Always By Your Side
Yelena never saw herself as soft. She's one of the best assassins in the world, maybe in the universe. She's been trained to be ruthless, to see every weakness and to have none. She did have them of course, in fact she had lots of them. Lots of things that could make her throw caution out the window, be impulsive. Things that made her vulnerable.
The newest on her list was a newbie Avenger named Kate Bishop.
Yelena never meant for it to happen. It was just a drink, Kate offered her one after all, even if at the time it wasn't the best of circumstances. Kate made it easy to like her, for Yelena to relax, with her sometimes clumsy charm, her sense of humor, her stubbornness, her drive to improve, the way she smiles and looked at Yelena, it all made Yelena's insides turn to much the longer she stayed around the archer.
She liked that feeling, it was new for her, sometimes a little scary. Sometimes she had the urge to run before someone got hurt. But how could she? Now with the way Kate looked at her, the way she felt butterflies in her stomach whenever they kissed, the way Kate would cuddle up to her while they slept, the way Kate would hug and distract her while Yelena made them breakfast, the texts they sent to each other on missions, the way Kate would comfort her after she had a nightmare.
It all seemed like too much and too little, Yelena wanted more, but she didn't know what she wanted more of, she just knew she liked Kate and Kate liked her back.
So what if she wanted to see Kate's face every morning when she woke up, or kiss her senseless when ever they see each other after being apart, or to cuddle, or walk hand in hand while in the park with Lucky and Fanny, or how she knew she would never get tired of the sounds Kate would make in bed.
She was soft for Kate, and that was more than ok with her.
Yelena smiled in her sleep as she rolled over, her arm reaching to pull Kate close. Only Kate wasn't there. The assassin frowned as she moved her hand around, finding nothing but cold sheets. "Kate Bishop?" Yelena slowly opened her eyes, used to seeing Kate's sleeping face next to her.
Kate loved to sleep in, she never woke up before Yelena. Yelena sat up looking around for any sign of where Kate might be. Her clothes weren't there, Fanny and Lucky were still asleep, the side of her bed was cold, like Kate was never there.
Yelena's stomach dropped. "Kate?" She called for her again. Yelena quickly got out of bed, barely manege to put her clothes on as she ran into the bathroom, "Kate?" She wasn't there. Alright. The kitchen then. She wasn't there either, she wasn't anywhere in the apartment. Yelena tried to call her, the phone just went to voice mail.
Where did she go? Why didn't she say anything to Yelena? Was she safe? Should she call Clint? Maybe Jack? Grills? Should she go looking for her?
It wasn't until she heard the door open when Yelena realized she was hyperventilating. She whirled around to find Kate with bags of groceries on her hands.
"Hey, you're up! I was hoping to-" Kate stumbled backwards as Yelena bolted into her, arms wrapped tight around her shoulders, Yelena's face buried into Kate's hair, "Whoa there! You're gonna make me drop the food." Kate chuckled.
Yelena's grip only tightened. She let out a string of curses in Russian, Kate only caught a few of them, "Don't do that." Yelena sounded so small, so vulnerable, so unlike herself.
"Hey, hey. What's wrong? You're shaking." Kate tried to wiggle out of Yelena's arms but to no avail. "Can we... move this somewhere else? I need to put these down." Yelena only nodded, slowly letting go of her girlfriend. As Kate walked to the kitchen she felt Yelena's eyes on her, almost burning into her. When she finally got a good look at her, Kate could see how teary eyed Yelena was. She rarely saw her like that.
Slowly she took Yelena's hand in her own and guided them to the couch.
"I thought you were gone." Yelena's hand held Kate's in an almost painful grip, "Where were you? Why didn't you pick up the phone?" Yelena was aware of how whiney she sounded right now, like a little kid, but she didn't care, she just wanted to know that Kate was ok.
"I was out buying food. It's all your favorites. Uhm..." Kate looked down, trying to hide the blush on her cheeks, "Happy anniversary." Her eyes met Yelena's, a small smile on her lips, "I wanted to surprise you... you know... make you breakfast in bed and all that."
"Oh." It was their one year anniversary. One year since they started dating. "I thought... you... I almost... oh my god..." A floodgate opened in Yelena's chest, god she felt like an idiot, of course Kate wouldn't just leave her, or vanish on her. "I'm so sorry moya lyubov'"
"You have nothing to apologize for. I never meant to scare you." Kate pulled Yelena into a hug, kissing the top of her head, "I should have left a note huh? Maybe a cute one with hearts and an kissy face." Kate felt Yelena smile against her skin, mumbling in agreement.
A few minutes went by before they heard barking from the other room. "Kids are awake." Kate chuckled at Yelena's words.
"They missed all the drama." Lucky and Fanny came bolting into the living room, tails wagging, jumping and licking where they could reach. "Food?" The dogs barked in unison, answering Kate's question.
"I want to see what you bought me. I have something for you as well. But... maybe we should wait until we get the kids out of the apartment." Yelena watched Kate's eyes widen, her blush return as she scrambled up and into the kitchen, Lucky and Fanny following close behind.
God did Yelena love her.
She doesn't want to wake up to a world without Kate Bishop in it, she can't even imagine it. And lucky for her she would never have to.
