Chapter 2
‘so you live at Avengers tower?’ Yelena asks as the huge silver tower looms into view
‘yep, we have an apartment outside of town where we go after a battle or a big press thing if we need some peace and quiet, and loads of safehouses, personal ones, SHEILD ones and ones we share with our friends but mainly here’ Natasha replies, veering off left, leading the party up to a small plain brick wall at the side of the building
‘look’ Maria puts her palm on a brick marked with a tiny graffiti squirt and a handprint scanner appears
‘Mrs Romanoff-Hill, lovely to see you again, I thought you were planning to stay in the Manhattan safe house of Agent May’s tonight’ an automated voice says, and Yelena’s mouth drops open slightly
‘we were planning too, but we have a guest, FRIDAY please add Yelena Belova to the system, give her full access and a level 11 pass’ Maria says quickly and Yelena wiggles her eyebrows
‘do I get free Wi-Fi with that?’
‘Lena’ Nat sighs
‘What? I’ve been without Netflix for 3 days, I don’t think I can cope with pixelated images’ she groans dramatically, and Nat slaps her on the arm lightly as her and Anya press their palms on the building
‘it’s run and built by a billionaire and has a working sentient AI system, of course it has perfect Wi-Fi’
‘coolcoolcoolcool’ Yelena notes as the brick wall swings open into a shiny elevator, a man is standing inside, wearing jeans and a jacket, baseball cap pulled low over his eyes and sunglasses on
‘Nat, Maria’ Steve greets, fist bumping Anya
‘hey Uncle Steve’ the girl hums, hopping over the lift and dragging Yelena inside
‘who’s this?’ he asks, taking off his sunglasses and polishing them on the corner of his tee-shirt
‘Jesus, how many times do I have to repeat my own name today?’ Lena sighs ‘Im Yelena Belova Nat’s sister, yada yada, id shake your hand, but I really can’t be bothered’
‘lovely to meet you…. I think’ the super soldier replies slowly and then walks off, nodding again to the group
‘Lena!’ Nat pokes her ‘that was rude’
‘hey, come on, I nearly stabbed him when he came out of the lift, I honestly couldn’t shake his hand because I have a dagger concealed in my palm’
Maria rolls her eyes and sticks her hand out. Yelena looks at her in disbelief, but Maria meets her glare and eventually, as the lift wizzes upwards, she hands the brunette her small dagger
‘FRIDAY will monitor all your weapons at all time, you can have as many as you want on you at any time, shooting each other is a daily occurrence, you will be provided with safe bullets as soon as you go into your room so you can fight back if Clint’s in the vents or Tony’s being annoying’ Maria twirls the dagger and Yelena frowns
‘so why do you take that one’ she wines and Maria shrugs
‘It’s pretty’ and puts it in her pocket as the blonde5 tries to snatch it ‘and mine now’
‘okay so welcome to the tower, we have floor 79 to ourselves so you’ll be staying there with us, floors 70-75 are all the guy’s floors, then 76-78 are communal spaces, the kitchen and living/dining area is just below us and we eat most our meals and spend most our time in there, but we have private spaces upstairs’ Natasha says quickly as the lift pings and the doors open into chaos.
Bruce Banner is asleep on the sofa, almost drowning under papers covered in equations and squiggles, a kid is sitting upside down on the ceiling rubbing his eyes and reading a textbook backwards, Tony Stark is at the kitchen table, surrounding by 12 half full cups of coffee and as the family watch drinks from one of them only to spit it out screaming ‘cold coffee cold coffee’ all over the hologram he was editing. Clint Barton is sat on the island in silence eating cereal out of the box, watching the chaos unfold with a grin all over his face, which drops when he sees who’s at the door
‘wow’ Yelena drawls ‘Earth is in deep shit if these are her best defenders’
The room freezes and everyone turns to the door, noting the extra person
‘another stray Nat?’ Tony asks
‘hey that was one time’ Nat squawks, as Maria puts down Yelena’s bag
‘twice’ Maria notes
‘three times’ Clint adds
‘nope four’ Bruce wakes up to say
‘five if you count that cat’ Tony flicks a pen at her
‘oh and number three had an evil twin so that’s up to 6’ Peter remarks under his breath, turning the page forwards
‘wow you haven’t heard about me?’ Yelena asks, walking further into the room and making herself right at home, sitting on the table and kicking off her shoes, putting her legs up on a chair.
‘are you……. Maria in disguise?’ Tony guesses ‘Nat never shuts up about her wife’
‘nope’ Maria sticks up her hand ‘present’
‘welp, that all my guesses up’ Tony turns back to his soggy hologram and the kid speaks up for the first time
‘sister, Yelena Belova’ he notes, falling off the ceiling and landing in a pile of limbs
‘fluorine uranium carbon potassium’ he squeaks detangling and tripping over himself again, going to shake Yelena’s hand
‘im Peter-man’ he turns bright red and immediately tries to backtrack ‘I mean Spider-Parker! Peter, I mean im Peter, Peter Parker also Spiderman’
Yelena just hums in response, nodding vaguely at the teen
‘it’s a Urm…. A pleasure to meet you…. Ms Belova, ma’am widow… im a fan… Nat talks about you…. Loads… very much… and Urm…. Ms Belova’
‘I know you just said fuck kid, and it’s nice to meet you’
‘okay so, sister, staying here I presume’ Tony rolls his eyes and Yelena nods
‘yes’
‘yes please’ Nat corrects and Anya snorts
‘I’ll show you your room, its next to mine’ she says, before grabbing her aunt’s hand and dragging her to the elevator