Work Text:
Bang
Bang
Bang
The blonde waited, ear cocked towards the door. She grimaced, and decided to pound harder.
Bang
Bang
Bang
She heard a disoriented ‘What? Who?’ from within, and then, after a beat, what sounded suspiciously like someone falling out of a bed.
If Yelena Belova wasn’t such a hot mess of conflicting emotions in the moment, she would have undoubtedly let one of her trademark eye rolls fly. However, she was too rattled to “eye roll” the tenant who lived behind the door, when it finally opened.
Kate Bishop emerged from behind the door, hair messy and clearly groggy.
“…Yelena?” She asked, confused.
Yelena looked at her blankly.
After a moment, she finally replied, “Yes,” and exhaled, closing her eyes, with a mild grimace.
Well, this is not going well, the blonde thought to herself. This is what lack of planning results in.
“Yelena…”
The Russian’s thoughts were interrupted by Kate’s sleepy voice.
“…would you like to come in?”
Without waiting for a reply, Kate took the stiff woman standing in the hallway by the sleeve of her shirt, and gently tugged, leaving no room for indecision.
With an effortless gesture, it was as though she could read Yelena’s inner conflict. Yelena could only nod, her heart pounding. But like it always went with them, Kate seemed to speak their secret language, and she just knew. She pulled the struggling blonde into her room, and shut the door behind them.
"You kind of stink, Lena. Why don't you take a shower?"
***
Fifteen minutes later, when Yelena emerged from the shower, she perked up when she smelled the freshly brewed coffee.
Without a word, Kate handed the freshly cleaned blonde a piping hot dark roast, with cream and four sugars. Yelena chucked, despite herself, and happily gulped the first sip.
“I thought Friday banned you from ever having a coffee pot in your own quarters, Kate Bishop.”
It was Kate’s turn to sulk.
Tersely, she replied, “Friday and I have come to …an arrangement.”
Yelena cocked one eyebrow.
The disembodied AI voice replied, “Agent Bishop indicates what type of coffee she wishes to have and I prepare it. It greatly reduces the fire hazard.”
Yelena chuckled into her coffee, “Gotta love Pepper.”
“Sadly, that was Morgan’s idea…not Pepper's.”
They drank their respective coffees in a comfortable silence, until Kate squinted at Yelena. “Hey! Is that my sweatshirt?”
Yelena looked down, with feigned confusion. “This?”
“Yes, THIS.” Kate replied, pointing at the logo clearly emblazoned, 'Columbia University Archery Team.'
Yelena let off mock indignation. “Well, I couldn’t find any of my sweatshirts.”
Kate huffed, and walked over to her dresser opening a drawer of neatly folded clothes that clearly belonged to the Russian.
“Because I washed them, Yelena.” She pointed to the clothes. “And put them away. Like civilized people do.”
Yelena opened her mouth, then closed it. She was struck by the utter domesticity of the gesture.
I have a drawer in Kate’s room.
The room literally across the hall from her own. She didn’t have long to contemplate this irony, as Kate plonked down her large first aid kit next to Yelena, seated on the bed, and gave out a firm, “scoot” order.
Yelena grudgingly obliged, as Kate began unwrapping Fury’s previously applied Kerlix bandages that had disintegrated in the shower, somewhat.
“What happened here?” The archer asked, without looking up, as she slung the mess into a trash can across the room.
“Nothing.” Yelena replied, neutrally. “Just working out.”
“Mmm.” Kate hummed, redressing them. “A workout.”
“That is what I said, Kate Bishop.”
She worked efficiently, but asked softly, “why didn’t you return any of my messages, Lena?”
“I was sleeping.”
Kate looked up, one eyebrow arched. She paused, briefly.
Yelena huffed.
“And then... I was working out.”
Kate shook her head, as she taped off the final roll. “You’re such a pain in the ass, sometimes.”
She missed the fleeting pained expression on Yelena’s face before she quickly schooled it into a very practiced neutral expression. “Perhaps you would like to give your sweatshirt to someone less of a…” she paused, thinking. “…pain in the ass.”
“What?” Kate asked.
