Dancing in Her Webs | Yelena Belova [1]

Chapter 5

The corner of Nat's lips pulled up in a small smile to hide her emotions, "When did you get all grown up?" She averted her gaze to the objects on the counter.

Irene smiled, "You're a good person. Never forget that," she said, then exited the building. Yelena stood near one of the pumps, curiously inspecting it and touching things here-and-there.

Irina still walked with a slight limp, the sharp pain in her knee slowly fading. "You can't sneak up on me," Yelena said, pressing one of the buttons.

"I wasn't trying to," Irene stopped, and Yelena turned around.

"You still look ridiculous with that on your head."

The dark-haired woman scoffed, "Well, did you guys grab any—" a small bottle's tossed her way that Irina failed to catch. She bent down and picked the bottle up from the cracked pavement, "Ibuprofen," she finished under her breath, and met Yelena's gaze, "Thanks."

"Uh-huh," the Widow hummed. "I don't have anything for you to wash it down with. Natasha said she would buy you something."

Irina unscrewed the lid and poured four round tablets into the palm of her hand. She then screwed the cap back on and pocketed the pills, "Can I put this in your bag?"

"Yeah, sure. Anything else you need, your highness?" Yelena mockingly bowed after taking the bottle from Irene's hand.

"Very funny, Lane," the nickname slipped, but Irene didn't notice; it flew too naturally for her to even catch it.

"Awwww . . ." Yelena zipped her bag closed and situated it back to where it comfortably rested on her back, " . . . we're already at the pet name stage?"

Irina's face scrunched, " 'Pet name' ?" And then it clicked. She immediately shook her head, "Nickname, Yelena."

The Widow's shrugged, "What's the difference?" Irina just rolled her eyes and parked her bum on the curb across the pumps. Yelena joined, but remained in front of the younger woman, on her feet.

"What is taking Nat so long," Irene groaned, untying the sleeves that are under her chin. She removed her hoodie from atop her head, squinting.

"I don't know, but here." Irene shifted her gaze to what's in Yelena's outstretched hand. "I think it's time to get rid of that one," she referred to Irene's blood-stained hoodie. "You don't want to be wandering around looking like you just killed someone."

Irina eyed Yelena's blazer, uncertain. It's opened, meaning it'd show her AC/DC tee she's wearing. "The grey on black doesn't exactly go together. Plus you bled in one of the sleeves."

"It doesn't have to look good." Yelena stepped forward and practically shoved the blazer into the other woman's hands. "It just has to be doable. And the blood's dry now. There's not even that much."

Irina sighed heavily. Yelena's right, despite some of her dried blood on the inside of the right sleeve and on part of the bottom cuff; wandering around in that hoodie would draw unwanted attention they don't need. Reluctantly, she's standing up and sticking her arms through the sleeves of Yelena's blazer.

It fit her comfortably, and kind of perfect. "Now you look less scary," Yelena joked.

"I didn't think I was scary," Irina balled the old grey garb that didn't last very long.

She made her way to Yelena's bag, "You're not." Irene unzipped the bag, and Yelena turned it away from her hands. "Woah, what are you doing? You don't need that anymore. Throw it in the garbage."

Irene shrugged, "You don't know that."

Yelena plucked it from her hands, Irene protesting, but Yelena ignored her and skillfully threw it in the garbage bin by the doors of the gas station. "I literally just gave you mine," she zipped her bag closed, again. Irene's face warmed up. "By the way," Yelena made a sound that resembled the noise she made when standing from her mocking Nat's fighting pose.

Irina looked at her, watching her dig through the bag she had just zipped closed.

"Natasha doesn't know, but . . ." She found what she was looking for, then zipped the bag closed once more, before handing the object to Irene, "Here."

Irina's eyes widened. She quickly grabbed the glasses from Yelena, holding them to her chest. "You stole these?!" she whisper yelled, now looking around for anyone that might've seen, but the entire lot is empty, and Nat's still inside.

Yelena ignored the young woman's ramble about the possibilities of anyone seeing, kneeling full well no one was around and the fact she's been trained her entire to successfully do much worse. "They're not very strong, but I wanted to see what you look like."

The words flew over Irina's head. "No one saw, right?"

Yelena scoffed, her brown/green eyes rolling to the back of her head, "The entire country saw." Irina narrowed her dark brown eyes at her sarcasm. "Put them on."

Sighing, Irina looked at the glasses in her hand. They definitely weren't the expensive fancy ones her father always bought for her, but she quite liked the simplicity of the ones Yelena snagged.

Irene unfolded the arms and slipped them on her face. Looking up at Yelena, the corner of her lips nervously tugged into the smallest of smiles.

"Do I look nerdy enough for you?"

Yelena merely stared before smiling, "You look less ridiculous without that thing tied on your head."

"I'll take that as a compliment," Irina couldn't hide the smirk if she wanted to. She removed the glasses and inspected them. "These kind of look like mine back in New York, actually." They're a simple black frame. Nothing too extravagant. "At least the pair I wear when the media isn't around."

"You have a strange life, Irina Stark," Yelena said, still keeping her gaze on the dark-haired woman.

"Not the kind I particularly want, but I'm sure you don't want me complaining about mine when you've grown up in the Red Room." Irene sighed, slipping the glasses back on. She could see more clearly, but it wasn't a hundred percent. "These things kind of work, actually."

When Irina didn't get any sort of response form Yelena, she's looking in the Widow's direction.

"Hey, you okay? I didn't mean to bring any of that up. It just kind of slipped," Irene's words grew quiet near the end.

Yelena sighed, looking over Irina's shoulder to see Natasha approaching them from out the gas station. "It's alright."

"Got medical supplies and this for you," Natasha tossed a bottle of water Irina's way when she spun around.

She caught it and retrieved the four round tablets of Ibuprofen she stashed in her pocket, swallowing them all, with the help of water. She twisted the small cap back onto the bottle.

What do y'say we find a quiet place to unload?" Natasha suggested after she weirdly eyed Yelena's blazer that Irina now wore, while Yelena and Irene followed her out the gas station parking lot.

"Sounds great," Irina swung her bottle of water at her side by the cap, "plus, I could really use a bathroom right about now." Yelena chuckled, their eyes meeting as Natasha smiled.

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