Chapter 2- Plans and Christmas Trees
Yelizaveta was keeping up with three conversations at once with Natasha and Yelena, Clint's kids and wife, and Bucky and Diana. It had to be the super soldier serum that made it possible for so many conversations at once. "So, do you like being a Winter Soldier, Veta?" Yelena asked.
Yelizaveta took a drink of her orange juice carefully. The first time she had come to America she had swallowed orange juice wrong and gagged on pulp. "Sometimes I do. Sometimes I don't. When HYDRA and the Red Room and S.H.I.E.L.D. would send me to kill someone, I hated that part. Travelling to countries can be fun though. I went to Stuttgart, Germany to stop Thor's idiot brother. I threw my sword at him," Yelizaveta said, eating a miniscule piece of bacon.
"You hit him in the face, Vet," Natasha pointed out.
"Yeah. I always hit where I aim. I wasn't trying to kill him that day. We needed him alive to tell us where Clint, Dr. Selvig, and the tesseract was," Yelizaveta said.
"Good arm," Steve said.
"Thank you. You too. You threw your shield at him, Uncle Steve," Yelizaveta said.
"Like you, I always hit where I aim," Steve said and both smiled.
"Yizzy, can we watch Sleeping Beauty?" Lila asked, tugging on Yelizaveta's hand.
"Sure. I like Sleeping Beauty. It's my favorite Disney movie. It's a Russian fairy tale actually. The composer, Tchaikovsky, had it as a ballet along with "The Nutcracker. I heard he hated the finished product for the Nutcracker. I was reading about it after watching the 1940's movie Fantasia," Yelizaveta said as she ate a bite of scrambled eggs. She really didn't like scrambled eggs, but she didn't want to hurt her mother's feelings as she was the one who cooked them. She usually put a little salt and pepper on them to make them taste better.
"Mine is Pinocchio," Cooper said.
"That's not bad either. An Italian fairy tale. Most of Walt Disney's projects involved books; Snow White, Cinderella, Bambi. Although I did hear that Adolf Hitler and the Nazis forbade the public in Austria to read Bambi. They were fascinated by Snow White, but only because of the dwarves. They sent dwarves to be experimented on. I read a book about that," Yelizaveta said.
"Why didn't Hitler like Bambi, I wonder?" Stark mused.
"The author was a Jew. That was reason enough. The man and woman who wrote Curious George were Jews too and they had to flee occupied France with their lives," Yelizaveta said.
"How do you know that?" Clint asked.
"Everyone here has seen the books I read. I'm reading a fictional book about England called "London Dawn," Yelizaveta said.
"Sounds like fun," Laura said.
"Yeah, if you like "Downton Abbey," Yelizaveta said.
"Happy might like that as he likes that show," Stark said.
"Happy Hogan? The same guy who freaks out over people who aren't properly ID'd?" Yelizaveta asked, raising her eyebrows.
"That's the one. He thinks it's sophisticated," Stark said. Yelizaveta started to laugh.
"I've heard stranger things. Uncle Steve said elevators used to play music. Thank God they don't. I hate elevator music," Yelizaveta said with a wince.
"So did I," Steve and Bucky said at the same time.
"Well, that being said, I need to go get a Christmas tree. Vetty, come with me. You usually are better at picking out the tree than I am," Clint said, standing up. Yelizaveta quickly shoveled her eggs into her mouth and finished off her orange juice.
"Okay. Let me get out of my pajamas first," Yelizaveta said looking down at her fuzzy pajama pants and sweatshirt.
"She's that good at picking out trees?" Alexei asked in his heavy Russian accent.
"She actually is considering I didn't see one until I was eight years old. And I am still in the room," Yelizaveta said, raising a dark eyebrow.
"My apologies, little one," Alexei said.
"Apology accepted," Yelizaveta said as she went to her room. Yelizaveta found herself humming "The Right Somebody to Love." The song was her favorite from all the Shirley Temple films she had ever seen.
She left the room wearing a red sweatshirt, jeans, and a pair of dark brown leather shoes with buckles on the sides. "Nice shoes," Yelena said.
"Yeah. I bought this sometime last spring at Bloomingdale's. Makes my feet look thinner," Yelizaveta said as she pulled her burgundy coat out of the closet.
"Do you mind if me and Steve come with you and Barton, doll? We asked him and he told us to ask you," Bucky said, cupping her face gently with his flash hand.
"I guess if you don't mind helping birdbrain lug a tree all the way back here," Yelizaveta said in a teasing voice.
"Me and Diana will have hot chocolate and apple cider waiting for everyone," Laura said.
