watching
Natalia was training with Clint when the helicarrier attacked.
She’s not very worried about Yelena at first because she was on the other side of the ship and with Barbara Morse, AKA Mockingbird.
It isn’t until Bobbi comes across them without Yelena in sight that Natalia feels something wrap around her heart and squeeze until Natalia can’t breathe. “Where’s Yelena?”
Bobbi glances at her. “In the training room. She locked the door after me. She’s safe there.”
Safe was an interesting way to phrase it considering the door was unlocked and there was a dead body inside with the distinct lack of a teenager that was supposed to be there.
“You said she was here,” Natalia glances at Bobbi. Bobbi looked as surprised as she did.
“She-- oh, fuck.” Bobbi murmurs and glances around the room. “Yelena?” She calls out.
Natalia and Bobbi don’t see the teenager. They end up running into Maria and Fury with their search.
“Have you seen Yelena?” Bobbi questioned them. Maria’s tablet had been shattered and she was unable to access the tracking on Yelena’s wrist.
Natalia takes deep, even breaths so that she doesn’t panic. Yelena was a big girl and could take care of herself.
It’s nearly twenty minutes later when Maria raised a hand to her earpiece and glances at Natalia. “Clint says he has Yelena and that she’s safe.”
Natalia watches her. “Where are they?” She demands.
Yelena was with Hunter and Clint when they find them. Natalia reaches out to grab her baby sister’s face and look her over for fatal wounds. “Status report.” She demands.
Yelena lists her injuries and how many she had killed in the scuffle, just like was expected of her in the Red Room.
Natalia spots Bobbi eye the blood coating Yelena’s shirt and hands. “The blood isn’t yours?”
Yelena glances down as if she was surprised about the blood. “No.” She looks up at Natalia. “Not mine. He wiggled and made me make a mess. I hate it when they squirm.”
Natalia pulls Yelena into her arms, needing to be able to hold her. Yelena wiggles slightly. “I’m all bloody.” She protests but doesn’t slip out of Natalia’s hold.
“Don’t care,” Natalia can feel the blood soak into her shirt and stick to her skin but she doesn’t care but all that matters at that moment was her sister.
Yelena rests her cheek against Natalia’s shoulder as Natalia cradles her close. Yelena is slowly drooping against her as adrenaline leaves her body. Natalia merely shifts her weight to accommodate her sister leaning against her.
Yelena retreats into her head for a little bit but Natalia’s not too worried about it. She strokes Yelena’s hair, focusing on the conversation around them.
Fury then glances at the pair of Russian assassins. “Are you in possession of weapons?”
Natalia holds out the gun that she had used and Maria takes it from her grasp. Yelena doesn’t reply, unaware of what was happening outside of her own head.
Bobbi moves closer, stopping when Natalia glares at her. “Kid? The Director is speaking to you… are you sure you aren’t hurt?”
Yelena blinks a few times, her eyes flickering to settle on Bobbi’s frame. She then gazes up at the Director. “I’m sorry… I wasn’t listening…” She admits quietly.
Natalia knows that she’s crashing and that Yelena needs to settle down before she has a meltdown because she’s so overwhelmed and tired.
Fury doesn’t punish Yelena for running off. He doesn’t berate her for having a weapon or defending herself. He’s not even upset that Yelena killed people with her bare hands.
The General would have beaten Yelena black and blue and still made her fight to earn the right to eat dinner.
Yelena answers Fury’s questions and Natalia drags her to the showers when they’re dismissed. Yelena is half-asleep and Natalia feels warm because she knows that Yelena would be forcing herself awake if she didn’t feel safe.
Yelena shifts to secure her wrist to the headboard before she heads to bed but Natalia stops her, pulling her close instead because she needed to physically feel Yelena in her arms.
Natalia was scared because Yelena had disappeared in a fight and Natalia was left not knowing if her sister was safe. Natalia strokes Yelena’s hair and holds her until the teenager falls asleep.
