Chapter Text
Carter University, Kate reads as Clint pulls the truck up to the unloading area. Sitting in the back seat, her knee bobs up and down and she casts a quick glance at her boxes of belongings in the cargo bed, trying to wrap her head around how she managed to fit most of her life into six boxes and a duffel bag.
The sound of Laura and Clint getting out of the front stills the anxious movement of Kate’s knee and she takes a deep breath before opening the door. She nearly hits a student distracted with reading the campus map in their hands with her door as they walk by, and she apologizes profusely while trying not to feel too disheartened about the annoyed glance they throw at her in response.
Clint appears next to her, having found a little cart she can use to load her boxes into, and he takes a look around him with a fond smile. “Ah, man, I missed this place,” he says a little wistfully. “Hey, don’t forget to call in between all the crazy parties you’ll be going to, alright?” He gives her a grin and a little nudge with his elbow.
Laura pipes up from unloading a box from the truck, “She’s not going to have time for parties, Clint.”
Kate is quick to take the box from Laura’s hands, giving her abdomen a look. “Laura, no heavy lifting,” she scolds.
Laura rolls her eyes. “Not you too,” she sighs, and grabs the box back with a strength Kate wasn’t expecting. “Both of you,” she snaps, getting Clint and Kate’s attention, “I’ve only been pregnant for about two seconds, okay? I’m not useless.”
They finish unloading the rest of Kate’s things and when the last box is placed into the cart, it all starts to feel a little too real for her. Clint eyes the expression on her face and wraps her in a hug. “Study hard, play hard, and take care of yourself, alright?” he says, his voice a little muffled by her shoulder. She nods against him and holds tight for a few more seconds before letting him go and allowing herself to be hugged by Laura too.
Laura rubs her back comfortingly and Kate sinks into the touch. They’re only a six-hour drive or two-hour flight away, Laura reminds her, and makes her promise to call them whenever she can.
When Laura lets go, Clint claps her on the back with an, “Alright. Be good, okay, kid? We love you.”
“I love you guys too,” Kate replies, her heart swelling with unspoken gratitude for Clint and Laura and everything they’ve done for her. She tries for the most confident smile she can manage as she gives them a little wave before turning her back to face the tall building that contains her dorm. Kate’s grip tightens on the cart handle and she takes a steadying breath.
“Here goes nothing.”
Later, she’s just about finished filling out paperwork when she notices someone hovering near her. Raising an eyebrow, she stands straight up to find a blonde eying her and her class schedule. “Intro to Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and a basketball team hoodie, huh? So she’s smart, athletic, and...” the girl trails off, looking up at Kate’s face. “Beautiful, too."
Kate’s so taken aback by the girl’s accent (Russian? she wonders) and boldness that she stands there frozen for a few moments trying to come up with a response. The girl smiles with confidence and stands up straight, sticking a hand out for her to shake. “Yelena,” she says, by way of introduction.
Kate is only just tentatively reaching out to shake Yelena’s hand when a voice behind them says, “Sorry about her, I don’t think they taught her boundaries in high school.” Kate’s head whips around to look for the source of the voice, who ends up being another blonde giving Yelena an exasperated look.
Yelena sticks her tongue out at the girl, then turns her attention back to Kate, her grin returning. “Cassie is just jealous I talked to you first.”
The blonde rolls her eyes but smiles at Kate. “Cassie Lang,” she introduces herself.
Kate tucks her hair behind her ear, returning the smile before shaking both of their hands. “Kate Bishop,” she replies.
“Nice to meet you, Kate. So, now that you’ve been flirted with, are you thinking of transferring?” Cassie asks Kate, only half-joking.
Kate laughs over the small indignant noise Yelena makes, and she shakes her head. “No, I think I’ll manage,” she answers.
She wraps up what she’s doing for the registration desk and thanks the student worker who takes her papers as Yelena and Cassie stand to the side, seemingly waiting for her. They don’t stop teasing each other while she does, and Kate can’t help but grin at their antics. When she walks over to them, Yelena tilts her chin at the Carter Basketball hoodie she’s wearing. “Are you on the team?”
Kate looks down at her hoodie and back up at them. “Oh-- uh, yeah, I am,” she answers.
“Nice,” Cassie comments as they make their way out of the registration area. “I’m on the soccer team,” she starts, then juts a thumb at Yelena, continuing, “and she’s on the hockey team.”
For a moment, Kate frowns. They’re not from the same place or play the same sport, but they’ve already got quite a banter going. Cassie seems to pick up on her confusion. “We’re roommates,” she explains, then adds with a grin, “Unfortunately.”
Yelena scrunches up her face, gasping dramatically. “I’m going to pretend you didn’t say that,” she chirps, lightly jostling Cassie as they make their way out of the campus center “What about you? How is your roommate?” she asks Kate. “Hopefully better than mine.”
Cassie swats at her as Kate goes to reply. “Oh,” she starts, “she seems... alright?” Her answer isn’t reassuring, and the two of them wait for her to go on. Kate hasn’t actually seen much of her roommate, Darcy. She had moved in earlier than Kate did and only stopped by with a hurried “Hello!” to grab something from their room before disappearing as quickly as she came. “I mean, I don’t know if we’ll be running in the same social circles, but she seems nice enough.”
The other two hum just as Kate’s stomach growls rather loudly. A quick glance at her watch tells her it’s nearly three o’clock, and she hasn’t eaten since earlier that morning.
“Hey,” Kate starts, “do you guys want to get something to eat?”
The two of them pause and share a look, and for a horrible moment, Kate wonders if she’d misjudged this interaction as more than simple politeness.
Then, Yelena’s face splits into a smile and she dramatically clutches her chest. “Oh, Kate Bishop,” she starts, and Kate will later realize that being called by her full name is never going to go away, “I thought you’d never ask--”
Cassie elbows her in the ribs and rolls her eyes. “Christ, Yelena, behave,” she chides. “Yes, we’d love to go eat.”
