Chapter 6
.Yelena asked Tony Stark if she can have a friend over for the night. She’s nervous. She’d had plenty of sleepovers at Peter’s house but never at someplace she considered safe.
Tony looks at her, grins, and nods his head. “Sure thing. I’ll even distract the others for ya.”
Yelena invites MJ over for a sleepover and MJ replies with a simple
thought you’d never ask loser
She plans to sleep in her own room, still baren.
MJ arrives with her backpack and Tony surprises Yelena by bringing them pizza he ordered.
Pepper returns when Tony forgets drinks and Yelena laughs when she sees MJ stare at Pepper with awe.
The night goes smoothly. Nobody bothers them and MJ catches her up with some things that regular teens are doing.
MJ introduces Yelena to some social media apps and this one app that records six-second videos. Yelena and MJ sit curled up in her bed and watch the video for hours.
Yelena gets nervous when it’s time to sleep. She’s struck with the idea that maybe a sleepover wasn’t such a good idea.
But MJ flops into the big bed next to her in her pajamas with a wide grin on her face and Yelena knows that she’s going to try.
They don’t go to sleep even though it’s past midnight. MJ keeps chattering on and Yelena is content to lay there and listen to her.
MJ then turns to look at her with a grin. “Ever had a crush?”
“I don’t know,” Yelena replies because she doesn’t even know what it meant for one to have a crush.
“Have you ever kissed a cute boy?” MJ teases and Yelena turns to glance at her.
“Not of my own free will,” She replies, and MJ stares at her.
“You know, the more I hear of your past, the more horrified I get,” MJ folds her hands behind her head. “What about a cute girl?”
“I’ve never kissed anyone under thirty,” Yelena admits and MJ is quiet. For a moment Yelena is worried that she’s pushed her too far or frightened her off.
“Do you want to?” MJ asked and Yelena glances at her before she shrugs.
“I think… I am asexual,” She finally says out loud.
“That’s cool. I’m pansexual,” MJ comments and upon Yelena’s confused stare, she elaborates. “I don’t care much about your gender identity or biological sex or anything. I just like who I like.”
“I’ve never kissed anybody that I’ve wanted to before,” Yelena confessed to MJ and there is a pregnant pause.
“If you could kiss anybody of your own free will, who would it be?” MJ inquired and Yelena thinks for a moment.
“Probably a girl…” Too many men with rough hands and stubble that scratches her skin. “My age. That I know…”
She’s pulled out of her thoughts by the sound of MJ shuffling onto her side to face her.
“That sounds like you described me,” MJ teased but Yelena can’t keep her face from flushing.
“No!” She quickly shakes her head, worried that she had ruined their friendship.
MJ shrugs the best she can from where she propped herself up on an elbow. “You can kiss me if you want. A kiss just because you wanted to, not because anybody else made you.”
The offer is tempting. Yelena swallows hard. “Can we still be friends?”
“Of course, loser,” MJ grins at her. “This is peak friendship.”
Yelena props herself up on her own elbow and leans forward. MJ’s smiling but it’s not her usual grin. It’s soft and reassuring.
Through the moonlight peeking through the blinds, Yelena reaches her hand up and sets it onto MJ’s face. “Are you okay with this?”
“I’m cool,” MJ reaches up to set a hand over Yelena’s. “You don’t have to do this.”
Yelena leans forward and kisses her. It’s barely a kiss, more a brushing of her lips over MJ’s.
MJ doesn’t lean forward and force more. There are no hands on her body yanking her clothes off in haste or fingers curling into her skin to pull her closer.
Yelena’s lips linger for a few seconds as though she’s afraid that they’ll be more.
There isn’t.
Yelena pulls away and can’t help but run a hand down her shirt to smooth it out.
“You totally saw fireworks, right?” MJ teases and Yelena lets out a soft laugh.
“Blew my mind,” She comments, rolling back onto her back. MJ does the same, her hands folding behind her head as she gets comfy. “Thank you.”
“No prob bob,” MJ hums before she lets out a yawn. “You’re my friend.”
“Is kissing something friends do often?” Yelena could count the number of friends she had on one hand and still have fingers left.
“Nope,” MJ shakes her head. “Never kissed Peter or Ned.”
“Then why me?” Yelena questioned. “Why am I different?”
MJ shrugs. “If Peter seemed like he needed it then I’d kiss him too.”
“I seemed like I needed a kiss?” Yelena arched an eyebrow, unsure of whether or not to be offended.
“You seemed like you needed to be able to control a kiss,” MJ corrects. “You just told me you’d never kissed anyone under your own free will. You needed that kind of control. I’m here already and I don’t mind it. So…” MJ shrugs.
Yelena stares up at the ceiling. “Thank you.” She repeats much softer this time.
“Don’t get all sappy on me now, Belova,” MJ said but there’s a teasing grin on her face.
Yelena rolls her eyes, a matching grin on her face. “Go to sleep, Michelle.”
“I knew telling you my name was a mistake,” MJ tuts as she smacks Yelena with her pillow.
Yelena grabs her pillow and smacks her back. “Hit me again and we’re gonna have problems.”
