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Darcy could feel the puppy licking her face as she reached her hand into the cage to get the shy three-legged kitten out. There was a rumble and a quake and she almost lost her balance as something collided into the far wall in the Pet Shelter.

“It’s okay, we’re the last ones.” She told the kitten as she clawed onto her sweater as she turned and sprinted for the doorway.

She managed to slow down the last truck leaving the town enough to plop the two pets onto the truck bed, “GO! Take care of them!”

There was another great rumbling and she spurted from the truck and around the corner to see a giant Transformer on fire.

Darcy Lewis had always considered herself a rather well put-together, self-sufficient and independent young woman. At least she knew she was, especially when she compared herself to her high school friends, who either burned out first year of college or didn’t go to college at all. Whereas she had not only gone to college, but graduated Summa Cum Laude, despite the minor inconveniences (that those who had SHIELD clearance high enough) called alien invasions.

So she decided, as the grown-ass woman she was, that it was about time to get an actual job in the field she had studied and earned her degree in… Or at least something that was not putting astrophysicist to bed, make Tony Stark coffee and do laundry for the prince of Ass-guard.

She broke the news to Jane. She would still be working as her assistant, translating notes into something that other people could read, and make sure she slept, but since Jane lived with Thor in the Avenger’s Tower she knew the Thunder God would take care of Jane most days. She still made it clear that she was going to work for HR at SI and though they were in the same building, she would not be available whenever Jane needed a ride into the desert… or Canada.  She even spent a whole day going through all the settings on the washing machine and dryer with Thor, showing him how to do his own laundry without having to worry about enemies lacing his robes with poison. Apparently this was a legit concern in Asgard and the reason why dry cleaners were feared by space royalty.

It wasn’t long after she started working for HR that she realised she was not quite as put-together as she had originally thought. She had troubles managing her time, feeling like all she did was work and commute and work and sleep, but never really getting anything done, while still being tired. She might work her 9-to-5 day in the office, check on Jane and do her filing for 3-4 hours, only interrupted by Thor, bless him, forcing her to take a break and eat something, before she would continue doing her work. But at least Jane paid her, so she could afford a place of decent size not too deep in Brooklyn, which was the only reason why she had not flipped the table long ago.

Also, Tony had hired some intern called Brian to make his coffee now that she refused to, and her diet was now 50% Brett-Brain-Booster-Specials. Brett was a true coffee-bro. Sent from the Bean Gods… Or was his name Bron?

Needless to say, she was exhausted, and seriously humouring the thought of quitting her job in HR (and crawling back to Stark) a little more seriously every day.

Then one day, after 3 weeks of less than four hours of sleep every night, she managed to sleep through her alarm, waking up at the end of her lunch hour with dread in her stomach and an almost panic attack. But when she got a ‘Get Well Soon!’-email from her boss (Thor had apparently told him she was sick, and no one would ever think he lied. True bro right there too.) Darcy stayed home and focused on the work she had emailed herself. She found she had no problems with the project she was managing now. She had struggled with it under pressure, but now could finally focus on the tasks she were given instead of the tiny details and the feeling of incompetence that the sound of efficiency in the other cubicles made her feel.

It was like a lightbulb plinged into existence over her head as she realised how simple some of the details she had gotten stuck on were actually quite simple and once she had broken the code the rest of her paperwork was done in the two hours between waking up and finally getting some coffee.

That day she finished all her work for both jobs before Thor and Jane picked her up for dinner, and once again felt a bit more in control, and was once again hopeful for her future and confident that she could do this. At least she could when she got a raise or Jane got herself a new assistant.

But after her first few projects, campaigns and meetings had gone better than she would have ever expected, Pepper Pots, the CEO and Owner of Tony Stark’s Balls, came to her cubical with an offer she could not refuse.

It was not that the offer was a great one, one that Darcy really would be stupid to refuse. No, Pepper was just impossible to say no to.

And that is how Darcy Lewis became the official ‘bring-WW2-vets-up-to-speed’ person.

