Chapter Text
Steve is an idiot, and Bucky is going to kill him.
That feeling is really nothing new. One would think, in fact, that Bucky is quite used to feeling that way. When you’re friends with Steven Grant Rogers, you feel that way at least once a week. At least.
But this is different than Bucky’s usual exasperation. Steve hadn’t gotten into a fight with a bully a good hundred pounds bigger than him. He hadn’t jumped out of a plane without a parachute again. No, he’d just proved that he really was as shit with women as everyone assumed.
Bucky is honestly almost personally offended by this on two parts. First of all, Darcy is easily one of the best people in the tower. She’s human and she cares about them. She’s kind and loving and fierce. Bucky loves her like a little sister. To say he’s not pleased that Steve hurt her is a bit of an understatement. Secondly, didn’t the punk learn anything he taught him? After all, Bucky is charming enough to land Sam and Natasha. He tried, Lord knows, to pass his skill on to Steve, but Lord also knows Steve failed miserably.
So maybe Bucky isn’t heading to Steve’s apartment this morning to hurt him, but what, he asks, is the point of being tortured and brainwashed for seventy years if you can’t even use it to strike a little fear into your friends and push them on to the right path?
It's not torture he's planning. Just a little bit of... friendly... threatening.
He doesn’t even bother to knock, just walks straight in. “Alright, Steve, wake up. We’re gonna have a little–”
He stops dead in his tracks. Steve is still in bed. Asleep. Bucky didn't expect Steve to actually be asleep. He’s always been a morning person. It’s long been the most annoying thing about him.
“Uh... Steve...?” he says cautiously.
Steve’s eyes crack open. “Unless you’ve got some of that Asgardian shit, kindly fuck off.”
“What did I do to deserve this?” Bucky wonders archly.
“You set me up with Darcy,” Steve grumbles. He rolls over, away from Bucky. Bucky rolls his eyes, huffs, and literally hauls Steve’s sorry ass out of bed. He drags his pathetic best friend into the kitchen and makes him a cup of absolutely terrible coffee that is extremely successful in its purpose of waking Steve up. Then he asks the obvious question. “Well, if you're so broken up about it, why'd you break up with her?”
Steve shifts in his seat and gulps down more tar– coffee. “‘S’a long story.” He stares at the floor.
Bucky takes of sip of his own (perfectly prepared) coffee and looks expectantly at Steve. He doesn't say anything. He doesn't need to. Steve will cave as soon as Bucky gives him a Look, which Bucky will do if Steve doesn't tell him in five, four, three, two–
“It was her idea.”
There we go. But Bucky doesn't say anything, just waves his hand and motions for Steve to continue.
“We were kind of tired of getting set up with people. So to make it stop or maybe get revenge, I don't know, we decided to pretend to date and then break up.”
Bucky stares at him, dumbfounded. “That is,” he says, “the worst idea you've ever had.”
“It wasn't my idea!” Steve protests. “It was–”
“The worst idea you've ever had, I know,” Bucky interrupts. “I mean, I know you're an idiot, ‘specially when it comes to feelings, but come on, you didn't really think you could date Darcy Lewis and not end up head over heels in love with her, did you?”
“I, uh...”
“Are y’really gonna try and deny that you’re in love with her?” Bucky raises his eyebrows.
“No?” Steve tries.
“Damn straight. Now,” Bucky glares at Steve, just a little bit, “why the fuck are you sitting here talking to me ‘stead of making time with Darce?”
Steve rubs at his eyes. “It ain’t that easy, Buck.”
Bucky snorts. “The hell you mean, it ain’t that easy?”
Steve sighs. His shoulders slump. Every inch of him screams resignation. “She doesn’t... she doesn’t feel the same way. Just acting,” he mumbles.
The words hit Bucky and he freezes, mug halfway to his lips. He stares at Steve, mouth slightly agape. “You don't... You don't actually think that?” he asks in horror and a sort of disgusted awe.
Steve doesn't respond, but he kind of shrugs, and it's obvious what he thinks. “Jesus, Mary, and Joseph,” Bucky mutters, putting his mug down and bringing one hand up to cover his eyes. He sits like that for a few moments, unable to cope with the sheer stupidity. Sometimes he doesn't know how he's managed to be friends with such a bonehead for this long. “That was just acting, and my hair is white.”
“Well, you are about a hundred,” Steve says wryly.
