Work Text:
“My assessment is preliminary, but unmistakable: Ms. Belova has been cursed.”
Bob drew in a sharp breath alongside everyone else at Dr. Strange’s declaration.
His gaze dropped to Yelena, still unconscious beneath the thin blankets. The monitors kept up their steady, indifferent beeping while her split lip and the scratches on her cheeks and arms made the diagnosis feel far too real.
Bucky’s expression hardened. “What kind of curse?”
Dr. Strange studied Yelena for another long moment, his hands folded behind his back.
“An unusual one.”
Ava’s eyes narrowed. “Unusual as in bad?”
“Unusual as in inconvenient,” Dr. Strange corrected, waving a hand over Yelena’s body, glowing Tao Mandalas forming. “Physically, Yelena is stable. She will remain stable when she wakes. But the curse has attached itself to her emotional perception.”
Alexei stared at him. “What does that mean for Lena?”
“It means,” Dr. Strange said carefully, seeming to be analyzing something only he could make out from the constructs. “That when she regains consciousness, she will fall in love with the first person she sees.”
What?
Silence swallowed the room.
Then Ava blinked. “I’m sorry. Could you repeat that?”
It seemed she wasn’t the only one because even Bob thought he had hallucinated what he said.
“She will develop an immediate, overwhelming romantic attachment to the first person she looks at upon waking. Sort of like a baby chicken, if you will,” Dr. Strange maintained, closing his fist, and the Tao Mandalas vanished in front of them.
Ava looked between Strange and Yelena, disbelief written plainly across her face.
“Are you pulling our legs?”
“No,” Dr. Strange replied, entirely too calm. “I can assure you, it’s quite real.”
Bob swallowed. “How? How does something like that even happen?”
Dr. Strange’s gaze shifted toward him.
“The creature you encountered did not originate in this dimension. A fracture opened along the boundary between this reality and a lower astral plane—an unstable pocket of magical residue, if you will. The creature slipped through before the tear fully formed, which is what you encountered.”
Bucky frowned. “And it cursed her?”
“Not intentionally,” Dr. Strange said. “At least, not in the way you mean. Its magic reacts defensively when it is threatened like any startled being would. You stated when I arrived that Yelena was closest when it emerged, correct?
Bob nodded slowly. He could still see it: the alley splitting open in a burst of violet light, the thing crawling through the tear like it had been pulled apart and stitched back together wrong. It just so happened they were there at the right moment.
“She was,” Bucky confirmed. “A mother and her kid were there. The child started toward it.”
“Yelena pushed them out of the way,” Ava added, glancing away from Dr. Strange to Yelena’s unconscious form for a moment. “She got between them and the creature before the rest of us could reach her.”
Dr. Strange’s expression softened by only a fraction.
“Then that was likely the moment it happened. The creature perceived rapid movement and hostile intent. In any case, she was close enough when it released the energy that the spell bound itself to the first vulnerable part of her psyche it could reach.”
“Her feelings…?” Walker asked, perplexed.
“Her perception of emotional connection,” Dr. Strange clarified. “The curse will compel her mind to assign profound affection to the first person she sees. It will feel real to her—entirely real—but it will be magically induced.”
Alexei looked horrified.
“My daughter will wake up and fall in love with some idiot standing at her bedside?”
“That,” Dr. Strange said, hands behind his back. “No offense, is the concern.”
“Can you fix it?” Bucky asked.
“Yes,” he answered. Then, after a pause: “But not immediately.”
Bucky’s jaw tightened. “Why not?”
“The creature’s magic left a residual imprint. I need time to isolate its signature, trace it through the fracture it came from, and construct a counterspell without damaging Yelena’s own mind in the process.” Dr. Strange glanced toward the faintly sparking remnants of the portal device in the corner. “Fortunately, you contained the creature long enough for me to send it back through the breach. Unfortunately, the curse will take at least a week to safely unravel.”
Ava let out a slow breath. “A week.”
“A minimum of one,” he articulated. “Until then, the safest course of action is simple.”
Everyone in the room looked at him, and then Walker was the first to break it by doubling over and laughing. “Holy shit, that is so fuckin’ funny. I don’t know how you guys held it in for this long.”
Alexei’s brows drew together. “Is it?”
Walker straightened just enough to wipe at the corner of one eye, still grinning like he had been handed the best news of his life. “I mean, there’s no other side effect besides Yelena being in love with one of us for an entire week while we play dumb, right?”
Dr. Strange nodded. “Correct.”
