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noturlondonboy · 7 months ago

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No More Excuses//Katelena

Chapter 15: There is Room for Two Pupper in This Town

Pairing: Kate Bishop x Yelena Belova

Chapter Summary: puppy play date!

A/N: here’s some cutie patooties!

Kate can barely keep in her squeal when she spots Yelena's beautiful akita for the first time, and the look on her face as she physically restrains herself from tackling the poor dog sends Yelena into a fit of giggles.

"Kate Bishop, this is my baby, Fanny. Fanny, that is my friend, Kate Bishop," Yelena introduces them, kneeling next to her dog and hugging her around the neck, happily ruffling her thick coat.

Kate coos and plops down onto the floor outside the door of her apartment. They had opted to keep Lucky in the dark for a moment while Kate got to fawn over the new addition. The archer offers her hand, and Fanny looks up to Yelena as if asking permission, and the blonde clicks her tongue and nudges her forward. "Go ahead, милый щенок."

Fanny bursts forward and tackles Kate to the ground, her entire body vibrating with her excitement as she climbs over the archer and licks at her face like she's trying to eat her. Kate laughs loudly and succumbs to the puppy barrage, wrapping her arms around Fanny to hug her tight. "Oh my godddd, you are the cutest fucking thing!"

A bark from Lucky inside the apartment reminds Kate of her own dog, and Fanny's head perks up before she runs to the door and sits in front of it patiently, tail whirling. They let her in, and Fanny darts inside like a shot, completely bowling Lucky over in a pile of fur and paws. Yelena and Kate watch amusedly as the two pups freeze and experimentally sniff each other before immediately tearing around the apartment in a game of tag.

"I was a little worried they wouldn't get along, I'm not gonna lie," Kate chuckles, propping her hip against the door frame. "I don't know how many interactions Lucky has had with other dogs before, and he's pretty used to being a street puppy."

Yelena's laugh echoes behind her, and the assassin's hands land on Kate's waist, firm and warm. "I need to get inside the apartment before Fanny finds something bad to snack on, Kate Bishop," she says as she gently scoots Kate forward and inches around her, bodies pressing together.

Kate stares at her when Yelena's hands fall away, her friend calling for Fanny and Lucky and laughing when the two dogs burst from nowhere, yipping happily. The warmth of the blonde lingers on her hips, and Kate wishes to herself that it would burn hotter.

Lucky trots up to her and pushes against her legs, snapping Kate awake. She smiles and closes the door behind her, following him over to her small main room and laying on the floor to let the two dogs maul her. Their squishy paws and cold noses distract her from the heat of Yelena's eyes.

————

"I think he has a crush on Fanny," Kate chuckles, chin propped up in her palms as she and Yelena watch the akita trot around the apartment, Lucky right on her heels with an adorable tilt to his head. He already knew the apartment inside and out, but pretended to be just as intrigued by every little thing to earn some brownie points.

"They would make a very adorable pairing," concedes Yelena, her smile soft and loving. Her eyes follow her dog until both pups disappear up into Kate's loft bedroom.

Kate's eyebrows shoot up and she scrambles to her feet, chasing after them. "I swear to god, if either of you eat a sock of mine-!"

Yelena laughs and flops back on the floor, basking in the midday sun streaming in. For early January, today was rather warm. Or maybe Yelena was feeling bubbly and safe and everything was a little brighter. Fanny and Kate were in close proximity- what more could she want, besides her sister?

Maybe some mac-n-cheese, actually.

The thought of food had her stomach rumbling, especially seeing as she hadn't eaten since the bar last night, and she had expended exuberant amounts of energy afterwards. But the patch of sunlight she had laid down in made her insides feel all glowy, and it was all too easy to stretch her limbs out (mindful of the cut on her neck) and close her eyes.

Glorious.

Yelena dozed for what only felt like a small moment, but the sun shifted enough to move the patch of light off of her, and her eyes cracked open to pout at it for its treachery. Fanny was pressed into her side, all curled up in a ginormous ball of fluff, her rumbly snores making for a peaceful ambiance.

"привет, мой милый щенок," Yelena cooed, stroking her dog's silky head. She felt calmer now than she had in weeks, and she thanked her small catnap. There was no Clint Barton to kill; no horrible, Kate Bishop-verified men to hunt down; Yelena could dare say she might take the quiet for granted.

