Kate didn't know what they were, friends, enemies, dating? Either one was confusing her, but Kate hated that she kind of liked the ambiguity of their relationship.
All she knew is it made her feel smug as a bug in a rug when she entered the Avengers event, a little later than intended, and managed to capture the gaze of the one person she craves attention from.
Yelena is a vision in her outfit, a minimalist pattern on her black dress, cut above the knees with some heavy leather boots and a dark green coat over her arm, blonde hair falling in loose curls around her eyes as a fringe.
Someone was talking to her as she entered, but she felt like Hermione in the Goblet of Fire, as soon as she began walking through the door those green eyes locked onto her.
Having learned from her past mistakes (being labelled a waiter was somewhat embarrassing at your own function after all), she'd gone a little louder. A dark purple tartan suit, matched with a white shirt, burgundy tie and her favourite doc martens, with arrow cufflinks that only the most aware would notice.
Yelena noticed though, of course she would. The blonde met her half way at the stairs, eyebrows raised in amused awe.
"You really do clean up well, Kate Bishop."
The brunette groans and rolls her eyes, putting her hands in her pockets as she steps down to the assassin, looking down at her while trying to ignore the increase of her heart.
"Thank you, not too bad yourself."
There's a few beats of eye contact, eventually broken by someone entering behind. Yelena stands to the side expectantly, and Kate decides to offer her arm. Clearly this was correct, as Yelena takes the offer, looping on and walking with her to the bar.
"So what's the situation?"
Yelena shrugs and quickly orders a drink.
"Weird is what it is, feels like an open day for SHIELD, or the Avengers."
Kate frowned and looked around the room.
"Like a meet and greet?"
Yelena was overjoyed, grinning wildly as she slapped Kate's arm with her free hand.
"That is it! A meet and greet, they have the new and older avengers here, it's sort of weird."
Kate had to agree, there was a bubble of excitable and young avengers, alongside some much more experienced and, dare she say, damaged avengers in the open area.
"Holy- is that Scarlet Witch?!"
Kate was slack jawed as Yelena sipped her drink, watching as the red headed woman across the room sat quietly with a few others, seemingly listening to two other men speak with her.
"Yes, are you a fan?"
Kate shrugged, not looking away from the woman as she took the drink offered from the bartender.
"I mean, yeah! My mum wasn't after the whole war thing, but I always liked her, she suffered too much for us to be treated so poorly, you know?"
Yelena nodded when the weirdest thing happened; Wanda Maximoff looked up, met her gaze, and put across an emotion so much more prevalent to that of a wink.
Kate stopped breathing, which was fitting, as Yelena felt like someone had ceased hers.
Huh… weird.
"Should… should we go say hi?"
Yelena didn't fancy it, but Kate was like a puppy most of the time, she couldn't say no to her.
"Sure, we'll be teammates soon, right?"
She was being sarcastic, somewhat upset for reasons she couldn't quite know, but felt better when Kate looked away from the vision in the corner, grinning at the small blonde and taking her hand once more.
It wasn't just Scarlet Witch in the corner, some others were around her too. Sam Wilson (the new Captain America), Bucky Barnes (the White Wolf), Bruce Banner (Hulk) and, to the shock of Kate, Clint Barton (surely he didn't need an introduction)
Luckily, her jaw was removed from the floor as they approached, the hand around hers keeping her rooted as she acknowledged the Avengers.
The first to acknowledge them was Clint, who offered a tired smile as he gestured them over, Wanda was still staring in that… that way she does, and Yelena was beginning to resent her for it.
"Everyone, this is Kate. I've told you about her plenty."
There's a small chorus of acknowledgment from them, Wanda raising her glass as Bucky nodded his head.
"We've heard a lot about you," Sam said, smiling politely, "Clint barley stops talking when we ask about how you're doing."
Kate laughs and shakes her head with a shoulder shrug, still holding onto Yelena's hand.
"I'll take it as a compliment and assume the best, it's awesome to meet you guys!"
The smiles become a little fainter from Sam and Bucky, and Kate reminds herself to stop being over excited.
"You all know Yelena of course."
She pulls her forwards with her hand, the assassin waving with some awkwardness. The avengers look at Clint and he clears his throat.
"Nat's younger sister, a post-Widow."
There's a heavy silence as all present take a drink, the unsaid words passing in respect to their fallen comrades.
"Most people just call me Yelena."
Kate squeezes her hand in comfort.
"So, are you guys too cool to join the party?"
Yelena dislikes who answers, her tone making Kate's hand tense in her grip as a flush runs up her face.
"We wait for the brave ones to come to us, that is how a team works, yes?"
Kate is nodding as the Witch pat's the seat next to her, and the archer found her way to the soft leather next to the avenger, with Yelena grumpily sitting next to Clint.
Wanda and Kate are talking animatedly, and Yelena sips from her drink.
"She's been through a lot, you know?"
She barely acknowledges Clint.
"It's nice to see she's found someone to take her interest."
Until now, she snapped her head to him at a much slower rate than she wanted, keeping calm rather than showing her true emotions.
"What do you mean?"
Either she must be more like her sister than she knew, or Clint was smarter than expected. Unlikely as either of those options were, Clint gave her a knowing look with a smirk tickling his lips.
"If you're jealous, figure out why and do something about it, before someone else tries to."
She blames the shock to her system as the reason he avoided her hit, the chuckling of Bruce pulling her attention to him as he rolled up his sleeves.
"So much like her…" he whispered, and Yelena was too distracted by his scarred arm to reply. She knew he'd been the one to undo the snap, but seeing the wounds he still suffered with was something else. Scars like lightning rippling from where the stones were, silver with a very slight tinge of colour.
A laugh breaks her focus, Kate finds Wanda hilarious, who knew?
Yelena curses under her breath and finishes her drink, handing the empty glass to Clint before standing and sauntering over to the couch opposite.
"Kate Bishop," she started, pulling the archer's gaze away from the witch, "ty lyubish' karaoke?'
Kate nodded, a new look of excitement filling her eyes at the mention of the pastime she craves to experience with the White Widow.
"Ty ser'yezen?!"
Yelena nodded and Kate spring off the couch, grin spreading as she looked around, following the Russian's head nod to the corner in a soundproofed room Kate had totally missed. There were two Asian people in there, a man and a woman, putting their heart and soul into a powerful rendition of Sail by AWOLNATION.
"Da, davayte spoyem."
She was being tugged away with a half thrown goodbye to the other avengers with a wave as they rushed to the corner, Kate already questioning the glowing rings on the man's arms.
"That was cruel, you know?"
Wanda shrugged at Bruce's comment, tapping her nails against the chair.
"They needed the push, I'm always happy to help in that department."
Clint had to agree, nodding and raising his glass once more.
"To our loved ones."
They all raise in agreement, falling once more into silence as the new heroes mingled around them, mentally preparing to become attached to people once more, alongside the possibility of loosing them again.
Meanwhile, Kate and Yelna joined Shang Chi and Katy in the booth, singing a lovely cover of Backstreet Boys despite Yelena's insistence she hates the whole thing.
Kate held her hand right, aware that, despite her crush on the other avenger, Yelena was the only one able to make her heart race and her skin flush all at the same time, unaware the assassin mentally agreed, and thanks to the push of a certain witch, would be making a move sooner rather than later.
ty lyubish' karaoke - you enjoy karaoke
ty ser'yezen - you are serious?
Da, davayte spoyem - yea, let's sing