captain
Yelena’s been spending a lot of time with Goose lately. That and Goose has been following her around. Because Goose also frequents Fury’s office, Yelena finds herself timidly following the cat into Fury’s office sometimes.
Fury never scolded her or told her to get out. He barely even glanced at her whenever she entered.
Yelena’s curled up with Goose one day when the orange cat perks up and lets out an excited chirp before bolting. Yelena, intrigued at the reaction, stands to follow the cat. Goose darts down the halls and Yelena follows quickly, not even realizing that they were in front of Fury’s office until she spots a set of arms stooping down to scoop Goose up.
Yelena is left staring up at a blonde-haired woman cradling Goose like a baby.
“Rookie Agent Belova,” Fury pipes up and Yelena glances at him. “Meet Danvers. Carol Danvers.”
Carol grins at her. “You must be the human that Goose adopted. You’re a little young to be an agent, ain’t ya?” She glances at Fury. “You recruiting kids now, Nick?”
“Extenuating circumstances,” Fury replies and Yelena’s surprised to see the small half-smile on his face. “This is Yelena Belova. She’s been helping me look after Goose.”
At the shift in attention, Yelena squirms slightly under Carol’s stare. “Not really. I just… I like holding Goose.”
“So I’ve heard. I wanna see it with my own eyes,” Carol holds Goose out toward Yelena and the teenager reaches out to take Goose.
Goose curls against Yelena and Carol clapped her hands together with a grin.
“Wow. Never seen one adopt their own human before,” Carol comments and Yelena notes the odd wording. “She eat anybody yet?”
Carol sounds serious but Yelena never quite knows when it comes to Goose. “The Director said she ate her cat bed…” She comments.
Carol lets out a loud laugh. “Yeah, that sounds like Goose.” Carol reaches out to pet Goose in Yelena’s arms and Yelena tries not to pull away from the hand. “Did I interrupt you from training?”
“What?” Yelena frowns before realizing Carol is looking down at her outfit. Yelena peers down at the SHIELD issued tanktop and sweatpants. “No. These are just my clothes.”
Carol laughs. “What, is everything you own SHIELD issued?” There was a pause, Carol takes in the sight of Yelena’s face, and then she turns toward Fury. “What the hell, Nick? Why doesn’t this kid have any clothes?”
“I’m wearing clothes!” Yelena defends herself and Goose lets out a purr to calm her down.
“Like, where did you even pick up this ragamuffin?” Carol gestures at Yelena and Yelena shrinks into herself slightly, wondering what Fury will tell Carol.
“She came with her older sister,” Fury replies, his eye sliding to peer at Yelena. “Although I suppose you’re right about her clothes.”
Yelena feels self-conscious under their glances, pulling Goose closer to her. “I’m fine.” She has nothing to repay them for new clothes. She has no money. She has nothing to her name.
“Nuh-uh,” Carol shakes her head. “Nick, I’m kidnapping the kid and her sister to get them some actual clothes.”
“Is that so?” Fury raised an eyebrow and Yelena glances between them, wondering what exactly their relationship was.
Carol Danvers was bantering with the Director of SHIELD like it was no big deal.
“Yup,” Carol faces Yelena. “Go get your sister, kid.”
Yelena holds Goose close, peering at Fury to wait for his dismissal.
Fury lets out an exasperated sigh. “Do as she says, Rookie.”
Yelena doesn’t exactly trust Fury and she certainly doesn’t trust Carol Danvers. She doesn’t exactly want to leave base with them, even if it is with her sister.
Fury arched an eyebrow at her hesitance. “Is there something you want to ask me, Rookie?”
Yelena opens her mouth, pausing before deciding she can ask, even if he’ll turn her down. “Can the commander come?”
Fury stares at her for a few moments and Yelena was about to recind her request when he nods. “Take her. If she denies then tell her it’s an order.”
Yelena sets Goose down, moving to inform Maria and Natalia.
Maria does put up a fuss. Yelena feels bad about asking her, not wanting to have made any tension. She just…
Maria had become a fixture in Yelena’s life that made her feel safe. Maria always followed the rules and Yelena had come to realize how she worked and what to expect from her.
“You don’t have to come. I just--” Yelena hesitantly explains and Maria spins to glance at her, the rant dying off.
“You asked for me to come?” She asked and Yelena can’t meet Maria’s eyes as she lets out a hesitant nod. Maria rubs her hands on her face before letting out a sigh. “Okay. Okay, gimme a minute to finish up here.”
Natalia was much more open to the option once she knew Maria was coming. It would be the first time both sisters left SHIELD grounds together since they were scooped up months ago.
Carol flies the jet down to SHIELD base and they get a car from there. Yelena sits in the back with Natalia, a feeling of unease lingering in her stomach.
Carol takes them to a mall. Yelena’s been to the mall before but she had only been once since Ohio and that was to tail a mark she was after.
Yelena still feels like she has to mark all the exits and entrances, eyeing each camera and possible hostiles. There’s a big map as soon as they enter and Carol stops in front of it.
