"Yelena remembers."
(Yelena POV)
Yelena remembers.
She remembers that night on the roof and the moment her hand touched the chest of some idiot with a bow. Leveraging her up and over the ledge of the roof, attaching a line to her belt at the last possible moment because a spark that traveled from the point of contact in her palm into a thought in her mind that maybe this girl was worth keeping around.
Yelena remembers the moment her mask was torn off and her eyes immediatly locked onto blue, staring intently down the line of an arrow trained directly at her. She remembers the eyes softening in their decision to not let the shot fly.
Yelena remembers the night where she was seeking out retributution for the final reminants of rage she felt for her lost sister and the moment of clarity as a slap rang out against the small confines of an elevator.
A slap that instantly took her away to visions of waking in a bed that was not her own, naked, flooded with a panicked need to escape and scrawling out a note of apology quickly before leaving.
Another vision comes, that markedly is identified first by a sense of calm before she even sees what is in front of her, which is Kate in a big t- shirt that covers just the tops of her thighs dancing around to music playing softly in the background. Yelena can hear herself chuckling in the vision, can feel the smile being pulled to her lips, and sees herself turn to flip pancakes on the stove behind her.
The vision is changing again, and immediatly is met with the vision of Kate Bishop staring at her nervously dressed in an expensive navy tuxedo with an untied bow tie hanging around her neck. They are standing in a bedroom behind huge double doors and she can hear the faint sound of what must be a party going on somewhere else in the building. Kate reaches out and touches Yelena’s face and speaks with such earnestness, “‘Lena, I want you to know that we don’t have to do this. You do not owe them anything, and I can just go down by myself, while you sneak out the back. We do not have to tell the rest of them that I am bonded, and they will never have know that you existed.”
Yelena’s chest rises and falls with a deep breath in the vision speaking back with so much care in her voice she barely recognizes it as her own, “I know that and it is why I am ok with showing them who we are. I want to be a part of everything that comes along with you, and if that apparently includes announcing to a bunch of old men that you are spoken for, then that is what I am doing.” she reaches up brushing her fingers along the seam of Kate’s collar, “Plus, you certainly are not the worst looking date I have attended a party on the arm of.”
The vision fades just as Kate is rolling her eyes and suddenly Yelena is left shell shocked still gripping the strap running along Kate Bishop’s chest, still in an elevator on christmas eve, and completely disoriented as Kate is pushing past her to press every single button on the elevator.
Yelena remembers all of these moments as she stares down at the girl laying beside her, light filtering through the floor to ceiling windows of Kate’s apartment. The sheets had pooled at Kate’s waste in the night exposing her bare back to the early morning sunlight.
Yelena takes a moment, noticing the differences she can feel in her own body. The last few months had been riddled with the unbridled emotions of the incompleted bond, and with it the headaches and body aches that came with being far from its match. Now, she woke with the familiarity of all that was Kate Bishop mingled with the essence of her own self within her. She was always strong, she couldn’t do the job she did without maintiaining a specific regime, but now she felt powerful, like she’d woken up prepared for peak performance. She looked down at her arm that she was propped up on below her, and faintly she could see it. Visible muscle that was not necessarily able to be seen before, she flexed her bicep slightly, confirming that the newfound strength had spread everywhere.
She looked back at her sleeping soulmate now with the intent to see if the changes had occured in her as well. Kate Bishop, a multi- sport athlete for most of her life, had muscles that Yelena had spent more time than she would care to admit thinking about, and of course she had spent most of the night mapping the expanse of them into the early hours of the morning, as their newly bonded energies kept them awake and enthrawled with one another for hours.
As she stares down on them now, she swears she sees even more definition than was there before, Yelena reached out a finger to lightly trance the lines of her shoulders, when she moved to the girl’s biceps to further examine their changes (for science of course) Kate began to wake slightly, as her body tensed slightly in a stretch and she squeezed the pillow she was clutching under her head slightly. Yelena’s mouth went dry as she felt Kate’s arms flex underneath her finger tips ‘yes, definitely more muscly than they were before’ she thinks to herself.
“You know, if you needed me awake so I could flex my muscles for you, all you had to do was ask.” Yelena was startled slightly from her ogling as a smirking Kate turned her head against the pillow to face her, “of course preferably you’d have to ask nicely, and maybe on your knees” she added with a wicked look in her eyes
Kate’s ego was enough to shift Yelena’s footing, as she narrowed her eyes scratching her nails down Kate’s back causeing the younger girl to shiver under her fingertips, “I seem to remember last night it was someone else who was begging.”
