Shadow girl and metal man pt2
Tony is lying upside down on the sofa a few months later when he sees Yelena again, but she doesn’t see him at first
‘OH FOR FUCKS SAKE’ Yelena yells, running into the room and slamming the door. Stopping still in front of the chair and kicking it harshly
‘SUCHKA’ she yanks the pillow of and chucks it hard at the fire place and the flops down on the chair, her hand in her hands
‘you all right there?’ Tony finally speaks up and Yelena jumps up
‘oh shit fuck tony ow’ she kicks the chair again and hops on one foot ‘go away’
‘you are abusing my furniture Belova, I think I get to ask why?’
‘its personal’ Yelena turns away and Tony immediately tries to sit next to her
‘ohhhh tell me’
‘no’
‘if it important enough for you to be this angry then you should tell me. Don’t bottle up your emotions kid all it’ll do is blow up in your face’
‘wow, that’s… poetic’ Yelena rolls her eyes ‘Im pissed at Nat.’
‘you? Angry at Nat? I mean your sister you fight, but I never thought you’d actually hate each other’
‘she’s…. Ruined it’
‘what’s happened?
‘she’s dating Hill’ Yelena spits, tony just shrugs
‘did you not hear me MY SISTER IS DATING COMMANDER HILL’ Yelena stands back up and starts pacing
‘this is bad, I got to call mama, shell sort Natasha out, and papa, he’ll kill that hill woman’
‘woah hold on there!’ Tony stands up and grabs her shoulders ‘no one is killing maria and Nat doesn’t need sorting out’
‘you…’ Yelena traces his face, reading his micro expressions ‘you aren’t surprised… you knew about this!’ she yells and twists out of his grip
‘I cant believe this, I cant believe it, the one place I finally feel happy and she’s broken it, she’s ripped it away from me’ she shoves Tony away and he stumble backwards, picking himself up and she heads for the window
‘FRIDAY’ he calls and the shutters slide down, the glass thickens and the doors melt into the walls, cleaning the room
‘Barn door protocol in place sir’ the AI responds as Yelena bashes the glass with her fist, then the butt of her gun, then charging her widow its repeatedly at the window
‘that’s not going to work’ Tony says gently and she literally growls at him, stalking across the room to the door and trying the same routine again
‘Belova, relax okay, just talk to me’
‘Go away Stark’ Yelena murmurs under her breath, stripping herself of weapons to try ad find a way out
‘you aren’t leaving here until I let you, and im not letting you intel you talk to me about why you hate your sister’
‘she’s not my sister any more’
‘so what is she?’
‘a traitor’ Yelena spits
‘to who?’ Tony keeps questioning and Yelena shrugs
‘to herself. To her family, to me, to… Russia’
‘seriously’ Tony cocks an eyebrow ‘to Russia, the place where you were kidnapped and held and traumatized for over a decade’
‘you don’t know anything Stark, you don’t know how hard they drilled it into us. No dark secrets.’
‘this isn’t a dark secret kid’
‘don’t kid me, I know what’s right and what wrong and that’ she points to the door she ran through, where Tony bet Natasha is trying to get in and reason with her sister
‘is wrong.’
‘Yelena, sit down, stop pacing and just talk to me, why do you hate it so much’
‘its not right!?’ Yelena shouts ‘I know the red room did terrible things to us and that they broke us, ut they never broke us that way. It was always men, unfaithful men, who hurt us and…. They hurt us too much, but they were men and Natasha running off into the arms of some… woman is not okay’
‘to you or to the world, because its legal here, they can get married, we celebrate pride and everything, you should see new York in June, it’s the queerest thing ever’ Tony smiles slightly and Yelena finally sit down
‘I want Natasha to be happy. And I love her. But I don’t want that.’ She growls simply
‘okay, no’ Tony grins and sits down opposite her, dodging the death glare
‘Natasha is terrified. Natasha is not scared of anything, she’s not scared of aliens, or huge guns and knives, or the biggest monster that want to rip her to shreds. She’s just not scared of them, but she is scared of loosing her family. Losing you, Yelena’
The Russian murmurs something angry and stroppy under her breath but tony continues
‘She told us, all of us 2 months ago maybe, she sat us all down and paced around-like you’re doing here and then just suddenly spurted out that she was dating hill and could move house and teams if we wanted her to. We were all more angry she’s kept it secret than you know, she gay gay. So relate to that?’