“One,” Bucky holds up a finger, “so are you, we've been over this, two, that's not the point and you know it, and three, don't fucking interrupt me.” He pauses and glares at Steve, who holds his hands up in surrender and keeps his mouth firmly shut. “She left last night about thirty seconds after you did, didn't look at any of us. Wouldn't cry in front of any of us, either, but I followed her out into the hallway ‘cause that was not acting. I can read people better than that. And Stevie... She wouldn't cry, but I got out there and she was a mess, tears streaming down her face, looking like her heart broke. She didn't know I was coming out there. She didn't know there was anyone to act for. That was real, Steve.”
Steve is in shock. Darcy... She doesn't... There's no way... But Bucky is telling him so and Bucky knows, he can read people, Steve knows, and Darcy wouldn't have been acting, there would've been no reason to pretend at that point... It has to be true. “Oh,” he says numbly.
Bucky snorts. “Oh,” he shakes his head disbelievingly. “Alright, go get the girl, ya idiot.”
It takes Steve several seconds to process everything. Darcy... loves him. Darcy loves him. Darcy loves him.
Holy shit.
He jumps up. “I, um,” he stumbles over a chair, “I have to go.” He makes to rush out the door, but Bucky calls him back.
“Oh, and Steve?”
Bucky’s tone is overly friendly. Steve takes his hand off the doorknob and turns around cautiously. “Yeah?”
“I'm not saying I'll rearrange your face if you break her heart, but I am saying that you'll have at least a Norse god, a brilliant astrophysicist, at least one assassin, a crazy inventor, and Pepper Potts pissed off at you. Wouldn't want that, would we?”
“No, Buck.” Steve rolls his eyes and turns back around.
“Don't worry, I'll tell her not to break your heart, too!” Bucky shouts. He waits until he hears the door open because he is an asshole, then yells, “One more thing!”
Steve says, with what he considers to be great patience, “What is it?”
Bucky smirks. “You might want to get dressed? Just a suggestion.”
Steve blushes and throws, “You're such an ass,” at Bucky as he sprints back to his room.
*****
Pepper is the best boss ever.
Like, of course that doesn't surprise anyone, especially not Darcy. But still, it means a lot to her when she shows up to work with puffy red eyes and a runny nose, hair and clothes that can barely be called professional, and Pepper takes one look at her, postpones her morning meeting, and pulls out the emergency chocolate stash.
They do not take the emergency chocolate stash lightly.
What's even better is that all morning, Pepper doesn't say a single word about Steve. They talk about the new Ghostbusters and dumbass dudebros on the internet. Pepper tells Darcy about the pretty little wedding she went to last weekend for Lillian, head of accounting, and Maria, who's over HR. Apparently, she gave them a very nice wedding present along with bonuses. Darcy understands. Maria does have to deal with the walking-HR-nightmare that is Tony Stark.
Darcy shows Pepper her favorite vines (the one with the cat giving a presidential speech about Ebola is classic, but the sand guardian, guardian of the sand is the Ultimate) and they have a little bit of a dance party. Alcohol, very, very small amounts of alcohol, may have been involved. If ever she is asked, Darcy will plead the fifth.
Sometime after eleven, Pepper stops dancing. Still holding Darcy’s hands, she says apologetically, “I'm sorry, Darcy, but I have a lunch meeting I can't get out of.”
“Oh.” Darcy slides one hand away and tugs on the ends of the hair that spill over her shoulder, almost black against the creamy color of her oversized sweater.
“If you want, you can take the afternoon off...” Pepper looks carefully at Darcy, who looks at the ground.
“Um,” she says, her voice soft and quiet and young, “I don’t... I don’t really...” No, she can’t take the afternoon off, she’d be alone, with her thoughts, she never does well alone like this.
“Okay,” Pepper’s face is soft. “I think they could use some supervision down in the labs.” She doesn’t say what she’s really thinking, that Jane is in the labs, and Thor might be down there too, so that even if Pepper can’t be there, someone will be. “You can go there for the afternoon, and maybe we can have a girls’ night tonight?”
It feels a little bit like Pepper’s mothering her, but Darcy doesn’t mind. She’s often the Mom Friend herself, to be fair, and as far as Pepper and Tony are concerned, they’ve all but adopted her. “Yeah, sounds good. I should probably go armed with Poptarts... Maybe I’ll order Chinese. Jane likes Chinese...” Darcy mutters as she leaves.
Not five minutes later, Steve bursts into the room, panting and out of breath. “Pepper! Do you know where Darcy is?”
(He’d taken the stairs, much too impatient to wait for the elevator.)
“I do,” Pepper says calmly. She doesn’t look up from her screen, nor does she stop typing.
“Where is she?” Steve is a little uncertain now, she can hear it in his voice.
Perfect.
“Sit down, Steve.”
