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Darcy hated Christmas. She didn’t always, but she does now. The blinking lights, parades that blocked off city streets, even the carolers just made her mad. It was stupid and fake. Fake trees, fake sentiment, fake hot chocolate. Santa was a fraud, thanks mom and dad for lying about that until she was in the fifth grade! Holiday shopping was the worst, sweet deals were totally ruined by the herds of impatient shoppers.
When she was a little girl Christmas was an exciting time, for more than just the presents. She was going to meet her soulmate at Christmas. There was no doubt, when the decorations went up so did her chance of finding true love. She cried when her parents made her stay home from parties, “Adults only Darce, be nice to your sitter, OK.” How was she going to meet her soulmate if she was home? She had imagined so many scenarios, a new student transferring to her class while they worked on macaroni angels. She being cast in the holiday play alongside one of the older boys from the class above hers. Her soulmate appearing on Christmas morning, and stealing her away from her crappy parents. They weren’t actually crappy, but they never let her have cookies in her room, a serious offence for an 6 year old Darcy. None of them came true. She didn’t meet her soulmate in elementary or middle school.
After her best friend met her match randomly, in the foodcourt at the mall, while they were in high school she realized just how low her chances were of meeting her soulmate. 1 in 12. Everyone else woke up every day, with the chance that their soulmate was around the corner. For Darcy, December was her only chance. She hated December, she had already wasted 16 Christmases. If she didn’t meet her soulmate by the time she was 30, what was the point?
By the time she was in college she despaired ever meeting them. She realized that she needed to stand out, if she parroted “Merry Christmas” to every cashier, server and stranger she bumped into she would never find her soulmate. This led to her unfortunately being branded as a wiccan during her sophomore year. She had thought she was being clever. The in crowd thought she was a weirdo. Responding with “Happy Solstice” hadn’t helped in identifying her soulmate, only created a cloud of rumors. When she saw an out of state internship, she jumped on it. She packed her “pagan” knit sweaters, and loaded her “creepy” dark haired self into her car earn her science credits off campus. Maybe she would dye her hair blond when she got back.
She never went back.
Meeting Thor threw her plight into perspective. If Jane could find her soulmate out of all of the sentient beings in the cosmos, then she could probably find hers too. It didn’t mean Christmas stopped pissing her off, but she stopped trying so hard.
Steve Rogers didn’t care about Christmas one way or another. It was a highly commercialized event that barely resembled the holiday of his youth. He had no family to spend it with, no children to shop for, no loved ones to surprise. So he did what he had always done, picked up the shield and went out to fight the good fight.
Today the good fight was with publicity. He was riding a parade delivering toys to sick children in the hospital. The cause was good, and just as in the war, anywhere that Captain America showed up received a 10 percent bump in money raised.
The weather was brisk as he stood by his bike, ready to lead the parade. Someone had tied a wreath to the handlebars, it looked fake. Behind him he heard the distant strains of a marching band warming up. Events like this were always somewhat awkward. His fellow participants were typically told to give him space, so they stood apart from him. He wasn’t here to make friends anyway, he was here to do a job. The float behind him was from the movie Frozen, he was sure Tony would be ribbing him about it when he next saw him. He could hear two teenage girls, dressed as Anna and Elsa, speaking about his person. He sighed, as much as the times had changed, so much had stayed the same. The USO girls had at least been of age, it would be illegal for him to do what they were suggesting to each other.
The route would take them a little under 2 hours to complete. He looked at his bike, it might be easier to just carry it to the end point rather than drive it as slowly as he would need to go. Another thing Tony would tease him about, driving like an old man.
He looked at his phone, 5 minutes until they started. He checked that he had the candy to throw. He did. He looked back at the floats, musicians and singers, and costumed characters snaking their way behind him. “I am not wearing a costume, this is a uniform.” He told himself.
He nodded to the police officers as they took the point positions, signalling the start of the march. He sat down on the bike, revving it’s engine.
Three hours later, he was finally able to make his way out of the crowd. The crew had wheeled his bike away from the courtyard for him while he stayed to help with the delivery of the presents. This lead to shaking hands with legislators, and smiling while holding babies. He had said “Merry Christmas” so many times that at this point, he was afraid that if Fury called in for the team he would say Merry Christmas instead of Avengers Assemble.
He rounded a corner, and saw a woman running towards him shouting. Their words tumbled over each other, his calm deep baritone in sharp contrast to the frantic rush of words that poured out of her mouth.
“Merry Christmas!” “Captain, thank god I found you! I know you don’t know me, but, please, we need your help!”
He stopped short, shocked, staring at the young woman who had stopped in front of him. She was stunning, long dark hair framing her beautiful face, short, but not a waif like so many of the women he met today.
His soul mate.
He had worn her words all of his life, as she had done as well. He had a love hate relationship with his words. They mocked him each time the army turned him down, still, they gave him courage to apply again, that he would make it. His soulmate need his help, trusted him because he was a captain, would find him because he was a captain. Even when the world changed while he slept, he woke still knowing that she needed him. That she would be looking for him, and it gave him hope once more. He didn’t know her, but she knew him.
She had stopped running a few feet infront of him, looking him up and down. “You are the real Captain America, aren’t you?”
