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darcy's dresses [ one ] [ two ] [ three ]
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The first time they met, she knocked him out with a frying pan. Twice.
The second time they met, he was at her door and she was threatening him with a frying pan again before she dropped it on his toe in her haste to hug him.
He’s been screwed ever since.
She had moved out her brother’s tower and into an apartment of her own once the two of them couldn’t stand each other anymore. There was something he noticed about the Starks though. Even though they fought like cats and dogs, in the end they would die for each other. Something he was very familiar with.
In the months since he had returned to the states, since all the charges against the soldier had been dropped by the government, he had grown closer to Darcy Lewis. She taught him all about the new things in this year and he had happily ranted to her when he had learned who the new president was.
“Haven’t people learned anything from history? What the fuck is the matter with half of the United States?!”
Life began to run accordingly for him. He worked as an Avenger, he rented out the vacant apartment next to Darcy, he bought groceries, he lived like a human being. Something that he was still not totally familiar with.
Then Steve proposed to Jane in an all out romantic fashion. He had asked for Darcy to help him plan the surprise, which included them getting Jane to Central Park at night in the freezing cold.
“Are you trying to turn her into a Jane-sicle, big guy?” Darcy had asked him.
Steve rolled his eyes. “Just get her there at this time. I will take care of the rest.”
Darcy giggled, elbowing Bucky in the ribs. “Was he always like this? A hopeless romantic?”
Bucky snorted. “Always.”
“Shut up, jerk.”
The snow was falling and it looked like a winter wonderland as Darcy shepherded a teeth chattering Jane out of the car and through the grove of trees. “Darcy, why are we here?” Jane asked her for the tenth time on the ride over.
“Because of that.” Darcy smiled, pointing towards the figure that had stepped into the light, dressed in his military uniform from the forties.
Darcy reached backwards and felt Bucky’s gloved hand take hers, helping her do a quick fade behind another tree as they watched Steve pour his heart and his love out to Jane.
And of course she said yes.
The wedding was in the spring at the Barton farm. Darcy was maid of honor, Bucky and Sam were co-best men and Tony wouldn’t stop whining that Pepper wouldn’t let him release live doves into the air.
Bucky caught himself watching Darcy’s face during the ceremony. Her eyes were shining with tears, a lock of chestnut hair falling from her elegant bun. He had never seen her look so beautiful. As he glanced around at the rest of the guests, he felt a sense of peace.
They danced together at the reception. Darcy was cracking jokes about the bride and groom before pointing out Sharon and Sam shooting each other goo-goo eyes. “Bet’s on that they will be the next down the aisle.”
She wasn’t wrong.
-;
After Sharon and Sam’s private wedding eight months later, he finds himself dancing with the bride at the sit down dinner they went out too. “Darcy did a good job planning all of this.”
“She did,” Sharon agrees with a smile. “And I am confused on why you are dancing with me and not her.”
“Huh?”
Sharon laughs. “You haven’t taken your eyes off of her the whole night.” And as she says those words, he realizes she’s right. Darcy’s sitting with her brother, the both of them laughing over something on Tony’s phone. “Go ask her to dance. I have a husband to keep me company.”
He kisses Sharon’s cheek before making over to the table and lightly tapping Darcy on the shoulder, startling her so much that she knocks Tony’s phone into the big tureen of soup. Her face lights up when she sees him, ignoring Tony's grumbles. “Of course I will dance with you,” she says, taking the hand he offers her without question. “Sorry Tony.”
“Pfft, yeah. Leave!” her brother trills, still complaining as Pepper takes the now soggy phone away.
He chuckles once they are out of earshot. “Didn’t mean to scare you,” he whispers as he wraps his arms around her waist.
“That’s okay,” Darcy tells him, gently resting her hands on his shoulders. “Just be happy I didn’t scream. I sound like a banshee.”
“Nah, you don’t.” Never mind the dirty thoughts that had just run through his mind.
“How do you know?”
