meet me at our spot | n.r x oc | ✓

1 - never left

2 years later
[stefaniya's pov]

"Welcome back,"
I speak in Russian to the now former mind-controlled Widow.

"Who..."

"I'm Stefaniya. This is Yelena,"
I point over my shoulder to Yelena, who lowers the gun that I built with Melina to fit explosive, non-lethal Red Dust bullets in. Definitely my greatest work; I'm a little sad that I'll never be able to top that, but I'll learn to live with it.

"We were both Black Widows like you. You were under Dreykov's mind control, but this Red Dust freed you."

Her eyes tear up.
"And Dreykov?"

"Dead. He's gone, now. You're free."
I help her stand up.

"What do I... What do I do now?"

"Anything you want to,"
Yelena answers, switching to English with her.
"We're taking you back to our facility now. You can join us and track down other Widows around the world, or we'll help set you up for a normal life. Documents, housing, healthcare, all that."

The Widow-- Irina, is her name-- breathes a sigh of relief and hugs me gratefully. I pat her back gently.

"It's okay, I've got you. We gotta go now, okay?"

Irina nods against my shoulder and we let go of each other, beginning our walk back to the jet. Speaking of the jet, Natasha managed to get us a S.H.I.E.L.D. superjet, which had a lot more space. I show Irina to the medical room where two Widows begin tending to her injuries.

"There's no better feeling than that,"
I tell Yelena as I sit down in the co-pilot seat.

"Agreed. Super friends, 685. Dreykov, zero."

"Have we really gone over six-hundred already?"

Yelena digs a small notepad out of her pocket, multiple pages filled with the number of Widows we free each month. At the bottom of the most recently filled out page, the total is scrawled in a big font in red marker punctuated with a large exclamation mark and a smiley face. I laugh.

"Wow. I'm impressed."

Yelena smiles proudly. My phone rings and I press accept, bringing it to my ear.

"Hello, котёнок,"
Natasha speaks through the phone. I smile at the sound of the voice I had missed so much.

I had spent three weeks with Natasha after taking down Red Room, breaking some Avengers out of the RAFT-- Who am I kidding, Steve and Natasha did most of it while I flew the quinjet. We reunited Clint and Scott with their families, Wanda with Vision. They were a cool group of people and I loved spending time with Natasha, but I wanted to help Yelena free the Widows. That's what we had been doing over the past two years, tracking down the millions of Widows around the world and undoing Dreykov's evil work.

"'котёнок'? That's new."
['Kitten'?]

"Yeah, well, your last name is Kotova..."

"'кот' is Russian for cat. Gotcha,"
I smile, even though she can't see it.
"I miss you."

"I miss you, too. How's Yelena and the others?"

"Melina and Alexei are at the facility with the other Widows. We've found two more Widows today, so the six of us are heading back. I'll put you on speaker with Yelena,"
I set my phone in between us, putting it on speaker.

"Hey, sis!"
Yelena says excitedly.

"Hi! How're you? I hope you're taking care of yourself."

"No, Natasha. I was actually thinking of crashing this jet right about now. Maybe try to drive recklessly. Drop a toaster into the bathtub while I'm in it, just to see what happens."

Natasha laughs dryly.
"Yeah, yeah, you've made your point."

I fist-bump Yelena, sharing a smile with her.
"How are things with the Avengers?"

"That's actually why I'm calling. There's a situation, and we need all hands on deck. Any of you willing to help?"

I stay quiet and continue staring straight ahead, but I feel Yelena's eyes on me.

"We're gonna put you on mute for a sec, okay, Nat?"
Yelena asks.

"Yeah, I can wait."

Yelena turned our end of the line on mute and looks back up at me.

"You want to go."

"No, it's fine. I want to stay here and help you."

"Stefaniya."

I sigh.

"It's okay. We've done a lot of great work for the past two years. You need a change of scenery. No shame in that."

"You always know exactly what to say."

Yelena grabs my hand.
"Learned it from you, silly."

I meet her gaze.
"Would you be mad if I left?"

"No. Years ago, you promised me that you'd always come back. I'll hold you to that."

I'm about to lean over in my seat to hug Yelena but then remember that I'm also controlling the jet, so I steady it after it shakes in the air a little.

"The Avengers wants you to help save the world?"
Yelena taunts playfully. I stick out my tongue to her.

"Hah, hah."

I tap the unmute button on my phone.

"Still there?"

"I never left."

"I'm in."

"Sounds perfect. I'm already at the facility to pick you up."

"You asked her for an answer and you're already there?"
Yelena scoffs.

"I knew she couldn't pass this up. You, however..."

"Okay, you know what, Romanoff?!"
Yelena raises her voice.

The siblings bicker while I sigh and put on my noise-cancelling headphones, prepared for exact moments like this, and continued steering the jet.

Ten more minutes until I can see Natasha again.