Chapter Text
The target stared at her for too long, that’s how Yelena knew they had failed.
Great.
Their information on the target was good at least. She definitely liked women, if the way she eyed up people around them and flirted with the bar staff meant anything, but maybe they were a little off with her type.
It sort of made sense, maybe. The target was Madeline Kensington, a 5”5 platinum blonde with wavey hair and bright blue eyes. She was the daughter of Marcus Kensington, who was a big player in the drug trafficking ring they had been unearthing for the past two weeks.
Because of him, a key ingredient in the Red Dust was missing from the market which was required to create more antidote.
They needed to know what he knew and to do that, they needed to know what Madeline knew. The passwords and the warehouse locations she was privy to.
That’s where the device came in.
It was a small disc, the size of a seed, which would be ingested. It was harmless, sticking to the inside of the target's throat and transmitting whatever she said back to the team listening in.
All they had to do was to get her to swallow it.
Their plan was simple. Yelena would charm her at the bar, offer to buy her a drink and slip the almost invisible device into her glass.
But she had failed at the first hurdle.
“Can I buy you a drink?”
The target had slowly looked to the side, dragging her eyes up and down Yelena. She took in her styled blonde hair, the short black backless dress, with matching heels and rings on her fingers.
Then she rolled her eyes before they locked with Yelena's once again.
“... No, I don't think so.”
Yelena tilted her head, her hand tapping the wood of the countertop, lips pulled into a confident smirk despite the agitation growing.
“Why not?” She asked, voice accented with an American drawl, which only made the target scoff and takes her straw, sipping, before pulling away with a lick of her lips and a disapproving sigh.
“I have a certain… standard when it comes to people who talk to me, let alone buy me a drink. You're not it, babe. There's only room for one blonde when I'm involved.”
She smiled kindly, but lacked any true kindness, and rapped her knuckles against the wooden surface.
“Thanks for the offer though!”
She wiggles her fingers as a goodbye and slips seamlessly back into the crowd.
“You're not her type sis, hard luck.”
Yelena clenched her fist and gestured to the bar staff, ordering a beer.
“Ochevidno,” she grumbled, bringing it to her lips, “what can we do now?”
The next option would be much higher risk, and definitely bloodier, and while Yelena wasn't one to shy away from that, she didn’t like the idea of putting others in danger, even if they offered their assistance-
“Is that Hawkeye Jr? What's she doing here, especially looking like that.”
“Careful.”
Natasha laughed at Maria's tone.
“Look at her, are you telling me you wouldn't at least double-take?”
There's a pause and a growing feeling of something uncomfortable coiled inside Yelena's chest.
“... A second glance, maybe.”
Yelena started cursing them out in Russian. For the past few months, Natasha had been teasing her about Kate Bishop, which only got worse when Yelena asked why. Natasha would then begin berating her about being unaware of her apparently clear attraction to the new Hawkeye.
It was around then that Yelena would scoff, and invent new ways to insult her sister.
Before she could get too creative with her profanity this time, Yelena got the sense someone was looking at her and didn't have to think too long on who. She took a swig of beer, glanced down the bar, and for a moment the world stood still.
Kate appeared from the throng of people with an easy and excited smile, definitely surprised to see Yelena as she hadn't even told the other woman she was in New York. The archer carried a black jacket over her arm, running a hand through her wavy hair as she came to a stop next to her, oblivious to the eyes following her. She wore a white shirt unbuttoned low on her chest and cuffed to her elbows, tucked into a pair of black slacks with pristine shoes.
… Maybe Natasha had a point.
It took Yelena a moment to realise Kate was talking, and she would not admit why. Outwardly, at least.
“What?” She asked, and Kate beamed, looking down at Yelena's shirt again and back up to her.
“I said; what's a girl like you doing in a place like this?”
She laughed at her own joke and winked, Yelena clutched her bottle tighter.
“That is a terrible joke.”
“Joke? That's my rizz you're mocking!”
Natasha groaned in her ear.
“Great, now I get to listen to whatever kind of flirting this is.”
“Shut up,” Yelena hissed, then quickly waved her hands at Kate’s raised eyebrow, “Natasha is in my ear. What are you doing here?”
Her shock was replaced with excitement, and she leaned on the bar.
