All the Colors of Earth (Natasha Romanoff)

3.10

December 22nd 2019

Yelena and I weave through the crowded mall, heading towards a toy store that is supposed to have the last toy on Olympia's Christmas list. Actually the last item is a pony, but after convincing her that a pony couldn't live in our house, we comprised on a stuffed animal. After searching online for weeks I had finally found a store that sells riding ponies and Yelena and I had driven three hours to go get it.

As we trudge through the crowd Yelena whines, "so tell me again why we had to drive all this way when your inventor friend could have just built her one?"

"Because," I say angrily, "I'm her mother not Tony and I'm going to get her this damn toy even it kills me."

"Or kill someone else apparently," Yelena mutters.

"I'm sorry, the holidays are stressful," I say as I duck around a kiosk worker desperately trying to get me to buy a face cream.

"This will be my first one since we were kids," Yelena said nonchalantly.

I stop abruptly and stare at her, "seriously?"

She shrugs, "well we never celebrated in the Red Room and I was always either there or on a mission. There wasn't really any time."

A thought hit me, "I missed your birthday this year."

She seems surprised, "you know when our birthdays are?"

"I remember celebrating when we were kids. The dates stuck with me because I remember how happy everyone was." We start walking again and I have an idea, "why don't we have a birthday party for you? Since we missed the actual day this year we can have a joint Christmas birthday celebration."

"I don't want to cause a fuss."

"Then how about just the five of us? No Avengers."

"just family," she agrees.

Her use of of the word makes me smile. In the past year since she moved into the house, we have become a family. Her and the twins bicker like real siblings and I usually have to pry Yelena and Pietro apart during a fight, and Wanda has been a blessing in helping her fit back into the world.

Texting Wanda the news about the Christmas birthday party we finally make it to the toy store and my heart sinks when I see how packed it is. "Ok, you go left and I'll go right and if you see the pony grab it."

"What if someone already has it?"

I give her a look, "you grab it."

"I thought I wasn't allowed to fight civilians?"

Placing my hands on her shoulders I tell her, "I'm making an exception. We need that toy." She looks wary but nods and we head into the store, each going our separate ways. Ducking and weaving I search everywhere for that damn toy, and just when I had given up, there it was- behind the counter on the top shelf. Racing to the register I point to it, "I need that."

The scared looking teenager slowly says, "I'm sorry... it's been claimed already."

"Claimed? By who?" I demand.

He points to an older woman with a bob, "she was here when we opened."

Turning away from the counter I head towards the woman, "excuse me," I say politely, "is that your riding pony behind the counter?"

She looks at me in disgust, "what about it?"

"I'd like to buy it."

"Absolutely not! It's for my grandson! I waited in line for three hours to get it."

"How much to make you forget about it?"

Her disgust turns to confusion, "what?"

"How much," I repeat as I pull an envelope from my pocket, "to make you forget about it and let me buy it?" Pulling out a stack of hundreds I look at her expectantly.

"Uhmm well.. my time is very valuable," she blusters.

"I'm sure it is," I mutter as I begin to count. When I get to two thousand I look up, "stop me when it feels right," I tell her. As I near three thousand she makes a sound and I look up, "good?" Peeling off the money I hand it over to her, "pleasure doing business." Going back to the counter I tell the boy, "that's mine now."

He looks at me in awe, "yes ma'am."

As he rings it up I look around for Yelena and finally find her staring at a giant panda on the wall. Pointing at it I tell the boy, "that too please."

"$579.49 ma'am."

Handing him my money I grab the box and heft it off the counter, "merry Christmas," I grunt. Going over to Yelena I tell her, "I got it, lets go." She nods sadly as she turns away from the panda, "don't forget your friend."

She looks from me to the panda and back to me, "you... bought it?"

"Yeah you looked so happy I couldn't resist. Now come on, this is heavy." She grabs it off the wall and together we walk through the mall and back out to the car, Yelena smiling the entire time.