The Perfect Scene
By: Mercy Mercedes
Album: 1.21 Gigawatts
Darcy had just about had it with men. She knew she was difficult, but there had to be someone out there who was man enough to handle her quick temper, bizarre mood swings and quirky personality. She was different, she was independent, and she was proud of that, but that didn't mean she wanted to spend the rest of her life alone.
Darcy had never been the type to believe she needed to be with someone to feel complete, but companionship was not something she had ever turned her nose up at. It was nice to have someone to come home to, and to share things with. It was nice to have someone to snuggle up to in the cold of winter, or relax with on balmy summer nights. She liked wearing fancy underthings, especially with her figure, and having someone to show them off to. She liked getting dressed up and spending a night out on the town on the arm of someone special to her.
But Darcy also wanted someone who understood that her career was on the rise, that she was going places, and was neither jealous nor put out by her success and her busy schedule (being a political liaison on capitol hill for Stark Industries was hard work especially when Pepper Potts herself was grooming her to become a board member and CEO of a SI subsidiary).
That in and of itself seemed to be the most difficult problem to overcome in not only her last failed relationship, but the one before it as well. Meeting men wasn't an issue for her; she regularly worked with some of the most powerful men in the country. It was finding a man who could take one look at her and realize that there was more to her than tits and ass. That had been another problem in both of her latest relationships. The guys were nice enough at first, most likely looking for the trophy wife to hang on their arm at functions, but the minute she told them who she was and they realized how capable she was they changed course and it soon became all about the here and now and not the long term. She was, simply put, good for some fun times and best left on the curb when the fun times had faded to grey. She decided for now the put dating and men out of her mind.
When the Triscallion fell and S.H.I.E.L.D. was disbanded, Coulson had come back into the Avengers' lives rather suddenly almost violently. Aside from the fact that they were all happy to know he was alive, they were also hurt that a secret like that had been kept from them. It didn't stop Tony and Pepper from offering him and his team jobs. A few accepted, Skye made quite an impression on Tony when he found out she hacked S.H.I.E.L.D. and he took her under his wing along with Fitz and showed them what corporate money could really do. Bruce and Simmons hit it off too, and together, after a lot of trial and error, they came up with a way to mellow out the Hulk, giving him better reasoning skills with Bruce's intelligence plugged in.
Ward and May weren't too keen on working the private sector, so when an offer from S.W.O.R.D. came their way they accepted. And as for Coulson, when the Avengers went their separate ways, Tony had been of the mind to make sure that if something were to happen again they would have everything they needed to be a team once more. That included a home, technology, and space to work and train. When S.H.I.E.L.D. went down Steve came to Tony and they got the band back together so to speak, with a few new faces, Sam Wilson and eventually Bucky Barnes. Coulson was now the Avengers handler once again, but this time he didn't report to S.H.I.E.L.D. Instead he was charged with making sure the Avengers had everything they needed, were able to decompress after tough missions, and when the need arose he would make sure they had fun to take the edge off.
Darcy had made the joke that in order to make sure that other people had fun; Coulson had to know how to have fun as well. Instead of calling him Coulson however she called him Agent no-fun which earned her a new best friend in Skye.
After that she and Coulson saw each other regularly, or as regularly as they could with her living in three different states (New York, Maryland, and California). Whenever she was around, whether she noticed it or not, Coulson always seemed a bit more cheery, especially when she put her equally impressive superhero/scientist wrangling skills to good use and gave him a hand on her days off. It was a lot easier to keep superpowers under control when you had someone watching your back. In fact they did such a good job tag teaming the Avengers the less mature of the team, I.E. Clint and Bucky started referring to them as mom and dad.
One particularly busy year (an election year) found Darcy spending no more than a month outside of DC and LA and never all at once. Which wore hard on the team and her friends. She was working hard though and despite her distance from the people she cared about she was doing good work and was actually accomplishing things, so whenever Pepper and Tony insisted she take a break and come back to New York she declined saying there would be time for rest when the election year was over.
When the year did end, she returned to New York for what Pepper was calling a mandatory vacation. She'd managed to make Stark Industries millions with the successful passing of several bills into legislation and Pepper would hear no objections to a well-earned rest. Returning to Avengers mansion was like returning home. She was greeted with a party the likes of which she had never seen. Her friends had been so happy to have her back and she was overwhelmed by their complete and utter joy in seeing her.
No one seemed happier to see her than Coulson, however. She told him that perhaps Stark should reconsider his position if he couldn't handle them without her. He just laughed a true, genuine laugh and asked her to dance. Later, Darcy would site this moment as the defining moment in their relationship.
Darcy was given a month off, and after that she was given office space at SI's New York office where she would work for as long as they needed her. Pepper had felt bad, despite the favorable outcome, for keeping Darcy away from friends and family and thus made the decision to keep her close to them until something came up that couldn't be dealt with in New York.