They were incredibly intimidating at first. Especially Bucky, with his metal arm, perpetual scowl and the whole assassin-thing close to the surface. Steve was the buffer. He had been around for a bit, and actually made an effort to catch up with pop-culture. He would easily get her explanations and translate slang for his friend. But as both super-serumed-soldiers warmed up to her and her modern ways, they both relaxed and Bucky even started cracking jokes.

They might be a bit easily distracted, but they got their work done and the atmosphere was always nice and inviting. They started planning things together, movie nights, dinners, museum trips. Sometime after the first two months Thor joined them as Darcy introduced them to sushi, and eventually he started enrolling in her modern day class to learn more about Midgardian culture.

One of her new favourite things was when Jane and Thor joined them for a night of HBO. Darcy had put on Vikings, mainly for Thor to tell her what was right and what wasn’t, but also because Steve got so adorably immersed into whatever she presented, and he looked adorable when he flushed at the sex scenes.

Especially when Bucky laughed at Athelstan refusing a threesome and telling her about the time he had drunkenly gotten his equally drunk dame to invite Steve to a ménage-a-trois just to see the lil’ punk squirm.

She also did smart film choices, like Across the Universe when she was teaching them about the age of punk, Beatles, and the Vietnam war.

They all struggled with their own thing on top of their lacking pop culture knowledge. Bucky with his memory loss and memory gain, Thor with the loss of his brother and the millennia of baggage that came with being an immortal, and then there was Steve...

Steve was the definition of well-put-together in Darcy’s opinion. He might be nose deep in the books she assigned and old articles and Wikipedia pages, but he still had time to marathon all the TV shows she had mentioned, if only in passing, and listening to the music she introduced. He also managed to make sure all the participants in the little group got through everything on Darcy’s agenda without her having to hassle them. And then there was that whole, you know, saving the world thing, that he managed on top of that. Did this man ever even sleep?

Oddly enough, after many months of getting to know each other, she fully realised just how important modern day was for him, and he asked her for extra tutoring in the world of modern day politics. And she was happy to do it, it was her major after all.

And that was the story of how Captain fucking America became her best friend… aside from Jane that is.

So much her best friend that when she declared them all caught up with the necessary events and pop culture, she still marathoned series with him. He claims he enjoys her commentary, and she certainly doesn’t mind snuggling up to a national treasure on the regular, even if she barely gets to eat any or her snacks before he’s devoured it all.   

She became a regular at the Avenger’s headquarters after that, using it as her second home, seeing as Steve could go hard-core and stay up for a whole season, instead of the 3 episode limit Bucky had set on the first night.

And after the sixth time she fell asleep on Stark’s incredibly comfy couch, Tony had asked if he could arrange her an apartment in the tower.

She politely declined, scared of what that might lead to.

Because she had, during the last year of knowing the Avengers, realized that she might be just a tiny bit attracted to her best friend, and living with him right down the hall might make her admit she was having a stupid little crush on him.

So they all went their separate ways. Bucky started going out into the field again with Natasha, sometimes accompanied by Sam, Steve and/or Clint. Thor went back to Asgard to honor the deal he had with his father. And Steve, when he was not on missions or inviting her to join him for ‘BFF marathon nights,’  spent a lot of his time with Pepper; working publicity and politics.

She was proud to see how far she had helped him, especially when he would call her one night as he camped out in his apartment in DC, complaining about the senator he had met that day.

She would complain too, about the office, about the problems she had with her rapports, or about how she hated having to give the presentations. And presentations were apparently a big part of her job now.

So excuse her for spending a whole hour texting him about the doom of presentations and business peeps as he came back to New York.

She missed her teaching gig, and getting a higher position at SI in PR was swell and all, but the stuffy panel she had to convince the next morning was looking more and more like the Loki-Transformer-of-death. She fully understood why Harry Potter would rather face the Hungarian Horntail again rather than asking Cho Chang out in front of her friends… In this situation the Death-Fire-Transformer was the dragon, she was Harry, and getting her proposal accepted by the investors was like getting Cho to go to the Yule Ball.

Steve took one look at her stressed out state when he opened the door and told her to practice with him. And it helped. Even just sitting next to him on the floor, leaning against his couch with her paperwork on his coffee table as he laid behind her, arm stretched out so his hand could absentmindedly rub out a knot in her shoulder as he read the Harry Potter series (He didn’t get her reference, turned out he had only read the first two books and didn’t even know who Cho Chang was. She had been horrified and brought the complete set with her when he asked her to come over.)

