traitor
“You agreed?”
Yelena honestly hadn’t thought Coulson would agree. She thought he’d agree with Maria about sending Skye away. But the man looks so earnest as he stands in the doorway and delivers the news.
“Yes,” Coulson nods his head, staring down at her. “I heard you were the one that suggested me.”
“I--” Yelena doesn’t know how to tell him that Skynet had been important to her. Finding out that she was younger than she was just solidified the fact that Yelena needed her safe.
Collecting allies were important and Skye was a brilliant ally. Yelena had been able to rely on her when she needed help in order to meet Red Room deadlines that she shouldn’t have been able to meet.
Coulson had done nothing to make Yelena think he’d hurt her. And if she could trust her safety with him then she could trust Skynet with him too.
“We can move some things around but there should be an open bunk by mine. We can pick your things up tomorrow and pick up anything else you need,” Coulson tells Skye and Yelena can tell that Skye is easily overwhelmed with his enthusiasm.
“Is it bunk 512?” Yelena questioned, subtly sliding between Coulson and Skye. However, Coulson is a spy and her move is not unnoticed by him. He seems to pull back some and nods.
“Yes. Why don’t you show her?” He suggests. “And then we’ll meet up again in the cafeteria for dinner.”
It’s not until they step into the empty bunk that would soon be Skye’s that the younger girl grips Yelena’s sleeve. “Do you trust him?”
Skye glances down at her ratty sneakers, shuffling nervously.
“I trust him with you,” Yelena can’t say she trusts him fully. But she has a lot of faith in him. Coulson watches Natalia’s back when Yelena can’t. He keeps her safe on the field. He hasn’t let her down yet. Skye seems mollified by her answer.
“Is it weird if I tell you that I trust you?” Skye blurts and Yelena looks down at where Skye was still gripping her sleeve.
“Do you?” Yelena asked and Skye noticed her stare and lets her sleeve go. “Even after knowing what I’ve done? I’ve killed people for simply looking at me wrong.”
Skye tilts her head to the side and scrutinized her. “Did you want to?”
Yelena’s automatic reply is yes. She lived to serve the motherland and was theirs to use as they please. But nobody genuinely wanted to know her answer before. “Does it matter?” She asks instead, wiping her fingers over a layer of dust building on the dresser bolted to the wall.
“Do you remember Jamaica?” Skye takes a seat on the bed, testing how firm it was with her hand.
Yelena would never be able to forget Jamaica. “Of course I do.”
“You… you were frantic when you reached out to me. It was two in the morning and I was sleeping. I got an alert that someone was trying to hack me,” Skye bows her head as she remembers it. “By the time I figured out it was you, you were leaving behind messy scraps in my programming. I know you could have done it cleanly, that’s why I worried.”
“I didn’t have payment for you at that time,” Yelena stands at the reinforced window and stares out at the clouds. “I thought you’d turn me away and I’d be screwed.”
“You asked for information I didn’t have. I tried hard to find it for you and when I sent it you didn’t reply and I thought you died,” Skye drags the tip of her sneaker back and forth on the ground. “It takes two months before you reach out again with nothing but a wire of two thousand dollars and a thank you message. I couldn’t get back in touch with you.”
Yelena hesitates to expand before approaching Skye and taking a seat next to her. “Your information saved my life. I was in big trouble and I wasn’t going to finish my assignment on time. You saved my ass and I barely managed to scrape by.”
“I used that money to buy my van,” Skye said before frowning. “Do you think they’d let me keep my van?”
“You can probably park it at base,” Yelena suggests before bumping her shoulder against Skye’s. “Why did you bring up Jamaica?”
“Do you like killing people?” Skye reiterates and Yelena takes a few moments to think about her answer.
“Sometimes,” She admits in a whisper, curling her fingers into fists. “That must make me sound like a monster…”
Skye reaches out to set a hand over Yelena’s. “Why?”
“What?” Yelena looks up at Skye in confusion.
