Chapter Text
As she stares up at Clint, dangling off a wire from the side of a New York building, Kate can’t help but notice the tingling in the front of her chest where the masked figure had grabbed her to throw her over the ledge. It wasn’t as though she had been hurt… just at the point of contact… she felt the memory of it, fingers palm and all, pressed into her chest.
She is pulled from that inner monologue to see Clint cutting her line and telling her to go home. She’s obviously not going to do that, so she peels herself off the sidewalk and goes for the stairs taking them two at a time until she bursts through the rooftop door to see her mentor in deep combat with the masked figure and the track suit mafia member.
Clint is trading blows with the two, and as awesome as Hawkeye is … he’s losing. He takes several hits to his body just barely blocking the ones to his face. The leader of the track suit mafia takes the opportunity to run off.
Kate draws an arrow lining up her shot to help Clint. Just as she has a clean view and can feel her fingers relaxing into the release of her bow string like she had done on so many occasions before, Clint rips the mask off the figure.
The breath Kate was holding in order to have a clean shot is forced out of her at the sight of blonde hair and green eyes locking with hers. She lowers her bow ever so slightly. The blonde takes pause staring back at Kate, long enough for Clint to land the first clean hit on the woman he has gotten the entire fight.
The woman turns her head back toward Clint, kicks him square in the chest, and throws a grapple down as she jumps off the building.
By the time Clint and Kate run after her to the ledge she jumped off of she is nowhere in sight. Kate still feels the pressure of where the blonde’s hand landed on her chest to leverage her over the side of the building.
This is not good. Is the only thought filtering through Kate’s head as she considers what it could mean that the feeling of their attackers touch through 4 layers of clothing permeates through Kate’s body.
She thinks about the conversation she recently had with her mother about the soulmate bond only occurring between members of the high family’s… this can’t be it… Kate rubs her chest and convinces herself… for the time being at least… it is just from the adrenaline of being launched off of a building.
“We are no longer working together,” Clint’s sudden statement breaks Kate out of her inner monologue and his face is contorted in a way that suggests he just saw a ghost.
“What do you mean? We are uncovering what we are looking for, we discovered my evil almost step father’s shell company. I can help and this is my problem to begin with,” Kate goes on and on in exasperation.
Clint interrupts her, “Kate! Do you understand who that was? That is a black widow assassin,” Clint begins packing up his bags, “we do not know why she is here, who hired her, who she is after.”
“And we can figure that out, together, like we have been doing this whole time,” Kate can’t help but feel like she is whining like a little kid, but also feels like all the progress she has made with Clint in attempt to prove her worth has been erased in 5 minutes of time, “I held my own with her.”
Clint scoffs, “she threw you off a building, Kate.” he picks up his bag, “go home, tell your mom about the shell company we uncovered. Your mystery is solved, I’m gonna clean up the rest of your mess.”
At the mention of being thrown off a building Kate’s chest tingles, she can’t help but feel like this story isn’t done for her. And there are still things that aren’t adding up when it comes to Jack and his involvement in all of this.
…
Kate wakes up the next day in her childhood bedroom. She walked all the way from the site of her rooftop encounter, getting home close to 4 am, and crashing in her bedroom.
She lays staring up at the ceiling in an old archery team t shirt and shorts she dug out of the back of her closet.
Her thoughts ring loudly in her mind. Clint doesn’t think I’m good enough to handle this. After everything I’ve trained for, my hero thinks I am not equipped to help.
Kate pulls herself out of that line of thinking and drags herself out of bed. She stands in front of the mirror and appraises the bumps and bruises from the night before.
Her chest tingles and she pulls her shirt down slightly to see if there is a mark but the skin remains clear where the black widow assassin pushed her off of a building.
Soulmates are something Kate has purposely placed out of her mind since the passing of her father. She used to ask her parents a million questions a minute about their bond and how it worked.
Her father was a member of an extremely wealthy family that goes back to the beginning of New York being formed as a city. The Bishop name goes down in the line of early American “royalty,” if you can call it that, and is also one of the High families that have the gift of soul mates.
