Chasing Ghosts | Natasha Romanoff

Chapter 52: Sweet November

November, and still no indication of when Katya would come home. The days had gotten even colder, so Maya could no longer practice outside with her bow without her fingers freezing off after five minutes. Natasha had been giving her lessons regularly after school or on the weekends.

But that's all it ever would be. Lessons. The bow strictly had to stay in the garage when it wasn't used for practice, and Maya was never allowed to use it without supervision. Call her paranoid, but Natasha did everything to prevent Maya from seeing it as anything else than what it was: a weapon. Not a toy.

But those lessons had to end because of the cold weather. The girl's fingers were too stiff to nock a new arrow after shooting one. Which was a huge disappointment for her, causing her to look for other hobbies inside of the house.

She had tried a lot of different things, but after Peter lent her a couple comic books, she was obsessed. Which then lead to manga, which lead to watching anime. Not really Natasha's thing, but for Maya's sake, they watched it together. The episodes were short, so sometimes they watched half a season in one evening.

But Maya also liked reading normal books. Fantasy and science-fiction were at the top of her list. Natasha took her to the library every two weeks to get new ones, and they ordered the ones she really liked online so she could read them over and over again.

It wasn't uncommon to find the two of them on the same couch, one at each end, with their heads in their books.

The weekly calls with Katya turned into once every three days. More proof the therapy was working and she was improving. The doctors confirmed that too. Her progress dipped a couple of times, but that was to be expected, and she always found her way up again. Sometimes, she wasn't doing as good. She'd try to sound happy, but in the end, Natasha always saw through her.

Yes, things were looking up, but the situation would always be fragile.

On top of that, it neared the end of the month, which meant Christmas was right around the corner. And with absolutely everything being new - the house, their inventory - they didn't have one single piece of decoration stored in the attic.

So, on a Saturday afternoon, the first week Christmas decorations were in stores, Natasha took Maya to the mall with a credit card full of money and enough room in their car to buy everything they needed to get into the holiday spirit.

The theme for their tree was, of course, red. But ornaments weren't the only thing they bought. Lights, stockings, candles, garland, wreath, tinsels, you name it, they bought it. Even a tablecloth, blanket, and pillows. So much, that they needed to make a trip to the car three times to dump stuff and come back for the next store.

Maya jumped up and down in excitement the entire time, eyes wide as she ran through the aisles, throwing unnecessary stuff into the cart, which Natasha allowed with a smile. She had gotten used to that while shopping with Katya.

Would anyone see the five-foot-high LED reindeer in the front yard? No. Did they need it? No. But was it cute? Definitely.

Natasha raised an eyebrow when Maya pointed at something in the plant department and said they had to remind themselves to buy that later, closer to Christmas. ''Do you know what that is?''

''A mistletoe, duh.'' Maya shrugged, marching in front of the cart like she was the boss. And, if possible, Natasha's eyebrows raised higher at her confidence and attitude. ''It's what people kiss under on Christmas. It's in the songs. We need it so you can kiss Mom under it.''

''Look at you, playing Cupido,'' she chuckled, pushing the cart after the girl. ''So if I invite Mason over, does that mean you're finally gonna kiss him too?'' She could sense, sense, the disgusted expression that grew on Maya's face, even with her back turned.