Chapter Text
“Move to America, Yelena. There is no future for you in Russia, Yelena. Things will be better in America, look at Natalia! She ran away but she’s doing much better there. Why can’t you be more like Natalia, Yelena? Well, I am in America. I have left Russia. And now I am stuck in this shithole,” Yelena turns, pointing accusingly at Natasha, “With you.”
Natasha stifles her laughter, smiling sweetly at Yelena, “And you are free as ever to leave, Yelena. I am not keeping you here.”
Yelena groans. She flops gracelessly onto a sofa, arms splayed out like a starfish. A frustrated starfish. “No, of course not, god forbid the ever angelic Natasha Romanoff ever force someone against their will, of course not,” Yelena raises her head to shoot daggers at Natasha’s amused form, “And yet this fucking virus means ‘social distancing’ and ‘quarantine’ for the good of others, which is total bullshit-”
“The coronavirus is not bullshit, Yelena,” Natasha cuts in, all blastedly calm and reasonable, “And it’s not like there’s anything better to do. The job market is an absolute nightmare now, anyways.”
Choosing to ignore Natasha’s words, Yelena continues on without pause, “But no, I must do my civic duty in these difficult times, so we are stuck together.”
“What a blessing, truly.”
Yelena springs up from the couch, “Well, I was promised excitement and intrigue, a whole new world to discover, and what do I have? The world of your Netflix collection and your devil cat.”
“Liho isn’t a devil cat.”
Yelena only glares harder. In that moment, arms crossed, blonde hair pulled into a messy ponytail, and a sulking pout across her face, she looks thoroughly displeased.
Natasha’s smile widens, and she steps closer, pulling Yelena into her arms, head resting against Yelena’s shoulder. She hears the steady pumping of Yelena’s heart, a steady beat in spite of her unhappiness. Yelena stubbornly refuses to accept the gesture, angling her body away from Natasha’s embrace and body tensing, but Natasha only holds her tighter.
They stay like that, neither party willing to move, with Natasha gently holding Yelena’s stiff body in hers. Natasha doesn’t push any further, just holds Yelena close to her.
Eventually, Yelena relaxes with a sigh, arms moving to wrap around Natasha’s back and head dropping between her neck and shoulder, “You are a stubborn, idiotic do-gooder.”
Natasha chuckles, “But I’m your stubborn, idiotic do-gooder, aren’t I?”
“Hmph.”
Natasha releases Yelena, but the blonde only clings tighter, this time refusing to let go, “Stop moving,” She mumbles, “You run away too much.”
“Yelena, we’ve been hugging for almost ten minutes.”
Yelena moves, facing Natasha with squinted eyes, “And?”
Gently pushing Yelena away, Natasha smirks, “And I’m hungry. Let me go make dinner, then we can do whatever you want.”
“Like go outside?” Yelena asks, hope seeping into her voice.
“We’re social distancing, not caged. We can go out, just no outside social contact.” Natasha shakes her head, “You don’t even like people.”
“That’s when I have the choice to not like them. I don’t even get the chance to be disgusted by their idiocy anymore.” Yelena sulks, “That used to be the highlight of my days.”
“Well,” Natasha steers Yelena back onto the couch, pushing her to sit back, “Now it can be the highlight of your days from here.”
Yelena pouts. It’s a very cute pout, Natasha knows, an angelic face framed by a mess of blonde curls. It would be extraordinarily effective if Yelena didn’t insist on using it every time she didn’t get her way. By now, Natasha has adjusted to its devastating power, and as she turns to look once more at Yelena, all she can do is smile at the adorable blonde Russian puppy pouting back at her.
“Stop doing that.”
“Doing what?” Natasha moves into the kitchen, opening the refrigerator and pulling out ingredients. She doesn’t ignore Yelena per se, but she doesn’t pay her any special amount of attention. It’s carefully calculated, a move to bring Yelena to her instead of the opposite.
“Ignoring me.”
Fighting off a smile, Natasha looks back towards Yelena, “I’m not ignoring you, I’m making dinner. Unlike some people, I’m contributing to this household.”
“It’s your house.” Yelena points out.
“Which you live in.” Natasha replies archly.
“Because of this stupid quarantine!”
Instead of offering a response, Natasha merely hums, focusing her energy on the variety of vegetables in front of her. She begins the process of prepping them, a monotonous order of movements that she can easily do while turning off her mind.
It works, for a few moments at least, before Natasha is startled back into reality by Yelena poking her sharply in the side, “What are you making?” She steals a piece of carrot off the cutting board, munching on it loudly, and Natasha directs a glare at her.
“Quinoa lentil salad.”
Immediately, Yelena’s eyes narrow while she processes the information before she decides she doesn’t like the idea, “That sounds unpleasant, Natalia. Is there even any meat in it? Why are you making me eat that?”
