not how it's supposed to go

i say, "believe in one thing, i won't go away"

"Your phone."

Yelena grunted, not enjoying being woken up so abruptly. She blinked her eyes open, half-surprised to see Natasha's name on the screen.

(Well, not really Natasha's name. She put Fanny in because she thought it was funnier.)

She slid her thumb over the answer gesture, pressing the phone to her ear, "It hasn't been a month, Tasha."

" What, I can't call you because I want to? " Natasha responded, and Yelena could hear some rustling in the background.

When do you ever want anything to do with me sat on the tip of Yelena's tongue, but she quipped back, "If you want money, that's not exactly something I have a lot of. Freeing widows is very voluntary."

"Well," Natasha sounded a little bummed, "I was calling to wish you a happy birthday. It's April 9th."

"Well, in that case," Yelena looked at the clock lit up across the room, "My birthday's not for another fifteen minutes."

"Where are you, then? I thought I was late to the party being that I'm in the states," Natasha replied and Yelena snorted.

"Hawaii," she said softly, "a widow... apparently her rich as hell buyer is located here, so she is, too. Sonya and I are doing surveillance for now, but we're hoping to get her in the next couple of days. Save her."

"Oh," Natasha responded quietly, "Well, I hope that goes well. Sounds like a hell of a birthday."

"I didn't even remember it was..." Yelena trailed off, readjusting on the bed and absentmindedly messing with the comforter.

"You didn't remember your birthday?" Natasha almost sounded sad at that, but she cleared her throat, "I made mine up, actually. I remembered celebrating it December when we lived with Melina and Alexei... so I picked a day. December 3rd, 1984."

"Why the third? And how did you remember mine?" Yelena asked softly, picking at a loose thread on the comforter.

"I like threes," Natasha replied, "SHIELD and the Avengers were my third chance at life, Clint has three kids and the third one is named after me , you were three when I met you... three's a nice number. And I remembered your birthday because I remember being completely convinced that your birthday would fall on Easter at some point. It just stuck, I guess."

Yelena's chest warmed at that, something about knowing Natasha committed her birthday to memory made her a little too happy.

"Did it ever happen?" Yelena asked, eyes falling on the curtains of the room.

"Your birthday being on Easter?" Natasha asked.

"Yeah," Yelena replied, a little more than curious now. She didn't really remember Easter much outside of chocolates.

"Not yet," Natasha responded, "Someday, though."

"Mm," Yelena nodded, even though Natasha couldn't see her, "You have twelve more minutes. You gonna wish me a happy birthday so I can go back to sleep."

"No," Natasha said, "I'm gonna stay on the phone. Wait it out. I have to be first, you know."

"Totally."

-

They don't talk again until Friday; five days after the fight in the woods and Yelena punching the wall and Yelena hearing about Wanda moving to the city, presumably with Natasha.