Coming home
Yelena
Yelena sighed as she scanned through the block of flats, looking for Natasha. Although their fight was only hours ago it felt as if she hasn’t seen the red head in forever. I walk slowly down the corridor and almost walk into a young woman. She looks at me, as if she knows or recognizes me and then smiles sadly.
‘Room 405, she’s waiting for you’ Is all she says, flashing her right pink hair as she tries to turn away
‘Why are you telling me this?’ is all I can stammer out-how does this girl know, who is she? The mystery smiles again
‘She is sitting in our room crying, you just boke her hope, her heart and if you don’t do something to fix this then you will have the Avengers, SHEILD and three very pissed off enhanced teenagers after you’ then she smirks-I recognize it-it mirror’s Nats smirk
‘Enjoy’ and she walks off, where I don’t know but I also don’t care for now.
I walk slowly up to room 405, and pause at the door. I don’t think this is a trap, I think whoever she was wanted Nat to be happy, and that scarers me. I walk in
***
‘There you are’ Yelena says, as if nothing had happened, Natasha is sitting on the bed, her legs up on the wall, staring blankly at the ceiling. The blonde sighs slightly at being ignore but just sits on the bed next to her, lying on her back and staring at the cracked plaster above
‘I didn’t mean to snap at you’ she tries ‘I just… its all sudden, and im upset’
‘I know’ Nat says quietly
‘You just do stupid shit’ Yelena dives in, curling sideways on the bed to look at her sister ‘The stupid shit you do affects a lot of people you know’
‘I know’ Nat states ‘I’ve been told’
‘I’m sorry for snapping at you’ Yelena repeats again
‘I’m surprised you didn’t hit me.” Natasha says with a laugh.
‘I don’t think that your new family would like me if I caused you pain’
‘Like you could hurt me мраморная девушка’ Nat laughs softly, remembering the nickname she’d given Lena after her sister had been worried she wasn’t tough enough
‘How did it feel’ Yelena asks softly ‘You know… when you…’
‘It felt…’ Nat starts, but stops, noones ever asked that before, only if she was okay, or how she was feeling at the current time
‘It felt like I was alive, living, falling, finally free’
‘Free?’
‘Yes, it felt like I was free’
‘Free from what?’
‘Everything’ before her sister could say anything, Natasha put her hand up, ‘I’m grateful for everything I have. My friends, my family, and a place I can call home; but whenever something bad happened I feel like ive lost, lost the fight, lost another battle. Even with all the good I’ve done, most people only saw the bad I’ve done. All the killing and stealing’. So, to answer your question when I was falling, I felt free. Free of blame, free of heartbreak, free of disappointing people, being the broken one’
Yelena doesn’t know what to say. Ever since she managed to escape shes been her main priority, keep herself moving, keep herself safe, keep herself alive. She takes a deep breath.
‘You are never and have never been a disappointment Natalia. If people cant see the fact you carry the world on your shoulders then fuck those people. You’ve saved the world. Think of all those people who will grow up because of you, or all those little girls and women who will grow up in a slightly more equal world because of you fighting, who are inspired by your story. I go into the supermarket and I see my sister alongside gods and billionaires as a tiny little action figure. It’s pretty cool’
Nat laughs softly ‘Thank you Lena’
‘No problem, now we need to talk about flights’ the blonde said with a smile, causing Natasha to laugh, it was good to have her sister back.
‘So your coming home?’
‘No, I’m coming to your home’
***
I walk back into our room to a strange sight. Nat and Yelena lying on their backs on the bed, staring at the cracked ceiling. For a second I wonder if they are talking telepathically-then I remember only I can open conversations.
I slip into soul, not wanting to disturb the sisters, unless they are okay
Hey Nat, I’m outside, can I come in?
