Roommates

Coming down from your room, you were greeted by a familiar sight with your roommate on the sofa, no doubt ‘resting her eyes’.

“Yelena! What’s up?” you yelled, startling her from her nap on the sofa.

“I was sleeping Y/N” she grumbled.

You snorted, “It’s 1 pm. And I know for a fact you were still in bed not two hours ago”. Your comment earned you a middle finger from the blonde.

“I’m trying to enter a coma”

“Sounds fun”

She glared and shut her eyes again, arms folded across her chest. In turn, you adopted a softer tone, knowing her well enough to know this wasn’t just about being woken up. “What’s wrong?”

She huffed, eyes still shut, then eventually mumbled, “my sister’s coming over”

“You don’t like her?” you asked hesitantly, unsure what had caused this mood.

“What? No. I do. She’s great” Yelena frowned, sitting up straight.

“So what’s the issue?”

“You’ll see when she gets here”

“Very ominous there ‘Lena, can’t you just tell me?” you pouted, but she ignored your expression, instead shaking her head firmly with sealed lips.

Living with Yelena for as long as you had, you knew if she didn’t want to talk about it, further questioning would get you nowhere. Reluctantly, you dropped the topic and moved on.

“How have I never met your family before?” you asked. The two of you had met in your first year at university, and moved in together for the second year. Other people lived with you of course, but it was the summer holidays, which meant it was just the two of you until third year began. Yet you’d never met her sister; you didn’t even know her name.

“She lives a busy life. And she’s usually in New York”

“So you live in York… and your sister lives in New York”

Yelena snorted at your remark, “she’s such a copycat”

“Older sister, right?”

“Yeah, five years older”

“And you moved here two years ago, while she’s lived there… how long?”

“I don’t know, like… 6 years?”

Now it was your turn to smirk, “doesn’t that make you the copycat?”

“If only you’d gone home too,” she scowled, “this would be a lot easier”

“So this is about me meeting your sister?”

After a pause, she nodded, “her meeting anyone”

It made you very curious about her mysterious sister. Maybe she had really poor social skills, or bad anxiety?
“I can leave if that’s better” you offered, but her eyes widened,

“definitely not”

“Ha I knew it” you goaded, “proof that you didn’t really want me to go home”

“She wants to meet you. That’s the only reason” Yelena added quickly, her smile however giving away the joke.

“Sure, sure, so when’s she coming? what’s even her name?”

“Natasha. And she’ll probably arrive as soon as this conversation is done"

“That’s an odd time” you joked with a lopsided grin, “so. Natasha”

“Yes”

“Okie, so how does this conversation end?”

“Sit down. Stop talking. Wait for her to walk in”

“She has a key?”

Your friend shook her head, “doesn’t need one”

You were very curious now, deciding to do as Yelena had instructed. And sure enough, within seconds, a curt knock sounded at the front door.

“I guess I’ll go get it” Yelena sighed, “wonder who it could be”

Following your friend into the hallway, you loitered at the end as she opened the door. Your mouth dropped at the guest.
“Yelena, you’re no fun” the redhead complained, pulling your housemate into a hug.

“Uhhh… hi” you greeted when her eyes fell to you. “I’m Y/N”, you held out your hand awkwardly, hoping she’d take it. She did, shaking it firmly with a smile on her face,

“I know. I’m Natasha”

“Uhhh. Um, yeah. I know that too” you muttered

“Every time” Yelena scowled, rolling her eyes as she brushed past the two of you to get into the living room. You broke off the handshake and hurried after her, setting yourself down on the opposite sofa. Natasha followed, taking a seat next to her sister.
No one spoke for a minute, the awkward atmosphere making you fidget as you waited for Yelena to make a move. She never did.

“Yelena, what is it?” Natasha demanded softly, you shifted your attention between the sisters.

“Nothing.”

“Yeah, sure. What is it?”