Deep down Darcy was grateful. She loved her job, but New York had become a place she associated with family and she missed them more than she'd care to admit.
In the year before the election year, Darcy and Coulson spent a lot of time together. Through his work with S.H.I.E.L.D. Coulson had made contacts with the government and had become a bit of an expert when it came to politician wrangling, so he and Darcy would frequently have lunch or dinner, sometime even breakfast if she was up early enough on a day off, and they would discuss her work. He would give her pointers on how to talk to certain senators and congressman, filling her in on details of their personal lives that could help her win them over. It was in this time that Coulson discovered he rather enjoyed her company. He liked working with her. She was insightful and clever and quick witted and he could never get enough of her anecdotes. He'd even shared a few with her, which is something he'd never done before. Not even with people he considered close friends.
Darcy had realized something similar. While she was stuck in DC she had been on a date or two in her rare amount of off time. The guys were ok, but all throughout those dinners all she could do was compare them to Coulson. One of them had been caught starring at her chest one too many times and all she could think about was how Coulson seemed immune to her physical charms. A fact that irked her the more she thought about it. Another guy had decided they would split the bill and while it didn't bother her at first it did bother her when he tried pretty hard to convince her to bring him up to her loft. She sent him home disappointed, and before she could even consider what she was thinking, she told herself that Phil had always paid when they went out, even when she tried to argue. And she knew he would never be so un-wantedly forward.
When she returned and Coulson had asked her to dance a fluttering in her stomach made her question her sanity. Coulson had always been an authority figure to her, with or without S.H.I.E.L.D. She respected him. But now, not so all of a sudden, she was attracted to him. He left her breathless. And it wasn't all physically, even though there was a physical attraction ever since she walked in on him working out in the gym (because damn who knew Coulson had a six pack), but it was also mentally. Despite his usually stoic facade, Coulson was a good conversationalist. He was intelligent and open minded and he noticed things about people and places and even Darcy herself. He noticed the nervous habit she had of chewing on her lip and when she's really happy she practically vibrates with positivity to the point where nothing and no one can bring her down. When she's upset all she needs is a good cup of coffee and pictures of hedgehogs being their usually cute selves.
She also realized that she no longer referred to him as Coulson in her thoughts anymore. Now he was Phil.
All in all she was pretty sure she was doomed.
Unbeknownst to her, Coulson was having thoughts along the same lines. Somewhere along the way Miss Lewis had become Darcy and time spent together was now sought after. He dreaded the day she would have to leave again. He enjoyed seeing her every day, even if it's just for a few minutes a day in passing. At some point it had become clear to him that he wanted to be with her, that she was no longer just a friend to him. But he was hesitant to approach her, to take his chance and let her know. Among other things, he was old enough to be her father and while he wasn't so down on himself that he didn't know he was a good looking, healthy man, she was a gorgeous 27 year old woman with the world out in front of her, ready to bend to her will.
He didn't want to be the one to hold her back.
"Those two are driving me nuts." Pepper grouched as she entered the lab.
Tony chuckled. "Still nothing from the front lines?" Pepper glared at him. When Darcy had been gone during the election year it became increasingly apparent to all involved that Phil Coulson missed her, and not in the way a friend misses another friend. Since then Pepper and a few other Avengers and residence had taken to trying to bring them together. Tony had taken to call it the war on loneliness, much to Pepper's chagrin.
"It's ridiculous, they're ridiculous." Pepper continued.
"This whole things ridiculous, why don't you just talk to them?" Skye asked looking up from her laptop. Simmons snorted when Fitz cringed. He'd made it very clear when Pepper began her campaign that he did not want to think about Coulson as more than a platonic creature.
"Because I know they know that they have feelings for each other. The problem is that they don't realize their feelings are reciprocated. You see what I'm saying?"
Simmons replied. "Of course, it's simple; they're both afraid to take the leap."
"And they're probably both weirded out by the idea that they've grown feelings for each other." Skye continued. "I mean let's face it. When they met Coulson was, as Darcy described, non-descript agent number one."
"I thought he was Agent iPod thief." Tony butted in.
Skye shook her head. "That wasn't until she went through the lab and found it missing. Her very first impression was that he was the president of the jack booted thug club of non-descript agents."
"She's got quite an imagination." Simmons murmured.
Pepper sighed. "There has to be something we can do." The lab was silent. Eventually Fitz sighed in defeat.
"Set them up." He said. They all turned to him confused. He rolled his eyes and took a deep breath. "Skye tell Darcy to meet you somewhere tonight, Pepper, tell Coulson the same thing. When they go to meet you they'll run into each other and maybe a fancy dinner or desert or something, anything really will be waiting for them. They'll spend time together they'll realize they've been set up and they'll have to talk about why you would set them up."
