After a few minutes of Kate figuring out how to adjust her aim, she’s not bad. I do of course take the opportunity to flirtily adjust her stance or her grip, and Yelena responds with an excessive eye roll. When we’ve successfully gotten her guard down, Yelena finally breaks the news. She’s a little blunt, but hey, I wasn’t about to do it.
“I’m sorry, you were hired to do what?” Kate half-yells the question.
“Keep it down. We don’t want to complete the assignment, that’s why we came to you first,” I explain. “We need to make a plan.”
“Just say no!” Her eyes are wide, and I can tell she's about to flip from surprise to anger.
“We don’t have that option,” Yelena states simply, and I wonder, not for the first time, who exactly we’re working for.
“Okay, okay.” Kate starts pacing back and forth. “We’ll make a plan.” After a beat, she looks at me. “Y/n, how do you feel about charity galas?”
“Haven’t been to one in a while,” I admit. The last time I was at a gala, it was for a job with the red room.
“Be my date?” Kate asks, and I feel my cheeks warm up, but Yelena laughs, breaking me out of whatever feeling was forming there.
“You want her to go to a gala with you? Kate Bishop, you are funny!”
“Why is that funny?” I snap defensively.
“Jack has met you, or at least might recognise you, Yelena. And I’m not bringing someone who doesn’t know what’s happening.” Kate’s explanation deflates my ego a little bit. “I’m thinking we fake his death. Keeps everyone as safe as possible.”
“Where will he go?” I ask. Honestly, it isn’t a bad idea.
“We’ll figure that out later. For now, you two go back to Kate’s, I have to meet with the boss,” Yelena turns on her heel, and she’s gone. Kate just turns and grabs her bow, aiming at the targets again.
“Kate? Are we going to go?” I start packing my things away as she continues shooting.
“I need a minute,” she grates out, and that’s when I really look at her. Her jaw is clenched, her hands shaking between shots when she grabs another arrow. I let her take a few more shots before I gently touch her shoulder.
“Hey, take a breath.” My voice is softer than I expected. She freezes for a moment before opening up to me.
“I can’t lose another person. Not after my dad and- with my mom being-” She cuts off. Takes a deep breath. “We’ve gotten pretty close, and I- I don’t want to see him get hurt.”
“We won’t let that happen,” I assure her, then give her a sly grin. “Now get your arrows. I wanna talk more about this date we're going on.” She turns to press the button that moves the targets closer to us so she doesn’t have to walk all the way out there.
“Shouldn’t we wait for Yelena?” She asks as she’s pulling an arrow from the target.
“To talk about the mission, yeah. To talk about the date? No.” I wink at her when she looks at me, puzzled. That earns a small smile.
“So, the flirting wasn’t just to get me here?” She raises her brows at me as she slings her gear over her shoulder.
“Oh, I’ll take any reason to flirt with a beautiful woman,” I inform her as we begin our walk out of the shooting range.
“So what’s your reason now?” She nudges me slightly.
“There are several. Mostly just that you’re beautiful.” I smirk as her cheeks turn pink. She chuckles and shakes her head.
“The way Yelena talked about you, I thought you were in love with her,” she admits. My blood runs cold.
“What?” I stop walking, shocked. Yelena talks about me to Kate? Why? What does she say? Kate stops with me and gives me an apologetic look.
“I’m sorry, I just- I put two and two together. She’s told me about her partner, and after today, I figured that was you. I’m sorry if that crossed a line or something.”
“No, no it didn’t. What made you think that?” I start walking again, and she follows suit.
“Like she asked me what to do when you distract her while sparring. And I asked how you do that, and she said you flirt with her. Or like how you do things for her when she’s gone, and you allow her to boss you around so much.” Kate shrugs. “If it makes you feel better, I know she only waited so long to let you in the field because she wants you to be safe. I mean, I think she feels the same way.” We cross a street and wait at the curb to turn.
“I’m not. In love with her, I mean. I’m attracted to her, sure, but-” I shake my head. “And she’s definitely not into me. I mean, any time I’ve said something slightly flirty, she freaks out. That’s why it works when I’m fighting her.” We continue our walk in silence for a second before Kate stops at an apartment building. She fishes in her pocket for her keys and I stand there awkwardly, hoping she’ll say anything else. She lets me into the building and leads me up the stairs before breaking the silence.
“I think her freaking out doesn’t mean what you think it does.”
“Well I think I’d rather talk about anything else.” We walk into her apartment, a golden retriever bounding up to us. He’s missing an eye and I love him already.
“This is Lucky, he loves pizza,” Kate introduces us.
“Hi, Lucky!” I kneel down and let him sniff me while I pet him. “Are you a good boy? Yes you are!” He kisses my cheek before I stand up, catching Kate smiling at me.
“He likes you.”
“That makes two of us.” I smile at her and make my way to her couch, plopping down. “Cute place.” There’s a door that I’m sure leads to a bathroom, a kitchen nook, and her bed in the corner. Kind of sparse, but homey.
“Thanks, my last place was better, but this’ll do,” she shrugs, setting her gear down and plopping next to me.
“What happened to your last place?”
“A fire,” she leans into the couch, putting her head back and closing her eyes. Damn, life has fucked her hard recently. “And I couldn’t really afford the square footage anymore.”
“I’m sorry.”
“You didn’t throw a molotov cocktail through my window.” She looks back up at me and tries to hold in a laugh.
“Seriously? Who did you piss off that bad?”
“Yelena hasn’t told you about how we met?”
“Yelena did it?” I ask, baffled.
“No, but it happened at the same time.” She regales me with the tale of her entry to being a hero, and I can’t help but feel a pang of sadness when she details her mom being arrested.
“So when I found you and Barton on the street, that was right after all of that?” I’ve migrated a little closer to her as she’s been talking, and when I gesture with my hands, I accidentally drop one onto her knee. “Sorry.” I feel myself blushing slightly as I jerk my hand back. I look at her, and her messy hair and unflinching gaze. “You’re brave. I can’t imagine how hard all of that was for you.”
“Thank you.” She has a question in her eyes, but before she asks it, the door busts open, I dive to protect her, pulling her to the ground. I’m covering her as much as I can, my gun pointed at the doorway when I hear Yelena’s voice from the hall.
“It’s me, idiot. I was just pulling a prank!” I look down at Kate laying under me, a tension that was forming in my chest loosening slightly. Yelena walks in while I’m still over her, both of us still a little startled. “Get up. You know she can take care of herself, right y/n?”
“I- uh,” I blink and do as I’m told. “She doesn’t have a weapon on her,” I reason, not really sure what compelled me to throw myself into danger for her.
“Well, I appreciate it, Y/n.” Kate props herself up on her elbows as Lucky nuzzles her. “It’s alright, boy. I’m okay.”
“Whatever. We need to plan,” Yelena hops up onto the kitchen counter.