“Where do you like to shop?” Carol glances at the sisters. While Natalia had clothes that weren’t SHIELD issued, they were mainly formal clothes for missions. Yelena hadn’t picked out her own clothes since she was six.
The two sisters exchange glances so Maria speaks up. “This is their first trip to the mall.”
Carol peers at Maria in surprise before shrugging. “Great. We’ll start at the left and make a full circle then.”
There are so many options and Yelena doesn’t even know what size she is. The Red Room gave her clothes to wear already tailored to her. Natalia picked out clothes for her when they ran to America from Russia having had a greater knowledge of American culture than Yelena.
When it becomes clear that the sisters won’t go into the shops themselves, Carol drags them into each one.
Yelena watches as Carol and Maria rifle through the racks for clothes that would fit her and Natalia, asking her opinion.
Yelena reaches out to hook her pinky finger with Natalia’s, knowing how much Natalia doesn’t like to show affection in public but needing reassurance.
Yelena is a size medium, thin and muscley from her extreme training. She watches as Carol or Maria holds shirts up to her to check to see if they’d fit.
They take the sisters through four stores before Maria pulls them aside when they exit each empty handed.
“Look at me,” Maria orders and two pairs of eyes snap to look up at her. “I know that you haven’t had options and choices for you before and that this is probably really overwhelming. But you are going to pick out things that you like and we will not stop shopping until you each have seven outfits that fit you well and that you like.”
“I don’t have any way to pay you back,” Yelena finally protests softly. Natalia nudged her with her shoulder.
“I’ll pay,” Natalia got paid for each of her missions completed.
“SHIELD will pay,” Maria corrects, assuming what Natalia said to Yelena. “Seven shirts. Seven pants. Seven pairs of socks. Seven sets of underwear. Seven bras. Seven sets of pajamas. And a coat.”
That was a lot of choices. Yelena didn’t even have that many clothes now. The most she owned, other than in Ohio, was three sets.
“Let’s narrow it down,” Carol spoke up when she sees their faces. “What colors do you like and dislike?”
“No red,” The words leave Yelena’s lips quickly.
“No red,” Carol agrees easily. “That’s a good start. What colors do you like?”
Upon Yelena’s hesitance to answer, Carol continues, gesturing at herself.
“I like simple styles. A plain tee, jeans, a leather jacket. No bright flashy colors, extra buttons, designs, and such,” Carol tells Yelena. “I like the colors red, blue, and a teal green.”
Yelena inspects Carol’s style before peering over at Maria.
Maria senses Yelena’s unasked question and replies. “I prefer clothes I can move around in. Simplistic, form fitting, dark colors.”
“Dark colors, no red, easy to move in,” Natalia starts to list, her pinky gently squeezing Yelena’s.
Yelena feels their stares as they turn their attention toward her. She never really thought about her style before. She wore what she was given, nothing more. “I… I want a lot of buttons.” Hard to get on but also hard to get off. “And… I like blue…”
“Good choices, baby agent,” Carol nods her head in approval and despite Yelena not knowing her, the praise draws a small smile out of her.
The next store they head into had more choices and Yelena hesitantly actually looks this time. She circles the store three times before she settles on one deep purple shirt with a small black rose on the left side of the chest.
Natalia finds her clothes easier, collecting her outfits faster than Yelena.
They finally reach halfway through the mall and Yelena has two shirts and a pair of pants.
Carol stops them in front of the next store and Yelena peers up at the sign before looking in the store.
She doesn’t want to go inside. Her finger unhooks from Natalia’s when the redhead tries to enter the store and Natalia immediately turns to glance at Yelena to see what was wrong.
“Don’t make me go in,” Yelena murmurs, glancing away from the store. “Please don’t make me go in.”
“Never,” Natalia moves toward Yelena. “What’s wrong?”
“I don’t want to wear anything in there,” Yelena shakes her head, her eyes trailing to look up at the Victoria’s Secret sign.
“Everything okay?” Maria realized that the sisters hadn’t followed them in.
“We want to skip this store,” Natalia replies, reaching out to grab Yelena’s hand this time instead of just linking their fingers. Yelena gratefully clings to the physical contact.
“You need underwear,” Maria reminds them.
“They used to give me lingerie from here,” Yelena points to one of the models on display. “I wore that one to seduce one of my marks.”
Maria stares at her for a moment before nodding.
“Okay. I’ll grab Danvers,” Maria said and disappeared into the store.
Yelena’s thankful that she asked Maria to come with them. She’s also thankful that Maria hadn’t told her to suck it up and just go in the store.
It’s stupid to be nervous about a store. But just because it’s stupid doesn’t mean that she’s not nervous anymore.
Carol asks no questions as she exits the store with Maria, just continuing on. Natalia squeezed Yelena’s hand before following after.
Yelena pauses when she sees something on display in a window, Natalia coming to a stop beside her when Yelena slows.
“You see something you like?” Natalia asked, peering up into the display of the hunting store.
“Yes.” There in the window was a green vest that had plenty of pockets and Yelena bets she could fit so many important things into them. “That.”
She wanted one.