yelena- aftermath
When the Red Room falls, things are… different.
Yelena had never really been good at accepting change. She hated when her daily schedule in Ohio was thrown off kilter, throwing massive tantrums because she wanted to do what she wanted. The abrupt trafficking to the Red Room had been hard and very scary. Going under mind control was terrifying.
But now the Red Room is gone and it’s just her and Natasha.
Yelena had been angry for so long that now that she has nothing to be angry about anymore, she’s just tired. She’s free, for good this time, General Dreykov is dead, and she’s reunited with her sister who had apologized.
So what now?
Yelena doesn’t really know what she expects. She waits for Natasha to drop her off somewhere to wash her hands of her. There was no reason for her to stick around when she didn’t even bother to go looking for Yelena in the first place.
Instead, Natasha takes her to a store and buys her a stuffed dog, which she aptly names Dog. Natasha gets herself a green bear the same color as Yelena’s vest and names it Pockets.
And for a few moments, Yelena feels like a child again. Like they’re in Ohio and everything is alright.
It becomes quite clear that Natasha isn’t leaving, especially when she makes Yelena write down a list of what she wants to do now that she's free. Yelena doesn’t know what she wants. Everything she writes down is the wrong answer.
When she finally manages to get down an answer that pleases Natasha, she doesn’t put down what she remembers wanting most in Ohio.
She wanted a mother who actually cared. Someone who looked out for her and loved her no matter what. She wanted the soft Nattie from Ohio that looked after her, even if she only got that person at the end of the mission.
It won’t be until they’re trying to take the trigger words from her head in Wakanda that Yelena slips up and calls Natasha her momma. Multiple times.
She had made the mistake of calling Natasha ‘mommy’ once when she was very little and Natasha had been very upset with her for it. Yelena doesn’t know what had changed but Natasha doesn’t yell at her when the words pass by her lips.
When Yelena is coming around from a session with BARF, she calls Natasha ‘momma’.
And Natasha didn’t yell at her. She encouraged her. “That’s right, little one. It’s me, it’s momma. Can you open your eyes?”
Yelena tries to apologize for it but Natasha tells her that she will be whatever Yelena needs her to be, whether it’s her sister or her mother. It’s a stark contrast to the teenager snapping at her when Yelena was sleepy and wanted snuggles.
Yelena has wanted a mother that loved and cared for her for as long as she can remember. It doesn’t take long for her to fall into calling Natasha ‘momma’.
The one thing she notices is that their dynamic doesn’t really change. They’re mother and daughter and the only thing that changed was the name Yelena called Natasha. Yelena wonders if Natasha knew that she had always been her mother or if Natasha had realized what she was doing and just went along with it.
Natasha adopts her, official paperwork and all, and Yelena is officially Natasha’s.
A three-year-old once called a teenager ‘mommy’. The teenager raged and the toddler doesn't do it again.
A sixteen-year-old calls the same teenager, who has grown into a woman, ‘momma’. The woman kisses her forehead and calls her little one.