The high families are mostly other annoyingly rich people that live all around the world. There are some families that have fallen slightly from wealth but maintain their soul mate ability, and that is one of the families that Kate’s mother, Eleanor, came from.
The high families get together once every few years as an opportunity for bondings to happen, but otherwise the universe (or whoever) brings members with soulmate abilities together one way or another.
Her parents met in college. Kate smiles to herself remembering her father’s over dramatic telling of the tale. He had been playing frisbee in the quad, and as he was running backward to catch an off kilter throw, he ran smack into and onto my mother. In the late heat of summer, both of them in T-shirts, their skin brushed.
Kate’s father said the visions he got flashed from their first date, to them moving into the pent house together newly married, to him and my mom as new exhausted parents dancing with one another at 3 am holding a fussy 1 month old.
Tearing up, Kate shakes the thoughts away. She hasn’t wanted a soulmate since her father died because of the shell of a woman his death left behind in her mother Eleanor. After his passing it felt like the only thing in common Kate and her mother had was gone and what was left were the worst parts of her mother. And being a little kid, Kate decided she would fill her life with other meaning, throwing herself into archery and martial arts and fencing.
…
Kate shuffles down stairs, to find her mother in her bathrobe and monogrammed pajamas, pouring herself a coffee, and looking not at all surprised to see her. “You crawled in late last night,” Kate curses her sleepy self for not going and deleting the security tapes like she used to when she snuck out in high-school.
Eleanor gives Kate a once over noticing her bruises, eyes widening with anger and concern as she walks over to Kate, “Kate your hurt, did you go and ‘vigilante’ around the town with Clint Barton? I told you to give up the super hero dream, and I told him to not let you come with him!”
She swats her mothers worrying hands away and takes a step back from her, “Mom it doesn’t matter anyway, he doesn’t think I am good enough to help him so it’s done,” kate can’t help but feel the tears rising in her eyes before she quickly blinks them away as she heads to the coffee pot to pour herself a cup.
Her mother eyes her as if wondering if her daughter is telling the truth, seeming to find nothing to suggest a lie is being told she changes the subject,
“the Christmas Gala is coming up, a number of the high families will be there as well as all the business partners of Bishop securities,” Eleanor picks up her coffee as she speaks
Kate sighs, “Yes, mom, I am aware of the Christmas Gala that I have been forced to go to for my entire life,” and she has, this is one of the events that the Bishop family has put on for the past 50 years at least. They’ve never missed a year, not during snow storms, the snap, and not even the year her father died.
Her mother ignores Kate’s remark and continues, “you know Armand’s family will be there, they are all coming in for his funeral anyway, and we never get to see the extended high family from France unless it is a big meeting year. They have children around your age too,” Eleanor pauses as if knowing she is about to step into a mine field but plows onward anyway, “it could do you well to make an effort to find your soulmate already, and with Armand’s family coming it would be good for Bishop Securities to strengthen…”
Kate during all of this is standing facing the coffee machine, one hand griping the counter top and the other gripping her coffee cup so hard it’s liquid contents are rippling. Her chest aches and her mouth has gone dry, at the implication her mother is making. Her vision flickers to green eyes and blonde hair. Kate’s ears are ringing. And a feeling, that almost doesn’t feel like her own, washes over her… jealousy? No that doesn’t make sense… Anger. It’s anger at her mother for trying to set her up with the first available and convenient suitor.
Kate spins on her heals and interrupts her mother, “Mom, I won’t be pawned off to the most convenient soulmate bond you can find!” Kate chugs the coffee walking toward the stairs to get dressed and get away from her mother as soon as she can, “as controlling as you are, even you can’t determine who my soulmate is,”
Kate begins up the stairs toward her room hearing her mother walking behind her, “Kate, I’m not trying to control who you bond with, I’m just trying to ensure that you are open to it. You’ve refused to talk about any of the bonding process with me at all as you have gotten older,”
Kate walked into her room and closed the door as she got dressed.
