movie
Clint’s room was much bigger than the helicarrier rooms.
“I’ve been with SHIELD since I was a teenager,” Clint said. “I’ve got perks.”
Yelena looks over the decently sized television. “Do you hold a lot of movie nights?”
“Movie nights only happen after things get hard,” Clint said, flopping onto a couch in front of the television. “It’s just a thinly veiled excuse as to why you need them close. And if they happen to ‘fall asleep’ on the couch and spend the night where you can see that they’re safe then…”
Yelena takes a seat next to him, Natalia perching on the arm of the couch next to her. “So you used me to get all of your friends to come over because you’re scared?”
“No?” Clint looks at her. “It’s been tough and you can’t tell me that having Bobbi or something here with you for the night won’t help you sleep easier.”
Yelena shrugs. Bobbi had gotten hurt in the whole commotion and Yelena did worry about her.
Bobbi was her friend.
But Yelena didn’t them as much as she trusted her sister.
Coulson was the first to arrive. He brought with him some beer.
“I’m glad to see that the three of you are safe,” Coulson tells them as he takes a seat on Clint’s couch.
Yelena still finds it baffling the relationship that people held with their handlers there. Clint grins up at Coulson as he grabs one of the beers.
Bobbi and Hunter show up next and Hunter dumps some snacks onto the coffee table.
“Hey tiny, glad to see you not covered in the blood of your enemies,” Hunter greets Yelena, pouting when Bobbi slaps the back of his head.
May shows up with Maria, both of them late. Clint had been surfing through the movies on his television when they show up with sweets from a cafe just down the street.
Yelena didn’t expect May to show up. It’s the first time outside of training since May let Bobbi take over that Yelena had seen her.
May nods at her in greeting before settling herself onto the seat next to Coulson.
“So, I was thinking of some happy, feel-good movies. Our newest members aren’t well versed in them, or so I’ve been told,” Clint glances at Yelena and Natalia.
“What about Disney?” Hunter suggests. “That’s, like, a childhood staple.” Hunter glances at them. “You ever seen Disney movies before?”
Yelena shrugs. Natalia glances at Yelena before mirroring her shrug.
Clint nods his head. “Disney it is!”
Clint flicks through the movies until he pulls one up. Yelena leans against Natalia perched on the arm of the couch as she settles down and watches.
They’re on their third movie in when Yelena recognizes it. She knows it word for word. They had made her translate it into English from Russian and then translate it back into Russian from English.
By the way Natalia stiffens next to her, she recognizes it too.
Yelena wants to tell Clint to shut it off. That she hates the movie. But she’s frightened of getting in trouble so her eyes lock onto the screen as she remembers.
She can’t help but mumble along, digging her fingers into her thighs as she remembers.
The screen in front of her pauses and she keeps going. She can prove she knows this. She knows English. She’s been good and watched. She can show them.
Yelena keeps reciting. She can prove to General Dreykov that she’s useful. That she can learn and that she deserves to keep living.
“Yelena?”
She ignores the guard calling her name. It’s a distraction. They try to distract her all the time to make her lose. To watch her fail and then enjoy hurting her for it.
“Yelena?”
The voice is much closer to her ear and Yelena wants to hit them. She wants to swat them away like they’re a bug.
“Natalia?”
Yelena’s head jerks at the name of her sister. She can be just as good as Natalia. She stumbles when reciting but keeps going, picking the pace up as she goes quicker.
“Little sister?”
The Russian slaps Yelena in the face and she twists her head against the firm voice near her ear.
“Little sister, look at me.” Came the order. Yelena can’t take her eyes away from the screen. She can’t look away because they have sensors that track her eyes and the General will know and she’ll get punished.
A hand falls onto her neck and Yelena can’t help but squeeze her eyes shut as she prepares for the guard to slam her head forward.
Nothing happens. The hand rests against the back of her neck, gently squeezing as the order comes again. “Look at me.”
Yelena finally looks away from the screen and up into the green eyes of her sister. The Red Room around her fades into the bland hues of cream and brown of Clint’s room.
“Good.” Natalia said. “You can stop reciting.”
Yelena doesn’t realize her mouth is still moving, words tumbling from her mouth as she spoke. Her mouth feels foreign, like she can’t control it because it isn’t part of her. She reaches a hand up, brushing her fingers against her lips. She falls silent.
“Good. Are you back with me?” Natalia questioned and Yelena gives a short, jerky nod of her head.
“Sorry…” She whispers but Natalia shakes her head.
“I understand.” Natalia tells her, and she really does. Natalia understood more than anybody else.
“Beanie baby?”
Sudden shame floods through her as she remembers that there were people in the room.
“What just happened is nothing to be ashamed about, kid,” Bobbi speaks up and Yelena’s eyes flicker to look at her. Bobbi was leaning against Hunter but there was concern on her face, nevertheless still thinking of the last time Yelena freaked out.
At Bobbi’s words, the others nod their head.
