Chapter 2
The man stared at Yelena for a few moments after the question left her mouth. His brow was furrowed in confusion as he took stock of her. The longer the silence stretched on, the more Yelena was convinced that she was either hallucinating or he was indeed actually there.
“Yeah.” The man finally let out a small nod. “Yeah, I’m real.”
“Prove it.” Yelena kept eye contact with him. Realizing that she was indeed serious and unsure if he was actually there, the man’s face softened slightly.
“I don’t know how to prove it,” he admitted, looking around the room. Yelena glanced over to where LJ was still scowling at him. LJ, Lia, and Christopher could see each other. The man was very pointedly not even peering at LJ.
“What’s my name? What’s your name?” Yelena demanded. Her friends had known her name before she even introduced herself and she was the one to name them in turn.
The man blinked at her before pulling back from the room and looking from left to right to ensure the hallways were clear. “I don’t know your name unfortunately, but I’m Hawkeye.”
Hawkeye sounded like a name that she would make up, much like Leather Jacket. “What’s your real name?”
The man’s face pinched. “I can’t tell you that. Not here.”
“Well, I need some sort of name other than Hawkeye, although I would have called you Peter Pan,” Yelena commented. The man looked slightly confused before he nodded his head.
“Okay. I get that. Hawkeye is kinda a stupid name to call me,” he smiled slightly. “I like your idea. You can call me Peter if you want.”
Yelena nodded, freezing when a distant explosion sounded out and her room shifted to the side slightly. LJ disappeared at the movement and Yelena suddenly felt vulnerable and exposed.
“Okay. You probably heard that. I’m here with a couple other friends to help take down the Red Room,” Peter told her. Yelena stared at him, unsure of what his intentions were. He didn’t seem like an utter weirdo who wanted to abduct a bunch of Black Widows for his own personal use but Yelena also didn’t even know his real name. “Right now we are evacuating all of the Black Widows on here and that includes you.”
“How do you know I’m a Black Widow?” Yelena inquired, folding her arms. Peter stared at her for a moment.
“Are you… not?” He squinted at her unsurely. Yelena raised an eyebrow and he shook his head. “Okay. Then we’re evacuating all the Black Widows and you. Are you the only person in this corridor?”
Yelena shrugged slightly, pushing herself upright when another distant explosion sounded. “I haven’t exactly been able to leave, have I?” She gestured to the locked door.
“Right.” Peter pulled back to look at the hallway again. “C’mon. We gotta go.”
Yelena looked around for LJ, needing some sort of second opinion on whether or not to go with him. Peter glanced back at her and Yelena finally pushed herself off the wall and moved toward the open door. She felt like she was breaking the rules when her bare feet touched the cold metal of the floor.
“Stick to my heels!” Peter told her and then continued down the hallway. Yelena darted after him, feeling vulnerable and exposed to the bare halls as explosions continued to knock the entire place side to side. It was slightly hard to keep her balance.
Yelena watched as Peter lifted a finger to an earpiece he wore. “Corridor F is clear. I have one girl with me. Doesn’t appear subjugated.”
Yelena couldn’t hear what was said but watched as Peter offered her a small smile. She saw the guard turn the corner at the very end of the hall, immediately noticing them. Yelena ran forward, Peter’s eyes widening as she jumped onto him, her fingers wrapping around the gun holstered on his thigh and yanked it from its place to push it up, flicking the safety off and firing off a round down the hallway, hitting the guard neatly in the forehead.
It took Peter a moment to realize what she had done, gently prying Yelena off of him. “Okay. That was… good. Nice eye. Good shot.” He eyed the body. “Let’s go. We’re meeting up at a jet where you’ll leave with the other Black Widows.”
To her surprise, Peter let her keep the gun and she followed him through the corridors, eventually grabbing his arm. “You’re going down a dead end.”
Peter blinked at her before spinning around and cursing under his breath. “This place is a maze.” He peered at her. “Do you know the way out?”
Yelena thought of the trust being placed in her as she started to lead, twisting through corridors until they came across a door. “Here.”
Peter paused when she did. “Okay.” He hesitated. “Is there a reason we can’t go outside?” He asked when Yelena doesn’t open the door.
Yelena shrugged. “I’m not allowed to go outside.” Not without a superior at least.
“Right.” Peter pushed the door open and reached out to take her wrist. Yelena pressed her lips together when she was tugged outside in just her shirt and shorts. She had no shoes or socks, her hair was a mess from the handstands she had been doing and she had a single gun on her with an unknown amount of rounds in it.