Kate can’t help but smile when Yelena throws her arms around the two girls’ shoulders. The motion is a little comical-- Yelena’s at least half a foot shorter than both Cassie and Kate, and between the two of them, they could probably hoist her up off her feet, but she grins nonetheless. “You know, I really think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”
Kate leads them to Happy’s, a diner just on the edge of campus that she’d gone to a couple times while visiting Clint when he used to go to Carter. It seems familiar to Yelena as well, and her suspicions are confirmed when Happy, the owner and short-order cook, greets Yelena with a large-handed wave.
“Yelena! Good to see you kid-- I’ll be over in a second.”
Yelena waves back in a way one would when they run into an old teacher at a grocery store-- slightly embarrassed while putting on a polite front.
“How do you know Happy?” Kate asks, looking at Yelena’s red-tinted cheeks.
“How do you know Happy?” Yelena parrots back as they slide into an empty booth.
Happy comes over with menus. “Hey, kiddo! Happy freshman year,” he greets Yelena, sliding the stack onto the table. “How’s your big sister? Doing alright? I see you have some friends, that’s good. Make sure to show them that picture we have up over there of us with your fancy medal, yeah?” he says, jerking a thumb at one of the diner walls. “I’ll get you guys some waters and be back to take your orders, okay?”
“Fancy medal?” Cassie asks once Happy’s retreated into the back kitchen area, raising an eyebrow.
Yelena ducks her head, mumbling, “It’s nothing, don’t--”
“Oh, well, with that reaction, I gotta go check it out,” Cassie says, sliding out of the booth to walk over to the wall Happy had pointed at. She squints at the photograph hanging there for a few seconds, then leans back, eyes wide. “I’m sorry,” she starts, a little incredulously, “is that-- is that you with an Olympic medal?”
Kate’s eyes widen as well and she gapes, scrambling to get out of the booth and take a look for herself. Lo and behold, it shows Yelena wearing a USA Hockey jersey and a silver medal around her neck. She casts a quick glance back to their table to see Yelena ducking her head.
Cassie practically screeches, “Dude! When were you going to tell me you’re a freakin’ Olympian?”
“I was... going to mention it,” Yelena mumbles, reddening. “Eventually,” she adds, when Cassie gives her a look.
“You did look familiar,” Kate notes, remembering. “I watched the final-- you’re really good.” She thinks back to the gold medal game that happened just a few months ago-- the US’s 3-2 defeat thanks to a golden goal from the stick of Canada’s Whitney Frost.
“Not good enough,” Yelena murmurs, more to herself than to Kate. Louder, she tells Cassie, “I just-- didn’t want to make a big deal about it.”
Kate and Cassie both make a big deal out of it anyways, and Yelena has to field a barrage of questions in between bites of mac and cheese, like how Yelena ended up playing for the US over Russia, what it was like to compete on her sport’s biggest stage, etcetera, etcetera.
They eventually, finally, let poor Yelena take a breath, until Cassie asks out of the blue, “Hold on. Is there an actual Olympic medal somewhere in our room?” Cassie and Kate watch for her reaction, and the red on Yelena’s cheeks deepen as Cassie’s eyes go wide. “Holy shit, there is, isn’t there?” she crows. “Oh, you’re so showing us later.”
“Okay, okay, enough,” Yelena says after swallowing a gulp of water. “Enough about me,” she insists.
The rest of the meal is filled with casual conversation as they eat their deliciously greasy diner food (they’ll burn it off in training, they reason). Cassie shares that she’s majoring in psychology and is keeping an ant farm in their room that she swears Kate and Yelena to silence about.
“How are we going to hide it when the RAs come for room checks?” Yelena asks.
Cassie waves a fry nonchalantly. “We’ll cross that bridge when we get there,” she replies, shrugging.
They learn Yelena is majoring in communications, has an older sister that’s a senior at Carter (hence her familiarity with Happy’s and campus), and wants to play in the WHL (the professional women’s league) when she graduates.
“School is just--” she pauses, swallowing a bite of mac and cheese, “--a means to the league.”
Kate gets it. She’s no silver medalist, but she’s pretty damn good at basketball, and she’d be lying if she said she wasn’t gunning for a place in the WBA, too. She’s just got to prove herself in college first.
“Hey, you guys are going to come to my games, right?” Cassie asks as they walk back towards campus, bellies full.
“Only if you guys are any good,” Kate says automatically, and Yelena’s eyes widen, mouth half-open like she was going to make the same joke. She tilts her head back in laughter and Cassie gapes, a bit shocked.
“I like this one,” Yelena decides, elbowing Kate.
Not that Kate’s surprised, but they all become fast friends. Yelena doesn’t stop playfully flirting with them (not that Kate minds-- it’s funny and charming and harmless, and Yelena does it with everyone), Kate (despite being the smartest out of the three of them) becomes their resident mess, and somehow, Cassie takes up the mantle of being the ‘mom’ of their trio, reining in Yelena and making sure Kate keeps her practice and class schedule straight.
Despite the three of them being crazy-busy collegiate athletes, they find time to hang out whenever possible. Cassie’s season approaches the fastest. She’s already starting her preseason by the time the school year starts, so she’s currently the busiest out of the three of them-- but thanks to their shared Gen-Ed classes, semi-regular outings to Happy’s when they’re feeling a cheat day, and the fact that their rooms are actually not only in the same building, but the same floor, they become thick as thieves.
Kate hardly spends any time in her room other than to sleep, becoming a pretty constant fixture in Cassie and Yelena’s double. She takes to sitting at the desk of whoever’s in practice or on the floor when all three of them are there, so she rarely sees Darcy. Not that she’s actively avoiding her roommate or anything, because Darcy’s actually pretty nice and has a witty sense of humor-- it just turns out Darcy’s trying to get her degree in astrophysics at some unheard-of pace, so their schedules don’t really overlap.