“Then come on. It’s fucking funny. You guys are all just sore losers,” he quipped, and then his grin sharpened. “So—who’s going to do it? " Who's going to be the lucky spider that gets caught in her web for a week?”
Ava scrunched her nose. “God, you’re disgusting.”
“What?” he asked, looking genuinely offended. “It was a metaphor, cause she’s a Black Widow.”
“It’s a terrible one,” Bucky muttered.
“God, you all suck at having a sense of humor,” Walker snorted, rolling his eyes and crossing his arms. “Yelena gets hit with an interdimensional romance spell, and no one can appreciate the comedy of it. So whose the lucky person?”
“Definitely not you,” Ava snickered.
Walker blinked. “Wow. Okay. Didn’t say I wanted it to be me.”
“Good, it should not be you, Second Coming of Captain America,” Alexei chimed in.
Walker’s head snapped toward him. “Why the hell not?”
Bucky gave him a long, unimpressed look. “Because.”
“That is not an answer.”
“It is enough of one.”
Ava covered a laugh with her hand. “He’s got a point.”
“Oh, screw you,” Walker muttered. “I’m not saying I’m volunteering and I certainly don’t want it. God, the thought of her loving me almost made me vomit. I’m saying, hypothetically, why am I automatically the worst option?”
Bucky’s mouth twitched—not quite a smile, but close.
“You want the list alphabetically or chronologically?”
“You know, this should be handled between you all. I’ll contact you if I need anything else.”
With that, Dr. Strange lifted one hand. Golden sparks curled through the air in a widening circle, and then he was gone. At that point, the team was far too busy explaining exactly why it could not, under any circumstances, be Walker.
Walker looked offended as he scowled at every single one of them. “Well?”
“First,” Ava began, holding up a finger, “you would make fun of her.”
“I would not,” Walker said immediately.
“You would,” Bucky replied.
Walker looked between them, affronted. “I would be sympathetic.”
“You laughed when Strange said she was cursed,” Ava reminded him.
“I laughed because the situation was absurd! I was laughing at the situation!”
Alexei folded his arms. “You also said you would vomit if my daughter loved you.”
Walker winced. “Okay, when you say it like that, it sounds bad.”
“It is bad,” Alexei said.
“Okay, great. One person crossed out,” Ava remarked, and while they were busy bickering amongst themselves, Bob shifted uneasily, his eyes never leaving Yelena’s face for even a second. “Okay, so not me either and definitely not Alexei for reasons I don’t think I need to voice.”
“Why not?” Alexei questioned.
“Because she is your bloody daughter,” Ava said, deadpan.
“No! Why not you, I mean,” he clarified quickly, gesturing toward Ava.
Ava’s expression flattened as she gestured to Ava. “Because Yelena knows me too well.”
“What the hell does that mean?” Walker questioned.
“It means she’d know something was wrong,” Ava said, too quickly. “She’d take one look at me, clock that everyone was acting weird, and start asking questions. Trust me that it’s going to devolve into a bigger mess because of it.”
Bucky frowned. “Questions about what?”
“Nothing,” Ava held.
Walker’s eyes narrowed with immediate interest. “That sounded like something.”
“It wasn’t.”
Alexei looked between them. “Why would it be a big mess, Ghost?”
“It will; just leave it at that,” she gritted out, and Bob finally lifted his eyes and watched Ava’s jaw tighten. She was avoiding Bucky’s eyes now, which only made Walker look more entertained.
Bucky, thankfully—or perhaps unfortunately—still seemed oblivious.
“If she knows you well, wouldn’t you be the best person to keep her calm?”
Ava gave a short, humorless laugh. “No. Trust me. I’m the worst possible person.”
“Why?” Alexei pressed.
“Because,” Ava said, then stopped herself. Her gaze flicked briefly toward Bucky before she looked away again. “Because Yelena has… opinions. About things. Things that will make it hard for her to last the week, and I’m not going to be the reason why.”
Walker’s grin widened. “Oh, this is getting interesting.”
“It is not,” Ava snapped.
Bucky’s brow furrowed further. “What things?”
Ava shot him a look. “Nothing you need to worry about, Barnes.”
Walker leaned back against the wall, visibly delighted. “Now I definitely think it should be Ava.”
Ava smiled then—slowly, sweetly, and with enough menace that everyone knew what it meant. In the next instant, she had her knife and threw it. Walker jerked sideways with a startled curse. The blade sailed past his shoulder and buried itself in the wall with a sharp, solid thunk, quivering just inches from where his head had been.
For a beat, the room went silent.