Such a low bar, for a Black Widow assassin. No one to kill? No one actively after your own life either? Alright, perfect! Sleeping it is.

Yelena paused, eyes narrowing. Speaking of quiet, Kate was not. "Kate Bishop?" she calls out, picking her head up off the floor. There's a guilty sounding response from her room, and the assassin sighs, getting to her feet. "What are you doooing?"

"...Nothing?"

When Yelena reached the top landing, she paused, staring at the scene before her. Kate had her wide eyes straight on her, one of Lucky's paws in her hand, half of his nails a deep, gleaming purple.

"Kate Bishop."

"Hi."

"What are you doing?"

Lucky's tail wagged a mile a minute, his paw staying dutifully in Kate's hand. "Um. Painting Lucky's nails?"

Yelena just blinked, looking Kate dead in the eyes. "Do you have more polish I can use for Fanny?"

Kate's face lit up so brightly that Yelena almost considered making a joke about needing sunglasses, but instead she called Fanny and settled onto the floor next to her friend. The blonde accepted the basket full of different colored paints, poking through them and grabbing a few.

Fanny appeared, head cocked with confusion at the strange smell of the polish- probably wondering why on Earth Lucky was letting this happen to him.

"Fanny, come," Yelena ordered, patting her lap. "Paw." Fanny stared at her for a moment before obeying, leaning as far away as she could without pulling her paw away from her mama. Yelena hums happily and carefully paints Fanny's nails a mix of yellow and black, while Kate throws in a couple pink nails on Lucky.

They both beam down at their respective dogs when they're finished, and Kate grins lopsidedly at Yelena while holding up Lucky's paws. "Not too shabby, eh?" The golden licks fruitlessly at her hands to get her to drop him; she instead pulls him closer and peppers his head with kisses.

"I will admit, Kate Bishop- you are very strange. But that is fun. My Fanny looks excellent."

The archer nods solemnly. "Why thank you."

--------

"Are you alright, Kate Bishop?"

The archer is silent for a moment as she mulls over her response. Kate and Yelena had clipped leashes onto their dogs once the two pups looked just about ready to piss on the floor, and tugged them out of the apartment to let them relieve themselves outside. Kate had been more than ready to head back inside, but Yelena felt emboldened by the cold sunlight and insisted they went on a walk. Besides- Lucky and Fanny needed to show off their new pedicures.

"What do you mean?" is what Kate eventually decided on, her breath fogging in front of her face.

Yelena sighed. "Эта сука... I mean, you have dealt with some real shit in the past few days. Are you okay? In here?" She pokes Kate's forehead rather hard.

"Ow, hey! What's that for?" Kate whines, furrowing her brows and rubbing at her head.

"You are being ambiguous, Kate Bishop."

"I think I'm being perfectly reasonable."

"Kate, I have been alive much longer than you, and I know what reasonable looks like. I also know that 'reasonable' does not include bottling harmful feelings and acting silly about it."

"Silliness is my best trait. Along with my rugged charm and handsome face," Kate crows, pretending to swoon and sketching a bow but almost falling flat on her face when Lucky tugs at his leash. Next to him, Fanny is perfectly calm, and if they weren't surrounded by cars and strangers Yelena would probably let her roam freely.

The assassin barks a laugh and steadies her friend with a hand, snickering. "I don't know about rugged, Kate Bishop, but you are certainly charming."

Kate's cheeks glow red as she smiles shyly. "Hell yeah."

The dogs interrupt them with impatient yips, so they hurry on a few more blocks until they reach a small park and then unclip the two, trusting Fanny off-leash and Lucky to follow her around dutifully. They both tear off into the frosty grass, sniffing and marking excitedly. Yelena and Kate watch them fondly.

"I'm okay, Yelena," Kate suddenly says, voice soft. The assassin turns to look at her. "The last couple of weeks have been a different kind of Hell, sure- but they weren't completely terrible." She faces Yelena, ears and nose pink from the cold. "I met Clint, and Lucky, and the LARPers, and you." Her lips pull into a small smile. "I had the adventure of a lifetime, even if my life was in danger most of the time. But then again, I also learned that my mom wanted an Avenger dead and had been working with a fucking mafia boss since my dad died, and now she's in prison until her 80's."

