The day was young and so were the kids that begged Irena to come down and play.

Lila and Cooper hardly ever had people over who weren't adults and Irena had never been around children that weren't her age. She had no idea how to talk or handle them, so she had been avoiding them at all costs.

That was until she heard their whispers with their mother questioning her about when she would be down to play. So she sucked up her feelings and locked them in her chest for the time being.

Her face was still horrendously puffy from the moment after her shower and she still hadn't fully processed all that went down.

She sat numbly in bed while Natasha showered and left when she heard the water shut off. Irena informed the woman she was headed downstairs and silently prepared herself for the excited faces of children to bombard her.

Irena didn't even reach the bottom of the stairs when Lila came to greet her. She jumped up the steps two at a time until she was on the same step as her.

"Hiya Irena." Lila greeted with the same toothy grin she wore when they first met.

"Hi, Lila," Irena replied in a small raspy voice.

She closed her mouth as she heard herself and cleared her throat. Lila laughed. Irena didn't know what was funny.

Without warning, the young girl wrapped her hand around two of Irena's fingers and looked up expectantly. Irena involuntarily flinched and pulled back which led to a raised eyebrow look from Lila.

"C'mon, we're gonna make cookies," Lila said as she simultaneously took off in an uncalled-for race down the stairs.

"Oh, okay."

Irena struggled not to face plant or smush the child as she was dragged down the stairs and let out a relieved breath when she achieved it.

"Wanna know what type of cookies we're making?" Lila questioned an awkward-looking Irena who still allowed herself to get led by the girl.

"Sure."

"Actually how about you guess."

Shit. Irena had been in the States for around 9 months. 9 months was enough to become accustomed to the language, customs, and views, but not enough to know more than one type of cookie. She only knew chocolate chip, but it seemed to have vanished from her brain.

"Um...brown ones?" Irena hesitantly guessed.

Lila stopped her stride and gave Irena a blank stare before she burst into a fit of giggles. Irena stood still, embarrassed and bright red to say the least.

"I've only had a cookie once I think," Irena spoke in her defense.

The girl's giggles were now gone and replaced with the same stare from before she changed her face like she remembered something.

"Oh, does Auntie Nat not let you have cookies? That sucks." She said solemnly in sympathy for the older girl.

"No, she doesn't care- wait Nat's not my mother." Irena began to answer before the realization of what Lila's beliefs were.

"She isn't?"

Irena shook her head.

"Oh, then you must live under a rock or on another planet...do you live on another planet?"

"No again."

"Oh."

"Yeah."

There was a small pause of awkward silence like neither knew what to do or say.

"So how about those cookies," Irena muttered.

It took everything in her to say those five words, they sounded so tensely awkward like a T.V. dad caught up in an uncomfortable situation.

"Okay, this way!" Lila quickly recovered from the tension.

Again with the dragging. What is it with children and dragging? Irena wasn't sure she liked it.

"Mom, can Irena make cookies with us?" The pigtailed girl shouted as she entered the kitchen.

Irena also thought children shouted for unnecessary reasons a lot.

"Of course, she can!" Laura replied as she flashed a kind smile to the unsure teenager.

"Yay!" Lila jumped before she cupped her hand over her mouth away from Irena's direction. "She's only had a cookie once in her whole  life."

Melting into the floor and never reforming sounded like a pleasant vacation for Irena. Embarrassment crawled through her whole body like spiders in the grass. (ana reference)

"Oh well then we might just have to change don't we?" Laura said back as she sensed the girl's embarrassment.

Irena flashed her a small smile.

"Well, cmon let's get you an apron and we can get started." The woman said. "Lila go wash your hands."

Lila replied in an odd assortment of noises and sounds that made Irena bite back a fit of laughter. The children were so random it made her head spin.

"So, how are you, I heard it was a rough one," Laura asked, clearly referring to the mission they had just come from.

Irena didn't reply right away, she didn't know how to put what she felt in words. Even if she had no plans to tell Mrs. Barton anything, she still had trouble summing up what happened.

