Prompt: Ornaments (part 1)

Pairing: N/A / Fandom: Marvel

He had no idea what Evelyn was thinking but he was sure she was up to something. Evelyn, Steve's girlfriend, had asked him, just the day before, to go out and buy plain ornaments, it didn't matter the color, just that they were plain. Bucky was certain that she was up to something, if the grin she gave him when he asked was any indication.

Bucky still wasn't sure why she had asked him, of all people, to do it. He was sure it would be a lot safer for everyone if Steve was the one doing the shopping. After all, Bucky didn't do very well in crowds and this time of the year, every where he would go, seemed to be filled with them. However, Evelyn had been adamant, it had to be Bucky. He even tried convincing Steve to go in his place but Steve declined, saying that it would be good for him to interact with people who weren't Steve, Evelyn or the Avengers. He growled in annoyance, he really didn't want to go.

But, now, he was determined to get this mission done. Evelyn had told him that she believed in him and that she knew he could do it without any incidents. Hearing that, gave him a boost in his confidence, so he told Evelyn that he was gonna do it, so now he had to do it. And the only way he could do this was to face it as a mission and so far, so good.

Walking into a store, he immediately regretted it. The store had a lot more people than what he was expecting, but there was no turning back now. Making his way inside the store, he caught in the corner of his eye exactly what he was looking for. "That was easy.", he thought, a sigh of relief leaving his body, knowing he wasn't going to have to be there longer than necessary.

Bucky picked up a few boxes of twelve ornaments each, he didn't know how many Evelyn wanted and he wasn't about to call her to find out, all he wanted was to get out of there. Moving to the front of the store, he walked up to the cashier and gave her the boxes. She smiled brightly at him and started scanning the ornaments. The girl attempted to joke with him, but his anxiety was hitting new heights and all he wanted was to get out of there. "Why is she making me this nervous? What the actual hell?", he thought, confused at his own reaction.

She finished ringing up the items and told him his final amount. Bucky grabbed his wallet and pulled out enough money to cover the bill, grabbing the bags and rushing out the door, leaving a stunned cashier behind. Again, he had no idea what Evelyn was planning, but he was sure he was gonna make her pay for making him go shopping with that many people around.

Making his way back home, Bucky couldn't help but to think that maybe Evelyn had been on to something. After all, he just went shopping and didn't kill anyone in the process. Maybe that's what Evelyn wanted, to push him to do something that was out of his comfort zone and see how he handled. Sure, it could have gone spectacularly wrong, but just by knowing that she trusted him enough to send him into a store with other people, made his resolve of keeping it together even bigger.

Evelyn always saw the best in him. She didn't care about what he had done as the Winter Soldier, after all, she didn't know him then. All she cared about was who he was now and how she could help him become the best version of himself. She treated him like he was her brother and he quickly began treating her as if she was his little sister. Steve had felt that side of their relationship, one time when he and Evelyn fought and Bucky saw her crying. Bucky asked her what had happened and when she told him that she and Steve had a fight because of Steve's jealousy, Bucky didn't think, he went straight to Steve's, ready to kick his ass. Evelyn had become family to him and no one hurts his family.

That's why when she asked him to buy the freaking ornaments, he was nervous at first, but he knew that she wasn't gonna let him get out of it. So, that's where he was, a bag filled with ornaments in his hand that he had no idea what they were for, they had plenty of ornaments to decorate their tree, going back home where he knew that Evelyn and Steve would be waiting for him to have dinner.

For an outsider, it would look like a weird arrangement but it worked for them. They were all family and a happy one, for sure.