InsaneJournal

The first sign that Yelena knew she wasn’t in a familiar world was the fact that she realized she had free will again, which was honestly really fucking sad if she gave herself a chance to sit and think about it. But the way she was trained, she immediately took in her surroundings and her shoulders relaxed just a tiny bit. She was here before, she remembered. It was unfamiliar the last time and she managed to slam one of the habitants of this place against the wall before she had run out but… yeah, it was all coming back to her.

She was supposed to be much older, supposedly. There was that bird she remembered from last time. And the pics on the wall. And the weapons. And the woman she last freaked out on.

Yelena awkwardly hovered at the girl’s bedside. She had no doubt that she would know her, a teenage version of her friend – no, adopted sister at this point in Yelena’s life – the problem was figuring out the best way to wake her up. Yelena had slipped out of her room and into the hallway and then the first door she could find. She had her fingers crossed it would be Natasha, who she knew would just wake up without needing for her to do anything (spies, it was a thing).

Instead it was Kate Bishop, she was able to remember through the haze of sleep, as she bent over closer, trying to figure out how to wake her up. Yelena Belova didn’t wake people up under normal circumstances. She usually just killed them in their sleep!

Kate was naturally a sound sleeper. Maybe it was because of how physical she was on a daily basis – she was always training, always up and moving, brimming with chaotic energy. Eventually, she had to burn out. She wasn’t a superhero; her energy may feel endless in the moment, but she had never been great at conserving it.

All that to say, it took a lot to wake her up at an hour she was unprepared to be up.

Yelena Belova was a lot. Her picture might as well be next to the term in a dictionary. She was beautiful, brave, strong, witty, and matched Kate in chaos with every passing day. Her mere existence was enough to rile Kate up, which might very well be why she gravitated so hard to Natasha for structure – she was the pinnacle of calm, completely even-keeled and both Kate and Yelena’s polar opposite in the way she moved through life.

For Kate, being with her older sister, spending time with her, was like two live wires connecting.

She started to stir in her sleep when it felt like something was on her; her brows even furrowed together as she tried to assess just what it was. She woke suddenly and abruptly, eyes flipping open with alarm and gasping so loudly that it took her breath away and got her coughing as her gaze landed on the culprit.

Yelena.

Just Yelena’s eyes on her, boring into her like she was considering how many different ways she could kill her, had penetrated her deepest sleep. She wasn’t sure if that was funny, creepy, or some mix of both. Ordinarily, she’d grab her and yank her into bed with her, and they would probably wake Natasha up yelling and fighting, and dissolve into giggles when it was all over.

The trouble was that the girl in front of her wasn’t her big sister. Not physically, at least.

“Lena,” she coughed, thumping her chest with her palm for a moment to regain herself. She gazed at the teenager standing beside her with surprise but overwhelming fondness, remembering her last journey here, hoping this (arguably) less aggressive approach meant she remembered, too. “Are you okay, сестренка? C’mere.” She patted the queen bed; Lucky was sprawled at her feet, but there was space beside her, with Emily at her own apartment for the night.

Ah, right. This one called her ‘Lena’. Yelena straightened up, not at all thrown off by Kate’s gasp. At least this time, she didn’t have to choose between shaking her awake or yelling in her ear.

“Hi,” she replied simply, as she glanced down at her seventeen-year-old self. This wasn’t the pjs she went to bed in, she didn’t think. “I think it happened again.”

“Uh, yeah, I guess so,” Kate agreed. She considered her sister for a moment, how she’d said those words, before she tentatively asked, “Do you…remember being older this time?”

She didn’t think so, and she wasn’t expecting an affirmative response, but she thought it was worth asking. Vallo was a nutcase of a place in a lot of respects. One of these days, someone was going to be physically de-aged but mentally the same, she’d bet on it.

Yelena shook her head. “I remember when I shoved you and ran off and then came back.” She also remembered feeling a great deal of things, most of it anger and betrayal. The man she also saw thinking he was her father – an incredibly uncanny resemblance – had her wanting to shove him too and ask him how he could have left her in the hands of… well, that didn’t matter right now. This life was apparently a much better life that Yelena of the older years led.

After a moment of hesitation, she took a seat next to Kate, her legs tucked underneath her. “I remember all of that week, being told I actually am older.”

“Okay.” Kate nodded. That was something. She’d wondered if that was the case since, despite the surprising wake-up call, Yelena hadn’t straight-up lashed out at her. Not that she held that against her. Like this, Yelena was a kid freshly free of mind control, in a new place, freaked out beyond belief, dealing with emotions that had been kept from her for too long. That was a lot for anyone to handle.