“Hey! I’ve got another!” Peter called out over the catastrophe happening. Black Widows were filing into a jet, the smell of smoke thick in the air as dead bodies littered the tarmac. There was a man in a blue suit standing next to the open doors of the jet.
Peter took the weapon from her and pushed her into the line of women, most of them older than her. The man in blue smiled at her, a gentle smile like the kind that Christopher would give her, and he let her in.
The jet was packed full. There were too many people and it was far too warm. Yelena ignored the quiet, unsure chattering around her and pushed her way closer to the front of the jet. She tucked herself against the wall just behind the copilot's seat, sliding down to sit, and pulled her knees to her chest.
“It’s kinda noisy in here,” Christopher whispered to her left. Yelena glanced over at him, his tiny form tucked in a ball right next to her, his hands clasped over his ears. “There are too many people. Do you think they’re nice?”
“I don’t know,” Yelena whispered. They were Black Widows and Yelena hadn’t interacted very much with them outside of missions since she was ten. She couldn’t even identify a majority of the women around her. “Where’s Lia?”
Christopher shrugged. “Ail doesn’t wanna play right now. I don’t think you wanna play either. But that’s okay, I’ll sit here with you, Yellie-Bellie.”
Yelena rested her chin on her knees and smiled at him. Christopher hummed quietly, barely audible over the sound of the engines when the jet finally took off. She took comfort in Christopher’s soft voice and his presence the entire flight. She thought they would go further but the whole thing only took a few minutes until they touched down on actual ground.
The women start to file off and Yelena watched them as the jet became emptier and emptier.
“Hey, kid,” the man who piloted the jet finally appeared, a metal suit wrapped around him that kind of reminded her of the Tin Man from the Wizard of Oz. “You gotta get off.”
Yelena glanced over at Christopher who was staring up at the man in the machine with wide eyes before she nodded. Yelena pushed herself up, freezing when his hand grasped her shoulder.
“Punch him!” LJ’s voice suddenly exclaimed. “Shove his hand off! Show him who’s boss!”
Yelena swatted his hand off and fled the aircraft quickly. They were in a large and empty field, Black Widows spreading out a little to watch as the Red Room slowly fell out of the sky.
The sun was already hot on her skin, making her feel uncomfortably warm. She stuck out like a sore thumb among the Widows in uniforms. The women around her had some sort of shimmery red powder clinging to their uniform and hair.
Yelena couldn’t find anywhere shady other than the jet so she approached it again and stood under the shady spot cast by the large machine, took a seat in the grass, and tucked most of her face in her knees to try and keep cool.
“Man, it’s hoooot out here!” Lia suddenly exclaimed and Yelena couldn’t help but smile when she saw her oldest friend. Lia dramatically fanned herself, sticking her tongue out as she panted. “The sun is gonna boil us alive!”
“It’s just trying to give us a hug,” Christopher said with a pout as he tilted his head up to peer at the sun. “Hello? Mr. Sun, could you please not be so hot!”
“Are you okay” LJ crouched down next to her.
Yelena watched as the Red Room slowly crash-landed, the ground shaking underneath her. “That was my home,” she whispered. “I don’t have a home anymore.”
“Who are you talking to there, chickie?” The man in the metal suit was suddenly standing next to her, parts of his suit singed as he watched the chaos he helped cause.
“None of your business,” Yelena snapped at him, pushing herself into a tighter ball. The man held his hands up in surrender to placate her but he didn’t move from his spot beside her.
“Not gonna go play with your friends?” He asked, nodding toward the group of Black Widows murmuring amongst themselves.
“They’re not my friends,” Yelena mumbled bitterly, glancing over at LJ before staring down at the grass. She listened as people started to meet up, catching sight of the man in blue and then Peter. Peter caught sight of her and approached with a grin.
“Hey!” Peter greeted her brightly, nodding to the man in the suit before looking down at her. “I want you to come meet my friend. She’s a Black Widow, just like you. She was the one that recruited us to help take down the Red Room. She’ll be here any moment.”
Peter offered her his hand and Yelena glanced at LJ.
“Go ahead. You have a bunch of Black Widows who would rather defend you against a man who tries to hurt you,” LJ encouraged so Yelena reached out and slowly took his hand, letting him tug her to her feet.
Peter lead her toward where a woman was kneeling with another woman. “Nat! Hey! I have someone for you to meet!”