Kate answers texts from Clint and calls from Laura, letting them know that yes, she’s made friends, and yes, she’s remembering to eat. Even though their little conversations make her miss them more than she can verbalize, her full schedule and the company of her new friends help still the nervous bob of her knee.
Classes go well. Cassie shows interest in the few psychology classes she can take as a freshman and tolerates her Gen-Eds, Yelena only occasionally complains about the writing class she shares with one of them and manages to stay awake in the history lecture she has with the other, and Kate loves all of her courses almost as she’s loving basketball.
Her teammates are great. She’s one of only three freshmen, but the team welcomes her and them with open arms. Coach Fury is tough, but he’s good (which is a large reason why Kate ended up at Carter U anyways), and the team gels so well that Kate thinks this might be the most fun she’s had playing in a long time.
“Like, I feel strong and fast and good, you know?” she tells Cassie and Yelena after an evening practice, as she sits on Cassie’s rug that lays between their beds.
Yelena’s eyes flit over to look at Kate, who’s still wearing her practice jersey. She meant to shower but the communal bathrooms on their floor were all occupied last she checked and she was too lazy to go back to the athletic facility to use the ones there.
With a grin, Yelena says, “You look good.” Her eyebrows waggle playfully as she goes on, “That jersey does wonders for your shoulders.” She twirls the butt end of her pen at Kate, who returns the grin before chucking a rogue shoe at the hockey player.
“How come you flirt with her more than you do with me?” Cassie asks with mock offense written on her face. “You’ve never said a word about how good my ass looks in my practice shorts, and I know for a fact that it does, thank you very much.”
“Well, I only hear you snoring every night, so excuse me if that lessens your appeal,” Yelena chirps before having to dodge the highlighter Cassie throws at her. “For the record, your ass does look great in those shorts,” she assures her roommate, her smirk only widening.
Cassie mimes flipping her hair over her shoulder. “I know, darling, I know.”
After a hard practice and a shower, Kate knocks on Yelena and Cassie’s door one Friday evening and hears a, “One second!” from the other side. The door swings open to reveal Yelena dressed in an oversized Carter Hockey sweatshirt and sweatpants. Her hair is damp, a sign of her having freshly showered post-practice, and she greets Kate with a tired smile.
“Kate Bishop! I was beginning to wonder when you would come by,” Yelena tells her, stepping to the side to let her in.
“Fury made us run extra sprints for every missed layup,” Kate replies with a grimace.
Yelena sucks air through her teeth sympathetically. “On a Friday? That stinks,” she says.
Kate hums and looks around the small dorm room, noticing a distinct absence of a blonde soccer player. “Where’s Cassie?” she asks.
“Traveling to her scrimmage against Culver,” Yelena reminds her, closing the door behind her. “They left about an hour ago.”
“Oh, shit, yeah. I forgot,” Kate breathes, putting a hand to her forehead. “Man, we need to make a calendar of all of our stuff.”
Yelena holds up her laptop, which is playing something unfamiliar.
“Whatcha watching?” Kate asks, curious.
“Baseball game— Reds versus the Yankees,” Yelena replies, climbing up onto her bed. Truthfully, Kate’s a little surprised-- with Yelena’s accent and general appearance, she didn’t strike Kate as a baseball fan. When she tells her as much, Yelena laughs.
“I’m a casual supporter, I guess,” Yelena says, taking a sip from her water bottle. “Baseball was the big American thing my dad got into after we moved to the US.” Her eyes have a faraway look in them for a second, as if recalling a nice memory, and then she continues, “I know he will call me about the game tomorrow though, so I wanted to watch a little.”
Kate smiles and belatedly remembers Yelena is from Ohio. She looks up at the 3-2 Cincinnati-New York scoreline and then back at Yelena, raising an eyebrow.
“So, you’re rooting for the Reds, then?” she asks. Yelena grins and nods in response, and Kate pretends to look scandalized.
“What? Are you a Yankees fan?” Yelena asks.
“I’m not really a big baseball gal, but I’m a New Yorker at heart,” Kate jibes playfully. “You’re in deep enemy territory here.” Yelena laughs, her nose scrunching up.
They hang out in relative silence, give or take a few of Yelena’s muted reactions to the game and the occasional tweet Kate shows her from where she sits at Cassie’s desk. Once the game is over, Yelena asks her, “Want to do something?”
Kate looks up from her phone. “Sure, yeah-- like what?”
“What is that thing people say? We can Netflix and chill,” Yelena says, opening a new tab as she pats the empty space on her bed next to her.
Kate barks out a laugh, shaking her head. “I don’t think you mean what it actually means,” she grins, hopping on the bed next to her.
Yelena frowns, raising an eyebrow. “Does it not mean watch the Netflix and hang out?” she asks, genuinely confused as she turns her head to look at Kate.
“Oh, no,” Kate tells her. “It’s, uh, kind of— a euphemism for, like, inviting someone over to have sex.”
Her friend’s finger freezes on the trackpad of her laptop, eyes wide as Kate’s words soak in. Then, a smirk spreads across her face as she leans over into Kate’s space suggestively, saying, “Oh, well, we can do that instead, Kate Bishop.”
Kate snorts, elbowing her. “Stop it,” she grins, and Yelena laughs and sits back.
“You like it though,” Yelena insists before turning her attention back to her laptop. “Alright, what are we watching, then?”
The next morning, Kate wakes to an unfamiliar bed, sunlight streaming through the blinds of the window above her head. With a frown, she sits up, almost missing the post-it note that was undoubtedly stuck to her forehead as it flutters down to her lap. Kate groggily wipes at her eyes, squinting to read the writing on it.
