Evansson

2011

"You know that I care about you so much," Scarlett laid on her bed, much like a teenage girl would be when she was on the phone with her crush, except that same loving and overwhelming happiness wasn't there. "But we can't Chris."

Chris Freaking Evans. The world's most eligible bachelor, Scarlett's best friend, her partner in crime, and the man she was almost utterly in love with. Why did he have to be the epitome of everything she wanted in a man? It only made this whole situation worse.

"Why?" Chris's voice was cracked and broken on the other side of the phone. It was almost enough to break Scarlett.

"Why? Because we had a one night stand, Chris. Because the paparazzi were on our case for the last month, do you know how hard this month has been for me?" Scarlett's divorce was just getting finalized, and the paparazzi seeing her leaving her best friends house at four am only added fuel to the fire.

They called her every single name in the dictionary to try and bring her down. She didn't cheat on her husband. He cheated on her. She slept with Chris after they asked for a divorce, she was drunk, broken and confused. Chris made everything feel right, but she wasn't ready to start anything with him.

What if it didn't work out? What if she had to say goodbye to him too? She couldn't do that. She couldn't lose him too. She was doing this because she needed him. For him to be in her life, she couldn't guarantee that he would still be with her if they pushed the line of their relationship. And she knew he wouldn't, but if for some reason he did hurt her, she wasn't sure she could come back from that.

"I understand how hard this time is for you. I understand you are in pain. But the thing is, you don't have to go through it alone." he sighed deeply. "I really care about you Scarlett, I would never hurt you."

"I want to believe that Chris I do, but the pain. If you were to do that to me, I don't know if I could walk away from the same."

"I would treat you like the queen you were meant to be, I will love you unconditionally Scarlett. You know I love you, you've known it for a while, I know you have. Let me be there for you." He was pleading with her, pleading with her to let him in.

"I have been hurt time and time again. It seems that everyone wants a chance to break my heart."

"Do you really think I could do something like that? To You? To anyone." He was in pain, she could tell by the sound of his voice.

"No. I know you wouldn't. But I am so broken. You deserve someone amazing-"

"You are amazing."

"Someone who isn't broken." She continued. "Someone who can love you and will not throw all their problems on you." Chris knew she was badly hurt, she was losing her trust in love, but he wasn't going to give up.

"I won't stop fighting for you."

"I know you won't. I am just not ready Chris." She sighed. "I don't want to give you false hope that I ever will be, because I want you to be happy-"

"I will only be happy with you," She could practically see a tear falling down his cheek.

"I need to love myself before someone can love me before I can love you." She spoke. "I am sorry Chris, I'm so sorry" She hung up, not able to hold on to her words any longer.

2017

That was 6 years ago. They have done several movies together since then, but Scarlett wouldn't speak with him the same way anymore. Wouldn't look at him with the twinkle in her eyes, and especially wouldn't be around him if no one else was present.

Now they were filming Avengers EndGame, Scarlett hasn't seen anyone since her divorce with her previous husband, and despite her wish, neither has Chris. How can he possibly give someone the time of day if his heart belongs to her?

He was tired of waiting. He was going to go after her once and for all. He was gonna show her that he loved her, that he always has, that he would rather die than hurt her. She was the number one thing in his life, dating or not, and he was going love her until the day he died.

"What are you thinking about over there?" Today, on a warm LA December day, they were taking a cast photo for the ten year anniversary of Marvel, and everyone was here. Of course, Sebastian would be first to notice if something was off with Chris.

"I was just thinking." He answered, now Chris wasn't the best at keeping secrets, but he hoped he had done his best to hide the fact that he was in love with Scarlett.

"Let me guess, you're thinking about the short blonde over there talking to our new short blonde," He nodded over to where Scarlett and Brie.

"Wait how did-"

"Oh, are we finally talking about how Chris is in love with Scarlett?" Mackie now joined in.

"How do you know?"

"Please," Anthony laughed. "I am in love, you look at Scarlett the way I look at my wife. Unfortunately for you, Scarlett is in love with me." Sebastian laughed at the ongoing joke the guys had.

"Who else knows about this?"

"Knows about what?" Robert and Chris Hemsworth now appeared seemingly out of nowhere.

"That Chris loves Scarlett," Sebastian sang cheerfully.

"Really Seb?"

"Oh, that!!" Robert said. "Who doesn't know about it is the question."

"Yes, you haven't exactly tried keeping it a secret," Hemsworth said.

"He's right," Now Mark and Jeremy showed up. "I should know, I suck at keeping secrets. But you are even worse."

"How can I possibly be so vague?" Chris asked.