And Darcy herself was finally feeling well put-together as she started working full time for PR, with both a promotion and a raise, and managing to recruit Bruce Banner to help with Jane gave her just enough free time to avoid stress, and keep up her great new social life.

She would meet up with Jane for lunch, every day. Sometimes they dragged Tony and Bruce with them too, because they frequented each other’s lab and needed Darcy to push food in their faces when their assistants had had enough. And whenever Bucky was back from a mission he would send her a text, usually asking questions about the recent history in the country he had just been in, and then denying that he had ever been there. Natasha would just roll her eyes at him and softly berate him in Russian, and Darcy was still too intimidated by the other woman to ask Bucky any questions about it.

And whenever Steve and Bucky were in town at the same time, they would get together and teach Darcy the finer things about the great depression and WWII. Like dancing and slang and drinking games. Once they taught her how to hustle this one card game, and she won $200 from Stark before he realised what was happening.

She even got some friends in her department. People who helped her with her projects, like Maria Hill and John Price who would meet up for drinks once a month. Maria was nice, something about her reminded Darcy a little of both Clint and Phil so she avoided getting too attached. John was kind enough that, had she not worked with him, she would have considered flirting, she even considered a friendly booty call sort of deal, but there was something that she couldn’t quite put her finger on that stopped the idea from fully evolving.

It was the day Thor returned from Asgard and it just happened to be in December and Tony threw him the mother of all coming-home/it’s-almost-Christmas parties. Not only did all the Avengers happen to be home from various missions on that day, but Bucky had stumbled over to Darcy and Steve’s discussion of Snape a few hours in, a huge beer in each hand and shoved one to Steve, excitedly explaining that he was feeling drunk for the first time in years.

So with a lot of encouragement from the drunk-as-a-skunk Bucky and the slightly-more-sober-than-said-skunk Darcy; Steve drank the whole glass, and the next, and the next. Until he finally confessed that he was feeling buzzed for the first time since he started seeing colour.

He even pulled off a great Legolas impression when he confessed to it affecting him.

And from there she could not remember laughing that hard or ever finding Steve that adorable.

She didn’t really know how, but the night ended up with Steve escorting her home. Which was basically Steve falling headfirst into her taxi and asking the driver if his intentions were noble. And when the taxi let her out he let her pay while mumbling how he forgot his wallet before he followed her upstairs.

It wasn’t the first time he had been to her apartment. The moment her (huge) raise was set, she had dragged him all over, apartment hunting and actually listened to his advice and opinions, it was even his plan to steal one of the Stark couches knowing how often she was prone to fall asleep on her own lumpy one. But never had he seen her apartment in such a state.

Not only was it a Friday evening, it was also the night before laundry day, so there were pants and t-shirts and even the occasional bra hanging over the back of chairs or in the basket outside her bedroom door. There were also more take out containers on her kitchen than her usual limit, and all the pairs of heels she owned laid spread on the floor in front of her sofa from where she tried them on that afternoon.

“Sorry about the mess.” She mumbled and looked up at him, still breathless from his hilarious Hitler joke. But when she met his gaze, she saw that he hadn’t taken his eyes off her since she had let him put his arm around her in the hallway.

There was something in his eyes that burned, made her hot all over and made her stomach tingle in that oh so delicious was.

And before either knew what was happening, she was clinging onto him for dear life, desperately removing his belt as he pressed her up against the wall. His kiss consumed her, and she immediately knew that though she was too sober to be doing this, she really couldn’t care less. They stumbled further into her apartment, shedding clothes and tripping over her heels, laughing as they passed her overflowed sofa and he picked her up and carried her to her bedroom. Their limbs tangled in sheets and desperate moans and content sighs as they extinguished that longing, that curiosity that had been building between them since they first, while at the same time making them more curious and the longing for each other stronger. It was all hot kisses and strangled cries as their rhythm built up and they finally came together.

She woke up the next morning lying on her back with his arm around her hips, face in her breasts and legs tangled with hers.

