Chapter Forty-Two
Dear Alya,
It's been a while, hasn't it? I'm sorry about that, Babydoll. I wanted to stay under the ice for as long as it took to find a way to deprogram Hydra's trigger words from my mind. A few days ago, Princess Shuri was successful. The words no longer work on me. She asked for you, by the way, she wants to give you the grand tour of Wakanda soon and she's chomping at the bit for a new friend. Everyone here is very kind and very patient. I think you'll love it.
A little bird told me that the Red Room was destroyed last year. I'm glad. I"m just sorry I couldn't be there to help. I also hear that you've finally met your aunt, she's a spitfire, isn't she? You two are going to get along just fine. Your Babushka was always there for you when I couldn't be, she took care of you and she loved you, make sure you give her a kiss for me.
By the time you get this letter, you will have already turned twelve. Happy belated birthday, Babydoll, I'm sorry I couldn't be with you. I promise, if I can help it, I'll be with you on every single one that's coming. You're getting to be such a big girl. I remember the day you were born, they put you in my arms and you stared up at me with those beautiful eyes. I never knew that I could love someone as much I love you. You'll understand what I mean when you have a baby of your own forty or fifty years from now.
You're a well travelled kid, aren't you? What's your favorite place you've been to so far? Maybe we'll plan a trip for just the two of us when all of this clears up. We'll have plenty of opportunities to get to know each other. Trust me, you'll see me so often, you'll be sick of me.
How are your mother and Uncle Steve? Is that punk getting himself into any trouble? I bet he wouldn't dare with your ma around. You better not either. I've heard stories about your little hijinks. I have a few choice words for Clint Barton encouraging your mischievous activities. Speaking of, give Mischief a pet for me.
I've written my share of letters during the war and they never get easier to end. So I'll just say this; I love you and I look forward to seeing you soon. Kiss your ma and your aunt for me, tell your sister I said 'hello', and give Steve a big raspberry, he hates those, it'll be great. Trust me.
Love,
Papa.
Alya had never received a letter before. This was her very first one. She thought it was perfect. Her father had taken the time out to write to her so that she could write back to him. It was such a simple concept, but Alya was over the moon about it.
So much so, that she had read it nearly ten times.
"Reading it again?" Wanda smiled at her little sister's excitement.
"Yes." Alya nodded. "He says 'hello'."
"That's nice of him." Wanda never expected Bucky to be thinking of her. They had met briefly before the fight at the airport and they never had an entire conversation. She could only assume that Alya told him about her and he remembered. She truly appreciated it.
Alya just nodded and skipped out of the room to head downstairs where Mischief clawed at her jeans for some attention. So, naturally, she reached down and scratched under the feline's chin, mindful of the new collar Steve and her mother purchased for her birthday.
It was a beautiful shade of white which contrasted with the cat's dark fur so perfectly. Mischief seemed to like it, too. As soon as it was put on her, she never tried to take it off. In fact, she strutted around the room with a new confidence.
She was such a silly cat, but Alya wouldn't have her any other way.
"Reading that letter again?" Melina asked with a knowing look.
"Yup." Alya popped the 'p' before straightening back up to plant a kiss on the woman's cheek.
"What was this for?"
"Oh, nothing."
Melina just smiled and kissed her nose before sending her off.
That Alya was something special.
And she was also up to something.
"Hi!" The twelve year old somersaulted over the back of the couch, plopping down right in between Natasha and Yelena who just so happened to be watching some boring documentary with Steve and Peter.
"Alya, if I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times; stop jumping on the furniture." Natasha chided.
"Sorry." The look on Alya's face clearly indicated she was far from being sorry. "What's this?"
"None of your business, go away." Yelena put it bluntly.
"Be nice."
"Yeah, be nice." Alya grinned cheekily.
Yelena turned her gaze from the television onto her niece to scowl at her. Sometimes she wondered if Natasha didn't stop Alya from being so cheeky with her because she wanted her to experience the same annoyance that she felt back in Ohio as payback.
The look on her face must have been enough to scare the child, because before she knew it, Alya was crawling onto her mother's lap.
"Alright, cut it out, you two." Natasha played referee and changed the subject. "What's in the letter? Intelligence? Classified information?" She joked.
"No." Alya shook her head and handed it to her mother, not caring if she read it or not, leaning up to kiss her cheek.
"Aww, that's sweet." Natasha returned the gesture.
"That's what Papa told me to do." Alya spoke dutifully and gave Yelena the same treatment.
Yelena made a show of wiping her cheek, but internally, she didn't mind it. She even made sure she hadn't hurt Alya's feelings after she did so. It was only supposed to be a joke, but jokes stopped being funny when someone was hurt.
She wasn't that mean.
Alya just giggled and slid off of the couch, marching right up to Steve and standing in front of him. She planted a serious look on her face and stared him right in the eyes.
"May I help you?"
"Special delivery for Steve Rogers." She saluted with the wrong hand.
"From who?"
"Bucky Barnes."
Steve was in the process of asking what the special delivery was, but quickly stopped himself when he figured it out all on his own. "Return to sender."
