The Red Room (Yelena Belova and Y/N)

Origins

The Red Room has been my home for a long time. Widows are the only family I know, and in that way I am forever stuck in the web of the Red Room. My greatest companion, has been Yelena Belova, a fellow widow that was transported and taken at the same time as me. I still remember the sight of her being pulled away from her sister and the screams that followed as they clawed at each other's arms trying to stay together for just a moment longer. She always talked about her big sister Natasha while pointing at her only photos of her. Natasha began to feel like my sister too with all the times Yelena talked about her, especially since I would always hear her talk in her sleep from above, while I slept on the bottom half of our bunkbed. I even began to dream of her, she became my only emotional escape from the Red Room.

We're older now, her in her mid-twenties at twenty-five, me still in my early twenties at twenty-two. She had been six when she was taken, where I was only three. I guess I'm a bit luckier than she is, I remember nothing before the Red Room so I have nothing to mourn, making me an almost overly efficient assassin.

Yelena and I trained together, we learned to shoot, to read, martial arts, and how to knit together. The only thing we din't do together was undergo the hysterectomy that the Red Room gave us. It was hard on Yelena, she kept spacing out for days. I always wondered why she would've ever wanted kids in the first place. I always thought that if this was the world, the life that was waiting for any children I might have, I'd rather not have them at all. But apparently, she didn't feel the same way.

There were a few times on missions, like today where we would get to talk about life, our hopes and dreams. But of course we had to keep them "Red Room" worthy so there never was and never has been any talk of attempting desertion, but we have talked about the fantasy lives we lead in our head.

"Hey Y/n..." Yelena was side eyeing me in our hideout for the afternoon. "Have you ever wanted to have kids...?" She's never asked me this question before, I wonder if she's finally over the mental hurdle from the hysterectomy...

"No. Why have you?" I needed to know, just some closure from how I saw her that day.

"Not since... I want a dog." A dog? That's a strange one.

"A dog?" She looked away after I said that, at first I thought she'd heard something, but I guess I'd just hurt her feelings.

"A dog would be cool..." I could see the sides of her mouth turn up from her signature frown.

"Seeing you with a dog would be hilarious."

Eyes on target Yelena?

The communications devices in our ears had gone off. We were laying flat on top of a rooftop in Budapest waiting for our target. A deserter with some kind of bioweapon.

Getting ready for countdown. 5. 4. 3. 2-

The bells of the school below rang and children ran out for recess. W were spotted by the target and the chase was on. Yelena and I split up to be sure we caught her.

Yelena she's not on my route. Any luck?

There was complete silence for a moment.

Yelena?!

Had the target gotten to her? She couldn't have possibly, Yelena was the most efficient widow on the dispatched team!

Widows. We have a deserter. Switch targets to Yelena Belova.