“I don't know if you noticed but that rhymed. I'm just out with the girls, are you on a mission? Can I help?”
Yelena shrugged and sipped on her beer, “If you can find a way to get a bug the size of a seed into the target somehow, sure.”
Kate tilted her head and turned to face the bar with Yelena, bumping her shoulder gently, entirely unaware of the spark of heat that action caused.
“We need to talk about context again at some point,” she teased, waving down the bar staff and quickly ordering a drink, accidentally jumping the queue of people waiting, “but I’m guessing you don’t mean like, a beetle bug or something.”
“No, they broke up in the 70’s.”
Kate laughed, pushing her arm a little, and Yelena swayed with the movement.
“Was that a freakin’ music pun? Urgh, spare me.”
“Was that a pun?”
Kate spoke at the same time as her sister, so Yelena focused on the less aggravating voice of the two. Saying that, or rather thinking it, Kate Bishop's voice calmed her. She was never sure why, but the other woman, while sometimes agitating, was very good at taming whatever tempest took Yelena's mind at any given moment.
“An attempt, yes. The bug is a sound recorder, like a microphone. Small, similar in size to a bug I guess.”
She winced as the music changed to another song she couldn’t stand. Kate hummed and turned around, looking through the crowd, tapping her thumb and forefinger together on one hand, and fiddling with a ring on the other.
“What’s the target’s name?”
Yelena brought the bottle back to her lips.
“Madeline Kensington.”
She glanced at her when Kate whipped her head around, disbelief pulled onto her face, mixing with amusement.
“Maddie Kensington?”
“You know her?” Yelena asked, and Kate laughed a little, sipping her drink.
“Yeah, she has a… certain reputation around here. Hey, wait…”
Her eyes widened and Yelena was already shaking her head.
“Kate, no.”
“But I-”
“The plan has already failed.”
Kate groaned and tapped Yelena on the shoulder as the blonde looked away.
“Trust me, I'm like, 80% positive this'll work!”
“What’ve we got to lose at this point, huh?”
Yelena knew times were dire when her sister started to make sense in her head.
“Fine. But do not do anything stupid!”
Kate grinned, the act alone almost made Yelena take a step back, and she held out her hand.
“Can't promise that! You got the… doohickey?”
Kate tapped her fingers together, and Yelena took it out of her pocket, the sleek metal casing no bigger than a bullet.
“Here.”
Kate opened it very carefully and the device out, nodding confidently and putting it on her finger, giving the case back to Yelena.
“Right, meet me outside after, wish me luck!”
“After what?”
Kate winked again, and a shock of heat burst down Yelena’s spine.
“You'll see.”
Before Yelena could question it further, Kate was gone, leaving her jacket in Yelena's hands.
“Is it weird I am super excited to see what she’s gonna do?”
“I admit I am too. Do you think she’ll flick it into her drink? Hawkeye's do that, don't they? The… flick thing?”
“I mean 100% of the 2 Hawkeyes in existence do do the flick thing.”
Yelena turned against the bar to watch Kate walk away and rolled her eyes at the comments in her ear.
“Shut up both of you.”
Kate slipped through the crowds with an ease Yelena had yet to see on the archer, her hands gently moving people out of the way, her lips turning up into a polite smile to people who looked for too long, avoiding flailing limbs as the music rumbled on them.
Internally Yelena scoffed, ‘music’, she could probably make something like this with a frying pan and a spatula.
Kate had made it to the target, and Yelena leaned against the bar, resting one elbow on the hard surface, the other bringing a beer bottle to her lips.
“Hawkeye has made contact.”
She could barely hear her sister’s voice over the thumping base and swallowed some of the now lukewarm beer. It was bitter and made her cringe, mentally cursing out the place which chose to stock such a horrendously tasting brand.
“Hey, can I buy you a-”
“No,” she interrupted the woman that had appeared at her side, who just nodded at her rejection and walked off, “I do not understand what she expects to achieve.”
The song changed which meant Yelena could hear what Natasha said in response, alongside her knowing laugh.
“Oh… yeah. I forget you're not good at this. Buckle up, sis, I think you’re about to find out.”
Yelena narrowed her eyes and looked back through the crowd, trying to find Kate.
