Pairing: Kate Bishop x Fem!Reader
Summary: Kate's past comes crashing down on her when Kingpin's mafia makes her their new target.
Warnings: Invasions, murder, mentions of death, I put the slow in slow burn, cursing, fighting. Reader's motives (basically involves all of the warnings).
Author's note: This chapter has a huge plot twist, and it explains A LOT of the confusion. The reader's side of the story is harsh.
I Chapter One I Chapter Two I Chapter Three I Chapter Four I Chapter Five I Chapter Six I Chapter Seven I Chapter Eight I
Some people could never move on, and Kate was one of them.
And maybe that’s why she was able to unravel the secrets no one was looking for anymore.
She’d always go to her father’s study, despite her mother occupying the place now and having trinkets all over the place, it was the place where she mostly felt Derek’s presence. Not her room, not anywhere else. But the study.
A sudden curiosity had started rising upon her chest as she playfully searched every drawer on the desk, every dusty book on the shelves. She had no idea what happened when a sudden hidden door opened behind the books, throwing everything to the ground. She gasped, gripping the file quickly and going through the papers.
It was all evidence on someone named Kingpin, and things written in her father’s handwriting. Tears prickled on the archer’s eyes as she quickly closed the file and looked at the study. Did her mom know about this?
Doubtful, she made a point to forget Derek and that night, focusing solely on Kate and the company.
Kate put everything back in place and took the file with her. Everyone had thought her father’s killer being in jail had brought justice to his name, but Kate didn’t.
Because it had to be bigger than business deal gone wrong for people in tactical clothes to invade the place, wreaking havoc, murdering Derek in cold blood in the middle of the night in his study instead of waiting for when he went out to work. And it made much more sense for him to have pissed off someone named Kingpin than for someone to hire a mafia that only wore tracksuits – and wasn’t even wearing it in the attack.
If no one cared anymore, Kate did.
“Why are you helping me?” Kate questioned, studying the stranger’s movements. The woman had sat on the ground and was going through a part of backpack with some armory. “What’s even your name? I think I deserve those answers.”
“I saved your life, isn’t that enough?” The stranger dodged by making another query. She didn’t look at Kate, but her movements had become stiff, her breathing quickened by a notch. There was more to it, more than she was willing to share.
“No.” Kate shook her head, seating down in the opposite direction, eyeing the woman. “How can I trust your motives if I don’t know them? Or else, I’ll just call you Grumpy.”
The stranger’s eyes moved to meet Kate’s before she groaned in displeasure, as if she found that the most ungrateful act ever seen by humanity. As if Kate was her Judas.
“Name’s Y/n.” She says after a long moment of silence, barely looking at the raven-haired woman. “Kingpin…” The words seemed stuck in her throat. “His mafia killed someone important to me a long time ago.”
As Kate absorbed the stranger's words, a subtle shift in her demeanor caught her attention. Breaking the usual veneer of confidence and authority, there was a hint of sorrow, a glimpse of pain hidden behind steely resolve. It was a fleeting moment, gone in an instant, but it left a lingering impression on Kate's mind, a nagging curiosity about the Y/n’s past.
“Is that enough?” The woman’s voice and demeanor came back to its usual way. Serious, stoic. Like she didn’t care at all, but it made Kate feel like maybe she cared too much.
“No, but I doubt you’ll give me more.” Kate states as she looks at Y/n, trying to catch a hold of her, to understand her. But all she does is nod.
Y/n looks at Kate, who’s looking expectantly before Y/n huffs heavily, as if she’s making tremendous force just to open up. Although she seems to know that she has no choice but to say more. As much as she’s saving Kate’s ass, the archer is as stubborn as they come.
“Look.” Y/n starts before her jaw is tightly locked, anger seeping through her pores and being visible in her expression. It wasn’t directed at Kate, she wasn’t even looking at the archer. “I am well aware you have a lot of questions, but I do not have answers to all of them. Know that I hate Kingpin as much as you do, and our forces are stronger combined.”
“Fine.” Kate seems to realize that she won’t be able to push further than that. “At least now I know you won’t kill me.”
“Took you long enough to realize it.” Y/n said, eyeing a gun magazine like that was the most natural thing in the world. Then she pulled a vanity bag from the backpack and shoved it in the archer’s direction. “There’s a change of clothes in the backpack and some food there, if you want to eat.”
Kate eagerly opened the vanity bag, not wanting to keep looking at the stranger messing with guns. “Chocolate and energy bars? That’s food?”
“Excuse me for not having a five star Michelin meal, but we’re on the run.” Y/n shook her head in disbelief at that.
“Right, and you think chocolate will do good with the amount of adrenaline in our bodies? We’ll run alright, but to the nearby bathroom!” Kate shook her head negatively, picking up one of the energy bars and opening it up. “That’s the most embarrassing death ever, Grumpy.”
Y/n sighed and didn’t answer, she seemed to be finding Kate infuriating. Instead, she focused on something else, getting up. “I’ll keep guard, you should rest.”
The archer could only look as the woman got out of the room, closing the door behind her, the steps getting farther and farther. Kate sighed as she bit the energy bar before she seemed to finally realize, in the middle of rushing out of the place she didn’t pick her phone up. News travelled fast, her mom was influential and the owner of a security company, it was a matter of time before she discovered everything and sent a search party after Kate, which meant she could become a target too. Munching the food in pure anxiety, she allowed herself to fall into the sleeping bag.