She had found him, here of all places. In New York, at Christmas, at a publicity stunt. He had always thought he would find her on the battlefield, or on a mission. A peacetime meeting hadn’t crossed his mind. Looking at her more closely, he thought that this wasn’t as peaceful as it first appeared. She was breathing heavily, her hair was tousled, she was favoring her right side. She wasn’t wearing gloves or a coat, her hands were red, from the cold. The bright blue scarf around her neck was sopping up the blood sliding down her hairline. At that moment a an explosion blew out the windows above them. He didn’t hesitate pulling her to him, shielding them both as debris rained down.
“Guess that answers that question.” She quipped, after her initial scream had died down.
“What is going on?”
“Science!”
She was swaying slightly, probably a concussion from whatever had happened, was still happening.
“Are you under attack, where are you hurt?”
“It’s not really an attack, just, we need your help with something. Wow, my head hurts, and the sidewalk is moving.” She stopped talking and started reaching for his chest, tapping the star on his chest. “I know that you are a real bonafide hero, and Thor trusts you, and I saw you, in the parade, so I knew you would be around here, and Jane says that the vibranium can penetrate the bubble.”
‘Who is Jane, is she in trouble too?”
“Janie, up on the 32nd floor, she got herself stuck. Oh my god! Oxygen, she could suffocate!”
When the dust had cleared, and Jane was safely out of the portal bubble she had created, “It’s a containment field for a portal Darcy.” and Darcy had been cleared by the medics and the police and fire department had waved goodbye she realized that Captain America was still standing in Jane’s lab.
“Jane, Jane, please, reopen the portal.” She whispered.
“It wasn’t a portal. And really, are you crazy? I thought the carbon dioxide overdose was out of your system.”
“Bad Jane, put the penlight down. Hot paramedic Joe said I should take it easy for a day or two, but the worst of it is over. Anywa, HE, he is still here, and I was a total idiot, and he is looking at me...portal, open, you could make the floor literally swallow me up.”
“Joe?”
“No, Captain America” Darcy whispered at Jane.
Darcy didn’t understand, why was Jane being so dense. After she had basically fallen into his arms, and drooled onto his impressive pecs while explaining how Jane had become trapped, and that he could break her out, and that the lab was fine for them to enter, it wasn’t, but she didn’t know that, she had continued to babble and drift off mid sentence while the good captain carried her to the lab and staged a heroic rescue of the beautiful damsel in distress, i.e. Jane.
Darcy wanted to die. Her makeup was smudged, hair tangled, she had ruined her favorite scarf when the initial blast had knocked her into a table, bloodying her head and knocking her unconscious (maybe that was the CO2). Jane of course had been in the epicenter, not a scratch, and was looking otherworldly with her hair flying around like a supermodel when the captain got on scene.
“Darcy, you are overreacting, I don’t even know how you managed to find him, I had thought you were dead when you didn’t get back up. You were out for almost 20 minutes. And then you came back. We didn’t know there was a leak. Are you sure you are feeling OK.”
“OH my god, he is coming over, go, go, distract him! I need to sink into the wall.” Darcy slumped further into the corner.
Thankfully, Jane took mercy on Darcy and moved to intercept the captain.
“Hi, Captain, thank you.” Jane had her back to Darcy, but she knew she was smiling. How could you not, Captain America was the most beautiful man she had ever seen. Ugg. Why wouldn’t he say Merry Christmas to her. Although, at this point it wouldn’t matter, just salt in the wound really.
“Anytime ma’am. Thor spoke very highly of you, I’m sure he will be displeased to learn he wasn’t here to save the day himself.”
“Probably, but I doubt the Mjolnir would have worked as well as the vibranium in your shield. That metal is amazing. I wish there was more of it.”
Darcy tuned out the rest of Jane’s speach. She was on the technobabble like white on rice. Her head snapped up when Captain America broke into Janes’ explanation of the unique properties of vibranium.
“ Can I have a word with your assistant?”
He was looking right at her, sending the butterflies in her stomach into a riot.
“Oh, um, yeah,” Jane tried to stall, but she was crumbling. Darcy didn’t blame her, those eyes were pretty intense.
“Hello” he said, stepping up to her side. “I’m sorry I didn’t get to properly introduce myself earlier. I’m Steve Rogers.”
“Darcy Lewis.” Her throat felt like sandpaper, and was someone stealing the oxygen in the room (again)?
Captain America, Steve, was standing in front of her, staring into her eyes. Searching. She couldn’t take it and dropped her gaze. His shield was on his back, his helmet was in his left hand. His right hand was clenched in a tight fist. She stared at the hand, wondering if it would ever reach for her again. She had liked it when he held her, a traitorous part of her wanted to milk the head injury angle and see if she could con a hug out of the man. The practical part of her wanted him gone so she could go back to bemoaning her existence.
‘Just say something already.’ she thought to herself, she didn’t know if she meant the instruction for him or herself.
Finally, he came to some conclusion. He reached for her hand, rubbing his thumb across her knuckles.
“Darcy…”
“Hmm?”
“I said, Merry Christmas.”
“Really, when? Oh...”
Maybe Christmas wasn’t so bad after all.