“Do you… do you have a bathroom?” Yelena murmurs and Clint nods his head, pointing it out and Yelena is off the couch and in the bathroom within seconds. She moves to close the door but Natalia’s foot wedges in the door and she slips in before Yelena can slam and lock the door.
Natalia locks the door behind her and approached Yelena. “Come on. Sit.”
Yelena feels like she’s six again and very little and afraid.
Yelena reaches toward Natalia and her big sister easily holds her and lowers them both to the ground.
Natalia tucks Yelena’s head just under her chin, her fingers caressing Yelena’s cheek.
“I hate that cartoon…” Yelena whispers, curling her fingers into Natalia’s shirt.
“Me too.” Natalia said back quietly. “I should have said something.”
Yelena shakes her head. “I didn’t wanna get in trouble.”
“I know,” Natalia pulls Yelena’s head against her shoulder. “I’ve got you.”
Yelena inhales deeply, taking a few moments to gather control over herself again. “We gotta go back out eventually.”
“Are you ready?” Natalia asked and Yelena looks up at her sister.
“I know that you don’t mind it when I do it with the commander and Coulson but can I sit on your lap around them?” Yelena asked.
“Just them,” Natalia agrees and Yelena nods her head.
“Then I’m ready,” Yelena hesitantly peels away so that the two can stand.
There was a new movie pulled up and ready to go but not yet playing.
Natalia takes a seat in the spot that Yelena vacated and Yelena sits on her lap, curling up and wiggling to get comfortable.
“You have a bony butt,” Natalia grumbles as Yelena squirms but wraps her arms around her sister anyway.
Nobody asked questions that they weren’t going to get answers to. Instead, Clint gestures to the screen.
“This movie came out within the last year. All of us haven’t seen it yet so we figure it’s a safe bet,” Clint said. “And if we need to stop it then we can.”
Yelena glances at the screen, not recognizing the characters. “Okay.” She said, resting her head against Natalia’s shoulder.
Clint starts the movie up and offers Natalia a beer. Natalia accepts it, taking a long swallow and wrinkling her nose.
Yelena reaches for it and Natalia raised an eyebrow at her but relinquishes the bottle to her.
It wasn’t Yelena’s first time drinking alcohol. She downs a long gulp before giving the bottle back to her sister before anyone could point it out.
They all knew, though. It was a room full of spies.
Yelena’s thankful that none of them point out her age. She hates being reminded of how little she is, even if she’s sitting on her sister’s lap because she got frightened.
It’s close to midnight by the time May said that she had to leave. Coulson lets out a sigh and agrees that he too had too much on his plate at the moment and needed to leave.
Nobody calls them out on their lies when Maria Hill, Deputy Director and Fury’s right-hand man, stays to spend the night. If she could then they surely could.
Yelena can’t help but wonder if it’s her that drove May away once again. She opens her mouth to tell Clint that she could leave instead if it would make May and Coulson stay but Natalia taps Yelena’s side and Yelena closed her mouth.
Bobbi is the first to fall asleep. Yelena can hear her snoring softly when the movie got quiet.
Maria goes next. She falls asleep sitting up, her arms folded and head tilted back.
Hunter falls asleep after that and it isn’t too long before Clint yawns and looks up at the sisters.
“You don’t have to spend the night,” Clint said, running a hand through his hair. “I know that you’re not fond of sleeping in places you don’t know or with crowds.”
“Would it make you feel better?” Natalia interrupts and Clint blinks sleepily up at her.
“What?” He questioned, his face scrunching in confusion.
“If Yelena and I spend the night, would you feel better,” Natalia repeats and Clint draws his eyebrows together in confusion but nods his head slowly.
“Yeah. I like to be able to see that you’re safe…” Clint finally replies.
“Then we’ll spend the night,” Natalia tells him.
Yelena is tired, resting her cheek against Natalia’s shoulder as some animated movie plays in the background.
“Cool… lemme go get blankets.” Clint stands, stretching in a way that made his limbs crack, before he heads to grab extra blankets and pillows.
Clint drapes a blanket over Hunter and Bobbi since they were sleeping so close together. He sets one next to Maria so he didn’t wake her up or startle her trying to put one on her. He then opens the second to last blanket to wrap around Yelena and Natalia curled up on the couch.
Clint wraps the last one around himself, leaning against the arm of the couch as he yawns once again. “If I fall asleep first then you two can watch whatever you want. Just no horror movies.”
Clint is fast asleep minutes later, snoring away.
Yelena tilts her head up to look up at Natalia. “Big sister?” She whispers.
Natalia looks down at her, the light coming from the television cascades a blue hue over her face.
“Goodnight.” Yelena whispers, wiggling to get comfy as her eyes start to slide shut on their own.
She’s tired and trusts Natalia to watch her back. She trusts that none of these people are going to hurt her.
She trusts that her friends will leave her be.
Yelena falls asleep to the feeling of Natalia’s fingers in her hair and the sound of singing coming from the television.