Summary: Yelena pressed her forehead to the gravestone, wishing more than anything that instead of hardened, cold concrete that there would be her soft, forgiving skin there instead. And so, she finally collected her courage, whistling their signature tune. There was silence. She started to get up, but then she heard it. The definitive returning whistle.
A/N: A fix-it fic for Black Widow's ending. Keep it mind I haven't watched the movie yet, but I've seen enough spoilers to get a pretty good idea of what's going on 😉 ( I think) Sorry if the stuff about the soul stone isn't accurate. I'm making my own happy ending here 😂😂😂
Yelena pressed her forehead to the gravestone, wishing more than anything that instead of hardened, cold concrete that there would be her soft, forgiving skin there instead. But it was not to be. There was nothing there but the roughness of the stone, and it was most certainly not her warmth.
She knew it was hopeless. This gravestone could never give her the comfort that she so desired, craved, and needed from her. And so, she finally collected her courage, whistling their signature tune.
There was silence. She had expected the quiet, but expectations made it no less painful than it would have been if she had not known. It still stabbed at her heart, and her heart was still bleeding love and pain from the invisible wounds.
She started to get up, but she heard it. The definitive returning whistle. Yelena froze, her muscles tensing almost violently as she waited carefully. Some part of her was terrified to turn and look behind her. Widows were not intended to feel such fear, but this was deep rooted in pain, grief, and love.
She swallowed hard, turning her head slowly as she looked behind her, reaching for the concealed gun she had in her pants. She did not know how anyone could know their whistle, but she was definitely not going to assume the person had good intentions.
However, when she was turned around, on her feet and looking directly behind her, she almost dropped the knife as she gaped at who was standing there looking back at her.
It was her.
The person that meant the most to her. The person who she had cried for weeks and weeks over. The person who owned all the things in the room that Yelena curled up in every night, her nose stuffed in the vest with all the pockets because it smelled like her. The person she hated for leaving her and that she wanted to hit and kick and squeeze the life out of. The person that she always loved so fiercely and cared about more than anything on the entire earth and just wanted to stuff her nose in her neck and breathe her scent when it's fresh and not on a stupid piece of clothing.
Yelena almost did not believe it. It was a trick of the eye. Perhaps she had finally went insane and this was some sort of bittersweet respite that her mind constructed for her.
Or what if it was someone sent to trick her and eliminate her?
Her hands tightened a little on the gun at that thought. It seemed much more probable than any other explanation that she had come up with. And it surely to goodness could not be what it actually appeared to be. Yelena had searched for the Avengers, spoke to them, angrily demanded a way to get her back. It was how that, out of pity, they had sent all of Natasha's things to Yelena's place where she was now so that Yelena could fill her room with her scent and some semblance of her being.
They had said that nothing could be done for her.
So this person before her could not be the person that she thought it was. Even though she had that same stupid love and guilt in her pretty green eyes that she had always had as she stared Yelena down.
"Yelena?"
It was her voice, too. Which was making it really hard to keep her guard up when she so badly wanted it all to be true.
But, she reminded herself, the voice could be a result of enhanced voice changing technology.
"Who sent you here?" Yelena questioned, and it suddenly came into her mind that she was very likely about to have a battle to the death right in front of her grave. Which sent a flare of anger rising in Yelena. No one would disrespect her grave like that.
The eyes of the woman before her softened into a strange expression of knowing and a small amount of hurt with a large amount of guilt.
"It's me," the woman spoke, her voice sincere and husky in such a painfully familiar manner. Yelena swallowed, her heart aching and wishing that she could believe the woman standing in front of her.
"No, it's not," Yelena's voice cracked a bit against her will as she tried to force too much strength in it. Strength that was entirely artificial and coming from a place that she quite simply did not have alight inside of herself at this moment.
"It's me," the woman still argued, and Yelena swallowed, lifting her chin a bit in defiance.
"Prove it," Yelena challenged, and the other woman let the smallest of smiles tug at the corners of her lips. Yelena kept a close eye on her as she stood a yard or two away from her.
"When we were kids, I'd protect you from anyone that dared even give you what I thought was a wrong glance on the playground. I ended up in the principle's office for giving a boy a broken nose one time," the woman expressed, and Yelena just watched her.
"You used to always end up in my bed every single night, your head on my chest and your arm around my waist most of the time. And every morning whether you slept close or not, you'd wake up somehow without any blankets and complain that I stole them all," she spoke, taking one step closer. Yelena's hold on the gun was faltering just a little. No one really knew about that outside of a few people. However, she was not letting her guard down just yet.
"We'd play the upside-down game and see who'd hold out the longest. A lot of times, I'd fall first to let you win because you always got the biggest smile on your face when you beat me," she said, and Yelena felt herself weakening. Something about one of the most precious moments of her childhood and the fact that this woman seemed to know about it made her weaker.
"You've always wanted a dog. You asked me if I wanted kids, and I didn't answer, and you said you wanted a dog," the redhead breathed out a small laugh, her eyes never leaving Yelena's as she walked a little closer. Yelena felt herself softening. Could it really be...?
"We also played the dog game where I got on my hands and knees and pretended to be a dog. I hated it, but I did it to see you laugh," the woman added to her previous statement.
"You scrunch your nose in your sleep when you're dreaming about things," she said, and Yelena wanted to argue, but she remembered that fact had been pointed out by her before she left.
"You hate the smell of blood but you're used to it," she pointed out, and Yelena felt tears prickling at her eyes as the woman just further proved her true identity.
