Allegro

Elektra Natchios was a manipulative bitch. She always seemed to find a way to get what she wanted. And a lot of what she wanted involved Natasha. The one thing she was unable to manipulate from Natasha was Matt, which it seemed she was still upset about. But now she’d given up her role to Natasha. It couldn’t just be giving it to Natasha, could it? It seemed impossible that Elektra would do something to in any way benefit Natasha. There had to be some sort of manipulation going on.

“I got the Snow Queen,” Natasha announced, walking into her apartment after her first day of learning her new role.

“I feel like I’m experiencing something weird right now. Either I’m dreaming or I just woke up from a very long dream,” Matt said from somewhere in the kitchen.

“No, Tony switched our roles,” Natasha said.

Matt walked out from the kitchen and wrapped his arms around Natasha from behind. “Well, congratulations, in that case.”

“I think Elektra had something to do with it. She seemed way too happy about it. She should not be happy about me getting the role that I wanted,” Natasha expressed.

“You’re right. But why would she do that?” Matt asked.

Natasha sighed and leaned back against him. “That’s what I’m going to try to find out.”

The apartment was now fully decorated for Christmas and it made Natasha immensely happy. For a lot of people, seeing the Nutcracker put them in the holiday spirit. It was the exact opposite for Natasha. Being in the Nutcracker crushed her holiday spirit, so she had to overcompensate by doing lots of festive activities and decorating her apartment. It just made her feel happy.

“I was thinking about inviting Steve to come over tomorrow while you and Bucky have rehearsal,” Matt said, resting his chin on the top of Natasha’s head.

“Feel free. I love Steve and Bucky so I’m glad you also like them,” Natasha said.

“They’re really fun people,” Matt said.

Natasha was always worried that she and Matt only hung out with her friends, not his. The fact that he and Steve were getting close was a major win in her book. She didn’t want Matt to not like her friends or to feel like he could never hang out with his friends. Although he pretty much spent all day with them. His best friend, Foggy, was his coworker. So they did see each other during work and they often went for drinks after work. It felt very mundane, which Natasha thought was cute. 

“Why haven’t you been at work recently?” Natasha asked bluntly.

She’d been noticing for a while now that Matt always seemed to be home when she left for rehearsal and when she got home from rehearsal, regardless of what time the rehearsal started at. It was odd because Matt was somewhat of a workaholic: he loved what he did. Natasha could not imagine a world where Matt didn’t want to be constantly working. She was honestly a little bit worried about him.

Matt blushed. “I’ve been working from home,” he stated.

“But why?” Natasha questioned. 

“I just work better from home,” Matt said, defensively.

“Matt, you and I both know that’s not true,” Natasha said. “If it were true, you would’ve been working from home all along. And you aren’t even doing any work right now. Just tell me what’s going on, please. I don’t like dealing with this back and forth and confusion.”

Matt blushed and said quietly, “We just don’t have any cases right now.”

“Wait, what? Why not?” Natasha asked.

Matt shrugged. “If I knew, I would fix it.”

“That’s impossible. You’re always swamped with work,” Natasha insisted.

“Well, there is one case, but Foggy’s working on it and not me,” Matt said.

“I don’t understand this at all,” Natasha said. “Why would you not have any cases? You literally have to turn down clients because you have too much to work on.”

“Not anymore,” Matt said.

Matt and his firm were very reputable. They always had five million things going on at once and people lined up out of the door waiting to see them. It didn’t make sense to Natasha that they could only have one case. There had to have been something Matt wasn’t telling her. Seeing as he’d already told her why he was really home, she wasn’t going to pry into it any more. She would get that information out of him eventually.

Without anything being explicitly said, Natasha could tell that Bucky was upset. She’d thought about it quite a lot, but she couldn’t think of anything she’d done wrong. Unless he thought that she was the reason their roles got switched. Elektra probably would have told him that just to make upset with her. Regardless of why Bucky was upset, Natasha was determined to fix it. She decided to visit Bucky directly to try and clear the air.

“Hey,” Natasha said, walking into Bucky’s apartment unannounced.