Her mother continue to talk through the door, “you are around the age where it happens for most of us and I want you to be prepared, a lot of people say it starts at skin to skin contact but the process technically starts at first meeting,”
Kate is slipping on an old pair of jeans and a giant sweatshirt she must have stolen from a friend somewhere along the way but she pauses at her mothers words… thinking back to the blonde on the roof.
Is that what is going on with me? There is no way the blond on the roof is a member of a soulmate family. It’s not like Kate knows every single one but…
I would know if one of the high families had a black widow assassin in it wouldn’t I? I mean that is an awesome thing that an avengers nerd like me would have discovered by now but it isn’t like assassins are going around telling people they are assassins.
She thinks back to the leaked avengers documents and the late nights she stayed up secretly, so her mother would not know, on the bishop security network reading through all the files and the little bit of information about black widows that was on there. A lot of human trafficking, a lot of “most of them don’t live through the training”
Kate slings the duffel bag full of her gear and clothes from the night before over her shoulder. She walks to the door and opens it to her mother leaning against the door frame.
Eleanor takes a deep breath, “Kate I don’t want to upset you, I just want what’s best for you, this company is your legacy. You are taking over one day, and part of that job is playing nice with the high families. Sue me for hoping for the best that that is made easier by you bonding with one of them as well.”
Kate is frustrated with her mothers patronizing tone and angry that her mother speaks of the bond like she herself isn’t marrying Jack who isn’t her soulmate for the purposes of a successful business transaction. And pretends at the same time that she isn’t hoping Kate herself is able to do the same.
“Don’t talk about bonding when you are turning your back on dad to marry someone else for the sake of the company!” Kate storms down the stairs past her mother
Eleanor follows after her fuming, “Don’t talk to me about your father Kate, People are allowed to be happy after their soulmate is gone, Jack and I have both lost ours and we will be very happy!”
Kate is feeling her anger boil over, she is at the front door now and she swings it open about to walk through but not before yelling over her shoulder “Jack is lying to you, he’s running a shell company with attachments to organized crime through bishop security, and if you don’t do something about it, I’m calling the cops.”
Kate’s mother stands there Shell Shocked by her daughters words. Kate slams the door behind her leaving her mother to pick up the pieces of Kate’s revelation.
…
She finds herself walking back to her burnt to a crisp apartment. With nowhere else to go, she figures she can attempt to salvage a few items from the fire and maybe take a nap while she is at it.
Kate shoves her key into the lock, slamming her shoulder against the door. She’s barely looking up as the door swings shut behind her, but suddenly a chill runs down her back as she realizes she is not alone.
Kate grabs the first thing she can find off her kitchen counter, hot sauce, and throws it straight at her intruders face. Looking up to see the blonde intruder, having caught the projectile, staring back at Kate with those green eyes sparkling with mirth.
“Hiiiii,” the widow says in a sing song voice, “I made macaroni if you want some.” She’s holding Kate’s one and only pot up in her hand nonchalantly.
Chest tingling, blue staring into green, Kate can’t help but feel her body relax in the presence of the woman.
What in the? Kate… this is a black widow assassin that could kill you before you could even blink. You should not be relaxing.
But if she wanted to kill me she would have already. And come on, the “could kill you in an instant” thing is kinda hot.
Kate berates herself for her inner turmoil, and also wonders if this woman can feel the same connection Kate suspects. Does she know about soulmates? Is she acting this nonchalant because she knows I am no match for her in a fight or because she thinks we are soulmates?
The blond, moves toward Kate’s table, picking up both turned over chairs and sitting at one with her macaroni, “Kate Bishop are you going to sit and eat with me?” Kate shuffles over to the other chair “answer me this, Kate bishop, all that money in your trust fund, and you can only afford one fork?”
Confused by the casualty of the conversation Kate answers “well, I am one person and there is probably a plastic spork somewhere in the back of a drawer…” she trails off
“Kate Bishop, a plastic spork and a single fork you have clearly stolen from some pizza place is not proper cutlery.” She rolls her eyes and goes to pour hot sauce all over the Mac and Cheese in the pot, beginning to dig in.
