Chapter Text
In the last two days, Kate Bishop has slept approximately four hours and twenty-three minutes (give or take a few seconds), so to say she is tired is, to put it lightly, a fucking understatement.
It all started when a loud crashing sound woke her up at three seventeen in the morning. The hushed string of curses that followed the sound let her know that the culprit was Cassie, and she got out of bed to check on her friend. As it turned out, Cassie had had a vivid nightmare of her father's death—which was a common occurrence these days—, and in her shaken state she'd accidentally tripped over a box full of Riri's tidbits on her way to the bathroom. Kate, being a good friend, had stayed up with her until the sun rose and Cassie went off to class.
Right as she was getting back under the covers to catch a few more hours of sleep, her phone rang. On the other side of the line was Jessica Jones, passing a new case over to Kate so that she could be fully present for her daughter's school play. Kate, then, got dressed and went all the way to Queens to meet with the man who had contacted Jessica to get the full story and start her investigation, which led to her staying up until midnight as she gathered all the evidence she needed before dropping it off at Jessica's office.
Once she got back home, she got about two hours of sleep before Sam called her in for a mission, and so off she went. She got around an hour more of sleep on the Quinjet on the way to Canada, and the missing hour and twenty-three minutes on the way back twelve hours later.
When they landed at the tower Mel had basically kidnapped her to help her test the IT team's newest firewalls. Some hours later, when they finished and she thought she could finally rest, Walker had asked her to cover for him in the drug lab bust they were about to leave for because his kid was sick, and so here she is, in the wee hours of the morning, using all of her willpower not to fall asleep while on lookout duty.
Trying not to drift off into certain slumber, she alternates between watching the dots on her tablet moving through the warehouse-turned-lab and catching glimpses of the action through her binoculars, but eventually her dry, tired eyes win the fight and she lets her eyelids to slip shut for a few seconds.
She rubs them with the palms of her hands, doing her best to rub the sleep away. It is, of course, during those three seconds she lets her guard down that she feels something shift around her. A change in the air behind her, a silent step to her left.
In a split second she has her bow drawn and an arrow nocked and aimed the intruder. Her vision is still blurry from rubbing her eyes, but even then she can make out the blonde hair that immediately puts her at ease. She lowers her bow.
"You keep doing that and one of these days I'm actually gonna shoot you."
"Will you?"
Kate arches an eyebrow, more in surprise at the response than in a challenge of her own. Her vision starts to clear, allowing her to notice that Yelena isn't wearing her suit—tonight she's opted for minimal make-up, loose dark jeans and a simple matching crewneck sweater that contrast nicely with her blonde braided hair—, which means she's not here in Avengers capacity. Kate puts the arrow back in the quiver and snaps the bow shut.
"What are you doing here?"
"Well, I wanted to talk to you, but when I went to find you I was told you were in Canada, so I though I'd see you when you got back. Then I tried to see you again when you landed, but you'd already disappeared and no one knew where you were. Next thing I know you're on a mission that's taking forever, and I got tired of waiting."
"So you just thought we'd have whatever conversation it is you want to have right now? While I'm on lookout and our friends blow up a drug lab?"
Yelena shrugs. "Yes."
Kate glances over at her tablet to make sure the dots are still moving the way they're supposed to before taking the bait. She crosses her arms over her chest.
"Alright. What do you want to talk about?"
Yelena takes a few steps forward, slowly closing the distance between them. She clears her throat.
"Well, you know, Kate Bishop, most people would buy a girl dinner before asking her to leave it all behind and move across the country with them."
Kate scoffs, "I've bought you plenty of dinners."
"I meant something more fancy than takeout and pizza."
Kate's eyebrows shoot up. "How fancy are we talking?"
Yelena takes another step forward. "Oh, I don't know. Probably one of those restaurants with the tiny expensive portions that leave you hungry and pissed at how much money you spent in so little food that you end up going for burgers after. You know the ones?"
"Yes, I think I'm familiar with them."
"Good, so next time you start there."
"Next time?"
Yelena takes one last step, coming face to face with Kate. The blonde tilts her head to the side, her left eyebrow twitching slightly, and looks almost hurt when Kate steps back and brings a hand to her ear as Ava's firm voice cuts clear through the comms.