Yelena flicked her eyes to you, then back to Natasha. Eventually sighing and tilting her head back. “Every time I try to make friends on my own. Then you come over and they always get weird.”

“I don’t know what I can do about that Yel. Should I not have come?” Natasha frowned.

You reflected the movement exaggeratedly, “did you just call me weird?” you quipped. Amusement flit through Yelena’s eyes briefly, before she crushed it.

“Yes. Because that’s how you’re acting right now”

“In my defence” you began, holding your hands up, “learning that your favourite housemate’s secret sister is actually famous for saving the world is quite a shock”

“You didn’t talk about me?” Natasha pouted, humour in her eyes.

“Oh please, obviously you were listening to our conversation earlier Tasha, don’t play dumb” the blonde scolded.

Natasha snickered, then turned to you. “So Y/N, since my sister is being rude and not starting a conversation”, she emphasised her point with an elbow into Yelena’s side. “What subject do you study?”

Although you opened your mouth to reply, you were beaten to it by Yelena, “don’t fall for it Y/N, she’s researched every detail of our housemates’ lives”

You tilted your head at Natasha questioningly and she shrugged, not denying the statement. “I have to make sure my sister is safe”

“I’m a trained assassin, I can take care of myself” Yelena sulked and you snapped your head to look at her,

“Sorry, sorry, what?!”

Neither party spoke, Yelena simply looking down with an emotion similar to guilt. You took a breath, if her sister was the Black Widow it made sense, but it was still a very unexpected twist after almost two years of friendship.
“I guess I was really asking the wrong questions when we played, ‘never have I ever', huh?” you attempted, smile widening when Yelena snorted.

“Ask me the right ones and I might finally get as drunk as you”

“Hey!”

Your friend seemed to relax a bit, mentally and physically closing herself off a lot less.
“Not much of a drinker?” Natasha probed. Somehow you’d almost forgotten about the Avenger in the room.

“I’m not a lightweight. Yelena’s just on a different level.”

Natasha snorted, “yeah, she’s had practise. I remember so many times when she’d sneak into our dad’s vodka cabinet. And she was only six”

“Six?”

Natasha nodded with a smirk, “oh, all the drunk ramblings, so many stories…”

“Natasha if you dare” Yelena threatened

“Nooo, tell me, tell me, please?” you countered, forcing Natasha to make a decision between you both.

“Look Lena, I love you. But I want to embarrass you more”

You whooped and Yelena got up to smack your arm. “No.” she jokingly scolded.

“Why don’t we go for a walk first. I want to see the sights of Old York” Natasha stated

“Or just York, as regular people say”

“Whatever”

There were a lot more comments you were prepared to make, but you left them. Instead, you waited in the living room as Yelena took Natasha to her room, where she’d be staying for a bit apparently. Then, while Natasha was finding a way to camouflage, she came back down to talk to you.

“You know, you’re being a lot less weird than I thought”

“I’m… not sure that’s a compliment, but thanks?” you replied, tilting your head at the woman.

“It is a compliment. I don’t like when people start acting weird because I know her”

“I can assure you that this changes nothing in our friendship,” you said in the most over the top serious voice you could manage.

“Good”

“…But I will be teasing you about it” you added quickly and with a smile.

It broke her serious façade too, “I would expect nothing less”

“Glad I have your permission Black Widow Jr.”

She hit you again, “I’m not junior, I graduated from the Black Widow programme too”

You nodded slowly, eyes wide as you considered the new fact, “yeah… I nearly forgot to come back to that. Trained assassin, huh?”

“It wasn’t my choice”

“It doesn’t seem like it would be, but it does explain where the cooking skills come from. If you’ve trained to use a knife and all.”

“No” she refuted, “that’s all me. You should see Tasha, she’s awful”

“Ooh, can you give me dirt on an Avenger? Since she’s selling you out already”

“You know the fair trade for me is to sell you out?”

