Major Signs

It took a while for Natasha to realise her little sister was dating Kate Bishop.

In her defence, Clint took double the time she did and the two were surprisingly discreet about it.

When she confronted Yelena about it later on, the blonde had just shrugged and said she was never really trying to hide it.

Kate had said the exact same thing when Clint asked and Natasha refused to believe that she, a highly trained operative, could ever be so oblivious. Especially with something regarding her sister.

So she started to pay more attention to the two of them. Looking for any clues or signs that she could have possibly missed.

Suffice to say, there were actually a lot of them.

To put things in perspective, one of the main reasons that Natasha never thought anything of the two, was the hostility they held towards each other on their first meeting.

Yelena had tried to kill Clint and Kate Bishop was fiercely loyal and couldn’t forgive as easily as Clint did. Yelena was also protective of her sister, she believed she was doing the right thing in avenging her death and felt no guilt in her actions.

Even that was something the two had in common, Natasha mused.

So when Natasha had been revived, the soul stone destroyed, freeing her from her perpetual state of limbo, the two were stuck in an awkward state of being forced together, despite their grievances with each other.

It had started with a few birthdays, holidays, big events. When Natasha finally came back, after the tearful reunion of sisters, Yelena was reluctant to ever leave her side again.

Nat did feel guilty for that. For only furthering the abandonment issues her sister surely suffered from, regardless of the fact that it wasn’t her fault.

Kate was glued to Clint’s side most of the time, so when the old Hawkeye and the Black Widow were together, it left Kate and Yelena together too.

Their first few meetings didn’t go too well to say the least.

Yelena was much too antagonistic, she would tease Kate till the archer was red in the face, on the brink of explosion but Kate held her own most of the time too. Nat begrudgingly respected her for that.

She remembered the horrific outing they had once, the whole Avengers crew going to a theme park with Melina, Alexei and Clint’s family. Nat could shudder just thinking back on it.

There was the spinning cups incident, with only three seats a cup Kate and Yelena were forced to sit together and Yelena had taken it upon herself to spin the wheel like a madwoman, throwing them around the usually calm ride until Kate threw up. Then she did it some more.

Then, there was also the water slide, where the two had gotten into a heated argument about something stupid like pizza toppings and the blonde almost pushed Kate off the top of the balcony.

Clint and Natasha had decided to force them into the tunnel of love in order to try help them ‘bond’ a little, but when the two didn’t come out for a while, they returned to the ride to see Yelena attempting to drown the archer who was holding her own surprisingly well.

The pictures from that day were chaotic to say the least.

It seemed Kate had splashed Yelena with a little water, which quickly dissolved into a water fight that ended with the blonde being thrown off the ride and into the water below.

There was one picture in particular, with Yelena stood with a death glare locked on Kate, dripping wet, as the archer regarded her with a look similar to a deer in headlights.

In the beginning, Kate seemed to try to stay on Yelena’s good side. She’d rarely entertain the insults and the ridicule but she could only take so much until she started firing back.

When she did, well, safe to say the two had to be supervised whenever they were in a room together.

At the time, Natasha had paid no mind to this other than her trying to get Yelena to ease up on Kate.

She had never seen Yelena so angry, so furious with someone for reasons outside of that person being a manipulative scumbag. Kate was none of those things. She was a good person. The reason behind Yelena’s immense distaste for her was a mystery.

Natasha and Clint would often meet to devise strategies on how to help the two get along and in one of those meetings, he divulged the fact that he had never seen Kate so openly dislike a person either.

Kate Bishop was a ray of sunshine. She would never hurt a fly and Clint had even seen her apologise to a wall after she stubbed her toe on it.

Something about Yelena just seemed to bring out the worst in her. It was like the two were hyperactive toddlers with light up keyboards. Constantly pushing each other’s buttons with no regard for their own wellbeing and the wellbeing of those around them.

Oftentimes, when everyone would stay at the new Avengers Tower, Yelena and Natasha would share a room. The blonde would always dramatically throw herself face down onto the bed with a loud groan.

“What’s wrong?” Natasha would ask every time. Though she already knew the answer.

“I accepted Barton. I tolerate him. I shake his hand, make nice with his family.” Yelena would mumble into the sheets. “So why are you punishing me?”

“How am I punishing you?” Natasha would always entertain the blonde, never looking up from where she lay, cozied up in bed with a good book.

“With her.” There was no need to question who the ‘her’ was, or why it was laced with such venom in the blonde’s tone. There was no point.

Yelena would then go on another rant about how Kate Bishop has wronged her in unspeakable and irrevocable ways and how Yelena wished to curse her newborn and string her up until all the blood rushed to her head and she exploded and how she would dance in her remains.

The blonde was very graphic in her descriptions.

One of the strangest things about this though, was that when Natasha would ask her why she hated Kate so much, the blonde could never give her a straight answer.

Sure, she could talk about the way Kate would do little things to annoy her, but Yelena would always be the one to provoke them. It seemed like the blonde had no real reason for the burning intensity behind her hatred for the archer.

At the time, Natasha had chalked it up to Kate being one of the only people to stand up to Yelena. Most of the other younger Avengers were too afraid of the blonde to even look in her direction but Kate always seemed to take her in at full throttle.

Though looking back, that was probably the first major sign.