Christmas in July

'Twas the night before Christmas.

The dying embers of the Bartons' open fire glowed softly into the darkened lounge. Since Nate had been put to bed hours before, the rest of the young-ish contingent hadn't left their comfortable spots in the lounge. Cooper, Yelena, Kate and Lila had spent the last few hours under the biggest, cosiest blanket whilst they binged The Witcher Season Four. Of course, this meant that Cooper and Yelena had also had to spend the last few hours trying desperately trying to ignore the poorly disguised crushes Kate and Lila held for Henry Cavill.

The 'adults' talked in hushed tones in the kitchen, whilst Kate poured the last few drops of wine from a bottle that her and her girlfriend were sharing, into Yelena's glass. The blonde smiled her thanks and downed the dregs with aplomb. Her cheeks were alcohol-flushed, and still a little warm from the once raging fire that had been kind enough to gift them its whole heat before burning out.

Yelena felt relaxed. More relaxed than she had felt in such a long time. Yes, the wine and the company probably had something to do with it, but also, that voice had gone quiet. The voice that had been telling her she wasn't deserving, that she wasn't good enough, that she was damaged; at least for the time being, that voice had been extinguished, much like the fire. Her mind felt quieter, more spacious, it felt still. She'd never really realised how wonderful life could be once you stop moving. Once she really stopped to think, she'd been moving since she'd escaped the Red Room's mind control. It felt good to stop. To be there with the Bartons, these totally, well, not totally, normal people. To laugh and drink and just exist, with Kate's hand in hers, tucked away under the blankets. It was nice to stop.

The episode came to a cliff-hanger ending, and despite all of them agreeing that they desperately wanted to know what happened next, three out of the four of them, Yelena not included, agreed that it was important to be in bed before midnight, because you know, Santa. The blonde didn't have the heart to tell them that Santa wasn't due until January 7th. So with heavy hearts and even heavier eyes, all four bingers dragged themselves away from the television, said their good nights and began to haul themselves to bed.

Laura's hushed whispers emanated from the kitchen, as the Bartons bickered good naturedly. The two kids and Kate didn't seem too bothered as they started towards the stairs, in ear-shot of the arguing couple. Either small disagreements happened regularly in the Barton household, or the rest of the bedtime contingent simply didn't hear the mild conflab. Yelena was willing to bet on the latter, considering her sensory perception was far better than most people's.

The blonde's brow furrowed. Laura was asking Clint to leave something alone, and what were the chances that the something was Yelena? The blonde's frown deepened, she imagined that those chances were quite high, especially as Clint had been doing his best, all evening, to avoid Yelena. Sure, there was already some animosity there that Yelena could understand, layer on top of that the revelation that she was also in a relationship with his 'adopted' daughter, and you could turn that animosity up to breaking point. This was always something new she'd have to deal with, it was always something she'd expected, and of course, when his wife had asked him to be agreeable about it, Clint had refused. What a surprise.

Yelena shook her head and quietly deposited her and Kate's wine glasses on the dining room table, eager to clean up after herself, but also very much not eager to be noticed by the Bartons, who were still deep in discussion. She hurried away to re-join Kate, who was already half-way up the stairs.

"Yelena?" Came Clint's voice from behind her. Shit. She'd been right. Here it was, the talk, their talk. She groaned inwardly. Don't murder him, don't murder him, don't murder him. Yelena knew this had to happen. They would talk and he would be protective. He would tell her to back off, she would tell him she wouldn't, he would then tell her he would be watching her and then she would tell him that she is always watching him, then it would be over. All Yelena needed to do was suck it up, for one night. She'd done the hard bit; she'd talked to Kate and she'd made things right. She just needed to appease the protective father figure; how hard could it be? All you need to do is act cool.