watched as you signed your name "alexandra"

your hair falling into place like dominos

welcome to this new fic! it's existed for a while but now it is finally on this app, so, whoopdeedoo! i meant to post this initially on wednesday but i forgot, oops. it'll be out every wednesday henceforth though. anyway, let's get on with it. welcome to watched as you signed your name "florence."

"Alexandra's performance in that movie was crazy, Beth, I still can't believe that you haven't seen it."

Kate hums, not really listening to the woman on the other end, Sadie, her best friend from her last project, Dickinson. To be fair, she tunes out most things when they come to Alexandra Vostokoff - aka the most deceitful human being ever. Alexandra Vostokoff, known in the spy circles as Yelena Belova, is the woman that Kate has been tracking for the past six years.

She has an affiliation with Russia, which the US Government already doesn't like, and she's not using her birth name in the public eye, which is what finally inclined SHIELD to put eyes on her. They're suspicious of foul play even though Kate's found virtually nothing of the sort.

(Maybe that'll change with the movie that they're starring in together.)

"Y'know, it'll be streaming on HBO soon."

Kate nods. She'll get to whatever Ella's talking about soon. Well, probably not.

"Beth, it's kind of dumb to meet this girl and never have seen anything that she's been in," Sadie tells her, and Kate shrugs.

"I saw that one movie," Kate says distractedly, much more focused on the fact that she's trying to break through Yelena's insane firewall right now. No wonder she can't find anything, it's hidden behind every encryption ever known.

"That's specific," Sadie comments.

Kate rolls her eyes, "It was the scary one. With the flower cult and the orgies."

"Midsommar?" Sadie sounds offended and Kate kind of wants to ask what her point is because there's no reason she should care this much about Alexandra Vostokoff. She is nothing special. "That flower cult movie was great, for your information."

"I believe you," Kate replies begrudgingly, getting more irritated the more she scrolls through the code and finds no way in. God, she hates this.

What does Yelena know? Why can't she just tell her?

"...watch it, you'll love it," Sadie rambles on and Kate sighs.

What's going to happen when the world finds out that their beloved Alexandra Vostokoff is a Russian super-spy that's helping her organization manipulate western media? She's been doing too good of a job weaseling her way into people's hearts and becoming this darling, even getting herself a boyfriend. Cynically, Kate wonders if he knows or if she keeps her life as private as Kate keeps her own.

Seriously, Sadie doesn't even know that Beth is anything but another actress.

"You're not listening," Sadie finally comments, and Kate's stomach twists uncomfortably.

"I'm sorry," Kate runs a hand through her hair, "Just... long day, you know?"

"Yeah, okay," Ella hums, "I'm gonna go make dinner. Talk to you later Beth."

It's Kate dies on her lips.

"Talk to you later," she says instead, hanging up. She sits back on the couch, head pounding. She can't keep reading this fucking code and she really can't sit in the silence.

Sadie's ramblings about the deceitful blonde stick in her head and she finally turns on the TV, opens YouTube, and mumbles "Alexandra Vostokoff" into the voice-controlled remote.