He was going to kill Bucky.
Back in the forties when they were kids, whenever Steve wasn't feeling his happiest, his mother would always blow a raspberry on his cheek. It always elicited an uncontrollable stream of giggles from his mouth because he was so unbelievably ticklish.
That wasn't something anyone else needed to know.
Especially not that monster child in front of him.
"You can't do that." Alya frowned, looking at her mother. "Can he do that?"
"He can." Natasha nodded.
"No fair."
"Life isn't fair, Baby." Yelena shrugged. "Learn to deal with it and go away. You're disturbing us. Isn't that right, Peter Parker?"
"Huh?" Peter had been so engrossed in the documentary that he wasn't paying them any mind. "Uh, yeah sure."
"See? Go bother someone else."
Alya huffed and stomped back over to Yelena with the full intent of giving her a piece of her mind, but before she could actually reach her, Natasha grabbed her and held her close.
"Before you do this, I feel it's in your best interest that I let you know that if you decide to continue and you end up getting yourself in trouble, I'm not going to save you."
"But she's bullying me."
"So then I guess you need to learn to ignore her." Natasha mock gasped.
"Why can't she learn to stop bothering me?"
"Because you're the one that has the issue."
"Not fair."
"I heard you when you said it the first time." She tapped her nose. "Go play with Mischief."
Alya grumbled something about being outnumbered as she pushed herself off of her mother's lap, but the woman didn't pay her any mind.
Wanda was so sweet that Alya never had to deal with an older sibling intentionally pressing her buttons. Peter never did it either, he was too agreeable and even-tempered.
Alya needed to learn how to fight back or ignore in these situations. Natasha was just allowing it to play out so that she could. Alya was quite spoiled in the sense that she really had no one around her lovingly getting on her nerves, which was why it was such a shock to her when Yelena had no problems doing it.
At first, Natasha allowed her to run and complain to her, but enough was enough.
She needed to thicken that skin of hers.
Especially if she was going to be the one who started the provocation.
"Yes, Baby." Yelena managed to make it worse. "Go feed the cat."
Now, initially, Alya rolled her eyes and began to walk away, but when Yelena made another unhelpful comment, she whirled around and lashed out at her.
But Yelena only laughed and caught her arm. "Don't do that, Baby."
"Stop it!" Alya pouted, attempting to hit her with her other arm.
But all Yelena did, was gently push her away before her hand could connect with her arm, propelling her forward with a swift, yet gentle kick to the behind that made Alya stumble a bit.
"Hey." Steve gave her an unimpressed look as Alya crossed her arms over her chest.
"No, she came over here to do one thing." Yelena shook her head. "She wanted to see how long it would take for her to get on my nerves. She's been at it all day. You let her get away with too much. Fight back, it will do her some good. She is not made of glass. She is just spoiled."
And sure enough, Alya came back and tried to fight her once again. "I'm not spoiled." This time, she tried to kick the woman's shins, but Yelena swept her legs out from under her, making her fall onto the carpet below.
"Then why do you think you can hit without reciprocation? Huh?" Yelena leaned over to hold Alya right where she was.
Alya screamed and tried to wiggle out of her grip, but Yelena had the upper hand. She wasn't going anywhere.
"Mama!"
"No." Yelena shook her head. "You started this, now I will finish it. Mama has nothing to do with it." She spoke calmly.
"Do they always fight like this?" Peter got distracted by Alya's irate war cries during her attempts at hitting Yelena.
He had never fought with May this way, but he supposed that was because May wasn't as young as Yelena. He also wasn't as...unruly as Alya.
Maybe this was how they did it in Natasha's family.
"They're just warming up." Natasha rolled her eyes, keeping her focus on the movie in front of her.
Her sister wasn't going to do anything to hurt Alya, so it wasn't like she needed to watch her while this was happening.
She had a 'special' way with kids.
Yelena loosened her grip enough for Alya to roll onto her stomach, facing the tv, but that was about as far as she could go. Her attempts at wiggling loose were all futile, Yelena knew what she was doing.
So eventually, Alya sighed in defeat and rested her cheek on the carpet.
When her aunt felt the shift in body language, she loosened her grip and let go of the girl. "Are you done?" She questioned. "Are you calm?"
"Yeah." Alya nodded, having successfully expelled her energy.
"Ready to get up?"
"Uh huh." She yawned quietly.
Steve had to admit that he was a little impressed by the way Yelena had worn Alya out. She was a little rough around the edges, but firm. She was good with her, though he had been skeptical when she kicked the girl.
But that just seemed to be their relationship.
Alya pushed and Yelena pushed back, but harder.
The corners of his mouth turned up into a smile when Yelena helped Alya stand up, pulling her to sit on her lap.
Alya rested her head on the woman's shoulder and allowed her fingers to play with the ends of her blonde hair as her eyelids fluttered.
"I don't want to hear it, Poser." Yelena glared at her sister who just so happened to be smirking at the sight.
She was wrapped around that little girl's finger just like the rest of them. The only difference is, she denied it.
That didn't make it any less obvious.
