Disclaimer: I do not own anything remotely connected with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, not even a Captain America waffle iron. (They exist! Google it! And then buy me one!)

AU Reminder: This fic takes place in an alternate universe where everyone is born with a Soulmark somewhere on their body: the first words that their Soulmate will say to them.

For most of his life, Steve would get discouraged when he thought of his Soulmark. Considering that he couldn't get a girl to look at him, much less… It was frustrating.

He spent years convinced that he wouldn't meet his Soulmate until he was at least 80, and it turned out that he was right. His first thought when Director Fury told him he'd skipped seven decades was, "well, that explains some things."

After that, whenever Steve thought about his Soulmark, he just got nervous. But they were good butterflies, normal nerves that anyone would feel when looking forward to finally meeting the one person on earth who they were meant to be with.

Darcy hadn't been to very many swanky parties. In college, she'd attended way more "woo! bleeeeugh" gatherings than the kind that required her to wear a backless dress.

But when a girl gets an invitation to a New Year's Eve party thrown by Tony Stark, the answer is never "I already have plans." In fact, the answer is always, "Yes, absolutely. I can visit my sick grandmother any old time."

Squeezing herself into the dress, hours of hair prep, it would all be worth it. This was going to be her year. She could feel it.

And her grandma was very understanding about everything.

"Have you ever kissed anyone on New Year's Eve?" a nosy Natasha asked him as he waited for a drink at the bar. He was already uncomfortable in the tuxedo that Stark had insisted on buying for him; he suspected now that he had done it just so that Natasha would have the opportunity to ask him uncomfortable questions.

He turned this way, then that, to find the redhead. "You can probably already guess the answer to that," he replied, and gathered his pint from the bartender. Lifting the glass to his lips, he added, "which is probably why you asked."

"They do that kind of thing in the '40s?"

"I'm sure they did, yes. I didn't."

Natasha merely smiled.

"I assume the next question is going to be whether I've got someone to kiss this year." Steve frowned and took a sip of his beer. "And the answer is yes, of course I do, and she's standing right there." He gestured across the room, leaving it to her to guess which girl he was referring to. Then, making up his mind to take decisive action (and before she could point out that he was a terrible liar), he put down his drink and strode purposefully toward a couple of women who happened to be standing in the general direction he'd pointed.

The Black Widow let out a snort of amusement. "'Oh, Natasha, your interrogation techniques are unparalleled! How do you do it?'"

Darcy was nervous. New Year's was a big deal for her. This party was a big deal. Potentially life-changing. She bounced on the balls of her feet (as much as that was possible in her heels) and looked around. He was here somewhere, she could feel it.

"Calm down," Jane murmured from her side. She reached out to take a flute of something bubbly from a waiter who stood patiently in front of them, and passed one to Darcy.

"Thor is coming, right?"

"As I understand it," Jane replied. Darcy sipped at the drink in her hand and looked sideways at Jane. Could it be that the astrophysicist was as nervous as she was?

Lightning flashed outside, and Jane started forward.

"Was that—"

"He's here," Jane couldn't keep the excitement out of her voice, but she had the presence of mind to pass Darcy her glass and lift up the hem of her trailing skirt before descending the stairs to cross the crowded room and reach the balcony on the other side.

"Well." Darcy regarded the alcohol she'd been saddled with. "Happy New Year to me," she said, and knocked back Jane's glass in one.

Of course, that would be when her Soulmate showed up.

"Excuse me, Miss, I don't mean to bother you," he said, as though he were reading directly from the words on her hip. "This is a little forward of me, but I sort of just lied to a friend of mine and said I already had someone to kiss at midnight. If you're not… uh… with anyone, would you mind…? I mean, if you want to, that is."

Darcy had avoided the cartoon spit-take, but only by swallowing the entire glass of whatever-it-was, and it had gone down the wrong tube. She desperately wanted to say something, or even to see her Soulmate, but because the universe hated her, her eyes had filled up with trying-to-breathe tears.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

All she could do was nod and give him a thumbs up.

"All right, well, I'll uh… see you around zero hundred, then."

And then he walked away.

Steve was mortified.

He couldn't go back to the bar. Natasha was still standing there, probably looking smug. There would be another bar, though. This was Tony's party. There was always another bar.

Quickly, he located one on the opposite side of the room and took refuge there, hoping no one could tell that he was kicking himself.

"Rough night, Cap?"

Steve shot an anguished look at the Avenger who had joined him, and (thank God) it was Clint and not Tony. Steve buried his head in one of his hands and confessed, "I just made a total ass of myself."

"'Tasha get you with the 'midnight kiss' trick?" He sipped his scotch.