“Someone shiny. Like … you know,” the spy pulled her hands out of Kate’s. “Like that Captain Poser lady. Carol what’s-her-name.”
Kate’s mouth hung open, in disbelief.
“What?” She asked again, incredulous.
Yelena crossed her arms, looking at Kate with a cool expression. “You seemed very interested in her.”
“Omigod,” Kate slapped her hand across her forehead, and sighed. She rubbed her eyes. “That’s what this is about?” Kate exhaled. “Carol Danvers?”
Yelena was clearly getting agitated, and made a move to stand up.
Kate, reacting quickly, brought her hands to Yelena’s shoulders, and implored, “wait.”
She kept her arms on Yelena’s shoulders and looked into her defiant expression. “All night, I thought I did something wrong… that I had done something to offend you… or hurt you…” she said quietly. “I racked my brain - and I worried that there was something about what I did last night that triggered you about Natasha, or the red room… that I had inadvertently missed something…”
Yelena deflated immediately. “No, Kate, you…”
“Wait. Let me finish.” She lightly touched the side of Yelena’s face, as she pulled her hands from her shoulders when the blonde relented and sat back down. “This whole time, you’ve been jea-“ Kate quickly cut herself off, speaking their silent language.
She swallowed, and restarted.
“Last night, I was… well, showing off. I admit it. But it wasn’t about impressing anyone else, specifically. There’s only one opinion that really matters to me.” She paused. “Yelena, do you not know what you mean to me? Really?”
“I..” The widow at least had the courtesy to look a little embarrassed. “It’s just…”
Kate watched the silent panic work it’s way through Yelena’s brain. She sounded defensive when she finally continued. “It’s just - I know how you get, Kate Bishop, around Avengers. Your absolute adoration of those stupid Avengers-”
“Yelena.” Kate cut her off, firmly. “Yelena… YOU are an Avenger.”
Yelena made a scoffing noise. “I am no such thing, Kate Bishop.”
At this point, Kate let out a frustrated sigh. “Yelena! You literally are on SHIELD’s payroll, as an Avenger,” Kate pointed out. “Your actual job description and duty title is ‘Agent Belova, Avengers Roster #15” and are receiving hazardous duty pay for your work…as an Avenger,” Kate methodically pointed out.
“I am no Avenger,” Yelena said while making air quotes with her bandaged hands.
Kate threw up her hands, in disbelief. “Really? What do you think you’ve been doing, in that case, for the last eleven months when you’ve been reporting to work and training every day?”
“I have been…” Yelena looked down at her hands in her lap. “I have been making sure you did not get yourself killed, Kate Bishop.”
“What?” Kate said, apoplectic.
Eyes still downcast, Yelena continued. “That is my only interest in your so- called Avengers. I have no illusions about them. Or myself. I’m no hero- but I’ll be damned if they get you killed.”
Hawkeye took a steadying breath, and calmed herself.
She took Yelena’s hand into her own. “Yelena… please look at me.”
Grudgingly, Yelena looked up. She caught the deep blue eyes of the Archer’s staring at her, and it took her breath.
“I’m sure there are many reasons why people do this line of work. Many. I'm not so naïve to think it’s just for altruistic, noble reasons, either.”
Yelena remained silent, listening intently.
“Some do it for obligation and guilt. Some do it because it’s fun and reckless. I do it because I don’t think I’d be passionate and good at anything else. But whatever gets someone here, into this particular job, you can’t deny... well, that it is nice, at the end of your day, to say you tried to make the world better- even if we don’t always accomplish that.” She stoked Yelena’s cheek. “You can’t deny, White Widow,” Kate continued, using the nickname the adoring public called her, “we are better because of your amazing tactical mind. You know- from so many missions now at this point that I’ve lost count- you know you’ve made the Avengers better.”
Yelena let out an almost imperceptible nod.
“Because you belong,” Kate continued. “Because you ARE an Avenger.”
She gripped Yelena’s hands tighter.
“You’re MY Avenger, Yelena.”
A tiny smile played at the corner of Yelena’s lips.