“The walls connecting our apartments are paper thin. I hear you singing in the shower every morning. How anyone can be so cheerful that early is beyond me.”
Darcy laughs. “I never used to be like that. You couldn’t get me moving until eleven at the earliest. Now...I don’t know, I’ve gotten on some sort of schedule.” She lifts the corner of her mouth in a smile. “Maybe yours.”
“Mine?” he repeats, confused.
“Yeah, dude,” she lightly smacks the back of his head. “You’re up at six every stinking morning, even when you don’t need to be. You never close the door lightly when you go out for your morning run with Sam.”
“The door --?” Bucky trails off before rolling his eyes. “Whatever Lewis.”
Darcy snickers before looking over at Sam and Sharon. “I’m so happy for them. They deserve this.”
He looks too. The bride and groom are so wrapped in each other he’s sure they are unaware of the rest of the people in the room. Sharon’s hair has fallen down out of the loose plait Jane had put it in this morning and Sam’s fingers are running through the golden locks. It almost feels like he’s intruding on the moment, he thinks before turning his eyes back to the woman in his arms.
“Do you think I will ever have that, Barnes?” Darcy suddenly asks him.
Bucky stammers, startled. “You will, princess.”
-;
Jane’s pregnant and due in less than a week. The Avengers had just been given a new mission that would take at least two weeks.
“Steven Grant Rogers, if you do not go, I will kick your butt onto the quinjet myself!”
Bucky coughs, covering up a loud laugh that is trying to wedge it’s way out of his throat. Steve, in full uniform, looks down at his heavily pregnant wife with worry and even a little bit of hurt.
“You don’t...want me here?” Steve repeats, his brows raising.
Jane sighs. “Of course I want you here. But the bitching I would get in return for keeping the requested Avenger off of the mission? I don’t want that. Besides, if Junior decides to make an early appearance,” she adds, patting her belly. “Darcy will be here. And Bucky’s not going with you so I’m sure he can go get you if showtime comes sooner than expected.”
“Listen to her, punk.”
“Shut up, Bucky. Jane, are you sure?”
Jane gives him a loving smile before grabbing him by his upper arms and pulling him down so his mouth met hers. “Yes. Go. I will be fine.”
He goes. Not six hours after, Jane goes into labor.
“You were in labor when you told him to go, didn’t you?!” Darcy bellows as they lower Jane down onto the floor of the rec room of the tower.
“I thought it was false labor!” Jane yells back. “Go get Helen!”
About an hour later, Helen is putting a screeching healthy baby in Jane’s arms. “It’s a girl, Jane.”
A girl. Steve had always wanted a little girl.
Darcy casts Bucky an absolutely hundred watt smile and god, it hurts. It hurts so much.
-;
“When are you going to tell her?”
Bucky stops, looking at Natasha. “What?”
His friend gives him a knowing look. “When are you going to tell Darcy that you are in love with her?”
He scoffs. “I’m not in love with her, Natasha.” At Natasha’s ‘are you kidding me’ look, he glares. “I’m not.”
Penelope Sarah Rogers squawks loudly from her father’s arms. Natasha gives Bucky’s arm a gentle pinch. “Whatever, Barnes.”
-;
He’s in Asgard.
How he got here, he’s not sure. He doesn’t really want to know.
Someone had stuffed him into royal robes. His hair is growing longer, and someone else had tied it back with ribbons. Ribbons, for Christ’s sake!
As the Asgard wedding march plays, a hand comes up and pulls the ribbon from his hair. Bucky looks down and Darcy grins at him. “Ribbons are definitely not your thing.”
He gasps in relief. “I couldn’t get the fucking thing out. Whoever put that in –“
“Used a spell to keep it in. Loki just removed it for me,” Darcy says. She plants a quick kiss to his cheek before disappearing into the throng of people. He stands on his tiptoes to follow where she went and to his dismay, she joins the other prince of Asgard, looping her arm through his as she whispers something in his ear.
“They’re just friends, take it easy.” He looks to his other side and sees a tall striking woman having joined him. Sif, he thinks her name is.