With a hum, you shrugged, “three-way sell-out deal then”

“Deal”

“You guys are cute, honestly, but let’s get going already” Natasha called out, somehow at the door before either of you saw.

“How-?” you began, but Yelena waved your question away

“Good training”

“Yeah. I see where you get it from” you teased, trying to wind her up.

And it worked, Yelena paused in putting on her shoes to glare at you. “We were literally trained together. I don’t get it from her.”

“Sure you don’t”

“God you’re so stupid”

Natasha sighed loudly, “get a room you two or hurry up. It’s a nice day and you’re wasting it flirting” she chided, causing a choked gasp from you.

“Flirting? With Yelena? Grim.”

“Hey, that’s my little sister, don’t put her down like that” Natasha defended, though teasingly… you assumed.

“I’m aroace Nat. So is she” your friend elaborated, rolling her eyes.

“Ooh.” Natasha coughed, deflecting from her mistake, “that clears some stuff up”

“And to think I called Y/N stupid”

“I just thought you would have told me,” Natasha said, with an exaggerated pout, though not for long as she followed you both outside.

“Aren’t you meant to be a world-class spy, top of SHIELD, and an Avenger?” Yelena hit back, “I thought you would have known!”

“Well I don’t exactly use my skillset on my equally matched sibling”

“No, but you can use it on her untrained friend who you’ve been monitoring anyway and draw conclusions”

You finally piped up, “you guys are talking like I’m not even here. I guess I’ll just merge with the floor, don’t mind me, go on,” you said sarcastically. Unfortunately, the siblings knew each other well enough to switch it around, talking about your own life and not reacting at all when you spoke. It was kind of creepy.
“Ok, ok, I’ve re-emerged from the floor. Stop it now”

“Oh, wow, Y/N, fancy bumping into you” Yelena deadpanned

“haha very funny”

“You two do get on very well though. I’m glad you found each other. And that my little sis can actually make friends” Natasha added sincerely, having to catch Yelena’s wrist to avoid a hit to the stomach after the last comment.

“So how many security checks did you do to realise that I can check my roommates’ histories perfectly well by myself?”

“Can’t be too careful Yelena” the Avenger defended, before turning to you, “you came out clean, don’t worry Y/N. Well done on winning that karate competition though”

You took in another deep breath, “…the one when I was 6?”

“Well, yeah, have you won another one?”

“I barely even remember that! How?”

Natasha shrugged, “I’m a good spy”

Relenting, you turned to Yelena instead, making your voice high pitched to mock hers, “‘Oh don’t be weird’ you said, ‘my friends are always weird’, and yet you were running security checks on us the whole time?”

“Yes, but you didn’t notice, so it wasn’t weird to you”

“That’s not how it works but whatever. You guys have some mad lives.”

“Wish I didn’t” Yelena huffed quietly, whether she meant for you to hear or not you weren’t sure, but you stayed quiet after that, happy to watch your best friend animatedly show her sister around her university town. You occasionally butted in to add details, or join the conversation, but never bringing up her past.

It was only when you got back to your house, and Yelena left you and Natasha to go to the toilet, that you realised that you actually had to make conversation. “Soo… uh, what’s it like being an Avenger? Wait- you probably get asked that a lot, right? It’s probably annoying-”

While you tried to think of an alternative question, Natasha interrupted with a smile on her face. “It’s ok, I enjoy it. I don’t get to talk to people other than the team all that often anyway.”

“But I bet they always ask that question, right?”

Her grin spread and she gave a small nod, “yeah, they do”

“Knew it”

“Being an Avenger is fun though, the team are my family almost as much as Yelena is.” She cleared her throat, “I’ll take a stab in the dark and assume she didn’t tell you about our past?”

You shook your head, “I literally know nothing about her except for how she’s been the past two years”

“I’ll let her tell you when she’s ready but- It wasn’t great so just… don’t push her for it, alright?” you gave a quick nod, you didn’t plan on it anyway, “but my Avengers work makes me feel a bit better about it, use my skills to help people rather than…” she trailed off, so you took the reins,

“I know a bit about- I mean probably not a whole lot- but your history. You did, um, in 2014, when you released the SHIELD files?” you stuttered, but she got the gist,

“Oh that. I’d forgotten. You read those?”