"Well you stare at her like she created the world," Jeremy began, "You are constantly complimenting her,"

"Not to mention, you buy her flowers anonymously and leave them at her trailer door anytime she had a hard scene to film that day," Robert answered. "it's always freesias Lillies or roses,"

"Which are her favorite flowers." Chris himself answered. "Wait how do you know I leave flowers for her?"

"Please, I know everything that goes around these parts. Like did you know Joe Russo is planning on putting his daughters in the film?" Robert asked but no one was really paying attention to his endless rambling.

"So everyone knows then?" He asked.

"Not everyone I am sure Tom doesn't know," Mark tried to compensate.

"Nope I know too," Tom Holland said walking past the group and over to the food booth.

"That's great. The entire world knows." He sighed. "why don't we just go post it on Instagram and buy a billboard. This is so embarrassing"

"It's cute," Anthony said. "So are you gonna finally do something about it?"

"What do you mean?" Chris asked, glancing over at Scarlett who had that smile on her face. The one that made him want to smile just by looking at her. He had it bad for her.

"We mean are you finally gonna grow a pair and ask her out man?" Hemsworth said.

"You two have been dancing around this for years." Robert shook his head. "It's time you guys do something about it."

"I think Scarlett and I have this unspoken deal between us," he said trying to the embarrassment that came from his friends. He loved them and all but sometimes he wished they would mind their own business.

"do you really believe that?" Sebastian asked. "You two have more flames around each other than a house on fire....in a volcano... on the sun."

"Sebastian is right," Anthony said. "And you came to the right people for help."

"I actually didn't come to you, you came to me." He said.

"Man let us live our lives," Anthony said. "I personally will see to it that you and Scarlett are together by Christmas."

"and I appreciate that I do, but I am not going to resort to that." He said. "Guys I swear, leave Scarlett and I's relationship or whatever it is alone. Please."

"Fine," Robert said.

"Thank you," Chris sighed. "We should probably go set up for the photo. You guys coming?"

"We'll be over there in a second," Sebastian said.

"Okay," The group watched as Chris walked over to set, not missing the look he gave Scarlett, which she promptly ignored as per usual.

"So are we totally gonna snoop?" Hemsworth asked?

"You already know it," Anthony said. "It's gonna be a Christmas miracle."

|~~|

Scarlett hated working during the holiday times, but according to the text message she got from the Russo Brothers, it was majorly important. And it wasn't like she had anyone to spend the holiday with considering her parents were back home, and snowstorm in her home town prevented her from flying in. She knew she should have been better prepared.

At least she could get all of this stuff down now instead of after the holidays when everyone else was barely manageable. Besides she really doesn't want to know an Anthony Mackie who hungover. Although it is Christmas Eve- Eve, she was kind of hoping to be somewhere that wasn't her work.

"Hey Scarlett what are you doing here?" asked one of the Russo Brothers, Joe, when he saw Scarlett walk into the office.

"I am here for the reshooting. You guys texted me two days ago, remember?" She asked.

"Sorry, Scarlett but we didn't text you, and there is nobody here" She did notice the lack of cars in the parking lot. "I am only here to get my lucky mug," He held up a mug his daughters made for him when they were younger, "Maybe I will actually get some sleep this holiday season."

"Hopefully," She muttered.

"If you need to grab something, doors lock automatically, I will see you when shooting is back on Scarlett," he announced before waving and heading out of the studio, leaving Scarlett all alone. If this was any sign of how her holiday would go well, she wasn't too excited.

Might as well get the blanket she left here. Well, it was an old blanket of Chris's, that she stool when they first met. Yes, she still had it, sue her! She had to leave it here because she didn't want to risk anyone seeing it, especially Chris, she was hoping he had officially moved on, that he was happy now.

Approaching her trailer, she noticed a dozen Lillies on her trailer steps. She was used to getting flowers from a secret stranger but this was a bit creepy. How did that person know she would be here? Another thing was different, the flowers came with a note.

No matter how beautiful, these flowers could never match your beauty, would you meet me today in the studio?

A normal person would run. Isn't this what stalkers do? Lure you in for the kill? But then again what stalker managed to get through Marvel security? Besides she was curious.

"Listen," She announced when she arrived. "If you are gonna murder me, at least do it quickly, my day has been really shit lately and I do not want to go through a longer murder."

"I get we aren't really on speaking terms but I wouldn't murder you over that," The new voice made Scarlett jump just a little. "I didn't mean to scare you." she calmed down once she recognized the voice.

"What are you doing here Chris?" she asked.

"I could ask the same of you," he said. "I got called in, but apparently no one else got the memo,"

"Not going home?"

