january
January 3rd comes and goes with no significance to anyone except Yelena. She turned eleven and everybody was none the wiser.
It’s not until Clint makes a joke about how average ten-year-olds can’t do something that she can that Yelena corrects him. “I’m eleven.”
Clint paused, turning to stare at her with wide eyes and demanded to know. “Since when!?”
Yelena’s startled at his fierce reaction. “Since January third.”
“You celebrated your birthday without me?” Clint pouts but there is hurt on his face. “I thought I was your brother.”
Apparently, Yelena did something wrong. She’s unsure of what it was but Clint is upset. “I didn’t celebrate anything.” She assures him.
Clint stares at her for a few moments before he scoops Yelena up over his shoulder, startling her. “Clint!” Yelena squirms as Clint carries her out of the shooting range where they had been shooting arrows moments before. Clint carries her right to Maria’s office where she was doing paperwork, plopping Yelena down onto the desk so that Maria had to turn her attention toward them.
Maria glanced up at Clint with a raised eyebrow, reaching out to lift Yelena off of her paperwork and into her lap instead. “Is there a reason you’ve come to give Yelena back so quickly?”
“Did you know that she’s eleven?” Clint demanded, leaning on the desk with a seriousness on his face that Yelena doesn’t understand about the situation.
Maria blinks before she turns to peer down at Yelena. “Is that true? Did your birthday pass?”
Yelena curled up against Maria, nodding her head.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Maria questioned and Yelena frowned. “We could have celebrated.”
“Why?” Yelena asked. She hadn’t celebrated since Ohio when she was six.
“Because celebrating your birthday is celebrating the day that you were brought into the world and your existence.” Clint replies, seemingly placated now that he knows that he wasn’t excluded from a party. “A celebration about you.”
“Why would you want to celebrate me?” Yelena asked, quieting Clint down. “I didn’t do anything to be celebrated.”
“Well, your birth means that you got to come into our lives,” Clint said, leaning against the desk. “We’re very lucky to have met you.”
Yelena scrunches her face up. “I don’t think I understand.” She admits. “I’m sorry.”
“That’s okay,” Maria kissed the top of her head. “We can still celebrate your birthday.”
Yelena doesn’t want to make Clint upset again so she nods her head, preferring to fiddle with the collar of Maria’s uniform instead.
“Great,” Clint grins before straightening up and disappearing from the room before either Yelena or Maria can get a word in. Maria lets out a fond sigh, cuddling Yelena closer.
“I think that you are very much something to be celebrated,” Maria tells Yelena, setting her pen down as her attention turns from her paperwork to Yelena. “Do you wanna know why?”
Yelena nods her head. “Why?”
“Because you are my daughter,” Maria leans down to pepper kisses along Yelena’s face. “And I’m so happy that you were brought into my life.”
Yelena squirms, a grin on her face at the affection. She loved it whenever Maria plants kisses along her skin because it is a reminder of the love she held for her. She liked being shown love as much as being told verbally.
Yelena settles down in Maria’s lap so that she can start to work again. She’s content to just soak up the warmth of her mama as she works.
Yelena practically forgets all about the conversation about birthdays until two days later she’s woken up by her mama scooping her up. Yelena merely assumes that Maria has to go to work and is content to snuggle into her, prepared to go back to sleep.
“I’ve got a surprise for you,” Maria tells Yelena, bouncing her slightly. “Don’t go back to sleep yet.”
Yelena yawns, rubbing her eyes as Maria carries her out of their bunk and down the hallway. She merely leans against Maria with a soft sigh, sleepy but stays awake for Maria.
Maria carries her down to the shooting range where she’s surprised to see purple and pink balloons pinned to the targets with tape and tacks.
“Clint couldn’t wait to blow up balloons, forgetting what happens to them under pressure fifty thousand feet in the air,” Maria tells Yelena, kissing her cheek. “It was supposed to be a surprise but you should see them before they pop.”
Yelena peers at the balloons decorating the room. “They’re for me?” She asked, waking up more.