Natalia had never done a ‘movie night’ before. Clint was upfront about what it really was.
Clint wanted the people he cared about close after the invasion on the helicarrier. Natalia doesn’t know how to feel about being included in the list of people he cared about.
Sure, she liked him. He was kind and respected their boundaries and was good with Yelena. And Natalia would be displeased if he were to die. But she doesn’t know what she would call the way she felt about him.
Is he a friend? Natalia doesn’t have friends. Having friends only ends up with the other getting hurt. Natalia already worries enough with Yelena.
Yelena asks her if they can go and Natalia agrees when she sees the spark of hope in her eyes.
Natalia perches on the arm of the couch next to Yelena as they start their marathon of Disney movies that the others had insisted upon.
The first two movies were cute, even if Natalia didn’t understand the point of them. She much preferred to watch her sister’s face.
Her sister was enraptured with them, watching with wide eyes as she soaks up the stories.
Natalia recognizes the third movie that they play. Snow White.
The Red Room had used it to teach the girls English. Natalia isn’t sure if Yelena had been subjected to that kind of training to but she doesn’t want to make a fuss or draw attention to herself.
Natalia’s stomach is unsettled. Twenty minutes into the movie she watches the joy and fascination of watching the movie twist into something sour on Yelena’s face.
Then Yelena starts mouthing the words and Natalia glances over at the others that were watching the television.
Natalia fights the urge to translate the movie as well, finally blurting out. “Stop it.”
Clint turns to look at her with a frown before his eyes fall onto Yelena and he scrambles for the remote to pause the movie.
Natalia twists to focus on her sister who had obviously gone somewhere else in her head and Natalia tries to coax her back to reality.
“Natalia?” Coulson spoke up. “Is everything okay?”
Natalia wants to snap at him that no, everything is obviously not okay. But she focuses on her sister sitting next to her.
“Little sister,” She whispers in Russian and that elicits a reaction so Natalia spoke again. “Little sister, look at me.”
Yelena tilts her head to the side, indicating that she was listening but her eyes were trained on the television where the movie had been paused.
Natalia hears the murmur of ‘flashback’ and ‘episode’ she hears Coulson and Maria mumble to each other.
She ignores them and instead focuses on Yelena. She dares to reach out and rest her hand onto the back of Yelena’s neck, unsure of how she would receive it. Yelena tenses up as if preparing for Natalia to slam her head forward against the coffee table in front of them.
Natalia gives the back of her neck a gentle squeeze, applying just enough pressure to get her attention. “Look at me.” She repeats.
Yelena’s eyes finally flickered to look up at Natalia but she’s still mumbling the words to the movie under her breath.
Yelena freaks and tries to lock herself in the bathroom but Natalia manages to slip in before she can.
By the time Yelena is calm again and they’re out on the couch, Natalia had sat where Yelena had been, letting the teenager curl up in her lap.
Coulson and May make an excuse to leave and Natalia watches as Yelena’s eyes follow May.
Natalia hates May for hurting her sister.
One by one, each member of their little gathering starts to doze. They feel safe enough in each others presence to let themselves sleep and be vulnerable.
Hell, Maria Hill tilts her head back when she sleeps. One slash with a knife and her throat would be easily cut and she’d be dead without ever waking up.
Yelena is the last to fall asleep and Natalia is left with the sounds of soft snores and animated characters on the television.
She doesn’t sleep that night but the fact that the others felt safe enough with her and Yelena in the room to sleep spoke a lot to Natalia about their thoughts on her.
Natalia can’t be there all the time for Yelena. She has missions and training of her own.
She was working with Maria and Clint when the Director shows up with Yelena tailing behind him.
Yelena had knocked six recruits unconscious and came out with only a bruise on her jaw.
When the Director finally leaves Yelena with them, Natalia moves forward and demands answers, grabbing Yelena’s face to inspect the bruise.
