Chapter 1
YELENA’S P.O.V.
Yelena found herself in her safehouse. She frowned as she looked around. Everything was as she had left it the last time she had been there. It was after she went with Sonya to free Ana, where she was turned into dust only to return five years later.
For a moment she closed her eyes. She liked how quiet it was. There were no worries in her mind. It was really peaceful as she untied her two ponytails, letting her blonde hair hang on either side of her face…
There was a knock on the door. A second and a third one when she did not open it. But for some odd reason she felt like everything was going to change. As the knocks came, Yelena felt compelled to open it…
Her eyes watered at the sight of her older sister carrying a small child in her arms; her niece.
"Tasha?" she did not mean her voice to sound so questioning, but she could tell by her sister's face that something was wrong.
Natasha just pulled her into a tight embrace with her free arm, so she did not hesitate to wrap her arms around her sister's waist. She pressed her face to the redhead's shoulder as she tried her best to control her emotions.
It had been too long since she had found herself in her big sister's comforting embrace, so she could not avoid complaining when Tasha pulled away to readjust the toddler set on her hip. However, before she could complain again, Natasha pressed her forehead against hers, gently cradling the back of her head to push her closer.
Yelena smiled slightly while staring into Natasha's green eyes. But her smile faded away when she noticed the tears filling those eyes.
"What's wrong?" Yelena asked her, desperate for an answer.
"Nothing's wrong, little one." her sister answered, before kissing her forehead, to which she closed her eyes.
She felt little hands pulling her hair, so she stared at her niece, who was clearly feeling a little left out by her mother and aunt.
"Not nice, malyshka." Yelena told her, trying to remove her little hands from her hair, only to get a pout from the little girl.
"Be nice to your aunt, baby girl." Natasha kissed her daughter's cheek.
"Sowry…" the three year old looked at Yelena.
"I can't be mad at you, can I?" She carefully took the toddler from Natasha’s arms. "You're getting so big, huh?" she poked the little girl's side, getting her to giggle.
It had been long since the last time the three had been together, so she was trying really hard to remember everything. Yelena cuddled with her sister for as long as she could. She was only a little upset that she had to share Nat with the three year old toddler, even if the little girl was far more interested in being with her.
"She's asleep." Yelena whispered while staring at the sleeping child in her sister’s arms. "What's going on?" she asked when Natasha just nodded. "Natasha—"
“I have to go on a mission." the redhead finally said. "I need you to take care of her."
“What? No, no, no…" she quickly shook her head. "I'm not good with kids, what do you expect me to do with a child?" she asked her, already panicking.
"You'll do just fine." Natasha gave her a reassuring smile.
"How long?" she dared to ask.
"That's the thing, Yelena…" her sister sighed as she felt her heart shattering since she knew what the next words would be. "I don't think I'm coming back—"
"No. Don't. You can't do this." There was a lump in her throat as tears blurred her vision.
"I'm so sorry—" Natasha tried to talk, gently pulling her into a hug.
"No. You can't." She pushed herself away before collapsing against her sister. "You can't leave me. Please…" she sobbed, clinging to Natasha.
For a moment Yelena felt the same as the day they were separated. She felt anxious at the thought of her sister leaving her again. She could not lose her big sister.
"Yelena, listen to me." Natasha cupped her face, their eyes meeting. "I'll always be with you, even if I'm not here." Her sister pressed a kiss on her forehead.
"No! Tasha, please, don't leave me—"
-/-
"Auntie Lena?" A poke on her cheek followed the small voice.
As soon as her eyes opened, Yelena could see her niece sitting on the bed with her pink pony in her lap while staring at her with so much concern. ‘Ah… it was just a dream…’ She wiped her tears away before looking at the child again, wondering how long she had been crying and screaming in her sleep to wake up the little girl.
At least, in reality, Lena had been sent to live with Clint Barton. That was a relief, knowing she was well taken care of by a loving family. Yelena could only guess that her dream came from worrying about what would’ve happened if the child had moved anywhere else and ended up alone.
Little Yelena did not hesitate to crawl over when she sat up on the bed, so the young woman let the child sit her on her lap. Her niece melted into the embrace and she could not avoid the tears that threatened to escape her eyes.
Yelena wanted to scream, to let all her emotions out. But the tiny voice in her mind was telling her not to do it. At least, that was what she had been taught while growing up in the Red Room. She had only let it all out when she learnt about her sister's death.
She would always remember that day. It was hard to learn that she had been gone for five years, even if for her it had only been five seconds. At that time all she cared about was to find her older sister, she needed to tell her she was okay. But she did not have time to even start looking for Natasha, since the news of the Black Widow's sacrifice was already everywhere. Yelena remembered screaming. She was not able to understand why her sister had left her when she had just gotten her back in 2016 either.
She sighed. She would do anything for Natasha to be back.
"Why are you sad?" her niece asked, blue eyes staring at her.