“All for you, kiddo,” Clint appears with a sheepish grin. “Happy belated birthday.” He holds out a single purple balloon.
Yelena reaches for it slowly, taking it in her hands. “I’ve never had balloons before.” She said softly, feeling the latex balloon under her finger. “Thank you.”
Yelena doesn’t want to forget this moment. She peers around the room, taking in the sights of the pink and purple balloons decorating the room. She tries to commit the image to memory because she wants to remember this. Nobody has done this for her before.
“What do you say to shooting them before they can pop on their own?” Clint lets out a boyish grin that causes Maria to roll her eyes. “C’mon Maria! They’re in the shooting range for a reason!”
“I knew I shouldn’t have let you set up,” Maria grumbles but glances down at Yelena. “Well?”
“Can I?” Yelena asked, running her fingers over the purple balloon in her grip. She doesn’t know what the rules are regarding balloons.
Maria kissed her cheek. “Sure.” She sets Yelena down and Clint has a great time setting Yelena up with a bow and quiver of arrows.
The popping noise of the balloons startled her at first but Clint held Yelena steady and grins at her so she knows everything is okay.
Once they’ve popped all of the balloons, including a shiny foil one that says ‘11’ on it, Yelena picks them up off the ground. “Can I keep them?”
“Sure,” Clint grins, helping her collect them up. Yelena gets a handful of deflated broken balloons but they’re a memory that Yelena will save to look back on one day.
She’d put it with her photo of her big sister that Maria bought a photo frame for.
It’s still very early in the morning and Yelena’s stomach lets her know that she’s hungry for breakfast.
Clint scoops her up. “Sounds like the birthday girl is ready for breakfast. Tis tradition in the Barton family to eat as many pancakes as they can on their birthday.”
“You just wanted an excuse to stuff your face with sweets,” Maria replies but doesn’t tell Clint he’s wrong.
Yelena laughs when Clint pokes at her stomach, carrying her out of the shooting range. Maria follows behind them all the way down to the cafeteria where Clint approached the pretty much empty line.
The cook behind the cases of food grins at them. “Ah, you’re here!” He holds a finger up and disappears back into the kitchen, Yelena watching curiously. He returns a few moments later with, to Yelena’s astonishment, a plate stacked high with pancakes. “Special order for a special girl.”
Clint takes the tray as Yelena peers down at them curiously. They didn’t have pancakes on weekdays, in fact they really only had pancakes on special days and holidays. “For me?” Yelena questioned, peering up at the cook.
“Just for you,” He grins at her.
Yelena peers back down at the tray. “Thank you.” She said quietly. They’re chocolate chip pancakes, her favorite kind, and the chocolate chips on the very top pancake looks like a smiley face.
Yelena insists on sharing them with Maria and Clint. She thinks that this was all there was to celebrate.
Clint sneaks her candy at lunchtime and just after dinner, Yelena is settled in Maria’s office with Clint, Coulson, May, and Maria. They each have brightly wrapped boxes that they give her to open.
Yelena hadn’t had wrapped gifts in a very long time. She’s slightly unsure of what to do when she receives her first gift from Clint.
They stare at her as she sits with a big blue box in her lap, waiting for her to open it. Yelena doesn’t want to do it wrong. She shifts under the stares before looking up at her big brother. “I dunno what to do.” She whispers to him in a panic.
Clint kneels next to her and shows her how to rip the wrapping paper off of the gift, how it was meant to be destroyed and that was part of the fun of it. His gift was a stuffed rabbit with fur that was very soft under Yelena’s touch.
Coulson’s gift had Captain America wrapping paper so Yelena opens it carefully so she could save some of it. Coulson had given her some of the Captain America comic books that she had liked to look at in his office along with a stuffed bear that was dressed like Captain America.
May’s gift is wrapped in shiny red wrapping paper and was inside of a white box. Yelena stares down at the butterfly knife with awe before worriedly peering up at Maria. “Can I keep it?” She asks. “Please?”
Maria nods her head and Yelena grins, flipping the knife open and inspecting the knife.
