Allegro

Natasha Romanov was the Snow Queen. Elektra had decided to go to Tony and request that they switch roles. She didn’t know what else she could do. It was clear to her that she had really dug deep with her last comment to Natasha, she had to do something to at least attempt to fix it. Elektra decided to talk to Tony to try to forfeit her role to Natasha. Plus, the perks of being the Sugar Plum Fairy were looking better than ever. Honestly, Elektra would benefit from the trade even more than Natasha would.

“What’s going on?” Bucky asked, walking into Elektra’s dressing room. “Tony said we’ve been moved to Sugar Plum. I’m so confused. Why does this always happen to me?”

Fuck, Elektra had forgotten about the collateral damage. It wasn’t Bucky’s fault that Natasha and Elektra were both unhappy with their roles. She didn’t even consider that Sugar Plum may have been a demotion in Bucky’s eyes. Not to mention the fact that in their last show, Swan Lake, Bucky had been removed from his role very last minute. At least it proved Tony was willing to do whatever it took to make a show the best it could possibly be.

“Look, Bucky, I’m sorry,” Elektra began.

“When will this petty feud just stop?” Bucky demanded. “I’m tired of being caught in the middle of this.”

“I was trying to fix it. That’s why I gave my role up,” Elektra explained.

“Yeah, well, you also gave up mine,” Bucky said. 

“I just wanted Natasha to be happy. I don’t want this stupid fighting to go on any more than you do,” Elektra said.

“Yet you continue to be a bitch to Natasha!” Bucky exclaimed.

“Bucky, I am trying my best, that much I assure you,” Elektra reasoned. “I knew that after everything I’ve done, no apology will mean anything to Nat. So I decided to give her the one thing she wants: Snow Queen.”

“And what if Snow King was the one thing I wanted?” Bucky asked.

Elektra sighed and leaned back in her chair. “Bucky, I don’t know what you want me to do here.”

“I want you to consult me before making choices that directly affect my life,” Bucky persisted. “I don’t understand what’s so hard to understand about that for all you people. You’ve done it, Tony’s done it, Steve’s done it, everyone keeps doing it. Stop making major life decisions for me!”

“I really wasn’t trying to do that,” Elektra insisted.

“Well you did,” Bucky said.

Maybe he was right, maybe Elektra had overstepped her bounds. But it had been Tony who made the final decision, hadn’t it been? All Elektra had really done was make a suggestion. Tony was the person he should’ve been mad at. Tony wouldn’t have switched the roles if he didn’t think it would make for a better performance. Bucky had misguided anger.

“Be upset with Tony, he’s the one who switched the roles,” Elektra said.

“Because of you!” Bucky shouted.

“Why don’t we learn our parts separately today and then rehearsal together tomorrow,” Elektra suggested.

“Perfect,” Bucky grumbled, storming out of her dressing room.

Elektra didn’t allow herself to get upset by what had happened with Bucky. She knew that it wasn’t her fault. Besides, she’d worked hard to try to fix things with Natasha. Being Nat’s best friend, Bucky should have understood that. This would only make things easier for him. Since he needed some time to cool down, Elektra grabbed a rehearsal studio for herself. She’d danced the Sugar Plum Fairy a few years before, she knew what she was doing.

The Sugar Plum Fairy variation was so iconic, Elektra knew she had to perform it perfectly. She felt like her first run through was pretty close to that. Honestly, it would be as good, if not better, than what Natasha could have done. As Elektra was doing some cool-down stretches after two hours of rehearsing, she noticed Natasha walk by her studio. For once, she didn’t look absolutely pissed off. Elektra felt accomplished.

After she finished rehearsing alone, Elektra decided to drop by Bobby’s house. There was no full run through, or remotely full run through, because it was a Wednesday and dance moms got mad about those sorts of things. Ever since they went to buy a Christmas tree, Elektra felt even more connection and love towards Bobby. Something about that evening had sparked a flame within her. 

“Hi, darling,” Elektra greeted, walking into Bobby’s house.

“I wasn’t expecting you to come over tonight,” Bobby said from his spot on the couch.

“And it isn’t even night, it’s afternoon,” Elektra said.

