Shadow girl and metal man pt1
The five times Tony meets Yelena and the one time he introduces her to the world
1-
Maybe it’s the sleep deprivation coming into effect, but Tony is pretty sure the window is talking to him.
Or, rather, to itself
‘ow fuck’ the Window says ‘Jesus Christ, stupid Americans and their stupid security. Shit, fuck’ the window then continues to swear in ways that make his eyebrows raise and its only until the window starts to inch open that Tony realises that he is probably in danger because windows most definitely do not talk.
‘FRIDAY’ he asks quietly, reaching his hand out and starting to put on the iron man suit he’s working on at the moment
Silence meets him as the window inches open slightly more
‘FRIDAY’ he repeats, tapping the screen, but its dead ‘dammit’ he curses and then theirs a bang as the window opens and a figure flies though, landing lighter than a shadow
‘stop right there’ tony yells, snapping on the lights all of a sudden and pointing his hand out in front of him, waiting for the repulse to charge.
The woman-or girl maybe, she looks young doesn’t even jump, instead she lazily stands up and reaches into her pocket with one hand, the other holding a gun loose at her side and pulls out a stick of bubble gum, shoving it in her mouth and beginning to chew loudly
‘isn’t that supposed to light up or some shit’ she asks, gesturing with her gun to his iron man arm
‘yeah’ he presses a button and it still doesn’t work
‘hang on’ he picks up a spanner and smack the side of it, for a moment it charges and then with a crash it falls apart, the pieces scattering all over the floor. The woman watches in amusement and rolls her eyes, bringing the gun to line up with his heart blowing a bubble gum bubble as she does
‘now’ Yelena is almost bored by now ‘if you value your life, take me to my sister’.
The bubble pops and Tony jumps, his fully made suit is in parts, having taken it apart to make another one with the weaponry, Friday is down and his lab is on dark mode-no one allowed in, he thought to give him peace and quiet, but now he comes to think of it, that probably a bad idea
‘I actually don’t value my life that much’ he says airily ‘but ill do my best to help-if you give me my AI back, I can search the police websites, records, immigration, everything’
Yelena chews a bit more in thought and shrugs ‘sure, have your robot lady back’ and with a tap on her belt the lab comes back to life, machines glowing and scanner lighting up
‘FRI? FRI? you all right?’ Tony asks immediately, firing up a programme to scan and clean out any virus that the blonde woman might have put in the system
‘Hello Sir, I’m back’ Friday responds and he heaves a sigh of relief.
‘All right, type her name in and wherever she is FRIDAY will find her’ Tony says, pushing the keyboard at the assassin who leans forward and put the gun on the desk, watching his eyes flick to it and back to her,
‘don’t do anything stupid’ she warns in a low voice, staring to type, but Tonys sure he can make it, in a flash he slides froward, reaching the gun, feeling the cold metal on his fingers… then he’s staring at the ceiling and struggling to breathe as Yelena puts her boot on his chest after sticking her foot out so he trips over, not breaking her typing pattern
‘stupid stupid Americans’ she leans forward, the gun retrieved and in her other hand. Tony tenses up, trying to think of a way he can get out of this and drawing a blank. He shuts his eyes as her hand reaches up…. And she flicks his forehead
‘now, find her’
The boot is removed from his chest and she grabs his head, pulling im forward with such strength he almost falls flat on his face again
‘all right, allright. FRIDAY-do your stuff’
The woman blows another bubble gum bubble and he is about to help Friday on her search when she pings
‘That was quick’ Tony look surprised ‘usually full global searches take a while’
‘you don’t need to search the globe dumbass’ Yelena rolls her eyes ‘she’s probably in the building’
‘in the building’ Tony spins around in alarm just as FRIDAY calls out
‘Located Natasha Romanoff-she’s on floor 56, training with Birdbrain’
‘good’ the woman spins around on her heel and starts to walk across the room, aiming for the still open window
‘Stop!’ Tony yells, wondering what the hell is going on
‘No’ Yelena replies easily, not missing a beat, reaching for the window
‘Nat’s your sister? FRIDAY stop her’ Tony shouts and the window slams shut, Yelena spins around, her mouth wide open in a comical display of shock
‘hey’ she squawks ‘that’s rude!