Steve ran a hand down his face and amended his earlier statement. "I just made a total ass of myself twice."

Clint nodded. "She pulled it on Coulson one year. He ended up kissing half the room before we convinced her to quit with the mind games." He snorted out a laugh at the recollection. "He locked lips with three fourths of the string quartet Hill hired! Fury thought it was hilarious."

"I'm not that fond of it," Steve admitted. After a few moments of silence, Steve could feel Clint looking at him. "What now?"

"Well, I was just wondering, uh, you know, have you, uh… You've," Clint coughed, and cleared his throat. "...haven't you?"

Now Steve was annoyed as well as embarrassed. "Of course I've kissed someone before!" he hissed.

Clint gave him a level gaze and took another sip of his drink. "That's not, uh…" he shook his head. "Never mind. Good luck tonight, Cap." He left a comradely pat on Steve's shoulder as he sauntered away.

"Greetings, Lady Darcy! How are you this night of endings and beginnings?"

"Hey, big guy. How was the flight?" Darcy drawled.

Thor traded a look with Jane. "Are you all right?" Jane asked.

"My Soulmate just introduced himself," Darcy informed her. "So I thought I'd come over here and introduce myself to this lovely bottle of tequila, and we're getting along great so far."

"What? Your— Darcy, what happened?" Jane stepped up and put her arm around her friend.

Darcy rested her head on the bar. "I couldn't even see him, Jane. I know he's tall, probably wearing a tux, but it's gonna be pretty hard to narrow down in a great big room fulla guys in monkey suits." She gestured at the gathering at large, then raised her head and regarded the nearest male. "Even your date is wearing one, and he just showed up here from another planet." She let out a moan of despair.

"Let's just…" Jane reached around and pried the bottle out of Darcy's grasp. "Should we get some air?"

"Sure, yeah," Darcy agreed, allowing herself to be led away from the alcohol. "Hey, Jane? Maybe this'll turn out to be one of those 'woo! bleeeeugh' parties after all!"

"That sounds more my style," Thor agreed.

She was surrounded by important-looking people, but Steve steeled his nerves. He was going to ask her.

He cleared his throat. "Uh, excuse me, Miss Potts? Pepper."

She turned and greeted him with a smile. "Steve! We're so glad you could make it tonight! You look great!"

Steve gave a bashful laugh and a belated reciprocal compliment: "Thanks, you too, you look very beautiful."

Pepper laughed. "Was there something you needed?"

"Yeah, I…" Steve scanned the room, looking for the question he was going to ask. "I was hoping you could help me identify one of your guests… She was standing right over there about half an hour ago…"

Pepper gave him a blank look. "I wish I could help you, Steve, but I couldn't tell you who was standing there half a minute ago."

"Sorry, yeah, there are a lot of people here, so I guess you wouldn't…" He suddenly spotted a flash of bare shoulder across the room, accompanied by a familiar mop of blond curls. "That girl, there, with Thor?"

Pepper stood on her toes to look over the crowd. "I'm… not sure," she replied. "There was a pretty lengthy guest list, but I know that Thor asked us to invite his astrophysicist friend…" Pepper's brow wrinkled. "...Joann? Jane. Jane Foster."

"His… friend?"

Pepper nodded knowingly. "Apparently they're very… friendly."

"Oh." Steve's face fell.

"And then of course, she had a plus one."

"A plus one?"

"She brought a friend."

Steve was a bit confused. "And are they… friendly?"

Pepper's laugh was not illuminating. "Sorry I couldn't help you out, Steve."

"Okay, yeah, thanks anyway. I didn't mean to bother you."

"Don't worry about it," she said with a smile. "Good luck with the girl, anyway."

Darcy was surprised at the sobering effects of a sharp New York winter wind combined with a couple of epic ancient Norse party stories. By the time they decided to go back inside, she had nearly forgotten that it was the New Year's Eve she'd been waiting for her entire life. However, she no longer wanted to have a philosophical discussion with a bottle of tequila. If it can be helped, one should not be tipsy when kissing one's Soulmate for the first time.

She glanced at the huge screen on one end of the room, which showed the live feed from Times Square. Not much time left.

"I'm gonna go… gargle, or something," she told Jane, and escaped to the bathroom.

She returned to Jane's concerned face. "Are you okay? Did you…"

Darcy waved her away. "No, I'm fine; I just brushed my teeth. Let me tell you, Stark does not mess around with the ladies' room on NYE—free toothbrushes, mouthwash, even dental floss. And there were probably a dozen different kinds of breath mints. Someone needs to give the party planner a raise."

"I will keep that in mind." The host himself sauntered over and clasped hands with Thor. "There are also a fleet of chauffeurs standing by for after the party, to take anyone anywhere they need to go."

