Author's note!

Thank you to the two who reviewed my previous chapter: Ninja0404 is a fanfiction geek; maelsic.

:)

Natasha spent the required minimum time to check the quinjet post-flight before exiting the vehicle. She was met with an oily and dirty Tony, who looked nothing more than surprised and confident.

"Miss me already?" He teased, wiping his hands on a towel.

"I didn't expect you to meet me on the roof." Natasha responded, ignoring his remark for the moment.

Tony smirked. "And I didn't expect company- I was making sure it wasn't an ugly surprise." She raised an eyebrow. "You're a beautiful surprise; what brings you here?"

Natasha walked towards him, both of them heading for the door to go back inside. "I need to use your computer and possibly hack into a few records."

"Sounds fun. Who are we hacking?" Tony questioned with thrill.

"Russian records of birth." Natasha answered. His expression was priceless, but it soon faded into a smirk.

"Ooh, does little Nat need information about her family?" Tony teased. Natasha sent a glare in his direction- mainly because that was exactly what she needed. "Oh! Let's do this, then!" He added with more determination than before- this was more personal and he knew that.

They fell into silence as they made their way to his laboratory. Out of habit, he went to the computer and she stood to one side.

"I've never hacked the Russian Records; why aren't we just running a scan?"

"I may have been deleted from the records and given a new past identity." Natasha answered. After a second, she moved closer and budged him out of the way. "Allow me." Her fingers quickly glided across the keyboard, first typing in her details and sending a search. Without waiting for results, she opened a new search and did a general search for all girls born in Russia within a one year time frame- she was not trusting any information they had given her.

"Do you want…"

"No." Natasha answered. Stark shrugged and returned to whatever he was working on, which at first glance looked like a normal car- but she knew he was probably doing some 'iron man' adjustments to it. She turned her focus back to the screen as the number of girls born began increasing in hundreds.

Time to narrow the search. Younger brother. As she added that detail in, it began decreasing and increasing at the same time, but at least that narrowed it down slightly. She then focused on the girls; any record of them past eighteen years old would narrow it down- they couldn't be her. Driving records, marriage records, school records.

She returned to her original search and found the records that she had seen before- which clearly showed her parents had died when she was a baby. Taking the location and rough descriptions of her parents, she added that as a side category for her second search; this left her with three lists. Taking all of the 'Natalia Romanovas' from the first list, she quickly examined them. Half of them were definitely fake profiles made. However, one of them caught her eye.

Deceased at age eight. Pulling up that file, her heart almost stopped. Now that she had the added detail of having a younger brother, that changed everything. This could actually be her.

"Find anything?" Tony asked her.

"Possibly." Natasha answered.

Tony was by her side in a few seconds, taking over and pulling the file up on the holographic display. A photo appeared of a family; mother, father, little girl and baby boy. The little girl must have been five in that photo.

Within minutes, several more photos and information appeared. The disappearance and death of the little girl at age eight. The death of the mother a year later due to a disease. A science award for the boy.

"Their DNA is on record; want me to compare it?"

"What?" Natasha spluttered out. How was that possible? "Russia has their DNA?"

Tony shook his head. "No. We do; they live in America. He's a doctor- Dr. Daniil Romanova, and a donor."

Natasha looked back at the hologram, where a man stood there in scrubs. Surely he couldn't be older than 26. She was only 31 herself. "Do it."

"It'll take a while to get an official result." Tony informed her. "Why didn't you look into this before?"

She took a seat on the stool, the system running her DNA against a man who she might have never met. "I did look, but I've been having dreams about… a younger brother, parents who didn't die when I was a baby. I had to look into it again with those added details."

Tony cocked an eyebrow. "Those must be some intense dreams to have Natasha Romanoff taking them seriously." He commented with a half-smile, half-smirk on his face.

"It's better to know." Natasha stated, looking at him. "I'm sure you'd do the same thing if you found out something else about your family."

"You mean other than the fact that devilish handsomeness is a Stark family trait?" He sent her a mischievous grin. "You're probably right."

Natasha looked at the screen from the corner of her eye but returned her focus to Tony when the scan wasn't finished. "You probably interrogated Steve when he joined the team, him having been personal friends with your father."

"'Personal friends'? More like Howard worshiped Steve. I could get that from my father, so asking Steve is pointless." Tony replied, expression souring a bit.

