Allegro

Elektra Natchios was a heartless bitch. She didn’t care about anyone’s feelings other than her own. And for some reason it was her mission to make Natasha’s life miserable. Elektra’s latest task seemed to be driving a wedge between Matt and Natasha. It all began when she came over to get the cookie cutters when Natasha wasn’t home. And then when she returned them, it resulted in Matt becoming upset at Natasha. This time, she decided to take a direct jab at their relationship by referencing the fact that Matt was actually talking to Elektra when he and Natasha first met. It hurt.

“I understand what you mean now,” Matt said to Natasha as she drove them home from the Christmas tree farm without a tree. 

“You understand what?” Natasha asked, glancing over at him.

“Elektra. Why you feel the way you do about her,” Matt explained. “She knows what to say and do to make you upset, and that’s what she does. You were right. She does go out of her way to make your life miserable.”

Natasha smiled and little. “Thank you.”

“But now we don’t have a tree. I feel like we still do need to get a tree,” Matt said.

“Maybe we should just get a fake tree,” Natasha suggested. “It is a little hard for us to bring the tree in and out of our apartment.”

“That’s true. Let’s go to Walmart right now and pick one up,” Matt said.

Going to Walmart and picking up a fake tree was exactly what Matt and Natasha decided to do. A tree wasn’t all they picked up, though. They also got Christmas lights, eggnog, and some premade Christmas cookies. If they were going to put up a Christmas tree, it made sense to make an entire night out of it. Natasha was already planning the Christmas album she would play and the Christmas candle she would burn as they set up the tree.

Natasha carried all their new items up to the apartment because she didn’t like making Matt do that type of stuff, as much as he hated it. She just didn’t want anything to go wrong, even though she knew he had a handle on himself. As soon as they walked into the apartment, Matt pulled out two glasses and filled them with eggnog. Not even spiked eggnog, just the plain stuff.

“Thanks, baby,” Natasha said, taking a sip of her drink.

“Anything for you,” Matt said. “Do you need help setting the tree up?”
“No, I can do it myself,” Natasha said.

“Just let me know if you need any help,” Matt said.

There were a few things that were hard about having a blind boyfriend. Natasha’s main issue was that Matt felt like he could do a lot more things than Natasha felt he could do. She never wanted him to something where there was a possibility of him failing. That sounded like some weird statement some dance mom would make, but she knew he would get upset if his blindness ever prevented him from doing something. Natasha just wanted to protect Matt. And that’s what she felt she was doing by not having him help put the tree together. She’d ask for help with the ornaments, though.

As Natasha put together the tree, Matt drank his eggnog and ate some of the Christmas cookies. They did have a nice winter candle burning and the Leslie Odom Jr Christmas album playing. It definitely felt like Christmas. As soon as Natasha finished putting the tree together, she pulled out all the decorations and put on the lights. Having Matt help with the lights felt a little too risky.

“Ready to help with some ornaments?” Natasha asked, munching on a cookie.

“Ready as I'll ever be,” Matt replied.

Their ornament collection was very eclectic. About half were from Matt's childhood, a quarter from Natasha’s, and the rest they had purchased for their place. Before they met each other, none of them had celebrated Christmas in their adult lives. Both of them were very glad to have it back.

The first ornament Matt put on the tree was one given to him by his dad when he was a child. All it was was a simple star, but it was very dear to Matt’s heart. Natasha thought it was sweet. His dad had died when he was just a child, but Matt seemed to be constantly thinking about him. And his mom. Natasha's parents were still alive, she just didn't seem them. But that was a story for another time.

“I still remember getting every one of these ornaments,” Matt said as he hung up more of his ornaments.

“Really?” Natasha asked.

“Mhmm. They were all special to me. Especially the ones from my dad. I miss him a lot,” Matt said.

Natasha ran her hand down his back. “I know, baby.”

“But now I have you,” Matt said.

Natasha smiled. “Awe, that’s so sweet. I’m not sure I’m necessarily the best replacement for him, though.”

“I love you regardless. We started decorating the office today, you know,” Matt said.

