the last time yelena held a crayon was when she was six years old and had hello kitty bandages on both her knees. natasha had given them to her. saved her allowance so yelena could have crayola instead of roseart. so she could be like all the other kids in her class. god, she had whined so much after that first day of school when they all emptied their pretty packs of crayons and all she had was the watered down wax. it’s the same thing, her mother had argued. it’s the same damn thing. but natasha got her the right crayons anyways. she colored everything blue just like natasha’s hair. maybe that’s why it hurt so bad to look at the sky.
clear, cerulean blue was sprawled over central park. yelena kept her eyes to the ground. well, more specifically, she kept her eyes on the sheet of paper she was scribbling away on with a purple crayon. kate was laying across from her, leaned over a sketchbook and so deep in concentration she kept bumping yelena’s forehead with her own… or maybe that was on purpose. she absently wondered how long it would be until she couldn’t bear to see the color purple. at least she’d only really have to worry about it in when the flowers bloomed…
her hand stilled.
“yelena, the timer hasn’t stopped. you have to keep going until it stops.”
she couldn’t move. the panic settled like ice in her bones. fanny stirred near her, put her head on the small of yelena’s back.
she was going to lose another color. a color that wasn’t always watching over her head, a color that was only here half way through the year, a color that would barely bring her comfort.
“yelena?”
“i couldn’t do it again, kate bishop.” she doesn’t look up.
“do what? i told you, you don’t have to be good at art for this game.”
“katie…” fucking pitiful, but it does the trick: gets what yelena needs without having to say the words. kate paused the timer of her phone and sat up, tugging the paper away from yelena.
“you never said you could draw,” she scrutinized yelena’s gesture drawings of kate and the dogs. yelena squirmed out from under fanny and closer to kate. she couldn’t help the insistent need to be closer. always closer.
“it passes the time,” it gets the grief out. “i just use pencils, charcoal though.”
“no color?”
yelena sighed, feels the weight of the sky. she did look up, stared into that unwavering blue, “it’s easier without.”
and like most conversations with yelena, kate knew there was a double meaning. she took yelena’s hand, her thumb swiping soft across a scar on the backside, “do you want to see what i made?”
yelena gave a slow nod. kate sheepishly unveiled her crude attempt at drawing. yelena covered her mouth with her hands, trying desperately to stifle her laughter.
kate swatted at yelena, pouting, “it is not that bad! look, see, here’s clint and -“
“wait, that is clint? i thought,” this time the laughter does bubble up, “kate, isn’t that lucky?”
“oh, well…” kate rotated the paper back and forth next to where lucky was lazily sprawled on the blanket, “maybe?”
now kate was laughing, her head tossed back, the light shining on her face. and god, kate wasn’t just purple. she was absolutely every starburst of color. yelena could never be without a reminder of her. how could she ever think otherwise?