Sure Red
I pad in softly
‘Pleasure to meet you Ms Belova’ I say quietly and the Russian no.2 spins around and somehow sources a knife from somewhere
‘Jeez Lena, it’s okay, Red here is a friend’ I don’t let myself flinch under her gaze, just smile slightly and stick out my hand
‘Hello’ the Blonde says uncertainly shaking it
‘Good, Red here is an enhanced teen Avenger, she lives at the tower with us all and, well, was also subject to the Soul Stone so we share some sort of telepathic connection’
Yelena raises an eyebrow, than appears to realize something
‘You were in the meeting were you not?’ she asks, sitting don on the bed again. I sigh, theres no use lying
‘Yes, however I was here in this room.’ She looks at me weirdly
‘Why did you think you had to listen in?’ I am slightly stumped on this question
‘I had to make sure both you and Nat didn’t do anything stupid, I also needed to be able know your location if you decided to kill each other’ Lena frowns at me and I cower slightly-I can see how similar to Nat she is. Then the blonde suddenly smiles
‘Nice to meet you’
***
The flight home is long and slightly boring, I spend the whole time explaining the residents of the tower-who they are, how they are related and what their names are
‘So there is tony Stark’ I explain slowly
‘Iron Man’ Lena replies ‘Pseudo father, has tried to adopt everyone at least once’
‘Yep, Steve Rogers’
‘Captain America, frozen in ice for 70 years, super soldier’
‘Bruce Banner’
‘Hulk and scientist, extremally clever and can be angry’
‘Yep, Valkyrie’
‘Brunhilde but will remove your fingers if you call her that. Shapeshifter, heir, warrior flying horse person’ she laughs
‘sure… that’s close enough, then Peter Parker’
‘Spiderman and certified Cinnamon bun’ she recites, slightly perplexed, I grin
‘Yes correct! He will most likely be terrified of you, but that’s okay, he’s scared ofo most people at the start’
The young woman looks nervous
‘Don’t worry’ I say quickly ‘I’ll kill anyone that doesn’t like you’ Yelena looks at me appraisingly
‘You’ve taught her well Natalia’
‘Okay’ Nat says, I can tell shes smiling though ‘Get ready for touch down, we are arriving’ the jet begins to drop steadily and I lead Lena over to the window, the tower slowly comes into view, glass windows, huge floors and white panelled with steel reinforcements
‘wow’ is all Lena says ‘and I thought my apartment was a brag’
The Avengers are assembled on the lawn as we touch down, Nat gently takes her sisters hand and Yelena talks to her just before the ramp lowers.
‘спасибо наталья. Я надеюсь, что смогу восстановить здесь свою жизнь. Мне нравится твоя дочка, она милая и светится, когда злится; я думаю, мы будем друзьями’ (thank you natalia. I hope I can restore my life here. I like your daughter, she is sweet and glows when she is angry; I think we'll be friends..)
Nat smiles softly and squeezes her hand
‘И я верну свою сестру’ (and I will get my sister back)
I choose to wait a total of 5 seconds before I add ‘Ненавижу портить момент, но я тоже говорю по-русски. и ты мне тоже нравишься лена’ (I hate to spoil the moment, but I also speak Russian. and I like you too Lena)
She looks at me, trying to be serious but the glint in her eyes gives her away
‘And we are also going to talk about the fact you didn’t correct her when she called me your daughter but for now; Lets meet the family’ I laugh and the row of superheroes comes into view.
Tony Stark is first to step forward, he shakes Lenas hand and meets her glare, wavering slightly under the sapphire blue eyes.
Cap steps forward with some sort of welcome greeting in his PSA voice (I automatically zone out)
Carol looks Lena up and down thoughtfully ‘welcome to the team’ they say with their signature side smirk
Thor bellows something about looking like a strong midguardian and trying to lift the hammer and stuff, which Lena politely declines
Peter stammer out some sort of Miss Belova Black Widow Ms Yelena ma’am and Lena smiles softy at him, then Val runs out of the compound, she transforms into a pegasus (it is faster..) and gallops at us, transforming back at the last minute and engulfing me in a huge bear hug
‘Elskan, I’ve missed you!’ I squeeze her back and motion to Yelena,
‘Val this is Yelena Belova, Yelena, this is Val’ Val gives a little wave
‘hi’
Lena has an odd look in her eye-she did just see powers for the first time and says quite simply ‘nice to meet you’
***
Dinner that night is one of the best I can remember, after their arrival Nat takes Yelena to show her the room and give her a small tour then they sit on the private sofa and talk and talk and talk and cry a bit (although they never admit it) I suppose 10 years or so is a lot to catch up on.
I meet with Val and tell her the events of the trip, she grimaces at the fight but has the realization that when they fight, they mirror each other, having been trained in identical ways.
At dinner I am sat between the murder twins set 1-Clint and Nat (gamora and Nebula, Val and I, Loki and…well anyone make up the other sets) Yelena sits next to Nat and Val is opposite me. Just before we eat Natasha stands up and the table falls silent
‘I’d just like to say…damn im bad at this… thank you.’ She looks at Clint ‘Thank you for giving me a chance, thank you are letting me belong and work and be part of a new family. And for saving my life more times than I can count’ her eyes rake through each remember of the table ‘and thank you for letting Yelena come, you have no idea what it is like to be sitting here after so many years, next to her in a safe, happy, loving….home… where we can all belong for being us. Not weapons’ she pauses again
‘And to the fallen. To the ones that can’t stand with us now, but will always be with us’ She looks at tony
‘To Phil Coulson’ again she looks around the table
‘to those who lost their lives in the fight against Thanos, to those who were killed in the plane crash that brought Red to our door’ she smiles sadly at me and our tears fall together, mirroring each other. Then she looks at Val
‘And finally to Astrid’
The table murmurs in agreement and raises their glasses together, but just before we all start to eat a small voice speaks up
‘And to Anastasia’ Yelena says, Russian accent and tears grasping on the edge of her words. Nat stares at her, eyes a mixture of hurt, love and loss reflected in her eyes
‘To Anastasia’ she whispers