"Sounds good, Ma'am," Steve said, his old-fashioned politeness coming through. Steve and Bucky often would revert back to the 1940's gentlemen that they were when talking to anyone female. It went from Jane Foster, Thor's girlfriend to Darcy Lewis, Jane's lab assistant, to Pepper Potts, Tony's girlfriend. Often Yelizaveta had seen her father and Steve stand up when Diana, Pepper, Jane, and Darcy entered the room and stand again when they left the room. Diana had once said that was what made her love Bucky more. Yelizaveta's father had always been a gentleman, even when HYDRA had done their best to make him the Winter Soldier. When it came to Diana and Yelizaveta being a monster just wasn't possible for him. HYDRA had never been able to bury that.
Clint and Bucky kissed Diana and Laura quickly and went out the door, Steve and Yelizaveta quick to follow them to the elevator. "Jarvis, we need to get down to the parking garage please," Steve said.
"Yes, Captain Rogers," Jarvis said in his precise British accent.
"Jarvis, do you know where any good Christmas tree lots are?" Bucky asked, wrapping his flesh arm around Yelizaveta's shoulders.
"Yes, Sergeant Barnes. There is two or three about two blocks from here," Jarvis said, sounding pleased that anyone asked his opinion.
"Let me guess, the Salvation Army and the Boy and Girl Scouts of America," Yelizaveta said.
"That would be correct, Agent Barnes," Jarvis said.
"Did I call it? We're also gonna see every Santa Claus known to man out there ringing bells for the Salvation Army," Yelizaveta said with a groan as she rolled her eyes.
"What do you have against Santa Claus ringin' a bell, doll?" Bucky asked.
"Nothing, Dad. I just didn't like Santa Claus much when I was a kid. Think about it. A man breaks into your house takes all your milk and cookies and probably gives you a lump of coal for being bad. But I am Russian and I didn't really celebrate Christmas when I was little. The only thing we did, and I still do, is go to the Russian Orthodox Church for services," Yelizaveta said.
"Russian Orthodox?" Steve asked.
"Yep. What does everyone expect? I am Russian, Comrade," Yelizaveta said the last part in Russian as they stepped out of the elevator.
"Elizabeth, speak in English please," Bucky said.
"Like that would ever happen. I go on so many missions and I'm the only Avenger who can speak the language. Remember, birdbrain, when me, you, and Natasha had a mission in Morocco and I was the only one who spoke Moroccan French and then we went into the Spanish quarter and I spoke Moroccan Spanish?" Yelizaveta asked.
"Yeah. She managed to get a guide to help us out," Clint said proudly.
"Not my fault that I excelled in languages in the Red Room. I'm actually thinking of picking up more. It really is true when they say that if you learn one language it's easy to learn another. I speak and understand 20," Yelizaveta said.
"Which language are you thinking of next, Liz?" Steve asked.
"I'm still thinking of Norwegian or Egyptian. It might help if Thor or Loki speaks Norwegian and I can tell everyone what they are saying. Or Ukrainian, but then again that is too much like Russian," Yelizaveta said.
"It is?" Steve asked.
"Yep. I grew up speaking Russian all my life and Ukraine is right next door," Yelizaveta said as they got into Barton's pickup.
Bucky stood next to Elizabeth as she looked around at the tree lot. "You pick, Vetty," Clint said.
"Hmmm. You are aware that one of you is going to have to set it up, right?" Elizabeth asked, raising her dark eyebrows.
"Hmmm-hmmm. I'm gonna need you to look at the lights, Vetty," Clint said.
"Okay. Does Stark even have Christmas lights?" Elizabeth asked.
"I don't know, but I brought ours," Clint said.
"Good. At least you know what a bubble light is," Elizabeth said.
"What is that?" Steve and Bucky both asked.
"It's a Christmas light that has a little beaker with liquid that comes in different colors. When you turn them on, they get hot and the liquid starts to bubble," Elizabeth explained.
"Sounds interesting. I remember that your family used candles, Buck," Steve said.
"Good way to burn the house down, Uncle Steve," Elizabeth said with a wince.
"She's right, pal. Remember when old Mrs. Morgan's house burned down from her Christmas tree?" Bucky asked.
"Forgot about that. She was eighty years old and almost blind. I think Ma treated the burn marks on your pop's hands when he got burned rescuing her cranky cat," Steve said.
"Ouch. How long did it take for Grandpa's hands to heal, Dad?" Elizabeth asked.
"Quite awhile, doll," Bucky said, pushing a lock of her hair behind her ear.
"What do you think, Vetty?" Clint asked, pointing out a big tree. Elizabeth walked around.
"No. You'd do better with a Charlie Brown tree. Look," Elizabeth said, pointing to a spot on the tree that looked like it was molding. It took an hour to find the tree that met up to Elizabeth's standards.