“Why do you like it? Do you-- do you like hurting them?” Skye’s big brown eyes were looking up at her and Yelena swallows hard.
“The people I killed weren’t good people… mostly…” Yelena admits and Skye squeezed her hand. “But I’d try and tell myself that-- that they couldn’t hurt anybody anymore. And when it was my classmates then I’d say that I was freeing them. Sparing them pain.” Yelena swallows hard before shaking her head. “That sounds pathetic now that I say it out loud.”
Skye grips Yelena’s hand and then leans against her. “I trust you.”
Yelena jolts. “What? I just confessed that I liked killing people!”
“You confessed that you had no choice,” Skye counters. “It changes nothing. I need you because you’re familiar. Please don’t leave me with the scary agents.”
Yelena collects herself quickly, nodding her head. “We should probably head out for dinner.”
Skye sits next to Yelena at dinner that night. Yelena sees her stare when Yelena waits to eat, watching Natalia take a bite of each food on her tray before switching trays with Yelena. Skye doesn’t mention it, poking at her own food.
“You poison this?” Skye jokes with Coulson and Natalia leans over to stab her fork into one of her tater tots and popped it into her mouth.
Skye peers up at Natalia, watching the redhead chew and then swallow the tater tot. She then looks down at her own tray and starts to eat.
Yelena leans against Natalia to show her appreciation. Natalia grips her hand under the table and gives it a squeeze.
That night, Natalia makes her pause when she strips to change into bed, checking her over for injuries from the mission she went on.
“I’m fine,” Yelena protests but subjects herself to Natalia searching for injuries. When Natalia finishes, she reaches up to cup the back of Yelena’s neck and pulls their foreheads together.
“You’re acting too much like Clint for your own good,” Natalia grumbles but there’s a playful grin on her face. “Bringing home your mark.”
“What can I say? Nobody else has bothered to give me a nickname like him,” Yelena grins back before shivering slightly. “Can I get dressed now?”
Natalia lets out a soft laugh and lets Yelena go so she can get dressed in her pajamas. Yelena curls up on top of Natalia, letting out a soft sigh of content.
Yelena rests her head onto Natalia’s chest, listening to her heartbeat. “Will you be finished with your classified missions soon?” Yelena missed her and would start sneaking out on their missions just to be close with her. She could help with whatever it was, she just wanted to spend more time with Natalia.
“Yes,” Natalia smiles, running her fingers over Yelena’s hair. “We should be finishing up soon.”
She sounded so certain of it and Yelena lets out a sigh of relief, nudging her nose against Natalia’s collar as she lets herself be surrounded with the scent she associated with safety and comfort. “I love you.”
“I--” Natalia pauses and for a moment Yelena thinks she’s going to say it back. She holds her breath, her heart starting to race. She tries not to show any disappointment when Natalia merely pulls her closer and lets out a small sigh. “Adore you.” She finally finished quietly.
Yelena knows what she meant to say and she had tried. That meant more to her than Natalia will know.
Fury’s brilliant plan was to send Coulson and Skye off together to get her things and let them connect.
Unfortunately, Skye dug her heels in and refused to go anywhere unless Yelena came as well.
Yelena wants to spend the day with her sister. It’s one of Natalia’s rare days off and Yelena wanted to just be with her.
But she was the one that brought Skye here and convinced her to stay. She had to go.
It would be just her, Coulson, and Skye. It felt good to be going out again but Skye literally had some hand touching Yelena at all times, like she was afraid that Yelena would disappear and leave her if she got too far away from her.
Coulson takes them to collect things from her van first. The van looks like it will burst into flames if anyone so much as looks at it wrong. It’s old and worn down but Skye grins when she sees it and throws open the back doors to crawl inside.
She starts to shove things into a weathered backpack, mainly electronic equipment and a few bits of clothes.
“SHIELD will come to collect the van to store while you’re with us,” Coulson reassures her, reaching out to take her bag. Skye grips the bag tightly to her chest, hunching in on herself protectively.