"It's frozen over in Boston. Won't be landing safely," he said. "What about you? Not going back to New York?"

"Same as you, snow and poor planning on my part." There it was, that awkward silence once again. Nothing has ever been the same since they agreed, or Scarlett agreed they would stay friends. But it seems the aren't really friends anymore. "I should get going,"

"Or we could get dinner?" he said, the same hope in his voice that was present all those years ago. Scarlett knew it all too well. "Tomorrow's Christmas Eve Scarlett, you shouldn't be alone on the holidays."

"I can't." she can't be around him without giving in to her feelings. She's tried for so long to stay away from him, to not be alone with him, she couldn't let it all go now just because it was Christmas.

"Do you have a date?" Jealousy written in his voice, it was subtle but Scarlett knew it was there.

"Why would you say that?" Wondering where that idea came from.

"The flowers, I am guessing someone sent you flowers." he almost laughed. "Which is stupid because flowers don't work on you if they did we would be dating for years now."

"What? Chris what are you talking about."

"He should get some original ideas because I have been leaving you flowers for the longest time and I don't even get a damn thank you!" He didn't know what got into him and once it came out he regretted it. "I am sorry, I shouldn't have. It's none of my business-"

"It's you?" She asked. "You've been leaving me flowers this entire time."

"Of course, I left a card on them," he said. "You didn't get the card?" She shook her head. "Of course you didn't, stupid flower shop," he muttered under his breath. Scarlett could only stare at him. "I shouldn't have left you flowers and for that I am sorry, I know you made it painfully clear we can't be something."

"You know why I said that right?" She asked.

"Yeah I know, because you're afraid you will get hurt," He was hurt by that, he would never hurt her. He has never loved someone the way he does Scarlett.

"Chris, you are my best friend-"

"Is that what we are?" He asked, his voice rotten with bitterness. "Because as far as I can tell this," motioning to the empty set "is the closest thing we had to being alone in the last six years. Is that what it takes? Some secret admire to send you flowers for you to come to see me? Flowers which I have been sending to you for SIX GOD DAMN YEARS!"

"And that right there is the exact reason I didn't want to start anything with you!"

"Because I am angry? Because I let my feelings get the best of me? Yeah is a god freaking side effect when the person you love does everything in their power to stay away from you! I am in pain! I am hurting, so excuse me if I find the overwhelming need to yell." He was beyond frustrated.

"No. Because I didn't want to hurt you," Her voice now small, losing any sign of confidence.

"Hurt me? You did that when you left."

"I'd rather you hate me for this than if I did something to fuck up our relationship. At least with this, I can still see you, act somewhat decent with you."

"What do you mean you'd mess it up, Scarlett?" He was now more confused than ever.

"Don't you see? My relationships in the past have ended in hell, I can't even be in the same room with Ryan without yelling at him and I haven't seen him in years. My long list of exes over the years... god, I have just fucked up every single relationship that I have been in, I didn't want to do that you. To us." Her voice was shaky. "I couldn't watch you leave me the same way they did."

"I wish I would have known. I wouldn't have yelled."

"It doesn't matter." She muttered.

"It matters to me."

"Well, it shouldn't."

"So sue me then. Look, Scarlett, I wish you would have talked to me, I wish you would have told me the truth so I didn't have to force myself into believing you hated me, that my feelings were one-sided." He looked down. "But I understand."

"I never meant to hurt you, I just... I just was selfish and I couldn't be hurt in that way again, not from you." Shaking her head she continued. "I was acting stupid."

"No, I don't think you were." She looked up at him, to see his eyes were practically beaming with hope. "I know you're scared, but you're not stupid. You tried doing whatever it took to protect yourself. I could never blame you for that."

"You should be angry."

"I guess you can say I'm sort of an idiot than." He laughed. "Look Scarlett I still care about you, I probably always will. And I will wait for you."

There was that silence again.

"Maybe you shouldn't." She finally let out. Chris's heart practically plummeted to the ground.

"What do I have to do to get you to trust me?" he asked, a little angry now.

"I do trust you, but I am not made for a relationship, Chris. I was meant to be alone, meant to not ruin a great amazing and wonderful man like you." her gaze fell down to the flowers taking them in before handing them to Chris.

"Don't do this Scarlett."

"What do you want me to do Chris? We can't be together, there are so many signs pointing to why we wouldn't work out!"

"I don't care about the signs, I care about you!"

"Ever thought that maybe you shouldn't?" She asked."That may be just maybe you should move on?" She was avoiding his gaze now.

"If you really believe that, then look me in the eyes and say it. look at me and tell me you don't want to be with me."

