Chapter Text
“Wow, hold on! What makes you the leader of the group?”
“Because I’m the only one here old enough to legally drink,” Kate exclaims, sitting on the edge of Umpire Rock, donned in her full Hawkeye get up. Trying her best to scan the surroundings of Central Park as the sun sets, Kate finds it hard to focus with the sound of Kamala pacing behind her.
“That hardly seems like a qualification. I’m literally the one who started the group!” Dressed in her Ms. Marvel attire, Kamala kicks a pebble off the edge of the rock in frustration. “Plus I have way more Avenger experience. Or did we forget about the fact that I’ve been on a mission in space with the Captain Marvel!”
“I’ve literally been to the quantum realm” Cassie says flippantly, laying on her back next to Kate, also wearing her suit.
“And weren’t you the one that got your family stuck there in the first place?” Kate asks.
“That seems irrelevant, but okay,” Cassie says. “How do you know America doesn’t want to be the leader?”
“Oh, no I’d very much like to be left out of this narrative,” America says. Unlike the other girls, she’s dressed in her regular civilian clothing, despite Kate’s insistence that she should consider something slightly more tactical.
“Hello?! In case you missed it the first time. Captain! Marvel!” Kamala emphasizes.
“Oh, I’m well aware. I’ve seen the fanfics you wrote about it.” Kate teases.
With the severity of the gasp Kamala lets out, you’d think the girl had just been shot. Stopping mid stride, her eyes shoot daggers at the back of Kate’s head. “That was private and you know it!”
Hearing the sounds of Cassie stifling a laugh next to her, Kate can’t help but laugh herself. After hours of patrolling Central Park and keeping look out, Kate was starting to feel delirious and craved the comfort of her own apartment.
“Okay, I’m calling it,” Kate says as she stands up, brushing the dirt off her pants. “I think the city will survive the rest of the night without us. Let’s just head home before it gets any darker.”
“Finally!” Cassie exclaims as she jumps to her feet.
“Ugh, fine,” Kamala says before her face lights up with an idea and turns to America. “Ooh, can you at least open a portal into Kate’s living room?”
“Yeah… Wong says I’m not allowed to use my powers for stuff like that,” America says.
Kamala and Cassie groan in unison. Kate couldn’t blame them; the past few weeks had been little more than roaming the streets for hours on end. The only thing more agonizing than the constant shin splints was what it took to get here in the first place.
Between America and Kamala, getting their little team together for the summer proved to be harder than anticipated. Convincing the Sorcerer Supreme to let one of his students train with other young heroes was one thing, but convincing Mrs. Khan… well lets just say Kate has never been more afraid in her entire life.
To say Kamala’s mother was protective of her daughter was an understatement. It took weeks of pleading to even arrange an in person conversation with Kate and Mrs. Khan; convincing the woman to let her daughter stay at Kate’s place for the summer was a whole other story. Kate had to repeatedly remind Mrs. Khan that she was in fact an adult and would be supervising Kamala the entire time, despite Mrs. Khan insisting that Kate was just another kid; Kate was only mildly upset by the comments.
Only when Kamala agreed to call home twice a day, Kate reluctantly giving the mother her address, and them both promising to stay away from any “real Avenger danger” did Mrs. Khan finally agree to their Young Avengers Bootcamp (aptly named by Mrs. Khan herself).
Cassie, on the other hand, was surprisingly easy to get on the team. If anything, her father was almost more excited than she was about a summer in New York, rambling on about how a more “bite sized adventure” would be good for Cassie.
By the time the plans had been finalized and all three girls were set to stay with the archer, Kate couldn’t help but feel agitated by the constant downplaying of their summer. When Kamala had first come to Kate, the plan was to form a new group of Avengers. A much younger group, sure, but Avengers nonetheless. So to have every adult that heard of their plans treat it like a kid’s sleep away camp was not only patronizing, but borderline embarrassing for Kate.
Trying her best to brush the thought aside, Kate calls out to the other girls as she begins to walk off. “I think we can manage the subway.”
With only a few more grumbles, the girls follow after Kate.
↣
Opening the door to her apartment, Kate’s greeted with barks from Lucky, but before she can even reach to pet the dog, America and Kamala rush past her in order to get “dibs on first scritches.” Kate was a little worried how Lucky would react to having her apartment packed with guests for three months, but after seeing the amount of love the three girls gave him, Kate was pretty sure she’d already been replaced as Lucky’s favorite person.
