They're hunched behind a boulder in the desert, his sniper rifle propped up for him to look through the sight to keep an eye on the creature in the distance.

It's a green alien – literally a wandering goo monster and all Darcy can focus on is the absurd Starbucks Frappuccino Bucky has resting at his side.

It has bright blue and pink marbling and the whipped cream is barely contained by the plastic lid.

"What the hell is that," she says, more statement than question. She thinks her tone says it all, but Bucky's eyes swivel from the monster to her, narrowing slightly.

"What?"

Darcy giggles and he looks confused, and a little annoyed.

"The girl who served me just kept talking and I kept saying yes to shut her up," he mutters, turning back to the anomaly in the distance, which was curling itself around the rubble of an abandoned, tiny house that sits wedged below the hill they're perching on.

He takes a sip from it, considering it.

"Good."

"That's it? What about the fact that it looks like a unicorn barfed into a cup and charged you extra for it?"

She chortles, and she spots his lips twitch for a second, the suggestion of a smirk.

She feels a flutter in her stomach, and laughs harder, but Bucky's eyes flicker back ahead of them and he hisses.

"Shut up."

He seems to realise his tone and screws his face up in frustration.

"Sorry."

Darcy looks over, and the creature's seen them.

Later, when he's flicking green shit out of her hair, Darcy smiles a little at his careful hands trying to put her back together.

She got a cut on her lip but he kisses her anyway, cupping her face in his scraped hands, his callouses rough against her cheeks but she loves how it feels anyway.


They fight about the TV, because he buys her one without asking, and it's too expensive. She feels violated because he got the new one when she was with Jane in the lab.

He thought it was a nice surprise, but Darcy tells him off anyway.

Eventually she gets over herself, but he promises not to do that again without her.

That night they watch The Wizard of Oz and he falls asleep on her shoulder.


The first time he enters her she tells herself it's slow and gentle but they both know they're desperate for each other, and it's like she's starved and gagging for it.

At the time, she fumbles for his fly and she tries so hard to make it good for him.

She ends up coming so hard she almost passes out and he even apologises for it later – right after he growls in her ear when he comes beneath her with his metal hand tangled in her hair.


A HYDRA seed grows where no-one expects and Darcy's thrown backwards when there's an explosion in the lab.

Bucky is close to losing it when he sees her sprawled on the floor, unconscious.

He has to be talked down when she's come to, because he's spitting venom and cursing.


They paint the second bedroom a creamy yellow for the impending rugrat of theirs and Darcy smears a streak of paint in his hair and he's close to tackling her, pressing her against the wet paint wall and laughing with her, kissing her everywhere.