awry
Yelena always worried each and every time that Natalia left base.
The Helicarrier was nearly done with repairs and they’d be back up in the air in the weekend but until then Yelena was left with Bobbi or Hunter to watch over her.
Yelena discovered in her free time that SHIELD scientists were not field-ready most of the time but they were brilliant. So when Hunter needs to leave and Yelena wouldn’t have an escort, Yelena suggests that she spend time in the labs. Plenty of witnesses and Yelena swore that she wouldn’t leave until he or Bobbi came to get her.
Hunter, needing to leave, agrees easily.
Yelena plays nice with the scientists. She learns their names and their family members and what pets they have. She learns who is dating who and where each one went to school.
Yelena then ensures to greet them by name in the halls when she passes them, asking about pets or children. Those who had teenagers themselves warmed up to Yelena quickly and Yelena will let them steer her away from dangerous things in the lab in an attempt to ‘parent’ her. They don’t know her age but know she’s young.
She doesn’t have any malicious plans for them. But if she makes nice and makes friends then they will be more inclined to help her if she ever needs it. She carefully categorizes who specialized in what.
Chemicals. Forensics. Acids. Weapons. Biological.
All good allies to have.
And in return for Yelena playing nice, they will look after her. They’ll offer snacks and drinks, ask about her day, and eagerly listen when Yelena carefully let small, irrelevant pieces of information about her day slip.
When one of the scientists notices a recruit making a snide remark to Yelena, Yelena got to watch as the recruit was yelled at for harassing her.
Nobody minds Yelena hanging out with the scientists. If they did, then nobody had said anything.
When Yelena was not with the scientists or any of her usual escorts, she was with Goose. Fury knew all about her and Goose and was willing to let the cat ‘be and escort’ to Yelena, meaning that Yelena could follow Goose through desolate halls as she wanders wherever she wants.
If asked, Yelena would say that she was with Danvers. That was enough to satisfy and curiosity held.
Only a few days before they were set to leave, Yelena was with the scientists, watching a few of them attempt to make an acid to burn through locks on doors without eating away at the skin.
Maria enters the room and the scientists fall quiet. Maria scans the room until her eyes fall onto Yelena and she makes a motion for Yelena to follow, her face serious.
Yelena pulls away from the counter she was leaning on to watch them work, discarding a pair of goggles one of the scientists who was a father insisted that she wore.
“What’s wrong?” Yelena questioned, following Maria’s quick pace down the hall.
Maria kept quiet until Yelena is led into the communications office where agents were running back end for those currently out on missions. Once they’re standing behind a chair where an agent was sitting, Maria spoke.
“Your sister got triggered during her mission and has become hostile. All attempts to calm her down or contain her have failed,” Maria nods at the agent in the chair who takes off their headset and passes it to Yelena before standing. “You need to talk to her, coax her into standing down, and keep her calm until she can arrive back.”
“Mission objective?” Yelena questioned, taking a seat in the chair and pulling the headset on.
“Classified,” Maria replies and Yelena holds back a rude remark. “Agent Barton, Agent Coulson, and Agent May are with her.”
“I thought Agent May didn’t go in the field?” Yelena tilts her head up to look at Maria.
“Again. Classified,” Maria at least had the decency to look apologetic about it.
Yelena swallows before testing the microphone. “Hello?”
“Hello, this is Agent Coulson,” A voice comes through. “Is this Yelena?”
“Yes,” Yelena glances at the map on the screen, seeing that they were scouting out someplace in Russia. That’s why Natalia had been gone for a few days. “Where’s my sister?”
“We have her cornered… in a way,” Coulson spoke. “Nobody can get close.”
“Can she hear me?” Yelena asked.
“She ripped her earpiece out. I can put you on speaker, though,” Coulson said and then there was a beep. “Okay. You’re on speaker.”
Yelena takes a moment, feeling Maria still standing at her right shoulder. “Natalia?” Yelena tests. “It’s Yelena.”
“You have her attention,” Clint piped up and Yelena thinks of what to say.
“Maria said that you got triggered during your mission,” Yelena struggles to get the sentence out, changing languages every other word and trying to remember which languages she and Natalia both knew. “But you are safe. There are three agents with you. Agent Phil Coulson, your handler. Agent Clint Barton, also known as Hawkeye, your partner. And Agent Melinda May, my former SO. I… I trust them to return you safely back to me.”
“I thought they took you.” Natalia’s voice sounded far away and it was soft-spoken but cold. “They ripped you from my hands.”
“But you got me out. You saw a chance to escape but you waited until you saw me. You waited until you could get me. You could have left me behind. They beat me so hard that day that I couldn’t walk without support. They broke my ribs…” Yelena takes a moment, swallowing hard as she closed her eyes. “I didn’t think you were real at first. I thought that I had finally lost it. That the Red Room had won and that they had finally broken me… until you touched my face.”
It was quiet for a few moments. “You still looked the same as when you were six… just-- bigger.” The voice was slightly closer by. “I thought you were dead. You were laying on the floor when I found you. Then you groaned and you looked up at me and… you smiled.” Natalia was breathing heavily.
“You told me to get up. You said that we were going to be free. You pressed a knife into my hand and you had a gun you lifted from the guard you killed,” Yelena continues. “We fought our way out. We stole and car and you didn’t stop driving until we were out of gas. We kept stealing cars and driving. You swore that we’d never go back. That nobody would ever take me from you again. And you have done a really great job at that. It’s time to come back, big sister. It’s time to come back to me.”
