Cassandra pauses just inside the entrance, giving Yelena a moment. Because she has a feeling she knows why it is that she asked that question. (And she knows what it feels like, to lose someone you love. To lose family.)
"You wouldn't have asked that question if there wasn't a reason for it. An important one," she tells her softly. "So of course I would."
"Natasha is gone," she says, no dancing around it, no fanfare, just simple facts. She thinks Cassandra deserves that much, especially for being here so easily. So quickly. "And so is Steve..." though, admittedly he's more an afterthought than her sister. She had only started getting to know him here, and had no prior attachment otherwise to the Avenger leader.
She doesn't remember in the muddied mess of her thoughts right now if she's ever told Cassandra much about Natasha, other than maybe introducing them once after she showed up here. But this reaction is not just 'My sister went home, and I'm stuck here', there is clearly more to the story.
Her heart breaks for Yelena. To lose two people, so close together… and one of them her sister. It has to be awful. But there’s clearly more to the story, and Cassandra is a smart girl. Her reaction is more than just “I’m stuck here and my sister went home”. It’s so much more.
If her sister returning home is this bad… it has to mean that something back home is wrong. Is it the world itself somehow? Or is it something else? She thinks, for a moment, how she would react were she to see one of her sisters, or brothers, here. (Not Percy. She staunchly avoids all thoughts of the brother who had abandoned her to die.)
The final piece clicks into place.
Oh.
Cassandra sits down quietly beside her, gently pressing her shoulder to Yelena’s. “Did something happen?”
When she comes to join her on the couch, Yelena can’t help leaning her head onto the younger girls shoulder. Logically, she knows she shouldn’t put her burdens on a child; emotionally, Cassandra has been through as much as any Widow ever had by her age.
“She is gone… at home, too…” she admits, her voice quiet, accent thicker than usual from the emotion and her earlier crying. “She sacrificed herself for the world.” Her sister grew up a trained killer, the same as her, but she died a hero. At what cost? The worst one of all.
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rosecarmine
(no subject)
Date: 2024-08-30 12:33 am (UTC)"You wouldn't have asked that question if there wasn't a reason for it. An important one," she tells her softly. "So of course I would."
(no subject)
Date: 2024-08-30 07:41 am (UTC)She doesn't remember in the muddied mess of her thoughts right now if she's ever told Cassandra much about Natasha, other than maybe introducing them once after she showed up here. But this reaction is not just 'My sister went home, and I'm stuck here', there is clearly more to the story.
(no subject)
Date: 2024-08-30 08:26 am (UTC)If her sister returning home is this bad… it has to mean that something back home is wrong. Is it the world itself somehow? Or is it something else? She thinks, for a moment, how she would react were she to see one of her sisters, or brothers, here. (Not Percy. She staunchly avoids all thoughts of the brother who had abandoned her to die.)
The final piece clicks into place.
Oh.
Cassandra sits down quietly beside her, gently pressing her shoulder to Yelena’s. “Did something happen?”
(no subject)
Date: 2024-08-30 01:52 pm (UTC)“She is gone… at home, too…” she admits, her voice quiet, accent thicker than usual from the emotion and her earlier crying. “She sacrificed herself for the world.” Her sister grew up a trained killer, the same as her, but she died a hero. At what cost? The worst one of all.