“Yeah?”
Sif nods. “They’ve been, what Darcy calls them, ‘partners in crime’ since she first came here five years ago.”
“She never told me that,” Bucky muses as Wanda suddenly appears. Her arms are laden down with flowers, a few settled in her loose hair. When Bucky peers closer, he notices that the flowers are actually moving. “Holy shit, are those...?”
“Our special butterflies,” Sif smiles. “A gift for the bride from Frigga.”
“When Wanda couldn’t control her powers, she felt she didn’t deserve anything soft or—“
“Gentle?” Sif finishes. Bucky nods. “Well, the mother of the groom seems to think she can handle it.” Bucky doesn’t miss the bitterness that crosses her face.
Thor’s practically bouncing on the balls of his feet when Wanda reaches him. She passes the flowers off to Thor’s mother before they join hands and turn to face Odin.
Bucky barely pays attention to the ceremony itself, his eyes drifting over to where Darcy and Loki stand. He’s whispering something in her ear and she’s fighting back a laugh so she doesn’t disturb the ceremony. A hot swoop of anger rushes through Bucky’s belly that he tries to squash down to no avail.
“I now pronounce you married .”
“Let’s get out of here,” he whispers to Sif.
She nods, linking her hand with his flesh one. “Sounds good to me.”
-;
His head is throbbing. Out of all the alcohol he could consume at this wedding, he had to get into that special mead Darcy had warned him about.
He rises up slowly out of the bed, pushing his hair out of his eyes before searching for his clothes.
“Going to do your walk of shame?” He turns to stare at Sif. She gives him a sad smile, pulling the sheet up to cover her chest. “I’ve been around too many earthlings,” she says. “I’ve acquired some of their slang.”
Bucky sighs. “I’m sorry, Sif. You didn’t deserve this.”
She shrugs, her hair falling around her shoulders like liquid. “It’s all right, Mr. Barnes. We were both vulnerable.”
Bucky stands up, pulling his pants up around his hips and buckling them. Sif gives him an appreciative once over that he cannot help but smirk at. “In another life, Sif...”
She smiles, nodding. “In another life...James.”
“You deserve better.”
“And you deserve to be with the one you love,” Sif reminds him. “Go to her. I can assure you she is not with Thor’s brother.”
He shakes his head. “She’s happy. I’m not going to disturb that.”
-;
Penny’s walking.
He darts out of the giggling toddler’s way as he enters the main kitchen, watching with a smile as Steve scampers off after her, calling, “I’m gonna get you!”
Darcy’s in the kitchen by herself. He watches her from the doorway for a moment as she rummages around in the gigantic fridge and then pulls out the milk, humming along to a song in her head.
She drops the milk in her hand when she sees him, letting out a string of curses as it spills all over the counter. “Sorry about that.”
“No, not your fault.”
“Do you want some coffee?”
“S-Sure.”
Darcy grins half heartedly at the stammer in his voice. Bucky wants to smack himself upside the head. What a disaster he’s become.
He sits down at one of the stools, brushing a hand through his shorn hair. Natasha had threatened him with a pair of scissors after sparring this morning and he had no choice but to agree.
She sets the mug of steaming coffee in front of him. “Liquid iron?”
Bucky grins. “Liquid iron.”
A second later he hears crackling at the stove and his nose recognizes the familiar scent of...”Grilled cheese?” she offers, setting the plate down beside his coffee before running one of her hands through his shortened hair. “I always liked your hair like this,” she adds with a small smile.
Bucky tries to ignore the way his stomach does somersaults when she touches him. “Can you believe how big Penny is getting?” Darcy suddenly says, pulling him out of his reverie. “I remember Steve was really worried she’d either get something from the serum or be sick but nope.” Her lips pop at the P. “She’s a normal healthy baby.”
“Steve never thought he would have kids. Hell he never thought he would live past twenty five.”
Darcy winces at the revelation. “Really?”
Bucky nods. “When he first told me that, I told him to shut up. That he was being stupid. But I always wondered if he was right.”
