January 15th 2012

Klara woke up with a bussing in her ears. Like the crackle of electricity. Everything seemed so bright, she rubbed her eyes. When she pulled her hands away she almost screamed. Sparks, not from a fire but electrical. Klara stopped herself from screaming and clenched her fists and squeezed her eyes shut.

"I'm dreaming." She muttered. And opened her eyes again. Nothing, no sparks and the light was normal. She sat up. "Weird." And walked into her bathroom. It was a Saturday which was she loved. Nowhere to be, nothing to do. Klara looked in the mirror, for the second time that morning she almost screamed. Her emerald green eyes were the same, almost. But they we ringed with bright white. Like lightning, the color spidered through her eyes the way grey did through Bella's and Clint's.

"What the actual fuck." She said. Loud enough for Irina to hear. She'd been living with the Barton/Romanoff family after she'd gotten discharged from the hospital. The oldest girl had commit suicide, the youngest was living with two married agents and the other two were still in the hospital. Irina had been in the worst condition, she was the one Clint had to subdue. But she'd bounced back relatively quickly. But there had been a few incidence in November where she'd attacked SHIELD agents. Irina ran inside, wild eyes and ready to fight. Her icy blue eyes studied Klara who frowned. It was weird seeing her clothes on someone else. But Irina didn't have anything and Klara was happy to share. She'd been with since right after Christmas and she'd fit in well, being only a few month's younger than Klara, she finally had something that resembled a friend.

"Nothing." Klara assured but Irina shook her head, making her long platinum blonde hair fall into her face.

"Your eyes, what's wrong with them." She'd said it more as a statement then a question.

"Nothing, I don't know what you're talking about." Klara lied convincingly. But much like Natasha and Clint it seemed like Irina had a lie detector built in.

"Right okay. Whatever." Her Russian accent apparent when she said "w". Irina had been trying to get rid of it. One of the SHIELD psychiatrists said it would help her recover. Klara didn't see how but she guessed it couldn't hurt. I she mastered the American accent less questions would be asked about where she came from which would help avoid painful memories. Irina turned for the door

"I should keep this between us, yes?"

"Yeah, do you want to take some clothes for the day?" Klara asked picking up her toothbrush.

"Sure but we are going shopping today. You, your sister, mother and I."

Klara nodded "I know."

"Good." With that Irina left.

Klara glared at the mirror. She and Bella still weren't on good terms. And Clint had to be someplace classified four days of the week. So he wasn't around to be their mediator. Natasha was good at talking to them individually but together? Not a chance. Klara hadn't forgiven Bella for making her go home alone and Bella hadn't forgiven Klara for being reckless enough to try.

"I figured you'd call mom or dad! Then you'd have to sit through their lectures in the car!" Bella would repeat.

"You should have known I wouldn't have done that!" Klara would always counter.

"Your stupidity is not my fault!" was the last thing Bella had said to Klara three days ago. Klara had glowered at her sister.

"Maybe you should learn responsibility." Klara had said while walking out of the conversation. To everyone else Bella was the more responsible and reasonable sibling. But they didn't know what Klara knew.

By the time Klara had left her bathroom Irina had gone into her own room. Klara looked over her clothes, Irina was good at returning them. A pair of pyjama's sat in the laundry basket. It was cold out, Klara didn't mind. She was never one for the heat anyway. Klara picked out some faded blue jeans, a dark green t-shirt, grey hoodie and threw on her black winter jacket and boots. Klara had four pairs of the same boots, they were SHIELD issue functional in any type of weather. She'd made Natasha get them for her saying she needed more pairs. Bella had some but she never wore them, she preferred style over function. Which on occasion Klara envied, her sister almost always looked fantastic. Not to mention her perfectly placed blood red curls always stood out, Bell had recently cut her hair, just above her shoulders. Natasha had gone a bit shorter than her oldest daughter, to just below her chin. Klara's hair always looked pretty much the same. Pin straight, layered and fell just below her shoulder blades. But she'd taken to braiding it out of her face and letting the rest of it fall. At least she knew how to do her makeup, well enough to make herself look intimidating. Although Klara always looked intimidating. She met with her sister, mother and Irina downstairs.

"We're gonna grab breakfast on the way." Bella said while looking through her bag for her car keys. Natasha walked over to Klara and examined her daughters face.

"What happened to your eyes? Did you wake up like that?" Natasha questioned, Klara nodded. Thankful her mother was acting like a concerned mother and not like she was interrogating Klara. Bella looked over

"Woah, it's like there's lightning inside your eyes."

Natasha leaned closer, Klara stepped back. "Ok well we've established I woke up with my eyes weird great."

Bella frowned "Are you sure you didn't put n contacts to mess with us?" she asked. Klara scoffed and opened her mouth to speak when both Natasha and Irina told them to shut up.

"I heard her this morning exclaim 'what the actual fuck' she sounded genuinely surprised." Irina imputed.

"I'm making an appointment with Marilyn." Natasha said. Klara raised an eyebrow "Why? She's not an optometrist."

"She'll know one." Natasha said and rested her hand on Klara's shoulder. Klara stared at it while Natasha turned her head to Bella

"Keys?"

The older girl nodded and headed out for the garage. The other three at her heels.