The woman with red hair turned to look at him, straightening up. “Still in one piece?” She mused and Peter grinned at her.
Peter then gestured to Yelena. “This is my new friend--” He paused, suddenly aware that he didn’t know her name.
The woman’s gaze landed on her and her eyes suddenly widened. “Yelena…” she breathed out.
Yelena tensed up, pushing herself back a foot. “Who are you?” She demanded. LJ, Lia, and Christopher had always known her name before she told them.
The woman looked pained suddenly. “Yelena, it’s me,” she said. Yelena tried to think of who she could be but all she could compare her to was Lia if she was grown up. “It’s your sister.”
Yelena’s eyes narrowed at her. “Natasha?” She questioned and the woman nodded hopefully. “You’re the one that made this happen?”
“Yeah. These are the Avengers,” the woman, possibly Natasha, nodded to Peter and then the man in metal before the blue man.
“How did you tell them?” Yelena looked around the wreckage. “You can’t just leave and then come back.”
The woman’s face fell. “I should have come back for you.”
“Come back?” Yelena echoed in confusion. “Where did you go?”
The woman blinked a few times, glancing toward Peter for help. Peter gave a small shrug and they both looked back at Yelena.
“Did you not hear that I defected?” The woman asked and Peter suddenly cleared his throat, moving toward the woman to tug her to the side.
“The kid was in a concrete box, Nat,” he mumbled. Yelena was pretty sure she wasn’t supposed to listen in on their conversation and instead looked around for Lia.
“Do you think that’s her?” LJ asked and Yelena twisted to peer up at the teenager. “She’s got the red hair. Green eyes.”
“I don’t know,” Yelena whispered, watching Peter and the woman talk amongst themselves. “I want it to be.”
“She said she was sorry,” Christopher pointed out, his head just by her hip. “So she’s nice.”
“You’re stupid,” Lia told him. “She said she should have come back. If she went away that means she didn’t come back.”
“But Yellie-Bellie was okay,” Christopher argued back, peering up at Yelena. “We had The Room. We had home. It was safe in there!”
“Quiet,” LJ scolded them and they went quiet. “Leave her alone. Let her think.”
Lia stuck her tongue out at LJ but was gone a moment later, Christopher following. LJ looked down at Yelena with a small grin.
“Don’t leave me!” Yelena suddenly blurted out and LJ gave her a comforting smile before they shrugged and were gone.
“Hey, what’s wrong?” The woman was suddenly next to her, Peter on her other side.
“Don’t touch me!” Yelena slapped her hand away.
“Are you okay?” Peter suddenly asked and Yelena sneered at him. “Your face is red and you’re sweating a lot.”
It was suddenly as if Yelena was aware of how uncomfortably hot she was. Her clothes were starting to stick to her skin from sweat and her hair was plastered to her head with it. Her heart thumped uncomfortably in her chest as spots danced in her vision like whenever the guards would open the door to The Room too fast.
“Yelena?” Peter repeated softly, reaching out toward her. Yelena felt like the dirt was rocking underneath her bare feet.
“Kiddo?” LJ was suddenly in her view, worry creasing her face. “I think the sun is too hot. You need to get in the shade.”
“Hot,” was all Yelena could manage to get out.
“Okay. C’mon, let’s get out of the sun,” Peter encouraged her, offering her his hand. “I think we have some water somewhere you can have.”
Yelena slowly reached out to take his hand. She had to brace herself against him a few times as they moved toward one of the aircrafts that she hadn’t seen before. There was tech inside that she had never seen before.
“Jarvis, can you turn the AC on?” Peter called out. Yelena looked around for a man named Jarvis, jumping when the thin air replied.
“Air conditioning units have been turned on, Agent Barton,” a male voice told Peter.
“Oh, right!” Peter suddenly said, grasping her shoulder. “Yelena, this is Tony Stark’s AI, Jarvis. He doesn’t have a body. Jarvis, this is Yelena.”
“Please to meet you, Miss Yelena,” Jarvis greeted her. It reminded Yelena of whenever Lia and Christopher would follow her on missions, a detached voice somewhere behind her cheering her on.
“Do we have any water, Jarvis?” The woman called out.
“Certainly, Agent Romanov. There are bottles located underneath the chair at the beginning of the aircraft,” Jarvis replied.
“Natasha… Romanov?” Yelena turned to look at the woman moving toward the chair.
“Yeah.” Natasha turned to look at her when she procured a water bottle. “We have a lot to catch up on.”
