse me.”
From the way she didn’t wait for Kate’s response, merely walking away, it told Kate that she wasn’t actually asking to be excused.
The blonde whistled sharply, her Akita quickly falling into step by her side and Kate once again felt immensely jealous at the trained Akita who probably never dragged Yelena from cafe booths unlike a certain dog she knew.
Lucky whined at the retreating forms, trudging forward to sit by Kate’s feet and watch as they left. The sound broke her heart and Kate knew she had to do something.
If Yelena was allowed to leave, she would almost certainly refuse to negotiate and there was no guarantee Kate would ever get this chance again.
Rushing forward, Kate wrapped an arm around Yelena’s shoulder. She could tell the blonde was caught off guard from the way she tensed under the hold. Kate ignored all her nerves, holding on until she heard the telltale click of a camera from behind.
“What the hell are you doing?” Yelena expertly ducked under Kate’s hold, grasping the brunette’s wrist with a harsh glare.
“Creating blackmail material.” Kate replied simply. She winced as Yelena’s grip dug in harder. “Knowing what I know about journalism, that photo ends up on a headline tomorrow, unless I take care of it with some of my ‘spoiled rich kid’ connections. Knowing what I know about you, I can assume you won’t like that.” Kate swallowed nervously as Yelena’s eyes grew wide with fury. “So, should we meet next weekend, or . . ?”
Green eyes flickered between blue, Yelena’s jaw clenched tight before she let out an exasperated cry, roughly releasing Kate’s wrist and storming off.
“I’m just- I’m assuming that’s a yes!” Kate called out to Yelena’s back. The blonde raised her middle finger without sparing her a glance. “Great.”
Blowing out a breath, Kate sent Lucky a victorious grin. Regardless of the fact that Kate would never really blackmail Yelena no matter what her response was, she was more than happy that her plan worked.
“Who’s got the best mommy in the world, huh?” Lucky grinned back at Kate just as big, taking the pats she offered happily. “You do, yes you do.”
—————————————-
Three beers and a shot of vodka later, Yelena was traversing the rabbit hole of videos on ‘heiress Kate Bishop’ armed with a soft knit blanket and a fourth bottle she was going to regret the next morning.
Fanny huffed from her position at the foot of the bed, staring up at the blaring blue light of the laptop screen illuminating the dark room.
“I’m sorry, малышка, just a little longer.” (Baby girl) Yelena soothed under her breath. “If that mutt is going to be associated with you, I will need a little more insight on his owner.”
Her cursor scrolled the screen lower and lower, multitudes of videos on Kate Bishop filling her monitor until finally, Yelena settled on a trusted source.
“Welcome to WatchMojo, where we’re looking through the top five moments where Kate Bishop endeared herself into all of our hearts.”
Taking a swig of beer, Yelena grimaced at her oncoming headache. She hated being caught off guard even more than she hated being told what to do.
Overachiever that was Kate Bishop, she managed to do both in the span of one meeting. Yelena thought bitterly.
In all honesty, the further Yelena thought on things, the more she understood Kate’s side of things. As much as she tried not to, she found herself reversing the scenarios and Yelena knew in her heart she would do all she could to help Fanny see her pups.
The only difference was, Yelena argued, she would never allow Fanny to go unchecked long enough for something like this to happen.
There were virtually no benefits to letting Kate Bishop get her grubby hands all over Fanny and the pups, despite Yelena understanding Kate’s motivations.
It would only cause more problems than necessary. Once Fanny got used to the company, the more she grew accustomed to Lucky and Kate’s presence, the harder it would be for her to give them up when they stopped showing.
It was inevitable. If they didn’t get bored first, Kate and Lucky would most definitely be gone once the pups were homed and that gave more than a good 3 months of them being a consistent presence in Fanny’s life, and that was if Fanny’s pregnancy was on the short end of the scale and the pups got picked up right away.
Overall, there was little to gain and all too loose. But now, Yelena took another swig of beer, she had little choice but to do damage control where she could.
“ . . . And number four, we have the viral video of Kate saving Pizza Dog Lucky from oncoming traffic.”
That caught Yelena’s attention. Her eyes fell on the video, where Kate could be seen weaving between speeding cars, grabbing a dirty, scruffy dog from where it lay tail tucked in the road, before rolling over the hood of a car to bring them both to safety.
Yelena’s brows raised in approval and she pursed her lips, nodding her head. Okay, that earned her a few points.
“. . . Saving the best for last, let’s not forget the highlight of 2021, where Kate’s first and last ad campaign was launched for Calvin Klein’s women’s brand of boxers. Gracing all of our eyes with abs for days and making both boys and girls question-“
Yelena slammed the laptop shut with a wide-eyed expression. Her guilty expression landed on Fanny, who was luckily asleep by now at her feet.
Well. The blonde mused, she did need to carry on with her research.
With another swig of beer, Yelena opened up the laptop once more.