“...I need you…” Came Natalia’s quiet confession.
“I’m right here,” Yelena replies softly.
“I need to dance,” Natalia continues. “I need it now.”
“Is… is agent May there?” Yelena switched to English.
“I’m here,” May spoke up and Yelena takes a few deep breaths.
“I need your help,” Yelena can feel Maria shift at her side but focuses on the screen in front of her. “When you’re back in the plane, I need you to help me guide Natalia through sets. Ballet sets.”
Yelena had entrusted the knowledge of what ballet meant to them to May when she was still Yelena’s supervising officer. May knew enough to help Natalia, even if she wasn’t very good at it.
“That would require us getting on the plane first,” May said and there was a shuffling.
“How about it, Nat?” Clint questioned. “Yelena can stay on the phone and everything, right Commander?”
Yelena does her best to not flinch when Maria spoke up from behind her. “Correct.”
“Okay…” Natalia breathes out and Yelena quietly listened as there was shuffling. This time, she’s sure that Natalia has the communications device held in her hand. “Little sister?”
“I’m here,” Yelena promised, listening quietly as they head back to the plane.
“Alright. We’re taking off and in the air,” Clint spoke.
“And May is there with Natalia?” Yelena questioned.
“I’m here,” May agrees. “What do you need me to do?”
“I need you to stand in a row, May’s back facing Natalia’s front,” Yelena instructs, quietly praying that this worked for the moment. “Ready?”
“Ready,” The two women echo and Yelena takes a moment before ordering. “En pointe!”
She can only hope that May remembers what Yelena taught her. That she won’t steer Natalia wrong. Because if May messes up then Natalia may assume that she somehow moved wrong and spiral.
Yelena orders them into each position before humming the song they always did the first set to.
She’d occasionally murmur a praise. “Good” or “Very well”. She’d also utter things such as “arms higher” or “straighten up”.
She couldn’t see them. She couldn’t know if they were doing well or how they looked. She just knew how much Natalia needed both praise and critique. Yelena was the same way.
Yelena hums and talks for hours. She keeps going until Natalia finally interrupts her to tell her that she’s fine.
Yelena knows it’s a lie but doesn’t comment on it. She’s reluctant to pass the headset back to the original agent but nobody has anything more to say.
Yelena waits quietly for the day that it takes them to come back. Ten hours later, Yelena waits anxiously on the tarmac for the plane to touch down.
Natalia exits last and Yelena moves forward. Natalia shrinks away from her slightly but Yelena doesn’t let that deter her.
“Go shower up. Agent Barton will drop off your paperwork,” Maria tells Natalia. Yelena placed a hand onto Natalia’s back to guide her toward their room, giving May a small nod of appreciation.
Clint walks with them back to their room. Yelena closed the door behind them, guiding Natalia to sit on the bed.
Natalia takes a seat, staring at the wall in front of her. Yelena moves to grab Natalia a change of clothes and then wets a washcloth down.
“Hi.” Yelena moves in front of Natalia, reaching out to gently grip her chin. Natalia blinks a few times before her eyes flicker to look up at Yelena.
“Hey.” Natalia whispers, holding still as Yelena gently wipes her face clean with the wet cloth.
“What happened?” Yelena asked before she reached for the zipper on Natalia’s suit.
“I… thought I saw someone who hurt you,” Natalia replies quietly. It’s not the whole truth, Yelena can tell that but she lets it go, working on helping Natalia out of her SHIELD uniform.
Once Natalia was out of her uniform, Yelena briefly checks her over for injuries. “Are you hurt?”
Natalia shakes her head, swallowing hard. “No…”
Yelena pulls the new change of clothes onto Natalia. “You need to sleep. I know you haven’t slept since we last spoke.”
Natalia doesn’t disagree, her head falling forward to rest on Yelena’s shoulder when Yelena wrapped her arms around her.
Yelena holds her sister close, combing her fingers through Natalia’s tangled hair. “I’ve got you.”
“I know,” Natalia whispers, her hands moving up to pull Yelena closer. “I’m sorry.”
Yelena frowns. “For what?” She asked in confusion.
“For dragging you into my mission. It shouldn’t have happened,” Natalia shakes her head slowly.
“Hey, it’s okay,” Yelena said quietly. “I don’t mind it at all. You just worried me.” Yelena decides that Natalia needs sleep more than she needs to push about what happened. “Come on. Let’s lay down.”
Natalia fumbles for a set of handcuffs, pausing when Yelena wraps her hand around her wrist.
“You’re going to have a nightmare. I don’t want your wrist to get bruised when you do,” Yelena knew that the inevitable was coming. “Let me just hold you for right now, okay?”
Natalia’s green eyes meet Yelena’s hazel ones before she gives a small, reluctant nod. “Okay…” She whispers.
Yelena climbs onto the bed, hauling a leg over Natalia until she was straddling her lap before laying down on top of her sister. Natalia lets out a shuddering breath, reaching up to fist the back of Yelena’s shirt in the hand Yelena wasn’t holding.
Yelena's free hand gently traced letters into Natalia’s side, the same three phrases over and over again.
YOU ARE SAFE
I LOVE YOU
I HAVE GOT YOU
Because while Natalia was the big sister and Yelena was the little sister, Natalia needed Yelena just as much.