Walker stared at the knife with his mouth gaped open and then at Ava.
“You were saying?” she asked sweetly.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” he demanded.
Bucky pinched the bridge of his nose. “Ava.”
“What?” she asked innocently. “He dodged it.”
Bob stood very still beside Yelena’s bed once more, trying not to look as alarmed as he felt with his teammates bickering right there. The thought of Yelena waking up confused, hurt, and convinced she was in love with someone because of a curse made his chest tighten.
Yeah, it was only that and nothing else.
Of course.
“He almost didn’t,” Bucky grumbled.
Walker carefully stepped away from the wall, pointing at the embedded blade as though it might leap out at him again. “That was aimed at my head!”
“It was aimed beside your head,” Ava corrected, phasing to retrieve it and then back to where she had been standing moments ago. “If it had been aimed at your head, you wouldn’t be complaining.”
Walker scowled and then turned to Bucky. “Okay, so how about—”
“No,” Bucky cut in immediately.
“I didn’t even finish!”
Bucky’s glare could have frozen the monitors. “Then don’t.”
Walker glanced around the room again, his gaze inevitably landing on Bob.
“Oh,” Walker said. “Well, that makes this easy. You’re up, Bob.”
Bob, who had been too busy checking on Yelena’s vitals and making sure she was okay, suddenly shifted his attention back to them. He blinked a few times and then his mouth practically unhinged from his face.
“What? Me?
Ava’s attention shifted to him, the sharpness in her expression easing as she considered it.
“Mm. He would be the best choice.”
Bob balked at her. “What?”
“Great! You’re the lucky guy Yelena gets to fall in love with for a week,” Walker nodded, hands on his hips like he had already decided while looking over at Alexei and Bucky. “You guys have an opinion?”
Bucky glanced from Bob to Yelena, then exhaled through his nose. “It actually makes sense.”
“It does?” Bob asked faintly.
Ava nodded. “You’re one of the only people she seems genuinely comfortable around.”
Bob looked down at Yelena as though she might somehow clarify this for him. She remained unconscious, the monitors beeping steadily beside her. Finally, Alexei hummed, considering. “Yes. I trust Bob. You carry Lena back to her bedroom fine.”
Bob’s head snapped up. “That happened one time.”
“Three,” Ava corrected.
Walker’s eyebrows climbed. “Three times?”
“She fell asleep in the common room,” Bob answered, his cheeks warming. “I just moved her to her room. It’s…it’s not a big deal. I’m sure any one of you would have done it in a heartbeat in my shoes.”
“What, are you kidding me? I tried to shake her one time, and she tried attacking me before she realized where she was,” Ava responded. “Yelena wakes up if someone breathes too loudly near her.”
Bucky nodded once. “She trusts you.”
Bob’s throat tightened. “She trusts all of us.”
“Not like that,” Walker countered.
Bob looked horrified. “Like what?”
“Plus, you also stick together,” Ava added, holding up her fingers and ticking them down with each example. “Training, missions, movie nights. If one of you disappears, the other one usually turns up nearby.”
Walker gagged. “It’s kind of nauseating, honestly.”
“It isn’t,” Bob protested automatically.
Bucky gave him a pointed look.
“You sat outside her room for four hours after the last mission because she had a concussion.”
Bob swallowed. “She was hurt.”
“And when you had a bad night,” Ava said more gently, “Yelena was the one who stayed with you until you calmed down when no one else was able to do it. I think you’re the best person, Bob.”
The room grew quieter.
Bob looked at Yelena again, at the split in her lip and the scratches from that creature before finally—finally—sighing with his shoulders sagging. “Okay. Fine, I’ll do it but…after she…after Dr. Strange creates a cure, I want to come clean.”
“That seems fair,” Bucky retorted.
Bob opened his mouth, already trying to work out the details before Yelena woke up and started asking questions. “Um…so, what exactly are we supposed to say when she asks what ha—”
A low, pained sound slipped from Yelena’s throat.
Alexei snapped toward the bed. “Lena is waking!”
Ava’s eyes widened. “Step aside, you idiot, before she sees you first!”
The room moved all at once.
Walker backed away from the bed with both hands up. Bucky caught Alexei by the shoulder and pulled him a step to the side before he could rush forward. Ava phased through the edge of the mattress and reappeared near the wall, leaving Bob standing exactly where he was.
Right in front of Yelena.
His heart began to hammer so hard it felt as though it might climb straight out of his chest. Yelena stirred beneath the blankets, her brow drawing together. Her lashes fluttered once, then again before she finally opened her eyes and settled directly onto Bob.
