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Three knocks at the door startle Kate awake. She knocks off the empty water bottle from her nightstand in a frantic reach for her bow, waking Lucky up in the process from his spot next to her.
The knocking continues.
Lucky takes off toward the door and Kate rises slowly, yawning as she does. She glances over her shoulder and sees the time through slightly blurred vision. 4AM glowing at her in bright red digits.
Who the hell could that be?
She’s still shuffling across the apartment, after she retrieves her bow—she’s half-asleep but awake enough to know she doesn’t want to be caught off guard—when the knocking slows and groaning is added to the mix.
“Kate Bishop, I know you’re in there!”
Lucky perks up at the sound, and so does Kate. She’d recognize that thick accent anywhere, even when it sounds strained and muffled through the heavy-duty door Clint insisted she install. Yelena.
Kate swings the door open and sure enough, Yelena’s there, leaning against the wall in obvious pain but waving instead.
“What are you— Get in here!” Kate says, waving Yelena toward her and reaching out to help as she hobbles closer.
“I’m fine,” Yelena says and pushes Kate’s hand away. Kate would say Yelena’s pride was going to be the end of her one day, but that felt like it could be counterproductive for the moment.
She just stares at Yelena in disbelief with every ‘Ow’ that comes out of her mouth on the trek through the apartment with Lucky following at her heels.
“You… Are bleeding,” Kate says instead, watching tiny droplets hit her floor in Yelena’s pursuit of the couch.
Yelena scoffs and slumps over onto the couch cushion. She throws her leg up onto a pillow Kate just bought that’s definitely going to have to be replaced as Yelena unties the piece of cloth around her thigh. “It doesn’t need stitches.”
“That’s not the same thing as being ‘okay.’ You know that, right?”
“Details. Details.”
Kate rolls her eyes and heads to the bathroom to grab the peroxide and a gauze pad before Yelena asks. Not that she will. “Are you going to tell me what happened?”
“That depends,” Yelena says, hissing as she pulls the fabric of her pants up to assess her own damage.
“On what?” Kate asks, exasperated. She hands the supplies over and looks away while Yelena cleans herself up.
“Will you make me go to a doctor?”
It crosses her mind to say yes, of course. To tell Yelena that cut looks horrible and she wants to ask about infections and at the same time, she just wants to know who did this to her. The latter occurs to her when she realizes how tight her grip is on the bow she picked back up from its discarded place on the table.
“No,” Kate replies through gritted teeth.
Yelena looks skeptical but she shrugs, ripping off a piece of tape with her teeth to finish the rough dressing on her knee. “It was just a simple rehousing of documents mission.”
“Also know as a robbery?” Kate arches an eyebrow at Yelena who just purses her lips.
“Again with the focus on the details. It turns out the office was… Double-booked,” she says, emphasizing the end of her statement. “Honestly, I have to give credit to the last guy. His aim? Pretty good. Before I broke his arm…”
“Are you saying you’re impressed he was able to stab you?”
“You say that like it is easy to stab me,” Yelena says. She leans in, baiting Kate but it’s still 4AM and Kate doesn’t have time for this.
Kate gestures vaguely in Yelena’s direction. “Yeah, we’re just gonna’ let that go. How did you get here, then? Please tell me you didn’t walk…”
Yelena gasps and looks downright offended at that notion. “I cannot believe you would ask that. I Ubered.”
If this wasn’t New York, she’d feel so sorry for the driver that ended up with Yelena in their backseat, probably cursing in every language she knows over the mission failure and her injury. But since it is, they’d probably seen worse. Probably before the sun rose.
“I hope you tipped well,” she mumbles under her breath.
Yelena struggles but manages to get herself upright again with the support of the back of the couch. “Good as new, yes?”
She starts to take a step but even Yelena can’t fake the tightening of her features and the sharp breath she sucks in when she puts weight on her leg. Kate rushes forward and steadies Yelena with a hand at her hip.
“I am not letting you go back out there tonight.” Her tone is a little forceful but she’s in no mood to go back and forth with Yelena over this. Why she has to think she’s invincible is beyond Kate.
“Kate Bishop… Are you asking me to stay the night?” Yelena asks, the tiniest grin showing through the wince when she tries to move again.
Well… Not in so many words… or any, really.
Not that she wouldn’t, or that she’s… Afraid to, per se.
It’s just they sort of have an agreement. This unspoken thing that when Yelena needs something and she’s in the city, well, Kate’s always there. But she never stays. Kate wakes up to a note, sometimes, or just an open window and questions whether she imagined her middle-of-the-night visitor. But the last few times, Yelena lingers when Kate goes back to bed. Like she’s waiting for an opening or… Something but Kate never goes there. She’s not sure she wants to handle the potential rejection or ruin this little game they have going.
“Would you?” she asks. Tentatively, cautiously.
Yelena’s face is just inches from hers and all hints at the smirk have disappeared, replaced with a small crease between her eyebrows. No response, just silence. The regret sets in almost immediately but it’s too late. The ball’s no longer in her court.
Kate swallows hard and wonders if her heartbeat is really as loud as it sounds in her ears.
“Okay,” Yelena says after a handful of seconds that feel like years. Her hand comes to rest on Kate’s, still firmly planted on Yelena’s hip.
“Okay,” Kate repeats, a little softer and then they’re left staring at each other again.
Somewhere in the back of her mind, she wants to make a big deal of it. She wants to talk about why Yelena has never stayed before if it was so easy for her to agree to. But she doesn’t. She won’t ruin the small win or disrupt the feel of Yelena’s hands on hers while she helps her back onto the couch. Instead, she quickly grabs the blanket from her bed and they both manage to share the space when Yelena tosses the back cushions onto the floor. Lucky takes advantage of one to lay beside them like they do this every day.
Kate tells her she just wants to be close in case she needs anything, a glass of water or some painkillers when the adrenaline runs out. But selfishly, she wants to be closer in case Yelena does decide to leave. Yelena doesn’t challenge her on it, though. She accepts the gesture. The blanket. The closeness.
Maybe she’ll ask her to stay again, Kate thinks as her eyes flutter shut.
Or maybe, just maybe, she won’t have to.