"Is she asleep?" Melina asked, holding some suspicious looking contraption.
"Out cold." Natasha told her, glancing at the raven-haired child.
Alya stood no chance of staying awake with Yelena's soft humming of 'American Pie' lulling her to sleep. She was so deep in sleep that Yelena had been able to move her so that her head was resting on the couch's armrest to give her some support.
And it seemed like it was one of those slow days, because Peter had also fallen asleep. He tried his best to fight it, but eventually lost the battle when his head fell onto Steve's shoulder.
Of course, Steve didn't mind at all. He even threw his arm around him to make him more comfortable.
"Good. I have a way to extract that pesky tracker." Melina showed them the item in her hand. "Quick and mostly painless."
"Mostly?" Natasha quirked a brow.
"Well, she might feel a bit of a pinch." She waved her off. "Yelena roll up her pants leg. The right one."
Yelena nodded and did as she was told, exposing Alya's thigh so that her mother could get to it. She was glad that there was a better way of extracting these trackers. When she took her own out, she didn't have the luxury of doing it so painlessly. Time was of the essence and the longer she left it in her body, the more danger she put herself in.
She didn't have any choice but to rip it out herself.
Which wasn't fun by any means.
Melina took a gander at Alya's sleeping form to make sure the girl was, in fact, deeply asleep. The soft little snores coming from her mouth were enough to put her at ease.
She pressed the tool up against the child's leg and pressed a button, causing it to make a resounding 'click'. That meant that it had been successful in doing what it was meant to do.
"There." She smiled, pulling it away only to press a cotton ball and a bandaid onto Alya's new wound before she rolled down her jeans. "It's out. You don't have anything to worry about anymore."
Alya hadn't even so much as flinched. She must have been exhausted not to wake up for that.
"Thank you."
Another crisis had been averted, and that was all Natasha cared about.
"Do you have to go?" Alya pouted, looking up at Melina.
"Yes, I have to go, Пчелка." Melina cupped her chin. "I have nine pigs waiting for me back home."
"Can I come with you?" She asked hopefully.
"I think you would miss your mama too much, don't you?"
"I guess."
"Wow." Natasha laughed. "Thanks, that really makes me feel good inside."
"We'll see each other soon, okay?" Melina promised. "Do you still have that knife I gave you?"
"Yeah." Alya never went anywhere without it.
"You keep taking care of it for me, okay?"
"Okay." She sighed and accepted a hug from her grandmother before her aunt approached her.
As hard as it was to say goodbye to Melina, Alya knew it would be even harder with Yelena. As annoying as she was, Alya liked having her around. She was really fun to be with when she wasn't teasing and she made her mama smile more often.
"Now don't look so sad." Yelena pretended to be aloof. "You won't have time to miss me before I'm back."
"I won't miss you." Alya sniffled, proving otherwise.
"I know." The blonde smiled, pulling her in for a hug. "Listen to your mother, she's getting old."
"Yeah." That got Alya to laugh. "Say hi to the pigs for me."
Yelena nodded and ruffled her hair before pulling Wanda and Peter in for a big hug and shaking Steve's hand.
The last person she had to say goodbye to was her sister. Leaving her was always hard and it always made her stomach flip. "I guess this is it."
"For now." Natasha could see the tears in her eyes. "Hey. Don't do that, Little One. You know you can always come and find me. I'm always going to be here."
"Whatever, Poser."
"I mean it, Yelena." She gave her a serious look. "You and Alya are my top priorities. You know that."
"Yeah, I know that." But hearing it was very nice.
"Listen, if something happens to me..."
"Nothing is going to happen to you." Yelena nearly panicked at the very suggestion. If anything were to happen to Natasha, she didn't think she'd be able to cope. She needed Natasha.
"I know." Natasha sprung into action and took the girl's hands in her own. "But if something does, I need you to do something for me."
"Anything."
"If something happens to me and her father can't take care of her, I want you to take Alya." She told her sister. "Bring her home with you and Mama, or if you want to live in the states, you can do that, too. Just make sure she's safe and loved."
"What?" Yelena was a little shocked by the favor in question. She didn't know anything about kids! Alya was the very first one she ever interacted with in a normal setting. She didn't know how to take care of one. Not like Natasha. "Take Alya? Natasha..."
And it wasn't like she didn't want to, but the very idea of something happening to Natasha is what scared her the most. She didn't think she'd be able to function.
But Natasha needed her to do this for her. In her line of work, anything could happen and she needed be sure of what would happen to her child.
"I know it's a lot to ask, you don't even have to answer me right now. You don't even have to say yes. Just think about it."
"You trust me with your child? I wouldn't know what to do with her."
"Of course I trust you. You're one of the only people I trust the most with her. You're legally listed as her next of kin." Natasha assured her. "And you're great with her. She loves you."
"Okay." Yelena nodded. "Okay, if anything happens, I will take the baby."
"Thank you." That was such a load off of her mind.
"But nothing is going to happen to you." Yelena insisted.
"You're right." Natasha wrapped her arms around her sister and squeezed. "Nothing is going to happen to me."
"Promise?"
"I promise."