No one wanted to take the car as New York traffic was horrible most of the time but they didn't want to carry their stuff through the subway either so, they were stuck. The four of them ate breakfast in the food court before taking Irina into any store they could think of. Normally Klara loved the mall, she loved people watching, trying on clothes and she always bought a soft pretzel. But not today, both Natasha and Bella noticed but Bella didn't feel inclined to do anything about it. If Klara refused to forgive her sister for what she believed was the right thing then Bella wasn't going to try and rebuild the bridge. Klara had shut out her sister, why should she fight her way back in?

"Klara." Natasha said "Let's go get you a pretzel."

Klara shook her head "I'm not that hungry."

Natasha stood up "Come on."

Klara sighed "Yeah whatever." And followed her mother across the food court.

"You're off. And you and Bella have been off for months but not you." She stated. Klara shrugged, her eyes, the sparks and the crackling in her ears. The sound had come back, it wasn't bothersome but she noticed it. The hum of electricity around her.

"Didn't sleep well. I miss dad. It's weird that he's going back and forth all the time." She said. Equivocation, she thought. Tell the truth to deceive. Natasha knew her daughter wasn't telling her the whole truth but she also knew she wouldn't have luck getting it out of her in line for a snack.

"I get it. Bella's been feeling the same way." she paused "You know, you have to forgive her eventually." Natasha added.

"No I don't. Because next time there's an issue she'd going to side with you. She won't think about how I might feel or what might happen to me. She never does." Klara snapped while her mother ordered her a pretzel.

"You aren't without blame either here. You know that. You aren't one to think about how your actions affect your sister. All she does is worry about you and you make it hard for her. You've always done things that are a bit over your head."

Klara angrily bit into her pretzel "Name one time I've done that." She said, her voice muffled by the food.

"You thought you could beat 3 teenagers at Rugby when you were 11, you thought you could hold your breath for 40 seconds, and you knew you couldn't. You picked a fight with a SHIELD agent when you were 13 because you said you could beat her and most recently you decided to see I you could fit inside a locker and first you can't, secondly since October you're claustrophobic."

Klara remembered the feeling of being inside the trunk of a car.

"Valid points." She muttered and stalked back over to the table.

Meanwhile Irina was trying to figure out what was wrong with the sisters.

"She's just insufferable, she can't listen or sit still! Have you noticed that she'd always bouncing her leg or something? Haven't you seen that? She thinks she'd better at everything she does then she really is and is always trying to show people up. Once I had entered a race and was so excited to do well but Klara entered the same race in a younger division just so she could beat me. What does she have to prove? Nothing. Klara doesn't have anything to prove." Bella huffed, Irina shrugged

"Okay." She said and sipped her drink.

"That's all you have to say about that?" Bella sked, surprised. Irina looked around the mall.

"I'm a killer Izabella, I'm the pulling of a trigger and a knife slipped between someone's ribs. I have no input on your sisterly conflict."

Bella froze, had her mother ever said something like that? Of course she had, Clint to maybe but to hear it come out of the mouth of someone younger then herself Bella wouldn't have it.

"You're not a killer."

"Murderer then, assassin. It doesn't matter it's what I am." Irina answered.

"You can change." Bella said softly.

"Someday." Irina said, twirling a plastic knife in her hands.

The ride home was awkward but it had a different air to it. Klara and Bella kept glancing over at each other and not in the "I hate you" sort of way. Bella couldn't stop thinking of what Irina had said, she didn't have a family if she did she didn't know them. That's far worse than having an unforgiving, stubborn sister. Klara was still resolved not to make the first move with her sister, Klara was still thinking about October and how easy it is to blame Bella for what happened to her. From their points of view they were being perfectly reasonable, to everyone else they were stubborn, annoying and this fight was tiresome. Clint hated coming home to daughters that barely spoke, as the next few weeks passed he watched as Klara became distant even from him and Natasha. It wasn't until Klara's fifteenth birthday when every single facade truly went to hell.

February 14th 2012

After Klara was born Valentine's Day would never again be celebrated by the Barton-Romanoff household. It wasn't fair that the entire world was celebrating something else when it was Klara Taylor Barton's birthday. That was the way Klara saw it anyway. Bella woke up that morning and crept into her sister's room like she always did on Klara's birthday. Just because they weren't speaking doesn't mean Bella wasn't going to be the first person her sister sees on her birthday. But she wished she hadn't because she witnessed what had been happening to Klara every morning for the past month. Her hands were surrounded with sparks, they were quiet inaudible outside of Klara's bedroom. Bella then of course did the worst possible and most human thing, she screamed. She screamed bloody murder. Klara jolted up the bright white lines in her eyes glowing brighter than usual. The optometrist they'd gone to couldn't find anything wrong her eyes had simply developed an unusual color pattern, oh well. Clint had made sure to come home for his daughter's birthday so he and Natasha ran in and Irina came inside silently behind them. Not at all fazed by the sparks now audibly crackling in Klara's hands. For a moment it was like time stood still. Klara had been hiding this, it hadn't happened during the day and what was she supposed to say?

"Hey mom, hey dad so I'm coming out to you as possibly inhuman. That cool, not completely out of left field or anything? No? Good."

Klara frowned "Haven't you people heard of knocking?"