ofi

Yelena is overcome with relief, her archer is okay. They’re safe and that’s all that matters, but when they embrace, Yelena notices it instantly. This is not her Kate.

The figure pulls away, a mean smirk in her eyes, teeth too sharp and shoulders too stiff. There is no kindness there, and as fingers grip Yelena’s arms less like a vice and more like a cruelty, she struggles to stand.

This wax version of Kate began to harden at the edges. “It was foolish of you to think that someone like her would make it to the end of this fight. But then, there are always casualties in war.”

In Doomsday, Yelena is brought face-to-face with another universe’s Natasha (and maybe has to fight her). In addition to the mind-fuckery of seeing her dead sister again, not knowing if it’s real or hallucination or magic or some other form of trickery, and eventually discovering she’s not her Natasha, what if that Natasha is from a universe where her Yelena is Natasha’s enemy, not her sister, as in some of the comics continuities?

Post-working-in-the-garden addendum: perhaps in that Natasha’s universe, Kate Bishop is her Hawkeye—maybe they’re married—and that Yelena killed that Kate. You know, if you really wanted to turn the screws.

You’re welcome 😏

pairing: Yelena/Kate (Hawkeye)

rating: E

chapter word count: 16,730

summary: Yelena decides to go to college. It just so happens to be the same one Kate Bishop attends.

preview: 

With both classes and exams finished, the steady roll towards graduation continues smoothly, right up until the point when Sonya decides to kidnap Kate. ("Kidnapped isn't the right word," Kate had reassured her, via video phone. Sonya's arm wrapped around Kate's shoulder hadn't exactly inspired confidence in the words, but Kate had seemed remarkably at ease, despite calling from Italy. Despite having only just been in Providence that morning, preparing for the 'surprise' party Lerato and Antonia were throwing them. "She's calling in her poker favor, fair and square. Plus, it's a good bonding trip! And I haven't been to Florence in ages!") The timing is bad. Worse, when she'd said so, Sonya had been especially annoying about it (teasing her about codependency) and Kate entirely too unbothered (an annoyance of its own). Which is probably why — only a day later — she uses the exact word Kate had claimed to be the wrong one when she's explaining the situation to Greer and Franny, instantly undoing all the work Kate had (apparently) done to placate them. "Kidnapped?" Greer repeats, and then simply stands there — her mouth open — when Yelena nudges past her into the townhouse. "But — we talked to her. Or. She texted us to let us know that she'd be late for movie night, but it sounded like Kate! It sounded just like her! Ugh. Classic thing to happen, to be honest, though. Franny, Kate's been kidnapped!"

Soccer Practice (Bucky/Mel, M)

Synopsis: Mel teaches Bucky how to play soccer football. Or at least, that’s the plan.

Set post-Thunderbolts*.

Note: Inspired by my headcanon post about the Thunderbolts and the World Cup! If you’re here for the actual football/soccer of it all… sorry, but we won’t get to that! (This is only 600 words of mostly fluff!)

This ficlet is loosely set in the same universe as Bucky Barnes Goes to the Movies, but you don’t need to have read that one first. There’s one intentional callback, but I think that’s it.

Also on ao3!

—

On a sunny Sunday morning in late spring, Bucky puts on his running gear and sets off on a brisk jog that takes him through the streets of Brooklyn and to the southern edge of Prospect Park in just under thirty minutes.

The early hour guarantees that the park is still fairly empty, and when he gets to the Parade Grounds, he easily spots Mel, who is sitting cross-legged on a shaded bench next to one of the soccer fields.

She’s dressed in her old college jersey and a pair of loose sweatpants. A small gym bag sits next to her, zipper open to reveal a soccer ball.

Looking all cozy and comfortable in her baggy clothes, Mel stands and waves as soon as she spots him. Warmth spreads through Bucky’s chest, and next thing he knows, he’s wrapped her up in a surprise hug neither of them expected.

She tucks her face into the crook of his neck, murmurs hi, and the last thing Bucky wants to do is let go.