Tony cant believe the lip on this break-in
‘who are you?’
‘Yelena Belova’ Yelena replies ‘Nat doesn’t talk about me?-wow im hurt’
‘she’s never mentioned a sister’ Tony’s brow furrows as he leans over the screen to see what she typed in
Natalia Alianova Romanova
He recognises it, its how she signs things, official document, SHIELD files, he noticed one day and started to tease her
---
‘ahhh Natalia’ he cooes, leaning over Nat’s shoulder as she scribbles
‘go away Stark’ she groans
‘no Natalia, I wont natalia’
‘don’t call me that’ she aims an elbow for his face but he knows its coming and she doesn’t try had, missing his face
‘ouch’ he rubs his shoulder
‘don’t call me that then’
‘why not? Natalia’s a pretty name’
‘you call me Natasha or Natalie’ she snaps, closing the file and beging to walk out
‘who can call you that then?’ Tony asks, rolling his eyes and she shrugs
‘my family’
---
‘she’s actually your sister?’ he looks over to where Yelena is picking her nails back to looking bored
‘yes’
‘and you’ve come to find her’
‘yes’
‘and you came to see what floor she was on’
‘yes’
‘why didn’t you just call her, if she’s your sister you’ll have her number’
‘my phone got blown up’ Yelena shrugs
‘sure’ Tonys eyes narrow ‘I swear she’s never mentioned you, we would have known or realised or found out’
‘you Americans give yourself too much credit’ Yelena laughs harshly
‘she goes off on missions at the ned of every month for a few days, but never comes back with injuries’
‘yeah’ Tony thinks back to all the times nets walked out with a duffle bag yelling ‘im off on a mission, bye guys’ and come back with no wounds, no cuts or even bruises (and Nat always get hurt, she throws herself into trouble like it’s a hobby)
‘she comes home’
‘home?’
‘to us’ Yelena smirks ‘to me and mama and papa, Russia, every month we meet up, catch up, she make food sometimes or we get take out’
‘and what? Its just… family time?’ Tony snorts and Yelena sticks her tongue out
‘duh, eat, chat, drink, see the pigs, trade weapons, compare shots, break friends out of prison, take down corrupt governments, that sort of thing’
Tony’s eyes widen ‘that got gradually more dangerous’
‘that not normal?’ Yelena asks
‘no, definitely not, we usually just eat, watch a movie and talk about your lives’
‘urgh boorrrrringggg’ Yelena calls ‘and this is wasting my time’ she grins and for a moment Tony sees the resemblance between her and Natasha
‘nice meeting you metal man’
‘and you shadow girl’ Tony gives up on trying to catch her, if she really is an intruder, she’s good and Natasha can do the hard work to take her down.
‘do you want me to open the win-‘ tony starts but she’s started running at the glass, at the last minute her wrist flicks out and a tiny anchor lodges into the floor and her arm raises, glowing slightly to shoot a charge at the window, the room goes dark as she electrocutes it open and against the light of the new York skyline he watches her jump onto the window sill, and spin, standing her a moment facing him, then she falls straight backward, raising her arm to salute him with two fingers before she’s gone
For a moment tony stares transfixed at the shattered glass, then he runs to the edge. 13 floors down at 56 a shadow slips though the window like water, and when he looks to the floor to examine the anchor its gone, the woman vanished without a trace.
‘What the hell am I walking in on?’ Tony sighs, stopping in the kitchen door way to see the scene in front of him
Natasha and Yelena freeze.
The kitchen is covered in flour, white dust covering every available surface, there are some bowls out as well as a few other ingredients that he would guess are to make a cake, but they seem to have got distanced. Yelena is in a head lock, Natasha crouched on the table holding her sister in a firm grip, a beg of flour poised to tip over her head, but Yelena is also ready to attack, a carton of milk twisted behind her back, prepared to be squeezed all over Natasha.
