Winter's Widow

Chapter 28: Home

All of Tony's parties required a post-party recovery period, in which the core group hung around in the lounge drinking, talking, playing games, or recovering from drinking too much. It became a regular thing, especially since our first one night was interrupted by Ultron, and I never got to see if I could pick up Thor's hammer thingie. I was convinced that Natasha could if she wanted to, she just didn't want to show up the boys. But then again, she had a past that she rarely talked about, and from the parts I had heard, I would understand if she didn't want a test of her worthiness. Natasha and I sat together on the floor of the lounge, leaning back against the couch that Wanda was sprawled across. She insisted she was too drunk to be upright. Natasha tucked a blanket around her legs to make sure she was warm enough before pulling me down to the floor. I cheekily reached over her to the table, swiping her beer and taking a long gulp. She smirked at me. "Get your own, Kasey."

"Yours is better." I pointed at Tony and Rhodey arguing on the other side of the room, and while Natasha was distracted, I stole the bottle back out of her hand, chugging the rest of the beer down before she could react. Her eyes went wide and then she scowled. Shit. She unceremoniously grabbed one of the pillows under Wanda's head and reared back to hit me with it. "I'm sorry?" The corners of her lips turned upwards into a smile but her green eyes were flashing with amusement, which – almost always – spelled trouble for me. She took the bottle out of my hand, moving as though she was going to set it back down on the table before flinging it forward, openside up, splashing me with beer remnants.

"Hey!" Wanda shouted behind us. She sat up enough to lean on her elbows, looking between the two of us before doing the head tilt. Shit. Again. Natasha and I both scrambled to our feet to get out of the line of fire. As always, Nat was quicker, maneuvering expertly around the corner of the couch and bouncing lightly on her feet before I was even fully standing. Screw it. I crouched down, knowing I would only have one chance to make this work before she could figure out what I was doing. She was already watching me closely. I took a deep breath, placing the tip of my right toe on the corner of the couch beneath Wanda before springing up, lunging over the back of the couch and tackling the Russian in a full-blown pounce. She landed backwards with a thud, staring up at me bemused.

"I let you do that, you kno...OW," she hissed as I pinched her in the side.

"Sure, you did," I climbed off of her, offering a hand to help her up. She swiped my legs from under me while also pushing me backwards and I landed on my ass on the ground. Hard.

"You're going to have to do better than that to get me." She sprinted off down the hallway, and I glanced at Wanda apologetically. The witch rolled her eyes and threw her hands up in exasperation.

"Oh, go ahead." I was already sprinting after Natasha before the final word was out of her mouth.

...

Yelena and I stayed in Wakanda for another week before Shuri was comfortable letting us resume our journey. Yelena still wasn't convinced that going was the best idea, but she also wasn't keen on the idea of me spending more time around Shuri and possibly being dragged off to the lab without her for hours on end either so leaving seemed like the best option. At the same time, however, resuming our previous journey from where we left off could be potentially dangerous with Widows on the lose and whoever the hell it was that was after me. There were rumors that remnants of Hydra were still around, and they were always looking for powered people, so I suppose it wasn't outside the realm of possibility. The only time Yelena left my side was when one of us had to go to the bathroom or shower, and it was only recently that I was allowed to start showering alone again. As much as I appreciated the attention, it felt good to relax under the hot water by myself.

We sat on the edge of the bed, looking at the wall, waiting for each other to speak. Yelena had absentmindedly taken my hand as was twirling the rings on my fingers, a habit that was becoming more and more normal for both of us. "I know where we can go," she spoke up suddenly. I looked at her, eyebrow raised.

"Oh yeah?" She nodded hesitantly.

"It's a safe place, but..." her voice trailed off and I caught her fingers with mine, squeezing them gently.

"But what?" She almost looked nervous, and I couldn't figure out why.

"Hold on a minute." She reached over me to the nightstand, grabbing her phone and staring at the screen silently for a few minutes before sighing and pressing the call button.

"да?" The female voice crackled through the other end of the call.

"могу я вернуться домой? (Can I come home?)"

"Yelena, wha...OW," I started and stopped when she pinched my arm.

"конечно, ты в порядке (of course, are you okay?)" Yelena glanced at me, and I shrugged not having a clue what was going on.

"есть кто-то со мной. (There's someone with me)." I heard a pause.

"Yelen...OW," I glared at her, rubbing my bicep. Those pinches hurt.

"кто? (Who?)" Yelena bit her bottom lip, as if making a split-second decision.

"они знали Наталья (they knew Natalia.)" I heard a sharp intake of breath before the voice resumed speaking.

"до скорого. (See you soon)." The phone clicked off, and Yelena pulled it away from her ear, staring at it a moment before looking up at me. I frowned, noticing just the potential hint of tears causing glossy reflection in her eyes. I took her hand in both of mine, holding on tight.

"Want to tell me who that was?" Yelena's cheeks puffed out as she exhaled slowly.

"мы идем домой (we're going home.)" I looked at her, raising my eyebrows.

"I still don't understand Russian, you know," I smirked lowly, and I was relieved to see a smile appearing at the corner of her lips as well.

"We're going home."