"Your favorite song is 'American Pie.'"
"You're obsessed with clothes that have lots of pockets," she spoke, looking at Yelena with nothing but the warmest of emotion as she stepped nearer.
"And you forgave me for some reason even though I didn't deserve it. I didn't deserve you," the redhead spoke, her eyes locked firmly on Yelena's as she moved so close that the gun pressed against the left side of the woman's chest.
"I never got a chance to tell you how much I love you before I left." Yelena's vision was almost completely clouded by tears at this point, and the woman before her just kept staring her down patiently, intense love in her eyes that Yelena honestly was not entirely sure how to handle.
Yelena hesitantly lowered the gun, her hand faltering mid-lower, but she finally let it drop to her side. She just stared at the other woman, and as the tears started to spill down her cheeks, she just dropped the gun and surged forward, grabbing the woman before her so tightly that it almost seemed like a death grip. She felt her wrap her arms around her just as tightly and kiss the side of her head before bringing her hand up and cradling the back of Yelena's head in her hand.
"Natalia," Yelena brokenly spoke, breathing deeply and sharply in-between sobs. The smell was there, the voice was there, the way she held her was there. Everything was just so innately her sister that it almost overwhelmed Yelena.
"Yelena," she whispered in reply, and Yelena shifted her head and pressed her nose into her Natasha's shoulder and sucked in a big breath despite the cough that inevitably came as a result of all of the wateriness running down her throat and out of her nose. It was disgusting, but she could not bring herself to care right now. The one person that she needed in her life was there in her arms, and that truly lovely smell of warm sweat, slight vanilla shampoo and something so innately Natasha flooded over Yelena.
"They said they couldn't bring you back," Yelena ground out, her voice shaky as a harsh sob broke the end of her statement.
"They thought they couldn't. A soul for the stone was the requirement. They worked around it, and they ended up making another trade."
"Who gave their life?" Yelena questioned. It might have sounded awful, but Yelena did not really care who had to give their life to bring back her big sister. She needed her and it did not particularly matter to her how she was brought back to her.
"No one gave their life... The stone was given back now that the biggest threats in the galaxy have been neutralized and now that the Avengers can set up defenses there to block any potential seekers of the stone. The stone was given for a soul to return," Natasha explained, and Yelena felt a bit guilty about her disregard for other's lives. But mostly, she just felt intense comfort from the person that was holding her so tightly.
Natasha started to try to pull away, her hands moving up to attempt to cup Yelena's face. However, Yelena did not let go of her. She firmly remained there against her, not wanting to let her go. She never wanted to let her go ever again. And she did not want Natasha to let her go again either.
"Promise me you'll never leave me again," Yelena mumbled very quietly almost before she could control the words. However, she was so relieved and overcome with love and vulnerability at the moment that she could not stop herself or even feel too horribly ashamed.
"I promise," Natasha spoke, and Yelena could hear the resolved confidence in her voice. Yelena just hugged her tightly, squishing her lips and nose hard against Natasha's shoulder as she just tried to feel her and give herself some reassurance.
Natasha seemed to recognize this need, and she ran her hands up and down Yelena's back soothingly, her chin rested on Yelena's shoulder as she just let the younger girl cling on with every bit of strength left in her.
"I can't believe you're here," Yelena murmured, and she could feel Natasha's smile.
"Me neither." Yelena repositioned her face so that it was buried in Natasha's neck and she could just get a better connection between skins. Her sister's hair was tickling at her face and was sticking to the parts of her face that were soaking wet from tears, but it was nicer than anything Yelena had felt since the last time her sister had hugged her.
"I missed you," Natasha admitted, and Yelena just shook her head, pushing as tightly against Natasha as she could possibly manage.
"I missed you more," Yelena spoke against Natasha's neck, just embracing her for a while longer.
Finally, after quite some time, Natasha started to pull away carefully, and Yelena still did not want to let go, but she slowly released her tight hold and let Natasha withdraw from her. The older woman then took the opportunity to cup Yelena's face in her hands, just looking at her.
"When I was there... In the soul stone... All I could think about was you and if there was any way for me to get back to you somehow," Natasha spoke, her voice low and somewhat scratchy, and Yelena could see the tears in her eyes as she searched Yelena's gaze. Yelena was currently much too focused on melting into the touch that she was being offered to really respond appropriately.
"I am so glad there was a way, sestra," Natasha expressed, her voice full of love, and Yelena sniffled hopelessly, trying to get ahold of herself. She was way too emotional right now, but she could not entirely bring herself to be too upset over it.
Yelena shut her eyes tightly before swallowing and reopening her eyes to gaze at her sister with unbridled adoration but also some mischief now that she felt much more secure in her sister's hold.
"Careful... You're starting to sound like the main character from a cheesy movie," Yelena joked with her accent thickening as her emotions got the better of her. Her voice was much too gentle and her head was too heavily leaning into Natasha's grip for Natasha to take her quip too seriously.
Natasha chuckled a bit, looking down at the ground before returning her gaze to meet Yelena's.
"You're such a little turd."
"Just trying to match up with you for going and dying on me," Yelena spoke, her voice cracking just a tiny bit as the memory resurfaced within her freshly.
"You're my little turd," Natasha quietly told her, her voice low and almost near silent. It was almost like a secret, something intended just for Yelena to hear and said in a manner that seemed almost as if there were others around to hear her. And quite obviously, there was no one else there with them.
"I love you," Yelena admitted, her eyes locking firmly with Natasha's and the redhead smiled.
"I love you, too, little one."