"Everyone's out. Torch it, Bishop."
"Copy that." She unfolds her bow with a flick of her wrist, already reaching for the arrow that will set off every explosive the team has set inside the building. "You don't need me for debriefing, do you?"
"No," Sam answers. "Go get some sleep, Bishop. We'll see you tomorrow."
"Thanks, Cap. Will do."
In the blink of an eye Kate draws her bow and releases the string, confident enough in her abilities not to need a second look to know her aim was true. As intended, the arrow sets in motion a string of explosions across the warehouse, burning everything inside it to a crisp.
"As nice as it would be to have this conversation in this ugly rooftop, I think there's better places for it," she starts, attaching the collapsed bow to her thigh and putting the tablet in her bag. She extends one hand forward. "Come home with me?"
There's no hesitation in Yelena's movements as she takes Kate's hand and leads her out to where she parked her bike. She helps Kate put on the spare helmet she brought—almost as if she knew this is how the night would go—, and tells her to hold on as tight as she needs.
The bike's revving and the cold air have a borderline soothing effect on Kate, who wraps her arms around Yelena's waist and lets her eyes slip shut as they flow through the streets.
Yelena parks the bike outside of her building despite the tower's garage being just a couple of streets away. They're silent all the way up to the penthouse, basking on the quiet of each other's presence until the elevator doors ding open.
As they walk into the penthouse they find all of Kate's team sleeping sprawled in the living room while one of the Twilight movies plays on the TV. Lucky opens his good eye when he hears them, wagging his tail a few times in greeting, but he doesn't move from his place between Cassie and Riri.
Yelena arches a questioning eyebrow at the sight in front of them, to which Kate answers with a shrug, "Movie night."
They kick off their shoes and slowly move up to Kate's room, quietly shutting the door behind them. Kate drops her bag and quiver on the floor and falls face first into her bed, sighing with relief as she sinks into the mattress. It dips next to her a few seconds later, and she opens her eyes to see Yelena sitting by her side.
"Hi."
"Hi."
"Give me a few minutes and I'll be all ready to talk," she says, her words half-slurred as consequence of half of her face being pressed against the mattress.
"Mhm. First you really should change out of that suit, though." Yelena reaches under Kate's pillow, pulling out her pajamas and placing them between them.
"Is it because I stink?"
"Yes. Now, come on. I promise I won't look."
The first time Yelena said those words to her, Kate felt her brain physically short circuit. The second time she'd turned so red that, if Yelena had looked, all she would have seen was a tomato dressed in purple. By now she's almost used to Yelena's teasing, but her brain still glitches a little bit.
Between the glitch and the sleep deprivation, it takes her longer than it should to actually push herself off the mattress, but when she does she finds Yelena is still turned away from her. Her hands are in her lap, and if Kate had to guess she'd say she's playing with the rings on her fingers, which is weird, because Yelena only does that when she's nervous, and she's never been nervous when it's just the two of them before.
Kate swaps her dirty suit for her purple pajamas, dropping the suit on the floor for tomorrow's laundry before slipping under the covers.
"You can turn around now," she says, the words stretched out by a yawn. "There's some extra pajamas in the closet if you also wanna get changed."
Yelena comes up to sit by her side, resting against the headboard but staying over the covers, hands on her lap. "Maybe later."
"So, what'd you wanna talk about?"
Yelena looks at her for a moment, her eyes soft and a darker shade of green in the low light, and shakes her head. "Nothing that can't wait until morning."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes, Kate Bishop, I'm sure you need sleep more than I need to hear your sleep deprived ramblings."
"But I haven't even started with the archery puns, yet."
"You joked about arrowdynamics at least twice on the bike."
Oh, yeah, she did do that, didn't she? She smiles sheepishly. "That was a funny one."
Yelena laughs softly. "Go to sleep, Kate. We can talk when you wake up."
So Kate does. She murmurs a quiet good night and lets her eyes finally fall shut, making sure the beautiful sight of Yelena next to her is the last image she sees before her tired mind drags her into a sweet dream she will remember nothing of in the morning.
There's light streaming through a crack between the curtains when she wakes up. It hits her right in the face, making her groan before she pulls the covers up to her eyes.