Had to run to practice
Stay as long as u need
Don’t drool on my pillow
Kate rolls her eyes at the last line as the evening comes back to her. She must’ve dozed off during the movie and fallen asleep on Yelena’s bed. A quick glance at the rumpled covers on the bed across from her, usually nicely done, tells Kate Yelena must have slept on her roommate’s bed.
She stretches and checks her watch with a yawn. 8:19, it reads, and Kate slides off of Yelena’s bed, collecting her things. A thought crosses Kate’s mind as she reaches for her water bottle, flipping open the lid before pouring the smallest amount of water on Yelena’s pillow in an effort to make it look like drool.
She takes a picture and texts it to their group chat with no context beyond a simple, “Oops!” and can’t help the laugh that slips from her mouth when she gets a “Are you serious?!” from Yelena and a “Do I even want to know?” from Cassie a little while later.
“GO CASSIE!” Yelena shouts at Cassie’s first home game that she and Kate are able to go to together, no thanks to their practice schedules. Yelena also brings her sister, Natasha, who Kate meets for the first time, and Kate’s dragged Darcy along as well.
“I can’t believe you convinced me to come,” Darcy shakes her head.
Kate grins. “Hey, at least I didn’t make you paint your face,” she counters, pointing at the red and blue paint coloring her cheeks.
“It's not too late,” Yelena says in a sing-song voice, leaning forward to look at them from the other side of Natasha as she shakes the tubes of paint in her hands. Her own face is covered in red and blue.
“Hell no,” Darcy fires back, visibly recoiling. Yelena laughs and returns her attention to the field as Darcy tells Kate, “You guys look like smurfs with chicken pox.”
It’s true, Kate admits. She’s not really sure what exactly she and Yelena were thinking when they were painting their faces-- but when Yelena shouts encouragement at their friend, who turns to find them in the stands while she warms up, the smile that lights up Cassie’s face as she points to her face and gives them a thumbs-up is worth it.
Cassie manages an assist before she’s subbed out in the 75th minute, and Yelena’s practically screamed herself hoarse by the time their friend sits on the bench. Even Darcy ends up getting into the game, especially during extra time when Carter University almost gives up a goal. Fortunately, thanks to some heroic defending by Carter’s Monica Rambeau, the other freshman on the team, the home team wins 3-2.
“Alright, alright,” Darcy concedes, as the four of them exit the bleachers to head down to the field level, “you were right. That was pretty fun.”
Kate beams, pumping her fist. “I knew you’d like it,” she grins. “Now we’ve just gotta get you to hockey and basketball games, and we’ll make you a Carter Athletics Superfan.”
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” Darcy says, checking her phone. “Ah, gotta go.”
“What? You’re skipping out on celebratory junk food at Happy’s?” Kate asks, stopping in her tracks.
Darcy holds up her phone. “Group meeting,” she says apologetically. When Kate rolls her eyes, already preparing her lecture about how much time her roommate spends on schoolwork, Darcy’s quick to cut in. “It’s not class stuff, I promise-- it’s a club meeting.”
Kate bites back her lecture and beams. “Oh, that’s great! You’re not lying to me, right?” When Darcy shakes her head, Kate nods, relieved. “Okay, okay, you can go.”
Darcy laughs. “Have fun at Happy’s— and tell Cassie I said congrats on the win,” she says, beginning to walk away with a wave.
Yelena stops up ahead, having noticed Kate and Darcy trailing behind and waits for Kate to catch up. “Everything okay?” she asks, hands stuffed in her pockets.
“Oh, yeah, all good— she just had to dip out,” Kate tells her.
Yelena doesn’t question it, and even if she wanted to, she can’t, because the players stream out of the locker room and a tired but victorious Cassie emerges, beaming. “Hey,” she starts, “who invited the Blue Man Group?”
@katethebish tweeted: does anyone know how long paint usually lasts on skin? asking for a friend. #bluecrew #regularpaintisnotfacepaint
Darcy Lewis Retweeted
@clang replied to a tweet: sorry smurfette
In September, Cassie, their resident adult, makes up a Google Calendar for the three of them. It’s a detailed schedule that can be filtered by each of their classes, practices, and games, and as chaotic and hectic as it looks, it makes it a bit easier for all of them to understand.
Kate has Monday and Wednesday mornings free while Cassie and Yelena have morning practices, Yelena and Kate have their shared history class on Tuesdays and Thursdays while Cassie’s at afternoon practice, Cassie and Kate have--
It’s a complicated dance, finding the time to hang out. But they all make it work.
Yelena’s regular season campaign starts in October against ESU, which Kate heads to alone. Cassie’s traveling to Xavier that weekend, but she gets Kate and Yelena on FaceTime that morning to wish Yelena good luck.
“Score six goals for me, okay?” Cassie playfully requests on the other end, her voice tinny from the speaker. “And don’t get in too many fights.”
Yelena grins next to Kate, their heads tilted towards each other in order to fit in the frame of the camera. “There’s no fighting in the women’s game,” she reminds Cassie.
Cassie laughs. “I know you, Belova, I wouldn’t put a fight past you.”
At the game, Kate searches for a free spot in the bleachers and is surprised to see Natasha waving her over. Kate makes her way through the busy crowd and gratefully takes the seat next to her and her friends with a breathless, “Holy cow.” Nat cocks a questioning eyebrow at her before Kate continues in awe, “There’s a lot of people here.”
“Oh, yeah. Carter’s hockey program-- specifically the women’s team-- is pretty popular,” Natasha hums, her eyes tracking over the quickly filling bleachers. “That’s partly why Yelena chose Carter. That, and Melinda May.”
Kate’s about to ask Nat who exactly Melinda May is when she points down to the Carter bench towards a stony-faced Asian woman wearing a black leather jacket over a Carter Hockey polo.
“She’s the best coach in women’s hockey right now,” Natasha says while they watch Coach May’s watchful gaze track her players as they skate around for warm-ups. “Maybe even the best in hockey in general.”
