Nataliya's earliest memories were of Mamochka (Mommy) going away, and strangers taking her to a bleak place full of other children; some were her age, some were a little older. She didn't like it there. It was sad, and the grownups weren't very nice. She wanted Mamochka. Nataliya cried and cried for her, but she never came back. Then one day, a stern-looking man came to see her. He told her he was her father, her otets.

He was a little scary, but he took her home with him and she met two boys who were much older than her that looked exactly the same. They were twin brothers; they were her brothers, her brat'ya, Otets said. She'd never had any siblings before. It had always been her and Mamochka. Suddenly she had a whole family-almost a whole family. Otets finally told her that Mamochka was dead, and that was why she'd been taken to the awful place full of other sad children (she was barely three, then, so she didn't really understand what death was; only that it meant Mamochka wasn't coming back). Her brat'ya didn't have a mama, either, so it was just the three of them with Otets.

Otets-Daddy, insisted that Nataliya speak English from then on. His Russian was conversational at best, and he couldn't be bothered to learn more. It was easy enough for Nataliya (now called Natalie) to make the switch since she was so young. The boys talked to her all the time, and she was a bright girl, so she picked up English quickly. Daddy was distant, but Cameron and Johnathan doted on her. They both seemed to enjoy having a little shadow and an audience who was always in awe of everything they did.

Natalie had to stay inside a lot when she first came to live with her new family. She couldn't understand why she wasn't supposed to talk about Johnny in public, or why Johnny sometimes pretended to be Cam. It wasn't until she was five and well trained in calling Johnny "Cameron" whenever they were around other people that she was allowed to go out with them. She still didn't understand why she had to call him Cameron in front of other people, but she did it anyway, and that was all Daddy cared about.

Daddy tried to teach her magic when she was a little older, but she wasn't very good. He yelled at her a lot when she messed up the tricks and he often reduced her to tears. He soon stopped trying and ended up ignoring her majority of the time. It hurt, but she still had her brothers. Cam and Johnny taught her simple tricks in their down time and they were much better teachers than Daddy. It turned out Natalie was pretty good at sleight-of-hand and picking pockets. She could even count cards, which the brothers took full advantage of when playing poker with stage hands after shows. She was young and sweet and innocent and no one ever suspected her of helping her big brothers cheat them out of their money. They always assumed the brothers were hiding cards (which they were, but no on could prove anything). Natalie always got nervous when trying to perform even the most basic tricks, though, so she was never with her father and brothers. That was fine by her, because she hated being in the spotlight.

She didn't understand why Cameron enjoyed it so much.

Natalie spent a lot of time watching the shows from backstage, which meant she spent a lot of time with Johnathan when he wasn't getting ready to go on as Cameron for the "Disappearing Boy" act. They got close over the years; he was the Disappearing Boy and she was the Invisible Girl. No one ever seemed to remember that Sebastian Black had a daughter. She was never mentioned in any of the interviews. Like Johnathan, few people knew she existed. Sometimes it hurt, because it felt like she wasn't as important to her father as his magic act, his legacy. . . Most of the time, Natalie didn't really mind, though. Most people weren't in newspapers or internet articles or recognized on the streets. The only reason she noticed her own obscurity (even as a child) was because her father and brother were so well-known.

The boys left to start their own magic act when she was still young. She cried a lot when they told her they were leaving, but they promised to check in often and told her to call them any time if she needed them. Natalie called her brothers more than once to tell them that Daddy was asleep and "smelled funny" (he drank a lot after they left) and that there was little food in the house. After the third or fourth call, Johnathan showed up to pick up her up. He explained it to their father simply: Natalie was coming with him, and she'd live with him and Cameron. If Sebastian tried to fight him on it, he would ruin his reputation. Their father didn't put up much of a fight for her in the end. He had never really cared much for her company anyway.

After that, Natalie was raised by her brothers. Though, really. . . she'd always been raised by her brothers. It was just official, now. Their father died shortly after and Cameron became her legal guardian.

Natalie lived with Cam and Johnny in the Archive with their team. She loved Dina immediately (she was the mother figure she'd craved for years), she thought Jordan was funny (he was like another big brother) and Gunter. . . It took Natalie a while to warm up to the grumpy older man, but once she did, he oddly became her favorite. She even called him "Uncle" Gunter. The hardened man pretended to be annoyed by it, but everyone saw how much he loved it. Theirs was a quirky little family, but none of them would change it for the world.

Unfortunately, that wasn't their decision to make.


Ta-daaaa! I know OC siblings are kind of cliche/overdone/etc, but I really loved this idea of there being another sibling and it wouldn't get out of my head. This chapter is literally just to explain the character of Natalie Black and her early life before the show starts. The following chapters will Natalie's perspective throughout the series. I'll try not to change too much, since I love the show to bits. Hope y'all enjoy this as much as you enjoy Tapping!