Natasha continues with her chopping, “I never said you had to eat it, but I want to. Besides, it’s good for you. Lots of protein.”
“So is chicken.”
"But I'm making this."
“It’s...rabbit food.”
“Well then I’ll be a happy rabbit.”
“Can’t you be a carnivorous rabbit?”
“You don’t have to eat it,” Natasha reminds Yelena, “Now be a doll and cook the lentils and quinoa, won’t you? They’re soaking on the table.”
In response, Yelena walks over to the table, dropping her hand into the pot of lentils and pulling a few out. She looks doubtfully at them, inspecting them carefully.
Natasha checks on her out of the corner of her eyes, watching amusedly as Yelena pops a few into her mouth and chews. She makes a face, and Natasha laughs, “You don’t eat them raw. Or unsalted.”
Yelena grimaces, looking at the remaining lentils in her hand.
Natasha puts down the knife in her hand, turns to face Yelena, and arches an eyebrow pointedly.
Yelena meets her gaze before promptly throwing the rest of the lentils at Natasha.
Natasha stares in absolute shock at the sheer audacity, her brain not catching up with what Yelena has done. “You threw lentils at me.”
Smiling impishly back at her, Yelena moves to put the grains onto the stove, flipping on the fire and prancing away. She looks back at Natasha as she slips out of the kitchen, winking at her before moving off. Not a word is said.
Not even bothering to sigh, Natasha simply continues chopping her vegetables. Yelena will probably be back after ten minutes without attention, anyways. She’s like a cat. A needy, attention-seeking cat with entirely far too much time on her hands.
Surprisingly, Natasha is able to make it through all of her prep work and is even able to start putting together her salad before Yelena makes a reappearance, jumping onto the island and whining, “When is my salad done? I’m hungry.”
Natasha doesn’t miss a beat, “If you decided to actually be useful, we might even be eating by now.”
Looking thoughtful for a hot second, Yelena mulls over the idea of actually being helpful. She shrugs, pouting, “But I wasn’t hungry then.”
“Then you’re hungry now.”
Yelena shakes her head petulantly, “I don’t like that.”
“Not my problem,” Natasha almost sings as she sets two plates beside Yelena, “Now come eat your delicious rabbit food.”
Yelena stares resignedly at her plate, stacked full of various greens, grains, and despair. Natasha has already started eating. Yelena picks up her fork, poking suspiciously at her dinner. Natasha snorts and Yelena glares at both her and the salad.
As if sensing a change in resolve, Natasha offers, “No complaints and you can pick the Netflix queue tonight.” She isn’t completely sure, but Natasha has a feeling that Yelena would just break quarantine if she can get her own dinner.
Yelena perks up immediately, “K-dramas?”
Wondering what kind of fate she has subjected herself to, Natasha agrees warily, “I don’t know how you watch that kind of sap.”
“Well, you can wonder all night, tonight!” Yelena responds cheerfully, starting on her salad readily. “Besides, you have no horse to stand on with your disturbing slasher films.”
Natasha sniffs, “They’re funny. Unlike your weird wish-fulfillment tearfests.”
“Well,” Yelena continues eating, making faces as she does so, “You have all night to enjoy my gratuitous wish-fulfillment fantasies.”
“Right.”
They eat in a comfortable silence, Natasha watching Yelena eat with resolve as Yelena focuses on her food. Yelena eventually finishes triumphantly, rising and taking their plates to the sink. She begins to wash them, speaking with delighted glee, “Your night of fun starts now.”
“Great.”
“I know you’re secretly very excited.”
“I’m dying of joy inside,” Natasha replies dryly, “Go get ready, I guess. I’m going to shower first.”
“Don’t take too long,” Yelena remarks offhandedly, “We need all the time we can get if we’re going to get through the new series.”
Natasha resolves to draw out her shower as long as possible until the water begins turning cold, at which point she resigns herself to a life full of suffering and pain, and heads back out to the living room.
Unexpectedly, Natasha hears voices when she steps out of the shower, and the closer she gets towards the origin, the greater her suspicion. She walks apprehensively in the direction of Yelena’s cheerfully loud voice, but her secrecy is for naught when Yelena notices her.
“Natalia! That was fast. I expected you to shower for far longer than that.”
“The water got cold,” Natasha replied, eyes rapidly looking over the scene before her. Yelena is seated on the couch, the television opened to her Netflix queue, and Natasha’s computer in her lap.
Natasha’s computer is open.
Natasha’s open computer is in Yelena’s lap.
The computer that belongs to Natasha is open and in Yelena’s hands and the second voice is coming out from the computer.
“Hey Nat!” A brightly confused voice calls out from the computer, “Who’s your friend? I thought we were ‘social distancing’.”