For one suspended second, he forgot how to breathe.
And then, her brows bumped together. “Bob?”
“Hi, Yelena,” Bob managed.
Her expression softened with familiar confusion rather than anything dramatic or lovesick. He stepped closer when she tried to push herself upright, slipping one arm carefully behind her shoulders to help her sit. She leaned against him without hesitation, groggy and warm, her fingers briefly catching at his sleeve for balance.
“What happened?” she asked, looking around the room, taking everyone in, then her surroundings. “Is everyone okay? Where did that…that thing go? Is the little girl and her mother okay?”
No one answered, and Bob glanced over her shoulder worriedly to see why everyone was quiet.
Ava was staring at Yelena like the curse had personally insulted her. Walker’s mouth had fallen open. Even Bucky looked uncertain, his gaze flicking from Yelena to Bob and back again because this was not what any of them had expected.
Yelena should have been staring at Bob with wide eyes. She should have been flustered, breathless, maybe clinging to him or asking where he had been. Instead, she looked entirely like her normal, very annoying self.
No blush.
No shy smile.
No dramatic declaration.
And, somehow, that made Bob even more nervous.
“Guys?” Yelena asked, her frown deepening. “Why are you all looking at me like that?”
Walker’s stunned silence lasted only a few more seconds before he glanced toward the space Dr. Strange had vanished from and then back to the rest of the team. “So…should we call Strange back?”
Yelena’s head turned sharply. “Dr. Strange was here? Why?”
She tried to get up, but Bob moved before he could think better of it, placing a firm but careful hand against her shoulder to keep her from rising too quickly. “You should stay in bed for a bit longer, Lena. At least until the IV drip is done.”
Yelena looked up at him, her eyes narrowing as if she were deciding whether arguing was worth the effort. Then she huffed and let herself sink back against the pillows.
“Fine,” she muttered.
She adjusted beneath the blankets, propping herself up against the raised head of the bed rather than lying flat. Bob stayed close, hovering at her side. One arm rested across her middle while the other settled beside her IV line, careful not to tug it loose while she crossed her arm and arched a brow.
“Okay. Before we answer your question,” Ava said, stepping closer with deliberate caution, “how are you feeling?”
Yelena frowned, shifting beneath the blankets with a quiet wince. “Besides a little sore? Nothing out of the ordinary. Why?” Her eyes narrowed at the evasive looks around her. “Start talking before I tase all of you. Bob, do me a favor and get it for me.”
Bob froze where he stood beside the bed while Ava sucked in a breath.
“Okay. Don’t freak out.”
Yelena’s scowl deepened. “I hate when people start with that. It is so annoying.”
Bucky moved closer, his voice level. “The creature we were fighting before? It came from another realm. We managed to subdue it, and Dr. Strange sent it back where it belonged. But before that—when you pushed the little girl out of the way—it attacked you.”
Yelena’s expression shifted as she searched through the fog of her memory.
“That is what I remember, yes.”
“You were cursed,” Bucky stated.
She blinked. “Cursed? Me? I do not feel cursed.”
“Yeah, well, according to Dr. Strange, you were,” Walker cut in, throwing his hands up in the air like he was disappointed on the matter. “The curse is supposed to make you fall in love with the first person you see when you wake up.”
Yelena stared at him.
“What?”
Ava gave a small, apologetic nod. “Yeah.”
Alexei gestured toward Bob as though presenting the obvious answer to an impossible question.
“We nominated Bob.”
“Actually,” Bucky added on dryly, “it was done through a process of elimination. There was no nominating.”
Yelena hummed, her gaze slipping toward Bob. “Mm.”
Bob’s pulse skipped.
Walker leaned forward, unable to help himself.
“So… are you hopelessly and madly in love with Bob?”
“I am having this powerful urge to throw something at you,” she quipped, clicking her tongue.
Walker blinked, his grin slipping. “Yeah, okay. We should probably call Dr. Strange back, huh?”
“No, I need everyone out. I want to speak to each of you privately about what the hell happened and get the story straight myself since you all look like you’re still hiding something,” she growled. “Out and no spying at the door. I’ll know. Ava, we’re starting with you.”
“Of course,” she grumbled for reasons that Bob did not know why that was.
The others shuffled toward the door with varying degrees of reluctance.
Walker was the first out, though he kept looking over his shoulder as if he expected Yelena to throw something at him the second he crossed the threshold. Bucky followed after a brief, wary glance at Ava. Alexei lingered longest, but Yelena gave him a patient look until he finally sighed and stepped outside.
