Ballet Class

By Lord-of-Dragons2007

A/N: Ok so I may catch some slack for this, but this is gonna a future fiction where Bruce and Natasha have a daughter who is taking ballet classes. For the moment this is going to be a one shot unless I get more ideas for how to continue this one or someone else gives me more ideas.

Natasha had always had a fascination with Ballet, ever since she snuck into that showing of swan lake in the Russian theater house in Kiev she fell in love with it. It was before she was taken by the red room to become the monster that she was before she joined Shield, it was because of ballet that she survived the training from the red room, the hope that if she was able to escape that horrible place that she could go into it professionally. However that never truly happened, there was only one mission that she went on with the red room that she was able to sort of live her dream, she got to perform in the same opera house she snuck into when she was a little girl. It was a dream come true, and then the dream turned into a bloody nightmare shortly after. Ever since she never really looked back, it had been a shame since it was something she loved and it was taken from her, she supposed that's why the red room sent her on that mission, to destroy the thing she loved most, to ensure that she wouldn't do anything foolish like leave them to follow her passion, her only passion now was the mission, to kill for them.

She hadn't thought about since then, for a long long time. That was until her daughter was born, after Natasha and Bruce got together they had a daughter who was just like her mother in just about almost every way. Then one day while she was channel surfing with uncle Tony was babysitting her while Natasha and Bruce went out for their date night they came to a ballet that was being shown on tv, and that's when Anastasia Grace Banner was hooked on the art form before her eyes. She asked her uncle Tony all about it and he answered what he could, but Tony being Tony couldn't answer much about it other than he found it boring. It didn't take long for the little five year old girl to talk to her parents about it, Bruce found it adorable that his daughter wanted to take ballet classes, Natasha wasn't sure, she was still a little wary of it because of the ordeal she had gone though.

Bruce and Natasha had talked it out for a few days since Anya had ask her parents for ballet lessons, after so many years together Bruce knew how to talk to his wife, how to get her to talk about some of the traumas she's endured during her life and for her to still be comfortable talking about it or getting flashbacks that would make her shut down. After the two had their little talk they agreed that their daughter could take ballet lessons, but someone had to be there at all times during the lesson to make sure she wasn't taken the way Natasha was when she was Anya's age.

So that was the arrangement, for most of the time since their daughter had started classes it had been mainly Bruce who had gone with her to the classes. Part of it was because Natasha was busy off on light missions, nothing that would get her killed or critically injured, the other part of it was she didn't want to go because she was afraid of what could happen and what did happen to her, the flashbacks. Though between the two of them they knew that eventually the day would come when she couldn't dodge it any more and she had to take Anya to Ballet class, it's not that she didn't want to be involved in her daughter's life or interests it was just she wasn't sure she could deal with the flashbacks if she did go,

"Mommy, Mommy! Come on, let's go! We're late!" Anya said as she tried to drag her mother towards the door and was semi-unsuccessful as she was such a tiny girl trying to drag an adult, Natasha had her daughter's pink duffle bag,

"I'm coming Malysh (little one)." Natasha said with a chuckle in her voice, though it didn't reflect the thoughts in her head, she ran through all the scenarios of someone trying to take her daughter from her.

Anya was hers and Bruce's miracle baby, they thought there was no way they could have children, and then one day, it happened. There was no way anyone was going to take one the pure and good thing in her life, no way anyone was going to make her little girl grow up with out both her parents. Then her thoughts started to drift to her past, to the horrors of her childhood, or lack there of, in the red room. Growing up to be a killing machine, to kill indescriminantely without any remorse. As she drove to the dance studio where Anya's classes were she worked hard to pus the thoughts out of her mind, just focus on the here and now, focus on her surroundings, making sure nothing out of the ordinary was happening, focus on her devochka doing what she always wanted to do.

When they got there Natasha got Anya's bag and helped her out of the car and made sure to keep a tight grip on her little girl's hand, to make sure she didn't run off or was taken from her. She let Anya lead/drag her into the studio, once they were inside Natasha saw all the other parents there with their little girls. It had never once crossed Natasha's mind how much of a parental cliché it was to have a daughter take ballet, but she didn't care, her daughter seemed interested in it, Natasha herself was into it so there was nothing else she would even care about. Natasha only had a moment to take everything in before she was dragged to the sign in desk and signed in for her daughter then she was quickly dragged to the last empty spot on a long bench for the parents,

"Help me stwetch mommy!" Anya told her mommy as she started to move from position to position to try and stretch out her legs and get her self warmed up, without needing to ask any questions Natasha started to help her daughter stretch and get warmed up for her class. Her daughter didn't catch this subtlety but it really was something for Natasha to know exactly what exercises and warm ups and stretches were going to do the job for her daughter without needing to ask what to do and how to do it,

"Ok class lets get started." The woman who was the instructor of the class called everyone to attention, the girls in the studio went to stand at the bar and face the instructor, she was a skinny and friendly looking woman. Clearly she was very good with children by how well they all responded to her at such a young age,

"Let's go over what we learned last week." The instructor called out and started to call out positions and help the girls with their forms, she was very patient and made sure they were all learning these basic moves the right way and was able to give them all individual attention and help. Then finally when they all had it all and it looked good she ran through the moves sequentially at a decent pace and drilled a little bit before she started to go into the new things for the day.

