Chapter 4
YELENA’S P.O.V
THE NEXT DAY AT YELENA’S APARTMENT…
"All done." Yelena kissed the little girl's head after finishing the French braids. The child smiled while observing herself in the mirror, toying with her braids before looking at her.
"Now we're matching." Her niece giggled excitedly.
"We are, malyshka." She poked the kid's sides.
"Can we braid Auntie Kate's hair too?" Little Lena asked her.
However, she needed a few seconds to try to hide her jealousy after hearing the little one referred to the archer as Auntie Kate. It was true that the young woman had been there for them since the beginning, and the little girl loved spending time with Kate who was really fun and spontaneous, but she had not expected that.
"Um—I think we need to ask her, okay?" she answered, helping the kid to get down from the stool she was sitting on.
The five-year-old took the hairbrush and a few hair ties before running to the living room, where Kate was waiting for them. By the time she got there, the young archer was taking off the hair-tie from her ponytail while smiling at the child.
"Be gentle, you don't want to hurt Kate." Yelena commented after seeing the roughness the little one was brushing the young girl's hair, getting her niece to slow down. "Start brushing at the ends, then all the way from the top." she explained, taking the brush from her niece's hand to show her.
Yelena was gentle, taking her time to work through some knots without pulling Kate's hair too much. Once the hair was detangled, she made two sections, putting one into a messy bun to keep it out of the way.
"Can I help?" The little girl stood on the couch behind the archer.
"Sure." She nodded. "Take a small piece at the front. Now we have to divide it into three strands" she told her while helping her to get three equal strands of hair. "Good. You have to cross the right one over the middle one and then the left one.”
She could not avoid a smile at the sight of her niece trying to figure out how to hold two strands of hair in her little hands.
"You're doing a great job, malyshka." She praised the little girl. "Okay, this part is a little more difficult. You're going to do the same as before, but you have to add hair. So put the right one over the middle one, take a little piece from the side and add it." she explained, seeing how her niece was getting frustrated when the braid kept falling apart. "It's okay, we'll practice together." She assured the child, who a few seconds later had gone back to play with the dogs.
Yelena slowed down when she was finishing the second braid, observing her friend with curiosity. It was weird. The blonde did not remember ever seeing Kate so relaxed.
The young girl sat with her eyes closed, a relaxed expression on her face, and she had even stopped nervously playing with the ripped spots in her jeans as she had been doing at first.
Kate did not come out of her trance when Yelena finished, which made her think that maybe she was close to falling asleep. So she frowned, unsure of what to do.
Yelena’s heart ached at the thought of everything her friend had gone through the last few months. Kate had put her own mother in prison on Christmas Eve; a mother that, as far as Yelena knew, did not want to talk to her daughter. But still, the young archer had always been there for her and for the little one. There was always a smile on her face, even when the rest could tell she was damaged on the inside.
"All done, Kate." She whispered, not wanting to startle her, but not getting her to react. "Kate?" She rubbed her hands along the girl's arms, finally her eyes opening. "Welcome back, Kate Bishop." She chuckled.
"I'm sorry, I… My mom used to braid my hair when I was younger and I—"
Of course. With Mrs. Bishop arrested, Kate missed the way she thought things were; before finding out that she worked for that crime boss Kingpin all along. It must have been devastating, having to do the ‘responsible’ thing and bring the police.
"It's okay." Yelena assured her. "Come here." She opened her arms to engulf her friend into a hug.
Kate clung to her for a few minutes as she just tried to sooth her, little Lena already by their side while watching with concern how the young girl sniffled quietly.
"Is Auntie Kate okay?" her niece asked.
"Did she just call me Auntie Kate?!" The archer pulled away to look at the kid who, after a moment of amusement, grinned at her.
"You're family, Kate Bishop. You're our family now." She told her, not being able to hide her smile when Kate took the little girl in her arms, hugging her as tightly as she could.
-/-
KATE’S P.O.V.
“Auntie Lena.” The five-year-old walked into the kitchen a few hours later, her voice a little shaky as she approached both of her aunts. Yelena turned towards the kid with a concerned look. The former Black Widow frowned at the sight of blood running down her niece’s chin from her lip, quickly trying to get the child to open her mouth.
“What happened? Did you fall?” She seemed a bit nervous at the thought that she could have fallen or run into something hard enough to get hurt. But then again, wouldn’t she or Kate have heard a loud THUMP from impact? Or the five-year-old crying out in pain? Or both?
Kate, who was sitting at Yelena’s kitchen table, couldn’t avoid a smile when she saw the cute little gap at the front of the kid’s bottom gum. But Yelena seemed not to realize where the blood was coming from. That or, if she did, it only got her more nervous.