"Morning, sleepyhead."
Within a fraction of a second, Kate goes from sleepy to startled to alert, quickly throwing the first solid object she can find—her bedside clock—towards the voice. It passes right through Agatha's head, shattering upon impact against the wall.
"You missed."
"Agatha. Why."
"Your girlfriend's yelling at someone through the phone, and she's pretty scary when she's mad in Russian, so I'm giving her some privacy."
"My—" Kate sighs, dropping back on the mattress. The sun hits her right in the eyes, but she pretends not to notice the blinding light. "Out."
"But—"
"Out."
Agatha mutters something about 'finding someone who will appreciate her company', and when Kate looks over again the ghost is gone. She slithers down the bed a bit, just enough to get the sun out of her eyes, and takes a few minutes to properly wake up.
Once she feels ready to actually face the world, she looks over to her bedside table to check the time—except, of course, her clock lies broken on the other side of the room.
With a sigh, she slips out from under the covers and finds her bag, where her phone awaits for her with one too many unread messages she pretends she doesn't see. With the knowledge that it's almost noon, Kate takes a quick shower—because, like Yelena said last night, she does stink—and brushes her teeth before making her way downstairs.
She follows Yelena's voice to the kitchen, where she's sat in front of a pot of freshly made mac and cheese. In a sight Kate could get used to, she's wearing one of Kate's old t-shirts, a baby blue one the university's archery team gave her on her freshman year, and her favorite gray sweatpants with the ankles rolled a few times. Her make-up is still impeccable, and at some point she's undone last night's braid, so her wavy hair falls nicely over her shoulders.
Her brow is furrowed, her expression matching her tone, and she's waving her fork around the way she does when she's trying to make a point, but Agatha was wrong. Yelena doesn't sound angry. She sounds like she's talking to Alexei.
Her expression softens when she notices Kate, and with one last sentence to her father she hangs up the phone.
"Good morning," she greets her, her soft smile turning into confusion as she notices Kate's staring. "What? You said I could change. Did I pick something I couldn't?"
"What? No, yeah, no, sorry. You're fine. Sorry." She rubs her eyes. "Was that Alexei?"
Yelena nods. "He's still in Russia trying to win Melina back now that he's"—she makes air quotes with her fingers—"'a renowned hero again'. She hasn't let him anywhere near the farm in weeks, and she's shot him at least four times, which is a pretty clear message if you ask me, but he insists that's just how Black Widows flirt."
"Is it? How you flirt?"
"No," Yelena scoffs. "Unless you're into it. Then maybe."
For absolutely no reason at all, Kate's lungs choose that same moment to stop working, making her choke on air. Ignoring the amusement on Yelena's face, she pushes through the coughing. "Is there coffee?"
"I made a fresh pot when the kids left for brunch."
Kate keeps her back to Yelena until she's poured herself a cup, drank half of it in one go to shock her mind and body into working properly, and refilled it to the brim.
"Huh, so that's why it's so quiet around here. Did they take Lucky?"
Yelena nods. "They wanted to take you, too, but I told them to let you sleep. I hope you don't mind."
"Oh, no, I needed the sleep." Missing brunch is always sad, but she would miss every brunch ever if it meant she always gets to sleep as deeply as she did tonight. Well, maybe not every brunch, but a few of them for sure.
Yelena gestures towards the mac and cheese. "You want some?"
"How much hot sauce is in it?"
"A little." Kate stops, raises an eyebrow. The blonde meets her gaze, almost daring Kate to challenge her. When Kate doesn't cave, Yelena does, pressing her lips into a thin, reluctant line as she says, "A lot."
"That's what I thought."
While spicy mac and cheese would have been a very nutritive breakfast to set her stomach on fire, Kate opts to pour herself a bowl of Newer Avengers Wheaties featuring Cassie and Kamala on the box. Everyone got roped into the New Avengers' Wheaties promotional deal when the teams merged into one, which means they get a never ending supply of free cereal—of which the girls only ever accept boxes that feature someone from their team.
With her cereal on one hand and her coffee on the other, Kate sits across from Yelena. It's been a while since they've shared a space like this, what with the whole Yelena-reacting-weirdly-to-Kate-asking-her-to-move-to-the-West-Coast-thing and all. Their pending conversation weighs on the air between them, but it doesn't throw the energy off the way the last couple of weeks did. It's nice to be back to them.