“Yeah? That’s fun. I wish we decorate the company. I mean, someone does it eventually, but only right before our first Nutcracker performance,” Natasha reflected.

“It was a good time,” Matt said.

Matt had been talking about work less and less recently. Natasha had absolutely no clue why. It was honestly beginning to get a little odd. What was happening at work that he didn’t want to tell her about? Was he secretly working on some high profile case? But even then, he always told Natasha about everything going on with him. That’s probably why what Elektra said had stung so badly.

“Well, I’m glad you guys are having a good time at work,” Natasha said. “It’s always very important to have a nice work environment.”

Matt simply hummed in response. Damn it. She was trying to prompt him to talk about whatever was going on at work, but that plan obviously failed. Oh well, she could always call one of his colleagues.

Natasha let Matt deal with most of the decorating. She just sat back and watched, eating cookies and drinking eggnog. It was a nice night. The calmness of her night didn’t last long, however. When she woke up in the morning, she had to get ready for a day at the company. Natasha was dreading seeing Elektra again, even if it was just in passing. But at least she’d get to see and dance with Alexei.

The door to Natasha’s dressing room was open when Natasha arrived at the company. While their dressing rooms didn’t have locks, no one ever entered someone else’s room without permission. Natasha assumed it had been Elektra. When she walked in and turned on the light, there was something abnormal. There was a clothing rack with the Snow Queen costume on it in the middle of the room.

Natasha pushed the rack to the corner of her room and decided to ignore it for now. Elektra was obviously trying to play some cruel trick on her. She didn’t want to let it bother her, but she couldn’t stop thinking about it. They hadn’t done costume fittings yet, how did she get the costume to put it in here? And why had no one from the costume department noticed?

As Natasha was rolling out her legs on the floor, Bucky walked into her dressing room in his street clothes.

“Hey,” Bucky said, tiredly.

“Hi. We put up our Christmas tree last night,” Natasha said.

“Really?” Bucky asked, sitting down on her chair. “I’m not doing a tree at my apartment this year. I’m going over to Steve’s for Christmas so I felt like there was no point.”

“But it’s so fun to decorate,” Natasha said.

“I might help him decorate his place,” Bucky said. “But he and Sam might also want to do that together, which is fine.”

“Sam likes you, doesn’t he?” Natasha questioned.

“Well yeah, I just don’t want to intrude on their time,” Bucky answered.

“They live together, they spend all their time at home together. They’ll be fine,” Natasha said. 

“Yeah, we’ll just have to wait and see,” Bucky said.

Natasha got up and began securing her hair in a bun. She hadn’t done it at home because she didn’t feel like she had enough time to do it perfectly. If Natasha was going to do something, she wanted to do it perfectly. 

“What’s this?” Bucky asked, getting up and walking over to the costume rack.

“Oh, it’s the Snow Queen costume,” Natasha explained. “I think Elektra put it in here to try to psych me out. I saw her when we were going to get our tree and she was being a massive bitch.”

“But we haven’t even done our costume fittings yet, I don’t understand how she could get that,” Bucky said.

“She always wants to fuck me up or fuck me over, I’m not surprised,” Natasha said.

“I’m just confused by it,” Bucky said, carefully picking up the costume. “I mean, this doesn’t look like her size. It for sure hasn’t been fitted to her.”

“She just wants me to look at it and be jealous and sad that I’m not the Snow Queen, I’m just the lowly Sugar Plum Fairy,” Natasha stated.

Bucky walked over to Natasha and held the costume up to her body. “Well, it looks like it would fit you. Try it on.”

Just to entertain Bucky, Natasha put the costume on over her leotard. She figured there was no harm in doing so. As soon as she slipped in on, she noticed how perfectly it fit. She looked in the mirror and was suddenly sad. It just looked right. It looked like she was meant to wear this costume and dance this role. So Elektra’s plan had worked.

“That fits you perfectly,” Bucky commented.

“I can’t even remember who wore it last year. I feel like all the principals are slightly different sizes,” Natasha said.

