I've Been Wanting To Make A Bishova Fic With A Daughter For A While, It's Still In Progress, But I'll

"Shin, you don't have to be alone on this planet, accept my hand and I will always be with you"

An American Christmas

Word count: 2.285

Characters: Kate Bishop & Yelena Belova

Warnings: Fluff, a bit of angst at Natasha's mention.

Summary: Kate gives a tour through New York to Yelena during Christmas.

A/N: Fellow aroaces, before you come here yelling at me that Yelena is aroace, I'd like to let it clear: this is a platonic fic. Yelena & Kate are friends. That's all. As far as I know aroaces are still allowed to make new friends, right?

If anyone would’ve told Kate that she would befriend a black widow a few weeks ago, she wouldn’t have believed it. She wouldn’t even have cogitated that hypothesis after said black widow had thrown her off a building. Okay, Yelena had made sure she wouldn’t fall to certain death, but it was still a scary experience that she didn’t look forward to repeating.

Then, Yelena broke into her old apartment, cooked mac n’ cheese, had a serious talk with a friendly face, and sent her the name of the person who was trying to kill an Avenger. A little bit shocked, but Kate should be used to her unordinary life and the series of unusual events in it. So, here she was after volunteering to show New York City to an Avenger’s sister since Yelena still has a few days left now that her contract has ended sooner than she thought.

Kate was excited. She even wrote down some places they surely had to check along with the touristic ones Yelena had mentioned in her first visit. Of course, Kate dragged Lucky with her when Yelena texted that she also had a dog in town. So Kate was standing there, switching the weight of a leg to another as she waited for the Russian woman and her dog who, by the way, were already late.

Kate sighs, moving to warm up a little when she finally sees the blonde turning the corner with an American Akita dog. She smiles, remembering that Yelena had mentioned that Kate had gotten a few points with her after running after Lucky in traffic. Well, Kate never had a dog before, but she chose to keep Lucky after everything, and honestly, she was glad that she has the dog in her life now. Yelena, for what seemed, has always wanted a dog.

“Lucky, don’t embarrass me in front of our friends, okay?” Kate says, tightening her hold on the dog. Kate’s smile widened as Yelena approached.

“Hello, Kate Bishop,” Yelena greets her.

“Hi,” Kate says awkwardly. “Uh, this is Lucky, I–I call him pizza dog, but his name’s Lucky actually.”

“Hm. This is Fanny,” Yelena introduces, watching as the dogs sniff each other. “I got her when I came back from the blip thing.”

“Yeah, right. You mentioned it. So, where do you want to start?” Kate waves her hand, hoping that Yelena would just pick one of the places she mentioned when she broke into Kate’s old apartment.

“You grew up here, Kate Bishop. You tell me where we should go first. You promised a tour in New York.”

“I–I offered to give you a tour after, uh, everything that happened,” Kate remembers to text Yelena back thanking for the information she provided about her mother, then offering to be her guide in New York City for the last couple of days Yelena had left. “How about the new and improved Statue of Liberty? I haven’t gone there yet,” Kate points to the statue in the distance.

“Good. Sounds good,” Yelena nods approvingly.

Kate realizes the blonde is already walking and hurries after her, pulling the golden retriever with her.

“Then, we can go to the High Line and the other places I’ve mentioned. Oh, also the Rockefeller Center is beautiful at night! We should go there by the end of the afternoon. It’s gorgeous. You’ll love it,” Kate says excitedly.

Yelena snorts.

“What? You said you loved American Christmasses. I’m trying to give you an American Christmas. We can make cookies together, too.”

“I like cookies,” Yelena affirms. “Do you have frosting and sprinkles to decorate them?”

Kate bites her lower lip. She wasn’t sure if she had the ingredients they would need, and she was sure that the supermarket would be full. Kate actually realized that she hadn’t arranged anything for Christmas. Truth is, she didn’t expect Christmas to turn into the mess it did this year. She hadn’t expected to meet Clint Barton, an avenger she has long admired, partnering up with him, nor giving a tour to an avenger’s sister.

Yelena shakes her head.

“I’ll take your silence as a no.”

Kate smiles as she makes a mental list of everything she had to get on her way back. It wasn’t like Kate had forgotten about Christmas, she just forgot to get her groceries as she expected to spend it with her mother. Well, that wasn’t an option anymore, and the realization that she was utterly alone for Christmas fell upon her.

“What are you going to do for Christmas? You’ll still be in the city, right?” Kate asks Yelena as they approach the statue, though Yelena keeps her distance from the crowd of tourists taking pictures.

Yelena tucks a lock of hair behind her ear, in an attempt to fix her bangs from the strong, blowing wind.

“I don’t know.” Yelena shrugs.

“Where do you live?” Kate asks, pulling Lucky when the dog keeps sniffing Fanny.

“Nowhere,” Yelena says. Kate supposes that if she had an established address she surely wouldn’t just give it to Kate. Yelena looks so cool that Kate doesn’t even remember that she’s a former Black Widow, that this very same woman had taken lives before.

