Chapter Text
Mid-September had it out for Kate Bishop.
All she wanted was a nice, stress-free vacation in an Italian city. She didn't want to think if the stocks were rising or if there was another investor claiming to have a fighting chance partnering in the company. She had spent a week strolling along the populous streets, enjoying the too perfect sun and the always blue sky.
A call from Dee, her secretary, thwarted her evening plans.
She sat on a quirky white chair, clutching her phone against her ear. The balcony overlooked the endless rows of rooftops in the city, where beyond placed a scenic vision of the skyline, blue and oh-so enticing.
"Is it urgent?" She asked, between her bites of the garlic bread Barney had cooked in the apartment. So far, all she knew that there was a slight Code Blue back home.
"We truly didn't want to interrupt your vacation, Miss Bishop, but Mr. Stark insisted you be home by the end of the week for another meeting. I don't know the details, Mr. Parker only said it was distressing and that you should be here as soon as possible."
"I trusted you and Cameron," sighed Kate, her mind racing in a thousand different ways it could go wrong. "I'll talk to Peter and have this sorted out. Thank you for informing me, Dee. Is there anything else I should know about?"
There was a pause, and a muffled mumbling. She was probably talking to someone. "I told Mr. Parker to handle the R&D situation."
Kate snorted. "Of course. Thank you, Dee."
Hanging up, she immediately opened her text app, quickly typing Peter a 'What's up?" before locking her phone and turning back the DND button again. It was probably 8AM in New York right now. The sound of footsteps made her look up, only to see that it was Clint holding the same garlic bread Barney had cooked, sitting on the seat across from her.
"Trouble back home?" Clint asked, clearly taking note of Kate pinching her nose to stop a headache.
"It's a Code Blue." Kate sagged against the chair, adjusting her sunglasses.
"Should we pack?" asked Clint cautiously. Code Blue wasn't exactly imminent, but it still needed attention most of all. It was worthy worrying. Clint’s retirement wasn’t in full effect, but he trusted Kate enough that she could no longer shadow him.
"We just got here," Lucky for him he didn't have anything going on with his life. He was retired and free to do as he pleased. “I’ll be returning on Thursday. You deserve this vacation too, Clint.”
Kate was his heir, and now the unofficial CEO of the company.
Clint’s days were soon to be over once the announcement came through. Her worries are just starting to bloom and begin.
That evening, Kate put all those worries away from her mind. She trailed after the Barton brothers and Simone, who was tucked under Barney's arms laughing about a dumb joke from Clint. Kate was content to look around and witness the streets slowly come alive past sundown.
There were kids on the steps of the narrow buildings, playing some kind of cards. One old man was pulling out the chairs and tables for his little shop. Another man was helping him, while a guy on the corner of the street — beside a closed bakery shop played the harmonica, setting the mood unknowingly.
Turning left, they were engulfed between two buildings, a little dark and less streetlight necessary. The club was just down a few blocks, she could see people getting in without fuss some laughing and already drunk, in and out of the doors. It wasn't far from Barney's apartment, which had a pretty convenient placement. There was the secret bakery Clint was yapping to her about, she'd probably get a few snacks afterwards.
Kate adjusted her colored glasses, better to disguise than nothing at all. She caught up with the group, getting in the club with no problem, which was located on the basement of the restaurant which usually closes right before sundown.
"You never get an experience like this in New York. Peter probably wishes he went with us." Clint told her as they descended the stairs. Faint sounds of club music threatened to beat down the walls, but it was somehow safe from the blue terracotta walls that separated the stairs and the room.
"You say that every damn time we visit." Kate punched his arm.
"It's true!"
Before Kate could answer, she was ushered in the room, immediately met with club music too loud for her own good and the smell alcohol she had been craving to taste all night. Simone found them a booth, practically dragging Kate with her and shooing the boys away for drinks.
"You act like we haven’t seen each other in years." Kate teased, sitting across from her. She melted against the velvet cushion that contrasts the blue light that filled the room with defiance.