Bob remained beside the bed.
He seemed caught between leaving and staying, his hands curled at his sides while his gaze stayed fixed on Yelena’s face. She noticed, of course. Her expression softened, and she offered him a small, tired smile.
“It is okay, Bob,” she soothed quietly. “Go.”
He nodded once. “Okay.”
Only after the door clicked shut behind him did Ava let out a slow breath.
“In my defense,” she said, “it worked.”
Yelena stared at her. “Bullshit.”
Ava’s mouth twitched.
“What? It worked, didn’t it? You love him so much that the curse basically canceled itself out.”
Yelena groaned, dragging a hand down her face. “Ava.”
“You should be thanking me.”
Yelena lowered her hand, eyeing her. “Is that right?”
“The pining thing was getting so boring—” Ava did not get to finish. Yelena grabbed the nearest pillow and threw it at her. Ava phased just long enough for the pillow to pass harmlessly through her, then solidified and caught it on the other side with an easy grin. “Really? You think I wouldn’t know?”
“I think you should not be the one talking about pining,” Yelena shot back.
Ava’s grin widened.
“I’m not the one cursed, and I saved you from being in love with Walker for a week.”
Yelena visibly retched. “Disgusting.”
Ava giggled, setting the pillow back beside her.
“In all honesty, are you feeling okay? Besides being sore and the scratches on your face?”
Yelena’s teasing expression eased.
She nodded, touching gingerly at the cut along her lip.
“Yeah. I’m okay. Is the child and her mother okay?”
“They’re okay,” Ava assured her. “Shaken up, but okay. We ended up calling an ambulance just to triple-check because I know you’d worry when you needed it more. You got them out before the creature could touch them.”
Yelena’s shoulders loosened, some of the tension leaving her at last. “Good.”
Ava watched her for a moment, then tilted her head. “So what are you going to tell the others? You know they’re probably going to put it together eventually, and I know they’re already fretting outside.”
Yelena snorted, settling more comfortably against the raised bed.
“Them figuring it out? I doubt that.”
“Bucky might,” Ava countered.
“You’re just biased.”
“No, he notices more than he lets on,” she grumbled.
“And Walker?” Yelena continued, rolling her eyes. “Walker will be too distracted by the fact that I did not wake up declaring my undying love for Bob to notice anything else. The man’s head is like a brick. Alexei, too. I can say that about him, by the way.”
Ava gave a quiet laugh. “True. So you’re just going to let them think the curse didn’t work?”
Yelena’s mouth curved into a small, secretive smile. “For now.”
“And Bob?”
The smile faltered, though it did not disappear entirely.
Yelena looked down at the blanket gathered over her lap.
“Bob doesn’t need to know that I have been in love with him for months,” she muttered with a light shrug, and when her heart monitor started to pick up, she immediately ripped the stupid thing from her finger. “He already has enough to worry about.”
Ava lifted a brow. “And because you are terrified.”
Yelena looked up sharply. “I am not terrified.”
“Sure.”
“I am practical.”
“You threw a pillow at me because I said you liked him.”
“I threw a pillow at you because you are annoying.”
Ava grinned.
“Both can be true. Though I’m just saying… when you were hurt, Bob stayed by your side the entire time,” she remarked. Yelena’s gaze flickered toward the door before she could stop it. “He barely let anyone else near you. Even before Dr. Strange explained the curse, he was right there. Watching the monitors, asking if you were breathing normally, looking like he might fall apart if you so much as moved.”
Yelena’s fingers tightened slightly in the blanket. “Why are you telling me this?”
“And when we decided it should be him—the first person you saw when you woke up?” Ava added rather than answering her question. “He looked scared, obviously. But he looked happy, too.”
Yelena scoffed, though the sound came out weaker than she intended.
“Happy because he had to pretend I was in love with him for a week?”
“Happy because it was you,” Ava snorted, rolling her eyes and gently throwing the pillow back to her. “There is a difference, and if you’re not so bloody dense, you’ll see it what I noticed long ago.”
Yelena looked away, her cheeks warming despite herself.
“You are making things up.”
“Am I?”
“Yes.”
Ava’s smile turned knowing. “Okay, then. Keep pretending the curse did not work. But maybe stop acting like you are the only one with feelings here. Now if we’re done here, who should I get next?”
“Alexei,” she answered.
“Okay,” Ava said, pushing away from the wall. “Alexei it is.”
She had nearly reached the door when Yelena spoke again.
“The same goes for you.”