She trails after him as he makes his way from the hallway to the kitchen and through to the living room. As soon as he sits down, she's next to him on the sofa, sniffing and huffing and sneezing.

"Listen," he says and scratches behind her ears while she pants in his face. "I know you've got some weird game of smelly telephone going on with Alpine, but you're not a lapdog."

Kate moves to the neighbourhood post-college. She’s living in her own apartment for the first time. She stops by the bodega to get some post-gym snacks.

Alexei sees a pride pin on her bag.

Alexei: “Ah! You are one of the gays, yes?”

Kate, very dubious about where this was going: “um… yes?”

Alexei: “excellent! my daughter is gay. She’s new at it. You should meet her.”

Melina, rushing out from the back: “No, no, stop doing this.”

Alexei: “what? I ask, she said she was lesbian.”

Melina: “I’m very sorry”

Kate, bewildered: “that’s fine… can I pay?”

Alexei: “Yelena is a catch. She has her own cafe. No help! And very pretty.”

Kate, desperately waving her card at the machine: “that’s so great”

Alexei: “and I know I said she is new at being gay but she is enthusiastic -”

Melina: “STOP. (At Kate) You can just have these. You’ve paid enough.”

Kate was ready to file this as a funny story about her new neighbourhood - then the door jangled open.

Yelena: “privet Mama, Papa”

Her jaw dropped.

At ten years old, she watches Dirty Dancing for the first time with her older cousins. She loves the music and all of the dancing. She loves Penny and Baby, has a crush on Johnny before she understands what a crush even is.

After that first watch, Olivia has questions. She’s always been an inquisitive child, sometimes to the point of annoying the people around her, and her cousins aren’t much help, so she asks her mother.

“Mom, why’s the movie called Dirty Dancing? What’s dirty about it? Why are Baby’s parents so mad? What’s wrong with Penny?”

So her mom explains.

Then she calls Olivia’s aunt and whisper-shouts over the phone. “Did you know they watched Dirty Dancing with her?”

Power dynamics. On the surface any outsider looking in on these two would probably assume that Yelena would have the upper hand in the relationship and they’d be right in a way. Yelena has experienced a much more difficult life and has a better grasp of how to handle the world of spies and to a certain extent superheroes. She’s the better fighter, willing to cross lines and make decisions that Kate wouldn’t, and is careful about what she reveals which gives the impression of a more quiet and mature confidence than Kate who is incredibly loud in her confidence. Something else that I’ve seen in a lot of fics is Kate purposefully allowing Yelena to have more control in the relationship due to the lack of control Yelena’s had her whole life. This purposeful decision may just look like Yelena taking control rather than Kate surrendering it. Yelena being older serves to emphasize this perception of her holding all the cards.

This is a lie. Not only does Yelena not have more power than Kate, but once they get to the point where Yelena can begin to show vulnerability it’s painfully obvious that she’s out of her depth. When it comes to anything that doesn’t involve being a living weapon (or driving) Kate is more experienced than Yelena a million times over. She’s the one who’s had friendships, relationships, break ups, arguments, and has built up all of those interpersonal skills. She’s also built up more intrapersonal skills.

We have the different stages of development. It’s well documented that having a rough childhood can have a serious detrimental effect on how people progress through these stages on both an emotional and even physical level. But let’s just ignore the natural repercussions that living in a constant state of stress has on a person over the course of more than two decades. Let’s just look at the formation of identity and self-concept.