Simone shrugged, her curls bouncing along with her movement like it always was. "Two months is too long, Kate. Getting stuck with Barney almost drives you crazy, and the kids? I'm almost glad I left them with their Grandmother this week."
"You love it."
"What's not to love?" Simone smiled back. "Barney was the man you'd think was least romantic. Last week, he gave me a dress that he saw while getting some groceries because he thought I would look radiant on it."
Kate hummed. "I don't think that would be his exact words but I believe you."
"Oh no! That was definitely not what he said. I had to improvise for his own sake." Simone laughed, making her laugh too. She always had this infectious laugh that would have the whole room laugh along with her if she could.
"I'm glad we're meeting up like this. With my responsibilities in the company, I barely have time to visit you."
"We would move back to New York but honey, Italy is too divine."
"Too romantic." Kate intoned, scanning the crowd for Clint and Barney. Where the hell are the drinks?
"Speaking of romance..."
"Please no," She waved her hands in surrender, putting down her glasses on the round table. "I don't need any of that right now."
Simone raised an eyebrow, not believing her in the slightest. "Kate, you're 26 and a young hot bachelor in the entirety of New York. You're telling me no one caught your eye?”
“I don’t have the time.”
“It’s been, what? A year since you assumed position, don’t tell me Clint left you much to work with. I’ll have words with him.”
“I guess it’s not a valid excuse,” Kate agreed. “It’s not like I’m avoiding it, Simone. It’s just I never really thought of it. The company’s now my baby, and of course, Lucky. I enjoy work a lot.”
The other woman eyed her not in a patronizing way, not even a smudge of pity, more like an observation. “You better down on that dance floor, girl. I don’t care how many floor to ceiling windows you’ve seen every day, but you need to let loose and be free.”
To this Kate laughed, it was oddly specific but horrifically true. As if on cue Clint and Barney returned with the drinks. Clint didn’t sit when Barney slid beside Simone too smoothly, already resting a hand behind her. Kate smiled at them only to be tugged up by Clint.
“What the h—“
“Dance floor. Now.” Clint all but pushed her to the dancing crowd with a laugh.
“Asshole!” She yelled over the loud music. She wasn’t able to get her drink. Goddamnit.
She knew if she went back to the booth, Clint would drag her back into the crowd like a mother bringing her child to play with the kids on the playground. That would be a hilarious picture. It was strange how painfully true it was.
Immediately, as she turned and engulfed within the crowd, she found her people. She danced with them and spoke a few Italian to a cute brunette who was shorter than her by a few inches. A blonde Scandinavian guy danced with them too, his vibe was a little too adorable for the setting. A little while later, with a different group, she saw Clint dancing with a redhead…? whose back was turned from her to get a full view.
The blue lights made it harder for her to decipher their expressions but why did it look like Clint was too shocked to speak. Before she could go over and investigate, she bumped into someone at the edge of the crowd — way too far from the booth and Clint.
She caught the figure before they could crash against the wall, stumbling as she did so but she found her foot reflexively.
“Sorry!” she squeaked in Italian, letting go of the shorter woman. Kate had also realized that she was feeling hot and sweaty from all that dancing. She desperately needed a damn drink.
The brunette turned back to the woman, who was now standing appropriately and getting her bearings.
“I am so sorry, I didn’t see where I was goi—“ She stopped mid-sentence, all her cognitive functions refusing to cooperate when the woman turned towards her.
The woman was hot. She was wearing a dark green crop top, and high waisted cargo pants that shouldn’t have left her speechless. Was that blue eyeliner? Were those rings on her fingers?
Kate for all her intelligence and confidence was tongue-tied.
“I am sorry, too.” Holy hell she had a gorgeous accent. She wondered if her legs were still intact, it certainly felt like jelly.
The woman continued. “I was looking for my sister, but the crowd is very… crowded.”
“Yeah,” Kate laughed. Why did she laugh? The girl stared at her with an unreadable expression. She swallowed it with a smile. “It is too crowded. I couldn’t find my brother— I mean mentor, but he’s like an annoying brother to me. He’s like family.”
Shut up, Kate!