‘no’ Yelena says moodily and Tony raises an eyebrow
‘are you angry Natasha is dating, Natasha’s dating a woman, or Natasha didn’t tell you she was in a relationship’
‘all of them’ Yelena replies quickly, slowly becoming calmer, ‘she has always had a complicated relationship with love. We were raised on ‘love is for children’ and she stuck to that I thought, between the red room, the missions and the… lessons forced on us the thought of ever living long enough or having enough freedom didn’t cross our minds. I just never thought she would. And its not that im annoyed with her dating a woman, I mean im not homophobic or anything’ Yelena puts her hands up in surrender pose ‘I just don’t want her to struggle’
‘so you aren’t homophobic, but you’re scared other people will be’
‘exactly!’ Yelena throws her arm sin the air dramatically ‘people are little shits and nats been thorough enough already, her life cant be any harder, and there’s no reason for her to make it. She could just date a guy, it would e easier for the lot of us’
‘but nat likes girls’ tony says slowly ‘she wouldn’t date a guy Yelena, ever’
‘urgh’ The blonde groans loudly ‘she could have told me’
‘she was scared you’d react badly!’
‘and?’
‘and you did’ Tony gestures to the barn door protocol and Yelena rolls her eyes
‘I was just annoyed at her’
‘exactly, you’re proving all her points for her. You ran off, and she was scared you’d never come back to her’
‘but its not to her, its to her and whoever the woman she claims to love is’
‘Maria is a good person’
‘sure’ Yelena rolls her eyes
‘she is!’ Tony argues ‘shes kind and smart and well… hot. Shes the deputy director of SHEILD, is an amazing Agent, is loyal to nat and whenever theyre around each other Nat just… relaxes, she becomes calm, and happy and almost normal’
‘natasha doesn’t need to be normal’ Yelena huffs
‘you know what I mean. Nat loves her and I dare say shed lose you for Maria’ he says gently and Yelena stands up, mouth open
‘no way’
‘she would’ Tony nods
‘im amazing!’
‘sure you are tinker bell’ Tony raises an eye brow ‘but Maria’s better. Maria’s what shes been waiting her whole life to have, someone who loves her and treasures her and listens to her and respects her space and her past and helps her live for her future’
‘stop it’ Yelena groans slamming her fingers over her ears and tony reaches forward, prising then off
‘let me show you something-but you’ve got to keep it a secret-I’ll show you two things actually’
He walks over to the island and picks up a tablet, tapping a few things, then giving it to Yelena and sitting down next to her, pointing at the screen
‘that’s outside the door, right there’ then he points to the steel covered door Yelena ran though
The picture is perfectly clear (screw tony and his posh cameras) but in black and white.
Natasha is huddled on the floor, her back to the door, body heaving with sobs as the person next to her gently stokes her hair back and lets her cry on their shoulder. Maria Hill is sat right next to her girlfriend, holding her tight, curing Yelena for her harsh words and dramatic exit and hoping this doesn’t break Natasha, whose given up breaking into the room and is just crying and crying into her shoulder
Yelena stops, looking at the screen
‘nat never cries’
‘she does around Maria, and she laughs around maria, she smiles around Maria, its and of gross really, but a blind man could tell they’re in love’
‘humph’ Yelena says and Tony swipes ‘and I wanted to show you this, FRIDAY logged it a few days ago on Natasha’s credit card. Yelena’s eyes can down the list of transactions, her SHEILD salary coming in, a donation out to a charity, some meals out, some clothes and then..
‘Estella’s jewels’ she reads
‘an engagement ring’ Tony replies softly, clicking on the transaction and getting up the order form
‘Natasha… has was going to propose?’ Yelena asks, her mind reeling as she looks at the photo of the ring, its elegant, and minimalistic, not too big, with three small diamonds set in the centre of an engraved silver band
‘I think that’s why she told you now’ Tony talks the tablet from her carefully as Yelena runs her fingers through her hair and rubs her eyes roughly
‘and I ruined it’
‘you… reacted interestingly’ Tony tries and Yelena laughs
‘I was a bitch’
‘your words, not mine’ Tony jokes and Yelena glares at him
‘but you have the ability to make it right. Make this all right so why don’t you take a deep breath, calm down and go out there and talk to her for a bit. And get to know Maria, you’ll love her’
‘sure’ Yelena sneers
‘do you want to lose Nat?’