Yelena frowned slightly but took a seat in one of the chairs lining the wall with a little prompting from Peter. Natasha approached and offered out a sealed water bottle that was icy cold. It felt very nice against Yelena’s hot skin.
“Can I sit here?” Natasha asked, gesturing to the seat next to Yelena. When Yelena nodded she took a seat, Peter doing the same. “What do you know about me?”
“The last I heard of you was the last time I saw you,” Yelena admitted, cracking the top of the water bottle and taking a slow sip.
Natasha frowned. “Really? They didn’t tell you about ‘the traitor’ when chemically subjugating you?”
“When they did what to me?” Yelena echoed in confusion.
“She wasn’t subjugated, Nat,” Peter told her. Natasha’s frown deepened.
“Okay.” Natasha took a deep breath. “Why don’t you fill me in on what has happened since I last saw you and then I’ll fill in the blanks, okay?”
Yelena told Natasha about being taken from her bed when she was ten and introduced to The Room. She told her about the metal bed and her blanket with four holes and how she thought it was a punishment at first. She told Natasha about the buzzing light and the lack of windows, the trays of food and the vitamins, the way time melted together and she was lonely at first.
When Yelena finished, she finally noticed Natasha’s mounting horror. Natasha was staring at her with wide eyes, lost for words.
“I’m so sorry,” Natasha whispered quietly, blinking tears out of her eyes.
“I’m not?” Yelena frowned at her. “It was my home. The Room was mine. It was safe. I liked it there.”
Natasha looked even more pained at that, which Yelena didn’t understand why. The Room had always been her safe place, the only time anyone other than her entered it was to bring her food or deliver her to her bed. It was small and safe and had her friends, not that Natasha knew about them.
Yelena didn’t want to make anyone think she was crazy by telling them about imaginary people, even if they were as real to her as anyone else.
“Okay,” Peter started and Yelena glanced at him. “Yelena, Natasha has been looking for you for a long time. But I also know that you don’t really know her that well and that this can all be very overwhelming. The other Black Widows are going to settle down at a safe house for a little while and you’re welcome to go with them if you’d like.”
Natasha did not look happy at that suggestion but she pressed her lips together to stay quiet.
“Or,” Peter continued. “You could come with us and catch up on lost time with Natasha. It’s an open offer so you can pick one but change your mind later. You are in control here.”
Yelena didn’t want to make a decision on her own. “Can I have a moment alone to think about it?”
Peter smiled and nodded. “Of course. Natasha and I will be just outside talking to the others.” He stood up and Natasha followed a few moments later, casting one last look over her shoulder before she left.
“So?” Lia was suddenly on the seat next to her, swinging her feet back and forth. “Gonna go with her?”
“I don’t know,” Yelena admitted. She did want to go but she also didn’t really know Natasha.
“I think you should,” Christopher said, suddenly standing in front of her, leaning forward on his toes. “She’s your sister. Family is important. Even if you’re mad at her you can’t make things better by pretending she doesn’t exist.”
“I don’t think you should,” Lia replied, folding her arms. Lia and Christopher often disagreed about everything. “Lee-lee, she left you. She didn’t even find you. She’s gonna make you sad again.”
“She didn’t mean to make you sad!” Christopher hurriedly assured her.
“Still did,” Lia shrugged, sticking her tongue out at Christopher.
“Hey,” LJ said firmly from the seat on the other side of Yelena and they fell silent. LJ then turned to look down at her. “This is your choice, Kiddo. We can’t make it for you. This has to be your choice.”
“I know,” Yelena looked down to her bare feet. It wasn’t as though they were people with their own thoughts and feelings, they were just parts of Yelena that she didn’t know very well. Lia and Christopher both had different ideas but they were still ideas that she had first. She knew she couldn’t rely on imaginary people forever but she had spent the last seven years with her friends, it was hard not to rely on them. “Will you still be there if I go?”
“We’re here until you don’t need us,” LJ said, their voice much softer than Yelena had ever heard before.
“I’m always going to need you,” Yelena immediately argued before pausing. She couldn’t imagine being in her thirties and relying on an imaginary six-year-old boy to get through the day, nevertheless her other friends. “At least right now.”
“Then we’ll be with you,” LJ assured her. They were gone before Yelena could reply, the others disappearing as well when Peter and Natasha returned with the others.
“Have you made a choice?” Peter asked as he retook his seat next to her. Yelena shrugged slightly before she slowly nodded.
“I’d like to go with you if that’s still okay,” Yelena admitted.