"Oh, that's smart," Jane said.

Thor looked confused. "Am I missing something?"

"So they don't drive home themselves, drunk," Darcy provided.

"Why would they do that? Some of the best fights are had while walking home after drinking."

Stark nodded as though this were God's Own Truth (which, in a way, it was). "You wanna introduce me to your lady friends?"

"Certainly. This is my beloved, Jane Foster," Thor began.

"Girlfriend. I'm his girlfriend," Jane interrupted, blushing furiously as she leaned forward to shake Stark's hand.

"And this is her associate and friend, Darcy Lewis."

"Great party," Darcy said as she shook hands with the billionaire.

"Well, if you can believe it, it's about to get even more awesome," he replied, indicating the feed of Times Square. "But I just wanted to stop by first, say hi, and, you know, let you know that Cap was asking about you."

Darcy frowned. "Cap?"

"...tain America? Steve Rogers? Tall, strong jaw, tosses a patriotic frisbee around from time to time?"

"Right. Captain America." Darcy looked at Jane for help, but Stark was already on his way out.

"Gotta go; I'm planning to buzz the Square as soon as the ball drops, so I gotta go put my makeup on. See you kids later. Don't have too much fun!"

After an agonizing stretch of time that felt like sixteen hours but was in reality more like twenty minutes, Steve went in search of Thor's friend, even if it was just so that he could apologize. Really, who would want to kiss him when they could be kissing a god?

He had watched her slip outside an eternity (five minutes) before, so he took a deep breath and followed her.

She was standing by the railing, looking out at the skyline. He realized then that he hadn't yet had a chance to really look at her. (Sneaking glances across the room didn't count.) She was gorgeous. It wasn't just her party getup. Yeah, that was great, but just gazing at her profile, he could tell that this was a dame who could make a laundry day pair of jeans and a hoodie look sexy.

With a sigh, he approached.

They stood next to one another in silence for a moment before he cleared his throat and blurted out his rehearsed apology: "I'm sorry. When we talked earlier, I wasn't aware of who you were, and I really want you to know that I feel terrible, and ridiculous, and... terribly ridiculous, so, I understand if you're already here with Thor, and that I'm a total idiot for asking Thor's girl if she would kiss me on New Year's Eve."

She grinned.

"Actually," she said, "I'm yours. But there is one thing I want to know: is this the first time you've kissed someone since the 1940s?"

Steve's mind went blank. Everything he thought and planned to say was gone. He was completely speechless.

Luckily, his Soulmate was thoughtful enough to reach for his lapels.

Steve smiled as her lips moved closer to his. He could hear other guests chanting the countdown, fireworks going off from a couple of streets away, and even Iron Man's thrusters as he zoomed off to surprise the crowd on the other side of town.

"Happy New Year," she whispered.

He opened his mouth to reply, but was distracted by red lips, warm skin under his hand at the small of her back, long dark hair as he brushed it off her shoulder.

After an appropriate amount of time, she stepped back and smiled. "Well?" she said. "What do you think? Worth waiting for?"

He nodded, contemplating. "I might need another one, just to make sure…" She laughed. "But it is nice to finally meet you, Soulmate."

"Darcy. Darcy Lewis."

"Well, Darcy." He sighed and pulled her close. "I guess all that's left for us to do now is to live happily ever after."

"And we also have to visit my grandma."

"Your…?"

"Yeah. She's really excited to meet you." She snuggled closer into his arms. "After that we can get to the happily ever after part."

Steve grinned. "I gotta tell you, that's the part I'm looking forward to. I mean, not that I'm not eager to meet your family or anything…"

She silenced him with another kiss.

Natasha sidled up next to Pepper, who was pulling confetti out of her hair. "He give you a kiss before he left?" she asked.

"Who, Tony?" She smiled. "Yes, of course."

"Great! When he gets back, tell him we won; Clint and Bruce owe us drinks."

"Oh, wow, really?" She craned her neck and spotted Steve cuddling with 'Thor's friend Jane's friend' on the balcony. "Good for them, and good for you! What were the other terms of the bet?"

Natasha grinned evilly, her eyes glinting with mischief. "Well… it's best if we keep those sorts of things need-to-know."

Pepper nodded solemnly. "Plausible deniability," she agreed. "Happy New Year, Natasha."

"Happy New Year."

Author's Note (January 29, 2016): Thanks for reading! Now go hit up A03 and read the rest of Stella's awesome fics (and yeah, a few of mine too, I guess) or find lots of helpful links on my fic blog iwillwriteyourfic DOT blogspot DOT com (including a very important link to Stella's )!