look after you × winterwidow & oc

IV. that is not my story

Katya stayed a few steps back as they walked to the gas station where they decided to make a stop. Ever since they got out of the vents, the atmosphere between them was rather tense. Even if the girl's origin and her story with Natasha were still kept under wraps, the comment about them needing an out was enough for Yelena to realize some things. Especially there being much more to Katya than Natasha let on.

Katya looked around, not paying much attention to the women's conversation, hearing just bits and pieces about the Red Room location, the Avengers, and Yelena's grudge against Natasha for never looking for her. Katya stepped outside and when turning her head to shield her eyes from the blinding rays of sunset, out of the corner of her eye saw the blonde mimicking the 'pose'.

"All that time I spent posing," Romanoff's expression tensed, "I was trying to actually do something good to make up for all the pain and suffering that we caused. Trying to be more than just a trained killer."

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

Something snapped inside Katya when she heard Yelena's words. She was wrong. Natasha was good. She was a hero. Her hero. Protect. When the blonde walked out of the door, Katya caught her by the arm, something between a silent threat and a challenge in her eyes. At first, Yelena was rather confused, but then she noticed the look on the girl's face and tried to free her arm. Katya didn't budge.

As soon as Natasha realized what was going on, she joined them outside "Katya, stop."

"She's wrong." the girl said, her voice steady and plain, almost emotionless. Aside from her lips moving, no other muscle even twitched, her face seemed like carved in marble. Yelena looked between them, still not sure what she was supposed to do and trying to judge whether the girl was starting to become a threat.

Romanoff touched the girl's shoulder. "That doesn't matter."

The touch finally made Katya snap out of it enough to make her shake her head, trying to push that away but her gaze remained rather unpleasant and once again fixed on Yelena. "You..."

"Katyusha, don't," Natasha asked, keeping her hand on the girl's shoulder to ground her. "It's not worth it."

"Oh, no, I'm actually curious about what your guard dog has to say." Yelena protested, her eyebrows still raised, but in the back of her mind, she regretted her words, as she managed to make some connections based on what she saw throughout the day, and deep down she knew she couldn't have been more wrong.

"What, so you could mock her too?" Natasha snapped, leading the girl away to one of the outdoor tables placed on the station's side. Belova quietly followed them, staying a few steps behind.

For a long while there was an awkward silence between them, the only sounds coming from a group of kids playing football nearby. Yelena started to take care of the wound on her arm. Natasha focused on changing the dressing on Katya's burnt hand. It was healing nicely, much faster than it would on an average person. She couldn't do much about the finger aside from bandaging it too and hoping that the girl didn't make it worse by setting the joint by herself.

Then Romanoff left for a moment, to get something to drink, leaving Katya and Yelena alone and crossing her fingers she won't find her daughter at Belova's throat once again. The atmosphere tensed up even more, but there were no casualties by the time Natasha returned. Quite the opposite, as finding the girl helping Yelena wrap a bandage around her arm was one of the last things she expected. The blonde herself seemed quite surprised.