“I guess sometimes … well.” Kate took a steadying breath. “I guess there are times that call for real bravery. This is one of those times.” She scooted closer to the stiff blonde, and tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. She didn’t remove her hand, letting it linger there as she continued. “You don’t need to worry about Carol Danvers- or anyone else, for that matter. And frankly, Lena- I think you know that.”
“How would I know that, Kate Bishop? Why would I know that?” Yelena asked, still a little petulant.
Kate ran her calming fingers through the flaxen hair, and kept her gaze even. “Because, Yelena. Because.”
When Yelena looked as though she was going to argue, Kate gripped the side of her head.
“Because- when you filled out your Avengers paperwork, you named ME as your beneficiary. I named YOU as my power of attorney. We are each other’s emergency contacts…”
Yelena’s lower lip had a hint of a tremble, as Kate continued. “For every major American holiday, the only question I have have is- WHERE am I spending it? Will it be at Melina and Alexei’s? Or the Barton’s? Or will we be working? I never wonder with whom I will be spending the holiday- because the answer is always the same…” she continued running her fingers gently through Yelena's hair, soothing the stoic widow. “…the answer is always: with you.”
“But .. we are friends.”
Kate nodded, and hummed. “Yes, we are friends.”
“Friends do these things, don’t they? Friends have these arrangements?”
Kate cocked her head. “Lena, Lucky’s vet calls you Mrs. Bishop. Every time you go to pick him up.”
“I cannot help what she calls me when you are a delinquent parent,” huffed Yelena.
Kate chucked, and feigned offense. “Okay… how about what Peter told you yesterday?”
“Spider Boy tells me many things, many times of the day. It is impossible to keep up with all his nonsense,” garumphed the assassin.
“I think you do remember, McGrumpy McGrumpspider. He told you that #Bishova was trending either #2 or #3 yesterday.”
“Spider Boy is worse than that public relations chihuahua you employ at Bishop security… that Ari girl.”
Kate laughed outright. “I thought she was growing on you.”
“We are probably only trending because she created more Bishop Bots, Hawkling.”
Kate shrugged. “Possibly. Although I get asked a lot about you, during interviews and stuff.”
The blonde rolled her eyes. “Jimmy Fallon does not count. He is obsessed with me.”
Kate outright laughed. “Be that as it may- and I don’t actually disagree with you- Well, here’s the thing. You and I,” she gestured between them. “We, ourselves, have never discussed it. So maybe it’s time, Lena.”
Despite Yelena’s immediate panicked look, she nodded.
“Yes, Kate- I think we should.”
Kate looked shocked at the lack of resistance.
“Oh. Um, okay then.” Kate looked around the room. “I honestly expected more… um. Resistance, I guess?”
Yelena merely arched an eyebrow, waiting.
“Uhhh, so. Here’s the thing. It feels like we are, y’know, well- like on the surface of things--everyone sort of expects..”
Yelena looked at Kate, waiting.
Kate continued, launching into full-on ramble mode. “Cause you know, for as long as I’ve known you, there’s been this- well, you know what I mean. And I’ve never wanted to push, because…well, hello? Red room. And so, I…um.”
Yelena was now frowning, trying to follow Kate’s train of thought.
“But I just assumed it was a thing, you know, cause Alexei gave me his blessing at Christmas, so I just assumed that’s how it was for you, but... Omigod, if I’ve misread into this- holy Hell… “
“Kate!” Yelena interrupted, firmly.
“Yes?” The archer squeaked.
Yelena shook her head. “That was…something.”
“Uh…” Kate nodded. "Um."
“Kate Bishop.” Yelena said, looking the brunette dead in the eye. She took a steadying breath.
The room was deathly silent, as the blonde continued.
“I love you. I think I have always loved you, but I just didn’t recognize that feeling. It took me much longer to understand what it meant.”
“What?”
Yelena frowned, slightly. “What was unclear to you, Kate?”
“You love me?”
“Yes,” Yelena said, nodding her head. “I do.”
Then the biggest grin spread across Kate Bishop's face. “Oh, thank God.”