“Not like, the whole thing” you admitted, “but it was a pretty massive story, sections of it were all over social media. Of your past and stuff”

“And what’s your opinion?” she asked earnestly,

“Well, you didn’t have a choice, right? Plus if you hadn’t done it all and been killed, then the world would be down an Avenger and maybe the world wouldn’t be saved.”

“Nah”, Yelena’s voice made you spin around, seeing her smirking as she entered the room, “Natasha is not one of the big ones”

The Avenger rolled her eyes and gave you a look, “such a supportive sister I have, right?”. You snickered and Yelena turned to you with a glare,

“No. No, don’t side with her. I’m your friend, which means you back me.”

While she was talking, you felt your phone buzz in your back pocket, while Yelena’s also pinged. You pulled it out to see a string of messages from the house group chat.

“Uhh, are you telling them?” you asked, glancing up at Yelena and then back down to the phone where more messages were streaming through.

“If I don’t they’ll probably come knocking on our door to find out for themselves soon enough.”

“They’re our housemates, they don’t need to knock they have a key” you chuckled, then realised, “Izzie only lives an hour away”

“Oh she’s definitely on her way already”

“Anyone want to clue me in?” Natasha asked, though you suspected she already knew. Yelena passed her sister the phone, revealing doorbell camera footage of Natasha on your doorstep. Followed by your housemates’ texts demanding to know why an Avenger was on their doorstep. Then immediately freaking out because an Avenger was on their doorstep.

“Ah” was all the redhead said.

Yelena grimaced, “I do love our housemates but… they can be a bit eager”

You laughed, “remember when Izzie and Theo saw Andrew Scott on the street?”

Yelena paled, turning to her sister, “they chased after him, it was insane. And I know they’re bigger fans of you than they are of him”

“Do you want me to leave?” Natasha asked

Yelena nodded a yes, but you frowned, “you two have barely caught up though”

“It’s for Natasha’s safety”

“Yelena, what if you two go. I’ll stay behind to field whoever comes”

Natasha laughed at your statement, “you’re making this sound like a suicide mission”,

That laugh faltered when you and Yelena both turned to her, replying “it is” in all seriousness.
“You do not want to be around the two of them when they enter fan mode, trust me” you reassured.

“Well, it’s your holiday, right?” she asked. You and Yelena nodded. “Fine. If it’s so imperative that I leave, then you two come with me”

“Really?” you asked, sharing a questioning look with Yelena

“I have a jet and free time so why not?”

“Y/N?”
“Yelena?”
The two of you kept eye contact, a smirk on both of your faces as you wordlessly asked if the other was up for it. When it seemed you were, she nodded,”
“Let’s go, we have to pack some bags”

“Bring a couple of days worth at least” Natasha called as you and her sister ran off up the stairs.

As soon as you were out of Natasha’s sight, you held up a fist and your best friend quickly returned the fist bump.
“Nice plan Belova”

“What can I say? I know my sister, now I’ve gotten us a holiday.”

“She seems nice, so my point still stands as to why we couldn’t have just asked”

“Y/N” she whined, “what have I told you about the drama of it all. Asking doesn’t have the same coolness as making my sister, an Avenger, afraid of our housemates.”