Ava paused, one hand hovering near the handle. “Pardon?”
Yelena settled deeper into the pillows, looking entirely too pleased with herself.
“If you were not so dense, you would have noticed what I did long ago.”
Ava turned slowly, her eyes narrowing. For a second, Yelena thought she might actually argue. Instead, Ava lifted her hand and gave her the middle finger. Yelena laughed quietly, giving her one in return.
“Get some rest,” Ava shot back, phasing out the door.
Once she was alone, Yelena let her head fall back against the pillow.
She sighed and adjusted the blankets over her lap.
It was going to be a long week.
The week leading up to Dr. Strange's arrival had been long.
Especially for Bob, who had spent every day waiting for Yelena to act differently—and every day growing more confused and restless when she did not. She had been exactly herself: dry, sharp-tongued, and stubbornly independent despite the lingering soreness from the attack. She complained when he hovered, accepted his help only when she truly needed it, and threatened Walker at least twice a day whenever he tried to bring up the curse.
But she also stayed close to Bob.
Closer than usual, maybe.
Or maybe he had only started noticing now that everyone had planted the thought in his head.
It was hard to say, really.
She sat beside him during movie nights, their shoulders brushing on the couch.
She sought him out after training, usually with some cutting remark about his form before offering to spar. When the nightmares pulled him awake, she was the one who appeared at his door with two mugs of tea and the quiet understanding that he did not have to explain.
And every time she smiled at him, every time she said his name in that softer voice she seemed to reserve only for him, Bob wondered if the curse had worked after all, or if it had been amplified because the feelings he had been harboring felt like they were at their breaking point.
When Dr. Strange returned with a cure, relief hit Bob so fast it nearly made his knees weak.
The whole process took less than a minute.
Dr. Strange stood in front of Yelena, murmured words Bob could not understand, and drew a glowing circle in the air with two precise movements of his hands. Golden light curled around Yelena’s wrist, then dissolved into faint sparks that vanished before they could touch the floor.
“There we are, Ms. Belova,” Dr. Strange stated. “The curse has been successfully removed.”
Yelena blinked at him. “That’s it?”
“Yes,” he answered and then studied her closely. “Why? Do you feel off?”
Walker snorted from near the wall. “Off? She’s been off this entire week! I haven’t seen her act any different than she normally does.”
At that, Dr. Strange’s brows furrowed.
“I’ve dug further into the creature you dealt with, and by all accounts, the curse it left behind was remarkably potent.” His gaze settled on Yelena, thoughtful and faintly perplexed. “I still do not understand how you appeared largely unaffected. The spell should have created an immediate, overwhelming fixation on the first person you saw. It should have made the attachment impossible to ignore, but…not a single thing like that?”
“No,” Bucky responded, shaking his head. “We thought about telling you.”
“But it was not needed,” Yelena cut in quickly.
Dr. Strange looked at her for a long moment.
Then something like understanding flickered across his face.
“Ah,” he said.
Yelena groaned and covered her eyes with one hand. “Was it that obvious?”
A quiet chuckle escaped Dr. Strange. “To someone like me? Yes.”
Bob stared at them, utterly lost.
Ava, standing near the door, folded her arms with a smug little smile. “Told you.”
Walker looked from Ava to Yelena, then back to Dr. Strange. “Wait. What does that mean?”
“Explain!” Alexei boomed.
Dr. Strange’s mouth twitched, as though he were fighting back a smile of his own.
“No,” he said, taking a step backward. “I believe my work here is finished. I should be going.”
Walker blinked. “What? No, you can’t just—”
Before anyone could stop him—or demand an explanation—Dr. Strange lifted his hands. Golden sparks burst to life, circling into a bright portal that filled the far side of the room. Yet right before leaving, he turned back to face all of them one last time.
“Good luck,” he said, with far more amusement than any of them liked.
Then he stepped through, and the portal snapped shut behind him.
For several seconds, no one spoke.
Bob looked around the room, more confused than ever. “What happened?”
Ava only laughed, shaking her head. “When Yelena finally works up the courage, she’ll tell you.”
And that only confused him further when Yelena then scowled, flipping Ava off.
A few more days passed before Yelena decided she was going to prove Ava wrong.
Not because Ava had been right about anything. She had not been right, thank you very much. No, it was just that the very woman was simply insufferable, and Yelena refused to give her the satisfaction of thinking otherwise.
It’s definitely not because every time Bob looked at her with that open, puzzled expression—as if he were still waiting for someone to explain what he had missed—guilt twisted uncomfortably in her stomach.
