Yelena stabbed a man in the stomach, successfully making him double over and she swiftly brought her elbow over his head, knocking him out of the battle. She took a quick glance behind her during the lull in fighting, trying to get at least a small glimpse of red hair.
Natasha and Steve had been going to go out on a mission together, and after Yelena begged for a long while, she finally convinced Natasha to let her come. Yelena was extremely excited about it, and she loved the idea of being able to fight alongside her big sister. She also loved any extra opportunities she could have to tell Alexei that she was hanging out with Captain America.
After a moment of searching, she spotted Natasha not too far from her battling the men around, and Yelena grinned just a tiny bit before swiftly returning her attentions to the enemies approaching. She quickly used the force of one of the men running to her and swung over him quickly before grabbing him and slinging him in the direction of the other men approaching.
His sudden weight threw them off balance, and Yelena wasted no time in throwing multiple knives in their direction, landing all of them squarely in each of their knees. She wasted no time in running forward and kicking them each in the face in quick succession, rendering them useless in the battle.
It was then that she heard a yell, and she spun around in Natasha's direction quickly, her eyes searching out the red hair again. She spotted it as soon as it disappeared over the edge of the building.
"NATALIA!" Yelena screamed the woman's name helplessly, moving as fast as she could toward the edge of the building. To her horror, Natasha had already hit the ground, and she was still lying there. Yelena swiftly shot a line and ran down the side of the building. She quickly dodged the sharp piece of metal poking out several yards up from the concrete below, and she unhooked herself in a pure panic as she ran for the redhead.
Natasha was lying there, her eyes shut and seemingly unconscious. It filled Yelena with an incomparable terror as she darted for her sister.
"Natashka, please, no, no, no, no, no," Yelena muttered under her breath, crashing onto her knees and grabbing onto the woman before her lying on the ground.
Yelena swiftly looked her over, realizing that there was quite a bit of blood coming from her sister's side. Yelena felt the unadulterated fear running through her, and she quickly ripped at her sleeve despite the fact that this was her favorite white super-suit. It soon came loose from the sheer force that she was exerting on it in the midst of her terror. She then quickly tried to wrap it around Natasha's waist despite knowing that it would be a tight fit.
In the midst of Natasha's unconscious state, she furrowed her brow, shrinking away from Yelena's force, and Yelena shook her head quickly.
"It's okay, it's okay, just be still," Yelena told her softly, reaching a bloodstained hand up to touch the older woman's face. Her stomach was churning as she tied the cloth around her sister securely.
She looked up, trying to see how her sister had not managed to catch herself, and she quickly noted the failed line that had not managed to latch onto anything when Natasha had presumably shot it. She also soon realized that the jutted out metal that she had dodged on her way down to see the redhead was dripping with something that suspiciously resembled blood.
Yelena looked down at her sister, reaching her hands out to Natasha's face and touching it gently.
"C'mon… I know you're upside down, but you've got to get rightside up," Yelena whispered between just the two of them.
It was then that she heard someone running up to the two of them.
She spun around quickly toward the person and withdrew a knife, using herself to create a barrier between Natasha's body and whoever dared come close. Fortunately, it was only Steve, but she did not put down her knife. While she knew he would not do anything to her but it still made her anxious when he was so near to her and her injured sister and the fact he was moving so quickly toward them made her uneasy.
Steve paused for a moment, raising his hands in a surrendering gesture in an attempt to calm her down. She noticed how his eyes were nervously shifting between her and Natasha, and she quickly loosened, knowing that he was her best option for getting Natasha the help she needed.
"Don't just stand there, Wonder Boy, help me!" Yelena told him, and she loathed how her voice shook just a bit in the middle of a demand that was meant to be strong and infallible.
Steve wasted no time in carefully lifting the redhead in his arms, and Yelena resisted the urge to snap at him for jostling her big sister just enough to bring a frown to her face despite her current state.
They then hurried for the car, making a break for Stark Industries.
…
By that evening, Natasha was safely in bed, her wounds tended to. However, she still had not woken up since the incident occurred.
When Yelena freaked out a little and asked why the redhead was not awake already, everyone assured her that it was normal, and that Natasha's fall was likely to blame for the extended bout of unconsciousness. Natasha had cracked several ribs when she fell, and she had cut her side on the way down, which caused her to lose a lot of blood. Yelena's stomach was churning, and she almost felt like throwing up, but she tried diligently not to let the others know that.
The whole time that they were working on her, she made sure she was right there close by regardless of whether she was in their way or not. She insisted that she was going to stitch Natasha's cut, and she wanted to help with binding her ribcage, but she did not know how to do it as well as some of the others did.
By the time they had tended to her, everyone else was exhausted, and they had elected to go to bed and tell Friday to regulate Natasha in case something changed with her condition since there was nothing they could do.
But Yelena would not be that easily deterred. No matter how tired she was, she was not going to leave Natasha's side. Ever.
Steve had gently told her that she needed to get some sleep so she could be at her best whenever Natasha woke up. She had quickly retorted with the fact that she wanted to be awake to see Natasha wake up.
He had not argued with her any further, and she felt quite victorious indeed about their discussion, and she had just settled further in her seat next to the bed, leaning forward and resting her chin on her arms.
At this point, Yelena felt her eyelids growing heavy, but her heart was still aching deeply enough to keep her mind wind awake despite the physical exhaustion from the day's stress. She looked at her sister's face, just staring at her as her heart squeezed with every breath Natasha took. Natasha had several little cuts on her face and there was dried blood running down from her nose and sprawled in a large patch across the side of her forehead. It made Yelena hurt. The blonde reached out, taking Natasha's hand in her own and squeezing it gently three times before latching on in a bit firmer hold.