I’m your number one,
I’m your number one,
Kate was right in front of the woman, and Yelena frowned at how the blonde was looking at her. Rather than the outward hostility she had given Yelena, she was smiling in a way that came across as almost nervous.
Why?
“What is she saying to her?”
Natasha paused before answering.
“... Any moment now.”
That didn't help Yelena, as despite what her sister thought, she had no clue what Kate Bishop was doing, even as she brought her hand up to her mouth, using a laugh to subtly and carefully slipping the device in.
I’m your number one,
I’m your number one,
She watched as Kate then danced her fingers over the target's skin, stopping on Kensington’s hips, resting there. Yelena didn’t follow the logic, not even as the blonde caught her lip between her teeth, still grinning, and looked lower on Kate’s face, and then back up to her eyes.
Then they moved, turning to the side, so she could see how Kate looked down at the blonde again, her left hand coming to her face, how the target leaned into her featherlight touch and then nodded, despite no words being shared between them.
Kate’s lips pulled into a different kind of smile, her fingers gripping ever so slightly, and she leant in.
I'm just livin' that life,
Von Dutch,
Their eyes slid shut and they met, the swell of bodies around them moving in time with the music, entirely unaware or uncaring of the embrace in the middle of the dance floor.
A cold feeling locked the base of Yelena's skull.
The target pulled Kate closer by her head, hands immediately buried in her hair, and Yelena watched her mouth open before Kate kissed her way inside.
They moved with the crowd, Kate controlling the embrace with her hand on the target’s neck, tensing when she wanted to direct her, pulling away to breathe, and after she moved her head to a different angle, began kissing her once again.
She saw the target’s lips part in a moan as a flash of tongue was shared between them, pulling herself ever closer to Kate, whose hand now rested on her lower back to hold her in the embrace.
Yelena's hands slackened, she almost dropped her bottle and Kate's coat, but managed to keep them in her grip.
“... Aaaand the device has been successfully planted, good going, Hawkeye.”
The idea of Kate Bishop kissing someone hadn't even occurred to Yelena, so she had no time to prepare for exactly that happening right in front of her. It was like a fist had been punched into her gut, forcing all the air out of her lungs with a shuddering whine as the image burned into her memory.
Her mouth felt dry and she found herself unable to look away, even as Kate pulled back with a smile.
The target opened her bright eyes and frowned, leaning back in, only for Kate to step back, fingers tightening a little around her flushed neck to keep her away. She leaned down, and her hair hid their faces as she whispered in the blonde’s ear.
It was something good, as the target took on a desperate expression while her cheeks flushed red, and Kate leaned away, giving her one last chaste kiss on the lips. The archer winked, and rather than make Yelena cringe as it did in movies, it filled her with a wave of heat to combat the new weight in her stomach.
Yelena had the odd realisation that she could taste blood in her mouth, despite not bleeding.
“We cannot tell Clint what we just heard her say,” Maria sounded a little strained, clearing her throat, “I think it would be the final straw to his sanity if he knew.”
Natasha hummed in agreement with her.
“Yeah especially cuz she's like a fourth kid to him. Damn, it's always the innocent ones...”
Yelena wasn’t sure if she wanted to know or not.
Kate then turned, her hair flowing behind her, and weaved through the crowds. The target took a step but was immediately blocked by the other people there, and her reaching hand dropped at her side.
“Testing device.”
Yelena clenched her bottle tight as two people came to the target’s sides.
“Who was that?!” one asked, smacking her friend’s arm excitedly, the other bouncing at her side.
“Isn't she that girl you've fancied for months?”
The target sighed dreamily, looking back in the direction Kate had just vanished in.
“Was. Now she's the love of my life.”
They fall into pearls of laughter, and Natasha cuts communication.
“Yeah, device planted. Roll out.”
There’s a groan on the comms.
“I knew I’d regret showing you Transformers.”
“That reminds me, we have to watch that new one, the prequel about the yellow car.”
“Put some respect on Bumblebee’s name.”
Yelena rolled her eyes and turned off her comms as Nat and Maria argued like the old married couple they tried to deny they were. She gripped the jacket tighter and slammed her beer bottle down maybe too harshly, but left before a bartender or bouncer could comment on the new crack in the countertop.