So, eventually, Yelena decided she would tell him.
Even if the thought scared her.
It was late when she slipped from her room for a glass of water while everyone else was asleep. Most of the lights were off, leaving only the dim glow of the kitchen appliances and the moonlight spilling through the tall windows.
She had just filled her glass when she noticed the open door leading toward the watchtower.
It could only mean one thing.
She hesitated for a second before setting her glass down and peeking out.
Sure enough, she saw Bob was sitting outside near the helipad as he stared up at the sky. He looked small beneath the wide stretch of darkness, both knees drawn to his chest and his hands wrapping around them.
Her chest tightened.
Without letting herself think too hard about it, she grabbed the throw blanket draped over the living-room couch. She pulled it around her shoulders, then headed quietly toward the open door and out into the night.
“Hi, Bob,” Yelena said softly so she wouldn’t speak to him by accident. However, it’s difficult to sneak up on a man who is basically a god and impenetrable. It doesn’t mean she saw him as anything but a human, though.
Bob glanced over his shoulder and gave her a small smile. “Hey, Lena.”
She stepped closer, the blanket gathered around her shoulders. “Couldn’t sleep?”
He shrugged, looking back out over the sleeping city. “Not really. Not these last few days.”
Yelena’s chest tightened further at the quiet admission, knowing it was probably to do with what happened to her and whether there was a chance that she was somehow still cursed and suffering in some sort of way.
“Can I join you?” she asked.
Bob shifted slightly, making room beside him. “If you’d like.”
She lowered herself beside him, close enough that their shoulders nearly touched. Then, without a word, she unfolded the throw blanket and draped half of it over his lap. Bob looked down at it before pulling the edge closer around them both.
For a while, they sat in silence.
The wind swept quietly across the helipad, cool against Yelena’s cheeks. Somewhere below, traffic moved through the city in a distant, steady hush. Bob stared up at the dark sky, and Yelena followed his gaze, though the city lights swallowed nearly every star.
Finally, before she could lose her nerve, she spoke.
“Do you want to know?” she offered.
Bob turned toward her. “Know?”
“Why the curse didn’t affect me.”
His eyes widened. “You know why?”
Yelena gave a soft, nervous chuckle. “Yeah.”
“I…” Bob hesitated, his expression careful. “Only if you want to tell me.”
Her heart began beating harder because of course that was what he said.
Of course he would leave the choice in her hands, even when he was clearly dying to understand. He always made room for other people’s comfort before his own, like it came naturally to him. Like he did not realize how impossibly sweet—and, frankly, adorable—that made him.
Yelena looked away before her face could give her away.
Her eyes drifted upward, toward the pale curve of the moon. The city’s glow made it impossible to see more than a handful of stars, which was a shame. When she had been small, back in Ohio, the sky had looked endless.
Things had seemed simpler then.
“It is because there was nothing for the curse to make me fall in love with,” she said at last, bracing herself for whatever came next. Truthfully, Yelena had no idea how he would react. The thought of saying it aloud had terrified her for months. It’s not because she did not know how she felt, but because Bob mattered too much for her to risk changing what they already had.
Their friendship.
Their closeness.
Their promise to stick together from now on.
But seeing him spend the last several days confused and restless, wondering if the curse had somehow failed because there was something wrong with her- the curse or it was because it was him- had been worse. Bob had spent enough of his life believing he was dangerous, broken, or unwanted.
She would not let him add anything else to that list ever again.
After what seemed like an eternity, Bob whipped his head toward her.
For a second, he only looked confused, then his expression fell.
“Does… does that mean I’m nothing?” he whispered.
Yelena’s head snapped toward him.
“What? No! No, of course not, Bob. That is not what I meant. God, no.”
“It’s not?” he asked, so quietly it made something ache in her chest.
“No.” She shifted closer beneath the blanket, and before she could even think twice, she reached to cradle her entire world right between her fingers. “How could you even say that? You are nothing, Bob. You are everything!”
“What?” he asked, his eyes widening, and Yelena would have laughed if she wasn’t so upset with what he just said.
“I cannot believe you actually think that,” she snapped, shaking her head. “Take it back, Bob.”
“I take it back?”
“Good. I never want you to say something like that about yourself again. Got it?”
“O-okay,” he agreed, nodding aggressively even though it was quite hard with his cheeks smushed between her palm. “I’ll…uh, I’ll never say something like that about myself ever again. I promise, Lena.”
“Good,” she explained fiercely. “Because I will be mad. And very upset with you.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Pinky promise me so if you do, I’ll chop off your pinky!”