Yelena tilts her head at this last part, putting the dots together as to why Kate had been upset yesterday when she first arrived at her apartment.

"Then you show up. A surprise, but a good one. I see my ex for the first time in years, and he pulls the shit I know him for. And now- damn. He's fucking dead."

Yelena says nothing.

"So. Yeah. That's a lot. And with all the meds I take, you'd think I'd be a mess... but honestly? I think I'm alright. It's over now." Kate closes her eyes and sucks in a deep breath, letting it out in a steady fog.

Yelena watches her, something thudding strangely in her chest as she resists the urge to reach over and take the archer's hand. "When I was six, my family flew away from our home in Ohio in an old, failing airplane, and landed in a base of operations for the Red Room. My mother was shot, my father lied to me and Natasha, and then I was separated from her and beaten and drugged." She swallowed thickly. Kate had shifted her eyes towards her, the blue so young and bright.

"I was under their control for many years. I shed so much blood I could drown in it- I killed innocent people. But after I was freed, I found Natasha, and my parents. And it felt like maybe I could be whole again."

Kate tangles their fingers together.

"A lot happened after that, but Natasha and I parted ways because we had our own missions. I never saw her again. I disappeared for five years in the Blip and came back to find that she was dead." Yelena blinked hard and coughed into her fist. "I miss her more than anything, and the pain is like a bullet being shot into my heart over and over. But I am still here. I still breathe, and feel, and walk. So I think I will be alright, too."

She takes a moment before looking to Kate. "I don't tell you this to win some kind of pity contest. I want you to understand that I also have shit, and it's okay to not be okay. So if you ever need time to be not okay, I'll be here."

Kate stares at her, eyes glassy and lip trembling. "Um. I wanna hug you. I feel like I should hug you. Can I hug you?"

Yelena hesitates only a moment before nodding and opening her arms, and Kate dives into them. The archer wraps herself tightly around Yelena, bodies pressed close together and her cheek squished against blonde hair. The assassin returns the hug in full force, squeezing her arms around Kate's torso and pressing her nose into her friend's neck, inhaling the steadying scent of wood polish and caramel.

Yelena feels something loosening in her chest, and she realizes that this is probably the first proper hug she's had in many, many months. Sure, she literally sat in Kate's lap; sure, she held the archer when she broke down only last night.

But this was different.

Yelena hadn't been given very much time to develop and discover herself as a person outside of the Red Room, but one fundamental thing she knew was that she loved physical touch with the people she cared about. She had always been clingy to her parents, always wanting to hold Natasha's hand or cuddle with her when she couldn't sleep. With the other Widows, there had been zero tolerance for affection of any kind, and any desire for it in the first place dissipated when the chemical subjugation was introduced.

But now that Yelena was free to feel and think and want, she realized that she had been so touch starved it physically hurt. With Kate Bishop in her arms, clinging onto her like Yelena was a lifeline, a fire started burning in her blood. And she never wanted to let go.

She hugged the archer so tightly she could've sworn she heard bones creak, but Kate never protested- only hugged her back just as hard. Lucky and Fanny eventually finished their fun in the park and trotted back to them, winding around the legs of the two women who had yet to let go of each other.

"The dogs are ready to go back home," Kate whispered into Yelena's hair.

Yelena felt herself glow at the word. Home. Maybe Kate Bishop really did want her to stay, after all. "Correct," she agreed. Still, neither of them moved.

A few more moments passed before Kate sighed and relented, slowly unwinding herself from Yelena and stepping back to stretch and take a deep breath. "We probably should get back to the apartment."

Yelena felt like her senses must have been flash bombed with the way she was suddenly floundering without Kate's warmth, but she was able to shake herself awake and nod. "Yes. Probably."

Kate must've seen the look on her face, because after they had clipped the leashes back onto their respective dogs, the archer's free hand reached over to grab Yelena's and twine their fingers together. She held her breath apprehensively and watched. The blonde's expression immediately melted into relief, and her cheeks glowed; she held Kate's hand tightly, never letting go once until they got back to the apartment.

Translations:

-милый щенок (Mily shchenok): Sweet puppy

-привет, мой милый щенок (Privet, moi mily shchenok): Hello, my lovely puppy

-Эта сука (Eta suka): this bitch

Kate Bishop counter: 12

This chapter's meme(s):