Chapter Text
“Help!!”
I jumped in my chair as this very flustered grown man tumbled through the kitchen door, hair messed up with cobwebs and cheeks stained with what looked like soot.
He retained his footing in his last few steps and hobbled to a stop, casting wild and crazed eyes at me.
Okay I’m not dealing with any last minute anniversary gift shopping.
Again.
He clambered onto one of the kitchen chairs, one arm stretched towards me, the other adjusting the cushion under his sculpted behind, courtesy of bro dates with the Gym Mafia.
“Ellie…”, he sheepishly started.
“No.”
“You don’t even know what I’m gonna say!!”
I eyed him over my glasses.
“Seb, a collective downside of being the amazing actor you are, as well as my doofus bestie, is that I can read your mind just by looking at your face. The MCU gods' final cuts made sure I witnessed all the ways your eyes can speak.”
“And?”
“And Mackie’s home of steel blue eyes are saying you forgot something very important, likely for the second or third time in a row.”
He grinned a toothy grin.
“So you’re gonna help?”
“No.”
“But whyyyyyyyyyyyyyy??!”
“Ugh, not that ‘weiner soldier’ voice again!”
He perked up at that. He jumped up from his chair so fast that it looked like a shoddy CGI scene of a ghost yanking it backward in a clumsy, rattling crash.
Before I could duck, his calloused fingertips grabbed my chubby cheeks and he began to bellow in a deliberate off-key rendition of something that’ll ring through my nightmares.
“WEINER! WEINERRRRR!! WEE-NEE NEE-NER!!”
I slapped away his grabby hands and flicked him on the forehead.
“OW!”
“What, no vibranium fused in?” I joked.
He glared at me as he rubbed his forehead with the palm of his hand.
“Very funny, Booky.”
“You’re Booky.”
He walked backwards to sit back on his chair, only to land in a heap on the floor.
“OOF!”, Sebastian sounded a little winded, “Is there no end to my suffering today?”
I scoffed, unable to suppress my growing grin as I shelled peas for dinner. “Should have been a scene in that castle movie.”
No comeback.
Instead, he quietly set the chair back and walked around the table to rest his chin on the top of my head.
I booped his nose as I sighed in defeat.
“It’s for Mimi.”
“Of course it is. You don’t get like this for anyone else.”
“I get like this for mom. And you.”
I could feel his dopey grin stretch across his face.
“Fine. But you’re buying me dinner.”
“Yes!! You’re the best El!”
“Yeah whatever, settle down Beck” I feigned being cool as I stuffed some peas into his mouth, “I’ll get my keys.”
“Why do you keep calling me by all these names?” he asked between munches, “I liked playing Beck though, that spacesuit was so roomy.”
“And?”
“And I love space.”
“And I love food.”
“McD’s for dinner?”
“Aren’t you on that super soldier diet?” I asked as I sat on my scooter and buckled my helmet strap. I handed him the spare one.
He winked.
“It’s cheat day.”
Then his eyes widened as he saw the new design on my spare helmet. I grinned. I had painted it a shade of metallic grey with the shield on one side and the red assassin star on the other. There were some embossed lines to mimic the plates on that arm too.
“Like it?”
He covered his face with a hand and awkwardly huddled to my side. As he ran his fingers through his hair and shook his head, I thought I saw something glisten in his eyes.
Sporting that melted smile and scrunched up eyebrows, he suddenly wrapped his arms around me. It took me by surprise and I had to steady the scooter before I could hug him back with one arm.
“Seb?”
“Thanks.” His voice was soft and muffled against my hair.
My eyebrows shot up quizzically.
“Dude, what-”
“For having my back. I know its not easy with the kind of work I do.”
“You’re a goob.”
He chuckled. “Love you too.”
“Whatever, Count Vlad.” I grinned.
“There you go with the names again” he huffed as he climbed on the scooter to ride pillion, “you got a list of them or something?”
“Perks of being your best friend/ sister/ getaway driver/ chaperone and everything else.”
“CHAPERONE? I’m a grown man, Ellie!”
I shook my head and chuckled.
Goob.