Maria’s gift was wrapped in purple paper. It was a My Little Pony toy. It looked exactly like the one that Yelena left behind on the tarmac in Cuba. Yelena had told Maria all about it, how she couldn’t remember the show but remembered watching it on the television with her big sister on Saturday mornings.
Yelena wants to take her newfound treasures back to her bunk so they wouldn’t get lost or damaged, insisting on doing it by herself. Really it was because she didn’t want them to see her cry.
Yelena carries her things back, pausing when there is another box sitting on her bed in the corner. The wrapping paper had yellow stars on a blue background and there was even a big red bow on it.
Yelena picks it up, turning it over in her hands. She gives it a small, cautious shake. She tries to think of who else would have given her a present and if this was dangerous. Not many people had access to Maria’s bunk.
Yelena cautiously peels the wrapping paper off, ready to drop the present and bolt at the first sign of something wrong.
It’s a bag of jolly ranchers but only the blue raspberry ones. Yelena bites down harshly on her lower lip because the only person who knew of how fond she was of the blue raspberry jolly ranchers was Fury. He had access to Maria’s bunk. Yelena opens the bag and pulls one out, unwrapping it and after staring at it for a few moments, pushed it into her mouth.
She remembers being Alyssa and how fond Fury was of her at the time. This bag is like an apology, telling Yelena that he didn’t want to get rid of her anymore.
Yelena heads back, sucking on the candy in her mouth. It’s like the day of surprises never ends when she arrives and there is a cake waiting for her.
“That’s my name!” She cries out in elation, seeing the ‘HAPPY BIRTHDAY YELENA’ piped onto the top of the cake in purple frosting.
“It is,” Maria pulls Yelena into her lap, kissing the top of her head. “You ever blown out birthday candles before?”
Yelena shakes her head. She’s had cake before but not even in Ohio did they do candles. Her parents found the whole lighting them up to blow them out a few moments later pointless.
Coulson sticks eleven blue striped candles onto the cake and Clint lights them with a lighter.
They sing her happy birthday. Yelena can’t stop the grin on her face, it makes her cheeks hurt.
“Okay. You have to make a wish without saying anything and then blow out the candles,” Clint explains once the song finishes.
Yelena stares at the candles, wax rolling down the side. “Wish for what?”
“Whatever you want,” Clint grins. “Go ahead.”
Yelena stares at the flames flickering in front of her and is a little bit selfish when she wishes for her big sister, wanting all of her family in one place. She inhales and then blows out the candles with one big breath.
The cake is also chocolate with white frosting and Yelena gets a corner piece with a frosting flower on it. They save her name written out in frosting for her to have later.
Yelena is emotionally exhausted at the end of the day. There had been so much excitement and nervousness that she’s ready to crawl into bed and sleep.
However, as she crawls into bed that night, Maria takes a seat on the edge of the bed with a slim manila envelope in her hands. “I have one last birthday gift for you.” She said.
Yelena reaches out toward the folder in confusion. “You already gave me a gift.” She said, looking down at the envelope.
“I… wasn’t too sure about this gift,” Maria looks a little nervous. “You can say no and tell me that you don’t want this. You don’t have to accept it.”
“What is it?” Yelena opens the envelope and pulls out a stack of papers. She’s not too great at reading English but these papers look official and important. “Mama?”
“They’re adoption papers,” Maria reaches out to flip to the last page, pointing down at Yelena’s name. “If… if you want, you can become my daughter in the eyes of the law. Yelena Belova-Hill.”
Yelena’s eyes grow wide. “I can be yours officially? Forever? You’ll be my actual mama?”
“If that’s what you want, yes.” Maria nods her head. “You can think about it--”
“Yes!” Yelena cries out, scrambling to her knees so she can throw her arms around Maria’s neck. “Please! I wanna be yours!”
“You’re already mine, this just makes things official,” Maria kisses her forehead, cradling her close.
Yelena grins, burying her face into Maria’s shoulder. She might like this gift more than any other one she got.
Two days later, in the eye of the law, Yelena Belova becomes a Hill.