Pt 4 Chapter 38- Ballet and bruises

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Y/n's POV

{I know this is quite the skip but we roll with it}

Within a blink we were waking up to the excited squeals of our daughter. I checked my phone, the 20th of March 2021. Harriet clambered up onto our bed and shook Natasha awake. She opened her eyes with a groan as Harriet flopped onto her chest and tried to hug her.

"Good morning Princess." She smiled, kissing Haz's head. I turned to look at my wife, she was gorgeous as ever. Her hair was still neatly plaited and somehow as her red roots had grown out they had made a pretty ombre to the blonde ends of her hair. All these years later she still refused to dye it out. I looked around the room as I slowly woke up more. It was still the same as it had always been apart from the extra portraits on the wall. A picture of Natasha and I's first dance as well as a canvas print of Harriet as a baby. Natasha tickled Harriet and she wriggled around in a fit of laughter.

Haz's red hair had grown long and thick and it was stunning. Each night Natasha tamed it back into a plait in an attempt to control it. As she grew, Harriet's freckles got stronger and her green eyes brightened. I looked at her, her pale skin slightly rough where she had laughed, her hair fluffy and astray. Her smile was as wide as Natasha's and it made my heart swell. Harriet was three now and one of the most playful and sweet little girls I had ever met. She wasn't fussy and always wanted to try new things, we had quite the little explorer on our hands. She was smart, but she was also physically talented. It didn't take long after her learning to walk before she ran, and jumped and skipped. She was strong, weirdly strong and somehow she could climb anything.

"She'd be praised highly in the red room." Nat would sigh, watching our daughter thrive into a confident girl. We let her grow at her own pace, learn in ways that worked for her and we would listen to her. That way we knew she would grow up to understand her feelings, with the ability to express them and learn from them. She would grow into a woman ready to take on the world with her best foot forward, a woman who could rise from her mistakes and stand up for what she believes. But for now her life was happy and as fun as we could make it.

Today's excitement was because Natasha was taking her to her first ballet class. Ballet and gymnastics was such a key part of Nat's childhood that she wanted to see if her daughter would enjoy it. But we both agreed that if it wasn't for her we wouldn't force it, instead we would allow her to choose what path she would take.

"Come on!" Harriet called, rolling off of the bed slowly. Natasha cast a glance at me, we had been up late last night. I knew that she was tired, she had found it hard to go to sleep. Sometimes she still suffered from the effects of her youth and once in a while those emotions would flood back to her. I had talked with her and held her close until she dozed off.

"Mama!" Harriet called again, now waiting in the doorway.

"It's not until 11 pumpkin." Natasha sighed, getting up from the bed. I smiled, watching Nat carry Harriet out of the room. I laid there for a moment before heaving myself from the warm embrace of the bed.

I glanced in the mirror, I too had dark circles under my eyes but they weren't just from the lack of sleep. I had been thinking, a really dangerous game. The Avengers had basically split up and for the most part weren't talking. Steve was still with us, Bruce hadn't contacted us in a while as he was completely off doing some science work somewhere. In his retirement Tony had slowly cut himself more and more from us and it had been weeks since our last conversation. Rhodey had been posted somewhere else in the world, he was still keeping an eye out for Clint but there had been no news for months. Clint was smart, he soon realised that Rhodey was on his tracks so he obviously started covering them, or perhaps it would surprise us all and had settled down in hiding somewhere. Carol, and the others were still doing monthly calls to check in. Nat was leading them but they provided little news of anything particularly interesting.

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