lol i forgot that i had to post this - i swear i'm gonna catch up!! enjoy this one tho
Anya glances at the clock on the oven.
8:56 sits proudly in blue numbers, and she sighs, looking back at the TV. It's playing an episode of How I Met Your Mother, Natasha's favorite show. She was hoping it'd make her feel better, but all she can think about is how much she misses her almost-moms.
(Almost only because she's scared to call them that.)
She finally decides to turn off the TV and gets up off the couch, lazily stretching her body out before walking to her room, Fanny and Lucky both following her. They've been staying here since Yelena was hospitalized - something she really doesn't want to think about, she remembers vaguely having a grandfather that died of cancer when she was younger and everyone was so sad. She doesn't want that again.
She doesn't bother to close the bed to her room, knowing the dogs like to float between different areas in the apartment, and instead just goes and lays right on her bed.
Absentmindedly, she wonders if Natasha and Wanda are coming home tonight. She thinks Wanda will, she has thus far, but Natasha's far more questionable in that department. And even when she is home, she's just wanting to go back to the hospital. It's exhausting.
Anya reaches under the bed and grabs the laptop that Wanda and Natasha bought her, flipping it open and immediately turning on music. She's sure if she's left alone any longer with her thoughts she might implode.
Halfway through her listening of RED (a Kate recommendation, naturally), she hears the front door open and Lucky immediately darts out of the room. Fanny, on the other hand, refuses to be bothered and keeps on sleeping, head lolled over the side of the beanbag and tail thumping in her sleep periodically.
Anya doesn't make an effort to move, either, knowing Natasha or Wanda would just come in anyway, and turns her music down in preparation.
Sure enough, she hears a knock on the doorjamb and rolls over, glancing at the intruder.
"Hey," Wanda smiles softly, "can I come in?"
Anya nods, moving over on her bed and making sure her laptop has enough room where it won't fall.
Wanda sits on the bed, crossing her legs and letting out a surprised noise when Lucky launches himself on to the bed and practically into her lap.
She runs her fingers through his fur, "Did you eat dinner?"
Anya shakes her head, "They're fed. I wasn't hungry."
"That's what Nat says," Wanda points out, "she insists she wasn't hungry, but it turns out, she's too lazy to make anything for herself."
Well, maybe Anya didn't need to get called out exactly like that...
"Where is Nat?" Anya switches the topic, absentmindedly running a hand through her hair as she sits up.
"She'll be home in an hour, tops. Or, she better be, because I'll rip her out of that hospital myself if she isn't," Wanda responds with a hint of annoyance in her voice. It's unsettling, Anya doesn't like the idea of them fighting.
"Isn't Yelena starting chemo tomorrow?" Anya asks softly. She's sure that Yelena's chemo is going to keep them at the hospital even more and she's kind of over being alone.
"Yes... Nat wants to leave early to see her, but..." Wanda tilts her head, as if she's trying to piece together what she wants to say, "you know when you first moved in with us, you spent a lot of time alone because you weren't used to spending so much time with other people?"
Anya nods. She remembers vividly how overwhelming it was to go from no one worrying about her to pretty much being someone's kid for the first time in eight years.
Wanda nods, "Yelena's been on her own for most of her life. Now she has everyone in her life worrying and hovering... so I've noticed that she's starting to get overwhelmed. I'm... anticipating a reaction."
"So Nat's gonna be grouchy," Anya summarizes, fiddling with her fingers, "great."
"She's always kind of grouchy," Wanda teases before patting the bed, "Alright, c'mon. We're making something for a very belated dinner, and then we're gonna watch Frozen."
Since moving in with Natasha and Wanda, Wanda discovered that Anya hasn't seen a lot of Disney movies and made it her mission to have her watch all of them (or at least, the good ones). Anya thinks it's good for both of them.
Natasha joins on occasion, but she much prefers James Bond movies and anything with explosions, which aren't exactly Anya's favorites. She wishes she and Natasha had more in common.
