The Black Hawk | Yelena Belova & Kate Bishop Story

~Surprised ~

A few hours later both women were sitting together in the living room of Kate Bishop's apartment.
Yelena sat on one corner of the grey couch and was engrossed in a book.

She never really enjoyed reading books when she was little. Back then, Natasha used to tell her how important it was to read books and to acquire knowledge.

But as a 6-year-old child she found it very annoying, she could only read very slowly and it was therefore too exhausting for her. In her opinion, one should not spend hours in front of some pages of paper. Playing in nature, running or hiding, that's what Yelena was interested in at that time.

However, she loved listening to stories. Yelena still remembered clearly how Alexei, her adoptive father, read books to her and her sister before they went to bed.

Today as a 35 years old woman - well technically 29 years old, she was one of the many people who were just gone for five years because of the blip - she enjoyed reading.
She liked the stillness it created in her head. She could become totally immersed in someone else's story or even live a different life herself until she put the book down and forcefully returns to her own reality.

Kate on the other hand wasn't a book person at all, even after growing up she found it way too exhausting to stare at thousands of words and rushing through it just to start another one. Her way of spending the time was was mostly just watching YouTube or Tiktok on the phone.
It was just at the moment when she wanted to leave her phone to get something to eat from the kitchen that her cell phone got a notification.
Excited, she oped her e-mails:

From: applications@starbucks.us
To: Katebishop@gmail.com

Dear Ms Bishop,

we are happy to inform you that your application of February 8th was positively received by us and we would like you to spend a trial work day with us on March 1st from 8 a.m to 4 p.m.

Please let us know as soon as possible, but no later than February 20, whether you accept our offer.

We would be very pleased if you accept our offer and if we could welcome you as a member of our Starbucks-team soon!

Yours sincerely,

Danny White

Starbucks
1500 Broadway, New York, NY 10036, United States

Kate looked at the display with a mixture of surprise, joy and confusion.
She got the job... the job she thought she had lost a few hours ago!

How the hell did that happen, she wondered. Someone else must have applied themselves under her name and actually did a good job.

But, she thought, the person must provide her personal information such as date of birth, place of residence and phone number, something she didn't find so comfortable when she thought about it.
Her mind wandered from every possible person who had the ability to do so and stopped at a specific person.

'Why?' She turned her head in Yelenas direction.

The look of Yelena remained on the book in her hands.

'Why what?' Yelena finally replied at the question of Kate.

'This.' Kate showed her the phone screen.

Yelena looked up briefly and without a word, returned to her book.

'You did that right?'

'And if I did?'

'Yeah, why?'

'...I mean if I wanted a permanent home I needed you to have a job, so...'

'...Well, thanks anyway. I'm going to make myself a sandwich, do you want one too?'

'No thanks, I'm good.'

'Okay, your decision. But you know my Gouda-turkey sandwiches are bomb.'

'Maybe another time.'

As a trained spy Yelena knew how dangerous it could be to give the tiniest bit if trust to the target. No matter how drastic it sounded, but Kate was her target.
To eat or drink something they made was always rejected for security reasons, even if they were almost starving. After all, it was better to be hungry than possibly die of poisoning.

The real art however, was that the target person should never realize that they are mistrusted.
No personal connection, no trust and no hesitation. Those were the most important three points in undercover missions.
In the art of deception, Yelena, like the other Widows, was perfectly trained and with years of hard practice, got excellent.

Kate never could have guessed that that was the real reason why she had turned down her offer.
A couple minutes later she returned with a sandwich and a glass of water.

'I'm gonna go to bed,' Yelena told Kate as she got up from the couch.

'Dont be too loud out here.'

Kate looked at the clock hanging above the door frame to the kitchen, it was 10:22 p.m.
Among themselves they had agreed that they would share the bedroom. One week Kate slept in the bedroom and the next Yelena, so everyone had a little privacy now and then.

Today, Kate offered Yelena the first week of sleeping in the bedroom.
Part of the reason why she did that was that she felt kind of obligated to show her gratitude for the job she got for her.

But - what Yelena didn't know, Kate had another plan which was why she didn't want her to sleep in the living room tonight...