warnings
Yelena barely remembers the last time she was in an actual grocery store. It was back in Ohio when her not-real family was still together and her not-mom took six-year-old Yelena while Natasha was at school and not-dad was at work.
She’s nervous to go with Maria and Skye. Maria has rules for them to follow when they’re at the grocery store.
“Stay within my sights at all times unless I say otherwise. If you see something you like then show it to me and we can decide whether to get it. Don’t wander off. Try not to break anything. No stealing. Are we understood?” Maria stares down at Skye and Yelena.
Yelena nods her head along with Skye.
“Crystal clear!” Skye agrees with an innocent grin.
Yelena sticks close to Maria and the cart, watching as Maria bags vegetables and puts them in the cart. Skye was touching absolutely everything in sight and Maria kept calling her back over whenever she wandered too far.
Yelena observes quietly, watching Maria go over a handwritten list of supplies she gripped in one hand as she steered the cart with the other. She’s looking at jars of pasta sauce when she turns to glance at Yelena.
“Can you go two aisles to the left and grab two boxes of spaghetti noodles?” Maria questioned Yelena. “Any brand will do.”
Yelena says yes and she steps away from the cart and slowly makes her way two aisles over and scans the shelves for the box of noodles.
Her eyes catch sight of a familiar blue box and she reaches out to pick it up and stare down at it. It’s a box of macaroni and cheese, the same kind that her not-mom used to make whenever Yelena didn’t feel good. It was a treat because not-mom called it a mass of empty carbs and fat.
Yelena stares at the box for a little longer than she should, sinking into the memory of the last day her not-family was real. She then remembers that Maria had asked her to do something so she quickly moves to find the box of spaghetti noodles and grabs two before returning to Maria.
Yelena holds the boxes out to Maria who was going over the list she had. Maria reaches out to take them and places them in the cart on top of the jars of sauce without even checking if Yelena had gotten the right thing.
“Great job. Thanks, Yelena,” Maria comments, and Yelena froze at the praise she had been given for such a simple task. Maria looks up at Yelena before her eyes drift down to her hand. “Did you want that?”
Yelena looks down, having completely forgotten the box of macaroni and cheese she was still gripping. “I can put it back.” She said, making an aborted movement to return it to the shelf.
Maria stops her with a gentle hand on her shoulder. “Look at me. Eyes, Yelena.”
Yelena takes a few moments before her eyes flicker up to look at Maria.
“Do you want this?” Maria questioned before interrupting the protest Yelena had prepared. “I didn’t ask if you need this and I know that it’s not on the list. But do you want this?”
Yelena gives a slow nod of her head and Maria reaches out to take the box from Yelena’s grip. They both hold onto the box for a few moments before Yelena forces herself to let go of the box so that Maria can set it in the cart.
Maria then looks around and lets out a tired sigh. “Skye, I can’t see you!” She calls out and a head pokes around the corner moments later and Skye grins as she approached them.
“I was totally testing you.” She said as if she didn’t get distracted and wander off.
“Right,” Maria replies dryly before pointing at the cart. “Hand on the basket.”
Skye huffs but reaches out to grab the side of the cart to stop her from wandering.
The shopping cart fills quickly and Yelena watches Maria stop in front of the display of Pop-tarts. “Which ones do you like?” Maria turns toward Yelena.
Yelena glances up at Maria in surprise. Clint was the one that gave her Pop-tarts because he knew eating them comforted her on bad days. Yelena would usually eat one and save the other in the packet for Natalia.
“Pick out a box,” Maria urges Yelena and Yelena looks at the display. There were so many more flavors than she remembers. So many choices.
“Can I have a box too?” Skye questioned and Maria nods her head. Skye stands in front of the display and makes a point of tapping her chin in thought. “Hmm. I’ve only ever had strawberry ones before. Ooh, s’mores ones? Chocolate?”
Yelena watches Skye pick up a box and inspect it before replacing it and picking up the next flavor, musing about which one would taste the best.
Skye then turns toward Yelena. “Which one do you like?”
The box appearance had changed over the years but Yelena reaches out to take a box of the brown cinnamon sugar ones. “I ate these a lot when I was little…”
“You ever had these?” Skye holds out the s’mores Pop-tarts and Yelena shakes her head. “Great.” She grabs the box from Yelena and dumps the two boxes in the cart.
Maria lets out a low chuckle at the bewildered look on Yelena’s face before the blonde teenager quickly schools her features.
Skye drags Yelena to look at the display of candy and magazines as Maria stands in line to check out. Skye flips through the magazines and comments on celebrities that Yelena’s not familiar with. Yelena stares at the display of candies, jumping when Skye swats her shoulder with a magazine.
“Whatcha staring at?” Skye questioned and Yelena looks at the boxes of candy.
“When I was little, my mom used to get me a piece of candy each time we went grocery shopping,” Yelena comments quietly and Skye’s buzzing energy simmered at the mention of Yelena’s parents.
“What kinda candy did you get?” Skye inquired, tilting her head to stare at the display.
“I’d pick Reeses…” Yelena smiles slightly at the memory. “They’re Natalia’s favorite. I’d pick them so that I could share it with her when she got home from school. The packs always came in two. One for me, one for her.”
Yelena remembers the first time she got candy she picked out sour gummies and offered Natalia one of the few that were left in the packet. Natalia wrinkled her nose at the candy and told Yelena she didn’t like sour things.