"I miss my sister." she answered, gently caressing the child's face. "I loved her so much, you know?" she admitted, trying not to sob.
"Mama missed you too when you were gone." the little girl told her, which got her to close her eyes. "We used to have midnight picnics," the child said.
She smiled slightly. Natasha had taught her all about those picnics the rare few times they had met after taking down the Red Room—from when they were kids, times when neither of them could sleep. And she had loved them, so she was more than happy to do the same with her niece.
"She used to make peanut butter sandwiches," little Lena pointed out.
"Yeah, that sounds like something your mama would do." she chuckled, wiping her tears again before looking at her niece's blue eyes. "Do you want us to have a picnic?"
"Yes!" the child exclaimed.
She took the five year old in her arms, settling the child on the kitchen counter as she took every snack out. The little girl did her best to help her make the sandwiches and to get everything ready before both of them sat down on the floor.
Fanny whined, laying next to them before nudging her nose on the kid's leg. The five year old did not hesitate to share a piece of her sandwich with Fanny, who, after not receiving more food from the child, went to her.
"Now you want my food, little traitor." Yelena scratched her dog behind her ears, giving her just a tiny piece.
"Can I have some more?" her niece asked her.
She stared at the kid for a few seconds and then at the sandwich in her hands. It was the last one since they had run out of peanut butter.
"Fanny ate part of mine." the kid complained with a pout on her tiny face, which got her to huff.
"It's not my fault you decided to give the traitor half of yours." she told her, but the kid just pouted even more. "Okay, okay." she sighed, splitting in half the remaining sandwich.
"Thank you." her niece grinned while taking the piece she was offering her.
"You're so—Noooo, Fanny!" she frowned at the sight of the dog stealing her sandwich.
"I can share with you." the little girl said.
"Thank you, sweet girl." she smiled, gently pushing Fanny away when the ‘oversized puppy’ tried to eat the rest of the peanut butter sandwich. "I don't think I'm inviting you to any of our picnics ever again." she told her dog, getting the akita to whine loudly and return to the kid's side.
"You can't do that, Auntie Lena," the child giggled.
"I will, if she continues to steal our food." she assured the kid.
She smiled. They would have to go grocery shopping in the morning because she could tell that they would be doing midnight picnics like this. Especially if it came to be a comfort thing. Kate Bishop had suggested Yelena make a list of coping mechanisms, so maybe this could be one.
Yelena felt kind of bad about Kate grabbing all the groceries including comfort food, but she still got nervous leaving the apartment since it had to be with the child out in the open. Still, there was something nagging at her like something was missing. There had to be something about this midnight picnic that Yelena was doing. Not wrong, but incomplete. So she thought back to Clint Barton’s farm and at the pictures and videos of Natsaha, giving her a better idea of what Lena’s life was like then—as opposed to now, still in the apartment almost 24/7…
“You know what, malyshka? I have an idea. Let’s take the remains of this picnic somewhere nicer. Someplace without thieving dogs.” she added humorously.
-/-
“I like it, Auntie Lena.”
Little Lena had helped set a soft picnic blanket on the roof of the apartment building. Despite the winter chill and the traffic several stories below, Little Lena just couldn’t help but smile. Especially since this time, the dogs weren’t there to grab the sandwiches. She had her favorite coat and vest on, which certainly helped. There wasn’t much left of the other snacks, but it was still nice to have a clear inky-blue sky dotted with stars, the moon vibrant against it all. If anything, this scenery helped ease Yelena’s mood about whatever was going on in the outside world.
The ex widow knew she would have to get back out at some point, but she didn’t know how yet. She just knew that she had to not be an assassin or a mercenary for someone like Valentina ever again. Until then, this was good. Plus she had Kate Bishop and the dogs.
“So what’s next…” she muttered to herself as little Lena wrapped her vest tighter around herself. Since it was made the same as the bigger vest that she’d passed to Natasha, Yelena could relax knowing it was bulletproof.
KATE’S P.O.V.
Kate’s workbench was on the upper level—or loft—of her apartment, a bright desk lamp lighting up her space. After the fire and all that crap caused by the Tracksuit Mafia before Christmas, she’d called from Clint’s place to have hers renovated in case she decided to go back to New York. When Yelena showed up on the 25th, she’d called in for a few adjustments to the loft like a guest area—however modest if it was too short-notice—along with whatever had to be power-washed and repaired like the flooring and walls. Especially the walkway that went along that wall to a corner and then turned ninety degrees to the next wall corner.
It may not have been “good as new” but it was in way better condition than, as Clint put it, “crispy.” The burned-up areas were remade with some new furniture she’d picked out when she decided to come back.
Kate’s 2025 calendar hung with the previous days crossed out. The young archer kept looking over her shoulder to see if the window was open or if Yelena was using her silent approach to get up the stairs behind her. ‘Not getting me this time,’ she thought. Well, only if giggling Little Lena was there. THEN she wouldn’t be oh-so-stealthy.