Her hand flits out tentatively before coming to rest on top of his silver one. “He’s here now. And he’s perfect. So is Penny.”
Bucky can’t take it. She’s looking at him, all earnest and gorgeous with those big blue eyes. He opens his mouth to say it and a loud shrill squeal cuts him off. They both turn to see Penny jogging back into the kitchen, her sandy hair falling out of the braid her mother had put it in this morning. Steve comes up behind her and wraps his hands around her belly, scooping her up into his arms before blowing a kiss on her tummy.
“Oh sorry,” Steve brings Penny to rest against his hip. “Didn’t mean to interrupt.” He gives Bucky a smirk before carrying his daughter from the kitchen. Bucky rolls his eyes
Darcy grins, looking back at him. “What were you going to tell me?”
Deflated, he shakes his head. “Nothing.”
-;
Tony gives her the dvd on an early Sunday morning.
“You need to see this.”
Darcy peers at her brother worriedly, watching him as he settles down onto the sofa while rubbing the heels of his hands in his eyes. “What is it?” She looks down at the blank case, turning it over in her hands until she sees the date. “December 16th, 1991? That’s the date of Dad and Maria’s accident.”
Tony finally looks at her, his eyes red. “It wasn’t an accident, Darce.”
“What?”
“That showed up at my door last night. Jarvis didn’t see who left it, it was just there. And...I watched it.”
“Well, what was on it?” Darcy asks, fearing the answer.
“Security footage of our father and my mother. Someone...someone killed them.”
Darcy swallows at the rising lump in her throat. She had never met her biological father. She had been born in 1985, a product of one of her father’s many affairs. She often wondered if she and Tony had more half siblings out there but she never bothered to look. She loved her brother more than anything, even though he drove her to drink sometimes.
Staring at the dvd in her hands, she already knows what she is about to hear.
“Don’t say it,” Darcy mutters. She blinks heavily at the heat in her eyes, shaking her head. “Please don’t say it.”
Tony’s face is lined with grief and pain as he rises to his feet to face her, his large hands resting on her shoulders before he pulls her against his chest. She drops the disc, not caring, and wraps her arms around his waist.
Tony holds her until she is all cried out, a few of his own tears slipping into her hair unnoticed. Darcy pulls away gently, scrubbing at her cheeks with the back of her hand. “I am so sorry.”
“For what?”
“For bringing him into our lives,” Darcy murmurs. “I didn’t...”
“You didn’t know,” Tony assures her. “This is not your fault.”
“What do I do?” she asks. “How do I -?”
Tony lightly brushes his thumb against her cheek, smiling sadly. “You do you,” he says. “This is something I think we both need to figure out on our own since...”
“Since we were not raised together by Howard,” Darcy finishes. “You’re right.” Tony’s sitting on the sofa again when she places both of her hands on each side of his jaw before popping a kiss to his temple. “I love you, big brother.”
“I love you too.”
-;
Bucky calls. She doesn’t answer.
Later that afternoon, Darcy finds herself wandering over to Steve and Jane’s shared apartment. To her surprise, it’s Penny that answers the door. “Auntie Darcy!”
Darcy smiles at her goddaughter, reaching down to scoop her into a tight hug and giving her many noisy kisses on her chubby chocolate covered cheeks. Penny shrieks with joy, hugging her back. Steve quickly runs into the room and groans in relief before prying his daughter off of her. “I’ve told her a thousand times to wait for me when the doorbell rings but she just can’t help herself.”
“It’s all right,” Darcy says. “Um, I need to talk to you alone so if you could --?” she points to Penny.
Steve gives her a confused look but takes Penny out of the room and returns a few minutes later. “What’s up, Darce?”
She reaches into her purse and pulls out the DVD that she had yanked off of the floor before leaving Tony’s apartment. “It’s this. Um, someone dropped this at Tony’s apartment early this morning. Jarvis didn’t see anyone on the cameras when it showed up, it was just...there.