At puck drop, Kate gets to see exactly how Yelena made the Olympic team. Yelena skates on the first line, generally unheard of for a freshman, alongside Maria Hill (their team captain) and Sharon Carter (THE Peggy Carter’s niece), Natasha explains, and Kate watches the three of them work the ice, connecting passes with precision. It’s still nil-nil halfway through the first period, but it feels like the three of them are just on the brink of scoring with every second that ticks by.
Yelena is a wonder to watch. While Hill and Carter play big and physical, Yelena darts around the rink, turning on a dime and handling the puck with her stick like it’s a part of her. She doesn’t look like a freshman out there. Yelena makes one ESU defenseman miss and slots a tight pass up to Sharon who shoots the puck just wide. The crowd lets out a collective groan when she misses and Kate watches the lines change as the puck goes the other way.
“Come on, Yelena,” Natasha mutters under her breath as Yelena talks animatedly to her line on the bench.
The next time Yelena’s on the ice, she picks off a quick pass and hauls ass down the rink towards the ESU goalie. She’s the fastest one out there, there’s no competition, and the closest person to her is a trailing Maria, so she’s got a one-on-one opportunity if she takes it.
She does, and it goes in.
Kate doesn’t even realize she’s stood up from her seat until Natasha grabs her by the arm, jumping up and down in celebration. Her shouting is drowned out by the crowd around her but she cheers nonetheless as Yelena’s mobbed by her fellow linesmen, tapping gloves and bumping her on the helmet before she skates past the bench for fist-bumps.
With Yelena’s goal, the floodgates burst open. Carter scores another before the first period ends, then Yelena has a hand in two power play goals in the second. By the time the third period rolls around, Carter is up 4-0 and ESU has no answer for them.
It’s getting a little testy out there— ESU doesn’t necessarily start headhunting, but Yelena starts to get jostled and although Kate knows very little about hockey, she can identify frustrated skating when she sees it. Maria scores on a power play and Coach May finally limits ice time for most of the starters for the rest of the game once it starts looking like ESU won’t claw their way out of this one.
They catch Yelena in the foyer afterwards, tired but happy. Natasha gives her sister a one-armed hug, ruffling Yelena’s hair and ignoring her protests when she does.
“So, what did you think?” Yelena asks Kate later on their way to Happy’s, and she beams when Kate gushes about how amazing she was.
Cassie Lang Retweeted
@carterwhockey: One goal and three assists for the silver medalist!
“We should get an apartment together,” Kate tells them during the hour they have free for lunch. They haven’t previously talked about their housing plans for next year, but Kate can’t imagine two people she’d get along with more.
Yelena looks up from her sandwich, raising an eyebrow. “You really want to live with this one?” she asks, her voice a little muffled from the bite she’d just taken while she jerks a thumb in her roommate’s direction. Cassie rolls her eyes and tells her to chew her food, and Yelena just grins and says, “Okay, mom.”
They start looking for apartments for next year when Nat tips them off that it’s better to start looking sooner rather than later, and they sign a lease on a decently-priced three-bedroom on the second floor of a complex just down the street from Happy’s.
In November, Cassie and the soccer team prepare for the championships, Yelena and the hockey team go 8-2, and Kate starts her own season with the basketball team.
Kate isn’t an automatic starter-- she tries not to feel too discouraged by that fact and spends every practice working as hard as she can. In their season opener against Metro College, Kate only plays a total of three minutes, but she makes the most of them with a handful of steals and four points, and she earns a, “Nice job, Bishop,” from Coach Fury when she comes off. Any lingering disappointment she has about not playing for longer dissipates when she spots Clint and Laura greeting her, having made the six-hour drive for her first game.
The next few games go like that-- Kate gets subbed in at garbage time, making a couple of plays and scoring a couple of points, but nothing too memorable or impactful. It’s hard not to feel a little empty and useless, but Coach Fury holds her back after one practice to specifically tell her that she’s made big improvements to her game, and Kate feels like she’s on the verge of something.
A week later, Cassie and her team lose to Culver on PKs in the semis. It's a heartbreaking defeat. Kate and Yelena are both waiting for her outside the locker room post-game, having made the trek out to Culver, and Cassie doesn’t even question how they found their way down there.
Instead, she just bursts out into tears and Kate and Yelena just embrace her, letting her bury her head in their shoulders. “It shouldn’t have been me,” Cassie gasps through tears, and they don’t have to ask her to elaborate. Cassie missed her PK.
“Hey, don’t say that,” Kate says firmly, gripping her friend by the shoulders.
Cassie wipes at her eyes. “If I hadn’t-- If I had just--”
“You still would have lost,” Yelena cuts in. The statement is so blunt that Kate’s head jerks to look at her. “Cassie, look at me.” She waits until her roommate looks at her to continue, saying, “Monica and Bobbi already missed theirs by the time you got up there. Even if you had made it, you would still be down 2-3 and Culver would have still won.”
Cassie looks back down at her feet, shoulders slumped, and Yelena nudges her with an elbow to get her to look up again. “That is just how it works sometimes,” Yelena tells her quietly. “You can’t blame yourself for a collective defeat, okay?”
Her roommate works her jaw for a few seconds, mulling over Yelena’s words. Kate wonders if Yelena had been told something similar after her gold-medal match defeat.
“Okay,” Cassie concedes with a sigh.
Neither Yelena nor Kate go home for the Thanksgiving holiday since Kate has games Wednesday and Friday against Desert State and ESU, respectively, and Yelena plays a weekend series against the Red Room Institute.
Yelena notches 2 goals and 3 assists over the weekend and gets awarded Player of the Week by the end of it, and it’s clear to everyone that she’s on track to break Carter U’s single-season goal and points record.