"That's brilliant." Simmons replied smiling brightly at him. He looked away to hide his blush.
Pepper nodded. "That's perfect." She turned to Skye. "I know exactly how to set this up."
Darcy's little black dress was sinfully tight, strapless, and the perfect companion to her too tall stiletto heels. When Skye had texted her around lunch time about going to the club, Darcy had been all for it. Anything to get her mind off her growing crush on Coulson. Darcy was sure the only way to do that was to get dressed up, flirt and possibly go home with a total stranger.
Darcy met Skye in the foyer, ready to go. When Skye saw her she whistled in approval. "Someone's ready to have some fun." Darcy smiled.
"You have no idea." Skye laughed.
"So listen, I totally forgot about the fireworks their setting off tonight. Do you want to go up and watch them with me before we go?" Darcy shrugged.
"Sure."
Meanwhile, Pepper and Coulson were hard at work in his office when Pepper sighed. Coulson looked up at her concerned.
"Is everything alright?" He asked. She nodded.
"Yea, I just completely forgot about the fireworks tonight. I really wanted to see them." She explained.
"We can take a break for a little while." He told her. Her face lit up.
"Oh really? Are you sure? We have a lot to do."
Coulson shrugged. "Nothing that needs done right away." He told her. She smiled.
"Great." Pepper stood up and made her way to the door. She turned when she got there, to find Coulson still working behind the desk. "Aren't you coming?" She asked. He looked up from his work a little dumbfounded.
"Well, I..." He began but she cut him off with a look that told him he wasn't going to get out of it. He relented and stood from his chair grabbing his suit jacket from the coat tree by the window and following her out.
"Damn, it's colder out here than I thought." Darcy said rubbing her upper arms to create some heat.
"Yea, tell me about it." Skye replied. "I'm gonna run downstairs and grab a blanket. I'll be right back." She took off, closing the door behind her before Darcy could argue. "Um...ok."
"I don't think she's coming back." Darcy jumped whipping around to find Coulson standing behind her. "Sorry." He apologized.
"Why wouldn't she come back?" Darcy asked, ignoring his apology. He gestured for her to follow him.
"Pepper left me up here about five minutes ago. Which is about five minutes longer than it should have taken to get her phone out of my office and get back." He explained as he led her around one of the structures on the roof.
As he came around the other side, he stopped, prompting her to stop next to him. "What..?"
Before them, near the edge of the roof, sat a small round dining table. The table was covered in an off white table cloth and was set for two with pure white china and silver candle sticks.
"Whoa." Darcy murmured. "Guess we're not going to the club." She looked over to Coulson. He was staring at the table as if deciding what to do. Darcy decided to make the choice for him. "It looks like they went to a lot of trouble."
"It does."
"It would be a shame for all of that to go to waste."
Coulson looked down at her a small smile on his face. "It would." He offered her his arm and she happily accepted, before he led her to the table. She was delightfully surprised when he pulled out her chair for her before sitting down in his own.
Unfortunately conversation that usually came easily between them was having a hard time coming to the surface now. Luckily they didn't have to speak as a man dressed as a waiter came around the corner with a serving tray. On the tray were two covered platters. He set the platters on the table, one in front of each of them and then moved to poor each of them a glass of Champaign. The waiter bowed to them before returning the way he'd come.
"Well, I think it's pretty obvious what they were planning." Darcy finally broke the silence, squelching the butterflies in her stomach. Coulson chuckled.
"It would appear they were aiming for a particular outcome." He replied. "The question is, are we going to disappoint them?" The breeze picked up and Darcy shivered slightly. Before she knew it, Coulson had stood from his chair and removed his jacket, placing it around her shoulders. She tried not to think about how his hands lingered a little longer than necessary. When he sat back down, Darcy's smile was still going strong. He looked back up at her and smiled in return.
"Bon appetite." He added softly. They ate in companionable silence, neither really feeling the need to speak until they were finished.
"You look beautiful." He finally told her.
"Thank you." She replied fiddling with her hands in her lap. It seemed a bit ridiculous as she finally got the never to say something to help this all along, but she was stopped short when the aforementioned fireworks began.
"I bet we could see them better from the ledge over there." Coulson told her, offering her his hand. She smiled sweetly, slipping her arms into the arms of his jacket and accepting his proffered hand. They walked hand in hand to the ledge and sat down side by side.
Coulson was the first to break the verbal silence again. "Did you wear that in the hopes of meeting someone?" Darcy looked down at herself.
"Yes." She paused looking back up. "Does that bother you?" Coulson was quiet for a long moment before;
"More than I'd care to admit." That was all she needed to hear. She smiled, laughing softly with hardly any sound as she leaned into his side, interlacing their fingers and resting her forehead against his.
The fireworks bloomed in the sky above them