Widow Sisters and Friends (Restoring Our Broken Hearts)

Meet the Family

Summary: Laura Barton has invited Natasha and Yelena to stay for a weekend with her, Clint, Lila, Nate, and Cooper because she wants to meet this younger sister that Natasha keeps talking about. Natasha is ecstatic about the visit, but Yelena is considerably less enthused and finds herself quite nervous indeed.

   "Are you sure about this? These kids don't know me, and I doubt being Aunt Nat's sister is going to make them automatically love me or whatever," Yelena spoke as they approached the little country house, the nervousness building inside of her with every step they took.

The Barton's had invited the both of them to stay for a weekend since Clint's wife had apparently been dying to meet Yelena since she first heard about her. Yelena was extremely uncomfortable and not ready to face this scary encounter, whereas Natasha was excited as could be about the visit.

"What?! They're going to love you."

"What makes you so sure?"

"You're fun, goofy, and you like to annoy people. And it seems that annoying seems to grow on most people," Natasha teased, bumping her shoulder into Yelena's. Yelena just rolled her eyes heavily, groaning unappreciatively. However, she did appreciate Natasha's attempts to make her feel better.

"I'm sure they're going to adore you. Just let yourself be cool. Y'know, like you did with the rest of the Avengers when you first met them," Natasha pointed out, and Yelena nodded a bit, noticing with dread how the house was growing even closer.

"Yeah. But they were adults," Yelena expressed, and Natasha stopped to look Yelena in the eyes, her light greens piercing Yelena's own honey-greens.

"Maybe so. But you know, I've found that getting kids to like you is a lot easier than getting adults to like you. I mean... Nate's four and he'll love you forever if you just smile at him and talk to him. Lila's just the sweetest and all you have to do is just talk to her like you talk to me. And good grief, Yelena... Cooper still gets a kick out of bathroom humor and other crude, inappropriate stuff," Natasha explained, and Yelena nodded, trying to memorize all of the information.

"You and Cooper will practically be soulmates," Natasha joked, a grin spreading across her face, and Yelena just glared at her playfully, shifting her bags into the same hand so she could shove Natasha's shoulder. Natasha laughed heartily.

"Jerk."

Before Natasha could reply, they were quickly interrupted by a loud noise at the house.

"Aunt Nat!!!" a girl's voice yelled excitedly, and Natasha shifted her gaze from Yelena to the front door where multiple people were spilling out. Yelena watched with surprise as Natasha's eyes lit up with an expression that Yelena had only ever seen Natasha have when she was speaking to Yelena herself. It was that one with awe and pure adoration that almost seemed to communicate Natasha's mental question of how she could be so lucky to have earned such love in her life.

"My kids!!!" Natasha excitedly greeted, immediately dropping her bags and running the rest of the way to the house as a teenage girl and a tiny boy crashed into her. And older boy came running out as well, reaching out to hug Natasha with his siblings.

Yelena walked a bit nearer, her own bags still clutched in her hands, and she stopped a small distance away from them, uncomfortably watching the exchange and not sure how to interact since it was all so out of her element.

"Hey, sweetheart, how have you been?" Natasha asked, her voice communicating nothing but softness and warmth as she pulled away just enough to cup the girl's cheek. She leaned into Natasha's hand, a giant grin on her face.