Lucky, jostled by Kate’s feet as she tried to rearrange herself, stood up and crossed over to the side of the bed Yelena had taken up on. He plunked his head directly into her lap, smiling that one-eyed doggy smile up at her and settling in. Kate chuckled and reached out to scratch his head fondly.

“Did you wake up Tasha?” she asked. She would assume not because their sister would surely be in here, too. But she was still waking up and sussing out the situation as best as her brain could manage.

Yelena only paused for a moment as the dog settled himself before she placed a hand on his head. She remembered wanting a dog once. A long time ago when the family she had was something she thought was real. It was real. At least to her.

“I didn’t know which was her room. I just walked into this one.”

Kate nodded slowly. That was a little weird. Yelena at this age had been here with them before, and granted, Kate as she was now hadn’t really been present for it, since she’d been older for most of the time Yelena was younger, but she figured she’d still remember the general layout and who was where. Maybe the mind control thing had something to do with that?

She studied Yelena for a moment, as Lucky leaned into her sister’s touch, before she reached for her – then paused in mid-air. “Is it okay if I…put my arm around you?” She wouldn’t hesitate with her older sister, but she knew Yelena at this age probably wasn’t accustomed to affectionate physical touch.

She was safe, Yelena had to remind herself. Safe, safe, safe. There was no Red Room, she didn’t have a tracker in her leg, not everyone here who wanted their hands on her meant her harm. Unless, from what she heard of this place, it was a giant pigeon or something. What a weird fucking place.

“Yeah,” she responded, leaning toward Kate. At least her hands were occupied now, one on Lucky’s ears, giving him scratches while the other was in front of his muzzle as he licked at her hand.

Kate smiled a little, the relief clear on her face, and she wasted no time in slipping her arm around her sister’s shoulders and gently squeezing. Part of her wished they could keep Yelena like this, give her the time to be a regular teenager, but she knew there was no changing what was, not at this point. Francis’ circumstances were unique, and honestly, Kate would just miss her Yelena too much.

“I love you,” she told her quietly. She didn’t expect it back, not with Yelena at an age where she didn’t really know her, but she felt compelled to say it. “You’re lucky you didn’t scare me to death,” she went on teasingly. She took the smallest step further, planting a quick kiss through wisps of blonde hair on Yelena’s temple. “Are you still tired, or should we go wake up Nat and eat?”

She was tired – she didn’t know what time it was, but she knew the sun wasn’t up – but she would get up (sighing and groaning as if it was some horrible task, of course) if Yelena was restless.

Yelena did not say it back. It would have just been a falsehood, because she knew the older Yelena most likely did love her but she did not know Kate as well. But she felt like the girl wouldn’t appreciate an I Love You Too if it wasn’t genuine. Who would?

But one arm did move up around Kate’s back when she came in for a hug. It was the hand that Lucky had been licking that now touched the back of her shirt. Well… she didn’t need to know that!

“Um. Well… what’s the date? It doesn’t feel like October? You had Halloween decorations around the house last time.”

“May…something?” Kate’s tone was questioning, but it was stupid early in the morning, sue her. She reached for her phone to check the time and saw, with some disgruntlement, that there was a five at the beginning of the time. “Tenth. Tenth of May,” she clarified. “It’s been a while. You didn’t really get to see me like this last time.”

“Ugh,” Yelena wrinkled her nose. A time jump. Those were the worst. Holes in memories were the absolute worst. She could have let herself divulge into the horrors of the Red Room that led to those memory gaps but she pushed it away. No need to think of that. She was in Vallo and she. Was. Safe.

She shifted herself in the bed instead, to place her head on the pillow next to Kate’s. Of course that shift meant Lucky was no longer lying with his head in her lap but there was enough space in between. “You have a lot to catch me up on then.”

Lucky took his cue and curled up between the girls on the bed, a big bundle of golden fur sprawled out between their knees. Kate shifted back from her half-sitting position to lay down, turning onto her side so she was facing Yelena. “I’ll do my best,” she murmured, reaching out to run her fingers gently down her sister’s arm before she pulled it back to stifle a yawn. “Let’s sleep a little more first. Nat’ll come wake me up for training soon.”

The eldest would be in for one hell of a surprise, but if Kate knew Natasha, she’d handle it gracefully. The rest of it, they’d figure out when it was light out.