look after you × winterwidow & oc

V. the cool bad influence aunt

"You're too young for revenge, Katyusha, please, it's much more complicated than you think..." Natasha felt a lump in her throat. They were on their own for three days and they were already arguing about something that should never be brought up ever again.

"You don't have to take me all the way there." Katya came closer, some of the tension fading away. "But I guess you'll need to find some other people, so at least let me do that with you. I want to help someone like you helped me, please mama."

Natasha extended her arm, implying that she wants the girl to come closer. She did, immediately clinging to Romanoff by wrapping her arms around her's waist. Only then did it hit her how much all this news affected her daughter as well. She wasn't the only one who for almost a decade lived in that false conviction that this terrible place was gone. Katya did too, all this time believing that the people that contributed to making the first years of her life a living her were gone.

And today she learned that everything was a lie. In addition, once again she faced someone who took her place. She saw what she was supposed to become. Many things that Yelena said surely brought back deeply buried memories. All the escaping, running, and fighting she witnessed and took part in, forced her to use these scattered parts of programming left inside her.

Katya was only twelve and all this time Natasha had not once thought about how all of it could be affecting her. Holding her close, returning the embrace, she couldn't find enough strength to push back this irritating voice, repeating over and over again failure, failure, failure.

"Are you finished?" Yelena's voice ruined the moment. She approached them slowly, a bag of chips in her hand, head tilted to the side. "So are we doing this or not?"

Natasha sighed, letting go of Katya and looking down at her just as she wiped away a single tear.

"I feel like I'm going to regret this, but yeah." the redheaded nodded, meeting Yelena's gaze. "For now at least, we'll see how this plays out."

Belova did a fist pump and muttered something to herself. Katya giggled in answer and took a chip from her when offered after the blonde closed the distance between them and sat by the edge of the table.

"I saw where that guy put the keys." the girl sat next to Yelena. Instead of leaning on the table, she sat on it fully, her legs dangling a few inches above the ground.

"What?" Natasha sent her a confused look.

"We are going to need a car, right?" Katya shrugged. "Top drawer, green cabinet."

Yelena's laugh echoed in the chilly evening air and extended a hand to the girl, high-fiving her. "Each minute I like you more, kid."

Romanoff arched an eyebrow slightly. "Could you not encourage this?"

Belova clicked her tongue "Don't be such a mom." she pushed herself away from the table and handed the bag of chips to Katya. "Hold this."

"Excuse me, but I'm trying to make a decent human being out of her." Natasha reached for the snack gesturing at the girl with her other arm. Katya protectively pulled the bag closer, embracing it with both her arms.

"And I'm here to ruin your efforts." Yelena gave a shrug with her arms up, walking backward toward the now deserted and empty garage. "Since she's your daughter, then it looks like I'm on the cool, bad-influence aunt duty." she gave a mock salute and turned on her heel, facing away from them.

A moment later Natasha and Katya could hear a short noise of satisfaction when the blonde found what she was looking for exactly where the girl said it would be.