With everyone inside, Cassie b-lines to the kitchen as Kate locks the front door.
“Umm, what is that?” Cassie says, stopping dead in her tracks. Kate follows her gaze to see a new addition to her apartment: next to the kitchen, a folded piece of paper hangs from one of the wooden support pillars, pinned there by a kitchen knife.
“Oh come on guys! I know we’ve gotta train, but I said no throwing knives inside.” Kate sighs as she places her bow on the kitchen island.
Reluctantly taking her attention from Lucky, Kamala snags the note off the wall, only making Kate flinch a little with how flippantly she pulls the knife out of the pillar.
“Oh my god!” Kamala exclaims, before her face slips into a devilish grin. “I think you just got asked out on a date.”
America grabs the note from the other girl's hand and reads it over. “Yeah, by a really creepy secret admirer.”
More confused than ever, Kate walks over and snatches the note (and the knife) from the girls. Reading it over, Kate feels her stomach drop. In near perfect penmanship, the note reads, ‘How about we finally get that drink. Meet me at 10.’, followed by an address Kate doesn’t recognize.
Yelena.
“What the hell does that mean?” Kate jumps at the sound of Cassie’s voice, realizing the girl had been reading the note over her shoulder.
What the hell does it mean?
Obviously this was Yelena, but what was she doing back in New York and, more importantly, what did she want from Kate? Kate keeps her mind from spiraling as she feels three sets of eyes baring into her with anticipation.
“Well I can tell you one thing, it’s definitely not a date,” Kate says as she sits down at one of the stools around the kitchen island, suddenly feeling overwhelmed by thoughts of the past.
Kate lets out a big sigh as she braces herself to explain things to the girls. “It’s from a Black Widow assassin.”
The room erupts in noise as all three girls react at once.
“Please tell me you’re kidding,” America pleads, the nervousness obvious on her face.
“Oh shit,” Cassie says seriously, the gears already turning in her head as she tries to come up with a plan.
“Oh my god!” Kamala exclaims once again. Kate can’t help but notice a glimmer of excitement behind the girl’s eyes.
“Okay, calm down,” Kate interjects. She places the note on the kitchen island, her hands suddenly feeling very clammy. “It’s really not as bad as it seems.”
Probably.
“A Black Widow broke into your apartment! How is that not as bad as it seems?” Cassie asks.
“That’s just… something she does.” As soon as Kate says it, she realizes how the notion wouldn’t bring the girls any comfort.
“This has happened before?!” Kamala asks, still doing very little to hide her excitement.
Kate rubs her eyes. Why is this so difficult? And awkward?!
“That assassin I told you about, the one that was sent to kill Clint… this is her.”
“Oh god,” America says as she starts pacing anxiously.
“It’s fine! They worked things out and are on good terms.” Kate knows that ‘good terms’ was definitely a stretch for Clint and Yelena’s relationship, but the girls didn’t need to know that.
“Okay, that’s great for them, but where does that leave you?” Cassie asks.
“Well we’re-“ Kate hesitates.
Shit, what are we?
Surely they weren’t still enemies. But then again, she never got to call truce with the woman like Clint had.
“She probably just wants to clear the air between us.”
“I’m confused. What does this have to do with drinks?” Cassie asks, sounding unconvinced.
Kate’s eyes wander around the room, needing to look anywhere but at the girls. “I may have brought up getting drinks together last time we fought,” she says, unsure why the tips of her ears were getting hot.
There’s a beat of silence in the room as three girls stare at her.
“Who the hell asks someone on a date in the middle of a fight?” America asks.
Kamala and Cassie crack up laughing.
“I wasn't asking her on a date! I was… networking!”
“Were you fighting at a job fair?” Cassie asks between laughs.
“Networking is very important in this line of work and you should all learn how to do it,” Kate says confidently, even though she can feel the heat from her ears spreading to her cheeks. It hadn’t actually occurred to her just how embarrassing it was to have asked Yelena to grab a drink mid brawl. Then again, Kate doesn’t realize that most of the things she does are embarrassing.
“Suuuure,” Kamala exaggerates as she finally stops laughing.
“Whatever! I’m just gonna meet up with her and work everything out.” Kate huffs as she unbuckles her utility belt, making her way to her bedroom in an attempt to escape any further taunting.