Yelena didn’t know why it bothered her that she got candy and Natalia didn’t. So the next time she brought home a cookies and cream Hershey’s bar. Natalia ate a few pieces but turned down the rest. Yelena then brought home a different candy each time, trying to find out what Natalia liked best.
It wasn’t until Yelena watched her big sister eat a spoonful of peanut butter straight from the jar for her afternoon snack that Yelena picked out the peanut butter candy offered on display.
Natalia ate it. She licked the melted chocolate from her fingers and grins at Yelena, helping her peel the wrapper off of her cup.
Yelena’s brought out of her memories by Skye’s hand reaching out to grab a handful of Reeses and leaving to approach Maria and dump them in the cart. Yelena’s not at an angle to read their lips but she can see the raised eyebrow Maria offers Skye and Skye gives her a sweet smile in return.
Maria doesn’t make Skye return the candy.
Yelena and Skye help Maria carry the bags of shopping up into her apartment but Maria won’t let them help her unpack them, instead settling them in front of the television to watch a movie.
“Both find something you agree on. No horror movies, nothing with a lot of gore, and no Disney movies unless they’ve come out within the last three years,” Maria holds the remote out.
Skye raised an eyebrow at the last rule, clearly wondering what happened to make that rule be needed. Yelena is reminded of her small meltdown at Clint’s bunk when they watched Snow White.
Skye takes the remote and once Maria is in the kitchen, she suggests to Yelena that they watch a horror movie despite the rules Maria just went over.
Yelena isn’t sure what exactly a horror movie entails. She also doesn’t really want to disagree with Skye over something as silly as a movie. Maria walks into the room again a few minutes later to Skye scrolling through the horror movies, plucks the remote from her hands, and passes it to Yelena.
“I’m the Deputy Director for an agency of spies, Skye,” Maria reminds the teenager. “I told you no horror movies.”
Yelena is frozen, gripping the remote tightly in her hand. She knew the rules on the Helicarrier but this was a new place with new rules and she doesn’t know the punishments for breaking them.
“Can’t blame a girl for trying,” Skye retorts and Maria lets out a sigh.
“You’re going to make me question my sanity faster than Barton at this rate,” She tells Skye before looking at Yelena. “Why don’t you put on Lilo and Stitch? You liked that one, right?”
Yelena glances between Skye and Maria a few times, waiting for Maria to do something. “Skye broke your rule.” She finally said. She’s not a snitch and she would totally get between Skye and Maria if something big happened but it’s not and she’s confused.
“I’m not acting as a Deputy Director of SHIELD at this moment,” Maria informs Yelena. “Right now I’m just your temporary guardian. Skye never actually broke the rules. She thought about it, and she tried to, but she didn’t get to. Have you ever had a warning before your punishment before?”
“Bobbi does it sometimes,” Yelena remembers when she tried to get Bobbi to drop her because she thought everybody would leave her all anyway. Bobbi had warned her four times before she finally issued a punishment.
“Right. While you and Skye stay here, I’m going to give you a warning before doling out any punishment. You’ll have a chance to understand what you did wrong before I punish you for it,” Maria crouches down in front of Yelena so that she’s not towering over her. “What did Bobbi or May make you do for punishment?”
“Bobbi had me run obstacle courses with the level four agents. She also made me do push-ups,” Yelena glances at Skye who was listening before looking back at Maria. “May made me run laps and recite the rule I broke. Coulson made me clean the gym when I broke rules with him.”
Skye wrinkles her nose at the last one.
“When you’re with me, you’ll write lines,” Maria glances between the two girls. Skye immediately lets out a groan.
“I hate lines!” Skye moans out.
“What are lines?” Yelena hesitantly questioned because Maria had told her the previous day that questions were okay.
Skye answers before Maria can. “You basically write the rule you broke down a bunch of times.”
Maria nods. “You’ll be able to write it in Russian if you want.” She tells Yelena. “Do you have any more questions?”
“No.” Yelena glances at Skye before looking down at the remote she was holding. “We can watch Lilo and Stitch?”
Maria smiles. “Yeah. I’m gonna go finish unpacking.” She stands. “Call me if you need me.” She heads back out into the kitchen and Yelena glances at Skye before she pulls up the movie.
Maria makes them frozen pizza for dinner that night and Yelena thinks it's funny to eat at a table with Maria. Maria didn’t eat in the cafeteria with the other agents so Yelena usually sat with her sister, Clint, Coulson, and sometimes May or Bobbi.
It isn’t until that night that Yelena remembers Skye was going to be sleeping in the same bed as her so that Maria could take the couch. Yelena wasn’t really comfortable sleeping in the same bed as anybody but Natalia.
It isn’t until she’s going through her bag that Yelena realizes she doesn’t have a set of handcuffs, not that she could use them with Skye in the room anyway.
Yelena can’t sleep without them or her sister. She needs one or the other to tether her and keep her mind from wandering at night.
When Natalia finally calls, Maria gives Yelena the phone and they make small talk. Yelena’s anxious about going to bed but she denies there’s a problem when Natalia questioned her.
Natalia obviously doesn’t believe her but doesn’t want to waste what little time they have arguing about it so she instead asks Yelena about what she did that day.
Hearing her big sister’s voice eased some of Yelena’s anxiety but it isn’t until she’s actually laying in the bed that she knows she won’t be getting a wink of sleep that night. Too many things could go wrong and Yelena’s not ready for that.
Yelena stares at the ceiling of Maria’s bedroom and listens to Skye snore quietly beside her as she settles in for a sleepless night.