“What’s the occasion?” Bobby asked.

Elektra walked over to him and smiled down at him. “I just love you.”

“I love you too, baby,” Bobby said.

“I think I may have done something bad today,” Elektra said, sitting down next to him and leaning against him.

“Yeah? What happened?” Bobby asked.

“Well, it’s a little complex,” Elektra began. “I basically wanted to fix everything with Natasha. I felt bad about what happened at the tree farm. So I decided to ask Tony to give Nat my part, which she wanted. But now Bucky is mad at me for it and I don’t completely understand why.”

“I’m sure he just liked his part,” Bobby reasoned.

“Well I feel bad,” Elektra stated.

“You know, sometimes you just have to remember that not everything is about you,” Bobby advised. “It’s very possible that he has something else going on in his life that’s making him so upset. Don’t be mad at him when you don’t know what he’s going through.”

That wasn’t bad advice, but Bucky had a seemingly perfect life. It was hard to imagine there being anything going on to make him upset. It really felt like he was just upset with her. But she wouldn’t jump to conclusions. Elektra would just allow it to float to the back of her mind until rehearsal the next day.

“Do you wanna do anything today?” Bobby asked, wrapping his arm around Elektra’s shoulders.

“That would be nice,” Elektra responded.

“I agree. I’m just not too sure what we should do,” Bobby said.

“Hmmm… We could do something Christmas-y,” Elektra suggested.

“Such as…?” Bobby prompted.

“Well, we already decorated both of our houses and we made Christmas cookies, so that doesn’t leave a lot of things. And we don’t have the right type of snow, or enough of it, for a snowman or snow fort or anything,” Elektra said.

“We could drive around and look at the Christmas lights later tonight,” Bobby proposed.

“There’s a few hours until it’s dark out,” Elektra stated.

Bobby kissed her cheek and smiled at her. “We could fill that time.”

Ew. Absolutely not. Elektra did not want to spend her mid-afternoon having sex with Bobby. Not that she didn’t like having sex with Bobby, this was just not the way she liked to go about it. And she would never do it earlier than nine at night. If she wanted to get out of that, she’d have to find something else to fill their time.

“There are a lot of options for Christmas movies that we could watch,” Elektra said.

“But they’re all the same,” Bobby said.

Elektra smiled at him. “I could help clean your apartment up. I know how much you hate doing that.”

“That does not sound like a fun time at all,” Bobby said.

“I just want to be helpful,” Elektra stated.

Bobby carefully combed his fingers through Elektra’s midnight hair. It felt very nice. “I know, baby. But I’d rather we do something that’s actually fun.”

“Oh, I know something fun and romantic that we could do,” Elektra said.

“Yeah? What is it?” Bobby inquired.

“We can make chocolate covered strawberries. They’re delicious and very easy to make,” Elektra said.

“We can do that, but we’ll have to run to the store first,” Bobby said.

That’s how Elektra once again found herself sitting in the passenger seat of Bobby’s truck. Because she didn’t really have any friends, she wasn’t too worried about anyone seeing her in it. As much as she didn’t like the truck, she did like how high up it sat. To get both the strawberries and chocolate candy melts, Elektra suggested they go to Hyvee. Hyvee was the best grocery store ever. Inside it was a clinic, post office, shoe store, clothing store, restaurants, and, of course, a grocery store. Elektra loved to do all her shopping there, even if she always spent more money than she intended.

Elektra practically sprinted into the store when they arrived. Only upon entering did she realize that she was still wearing her leotard with sweatpants over it. Well, at least she wasn’t at a Lunds and Byerlys. Upon entering, Elektra went straight towards the bakery counter. It was a lot more fancy than your average grocery store bakery, with cakes and cookies of all sizes and prices. There were even some chocolate covered strawberries. But that would take away from the fun of it all.

“You really booked it in here,” Bobby laughed, catching up to Elektra in the produce section.

“I love a good grocery store,” Elektra stated.

Elektra picked up a sweet potato the size of her head and held it out to Bobby. “Look at this. Isn’t it crazy? That’s why I love this store as much as I do.”

