If Yelena thought the quinjet was impressive, it's nothing compared to the sight of Avengers Compound itself.

Even from the outside, she can hardly wrap her head around the size of the place, and she only grows more overwhelmed when she steps inside.

"Hey, FRIDAY," Natasha says, completely oblivious to her sister's amazement, "where's Banner?"

Yelena furrows her brows. What the hell is she–

"Mr. Banner is in the lab with Mr. Stark and Captain Rogers."

Yelena jumps, eyes scanning the room frantically. Where the hell did that come from? There's nobody else here! How could somebody possibly have answered that?

Natasha huffs. "What, scared of the voices in your head?"

"What was that?" Yelena asks. It wasn't in head; she knows that much, at least.

"It was Stark's AI," Clint tells her. "FRIDAY; she basically runs the place."

Natasha gestures for her to follow. "C'mon."

Yelena is not one to take orders (excluding when she was forced to take orders in the Red Room, of course), but still, she follows her sister through the compound, doing her best to keep the gaping to a minimum.

She'd sort of assumed, of course, that Natasha was living a life of luxury. She's an Avenger. She's a world-renowned superhero. They make t-shirts and posters and lunchboxes with her face on them. She lives with a multi-billionaire. Obviously, she was going to have some sort of luxurious lifestyle.

But nothing had prepared her for this. It's not even that there's anything particularly expensive-looking; it's that the whole place reeks of richness in a way she's only ever seen when infiltrating a location to assassinate one of its inhabitants. The fact that Natasha lives here? All of the time? All this time Yelena's been stuck in the Red Room, forced into obeying every order sent her way, Natasha's been here, living her lavish lifestyle without a care in the world? How is that fair?

"Natasha," Yelena says finally, and her sister glances at her over her shoulder. "Where did you think I was all this time?"

Natasha shrugs, a bit sheepishly, almost ashamed – though perhaps Yelena is only seeing what she wants to see. "I thought you got out," she says. "I thought you were living a normal life."

"And you just never made contact again?" She never thought to check on her? To make sure she was alright? Even if she had destroyed the Red Room, Yelena wasn't guaranteed safety. She wasn't guaranteed a so-called "normal life." No friends? No connections? No money, no job, no home? There are so many ways it could have gone wrong.

Natasha lets out a long breath. "Honestly, I thought you didn't want to see me."

Yelena huffs. "Bullshit."

Natasha and Clint both look back at her, but Yelena just shakes her head. That's bullshit, and they both know it. She wasn't worried about Yelena's feelings. She wasn't thinking about Yelena at all. She was just thinking about herself, and how she wanted to be the hero and she wanted to get out, and Yelena was barely a blip in her mind.

She can't believe this is the woman she grew up with. This is the woman she thought was her sister for years and years. This is the woman that she spent months begging to see once more, sobbing as she pleaded with her captors to at least tell her she was alive.

It's nice to know for certain, after all these years, that that love was never reciprocated. She only wishes she would have known sooner. It would have saved her a lot of heartache.

The rest of the walk is done in silence. There's nothing Yelena wants to say to her right now – and certainly not in front of Clint Barton – and it seems there's nothing Natasha wants to say to her, either. It hurts, but it's not too surprising, either. What more did she expect from her long-lost sister?

Finally, they've reached the lab, and Clint and Natasha let themselves right in, meandering around like they own the place (and they probably do; they are Avengers, after all). Yelena pauses in the doorway, taking it all in. There's so much... stuff.

That's probably a stupid observation. Of course there's stuff in a lab.

But... there's so much stuff.

Tony's seated on a countertop, using his hands to move around a blue hologram lying flat in front of him. Bruce is sitting in an office chair by his side, looking on through his reading glasses, a thoughtful look on his face. Steve leans against an adjacent counter, his arms folded over his chest as he watches.

