Always You

Chapter 33: In Town

"You ready?" Nat said as she hoisted her bag over her shoulder and started toward the door of the Quinjet.

Yelena's eyes looked glazed as she stared at the window in front of where she sat. Her mind was miles away, sank in worries and doubts. Nat made her way over to pull her back in, "Hey." Her head shook as she finally reeled back to reality. Nat looked over her face worried, "It's okay. You're going to be fine."

She huffed, "I know. I'm just nervous. You know me." Hands shook rapidly before wiping them dry of the sweat that was building.

The whole flight to NYC had been spent in the back of her mind. She thought about what she would say, how she would say it. It's like she was writing her own screenplay.

No, that wouldn't work.

Ugh, but what if someone is there?

She played it over and over again in her head until it felt right. Eventually, she'd landed on a scenario that made her smile more than the others. It was just now that the worries started creeping in. Nat tried and tried to reassure her but she couldn't help it.

To her, Y/N was everything. The most attractive and charming person she'd ever met. There was no way no one had tried to get with them while she'd been away. Especially since they hadn't spoken but a few words in the past six months.

Yelena nodded before following her sister off the jet. It was a beautiful day out and she looked around to see where they'd ended up landing. Nat had told her that they wouldn't stop at SHIELD, but that she wanted to surprise her before they'd make their way there.

As she stepped off, she was able to see a ton of greenery around them. The building just behind them was an offwhite and seemed more than up to date with technology. She tried her best to take everything in but people began flowing out of the building and hugging her sister.

Before long, she was introduced to the entire Avengers team. As much as she used to hate them, hearing about them while she traveled with Nat made her excited.

She gave a quick hug to Steve, quickly noticing how much of a gentleman he was. Nat had told her how he was still deeply in love with the woman he'd known before entering the ice and she felt bad once it hit her. Six months away from Y/N was difficult. She couldn't imagine how he felt.

Tony shook her hand and talked up her sister as though she had no idea who she was. He offered to take her around and show her the updates they'd made recently after Nat was done introducing her to everyone.

After a bit, she'd then met Nat's other best friend Clint. He was the one who had helped her step over to SHIELD and become the woman she was today. If it wasn't for him, none of this would've been possible either. She smiled when she met him and gave him a hug that was a bit tighter than the others.

Before stepping inside for Tony's tour, she'd finished meeting everyone from Thor and Bruce to Pepper and Sam. It wasn't hard to see why Nat loved them all so much. She'd felt it secondhand from all of them when she was introduced.

They'd toured the entire building before stopping in Nat's old room before she'd moved to her own apartment to focus on her work with SHIELD more. It was still well kept due to Nat staying over a good bit to hang out with friends and rest for missions when needed. Yelena walked around and touched the wall full of pictures.

One stood out to her that made her heart ache in the best way. It was a picture of Y/N and Nat at Niagara Falls. They were standing in front of the falls and laughing so hard they'd doubled over. She could imagine just what that sounded like. Y/N's laugh filled her soul with joy.

Nat caught the smile etched into her sister's face, "We'll see them tomorrow. Excited?"

She kept her eyes on the picture, "More than I can possibly explain."

"I can't wait to see the look on their face when they see you. It's going to be a once-in-a-lifetime feeling," Nat smiled as Yelena continued looking over the pictures.

There was so much of her sister's life that she'd missed. Though much of it was stuck in the Red Room, Nat had experienced some semblance of a life, a real one. She tried not to dwell on it, but it hurt. So much time had passed and she just wished she could've had that with her.

"Sometimes..." she stepped back to scan the whole wall, "I just wish we could've had normal lives, you know? That we could've gone to school, a normal school, and hung out every day. We could've moved around, done whatever."

Nat rested her hand on her sister's shoulder. It was hard to let go of what could have been, but there was no sense in worrying about that now. "I know, but you're here now. We're both free, about to live together, and you're so close to just having some sense of normalcy. Maybe SHIELD isn't what you would've pictured, but Y/N can be. I can be."

Yelena teared up hearing how she was finally getting the life she'd been dreaming of. It was surreal. How did she even get here? How did the "Red Room's finest" finally create a life worth living?

No matter how it happened, she was thankful it did. Life was about to look very different for her and she was more than excited for it.

She pulled out her phone and tapped on the photo app. A million albums were created but her Favorites album was looked at the most, though it only held one picture. It was one from the beginning of their trip to France. Y/N wore a smile brighter than the sun.

It was blurry, but it was her favorite. She looked at it often now that they were getting close to reuniting. Soon, her Favorites album would be littered with pictures of them and she couldn't wait.

Just 24 more hours.