An Impervious Few // KateLena Apocalypse AU

Pale Blue Moon

"Can I drive?" Kate asked, feet kicked up on the dash of the rickety old truck Bucky and Steve graciously gifted as they departed. Steve had said they once found their home in it, and that now she and Yelena could do the same.

"Do you even know how?" Yelena replied, one hand on top of the wheel, the other lacing through Kate's.

"No..." Kate said, distracted. She grinned at their intertwined fingers, evidence of their newfound happiness, her newfound joy. She managed to stop smiling for a brief second to press a kiss to Yelena's knuckles. "How hard could it be, though?"

"Harder than you would think. I drove a few vehicles for the Widows, transporting squadrons or supplies, but mostly I learned with Nat."

"Before the Widows?"

"Before the outbreak. Natasha had a habit of stealing junkyard cars. She took a Harley off the lot once, though, and I think she was glad the apocalypse happened before she could get in trouble for it."

"She sounds like fun."

"Yeah. She is."

"...So I can't drive?"

"Not a chance."

Playfully rolling her eyes, she settled back into her seat, holding tight to Yelena's hand in her lap. "Can I ask you a question?"

"Sure, sweetheart."

"Was that-" she laughed, cheeks a rosy shade of pink. "Was that your first kiss? Back at the farm?"

Yelena glanced away from the debris-riddled highway, eyeing her. "Why? Was it bad?"

"No! No," she quickly interjected. "It was perfect. I was just wondering. It was, um, it was mine."

"Yeah. Mine too."

"Really?"

Yelena nodded, smile playing on her lips. She looked so youthful, so revitalized. Her skin glowed from the sunlight gleaming in the truck's open window, her eyes glimmered with optimism, with hope. It was far cry from the gaunt, bleeding figure that lay on the cold marble steps in DC, moments from death. Kate shivered at the memory, at the lingering fear that she would somehow lose someone else.

"Are you alright?" Yelena asked, voice low.

"Yeah."

"What are you thinking about? We've got a long drive, you've gotta entertain me."

"A lot of things..."

"Pick one."

"The farm," Kate finally sighed. "Bucky and Steve. I'm gonna miss them. Feels like I'm always missing people these days."

"I'm gonna miss having a mattress," Yelena said dreamily, already aching to fall asleep under a real roof next to someone she loved. "And them, of course. I hope they'll be alright without this thing."

"I don't think they ever planned on leaving. Not now."

"Yeah... probably not."

"It's gotta be harder for people like them, don't you think?"

"People like who?"

Kate shrugged, gaze a bit distant. "Older folks. People who had lives before all of this. Me and you, we remember what it was like back then, but we didn't really have much to hold on to. They had jobs. Spouses. Kids."

"Yeah," Yelena said, lips pursed in thought. "I know it's only been eight years, but someday, everyone who was alive before the outbreak will be dead and gone. No one will remember society at all."