‘Tony’ Natasha only uses his first time when she angry confused or wants something ‘hi’
‘hi’ tony replied casually as if he hasn’t just caught two of the worlds deadliest assassins in a food fight
‘холодная сестра’ (chill sister) Yelena snorts, putting her hands up in surrender pose, still held tight in the head lock
‘fine. Don’t pour that milk on me though’ Natasha checks and Yelena nods as much as she can
Natasha sighs and releases her sister, Yelena immediately jumps away shaking herself off like a dog and putting the milk down, Natasha jumps off the counter and puts what remains of the flour in the bowl
‘so this is Yelena’ she says to tony, looking between him and Yelena ‘she is… my sister’
‘cool’ Tony nods along,
‘you aren’t surprised?’ Natasha is shocked by his reaction, she expected at least a “what the hell Romanoff?”
‘Hey Shadow girl’ he walks over to Yelena and offers her a shut fist
‘hey metal man’ Yelena grins, fist bumping him back
‘Urm hi excuse me’ Natasha waves between them ‘you guys know each other?’
‘yeah she broke into my lab looking for you like a month ago’ Tony shrugs like its no big deal and he didn’t think he was going to die at least three times that evening
‘oh’ Natasha looks at tony in surprise, then she looks at Yelena ‘oh’ her head tilts at her sister and Yelena rolls her eyes
‘what sestra, I needed to find you and the robot lady said she answered to Tony so I found Tony to get the robot lady to tell me where you are, I had to kidnap her but it was chill’
‘wait you did what?’ Natasha screeches ‘FRIDAY did Yelena kidnap you’
‘she shut down my receptors and cameras in the tower and took my control centre to her belt piece’ FRIDAY sounds annoyed (or as annoyed as a robot can) and Natasha death glares her sister
‘What it was fine’ Yelena defends herself easily ‘I took Alexis search history off the belt first and I returned her’
‘she did’ Tony confirms
‘and hey we’re friends now, right FRI’
Silence greets her
‘wow bitch’ Yelena murmurs under her breath as Nat and Tony laughs
‘wait my brains still processing’ Natasha holds up a hand ‘you guys met and like talked and know each other and stuff?’
‘nope’ Tony shakes his head ‘she tried to shoot me’
‘Yelena!’
‘He tried to shoot me too’
‘did not’
‘did too’
‘did not’
‘did too’
‘did not’
‘okay okay kids, break it up’ Natasha rolls her eyes as the pair argue like toddlers and Yelena stick out her tongue, Tony flips her off and Natasha sighs
‘honestly this is why I never wanted you to meet’
‘hey come on we aren’t friends or anything’ Yelena sends Tony as she loves to call it The Belova stink eye of disgust
‘yeah she’s just a wierdo who broke into my tower’ Tony shoots his own straight back
‘excuse me-that’s rude im not a wierdo’ Yelena gasps
‘okay then you’re just a stranger who happens to be a child assassin’
‘wow way to bring the trauma back’ Yelena immediately reacts, stepping backwards and almost shrinking into herself, looking like she’s going to cry, Tony’s eyes widen when he realises he’s hit a nerve
‘God Yelena im so sorry, I shouldn’t have said anything’ his entire face falls and he starts to grovel, but Natasha just lets out the laugh she’s been holding in and pokes her sister
Yelena catches her finger and her whole attitude returns to normal
‘aww metal man’ she pats him on the back as he realises she was acting ‘you’ll make me cry, the emotions in that’
‘yeah your performance wasn’t so back yourself’ Yelena lets him punch her gently on the arm ‘you off to win an Oscar or something’
‘I think I already won one’ Yelena says with all seriousness ‘Urm… 19 somethings, around the 60s maybe’
‘yeah I remember that’ Nat nods ‘I wore that white dress’ she gestures around her legs and Yelena’s eyes light up with recognition
‘and I wore the green one, and you had blonde hair and blue eyes and killed that guy’
‘yeah’ Nat bites her lip ‘I definitely remember that part’
‘yeah yeah boohoo’ Yelena pats her sister on the head supportively as Nat’s phone pings, Yelena dives for it but Natasha wrestles it off her, immediately smiling when she sees who’s sent the message
‘I’ve got to do’ she looks up ‘Mar-Commander Hill is calling me in to the Hub’
‘fine’ Yelena rolls her eyes ‘you’ll come back to some nice yummy cupcakes though’
‘if its you cooking shell come back to the building on fire’ Tony shoots back and Nat nods
‘don’t poison anyone, with your baking or the arsenic in your pocket, and don’t burn the building down’ she points at Yelena as the blonde grins at the ideas ‘don’t’
‘urghh you ’re no fun sestra…. Fine’ she agrees and Nat runs out, leaving only tony and Yelena
‘you wanna bake cakes?’ she asks the billionaire who shrugs
‘do I have a choice?’
