panic
It’s getting awfully close to when Yelena would leave the helicarrier again to join Clint at the farm for Christmas.
She’s wandering the halls, deep in thought, when someone comes around the corner and crashes into her. Yelena topples backward, barely managing to catch herself on the railing. “Skye?”
Skye was looking down at her with wide eyes, breathing heavily from all the running she had just done. “Tiny Dancer. I need to hide.”
“What? Why?” Yelena is on guard, peering around for danger as she pulls Skye closer.
“Phil-- He--” Skye is still trying to catch her breath. Yelena moves to her feet, tugging Skye down the hallway toward her own room. Skye stumbles after her, peering behind her again and again.
Yelena pulls Skye into her bedroom and closed the door behind them. Skye immediately moved as far away from the door as possible so Yelena places herself between Skye and the door. “You gotta breathe, Skynet.”
Skye reaches out to grab at Yelena’s shirt. Yelena gently grasped her arms before pulling her into a hug. “I’ve got you.” She tells Skye, still unsure of what was wrong. “I’ve got your back.”
Skye lets out a large sigh, drooping into Yelena. Yelena started to worry about leaving Skye for over a week for Christmas. Skye was needing her a lot lately, not that Yelena minded, but if Skye needed her while she was at the farm, Yelena couldn’t just leave. She’d have the tracker on her and if she left Clint’s side then she would get into major trouble.
“Phil said he wanted to talk about rules and punishments,” Skye finally murmurs into Yelena’s shoulder. “I just… I couldn’t think. I… I ran.”
“Coulson’s not gonna hit you. He’s not gonna make you skip meals either,” Yelena tells her. She knew Coulson wouldn’t hit Skye because Yelena had hit him once and he didn’t even strike her back. Maria promised that they could eat three times every day.
“What if he locks me in my room?” Skye breathes out. “When do you turn eighteen? When can you ask to be my guardian?”
“I turn eighteen in January. But I’m still not an American citizen,” Yelena reminds Skye and the teenager puffs her cheeks out.
“I can fix that,” Skye tells her, and Yelena smiles slightly at the offer.
“Thanks but I think I need to talk to Maria about that,” Yelena doesn’t even know what she’d need to do in order to technically be here legally.
Skye leans into Yelena. “If we weren’t so high up in the air, I probably would have run. I know you could have found me.”
Yelena would have. As soon as she noticed Skye missing then she would have left in search of her.
“Do you want me there with you when Coulson talks to you?” Yelena questioned and Skye nods against her.
“I know you wouldn’t let anything happen to me,” Skye said with such confidence that Yelena hoped she could protect Skye when she needed her. “But… can we stay here just a little bit longer?”
“Yeah. Do you wanna play Pokemon?” Yelena asked and Skye smiles up at the mention of her favorite game. The two settle down on the bed and Yelena pulls out her Game Boy.
The door opens a little while later and Skye immediately tenses up only to see it was Natasha. She paused at the sight of Skye. “Wanna tell me why Coulson is looking everywhere for you?”
“Uh… no?” Skye replies sheepishly, leaning into Yelena. “Sorry. I can get out of your hair soon, I just-- I just needed a break.”
Natasha nods her head. “I get that.” She replies, moving around to the other side of Yelena. “What are you playing?”
“Pokemon,” Yelena replies as Natasha rests her chin on her shoulder to peer down at the game. Yelena tilts her head to rest it against Natasha’s, resuming the game. After a few more battles, Skye finally spoke up.
“I should probably go now before I get into really big trouble…” She murmurs and Yelena peers up at her. “Would… you come with me?”
“I’ve got your back,” Yelena nods her head, switching the gaming system off. Natasha pulls away as Yelena starts to get up. Yelena doesn’t expect the tug at her shirt, turning around to peer at Natasha.
“Come back when you’re done,” Natasha says and Yelena blinks at the request before nodding.
The two teenagers headed toward Coulson’s office but it was empty. Yelena tries to think about where Coulson could have gone to look for Skye. “Let’s try Maria’s office.” She suggests.
Maria peers up from her stack of paperwork when they enter. “Everything okay?” She asked, immediately setting down her pen to give them her full attention.
“We can’t find Coulson,” Yelena explained and Maria’s eyes fall onto Skye. “Can you contact him and let him know that Skye’s here.”
“Of course,” Maria picks up her phone and leaves a message with Coulson that Skye was here in her office. It doesn’t take long for Coulson to show up, relief on his face when he sees Skye.
“There you are,” He moved toward her before pausing and deciding against it. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make you run.” His eyes land on Yelena before they flicker away back to Skye. “Can we talk in my office?”
“Actually…” Skye peers over at Maria. “Can we talk here?” She hesitantly questioned.
Maria’s eyes flicker between the three of them before she nods. “If that’s what you want.” She could sense Skye’s unease. As soon as Yelena and Skye are settled on the couch and Coulson has a chair pulled up in front of them, he opens his mouth.