It's not said like a command, but there is no doubt in Steve’s mind that is what it is. He sits.
She takes her time finishing the email she's writing. Then, finally and very deliberately, she looks at Steve. “What do you want with Darcy?”
“I, um, I...” he stammers. “I don't think I know what you mean?”
“Really?” Pepper says pleasantly. “I think you do know what I mean.” Still, he looks confused. So she says, even more pleasantly (at this point that's its own kind of threat), “Let me explain it to you. You see, Steve, I am a busy woman. Head of a Fortune 500 company, my partner is a superhero and Tony Stark, and I often have to babysit the rest of his team. Darcy Lewis is an incredibly valuable person to me and I cannot afford to have her emotionally compromised the way she was this morning.”
The way she was this morning. The words reverberate around Steve’s mind and his heart clenches.
“Not only that, but I adore Darcy as a person. I think of her as a part of my family. Do you know what I will do to protect the people I love?”
He does. He has an idea, at least. “Yes, ma’am.”
She’s told him before not to call her ma’am, just Pepper, but she doesn’t now. She smiles, sharp and shark-like, and he sees Ms. Potts, the terrifyingly competent CEO of Stark Industries.
“Now, you're looking for Darcy?”
He nods.
“So you'll understand me asking. What do you want with her?”
Steve rubs the back of his neck and grins ruefully. “Don’t worry, Bucky already chewed my ass out over it. I just... I didn’t mean to fall in love with her, but I did, and I need to tell her that I’m sorry and I love her.”
Pepper stares at him, expressionless for an achingly long moment. Steve stands to leave. He understands if Pepper still doesn't want to tell him where Darcy is. He'll just go find her himself.
“Wait,” Pepper calls. She gives him a hint of a smile and her face is warm and understanding again. “She's with Jane in the labs.”
Steve thanks her, and then he is off again, sprinting down stairs two, three, four, five at a time.
*****
Jane actually breaks away from her work to hug Darcy when she enters the lab. Darcy doesn't know which she's more surprised by.
“How are you feeling?” Jane asks sympathetically.
“Oh, alright,” Darcy says much too cheerily. Her eyes are overbright and her smile is too wide. But her message comes through loud and clear. She isn’t alright but she doesn’t want to talk about it.
“Okay...” Jane gives her a sort of funny look but tugs her the rest of the way into the labs. “Did you sleep last night? Have you eaten? How many cups of coffee have you had?”
“Yes, a little, and just one.” Darcy regards Jane suspiciously. “Are you... are you trying to wrangle me?”
“No,” Jane laughs nervously and much too quickly, “why would you think that?”
“Oh my G... You are!” Darcy accuses her. But she’s smiling, so Jane will count it as a victory.
“Well, you helped me keep it together when Thor left, so I figured...”
Darcy stops and gives Jane a huge hug. “Janie, that’s the sweetest. But you should stick to Science! I don’t think you’re really suited for wrangling.”
Jane raises an eyebrow. “Well, alright, if you insist,” she says dryly.
“Liza!” Darcy calls.
Jane’s assistant looks up and smiles. “Hi, Darcy. How's it going?”
“Oh, alright,” Darcy says, and Jane is pleased to note that it's less forced than earlier. “Hey, it's getting close to lunchtime. You guys know what you're doing?”
Elizabeth grins ruefully and pushes her dark, unruly hair away from her face. “I guess I hadn't really thought about it yet.”
Darcy looks between the other two women indulgently. “How you survive without me...” She shakes her head. “I can order something if you don't want to leave the lab.”
“Thanks, that would be great,” Liza yells. Darcy shakes her head again and walks into the little side office to make a call. Looks could be deceiving– and they very much were. Jane was tiny, but when she actually ate, she could eat twice as much as a regular human, which is still half as much as Thor, who would also probably be down here sooner or later.
She was going to have to order a lot of food.
*****
Steve rounds the last corner of the hall leading to Jane’s lab, and runs into Thor. Literally. He picks himself off, dusts himself off, looks up at the sky, and very loudly demands to know, “What the actual fuck?!”
“Steven,” Thor booms genially. Much too genially.
“Yes, I know, don't break Darcy's heart, got it. Bucky and Pepper both already talked to me separately, and I get it, I really do, I've been an idiot, and I would just like to go and talk to Darcy now, please.”
Thor’s eyes widened a little. “I am glad to hear you have a, er, thorough understanding of the situation. I believe all will end well.” He pats Steve on the shoulder and directs him into the labs. “Let us go and see our beloveds.”
Jane is not happy to see Steve. “Thor, honey, I love you, but why the hell is he here?”