"I'm... fine, it was a more difficult mission than most."

She did well, formally and with little information. Irena was sure Laura was nice and meant well but kindness doesn't add up to trust. She had hesitated when they first met, even if it was just for a second that second had lasted an hour in Irena's mind.

"I'm sorry, those are tough."

She spoke like she knew what a rough mission was like. Irena was more than suspicious of the woman but she had no further right to investigate, she was housing, feeding, and clothing them. Laura must've seen the uneasiness on her face because quickly after she added a defense.

"Clint tells me all bout them, y'know?" She said with not a hint of waver in her voice.

Weird.

"Of course."

The interactions made Irena uncomfortable, to say the least. It felt awkward and forced. To be fair, Laura was more than kind, Irena simply didn't know how to reply.

Making cookies was somewhat of a foreign subject to her.  She hated the way the raw dough felt on her fingers when she and Lila had the task of rolling them into balls.

Natasha took the opportunity to humiliate her further by snapping photos every second she could. The familial setting was more than strange to the girl. She had never baked cookies in a cozy kitchen with a mother and daughter. It felt safe and almost comfortable.

By the time the cookies had cooked, it was still relatively early in the morning as they had arrived just as the sun began its daily ascent into the sky.

The men were outside most likely arguing and doing whatever manly super soldier/ billionaire men did. Irena hoped they weren't arguing, they did that enough as it was only this time they weren't at the compound, but in someone else house. That would just be plain embarrassing.

When Lila and Irena burst through the door with a plate full of fresh chocolate chip cookies, Clint and Cooper stood on the porch refurbishing a broken railing.

"We made cookies!" Lila announced delightedly as she veered off to serve her relatives first.

Irena stood close by and observed the atmosphere around her. The way the wind blew and made the tall grass flow, Tony and Steve's tense shoulders which did indeed indicate a possible argument.

Irena sighed at the realization of the two men's dispute and quietly snatched three cookies from the tray as Clint playfully smeared melted chocolate on his daughter's face.

She stalked over cautiously to assess the situation. As much as she enjoyed arguing, especially with entitled grown men, she didn't want to get in the middle of one of their civil wars. (EIW: easter egg?!)

It took longer than expected for them to both notice the girl's presence. It made Irena question whether she simply walked quietly or she was invisible to most people. She concluded with most likely a bit of both.

Irena overheard a bit about Ultron's goals in ripping apart the team, and something about going home. She truly tried to listen, but every minute she found herself dozing off for minutes at a time- not debatably from her trip down memory lane from last night.

God, she hated Wanda Maximoff.

It was only when Steve ripped apart a log of wood with his bare hands that she decided to step on.

"Hi, guys," Irena mumbled.

The mumble wasn't incoherent, just quiet.

Tony turned around quickly like she was an attacker. Irena flinched back but couldn't blame him. She was in the same boat

No one had snuck up on her since her birthday and she knew it was coming. Tony's eyes wore the same expression as hers did.

"Oh, mini Romanoff," Tony pointed out the obvious. "How much of that did you hear?"  he asked with a thumb pointing in the direction away from him and towards Steve,

"Not much, just about roofs, deodorant, and Ultron." She replied with a shrug.

"Alright good, wouldn't wanna have to kill ya'." Tony joked.

Irena snapped her head back, her face full of terrified confusion.

Steve registered the fear faster than Tony did. "He's joking." He said in a firm tone obviously meant for Tony.

Irena frowned until the look Steve flashed his colleague confirmed it.

"Sorry kid." Tony shrugged.

Irena scowled. "I shouldn't give you the cookies I and Lila made."

Tony made a fake pained gasp as he brought his hand to his heart. "Oh heavens I fear I might die without a cookie." He mocked.

Well, now he really wasn't getting one.

Irena narrowed her eyes at the arrogant man as she passed a cookie to Steve. She then turned to Tony, took both the cookies for him and her, and stuck them into the sides of her mouth.