‘I mean its that or take down the drug transporting unit I found running in Brooklyn’ Yelena shrugs ‘but I was going to do that later’
‘why don’t we do that while they cool’
‘before icing?’ Yelena checks
‘duh’ Tony rolls his eyes and his sleeves up
‘good’ Yelena squeezes the milk carton ‘lets start’
Tony gasps as the cold liquid hits him, wiping his eyes and glaring as well as he can as his hair drips in his eyes at a nonplussed Yelena, whose casually checking the recipe
‘well come on then tin can’ she says, sounding exasperated ‘hurry up, I don’t want to be fighting when the suns down, my muscles get cold’
---
By the time Natasha returns to the tower Yelena and Tony proudly show her the cupcakes they made, they vary slightly, Tony’s Iron Man ones turned out as red yellowy wobbles, that look like someone’s vomited fire on the cake, whereas Yelena’s are perfect, her spiders almost too creepy to eat the the red and black swirl iced ones are mouth watering.
(the 10 men groaning on the floor in handcuffs only slightly changes the homely atmosphere)
***
Tony’s in his workshop the next time Yelena comes calling, or rather, ‘drops’ in.
Hes tinkering on mark 78 when the window shatters, he jumps up in surprise, then realises its Yelena, and sits back down, waiting for her to come in on her own invitation as she has done many, many times in the past, choosing to come via the mechanic on her way to see her sister.
After 5 minutes however the window is still open, there’s no Yelena and Tony is cold, he walks over to the window and is about to regenerate the glass when he notices a fine wire cable, pulled taunt and attached to the sill.
Taunt like its carrying a weight…. Or a body.
‘Yelena!’ Tony yells, leaning out over the sill and beginning to pull on the rope.
10 metres down Yelena dangles hopelessly, drips of scarlet blood leaking out onto the street 70 floors down, passers by wondering what the funny red slatter slowly collecting by the edge of Stark Tower is
‘Yelena’ he yells again, tugging as hard as he can, beginning to pull her up ‘FRIDAY, set up my lab for medical support’
‘yes sir’ FRIDAY relies and behind him the lab shifts, medical cabinets opening and SMART-E (the actually functional version of DUMB-E) wizzes around, preparing for surgery level events. Tony pulls as hard as he can, gathering momentum now, passing hand over hand until finally Yelena’s body reaches him. His hands are warm with blood by the time hes struggled over the sill and lifts her onto the table. She’s like Nat-surprisingly light, as if her bones are hollow, like a birds.
He drags her onto the table and cuts away her ruined, blood soaked suit, internally grateful for her sports bra and short, taking the awkwardness out of this situation.
‘Yelena’ he tries again, putting gauze on her shoulder and stomach, where two bullet wounds are oozing fast
‘Yelena this is going to hurt’
‘urgh’ the women groans and moves slightly ‘im Russian I can take it’
‘I don’t think you can, anyone else should be dead by now, definitely not conscious’ Tony says, snapping on gloves and trying to clean the blood away more, but still they bleed and bleed
‘you have to take the bullets out dumbass’ she moans, her voice becoming more slurred
‘I know, I know, im just trying to think where the nearest pain meds are’ Tony snaps, his mind reeling, the closest are n the medical floor, 5 floors up, Friday cant get them to him and the wing is abandoned he sent the staff home for an early Christmas since there were no other missions scheduled, SMART-E couldn’t make stairs and his suit he could control from glasses was in pieces so he could replicate it.