There was one thing Natasha could do, and that was read people in a heartbeat. It was obvious Tony's family was a touchy subject and she shouldn't continue it. "Where's Pepper?"

Tony watched the scanner absentmindedly for a few seconds before returning his gaze to her. "I think it was some sort of disaster relief program that she started- there's this huge benefit she's running and she specifically asked me not to go." He pulled a face. "Something about me getting drunk at a charity event and embarrassing her."

Natasha nodded. "If it makes you feel better, I'm glad you were here so I could use you."

"And don't I just love being used?" Tony asked rhetorically, smirk returned.

"Don't I know it." Natasha commented, but instantly looked away from him when his computer beeped. She waited to see the 'negative' results- Red Room Girls didn't get happy endings- but found herself honestly surprised.

"It's a match. He's your brother." Tony confirmed what she saw on the computer.

Natasha stared at the photo again for a few seconds before looking at Tony, still not fully able to process it all. "Where is he?"

Tony was back to typing at his computer; there was only a slither of a thought as to why Tony didn't just get Jarvis to look, but that was dismissed. "He lives in Boston, Massachusetts."

"Send the address to my phone." Natasha practically ordered as she turned on the spot and headed out of the room.

Within a minute she found herself flying off and glaring at Tony, who joined her in the cockpit. "I hope you brought your suit, because I'm kicking you out."

"There's no way I'm missing this; besides, you need a friend." Tony replied smugly.

Natasha still wanted to boot his arse out of the quinjet, but he was right about one thing- she shouldn't be going alone. Of course, Tony wasn't her first choice, nor second, and probably not even third. However, he was there and he was as good as anybody.

Natasha and Tony walked up to the counter- well, more like strutted- and both waited a few seconds for the woman to look up. "We are here to see Daniil Romanova." Tony stated, as if there was a pre-set appointment, which there wasn't. Natasha gave a short nod, agreeing with him, as if that would reinforce his words.

"Well, Doctor Romanova is very busy- there was a car crash a few hours ago, and over ten people need emergency treatment…" The woman explained somewhat apologetically. "May I ask the reasoning of your visit? If you need a doctor, I think Doctor Kidd is on break, so she could help you…"

"We are prepared to wait for Doctor Romanova until he is free." Natasha informed the receptionist.

The woman looked surprised. "Are you family or close friends?" She asked confusedly. "He never mentioned any relatives."

"Like I said, Ma'am, we are willing to wait for him. It's about his sister." Natasha informed the woman. "Is there somewhere convenient for us to wait?"

"Oh, um, you can take a seat over there." She motioned to some plastic chairs by the far wall. "I'll see if he can spare a minute." She picked up a phone and held it to her ear, pushing a few buttons. "Doctor Romanova, please report to reception desk if available."

Natasha and Tony took a seat where requested. "You didn't tell me we would have to wait."

"I didn't invite you to come along; therefore, shut up." Natasha responded.

Tony, for once in his life, followed orders. For all of two seconds. "Why don't we just leave a number and grab a hotel until his shift is over?"

A tall, skinny man with dirty blonde hair, dressed in a stained labcoat, strolled over to the main desk. "What's wrong?" He asked, his words holding a light Russian accent.

"Those two over there want to talk to you… about your sister." The woman said, pointing them out. The man looked utterly surprised and turned to face them quickly.

"My… sister?" He muttered, sounding confused. He approached them hurriedly. "Who are you?" He asked, clearly trying to remain totally professional, but his curiosity still leaked through.

Tony opened his mouth to talk, probably blurting everything out, but closed it when she elbowed him in the ribs. Natasha pulled out a printed photograph. "Is this baby you, with your parents and older sister, Natalia?"

Doctor Romanova squinted at the picture. "Um… looks like it. Natalia… No one's mentioned her in years." He said, sadness tinting his tone. "What about my sister did you want to talk about, exactly? She died when I was young."

"There's a funny story about that. She's not dead." Tony responded with a smirk.

Natasha sighed; yes, it was a bad idea to not throw Tony out of the quinjet when he walked on. "When you have a free moment, I was wondering if we could sit down and talk."

The doctor looked conflicted for a moment before nodding. "Alright, my shift ends in," he checked his watch, "twenty-eight minutes. We can talk then."

Natasha offered him a firm nod. "We'll wait here for you."