“Okay, but are you sure you don’t need backup on this?” Cassie calls after Kate. Despite the laughter behind her eyes, Kate can tell she’s being serious.
“I’m sure,” Kate insists. “It’s probably gonna be super chill.”
↣
“You’ve gotta be shitting me.”
When Kate had plugged the address into her phone, she was expecting it to take her to a nice bar, however, standing on a sidewalk that reeked of piss, she found herself looking at the most run down pizza parlor she’s ever seen. Well, technically it was a pizza parlor, but based on the “C” health rating in the window and the utter lack of customers inside, Kate was pretty sure the restaurant was just a front for a crack dealer.
Trying to remember whether she’s up to date on her tetanus shot, Kate reluctantly heads towards the door, but stops in her tracks when a light flashes in her eyes. Following the light up to the roof of the restaurant, Kate barely has time to glance a flash of blonde hair before the figure holding the light disappears.
“Of course,” Kate says as she rolls her eyes. She should’ve known that meeting up with the assassin was going to be unnecessarily dramatic.
Making sure no one was watching her, Kate ducks into the alley to figure out how she’s going to get onto the roof. Unfortunately, her eyes land on a dilapidated, rusty fire escape; more than half the steps were missing, the rusted metal formed sharp edges just waiting to slice you to bits, and given the state of the bolts, Kate was pretty sure a small gust of wind could rip the whole thing right off the wall. Kate was really hoping her tetanus shot was up to date.
Questioning everything that led her to this moment, Kate begins to climb. The expedition was anything but graceful, but given that she manages to avoid any gaping flesh wounds, Kate considers it a success. A minute later, and only a little bit sweaty, she finally makes it to the top.
Pulling herself onto the roof, Kate momentarily panics when she doesn’t recognize the woman standing before her. Shit. Was this a set up? But before she can even consider reaching for the knife stashed in her waistband, the woman in question turns around.
“Kate Bishop! How is my favorite archer?” It was Yelena, but compared to the last time Kate had seen her, her long blonde hair was now cropped just below her jawline.
Yelena had always intimidated Kate; despite her often playful demeanor, the older woman’s looks were demanding and, more often than not, incredibly hard to read. But now, with this effortlessly styled short hair cut, Yelena was a different kind of intimidating, a kind Kate couldn’t quite place…
Kate quickly shakes the train of thought away as the initial surprise wears off. Focus, Kate! You’ve got to play it cool.
“If I’d known I was gonna have to scale the side of a sketchy pizza shop I would’ve dressed more for the occasion,” Kate jokes, though she was genuinely regretting her choice of jeans.
“Don’t be ridiculous, you look cute.”
Kate blushes slightly at the unexpected compliment. “So, I take it no drinks?”
“Kate, I’m Russian,” Yelena says as she turns around and grabs a bottle of vodka off the ledge behind her. “Of course there’s drinks. Come sit.” Kate wants to argue that straight vodka isn’t a drink, but Yelena doesn’t seem like the person to argue this with, so she follows Yelena to the ledge.
As she swings her legs over the edge of the building to mirror Yelena, Kate notices a box of pizza she hadn’t seen before, presumably from the shop below.
“Slice?” Yelena offers as she opens the box and grabs a piece for herself. Despite being incredibly hungry after a boring night out with the girls, Kate immediately hears Clint in her head, going on and on about never taking food from someone you don’t trust in case it’s poison. Even if Kate trusted Yelena not to poison her, she’s not sure she trusted the woman’s choice in pizza joints.
“Uh, no thanks,” Kate says.
As Yelena shrugs and bites into her own pizza slice, Kate looks down at the alley they’re sitting over. If there was a list of the best alleys in New York City, this one wouldn’t even make the top 1,000. The girls’ worries from earlier start swirling in Kate’s mind as she begins to imagine her dead body lying amongst the rubble in the alley.
“You know, this isn’t exactly how I pictured tonight going. You're not gonna kill me, are you?” Kate says it lightheartedly, but realistically, she has no idea what to expect from the woman.
Yelena cracks up as she opens the vodka bottle. “Show yourself some respect, Kate Bishop! If I was going to kill you I would’ve picked a much nicer location.”
“Thank you?” Kate says, truly unsure what to make of that.
“I wanted to come here because I like their pizza. You really should have some,” Yelena says, gesturing towards the box once again. She takes another bite of her slice. “Mmh, this is what I miss about New York. They really don’t have pizza like this in Russ-“
“Are we good?” Kate blurts out, needing to clear the air for her own sanity.
