To Fix You-To Fix Us

3

YELENA

FLASHBACK SEQUENCE:

    Seven year old Yelena looked at the training course with dread. This was the course the girls much older than her were forced to do and at nearly eight Dreykov had her standing in front of it. He expected her to do it faster than Natasha did and Yelena couldn't do it. Her uniform was soaked in sweat sticking to her skin. The bitter taste of her blood running through her mouth was becoming all too familiar with each fall off the rope course.
    "Stop crying, I don't like it," said Dreykov as he circled the trembling girl. "This is Natasha's fault, you know that right?"
  Yelena shook her head only to be whacked in the leg with Dreykov's switch. She cried out again.
    "I want my Tata!" she cried as three more lashes followed. Before she could scream again Dreykov hosted her up by her shoulders.
   "If you speak one more word of English in this room I will break your fingers! Do you understand me?"
   "Da!"
  "Stop crying for Natasha, she left you here alone. Alexei left you here alone. Melina left you here alone. They're not coming back." said Dreykov as he placed her down.
"Now when I say go you're going to finish this course in five seconds. Your sister could do it in seven, you're going to be better. Do you understand?"
    "Da," Yelena sniffed. She crouched into her starting position and looked at the course ahead. What's been taking her a long time is the rope section, she's too small to reach the ropes as swiftly as her sister would've been able to.
    "Go!"
The course started with a sprint forward on a hot platform and then a jump or flip over spikes that are meant to replicate an obstacle. Yelena's strong in gymnastics and a simple punch front got her over that.
"ONE"
Then it was followed by a sprint into ice water, Yelena had to dive all the way to the bottom and retrieve a key.
  "TWO!" she heard Dreykov yell when she reached the surface.
The next part of the course Yelena had to open a door and enter the rope course. She opened the door and placed the key in her mouth before starting the course.
   "THREE! DON'T WASTE MY TIME"
Trying to grab each robe would waste time and would result in another beating. Yelena took a breath and jumped to the fourth rope the impact of the swing was just enough for her to land on the platform.
  "FOUR"
Yelena took the key out of her mouth and opened the last door, which only contained the button to end the timer.
  "FIVE"
The seven year old fought the urge to sit on the floor once she was done. She knew that would result in Dreykov making her repeat the course.
  "You see how easy things are when you listen to me, Yelena?"
Yelena nodded, "I'm sorry."
   "You will be. It took you two hours to do that course because you were too busy crying right?"
  "No..No!"
"You can thank your Tata for this beating, since she's so important to you...........

END OF SEQUENCE

   "Tata! Natasha! Natasha!" Yelena yelled from in between sleep and reality. On one side she still trapped in her night terror. Each sting of Dreykov's switch hitting her back as she tried to get away. On the other side she was screaming at Natasha who was frantically trying to wake her up by rubbing her back. Though Natasha was trying to comfort Yelena, touching her back was only making Yelena more and more upset.
     Yelena semi registered what was happening and turned around pushing Natasha away. She watched her sister fall back onto the floor with an indifferent look on her face. Yelena wasn't surprised. Those beatings were all her fault and Natasha didn't even care. She had the Avengers after all.
   "Yelena," said Natasha as she put her hands up slowly. "It was a bad dream, I was trying to help you."
     "It wasn't a dream! It was real! He did beat me! Everyday after you left he forced me to be better than you and when I couldn't do that without missing you he....he," Yelena rubbed the scar on her head where they cut her open.
   "I'm sorry Yelena-"
"No you're not! You don't care!"
    "I wouldn't have asked Melina to send you to me if I didn't care! Come here,"
"No!" Yelena screamed as Natasha approached her with her arms up. "If you touch me I'll break your fingers!"
    Natasha only continued to get on the couch before attempting to wrap her arms around Yelena, "I said go away! Go away like you always do!"
   "I'm not going anywhere," Natasha whispered in Russian before wrapping her arms around Yelena tightly. Yelena immediately tried to fight off the comfort but Natasha had quite the grip on her. Yelean could escape out of her sister's grasp but only if she hurt her.
    As a baby Yelena had plenty of nightmares and Natasha held her just like this until she fell asleep. At one point Yelena exclusively slept in Natasha's bed. Laying in the crook of her big sister's neck, Yelena remembered just how codependent she used to be.
   Now she's nothing but a monster.
       A killer.    
"Natasha...let me go," Yelena whimpered.
   " Yelena I'm not going to hurt you. I'm sorry I already have." Yelena felt her sister begin to shake before she started crying as she played with Yelena's hair.
   "There's no excuse for what I did."
Yelena shook her head into Natasha as the tears she could no longer swallow started to fall.
    "Why did you leave me!" Yelena sobbed into her sister's t-shirt. "Why didn't you take me with you?"
"I-I'm so sorry!"
   The two of them cried into each other for fifteen minutes until there was nothing but the sound of Natasha playing with Yelena's hair and the occasional hitch from either of them. Yelena saw the newly installed Xbox in the living room.
    "You did the Xbox?" she asked as she rubbed her nose on Natasha's shirt
"Bruce did it while you were sleeping. I thought he was going to wake you." Natasha sniffed as they parted. "They're all going to come back soon. They really want to meet you."
   "Really?"
"Of course. Come on, you wanna go to the park now?"
    "Yes! But I'm hungry," Yelena said as she stood up. She really didn't like to cry and always went out of her way to hide those emotions. Even before she was properly cycled through the Red Room she hated to cry but Natasha was always able to try and comfort her. Yelena's time in the Red Room was when she cried her hardest. She cried for Natasha, Alexei, and Melina for years. Dreykov broke that weakness out of her.
   Now all she has left is anger and "love" that she doesn't understand.
"If I take you to the grocery store do you think you'll be okay? Might be a lot of people."
    "I'll be fine," said Yelena.
   The twenty one year old deeply regretted those three words as she stood at the entrance of the Union Square Whole Foods by the flowers. People were walking in and out, it smelled like olives and Yelena didn't know what to do.
    She felt Natasha squeeze her hand, "We can go if you want."
"You told me they had alcohol," said Yelena before walking inside. "I want."