As her brain kicks into gear with the sugar and caffeine, Kate becomes more aware of her surroundings—including Yelena barely eating her food.
From what Kate can recall from last night, Yelena was pretty adamant that they talked right then and there. Yesterday she seemed more than ready to talk—eager, even—but now she's closed in on herself, matching the quiet of the empty penthouse and, worst of all, playing with her macaroni.
Mac and cheese is Yelena's comfort food. She devours it. One time Walker tried to steal a spoonful from her and ended up in a headlock he had to beg his way out off. Yelena not eating her mac and cheese is like a day without the sun: unnatural and a bad sign.
"Did you know Agatha was here again?" Kate asks, breaking the silence between them. Yelena isn't a fan Agatha's lack of boundaries, so it may not be the smartest way to break the ice, but she thinks it might just do the trick. "She was creeping in my room when I woke up."
Yelena's head snaps up, eyes wide. "She what?"
"Yeah, she said she saw you were on the phone and wanted to give you privacy, so I guess she decided to invade mine instead."
"Is she still here?"
"No, I told her to—" Kate stops mid sentence. She'd told Agatha to get out, but she hadn't specified that she meant out of the penthouse, which is in the gray area Agatha loves to live in. "Actually, I think she might be. Agatha?" She waits a few seconds before calling out again. "Agatha!" When no answer comes, Kate shrugs. "Guess she listened for once."
Yelena shakes her head in disbelief. "I don't care if she's lonely when Billy's out, I am buying you box ghost traps to put in your room."
"Box ghost traps?"
"Yes. Like in the movies. You know the box thingy they use? With the handle and the doors and everything?"
"Right, yeah, the box ghost trap." Kate laughs. "Will it play the theme song?"
"On a loop," Yelena nods, her lips slowly tilting upwards to form that beautiful smile Kate loves so much. It doesn't quite reach her eyes, but after a few seconds she takes a bite of macaroni, so Kate considers it a win.
They keep eating on that happier note, and after Kate finishes her cereal and washes the bowl in the sink she opts to take the chair beside Yelena instead of the one across from her. The blonde's body language changes subtly. The tension drains from her shoulders, and her posture slowly shifts until she's almost facing Kate.
"So, um, Ava told me you took a day off the other day. How was it?"
Yelena ponders the question while she chews her mac and cheese. "It was good. It gave me a lot of time to think."
"Good thoughts or bad thoughts?"
"Both."
"You wanna talk about them?"
"I did, with Natasha. And then Bucky. And he gave me more to think about." Yelena purses her lips, a matching frown on her brow. Kate waits in silence, giving Yelena the space to find her next words. When she does, it takes Kate's breath away. "You see me, Kate. It scares me. But I see you, too, and that scares me more. Because when I see you, I see me, too, and it makes me face the things I don't want to see. Like the world changing around us, or the fear of making the wrong choice."
Kate swallows. "Which is?"
Yelena looks at her for a split second, just long enough for their eyes to meet and for Kate to know they'll be okay, before drawing her gaze to her macaroni.
"I'm scared the West Coast won't be what I need it to be. That I won't figure it out there, either."
"Figure what out?"
"Me. Everything."
Kate breathes in deep. She understands that, the fear of it being for nothing, of ending up right back where she started. Deep in her bones she feels it, too. For every ounce of excitement going to the West Coast brings her, there's two of doubt, and there hasn't been a day since she decided to leave that her mind hasn't been filled with questions and what ifs.
She's putting so many hopes and expectations on the West Coast that, if it doesn't work out, she doesn't know what she'll do. Who she'll be. But she can't let herself think like that, because the other option is staying still, and right now that feels worse than failing ever has. She has to believe taking the risk will be worth something, even if it's just a cool story to tell the Bartons on Christmas. And if it ends up not being what she needs, if she burns out anyway, at least she'll have tried.
She reaches for Yelena's hand but, at the last moment, doesn't take it. Instead, she places it next to Yelena's. It's not like they've never held hands before—Kate is an affectionate person, and Yelena likes the grounding comfort of the contact more than she lets on—, but it feels different this time, so she leaves the option open for Yelena to take.
