idk if you wanted angst but here
When Kate wakes up alone in bed the next morning, she can't say that she's surprised. She likes to consider herself an early riser, but Yelena rises even earlier. Only difference to this morning is that she didn't stay with Kate.
She knows Yelena's more than capable of taking care of herself, so she just stretches in bed, contemplating if she wants to spend an hour on her phone or go eat something.
Her stomach is quick to answer that question, growling painfully. She groans, sitting up and turning the AC up a little bit. Yelena must've turned it down overnight because it's freezing in here.
She heads downstairs, barely surprised when she sees Laura already nursing a cup of coffee. She is surprised, however, when she sees Wanda standing in the kitchen and leaning over the island, flipping through a cookbook.
"Morning, Kate," Laura greets with a small tired smile, "how'd you sleep?"
"Good," Kate replies shortly, curiosity piqued by whatever Wanda's doing. She gets herself orange juice out of the fridge instead of asking anything being that Wanda seems to be lost in her little world.
"Plan on eating anything?" Laura asks as Kate downs almost half a glass. She's giving her a mom-glare and Kate can't help but be reminded of Yelena's comment about Clint and Laura treating her like one of their kids. "You can't just live on orange juice."
As much as she's tempted to respond with watch me , she bites back her response and shrugs, "I don't think you want me cooking, to be honest."
"Do you want me to cook you something?" Laura questions, looking a little too ready to help her out.
"No! It's fine. Relax," Kate assures her, "I'll just wait for Lena to get back. Or I can go out and get something."
"Kate, we have plenty of food," Laura says, sipping on her coffee, "Plus, Wanda's a good cook."
"What about me?" the witch looks up from the cookbook at them, obviously a little taken aback.
"You're a good cook," Laura responds, elbows resting on the table as she talks, "and Kate's hungry."
"I did want to make pancakes," Wanda admits, absentmindedly letting her magic twirl between her fingers. Kate's noticed that that's something Wanda does a lot. "I haven't made them in such a long time and you have fresh blueberries that I thought would fit really well."
"That sounds really good," Kate points out, putting her now empty cup in the sink, "Do that."
"You know, you're very demanding," Laura points out, a little smile on her lips as she goes to take a sip of her coffee again.
"Rich kid syndrome," Wanda comments, catching Kate a little off guard. She doesn't reply, though, knowing Wanda's right.
"What're you doing here?" Kate blurts out, immediately covering her mouth and feeling her face heat up when she realizes what she said. "Oh my god. I didn't mean it like that. I meant... I mean, you have a house. Why are you cooking us food here?"
Wanda chuckles, grabbing blueberries, milk, and eggs out of the fridge, "Believe it or not, but a vacant house doesn't exactly have stuff in the cupboards. And I'm capable of a lot, but it turns out making food appear is a lot harder than it seems."
"You two are going to need a car," Laura chimes in and Wanda nods in agreement.
"Natasha knows I hate motorcycles, so I really hope she planned some kind of work-around," she says, moving some of the ingredients around with her magic and grabbing a bowl out of the cupboard.
"Why exactly can't you just... wiggly-woo your groceries?" Kate asks, confused. From everything she read online, Wanda's powers are limitless. Maybe this is her sign to stop believing everything on the internet.
Wanda shrugs, "I could when I was in... the hex ... I was capable of a lot more in that realm. But here? It seems to have reduced in a way to what I was capable of before all of that, just more intense. And my hearing is dialed to like, eleven, kind of what Peter experiences with his tingle, but just... more invasive, I guess, because it's not louder, I just hear people's thoughts all the time."
Wanda had heard all about the tingle when Peter met her, and Kate had never been more confused while watching two people conversate. It was like they were speaking a different language.
"Didn't you say that you were working on filtering them?" Laura chimes in, and Wanda nods slowly.
"Yeah," she starts stirring the pancake batter with her magic and it's almost mindblowing how easy it seems to be for her. "I can't hear your guys' thoughts, for example, but... yesterday when Yelena and Nat were arguing, I could hear all of that and their thoughts and it gave me a migraine."
"That's so cool!" Kate blurts out, and she quickly closes her mouth, "I'm sorry. I... sometimes my mouth runs a little faster than my brain. I more meant... it's fascinating, you know? I can't imagine, all I got is like normal-people stuff, so... yeah..." she trails off, not knowing how to save herself from this one.
She should really learn how to shut up.
"It's okay, Kate," Wanda assures her, and Kate nods, a little speechless.
"Kate, come sit over here," Laura coaxes, "watching Wanda's a lot of fun, promise."
"Or helping," Wanda points out, checking the pancake batter before finally stirring in the blueberries, "I know you said you're bad at cooking, but I think with a little bit of supervision you can't screw too much up."
"That too," Laura agrees, getting up from her seat to pour some more coffee in her mug, "Wanda, pass me the milk, please?"
Wanda brings the milk over, confusing Kate again, because why walk when you can move stuff with your mind, but she avoids letting any words escape her mouth this time. She's already embarrassed herself enough this morning.
"I don't think I can... I'm really not good with cooking," she finally answers, "I'm good with kids, though! Learned that from being here."
"Might as well learn this, too," Wanda says, "I'll be here if anything happens, promise."
Kate finally agrees, "Fine. But if I burn down this house, Clint better not find out. I really like learning from him."
"Believe me, Kate, I think he's convinced that you're his second daughter. You're not going anywhere," Laura replies lightly, a little smile on her lips.
Kate swallows, not wanting to lose her chill at all, but she can barely help it. She would never believe it six months ago if she was told Clint would think of her as a daughter. What is she supposed to do with that?