Bucky was doing something on his phone while lying on the couch and didn’t respond. Damn, he really was upset. Natasha gently moved his feet off the end of the couch and sat down.

“How’s it going?” Natasha asked.

“It’s going,” Bucky responded.

“You seem a little bit upset recently,” Natasha said.

Bucky rolled his eyes and said sarcastically, “Oh really? And what would make you think that?”

“Just tell me what’s wrong so I can fix it,” Natasha begged.

“I lost my role,” Bucky said. “You wouldn’t understand that because you got the role you wanted.”

“Honestly, I wasn’t even that upset about my role anymore,” Natasha said.

“Oh, but you just had to go and complain to Tony about it, didn’t you?” Bucky asked.

“Bucky, that wasn’t why he switched the roles,” Natasha explained. “He switched them because Maria told him that Alexei and I were good partners. And Elektra did something, I know she did.”

“Look, Nat, I’m not even mad at you,” Bucky said.

Natasha gave him a blank stare. Was this all for nothing? She had come here to make up with him when there wasn’t even anything to make up for. God, Elektra was really starting to mess up every single part of her life.

“I’m just generally upset with what happened, it has nothing to do with any one person,” Bucky said.

“I’m sorry that it’s not a good situation for you. You keep getting your good roles snatched away from you after you’ve already secured them,” Natasha stated.

“I know. It sucks,” Bucky said.

Natasha sighed and looked around Bucky’s apartment. He wasn’t lying about having no Christmas decorations up. Despite that, his apartment certainly wasn’t bland. His living room was covered in tie-dye draperies and there were practically a million rugs on the ground. Steve had helped him decorate. Ever since he started dating Steve, he seemed a lot more like himself.

“So, are you excited to spend Christmas with Steve this year?” Natasha asked, propping her feet up on Bucky’s Ikea coffee table. 

“I’m actually pretty excited, yeah. Sam is going to his parents’ house so we’ll be alone, even,” Bucky said.

Natasha smiled at him and wiggled her eyebrows. “Ooh, spicy.”

“It actually is a little spicy because he’ll be gone from the twenty forth to the twenty sixth, so we’ll have quite a bit of alone time. It’ll be kinda weird, though. I’ve only spent the night there, like, two times,” Bucky said.

“Their house is really nice, but it’s so… clean,” Natasha said.

“It’s definitely not like my apartment at all,” Bucky laughed.

It was true. Bucky’s apartment was extremely chaotic, but not in a bad way. It reminded Natasha of the cool, older, alternative friend’s bedroom in a teen movie. Steve’s house, on the other hand, was pristine. Everything was white and nothing was ever out of place, especially in Steve’s bedroom. Steve would go crazy if even one singular piece of paper was out of place. It reminded Natasha of the way Matt was with their apartment. He always wanted everything to be perfectly clean and neat looking.

“I love your apartment though. And his house. And my apartment. I love it all. Everyone that I know lives in a nice looking place,” Natasha said.

“It’s that company money,” Bucky said, smiling at her.

Natasha blew air out of her nose. “You wish.”

One thing about having a career in the arts was that it didn’t pay very well. And Natasha was one of the highest paid people in the company. Matt’s salary was really the only thing keeping them in their bougie apartment. Natasha was honestly not sure how Elektra could afford to live in the building, she made the same amount of money that Natasha did. Though it was very possible she came from a family with money. 

“Natasha?” Bucky asked, sitting up and turning to face her. 

“Yes?” Natasha replied.

“I miss you,” Bucky stated. “I feel like we never really get to see each other now that its Nutcracker season and I have a boyfriend. We need to start going to yoga and pilates together again.”

“Definitely.”

Bucky was Natasha's best friend and she never wanted to give up on that. He was a really sweet, genuinely good guy. She had to remember to make time for him even as her life became more chaotic. It was just hard for her to remember to do anything other than dance and spend time with Matt. Her priorities in life were just so focused around her job. She did see Bucky at work, though. In fact, they probably spent fifteen minutes together everyday in her dressing room. It was one of the best parts of Natasha’s day.

