CHAPTER FOUR:

"The Red Room's still active." Natasha continues the conversation from earlier on today as we enter a corner shop. "Where is it?"

"I have no idea." Yelena says, picking up a few things on her way around. I look around but I'm not that good in this part of the shopping experience. "He moves location constantly. And every widow is sedated on entry and exit from maximum security."

"I'm just finding it hard to believe that he could stay off my radar." 

"I don't." I say, leaning against the wall. Nat looks away from Yelena and at me.

"What is that meant to mean, Doofus?" 

I turn to Yelena. "Was she always this dumb when you were younger?" I ask her, she only smirks in reply. "You're an Avenger, Nat." I say

"The clue is in the name." Yelena adds. "Dreykov kills you, one of the big ones comes to avenge you." 

"Wait- what are the big ones?" She asks.

"Well, I doubt the God from space has to take an ibuprofen after a fight." Yelena says. I take one good look at Natasha face and try to hold back a laugh. She walks away and goes to one of the shelves to make it look like she's busy shopping. I roll my eyes. "Where did you think I was all this time?"

"I thought that you got out and were living a normal life." Nat says.

"And you just, never made contact again?" 

"Honestly, I thought you didn't wanna see me." 

Yelena scoff. "Air, are you hearing this utter bullshit too?" She hits my arm playfully. "You just didn't want your baby sister to tag along, whilst you saved the world with the cool kids." She says as she walks pass me to the counter.

"You weren't really my sister." Nat says, also passing me.

"And the Avengers aren't really your family." There's a silence for a moment, and Yelena realises it may have been a bad idea to say that, she puts . "Why do you always do that thing?" 

"Do what?" Nat looks over at the girl a little confused, I raise an eyebrow, also confused.

"The thing you do when you're fighting-" She gets down and leans, flipping her hair back and forth a little as she does it. "The like- the- This thing that you do when you whip you're fighting with the arm and the hair. And you do, like, a fighting pose." I laugh a little and so does Yelena. "It's a-" She laughs again. "It's a fighting pose. You're a total poser." 

Nat has a look of disbelief on her face. "I'm not a poser..." I chuckle again at the thought.

Yelena laughs as she stands up. "Oh, come on- I mean, they're great poses, but it does look like you think everyone's look at you, like, all the time."

"All that time that I spent posing, I was trying to actually do something good for all the pain and suffering we caused. Trying to be more than just a trained killer." Nat says.

"Well, then you were fooling yourself, because pain and suffering is every day and we are both still a trained cover." Yelena pauses. "Except, I'm not the one that's on the cover of a magazine. I'm not the killer that little girls call their hero."

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Yelena pours a literal shot of Vodka over her wound and lets out a little hiss of pain as she does so. Kids are running around the place while the three of us sat there like total losers.

"That gas, the counteragent, it was synthesized in secret by an older widow from Melina's generation. I was on the mission to retrieve it, and she exposed me and I killed the widow that freed me." She says. I sit there, very interested in my beer bottle's label.

"Did you have a choice?" Nat asks.

"What you experienced was psychological conditioning. I'm talking about chemically altering brain functions. They're two completely different things. You're fully conscious, but you don't know which part is you. I'm still not sure." 

"I'm guessing that's all that's left." I look up from the bottle, nodding over at the red vials. 

"Mhm. It's the only thing that can stop Dreykov and his network of widows." She says. I move over and wrap the bandage around her wound properly as she talks. "He takes more every day. Children who don't have anyone to protect them. Just like us when we were small. Maybe one in 20 survives the training, becomes a widow. The rest, he kills." She pauses and looks down at me wrapping the bandage for a second. "To him, we are just things." She turns back to Nat. "Weapons with no face that he can just throw away. Because there is always more. And no one's even looking for him, thanks to you and Alexei." 

"Alexei?" Nat seems a little confused.

"Who?" I ask, also trying to keep up.

Yelena chuckles dryly. "Dad." There's a long silence between all three of us and I cut off the end of the bandage. "Did you ever look for your parents? Your real ones?" She looks over at Nat, leaning against her beer bottle.

"Well, my mom abandoned me in the street like garbage." Nat says pretty casually. "What about you?"

"They destroyed my birth certificate... So I reinvented it. My parents still live in Ohio. My sister moved out west." 

"Is that right?" Nat has a small smile on her face. 

"You're a science teacher. You're working part-time, though, especially after you had your son. Your husband, he renovates houses." The girl smiles a little.

"That is not my story." 

Yelena laughs. "What is your story?"

"I never let myself be alone long enough to think about it." I feel eyes on me for a moment and when I look over I see Nat smiling at me.

"What?" I smile back at her.

"Nothing." She continues to smile though. Yelena leans over the table for a moment and takes a vest out from a bag. 

"Did you ever wish for kids?" She asks as she puts the vest on. "I want a dog."

"Where are you gonna go?" 

"I don't know. I don't really have anywhere to go back to, so I guess anywhere."  She shrugs. "What about you?" I look over and see Yelena looking at me.

"My relationship ended due to the accords. We couldn't agree amongst other things-" I begin.

"She was cheating on you with the robot." Nat cuts in.

"Yeah, sure..." I say quietly. "I guess a dog would be nice. Somewhere away from all the chaos when it's all settled down. A nice place in Ukraine, maybe. Or Spain. Not anywhere in west after what's happened."

"Ever thought of another love? Another chance at someone?" 

I scratch the side of my face and lean forward a little on the table. "I thought I'd found someone a few months ago. But I was wrong. I guess I'll let life take the wheel instead. I find someone? So be it. I get a farm in the middle of nowhere? Sure."

Yelena nods understandingly. "I like that." She says approvingly. I smile and take a sip of my drink, leaning back on the chair. There's another one of those silences between us and Nat leans forward in her seat. "Don't." 

"Don't what?" Nat has yet another look of confusion on her face. 

Yelena chuckles. "You're going to give a big hero speech, I can feel it."

"Speeches aren't really her thing." I tell the girl. "That's more on Roger's side of things." 

"It was more like an invitation." Nat says.

"To go to the Red Room and kill Dreykov?" Yelena asks Nat.

"Yeah..." 

"Even though the Red Room is impossible to find and Dreykov is too slippery to kill?" 

"Yeah..." 

Yelena looks over at me for a moment. "I know- it's a shitload of work." I say. "Don't look at me like that. I've known her long enough. I follow her and just question it first before I follow." 

"It does sound like a shitload of work." She leans back in her chair.

"Yep..." Nat sighs. "Could be fun, though." I look over at a guy who closes up his garage, leaving the keys in a cabinet. The two of them sit in silence for another second.

"Top drawer, green cabinet." I say.

"English please." Nat demands, a little confused.

"That's where he put the keys." Yelena smirks. I pick up my beer and take a sip from it and she clinks her glass against mine before doing the same.

a/n- it's a fighting pose. You're a total poser.