"I'm scared, too."
"I know." Yelena smiles softly. She closes the inch of distance between their hands, interlacing their fingers and squeezing once. "So maybe we can be scared together. On the other side of the country."
Kate's breath hitches. "You're coming?"
Yelena nods and presses her lips tight to try—and fail— to suppress a smile. "But only because I heard there's a team out there with a dinosaur in it, and I wanna meet it."
Kate laughs, feeling the weight on her chest slowly disappear. She's seen CCTV footage of those so called Runaways, and she'd be lying if she said having a dinosaur on your team isn't cool as hell. "Well, yeah. What other reason could you have?"
"Oh, so many," Yelena laughs. "The weather, the beaches, Pizza Dog…"
"Of course."
"You." Yelena squeezes her hand again, her voice small when, after a moment, she says, "I've never done this before."
"This?"
Yelena draws her gaze up, green meeting blue, and everything falls into place. Because Yelena might not always know how to put what she means into words, but somehow Kate always understands. And this. This she has been waiting for from the moment their eyes first met.
She presses her lips into a thin smile, trying her best to quiet the pounding in her ears and stop the fluttering in her heart. Her breath shudders. "I've never done it like this."
"Like this?"
"Knowing you're it for me." Yelena's eyes widen, and she regrets the words immediately. She pulls her hand away and looks anywhere but into those beautiful green eyes. "I'm sorry, that was—" Too much. Too fast. A great way to ruin a good thing before it even starts.
"Do you mean that?" When Kate doesn't answer, Yelena reaches for her hand again. "Kate."
At last, she nods, meeting Yelena's eyes so that she can understand her, too. "Of course I do."
How could she not, when Yelena fit into her life like she had always been meant to be there?
She'd felt a connection between them that first Christmas they met. Whether up on that rooftop, in her charred apartment, or with her face smashed against a glass wall in someone's office, something inside of Kate new that, given the time and opportunity, they could be much more than just two people fighting over Clint's life.
Three years later, when they met for the second time on, ironically, another rooftop, she felt that same connection again, and she was given the chance to prove her gut was right.
An argument on that rooftop, a night out and a conversation she didn't expect to have were enough for her to know there was no going back. She wasn't sure how she'd made it this far with a gaping Yelena-shaped hole in her life, but now that it was filled she couldn't imagine life any other way.
Because her life should have always had a beautiful blonde who loves to poke her as much as she likes to pretend she's not an even bigger goof than Kate is. The jokes, the rants, the soft talks, the loud ones, the trust, the comfort, the safety, the stupidly spicy food Kate can almost never say no to… It's all the little things that make her days better, and all the big ones that she saw slipping through her fingers every time her mind convinced her bringing up the West Coast would draw Yelena away.
She knows it was a risk—it's a big change, which Yelena isn't too fond of—but it was one she knew was worth taking. It didn't matter what her brain told her. If they had survived the war, then she had to believe they would survive this, too.
It's been a strange week since then. Yelena's reaction was… peculiar. For a Red Room trained operative, she surely was terrible at pretending she'd taken the news better than she had. It was unsettling, seeing the blonde try so hard to act normal, but there was also a part of reassurance in it. Yelena's go to coping mechanism is to pull away, and this time she'd fought against every single one of her instincts because Kate had shared her fear of losing her.
So when Yelena, voice trembling, asks, "And if I stayed in New York?", Kate is certain her fears were wrong. There is no universe in which they lose each other—even if they're apart.
"I'd wait for us to meet again."
Eyes brimming with tears, Yelena shakes her head. "You're so corny."
Kate laughs. She is corny sometimes, but she thinks she's earned it after everything they've been through.
"Maybe, but I think it's a good thing, because it means I know exactly how we'll do this."
"Do you now?"