"Um... cooking," Kate blows past it instead, "pancakes. Where do we start?"
-
Yelena goes for a run by herself that morning.
She tells herself it's because she wants Kate to have her beauty sleep and not whine about being tired at two in the afternoon, but selfishly, she thinks it's because she needs to have some time by herself.
Yelena was alone for most of her life even though she was surrounded by people, but being completely alone is something she learned to take comfort in. It gives her time to think and work things out in ways without anyone's input.
Granted, she's learned recently that having people around is actually helpful, but old habits die hard, as Kate Bishop says.
She doesn't know how she's going to deal with Natasha being around until she and Kate leave in August to go see Peter for his birthday, at this point she's just convinced that she should leave early and be home with Fanny and Lucky and her mac n cheese. Sounds like paradise.
She's brought out of her daydreaming when she hears something rustle in the woods, almost like someone's around and crunching leaves. Whoever thought the woods was a good place to hide from anything must've been an idiot, the place is so noisy.
"If anyone is out there, you are best to just reveal yourself!" She calls out, suddenly regretting listening to Kate. Kate insisted yesterday that they didn't need weapons, they're in the middle of the woods, but she seems to be wrong, because someone else is out here.
Luckily, she doesn't need weapons to apprehend someone (or kill someone), but she definitely prefers having that leg up.
"It's just me, calm down."
Yelena turns around and rolls her eyes when she sees Natasha emerge from a couple of trees. She immediately turns back around, jogging in the other direction. She's really not looking to talk with anyone right now. Especially not Natasha.
"Hey!" Natasha runs up behind her, stopping Yelena and turning her around to face her, "I just wanna talk."
"I do not want to talk to you," Yelena retorts, half-prepared to knock Natasha on her ass with her water bottle. It's full, too, so it's a pretty good weapon in her opinion.
"You don't have to talk," Natasha replies, giving her that older-sister glare that makes Yelena want to smack her across the face.
"Такая чертова неприятность," she mumbles to herself, turning back around and walking off. (Such a fucking nuisance.)
"Я могу понять вас!" Natasha yells after her, running up behind her again, "Stop walking away." (I can understand you!)
"Трудно сказать, твой русский — дерьмо," Yelena retorts sharply, making Natasha give her another look. This one reads more as frustration, but Yelena doesn't linger on it long enough to figure that out. (Hard to tell, your Russian's kind of shit.)
"Why are you being such an asshole?" Natasha asks, offended.
"Jesus Christ, Natasha, for a Black Widow that was trained to read people, you sure are dense," Yelena finally stops, glaring at her sister, "I'm cutting to the end. You're just gonna fucking leave me again, so I'm doing it now. Fuck off and let me have my run in peace."
"I'm not going anywhere this time, Yelena!" Natasha yells, grabbing her wrist, "Feel me? I'm real. I am not going anywhere! Talk to me so we can get over this and go back to normal, please!"
"What normal , Natasha?" Yelena snaps back, freeing her wrist of Natasha's grasp, "What is normal ? Nothing about our lives is fucking normal."
Natasha bites her lip and goes quiet, so Yelena starts jogging again, really just wanting to get as far away from Natasha as possible. What about wanting to be alone does no one in her life seem to understand?
"Fine, not normal," Natasha's at her side again and Yelena just keeps jogging, hoping at some point Natasha will give up.
"I want to know you, Yelena," Natasha continues, "I want to be close again and know your life and be your sister again. And I want to involve you with my life because I'm sure as hell going to live it this time to the fullest. I don't want to leave you again."
"Where was this when you were throwing yourself off a cliff?" Yelena fumes, anger rushing through her veins again. She really shouldn't be having this conversation, yet here she is. "Seriously. Did you give a shit about the girlfriend that you left with no one or the sister that you left with no one or any of the other bullshit that happened? Because I came back and now all I have is Kate and our dogs."
"And me ."
"For how long? There are lots of cliffs in this world, Natasha," Yelena slows to a stop, sweat making her skin sticky and itchy and her throat begging for water. "Come on. Who's to say you don't just fucking throw yourself in front of bullets for the betterment of a world that didn't give a shit when you died?"
"I do!" Natasha yelled, her voice catching Yelena off guard, "I'm not avenging anymore, Yelena! I'm serious about moving on, I want to live my life as normally as possible with Wanda and not keep fighting. Fighting is exhausting ."
Yelena steps back, staring hard at Natasha and gripping her water bottle so tight that it hurts every tendon in her fingers.
"How am I supposed to trust you?"
Natasha's face flashes through sixty different emotions and Yelena still can't get a clear read when it settles. She looks so unbelievably frustrated but she also looks to be on the verge of tears.
"I love you, Yelena! Why can't that be enough?"
"It hasn't been enough in the past!" Yelena retaliates, clenching her free fist, "How the hell am I supposed to trust you when you've let me down so many times?"
Natasha finally seems to break, looking away and back toward where she came from. The tension in the air is so thick that it's almost suffocating.
"What do you need?" Natasha finally asks quietly.
The air in Yelena's lungs all seems to disappear and she almost chokes. She takes a deep breath and can't help but feel a little overwhelmed. The countless amount of decisions she now gets to make can't help but hate it sometimes.
She finally finds the words, "I need time," but they die on her lips. Every time she's wanted more time in this world, it's given her a cold reminder that time is constantly fleeting.
Instead, "I need you to leave me alone."
A deep breath. An expression Yelena has a hard time reading. A stare.
And then finally, "Okay."