When Natalia asks about her punishment, Yelena said that the Director made her kneel.
For a split moment, a stab of fear courses through her and it takes everything in her to not drag Yelena to the nearest bathroom and demand her to strip and search her thighs and mouth.
Yelena quickly explains it away, confusion on her face that she carefully conceals.
But Natalia knows her sister. She reaches out to cup the back of Yelena’s neck like she usually did but Yelena violently flinches away from her.
Natalia drops her hand, her heart beating uncomfortably in her chest at the fact that her little sister had flinched because of her.
Clint manages to get them all into the nest he set up in the vents. Even Maria.
A few words about Yelena and her safety manages to break the commander down and Natalia watches as Maria crawls behind them into the vents.
The tightness in Natalia’s chest fades when Yelena settles herself between her legs, letting Natalia wrap around her. Yelena leans back against Natalia’s chest and stomach, tilting her head back to rest it on Natalia’s shoulder.
When Clint chucks a pack of gummy worms at her face, Yelena catches it, tears the packet open, and fishes the first one out before reaching up to pass it to Natalia.
Natalia observes as Maria and Clint explain the concept of fighting back and sticking up for yourself to Yelena. Yelena watches them quietly.
Natalia then watches as Maria gently grips her sister's arm to remove the tracker when Yelena points out that it made her a target.
Maria keeps a hold on Yelena’s arm for a few moments longer, pulling her closer to speak to her. “I am not the Red Room, Yelena. If you have a problem with someone then you can come to me,” Maria spoke firmly. “Understand me?”
Yelena nods her head and Maria finally lets her go. Yelena settles back against Natalia in deep thought.
Maria stays with them in the vent despite the fact she despised it. Natalia observes as Maria ensures to include Yelena in the conversation.
Maria is open and soft with Yelena in a way that she is with no others. Perhaps it's her age. Perhaps Maria doesn’t even realize she’s shifting the way she acted around Yelena.
Natalia watches and waits.
Natalia knows that Yelena doesn’t sleep through the night. Yelena doesn’t get more than three hours of sleep at a time before her mind alerts her that she’s in danger and Yelena jerks awake in a panic.
So Natalia tries to finish her work in time to be back for bed. She does have missions that take overnight and Yelena always seemed grumpy the next day when she waits for Natalia.
But this time she returns and her bedroom is empty. The handcuffs that Yelena used are still attached to the bed despite how carefully each of the sisters had taken to hiding them.
By the time Yelena returns, she’s with Bobbi. She looks tired and weary and Natalia demands to know where she had gone.
Yelena explains that she had dislocated her thumb and needed help getting it back in. “I needed you.” She had whispered and the anger left Natalia.
Natalia wants to tell Yelena what she’s doing. She doesn’t agree with keeping this a secret from her. But the Director and Commander were insistent on this latest mission to stay quiet.
Natalia needs Yelena to know that she’s not going anywhere. Nobody will be able to separate them again. Natalia won’t let them.
Natalia isn’t a child this time. She’s bigger and stronger and has a lot more experience now. She can protect her sister now.
Yelena clings to her like Natalia will disappear if she blinks too hard. Natalia doesn’t know how to get her point across to Yelena.
Natalia loved Yelena. She knew that, even if her mouth couldn’t speak the words.
So Natalia slides her fingers under Yelena’s shirt, feeling her sister freeze up at the feeling.
Natalia then taps out her message in morse. A string of letters.
Yelena lets out a shuddery breath and Natalia is struck with the fact that Yelena maybe needed to be told these things.
Each time Yelena expressed her love for Natalia, the older woman was filled with happiness and warmth. She wondered just how Yelena felt at that moment.
Yelena buries her face into Natalia’s shirt and Natalia feels a muffled request against her shoulder. “Do it again.”
Natalia taps it out once again and Yelena sobs and curls into Natalia’s hold.
Natalia won’t ever let Yelena doubt the love she held for her.