Kate flushed slightly as her eyes fluttered closed slightly clearly at the memory from the night before, but rising to the challenge Kate laughed slightly, “What can I say Yelena, maybe I am a switch,” she shrugs shifting over to get closer to the blond next to her and wrapping an arm around her waste to press their bodies together.
Yelena was slightly confused, “What do you mean switch? like a light switch? what does this mean?” Yelena could not help be a little annoyed by the snort of laughter that left Kates mouth as she was snuggling up under her chin.
“Yelena are you serious?” and Kate pulled away slightly to look at Yelena’s face more clearly realizing she was serious as Yelena felt her own eyebrows furrow further in on themselves.
“I am not fully up to date on american sex slang Kate Bishop, english is my second language thank you.” Yelena’s slight annoyance faded as Kate looked at her with such amusement and softeness.
Still chuckling slightly, Kate rolls onto her back smiling and begins to explain, “Ok so we are gay, well Lesbians, well actually i’m probably closer to being on the Bi or Pan spectrum, but usually just used the word queer, cause you know the whole knowing anyone could be your soulmate thing from a young age always made me feel really fluid with my own sexuality…” kate is babbling at the cieling moving her hands around but then she pauses for a moment turning to look at Yelena, “and actually I don’t think I have asked how you identify, I mean I kind of just assumed this whole time you liked Women cause you have the whole,” she waves her hand vaguely in Yelena’s direction, “Scary, piercings, alternative, vibe going.”
This has Yelena letting out a loud laugh at Kates comments, and honestly she is so amused by the woman in front of her she just barely restrains herself from kicking her feet in glee, “So I am apparently a lesbian, because I am quote ‘scary’”
Kate turns sitting up on one elbow in bed, “No thats not what I mean, I just mean that your energy puts off a lot of woman who loves other women vibes, but if I guessed incorrectly please enlighten me.”
Yelena thinks for a moment because truthfully, with her whole life being as tramatic as it has been this is something she has never thought about. She had always just slept with people as a means to an end, and she slept with woman mostly because it was the safest emotionally for her to avoid feeling like an object for a man’s pleasure. She pauses to breath as she reveals to Kate, “Well before I was under the mind control, I was sleeping with women, but after I escaped I haven’t really,” she paused, “you know… with anyone.”
Kate paused cleary trying to collect her own emotions so she could say the right thing to Yelena, “You mean when we slept together after the party a few months ago, you hadn’t” Kate trails off letting the silence imply the ending to her sentence.
Yelena finished for her, “Slept with anyone? no, when I regained control of my own mind, it has been,” she paused trying to find the words, because she did want to open up to Kate more but she was not in the practice of talking about her feelings, “it has been difficult for me to feel like that was something I wanted at all.”
Kate nodded reaching her hand out to run her fingers down Yelena’s arm, “I understand, I mean I don’t fully, and I will probably never be able to fully fathom what it was like for you to go through all that, but thank you for telling me.”
For the first time that morning Yelena notices their bonds. She felt Kate’s energy wrapping around her like a hug and she noted the differences since they had been secured the night before. Before her bond felt like a spreading fire that she was constantly thinking about, that would consume everything if she let it, and when it came in contact with Kate is was as though she could do nothing else but be near and around her.
Now, the bond was still there, but far less intrusive, and instead of being near Kate and feeling two separate forced pulling tightly against one another, she felt one energy with little distinction between Kate’s Bond and her own. She experimentally poked at her own bond to see if she could manipulate it to change and shift, but it felt so solidly connected within her and spread straight to Kate. Now that she was focusing on it though, she could feel her partner more than ever before, Kate’s breathing, her heart rate, all came to her as though she could hear it directly through her own ears. She could feel how at peace the girl was laying here with her.
She felt Kate’s calm for a bit longer and right before pulling away she notices it, just a present feeling within Kate that right now is so small she barely notices it. Anxiety. Deep fear of abandonment. Yelena looks at Kate who is eyeing her curiously, clearly trying to figure out what made her pause, and Yelena suddenly felt guilty for digging around in Kate’s head.
She stopped her own minds prying and wanted to change the subject to avoid being caught, “So back to the subject at hand, why is it you are a light switch?” Kate laughed and it seemed Yelena’s deflection worked, She thought to herself that Kate will talk to her about it when she is ready. And if she still is feeling insecure in their relationship then Yelena will just have to prove to her the truth, that Kate means everything to her.
“Well yea anyway, so we are queer, and queer people have more labels within the community, so there are tops and bottoms and with woman, usually it refers to who tends to be more dominant in the bedroom.”
Yelena is catching on, “oh, so you are claiming that you are both when you say that you are a switch, I see.” she says it, emphasizing the last few words implying that she does not in fact believe Kate is a switch.