Kate’s still not a starter, not yet, but her minutes begin to creep up into the double digits and she’s starting to find her groove. She plays thirteen minutes against Desert State and twelve against ESU, coming out with a total of ten points. It’s not much, but she’s really clicking with the second team, dishing nice assists and getting crucial defensive stops.
Cassie, her mood brighter now that she’s had time to leave behind the sting of her semi-final loss, sends them Snapchats of her watching all of the games and tweets her reaction to every major play from back home in San Francisco.
@clang: sniped ‘em @yelenab13 comes after Yelena’s shorthanded goal against RRI and @clang: @katethebish is a brick wall baby after Kate’s sweet block in the ESU game.
@clang: this apartment is about to be STACKED
In December, it feels like all Kate has time for is school and basketball. She maintains A’s in all her classes despite her busy practice and game schedule and sees her teammates three times as often as she does Cassie and Yelena.
The anxious bob on her knee returns as Kate sits on the bench during their game against Metro College. It’s been a tight game through three quarters-- Carter is only holding on to a four-point lead at the start of the fourth, so Kate and the second team haven’t been getting much time on the floor at all. Her eyes occasionally flit to where Clint, Laura, and Cassie are sitting during the brief lulls in the game (Yelena’s at an away game against Culver), but once the whistle is blown, her focus is back on the court.
Her knee continues to jitter, and eventually, Sarah Wilson, one of their point guards, puts a hand on Kate’s leg to stop the nervous movement. “Stop that,” she murmurs, not unkindly. “You’re making me nervous.”
Kate apologizes, her eyes not leaving the movement of the basketball. She watches Carol pass the ball to Valkyrie, who barely slips by a Metro defender for a layup. 56-50, Carter.
Then, one of the Metro players sinks a three, and Kate has to stop herself from adding her voice to the collective groan that spreads throughout the Carter fans. Nebula, one of their post players, scores in the paint, and Metro answers with another three-pointer.
Coach Fury paces in front of the bench, barking out orders as Carter transitions from defense to offense, trading points with Metro. Kate glances up to the scoreboard, swallowing when she sees 58-56 and six minutes left. She misses whatever causes an angry roar to erupt from the Carter bench and fans, and her head jerks back towards the court, her heart sinking when she sees Gamora, a senior shooting guard, on the ground clutching her knee.
“Fuck,” Claire Temple curses next to Kate. “She’s not getting up.”
The trainers rush to Gamora’s side, tending to her while Nebula, her sister, and Coach Fury watch with bated breath along with the entire stadium.
After what feels like an eternity later, the trainers help Gamora off the court, helping her to the locker rooms. There’s a smattering of applause for her as she departs, but most of Carter’s fans are anxious about losing one of the team's best scorers. The refs prepare to restart the game, and one of them tells Coach Fury, “Coach, let’s get a sub in.”
He looks down the bench, and Kate’s heart starts to race when his eyes find hers. He cocks his head towards the court and waits for her at the scoring table. Kate blinks for a few seconds, the realization settling in that she’s about to go in for Gamora and play with the first team to try to squeeze a W out of this one.
Numbly, she stands and shrugs off her shooting shirt, barely hearing Sarah’s, “Go get ‘em, KB,” over the pounding of her heartbeat in her ears. Kate jogs over to the scoring table, eyes wide as she approaches Coach Fury.
“You know what to do,” he tells her in a low voice as the scorer marks down her number for the substitution. “Play that good defense of yours and take smart shots, alright?” Coach Fury nudges her onto the court once the ref gives her the go-ahead.
Kate pretty much blacks out after that. Her body moves of its own accord, willing more points and a win for Carter in existence. She creates a turnover one second, sinks a three another second, and dishes an assist a little after that, and she barely looks up at the scoreboard other than to look at the shot clock that she doesn’t really even know what the score is or whether they’re winning or not until cheers erupt in the stadium.
Her teammates are mobbing her specifically, and she doesn’t really know why until Valk shakes her by the shoulders. “Eighteen fuckin’ points? You’re a fuckin’ lege’, KB!” she hollers.
“Wh--what?” Kate stammers, sweaty and breathless.
“You scored eighteen in five minutes!” Sarah shouts over the roar of the crowd. “Where the hell did you pull that out of?"
Under a mess of sweaty limbs and hugs, she finally catches a glimpse of the score.
82-70, Carter wins.
Post-game is almost as much of a blur for Kate as the final minutes of the game were. She feels like she’s being pulled in three different directions while quickly greets Laura, Cassie, and Clint where they wait near the locker rooms and has to apologize in a hurry when someone shepherds her towards the Carter Athletic press for a comment.
Kate’s not exactly sure what she ends up saying to the person holding a voice recorder out to her and hopes an embarrassing soundbite isn’t plastered all over social media later, and then she’s rushed off to the locker room for the team’s post-game meeting. Her teammates pat her on the back when she jogs in, and one of the assistant coaches finally tells her what her final statline was. Twenty-one points, three assists, and four steals.
Kate can hardly believe it’s real. She doesn’t even remember most of it, if she’s being honest.
Later, once Kate’s laying in bed after a much needed shower and celebratory Happy’s with Clint, Cassie, and Laura, she scrolls through her phone. She watches the Instagram video the Carter women’s basketball team posts of her, her soundbite playing over a video of one of the three-pointers she made and is relieved to hear that she doesn’t sound like a total idiot before wading through congratulatory texts from high school and current teammates and classmates.
Kate makes a note to reply to all of them in the morning, and it’s surprisingly one notification that stands out to her the most:
Yelena Belova Tweeted for the first time in a while.
@yelenab13: sheesh @katethebish
She grins to herself, opening up her texts with Yelena and types out a message.
[Kate]: Well I must have had one hell of a performance for you to tweet about it
Kate watches the dots appear and disappear a couple of times before Yelena replies.
[Yelena]: don’t make me delete it, kate bishop
[Yelena]: nice job today. proud of you
Carter women’s hockey and basketball dominate in January.
