The Younger Agent - Natasha Romanoff x OC

Chapter 107 - Hiking Through Russia

Natasha moved in front of Eleanor after manoeuvring her, and threw the helicopter door open, the latter wincing slightly as the old metal made a grinding sound. Nat walked a few steps away before crouching down, Eleanor following and standing beside her after hopping out of the helicopter herself, in a calmer manner.

She had predicted it would crash, and she wanted to be the pettiest person on the planet and rub it in everyone's faces. But, after the ordeal they had all gone through today, she thought they deserved a little bit of peace without feeling rage bubble up inside them even further.

Besides, she didn't want to get a broken nose from it. Her teasing would just disgruntle Natasha, and she would likely block it out or give her a glare that was usually sent to members of the team before the group divorce. Yelena, however, was a different story. Eleanor didn't doubt that the blonde would punch her.

Without a petty display to disturb them, the group looked around the environment they had crash-landed in, not believing their luck. The sound of smoke billowing from the groaning engine really set the ambience.

It wasn't a bad place that they had crash-landed in. It could have been a hell of a lot worse if they had been over a populated area, especially because Natasha and Eleanor were still being hunted down. Luckily it was in a field, a vast one with lots of purple flowers that caught Eleanor's attention.

They're pretty, she thought to herself, a small smile residing on her lips as her fingers twitched, wanting to pluck some flowers but not thinking it was an appropriate moment.

The smile soon dropped when Alexei decided to open his mouth again. "You should've brought the Avengers superjet". At that, Nat gave him the dirtiest look she could muster before she stood and marched off in a huff, Yelena hot on their tail as they walked together, no doubt trash-talking the blithering idiot they had rescued.

Eleanor glowered at the man near her, before turning back to the flowers on the ground. The action she was about to take could be seen as a little juvenile, but she knew the randomness of it would cheer Nat up, so she tugged a few of the flowers away from their roots, clutching them gently in her hand as she trailed behind Alexei, who had started to jog to reach the others.

"Natasha, Natasha".

Eleanor gave a weary sigh, and Nat clearly didn't want to talk to him as she kept walking, but the man was relentless. "Come here, I want to ask you something". Nat eventually slowed to a halt and slowly walked with him.

Yelena continued her walk, so Eleanor gave a small smile of encouragement to her wife when their gazes briefly met, and Eleanor jogged past them to reach her sister-in-law. "Hey, you okay?".

With a hardened expression Yelena faced her, "Do I look okay?", she snapped in a harsh tone, before she felt her chest constrict with guilt when Eleanor's face dropped as she looked to the ground, mumbling an apology.

"I'm sorry", Yelena quickly added, "I know you're just being nice".

Eleanor looked up and gave a timid smile as the walk continued, "Don't worry about it, this is a hard situation, it's okay to not be okay in it". Yelena let out a breath she didn't know she was holding and looked back ahead of her, finding a moment of peace in her words.

Again, nothing like that could last long with Alexei around. "Wait. You haven't seen either one of us in twenty years and you're gonna ask me about you?", Natasha raised her voice and brought her walk to a standstill.

Eleanor and Yelena stopped to turn around, giving each other wary looks before looking back at the scene ahead of them, Alexei walking off to the side with his hands in his pockets. Eleanor's nose scrunched up slightly, anticipating a confrontation. She did not like confrontation. "What is with this tension? Did I do something wrong?".