Stay (kate x yelena)

i could give a thousand reasons why

 "Yes, sweetie," said her mother, acting the victim, acting all sad and sob-story-like. "That's how the world works. And I've protected you from it. You may not have known what was going on, but I did it for you." Kate shook her head slightly, not willing to let the tears come out. "I know what it's like to have nothing. And you can't handle it." 

 The cops were approaching behind them, and Kate's mother turned her head to look behind her while Kate's gaze remained steady and accusing as, voice shaking, she uttered the words that said everything. Said it all to her mother, everything she knew, everything she thought. Clint was a better parent than this mother, and Kate had barely known him for a week: "How do you know what I can handle?"

 "Because I know you," said her mother desperately, turning back, trying to get in last words. "And you think that you can live life without consequences, just like your father. But someone has to clean things up. Someone has to take responsibility!" Kate nodded, looking away, half still not able to believe this mother."

 "You're right," said Kate quietly as a male cop came to her mother's back: "Mrs. Bishop! You're under arrest for murder of Armand Duquesne the Third. Turn around, please." Kate's mom looked back to her daughter, who met her eyes. "Is this what heroes do?" the short-haired woman said, the words slashing through the night air and into Kate's chest, into her heart. Is this what heroes do? Was it? No, Kate thought. It is. You can't wonder. It is what heroes do. 

 "I'm sorry," she said quietly. "I love you, Mom."

 And then with a "let's go," from the officer, her mother was gone, and so were the cars, leaving Kate to face the situation. She had been wondering in the back of her unconscious mind what Clint was doing while she was occupied with family affairs, and now that question was answered with brutality. Clint was lying, motionless, on the ice on the ground, and a murderous-looking blond was standing over him, gun pointed at him. She was clothed in black, and Kate couldn't deny that, yes, this was a pretty blond. But she had no time for that. At first, Kate rushed back over, skidding on the ice slightly and grabbing back onto her original staircase for support, until he let out an odd whistle.

 At its sound, the woman's eyes widened, and Kate could see her: Yelena. At it, her perfectly eyelined emerald eyes widened, her lips with their crimson lipstick parting slightly. Her eyes were questioning as she lowered the gun for some reason. Kate wondered if the whistle was some secret thing only she and Clint knew. 

 "How do you know this?" she said softly in her thick and undoubtedly kind of cool Russian accent. She was breathing heavily as Clint got to his knees. "Your secret whistle with Nat," said Clint as he raised himself up and met her eyes. The corners of her mouth lifted in a kind of signal of recognition as Clint went on. "She talked about you all the time, Yelena." 

 "Before I kill you," said Yelena, "I need to ask you one question. I need to know what happened."

 Clint's blue eyes met her emerald ones, and he said, "Look, Yelena..." He shook his head, looking away before back. "If I told you what really happened, you'd never believe me. But what you need to know, is your sister sacrificed herself, and she saved the world. I'm sorry." Kate saw the impact of his words crushing Yelena, as her head shook the slightest way, the way Kate's had moments before when dealing with her OWN family drama. "You're lying," she said softly, barely more than a whisper. 

 Clint shook his head. "What?"

 "You're pathetic," Yelena said, head still shaking. "You're so pathetic!" She moved swiftly forward, gun held to Clint's throat, and they fought hard, so hard Kate couldn't have gotten involved even if she could have made herself fight after what she had witnessed with her mother. They fought until Clint held Yelena in a headlock against his chest, and he said softly in her ear, "You're not listening to me!" 

 She gasped for air, also grunting in pain, whether of battle or mental torture, Kate didn't know, though she guessed it was a mixture of both. "She sacrificed herself, understand? I couldn't stop her." Yelena's gasping peaked until she was able to force it out of her throat, voice shaking. "No." She ducked out from under his hand, punching him in the side of the face. His head swung to the side, looking down, and his eyes closed, pained.

 Kate began to start forward, prepared to tell Yelena to stop arguing, stop beating up Clint, fight her even, but Clint spoke the words again, shouting them now. "She talked about you all the time, Yelena!" he was on the ground again, sitting down now, looking up at the poor blonde in all her pain, as Kate could've sworn she saw tears well up in Yelena's eyes, and she had to stop in her place a couple feet away from the pair.

 "She did?" Yelena echoed, once again just over a whisper. Clint closed his eyes, nodding, as Yelena shifted her weight; Kate wasn't sure whether this was boredom, pain, nerves, or just tired of standing in the same position for so long. "What did she say?" the platinum blonde said, voice shaking. 

 "She told me about how you got separated as kids.... She was flying that plane. I asked her if she was scared. All she could think about was that you were safe." Now Kate was sure she saw tears in those emerald eyes. "That never changed, Yelena. She loved you." At those words, Yelena's eyes closed for just a second, and a tear escaped as they opened again. Kate felt her heart break, knowing how it was to lose someone, family, a best friend, a loved one. She had lost her father. Clint finished. "And always wanted you safe." 

 Yelena began to cry more now, pained breaths escaping her clenched teeth as the tears came from her emerald eyes. She looked away, and Kate could see the reflection of the tree in those eyes, in the tears. "You got so much time with her," she said. Clint nodded, lips pursed as if he too was about to cry. "Yes I did." 

 Yelena went on, looking around helplessly as though some help would materialize out of one of the blinking lights on the tree or something. "It shouldn't have gone this way. If I was there, I could have stopped it, I could have... I could have changed it..." But Clint said, "nobody was going to stop her, Yelena. You know Natasha." At her name, a faint whimper escaped Yelena along with more tears, and Kate knew now that she could not have attacked this girl even if she was fighting Clint right now.

 "She made her choice," said Clint. "We're going to have to find a way to live with that."

 Yelena uttered the final words that finally burst through the steel walls surrounding Kate's heart since her mother's words: "I loved her so much." Clint nodded, and ended the discussion. "Me too." Yelena gave a final breath and set off, alone, out of the abandoned and partially collapsed Rocketfeller Center, until she was swallowed up by the darkness and Clint got to his feet. "I should get home now," he said, and then he too left.

 Kate hesitated for a fraction of a second, and then she knew her choice.

 I could give a thousand reasons why that's not fair. I could give a thousand reasons why life is shitty. I could give a thousand reasons why she should not have lost her sister, and I should not have lost my father. A thousand reasons why my mother shouldn't have done that. A thousand reasons why Yelena doesn't deserve this fuck.