Always You

Chapter 5: Help

"Wake up, bitch!" Nat yelled as she shoved Yelena off her bed.

As soon as she hit the floor, she was right back up on her feet in a fighting position. Eyes wide, fists clenched, "What. The. FUCK!" She yelled as she tried to relax and take deep breaths.

Nat was nearly doubled over laughing by now. Though the sisters hadn't been together in so long, all Nat could think about was what it was like when they were kids. The times they spent playing in their backyard while their parents were inside cooking or working on some project were some of her fondest childhood memories.

"First of all, you deserved that after how you acted yesterday," Nat said as she finally came down from her laughter, "and secondly, Y/N is downstairs making breakfast. They're almost done so they wanted me to come and wake you up."

Y/N, she thought. Her brain shot right back to the thoughts she was having just before falling asleep. Yelena quickly remembered the feelings she'd had sitting next to Y/N as they slept soundly. She remembered the thought of wanting to just lean down next to them...

She coughed as she tried to choke down the shock on her face from hearing their name.

"I'll be down in a few," She said as she looked around and did her best not to make eye contact with Nat. Luckily for her, Nat didn't pick up on the awkwardness she was giving off due to still trying to keep down her laughter from pushing Yelena off the bed.

After about five minutes, she made her way down to the kitchen. The aroma of bacon filled the air and excited her taste buds.

"Oh thank god. You can cook," She said as she took a seat at the bar behind Y/N.

They shook their head and continued cooking the bacon. The lack of reaction was disappointing to Yelena, causing her to stand again and meet them at their side. She looked around the stovetop, finding pancakes and eggs being made as well.

"Can I help you?" Y/N asked just before flipping a perfect pancake. They looked over at her, catching her eyes for a few seconds.

The moments that their eyes had locked together, Yelena's face dropped a bit. She felt a new feeling in her stomach that she hadn't ever experienced before. All she could focus on was the parts of Y/N's face that she'd studied just the night before when they slept. Her eyes traveled through theirs, down to their lips and quickly back up.

Y/N raised their eyebrows when they noticed that Yelena wasn't responding and instead looked like a deer in headlights, "Hello? Earth to Yelena? You okay?" Though they'd only known her for less than 24 hours, having a smart-ass response was definitely not like her.

Her head shook slightly as she brought herself back to reality and out of Y/N's stare, "Yeah-yes. I'm fine. I just wanted to see what you were making." She turned on her heel and made her way back to the bar at a seat next to Nat.

"When are we heading out of here?" Nat asked while she flipped through the channels of the small tv placed on the counter in the kitchen, "Actually, you never even told us exactly what it ws you needed our help with. Let's start there."

Yelena shifted in her seat as she looked at the screen, wondering how to tell the two exactly what she needed. It was enough getting them both here. She wasn't sure how they'd react to what she was set out to do.

"Well... I really need your help," She started as she stared off into the show that Nat had landed on.

"Yeah, we know that. What do you need help WITH?" Y/N asked as they began plating all of the pancakes, eggs, and bacon for the three of them.

She took a deep breath in, hoping for the best, "I need you to come help me free all of the Widows of their trance."

Nat shrugged, "Fair enough. How many?"

That was the kicker, "Um... A couple-"

"That's not bad," Y/N added as they sat the plates down on the table.

"I wasn't finished. A couple thousand," She added as she looked down to her lap. Not only were there so many to save, they were scattered. The three would need to travel to nearly every single continent in order to get to them all.

Nat's face dropped as she looked over to meet Y/N's eyes who were already locked on Yelena. Their head dropped as they tried to catch her eyes. It was clear that she knew what she was asking for.

"You... what... Yelena what are you asking us to do? It's just the three of us?" Nat asked as she took her eyes from Y/N to catch Yelena fiddling with her hands under the table.

She finally looked up but did not meet either of their gazes, "I know. I know it's a lot. It's a lot of work but a lot of them are stationed. It's not like we're going to each of them individually!"

Y/N blew a long breath out before pushing both Nat and Yelena's plates in front of them. They'd just come along to help Nat but knew that they'd eventually need to get back to work. Helping with such a big task was out of the question for them.

"I have to get back to work, Nat," Y/N said finally catching her attention, "I only have another two weeks of leave before I have to head back. You know that."

Luckily, Nat was free of work currently anyways. There was no talk of her team getting back together anytime soon.

Yelena's head turned on a swivel quickly toward Y/N, "No, no. I need you too."

Their eyes squinted as their eyebrows furrowed. Y/N wasn't even a part of the original plan anyways, "Why do you need me? You originally sought out Nat. I wasn't even a part of this until you met me with her back in Budapest."

Her head was spinning with possible reasons. Y/N is definitely smart. They can hold their own. They would be an asset for sure in her search for the widows.

She couldn't admit that it was mostly because she didn't want to see them go. There had to be a good solid reason related to the mission.

"You're smart. I don't know exactly what it is you do, but I know you can hold your own," She wracked her head for more reasons, "and you helped Nat find me. You're good. I need you to help us."

The confusion on their face stayed. Yelena sounded desperate which was a staunch difference in how she was speaking to them just yesterday. Going from smart-ass remarks to begging them to stay was throwing Y/N off.

Nat stuffed half a pancake in her mouth, "They have to get back to work. I know Nick wouldn't be okay with you missing anymore time than you already have. It took enough convincing to get him to let you come with me for this past month."

Yelena was now picking at the eggs on her plate. She'd exhausted any reason she could think of. The only thing left would be the fact that she just wanted to know them more, and that was not something she was willing to say.

There was a few moments of silence as Y/N thought about what Yelena had said. Maybe Nick would let them use this as a separate assignment?

"Nick let me go with you because you needed me. Maybe if you talk to him again, I can just use this as a new assignment," Y/N stated to Nat.

Yelena's head flew up quicker than she'd liked, but she couldn't go back now. Nat's eyebrows raised a bit as she nodded and cocked her head to the side in agreeance. Her and Nick did have a rather good relationship. He trusted her input on nearly everything.

"I'll give him a call later today and see what he says," She responded as she shoved the other half of that pancake down.

Y/N smiled as they looked over at Yelena whose eyes lit up a bit at the response. They wondered why she would be so happy to know that they'd come along, but they chalked it up to just knowing that they'd be able to really help her accomplish her own mission.

She took her eyes from Nat and met Y/N's gaze, causing her smile to grow a bit larger. It seemed that each time they locked eyes now, whatever feeling she had in the pit of her stomach burned brighter.