Steve takes the DVD, turning it over in his hands. When his eyes settle on the date scrawled across the top, his face pales. “Oh.”
Darcy doesn’t miss that. “Oh my god...”
“Darcy –“
“You knew?” she spits, anger bursting out of her. “You fucking knew?!”
Steve shushes her, gesturing wildly to the back room where he had left Penny. “Please don’t yell.”
Darcy lowers her voice significantly but not enough to keep her hurt at bay. “How long have you known, Steve?” she asks. When he doesn’t answer, she takes a step forward. “How long?!”
“Romania.”
The word comes so suddenly and so unexpected to Darcy. Hot tears spill down her cheeks and she swipes at them furiously. “You knew since then?” she chokes. “You knew that that man, that man who burns his toast in the morning and sets off the fire alarm – who plays Billie Holliday on repeat – who will bring over copies of movies from his time and hold me while I blubber over them – you knew that man killed my father when I was six years old?”
Steve looks dangerously close to tears but she doesn’t care. Darcy knows she’s spiteful but she has never been so hurt in all of her life.
“I was going too,” Steve mutters, staring at an interesting crack in the floor. “I was going to tell you after he came back because I saw how close the two of you were getting and I didn’t want you to get hurt.”
“It hurts now.”
“I know that,” Steve brushes the back of his hand across his face. He’s grown a beard and kept it since Penny was born. Gone was the clean cut Cap and here to stay was the father and the husband. Everything he had ever wanted to be. “I kept looking for the right time, the right time to just sit down with you and Tony and tell you both the truth. When I tried to bring it up to Tony, he snapped at me to never mention his parents again and I didn’t. And I could see, Darcy, I could see how much you were growing to care about Bucky and he was just so happy.”
“So you care about his happiness more than mine?”
“That’s not it!” Steve snaps, a tear spilling down his cheek. Darcy feels a tiny crack in her chest at the sight of it. “You love him.”
“I –“ Her voice dies in her throat as Steve’s words settle in. “Oh god.”
“You’re in love with him and I’m pretty sure he feels the same about you and I couldn’t do it. If I told you both the truth then everything was going to be ripped away.”
“Well guess what?” Darcy says, hating herself for being so cruel. “It already is.” She turns to leave and stops in her tracks, her jaw hanging slack.
Bucky stands in the still open doorway, a bag swinging from his fingers. Darcy can make out the writing on the front, some toy store in the city. A present for Penny from a doting uncle.
He sets the bag down and leaves. Darcy watches him go, giving him a to five count before exiting the apartment as well, turning the opposite way down the hallway. She pretends she doesn’t hear Steve’s sobs as she storms down the hall to the elevators.
-;
Darcy always left her apartment door unlocked when she would beat Bucky home. She would listen for him as she cooked dinner, waiting for him to lightly push open her front door and peek around to ask what she was making before he would drop the new movies of the night on her couch.
Tonight, she leaves the door locked.
She can hear Bucky’s boots as they shuffle down the hallway past her door. They stop for just one moment and then move on. She hears the door to his apartment open and shut before very familiar music begins to trickle through the walls.
I'll be seeing you
In every lovely summer's day
In everything that's night and day
I'll always think of you that way
-;
Tony’s at her door. With Penny.
“What are you guys doing here?” she asks, greeting Penny with a hug. Tony shakes his head while shooting a look at Penny. Darcy plants her goddaughter in front of the television with a few fruit slices before joining her brother in the kitchen. “What’s going on? Why do you have Penny?”
“Steve told me.”
The knife that Darcy is holding falls from her fingers and clatters into the sink. She stares at Tony, eyes widened with shock. “He told you what?” she asks tentatively.
Tony rubs a hand over his tired eyes before sitting down at her kitchen table. “He told me he knew the truth about Barnes.”
Darcy sucks her bottom lip in between her teeth before suddenly taking the length of the table and wrapping her arms around Tony’s shoulders. She buries her face in his neck, some of her hair spilling across his chest as she holds on. “I’m so sorry.”