“What do you do, then? Besides–” Kate waves a hand, avoiding pronouncing the words assassin or kill loudly. Yelena shakes her head. “So do you work by contracts?”

“Are you interested in killing someone, Kate?” Yelena raises a brow.

Kate flinches.

“No. No. I-I-Sorry.”

“Well, if that’s not the case… Could you take a picture?” Yelena hands her phone to a very surprised Kate.

Kate takes some pics of Yelena and Fanny, and some of only Yelena, though Kate has to admit that some of the pics were blurred because it’s not easy to take pictures of somebody as she’s holding two big dogs. Kate blushes when Yelena pulls her to a selfie.

Then, they walked until the High Line and Yelena made Kate buy any supplies they would need to bake cookies. Yelena seems really excited about Christmas, and Kate admits that her excitement was contagious. Yelena is a nice person, she is funny, Kate thinks the blonde is the type of friend she would very much like to have, even though Yelena still scares her.

“So what are you good at, Kate Bishop?” Yelena asks as they walk through the High Line, heading to the Christmas Market in Union Square that Kate had mentioned before.

“I’m good at archery,” Kate shrugs.

“Is that it?” Yelena raises a brow. “What else?”

“I like… uh, movies. Have you watched Mean Girls?” Yelena shakes her head, not seeming to recognize the name. “Oh, you have to watch. It’s good. You’re going to like it. I’ve done a movie marathon night with Clint, but we can do it again, I can show you all the Christmas movies.” “Okay. It’s not like I have anything else to do in New York since my contract was broken,” Yelena says.

“Great!,” Kate watches the dogs’ steps sync in front of them. “I mean, not the contract– Actually, yes, the contract, so you didn’t have to kill him. Now you can enjoy Christmas in New York, but then—Oh, fuck, you know what I mean. What happened between you and Clint, by the way? Did you guys talk?”

Yelena looks down, and Kate curses under her breath because it’s obvious they’ve talked. Kate shouldn’t have brought the subject up because it means they will have, eventually, to talk about Natasha Romanoff. Kate doesn’t want Yelena to feel uncomfortable or piss her off. She doesn’t think she can fight a Black Widow while holding a dog and all the grocery stuff to bake and decorate Christmas cookies.

“We did. It was very insightful, actually. I understand why she did it now,” Yelena sounds melancholic. “I should follow her steps, you know, I miss Natasha a lot. We haven't seen each other in years, and we didn’t spend much time together with her running away and I was busy with a mission she assigned to me. A mission we were supposed to go together if those sons of a bitch hadn’t got there,” Yelena sighs out loud, her lower lip wobbles. “I wish she were here to show me the city, so we could spend Christmas together.”

“I’m sorry,” Kate whispers.

There was so much pain after the blip. Kate remembers when she got the news that some of her friends turned into dust. She remembers the chaos of the first weeks, half of the government was gone, the streets were crazy back then, the police force left was not enough to contain the vandalism that took over the streets. Clint lost his family, grieving for years, and now it was Yelena’s turn to grieve for her sister. It seems that grief was always present, before and after the blip.

Kate blinks, looking at the market in front of her. She attempts a smile, poking Yelena's arm with her elbow. The blonde looks at her, lips narrowed to hold her cry, even though Kate could see tears forming in her eyes.

“Here we are. The Christmas Market I talked about,” Kate says. “C’mon, we can buy fairy lights!” Kate wraps her arm around Yelena’s, a smile tugging in the corner of the black widow’s lips as Kate pulls her toward it.

Kate quickly finds some fairy lights and a Christmas hat for Yelena. They even find Christmas collar-themed for the dogs. Yelena laughs when Lucky gets trapped in fairy lights as Kate apologizes.

“Kate, do you have a Christmas tree?” Yelena asks, watching as Kate pays for the damaged lights and pulls Lucky along with her.

“Uh, no?” Kate stops by, raising a brow. “Clint and I decorated one, but Pizza Dog destroyed it when we left him alone at the apartment,” Kate explains.

Yelena shakes her head, chuckling,

“What? No. No. You have to have a Christmas tree, Kate Bishop. It’s Christmas. You’re buying a tree and all the paraphernalia to decorate it. I’ll help you out,” Yelena states, already picking the ornaments.

It’s almost dark when they stop by a cafe next to the Empire State Building, arms full of bags and a small tree that Yelena insisted on buying. They sat down while Yelena had a coffee, and Kate took the opportunity to rest her legs. Yeah, a Christmas movie night sounded perfect, but they still needed to bake the cookies, and Kate doubts that Yelena would change her mind about decorating the Christmas tree today.

Kate sighs. She takes her off Lucky for a second before the dog is sniffing and stealing croissants from the table nearby them. Kate pulls the dog when the man starts to swear out loud, yelling at the dog.

“I’m sorry,” Kate says. “Lucky, we talked about that,” Kate whines at the dog, but the man who had a croissant stolen wasn’t taking it.

