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Jane dropped a single sugar cube into her mug and stirred. The satisfying ‘tink tink tink’ noise of the spoon against the mug reminded her of home. The coffee machine in the labs came with paper cups. But the little kitchenette outside the situation room had the best machine, and everyone kept their personal mugs there.
Darcy was loading her mug up with creamer and complaining, “Look at him, Janey. It’s like torture.”
Jane glanced into the window of the conference room. Not many people had access to this area of the compound. Honestly, Jane wasn’t entirely sure how Darcy had managed to secure it.
That was just Darcy.
Jane followed Darcy’s gaze to Bucky’s profile. He was listening intently to Rhodes, nodding in understanding or agreement. She had no idea what was being said behind the bulletproof, soundproof glass.
“Looking at your boyfriend is torture?”
“It is when he’s being deliberately hot, and I can’t do anything about it.”
“I don’t think he’s being deliberately…” Jane began to argue but Bucky’s tongue darted out of his mouth to wet his upper lip. “Oh…” Jane breathed out. She still doubted that the action was intentional, but it was provocative.
Darcy’s next word came out as a hiss…“Bastard.” Darcy then screwed up her nose until it wrinkled. “He knows I can’t do anything about it.”
“In the middle of a debriefing, no you can’t do anything about it.”
Darcy let out a noise that was somewhere between a moan and a whine, “Nnnnh… Want.”
“Did Dr. Palmer release you?”
“From the torture of being unable to do the nasty with my sexy-ass boyfriend? Not yet.”
“I believe her exact words were, ‘no strenuous activity’. For crying out loud, Darcy, you nearly died.”
“Yeah…yeah… it least it would have been quick. Unlike this slow death by sexual frustration.”
Darcy took a sip of her coffee, and then almost spit it out. “Now look at that, you can’t tell me that wasn’t deliberate!”
Bucky had bit his lower lip and then let it drag across his teeth. “I don’t think it was,” Jane argued back, with a little assessing head tilt. He was drawing a lot of attention to his mouth.
If Jane hadn’t known better, she would swear he could hear them, or at least sense their presence. He turned slightly and nodded in their direction, acknowledging them. He smiled widely and raised a few fingers in greeting. His eyes sparkled and he got little crinkles around them. “Aw. He has a nice smile, doesn’t he?”
Darcy smiled in return and agreed with a soft, loving, “He really does.” Then her eyes narrowed and with a little humph, she snarled, “The bastard.”
Darcy picked up her mug and gestured to Jane that she was leaving the room. Jane was following behind, almost dutifully. Darcy didn’t bother to turn around when she announced, “You know what? Two can play at that game.”
Jane half laughed and half sighed, “Please don’t say you have a mission.”
“Let Mission Torture Bucky commence!”
“Darce. You need a new name for that mission ASAP.”
“Oh… good point.”
“Mission…I’ll come up with a clever name later, commence!”
Rhodes and Banner were yammering about something, and frankly Sam had stopped paying attention a while ago.
Watching Bucky and his girl interact through the glass was more entertaining. Quietly, so as not to get scolded, he told Bucky, “Stop torturing the poor girl.”
“Payback, Sam. It’s payback,” with that, Bucky bit his bottom lip in a way that Hope Van Dyne had once called, ‘just shy of obscene’.
“Its cruel. You know she can’t get down until Doc Palmer gives her the all clear.”
Bucky turned just enough to smile and wave at Foster and Darcy.
Darcy scowled back and fled the room. Sam fought off a laugh. Whatever Bucky was getting payback for, it was working.
A few minutes later, after the yammering had concluded, they headed over to the coffee maker in the next room. Bucky grabbed his favorite mug. It was one Darcy had given him, with Stitch from the Disney movie on it. As he poured, he asked Sam, “You remember the first time we saw her?”
“Yeah. We were getting off the jet and she was sitting outside on the bleachers. Girl jumped right up to greet us. Like she had no sense of self-preservation whatsoever.”
Bucky shot him a little scowl and Sam explained, “What? You were scary.”
“I wasn’t scary,” Bucky growled.
“Mmm hmm,” Sam didn’t disagree outright, but.. come on.
“Do you remember what she was doing?”
Sam thought back to that day. Darcy was sitting on the bleachers by the track. She was dressed in a pair of cut off jean shorts, flip flops and a Buffy the Vampire Slayer tee shirt that said, ‘bite me’. Her hair had been pulled up off her neck in a ponytail. And Sam distinctly recalled her lips were plump and red from….“Eating a popsicle.”
“A cherry popsicle,” Bucky clarified.
Sam had thought at the time that Bucky hadn’t even noticed her. Clearly, he was wrong.
“Have you considered bribing Doc Palmer to medically release her for ‘activity’?”
Bucky almost tsk-ed in a very Steve-like way. “I’m not risking her health, Sam.”
Sam muttered under his breath as Bucky walked away, “Just her sanity.”
Sam shook his head in annoyance.
He’d followed Barnes to the labs, shaking his head the whole way.
Barnes approached Darcy with an almost sultry walk and a honeyed tone to his voice. He blinked slowly, looking at her through his eyelashes, “Hey, Doll.”
“Hey yourself, Sarge,” Darcy leaned forward to offer Barnes a glimpse of her cleavage. She crossed her legs and swung one back and forth. All the while, she tapped her bottom lip with the eraser of her pencil.
Sam approached Foster on the other side of the lab and crossed his arms over his chest. Still subtly shaking his head.
Jane poured Sam a cup of coffee into a paper cup. “Is it just me?” she asked.
“Or are they ridiculous? It’s not just you.” He stirred his coffee with a little swizzle stick.
“They’re behaving like…”
“Horny teenagers.”
Jane nodded, “I was going to say children, but your description is more specific.”
Darcy pulled a Tootsie pop out of her purse and put it in her mouth while she flirted with Barnes. She gave a few swirls and then pulled it out with a pop that they could hear on the other side of the room.
Sam’s eyes nearly rolled out of his head, “Seriously? A lollipop?”
“Well that’s very cliched,” Jane grimaced with disappointment. “Darcy can do better.”
“Well… she’s at least bringing in the creativity with props. Unlike mister lip biter over there.”
Sam let out a half sigh and rolled his eyes for the umpteenth time.
Bucky was leaning towards Darcy with his bottom lip captured between his teeth. She was gesturing animatedly and talking, waving the lollipop around to punctuate her sentences.
“Ugh,” Sam plopped his cup down, the contents splashing up, but not spilling out, “You wanna go into town? Get some lunch? I can’t take this anymore.”
“Right? It’s like torture!”