Natasha moved in front of Eleanor after manoeuvring her, and threw the helicopter door open, the latter wincing slightly as the old metal made a grinding sound. Nat walked a few steps away before crouching down, Eleanor following and standing beside her after hopping out of the helicopter herself, in a calmer manner.
She had predicted it would crash, and she wanted to be the pettiest person on the planet and rub it in everyone's faces. But, after the ordeal they had all gone through today, she thought they deserved a little bit of peace without feeling rage bubble up inside them even further.
Besides, she didn't want to get a broken nose from it. Her teasing would just disgruntle Natasha, and she would likely block it out or give her a glare that was usually sent to members of the team before the group divorce. Yelena, however, was a different story. Eleanor didn't doubt that the blonde would punch her.
Without a petty display to disturb them, the group looked around the environment they had crash-landed in, not believing their luck. The sound of smoke billowing from the groaning engine really set the ambience.
It wasn't a bad place that they had crash-landed in. It could have been a hell of a lot worse if they had been over a populated area, especially because Natasha and Eleanor were still being hunted down. Luckily it was in a field, a vast one with lots of purple flowers that caught Eleanor's attention.
They're pretty, she thought to herself, a small smile residing on her lips as her fingers twitched, wanting to pluck some flowers but not thinking it was an appropriate moment.
The smile soon dropped when Alexei decided to open his mouth again. "You should've brought the Avengers superjet". At that, Nat gave him the dirtiest look she could muster before she stood and marched off in a huff, Yelena hot on their tail as they walked together, no doubt trash-talking the blithering idiot they had rescued.
Eleanor glowered at the man near her, before turning back to the flowers on the ground. The action she was about to take could be seen as a little juvenile, but she knew the randomness of it would cheer Nat up, so she tugged a few of the flowers away from their roots, clutching them gently in her hand as she trailed behind Alexei, who had started to jog to reach the others.
"Natasha, Natasha".
Eleanor gave a weary sigh, and Nat clearly didn't want to talk to him as she kept walking, but the man was relentless. "Come here, I want to ask you something". Nat eventually slowed to a halt and slowly walked with him.
Yelena continued her walk, so Eleanor gave a small smile of encouragement to her wife when their gazes briefly met, and Eleanor jogged past them to reach her sister-in-law. "Hey, you okay?".
With a hardened expression Yelena faced her, "Do I look okay?", she snapped in a harsh tone, before she felt her chest constrict with guilt when Eleanor's face dropped as she looked to the ground, mumbling an apology.
"I'm sorry", Yelena quickly added, "I know you're just being nice".
Eleanor looked up and gave a timid smile as the walk continued, "Don't worry about it, this is a hard situation, it's okay to not be okay in it". Yelena let out a breath she didn't know she was holding and looked back ahead of her, finding a moment of peace in her words.
Again, nothing like that could last long with Alexei around. "Wait. You haven't seen either one of us in twenty years and you're gonna ask me about you?", Natasha raised her voice and brought her walk to a standstill.
Eleanor and Yelena stopped to turn around, giving each other wary looks before looking back at the scene ahead of them, Alexei walking off to the side with his hands in his pockets. Eleanor's nose scrunched up slightly, anticipating a confrontation. She did not like confrontation. "What is with this tension? Did I do something wrong?".
Yelena chuckled humourlessly, running a hand over her face, and Eleanor just simply gave a deadpan look off to the side, breaking the fourth wall with whatever movie writers were planning out her life because recently everything had just been icing on top of the cake in the madness that she has had to live through.
"Is that a serious question?".
"I only ever loved you girls. I did my best to make sure you would succeed, to achieve your fullest potential, and everything worked out". Eleanor's head snapped back to face him, eyes widened.
Natasha too turned to face him, "Everything worked out?", she spoke incredulously.
"Yes! For you, yes. We accomplished our mission in Ohio", he started walking towards Yelena and Eleanor, prompting the older one to move back a few steps.
"Yelena, you went on to become the greatest child assassin the world has ever known. No one can match your efficiency, your ruthlessness. And Natasha", he turned to face the redhead, "Not just a spy, not just toppling regimes, destroying empires from within, but an Avenger".
The corner of Eleanor's lips had been slowly tugging down throughout his monologue until it looked like she had smelt something really bad. Those were not the compliments he thought he was giving.
"You both have killed so many people", he took hold of both of their wrists, waving them up and down slightly, "Your ledgers must be dripping, just gushing red. I couldn't be more proud of you", he pulled them in for a hug, and Natasha immediately grimaced and pulled away, glaring at him before walking off towards Eleanor, who was still standing further away from the rest of the group.
"I'm sorry", Eleanor cringed when Nat stood in front of her, arms crossed defensively as she sighed, "That was an absolute trainwreck". Nat could only nod and hum in agreement, this whole situation taking a toll. "Hey, it'll be okay, I promise", she smiled reassuringly and placed a hand on Nat's arm, "Plus I got you these magnificent flowers", she held them up in between them, trying to ignore how they already looked to be wilting.