"Mhm." Suddenly too shy to look at Yelena, Kate's eyes drift over to the forgotten pot of mac and cheese. She may have daydreamed about it once or twice… "First I will make a reservation at the fanciest, most expensive restaurant in the city. When I come to pick you up, I will give you the biggest, most beautiful bouquet of flowers you've ever seen, and we'll spend the night drinking wine and laughing at how absurd it is to be spending so much money on so little food that we can barely savor. Then, because we'll have eaten about five bites of food all night, we'll go for a proper dinner. Burgers, like you said, or maybe pizza so that Lucky can have the leftovers. I'll walk you home and, because I am a gentleman, I won't kiss you when we say goodnight. You'll turn around to go inside, and I'll let you take about half a step before I reach for you and kiss you like it's the last thing I'll ever do. Because being a gentleman is overrated anyway."
This last part makes Yelena laugh, and the sweet sound gives Kate the courage to look her in the eye as she continues.
"When we part I'll have the goofiest smile on my face, and you'll put your hand on my chest when you say 'Goodnight, Kate Bishop' in that way of yours that drives me crazy before you go inside. When I get home, I will go out to the balcony, and I'll look across the street and I'll see you looking right back at me, and the world will finally be the way it was always meant to be."
It's then, when Kate's finished and out of breath, that Yelena does something that would have kicked the air out of her lungs if she still had any.
She kisses her.
It's fast, nothing more than a quick peck, and it's not half as dizzying as the words that follow it. "Or you could kiss me right now."
"But—" Kate's brain struggles to form a coherent answer. "My plan."
The amusement on Yelena's face lasts for approximately two seconds before she grabs Kate's face and kisses her again. It's a proper kiss this time—one that Kate reciprocates immediately, hands reaching up to pull Yelena even closer. She tastes like mac and cheese and hot sauce, and Kate knows she must taste like cheap sugary cereal, and it should probably be disgusting, but it's perfect.
When they pull away, Kate feels her lips pull upwards in a grin that matches Yelena's.
She'd suspected her feelings for the blonde weren't entirely one sided, but to have it confirmed, to rest her forehead against Yelena's and know it wasn't all in her head and it's actually real and happening… it makes her start giggling like a schoolgirl.
She doesn't mean to, but she's so happy she just can't contain it—and, as it seems, neither can Yelena as she breaks into a fit of giggles, too. Kate leans in to kiss Yelena again, but the blonde pulls away, putting a few inches of distance between them. "Whoa, what happened to being a gentleman?"
"I said it was overrated." Yelena arches an eyebrow. Kate thinks about it for a second, trying her best to find a good reason to be a gentleman and not kiss Yelena again. When she finds none, she shrugs. "I'll make up for it by taking you to so many fancy restaurants we will be hungry every night of our lives."
Yelena blinks. Kate opens and closes her mouth a few times, feeling heat rising up in her cheeks. Maybe she should have thought about it just a little bit more. Laughter rumbles in Yelena's chest, bubbling up until it bursts out.
Kate covers her face with her hands to hide her blush. "That came out so wrong."
"No, no, it's so romantic," Yelena manages to say as she struggles to catch her breath. She reaches for one of Kate's hands, pulling it away from her face and forcing her to look her in the eye. "I can't wait to be hungry with you."
With that, she bursts out laughing again, this time dragging Kate down into her delirious, apparently to-be-starved happiness.
Their first stop in the West Coast is in San Francisco, where they are joined by Cassie, Ava—who says she's ready to collect what the Pym-Van Dynes promised to her a decade ago—, Riri—who swears is coming solely to check out the tech scene and complain to Shuri about how behind it is—, and Shang-Chi, but after a few months they move down to Los Angeles to continue their recruitment mission.
In L.A. they meet Jennifer Walters and, most importantly, a dinosaur called Old Lace. Lucky's not her biggest fan at first, but in a couple of days they are running around like they've always known each other. The team she belongs to, the Runaways, don't exactly welcome them with open arms, but they don't decline the extra help either, agreeing to team up with everyone else if the situation ever calls for it.
Every once in a while they are joined by other heroes from New York, which makes the change feel smaller than it actually is and makes them actually feel like one big team spread throughout the country.
The former Champions—who Kate lets still live at the penthouse—stay for a few days whenever they're not keeping their cities safe or traveling somewhere in space or the multiverse with Captain Marvel and Doctor Strange. Bob shows up whenever he thinks 'Cucumber misses Yelena', bringing the guinea pig along for his visits. Alexei, of course, shows up whenever he feels like it, and Walker brings his son during the summer for a proper vacation. Bucky finds some tech that allows them to holographically hang out at whatever location they choose from wherever they are in the world, which adds a fun variable to his and Yelena's not-talks.