‘nope. Fine im going’ Yelena stands up and heads to the door ‘and I don’t need to clam down, I can slow my heart rate to below 30 beats a minute thanks’
‘is that scientifically possible?’ Tony asks, nodding at FRIDAY’s camera and the ‘barn doors’ start sliding up
‘maybe?’ Yelena shrugs as he door opens, she doesn’t even have time to react when a fist comes flying at her face and she reels back with the force of a strong punch.
Tony watches Natasha and Maria come though the door the minute its open and his jaw drops when Maria takes one more step forward, swings her arm back and punches Yelena in the face
‘MARIA’ Natasha yells in shock
‘Hill’ Tony gasps
‘Suchka’ Yelena groans, leaning over with her hand on her knees, wincing and trying to wiggle her jaw a bit, which is already turning red
‘sorry’ Maria says, prising herself of Natasha grips (shed tried to hold her girlfriend back as soon as shed realised what Maria was going to do)
‘couldn’t resist. I think we’ll both agree you deserved it’
‘you didn’t even give me any warning!’ Yelena squawks standing up and raising her fists
‘don’t’ Natasha steps between them
‘no’ she taps Yelena on the nose ‘don’t be rude to Maria’
‘hey you haven’t told her off’ Yelena immediately pout and Natasha rolls her eyes, before spinning around to Maria
‘no, don’t punch Yelena’
‘she deserved it. And I didn’t even knock her out! She still can talk so I think I went easy on her’ Maria argues and Natasha shrugs
‘she did, and you did. But I think we need to talk for a bit’ Natasha replies
‘allright’ Maria leans down and kisses Nat softly ‘I’ll be in my office’
‘okay’ Natasha’s eyes follow her all the way to the door until Yelena making gaging noises makes her spin around
‘gross I don’t want to watch someone making out with my sister’
‘shut up Yelena’
‘I thought you wanted to talk’
Tony creeps out halfway through a very long and passionate debate in Russian, English and occasionally punches.
By the end Tony and Maria creep back in with ice pads and soothing remarks (maria gets kissed in thanks, Tony gets glares and grudging hugs) but its arranged.
Yelena is going to be maid of honour at Maria and Nat’s eventual wedding (‘she might not say yes’ Natasha had warned and Yelena had rolled her eyes ‘she will, I know she will) and tony was going to be her maid-of-honour-assistant, Natasha had tried to explain that’s not how it worked but Yelena has simply shrugged and said ‘’do you want me to tell the Bucharest story?’ which has promptly shut her up
---
Months pass, the wedding goes well, everyone loves yelena’s speech and tony constant thumbs up and supportive smiles the entire way though and the only thing that stop her form crying as she watches her sister and her, she supposes, sister-in-law? Share looks with more emotions in them than the entire titanic film, Tony and Yelena still have their midnight join ups, occasionally shes have a nightmare and instead of reaching for he handcuffs she walks down to the workshop and sits for hours, listening to tony jabber away about this new kid and death metal and pepper problems while she falls asleep in the seat of one of his fancy comfy sport cars.
Its been three years since her initial break in, when the window again smashes and Tony looks up to see her striding across his workshop
‘I have a problem’
‘whos trying to kill you’ he immediately gets up the links to global CCTV sites, watch lists and tracking programmes
‘not that kind of problem’’ Yelena sighs ‘I could deal with that kind of problem, very easy’
‘oh, thats disappointing’ Tony groans, sitting back and spinning on his chair, than walking over to sit on the table near her
‘sorry’ Yelena flops down next to him
‘so what is your problem?’