Kate’s mouth falls open at the implication, “I will have you know I can be very demanding.” She juts her lip out in a pout which has Yelena’s eye’s narrowing instantly on the younger girls mouth.
Bringing her eyes up to Kate’s she makes sure to pour every dirty thought she’d ever had into one single look, and she watches as it already starts to melt Kate’s resolve, “You can call it demanding, I will call it begging, and we will see who is more correct.” Yelena leans in and Kates lips part, breathing out a small puff of air that Yelena can feel on her own lips.
Yelena reaches out her hand to brush lightly over Kate’s bare hip and she tunes back into the other girls heart beat through their bond, which is now pounding faster and faster as she trails her fingers lightly up and over her rib cage. She pushes slightly and the brunett, ever the pliable partner, lays back into the matress, practically sinking into it as Yelena hovers over top of her.
Now that their positions have changed, Yelena smirks down at the girl below her, who clearly realizes exactly what Yelena just did, “Ok that is not fair, I wasn’t ready, and you have literal seduction training,” the younger girl rambles, still flushed from Yelena hovering over top of her.
The blonde leans down, halting Kate’s speech as she tracks Yelena’s every movement as she leans closely to her ear whispering, “любимый, there is nothing wrong with wanting me on top of you,” she teases a tongue out to lick along the shell of her ear bringing a shiver from the girl below her, “and last night you were so good for me.” This had the expected reaction of Kate letting out a whimper at the praise. A phenomenon that Yelena could have guess from the first moment she met Kate, but had definitely confirmed over the months she had gotten to know her.
Yelena leaned back looking down at an even more flustered Kate, laughing at her soulmate slightly, and then climbing off of her, and throwing on one of Kate’s t shirts from the floor, “I am going to make coffee, you do whatever you need to do to be brought back down to earth.” She leaves through the door with a wink at a disheveled Kate laying like a starfish in the bed trying to get her breathing under control.
…
(Kate POV)
Kate lays there for a long moment letting her heart rate calm down after Yelena had clearly worked hard to work her up before leaving the room to make them coffee. Kate could also smell what must have been breakfast cooking as well from the blonde down stairs.
She takes stock of her own body, thinking of last night, and being in almost a state of disbelief that they had finally secured the bond. She felt whole, she felt strong, she felt content. Well mostly content, she still could not help but think to her second vision that had yet to come to fruitition of Yelena and her fighting and the Blonde walking out again.
Kate wonders if she can stop it. She wishes she could believe that she could stop it, but she knows that that is not how these visions work. She pushes the insecurity away and rolls out of bed. Forgoing putting on clothes to just wrap her robe around herself and padding down stairs to see Yelena in a big t shirt at the stove, pushing eggs around in a skillet.
Kate walks to the coffee pot that just finished brewing pouring them both mugs and making it the way each of them liked it. She turned to Yelena who was leaning against the counter facing her watching her curiously as she took the mug from the brunette’s outstretched hand.
Kate sips her coffee raising her eyebrow, “What?”
Yelena glances down at Kate’s bare exposed legs, “You are noticably more muscly than usual.”
Kate let out a laugh at the other girls bluntness, “Yes, so are you. It’s the bonding, I told you… It makes us the best version of ourselves and that includes physically.”
“Does that mean I have super strength now?”
“No, but you are probably stronger than the average human,” Kate takes a moment to think about the implications of someone of Yelena’s skill and stature now being whatever the best version of that is, “but I mean you were already pretty strong before so probable alot stronger than the average human, but not stronger than the strongest human,” she shrugs sipping her coffee again, “I guess.”
Yelena hums turning back around with the spatual to continue cooking, “Does this mean you will be more accurate with your bow too?”
Kate fake scoffs at her, “I don’t know how I can be better than what I was before, which was perfect by the way,” She walks up wrapping her free hand around Yelena’s waste and resting her chin on the shorter girls shoulder to look down at the pan she was stiring, “But sure I guess I will be even better at that too.”
Yelena chuckles finishing up what she is doing in the pan and then turning around to serve the food on the plates. They both walk to the couch to sit down.
Kate thinks to herself, remembering only just now that Yelena has just gotten back the day before from her mission that Valentina sent her on in exchange for more information on the black widow under King Pin’s control, she tries to broach the subject lightly, “So how was your trip.”
Kate had clearly failed at her tactic of being casual as Yelena snorted slightly at her lack of inconspicuousness, “Yes, I am sorry, I wanted to talk to you about it last night but we clearly got distracted,” She trails off for a moment getting lost clearly for a moment in the memories of all the distracting activities they were up to last night, but then comes back to herself, “The mission was a success, the bastard broke my phone which is why I was not in contact sooner, but Valantina gave me the information that I needed about the widow being used by King Pin.”