She averted her eyes from Natasha's face and looked at her fingers. Both of their hands were bloodstained from the events of earlier. Yelena had not left Natasha alone long enough to go wash her own. However, the fact that Natasha's hands were not clean bothered Yelena. Natasha's face being bloodied also made something in Yelena painfully ache.
So Yelena squeezed her sister's hand once more before getting up and heading to the bathroom to get a warm washcloth so she could wipe down her sister's skin and clean it of the pain and agony of the day. Once she wrung out a washcloth with warm water, she headed back to the bedside to accompany Natasha.
She reached out to Natasha's hand that was nearest to her, holding it in her hand gently and rubbing at the stains carefully yet firmly and smiling only the smallest bit as she watched the red remove itself from the older woman's skin. She soon finished with Natasha's left hand, and she reached across Natasha gently, pulling her right arm so that it laid across her abdomen and did not put pressure on the redhead's ribs or touch the cut. She then quickly cleaned that hand as well.
After a moment, she headed back to the bathroom to wring out the cloth again. She hesitantly returned to the bed and headed to the chair she had been sitting in. She pulled it up closer to where Natasha's head was resting, and she leaned up to better access the redhead's face, her knee on the chair as she used her elbows to support her as she wiped at her sister's face carefully. Natasha did not even stir, and Yelena swiftly finished.
Yelena then sat the cloth on the table next to the bed. She sat back down in the chair, but as soon as she did, she found that she did not like the lack of closeness with Natasha. Yelena then hesitantly kicked off her shoes and unzipped her uniform, revealing the tank top and leggings underneath as she shimmied out of the suit. She then crawled onto the bed next to her sister, laying down beside her and looking at her face that was turned toward Yelena in her sleep.
It was then that Yelena took the opportunity to truly inspect her most favorite person in the world.
Natasha was so peaceful in this state, and she looked so much younger. She looked a lot more like she did whenever Yelena managed to find old photographs of her when the Avengers had first begun. Somehow, though, she was even more serene and seemed as if all of the world's woes were a million miles away. Yelena honestly was not sure if she liked this look for her sister, because it too greatly reminded her of her sister's devastating albeit temporary death.
So she quickly moved her focus from that aspect of her sister's visage and focused on the more physical parts, just taking her all in while she had the opportunity. It was not that she thought Natasha would have a problem with her just staring at her, but she would have to think of some explanation for it besides the fact that she just wanted to take in every detail since she loved her so much.
She really wished she could be looking deeply into those pretty green eyes that always made Yelena feel so wonderfully loved and cared for. The ones that took away her fears and her doubts and her loneliness.
However, she decided that she would just settle for taking in the other details, with the first of which being that there were dark bags under Natasha's eyes. Yelena painfully wondered when her sister had last gotten a good sleep.
As her eyes traveled Natasha's face, she quickly noted the small mole. It was a miniscule imperfection that raised up from Natasha's skin, but Yelena thought it was just another thing that made her sister beautiful. She hesitantly brought her hand up to touch it with her fingertip, just looking at it.
She then moved her fingers down Natasha's face, just feeling the skin and lightening her touch as she came across cuts. In her trails, she finally reached Natasha's hair and she hesitated for just a moment before doing something that she had never really had the opportunity to do.
She very carefully ran her fingers through Natasha's hair before flattening her fingers and just stroking her head gently, just enjoying the softness of the hair. Yelena always absolutely adored Natasha's red hair and thought that it was the prettiest color in the world. It was the strongest color of red that Yelena had ever seen, and it was the reason that red was her favorite color. Of course, she would sooner die than tell Natasha such a thing, but she nevertheless felt it strongly.
"That feels nice," Natasha suddenly murmured, and Yelena's eyes went wide as she immediately paused in her ministrations. Natasha furrowed her brow a little and opened her eyes a little, shifting her gaze as she tried to properly orient herself.
Yelena could not help her ridiculous smile as she moved her hand away from Natasha and just looked at her best friend in the entire world. Natasha looked down at her, those green eyes glinting in the dim lighting of the room. Yelena could see the fondness and love in them as she weakly smiled just the smallest bit.
"Do you feel okay?" Yelena asked her quietly, trying her hardest to resist the urge to reach out and hug her to death. Natasha just looked at the blonde, and Yelena could see the pain that was there as Natasha shifted a little.
However, Natasha did not answer, and she just tiredly raised her right hand and grabbed at the side of Yelena's neck gently as she tried to pull her closer. Yelena complied, not sure what the redhead was doing until her forehead was suddenly pressed against Natasha's.
"Ya tebya lyublyu, rooskaya," Natasha told her softly, and Yelena melted against her, whispering a swift yet heartfelt reply as she moved nearer to her sister and nestled her face in her neck, hiding from the world and just thanking goodness that Natasha was alive there with her.
"Don't get upside down again, please," Yelena whispered quietly against Natasha's skin, and Natasha just sighed contentedly, pressing her lips gently to Yelena's head.
"I'll try not to, sweet girl."
A/N: I tried to throw more angst in this one per the request of Dark-And-Twisted-Mind-2.0! I know it was probably fluffier than it was angsty, but I just can't end it with something sad, and I can't hardly make myself write these two at odds with one another…
I hope y'all enjoyed, and please let me know what you thought! :)