𝐑𝐄𝐃 ▹ romanoff

шесть.

𝐒𝐈𝐗.

❝ mother knows best ❞

"EVERYBODY NEEDS PRACTICE."

Somehow, Captain America himself was able to steal a car, which led to the three to driving to New Jersey. Ana was beginning to doze off in the backseat, her eyes suddenly feeling heavy. She made out snippets of the adults' conversation, smiling at their playfulness.

"It was not my first kiss since 1945. I'm ninety-five, I'm not dead. Ana, you ever kiss someone?" The girl almost laughed at his question. Natasha perked up, a strange glint in her eye.

"She's only twelve, of course n-"

"I have, one time." Natasha almost choked on air and Steve swerved the steering wheel slightly. The former turned around completely while the latter looked into the rear view mirror, both sharply saying:

"What?!" This almost shook Ana awake, but she was expecting this reaction. She smiled as she looked back on the memory. She was 6, and the boy was 5. Natasha entered protective mother mode, as Steve became the protective uncle. "Who?!"

"The kitchen boy," Ana mumbled, sleep welcoming her. "Dmitri."

And with that, the girl fell asleep. Natasha gaped at her daughter. Steve blinked several times. The woman scoffed and huffed out a laugh. Steve watched his friend curiously, noticing the way she kept her eyes on the girl with a fond look.

"You know her, don't you?" A vague question, but nonetheless, both knew the meaning. "Who is she to you?"

"My daughter," Natasha replied softly. Steve turned sharply to her, a look of bewilderment on his face. Nat turned back to the front of the car, her eyes on the road, yet held a distant look.

Natasha Romanoff had a daughter. Steve guessed that no one else knew, probably except for Barton. The woman that Anastasia was looking for was the woman next to him. The soldier didn't know what to say. He had so many questions – When? How did it happen? The father was the Tsar? Was Nat there when the Imperial family died? But it wasn't the time for those questions. Instead, he asked, "Does she know?"

To which Natasha Romanoff replied simply with a, "No. Not yet."

↽──♕──⇁

They eventually ended up at an abandoned military base. Natasha had woken Anastasia up, as Steve reminisced his days from training at the base. The three entered the building ahead of them, which they discovered to be an office of S.H.I.E.L.D. Steve's eyes lingered on one of the portraits before he moved further down the room and stopped in front of a massive bookshelf.

"If you're already working in a secret office..." He pushed the bookshelf, revealing an elevator behind it. Anastasia brightened up at the idea of a secret room. "Why do you need to hide the elevator?"

The elevator took them down to a room filled with old computers, Ana grimacing at the dust covering most of the place. Natasha plugged the flash drive into the computer at the front, quoting a movie as she initiated the system.

"Rogers, Steven. Born, 1918." The computer said in an accented voice. Ana almost jumped at the sudden sound. A device scanned their face, to which they realised it was analysing them and retrieving their data. It started: "Romanoff,"

As expected. The words that followed made Anastasia's heart drop. The words she wasn't expecting.

"Natalia Alianova. Born, 1984."

Natasha looked at Ana as soon as her real name was announced. The girl let out a shuddered breath as her head slowly lifted to look at the woman who was her mother. Her real mother. Ana's eyes began to tear up, but she wasn't sure what for. Was it because she had found her mother? Or because despite knowing, Natasha hadn't told her anything?

"Ana-"

"Romanova, Anastasia Nikolaevna. Born 2001." She wanted to scream. She wanted to cry. She wanted to jump and hug her mother. But she also wanted to run away, far, far away. Natasha took a step towards her daughter, but the latter turned away, attempting to hide her tears. The older of the two felt her heart break, and she halted.

"Just focus on the mission." The waver in her voice was obvious, but Ana quickly composed herself, sniffling and wiping away her tears. Reluctantly, Natasha nodded, facing the computer again. Steve watched the two, their longing for each other obvious.

They learned that the computer, no, the entire room was the brain of Arnim Zola, and that HYDRA was a parasite within S.H.I.E.L.D. The screen showed Howard and Maria Stark's death, and the girl looked away without watching the full thing. Anastasia felt her heart wrench for Tony. Suddenly, the doors began to close, trapping the three. The girl panicked. They were going to die.

"Steve, we got a bogey. Short range ballistic. 30 seconds tops."

"Who sent it?"

"S.H.I.E.L.D." S.H.I.E.L.D was HYDRA, HYDRA was S.H.I.E.L.D. If they were both the same thing, who actually killed her family? HYDRA? S.H.I.E.L.D?

"We're... We're gonna die." Ana held the sides of her head with her hands. She couldn't die now! She was only twelve!

But neither Natasha nor Steve would let that happen. The mother grabbed hold of her daughter before the soldier spotted a small opening in the ground, throwing the metal door aside before grabbing the other two and jumping into the hole. He raised his shield above the three of them just as the place began to explode. Flames licked at Ana's skin, itching to touch her. Her ears rung as her consciousness began to slip away. Steve barely managed to get them all out of the rubble just as the STRIKE agents arrived, searching for them. Rumlow noticed a footprint in the dust, realising that they had survived the blast.

"Call in the asset."

AUTHOR'S NOTE

i bet y'all didn't think ana would find out this early, huh? HAHA

it wasn't ideal but the setting just felt right to me, so here we go! at least now we can include all the cute mother-daughter moments <3

- seriphiaa