Widow Sisters and Friends (Restoring Our Broken Hearts)

Fake It 'Til You Make It

Summary: Yelena has been suffering headaches periodically since she was pulled out from the mind control. However, today she experiences a headache much worse than any that she has had since the first day that she had awoken. And the worst part is that she has a mission with Peter and Clint. However, she plans to suffer through it and not tell Natasha because she is afraid of being a burden to the team. What happens when the migraine gets the better of her and unforeseen events occur on the mission?

   It was one of those mornings. Yelena recognized it as soon as she woke up. Yelena had been having headaches recently, and she had been doing a good job of keeping it hidden from Natasha. So far, all Natasha had seemed to notice was that Yelena had been doing a lot of cuddling and sleeping, and Natasha so far had not seemed to be too terribly suspicious.

However, today, the headache was even worse and Yelena realized that she had not felt pain like this in her head in an exceedingly long time. Not since the mind control first wore off.

Therefore, Yelena could not help but think that these headaches must be some manner of affliction resulting from the mind control. They did not come to her often, but they periodically ailed her. But this one was so strong that it was almost crippling like that first night after she was released from the mind control.

And the worst part was that she had a mission with Clint and Peter that morning. Granted, it was a quiet operation where they were going to slip in, get the information they needed, and slip out. Of course, with Yelena's head hurting as it was, she found herself exceedingly unmotivated to go.

But she was quick to remind herself that she could not let down the rest of the team. She was accepted into their midst because she was as tough and infallible as she was. Therefore, she could not let them see her weakness and see the fact that she was not always perfectly worthy to be on their team.

So Yelena stumbled out of the bed, getting out her suit and her vest and slipping them on. Somehow, her headache made her acutely aware of every small thing brushing against her and rustling slightly, and she could not help but let out a small whimper of pain.

Once she finally finished getting on her suit, Yelena headed out of the room. She could hear Natasha in the kitchen fiddling with things for breakfast, and she honestly just wanted everything to go as quiet as possible.

However, she knew that she absolutely had to keep this from Natasha, because if the redhead had even the slightest inkling that Yelena was in this much pain, there would be no way that Yelena would be going on the mission. Therefore, Yelena just tried to focus on the part of her that wanted Natasha to hold her. After all, Yelena always hugged Natasha from behind every morning right after she woke up when she came dragging herself out of the bed.

She came up behind Natasha, wrapping her arms around her and just hugging her softly, pressing her aching head against Natasha's back in the center between her shoulder blades. Natasha hummed with appreciation with the affection and squeezed Yelena's arm with her hand fondly. She then turned her head to the side, shifting her body slightly in Yelena's embrace as she kissed Yelena's temple.

"Good morning, detka," Natasha softly spoke to her, and Yelena closed her eyes, trying to ignore how the pressure of Natasha's lips on her head felt like something between heaven and definitely not heaven.

"Morning," Yelena replied softly. Something in her tone must have given away her pain because Natasha quickly turned in the embrace, taking Yelena's face in her hands gently as she looked at her.

"What's wrong?" Natasha immediately questioned as she looked at Yelena, and Yelena shrugged quickly, swiftly trying to make up for whatever that she had done to make Natasha catch on to her pain.