Little Ballerina (A WinterWidow Story)

Ch. 9 Don't Hold Back

It has been about a month since Natasha and Bucky brought Ekaterina to New York and the girl is adjusting well.

Wanda introduced her to chocolate and now she can't get enough of the stuff. Peter has been teaching her the internet, specifically vines, which they quote all the time. Steve somehow convinced her join him and Sam on their morning jog. To everyone's surprise, she shared Steve's love of running and could perfectly keep up with the super soldier, much to Sam's dismay she adopted Steve's habit of yelling at him as she passed him. She would yell, "On your right!" And Steve would yell, "on your left!" As they passed Sam who was just trying and failing to keep up. As much as she loved the other Avengers she spent most of her time with Natasha and Bucky, she felt like she had finally found a home in them. She could tell that the two adults were getting closer again and she was so happy about it. She wanted them to get together so badly, I think Peter called it shipping.

Natasha talked Fury into letting her train Rina along with the other agents, despite her age she is by far the best out of all of them.

Today Natasha was teaching the agents how to run reconnaissance. Ekaterina already knew how to do this, she had earned top marks in it two years ago, top marks meaning she wasn't punished as severely. They were running through different simulations of how a reconnaissance mission would go, they were trying to observe what they could and report back. The recruits were told to observe what they could about the room and its surroundings and the people in it.

After the time was up Natasha opened the door and the recruits walked out and into the briefing room.

"Ok. Tell me how many people were in that room?" Natasha asked

"Five" one recruit said

"Good. Describe them"

"Three females and two males. The females all had dark hair and one of the males was blonde and the other was wearing a baseball cap and long coat" another recruit said

"One of the females was wearing a wig" Ekaterina added quietly

"What was that?" Natasha asked

She cleared her throat and said louder,

"One of the females was wearing a wig. It was slightly lopsided and didn't look natural"

Natasha smiled,

"Good, Ekaterina"

The rest of the recruits mumbled, Ekaterina was always two steps ahead of the recruits.

Natasha cleared her throat, gaining the attention back to herself,

"Now that you have told me what you saw, I want you to tell me what you observed"

The recruits stared at her like she had three heads. Ekaterina knew what she meant but she didn't say anything. She didn't want to give the others more reason not to like her.

Natasha tilted her head,

"No one?"

They all stared downward.

She scoffed,

"Dismissed"

They all walked out and Ekaterina was about to follow when she heard,

"No, Ekaterina, you stay"

She knew she was going to hear it. Natasha knew what she was capable of and expected the best from her.