All I've seen since 18 hours ago
Is green eyes, and freckles, and your smile
In the back of my mind making me feel like
I know something now, know something now
That I didn't before.

DISCLAIMER: THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE BALLAD OF SONGBIRDS AND SNAKES!

Before Kate knew it, it was May and the date of the play was approaching fast. Rehearsals were almost every day, and even Peter could (mostly) make it through his lines. Yelena was maddeningly perfect, as per usual.

That was the other weird thing. Yelena.

After the day when Kate had gotten locked out, her and Yelena's arguments didn't have the same energy. Now, there was an undercurrent of...something. Not friendship, but close. Warmth.

"Patience perforce with willful choler meeting makes my flesh tremble in their different greeting," Tony recited. "I will withdraw, but this intrusion shall, now seeming sweet, convert to the bitterest gale." He exited the stage, swishing his cloak dramatically behind him. From the audience, Pepper, who'd come to watch rehearsals today, facepalmed.

Kate turned to Yelena and took her hand gently. Sparks seemed to race up her arm from the places where their skin touched. Kate was close enough to see flecks of gold in Yelena's green eyes. "If I profane with my unworthiest hand this holy shrine, the gentle sin is this: My lips, two blushing pilgrims stand to smooth that rough touch with a gentle kiss."

"Good pilgrim," Yelena said, "You do wrong your hand too much, which mannerly devotion shows in this; for saints have hands that pilgrim's hands do touch, and palm to palm is the holy palmer's kiss."

"Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too?"

"Ay, pilgrim, lips they must use in prayer."

"O, then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do. They pray: grant thou, lest faith turn to despair."

"Saints do not move, though grant for prayer's sake." Yelena paused and turned to Gamora. "Do we have to kiss?"

"You will in the actual performance," Gamora said patiently. "But you don't have to right now."
"Good," Yelena replied.

"What, you don't wanna kiss me?" Kate teased.

Yelena looked back up at her. "I swear, Kate Bishop, sometimes—" Kate dodged a punch Yelena aimed at her shoulder.

"Get a room!" Quill yelled.

"Fuck you, Peter Quill!" Yelena shouted back.

"Stop!" Gamora snapped. "Kate."

"Then move not while my prayer's effect I take." This was the part where they would kiss, but instead Kate just kept going. "Thus from my lips, by thine, my sin is purged."

"Then have my lips the sin that they have took."

"Sin from my lips? O trespass sweetly urged! Give me my sin again."

"You kiss by the book."

"And stop," Gamora called. "That was perfect. Time to go, though." She looked at Nat. "Is there—"

"No, it's raining, there's no soccer today." Natasha looked to Kate. "I'm supposed to be driving you home."

"Alright," Kate agreed. She grabbed her bag and followed Natasha and Yelena out the door.

"So," Natasha said, opening the car door. "Kate."

"Yeah?"

"Yelena tells me you're a Hunger Games fan?"

"Um, yeah."

"Have you seen the Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes movie yet?"

"Not yet."

"So, would you be open to coming with us to see it on Sunday?"

Kate blinked a few times. "Seriously?"

"Yeah, seriously?" Yelena asked from the passenger's seat. Kate's stomach twisted a tiny bit. She'd thought they were okay, now, but maybe it made sense that Yelena wouldn't want Kate to come along.

"Sure," Nat said. "Tony, being Tony, bought way too many tickets."

"Wait, who all's coming?" Kate asked.

"Me, Tony, Clint, Thor, Loki, Bruce, Steve, Bucky, Peter...uh, and Carol and Val. And there are two tickets left over, so you two are coming."

"Wait, I didn't say yes yet," Yelena protested.

"Yeah, but I'm your sister and I don't want you home alone."

"Why not? I've been home alone before."

"Reasons." Natasha pulled the car to a stop in front of Kate's house. "So?"
"Uh, sure," Kate said.

Natasha grinned at her. "Great. See you there. 10 pm this Sunday."

Kate grabbed her bag and scrambled out of the car, darting to her door before she could get too soaked.

Lucky greeted her at the door, tail wagging madly. "Hey, buddy!" Kate scratched his head, then sighed. She grabbed a raincoat and clipped his leash to his collar.

That night, her mom came home looking exhausted. "Hi, Mom," Kate said tentatively.

"Hey, Kate. Um, listen−there are some guys coming to do work on the house Sunday night. You can't be here."

Kate furrowed her brow. "Um, okay? What kind of work?"

"Uh−plumbing. Yeah, plumbing."

"Okay. I don't see why−never mind. It's fine, I already have plans for Sunday," Kate assured her mom.

Eleanor looked relieved. "Perfect."

Kate nodded. "Uh-huh."

"So, who do you have plans with?"

"Um, Natasha Romanoff invited me to go see the new Hunger Games movie with her and Yelena. There's going to be other people there, too, though. Carol Danvers, Loki Odinson—"

"Loki−that's Thor's brother, right?"

"Thor's sibling."

"Right. He's dating that girl−Sylvie?"

"Yes, they are dating Sylvie. Sort of. It's complicated."

Eleanor bit her lip. "Is Sylvie going to be there tomorrow?"
"I don't think so. Why?"

Eleanor forced a smile. "Never mind." She gave a big and very fake-looking yawn. "Look, Kate, I'm exhausted. I'm going to bed. Okay?"