“Yeah, they are,” Bucky affirmed.

Natasha took off the costume almost as soon as it was on, not wanting to make herself too upset that it wasn’t her reality. Besides, her Sugar Plum costume would be gorgeous and fit perfectly as well. This wasn’t going to be some once in a lifetime, Cinderella type fit.

“I don’t understand Elektra sometimes,” Bucky said. “It doesn’t make sense to me why she’s so concerned with damaging your ego. That isn’t going to make her a better dancer.”

“It doesn’t make sense to me, either,” Natasha said.

All the stuff Elektra had done during the Nutcracker season felt way out of line in Natasha’s eyes. She’d brought Matt into it way too many times. Matt was in no way involved with Elektra, she didn’t need to use him as a weapon. Although, what she had said at the Christmas tree farm was true. Matt was talking to Elektra when they first met. Oh god, that was it.

“She’s in love with Matt,” Natasha said. 

“What?” Bucky exclaimed, turning to face her.

“That’s why she’s making my life a living hell,” Natasha explained. 

“Ohhhh, because of how you and Matt met?” Bucky asked. 

“Yeah. Well, I think. I’m pretty sure that she was trying to get with him that night. But he decided to get with me instead,” Natasha explained. “But it never would’ve even worked. Matt has told me he wasn’t interested in dating her in the first place. He claims he’d had his eyes on me all night.”

“Not to be insensitive, but how would he even been able to tell which one was you?” Bucky questioned. 

“I just don’t question it, it’s a sweet story,” Natasha said, smiling at him.

Bucky smiled back at her. “Matt’s just a cute guy.”

Alexei and Natasha had scheduled to work with Maria again. They loved hearing her feedback, which was mainly praise. When Natasha and Alexei walked into their practice studio, however, Maria wasn’t in there. Natasha had no idea why. Maybe there was a miscommunication on timing? Obviously something had gone wrong in some way or another. 

“Maybe we should just run through it once without her,” Alexei suggested. “You know, just to pass the time and make sure we aren’t too rusty.”

“I guess we could do that,” Natasha replied, plugging her phone into the speaker in the corner of the room.

As Natasha was getting the music set up, someone walked into the studio. But it wasn’t Maria. It was Tony.

“I have something to talk to you two about,” Tony announced as he walked into the room.

“Did something happen to Maria?” Alexei asked, genuine concern seeping into his voice.

“No, but she’s not going to be working with you two this morning,” Tony stated.

“Oh? Then who is?” Natasha inquired.

“Me,” Tony answered.

Tony didn’t know anything about dance. How would he be able to critique their routine? The only thing he could really comment on was expression or if there was a major mess up. And with Natasha and Alexei, there was never going to be a major mess up. Although Tony had said nothing happened to Maria, Natasha was incredibly skeptical. There was no other reason why she wouldn’t be working with them.

“So, do you just want to see us do it once or what?” Alexei asked.

“Yes, please, go ahead,” Tony said, gesturing for them to start. 

Natasha and Alexei took their starting positions and danced. It wasn’t as good as the last time they had performed for Maria, but it was still absolutely outstanding. There was almost nothing to critique, and certainly nothing for Tony to comment on. Natasha felt extremely satisfied with what they had presented to Tony.

“Yes, it’s just as I had thought,” Tony said, walking towards them.

“What is?” Natasha asked.

Tony had said that like whatever was coming was a bad thing. But Natasha couldn’t think of anything that they’d done wrong. They’d spent hours absolutely perfecting this piece, even if they found it boring. And they certainly didn’t perform it like they found it boring.

“You guys can’t dance this piece,” Tony said.

Natasha’s heart fell through her stomach. She didn’t want to be a party guest. She’d come too far, trained too hard, to be a party guest. And she thought Tony loved her. Why would he do this to her?

“What? That was a nearly perfect performance,” Alexei argued.

“Oh, I’m not saying it wasn’t,” Tony said.

“Well then what exactly are you saying?” Natasha asked.

Tony smiled at them and said, “I think I’ve found my new Snow Queen and Snow King.”