Yelena now looked really confused, as Kate got up and walked to her desk drawer. She pulled a distinctive blue box out from inside, and walked it over to the sitting blonde. “Alexei went with me to pick this out…”
Yelena opened the Tiffany’s wrapping, and gasped at the size of the single cut diamond. “Kate…!”
“Don’t worry. I know you better than that.” Kate laughed. “I have to say, shopping with your Daddy is a …um. A unique experience. I’m not sure I’ll be allowed back into Tiffany’s in the near future.” She handed Yelena a second pouch.
Yelena opened the second baby blue pouch to reveal a simple rose gold band.
On the inside was a simple inscription:
You are my world
“Kate…” Yelena had tears in her eyes.
“Don’t panic, Yelena. I have a matching one, actually. Whenever you’re ready- we can do this. And if you’re never ready, ever? That’s fine, too.”
“I…” Yelena got up from the bed, swiftly walked across the room and closed the door behind her as she slipped out of the room.
Kate looked at the door, dumbfounded.
How did that go to shit, that fast? Way to go, Bishop.
Before she could self-flagellate herself further, the blonde quickly re-entered Kate’s quarters.
“Here,” the Widow said, breathlessly.
She dumped a velvet green ring box into Kate’s lap.
“This is-?”
“Open it, Kate Bishop. It will be much more efficient than attempting X-ray vision.”
Kate opened the box for a smaller, tasteful Cartier-style cut solitaire. “Wow.” Kate exclaimed. “It’s exquisite.”
“It’s Mama’s.” Yelena said simply.
“Melina’s?”
“Yes.” Yelena had a wan expression. “It was her ‘engagement ring’ when we were on assignment, in Ohio. When we returned, apparently, things were still a little dicey from the reorg of the KGB, and well. She kept it as a souvenir.”
Kate examined it, in disbelief.
Yelena chuckled. “She said it was the only thing of value she had to give me. She thought maybe I would repurpose it someday, and give it to you.”
“Those sneaky bastards,” Kate whistled.
“Well. They are parents, sort of … from the Soviet era, also sort of. What can you expect?”
“What do you suppose they want out of all of this?” Kate pondered, aloud.
“Oh that’s easy,” Yelena replied, confidently. “They told me. Grandchildren.”
Kate nearly dropped the ring on the floor.
*****
They had safely put away the rings, and were now laying down on Kate’s bed (with a fuzzy purple comforter - yes, she was very on brand) face to face. They had done this many times before- millions of heart to hearts, secret telling, secret keeping, crying, laughing, or pondering the secret ingredients in Kraft Mac-n-Cheese types of moments--which had happened all on that bed. Shared moments between the two of them, as they acclimated to their new lives as Young Avengers.
None of those moments had seemed quite as important as this one, however.
“So…Lena.” Kate began, nervously chewing her bottom lip.
“отличный” Yelena muttered. “Kate Bishop- out with it. You are chewing on your lip.”
“So?” Kate said, defensively.
“So,” Yelena explained in her brisk manner, “it means 'word diarrhea' is getting ready to happen. I am just asking you to not do…that.”
“Okay.”
They looked at each other. Yelena touched Kate’s face, gingerly. As though she were a precious Faberge egg; a touch graced with utter reverence.
“So, you think of me,” Kate paused, mulling over her choice of words, “in a romantic way?”
“Yes.”
“Have you ever thought of…you know?” Kate gestured with her hand. “Acting on it?”
Yelena hesitated. “In what way?”
“Well, Um. Physically.”
“Sometimes.”
They just looked at each other- really looked. Kate felt like see was seeing the prickly assassin for the first time. “Yelena...”
Yelena smiled. “Yes, Kate Bishop?”
“I don’t want to make you…uncomfortable. Ever.” Kate took a deep breath. “But …I want you. I want everything that goes with you, too. The good - and the not so good. I want it all.”
Yelena took it in, considering her statement. Finally, she answered, “you have me. You’ve had me since the first moment we met, little Hawkling.”
“I want to kiss you, Lena. Everywhere. Would that be okay?”
“I think so…I hope.”
“Well…let’s see how it goes?” Kate suggested. “You can let me know if something is… too much, okay?”
“Literally everything about you is too much, Hawkling. But let’s do it anyway.”