Tony hugs her back, gently patting the top of her head. “It’s okay. I know why you didn’t tell me.” Darcy pulls away, resting back in the seat beside his. “I was just about to start yelling at him and then Penny walked in. She just...knew and she asked me to go get her some ice cream. Somehow we wound up over here.”
With the back of her hand Darcy brushes away a few stray tears that have leaked down her cheeks, pretending she doesn’t see her brother doing the same.
“Do he or Jane know where you two are?”
Tony shakes his head, staring at an interesting crack in her table. “No.”
Darcy reaches across to the kitchen counter where she had left her phone, quickly shooting Jane a text. “Best to let them know.” She turns back to her brother, capturing one of his hands in hers. “I wish I had never met him.”
The look that Tony gives her is surprising. Almost...empathetic. “No you don’t.”
“What?”
“Darcy, I have never seen you happier than you were with Barnes. You...love him and he was crazy about you. Everyone saw it except the two of you.”
She chuckles a watery laugh. “Well there’s nothing I can do about that now. He’s gone.”
“I know where he is.”
Darcy raises a brow. “You do?”
From the inside of his jacket, Tony pulls out a white envelope. “I had Jarvis track him about a week after he left. He’s in Chicago now. He works as a mechanic.”
“A mechanic?” Darcy repeats, glancing over the papers that come out of the envelope. “That’s a bit of a step down from Avenger.”
“Oh come on. You know he didn’t want to be an Avenger. He didn’t want to be a soldier. I remember Dad telling me how much he hated being overseas, even after he was captured the first time. He stayed for Rogers.”
Darcy leans her head against her fist, smiling just so. “That sounds like him.”
“Darce...” Tony lightly bumps her arm. “There’s an address.” His finger brushes over the first paper. “Go.”
“What?”
He nods at the paper again. “Go. Go find him. Kick his ass and then be happy.”
Darcy stares. “Why are you telling me this?”
“Because when he left three months ago, you have been a miserable grumpy pain in the butt. I want my baby sister back but I want my baby sister to be happy. So go.”
“What about – what about you?” Goddammit, she thought she was done crying.
Tony gives her one of those toothy grins that she misses so much. “I’ll be fine.”
Darcy captures her brother’s hands in hers, their eyes meeting. “Have you forgiven him?”
He swallows roughly before shaking his head. “No. But I’ve gotten on with it.”
-;
She calls Steve from the plane.
“Darcy? What’s going on? I got to your apartment to pick up Penny and –“
“I’m on a plane right now,” Darcy whispers, urging herself to keep her voice down. “A plane to Chicago.”
“Chicago? What --?” His voice staggers into nothing as realization sets in. “He’s there, isn’t he?”
“I need to see him one more time. I need to make sure he’s okay and then we will figure it out from there. But I...I can’t keep living like this.”
“I know.”
They’re both silent for many moments, enough to make Darcy think he may have hung up. “You still there, Stevey?”
A laugh. “Yeah, I’m still here.”
Darcy worries her bottom lip, searching for the right words to say. “I love you, Steven.”
A cough covers up what sounds just a sob to her. “Darcy...”
“I’m so sorry for everything I said. It was highly out of line and you didn’t deserve any of that.”
“No, I did. I did deserve it, ” he says. “Because you trusted me and I broke that trust.”
“You thought you were doing what was right.”
“I did think that, ” Steve agrees. “But I was wrong. Hiding the truth is never right.”
Darcy hastily brushes at the new tears that are starting to streak her cheeks, almost plastering her face against the plane window. Thank god she had talked that sweet old man into switching seats with her.
“Listen to your heart. Go kick his ass and then figure out where to go from there ,” Steve says. “Don’t leave anything unsaid.”
“I won’t,” she promises.
“And Darcy? I love you too. So much.” Darcy screws her face up against the sob that so wants to escape. Steve’s crying on the other end and oh god, this is the second time she’s made him cry. She swears she will never do that again. “Be happy.”
