Falling (Bucky Barnes)

6 - Girl Talk

Sitting alone in her room, like usual, Elissa is rereading one of her favourite books from her childhood. She's probably read it at least five times, but she likes to come back to it every now and then, plus she doesn't have any new books to read. As she flips to the next page, she hears a knock at her door. Placing her bookmark in the book, she closes it and walks to the door.

Hesitantly peeking out, she sees Pepper and Natasha standing outside her door. She smiles and quickly continues to open the door as she realises it's just them. The women walk into her room and Nat takes her usual spot on the comfortable white lounge chair next to her walk-in closet and Pepper sits on the bed. Elissavet closes the door and walks to her desk to put her book away.

"What are you reading?" Pepper asks, trying to ease into the conversation.

"Oh, I'm rereading an old favourite, it's called The False Prince by Jennifer A Nielsen," she answers, placing the book on her large bookshelf.

Pepper nods, "sounds interesting."

"You know what else is interesting?" Natasha asks, leaning forward on her chair. Elissa casually turns around after placing her book on the shelf making her red skirt floof a little. She has a curious look on her face.

"Hmm?" she hums.

Natasha crosses her arms as she replies, "I was informed that someone is going out on a date."

Elissa takes in a breath and she smiles awkwardly, "uh, yeah."

"Were you planning on telling us?" she inquires.

Elissa hesitates with a grimace on her face, "not really."

"Ouch, that hurts," Natasha dramatically pouts, placing a hand over her heart. Elissa giggles at her and the other women join in laughing.

"So where are you guys going? What are you going to do?" Pepper inquires leaning forward.

Sitting down at her desk and turning her fluffy white spinning chair to face them, Elissa admits, "I don't know. He didn't tell me anything about it."

"Ooh, a mystery date!" Pepper smirks with a sing-song voice. Elissa chuckles and shakes her head.

"You guys are acting like it's such a big deal," she complains.

"Well considering we got the two most reserved and mysterious people to actually go on a date, I'd say it is a pretty big deal," Natasha declares, crossing her arms with a satisfied grin.

"Wait," Elissa pauses, the smile on her face faltering. "How many people know about this?"

"Just about everyone," Pepper shrugs. Elissa lets out a groan putting her head in her hands. The girls laugh at her, they know Elissavet hates to be the topic of conversation.

"How'd everyone react?" she looks up from her hands, not removing them from her face.

"Mostly excited and shocked," Natasha shrugs, leaning back on the chair. Elissavet takes her hands off her face and nods. Another knock sounds on the door, alerting Elissa. She stands up and walks to the door. Before opening it, she glances back at the two women sitting giving them an unsure glance. They just give her a shrug. She hesitantly opens the door.

Wanda is standing at the door with a grin on her face. "Hey Elissa," she greets.

"Hello Wanda," she replies, opening the door to let her in. Wanda skips over to her fuzzy spinning chair and plops down on it.

Elissa goes to close the door, but it is stopped by a man's hand. Furrowing her brow, she opens it back up and sees Clint.

"Hey, just heard about the Bucky thing. Just let me know if anything happens okay? I won't hesitate to hurt him if need be," he informs her. She raises her eyebrows. "Not that I'm expecting anything to happen," he quickly adds.

She chuckles and shakes her head, "thanks Mr. Barton, I appreciate it."

"Oh c'mon, you calling me that makes me feel old," he whines. She giggles before sending him a wave and closing her door. Walking back over to the girls she face-plants into the bed with a large groan. This earns a laugh from all of them.

"I swear if another person comes knocking at the door," she grumbles, her voice muffled through the bed. They laugh harder and Pepper rubs her back with fake sympathy. Elissa turns to lay on her back and sighs.

"'lissa, we all need to go on a shopping trip at the mall," Wanda demands.

"Oh no," she exclaims, raising to a sitting position. "No, no, no, I am not doing that again."

"Oh come on! It was fun!" she whines.

Playfully glaring at her, Elissa reminds, "we got stuck standing in line for an hour. You and Pepper refused to leave. Don't even mention the bar."

Wanda grimaces at the mention of the bar, "okay we won't go to the bar then. We don't have to wait in any long lines either."

"You're going to make me try everything in the store on," Elissa whines.

Natasha silently laughs, "only the stuff you want this time. We have two events to shop for and you have a date to shop for as well."

"We could also shop for something to wear under the outfits for the date," Wanda suggests, wiggling her brow.

"Oh my god!" Elissa exclaims with disgust, throwing a small throw pillow at her. They all laugh and Wanda picks up the pillow throwing it back to Elissa.

Elissa catches it and puts it back in its spot, glaring at Wanda. "Only joking, if you really don't want to we don't have to," she smirks. Elissa shakes her head in disbelief; how she ever managed to become friends with her, she doesn't know.

"What are the two events that we have to go for again?" Elissa inquires, looking at Pepper.

"The one that Tony is hosting to 'get you out of your shell' and the Halloween masquerade ball," she replies.

"Masquerade? Isn't that a bit cliche?" Elissa frowns.

Pepper laughs, "yeah, it's out of our control. We are attending someone else's party this year."

"Awe, so I don't get to witness the 'Great Pepper Halloween Extravaganza'?" she whines. Pepper laughs and shakes her head. "That's disappointing."

"At least we will be having Christmas here!" Wanda offers.

"True, that is definitely the best time in the tower," Pepper nods in agreement.

Wanda takes out her phone and says, "sorry guys, I'm going to bounce, Vis is looking for me."

"Alright, goodnight," Elissa waves with a smile.

Pepper stands up and adds, "I should probably get going too."

"'Night Pepper."

"I can leave if you'd like," Natasha offers.

Elissavet stands up and floats over to her fuzzy chair, "only if you want to."

"Want to talk now that those two are gone?"

"That would be nice," Elissa admits, pulling a throw blanket around her body that is now huddled up.

"So how are you holding up?"

"I'm alright, a bit nervous. I don't want to mess things up around the tower and all," she admits, biting her lip and fiddling with her soft blanket.

Natasha nods, "just be yourself. Don't worry about everyone else, focus on you for once in your life."

"Okay..."

"Listen, I know that it might be a bit hard to get back into dating, but trust me when I say that I think, even if it doesn't work out, Bucky is a good start."

Natasha and Elissavet stay up until one in the morning talking. Elissa is now lying in bed, staring at the ceiling. She impatiently waits for sleep to come over her body. At long last, she is able to close her eyes and drift into sleep.