Imagine That: Multifandom Part Two

first friend【one】| yelena belova

"Hey, Yelena," I said when she stopped before me. "You probably don't remember me, but I'm–"

"Y/N Y/L/N, right?" she asked, to my surprise.

"Yeah...," I said, before adding, "Sorry for calling you down again. It's just– you really need to get this right before I file it away and it's a bad habit to develop."

She pouted a little, nodding. "Right. Sorry."

"It's all good," I assured her, leading her over to the laptop already set up at my desk. "We can go through it again if it'll help."

She nodded and I sat with her for a bit, explaining what the different codes meant and how to differentiate for the sake of the filing system. She seemed to understand after a bit, so I left her to it as I returned to my computer beside her to do some work. It was quiet for a few minutes, as she correctly filed her latest reports, before she spoke up.

"You have a lot of... things," she noticed aloud, and when I glanced her way, she was touching one of the toys on my desk – a solar-powered dancing giraffe.

I smiled with amusement. "Yeah... I get tired of staring at a screen all the time, so it's nice to have stuff to play with."

She reached over for another one of the toys lining my desk – a Scooby Doo plushie – and held it up, quirking a brow. "This?"

Putting on my best Shaggy voice, I said with a grin, "That's Scoob."

She seemed mildly taken aback by my voice and blinked, making me realise she had no idea what I was doing.

"Scooby Doo?" I prompted, my face heating up with embarrassment, before taking the plushie from her and setting it back down to distract myself and not think about the funny look she was giving me. "My sister got it me as a present for my desk. I don't even like Scooby Doo that much, but it's cute..."

"I have no idea what a Scooby Doo is," she said, shaking her head.

I raised my brows, surprised. "No." Judging from her expression, she was serious, leading me to continue attempting to prompt some sort of memory of the famous cartoon. "Scooby Doo? Mystery Inc.? Shaggy? Velma? Daphne? Fred?"

"It's almost like I've been under mind control for the past decade and not had chance to watch any TV in my free time," she deadpanned, and my insides shrivelled up there and then.

Since Yelena had started working with her sister, storied had travelled through the grapevine about how she'd been under mind control and was freed, only for her to spend a lot of her time doing the same for the women in the Black Widow programme around the world, freeing them, too. It was honourable work, but easy to forget when it wasn't something that affected you directly.

"Oh, erm," I started, mouth going dry the longer she stared through my soul (or at least it felt that way), "sorry. I didn't mean to– oh God– I–"

"Kidding," she interrupted, her intimidating expression easing into a smile. She tilted her head, amused. "Kind of. I mean, that's definitely what happened, but no biggie."

I began to laugh awkwardly, swallowing the lump in my throat. "Right, yeah..."

"You're not mad, right?" she asked, in reference to her playing me.

So, I took my revenge, naturally. "Well, it was kind of shitty to make this whole thing awkward," I answered with a fake frown.

Her smile faded instantly when she realised I was offended, so I shot her a smile of my own, tilting my head.

"Kidding."

Upon realising I, too, was pulling her leg, she exhaled softly and rolled her eyes, but a playful smile was tugging at her lips.