“What?”
“You tried to kill my partner,” Kate says bluntly. “And last time we spoke you were kicking me in the ribs, so forgive me if I’m not exactly sure what this is.” Kate gestures between them and their impromptu roof picnic.
“Last time we spoke you also suggested we get a drink,” Yelena says matter-of-factly. “I figured you would enjoy this.”
“Well I would if I wasn’t worried about walking right into the enemies trap.”
“We were never enemies,” Yelena says, looking borderline offended. “I only fought you because you insisted on getting in my way. Besides the slap to the face, I genuinely enjoyed your company.”
“You did?”
“Yes,” Yelena says, as if the answer was obvious.
“Oh,” Kate says, suddenly feeling a bit embarrassed. “Cool- I mean that’s great. Super cool…”
You are being everything but cool, Kate.
“So you’re not here to kill one of my friends?”
“I am not going to kill any of your friends. Or you,” Yelena adds for good measure. “I promise.”
For the first time since meeting the woman, Yelena’s words seem genuinely sincere, which is enough to ease Kate’s mind. “Good. Glad we could clear that up.”
With the air officially clear, Kate should be able to relax, but instead she sits there awkwardly fidgeting with her hands, unsure what to do now and, quite frankly, feeling a little bad for coming in hot with the accusations. No doubt sensing her nerves, Yelena smiles fondly and passes her the bottle.
Having watched Yelena drink from the bottle herself, Kate no longer feels the need to hesitate as she snags the liquor and takes a quick drink, praying she can think of something to fill the awkward silence. Thankfully, Yelena beats her to it.
“I did want to ask you a question though.”
With her throat burning, Kate opts to stay silent, not wanting her intolerance to the strong liquor coming through in her words; she did not need to embarrass herself any further in front of Yelena.
“Have you ever heard of Xander Price?”
That was probably the last thing Kate had expected to be asked tonight, but as she thinks about it, the hours of boring business meetings begin to flash through her mind; becoming head of Bishop Security made her privy to all of their high profile (and highly suspicious) clientele. And while Price, among many of their other sketchy clients, had left the Bishop brand after Kate had gone public with her vigilante work, she still knew more than her fair share about the man. “Yeah, actually. His name has come up at work.”
The corner of Yelena’s mouth lifts with a satisfied grin. “I was hoping you’d say that.”
“So what, you want to take this guy down?”
“Hired to take him out, but yes.”
“And you’re gonna go through his security network to get to him?”
“Mmhm.”
“I obviously would never question your abilities, but he’s got one of the tightest securities I’ve ever seen pass through our company. How exactly do you plan on hacking into it?”
“Oh I have no fucking clue.” Yelena laughs as she takes the bottle back from Kate. “That’s why you’re going to do it.”
“Excuse me, I’m what?” Kate asks, nearly choking on her own spit.
“You could hack it, yes?”
“I mean, probably, but why would I do-“
“My god, Kate. Do I really have to spell it out for you?”
Kate sits there, unsure what she’s even supposed to say.
“I'm asking you to help me with this assignment.” Yelena says.
Kate's eyes go wide like a kid on Christmas morning. “You need my help with a mission?” she asks, barely able to contain her excitement.
“Well ‘need’ is a strong word, but your access to his security network will make this assignment a hell of a lot easier.” Yelena says. “Plus, this guy is a royal pile of dog shit, so I figured an all righteous Avenger like yourself couldn’t pass up the opportunity to take him down.”
“You think I’m an Avenger?” Kate asks coiley.
“Oh for the love of- are you in or have I just wasted my entire night?”
“Yes! I’m in! I would love to- like to! I mean, wow this was just so unexpected. Thank you for thinking of me, this is literally such a great opportunity-“
“Okay, I’m leaving before I deeply regret this whole idea,” Yelena says and she swings her legs back around and stands up. She closes the pizza box and slides it towards Kate. “Go be a good single mom and feed your kids. This on the other hand.” She raises the bottle of liquor as if making a toast. “Is coming home with me. We’ll get started first thing tomorrow, so make sure you get your beauty sleep.”
Kates minds races with questions as she watches Yelena walk towards the adjacent ledge of the roof, but she only manages to actually ask one. “Wait, single mom? You know about the girls?”