Luckily the workbench was one of those stand-up desks, elevated enough where the kid couldn’t reach Kate’s tools. ‘No hands on the label-maker without my say-so either…’ No way was little Yelena getting her hands on the Loctite glue she was using to attach the vanes on her arrows either. She had purple, gray, white, and black ones. Fletching wore out sooner so Kate was putting tougher rubber vanes on with the strongest glue she could find. The lead ends, for good measure, were wrapped over with thin silicone from a roll like tape. This way they wouldn’t rip off when shooting. But to make sure her fingers didn’t get stuck together when applying the glue (again), she was wearing vinyl gloves like a nurse.
Kate had her laptop open with a PDF from Clint about making trick arrows. While following Clint’s instructions, Kate was coming up with ideas of her own. Here, though, she was practicing with Clint’s ideas and making a bola arrow; holding three heavy-enough balls in line but, when shot, would spread apart on eighteen-inch cables.
Kate looked over at the laptop screen and saw that Clint was calling. She quickly put the arrows down and hit ACCEPT, seeing Clint’s face close to the camera. He must have been using his phone. “Hey, Kate. You got it?”
“Yeah. Been studying all week.” she added, the fangirl side of her still vibrant as she took off her safety glasses. “I bought loads of unfinished arrows at that store and I’m brainstorming some of my own. Haven’t started making THOSE yet, though.”
“Oh yeah?” Clint replied. “So what have you got for now?”
“So, I looked over your instructions on making a bola arrow and have been working on that one for a few hours now. And I’ve got the label maker here like before.”
“That’s good.”
“I still have no clue how you could tell what the trick arrows did without it.”
The plain arrows with all-black vanes were left unmarked. Those—along with whatever else she could make—were made of a hard metal; depleted uranium. She’d looked into it after seeing a Lars Andersen video of using arrows that could actually penetrate medieval-style plate armor. Apparently the shafts’ small diameter (three centimeters) and high weight together gave it great momentum.
Having seen that, Kate had decided to take the same approach. Especially given how that man’s experiments had been. She had three shafts made from this material to be sure it was worth investing in, and then tried shooting them on her newest target. Her jaw hung open at the tight grouping and how deep they went in. These were skinny enough to bend properly in flight and dealt plenty of damage to a ten-gallon water jug she’d set on a broom handle.
“Still gotta make sure I’ve got this thing put together right so the three balls stay together at the beginning.”
Clint scratched his stubble in thought. “You gonna test it first?”
“Yeah, there’s a support pole covered in cushions—” Kate winced as she remembered why it was padded in the first place. “Oh. Um… little Lena ran into it pretty hard when playing with Lucky and Fanny, so that’s why it’s… Anyway, I’ll shoot at that pole from different angles and distances first.”
“If it works, send me a video. Call it your ‘Intro to Hawkeye’ midterm or something.”
“Oh yeah?” Kate smirked. “No Block-Delete for not being an emergency?”
“Nah.” Clint shook his head with a chuckle. With concern in his voice he added, “Anyway, how’s Yelena doing with the kid?”
Kate sighed, laying her forearms on the workbench and looking back and forth to be sure she was alone. “Honestly, some major rough spots.”
Clint nodded in understanding. “Makes sense. I got your voicemail about the fever dream, I just didn’t know how to reply since it happens to me too. I don’t know how to make it stop either.”
Kate looked at the table silently. She could barely imagine how painful it was for him, having gone through so much alongside Natasha, more so than Yelena had, to see her die right in front of him.
She continued worriedly, “When I asked about school for little Lena, she said she’d be just fine at the apartment. Something about Red Room bases still out there, chances of Black Widows still planted all over… So I’m worried for both of them. I’m walking both dogs and getting the groceries because they barely leave the apartment at all unless it’s for spending time at mine. I’ve been trying to figure out how to make Yelena feel safe, and for the kid to not get major cabin fever.”
“Well, Kate… As a dad, let me put it this way,” said Clint, putting the phone against something and sitting near the counter it was on. “This protectiveness, fear for little Lena to be safe? It didn’t come from nowhere. Whatever traits Yelena’s showing, they always existed even if she didn’t know it before. It just wasn’t till she met her niece that they came out.”
With a sigh, the man added, “No person or place can make you something you’re not, Kate. Well, aside from that mind-control thing. But since it wore off and Yelena’s her own woman, these things that have been buried are now out in the open. Nothing’s changed. It’s just been emerging.”
Kate nodded, chewing her lip in thought. "Hey, um… I was wondering… could you send copies of the pictures and videos Natasha made? Just to be sure that while Lena’s out here she can still see them. Yelena said the kid’s worried she'll forget her."
Clint nodded, rubbing his eye. "Course I can. Might take a while but, for you girls, worth the effort."
"Thanks, Clint. They’re both gonna love you more for it."