Widows || BLACK WIDOW

Prologue

FLASHBACK
1994 ― Cleveland, Ohio

Ten-year-old Natasha Romanoff could be seen riding her bike through her quiet neighborhood. Her twin sister, Nikita Romanoff, was sitting on top of Natasha's bike between the handle-bars, and since both girls were pretty small, Nikita sitting on top of her bike didn't block her view.

"Hey, Nat! Hey, Nic!" Another little girl called out for the twins as they rode by and saw a group of kids playing outside on their swinging tire. Nikita smiled and offered a wave, and Natasha smiled as she kept peddling past. Natasha pulled into their driveway, and Nikita hopped off the bike as the girls made their way to the backyard, where a six-year-old Yelena Belova was swinging on the swingset in their backyard.

Natasha and Nikita started whistling a soft tune; it was something between the girls. Sometimes Natasha and Nikita would whistle the first note, and Yelena would whistle back the rest of it, and other times Yelena would whistle the first note, and the Romanoff twins would whistle the rest of it back to her. When Yelena whistled back, Natasha and Nikita ran over to where they heard her, and they saw the young blonde was doing a backbend bridge, so the two of them also bent over into a backbend bridge to join her, and Yelena laughed.

"We're all upside down," Yelena commented.

"And I bet you're gonna fall first," Natasha said.

"No. You or Nicki will." Yelena said. The girls had been living in Cleveland, Ohio, with their "parents," Alexei Shostakov and Melina Vostokoff, since Yelena was 3, and the Romanoff girls were 7. At first, Yelena couldn't fully pronounce "Nikita," so she always called her "Nicki."

"I definitely won't fall first!" Nikita said as she started making silly faces at Yelena, and Natasha began making funny sounds to trip her up. Yelena only laughed, but she held her position.

"You can't hold it much longer." Yelena teased. Natasha and Nikita kept going to distract her, and Yelena did fall first, and then Natasha and Nikita came out of their backbends.

"I told you you'd fall first," Natasha said. When Yelena got off the ground, she chased the girls, as Natasha repeated. "I told you! I told you!" They had a playground in their backyard, and as Yelena chased them around, she tripped and fell onto some rocks in the backyard and cut her knee.

"Mommy!" Yelena screamed for Melina. When Natasha and Nikita heard her yell, they immediately turned around and returned to her. The girls got on the ground with her as Yelena held her knee, and they wrapped their arms around her.

"It's okay, Yaya," Nikita whispered to Yelena, which was her nickname for her. Then Melina came outside, and she knelt in front of the girls.

"What happened?" Melina asked.

"She fell on her knee," Natasha said as Yelena got out of their arms and gravitated over toward Melina.

"Oh, you bump your knee?" Melina asked. As Melina tended to Yelena, the two Romanoff sisters walked over to the swings and started swinging together. When Melina helped Yelena off the ground, she walked over to the girls as she spoke to Yelena. "Your pain only makes you stronger, right girls?" Melina said the last part to Nikita and Natasha.

"Yeah." The twins answered together.

"Yeah?" Melina said.

"Look!" Yelena exclaimed as she saw the fireflies flying around. "Forrest stars." She said. The twins stopped swinging, and Nikita stood up to take a look.