Eleanor gave Nat one final big squeeze with her head tucked into the crook of her neck before she pulled away at the sound of Yelena struggling to wrap a piece of cloth around her wounded arm whilst lying on the metal flooring. Eleanor's lips twitched downwards at the sight of her sister-in-law struggling and in pain, so she promptly and uncomfortably shuffled forward on her knees. As soon as Eleanor was in the blonde's eyeline she tensed up, something that was reminiscent of when she had first met Nat, even when they knew that they were friends she would still sometimes tense up if Eleanor appeared unexpectedly. So, the young woman knew exactly how to go about the situation.

"Sorry", she winced and held her hands up so that Yelena could see her entirely, "I just wanna tighten that, is that okay?". Yelena eyed her up and down with a raised brow whilst she was trying not to show how she was in pain and did in fact need help. She didn't respond to her, and instead, after a few moments of a staring contest lowered her arms and looked up at the ceiling.

"I'll just be a second", Eleanor reassured with a small smile that Yelena couldn't see as she was looking at anything but the woman in front of her.

She undid and repositioned the cloth before tightening it a decent amount, "All done", she smiled whilst leaning back on the heels of her feet and holding out a hand for Yelena to take. However, she simply rolled her eyes and sat up, ignoring Eleanor's gesture.

She turned to face her wife with an awkward tight-lipped smile and saw that Nat's jaw was already clenching at the cold shoulder action from her sister, but when Eleanor lightly shook her head and moved to sit next to her, Nat pushed it out of her mind and placed a kiss on her shoulder before wrapping an arm around her waist.

"You okay?", Nat faced her sister who had just gotten herself comfortable sitting up after diligently checking that Eleanor could in fact tie a knot correctly.

Yelena turned to Nat with a head tilt, one that made Eleanor internally grimace, "Yeah. Great plan, I love the part where I almost bled to death". Eleanor sighed slightly and laid her head on Natasha's shoulder who tightened her grip around the younger woman's waist. "This is cosy", Yelena continued after a few beats of looking around the ventilation system. It was a rather large one but not one that you would want to be in for too long.

"Barton and I spent two days hiding out up here", Natasha replied simply, the mood dampened by the events of the entire day. It was hard to believe that it was that morning that they had gotten off the train, to Eleanor it had felt like at least a week since the armed attacker had found them in Norway, but it was only a couple of days prior.

The younger woman in her wife's arms looked around and spotted the noughts and crosses and hangman games that had been etched into the walls and a small smile flitted across her face at old memories, "Oh this is the grand castle?", Eleanor smirked and looked up at Nat who was already looking at her as she shook her head, an amused light shining through her eyes. "Where Barton got pissed because you were a noughts and crosses expert?".

Nat chuckled and looked at the games too, both women missing the longing look that Yelena sent them, but after a few moments Nat got her head back in the game, "Who the hell is that guy?". Eleanor would quite like to know the answer to that too, after being attacked by them twice she wanted to at least know their identity.

"Dreykov's special project", Yelena said in the most monotonous voice that Eleanor had ever heard. "He can mimic anyone he's ever seen, it's like fighting a mirror". It was at this moment that Nat seemed to get more agitated with everything coming to light as she started pinching the bridge of her nose and shaking her head, Eleanor wobbling slightly with the momentum.

"Dreykov only deploys him for top-priority missions", Yelena continued, which made Eleanor frown, she thought that there had maybe been a small army of these attackers, like a regiment, but no, there was only one for top-priority? Eleanor knew that those vials were important, but with running around all over the place trying to keep their asses from being murdered, she hadn't comprehended just how high they were on the 'Being Hunted Down By General Dickface' list.

"This doesn't make any sense", Natasha interrupted Eleanor's thoughts whilst staring at the ground, her jaw set painfully tight. Just as Eleanor was about to sweetly say some reassurances to try and de-stress Natasha who she hadn't seen this worked up since the debacle in the motel before their engagement, Yelena again continued, this time in more of a taunting manner. Subtle, but taunting.

"Well, the truth rarely makes sense when you omit key details". The two looked at each other, Yelena seemingly daring her, forcing her to play her next move, and Nat just looking plain angry like she had been the entire time that she was in the vents.

"What is that supposed to mean?".

Eleanor puffed her cheeks out like a puffer fish and slowly exhaled with her eyebrows raised as she tried to sit up as the awkward tension in the vent got even awkwarder, but when Nat's grip didn't falter and she gently rubbed her hand up and down her side she knew that she didn't want her to go, even if it was just a few steps away. So, she was more than happy to lean back into her wife, and place a hand over the one on her.