The three Avengers look up when they enter, and Bruce greets them with a small wave that pauses mid-air when he sees Yelena. She raises her eyebrows wordlessly. This is going to be fun – if by fun, she meant incredibly awkward and uncomfortable.

"Have a nice vacation?" Tony asks, kicking his feet up on a chair in front of him.

"Wasn't quite a vacation," Clint says.

"How much did Loki tell you?" Natasha asks.

"Absolutely nothing," Tony replies, "but he did talk to Rogers, and Rogers was nice enough to share that information with the whole class."

A part of Yelena wonders why everyone is so casual about having Loki around after everything he did. A part of her is sure she doesn't want to know.

"He didn't mention anyone else, though," Steve says, eyeing Yelena with intrigue. "Who's your friend?"

Natasha glances back at her sister, who plasters on a very-obviously-fake smile in return. It will be interesting to see how she spins this.

Natasha looks back at the other Avengers. "That's Yelena," she says. "She's another Widow – was another Widow. And..." She takes a deep breath. "And she's kind of my sister."

Steve furrows his brows, looking between them as if he's going to find the familiar resemblance they don't share.

Bruce furrows his brows, too. "What?"

"Oh, god," Tony says, pinching the bridge of his nose. "As if one of you wasn't bad enough."

Yelena cracks a smile. She has a feeling she's either going to really like or really hate him. She looks forward to finding out which.

Bruce clears his throat. "Loki mentioned a vial you wanted me to look at?"

Yelena digs the set of vials out of her bag and brings it over to him. He takes them cautiously and looks them over, but there's not much to see from the outside. Yelena backs up once more, giving them their space.

Bruce takes a vial out and holds it out to Tony. "You want to look?"

Tony sucks in a breath through his teeth. "I don't like being handed things."

Bruce rolls his eyes. "Right, right." He slips the vial back into the elastic. "Guess we should get started — unless you're retired from research, too."

"I'm only retired from stupid research," Tony replies, like that makes any sense.

"Wow," Clint says teasingly, "you're telling me you don't automatically file any research for Nat under stupid'?"

"Oh, I don't give a shit about whatever this is," Tony says, gesturing to the vials with his head. "I'm more interested in learning about her." He nods at Yelena.

Yelena huffs and rolls her eyes. "You are not going to research me – but you are going to feed me. Where is the kitchen? I'm starving."

Natasha looks to Bruce. "Are you gonna need her for this?"

"I don't think so," Bruce says. "It's just an anti-hypnosis agent, right? It, what, immunizes neural pathways against external, I'm assuming?"

Yelena shoots Natasha a gloating look. "See? He understands."

Natasha just rolls her eyes.

"Bold move," Tony remarks, "making fun of the woman who's supposed to show you the kitchen."

"I did not ask for a commentary," Yelena says.

"Maybe not," Tony concedes, "but I sure do love to give one anyway."

Yelena shakes her head to herself. "Get to work, will you?"

Tony cracks a smile. "Yeah, yeah. I got it."

"I take it Loki was joking about you guys bringing pizza?" Steve asks.

Natasha glances at Clint, who looks back at her and shrugs awkwardly. She returns it with a shrug of her own.

"Kind of got distracted," she admits.

"Well, go make yourselves useful and order some pizza, will you?" Tony says, gesturing for them to go away.

Bruce frowns. "I don't know if right now is the right time to–"

"It is always the right time for pizza," Yelena interrupts. She shoots her sister a pointed look. "You dragged me halfway around the world. You owe me this pizza."

Natasha scoffs. "You dragged me halfway around the world! I didn't want to seek you out!"

Yelena scoffs, slapping her hand over her heart in mock offense. (She hopes it covers the true offense she feels.) "Wow, Natasha. Wow."

Natasha rolls her eyes. "Alright, I'm ordering pizza." To the boys, she adds, "FRIDAY will let you know when it's here."

Yelena grins. The pizza alone will be worth the trip. Taking down the Red Room will just be icing on the cake.