He was out cold and she knew she had no hope for waking him up after all those times he fell asleep after what she promised was going to be the last episode (for the 9th time) of their supernatural marathons. So she unceremoniously threw his arm off of her and bolted herself into her bathroom to have a minor panic attack in the shower about finally having managed to ruin her relationship with her best friend forever.

She dressed and walked into the kitchen where she made an omelette and a pot of coffee, checking her phone as she had her breakfast.

She had 16 missed calls from Bucky and Jane. And a crapload of texts, all from Jane, asking her why she hadn’t picked up the phone last night.

She texted Jane back

Knowing from her time living with Jane, she would understand. And she immediately got a text back

She heard Steve shift in her bedroom and continued eating her breakfast.

“Good morning.” He smiled at her. She nodded, still uncertain about the situation. He helped himself to coffee and the other half of the omelette before he sat down next to her. He was only wearing his boxers and it was distracting. Those damn serum abs… the way they had twitched beneath her fingers last night when she had-

“So last night-“ he started, snapping her out of her train of thought.

“Yeah.” She interrupted, dragging her stare away from his lovely torso to look at his lovely face. “We should just re-watch Firefly together like we use to do after sleepovers.”

He looked at her for a few seconds, his smile fading slightly and sighed, before nodding and finishing off his breakfast, then the rest of hers.

They watched the first five episodes of Firefly before they stopped due to Steve’s stomach protesting to almost five hours of only junior mints and pretzels. So they took a break, him taking a shower and her making her amazing spaghetti sauce from the mince she dug out of her freezer and the canned tomatoes at the back of the pantry.  An hour later they were sitting on her couch, with half eaten bowls of spaghetti and half drunken glasses of wine, joking and talking about everything and nothing as if ‘the sex’ never happened.

Darcy was relieved when he didn’t bring it up.

It wasn’t until much later, in the middle of the Firefly intro, that her phone buzzed, dragging her out of her snuggly-Steve-world.

And once again the man she was currently snuggled up with was no longer just her best friend but also the man she had hot ‘the sex’ with last night. The innocent hand rubbing circles on her stomach under her shirt was no longer the affectionate gesture she was used to from almost two years of marathons, but an incredible turn on.

They didn’t see the last episodes of firefly that night, too busy fucking each other on the couch, the floor and her bed to change the disk.

The next morning she seriously did not know how to handle the situation. So after some extremely hot morning ‘the sex’ (Steve woke up first, in turn waking her up in the best way imaginable) followed by even hotter shower ‘the sex’ and incredible breakfast made by an uncharacteristically happily-goofy Steve (Tony was right about him needing to get some), she sent a text to Jane, desperate for advice.

Jane did not get the seriousness of this situation.

Steve switched the disk from last night and together they saw the last episodes of Firefly, and the way they so easily switched from friends to lovers and back were starting to give her a whiplash. She went along with it, making every situation as platonic and familiar as she could as Steve countered with lingering touches and flirty comebacks.

The scariest part was that Steve had always given her lingering touches and flirty comebacks, but she had never thought of them as quite as sensual or arousing before. She had forced herself not to read too much into anything he did, and now she was thinking maybe he might have been crushing on her too.

But this was all too confusing, so she held on tightly to the notion that he was still her best friend as they converted the leftovers from last night to a lasagna of sorts and had it with the rest of the wine.

Needless to say, she was woken up the next morning by Steve hastily getting dressed and running out the door kissing her cheek and telling her he borrowed 20 bucks for the cab ride home, apologizing profusely about a morning meeting he had scheduled with Pepper. It was 6 on a Monday morning, so she sent a quick update to Jane

before she promptly fell back asleep.

The morning was spent working efficiently, ignoring all thoughts of her weekend until lunch, when she realised she had finished for the day and went home.

The rest of the day was spent lazily ignoring the mess they had made the night before and munching on the leftovers from the pasta dish. She was just planning a shopping list as she was microwaving the last portion of leftover pasta deliciousness when the doorbell rang.

To her surprise it was Steve, wearing fresh clothes and carrying a duffle bag in one hand and a bag of groceries in the other.

