An Impervious Few // KateLena Apocalypse AU

Fire Escape

Working with experienced hands, Kate struck her flint, lit her kindling, and blew softly but insistently on the budding flame. After a few errant attempts (it was windy on the office building's roof, after all), she struck up a blaze, sighing in relief as yellow and orange flame flickered to life against a pink and purple sky.

"Still got it," Kate joked, leaning back, arms outstretched.

Yelena cocked an eyebrow from her post at the edge of the roof, binoculars in hand. Despite the fact that they had already cleared the entire block and thoroughly swept the office building they currently camped on top of, Yelena kept her senses piques, muscles tensed. Letting her guard down was a lot a luxury she could afford.

She would not have a repeat of the last town they went through, when the Diner Debacle happened, as Kate called it. Though everything had worked out, it was a close call- too close. One wrong move in that cramped diner kitchen, one missed round, and she would have been a Lurker's dinner. She simply could not allow that. Not when she had given so much to make this trip happen.

Selfishly, Yelena also came to a realization as the two stumbled out of the diner that day, shaking and bloodied. Yelena came within a bite mark of losing her companion. If Yelena had miscalculated an attack by even a half inch, she would have ended up on her own, leading her to confront the fact that she was in no way ready for that possibility.

Even when her parents had died, even when she bounced from home to broken home as a child, even when the world went to hell, she had Natasha. And then, when she lost Natasha, she had Widows around, several dozen surrogate sisters. There was never a night she had to sleep without someone watching her back, never a meal she had to enjoy alone. There was always someone to talk to, joke with, cry on.

Now, all that stood between Yelena and the ringing silence of solitude was Kate Bishop. Yelena could not face the abyss of loneliness, where in the quiet she could confront every sin she had ever committed, every hardship she had ever endured. No, that just would not do.

How did Kate do it for so long? What horrible things must have happened in Boston to make the archer abandon humanity altogether? Yelena could not fathom going a week alone, much less years. It was confounding.

In any case, Yelena was a soldier. When tasked with a mission and working toward a clear endgame, she reached her objectives without fail. Now, her mission was to make it to South Carolina, find Natasha, and keep Kate Bishop safe along the way. She had never failed in the past, and she sure as hell would not fail now.

Granted, the Widow did not simply keep Kate around for the purpose of disquieting fear or a chivalrous sense of duty. No, she genuinely liked the girl. Not just in a pragmatic manner for her ingenuity, her skill, or her adept fire building, but Yelena appreciated her humor, her trustworthiness, her all around goodness. Yelena had plucked Kate out of her treehouse, wrangling her into a perilous cross country road trip, and yet Kate was still gracious, still kind, still steady.

The conclusions calmed Yelena's racing heart momentarily. She had a goal, she had a plan, and now she had a partner. Glancing over to Kate, she realized what a blessing she truly was. She had a rare combination of qualities- female, capable, and trustworthy. Kate Bishop was Yelena's best shot; she would reach her destination with Kate at her side, or probably not at all.

"You good?" Kate asked, watching as Yelena scowled at the town below. "Can you even see anything?"

"No. And I'm fine," she replied, finally turning. "A little on edge, I guess. I just feel like we should have seen other people by now."

"Hm. Well, I'm glad we haven't."

Yelena sighed, annoyed at the lack of visibility as the sun set. She pocketed her binoculars, sitting across from Kate at the campfire. "This is nothing to you, huh? You were in the woods for what, three years? How'd you go that long on your own?"