"Doctor! The patient is refusing the tetanus shot!" A nurse cried from across the room exasperatedly. Doctor Romanova sighed, bid them a quick goodbye, and rushed over, disappearing behind the thin Emergency Room divider curtains.

"If you speak a word to him today, I will tell Pepper the real reason you went to Peru last month." Natasha threatened.

Tony narrowed his eyes slightly before relenting. "You can be really evil sometimes; you'd ruin Pepper's surprise out of revenge?"

Natasha sat back down crossing her legs. "You don't care about your life enough for me to threaten you directly."

Forty minutes later, Natasha stood up when Daniil walked back over to them. Tony stood up, too, pretending that he hadn't been hacking the hospital from his phone.

"Alright, I'm off-duty. Sorry for taking so long; one of the patients went into cardiac arrest and there was no one else who could effectively take care of it." Daniil explained, already leading the way to an empty staff lounge. "We can talk in here."

Natasha and Tony followed him. "Thank you." She responded politely, going over her thousands of ideas of how to bring up the fact that she was his sister.

Daniil went over to the counter and grabbed a water bottle and a bag of chips. "I hope you don't mind- I haven't eaten in ten hours." He said politely, sitting tiredly in one of the cushioned chairs and beginning to eat.

"Not at all." Natasha replied, watching his movements carefully.

"Good. Now, what's this all about? My sister… she was kidnapped and murdered when I was only a little child. Did you find out who did it?" Daniil quickly interrogated, formalities out of the way.

Tony took a seat, pulling out his phone again as Natasha addressed the doctor. "As my friend mentioned before, your sister is not dead. Yes, she was kidnapped, but her murder was faked." She answered truthfully.

Daniil paled, pausing in his eating and staring, shocked, at her. "W-what? Natalia is… is alive? Where has she been all these years? What happened to her? Why am I only now learning of this?" He questioned, words tripping over each other in his eagerness to learn the truth. "My sister… she's still out there…" This was muttered under his breath, as though he was still having trouble processing it.

"Until recently, she wasn't aware that she had a family. She was made to believe that they had died in a fire when she was… young. However, recent developments in… recently she discovered the truth. Which is why you are only finding out about this now." Natasha glanced over at Tony, who wasn't even pretending to play on his phone doing who-knows-what anymore as he watched them.

"But… she knows now? She… knows about me?" Daniil asked quietly.

She nodded, but upon realising he wasn't paying attention to her movements, decided that verbal responses were necessary. "Yes."

Daniil sat forward, small meal totally forgotten. "Where is she now, then? Can I see her?"

"What's to say you haven't already seen her?" Tony inputted.

"Stark." Natasha growled warningly.

"What?" Daniil asked, stunned and confused. "I… I have?" He visibly began searching his memories for some sliver of a memory involving his long-lost sister in his current life. It was clear to see when he came up empty.

Tony stood up, obviously ignoring Natasha's death glare. "Natalia, if you're not going to tell him you're his sister, what's the point of us flying all the way out here?"

"So he can patch up the multiple knife marks I leave on your body for being a complete and utter arse." Natasha replied, not even wanting to see Daniil's reaction right now, for fear of what it would be.

Daniil made a choking sound. "N-Natalia? Y-you?"

"Привет, маленький брат." Natasha replied with a bow of her head.

"Сестра?" Daniil asked, sounding hopeful. "Неужели это ты?"

Even though they'd already established that she was, in fact, his sister, he seemed unable to fully grasp the notion. "Это я." She confirmed again.

Daniil looked torn between embracing her and bursting into tears. "I can't believe you're… here! After all this time!" He said shakily, studying her intently, eyes suspiciously wet.

Natasha took a breath and turned to Tony. "Get out." After a second he relented and walked from the room. She turned back to Daniil, taking a step forward. "You are so much taller than me." She observed before pulling him into a hug.

He quickly buried his face in her hair, returning the hug tightly. "You're so much shorter than I'd thought you would be." He somewhat-teased, breath hitching.

She wouldn't usually let people get away with commenting on her height- even Clint- but she just couldn't hold it against him. "I'm still your старшая сестра- remember that."

Daniil chuckled tearfully against the top of her head. "I never forgot."

Natasha didn't respond to that, because she had forgotten. But right now, that didn't matter, because they were reunited.

The end

Thank you for reading!