This is a companion piece to my fictions Liars and Killers and it's sequel, Couple of Master Assassins. Just a brief introduction – after the battle of Manhattan the Avengers, both loved and hated, scattered. Clint and Natasha headed for British Columbia, where they wanted to live a normal life for some time, occasionally interrupted by saving the world. What happens when a mysterious couple turns up on their doorstep one morning?
Blood in My Veins
It was a nice morning and Natasha Romanoff was enjoying it. Clint was sleeping in after a night shift in the warehouse, where he worked as a security guard. Natasha still had a couple hours before she would go to the local gym and teach a bunch of teenage girls gymnastics.
Sometimes she missed the excitement of her old life, but not on mornings like this. On mornings like this she sat on the porch with a cup of coffee and read a book – something she had never had time for before. She reached for The Lord of the Rings but before she could find out what happened in Lórien, she heard a car engine.
Nobody ever came to their house. They lived a few miles from the city and they had no friends. If any other Avenger had decided to visit, he would have known better than come unannounced. Natasha reached for the gun she kept under the bench and wondered if she should call Clint.
The car stopped in the driveway. Hired assassins usually didn't do that, but Natasha had been one long enough not to trust anything. A pair in their mid-thirties got out and they walked to the house. Natasha's grip on her gun tightened.
"Natasha Romanoff?" asked the woman.
That was it. Natasha pulled out the gun and hit the alarm button. She and Clint posed as Craig and Natalie Kirk, nobody knew their real names.
"It's all right," the man said. They both had prominent Russian accent. "We come in peace."
"Who are you?" Natasha barked.
"My name is Anna Sidorova," the woman stepped forward. "If we are right, you are my sister."
Natasha laughed. "Sister? I am sorry, lady, this is some mistake. I don't have siblings."
"How would you know?" the man asked. "As far as I know, you have no memories of your biological family."
"And what makes you think I am related to you?" Natasha didn't lower her gun.
"I've been looking for you for years," said Anna. "My parents were killed by Konstantin Dreykov when I was nine years old. He took my younger brother and sister. I grew up with my grandparents and have been looking for Danilo and Sofia ever since..."
Natasha heard the door open and she knew Clint joined her with his bow ready. "What's going on?"
"She claims to be my sister," Natasha explained, not taking her eyes off the strange woman.
"I've joined the secret service and that's where I met Mitya," Anna looked at the man. "He was on the team that hunted Dreykov. After SHIELD killed Dreykov... what?" Anna stopped when Clint and Natasha gave each other an amused look.
"Nothing," said Natasha. "What happened?"
"They found records of children brought for the training. There was a boy and a girl, they arrived on the same day – four day after my parents died. They were the right age. I had every reason to believe that it was Danilo and Sofia. We found the new names they had been given. Sofia was renamed Natasha. And once we made the connection between Natasha and the Black Widow, it wasn't so difficult to track you down to Nick Fury."
"And Fury just gave you the address?" Natasha had no idea that he knew where they lived, but it didn't really surprise her. Fury had the annoying habit to know more than he was supposed to.
"After he compared our DNAs. I have the results," Anna held up an envelope. "This is the proof that you are in fact Sofia Volkova, my sister."
Natasha looked at her and realized there was some resemblance. Anna had the same eyes and lips. She was shorter and had blond hair instead of red, but they could be sisters. Natasha put down her gun.
"Come in," she told them. "And you stay sharp," she whispered to Clint. It could still be a trap.
They sat in their little kitchen and Natasha examined the results of the DNA tests. They looked convincing, but suspicion had been keeping Natasha alive for years and she wasn't going to give it up. This woman might have been her biological sister, but that said nothing about her intentions.
"So this is how you live now? What do you do? Fury told us you are no longer with SHIELD..." Anna began.
"Yes, this is how I live. I do things. It's none of your business," Natasha snapped. "Why did our parents die? Why did Dreykov take me and not you?"