Kate nodded for Yelena to keep going but clearly Yelena was witholding something from her, “What is it?” she pried a little further trying to get Yelena to come out and say what she was hoding back.
Yelena sighed, “We were right, King Pin is not using the Widow as his own personal security detail, but he is using her as an assassin. And it seems” she pauses looking down at the food she is now mindlessly pushing around her plate, “It seems her most recent target is your mother.”
Kate’s mind goes throug so many thoughts at once as she takes in that piece of information, she knew that her mother was in danger the moment she took the deal to testify against King Pin, but something in her felt she was mostly safe with all the money she paid to be moved from one high security prison to another, all she could bring herself to ask Yelena was, “when?”
Yelena answered softly, “I am not completely sure what the timeline is on the plan being put into place, it seems like we have time though, because frankly with the widow, if he wanted her dead,”
Kate finished for her, “the widow would have killed her already.”
Yelena nods, “It seems like he still needs something from her, so for the time being she is safe, the only reason Valantina knows King Pin plans to kill your mother is because he put an inquiry in with her to put a bounty on both you and your mother’s heads a few months ago. I knew about the bounty on your head but I had not heard about your mothers, and that must be because he has been holding off on putting one out.”
Kate’s eyebrows shoot up at that, “Me? wow I feel so special,” she deadpans, “If he wants me dead too, why hasn’t every assassin in new york come out of the woodwork. Is the reward too low or something?”
Yelena laughs slightly, “quite the opposite actually, you are priced rather high for a trust fund baby turned CEO,” she teases, “They have not come after you because they value their own lives much higher than whatever amount of money King Pin throws at them.”
“wait” Kate is thrown for a minute, “You threatened them, they all know you and I are,”
Yelena interupts her, “They do not know anything, all they know is that anyone who lays a finger on you will be met with a rather painful and drawn out death.” Yelena says the last part with grit teeth.
Kate does the math for a moment, “Hang on, there was a bounty on my head a few months ago? Like during that fight where we weren’t talking to eachother a few months ago?” Kate felt the shit eating grin coming across her face
Yelena rolled her eyes, “Don’t let it go to your head Kate Bishop, Just because we were not speaking did not mean I was going to let you get killed by some second rate assassin.”
Kate laughs, “So did Valantina know anything on where this Black widow is being kept?”
Yelena shakes her head no, “No, but I think we can use your mother’s trial to draw her out.”
“you want to use my mother as bait?” Kate said a bit incredulously
Yelena at least had the decency to look sheepish, “Well, for lack of a better term, Yes. We don’t have a lot of options, and Sonya and I are worried King Pin will use her for this and then sell her along to the next Crime boss, and if that happens it will be even harder to track her down.”
Kate sighs knowing that Yelena is probably right, but not feeling good about putting her mother in danger. Also the fact that her mother is even more wrapped up in this just means Kate is closer to having confront the complicated relationship that has only gotten more complicated since her mother’s arrest.
“OK, you are right,” She runs a hand through her hair, “but how do we know when the widow will strike if you think that King Pin is waiting for my mother to give him something, how are we supposed to know when they have both played their hands.”
Yelena took a breath, “I think you will have to ask you mother yourself.”
Kate’s eyes widen, and then she feels her body tense in realization that Yelena thinks her mother is still a piece on this chess board. She is still making moves, Kate knows it is out of necessity to save her own life, but after everything her mother has done, all it does is make Kate more angry at her mother.
She tries to school her own emotions as closely to acceptance as she can before she looks up at Yelena’s caring eyes, knowing that the blonde would never forcer her to do this. Her and her mother’s relationship is strained but she does not want her dead either, it seems this is the best way to help.
Kate wants to help her soulmate any way that she can, and if that means having a real conversation with her mother then so be it. “Our last conversation did not exactly go well. I am going to have to visit her in person, and as an act of good faith I think I will have to tell her about you. She isn’t going to like it when she finds out we are bonded.” Kate says
She watches Yelena ponder it for a moment reaching out to take Kate’s hand, “It does not matter if she likes me. All that matters is that you like me.” Yelena squeezes her hand and they fall into silence the conversation finsihed for now.
They sit back on the couch putting on a tv show to mindlessly watch and Kate thinks about Yelena, and all of the problems that are still out there that need to be solved. The widow, her mother, King Pin, Bishop securities, and the vision of Yelena leaving that has yet to pass.
She spares a glance over at Yelena who is intently watching the TV and Kate feels a wave of calm wash over her from the bond between them. She lets it ground her, and decides they will face all of these, one way or another, together.