Kate and Yelena, of course, travel to New York or to wherever they have to when the situation calls for it, but they always find themselves going back to Los Angeles.
As Kate had predicted, out there they get much more freedom to do their thing. They still coordinate with the other heroes of the West Coast and report to Sam every once in a while, but no one steps on their toes or tells them how to do what they do best.
Having gone on many missions together before, it takes virtually no time at all for their styles to blend perfectly together as they become partners in every sense of the word—including in Kate's PI firm Hawkeye Investigations, which the archer offers to rename Hawkeye and Widow Investigations after their first big case. Yelena appreciates the gesture, but she declines. She likes helping Kate out, but while being a PI is where Kate excels and feels the most like herself, it doesn't quite feel like what Yelena's meant to be.
She tries to give herself time to figure out what that is, learning new skills and trying things she hadn't even considered before but discovers she finds joy in—she's an okay cook, more than decent at crocheting, a god-awful artist, and the best volunteer the dog shelter has ever seen—, but nothing sticks. Kate likes to tell her maybe she isn't meant to do just one thing. Bucky says that she doesn't have to find 'her thing' immediately for it to matter. They're nice words, but they don't stop her from worrying she'll never find what she's here for.
Until one day Kate comes home with a new case. It's an impossible murder the police have all but given up on. A man was found dead in his windowless, locked-from-the-inside office. There was a small puncture wound in his neck, but the lack of drugs or poison in his body lead the coroner to rule the cause of death as inconclusive. There were no signs of struggle or of any sort of intruder, and the security cameras didn't catch anything of relevance, nor where they tampered with.
One good look at the pictures of the scene of the crime gives Yelena an inkling to who might be the culprit, and a single call to an old friend confirms her suspicions.
"You still leave their shirt’s tag out?" It's way of making it fun, Sonya used to say. She knows she won't get caught, but she likes to see if anyone will ever be smart enough to find the one small detail that ties all of her murders together.
Sonya laughs at her form of greeting. "Can you believe no one’s caught on, yet?"
Kate is elated when Yelena tells her she knows who killed the man, then is very disappointed when she has to explain to her client that she cannot find the killer just a few hours before having said killer over for dinner.
Sonya's visit, if surprisingly pleasant, brings up many thoughts and memories Yelena thought had long been buried. She tells them about the few Widow related operations she still goes on in between contracts, but says it's become so hard and expensive to locate the ones who are still missing that not many of them are still looking.
A few weeks later, when Kate tells her to dress nicely because they're going on a fancy date, Yelena knows exactly what's coming. They go to the most expensive restaurant on their list, drive around for a while, and end up huddled up in a booth at their regular pizzeria until it closes.
It's not until they're back home in the safety of their bed that Kate whispers, "You want to leave."
She doesn't phrase it as a question, but it's not quite an affirmation either. She simply puts into words the thoughts Yelena hasn't been able to voice, as if reading her inside and out was as easy as breathing.
Yelena lets out a long breath, gathering her words. When she abandoned the mission to free Widows she did so believing that the others would keep going without her. If they had done it for five years, then they could do it until the mission was done. Even when Melina had tried to tell her they needed her, she convinced herself that everything would be better if she stayed away. Sonya's visit had made her come face to face with the truth that things hadn't been as she'd made herself believe.
Maybe she's been looking at it the wrong way. Maybe to figure out the future she needs to look back instead of forward. Maybe she doesn't have to save the entire world for her actions to matter. Maybe finishing the work she once started can be enough. The freed widows deserve a chance at a normal life, and the un-freed ones do, too. No matter how long it takes to find them.
"I think I have to."
Kate shuffles around until she can look Yelena in the eye. She smiles softly, pulling her closer. "Then we'll go."
After all this time, Yelena should have known Kate wouldn't let her take this next step alone. She should have known Kate, despite everything she's already accomplished, would still want to do more.
Even if at different speeds, together they are both growing and changing and becoming who they are meant to be, and one day, when they find what they're looking for and slow up, they'll turn around and be proud of where they've been.
They will be proud of who they've been.