“Do you want to get out of here?” The woman said suddenly, though everything she said didn’t seem like it was sudden. There was an air of boldness and certainty to her that Kate was too mesmerized and affected to realize; it was damn too long she had ever felt that way.
“What about your sister?”
“She’ll probably get laid tonight anyway,” The shorter woman shrugged, unfazed. “I will be left alone here and it would be so boring.”
Kate blinked hard, utterly drawn by her energy. “Sure.”
The blonde outstretched her hand, and she took it. They ran into the night and never looked back.
Her sensory systems were strangely on high alert, she was aware how the young woman’s hand — Yelena, fits like a puzzle on hers. How she couldn’t look away from her, as she talked to her about the various shops and its history as they passed while strolling with their hands joined.
Turns out, Yelena didn’t like the club her sister had chosen, and she wanted a quiet stroll in the city. She admitted she hadn’t meant to bring Kate along with her. Kate didn’t mind, of course, she was tired from all that dancing anyway. She did want peace, and it was met with a person she had never met before.
“So, Kate, what brings you here in Italy?” The woman looks at her, with a curious smile on her face.
In honesty, Kate was darned fine listening to Yelena talk all night. She had a nice voice, she had great humor, and did she mention that she was hot?
“Ah, I’m visiting a friend here which is technically also my honorary brother,” Kate said, oddly at peace with her.
She had considered that she might be strolling with a pickpocketer or worst a murderer, but so far there isn’t something untoward from Yelena.
The woman was damn too interested in the architecture of the city, and the places she wanted to go. It was so endearing and adorable.
“Me too, well my sister tagged along. I am visiting my friends.” Yelena shared. That was all Kate knew of her basically, besides the other information she learned. “I learned the history from them.”
Their stroll led them to the outskirts of the city where a large river sits flowing while the streetlights and building lights dance on its rippling water in reflection. She can see the line of buildings on each side of the big river.
They both stopped on the bridge, strangely no sellers from the morning strolls and people dwellers were around. It was just the two of them.
That shouldn’t make her heart beat in two different reasons entirely.
One, she didn’t know this woman, who might be a murderer that might push her on the river below. Two, was because the whole scene was… romantic and she still didn’t know much of this woman at all.
She stared at her side profile, looking serenely over the river. The gentle curl of her blonde hair whipping from the dancing air that surrounded them.
Why did it make her want to kiss her?
Kate swallowed, tugging on their joined hands slightly. She hoped her hands weren’t clammy. God, that would be so embarrassing.
Yelena must’ve have noticed because she turned to her with a small smile. She hesitantly withdrew her hand from hers.
Kate’s heart sank.
“I am still so sorry for dragging you with me. I know this is not the kind if night you planned.”
“Oh no,” She smiled back, she couldn’t help it. Maybe she wasn’t a murderer after all, perhaps she was just a girl and Kate was also just a girl drifting along life with nothing much of a certain purpose and found each other by accident. “I’m more than happy to hear you tell me about the city’s history. My planned night was just the club, but your company is better than alcohol.”
“Are you sure?”
“Very,” Kate chuckled, hesitantly covering her own hand with hers on top of the limestone. “There’s no place I’d rather be.”
Yelena laughed, probably endeared by Kate’s corniness. She had a musical laugh, at least to Kate, it may be raspy just a bit but it sent shiver down to her spine. She desperately hoped she wasn’t falling in love that fast.
“Thank you,” She grinned, her green eyes too bright and swirling in gratitude from Kate’s admission. She suspected there was some type of something that she could decipher had she stared too long. “I appreciate that. You know, I like clubbing a lot. Sometimes tonight is not that night, you know?”
Do you feel it too?
Kate almost whispered, dared to hope even.
Then Yelena caught her eyes again, looking at her with a tilted head. The unreadable expression came back again, the one from the club hours ago.
Yikes, had it been hours since they left? Kate wasn’t sure, and she didn’t want to know honestly.
Boldly, the brunette woman stepped forward just a little, hesitantly into her space. She clutched her hips, the other hand leaving Yelena’s to clutch the other hip. When Yelena didn’t pull away, and the other woman brushed a hair from her face. She was sure of one thing.