“Of course it is,” Peter grinned at her.
“Yelena,” Natasha interrupted them, looking happy that Yelena had agreed to go with them. “I think introductions are in order. Boys, this is my sister, Yelena. Yelena, this is Steve Rogers, Tony Stark, and Clint Barton.”
Yelena peered up at Peter-- or rather Clint Barton. “I think I like Peter better,” she informed him.
Clint let out a laugh. “Peter is a good name,” he agreed.
Natasha took a seat on the other side of her again and Yelena settled down for a long ride.
“And this is where you’ll be staying,” Natasha smiled down at Yelena as she pushed the door to the room open. The building was already so big and overwhelming. Yelena had expected something similar to The Room.
However, the current room in front of her was big. Bigger than any bedroom she had ever been in. There was an entire bathroom connected to it, not just a toilet, and there was a big closet.
It was too big. It was not like The Room. But Yelena smiled up at Natasha and thanked her. Natasha gave her a few moments to settle down and as soon as the door closed behind her, Yelena sagged in on herself.
She immediately paced the length of the room and then the width. It was ten paces by twelve paces. It wasn’t square. The bed could have filled up The Room alone.
“Woah!” Christopher gasped in awe, inspecting the room.
“Look!” Lia exclaimed. “Windows!”
There were indeed very large windows stretching from the floor to the ceiling, giving Yelena a view of New York City. Yelena pressed her lips together and grabbed the curtains to tug them closed and smothered out the light filtering in.
She wanted The Room back. She wanted her metal bed and her holey blanket. She wanted the metal door that locked and kept her safe. She wanted her tic-tac-toe board etched into the wall. She wanted her buzzing light.
“Kiddo?” LJ’s concerned face was suddenly in front of hers. “It’s alright.”
Yelena frowned at her in confusion and it wasn’t until she felt the warmth roll down her cheek to drip off her chin that she realized her face was wet. She reached up to touch her face, her fingers brushing against tears she hadn’t realized she was shedding.
“It’s too big,” Yelena whispered.
LJ’s face softened to something akin to sympathy. “I know.”
Yelena slept in the closet the first night. It wasn’t as big as The Room but it was small enough. LJ wasn’t able to fit but Christopher could curl up by her feet with Lia. Yelena listened to the little boy hum most of the night.
She wondered if she made the right choice.
Natasha had devoted a lot of time to Yelena but even she was busy with things she couldn’t worm her way out of, mainly trying to explain away the fall of the Red Room. Yelena had been allowed free roam of the building and would take the time to explore whenever Natasha wasn’t by her side.
That was how she found her way to the labs where Tony Stark was messing with the metal suit Yelena had seen him wearing.
Tony glanced at her for a moment before turning his attention back to the suit. He didn’t tell Yelena to go away so she figured that it was alright she was there.
“So,” Tony eventually broke the silence and Yelena turned her attention toward him. “Are you ever gonna tell your sister that you’re seeing people?”
Yelena was immediately on guard, tensing up as she shifted away. “How do you know?” She knew that it was fruitless to try and deny it.
“You look at spaces where nobody is there. You talk to the air. You smile at nothing. Need I go on?” Tony listed before he set down his wrench. "Not to worry, I am a genius," he continued smugly.
“You can’t tell her,” Yelena told him firmly, drawing herself up to try and make herself look threatening. She didn’t want to hurt him or threaten him because he was letting her stay in his home but she also couldn’t let him tell her secret.
Tony shrugged. “It’s not my thing to tell.”
Yelena blinked in surprise, thinking it was going to be harder to convince him. “Oh…”
Tony turned on his chair and faced her. “Wanna tell me about it?” He asked.
“You want to know about the people I’m seeing?” Yelena repeated and Tony nodded his head.
“Yup. Take a seat and lay it on me, chickie,” Tony encouraged her.
Yelena hesitantly took a seat, perching herself on an empty metal table, and started to tell him about her friends. Tony seemed genuinely interested in them, listening intently as Yelena described what they were like and what they looked like.
Tony asked a lot of questions about them and Yelena gladly answered them. It felt good to be able to share her friends with someone, to let someone know about how much they had helped her.
When Tony asked her if they were there with her, Yelena pointed to the corner where LJ was watching Tony with narrowed eyes. To Yelena’s astonishment, Tony turned toward the corner and greeted LJ.
LJ stared at Tony as if he had a second head. “He’s a weirdo, Kiddo.”
Yelena laughed. Tony grinned at her. It was less lonely.