“Maybe I want problems,” MJ replies innocently moments before the pillow descended on Yelena again.
Yelena wakes up early in the morning and for a moment thinks that Natasha is in bed next to her until she realizes that the person is different than Natasha.
Yelena looks down at MJ’s sleeping frame pushed against her.
Right. The sleepover.
Yelena twists slightly to look at the clock. It was five-thirty in the morning. Yelena had slept without any nightmares. She could only think it was due to the face there was somebody she trusted in the same bed.
She wondered if it would work with a man. Probably not.
Yelena lets out a small yawn, reaching up to pull pillows from where they had gotten strewn about the bed and their heads.
“You’re awake too early,” MJ mumbles through a yawn, pulling the blanket up higher as she sleepily burrows against Yelena. “You’re like a living hot water bottle…”
Yelena smiles slightly at the thought, remembering the warmth that radiated from the bottle that Natasha brought her at the Barton farm.
“Go back to sleep…” MJ murmurs sleepily.
“Don’t think I can,” Yelena replies truthfully. “But you can go back to sleep.”
She feels MJ tilt her head up to look at her before letting out a hum and closing her eyes again. “‘kay.”
Yelena listens to MJ’s breathing and counts the heartbeats from where MJ’s chest was pushed against her side. She doesn’t know how long time passes but eventually MJ wakes up and slinks out of bed to head to the bathroom and Yelena sits up.
It’s nearly seven-forty-five now. Yelena stands and grabs her vest to put it on. MJ exits the bathroom, giving a teasing tug on one of the zippers on her pockets before she moves toward the door. “Let’s go get something to eat, loser. I’m starved.”
Yelena doesn’t expect nearly everybody in the kitchen. The only people missing were Natasha and Tony. Steve, Wanda, Winter Soldier, and Sam were all in the kitchen eating breakfast.
Yelena hesitates in the doorway because Winter Soldier was there. She feels MJ poke her side and stand on her tiptoes to whisper into her ear.
“If he tries anything I’ll hit him,” MJ said and Yelena can’t help but giggle softly because MJ stood no chance against Winter Soldier but it was the thought that counts.
“Yelena,” Steve smiles at her warmly. “Glad to see you up. Who is this?”
“Nobody,” Yelena grunts because she wasn’t telling them who MJ was in front of Winter Soldier.
MJ pokes her head out from behind Yelena and gives him a sweet grin. “Pleasure to meet you. They call me ‘Bringer of Death’.”
Yelena lets out a snort of laughter at MJ’s serious tone.
“Right…” Steve slowly nods his head. “Does the Bringer of Death want breakfast?”
“Hell yeah,” MJ approaches the others as Yelena pulls the fridge open. A jar balanced on a shelf falls when she does and Yelena jerks back to avoid it but a metal hand catches it instead. Yelena flinches away from the sudden movement, fingers moving to the pocket that has her knives.
“Hey man,” MJ wedges her way between them, giving him a sweet smile. “Thanks. I love pickles.” MJ takes the jar from him, making a small sweeping motion with her hand for him to leave them alone.
Winter Soldier turns and heads back to his seat as MJ presents the jar of pickles to her. Yelena smiles slightly, reaching out to take it.
“You know, I think it’s time I take you to my favorite pancake place,” MJ comments aloud and grasps Yelena’s hand to tug her out of the room. “See you losers later!”
“Did you just call the Avengers losers?” Yelena asked with a grin as MJ tugs her back to her bedroom to get dressed.
“No comment,” MJ comments and they both descend into laughter.
They get dressed. Yelena forces herself to leave her vest behind because it was too identifiable. She instead wears a hoodie and hides weapons on herself instead. She pulls her hood up over her head and lets MJ tug her eagerly down the sidewalk of New York.
Yelena had never eaten pancakes before. The amount of choices she is given overwhelms her but MJ orders for her when Yelena struggles to read and understand the menu.
Reading English wasn’t her strong suit. Especially things like nutella or funfetti. What on earth even were those things?
Yelena was only halfway through her meal when she spots something out of the corner of her eye. “You should go to the bathroom.” She tells MJ, spotting the sheen of a gun peeking out from fabric.
MJ looks up from her meal. “What?”
“You should go to the bathroom,” Yelena repeats, hoping to convey the seriousness of the situation to her, sliding her phone onto the table.
MJ only hesitates for a second before she reaches out and takes the phone, sliding out of the booth and walking to the bathroom.
Yelena pulls out one of the knives from her pocket, running her thumb over the handle for a moment before she stands from the booth.
The man that she had seen watching them turns around and is grabbing the front of her hoodie, pulling her up to her tiptoes. Yelena knows his face.
It takes only five seconds for shit to hit the fan.
It takes ten for gunfire to ring out.
It takes thirteen for Yelena to realize she’s hopelessly outnumbered.
It takes seventeen until Yelena finally gets hit.
It takes twenty-three for Yelena to try and push herself up from where she was pinned under a knee, blood pooling under where she lay as her abdomen screams in pain.
It takes thirty-six seconds for Yelena to squeeze her eyes closed with the thought of MJ safe in the bathroom moments before ten little words are hissed into her ear and the world around her darkens as she loses control.