Kate nodded. "Alright. Night, Mom."

"Night, sweetheart."

◊◊◊◊◊

Kate wasn't overthinking this.

But...she also wasn't not overthinking it.

Honestly, it was just a movie. It would be fine. Clint and Peter were going to be there. She could just hang out with them and not talk to Yelena the whole time. She didn't have to talk to Yelena. Not that she was afraid, exactly, to talk to Yelena. She wasn't afraid. It was just...something about Yelena gave her a weird, squirmy feeling like a hundred tiny bats lifting off in her stomach.

And when she started thinking about stomach-bats, that was probably her cue to stop thinking and leave the damn house.

She grabbed a jacket, shouted a goodbye to her mom, and darted out the door.

Luckily, it was warm and the theater wasn't far from her house. She walked the five blocks it took to get there and went in.

Apparently, she'd been thinking for too long, because everyone else was already there.

"Finally," Loki said. They smirked. "I was beginning to think you weren't coming."

"No one thought you weren't coming," Carol intervened.

"Loki, stop harassing people," Valkyrie scolded.

"Let's go!" Peter cried finally, tapping his foot impatiently. Kate thought that if they didn't go now, Peter might actually explode.

"Alright, alright," Natasha agreed. "Let's go."

They bought enough snacks to make Carol ask if they could actually eat all that sugar, to which Yelena gave her a look and said "Carol, never question how much sugar they can eat."

After way too many ads and trailers, the movie actually started.

The beginning was a scene that hadn't exactly been in the book−that is, things from the scene had been described in the book, but the scene itself hadn't really been. Kate leaned towards the screen, morbidly fascinated by the rabid dog.

After a few minutes, Peter leaned over and whispered, "Hey, do you think Snow's hot?"

"What the fuck, Peter?" Kate hissed. "Where's this coming from?"

"I don't know! Everyone says he is!"

"I guess? Now shh, I'm trying to watch."

Kate sipped her slushie and turned back towards the screen.

Lucy Gray's performance at the Reaping startled a giggle out of Tony and Clint, at least until Natasha hissed at them to shut up. When Peter first saw the rainbow snakes, he turned to Kate and murmured "I have a bad feeling about this."

"Shh!"

Clemensia getting bitten by the snakes startled Peter, Thor, and Clint badly enough that they all yelped.

"What?" Thor turned to Loki. "You know about snakes. Does she die?"

"Not in the book," Loki snapped. "Now be quiet, you're embarrassing yourself, and worse, me."

Thor fell silent, muttering under his breath.

"Wait, I'm super-confused," Peter said after about an hour. "I thought you said Coriolanus was the bad guy?"

"He's the bad guy in the other books, this is a prequel−wait, have you not read the other books?"

Peter winced. "Uh...no?"

Kate rolled her eyes. "You're reading them. I'm going to make you."

"Fine."

Nobody spoke until near the end, when Coriolanus went looking for Lucy Gray.

"Wait, is he going to kill her?" Thor demanded. "Loki! You didn't tell me—"

Loki glared at him.

"Yeah, wait, does Lucy Gray die?" Tony chimed in.

"Shut up!" Yelena snapped at him.

The whole theater fell silent. Kate jumped a tiny bit when the first haunting notes of The Hanging Tree played out of a speaker near the back of the room.

Are you...are you...
Coming to the tree?
They strung up a man...
They say he murdered three.
Strange things have happened here, no stranger would it be
If we met at midnight
In the hanging tree.

The eerie tune and lyrics spun around the room, Lucy Gray's voice picked up first by on-screen jabberjays and then by mockingjays, turning the simple song into a whirlwind of music.

Coriolanus roared in fear or rage−it was hard to tell−and fired his rifle into the trees. Kate saw Yelena stand and quickly leave the room.

"I'll be right back," she whispered to Peter, who nodded.

She slipped out and saw Yelena pressed against the wall, fists clenched.

"Hey," she said tentatively. "You okay?"

Yelena looked up and gave her a slightly strained smile. "I am fine, Kate Bishop."

"What's wrong?"

Yelena hesitated for a moment and Kate thought she might not answer when she said, "It's just...the gunfire. It's...loud."

"Oh." Kate took a step closer. "Do you want a hug?"

Yelena shook her head, then said, "Actually...sure."

Kate hugged her. Yelena was slightly shorter than she was and seemed to fit perfectly in her arms. After a second, Yelena hugged her back.

All too soon, Yelena pulled away slightly. Not much, though−their faces were separated only by a few inches. Kate couldn't help remembering that night at Yelena's house when she'd noticed how green Yelena's eyes were. Under the bright theater lights, she could see flecks of brown and gold in her jade-green irises.

And then...Yelena kissed her.

It was lightning-fast. Kate barely had time to register Yelena's lips against hers before Yelena pulled away and disappeared back into the theater.

"Wait−Yelena—" Kate tried to call out, but the door had already closed.

Sighing, Kate followed her into the theater and settled back between Clint and Peter just in time to hear the end of Loki's rant about how the shape of the snake bite on Snow's arm would mean the snake actually was venomous before Val told them to be quiet. 

A/N: Ok, but first of all, the bite had two fang marks, and only venomous snakes have fangs like that.

Second of all, in all honesty, who's hotter, Lucy Gray or Snow?