Natasha watched quietly from the bench, she smiled at her little girl and watched in amazement as her little girl moved just like a ballerina. Sure for a five year old she was a little clumsy in her movements, but still she was doing it. It brought a little tear to Natasha's eyes, she never cried, but this was too much for her, she had to, she couldn't help it. In a way she was right, being here and seeing all of this did bring her flashbacks, however it wasn't the bad kind that she was expecting. She was having flashbacks to the production she had seen when she snuck into the theater hall when she was a child, how much she enjoyed watching the graceful movements and the hopeful memories and thoughts of becoming a professional ballerina. Natasha watched her daughter for the hour long class, when it was over her little one came barreling towards her as Natasha stood up she was met by her daughter who wrapped herself around Natasha's hip,

"Did you see me mommy? did you? Did you?" Anya asked her mother excitedly,

"I did sweetie, you're getting very good at it." Natasha answered her little girl happily with a little giggle in her voice and a wide smile on her face, she was just about to take her little girl's hand and start leading her out of the studio before she heard the instructor speak again,

"If anyone is here for the advanced class for adults please start stretching, we'll get started in ten minutes." The woman announced to the room, then the gears started to turn in the little girl's head,

"Mommy, you could dance like me too!" Anya said excitedly, hoping her mother would take ballet with her,

"Daddy told me you use to love it." Anya added excitedly, Natasha knew what that meant, Bruce told her about her interest in it, she hoped for his sake that he didn't tell her anything else,

"I use to." Natasha answered back a little lack lusterly which didn't go unnoticed by her little girl,

"What happened? Why you don't like it anymore?" Anya asked her mother a little sadly,

"Nothing, sweetie. Just, things got busy for me and I couldn't do it anymore." Natasha lied slightly to her little girl,

"Oh." Anya replied back and then her smile reappeared,

"You're not busy any more, take ballet with me mommy." Anya insisted again, which brought a little smile to Natasha's face,

"Not today sweetheart." Natasha started which brought the sad little puppy dog eyes and the adorable little pout to Anya's features, Natasha couldn't say no anymore,

"I can't today, because I don't have the shoes or the outfit today." Natasha finished, the pout and look stayed in her daughter's eyes,

"Can we get you what you need?" Anya asked her curiously, Natasha had to admire her little girl's determination to get her mother to take the advanced class. Her little girl was quite the handful, Natasha wondered if she were able to grow up in her daughter's environment if she would be like her, if she would be a handful and always be able to get her way,

"Did you want to go get the stuff I need right now sweetie? Will it make you happy and smile again?" Natasha asked her curiously, which earned her what she wanted from her daughter, Anya smiled happily,

"Yes, mommy!" Anya chided happily,

"Ok then, let's go." Natasha said as she lead her daughter to the front desk, it looked liked the studio sold some of what she needed. They had the shoes, some of the extra padding needed and other little miscellaneous items she would need, however for the unitard she was going to need to go to a clothing store, there was one only a few blocks over that she could go to for that. Natasha was lucky and the studio had the right shoes she needed and in her size, she bought them and a few necessities there and then took her stuff as well as Anya's and took her daughter by the hand and lead her out of the building,

"Come on sweetie, we need to shopping for mommy if she's going to take a ballet class like you." Natasha explained as she helped her little girl get in the car, Natasha put their stuff inside an helped to buckle the little girl inside after which she got around to the driver's side and got in and drove the short distance to the department store where Natasha knew they had unitards for such things like ballet. When they got there Natasha and Anya got out of the car and entered the store and went to where they had what Natasha was looking for, the found the right rack quickly, though Natasha never knew they had so many colors for the garment she was there for, most of the colors weren't really Natasha's color. She was more for the darker shades of the colors but all they had was lighter and pastel tones, though really when she thought about it it did make sense since normal women would be drawn to those lighter and pastel shades,

"Anya, help mommy find some pretty colors to wear to class." Natasha told her little girl as she gently ruffled the girl's hair, Natasha saw the basic black and picked one up in that color, the rest was just going to be a craps shoot since she didn't really care for the light colors,

"How about this one mommy?" Anya asked as she picked up a pastel pink one, it kinda matched the color of Natasha's ballet shoes,

"Oh that's pretty, it kinda looks like yours." Natasha said as he noticed what her daughter just did, she was definitely hers and Bruce's daughter. Natasha took the garment from her daughter and added it to the pile of one she had, it took the two several minuets to find at least four more unitards for Natasha to wear to her classes, when it was all said and done she had one black, one pink, one blue, one green, one purple one, and one white. Natasha was about to head for the check out to pay for the items when hear daughter tugged her in the other direction,

"What about a tutu, mommy?" Anya asked her mommy curiously, not sure why her mother wasn't getting a tutu like her,

"Well, big girls don't have to wear tutus." Natasha explained to her daughter, Natasha didn't want to wear the tutu if she didn't have to,

"Yes they do, you and daddy say I'm a big girl and I wear a tutu." Anya reasoned, oh the reasoning of a five year old, it just always seemed infallible,

"Plus daddy said big big girls like mommy wear tutus too." Anya added to Natasha's shock as she gave her daughter a shocked look,

"Well, I'll just have to talk to daddy about that." Natasha said as she followed her daughter back over where they were to pick out a couple of tuts, much to Natasha's embarrassment they only had the pink ones available. Since Natasha knew that they weren't going to leave until she picked up a couple of tutus, she did just that and headed to the check out. When they were done Natasha took her purchases and Anya back to the car and they both headed home, where Natasha would have a nice and long talk with Bruce about big girls like herself having to wear tutus in class.

A/N: When I started this I was planning on this being a one shot but now I'm thinking that this is probably going to be a couple of chapters long lol, I hope that you guys enjoyed this chapter and enjoy the rest of the story I'm gonna tell here, it's going to be a short story though, but it'll still be awesomely sweet and adorable :) please read and review! :)