Yelena throws down a wire that attaches itself to the roof and clips the other end to her waist. “Don’t ask such silly questions, Kate Bishop.” And with that, Yelena takes one last swig of vodka and jumps off the roof.
Kate sits there, her mouth agape, completely unsure how to process anything that just happened. The first thought that crosses her mind is wondering if Yelena is allergic to taking the stairs, or if the woman just insists on making everything she does the coolest thing possible.
The second thought, however, is that in less than ten minutes, Kate managed to get wined, dined, and agreed to work on a case with a Black Widow assassin. And not just any Black Widow. Yelena Belova. The woman that nearly killed Clint. Yet Kate didn’t even hesitate to accept the offer to work with her.
The thought of her over enthusiastic nature makes Kate cringe. Why are you like this? The question was hypothetical, of course; Kate really wanted a friend. Working on what would likely be a very high profile mission with a Black Widow was obviously a flex to have on her hypothetical vigilante resume. But at the end of the day, Kate was lonely.
Growing up, most of her friends only wanted to get close to her because of her parent’s wealth. And after the events of last Christmas and the arrest of her mother… well, let’s just say that Kate’s remaining semesters at college were pretty lonely. And while hanging out with the young heroes has been great, Kate can’t help but feel an obvious difference between her and the other girls. The main difference being the age gap. Yes, the girls were great and fun to be around. And after months of pulling teeth trying to have conversations with Clint, it was nice being able to talk about silly girl stuff. But despite all that, hanging out with people who were still talking about SAT scores and college admission was growing tiresome. And despite taking up a sort of leadership/maternal role amongst the group, Kate can’t help but feel slightly inferior to the other girls given her lack of superpowers.
So when an older, superpowerless, Black Widow asked her to join her on a mission, it was no wonder Kate jumped at the opportunity.
With only a sliver of understanding on what had happened tonight, Kate gathers herself (and the pizza) and prepares for a very humbling journey back down the broken fire escape.
↣
By the time Kate gets back to her apartment it’s nearly midnight. Walking up to the front door, she was prepared to quietly enter so as to not wake anyone up, but upon cracking the door open, it was very obvious that no one was sleeping.
The sound of the three girls energetically talking over one another pierces through the music playing from Kate’s surround system. The girls only notice her arrival once Lucky begins to bark at her excitedly.
“Oh thank god, you’re alive!” Kamala says from their place on the couch.
“We were only mildly worried that you had died,” Cassie says nonchalantly.
“I was gone for less than two hours,”. Kate says as she scratches the top of Lucky’s head. “What kind of trouble could I have possibly gotten myself into?”
Walking over to the couch, Kate tosses the pizza box down in front of the girls. Kamala excitedly opens the box, but before she can even grab a piece, Lucky snatches a slice and runs off into the kitchen to scarf it down.
“Hey!” Kamala yells after him.
“Well with the way you described this Yelena chick, one could only assume.” America says to Kate, ignoring the pizza burglary happening in front of her.
“I take it things went well though?” Cassie asks.
Plopping herself down in the chair across from the girls, Kate lets out a sigh, unsure what to tell them. On the walk home, she had gone back and forth about whether or not to tell them everything. On the one hand, they never said they couldn’t work on their own missions outside of the group. But on the other hand, Kate felt mildly guilty about wanting to do this mission without them, especially if they knew the real reason she wanted to work with Yelena.
“It went exactly like I expected. She’s back in town for a mission, we had a drink, and cleared the air between us. Simple as that.”
“Ooh what kind of mission is she on?” Kamala asks with a mouth full of pizza.
“Given the kind of work she does, I don’t think you wanna know,” Kate says, trying her best to avoid having to share any more details.
“Fair enough,” Kamala says.
Cassie eyes Kate like she wants to ask her another question, but Kamala starts rambling about the movie the three of them had watched while she was gone.
The four of them easily slip into conversation, but between her night with Yelena and the late hour catching up to her, Kate finds it hard to stay engaged. Not even thirty minutes later, she excuses herself for the night, only getting mildly offended when America calls her a grandma for going to bed “so early.”
After quickly getting ready for the night, Kate lies in bed, zoning out as she stares at the ceiling, replaying the evening over and over again in her head. She can’t tell if the butterflies in her stomach are excitement or nerves at the prospect of working with Yelena. But as she slips off into sleep, Kate can only think of one thing.
What the hell did I get myself into?