I was 7 when I first ask my dad how they met. And of course since I was only 7 he wasn't going to tell me the real story but I didn't know that (at the time). So he makes up this story of how he saw her in some coffee shop in Paris and the minute he saw her face it was…

"It was love at first sight. wasn't it daddy?"

"Yea, but by the time I worked up the courage to go and talk to your mom she's already walking down the street. I ran out of the shop and spot her across the street. She was walking fast late for some job interview or something. But finally I caught up to her when she had to wait for the light to change at a cross walk. I tapped her shoulder breathing heavy after all that running and before I can get a word in edgewise…She punches me! Square in the nose! Can you believe that Avie? There I was about to tell your mom that I think she's the most beautiful woman I've ever seen and she hits me in front of all these people!"

"Avia don't listen to your dad you know he's just a big baby. Besides I did't hit you that hard." mommy says from the doorway.

She giggles "it's okay daddy, I'm sure mommy didn't mean to hit you."

"No, I didn't but it was his fault for sneaking up on me. and it's also going to be his fault when you fall asleep in the middle of class tomorrow because he couldn't get you in bed on time." mom says with a playful glare directed towards dad. "Now come on little bird it's time to close your eyes, story times over."

"Awe! but I didn't get to hear the ending. please mommy can daddy finish first?"

"Yea come on Nat i promise it'll be over soon." Mommy thinks for a minute before finally noding her head allowing my father to finish the story. "So what happened next daddy? Did she say sorry and give your boo boo a kiss to make it feel better?"

I don't remember the exact details but it went something along the lines of my mom quickly realizing my dad was not a creep but kind of cute and she apologized profusely before quickly agreeing to go out with him. She missed her interview but it was worth it apparently.

After that first story I was absolutely in love with my parents. And wanted to know everything about who they were before I came along. I was in a phase in my life where i adored my parents and still believed they hung the moons and the stars at night just for me. And they complied, most of their stories were made up, full of fantasy, romance and adventure. But I didn't care I knew my parents were spies and they weren't going to tell me the true stories. But being the daughter of spies I also knew the best way to tell a lie was to have it based on the truth. So there had to be some truth to all these stories and maybe if I paid really close attention I could figure out the actual story for myself.

But no matter how hard I tried to concentrate I kept getting swept up in the romance and magic of it all. From hearing about their first date(they went to a local carnival), to who kissed who first(my father, because he couldn't wait any longer) to who said i love you first (my mother yea she thought my dad would cave and say it first too) to how my dad proposed("he got down on one knee right in the middle of this town square in Budapest. There were all these people hustling and bustling around us trying to get places and there's your dad in the middle of it all down on one knee….")

But my absolute favorite stories were the ones aout how they met. Most of the time they just told me the first story they had told me when i was 7 but sometimes they'd change it up.

"Your mom not watching where she was running like always ran straight into me and i spilled my coffee on her. So obviously I pretended like it was my fault and bought her a coffee to apologize. But what your mom failed to tell me was that she hates coffee!" That one was of dads favorites to tell.

My mom on the other hand like to tell me "We met while your dad was still in the circus. He was practicing his archery routine and I had just been hired as the new trapeeze artist. He might tell you it was cause there was a small breeze but we were in a tent in the middle of summer Avia, there was not a breeze to be felt for miles. Anyways i was watching your father and for the first time in his whole carreer he missed the bulls eye…"
"yup I missed the bulls eye and it was all because i caught sight of your mom." My dad finished for her.

There were countless other versions they told but I can only remember so many. I know now at 16 the circumstances of how they actually met and though the truth is definitely not as light hearted and as innocent as their stories it's still just as romantic. Thinking back on it my father was really the one who loved to tell the stories(he's such a entertainer at heart my mother would tell me). I had to beg and plead and sometimes even drag a story out of my mother ( my father would say it's cause she already makes up so many other stories [and lives] while she works that at home she wants to do nothing but be herself). Now your thinking, daughter of two of the best spies in the world she must've hacked their files to find out about how they actually met.

Nope I'm good but not that good(and also not that stupid; Uncle Tony tried to get into mom's file once he ended up with a black eye before he could get past the first firewall). Besides why would i go through all that trouble when my dad would tell me anything if i just asked. It was the last story he told me and his best one.

It was about a week after his funeral that my mom finally did something other than sob late at night when she thought I was asleep. I had just finished writing down one of my dad's stories and was about to get under the cover when my mom walks in.

"Just about ready for bed?" She asked.

"yea.."

"what was that you were writing?"

"huh? oh umm just…just some of the stories about you and…dad." I tell her hesitantly, some what nervous about her reaction.

"Your dad loved telling you those stories almost as much as you loved hearing them." she remarks with a far off gaze as she comes to sit on the side of my bed. "Did your dad ever tell you about the time he went out Bobbi to try and make me jealous?" she asks all of a sudden out of the blue.

"No," i say with a shake of my head " wait a minute Bobbi as in Mockingbird Bobbi?!" She nods her head yes. "Did it work?" I ask my interest fully piqued by this point.

And for the first time in a long time I see my mother smile it's small but it's a start. "I was insanely jealous though I would never admit if you had asked me. But It had also hurt more than I thought it would. Everyone else assumed I was happy for your father. But he knew me better than I gave him credit for and broke it off with her after a month."

"A month?! why'd he wait so long?! was he just being a jerk or what?"

My mother laughed "No I think your father was just too scared to break up with Bobbi. She can get pretty scary when she's upset."

She sits there for a minute or two reminiscing before giving my leg a pat and kissing me on the head. "Goodnight little bird." She tells me standing up. But before she can walk out the door I stop her.

"Wait mom, can you tell me another story? Please?"

She pauses her hand holding tightly too the doorknob. Her whole body looks tense and I immdiately regret asking her for a story. "Never mind you…I…I don't need another story. it's okay mom. I'll go to sleep."

She turns around her eyes slightly glassy "Oh Avia. it's not that i don't want to tell you a story…it's just…god i don't know how to do this. This was Clint's thing he could pull a story out of thin air and i can'r do that for you little bird."

"Can you try? Please mama. They don't have to be all made up like when i was little…"

She stares at me biting her lower lip trying to figure out an answer, I'm just about to give up when i hear her let out a shaky sigh as she walks over to sit beside me. I snuggle up to her laying my head in her lap as she softly runs her fingers through my strawberry blonde curls.

"Did you know your dad fainted when i told him i was pregnant with you?"

"No way! He really fainted mom?"

She lets out a small chuckle "yea he did…"