He swallowed. “I pinky promise.”
Yelena studied him for another moment, as if making certain he meant it. Then she nodded once before letting go of his cheeks and huffed. “Very good. Because you are everything to me. And that is why the curse did not work, because it could not create something that already existed.”
There.
She said it.
Now it’s either going to—
“I… what do you mean?”
Seriously?
Yelena groaned, pulling the blanket higher over her lap.
“Блять. Do you want me to spell it out for you, Bob?”
“Huh?”
“I cannot believe you are making me say it,” she muttered, cheeks burning despite the cold. Then she made herself look directly at him to ensure that it wouldn’t get lost in translation once again. “Bob. I already liked you.”
His mouth parted. “What?”
“Yeah. That is why the curse did not work, because I already am in love with you.”
He blinked rapidly, as if the words had taken a moment to reach him. “You’re…in love with me.”
“Yes.”
And… and you still do?”
She let out a quiet, breathless laugh. “Yes, still.”
“W-when?”
“I cannot remember.” Her smile turned shy despite herself. “It has been several months now.”
He stared at her with his mouth opening and closing like a gaping fish.
Then, barely louder than the wind, he said, “I do too.”
Yelena frowned. “What?”
“I liked you. I still do. I’m in love with you too. For several months now, t-too.”
A sharp Russian curse slipped from Yelena before she could stop it.
“What?” she demanded. “Really?”
He nodded, his cheeks flushed. “Y-yeah.”
She stared at him, caught somewhere between disbelief and wonder. “Why?”
It was then that he stared at her, startled. “What do you mean, why?”
“I mean…why do you even like me romantically?”
To her, it didn’t make any sense.
Bob was gentle in all the ways she had never learned how to be.
He had a softness that survived everything done to him, even after the world had tried to turn him into something monstrous. Meanwhile, Yelena was sharp edges and bruised knuckles, quick temper and quicker sarcasm. She knew how to fight, how to endure, how to make herself useful before anyone had the chance to decide she was not.
She had been raised to take orders, to hurt people, to survive whatever was demanded of her. A Black Widow trained to be used and discarded the moment she stopped being convenient.
And Bob…Bob deserved someone easier.
Someone who did not wake from nightmares angry at the world. Someone who did not hide care behind insults or instinctively reach for a weapon whenever a room went too quiet. Someone with more than a past full of blood, loss, and things she could never take back.
No, it’s not possible—
“Because you’re Yelena,” he stated simply, like that was all there was to it. “Because you always know when someone needs help, even without them needing to say a word. You try your best every time, you walk into the room and…and you make everything so much brighter without even trying.”
Her cheeks warmed. “Bob—”
“And you’re brave,” Bob continued, the words gaining steadiness. “Not just in the way everyone sees. You’re brave when you’re scared, and when you’re hurt, and when you think nobody is looking. You care about people so much, Lena. You pretend you don’t, but you do.”
“Wait—”
“You make me laugh,” he rushed on. “You make me feel normal. Like I’m not something people have to be afraid of or fix. You just—” He swallowed. “You see me. And I don’t think anyone has ever really done that before.”
Yelena’s throat tightened.
Bob looked at her with such open sincerity that she could not bear another second of it.
“Okay, okay, I get it,” she blurted, and then she reached out with both hands and covered his mouth. Bob went silent instantly, eyes going wide above her fingers. Yelena realized what she had done only a beat later. Her face burned, but she kept her hands in place anyway. “You are embarrassing me. Stop being so sweet.”
For a few seconds, neither of them moved.
He did not pull away.
No, he simply looked at her over the tops of her fingers, his eyes wide and warm beneath the moonlight. The city hummed far below them, distant enough to feel unreal, while her pulse raced so hard she was certain he could feel it through her palms.
Then, slowly and carefully, he reached up and wrapped his hands around her wrists.
At first, he didn’t force them down, but waited until she relaxed enough to let him lower her hands. His fingers stayed around her wrists for a moment longer, gentle and steady, before he let go. He leaned closer, close enough that she could feel his breath against her cheek, and Yelena’s breath caught.
“Can I kiss you?” he mumbled.
She lifted one brow, trying and failing miserably to hide her smile.
“If I did not want you to, I would have pulled back by now. Or struck you in the throat.”
Then he closed the last inch between them and kissed her.
When they finally pulled apart, Bob rested his forehead against hers, and they smiled.
“So,” he whispered, “the curse really did not work?”
She couldn’t help laughing. “No, Bob. This was always you.”