Stranger Who Knows All My Secrets [A Marvel FanFic]

Chapter 41: Nothing Is Wrong

If there was one thing Bucky would never get used to or tired of for that matter, it was the many ways in which Elena unfolded for him like a long-forgotten map waiting to be read by someone who could finally understand the language in which she was written. 

Joyful she had said, he made her feel joyful and that was an accomplishment he didn't take lightly since it was all that he wanted for her. He watched her float on that feeling for the rest of the day, happily sitting on the couch and digging into her cheesecake while opening her last-minute gifts, tearing through the wrapping paper and gift bags like a child on Christmas.

They ended up just being a bunch of cheesy I❤NY trinkets like a mini Statue of Liberty, and a bald eagle snowglobe although MJ seemed to have actually made an effort with a book recounting culinary journeys to America. In short, it was a cookbook with recipes written by refugees from all around the world alongside retellings of their own hard-fought odysseys to the United States. 

Needless to say, Elena loved it, she cried again but she loved it and they flipped through the glossy pages for some time, bookmarking the dishes she wanted to try even though they were a bit too complicated for her skill level and she hadn't managed to cook a meal without hurting herself yet.

He promised to help though, even as she wiped back the tears and took up one of the balloons like it was her life's mission to assassinate it. Bucky couldn't help but look at her curiously when she began sucking the helium out of the balloons making her sound like a damn chipmunk which was hands down the funniest thing he had ever seen but admittedly he couldn't help but entertain her request to join her in inhaling the contents which only resulted in her bursting out into laughter because he sounded as equally ridiculous. 

They ended up both trying to sing along to The Wizard of Oz in their new pitch to no success since they couldn't stop laughing at themselves, Elena wheezing heavily in a shrill screech that had her turning red.

It was when he turned on the next movie that Bucky found the previously unnoticed valleys of Elena's heart. Just like a map she unfurled for him, letting him see a side of her he'd never seen before because she insisted on getting into her pajamas to watch the movie, the lilac ones which she was disappointed to find he had already packed for their trip the next day. Instead, she slipped into the perpetually stolen Marvin Gaye t-shirt and forwent pants remaining in just those damn high-waisted silky black panties, nothing else.

She also grabbed a blanket from off the bed along with a stuffed rabbit from the chair beside her desk that had obviously seen better days not that it stopped her from occasionally snuggling it when she thought no one was looking. Bucky couldn't help but smile in bewilderment at the stranger on the couch next to him with the blanket over her head along with the bowl of gummy bears and her bunny rabbit held close, declaring she was ready at last for the movie.

He simply laughed at her, noting that he was now overdressed for the occasion and peeling out of his clothes until he was just in his briefs and undershirt. Elena scooted closer to him when he sat back down and started the movie. Actually, she moved sweetly and hesitantly, laying out across the cushions only to bring her head to rest on his left thigh, almost losing the bowl of candy in the process but recovering it quickly. Bucky adored the proximity, the way she settled in like it was something normal for them but more so, he adored the way she quoted nearly every damn line of that silly movie, The Princess Bride.

Bucky had never seen it before but apparently, it was her absolute favorite not that she would admit that to anyone else because she was supposed to be an adult, and for some reason that meant telling everyone her favorite movie was actually Pulp Fiction which was a good movie but she didn't glue her eyes to the screen in the same way when watching that one. He loved watching her enjoy the things she thought no one would understand, the things that really spoke to her soul. Bucky honestly paid more attention to her than he did to what was happening on the screen but could he be blamed when she was reciting the jokes and the more endearing lines word for word and with the same amount of heart?