"He called me Inspector Gadget."

Darcy looks up from her tablet and Bucky's standing over her, arms crossed and frowning. This happens every so often. Bucky shows up when she's off the clock, asking questions without really asking them.

"Tony?"

"Yeah."

"That's a little mean," Darcy says, but her lips quirk. "Also kind of inaccurate. You're more like Dr. Claw."

She makes the point of narrowing her eyes at his metal arm and his frown deepens.

"Darce, you're doing it again," he grunts and Darcy's eyes snap up to his eyes. "And nothing you said makes sense to me."

He doesn't like admitting that to other people, that's why he comes to Darcy. She's like a translator for him because he doesn't have a phone and doesn't like the Internet in general.

Darcy understands. It's a lot to process and if he Googled 'Inspector Gadget' he might go down a rabbit hole for hours on end.

He admitted to finding ASMR and likes it, but he says he still finds it eerie. He's a picky viewer, anyway. He has to describe what he likes or wants and Darcy finds it for him nine times out of ten.

Tapping fingers? He hates that. He likes the hair brushing videos, and the girls are pretty, too, though Darcy doesn't tease him about that too much. She still sees his pupils dilate if a pretty woman comes into view and starts whispering.

She saw in his YouTube history a Vietnamese barber video and he was mortified but Darcy never mentioned it again.

"Can you show me what Stark means?" Bucky grunts, and Darcy pats the space beside her on the couch and he sits beside her, looking down at the tablet in her lap.

She taps away to find some clips and Bucky frowns, but he mostly looks confused. Adorable and confused, and Darcy tends to watch him watch things more than the tablet itself.

"So he's like a – a spy?" Bucky says, and Darcy nods.

"Also like a detective. He has a dog named Brain and a niece named Penny," she adds. "There's another dimension to it, though. The guy who does his voice played a spy in another show called Get Smart."

Bucky nods, but she's sure some of it is going over his head. She makes the mental note to find some DVDs for their next marathon.

Dr. Claw appears on screen and Darcy points at the metal arm, the armchair obscuring the rest of him.

"That's more you," Darcy says, and Bucky smirks.

"Right, he's an asshole."

"His catchphrase is literally 'I'll get you next time, Gadget!'" Darcy says, her voice growly as she shakes her fist.

She knows she's a massive dork but it's Bucky, so he just smiles at her.

"You know, you should go as Inspector Gadget for Halloween," Darcy adds, eyebrows hiking.

Bucky makes a face.

"I dunno, doll…"

"Oh, come on. You're not going to be like Cap and wuss out every time there's a theme for a party?" Darcy drawls, rolling her eyes. "You men are so weak."

Bucky snorts. "Excuse me?"

"You heard me," Darcy said, her eyes roving him. "Weak."

They stare at one another for what feels like too long, until Bucky relents, but Darcy knows he'd win any staring contest. She likes that he lets her win every time.

"Fine," he says. He looks at the tablet that's still playing the Inspector Gadget episode, nodding at it. "I'll go as him for Halloween if I get to pick yours."

Darcy blinks, but morphs her face into nonchalance.

"Fine. Who will I be?" she asks airily, and Bucky smirks.

"Dorothy from Wizard of Oz."

Darcy makes a face. "Don't you have a crush on her?"

"Who doesn't have a crush on Judy Garland?" he says, sounding somewhat defensive.

Darcy ponders for a few seconds, and then smiles at him.

"Okay, deal."

Darcy looks down at the tablet and they watch the rest of the episode in silence, and Bucky snorts a couple times. Darcy then Googles the live action movie version and groans inwardly at the fact that it's now twenty years old.

She asks FRIDAY if they have Get Smart in storage and they do. Apparently Clint has it in his quarters and she yells into the vents above the kitchen for him.

"What?"

"Can I borrow Get Smart?"

"…sure."

They watch a few episodes and Bucky predictably lights up every time 99 is on-screen.

"Typical," Darcy mutters, sipping her beer and Bucky's eyes meet hers.

"What?"

"Nothing."

The Dorothy outfit isn't hard to find, but most of them are the sexy versions with short skirts, tight, low-cut tops and red high heels.

It feels all wildly inappropriate so Darcy keeps searching until she goes with Jane to a costume store to hire an outfit.

