Steve walks across the parking lot with Bucky and Clint, all three laughing hysterically at Clint's dead-on impersonation of Coach Fury from football practice that afternoon. He grins when he sees Darcy sitting on the bed of his truck, legs folded under her while she plucks the strings of her guitar and waits for him to drive her home.

Bucky blows out a wolf whistle and calls out, "Lookin' good, Dubs!" Darcy flicks up her middle finger and continues plucking out whatever tune she's working on.

"C'mon, Buck, don't call her that," Steve reproaches.

"She knows it's a compliment. Don't ya, D?"

"Yes, 'tis every girl's dream to have a nickname based on the size of her rack," she replies dryly. "Would you prefer to be called pencil or matchstick, Barnes?" Darcy grins wickedly when Bucky frowns and Steve and Clint burst out laughing.

"I do not have a small penis," he crows.

Darcy looks down at him over the top of her sunglasses. "Yeah, well, stop pissing off Natasha and maybe she'd stop spreading that rumor around school."

"Goddammit, Romanoff," Bucky grumbles and digs out his cell phone. "See you guys later."

"I gotta go, too. My ma's makin' meatloaf tonight and m'fuckin' hungry from running all those extra laps Fury gave me at practice." Clint and Steve bump fists and he waves his fingers at Darcy before getting into his jeep.

"Whatcha workin' on?" Steve asks as he throws his gym bag into the bed of the truck and hops up to sit beside her.

Darcy shrugs and tightens the strings on her guitar. "Nothing really—just playing around with the chorus to the song we wrote last week." She starts picking out notes and he grins because she's made it sound even better than before. It's just what she does and he loves that about her. "So, the rumor mill was interesting today," she says when she stops playing.

Steve leans back on his hands and turns his head to look at her. "Yeah? And what idle teenage gossip was the rumor mill turning out?"

"Well," she sings as she starts playing some dramatic melody on her guitar, "today's topic was about a certain blonde cheerleader asking the school quarterback to homecoming and QB1 turning her down."

Steve laughs. "Oh. That."

"Oh. That," she mocks in a ridiculous tone, turning towards him. Darcy pushes her sunglasses up on her head and arches an eyebrow. "True or false, QB1?"

"True," Steve smirks.

Darcy's peal of laughter echoes through the nearly empty parking lot. "God, I'd have paid big money to see the look on Sharon's face when you said no."

Steve sits up and carelessly lifts a shoulder. "I don't wanna go with her."

"Why not? Aren't the captain of the football team and head cheerleader supposed to go to homecoming together?"

He frowns at her, then, for not knowing better. "You know I don't play by those bullshit high school rules, Darce," he snaps.

She sighs and tucks a strand of hair behind her ear. "I know, I'm sorry."

"Besides, there's someone else I'd rather go with."

"Oh," she replies, pressing her lips into a tight line. She turns her attention back to her guitar. "Who might that be?"

Steve swallows the lump in this throat. He's never been nervous around her until now. "My best friend."

Darcy straightens a little and casts him a sideways glance. "Oh. Bucky?" she asks, giggling when he nudges her thigh with his hand.

"No, wiseass. I want to go with you." A crooked grin twitches across his lips when she turns and just blinks at him.

"You wanna go to a high school dance with me?"

"Yes. And just about everywhere else, Darcy."

"What do—"

Steve cuts her off with a kiss and she squeaks in surprise. He'd laugh about it, but that would require taking his lips off hers, which, no, he's not doing yet. So he cups her face in his hands and kisses her some more. He teases the seam of her lips with his tongue and Darcy opens her mouth to him and tentatively brushes her tongue along his. Maybe it should be weird, he thinks, kissing your best friend in the middle of the high school parking lot, but it isn't. It feels exactly right and it's something he's wanted to do for a long time now.

"Oh," Darcy manages when they pull apart. Her eyes are dark and round and full of surprise.

"You said that already," Steve breathes out, his hands slowly falling away from her face.

She smiles and reaches for his hand. "I'm gonna write a song about this."

Steve snorts out a laugh because of course she'd say that right now. "That all you have to say about me kissin' you?"

Darcy smirks at him and her eyes dance playfully. "Why don't you do it again and I'll come up with some better words."

He grins and leans in closer. Darcy meets him halfway.