Yelena and the hockey team are 18-4-2 by the end of the month, not having lost since November, and she racks up two Player of the Week awards along with five goals and three assists. Not only that, but she's four goals away from breaking that single-season goal and point record. It’s a good month for her, a great month, one that earns her more than a couple mentions on SportsCenter and a handful of articles singing her praises.
Cassie and Kate try not to bring up her hot month too often, especially after one occasion after Cassie reads one headline, “2018 Silver Medalist Belova Named MCU Hockey Player of the Month”, and Yelena’s face turns a shade paler and her mouth is pulled into a tight line.
“Let’s not-- don’t--” Yelena starts from where she sits on her bed. She gives up trying to say something and shrinks lower into her mattress, hiding her face behind her book.
It’s expectations, Cassie and Kate know.
Yelena was already pretty well-known around campus as the Olympian at the start of the school year, and the attention on her on- and off-campus has only increased thanks to her successful freshman campaign. Between the heightened media presence at post-game pressers and schoolwork, Kate’s only seen a heaviness on Yelena’s shoulders grow and grow.
“Fuck this,” Yelena huffs, closing her book with a solid thud before hopping off her bed, pulling on her sneakers. “I’m going for a run.”
Kate watches her leave, the door closing behind her, and she starts to open her mouth to ask Cassie if they should go after her, but Cassie shakes her head, anticipating the question.
“She’ll be okay. Just needs-- just needs to clear her head.”
Kate feels it too. Not nearly as much as Yelena by any stretch of the imagination, but she can feel eyes on her, watching to see how she’ll step up to the plate.
Gamora is out for the rest of the season, her senior year effectively done. She’ll be drafted by a WBA team come April, no question, but missing the second half of the season has definitely affected when she’ll be taken.
With Gamora out, Coach Fury has put Kate in the first team, and she starts all of the games in January. Kate feels like it’s some of the best basketball she’s played in her life. Sure, she doesn’t quite match her twenty-one-point quarter, but she averages at least twenty points a game and Carter goes 9-2 in the month. Her confidence is at an all-time high, and that WBA dream feels a little closer and closer with each game that passes.
Kate’s knee hasn’t bobbed in weeks.
Yelena and the hockey team punch their ticket to the championship after a nail-biting shootout against Capitol State. Maria, Sharon, and Yelena all take shots for Carter, and Yelena slots in a goal against CSU’s goalie that ends up on SportsCenter. Kate isn’t there to watch it in person (having had made the March Madness tournament with the basketball team), but she watches the game with her teammates in the hotel conference room and retweets the shit out of the SportsCenter clip afterwards.
She FaceTimes Cassie and Yelena the night before the hockey final, fresh from a first-round win herself, sitting out in the hotel hallway so as to not disturb her roommate for the week, Nebula. Cassie wishes them goodnight partway through the call-- she’s going to make the drive out to the final with Natasha and a few others early in the morning-- leaving just Kate and Yelena on the line.
Kate leans against the doorway, studying her friend’s face on her phone screen.
“Will you be watching the game?” Yelena asks, her voice small through the speakers of Kate’s phone. Kate makes a noise as if offended Yelena even asked, and the hockey player is quick to say, “I wasn’t sure if you would be in practice!”
“I wouldn’t miss it for the world,” Kate assures her, and Yelena’s face breaks out into a small smile.
The Red Room Institute wins the final 4-2, and Kate and her teammates sit in stunned silence in the hotel conference room when the final buzzer sounds. The camera switches between shots of celebrating RRI players and despondent Carter players, and Kate feels a pang in her chest when it eventually focuses on Yelena. Even through the cage on Yelena’s helmet that partially obscures her face, Kate can see the loss weigh on her expression. Her teammates skate over to pat her on the shoulder or helmet, but Yelena just stands there in the middle of Carter’s half of the rink, unmoving.
Unfortunately, Kate can just imagine the headlines that’ll come out of it— something like, “Carter Eagles lose 4-2 as Belova drops another final”. It’s unfair, Kate thinks. Yelena worked so damn hard.
She scored both of Carter’s only goals and tried and tried to get her teammates to score a third, but it just didn’t happen.
Kate watches Maria Hill, their captain and a senior, skate over to Yelena, gripping her by the pads. She can see her exchange a few words with Yelena, who is likely apologizing over and over for the loss and how it was Maria’s last chance to win a championship and she couldn’t pull it off, but Maria pulls the younger girl into a long, tight hug before eventually releasing her to lead her to the bench.
It’s not until after their evening practice session and team dinner that Kate has a chance to FaceTime Yelena. She didn’t want to talk over text, it just didn’t feel right, and when Yelena’s grainy image appears on her phone looking relieved to see her, Kate knows it was the right move.
“Hey,” she greets, out in the hallway again.
“Hi,” comes the tired response. Yelena manages a smile, albeit a little somberly, but at least it looks like some of the pressure is gone. The pressure to perform, to please people-- unfortunately, at the cost of a disappointing loss.
The morning of the championship, Kate stands with Clint and Laura in the bus circle as they wish her good luck before the team heads off to the arena. Laura embraces her tightly (as best she can with her swollen, eight month-pregnant belly in between them) with promises that they’ll be proud of her no matter what the outcome of the game is and elbows Clint when he jokes that she’s dead to them if they lose.
“I’m kidding! I’m kidding,” he assures his wife and Kate, rubbing his side where she got him. “Hey,” he starts, his expression turning serious now as he grips Kate by the shoulders. “Go play your heart out, okay? That’s all you can do.” Kate nods and sinks into the hug Clint gives her before he and Laura wish her a final good luck.
When they depart, Kate is about to head onto the bus before she hears two familiar voices shout out her name. Her head whips around, frowning as she tries to find the sources of the shouting before recognizing two blondes jogging up towards her.