***
They had removed all their clothes, but were still unmoving from their original positions on the bed.
Kate raised one hand and gingerly stroked down the side of Yelena, murmuring as she stroked.
“You are stunning, Lena. Just….” Kate exhaled. “...stunning.”
“I have many scars.”
“You do.” Nodded Kate. She paused, obviously thinking. Kate decided not to offer some platitude, that would obviously ring false. Instead, she offered the thought that entered her mind to most accurately describe it. “They make you who you are. I don’t know what it would be like to love you, without them.”
Kate leaned over the blonde, and Yelena trembled, slightly, feeling the thick brown hair trail across her naked skin.
She watched, with reverence, as Kate leaned down, and pressed her full lips against the lichenified skin on her right rib. “Here,” Kate said. She trailed her lips down to the next scar, on Yelena’s hip. Kate ran the tip of her tongue across the surface of it, following up with a firm press of her lips. Her arms moved across Yelena’s trunk, gently scraping across the surface, while she kept her lips grazing across the skin’s expanse.
“And here.” She had moved to the sizable scar from which Yelena had dug out her implanted tracker device, and opened her mouth slightly, giving it a moist kiss. One of Kate’s hands trailed up Yelena’s trunk, the other gently separated her thighs open.
Kate’s eyes visibly darkened. “Oh, Yelena…” Her mouth hovered over the blonde’s opening, as she gazed intently at the pooled arousal. Kate inhaled the heady signature of Yelena…and Yelena’s desire.
Before the blonde could even register that statement, Kate pressed her mouth, flush against the obviously aroused woman before her.
Kate moaned, and the vibrations of her mouth caused Yelena to twitch with unexpected stimulated arousal.
“ТЕПЕРЬ!” Yelena said, with labored breathing. She grasped Kate’s hair, with her bandaged hand, and pressed her harder into her core. “Глубже….” The blonde groaned. “Please…”
Kate swung her arms underneath Yelena’s thighs, swinging her hands around to firmly grip her legs and open her wide. She gave a quick look above to make sure Yelena was feeling the same way Kate felt: Consumed. Kate lunged forward, and pressed her mouth against Yelena’s opening. She rimmed her opening with her tongue, laving wet swipes against her, fully tasting her unique signature. “Oh God…you taste fucking amazing,” Kate groaned, gripping her legs tighter.
Kate swiped her tongue through Yelena’s wet folds, until it landed directly on the engorged nub up top. Feeling the hard bead, Kate let out another filthy moan, and flicked it repeatedly with her tongue, feeling Yelena hips buck slightly underneath her.
“Fuck,” Yelena exhaled.
Kate slid her hand from underneath the taut thigh, and lined up three fingers at the wet opening. Hazarding a gland upwards, and seeing the wanton consent in Yelena’s eyes, she pressed her lips back against the Russian’s engorged clit, and sucked.
Hard.
She simultaneously entered her opening with 3 long fingers, with a slight bend upwards once she was fully leveraged within her slick folds, while keeping her tongue moving over Yelena's aroused clit.
“Oh, Блядь!” Yelena gasped, legs undulating, with her back arching upwards, in jerky movements.
Kate withdrew her fingers, then quickly re-entered, never letting her tongue slow down. She began to hum her approval as her fingers picked up speed.
I am fucking Yelena, Kate realized in her lust induced Haze. I am actually fucking Yelena.
Holy shit.
Kate felt the unmistakable clenching and unclenching of Yelena’s walls with each thrust; she growled slightly when Yelena gripped her scalp borderline painfully. Kate put her shoulder into it, and felt Yelena hum a needy whine above. Kate took a gasp of air as her mouth fully swallowed the hardened bead , as her bowed lips sealed around it firmly, and she clamped down and massaged it with her tongue.
Yelena immediately arched her back up, bucking against Kate’s mouth , swearing incoherently in a nonsensical mix of English and Russian- and some amalgam in between.
