𝐀𝐌𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐂𝐀𝐍 𝐈𝐃𝐈𝐎𝐓 | ʏᴇʟᴇɴᴀ ʙᴇʟᴏᴠᴀ x ᴏᴄ

𝐟𝐨𝐮𝐫.

"Did you have a choice?" Nat asks.

"What you experienced was psychological conditioning. I'm talking about chemically altering brain functions. They're two completely different things. You're fully conscious, but you don't know which part is you. I'm still not sure." 

"I'm guessing that's all that's left." I look up from the bottle, nodding over at the red vials. 

"Mhm. It's the only thing that can stop Dreykov and his network of widows." She says. I move over and wrap the bandage around her wound properly as she talks. "He takes more every day. Children who don't have anyone to protect them. Just like us when we were small. Maybe one in 20 survives the training, becomes a widow. The rest, he kills." She pauses and looks down at me wrapping the bandage for a second. "To him, we are just things." She turns back to Nat. "Weapons with no face that he can just throw away. Because there is always more. And no one's even looking for him, thanks to you and Alexei." 

"Alexei?" Nat seems a little confused.

"Who?" I ask, also trying to keep up.

Yelena chuckles dryly. "Dad." There's a long silence between all three of us and I cut off the end of the bandage. "Did you ever look for your parents? Your real ones?" She looks over at Nat, leaning against her beer bottle.

"Well, my mom abandoned me in the street like garbage." Nat says pretty casually. "What about you?"

"They destroyed my birth certificate... So I reinvented it. My parents still live in Ohio. My sister moved out west." 

"Is that right?" Nat has a small smile on her face. 

"You're a science teacher. You're working part-time, though, especially after you had your son. Your husband, he renovates houses." The girl smiles a little.

"That is not my story." 

Yelena laughs. "What is your story?"

"I never let myself be alone long enough to think about it." I feel eyes on me for a moment and when I look over I see Nat smiling at me.

"What?" I smile back at her.

"Nothing." She continues to smile though. Yelena leans over the table for a moment and takes a vest out from a bag. 

"Did you ever wish for kids?" She asks as she puts the vest on. "I want a dog."

"Where are you gonna go?" 

"I don't know. I don't really have anywhere to go back to, so I guess anywhere."  She shrugs. "What about you?" I look over and see Yelena looking at me.

"My relationship ended due to the accords. We couldn't agree amongst other things-" I begin.

"She was cheating on you with the robot." Nat cuts in.

"Yeah, sure..." I say quietly. "I guess a dog would be nice. Somewhere away from all the chaos when it's all settled down. A nice place in Ukraine, maybe. Or Spain. Not anywhere in west after what's happened."

"Ever thought of another love? Another chance at someone?" 

I scratch the side of my face and lean forward a little on the table. "I thought I'd found someone a few months ago. But I was wrong. I guess I'll let life take the wheel instead. I find someone? So be it. I get a farm in the middle of nowhere? Sure."

Yelena nods understandingly. "I like that." She says approvingly. I smile and take a sip of my drink, leaning back on the chair. There's another one of those silences between us and Nat leans forward in her seat. "Don't." 

"Don't what?" Nat has yet another look of confusion on her face. 

Yelena chuckles. "You're going to give a big hero speech, I can feel it."

"Speeches aren't really her thing." I tell the girl. "That's more on Roger's side of things." 

"It was more like an invitation." Nat says.

"To go to the Red Room and kill Dreykov?" Yelena asks Nat.

"Yeah..." 

"Even though the Red Room is impossible to find and Dreykov is too slippery to kill?" 

"Yeah..." 

Yelena looks over at me for a moment. "I know- it's a shitload of work." I say. "Don't look at me like that. I've known her long enough. I follow her and just question it first before I follow." 

"It does sound like a shitload of work." She leans back in her chair.

"Yep..." Nat sighs. "Could be fun, though." I look over at a guy who closes up his garage, leaving the keys in a cabinet. The two of them sit in silence for another second.

"Top drawer, green cabinet." I say.

"English please." Nat demands, a little confused.

"That's where he put the keys." Yelena smirks. I pick up my beer and take a sip from it and she clinks her glass against mine before doing the same.

a/n- it's a fighting pose. You're a total poser.