"Don't make this harder than it has to be," She muttered. "Don't make me do that." That hurt so much, but a part of her was almost convinced she deserved to be hurt after what she has done to Chris, all of the pain she has caused him.

"Than don't do it." Chris was trying so hard to be stronger, but his mental capacity of trying to hold all his emotions together was slowly starting to fall apart, he didn't know if he could possibly hold it without it exploding in his face.

"You don't understand." She sighed. "I can't lose you." She was becoming vulnerable and that, truth be told, frightened her. She didn't like to not be in control of her emotions, part of the reason she couldn't start something with him.

"I can't do this anymore Scarlett. I can't pretend that there isn't anything going on between us. I want to do wait for you, God knows I do, but you just keep pushing me further and further away. It hurts. Do you know how much it hurts?" Of course, she did, because it hurts her too. "I'm done."

"Done?"

"Done pushing after you when it's clear that I'm not something that you want. Done trying to push you because obviously it's only hurting both of us, and I don't want to hurt you anymore, I just want to make sure you are happy, and if letting you go is what it takes well then I am going to do it." He looked down.

Neither could really do anything. Both knew that it would eventually happen but they didn't want to admit it. Admitting it would mean cutting the last thread between them. The thread that's been there for ten years.

"I should go," He muttered before giving Scarlett one last look and turning away, not knowing where they stood, whether or not they were friends, or what to do next, all he knew was he couldn't be there anymore without reliving the gnawing pain in his chest.

Back in the corner behind a few boxes, a few men stood looking as guilty as ever.
"Maybe we shouldn't have snooped."

|~~|

Scarlett was home alone the next day sitting on her couch. She had video chatted with her family earlier and they told how they wished she was here and her gifts would wait patiently for her. Truth be told Scarlett wasn't in the holiday mood anymore, she didn't want to celebrate when she was depressed over Chris. She was kind of thanking the world at the moment for having snowstorms in New York.

Now it was about 10:30 and she was getting tired and was had way too much to drink at that point. She had done nothing all day, however, all of the endless Christmas romance movies on Netflix bored her or made her depressed, in turn causing her to drink. It was time to sleep, so she went and went to sleep hoping to just forget about all the pain in her heart. Why did she feel like she was forgetting something?

|~~|

It was a few hours later when Scarlett woke up to a loud crashing sound in her bedroom. She quickly reached to turn on her bedside lamp and saw a box neatly wrapped on her bed, she frowned and was a bit horrified that someone had been in her house.

"Hello?" She asked but no one answered, she looked over at her phone and saw it was four am. She frowned and reached for the gift carefully.

It seemed like a normal present and didn't have the weight of what she assumed a bomb would so what would be the harm? She lifted the lid off, inside was a hoodie, a picture, and a key chain, all of which causing a flood of emotions to flow through her body.

"I thought I lost these..." She muttered to herself as her hand carefully grazed over the soft material of the hoodie. Slowly she reached for the picture and couldn't help but smile.

Placing it to the side she felt a tear roll down her face as she picked up the key chain which seemed to be in almost perfect condition. She smiled at the engravings on the side.

She put it down gently before getting out of bed and grabbing a pair of leggings that hung lazily over a chair, it was then she felt the rush of a headache, geez now she remembered why she didn't drink. Sighing she pulled on the leggings and took the hoodie and pulled it on. The hoodie brought back so many memories. Some that she couldn't handle nor hide anymore, so she grabbed all the pieces and put them back in the box before rushing out of her house.

Enough was enough.

|~~|

Chris woke up to a pounding on his front door. Groggy he lifted his head from his pillow and stared at the clock, it was almost five AM. Maybe they would go away.

Nope. The banging continued even after a minute or two had passed, he knew they would not go away. Would it be rude to turn the sprinklers on and call it a day? How did they even get through his fence?

He slowly got out of bed and saw Dodger was sound asleep on the edge of his bed.
"Some guard dog you are," he muttered before leaving his room in only a pair of pajama pants. "I'm coming I'm coming," He muttered reaching the door. He answered the door "Hey man-"

Suddenly he was being pushed back into his house and a pair of lips found his. He was stunned for a moment until he realized that Scarlett had pushed her way into his house and was his attacker, that was when he relaxed and leaned into the kiss.

"Wait for stop," He said and pushed her a little bit away. "What are you doing?"

"I am sorry." She said, her hands still on his face, looking deeply into his eyes.

"What's going on?" He asked.

"I was stupid, stupid to ignore my feelings for you because I can't anymore. I love you, gosh I am so madly in love with you it's insane." She was rambling, and Chris could just tell how nervous she was as she was visually shaking right before him.