Yelena slides between them and grins up at Coulson. He gets the hint, instead holding the door open to his own car.
“We can pick a few things up for you at the mall on the way back,” Coulson says as he slides into the drivers seat. Yelena sits in the back with Skye, glancing at the clock.
If they rushed then they could be back before dinner and Yelena would have more time to spend with Natalia.
“You don’t have to buy me anything,” Skye shakes her head.
“SHIELD will be paying for it. They bought Yelena’s wardrobe,” He comments and Skye glances at Yelena’s black cargo pants and deep purple shirt.
Yelena bumps her shoulder against Skye’s. “Just let him.” She murmurs. “Trust me.”
Skye hesitates and Coulson glances at them in the mirror. Yelena knew that if Skye really put up a fuss that he’d probably give in and take them back.
“Okay…” Skye concedes. “But nothing big.”
Coulson nods his head with a grin. “Promise.” He agrees and takes them to the same mall where Maria and Carol had taken Yelena and her sister.
Skye has to check all of the price tags before she will buy anything and Yelena was looking for Skye’s size on the rack of clearance clothes when she peers at the entrance of the store.
For a split second, she sees a familiar face. At least, she thinks she does. She steps away from the rack to stare at the back of their head.
She knows them. The way they move is familiar and Yelena finds herself stepping out of the store to follow her.
It’s not until she catches a glimpse of her face that everything falls into place.
Why was there a Widow here? Who was she following? Did she know Yelena was here?
The Widow turns to glance around and her eyes meet with Yelena. Yelena can see the recognition in them instantly although they’re surprised.
The Widow bolts.
Yelena follows.
She can’t let word get back to the Red Room about where she was. The Widow gracefully slides between crowds and out the back doors of the mall. Yelena follows and picks up her pace.
The Widow attempts to pin Yelena down to the ground when she exits and Yelena hits the hard pavement, staring up at the Widow’s face.
“You--” The Widow hisses out in Russian.
Yelena easily reverses their position, pinning the Widow down and leaning forward until their faces are inches apart. “Why are you here?” She demands. She doesn’t expect an answer, Widows were trained for torture.
“Traitor!” The Widow spits at her.
Yelena can’t let her go back to the Red Room. Not after she’d seen Yelena and certainly not if she had seen who Yelena was with.
Yelena pressed down onto the throat of the woman beneath her. The Widow pulls a knife and swipes at Yelena but Yelena easily dodges, sending a fist to the Widow’s face.
Their nose breaks with a sickening crack and blood spurts down her face in a river of red.
Yelena sends another hit and snags the knife from the Widow with a little struggle. She sends a hit with the blunt end of the knife.
She keeps hitting, her thoughts on this one Widow compromising the life Natalia had worked so hard to get for them.
Then there are hands dragging her off of the Widow and she twists, her arm raised to kill whatever backup the Widow had.
Her grip falters when she sees Coulson’s face and it takes a moment to realize he’s talking to her.
“What are you doing?” He’s demanding. “You’re going to kill her!”
Yelena looks down at her hands, belatedly realizing that her knuckles were bloodied. “I…”
She doesn’t know what to say that will make things better. She broke one of the rules set out for her. She can see that Skye’s standing in the doorway with wide eyes and staring at the Widow.
Yelena looks down at the unconscious Widow laying limp on the ground. She swallows hard, hunching in on herself when Coulson harshly grips her shoulders to demand what she was doing once again.
“I’m sorry.” Yelena replies in a tiny voice and Coulson lets her go. She crumples down to her knees, letting the knife go. “I didn’t mean--”
“Yelena, English.” He said much gentler.
Yelena hadn’t even realized she was still speaking in Russian. She swallows hard and makes a conscious effort to speak in English. “I want Nattie.”
Coulson pulls out his phone and Yelena curls in on herself in shame.
She doesn’t regret it, no matter the punishment.
She just hopes they don’t hurt her too badly.