She stood there in shock, wearing the ratty pyjamas she had thrown on when she got home and just watched as he put away the groceries and tidied up the rat's-nest that was her apartment before she grudgingly shared her pasta with him, straight from the plastic container while they watched Law and Order and argued about what they would have done if they were the lawyer and whether the people were lying or not.

Jane sent a text that evening, staying with her mom, and newly reunited with Thor meant her outgoing communications were limited so she probably had not even seen the text until then.

Jane replied instantly, but the reply contained the word “dating” so Darcy promptly ignored it.

That night they didn’t have any wine, so Darcy could not blame it on alcohol when they had amazing ‘the sex’ before falling asleep in each other’s embrace.

The next morning she was once again woken up with at the crack of dawn with a kiss on her cheek, she can’t help herself when she doesn’t feel surprised when he rings her doorbell at five thirty only to have him cook this great dumpling dish before parking himself with his workload at her dining table. She joined him with the mountain load of notes she had neglected until now, and found herself getting more and more frustrated as she translated Jane’s new assistant’s crappy translations, leaving notes on what they did wrong so they wouldn’t have to be replaced.

After the fourth report where she had written “you fucking know this lazy-ass!” instead of the usual “I know you have the ability to comprehend this, and I believe in you and said ability.” Steve took her red pen away from her and dragged her over to the sofa where he opened a tub of Ben & Jerry’s and tuned in to the season premiere of supernatural.

After the next day proceeded in a similar manner, she felt brave enough to read Jane’s text.

Jane understood, thankfully, and didn’t press. Darcy didn’t date, and was terrified of commitment, so this was as much of an admittance that Jane was ever going to get from her.

Darcy did not have the best track record about being honest about her feelings to others nor to herself, but if it was one thing that was absolutely clear, it was that relationships only had the habit of stressing Darcy out.

Worrying constantly about not letting her bad sides show, keeping a lid on her bad habits, trying not to start organizing his and her things in separate little boxes, mentally and physically… Just, no. Whenever she dated in the past it was just more of a bother than it was worth.

Steve did not stop coming around after work every day, and when they went out to dinner that weekend with Bucky, Natasha and Sam, he acted so casually and natural, while still being incredibly affectionate with her. She was surprised when no one commented; he had never been this affectionate with her out in public before had he?! Apparently he had, because she could remember loads of dinners where she had read the menu with Steve’s arm on the back of her chair and his breath on her neck as he read her menu instead of his own, but it had always seemed so platonic to her.

Had she really forced herself to be that blind?

When they arrived home that evening, Darcy decided to broach the subject.

“Have- are, do you like me? Like, like me like me?” she was uncertain, incredibly low self-esteem and years of convincing herself she was 100% self-sufficient and independent had made relationships and emotions hard to deal with. She had never had more than a one night stand or two with the same person before.

He chuckled breaking away from kissing her neck; her timing had never really been great.

“Are you seriously asking me if I like you like you like you? While my hand is on your boob?” He gave it a squeeze and raised his eyebrows incredulously.

She hit his arm to make him stop laughing. He looked at her face, calculating, before his eyes softened and he smiled that cute boyish smile at her that she like liked so much.

“In all seriousness, Darcy, I do more than like you like you.” She felt her breath catch in her throat as she braced her hands on his shoulders.

“For how long?” she whispered as he continued kissing the column of her throat.

“You remember that night when you introduced me to Supernatural?” he asked as he slowly unbuttoned her shirt.

“Mhm..” she moaned as he followed his fingers down to kiss between her breasts, she did not quite register that he was talking about an event almost two years ago.

“And you complained about how crappy the show had gotten, but how you would no longer suffer your guilty pleasure alone?” She nodded, shivering as his hand ghosted back over her nipples.

“That was when I realized that I liked you liked you,“ he murmured against the skin of her stomach, before he pushed her down on the bed.

She didn’t have time to collect herself before he was on top of her, lips claiming hers and a hand cupping her cheek as the other travelled downwards to where she wanted him.

“I realized I more than like you liked you the time you helped that little girl after the Doombots attack and you took so good care of her that I couldn’t help imagining she was ours, and that was when I realized it.”