What was the deal with Y/n, anyway? There was a lot to unpack there, and she certainly weren’t a therapist to help whatever the hell that was. But she couldn’t deny it, Grumpy Sneaky-McSaverson was going to be of help. And if anything, she was the only one Kate could rely at the moment.
It took all of Y/n’s self control to resist the urge to flee the room; The sensation of flying too close to the sun, akin to Icarus, was overwhelming. Being near Kate was overwhelming. Of course, Kate found her sketchy; the skepticism etched across her face made it painfully evident. Of course, she couldn’t comprehend why a stranger would possess such detailed information and risk everything to save her. Kate was intelligent, and it was only a matter of time before she realized that Y/n held more secrets than she was willing to divulge.
Until she realized that Y/n knew her.
It was like any other day. The warmth enveloped Y/n's heart as she finally arrived at the place that felt like home, where comforting hugs awaited, pecks elicited giggles, and the sweet smell of lavender lingered in the air—a scent she associated with her fiancée, Kate. She had, not so secretly, appropriated Kate’s favorite shirt to keep her presence close, even when they were apart.
“So I can have you near me, even if we’re afar.” Had been the motive for stealing the shirt, and truth be told, Y/n wasn’t lying.
But when Y/n reached Kate’s apartment, an eerie silence greeted her. The dog’s normal ruckus wasn’t heard - he normally seemed to sense her presence even before she stopped at the front door - and there was nothing to state her girlfriend was even home. The sound of arrows hitting their targets, laughter or any Taylor Swift album loudly blasting was conspicuously absent. Which was weird, because Kate knew she was coming and she knew better than to do pranks like this.
Upon trying to put the keys in the door, it opened slightly. Y/n finished to push it open, and the previously well-oiled door groaned ominously, revealing a scene of chaos within.
Her fiancé wasn’t the most organized person in the world, but this chaos was beyond her usual messiness. She cared for independence and all of the trinkets that were now scattered all around, broken beyond repair. Including many that Y/n had gifted her. The table was upside down, the couch had been ripped and was full of bullet holes. Y/n’s heart raced as she cautiously stepped inside, the crunch of glass beneath her feet punctuating the silence. It was part of the cheesy snowglobe they got last Christmas.
Kate loved that damn thing too much to not try to fix it immediately.
“Lucky?” Y/n called out softly, her voice tinged with fear as she spotted the dog's tail.
She approached Kate’s training spot underneath the stairs with trepidation, her senses on high alert, a sense of foreboding settling in her chest instead of the warm feeling that would always be there at the mere thought of the cozy apartment.
And then she saw him—Lucky, lying on his side, a pool of blood staining the floor beneath him, a stark contrast against his golden fur. He was gone. The vision made her heart and stomach drop, she used to think of Lucky as the first of their furry kids.
Y/n's voice caught in her throat as tears streamed down her cheeks. “No, Lucky…” With trembling hands, she brushed past shattered memories, each broken trinket a painful reminder of what had been lost and leaned down to mourn with a gentle hand caressing Lucky’s head when a sudden thought stopped her on her tracks.
With a sinking heart and blood turning cold, Y/n rushed to the bedroom on the second floor upon realizing there was no sign of her lover on the first one. She stumbled over discarded and bloodied arrows, heart fast against ribs and loud against ears.
The bow was on the ground, and so was Kate’s motionless body. Eyes closed, her cozy sweater — the one Y/n had stolen so many times before was stained crimson in the chest. There was no rise and fall of her chest, no sign of the Kate full of life she once knew. Instead this was a pale shell of her fiancé. Y/n fell to her knees beside her, vision blurred with the amount of tears falling and praying for it to be a nightmare, the world spinning as she cradled Kate’s lifeless form.
"This isn't how it ends. I'll find who's responsible," Eleanor had vowed as they stood side by side in the cemetery. But as Y/n stared blankly at Kate's tombstone, clutching Kate’s engagement ring-turned-necklace — the only tangible remnant of the woman she loved — she felt nothing but numbness. The tears had long dried up, leaving behind a hollow ache.
Despite Eleanor’s promise, three years passed. And Kate’s death remained unavenged when Y/n met her demise at the hands of the same culprit.
Isn't it ironic, she mused bitterly, to travel back in time and get a chance to save your fiancée from being murdered when you used to be a mere film student that could barely hold a camera without shaking too much?
Y/n wiped away her tears, upon waking up back in her younger self’s body, she realized that while she could relive those ten years, loving Kate all over again, she couldn’t prevent her from seeking vengeance against Kingpin. Kate would fall for her, but would she listen? Would she believe Y/n? Would she take the necessary precautions to stay safe? Kate was so fucking stubborn, and she wouldn’t bear the thought of Y/n spiraling down a dark path, becoming consumed by vengeance. That was not the justice Kate sought, but it was the only one effective enough to end the nightmare considering the archer would never let go, consequently neither would Y/n. Worst-case scenario, they'd both end up dead.
So, Y/n made a choice—to observe from afar, ensuring Kate's safety while she assumed the role of a monster, infiltrating the Tracksuit Mafia, gaining their trust without arousing suspicion. She'd bide her time, waiting for the opportune moment to strike, to eliminate the threat and save Kate. Despite the uncertainty surrounding her sudden journey through time, Y/n would use it to her advantage. All that mattered was keeping Kate alive, even if it meant that this was nothing more than her dying mind's attempt to make amends for failing to protect her.
And that's why, despite bringing Kate's favorite chocolate and energy bars, despite yearning to hold her close and assure her that everything would be alright, Y/n built walls around her heart. She'd save her fiancée this time, even if the cost was losing herself and everything she ever loved to do.
