For the past couple of weeks, Yelena has been hanging out with Kate every chance she gets, confirming Kate's suspicions of her having no other mission to attend to as a Widow. Not that she was any busier than her.

She has slowly been introducing her new friend to the nicest spots in New York, the ones that aren't overrun by obnoxious tourists. In return, Yelena has been cooking some of her favourite meals for Kate to try and she has to admit, most of them have been damn good. Some, on the other hand, were more than questionable but she never dwelled on it too long and simply enjoyed Yelena's proud expression whenever she tried her food and complimented it.

She's noticed that Yelena is feeling more and more at home in New York and that is something Kate herself is proud of.

Constantly hanging out with her often makes her forget she has other people to call friends. So when the group chat she's in with some of the NYC LARPers was exploding with text messages about a costume night, she accepted. She had no solid experience sewing whatsoever but Missy offered to teach her.

It was originally supposed to be a night with Kate, Missy, Orville, and Grills but the latter had to cancel last-minute which was a whole thing. A thing that was most definitely Kate's fault.

Earlier today, as she left her place to go fabrics shopping with Grills, surprise surprise, Yelena joined them. She had been near Kate's apartment and when she saw her, rushed to her side without a second doubt. She had seemed a bit wary of her friend at first but soon enough they were joking with each other as if they were long-time companions.

Once at the fabric store, Kate had to ask the store owners to help her out because Grills, who knew what fabrics Missy had asked for, only had eyes for Yelena.

Now that was a development Kate Bishop was excited about.

As she was struggling to figure out the difference between eggshell and cream-coloured fabrics, it hit her. Her friend was suffering from a bad case of love at first sight for Yelena and she, both a mutual friend and romantic outsider, had all the power in her hands to turn this into something more.

Grills' instant attraction to Yelena made sense: she has the personality of a beam of sunlight and Kate knew anyone would cherish even the smallest moments around her.

Whether Yelena would be equally interested was another matter but with the entire "in love with New York" speech she had given a while ago, it was more than probable she would like to experience her very own NYC rom-com. They had watched a fair amount of romance films together in the past couple of nights and Kate felt she knew Yelena well enough to have an idea what she was into.

Most of all, Kate had been excited to play Cupid. With her own lack of a romantic life, she'd always imagined that would be her ideal role in a rom-com: the fun friend setting up the two love birds for an exciting and heart-warming romance.

She felt ready for some mischief.

So as soon as they left the store, Yelena carrying most of the bags of fabric whilst talking to Grills, who quite honestly was wearing his heart on his sleeve with the way he was nearly drooling all over her, she commenced her plan.

She took the bags from Yelena and before she could try to take them back, which she knew she would have, she whispers in her ear: 'Grills is taking you to his favourite restaurant tonight.'

Yelena took the bait just as Kate imagined she would.

'You are?' She turned to Grills, raising her eyebrow in confusion and expectation.

'I am what?'

'Taking me out to a restaurant tonight?'

As Grills was overheating with nerves, Kate moved over to his side and nudged him in the arm, saying: 'You are, right?'

'I-I don't know?' He uttered. "I-I don't think Missy would a-appreciate that, Kate. I mean, we have all this fabric.' He mouthed a sorry to Yelena.

She was still looking at him with curiosity and Kate believed her plan was too clever to just give up on like that.

'Don't worry about that! I'll explain and you can join us afterwards! Besides, I bet Missy will be too busy rectifying my horrible sewing skills to give any mind to you arriving a bit later.' Kate said, holding up the bags. 'Yelena loves some good food so have fun on your date!'

'D-date?' Grills stammered and Kate winked at him in reply.

'I'll see you guys later tonight!' And with that, she left Grills on the verge of fainting and Yelena with a rumbling tummy alone on the sidewalk. She mentally patted her back at her genius, knowing that as far as match-making goes, this was one of the smoothest things she had ever done.

That's what she originally thought.

But when Wendy, fully in police officer attire, dropped Grills off at Missy's place a couple of hours after his supposed date, she realized that maybe her plan had been a failure.

---

'The man of the hour!' Orville yells when he notices Grills walking in, and he seems ready to taunt his friend with questions about his date. Kate had told everyone what she had done and both Missy and Orville had been amused and excited about it. So when Grills finally rang the doorbell, all focus on the costumes ceased.

Kate wants to greet him in a similar, enthusiastic fashion but when she sees a worried Wendy and Missy appear behind him, the excitement leaves her.

'Is everything okay?' She asks instead. She means to ask where is Yelena? But reading the room, she thinks that bit will follow quickly.

When Grills walks a bit closer, she notices a faint bruise near his eye.

Wendy's face softens at her concern and nods. 'Everything is okay. There has been a bit of a situation a couple of streets away but the suspect has been released from custody and the others are safely in the hospital.'

'Custody? Hospital?' Kate's voice cracks. 'Grills, where the fuck is Yelena?' She feels stupid for worrying about Yelena Belova as she knows she would fight her way out of any situation. But she can't help but fear the worst despite Wendy's reassurance. Was her friend in the hospital?

Then Grills looks her dead in the eye, whispering under his breath: 'Is your friend, like, a ninja?'

That's when Kate knows that Yelena is fine and the person released from custody is most definitely her.

'Can someone please actually explain what happened?' She demands.

Wendy leans against the counter. 'As Grills and Yelena were walking home, a couple of guys started bothering them-'

'I swear I wanted to defend her but that woman needs no one to fight for her,' Grills chimes in. 'She beat them to a pulp!'

'Someone saw, called the police, and we took her with us to the station but after hearing her and Grills' testimonies, we've determined it was self-defence,' she continues. 'The guys she attacked are still unconscious but breathing. It could have been a lot worse.'

Kate sighs with relief. 'Did they do that to your face?' She asks Grills and he nods at her. Then, she asks: 'Did you at least have a nice date?'

Grills shrugs and follows it up with a big sigh. 'To be honest, I don't think she was very interested in me.'

This makes Kate feel bad about the entire set-up so she looks at him with an apologetic look. She's too focused on processing all this information to do or say anything more.

'I think I have some business to attend to,' she finally says, grabbing her jacket. 'Missy, thanks for the sewing lesson! And Grills, I'm so sorry.'

He nods and Kate quickly heads out.

Yelena, what kind of mess did you get yourself into?