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Darcy liked holidays. She liked food, company, and celebrations. But while other people liked the large holidays, Darcy always found something fun in the smaller ones. Valentine’s day was one of those holidays. She knew it had a past with religious history attached to it and that it had been taken and twisted by greeting card companies to sell more cards, chocolate, roses, and pretty much anything else society had decided to call romantic symbolic objects of love, but she liked it all the same.
There was just something nice about the idea of an entire day devoted solely to the idea of love. She knew some people were miserable to be alone on Valentine’s Day or desperately seeking someone- anyone- to spend the day with, but she’d never felt that way. Why would she? She had plenty of people she loved and plenty of people who loved her. Love wasn’t always romantic- in a world full of both romantic and platonic soulmates, you’d think more people would take that to heart. Sure, the stores sold platonic Valentines, but they had never been as popular as the romantic ones… Which seemed odd to her especially when it wasn’t uncommon to have a few platonic mates. And even if you weren’t soulmates, you could still give chocolate, cards, and gifts. She’d enjoyed the little Valentine exchange in grade school and had never quite grown out of sending them to people.
So when February rolled around Darcy began thinking about what she could do for the team. Well, what else she could do for them- she’d already decided to bake heart shaped sugar cookies dipped in white chocolate she was planning on tinting pink and chocolate covered strawberries for them. When she saw the Avengers Valentine’s Day grade school card set she bought a few boxes as well.
She was also thinking about what she could do for Jarvis. It’s not like she could get him flowers… well, she could but he wouldn’t be able to do more than see them and appreciate the gesture. He couldn’t smell them or anything. And that’s when she came up with an idea. Smiling to herself, she’d paid for the Valentine cards and had left the store, hurrying home.
Stepping back into the tower, she made her way over to the team’s private elevator. It had originally been Tony’s but he’d been generous enough to share it with the team- something about preventing another Captain America nose bleed fiasco again (apparently some of the interns had a habit of flipping their shit when they rode in the same elevator as one of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes… One of them had apparently tried to strip for Steve to his eternal mortification- Apparently Steve stayed red for a week straight. After that Tony had declared they should all use his private elevator).
“Welcome back Darcy,” Jarvis said.
“Thanks, Jarvis,” Darcy said with a smile. “Hey, J?"
“Yes, Darcy?” Jarvis responded as he took her up to the living areas.
“Will you help me with some presents for the team?”
“I would be happy to.”
“You’re the best, J.”
The lights of the elevator glowed just a little brighter with Jarvis’s satisfaction before the elevator came to a stop. The doors slid open with the now familiar TARDIS materialization parking break noise. Darcy knew Jarvis would continue to provide the noise as long as Bucky enjoyed it. She wondered if Bucky would ever stop chuckling when they did that. Probably not.
Jarvis waited for her to enter her apartment before asking, “What would you like help with?”
“I want to make them photo books of us all but I don’t have enough photos and was hoping you’d be able to give me some freeze frames from the tower’s security footage.”
“Of course. Are there any specific events you would like me to use or shall I just find some that I feel are suitable?”
“You pick, J- just make sure there’s some good group shots. I want to personalize them, so I’ll need some with each team member as the focus.”
“I am sure the team will appreciate your efforts.”
“And yours,” Darcy said. “This gift will be from us since you’re helping me.”
“Shall we begin?” Darcy was getting pretty good at reading Jarvis’s tones and she was pretty certain he was excited at the idea of giving the team a gift that he’d had a hand in making and not just ordering.
“Yeah,” she said, sitting down on the couch. Jarvis turned on the TV remotely and began showing her various stills from the security feeds. It being Jarvis, they were pretty good quality. Darcy figured he’d find the best angles and she wasn’t disappointed. As they sorted through the images Jarvis sent them to her laptop. Dividing them into folders for ‘all,’ ‘Steve,’ ‘Tony,’ ‘Nat,’ and so on, they worked on the selection for a few hours until they were satisfied they had enough.
The next day Darcy jumped online and began working on formatting the photo books through one of those online print sites. As she dropped pictures into page templates, she wrote a personalized introductory page for each person’s book, and added dates, captions, funny notes, and memories in among the images. Together she and Jarvis placed the orders and chatted happily about how much the team would enjoy their gifts.
*
Valentine’s Day eve rolled around and Darcy got to work baking up a storm. Heart shaped everything, chocolate dipped everything, and of course, those little candy hearts were all bagged and tagged for each of the residents in the tower (complete with Avengers Valentine cards, of course). Darcy also made up plates of cookies for various departments. The next day Darcy skulked around the tower, leaving everyone’s gifts in places she knew they’d find. Jane’s photo book and cookie bag (which had a few cookie cut poptarts in it as well for good measure) was left propped up against the machine Darcy knew she’d check first. Bruce’s items were left leaning against his microscope and Tony’s was left with Dum-E (that should be a fun wrestling match… “Jarvis, make sure you tape that.” “I was planning on it, Darcy.”). Pepper’s was left on her desk, Clint’s was left in his favorite duct, Natasha’s was left at her yoga mat, Bucky and Steve’s were both left in the weapon’s cabinet and locker room respectively. And Sam’s was left against his door (because he was a normal person). Thor and Loki’s were hand delivered because she knew Loki probably wouldn’t eat it if he just found it somewhere (she’d put extra chocolate in his), and Thor was right next door so it seemed silly not to give him his at the same time.
After the team was taken care of, Darcy went around to the rest of the building. The front desk and security teams got platters of treats to munch on through out the day, and so did many of the departments in Stark Industries. By the time she got back to the labs, a large bouquet of red roses and chocolate covered fruit was waiting for her on her desk. Smiling, Darcy walked over and read the tag before looking up at the nearest camera.
“Do you like them, Darcy?” Jarvis asked.
“Thank you, I love them, J. And I actually have something for you too,” she said, opening her laptop. “I did this for you when I was outside of the tower and then asked Jane to order it for me so that it would be a surprise for you.” Typing in her password, Darcy navigated to her desktop and then sent Jarvis a file just as Tony walked in, cookies and book in hand.
“Thanks Lewis,” he smiled. “This is great- though how did you get all of the pictures?”
“Jarvis,” she said smugly.
“Nice, J- thanks,” Tony said before catching a glimpse of one of the holographic screens in the lab. “What’ve you got there?” he asked, trying to sound innocent, while taking a closer look at it.
“Darcy has given me a present,” Jarvis replied. He sounded… quiet.
Tony shot Darcy a knowing grin. “Did she? Well, let’s see it.”
Jarvis uploaded the file onto the holoscreen. It was a digital photo book from the same site he and Darcy had ordered the photo books for the rest of the team from. As he began flicking through the pages, the rest of the team trickled in, most holding their own books and eating cookies. They all stood and chatted, laughing and smiling at the various group shots, remembering when they’d been taken. Some of the group shots were the ones he’d picked out with Darcy, but others were new. They were outside of the tower and must have been taken with a camera. Various members of the team were smiling, waving, and holding up signs wishing Jarvis a happy Valentine’s Day. The last few pages were images of just Darcy, holding up various signs with all the reasons why she was grateful the universe had paired her with Jarvis.
After everyone had thanked them for the books and the sweets, the team left- even Jane allowed herself to be pulled away by Thor (apparently he’d planned a romantic day of swan paddle boats and picnics) and Darcy and Jarvis were alone. Jarvis closed the file and stored it deep in his servers where he could look at it whenever he wanted.
“Happy Valentine’s Day, Jarvis.” Darcy smiled, eating one of the chocolates he’d bought her.
“Happy Valentine’s Day, Darcy.”