“I see. Maybe let’s find the crazy big strawberries now instead of yams,” Bobby suggested. 

“The fact that you just called a sweet potato a yam is kind of upsetting to me,” Elekta said.

“Are they the same?” Bobby asked.

“No, not exactly,” Elektra said. “But I’m not quite sure on the exact difference. All I know is that they’re not the same.”

“Regardless, we don’t need any,” Bobby said, walking over to the berries.

There was a wide variety of berries. Strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, and everything in between. Not to mention the different variations within each berry. Elektra wanted to get the big, red, juicy strawberries. She preferred to have a high ratio of strawberry to chocolate. That’s the only other thing they had to get, chocolate melts. Elektra grabbed the best looking strawberries she could find and handed them to Bobby.

“I get to carry the groceries?” Bobby asked, smiling at her.

“Yes, that’s your job,” Elektra replied, smiling back at him.

“I suppose I can accept that,” Bobby said.

Elektra wove through the aisles, looking for chocolates. When she came across the aisle, she knew it would be almost impossible to leave the store with only two items. There was just such a big variety of, well, everything. Elektra was a sucker for imported, dark chocolates. Especially the truffles. Either she could buy some now, or just give a lot of hints to Bobby to get her some for Christmas.

“Look at all this,” Elektra said, gesturing to the chocolate aisle. 

“That’s a lot of chocolate,” Bobby said.

Elektra giggled. “I don’t think there’s enough chocolate here. I could eat five billion dark chocolate truffles and still need more.”

“Maybe we should get some dark chocolate truffles, then,” Bobby suggested.

“I don’t know how we could choose just one type,” Elektra observed.

Without saying anything, Bobby grabbed five boxes of chocolates and one bag of candy melts. It was official: Bobby was perfect. They only came for candy melts and strawberries, so Elektra led them to the self checkouts. Elektra grabbed a cranberry Sprite and added it onto their conveyor belt. She needed something to put her in the holiday spirit.

“I thought you didn’t drink soda because of dance?” Bobby questioned.

Elektra blushed profusely. “I mean, I don’t drink it often. But I still do drink it sometimes. I mainly drink smoothies and water.”

“I honestly don’t know the last time I saw you drink soda,” Bobby said.

“I try my best not to,” Elektra said.

Bobby bagged up all their items and carried them out to the car. The way that he always took care of her without her asking first was amazing. Growing up, Elektra’s parents hadn’t really taken care of her in that way. They had always just hired a nanny or babysitter to do whatever she asked them to. She wasn’t used to someone doing nice things for her with no motivation other than to be nice. 

“Bobby?” Elektra asked, climbing into his truck.

“Hmm?” He responded.

“I’ve been thinking about it and I do want you to move in with me,” Elektra said.

Bobby turned towards her, a huge grin overtaking his face. “What? Are you being serious right now?”
“Completely serious.”

Bobby hugged Elektra and kissed her all over her face. He was completely overjoyed. It felt as though she had just given him the best gift ever. And in a way, she had. But it wasn’t a completely selfless gift. Elektra would benefit immensely from Bobby living with her. He would always cook, clean, and just generally take care of her. Though that wasn’t her motivation for inviting him to move in: she just loved him.

“I want to start packing right now,” Bobby enthused, walking into his house.

Elektra laughed. “It might be a bit soon for that, darling.”

“Oh, it’s never too soon,” Bobby said. “I will literally move in with you tonight.”

“Darling, I’m not even ready for that tonight,” Elektra said.

Bobby stuck out his tongue at her. “Meanie. Okay. Well, I guess I’ll get ready to move in next week.”

“Try after Nutcracker season,” Elektra suggested.

And just like that, Bobby and Elektra were going to live together. He didn’t wait to start moving in until Nutcracker season like she’d asked: he started the next day. It was hard for her to give up some of her private space, but she was willing to make that sacrifice for him. The one thing that was a little annoying about Bobby moving all his stuff in was that she hadn’t made him a copy of the key yet. This meant that he either had to let Elektra know ahead of time that he was coming or he’d have to knock.

That’s why Elektra was expecting Bobby when someone knocked on the door, not Natasha.