Bring Me Home // Bucky Barnes

Chapter XLV - My Home For So Long

Elizabeth was on her hands and knees, her hair sweeping across the plush cream carpet as she searched the darkness under her bed for the item she needed. Her voice was low as she muttered to herself, rambling in her state of panic.

"Lizzie?" A tentative knock on the door alerted her to Wanda's presence, too distracted by her rising anxiety to sense through their connection. "Bucky said you needed me? Nat would have come but she's talking to Steve about something."

Her eyes widened as she walked in, finding Lizzie on the floor holding a suede blue pump in one hand and a red heel in another, rocking back onto her ass as she pushed herself up from beneath the bed.

"I've not been on a date since 1943 Wanda." She stated, dazed, as she stared at the shoes in her hands.

"Right." Wanda nodded, the tug of a smile forming as Lizzie sat before her.

"Blue pumps or red heels? I think the blue pumps. No. Maybe the heels? Do I even still have the other one? I cant find the other one." Her voice was getting higher with every second and she was holding the shoes out expectantly as if Wanda could magically make them match, or decide for her, or find the other shoe. She felt her arms go limp as her heavy hands dropped down to her lap and she sighed. "I've not been on a date since the day after I met him Wanda. That's seventy years of no dates."

"You were on ice for most of that Lizzie, so technically that maths is wrong." Wanda smirked as she sat on the edge of Lizzie's bed, her fingers tracing patterns over the soft satin of the blush pink bedsheets.

"What if I'm not good at going on dates?" Elizabeth stared up at Wanda with doe eyes, full of innocent wonders and a fear of making mistakes, and Wanda chuckled as she pulled her up from the floor and over to the bed. She could feel the chaos behind Lizzie's thoughts, the fear and anxiety and excitement all mixing into one feeling of blind adrenaline.

"Okay, breathe." She soothed, rubbing circles on Lizzie's back with one hand and taking the mismatched shoes with another. "First things first, you need to start with the outfit. Shoes are last. Lucky for you, we just got you many, many date worthy outfits."

Lizzie sighed as she laughed, letting Wanda take control as her mind drifted to that night in 1943. For the first time in a long time she thought of Sarah and her tiny apartment in the city and her chest felt uncomfortably tight. She contemplated how Sarah had helped her to get ready that night too, how she had curled her hair and rouged her lips, how she had gifted her the most incredible shoes to match the red dress she never did give back to Sarah. She found herself nostalgic and lost as Wanda started pulling items from piles and drawers and throwing them at her from across the room.

*

"Wanda." Elizabeth stood fidgeting in the mirror, pulling the oversized copper silk shirt closed over the thin lace that hugged tight to her curves. She ran her eyes over the distressed skinny jeans and down to the tiny straps of the barely-there nude heels she wore. "This is too much. I can't go down there in this."

"Stop it." Wanda swatted her hands away from the blouse, pulling it open again to reveal the bodysuit that she had chosen; a golden copper coloured lace with beautiful florals stitched into perfect picturesque patterns; butterflies glistening in hidden places across the scalloped detail of her bust. "You look amazing Lizzie."

Elizabeth stood still, staring at the woman in the glass before her. She could hardly recognise her. The usually unruly curls of her hair had been tamed and smoothed, now sitting pulled over one shoulder in a sea of shimmering waves. Her usually make up free face was subtly changed by a light layer of glamour. Wanda had artfully brushed a deep maroon over the lids of her eyes, illuminating the flecks of green Elizabeth always struggled to see within them, and her lips were glossed and plump. Her eyes roamed back to her outfit and the calm lifted.