The blonde is cute, correction… the blond assassin that could kill me in 100 different ways… is cute. (And you would let her)
Kate breaks the silence, “Do you just keep saying my full name to prove that you know it?”
“So suspicious, Kate bishop,” the assassin drawls in her Russian accent, “sit down, have some macaroni.”
“I’m not gonna sit down and eat with you after you just tried to kill me and broke into my house” Kate huffs exasperated
The blonde’s mouth goes wide and she gasps over dramatically, “I did not try to kill you, and I did not break anything, I am much too talented for that,” she holds her hands up in surrender showing her palms and then the back of her hands “look I have no weapons on me” she stops herself as Kate gives her a disbelieving look, “okayyyy, I don’t have any weapons in my hands currently,”
for a moment Kate sees , maybe the first sense of genuine emotion in the blonde since kate walked in the door, a flicker of guilt goes across the assassin’s eyes as she glances at her wrists where bracelets lie and then to her rings on her fingers, and she sighs “ok I take that back, I have no weapons that I plan on using on you,”
Kate shrugs, takes it as it is, and sits at the other side of the table, the proximity making her body itch, No she can’t be my soulmate, she is just an extremely hot woman, she’s had crushes before (especially extremely inappropriate and inconvenient ones, she thinks back to a middle school archery teacher for a brief moment) and what are the odds she has the ability meaning she is a part of a high family, Kate glances at the blonde as she adds more hot sauce into her Mac and cheese and starts eating again, the blond would be acting differently if she was having the same feelings Kate were having.
Kate let’s out a breath of nervousness and disappointment, “why are you here?” Kate slumps in her chair
“Where is Clint Barton? I want to kill him.” The blonde deadpans between bites of food
“What why?” Kate is unsure how to react to the casualness of the way the assassin is speaking about killing her hero
“Because he killed my Sister, Natasha, and the pay off doesn’t hurt either.” She states so matter of factly like she didn’t just reveal what she had.
“You’re the black widow’s sister?” Kate leans forward her mind going a mile a minute, “Clint and her were friends, he didn’t kill her, she died saving the world, they are both hero’s” she pauses absorbing more of what the blonde said “and who hired you to kill Hawkeye?”
“He was the last to be with her, and she is dead, he is not a hero, do you know what he did during the snap,” green eyes flare with anger, “a line of bodies longer and more indecisive than even me, he is a killer not a hero, Kate bishop, trust me I know one when I see one because I am one too.”
“You didn’t answer my question. what kind of person is out there hiring someone to kill an avenger?” Kate is fumbling trying to get through to the woman in front of her, when she stares into the woman’s eyes and it dawns on her, “you don’t even know do you? how can you sit there and determine who he is when you yourself don’t know the kind of people you are working for.”
“I am an assassin, I do this for a living. You’re ‘Hero’, Barton, is only considered that because he has the U.S. government on his side.” The widow takes a deep breath “and if you think for a moment that they would have granted that same label to my sister had she come back without him, after they had already abandoned her on multiple occasions, you are mistaken.”
Kate can’t believe what she is hearing but she can’t help but see and feel how much pain the blonde is in, “Your sister HAS been labeled a hero. Because she is, she sacrificed herself for the whole world, and that includes you but it also includes Clint.” Kate’s mind flares back to wondering who could be interested in having Clint killed, knowing he probably has a list of enemies out the door. “Something tells me that the same people that would want Clint dead are the ones who would be fighting against your sister if she was still hear today. Is that the side that you really want to be on?”
The blonde looks down for a moment, “There are no sides, the world is not rainbows and butterflies,” she stands, “I don’t need your help Kate Bishop, not everyone is looking for someone to save them,” she turns walking toward Kate’s back window slamming her grapple down into Kate’s floor as she walks pausing staring out the window.
Kate doesn’t know what to say, she wants to convince the blonde to stay, her chest is still tingling, “you don’t need someone to save you, but you deserve to know the full truth about your sister, not just the anger filled story you have created for yourself” she says to the back of the widows head.
The assassin turns her back to the window, facing Kate, and rasps out with a strained voice, “stay out of my way Kate Bishop” and she falls backward out of Kate’s window.