Yelena laughs, which makes the man angry.

“Oh, stop being a dick,” Yelena waves a hand, Fanny barks at the man when he approaches. “Where’s the Christmas spirit? It’s just a croissant. Stop whining,” Yelena grimaces at the man who leaves complaining loudly as Kate sinks in the chair to call people’s attention around them.

“Oh my God,” Kate groans, ashamed.

“He’s a good boy. A good boy, right, Lucky?” Yelena pats the dog’s head. “People are too stressed for Christmas. Too stressed.” Yelena sighs. “Where are we going now, Kate Bishop?”

Kate straightens up.

“We can get into the Empire State Building with the dogs, so we have to come back another day,” Yelena curses in Russian under her breath. “So Rockefeller Center!” Kate smiles. “That’s our last stop, then we got to my apartment so we can bake the cookies.”

“Sounds perfect,” Yelena nods.

Fortunately, the Rockefeller Center isn’t far from where they are, though the stuff they were carrying turned the walk slower. But Kate has to admit that all the mess they lived today was worth it when they reached their final destination. Yelena’s eyes glowed before the giant tree and all Christmas decorations. It’s a breathtaking view, even though Kate had grown up in Manhattan, Christmas was always a nostalgic period.

They took selfies together and pictures of the dog. Kate has to admit that she had fun, and Yelena was a cool person to be around. So as Kate had promised, she was willing to give Yelena’s a Christmas night in New York. Yelena baked the cookies, and decorated them, laughing when Lucky and Fanny had frosting on their noses, Kate threw the sprinkles on it and ended up ordering pizza for their dinner. Then, Yelena decorated the tree, talking seriously to the dogs that they couldn’t destroy it in her thick English accent.

“Home Alone or Mean Girls?” Kate asks, showing both DVDs.

“You said Mean Girls before, that’s the one I wanna watch now,” Yelena replies.

“Good choice!” Kate jumps excitedly. “I mean, they are both good, but Mean Girls is awesome, you’re gonna love it!”

“You’re funny Kate Bishop,” Yelena sits on the couch, reaching for the pizza on the coffee table. “You’re very funny.”

The DVD plays when Kate comes back with more cookies and another box of pizza. Kate throws a Christmas hat at Yelena.

“Where’s your Christmas spirit now, Yelena?” Kate laughs, putting her feet on the coffee table while she hands a slice of pizza to Lucky.

Yelena laughs, fixing the hat on her head.

“Merry Christmas, Kate,” Yelena says, smiling. “Thank you for all of this.”

“You don’t need to thank me. You’re a good person,” Kate puts on her own Christmas hat. “Merry Christmas, Yelena.”

Relaxing is best with those dearest to you. That includes pets.

The ace community getting mad about fans shipping Yelena with people doesn’t make any sense.

Do I think that Marvel should keep Yelena’s sexuality the same as it is in the comics? Absolutely.

Everyone deserves representation, but to attack people because they ship Yelena with Kate or with Bucky (for some reason) is completely unnecessary.

It’s absolutely no different than people shipping Tony and Steve or Sam and Bucky or Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy or literally Clint and Natasha even though that man is MARRIED

That’s what shipping is for, to create an extra layer that’s enjoyable for everyone as something that goes deeper than just the plot.

It doesn’t matter because it’s Not. Real.

It’s not doing anything to erase anyone’s identity outside of the show or movie or book. It’s literally just some random people on the internet making something of their own.

I hope Yelena’s sexual identity remains true to the comics, but a lot of things about the MCU are not true to the comics and if Marvel decided to do what they pleased with Yelena, I highly HIGHLY doubt it will be because some fruits on the internet with names like @//katlenasupremacy said that their two fav girls should kiss-

Kate, holding an explosive tip for an arrow: So, what does this do?

Clint: Way too dangerous

Kate, holding up another one: This one?

Clint: Way way too dangerous

Yelena, turns to Natasha: And you are partners with this man?

Natasha, shrugs: He actually can tell the arrows from all the mediocre labels

Yelena, under her breath: Perfect, just another Kate. Except, she titles everything with two or three sentences max. It is mouthful. You can name jar "cookie jar" but Kate names jar "Super Delicious Beverage For When Yelena Leaves For Solo Missions And I Have The House To Myself. Must Eat With Capri Sun" It is embarrassing.

Kate: I can hear you, Yelena. You act like you didn't name your other closet as: "My Hot Stash Of Clothes That Has Pockets For All Purpose But It Is Quality Material. Not Use For Missions With Mud"

Yelena:

Yelena: You named that one.

i read and reread @c--and--b 's fic its so good and wholesome i loved it pls go read it <3

¡Hear me out! Alycia Debnam-Carey as Nefertari Vivi, I saw it as a Fancast on Tik tok and now I can't stop thinking about her as the princess of Alabasta 🥴so I had to edit her hair color to blue 🥹

Just look at her, everything about her screams Vivi 😭