‘Its… urm… personal in nature’ Yelena blushes and Tony pokes her
‘you’re capable of blushing? Wow, i thought made in Russia, never goes rusty’
‘hut up’ Yelena punches him on the arm
‘okay just tell me’
Yelenas quiet
‘come on Shadow girl, you know you can tell me anything’ tonys voice softens when he realises that Yelena is actually struggling to voice her feeling
‘well… I urm… I kinda’
‘just spit it out, you’ll feel better I promise’
‘ihaveacrush’ Yelena blurts out, stumbling over the words
Tony’s eyebrows shoot up he he resists laughing
‘welcome to being human!’ he slaps her on the back, grinning like an idiot
‘nope. Not good. Not good’ Yelena blushes even harder
‘who is it, who is it!’ Tony actually hops off the desk to jump up and down
Yelena only splutter in response
‘come on whats his name’ Tony goads and Yelena goes even redder
‘oh, whats… their name’ he corrects and Yelena looks down
‘Kate Bishop’
‘who?’ Tony recognizes the name immediately
‘Clint’s new adoptee, the archer, brunette, funny’ she smiles a bit at the thought of kate and tony gags
‘ew you simping is worse than you blushing’
‘shut up tony, I don’t even know why I told you’ Yelena groans and tony shrugs
‘Its good to tell people, and if you told me, it means you know its important to you, and you should start telling people, starting with your sister, then Kate.’
‘noooo’ Yelena puts her head in her hand ‘not telling anyone. Regretting telling you. Killing you’
‘please don’t’
‘you know too much’ Yelena shrugs
‘go away you wouldn’t kill me’ Tony shoves against her
‘yes I would’ Yelena shoves him off the desk
‘suchka’ tony murmurs, standing up, brushing himself off and sitting straight back down on the table
‘hey you know Russian!’ Yelena fist bumps him
‘yeah’
‘only that word?’
‘no I picked some up from Maria and Natasha, but FRIDAY said that she wouldn’t translate it for me, or allow me to say it in public’
Yelelnas nose crinkles at the top
‘thank god they speak Italian around me’
‘yeah’ tony murmers ‘but hey, tell Kate and that could be you guys in the future, just think- Yelena and Kate, sitting in a tree’ he starts singing ‘K-I-S-S-‘ but that’s as far as he gets before he gets shoved off the table again
‘you wouldn’t want to push Kate off the branch before you got to the good stuff’ he says, sitting back up
‘bite me Stark’ Yelena snaps
‘oh you wish Kate would’ he fires straight back
‘I will strangle you’ she glares
‘ohhh kinky’ he winks and Yelena splutters, her mouth opening in indignation, then shes across the room, smashing the window and is gone
‘youngsters’ he whispers to himself, then goes back to his worktop, opening a prototype to start making widow bites that fire rainbow coloured charges.
When, a week later he walks into the kitchen to find Yelena kissing Kate on the worktop, he spins straight around and practically runs back out, ordering FRIDAY to find him the file where she tells kate her feelings and send a bunch of flowers and the rainbow widow bites to her room.
***
4 years later Tony clinks his glass
‘everyone!’ he looks across the room of assembled super people. Friends and family gathered around the room in groups all grinning and laughing (and no, Natasha is definitely not crying)
‘now, I think everyone here is going to be looking at their neighbour to say “oh I new this was coming from the moment I met them” and I get to say-as best man. I knew first’ he smirks and the room laughs
‘now let me tell the story…’
He looks over to where Yelena, in her white suit is mouthing a variety of threats to him while Kate, in a beautiful dress just grabs her hand and laughs
‘yelena came to me in my workshop years ago and managed-after a bit of persuading to splutter out that she had a crush, and don’t worry, it was on Kate Bishop’
The room laughs and Kate gasps
‘Kate Belova!’ she yells over the table and Tony corrects himself
‘Sorry-Kate Belova’
He locks eyes with Yelena across the room and she smiles at him, he nods at her, then goes on to humiliate her in every way possible under her glare, only softened by Kate’s hand on hers and the ring on her finger.
In a few years he’ll hold his new born god-daughter in his arms, then his new-godson, he’ll hold Kate as she sobs over Yelena’s unconscious body, then hold Yelena as she sobs over Kate’s, he’ll go to their vow-renewal and cry with the rest, his god-children’s gradations, drive the van for them to move in when they go to university, wave good bye to them as they part to their own houses and countries.
He does a lot, laughs a lot, cries a lot, but is always a part of Yelena’s family.