‘don’t need them’ Yelena murmurs
‘yes you do, im not ripping into your flesh without you under, it might kill you’
‘ill die anyway if you keep being indecisive’ Yelena winces and groans, wiggling on the table to clamp her hands onto her stomach wound and turning even more pale
‘made in Russia, never breaks’ she jokes, her eyes almost flickering shut
‘don’t joke about that Lena’ Tony snaps and she blinks slowly, scanning his face and the situation and hesitate
‘t…tony’ she stammers, bringing her hand up in front of her face and seeing it soaked in blood, dripping onto her neck as she looks at it
‘i.. I cant die’
Her voice sounds so weak and so young that Tony spins around, fully taking in, for once the extent of her injuries. He wasn’t joking when he said anyone else would be dead
‘you wont Yelena, you wont a swear you wont’ Tony clamps her hands back on the wounds, her left on her shoulder and her right on her stomach and picks up the tweezers
‘Natalia cant lose… she’s not as strong as she thinks… so stubborn’ Yelena’s thoughts of Natasha seems to almost wake her up slightly more. Tony holds her arm gently and she meets his eye regretfully
‘you ready?’ he asks and Yelena nods slightly
‘any day now metal man’ she moans and Tony nods to himself, taking a sort breath and bringing the metal to her bullet wound.
Yelena’s scream threatens to split the room apart.
---
Yelena wakes up to annoyingly bright lights and a hard slap in the face. Immediately tony pulls Natasha off her sisters barely conscious body
‘idiot!’ Natasha curses ‘suchka! Dumbass, stupid, stupid, we made a pact remember, you get hurt you find me, ill fix you, ill help you, I always have and I always will’ she yells
Yelena groans, still adjusting to her senses ‘I know Natalia, I was headed for you I swear, but I fainted halfway up the building’
‘you fainted halfway up a building?’ Natasha lunges forward again and Tony struggles to keep her back
‘I was aiming for your room I swear, but I only got so for, Tony saved me sestra’ Yelena finished gently and Natasha lets herself out of Tonys grasp with a simple pinch
‘oh fuck’ tony jumps backwards
‘fine, im glad you’re okay then’ Natasha leans forward and kisses Yelena’s forehead
‘simply peachy’ Yelena drawls ‘got two holes in my body but hey how, only 16 more to go before im a mini-golf course’
‘don’t joke about that’ Natasha sticks a finger in her face, then retracts it, looking at her watch as it shows her phone ringing
‘I’ve got to go’ she grins and Yelena coos
‘ohhh is it Steve Rogers’ she asks and Nat rolls her eyes
‘shut up Yelena its not Steve’
‘who is it then?’ Yelena grabs her wrist and inspects the caller
‘urgh only Hard-ass Hill’ she throws her sister wrist back at her
Natasha glares at her before stalking out of the room
‘she’s really pissed at you’ Tony notes and Yelena chucks
‘wow, I couldn’t tell’
‘so you ship Steve and Nat, huh?’ Tony sits down next to her bed and Yelena raises her eyebrows
‘you don’t?’
‘don’t really think about it to be honest, Nat’s like my little sister, id like to keep her away from all boys and beat up anyone who tries to hurt her’
‘except technically she’s older than you by about 70 years and can beat you up any day’
‘pretty much’ Tony laughs then gasps at her ‘what about you!’
‘what about me?’
‘how’s your love life Belova?’ tony asks and Yelena immediately chucks a pillow at him
‘go away’ she groans
‘tell me’ he teases
‘I don’t have one’ she says shortly. Shed pushed love away when she was 15, when Natasha has gone and shed just had to kill two girls who had been caught kissing, when she pulled the trigger and heard the second one scream as her love died in front of her she decided never would she ever fall in love.
‘all right’ Tony puts his hands up ‘relax, I worked hard to keep the blood in you lets make sure it says in your body’
‘for now at least’ Yelena adds forebodingly.
Tony punches her arm and she winces
‘sorry’ he says quickly
‘that’s all right, id just hate for you to undo your late night work’ Yelena jokes and Tony sighs
‘all seriousness though, you scared me Shadow girl’ he says softly and Yelena hesitates
‘I… I’m sorry Tony’ he’s pretty sure that’s the first time she’s said his name
‘I wont leave ever again, I promise’ she says slowly and Tony nods awkwardly
‘can i… can I hug you?’ he asks and Yelena snorts
‘I don’t know? Can you?’ she grins and tony rolls his eyes
‘you know what I mean’ he groans and she nods ‘yes metal man, you can’
Natasha hesitates by the door as Tony leans forward and puts his arms around her sister, who shuts her eyes and hugs him straight back.