"Nat's not gonna like Frozen," Anya points out, getting up off the bed and following Wanda into the kitchen.
"Would you want to watch something else instead?" Wanda asks, and Anya shrugs.
Wanda hums, "Think about it. We have some time. Until then, though..."
She opens the fridge, moving over slightly so Anya can see from where she's leaning over the island, "What to eat..."
-
"How's Yelena?"
Kate sighs, "She's okay. She's starting chemo today."
"God, Kate, I'm so sorry," Peter replies, "Spring break is in a couple of weeks, I'll come visit you guys."
"She's not going to be in a good mood," Kate responds, watching as Peter shifts uneasily on the FaceTime call, "I was doing research the other night and most people start losing their hair two to four weeks in. She also told me that Isabel recommended shaving it herself so she'd be in control, but... I don't know, Peter."
"Yeah..." Peter huffs, "Do you want me to change the topic?"
"Sure," Kate sits back a little in her chair, "What's going on in the world of Peter Parker?"
"Well," he pulls out a little contraption, "Mr. Stark was teaching me about robot AIs during winter break, so this is the motherboard for what will hopefully become my own robot AI."
"That sounds like the beginning of a horror movie," Kate retorts, eyeing it cautiously. It's basically just a tangle of wires, but she doesn't really care to fuck with intelligent robots.
"It kind of is," Peter shrugs, "Mr. Stark's been doing it for years, though."
"You're talking about the man that created Ultron. Who, I don't know if you remember, killed Wanda's brother and an entire city," Kate points out, snorting when Peter puts the toy away.
"He makes the mistakes, I learn from them," he explains dumbly, "anyway, how's Anya? I'm excited to meet her next month."
"She's good," Kate says, "I think she's freaked out about Yelena, but she's a widow, so she's kept a cool head about all of it. That or she's like me and bottling everything up until it explodes, which... also plausible."
"Ah," Peter nods, "And you? I don't know how well you can be doing when your girlfriend-"
"She's not my girlfriend."
"Oh yeah, because cuddling and kissing is totally platonic," Peter retorts sarcastically, "anyway, are you good?"
"I'm fine," Kate says dismissively, "I'm not drinking, I've been spending time with Yelena... I'm fine."
"You've set a low bar for yourself," Peter points out this time, "how about Charlie? Talked to them recently? It could be a nice change of pace."
Kate bites back a comment about the obvious exhaustion writ over Peter's face and responds instead with, "Yeah, actually, I'm meeting them in a little bit to get something to eat. Lena doesn't want too many people around today and Nat's already at the hospital."
"That's good!" Peter smiles, "Well, not the hospital part... but seeing Charlie! When do you have to go?"
"Soon," Kate responds, glancing around her too quiet apartment. She should've grabbed Lucky last night on her way home.
"Alright, I'm gonna let you do that, then," Peter says, "I have class anyway. Bye Kate!"
"Bye Peter," Kate manages a small smile before hanging up, fully throwing her head back and groaning when the call officially ends.
Charlie was the one that reached out to her, a simple message about not seeing each other in a while. Kate knows it's been some time, she didn't mean it, but she got caught up in Yelena being back home and now with Yelena's diagnosis it fully fell through the cracks.
Begrudgingly, she gets up and changes into fresh jeans and a warm hoodie, smoothing out her outfit before pulling on a pair of docs. She ties her hair up into a ponytail and fully decides to ignore her makeup in favor of not being more stressed than she already is.
She puts her phone in her pocket, checks her watch to make sure she's on time, and finally grabs her keys, slinging the lanyard that holds them around her neck before threatening that underneath her hoodie. She checks herself in the mirror one last time and hopes that the tiredness can be an explanation in itself without making her look downright depressed.
She can't be depressed about this already, it's barely been a week. She needs to be okay for Yelena.