"Our parents were special agents. It was a revenge. And when his enemies had kids young enough for his purposes, he took them." The last sentence was true, Natasha had seen it too many times. She had brought him one child herself. "I am six years older than you, I was at school when it happened."
"This man helped you track me down? And he's what – your husband?" she scanned the man.
"Yes, this is my husband Dimitri Sidorov. We have two children back in Moscow. Do you want to see the pictures?" Anna asked.
"No. Listen, sisters or not, I haven't seen you in my life. You can't possibly understand me and I have difficulties understanding you. It would be for the best if we just went our separate ways." Natasha meant it. This woman was nothing to her. Anna had an almost normal life. Natasha was only acting like she did. Sooner or later she would be called to save the world again. How could Anna ever understand that?
"Sofia..."
"My name is Natasha!"
"Our grandmother is still alive. She wants to see you," pleaded Anna.
"No, she doesn't. She wants her little Sofia, the baby that was lost. I really doubt she wants a criminal, a murderer on the run," Natasha smirked.
"You didn't listen, did you?" exclaimed Anna. "We had to track the Black Widow. We know everything. You did some bad things, but we saw what happened in Manhattan. You saved the world as well."
"Some bad things, huh?" Natasha felt a sudden urge to laugh. "They burned down a hospital to get me. I forced Konstantin Dreykov to hide. I was the first teenager in history who had one of SHIELD's top assassins sent after her. They don't do that for shoplifting."
"An assassin?" Anna looked surprised. Apparently the official Black Widow files didn't say everything.
"Him," she pointed at Clint. "And the fact that I'm living with him now is one of the least crazy things in my life. I have been brainwashed, almost died a couple of times, trained to be a top class killer at the age of thirteen. I know twenty seven ways to make anyone tell me the truth. Even now I can see about fifty objects I could use to kill you. I can't cook a proper dinner, I have no idea when my birthday is, and the proper way to use a lawnmower remains a mystery to me. I am not someone you want in your family." Natasha's voice remained perfectly calm. Those were facts. No normal family would ever ask for a relative like that.
Anna looked like she had been punched in the face. She probably didn't expect her long lost little sister to be this refusing, but Natasha had never been one for tears and hugs. She had come to terms with the fact that she had no family years ago.
"Can I at least email you from time to time?" asked Anna desperately. "Just so I know that you are alive and well?"
"Fine," Natasha shrugged and wrote down a safe email address. "Just don't be upset if I don't answer for a long time. I'm just curious – what happened to our brother?"
"Killed in action. A mission went wrong about thirteen years ago."
"So he got through the training?" Natasha had to smile. Her family apparently produced very good survivors. "That's good. Very few of us managed that. You can tell that to your grandmother. Now go."
"Here," Anna pulled something from her purse. It was a photo of a family – a man with Natasha's eyes and a woman with her lips. A little girl, about six years old, with front teeth missing – that had to be Anna. A boy clutching a stuffed monkey. And a baby girl in her mother's arms.
"Thank you," Natasha said.
As she was leaning against the house and watching Anna and her husband getting in the car and leaving, Natasha tried to remember something about Anna or the brother, but her earliest memories were of learning letters with Irina Dreykova. Her family had been long shattered and forgotten. And Anna couldn't do anything that would stitch them back together.
Just before the car went around the bend and disappeared, a woman's hand emerged from the window and waved goodbye. Natasha didn't answer.
"We have to move soon. This house is compromised," she told Clint. She headed to the kitchen and started to rummage through the drawers.
"So, a sister. I have always thought you were made in a lab," Clint joked.
"So did I," said Natasha quietly. "But this doesn't change anything. You are the only family I have." She held up a lighter and sat down by the fireplace. "This Sofia Volkova died as a baby."
The photograph burned easily and Natasha watched the flames consume the faces of her family one at the time. When it turned to ashes, she got up and looked at Clint.
"What do you want for breakfast? I can try to make eggs and I promise I won't set the fire alarm off this time."