Kate Bishop enjoys a relaxed and well deserved Christmas with the Barton family and stays with them into the new year. But once she returns home to New York, she finds that someone had been waiting for her to get back from her holiday vacation.
A ce...
The assassin and her dog sit there for a few silent minutes, foreheads pressed together and Fanny's tail swishing happily.
"Good morning," comes Kate's voice from the stairs, small and shy and rough with sleep. Yelena feels a jolt of heat go down her spine when she turns and sees Kate with a rumpled bed head, and she curses inwardly. Why was the bed head adorable?
"Good morning," Yelena replies, her own voice an octave higher than usual. They exchange a small smile, but neither can hold up the eye contact for long before feeling like they're going to explode.
Dear god, had it really only been five days since Kate arrived back in New York? It felt so much longer to Yelena; more like a lifetime. She finds it ironic that the Blip had taken five years of her life in what felt like only a moment, but here, in New York City with Kate Bishop, it felt nearly impossible to accept that everything that had already happened had only taken up the course of less than a week.
"I'm kinda feelin' sugar cereal for breakfast," Kate calls out from the kitchen. Yelena gets off of the couch and walks over to the archer, looking over the small array of boxes she had laid out.
"Don't want my food anymore, Kate Bishop?" Yelena says jokingly, her usual snark gone as she leans her hip against the counter.
Kate shrugs. "You probably make the best stuff I've ever tasted," she says, "but maybe you'd like a break from cooking sometimes?"
Yelena hums, giving a small, appreciative nod and picking one of the brightly colored boxes up. "Lucky Charms. What's with the little man on the front? I do not trust him."
Kate laughs and taps the box, Yelena's puzzlement breaking the awkwardness momentarily. "He's the leprechaun! He leads you to the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow."
Yelena makes a face at the character. "The only pot of anything I'm going to the end of a rainbow for is my mama's mac-n-cheese."
Kate grabs the Fruity Pebbles, a bowl and spoon, and the milk before heading to the table. "Taste the rainbow, Yelena. Taste the fucking rainbow."
"Even I know that's a different thing, Kate Bishop. Company slogans are ridiculous, but skittles are impossible to avoid in this world."
"Do you like skittles?"
Yelena sits on the other side of Kate and ignores how empty the space between them feels as she pours herself a bowl. "When I was little, yes. They just hurt my mouth now."
"Old."
Yelena raises an eyebrow and puts her spoon down after a moment. "How old do you think I am, exactly, Kate Bishop?" she inquires, resting her arms on the table and leaning forward.
Kate's eyes widen and she quickly swallows the cereal in her mouth. "Um. That is a real good question."
Yelena just stares at her, unimpressed.
"25?" the archer guesses weakly, already flinching as if she knows she's incredibly off the mark.
Yelena shakes her head, amused. "30. Technically 35, if you do not count the Blip."
To say that Kate's jaw dropped would be a vast understatement; it basically hit the floor. She just stared for a second, her mind going in seven different directions at once, all of which were fruitless and too crazy to understand.
Holy shit. Yelena was 30? That would make her eight years older than Kate's 22- and if she hadn't been dusted, Kate would've been flirting with a 35-year-old- this whole time, probably without realizing. 30. That was- that was...
Goddamnit- who was she kidding? That was hot.
"Wow," Kate squeaks, her tongue feeling thick in her mouth as heat curls in her stomach and down her spine. Since when has she had a thing for an age gap?
Since right fucking now.
"That's, uh- not what I was expecting."
Yelena smirks and tilts her head, raising an eyebrow. "Did you really think I was 25, Kate Bishop?"
"I- I thought it could be possible!" the archer defends, hyper aware of how red her cheeks must be. "All I've known is that you're older than me, but I never knew by how much."
Eight fucking years, Kate.
"Well, Kate Bishop, now you do," Yelena concedes, rolling her eyes in a way that should not be attractive before digging into her sugar cereal.
Kate can feel her cheeks and the tips of her ears burning furiously, and she clears her throat a few times before she feels like she can get words out around the jumbled, flustered mess that wants to spew from her lips. "Cool. Rad. Super. Awesome. We're winning."
WHY ARE YOU STILL TALKING?
She stuffs a spoonful of Fruity Pebbles into her mouth and prays to the universe that she can keep her lips shut before every thought is on display.
"Can we go sledding today?" Yelena suddenly asks, perking up as she finishes the last bite of her cereal and immediately pours another bowl.
Kate nods right away, already excited and grateful for the change in topic. "Sure! I know a really fun hill in Central Park that we could go to."
Yelena's grin is infectious, and she scarfs down her second and third bowl of Lucky Charms like it's the air she needs to breathe. Kate almost chokes on her own cereal just watching her. She can hear her phone dinging upstairs, but pointedly ignores it.
Eenie meenie minie moe Literally kill me rn I love them so much That didn't rhyme sue me Yeehaw I'm tired and sad can you tell
Translations: -Ты такая глупая, моя красивая девочка, и я люблю тебя больше всего на свете (Ty takaya glupaya, moya krasivaya devochka, i ya lyublyu tebya bol'she vsego na svete): You are so silly, my beautiful girl, and I love you more than anything in the world
Kate Bishop counter: 6
QOTD: have you ever dyed your hair? If so, how many times and what colors?
This chapter's meme:
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