She was too busy kissing him to process what he was actually saying, other than that she had never been this turned on by anything he had ever said before. But she didn’t have to understand right at this moment either, not until Steve suddenly stopped chanting her name and murmured “I love you” into her ear.

That’s when she proper realized what he had been trying to say.

And it pushed her over the edge, screaming his name.

As they lay cuddling after that, waiting for their heartbeats to slow, she had to admit to them both that she had been denying that she loved him loved him too for over a year now. 

“I can’t believe you suggested a shopping day! You hate shopping.” Darcy said as she plunked down in her favorite booth at the local coffee place, sitting on the edge as the whole bench was full of Jane’s shopping bags. Jane just shrugs and squeezes inn next to a bag filled with Thor sized henley shirts. The background music changes from Frank Sinatra to some sort of mosh pit remix of Jingle Bells. Ignoring the obnoxiously loud jingle bells punk rendition Jane shrugged and waved over to the giant Santa stuck in a chimney outside the coffee shop. “It’s christmas,” she helpfully pointed out.

“I might not like shopping, but I deemed it necessary when my mother pointed out that I had worn the same outfit for almost a whole week. Plus, I couldn’t take Thor anywhere when he insisted on wearing those stylish clothes he loves so much, he was either recognized or stopped by people complimenting him. It was exhausting!”

“I also got myself some things I've wanted for awhile..” She trailed off as she rummaged in the bags to pull out glow-in-the-dark star stickers and a new external hard drive shaped like a pop tart.  

Darcy laughed at her, “yeah, I also got myself a thing or two as well,” before she opened one of the three bags that belonged to her to find the new wallet she had purchased (as the old one was falling apart.)

Jane smirked at her, “yeah, or three at Victoria’s Secret alone.” She waggled her eyebrows. “So who’s the lucky fella and how long did it take you to realise you loved him all along?”

“Well I- what? All along?!” realization dawned on Darcy as she saw the infuriatingly knowing smirk on Jane’s face.

“You knew.”

“Well, he told me he had a plan, asked me if I thought you might kick his ass for it. He came up with the plan when he woke up hungover at three in the morning almost two weeks ago and puked his guts out in your toilet. I must say Steve has good plans in every situation. I never realized he could get that hungover though…”

“I wouldn’t really call it a good plan…” Darcy grumbled.

“It worked didn’t it?” Jane asked, pointedly raising her eyebrows.

“Well, that depends,” Darcy huffed, leaning her hands on the table in a mock inquisitorial pose. “What was the goal of this plan exactly?”

“He basically wanted to be your live-in-lover. He is a sap when he’s drunk I swear…”

“Yeah.” Darcy smiled remembering how utterly adorable he’d been that night. Then Jane’s words caught up with her, “wait live-in-lover?”

Jane only smiled before taking a sip of her coffee and changing the subject to her week with her parents.

When Darcy got home a few hours later, she was met by the smell of her favorite casserole and the sight of five pairs of his shoes next to hers in the hallway.

“Hi honey, welcome home.” She heard Steve shout from the kitchen, and she walked in and wrapped her arm around him, taking note of all his things mixed with hers that definitely wasn’t there two weeks ago. Maybe the Christmas decorations had distracted her, maybe it was just because they fit themselves to naturally with her things.

“Smells wonderful.” She muttered, stepping on her toes to kiss his neck and unwrapping herself from him. He spun around and caught her before she could move away and brought her back in for a longer kiss.

“It’ll be done in half an hour, an hour if we let it stew properly.”

“An hour will give us just about enough time then” she said casually, trailing her fingers over the light dusting of chest hair that peeked out when she unbuttoned his shirt.

“Time for what?” he asked breathlessly, knowing where this was going.

She raised the hand still holding her Victoria’s Secret bag and smirked at him.

“Just give me five minutes and I’ll meet you in the bedroom” she whispered in his ear before sashaying out of the kitchen.

She might have bought like five things in Victoria’s Secret, something slutty and red for Crimbo, and a little… patriotic number.

Just before she changed into the sexy Blue, white and red number however, she sent a text to Jane;

Darcy snorted and threw her phone onto her pile of laundry before letting her hair out of its bun.

She might have admitted that she had live-in-lover, but wedding bells were years into the future.

*

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