Thor grins at Jane sappily while she glares at Steve, who holds his hands out in front of himself. “Look, I just want to talk to Darcy.”
“Don't know why you need to do that. Sounded to me like you did plenty of talking last night,” Jane says. She folds her arms across her chest.
Steve stutters and stumbles, trying desperately to defend himself. “No, I... I... no, it wasn't like that, you don't know everything...”
But with every word Jane looks less and less impressed.
Thor interrupts him. “I love how fierce and protective you are, my Jane–” he kisses her on the forehead– “but Steven tells the truth. There is more to the story. He must speak with Lady Darcy and right what would otherwise be a most grievous wrong. I will explain what has happened while he speaks with her alone?”
Thor does not want to disregard his lady’s wishes. She wants to protect her sister. He understands. But they must give Steven the opportunity, at the least, to explain himself to Darcy. She can refuse him if she desires, but she must be allowed to make that decision for herself.
“Alright,” Jane says, eyes still narrowed. “But Captain, I don't want to hear Darcy crying again today.”
“Me either,” Steve promises.
*****
Darcy flinches when she sees him come in the door, eyes wide. She says, “Thank you very much,” to whoever she's on the phone with, voice shaky, and hangs up, hands trembling.
“Hey,” Steve says.
“Steve,” she nods. Her voice is almost empty of emotion, as she'd like it to be, but no matter how hard she tries, it isn't quite. The lightest pink taints it, oh-so-faintly tinting her tone with warmth and love and hope, yes– but there's blue there too (sadness and resignation and hurt).
But then he says her name, and oh, but he doesn't hold anything back. Her name in his mouth is crimson with love and adoration, with delicate, soft lavender and honey-gold accents, and she can almost hear, just in that, everything he feels for her.
Almost. So maybe she does think that Steve really is a good person and a great guy and everything she wants, and maybe she does wonder what he'd see in her– she didn’t even finish her degree! Maybe it’s hard to think that he could want her, or maybe that anyone could want her, because that’s not something she’s heard a lot. Sue her.
And then... and then, and then–
“I love you.”
Darcy’s mouth falls open.
He's still talking, nervous, convinced he's fucked up, but she isn't listening. He... loves her? Steve loves her? He doesn't ever say things he doesn't mean, not like this, and he's never cruel, he wouldn't lie to her...
“–and I know that's kind of fast, maybe too fast, but I am, and I didn't ever mean to hurt you and I'm so sorry if I did–”
“Wait,” Darcy says, shaking her head, “you love me?”
Steve grins sheepishly, nervously. “Um, yeah. Yeah, I do.” Then his face goes a little bit white and he quickly adds, “Unless that freaks you out or scares you, in which case, maybe, but I definitely like you a lot.”
“Okay,” Darcy smiles, fond and amused, almost indulgent. She feels it, the truth of it, resonate in her bones, and for now, it is enough to drive her insecurities away. “That's really good.”
“It is?” Steve blurts. He winces. Bucky would be cursing him for a fool if he could hear this.
“Yeah, it is,” she nods, that same little smile still on her face, “‘cause I'm kind of in love with you too.”
“Oh,” he exhales. “Oh.”
“Well, are you gonna just stand there, soldier boy?” Darcy tilts her head up and smirks at him.
“No, ma'am,” he breathes. He leans down and presses his lips to hers and it's everything their first kiss was and everything it should've been.
Darcy breaks away first. She glances out the window and see Jane, Thor, and Liza, of course, but Sam, Natasha, and Bucky are there too, trying very hard to look like they're not trying very hard to listen to what Steve and Darcy are up to. Except Nat, of course, who would win a gold medal in looking casual and effortless. Still. Bunch of voyeurs.
“I think you should stop taking relationship advice from Bucky,” Darcy says very solemnly– until she hears an indignant “Hey!” from outside the room. Then she breaks into giggles.
Steve laughs with her and presses his forehead to hers, like he doesn't ever want to be parted from her.
Out in the lab, Natasha raises a delicate eyebrow at Bucky, who shrugs. Hey, if they want to get up to it in there... Then the other eyebrow goes up, and he gulps. Bucky strides over to the office and throws the door open. “Alright, lovebirds, I think it's time for you to go home. Don't care where you go, actually. Just get outta here.”
For once in his life, Steve doesn't have a problem taking orders.
As they pass him, Natasha, and Sam, Bucky mutters, “Did you know they were faking?”
Sam rolls his eyes. He didn't know, not really, but he'll bet anything–
“Of course I knew,” Natasha scoffed. “I know everything.”