"You didn't say one word about Dreykov's daughter, you killed her". Natasha visibly tensed but stood her ground. Even after all those years, it was something that still haunted her, but she had believed it was something that had helped free hundreds of young girls from the same fate that she encountered, but apparently it was a null action. The younger woman in her arms began the usual action when in a stressful yet calm situation; she began to draw random shapes on Natasha's hand with her fingertips, the touch soothing for the both of them.

"I had to. I needed her to lead me to Dreykov". There was a pause within the vent. A silence. One that sent a chill up everyone's spine as the two sisters looked at each other, sussing each other out without words, trying to understand and trying to get the other to understand. "Dreykov's daughter was collateral damage. I needed her to be sure", she shook her head slightly and looked down again.

"And here you are not so sure", the blonde again contributed with no emotion.

"I needed out". Eleanor's heart shattered, all of this just reminding her of 2008, and not the good parts. The parts where Natasha seemed to be a shell of a person before she bloomed, where Eleanor would coax her down from horrific nightmares and deal with the fallout of Nat's embarrassment in the morning.

Nat was clearly pushing back tears as she swallowed thickly, clenching and unclenching her jaw with her eyes flickering around, her mind wanting to escape. Yelena continued to look at her sister with a blank face, but behind her eyes was clearly a world of pain of her own. "It's okay", Eleanor muttered to Nat, though it could clearly be heard throughout the whole vent, "I got you". The reassurance that they always used together allowed Nat to close her eyes and yet out a silent yet shaky sigh of relief.

At seeing this Eleanor smiled, she would be okay. She then turned to Yelena who was staring blankly at a wall, "Are you okay?". Yelena turned to her to give her a once over with her eyes before turning back to face the wall. Ignored yet again.

Eleanor slowly nodded and ran her tongue over her top teeth, she didn't know what she had done wrong to not get any response at all and even thought that there was a chance of Yelena liking her when she held onto her tightly on the bike, but she supposed there was a difference between ignoring someone and letting them get gravely injured.

Seeing the turmoil in her wife's head but not wanting to disturb the small amount of understanding and peace she had just gotten with her sister, Nat turned her body to place the crown of her head onto Eleanor so that her face was smushed into her shoulder as she held her tightly. They just needed to wait out a bit longer to avoid suspicion.

And boy, was it an awkward wait.

---

After an hour they hopped out of the vents and back out into the city, though they knew that they wouldn't be able to stay, it was too easy to be tracked down again. So, the trio decided to swiftly get their asses out of there, but they could only walk so as to not draw more attention to themselves.

They had broken many traffic laws, pointed a gun at a civilian, stole a car, broke more traffic laws, and been involved in an explosive car crash. It was likely that authorities would be able to recognise them.

Though walking on foot out of the city and far enough out to reach the smaller towns a few miles out was exhausting, especially after everything that had happened recently. All of the travelling around to get to Norway, only to stay there for less than twelve hours to start travelling all the way to Budapest to then be attacked again. Eleanor was certain that she was getting too old for this. Thirty-one was a decent retirement age for an Agent/Avenger she thought to herself, even though she had been the youngest in the group before Wanda joined.

Whilst walking along the various paths in the town and the country roads to try and get to a more isolated location, she started making a retirement plan in her mind whilst Natasha and Yelena talked about anything and everything.

Eleanor wanted to stay out of the conversation to not intrude, Nat and Yelena deserved some time to themselves as much as physically possible, even if that just meant that Eleanor dissociated out of that plane of existence, but she would occasionally hear her name crop up in conversation when Nat was telling a story.

And every time she did hear that and looked up to see what was going on, she noticed the subtle eye rolls that Yelena gave that went unnoticed by Natasha who was talking whilst looking forward. Each time she noticed this the pit in Eleanor's stomach grew and grew. Why was Yelena acting like that? She hadn't expected her to click with her on the first meet due to her background, but she at least expected some civility.

But she didn't want to argue or have a confrontation, and Natasha was enjoying herself, so she got back to dissociating and daydreaming until they came across a small gas station with a shop, which was perfect for their current needs.

It seemed that now they weren't simply aimlessly walking to find somewhere to go, their heads were all back in mission mode, and Natasha immediately voiced that as they walked into the shop. "The Red Room's still active, where is it?".

"I have no idea, he moves location constantly, and every widow is sedated on entry and exit for maximum security", Yelena answered absentmindedly as she viewed the very limited medical supply that the shop had to offer.