She heads out of the apartment, flicking off lights and leaving the one right on the inside of the front door on (something her mother always did and she inadvertently picked up).
The walk to the diner is short, only two blocks, and when she gets there, she sees Charlie stood outside, scrolling through something on their phone.
"Hey!"
Charlie looks up and a smile immediately crosses their face, "Hey, Kate."
Kate hugs them quickly, "How've you been? I'm so sorry for not calling, I've been... I mean, I can tell you now or tell you when we get in. I swear, I'm normally better at being friends with people than this."
"It's okay," Charlie assures her, "I've been busy too, don't worry about it."
"Okay," Kate nods, "Um, we should head in."
"Yeah," Charlie leads, making sure to hold the door open behind themself and quickly requesting a table for two.
The diner is relatively empty, but busy enough where Kate knows there's going to be a little bit of a wait for food.
They're sat in a booth and handed menus with the promise of ice water coming soon.
Kate looks over the menu, suddenly remembering how much she hates diners. They have so many options and are too unreliable. She decides then and there on chicken tenders with fries and a chocolate shake, hoping it'll help her spirits a little bit.
"Do you know what you want?" Charlie asks.
"Yeah, I'm set," Kate nods, "Anyway... it's been a minute."
"Yeah," Charlie nods, "I think the last time we talked, your ex girlfriend had just come back into your life."
Kate wants to scream at the word girlfriend. Had it not been for this stupid cancer, she would've had Yelena back by now. It's not fair. It's not fair that Yelena's sick, it's not fair that they're still separated, nothing's fair.
"Um... yeah, she's back," Kate taps against the cover of the menu, "I think you mentioned something about your boss potentially finding a new office building the last time we talked."
"Oh... she shelved that," Charlie responds with a little laugh, "It was a pipe dream anyway. Our situation right now is super good and it's close to my place, so I have no complaints."
"I wouldn't either," Kate says, "well, if I had a job. I still haven't fucking done that."
"Have you applied?"
"No," Kate shakes her head, "I... god, I should've kept up with you. So... Yelena and I reconnected in Iowa a month ago and it's been really good. Like... really good. We were even having sleepovers and it felt really good again."
Kate trails off and Charlie gives her a knowing look, "There's a but."
Kate sucks in a breath, "But... Yelena got diagnosed with stage two osteosarcoma in her knee. She... has cancer."
Charlie's fae drops, "Holy shit, Kate... I'm so sorry."
Kate shrugs, not knowing what to say. She wants to assure Charlie that it's okay, Yelena's going to be okay, the amount of people that overcome this kind of cancer is high enough where it's more about treatment than it is about any immenent death, but it's not okay. It's not okay. It's horrible. Her best friend, the woman she loves, her other half has cancer.
"It was caught early," Kate finds herself reciting, "she's going to be okay. Not for a while, but she'll come out on the other end. She always does."
Charlie's quiet and the hairs on Kate's arms stand tall with nerves.
"My mom had breast cancer," Charlie says after a minute, "She... she fought for a long time."
Kate's heart sinks, "Charlie..."
"It's been a long time," Charlie dismisses, "She's looking down on me and she's proud. That's all that matters."
Kate nods.
"It's actually what started my realization with gender," Charlie says with a wistful smile, "I was getting really regular checks for cancer and I fucking hated it because I hated having breasts, and then it all kind of spiraled from there..." Charlie shrugs, "Now they're chopped off, and I still get checked because I'm paranoid, but, in a way, it's good that it happened. I'm much happier now, even though I miss my mom more than anything."
"Can't relate," Kate responds dryly. She doesn't mean to say it, it kind of just fell out of her mouth, but Charlie snorts, and before long, they're both laughing.
It's fucked up, it feels fucked up and Kate knows that everything kind of sucks, but it feels good to laugh a little bit.
There's still a pit in her stomach about Yelena, though, and Kate knows it's not leaving anytime soon.