“Kate! Ka- oh God! Fuck…твои губы…”
Faster and with deliberate Intention, Kate pistoned her hand, twisting her fingers in and out of Yelena’s dripping need. “Mmm..,” Kate urged, with her mouth sucking against the pulsing clit within. Kate’s eye ratcheted upwards, in time to catch Yelena’s eyes roll back, her body bucking wildly as her pussy clenched against Kate’s skilled ministrations, as her long forgotten injured hands gripped Kate’s scalp for dear life. Kate Bishop was positive the sight of Yelena Belova, child assassin extraordinaire, coming absolutely fucking undone by her mouth would the sexiest fucking thing she had ever seen in her entire life.
As fate would have it, not two minutes later, she was able to confirm that very thought.
Yelena Belova’s muscular body seized up, bucking, and she let out a loud, guttural moan before shouting Kate’s name and digging her fingers deep into Kate’s scalp. She continued moaning with aftershocks for what seemed like an eternity. It was, without question, the sexist thing ever. In any timeline… or multiverse.
Especially the way she finally groaned a very sated “Kate Bishop…so good. So, SO good. I think you broke me, моя любовь…”
The blonde then shimmied on top of Kate, promptly starfishing her entire body unapologetically all over the smug archer; promptly falling fast asleep.
****
“I can’t wait until your hands heal up, quite honestly.”
“Why is that, little Hawkling?”
“Mmm,” murmured Kate reflectively. She rolled over in the bed, dumping the blonde off of her in order to face Yelena, the covers falling away to reveal her creamy complexioned shoulder and perfect breasts with her hardening nipples. She brushed her dark messy hair out of her face, and propped her head up on her hand, looking at the naked woman next to her with a clear intention.
“Cause I have all kinds of nasty thoughts of YOU, pounding ME, between my legs, over and over… instead of that damn upright hanging bag.”
The wanton look she gave the speechless blonde said it all.
“I.. uh..” Yelena said, clearing her throat with a gurgle, as a hot flush colored her face. Every drop of moisture in her body immediately pooled between her legs as she looked at Kate’s “come hither” expression.
They both nearly sprung five feet straight in the air when a loud ‘bang bang bang’ rapped against Kate’s door.
“LADIES!” Came the unmistakable tone of the Winter Soldier. “If you’re done filming your nature documentary in there,” he paused, meaningfully. “Cap says briefing room in 5! We have a situation in Moldova!”
“Fucking situations…” muttered Yelena.
“Got it!” Chirped Hawkeye. “Thanks Bucky! We are heading down…”
There was a pause on the other side of the door.
Then, “to the conference room, right? Just to be clear?” Another pause. “When you say- Heading down - that means to actually move towards the conference room?”
“заткнись!”
“Love you too, Yelena!” Bucky hollered, and could be heard chuckling as he made his way down to Katy and Shang’s area, next.
***
To their credit, they suited up and armed themselves in the time allotted.
Kate was only mildly self conscious that they reeked of sexual relations. Yelena on the other hand, proudly wore a shit eating grin. They would have even been on time, had Kate not had a tiny 'Eureka' moment and doubled back to her room, with a rushed entreaty to the White Widow to “stand fast for 3 sec’s”.
Kate came jogging back to Yelena with a dopey grin on her face. “Here.” She said sticking her hand out to Yelena.
Confused, Yelena held out her hand, as requested. The archer dropped the matching rose gold bands into Yelena’s palm, then promptly stuck out her own left hand, waving it at the startled woman in front of her.
“Put mine on please,” she said with a devilish grin. “Then find the least battered finger of your own, and put yours on.”
Yelena was surprisingly snark-free as she gently slid it onto Kate’s slender finger. She looked at it with utter reverence. After a beat, she followed suit.
Swiftly, her hand with the ringed finger snapped up, and gripped Kate’s face. Looking intently into Kate’s eyes, her gaze unwavering, Yelena uttered a single word.
“Mine.”
Kate met her gaze evenly, and gave her a reassuring look, in return.
“Always, Yelena. Always.”
Yelena’s intent expression dissolved into a genuine smile. Kate returned it, and slid her hand into the blonde’s as she pulled it off her jowls. They turned, in unison, and headed down the hallway towards the main conference room, to face the latest situation, hand in hand.
Together.
The End