“Do you have any interesting facts about the bridge?” She whispered, staring at her with a small smile.
“Not really,” Yelena’s own whisper ghosted over her lips, sending shivers through Kate. It only occurred to her that she was standing on tiptoes.
“Surely you’ve got something.”
“Please, shut up, Kate.”
Yelena’s green eyes trapped her, momentarily deleting her cognitive functions. Before she could respond another witty reply, the shorter woman cupped her cheek and kissed her. Kate didn’t hesitate to kiss back, spinning them around so Yelena’s back was against the bridge.
It was intoxicating. The kiss was something she didn’t think she needed until now. It seemed like Yelena didn’t want to let go either, if the the hand playing on the hairs of her neck were any indication.
When they finally let go, their foreheads touched, momentarily stunned by their kiss.
Yelena was trying to catch her breath, mouth open and stunned. Kate was the same with her eyes lidded, clutching her with no means to end the night at all.
“Come with me.” The blonde woman clasped her hand, a nod towards the street they had come from earlier.
The tall brunette clutched her hand like a promise. She followed after her, knowing in the morning, she would have to leave and probably never see her again.
Back in New York, her headache returned.
“What do you mean Stark wants a meeting here?” Kate really should have checked her messages with Peter, because said man was glaring at her most pointedly at her phone.
“I told you. Texted you.” Peter answered shortly, sitting on the couch, instead of the chair in front of her desk like a normal person.
“I know, I got carried away.”
Carried away by a gorgeous woman she might never see again. Yelena never told her a surname, nor did she gave an address. Kate did the same.
It was clear to both of them it was just a two-day fling, in which Kate disappeared for two days to visit local shops and museums, much to Clint’s smugness.
A two-day fling Kate didn’t feel it was going away soon from her mind.
Peter snapped a finger at her. “Focus, we need you on full alert. I can’t tell you everything Mr. Stark said on that last meeting, he specifically said he’ll tell you himself. Preferredly with the other CEO heads.”
Tony Stark didn’t normally meet with every Security Company CEO in the planet, let alone arrange an urgent meeting.
“It’s that bad isn’t it?”
“If you stayed for longer, it might escalate to Code Red.”
“Glad I’m back then. Thanks, Peter.” Kate sighed, letting Dee in for her schedule. Peter went up to leave when her secretary entered. He had much to do with R&D and Kate was in no shape to deal with them when pressing matters are possibly worse.
“Someone’s here to see you, Miss Bishop. She’s a little early for the Stark meeting but she insisted that you know.” Dee told her, holding the coffee Kate requested.
Kate stood and closed her laptop. She had nothing else to do anyway, might as well meet this person.
“Anyone we know?”
She took her coffee, and beelined for the exit. The meeting room Stark requested was right down the hall, it was laughable how Stark knew she was not going to go away from this unscathed.
“Widow’s Network, ma’am.”
“Fantastic."
Her rival was here. Well, technically they weren’t exactly rivals if Clint and Natasha were the bestest of friends. But with the market neck to neck with Anchor and Widows both being the lead Security Companies, she was allowed to have that sort of competition.
She didn’t know who the new CEO was since Natasha stepped down in August, if they were anything like Natasha, then they were certainly no joke.
“I’ll be heading there, and if anyone asks of me out of schedule, direct them to Peter or Greer.”
“Will do, Miss Bishop.”
Dee opened the door for her even though Kate hadn’t asked her to. She had to get used to that, as the woman gave her a pointed stare. Left alone inside the meeting room, well not exactly, it was a different atmosphere. She saw the woman right away. The woman’s back was towards the floor to ceiling window, claiming the fourth chair as hers.
“Good Morning,” Kate cleared her throat, placing the coffee down on the wooden-style meeting table, taking her seat on the side of the table. She never really liked having a center chair on her meetings, she liked a more collaborative environment and leadership.
The woman turned her seat around to face the table, stopping Kate from her thoughts.
“You.”
Yelena grinned, maybe a little surprised but she was damned good at masking it. “Hello, Kate Bishop.”
What the fuck.