A smirk formed on Nat's face, "You're pretty frickin' adorable you know that?", she took the flowers and gently stuffed the stems into her combat belt on her hip, securing the flowers in place.
"Says you", Eleanor chuckled and gestured at the flowers.
"Mmhm, come on", Nat smiled and took hold of Eleanor's hand and began to walk forward along the path, but they stopped abruptly, seeing Yelena standing a few metres away from them staring at them with disgust.
"You guys make me wanna throw up".
---
The group had been walking side by side for hours, the dusk was now among them it had been that long. Eleanor stood in between Nat and Yelena, with Alexei on the other side, as Natasha refused to let Eleanor walk alongside him, forcing her to be on her left side.
They were still hand in hand, not wanting to let go of each other, much to Yelena's dismay. Though Eleanor knew she was joking when her eyes crinkled a little bit when she bugged them about it at the start of the walk.
"So, are we there yet?", Yelena asked in reference to Melina's farm.
"You'll know when we're there", Alexei answered and began snorting like a pig, causing looks of pure confusion to be sent his way by the three women.
"Okayyy", Eleanor trailed off, "Do you think there's gonna be any food?".
"Is that all you think about?", Nat smiled for the first time since the walk began as it had been painfully silent.
Eleanor sent her wife a disappointing glance, "You should know by now that you are absolutely correct".
The walk was a further hour before Alexei said that the farmhouse was near, and Eleanor was thanking the Gods. Her feet were beginning to hurt slightly. The boots with the combat suit were very comfortable, that wasn't the issue, she just needed to rest her feet to stop the sore bones.
They walked single file down a hill as the path thinned out with vegetation until they eventually arrived in front of a metal fence with barbed wire topping it. In front of them was Melina, Eleanor could only assume, clutching a sniper rifle to her chest.
The sight completely unnerved her but she kept her mouth shut to not interrupt yet another family reunion of the day. "Honey, we're home". Melina's eyes traced over Natasha and Yelena, looking at them with a sense of familiarity, but as soon as Eleanor moved next to Natasha, Melina's gun was immediately raised and pointed right at her.
The whole group took a step forward with hands raised, whilst Eleanor stumbled back slightly, fear flashing across her features. "Hey woah, woah, she's with me", Nat spoke sternly, her eyes boring into those of her 'mothers' warning her to put the gun down.
Melina nodded and lowered her gun, much to everyone's relief, no bullets were fired. Eleanor expected that to be that and for them to move into the farmhouse or something, but Melina narrowed her eyes on her, almost scanning her face. It felt uncomfortable.
A small gasp escaped the older woman's mouth, "Mila?".
Eleanor frowned, and her heart started beating in her chest. "No, but that's my... that was my mother's name, how do you-?", she went quiet, not wanting to know the answer.
Melina looked down for a second before looking up again, no longer looking at her as though she was the enemy, and clearly looking disheartened at hearing the 'was' in Eleanor's statement. "I'm sorry, you're just a carbon copy of her, it's incredible". She didn't answer the question that Eleanor was clearly asking her.
"How do you know her?", she asked again, determined, though her voice cracked, thinking about her mother was always tough, and she was praying that Melina wasn't going to say what she thought she would.
Melina sighed before answering cautiously, "She was a widow, a friend. The best one of us in my generation. Before she escaped".
"What?", Nat voiced in shock. After that, Eleanor couldn't hear anything, a loud ringing in her ears blocked everything out and her breathing went uneven.
Her mother didn't just die of mysterious circumstances that her father hadn't wanted to tell her, she was likely murdered due to being an escaped widow. Her Mum was gone because of that wretched man, Dreykov. He was the reason for both of her parents' deaths. The reason she had to grow up without them. He took everything from her.
Then her train of thought drifted to every horror story that she had heard from Nat's time in the Red Room. Knowing her Mum had gone through it all too, aside from the graduation, made her face pale and tears pool in her eyes. Her mother had the kindest soul, and the warmest heart, ensuring that in the small time she got to spend with her daughter she raised her to be a happy and conscientious young girl.
Eleanor would never in a million years thought that the carefree, bubbly woman she remembers was an ex-assassin. Though parents tend to hide a lot from their children to shelter them.
It was at this moment, that now more than ever, she just wanted a hug from her Mum.
She was brought back into the world when Nat's hand cupped her cheek, and she saw concerned eyes staring at her. "There you are", Nat spoke softly. She must have zoned out for a few minutes, understandably. "You okay?".
Eleanor sniffed and nodded unconvincingly, "I'm okay", she turned and saw even Yelena looking at her with a pitying look.
Attention was brought back to Melina when she walked out of the opening in the fence and towards the house, not sparing a glance at the group. Nat clearly looked to be upset about not being given the time of day after all those years, but when Eleanor squeezed her hand, she pushed it all down and followed Alexei. Both Nat and Eleanor clinging to each other's hands for dear life.
A/n~ I have been waiting to reveal that since chapter 20 lmaoo oh my lord