A Marvellous Christmas | mcu actors

December 23ʳᵈ

Dealing with Chris' anxiety was never easy. Somedays, he would just shutdown, demand to be left alone and not even Dodger could help him snap out of his miserable state. In these days, Elizabeth would do her best to let him feel like she was there if she was needed, that she supported him through anything and that he didn't have to feel like he was a burden or anything else he might be feeling. Elizabeth wasn't really sure what was going on, Chris didn't like to talk about it, so she usually would bake a lot of cookies and send Dodger with a little paper bag in his mouth for him to find Chris and deliver them. A few days later, when the crisis would be finished, he would kiss her gently and thank her for the cookies, for the cuddles, for not talking when he needed silence while his head was so damn loud. Elizabeth would always nod, wrap her arms around his waist and put her ear against his chest. Then, snuggled there, she would listen to his heart beating slower than it had during the attack and she would sigh with content. Chris was back to himself and so she was back to normal as well. She would worry so much during his attacks that it would drive her nuts sometimes. She'd start questionning herself: had she said something? had she done anything differently? She tried to learn with time that Chris' mind was the only thing getting off rails sometimes, that it'd go into overdrive over anything and that she wasn't especially the one doing something to him, but still, not completely secure about herself made her doubt her ways to handle anything.

Dating a movie star wasn't easy as well. First of all, she had to commute at least once a week and by commute, she meant flying to Boston. She would never give up New York and he wasn't ready to give up Boston as well, so they nurtured their relationship during the weekends and they would spend the week apart, unless Chris had business in New York and then, they would live together in Elizabeth's new place. She moved out a couple of years ago, when her building started to be crowded by paparazzis and she couldn't walk out of it without being swarmed by an army of photographers who wanted the latest gossip on Chris. The decision had been taken after the incident when she rang the doorbell to Chris' place in Boston at three in the morning, having driven all night. She was already crying but as soon as she saw Chris' bed head, his eyes squinting with the light and in his underwears, she couldn't have stopped bawling, crashing on his topless chest and flooding his skin with salty tears. Chris had been so lost, still not really awake from the late (or early) wakeup call, that he had just taken her to bed, tried his best to stop her crying and when she finally had fallen asleep two hours later, he quietly typed a text to his manager saying that he wouldn't be able to attend the meeting he had planned because Elizabeth was going through something. He had woken up a few hours later, finding Elizabeth lightly snoring, clinging to him like he was a safe blanket and he had had trouble to get out of bed, as she would always grab him tighter whenever she'd feel him escape. He had managed to slip out of her grasp by swapping his place with Dodger, quietly apologising to the poor dog who woofed as low as he could when he felt her tight embrace around him. Chris did his best to prepare a nice breakfast, even though he had close to nothing in his fridge and when she didn't wake up, he ate it on his own. He made a brunch, instead, turning what he could of the breakfast into a lunch. And she didn't wake up for this meal either. So he patiently waited, working in his office and trying his best to be as silent as possible. At some point, Dodger reappeared so he guessed she had rolled in the bed, letting him escape as fast as he could. When finally the sleeping beauty woke up, it was past three in the afternoon and she was wearing a dress shirt she had found on his floor. Her legs weren't clean-shaved and her hair was sticking in every direction. Still Chris found her the loveliest she had ever been, because she was letting him see her at her worst, she was trusting him to love her anyway and with the traces of the pillows on her cheeks, she looked like she had lost twenty five years in her sleep. Dragging her feet to his desk, she silently drapped her arms around his shoulders before he turned in his chair so she could sit on his lap.