Yelena hasn’t had the opportunity to do that. She went through intense neural reprogramming (or whatever they call it, I can’t remember off the top of my head) starting at the age of 6. This is around the time most people begin forming their self-concept on a concrete level. Things like, what you look like, your likes and dislikes, what are you good at etc. Then when she’s older, probably a teenager but they never say exactly when, she gets put under chemical subjugation, during which Yelena says that she is completely aware of what was happening around her and what she was doing but she couldn’t tell what was her and what was the Red Room. It’s right around this time that most people begin to consider their self-concepts in more complex and abstract ways. Guess who didn’t get to do that. Even if the subjugation allowed for room for Yelena to consider this, there’s no way she could trust any conclusions she may have come to. Then in Black Widow we get to see her forming her concrete sense of self. “I want a dog.” “[This vest] is the first thing I’ve ever bought for myself.” It honestly makes me emotional to watch. She reconnects with her family, has a purpose in freeing the widows, and is finally free to explore who she is. Then Natasha dies, her purpose of finding and freeing widows is taken away from her, and her contact with Melina and Alexei is almost completely cut. She feels grief and anger without any room for anything else. Certainly not for figuring out who she is. Then there’s emptiness. All she does is think about the horrible things she’s done and drink. In spite of this, she seems to be beginning to form a more abstract self-concept. Not a healthy one by any stretch of the imagination, but still. She’s starting to think about what will be fulfilling for her and what role does she want to fill in the world. Yelena struggles between wanting to help her new friends and her self-concept of ‘I’m a loser and a bad person.’ While she doesn’t choose to be a New Avenger, she does choose to do the right thing and help her new friends. Even though she wasn’t intending to become a hero or a New Avenger, I swear I can practically hear her thinking to herself in that final shot ‘Yeah, this could be who I am.’ But that’s all she really has right now. She knows that she wants to help her friends and to be a hero and be the person that people can rely on even though she still most likely views herself as a bad person underneath that but that’s really all she knows. There are still a lot of blank spots to be filled in there.

I won’t spend as much time on Kate because her experience is more reflective of the standard. I will say that she is amazingly well-adjusted for having gone through the Battle of New York and The Blip. She definitely still has some issues. I don’t think you can be the kind of person who becomes a superhero in spite of not having any powers without having issues, but the fact that her issues seem so minimal tells me that she’s learned how to deal with crises. We see the moment when she decides at 9 years old that she is going to be a protector and then she relentlessly pursues that goal. While other parts of her identity forms naturally as she goes, that desire to protect never leaves her and is at her very core. She truly cements this as part of herself during the Hawkeye series. Now not only is she a protector, but she’s also a hero. I think that she’s maybe still figuring out what exactly that means but otherwise she has an extremely firm sense of self, which is part of the reason for her extreme confidence. She’s also always struck me as someone who naturally has a high degree of emotional intelligence but that’s almost purely a headcanon.

Yelena is more dangerous, she’s older, and currently in the MCU she is more well known and respected. But Kate still holds almost all the power in their dynamic because she has a better understanding of relationships, emotions, and herself. Arguably, Yelena has had the least amount of opportunity to make her own decisions in the entire MCU while Kate has arguably had the most. The only way for their power dynamics to be truly equal is for Kate to see the power she wields and choose for once in her life to restrain herself instead of going all in

(under the cut is just a little rant about age gaps in shipping and about Kate and Yelena specifically)

Like Yelena was broken out of literal mind control at roughly 27 years old - if we take “You got out—Dreykov made sure no one could escape” to mean that he started using the chemical subjugation shortly after Natasha defected (and if we estimate that Natasha was around 20 at the time) then that would mean Yelena was mind controlled since about age 16 (younger if Nat got out earlier)

After getting free, Yelena lives only three years as an adult with her own agency before meeting Kate (technically it’s been 8 years since she was freed, but since she was blipped, five of them don’t count) and Kate as a college senior could be considered as having anywhere from 0-4 years of adult life experience (depending on your take on whether or not college would count)

John doesn't think; he acts.

On the battlefield, he's a skilled tactician but often reckless when it comes to his own safety. He's the one who goes back in once he's gotten everyone else out.

John used to be like that in his marriage, too. Not thoughtless or rash but madly in love with Olivia and willing to show it at every opportunity, even if it made him look stupid.

He used to say "I love you" with actions rather than words, so when he stops acting, that's when Olivia starts to worry.