Eleanor promptly moved past her wife to make a beeline for the snacks, she was nothing if not hungry. "I'm just finding it hard to believe that he could stay off my radar".

"Well it's not smart to attack an Avenger if you want to stay hidden, I mean the clue is in the name", Yelena pointed it out as if it was glaringly obvious, "Dreykov kills you, one of the big ones comes to Avenge you".

Eleanor frowned as she stared at a pack of knockoff Oreos, both in contemplation if they were worth buying or if they would taste like cardboard and Yelena's turn of phrase. "Wait, the big ones?", Nat mirrored Eleanor's thoughts, minus the fake Oreos.

"Well, I doubt the God from space has to take an ibuprofen after a fight".

"He doesn't have to but he does like stealing my sugarcoated ones because they 'taste nice'", Eleanor turned to Yelena and performed some air quotes, to which the blonde responded with a small head tilt and what Eleanor thought was the tiniest form of a smile before the blonde's attention snapped back to her sister.

"Where did you think I was all this time?". Eleanor's eyebrows raised again as she chewed on the inside of her cheek. The Oreo pack was looking real interesting again.

"I thought that you got out and were living a normal life", Nat moved over to the sink in the far corner of the shop to freshen up, which led to Eleanor's next train of thought, why was there a sink in the shop and not out back?

There was a brief pause of silence before Eleanor was reminded to look back down at the Oreos, "And you just never made contact again?".

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

Yelena let out a short, sharp laugh that made Eleanor tense up in what was to come, the quarrel was clearly far from ending and she just wanted to leave. "Bullshit, you just didn't want your baby sister to tag along whilst you saved the world with the cool kids".

"You weren't really my sister", Nat responded fast. Too fast. Eleanor's head immediately snapped up to her wife walking over to the counter, that was a low blow. She shot her a disapproving look, not that Nat could see with her back turned to her. Yelena looked blankly ahead with a hardened expression, but again her eyes showed otherwise, and Eleanor's heart dropped at the sight. Her gaze softened as Yelena's eyes met hers, but the blonde quickly looked down at the packages in her hands.

"And the Avengers aren't really your family". Again Eleanor's heart dropped, that hurt both of them. "Why do you always do that thing?", Yelena changed the subject and paid for her items.

"Do what?".

Eleanor took a few steps closer towards the two, also curious as to what Yelena had to say. "The thing you do when you're fighting, the, like the...", she moved back to get more room before crouching down into a sideways lunge and flipping her head up and down. "This thing that you do when you whip your hair when you're fighting with the arm and the hair and you do like a fighting pose. It's a", she laughed and Eleanor was pursing her lips to not let out a laugh knowing that Nat would not appreciate it considering how unimpressed she was staring at her sister mocking her. "It's a fighting pose, you're a total poser".

Natasha responded immediately, "I'm not a poser".

"Oh, come on, I mean, they're great poses", Yelena stood, "But it does look like you think everyone's looking at you, like, all the time".

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

Deep topic aside, Eleanor's first issue was Natasha openly saying that she was a trained killer right next to a civilian at the counter. She just hoped that the guy couldn't speak English, but her prayers were not answered when the shopkeeper turned to face her with wide eyes. Eleanor offered him a very awkward smile and also sneakily slid some cash across the counter. He eyed it up suspiciously before shrugging and taking the money, processing their purchase again as if he wasn't listening.

Eleanor internally scoffed at the bribe before her attention was trained back onto the others, though she had missed some of the conversation, only hearing "And we are both still trained killers", coming from Yelena, and Eleanor sighed at the inability of two highly trained spies to keep their mouths shut in a public setting. She noticed the man's gaze on her once more, and she sighed again before sliding more cash over.

"Except I'm not the one on the cover of a magazine, I'm not the girl that little girls call their hero", Yelena continued before marching out, leaving Natasha by the counter looking at the cashier finalising their purchase, unaware of the way her wife had to continually bribe him throughout the spat.

Eleanor looked between the door and Nat a couple of times before deciding that she needed to follow Yelena out, so turned to Natasha to squeeze her arm, "I'll be back in a sec, okay? I'm just gonna check on her". Natasha nodded with a small smile as Eleanor jogged out of the door and towards the very angry woman who was marching away.

A/n~ aaaaaAAA it's been a while! Hope that you are all doing good Having the evening off from studying so immediately jumped at the chance to do some writing, winter break is so closeee can't wait to be able to do more