The cool evening air was harsh in comparison to inside the club. She kicked the door shut behind her and looked down the alley, finding Kate immediately.
She was leaning on the wall, looking at her phone until Yelena walked out. The archer beamed and immediately put it away, pushing off the wall.
“Hey!” she greeted, waving her hand, “Mission accomplished!"
Yelena didn’t hear her properly, she was too distracted staring at her lips. The ones that had just been locked with the targets, which were now slightly redder than usual. Her makeup had wiped off a little, it dashed at the corner of her mouth. Stark red against her skin, not at all the shade Kate was wearing.
A buzzing returned to Yelena’s chest.
“Yelena?”
“Da.”
Kate took her jacket from her loose grip and held up her fist for Yelena to bump, but her eyebrow rose when the assassin grabbed her hand, fingers spread over her knuckles, and stepped right into her personal space.
Yelena wasn’t certain, but she felt as though they shared a heartbeat in that moment.
“W… what’re you..?”
A halfhearted shh fell from her lips without much thought, her hand rising to rest next to Kate’s face. Blue eyes flicked from her hand to her eyes, down for a moment, and then back up. Yelena wasn’t sure what she was going to do next, wasn’t sure why she swallowed around something nervous in her throat and touched her finger to Kate’s skin.
Her thumb pushed, not too hard, and dragged across the stain of lipstick on the corner of her mouth. Kate’s mouth opened at the action, her breath shaky, as Yelena wiped away the reminder of what had just transpired, as though the image didn’t throb behind her eyes every second.
She didn’t think about placing her other hand on Kate’s elbow, or how they stood so close she could feel Kate’s touch as she breathed in and out.
Kate watched her, and Yelena wondered what she could have said to get the target to react in such a way. Even her sister had paused, but Yelena couldn't think of Kate as anything more than the blushing, rambling archer she had begrudgingly come to see as a friend.
She had successfully wiped the lipstick away, looking up from her task and being shocked by the intensity of the dark blue eyes watching her every move.
“Now you are good.”
Kate exhaled, smiling weakly.
“Y- yeah, I… thank you?”
Yelena hesitated, not ready to leave this moment yet, suddenly aware of Kate’s hands hovering over her hips.
It would be easy, she realised. All it would take was to stand up slightly taller and tilt her head back, and she would be able to wipe the remainder of the target from Kate’s mind, as well as her own.
She wished she knew why that thought was so intoxicating. In moments, she could have all of Kate Bishop's attention, she wouldn't even thinking about the target, about whispering promises in her ear.
Annoying it was the memory of that which made Yelena step back, looking down the ally to her getaway vehicle as Kate seemed to deflate.
“I need to get to Natasha and Maria.”
Kate nodded and smiled slightly, pointing over her shoulder back to the club doors.
“I should… get back in there.”
Yelena hummed once more in thought.
“Have a good night, Kate Bishop.”
“You too, Yelena.”
The silence stretched until Kate nodded weakly and started walking, hesitating only a moment before she walked past her to the door. Yelena watched her leave, the thundering music destroying the silence around them as she opened the door. Kate glanced over her shoulder, smiled, and was gone.
Yelena decided she would not think about this anymore, and would certainly not act on whatever feelings Kate had placed in her mind.
Her phone buzzed in her pocket and she quickly fished it out.
Natasha
Are you coming to meet us or are you too busy planting a bug on Kate Bishop too?
Yelena
That was terrible.
Natasha
Give me a break
I only had the 10 minutes you were alone with her in the alley to come up with that
Yelena rolled her eyes, blocked her sister's number, and made her way to the car at the end of the alley.
She was not attracted to Kate Bishop.
No, not at all.
-x-
Yelena wasn’t ignoring Kate Bishop, despite what anyone would dare say.
After they had tracked the target and discovered the location of the ingredients, she had been too busy to contact her.
Kate would understand, after a few months of working together, and being a vigilante herself, she knew that Yelena would often vanish for days on end without speaking, and that it didn’t mean anything more than she was ‘too busy’ to talk to her.
But now they had secured the ingredient, so there was no real reason not to visit. And thus, Yelena did just that. She wore something comfortable, but fashionable, and made her way to Kate’s home uninvited, still trying to get the stain of red across Kate's lips out of her mind.