-;
The garage lays on the outskirts of the city.
Darcy sits in her car for at least twenty minutes once arriving, trying to calm her rapidly beating heart. Since when was she a nervous person? She’s been out of this world, literally, and talking to this man is making her frightened?
“Ma’am, can I help you?”
There is he is.
His hair is long again, pulled back in a ponytail at the base of his neck. A long sleeved teeshirt covers his arm and gardening gloves are on his hands. A smear of grease coats his cheek and down his neck, disappearing underneath the neckline of the shirt.
Bucky freezes in his pace, staring at her. “Darcy...”
She starts to ramble then. “Tony had Jarvis track you and he found your information. You’re not so good at getting off the grid anymore. Gotta brush up on that, Barnes. I just came out here for the weekend and I –“
“Darcy.” Her mouth slams shut. Bucky gestures towards the building and begins to walk away and she trots after him.
Once they’re inside, Darcy looks around appreciatively. “You’ve made a nice life for yourself, huh Barnes?”
Bucky leans against a table lined with tools, folding his arms in front of his chest. “Did what I could remember.”
She points towards the shell of the car that sits on four cinderblocks a few feet away from them. “This is what you did before the war?”
“Cars and getting Steve out of trouble. Where else do you think I got the money to get him out of jail?”
Darcy laughs. She walks over to the car-skeleton, peeking inside. “Do you have a plan for it?”
“Restore it to cherry and then sell it. There’s always a buy for these kinds of things,” Bucky tells her before sighing. “How long are we going to bullshit, princess?”
“As long as you want, tin man,” she replies, turning on her heel to look him right in the eyes.
“Well, you’re here so how about we cool it. What do you want?”
“Steve and Tony both told me to kick your ass.”
“I don’t see a frying pan on you.”
Darcy giggles. “I doubt I could have gotten that on a plane. Things are still pretty bumpy at the airport even though fucking Trump isn’t president anymore.”
He laughs too, a sound that Darcy misses so much. “So now what? We stand here and make awkward small talk. What do you want?”
“I want you to tell me why you left.”
“Right to it then,” Bucky pushes himself from the table, approaching her. “I left because you didn’t need me there.”
“I didn’t need you?” she repeats. “Are you an idiot?”
“Many times over,” he replies. “But not this time.”
Darcy rolls her eyes. “Don’t give me that crap, Barnes. You ran.”
“Maybe so,” Bucky agrees. “I couldn’t face –“
“What? Couldn’t face what?”
“I couldn’t face you hating me.”
“I do not hate you!”
Bucky’s face crumbles. “Well you should.” He turns to walk into the connecting office.
Darcy follows. “You know who I hated? Steve. I hated him for three months because he knew the truth and he kept it from me and my brother.” Bucky glares at her.
“How could you hate him?” he asks.
“I shouldn’t have,” Darcy admits. “And I don’t hate him anymore. I understood why he hid the truth, even though it was the wrong decision to do so. We’re okay now.”
“Well good,” Bucky nods. “Now go.” Darcy’s jaw hangs slack in surprise. “You have a home in New York. You have a brother, friends, and a job. Go back to that.”
“Not without you.”
He scoffs. “That’s why you’re here? To make me come back?”
“Well maybe!” Darcy throws her hands up in the air in exasperation. “Or maybe because I love you and want you home with me.”
“What...did you say?”
Darcy licks her lips, turning her eyes to meet his. “You heard me.” When she blinks, Bucky’s standing just inches away from her.
“You love me?”
Darcy swallows before nodding. “I’ve been in love with you for a long time, James Barnes. And I know I shouldn’t be. I know that you probably don’t want me to be because you are still on this ‘nobody should love me’ trip but I do and –“ She’s cut off when Bucky presses his mouth to hers.
Her arms slide up around his neck, returning the kiss with just as much vigor and just as much love as she can. She pulls away when she needs air, their foreheads touching. Bucky leans his head back, kissing her temple before pulling her into his arms. “I’m sorry.”
“I know. ”