"Oh, that's just cruel," Tony complained.

With a smile bright in her eyes, she turned and left towards the porch steps to sit.

She sat on the steps and silently ate the cookies as the cool breeze ran through her hair. At one point Laura came out and touched Irena on the head briefly as she walked.

Irena wasn't sure if she liked that.

Laura had gone up to Tony and asked him to fix the tractor they had in the barn. When Tony agreed, he walked past the teenager and waved. Irena jokingly narrowed her eyes into slits once again, but this time she couldn't keep the smile from her face.

"I see you smiling kid don't try and play it off!" Tony yelled as he pointed to her face.

"Whatever!" She shouted back with her hands cupped around her mouth. There was no need for the hand microphone, but Irena saw it fit.

The cool air was nice on the farm. She had never been out in a large piece of land like this ever and she had to admit, it was peaceful. She could clearly see why people chose the countryside over city life. She would too.

Irena rested on her forearms as she leaned back against the porch steps. She let herself close her eyes and take in the sound the wind made in her ears, how it felt brushing against her skin, and the way it cooled her off- both mentally and physically.

In a way, it sort of felt like a reset button. Her emotions were no longer out of wack, her mind was beginning to clear, and she felt almost completely at peace.

That was until a pair of little hands wrapped around her already closed eyes. Irena flinched so harshly it made Lila flinch as well and she immediately began to feel bad. She had heard Lila's loud yet small footsteps behind her, yes, but she didn't expect her to grab onto her face.

To make up for the scare the teen had given her, Irena plastered a movie-worthy smile on her face and began to talk first this time.

"Hello, Lila." Irena greeted.

"Hi Irena, do you wanna play super secret spy with me and Cooper?"

Irena blinked. She honestly thought she was joking.

"I don't need to play pretend," Irena said with a confused look.

Lila's brown eyes widened in interest at her words. "You don't?" Lila questioned.

That was Irena's cue that Lila did not know the true reason they were here and who they were. She would have thought that a little girl her age knew who the Avengers were and what they did but considering that they lived off the grid it was safe to assume that Laura most likely wanted to keep such information from her children.

"Oh, Of course I do, I don't know what I was saying, I think I need more sleep." Irena lied flawlessly.

Lila gave her a small laugh and then grabbed her hand. "I think you do too."

Irena was too busy to notice that the little girl's entire hands barely wrapped completely around two of her fingers to notice that Lila agreed with the lie.

ⴵ

Irena now sat in the living room at Barton's home painting with the youngest Barton child as Nick Fury went on about Ultron, robots, and wars.

Irena wanted to be there in the kitchen to listen, but Lila wanted to paint and Nat made a promise, so reluctantly there she was: a highly trained enhanced Soviet spy, painting a dinosaur in a grassy glade overlooking the sunrise.

At first, she was at least trying to hear bits and pieces of the conversation the adults were having but then she got too entranced in her artwork as well as Lila who was talking about how to make certain designs with certain brushes.

It was easy to say that Irena soon forgot that was currently on the run, and a trained killer as she let herself enjoy a piece of the childhood she had never gotten.

When Lila was finished with her drawing to Nat, she patiently waited until Irena was done with her dinosaur mural to shoot up and give it to Nat, Irena in tow.

"Look Nat, I painted a Dinosaur!" Irena exclaimed proudly, forgetting the circumstances they were in.

She felt her face immediately go red as she realized how childish she had just sounded.

In front of her, Natasha took Lila's cheek into her hands and Lila handed her her painting before the small girl ran off again to no doubtably paint some more.

When she was gone, Natasha grinned and took Irena's art in her hands to examine it. Irena nervously pulled out the chair next to her and sank into it.

"Well Doll face, I'd say you got some real skill here." Nat grinned.

"Thanks," Irena mumbled as she tried to hide her smile with her fist.

In front of them, Steve grinned. He was happy that Irena was finally getting to be her age, even if it was only for a bit, and he was happy Nat seemed significantly less tense.

