Hey guys, sorry it took me a while, this will come up again in one of my later chapters so make sure you read! Reviews are greatly appreciated and follows are too! I do not own Marvel or their characters, Elliana is my character.

Birthdays are usually a celebratory occasion, but not to Natasha. Every birthday was a reminder of her childhood, a reminder of those who didn't make it, a reminder of the 'Graduation ceremony' she went through at 15. So she usually chose to ignore the date entirely, and treat it just like any other day. She never told anyone when her birthday was, except Clint- he managed to find out.

Clint woke up to find a wave of red hair tickling his chin, Natasha was sleeping still, her back pressed against his chest. She was holding onto his arm like a lifeline, it was tucked under her neck, basically preventing him from moving. Usually, he would wake her so they could spar, but he knew today was gonna be a tough day, it was her birthday after all, or 'День смерти' as Natasha liked to call it.

Clint tried to withdraw his hand from under the sleeping assassins' neck, but she immediately woke and tensed up before she realized where she was. Clint squeezed her shoulder gently and she relaxed under his grip. It was a technique drilled into her since childhood, to wake up and attack. Natasha had mostly managed to shake the skills she had acquired in her youth, but some were a lot harder to shake. But she rolled over and greeted his grey eyes with her green ones.

"Hey", she whispered

"Hey" He replied softly

"What time is it?" She asked, yawning softly

"Erm..." He looked over Natasha's shoulder to look at the clock on her bedside table "4:30"

"Mmm... Wanna go spar?" She asked, a smirk forming on her lips

Clint smirked back, "You make your awesome блины if I win"

"Yeah and you make yours if I win, plus bacon"

"Deal"

They both clambered out of bed and went down to the gym level, Tony had kitted it out to fit all the avenger's needs, there was a shooting range and sparring mats for the two assassins, punching bags for Steve, and a medieval area with loads of other-worldly weapons for Thor.

Natasha and Clint headed into the room and headed to their respective lockers, Natasha changed into some sweats and a loose, high-cut shirt, Clint changed into some joggers and a shirt. They wandered over to the mat and prepared to spar.

Natasha made the first move, a simple kick to the chest, but Clint caught her foot and pulled her towards him, throwing her off balance. She made a jab at his thigh, missing her mark and just throwing herself off balance even more. Clint twisted his body so he was straddling her waist and looked down at her.

"Looks like your making breakfast"

Natasha scowled at him and arched her back, freeing her hands. She threw Clint off her and rolled away, poised for when he came at her again. Clint stood at the other end of the mat and eyed her carefully, she ran at him, twisting at the last second to wrap her legs around his shoulders, so she was sitting on him his neck between her thighs. So he did something no one else could get away with, he snuck his hand up behind them both and tickled her gently. She squealed in surprise and tensed up, but Clint just tickled her harder. She fell off him and landed on the mat far from elegantly.

"Clint!" She said harshly, "That is not fair"

"I won didn't I?" Clint was wearing a smirk so big Natasha couldn't help but smile.

"Help me up?" She asked weakly, "I think you winded me"

Clint laughed and reached out a hand towards her, but instead of using it to pull herself up, she used it as leverage to pull him to the floor and straddle his waist, legs pinning his arms.

She smiled sweetly, "Thanks for the breakfast"

Clint gave her a look that was both amused and annoyed, "Seriously Nat, the injury card, you know that's not fair"

"Neither was tickling me"

"Fair point, okay. Bacon as well?"

Natasha nodded and climbed off Clint, leaving him to struggle up to his feet by himself.

They both wandered into the kitchen 10 mins later, Clint still complaining about her using the injury card.

"You know that gets to me Nat, after Budapest" he shuddered at the memory "I never want to see that again"

Natasha smiled "But I was fine, and I was back on the field after a week"

"Yeah, against doctors orders, plus Fury made you swear to never go off alone again"

"For the last time, I didn't go off alone!"

Clint just sighed and headed into the kitchen, Natasha went to sit on the spinny chairs by the island. They were the only ones in there, and Clint knew he had to bring it up, as much as she hated it. So he cooked a couple of pancaked and wandered over to the seat next to her.

"You wanna talk about what day it is today?" He asked quietly

Natasha just nodded her head, after Clint found out about her birthday 'night', which usually involved her having flashbacks about her time in the Red Room at the slightest hint of a trigger, Clint made her promise to tell him one new thing about her past every year, to help her burden. It helped a lot, it allowed Clint to help her more if she had a flashback, and it helped Natasha carry the burden she had.

"Did I ever tell you about Elliana?" her voice was small and quiet

"No,"

"Well you know I was the only one who made it to the graduation ceremony"

Clint just nodded his head

"Elliana was a girl my age, we became friends. We comforted each other after beatings, we helped each other deal with the 'classes' they taught us. We even avoided each other in training drills so we wouldn't have to kill each other. We made it to 12 before they..." her voice trailed off

"They what Nat" Clint pressed gently

"It was our first mission, we were supposed to seduce a target and then eliminate him, but I misjudged the shot, I hit him square in the head. But it hit her as well."

There were tears forming in her eyes as she spoke

"It wasn't bad, it was just a graze. But the Red Room didn't like mistakes, so when we got back they made us face-off. They told us only one of us could walk back out of the room. We couldn't do it at first, we just sat at opposite ends of the room and tapped morse code to each other. They started to get impatient after a day or so, they sent Ivan in to hurry us up."

The tears were starting to fall now

"We started to spar, Ivan was jeering at us, spitting names and insults at us. Eventually, he told us that if one of us didn't kill the other, he would. So we agreed in morse code to die together, we stopped fighting and stood up to face him. He hit us both and handed me the gun he had, he told me I was the strongest and that I had to learn to kill. But I couldn't do it. So he held my gun hand and forced my finger to pull the trigger"

The tears were really falling now, they were beginning to form patches of salty water on her sweats.

Clint pulled her close to him and rubbed her back gently.

After a couple more minutes of hearing the redhead sob, Clint climbed off the chairs and led her over to the sofa, once he got there he lay down with his feet stretched out along the cushions. Natasha curled into him, resting her head on his chest.

"It's okay Nat, you're not there anymore"

He got no reply from the woman on his chest, "Nat?"

"It's not that," her voice was hoarse from crying and her hair was all messed up, "Elliana was killed on April 14th, it's why they made it my birthday, it was my first kill within my class."

Clint sighed and just pulled her closer, "It's okay, you have a whole other year before your reminded again"

Translations:

'День смерти'- Deathday

блины- pancakes