[OFFICIALLY ON HIATUS]
Natalia Maximoff didn't grow up how she hoped she would. There were demons everywhere, monsters that craved for her blood to be spilled. Not only hers, but that of her family. She was now alone, trying to figure out who she wa...
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》Prologue
"Alexei?" The young brunette girl called out, looking for her toddler brother that had crawled off while she had her back turned. "Dimitri, where's Alexei?"
She turned around, looking for her older brother, who was supposed to be in charge of both of his younger siblings in their father's absence, especially with their nanny dozing off on the job. His brunet head of disheveled toffee brown hair peeked in from the kitchen, his eyebrows furrowed.
"Sorry, Nat. I was still cooking dinner, so I don't know," he paused, noticing her frustrated expression, and replacing his frown with a small smile for her sake. "But you should try Dad's office. Al loves the calculator. I just still can't comprehend how a two-year-old can turn on a calculator, much less actually get it to work!"
The Maximoff family consisted of four people: Ivan, Dimitri, Natalia, and Alexei. Ivan was an immigrant from Russia in his mid-thirties, who met their unknown mother at his first American job as a bartender, later having Dimitri, now thirteen, once financially stable. When his lover left for some mysterious reason, he managed to carry on, but was elated when she returned years later to have Natalia, age seven, and once more for Alexei, almost two now. After Alexei, she disappeared for good, but not before leaving Ivan with all he would ever need to keep their children happy and healthy.
The young girl hurried to their father's office, where, sure enough, she found Alexei. Startled by the sudden sound of the door slamming against the door-stopper, little Alexei dropped the calculator into his lap, blinking. Natalia seemed to find this funny, and picked him up, smiling at first, until she grunted under his ever-growing weight.
"Cut down on the food, Alexei. You're too heavy!" She teased the toddler, tickling him after placing their father's calculator back on his desk.
Natalia smiled contently as he giggled, poking his belly repeatedly to keep him smiling, walking back to the living room where he was supposed to stay inside the baby gates. She passed by the kitchen again, glancing at Dimitri for a second. It was all perfect. Everything in perfect harmony. The only thing that could be better would be their father there with them.
Being a single parent was hard for Ivan, Natalia knew. She was just sad she didn't see him more often. It seemed like she only saw him on weekends, and that was if she was lucky. While she understood that being governor of a state his children didn't even live in was busy and time-consuming, was it a crime just to see his kids once in a while? Natalia didn't think so. Not that she was aware of, anyways.
Sighing as she looked at the clock, Natalia knew that her father wasn't coming home that day, and called out to her older brother yet again. "'Mitri? Can you set the table for two while I put down Alexei for the night? I'll be right there." She reassured him as she glanced back up at the analog clock reading, 8:00 PM.
"Got it, Nat! Sleep well, Al!" He called back as she ascended the stairs to the upstairs nursery, placing a still fully-awake Alexei in his crib, smiling as he stared up at her in confusion.
Natalia sat down in the rocking chair right next to the crib, cocking her head to the side to match Alexei's. "What? You're just going to stare at me instead of falling asleep?"
The little toddler stared up at his sister, a smile stretching across his face. "Nat sing!" He said, flopping onto his back on the tiny mattress, waiting for his sister to start.
She blinked, startled by his request, but picked him up again, cuddling with him on the rocking chair. "Alright," Natalia murmured, rocking them back and forth, singing the Russian lullaby she remembered their mother singing to her and Dimitri in English when she was younger. Rain was pattering softly on the window, creating a soothing white noise that also helped lull the toddler as the lullaby continued.
As her soft singing continued, she occasionally looked down to see how Alexei was. By the end of the song, he was fast asleep, his breathing coming out in little huffs, which his older sister found extremely adorable.
The only Maximoff sister kissed her little brother's head before setting him back down in the crib, pulling the blanket over his small body, then turning on the baby monitor as she walked out of the room. It was a memorized routine by now without their mother, but she could only dream that her mother would come back. It wasn't meant to be.
Pushing these thoughts out of her head, she closed the door to the nursery, when she heard a familiar voice coming from the bottom of the stairs. "Dinner for two? Did you forget your dear old father?"
Shocked, she hurried down the stairs to see a man with wet brown hair the same as her own standing in the doorway, a small smile tugging at his lips. "Natalia," he whispered, his smile growing to a grin.
"Dimitri?" She called, weak to the knees with shock at the sight of her father. "Add one more place to the dinner table."
That was the day her childhood dream came true. She wanted her family together, and that's what she got. But good things never come without a price, and Natalia knew that well. But for the time being, it was best to just enjoy their time together while they had the chance.