"Ultron took you folks out of play to buy himself time," Fury spoke from the sink. "My contacts all say he's building something and with the amount of vibranium he ran off with, I don't think it's just one thing."

"What about Ultron himself?" Steve asked from the doorway he stood in.

"Oh, he's easy to track, he's everywhere," Fury replied. "This guy's multiplying faster than a catholic rabbit, it still doesn't help us get an angle on any of his plans."

From her spot at the table, Irena made a face. "What's a Catholic rabbit and why is it multiplying?" She asked.

Natasha made a face as well, only her face was a mix of "really" and "I can't do this" instead of confusion. "Care to explain?" She said to Fury with a small glare.

"Um, It's a very holy rabbit that Jesus multiplies on Christmas every year," Nick said quickly before he turned his attention to Tony who asked about launch codes.

Irena nodded in understanding before her brow wrinkled once again. "Who's Jesus?"

"I-um, I'll explain later," Natasha assured her before she returned her attention to Fury.

Irena could see Steve struggling to control his smile as the conversation came to a close.

"Nexus?" Steve asked after Fury told them he had contacted friends there.

"It's the world internet hub in Oslo. Every byte of data goes through there, fastest access on Earth" Bruce answered.

"So what'd they say?" Clint piped up from across Nick.

"He's fixated on the missiles but the codes are constantly being changed," said Fury.

"By who?" Tony asked before he narrowly missed a dart that whizzed right past his face.

"Parties unknown."

"Do we have an ally?" Natasha asked with a small squeeze to Irena's left hand.

"Ultron's got an enemy, that's not the same thing." Fury quickly ruled out.

Irena frowned. "Sure it is, the enemy of my enemy is my friend." She recited from her Red Room teachings.

Beside her, she could've sworn she saw Natasha barely moving her mouth as well.

"Not when we don't know who they are and why they're enemies of Ultron." Nick retorted.

Irena's frown deepened.

"I might need to visit Oslo," Tony spoke up from his secluded area next to the dart board. "Fine, our unknown.

"Well this is good times boss but I was kind of hoping when I saw you, you'd have more than that," said Natasha. She had a smile on but something about her voice sounded sad and Irena didn't like it.

"I do, I have you." Fury shrugged. "Back in the day, I had eyes everywhere, ears everywhere else. You kids had all the tech you could dream up. Here we all are, back on Earth with nothing but our wit and our will to save the world."

Great. Irena hoped he wouldn't make this into some sort of inspirational speech.

"Ultron says the Avengers are the only thing between him and his mission. And whether or not he admits it, his mission is global destruction, all this laid in a grave."

Maybe it wouldn't be, she thought.

"So stand."

Irena groaned.

"Outwit the platinum bastard." Nick finished.

Before Irena had a chance to thank the stars for their small gift of no speech, Natasha spoke up from next to her. "Steve doesn't like that kind of talk."

Irena immediately began to laugh before Steve could reply with his playful, "You know what Romanoff?"

The laughter was short-lived though.

"So what does he want?" Nick asked.

"To become better, better than us." Steve slowly put it together. "He's building bodies.

"Person bodies," Tony added. "His human form is inefficient, biological speaking we're outmoded but he keeps going back to it."

Behind them, Irena sensed Bruce's sudden appearance but didn't bother looking behind her to face him. She did find it odd though.

"When you two programmed him to protect the human race, you amazingly failed." Natasha criticized.

"No kidding." Irena agreed.

"They need to evolve." Bruce suddenly spoke up. "Ultron's going to evolve."

Irena's face scrunched up again. This was a very confusing conversation.

"How?" Nick asked.

Bruce was silent for a moment as he thought. "Has anyone been in contact with Helen Cho?"

What the hell did Helen Cho have to do with any of this? Sometimes, It was hard for Irena to not question Mr. Banner's credentials.

ellie's words!!

sry this took 892828 business days but hope u enjoy even if this is very boring