“Skye. First off, I want to apologize,” He tells her. Skye glances at Yelena in disbelief that an adult would apologize to her. “I haven’t been giving you the stability that you deserve and I haven’t been a very good guardian to you.”
“Are you… are you being serious?” Skye blurts and Coulson blinks in surprise.
“I am… do I not look serious?” He glances at Maria who rolls her eyes.
“You’re doing fine,” Maria replies, waving him to go back to his conversation. Coulson clears his throat and peers back at Skye.
“I’ve been doing a lot of thinking and reading. I wanted to talk to you about putting up some rules and boundaries into place along with the punishments that come for breaking them,” Coulson lays everything out on the table. Skye reaches out, searching for reassurance from Yelena. Yelena lets Skye grasp her sleeve, ignoring the younger girl as she digs her fingers into her wrist. “Is that okay?”
Skye looked overwhelmed and slightly confused. “I… suppose.”
Coulson nods and pulls a folded-up piece of paper out of his pocket before holding it out to Skye. Skye slowly reaches out to take it, unfolding it and peering down at it. Yelena peers over her shoulder to look at it.
Reading English is still not her strong suit but she can read some of them. They were a list of rules. It ranged from requiring Skye to show up to mealtimes to a point that Skye had to be in her bedroom to go to bed.
“A bedtime?” Skye wrinkles her nose. “I’m not six.”
“Don’t think I haven’t noticed that you stay up for hours doing… whatever it is that you do in your bedroom. You’re still a growing girl, Skye. You need eight hours of sleep every night,” Coulson says. “If you have thoughts or opinions about the rules then I’m open to listening and changing them. This is just a rough draft.”
“What are the punishments?” Skye demands, looking up from the paper. “Are you gonna lock me in my room?”
“No.” Coulson replies.
“Are you gonna hit me? Spank me?” Skye continues.
“No.” Coulson repeats.
“Take away my things?” Skye is just listing punishments she’s had in the past. “Make me pray for forgiveness? Make me kneel in rice?”
“No, no, and no. Skye--” Coulson finally interrupts her. “I was thinking that you could just write me a letter of apology.”
Skye stares at him, waiting for more before she narrows her eyes. “That’s it?”
“That’s it.” Coulson replies. “I would want you to apologize, tell me why you shouldn’t have done that, reflect on your actions and sign it.”
“I… guess that’s okay… I mean, I could do that,” Skye peers up at Yelena, the bruising grip she had on the older girl's wrist loosening. “Can I… think about this?” Skye gestured at the paper listing the rules before hastily adding on. “Please?”
“Of course. Take a few days and think about it. Make any changes and we can talk about it,” Coulson nods his head.
Yelena looks down at Skye and rests a hand onto her knee, giving it a squeeze. Skye had obviously expected a much harsher conversation with yelling. She could tell Skye was embarrassed about running away and panicking.
When the whole conversation was done, and Skye apologized to Yelena quietly for freaking out, Yelena finally heads back to her room.
Natasha was still there waiting for her and Yelena doesn’t hesitate to climb into bed with her, flopping into her lap. Natasha pulls her close and Yelena frowns up at her. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” Natasha kissed the top of her head and Yelena curled into her. “Are you… are you worried about going to the farm?”
Yelena frowns because Natasha was never one to talk or be open about feelings. “A little…” She admits. “Are you?”
Natasha was quiet for a few moments. “I am… do you remember the last Christmas we celebrated?”
Yelena remembers. “I got… I got that purple pony. The one from that cartoon…”
“My Little Pony. I remember. You carried that thing with you everywhere. You took it-- you took it with you when we left. You forgot your shoes but you remembered to grab that.” Natasha recalls and Yelena grins slightly as she remembers sitting in front of the washing machine on an upturned laundry basket as she waits for the pony after Melina insisted it be washed and plucked it away from Yelena to toss in the washer. “I talked to Clint about Christmas.”
Yelena peers up at Natasha. “Really?”
Natasha inclines her head before peering down at her little sister. “He told me a little bit about what to expect.”
Yelena listens as Natasha goes on to explain how the Barton’s celebrated Christmas. “Aren’t Cooper and Lila too little to celebrate? They won’t even remember.” She points out.
“Clint said it was about making memories. That he and Laura celebrated for themselves too,” Natasha explains and Yelena thinks about how their fake parents never cared for the holidays and never really pretended to care either. “Clint said we don’t have to partake in anything we don’t want to.”
“Really?” Yelena would think that since they were intruding on the farm for the holidays that the least they would be required to do was to join in whatever traditions they were interrupting.
“Really,” Natasha nods her head, her fingers playing with Yelena’s hair.
After a moment of deliberation, Yelena tells Natasha about how she went behind everyone's backs to set up Maria coming to the farm for Christmas. Natasha gets that stupid goofy look on her face that she only gets when looking at Maria.
Yelena’s heart clenches uncomfortably in her chest.