Chapter Text
Darcy sat reading on the couch in the common area when she heard a chirping and let out a horrified scream.
She continued to scream when she noticed a foot-long demonic metal creature looking at her from a few feet away and chucked her book at it.
She continued to scream as she vaulted over the back of the couch.
She only stopped screaming when she heard two heavy treads running her way and latched onto the back of the first rescuer to pass in front of her. All she could tell was that they were tall enough and wide enough that she should be safe from her nightmare as she clutched onto her savior’s shirt with her face between their shoulder blades.
“Uh, Darcy? You okay?”
She lifted her face from Rescuer Number 1’s back to glare at Steve who was apparently Rescuer Number 2. He had his hands on his hips and kept looking between Darcy and the hellspawn.
“Do I look like I’m okay?”
He huffed out a laugh.
“No,” Steve paused as he pointed at the metal monstrosity, “ but it’s only a robotic….grasshopper?”
“No, no it’s not. It’s hellfire and damnation. It’s all that is wrong and unholy. It’s the freaking spawn of Tony and the reason that man must suffer.”
Darcy didn’t think he understood the gravity or the danger of the situation.
“Why is Stark making robot grasshoppers?”
He definitely didn’t get it. Fool.
“I can’t explain with it still there lusting for my blood.”
Steve looked at her dubiously.
“Just get rid of it.”
The vile thing started making real grasshopper noises again and Darcy burrowed closer to the back of Rescuer Number 1, not willing to see if the thing was making the noise itself or Tony had just recorded it to terrify her. That’s when she noticed that whoever she held onto smelled delicious, was probably a man based on the size of him, and was shaking–with laughter.
“Hey, no laughing at me. I was scarred by A Bug’s Life as a child.”
Whoever it was began to turn and Darcy shifted with a yelp, making sure to keep him between her and the evil insect at all times.
He set his hands on her shoulders and spoke over her head.
“Steve, you warned me things might be intense here, but I didn’t think I’d be required to rescue damsels from maniacal bugs on my first day.”
Darcy finally looked up at Rescuer Number 1’s face and felt like she’d stumbled into the Twilight Zone. She’d gone from her worst nightmare to what her teenage self would have seen as heaven. It was one James Buchanan Barnes that she was still latched onto.
“Holy shit, you’re James Buchanan Barnes.”
“Bucky,” he corrected with a mocking grin. “At your service, ma’am.”
The robot horror began chirping again and she whimpered.
Bucky chuckled. Some romantic hero he made. Her sixteen-year-old self would be extremely disappointed.
“Yeah, yeah. Laugh it up fuzzball. Just get rid of that thing.”
She shoved him in the direction of the satanspawn, which maybe wasn’t the best idea since the guy was a former brainwashed assassin and probably didn’t react well to violence; but times of distress and all that. In his favor, he just tipped an imaginary hat at her while still laughing and turned to help Steve take care of their malignant infestation.
Darcy booked it out of the room without another glance. Okay, maybe she spared one to check out the back side of one James Buchanan Barnes, but it was just to verify the historical opinions.
It was for the greater good. Truly.