Stranger Who Knows All My Secrets [A Marvel FanFic]

Chapter 10: All His Fucking Socks

Never in a million years did Bucky Barnes think that socks would be something he'd end up arguing about so often but alas, the universe was a strange fucking place and he had a very, very strange partner. Even with that heart-to-heart he and Elena had after Yemen and their encounter with HYDRA, telling each other riddles and tongue twisters while making daisy chains in the French countryside... Bucky still mostly wanted to smother her with a pillow and it was for one specific reason. Yes, they had found some steady ground to work on together and he got stupidly high on painkillers with her but damnit, Elena kept taking his goddamn socks!

He was convinced the woman spent a small fortune on socks and shoes because she really did seem to lose at least two to three pairs every month and half of the time there was no good reason for it. Sure, in Dubai, he had dropped her shoes but he was getting shot at, and in Argentina, she removed her shoes sneaking into the museum archives because they were making too much noise; that made sense. What didn't make sense was the nightclub in Beirut where for some strange reason their informant wanted to keep Elena's boots as a token to remember her by and wouldn't give them any intel until she handed them over. The look on her face was priceless when the guy made the proposition but she just angrily kicked off her combat boots muttering something about them being brand new and ended up wearing Bucky's socks because hers got wet from a spilled drink she stepped in on the way out of the club.

Another mission in Montreal saw the sole of one of her sneakers completely detach from the rest of her running sneakers. They actually had to stop at a store to get new ones for her because they flew commercial and couldn't get very far with her in just socks. Bucky admittedly nearly burst out into laughter when he realized her feet were so small she could buy kids' sizes and she did because they cost less. He hadn't teased anyone that hard since Steve because she could literally fit her whole foot with a sneaker on inside one of his own with room to spare and just to annoy her he kept handing her toddler shoes; you know, the ones that light up when you walk. Elena was not as amused as he was as she paid for the size 5 youth slip-on canvas sneakers with t-rex skeletons on them and reminded Bucky that she was still a 6-½ in women's and that she was grateful to not have stupid clown feet like him.

It all changed after an assignment in India though, Elena ended up exposing a side of herself that Bucky wasn't exactly prepared for but then again, no one could ever be fully prepared for all the things that woman kept locked away. She became very frustrated all at once. Truthfully both of them had become worn out and annoyed by the crap missions they had been getting from the team lately and sure, Rhodey said it was for their safety and a request from the UN whom Steve liked to point out gave them both pardons but Bucky and Elena were feeling very useless just collecting information and trekking from one country to another.

Most of the time they were picking up intelligence from drop points, haggling with informants, or following up on dead ends for Rhodey. Other times they did absolutely nothing but sit in a van listening to the chatter and taking photographs, it was utter bullshit honestly. Between the boredom and repeated loss of Elena's shoes, Bucky had no doubt that the assignment in India brought everything to a head causing her to finally burst and spaz the hell out. India was admittedly very tough, the heat in conjunction with the humidity had him cranky and they had hiked for days into the countryside just to retrieve a laptop that had been recovered from the wreckage of a private plane that had crashed several weeks earlier.

The plane belonged to a Moldovan military contractor suspected of double-dealing and though the official story was that the aircraft went down because of mechanical issues and everyone on board miraculously survived, Rhodey was suspicious that it may have been an assassination attempt by an upset party. So he sent Bucky and Elena out with a stack of negotiating money only hours after hearing that an Indian farmer recovered a damaged but functional encrypted computer with possible evidence on it. The trek was long and difficult but they managed to reach the remote farm after four days and there were many frustrated curses from both of them on the hike back to the safehouse because it began to pour.