Stay (kate x yelena)

i know you

Kate turned a corner, following Yelena's footsteps. She was going to make sure the blonde was all right. "I know... that... everyone is... expected... to... say, well, that it is going to be okay," she said, catching up to the blonde and syncing their footsteps. "But I know from my... own... losses that those words are repeated so many times and they're just required to the point where they seem meaningless. So I will say, you know, it will. But I will also say this: you are... not alone. I'm not downplaying your losses, comparing you to people who lost more to say, like, hey, it's not that bad, because for you, it is bad. It is, and I feel like that needs to be recognized. But it means that you have... so many other people going through similar things to you, so if you, you know, need anything, or you just want some company, you shouldn't be afraid to... talk to me."

 She remembered what she and Yelena had said once: 

"We should get some drinks sometime."

 "After I kill Barton."

 So Kate said, "We should get coffee tomorrow." 

 "Kate Bishop, if I do need to talk with you I hacked several systems and obtained your number so I will have the contacts I need to do so," said Yelena, looking away from Kate. "But... thank you. It is undoubtedly helpful." Kate nodded, looking up at the door Yelena had stopped in front of. It was a run-down air B-n-B apartment complex. "This yours?" she asked the blonde.

 "Apartment twelve, building D, yes," said Yelena casually, flipping her keys out of her pocket and into her hand by the silver chain the ring was on. "Ai, sukas, you have got to be kidding me," she said exasperatedly. "The idiots have egged my door... well, good night, Kate Bishop. That means 'bitches'," she added in response to Kate's questioning look, before smiling and closing the door. Being about as tall as Kate's chin, her eyes were still up, locked with Kate's, as she flashed a final smile and locked it.

 Kate sighed and turned around to trek back home. 

 When she got back, Grills, Missie and Lucky were waiting for her. Grills came down the hall with his signature snickerdoodles, and Missie was attempting the impossible task of getting Lucky to turn in a circle. The golden retriever was dancing on his hind legs around the room until he crashed into the couch and, when his dizziness in his one working eye had receded, he noticed her and trotted over, tail wagging. 

 "Hey, boy," said Kate, looking up at the other two. "Thank you two so much for... everything. I got you the fabrics on the way back, if you were wondering why I was straggling through the door at solid midnight... here." She handed them over and Grills and Missie gave her grateful looks. "I guess the deal is done, then," said Grills. "Yes, we'll head back to our apartment. We'll see you around, Kate... bye, boy," Missie agreed, and the two, the latter with the fabric in her arms, gave Lucky good-bye pets and headed out. Grills left the snickerdoodles, though, which somehow reminded Kate of another conversation with Yelena:

Are you really not hungry?

 Kate, exhausted from the night's adventure, dropped her bow and quiver on the stand next to the door before heading around the bend to her bedroom down the hall from the living room. Lucky followed her, tail still wagging, tongue out happily. She smiled slightly and handed him a bit of bacon off the tin near her bedstand just for him, changed into one of her many pairs of baggy ripped jeans, and jammed on her baggy purple T-shirt before collapsing on the bed and not getting up for a very long time. 

 When Kate's hazel eyes finally opened, she heard a voice distant from the kitchen, calling out to Lucky, it seemed, but she didn't care. She yawned and stretched before checking her phone-eleven in the morning. She sighed and swung herself out of bed before entering the living room and finding Yelena, leaning against her kitchen counter and casually talking to Lucky, a frying pan steaming with scrambled eggs in one hand.