Don't overthink it, just go say hi like normal. Maybe watch a movie together.
Yelena climbed the side of the building and looked into the window, eyebrow-raising at the lack of Kate Bishop or Lucky in sight.
Perhaps she’s gone out.
Yelena decided to catch up on some sleep, and quickly climbed to the left, intending to get in through the open windows of the high walls that surrounded Kate Bishop’s bedroom.
She froze at the glass. Kate was there, and she wasn’t alone.
The target was on the bed, surrounded by Kate’s pillows and quilts, panting as the archer leaned over her. They were still wearing the clothes from the mission, but that didn't stop her legs from spreading as wide as she could manage, shaking. Kate held one leg down with a firm grip, her arm working between them.
“Oh fuck-”
The blonde shut her eyes, her mouth hanging loose as Kate pulled back. Her arm paused, and the woman whined.
“Please...” Madeline begged, and Kate said nothing, did nothing, “Please keep… please!”
Her broken sobs were stopped by a kiss, which was slow and languid, separating with another wanton sigh. She pleaded without speaking, not even as Kate removed her hand entirely, a wet shine coating her fingers.
“... Fine. But I want you on your knees.”
Yelena had never heard Kate sound like that, her voice deeper and drenched with something. She gripped the window harder.
Kate sat back, smiling innocently as the woman was quick to comply, flipping herself over. She was steady for a second before Kate was flush to her back again, one hand pulling her hips back against her, the other pushing her head into the mattress, hips pushing against her.
The woman moans her name in ways Yelena had dared dream about.
“That’s it,” Kate praised, nails dragging down her side and up her back, resting at the base of her neck, grinding forward to keep her down as her hand returned to where she was needed, “I love it when you moan for me, Yelena.”
Suddenly the woman arched her back, and Yelena was watching herself grip a pillow for dear life as Kate’s long fingers steadily entered her from behind, the wet sound drowned out by a sob carried on a moan.
The archer set a pace that had her thighs shaking, as other Yelena’s chest heaved, gasping for breath between the pillow in her teeth and the obscene sounds around them.
Then other Yelena looked over her shoulder at the window as a moan was dragged from somewhere deep, staring right at her.
Her clone grinned knowingly as she was rocked back and forth.
Yelena didn't know what was happening.
She watched Kate grunt and push her back down, picking up the determined pace, making the other Yelena's eyes roll as she's pushed against the blankets, curses slipping off her tongue.
Someone shook her shoulder and she looked to the side, confused to be staring at Natasha, wearing her headset from the mission, with an infuriatingly smug smile.
“What?” she asked, and her sister pushed her shoulder again, ignoring the sounds she must have been hearing roll up from the bedroom. She looked back, and the two on the bed were now the other way around.
Now Kate stared at her, and heat spread deep with a long dull pulse at the moans coming from her copy.
The archer grinned, looking at her, as though the person in her arms wasn't even there.
“Are you close?” she asked, and Yelena wasn't sure who was supposed to answer.
The blonde's heart was slamming against her ribcage, her breath as fast as her clone's who was being fucked into the mattress by Kate Bishop.
God-
“Yelena!”
She sat up with a shuddering gasp, her cheeks flushed, holding her sheets close to her chest. Natasha was at her side, arms crossed with an unhappy look on her face.
“I’ve been shouting you for ten minutes!”
Yelena scoffed and pushed the sheets off her legs, tensing at a new feeling between them. Damp, heavy, and her eyes widened slightly at the realisation.
Yelena subtly brought the blanket back over her waist.
“I am allowed to sleep when I am tired.”
"Not when I've cooked you breakfast."
Natasha huffed and walked away from the spare room that Yelena used whenever she was in New York.
“Didn’t sound like you were resting much anyway. Were you running in your dream or something?”
Yelena slowly looked at the door.
“What?” she asked, voice cracking, and Natasha shouted from the kitchen.
“You were totally out of breath, breathing like crazy. Bad dream?”
The image of Kate holding her down while Yelena made sounds she'd never even imagined blazed in her mind. She held the blanket tight, subtly squeezing her thighs together, grimacing at the feeling.
“Yeah, bad… bad dream.”
She was not attracted to Kate Bishop. Not at all.