“You guys made it!” Kate exclaims, a smile spreading across her face.
“Of course,” Cassie says, at the same time Yelena murmurs, “Barely.” Cassie shoots her roommate a look before Yelena tells Kate, “She made us miss the exit at least three times.”
“You were the one fucking with my Google Maps the entire ride,” Cassie points out.
“I just wanted it to have an Australian accent, okay?”
Kate laughs at their antics, shaking her head, and the movement catches their attention enough to cut off their bickering.
“How are you feeling?” Cassie asks her, sizing her up.
Kate shifts her weight between her feet, thinking for a few seconds before nodding. “Good,” she settles with, “good, I think.”
“Nervous?”
“A little bit,” she admits.
Yelena smiles. “Good. You would be crazy if you weren’t.”
Kate hears Coach Fury call for the team to start heading onto the bus, and Cassie wraps the three of them into a group hug. When they let go, Yelena tells Kate, “Go fucking win it all, alright?” Kate looks between Cassie and Yelena, who both wear the same expressions, like this tournament means as much to them as it does to Kate. And Kate understands. It’s too late for their teams and their seasons, but for Kate and the basketball team, March Madness is theirs for the taking.
And Kate’s determined to take it.
“Way to close on her, Danvers,” Fury tells the group as they come off the floor for a timeout.
Kate gratefully accepts the towel and bottle of water handed to her as she takes a seat on the bench, wiping at the back of her neck and gulping the water down. She wipes her mouth with the side of her hand and leans in to see what Coach Fury is drawing on his whiteboard as her knee bobs up and down.
“Nebula, keep the pressure on 32 and keep cutting off those baseline passes,” he barks over the buzz of the crowd.
Kate takes a glance at the scoreboard-- they’re up by ten on Grayburn at the start of the fourth but she doesn’t let herself get too comfortable. It’s been back-and-forth all game.
“We have the energy,” Fury tells them, looking each of them in the eye. “That lead up there means nothing until that clock hits zero. So keep playing good D, make smart passes, and finish this game off.”
The buzzer marks the end of the timeout and they break the huddle, heading back onto the court. The crowd cheers in support as they do, and Kate takes a few seconds to wipe the bottom of her shoes before taking her spot.
Grayburn comes out of the timeout with speed, but Kate manages to keep their shooting guard-- Elektra, she thinks-- in check, tipping away passes and dodging any screens set for her. Elektra is getting increasingly frustrated, especially when Kate and Valkyrie trap her in a double team that causes a turnover right next to their basket. An elbow flies out and a whistle is blown immediately. Valkyrie and Elektra stand face to face, trading not-so-friendly words, and both teams are quick to separate them.
Coach Fury subs the first team off, and Carol reminds them, “We’ve almost got them, let’s keep our heads straight,” as they walk to the bench. They get a couple of minutes rest, enough for Grayburn to cut Carter’s lead down to four, and Fury puts them back in with two minutes to go.
Kate makes a three-pointer that’s all net their first trip down the court, but she doesn’t spend too much time celebrating it because Hela, one of Grayburn’s post players, is inbounding the ball to their point guard, Minn-Erva, before Kate even has a chance to blink.
Each team trades points, with Carter up by three with forty-five seconds to go.
Carol sinks a short jumper, Nebula makes a stop on the other end of the court, and Valk holds on to the ball just long enough as the seconds tick by--
Buzzer.
Carter wins.
Yelena goes to Worlds in April, and the United States cruises on their way to the final against Canada (of course). Cassie and Kate both skip their afternoon class to watch Yelena and her team get gold. It’s no Olympic medal, Yelena will remind them repeatedly when she gets back, but they can tell it’s a much-needed win for her.
Somehow, despite the three of them officially being in their off-seasons with only occasional practices and no real games, the school year seems to fly by even faster. It doesn’t help that Laura and Clint have their baby a few weeks later-- Kate sends a quick email to her Gender & Technology professor about missing a seminar to fly down for the birth and makes it back for her classes the next day.
It’s a race to finals week, and even Yelena is spending more time with her nose in a book.
“Can someone remind me why I decided to take a philosophy course?” she asks from her bed, closing her textbook.
Cassie doesn’t look up from her paper as she answers, “You needed an extra elective.”
Yelena only mumbles in response, something like, “all made up anyways” and “hurts my brain”.
The evening before the last day, the three of them stay up all night in Yelena and Cassie’s room watching reality TV and eating junk food because hey, who cares?
Yelena’s sandwiched between the two of them as they sit on her bed, laptop open in her lap playing some cooking competition. Cassie grumbles at her to move the enormous bag of Smartfood she’s taking fistfuls out of from blocking her view of the laptop and Kate asks, “We’re getting a TV for next year, right?”
Cassie nods vigorously while Yelena grins, mouth full of popcorn as she dramatically spreads her limbs over the two of them, taking up as much space as she possibly can. Kate exclaims in mock protest, playfully shoving her and threatening to pour their tub of cheese balls all over her.
“No, wait, this is my bed!” Yelena realizes, and Cassie joins in, pretending to tilt her pint of Ben and Jerry’s.
It’s a little crazy, Kate thinks as Yelena’s laptop nearly goes tumbling to the ground in the midst of their antics, that she’d only met these two not even a year ago-- it feels like they’ve been friends for a lifetime. They’re all mostly the same-- just a little older and maybe a little wiser, but mostly the same.
And when they finally calm down, the threat of food being poured all over Yelena’s bed averted, Kate wishes she doesn’t have to go the whole summer, or most of it, without them.
Yelena catches her eye and elbows her in the ribs with a questioning look. “Are you okay?”
“Hmm?” Kate hums, distracted. “Oh, yeah-- I’m good.” Yelena raises a skeptical eyebrow, but Kate puts on a smile and reaches for the Smartfood bag with a, “Give me some of that.”