Chapter 6
Sometimes, acting like a child isn’t bad.
Yelena finds herself watching and smiling whenever one of her girls does something that reminds her of her and Natasha when they were children.
Sometimes she’ll catch one of them humming a song from a movie that they watched recently.
She caught Viktoria finger painting once “just to see what it feels like”. Viktoria had paint all over her hands and colorful handprints all over the canvas and a shy smile on her face when she was caught in the act.
Varvara had expanded her vocabulary from swear words to movie quotes. She’s screamed, “I’m king of the world!” once when Viktoria gave her a ride on her back. But she also tells Yelena “nobody puts Baby in the corner” whenever she gets caught doing something she wasn’t supposed to in a last-ditch attempt to get out of trouble. (it worked once but only because Yelena was laughing so hard that Varvara got away).
Yelena has seen Alice get excited over cupcakes for dessert, insisting on tearing the bottom of the cupcake off and placing it over the frosting on the top to make a sandwich.
She has seen Varvara and Daria have backbend contests much like she and Natasha used to do. Yelena will always take the opportunity to either sweep Varvara’s feet out from under her or hoist the teenager up over her shoulder so that Daria wins. She tells her littlest that the youngest sisters have to stick together and Daria’s face always lights up.
Sometimes, like with Varvara recreating fight scenes from movies with one of her siblings, she’ll draw her other siblings in and Yelena will come across deadly child soldiers dramatically sprawled across the grass in the backyard as one of them stands victorious and cackles over their dead bodies.
Yelena doesn’t indulge in the childish side of her often. She’s a mom and she struggles to find that balance between being that authoritative figure and letting loose with her daughters. She’ll really only let herself be childish with her big sister.
She remembers how stunned Natasha was that she changed how she acted. That wild woman that was indulging in things she never got to do turned to a firm mama and mentor to these Widows that she adopted. Yelena learned to cope with her girls more than she ever did on her own.
“Mom!”
Yelena breaks out of her thoughts, turning away from her laptop to look at the door where the muffled cry came from. It wasn’t panicky so Yelena doesn’t rush when she unfolds herself from the chair she was on and moved toward the door. “What!” She calls back.
There was a pause. “It’s raining!” Viktoria calls out.
Yelena glanced over at her window, surprised to see that it was actually raining. She had been so deep in her thoughts that she didn’t even hear it. Still, she wasn’t sure why exactly she was being informed of the weather. “Yes?”
There was a longer pause this time and Yelena pulls open the door when she finally gets a response. “Can we go outside?”
“With an umbrella?” Yelena asked, moving toward where she heard her second eldest’s voice. She was surprised to see seven faces pressed against the glass as they watch the rain come down.
“No… just by ourselves?” Viktoria questioned and Yelena suddenly has seven sets of puppy-dog eyes and pouty lower lips trained on her. “Please?”
Yelena scans the seven Widows in front of her before glancing outside at the rain. “I dunno.” She mused, enjoying the way that their brows draw together in the picture of innocence as they try to convince her. The last time they all worked together to wear Yelena down was when they heard of breakfast for dinner and wanted to try it. “Okay--”
The word barely leaves her mouth before the girls are scrambling toward the back door and Yelena raises her voice. “Hold it!” She calls out and they stumble over each other as they freeze. “When I tell you to come inside then you come inside, no complaints. You must wear shoes and if you get muddy then strip down to your undershirt and shorts before coming in.” Yelena lists. “Got it?”
Various nods and chimes of confirmation come from them and Yelena lets them go.
She’s a little surprised that they wanted to go out in the rain. The Red Room utilized rain and water against them as a punishment and for survival.
Unsurprisingly, Varvara was the first to jump into a puddle, muddy water soaking her shoes and the bottom of her jeans. Yelena can see Daria glance back at her in worry that they were getting dirty but Yelena merely gives her an encouraging smile.
Irina is the one to get mud up her back and Daria was the first to get mud on her face. Yelena watches as some of them start to wrestle in the rain, others content to just stand under the showers with their head tilted toward the sky.
Alice is the first to flop back and lay in mud, sprawled out, and lets herself get rained on.
Yelena watches with a smile as her girls let loose and play in the rain. It will be worth the puddles of water and laundry she has to deal with later on.
Daria suddenly wanders over toward where Yelena was, dripping wet.
“Hi, baby,” Yelena reaches out to tuck a strand of wet hair behind Daria’s ear. “Having fun?” She cups Daria’s face, feeling her cool skin from standing under the water as she wipes away a smudge of dirt with her thumb. Daria nods her head and then after a moment extends her hand.
Yelena raised an eyebrow but moves her hand to set it into Daria’s. Her youngest starts to move back toward her sisters, tugging Yelena outside into the rain after her.
Yelena lets herself be pulled outside and into the rain, giving a minuscule flinch at the initial rain of cold water upon her before she gets used to it.
Yelena grins, pulling her youngest close and pressing a kiss to her forehead as she moves toward her other girls to join them in playing in the rain.
“C’mon, Nattie,” The recently turned six-year-old placed her hands on her hips. “It’s just water.”
“You’ll get dirty,” The eleven-year-old redhead replies, holding an umbrella over them. “Mom will be mad at you if you come home wet and dirty, Yelena,” Natasha warns.
Yelena blows a raspberry at her older sister before she steps out from under the umbrella into the rain, making a beeline right toward the biggest puddle she saw and takes a large leap right into it. Her shoes and socks get soaked instantly, dirty water splashing her shorts and clinging to her skin.
She enjoys the sight of water rippling under her weight as she hears Natasha approach with a heavy sigh, lugging the umbrella with her. Yelena kicks water at her, letting out a giggle when Natasha lets out an indignant squawk as the front of her shorts are soaked. “You look like you peed yourself!” Yelena laughs.
“Oh yeah?” Natasha kicks an even bigger wave of water at her, soaking Yelena’s jeans. “There!”
They end up being ten minutes late home, soaked in water and muddy. Yelena tells herself that she’ll make Natasha play with her in the rain each time there is enough for big puddles.
It only rains two more times before she’s taken from her home.
Yelena vows to play in the rain again.
She does.
Twenty-two years later with her daughters.