When Natasha came home from Bucky’s apartment, Matt wasn’t there. But he didn’t leave her a note or send her a text or anything. It was strange behavior for him, but she wasn’t worried about it. Obviously all the talk about his job had bothered him, so he probably just needed some time alone. Natasha wasn’t going to freak out and try to find him for that reason.

Natasha walked into the kitchen and dug through their stainless steel fridge, searching for something, anything to eat. Sadly, the only things they had were ingredients for other things. Natasha didn’t want to eat raw beans or tomatoes. Discouraged, Natasha decided to just find something else to do. But all she wanted to do was hang out with her boyfriend. God, this was turning into a really annoying day. And, honestly, Elektra could be blamed for it all.

Throwing her shoes back on, Natasha marched up to Elektra’s apartment. Elektra couldn’t continue to get away with fucking with other people’s lives. She knocked on the door aggressively, not even really wanting to see Elektra.

“I’m coming,” Elektra called before opening the door.

Her face fell the moment she saw Natasha. “What brings you here?” She asked.

“I think we need to talk,” Natasha said. 

Elektra stepped aside, allowing Natasha to come in. Elektra’s apartment was a mix between Steve’s house and Natasha’s own apartment. It had a similar vibe to Natasha’s place because they were in the same building, but she definitely was very into the all white look like Steve was. It was honestly really nice. And it was a loft. It definitely felt a lot like Elektra

“So, what is it that we need to talk about?” Elektra asked, leaning against her kitchen island.

“Why did you get the roles switched?” Natasha demanded.

“Oh, you think I changed the roles?” Elektra laughed. “I don’t know why everyone keeps thinking that. Honestly, I’m flattered that you all think I have that much power. But the sad fact is, I don’t. Why do you think that I would give up such a good role? Just to please you?”

“Well obviously you had some sort of motivation. I want to know what it is,” Natasha said.

“Natasha, why is this so hard for you to understand? Tony made the decision. He wouldn’t even listen to me, he hates me. He’s more likely to listen to you,” Elektra said.

Natasha sat down on one of the barstools and sighed. “Look, I know you did something. You put the costume in my dressing room, at least.”

“I did do that. I thought it was a nice touch,” Elektra said, smiling at her. 

The costume department wasn’t just always open, someone had to be working there for it to be unlocked. Elektra for sure didn’t have a key, and it was there way too early for anyone who actually worked in the department to be around. Not to mention the fact that it was fitted perfectly to her body. That felt like way too big of a feat for Elektra to accomplish.

“How did you even do that?” Natasha asked.

“It wouldn’t be as cool if I gave away the secret, now would it,” Elektra answered.

There was a different air about Elektra today. It was as though she genuinely did not care about Natasha’s feelings in any capacity. She was being more harsh, more cold. This past season, Elektra had started to act a lot more friendly towards her. But that was seemingly changing. While Natasha didn’t want to be friends with Elektra, she also didn’t want Eletra to torture her.

“Elektra, I don’t want this to continue,” Natasha said, leaning back against the stool.

“There’s nothing to continue,” Elektra dismissed.

“There is something. It’s the way that you treat me. I’m tired of being picked apart by you for doing absolutely nothing other than being a good dancer,” Natasha expressed.

Elektra laughed and rolled her eyes.”Oh please, I don’t hate you because you’re a good dancer. In fact, I don’t hate you at all.”

“You don’t?” Natasha asked.

“No, I just think you’re a stuck-up bitch.”

It was official: Elektra did hate her. But why the sudden switch? Why was she sucking up to Natasha to just turn around and act like this the next week? It was a confusing dilemma. The switch had happened right after their parts were changed. Maybe Elektra wasn’t lying about not having a part in the role reversal. She was probably upset about it, too, just like Bucky.

“Look, Elektra, I can understand you not liking me. Quite frankly, I don’t really like you, either. But I would really appreciate it if you would stop tormenting me,” Natasha said.

“It’s not like you’ve always been kind to me,” Elektra stated.

“And I’m sorry for that. I just don’t want to have to deal with this back and forth bullshit,” Natasha said. 

“Well you better get used to it,” Elektra said, smirking at her. “Buckle up: this is only the beginning.”