“Relax, Yelena,” Kate got up from her chair to get closer to the kid. “She just lost her baby tooth. Look at that cute little gap!” The archer poked Lena’s sides playfully, “I guess the Tooth Fairy is visiting you tonight, huh?”
“But she won’t come if I can’t find the tooth,” Lena pouted sadly. The little girl had been eating a snack while watching a movie, so she had probably lost her tooth while biting into the cookie.
“Could she have swallowed it?” Yelena asked, panicking again, which was not helping the kid at all.
“I don’t know.” Kate sighed, before offering a smile to the kid and suggesting, “Why don’t we help you find it?”
After searching for a while and not finding the tooth, Kate could see how the kid was getting a little upset sitting on the couch. She was definitely worried about the Tooth Fairy not coming. If it fell out while eating a cookie, then she’d have swallowed it. So Kate had to think of something since odds were they weren’t going to find the tooth.
“Kiddo, you know that even if we don’t find it, the Tooth Fairy will still come,” the dark-haired girl explained, trying to cheer the kid up. “She knows you lost your first tooth.”
“She does?” The five-year-old asked with hope in her voice.
“Mm-hmm. She does,” Kate nodded, before turning to the older blonde. “Right, Yelena?”
“Yeah, she knows…” Yelena nodded, still searching. “HA! I found it!” She held out her palm showing the tiniest tooth they had ever seen.
“Haha. Nice.” Kate reached into the plastic bag of gumballs nearby and pulled out a blueberry one for herself. Before she could lift it towards her mouth, though, the tiny girl ran over seeming freaked out.
“Auntie Kate! No!” She jumped up and pulled her arm down, seeming scared as Kate dropped the candy. The child picked it up from the floor and tossed it into the wastebasket, muttering, “…no eating off the floor.”
“Uh… what was that?” Kate asked, confused.
Little Lena walked back shaking her head, seeming a bit worried as she held the web of her hand close to her own neck. “Mama says no gumballs. You’ll choke.”
Now it made sense. The five-year-old’s throat was too small where if SHE tried a gumball and swallowed by accident then she’d need the heimlich to get it out of her windpipe so she could breathe again. But she probably took it to mean that for anybody, now worried about Kate choking.
The archer sat on her heels, Lena walking over to her and still seeming worried.
“Mama choked and she was hitting her tummy to get it out.” Lena mimicked the motion of punching her own gut with a clenched fist, trying to show what she saw.
It was still a little concerning, the way that she said it; that Natasha “says” no gumballs, instead of “said”, past tense. At her age, despite ‘knowing’ by some instinct that Natasha wasn’t coming, the child still wanted her back but it wasn’t going to happen. Clint had told Kate the details of that sacrifice, and the new young Hawkeye was conflicted about how Lena would someday find out—how she would learn Natasha was gone for good.
She tried to avoid the subject, though, focusing on the child’s lesson being passed on. “Well… nice job, kiddo.” Kate rubbed the kid’s back as Yelena plugged the sink and cleaned the baby tooth. “Thanks for warning me.”
With that, Yelena quickly put the tooth in a tiny bag and handed it to her niece.
-/-
It had taken a little longer to put the kid into bed. Little Lena had made sure to put the tooth and small drawing under the pillow.
“I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t been here, Kate Bishop,” Yelena admitted, closing the kid’s bedroom door gently.
“You didn’t have this experience as a child, it’s okay.” Kate said. Since it was still early in the evening for them, Kate and Yelena sat on the couch with hot cocoa. They were both careful enough to not spill any on the floor with Fanny and Lucky around.
“No. You’re right, I didn’t. I only remember losing a tooth after a punch, but most of the time we would have them pulled out.” the blonde explained. “When I saw the blood and the gap… I guess I thought she had hit her mouth by accident, like she had run into something…” She looked down while sighing. “I knew it would happen and I’ve been reading about it, but… I got scared and I think I got her scared too.”
“No, you didn't.” The archer shook her head. “She was upset because she couldn't find the tooth, and guess what? You found it for her,” Kate pointed out adamantly while staring at her. “I’m pretty sure she’s going to tell everyone that her Cool Aunt found her tooth.”
“I remember you saying I would lose that title not so long ago.” Yelena smiled slightly. She remembered how Kate had said that to her the exact same day she and her namesake moved to New York.
“I think it’s going to take a little more time for you to lose that title,” Kate laughed. “Good to know you’re filling up your head more. Have you talked to Laura too?”
“Actually it was Laura’s idea after the grocery store incident.” Yelena sighed. “She gave me some advice and a few ebooks to go through. The holographic types that are non-reflective so they don’t shine in your eyes so much.”
“Nice.” Kate gave her a nudge on the shoulder. “Bit more commitment AND side help.”
Yelena rolled her eyes chuckling and nudged Kate back.