Kai Romanoff

98

The girls sat outside a restaurant in silence.
"The gas, the counter agent, it was synthesized in secret by an older widow from Melina's generation. I was on the mission to retrieve it and she exposed me and I killed the widow that freed me." Yelena broke the silence.
"Did you have a choice?" Nat asked.
"What you experienced was psychological conditioning. I'm talking about chemically altering brain functions. The two are completely different. You're fully conscious but you don't know which part is you, I'm still not sure." Yelena shrugged.
Nat and Kai exchanged a glance. Nat sat next to Yelena and started tending to her wound.
"Is that all there is left?" Nat asked.
"Mmm-hmm. It's the only thing that can stop Dreykov and his network of widows. He takes more everyday. Children who don't have anyone to protect them. Just like us three. Maybe one in 20 survives the training becomes a widow. The rest he kills. To him, we are just things. Weapons with no face that he can just throw away. Because there is always more. And no one is even looking for him, thanks to you and Alexei." Yelena said as Nat finished.
"Alexei?" Nat asked moving back to sit beside Kai.
"Dad." Yelena scoffed.

"Did you ever look for your parents? Your real ones?" Yelena asked.
"Not sure if you care, but mine were both murdered by their best friend who then sold me to Dreykov." Kai told her.
Nat rubbed Kai's back sympathetically.
"My mom abandoned me is the street like garbage. What about you?" Nat asked.
"They destroyed my birth certificate so I reinvented it. My parents still live in Ohio. My sister moved out west, had a kid, my niece." Yelena told them.
"Oh really?" Nat asked amused.
"You're a science teacher. You're working part time though, especially since it's your daughters senior year and you want to spend time with her. Your husband, he renovates houses." Yelena told them.

"That's not my story." Nat shook her head.
"Well what is it then?" Yelena asked.
"I never let myself be alone long enough to think about it." Nat said.
That sat there in silence.
"Where are you going to go?" Nat asked.
"I don't know. I don't really anywhere to go back to, so I guess anywhere. Don't." Yelena looked down.
"Don't what?" Nat asked.
"You're going to give me some big hero speech, I can feel it." Yelena shook her head.
"Ha, sure Nat makes a speech." Kai laughed.
"I don't have a speech, but maybe an invitation." Nat said.

"To go to the Red Room and kill Dreykov?" Yelena asked.
"Yeah." Nat nodded.
"Even though the Red Room is impossible to find and Dreykov is too slippery to kill?" Yelena asked.
"Uh huh." Kai nodded.
"Sounds like a shitload of work." Yelena said.
"Yeah." Nat looked at Kai.
"Could be fun." Kai matched her smirk.
"Yup." Yelena said.

"I saw where he put the key." Nat said.
"Top drawer, green cabinet." Yelena smiled.

¥¥¥

     The girls walked towards an old jet and Rick.
"I said we needed a jet." Nat told him.
"Yeah, you know what you didn't give me? Time. Or money, I'm not made of jets." Rick said.
"Obviously." Kai eyed the dinghy plane.
"I thought you were suppose to be the best. Like a real pro." Yelena said.
"Oh I beg your pardon, tsarina. Was the free flat and lifetime supple of Kissel not to your liking." Rick asked.
"Ha." Yelena laughed sarcastically.

"Don't let her wind you up." Nat told him.
"No, I take exception to impugning my professionalism." Rick said.
"Well you did give us a generator that crapped out after six hours." Kai told him.
"You, too, huh? Tag team?" Rick looked between the two girls.
"Aw he's sensitive. I see why you keep him around." Yelena said.
"Where's the rest?" Nat asked.

Rick pulled out a duffel bag and opened it.
"Voilà." Rick said.
Yelena grabbed a granola bar and opened it.
"I stashed that like five years ago." Nat told her as she took a bite.
"How is it?" Kai asked.
"Dry, really dry." Yelena nodded before getting into the plane.
"You know, you're getting dangerously close to running out your tab. Supplies I can tally, but you bring me attention from the authorities, all my prices go up." Rick told Nat and Kai.
"What's that suppose to mean?" Nat asked.
"Your mate, Secretary Ross has been sniffing around my affairs, to the point which I've got contacts declining my calls. I'm a private contractor." Rick told them.

"You are sensitive." Nat smiled.
"You're a very annoying individual." Rick told her.
"Awe come on like you could ever be mad at this face. Or more realistically her face. Bow chica wow wow." Kai winked before walking past him.
"Kai-" Rick started.
"I'll make it up to you." Nat told him.
"Mmm-hmm. That's what you say every time." Rick said as Nat gets in the plane.
She just smiles at him and he closes the door.