Moving onto the couch, Natasha pulls her computer away from Yelena’s lap and into her own, angling it so that Yelena can’t see the screen, “Why are you calling, Clint?”
“Uh, well the kids were getting pretty bored alone, so I said we could try calling Aunt Natasha to see if she was interested in talking?” Clint offers sheepishly, “But I see you’re kind of occupied?” He waggles his eyebrows obnoxiously, “Nice quarantine you’ve got going there.”
Natasha sighs, “That’s...Yelena. It’s not-it’s not whatever you’re thinking.”
“So you didn’t pick up some random hot blonde and invite her to your place for ‘quarantine time’?”
“What? No, it’s not like that at all-”
“So she’s just a one time thing?” Clint looks, if anything, even more confused.
“No, Natalia’s friend who I have never met, she means it’s not like that because…” Pausing dramatically, Yelena, who has been blessedly silent over the course of the conversation, chooses to interject, poking her head towards the screen, “I am Natalia’s wife.”
Silence. Natasha regrets everything she’s ever done in her life that brought her to this moment.
“From Russia,” Yelena adds helpfully.
“What.” Clint appears completely baffled, and it is then that Cooper and Lila choose to make their appearance, small faces popping onto the screen.
“Auntie Tasha!” The children are delighted, and Cooper asks curiously, “Who’s that?”
Eyeing the two of them warily, Clint responds slowly, “Her...wife?”
Natasha groans, “No, Yelena isn’t my-”
Yelena, of course, cuts her off, nodding sagely, “I am her wife. But since we come from Russia, that was not allowed, so Natalia came to America for us, and now that she is ready, I have come to join her.”
“No, no, no, that is not-”
This time, Clint is the one to cut her off, “Well, why didn’t you just say that? You know we wouldn’t judge, Nat. I’m guessing you were waiting for your citizenship before bringing her over?”
“Yes.” Yelena nods enthusiastically, “Exactly. Now, I have just come over, and we were going to celebrate our honeymoon, but, you know,” She shrugs, making a ‘what can you do?’ face, “We are now here. So…” Yelena trails off pointedly, and Clint seems to get the hint.
“Oh, yeah, that’s fine. I’ll, uh, leave you two to it, then. But I want all the details later!” He winks at them before ending the call.
Yelena closes the computer while Natasha sits, too stunned to react. She moves it off Natasha’s lap and onto the coffee table in front of them, curling into Natasha’s side while picking up the tv remote.
By the time Natasha has fully come to her senses, the intro scene to Yelena’s newest Korean obsession is already playing and Yelena is wrapped around her.
“What. Just. Happened?” She doesn’t sound mad, exactly, but frustration clearly seeps into Natasha’s voice.
“I’m your wife. Apparently.” Yelena answers casually, snuggling further into Natasha, “Do not worry. I am a very convincing wife.”
Natasha cannot even find it in herself to be particularly angry, especially considering the relatively light path Yelena had chosen. At least she hadn’t said they were sisters .
Yelena’s show is still playing, and Natasha focuses just long enough to see what is presumably the main character devolve into tears. She turns back to the cuddly blonde that is slowly sliding into her lap, “You know, I thought marriages were supposed to be a two-sided thing? Where both parties kind of, I don’t know, know they’re getting married?”
“Natalia,” Yelena’s voice contains trace amounts of condescension and quite a bit of disappointment, “What is a marriage?”
“A legally binding contract between two parties that establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and any children or in-laws,” Natasha answers promptly, “None of which we have.”
“No, dummy,” This time, the condescension is quite a bit heavier, “Marriage is when two people who hopefully love each other dedicate themselves to the relationship between themselves. Which we have been doing for a very long time. We are basically married already anyways. I don’t need a piece of paper telling me what I’ve known for years.” Yelena shrugs, “Now, shut up. She is about to realize she loves her fake husband and doesn’t want a divorce.”
Natasha stares at Yelena disbelievingly. She knows that Yelena loves her, is fairly certain she loves Yelena in return, but to hear their relationship explained so casually, as if it were a simple fact, like the sky is blue, water is not wet, and Yelena and Natasha have a deeply loving relationship beyond performative demonstration; it is almost overwhelming in its enormity. They have never attempted to put into words what they have between them, but to know the way Yelena clearly feels about her, it makes Natasha think about what Yelena means to her.
Looking down at the attentive stare Yelena has for the tv screen while she keeps herself firmly attached to Natasha, the way Yelena bites her lip while tightening her grip when the woman onscreen goes through her emotional revelation, Natasha has a revelation of her own.
Yelena is her world . Everything she ever thought she needed or wanted, all of it paled in comparison to how she felt without Yelena.
Pulling Yelena closer to her, Natasha settles in to watch an incredibly confused woman fall in love with her incredibly emotionally stunted husband. With her wife. Imagine that.