"I am confused, just two days ago you told me that you didn't love me, I told you I would let you go and now you are here?" He asked in shock. He didn't know what was going on, he couldn't really tell if he was truly awake right now or if he was in a dream.

"Sorry will never be enough for the pain I sent you through, but I was wrong I was just so scared." She looked down. "I knew you would never hurt me and maybe that's what made me even more afraid, afraid that I would hurt you. I am afraid and it's stupid, I should have talked to you and you've gone through so much pain and I really have no excuse for doing what I did, but I am sorry. I want no I need you to believe that and If you can't forgive me that's fine because I don't deserve it. I don't deserve you-" He shut her up with another kiss on the lips, this time catching her by surprise. This one was much softer than the previous one and he pulled away after a second.

"That's one way of telling me to shut up." a small smile formed on her lips but there was still a hint of insecurity when she looked at Chris as if he couldn't believe that this was really happening, not that she could blame him. She was putting a lot on his plate at five AM.

"Why are you doing this?" He asked, resting his forehead against hers, even if he was hurt by her earlier words, he cared so much that this felt so amazing.

"Because I'm in love with you," she smiled, Steve couldn't help but smile right back at her. She was here, no matter what happened, she was here now, no matter what words were said, who hurt who, she was here and that's all that mattered.

"I love you too. I always will" He met her lips once more before breaking out into a smile and wrapping his arms around her in a welcoming hug.

"Do you always answer the door shirtless?" She asked, and he realized that he wasn't wearing a shirt and blushed madly.

"Only for you," He laughed.

"Damn right," She laughed, just as Dodger walked barely have gotten out of his bed to see who was at the door. "Hi boy," She smiled at Dodger who wagged his tail.

"What a guard dog," He laughed and so did Scarlett.

"Why are you so tired?" She asked.

"what?" He asked perplexed. "Because it's five AM"

"But you were just at my house, you dropped this off," Now he realized she was dressed in his old hoodie from when they met and there was a box at his front doorstep. He walked over and looked in it.

"Wow, I haven't seen this in forever," he said in amazement. "Where did you find this?"

"What do you mean Chris? You gave it to me, I found it at my house when I woke up, that's why I came here. You should be more sneaky by the way I heard you knock things over." She laughed but Steve was only giving her a concerned look. "What?"

"Scarlett I never left anything at your house, I haven't been there in months." He said as a matter of fact.

"What?" She asked. "No it had to be you, you're the only who would have known how much this stuff meant to me," She picked up the picture, "It's the picture of us when we first went to hang out at-"

"Johnny Rockets," He remembered with a small laugh. "I remember that you stole my shake after ten minutes of insulting me for getting it instead of water."

"That was a good day," She laughed. "And this," Now taking the key chain, "Is when we wrapped Perfect Score, you got this for me and engraved that day on it. I remember opening and being so surprised, you said you wanted me to remember that movie forever, but you and I both know you wanted e to remember something or rather someone else." She laughed.

"God, I was such a weirdo back then." He laughed.

"Very weird." She mocked.

"But you have to admit those were the days," He reached out her and moved his hands down the hoodie. "I remember when you took this from me, we went to the beach and despite my warning, you didn't bring a hoodie so you stole mine, I never got it back. I assumed you threw it out." She shook her head at his comment. "But as much as I love these memories, I didn't give you this."

"That really doesn't make any sense Chris, I could have sworn you're the only one who knew about these," She was actually really curious now. "Someone was in my house, and it wasn't you."

"Maybe it was Santa. It is Christmas after all." Chris pointed out with an adorable smirk lacing his face, Scarlett laughed wrapping her hands around his neck, having to stand on her tippy toes because he's so tall.

"Don't tell me you still believe in Santa?" She teased him.

"You never know," He shrugged. "Besides I believe in the idea of Christmas miracles."

"Really? Why?" She asked as Chris snaked his arms around her waist. "Why do you believe in the magic of Christmas."

"Because all I had on my wish list was you, someone had to be listening." He was blushing like a complete dork now, but Scarlett only found that all the more adorable. She was smiling, she was happy, in fact, happier than she has been a long time.

"You're a dork." She whispered moving closer to her.

"Yeah but I'm your dork now." She smiled at his words and then moved to connect her lips with his in a passionate Christmas morning kiss.

As the coupled began the first page of their story all seemed right as the sun started to rise and the surprising the smell of Christmas pine filled the air. If you listened carefully the sound of bells and "HoHo Merry Christmas" could be heard as the couple connected with each other in ways they once dreamed for years leading up to this.

If you ask Chris about how he and Scarlett came to be, well it would certainly classify under a wonderful Christmas Miracle.

Merry Christmas!