The two of you were now sat in the doorway of your respective rooms, keeping up the conversation as you threw clothes into the suitcases. “Alright, I will admit it was fun, even if we did make Theo and Izzie sound a bit crazy”

“Meh” Yelena shrugged, “she’s vetted both of them so she knows they’re not that bad. Plus we were telling the truth about that Andrew Scott incident”

“You make a fair point”

“I always do”

Once packed, you both ran downstairs and re-greeted the Avenger. Another 10 minutes later and you were staring dumbstruck at the quinjet casually parked at the end of some alley in the middle of the city, squashed tightly into the open courtyard.
“Are there really no better places to land that?” you asked

“There are, she’s just a show-off” Yelena grumbled, hopping up to it, “not very secure though, anyone could steal it”

“It was built as a combined effort between SHIELD and Tony Stark” Natasha scoffed, “It’s harder to steal than it looks. Plus it’s tracked, so if anyone did manage, Stark can find them and offer them a job.”

“It doesn’t look easy to steal…” you muttered, though from the look Yelena sent you it was clear she disagreed.

“If I didn’t want to leave instantly because a crowd is forming, then I would take the time to prove I could steal it” Yelena boasted and Natasha cocked a brow, smirking slightly at you. Yet she said nothing, only guiding you both onto the jet and taking off.

“So, New York?” Yelena asked eagerly five minutes into the flight.

“Nope.” Natasha grinned back, emphasising the ‘p’, “St Petersburg”

Your friend’s cocky smirk fell instantly, becoming a look of pure dread, “no.”

“yes”

“but I packed for New York”

“tough luck. You should have predicted this part when you made your little plan” Natasha smiled sweetly, with her head tilted as she looked at the blonde, “it really would have been better to ask, isn’t that right Y/N?”. She turned to grin at you, dragging you into the mess.

“When I made the plan, you weren’t supposed to know about the plan” Yelena muttered weakly.

“If you’d just asked, I’d have just taken you straight to New York”

When Yelena looked at you, you gave an over the top shrug, not even needing to utter an ‘I told you so’ to prove your point. But you did it anyway.
“I told you so”
Yelena stuck her tongue out at you and Natasha laughed, relieving any tension on the plane.

“So why are we going to Russia?” you asked.

“It’s where our parents live” Yelena muttered softly

“and you’ve been avoiding them” Natasha teased, “you know they found Tony’s phone number just to text him, to tell me, to tell you, that they wanted you to visit.”

“That’s persistent” you commented, and Natasha hummed in agreement.

Yelena interjected with her own complaint, “it’s only been 2 years, we went 21 years without seeing each other at all”. You looked between the two of them, unsure whether to broach the topic. Natasha pursed her lips, and you took it as an opportunity to speak.

“Yelena”

“yeah?”

“Do you recall how old you told me you were?”

“Oh,” she realised, “well in fairness I told you I was 21 two years ago. That’s still possible”

“Sure so you stole alcohol from your dad’s alcohol cabinet aged six. You haven’t seen them since the day you were born?”

“Possibly”

You pulled out your phone, glad to see Natasha’s age was available online, and knowing Yelena was five years younger… “29? Really?”

“I know, I know, I look young for my age” she joked and you laughed, but then she continued in a much more serious tone. “I’m sorry I lied” she sighed, “it’s just, a lot easier”

You shrugged, “doesn’t change a thing, you’re still the same person I know. And you’ve been through a lot so I see why you did it.”

“I know you know Tasha’s history, so you can hazard a guess at mine. But I just want you to know properly before we meet my parents”

“Ok” you reassured, smiling as she sat beside you, hoping to calm her obvious nerves.

“So there was this mission in Ohio. Melina, Alexei and Natasha posed as my family for three years. I was 3 when it started, 6 by the end, so it was all the family I ever knew.” She exhaled and you renewed your supportive smile. “Then it ended. Natasha and I were dragged back to the Red Room, put through training and psychological conditioning to… you know”

You nodded again, the smile was gone but you remained supportive. When your eyes flit to Natasha, you saw her frowning, guilt written on her expressions. “Natasha got out somehow around 2004″. Her sister was wincing now. “And after that, they started on the mind-control, make sure no-one else would ever get out. Until we brought down the Red Room 2 years ago.”

You said nothing as she finished, simply pulling her into a much-needed hug. She may have a family again now, but you were going to be there forever.