Jane follows her with less interest.

"Blood capsules!" Darcy says, pointing.

She unashamedly adores Halloween. She plays the Monster Mash almost as soon as the 4th of July is over, until Jane inevitably screams at her to play something else in the labs. She buys new decorations and uses old favorites.

"No fake blood!" Jane says, batting Darcy's hand away. "And no more rubber spiders. Five is enough!"

"Ugh," Darcy replies. An outfit catches her eye. "Oh, fuck yeah!"

"What?"

She pulls it down and shoves it at Jane.

"Werewolf?" Darcy says, and Jane grimaces. "Come on, you can actually look creepy."

"I didn't want to wear anything –"

"Doesn't anyone else have the balls to commit?" Darcy snaps, narrowing her eyes at her boss. "And don't tell me you'll go as a sexy nurse."

"That was one time!" Jane groans.

She regrets telling that story. It was during her Masters and she bought it at the last minute. Darcy wishes there was photographic proof of it.

"Not everyone wants to be part of your weird thing with Bucky," Jane adds, and Darcy sticks her tongue out at her.

"Unlike some people, Sargent Barnes encourages my spooky nature," Darcy says.

Jane still holds the werewolf costume as they walk down another aisle, Darcy's hands running over fabrics and accessories.

"You're like cotton candy. Nothing about you is scary."

Darcy turns and pouts.

"Yeah, you're too cute," Jane adds for good measure.

"I can be fierce, and deadly," Darcy retorts.

She flicks a Frankenstein bobble head.

"The last time you held a gun you screamed and dropped it," Jane says. "And you use your taser way too often."

Thank God that gun wasn't loaded. She picked it up by mistake. Bucky had cleaned it and left it on her kitchen table months ago but she never lived it down.

"I'm… sensitive," Darcy says. She clears her throat. "And maybe soft, but –"

"I think that's what Bucky likes about you, Darce," Jane says, and Darcy makes a face.

"Yeah, well," she mutters, trying to distract herself as they keep walking. "He's had every opportunity to tell me that."

Darcy doesn't like thinking about Bucky that way. It makes things complicated, and it's easier to just have him be that friend who sits with her and indulges her every once in a while.

Jane rolls her eyes.

"Fine, I'll shut up," she mutters. "But you two are so obvious."

"He doesn't like me like that," Darcy says instantly, because it's true. She's seen him switch over to that interested side whenever he sees a pretty girl.

One time in the lobby he actually turned his head at a woman who sauntered past, smelling of some fancy fresh perfume that made Darcy's eyes water.

When was the last time he had sex? No – she wasn't going there. She shoves the thought away as Jane only continues on, despite saying she'll shut up.

"He spends all his time with you, when he's not with Steve," she says.

"He needs me for translating shit, for… context," Darcy says, sounding less sure of herself the further her mind goes.

"Have you ever refused to give him context?" Jane asks, and Darcy grimaces at a particular memory.

She lowers her voice in case children are lurking around a corner.

"He asked me about bukkake and I had to tell him no, I had no idea what that was, he should Google that himself," Darcy whispers, and Jane snorts. "I said that with a blank face."

"Bravo," Jane replies. "Who knew you could be subtle?"

"So what's your point?" Darcy mutters. "You're only proving that I don't want to talk to him about sexual things because it's too close to home. You're not pointing out anything I don't already know about myself."

"Like what?" Jane asks, smirking.

Darcy rolls her eyes more dramatically than necessary just to get her point across. "Uh, I don't know. Maybe that he's really hot and I have a crush on him? Grow up."

Her cheeks heat just the same and Jane only sighs a little.

"I'm sorry, Darce," she murmurs. "I don't know what else to tell you."

"He'd have asked me out by now if he wanted to," Darcy mutters.

She pays for her basket of goodies, and she blows bubbles later that afternoon in the labs, a brand new mummy bobble head sitting on her desk.

When Halloween arrives along, Darcy almost wishes she could go back to the start, since tomorrow it will all be over.

"It's my favorite day of the year," she pouts, as Tony questions her choice of lunch.

She has three Halloween-themed Krispy Kreme donuts and she stares him down, refusing to share.

"You at least gonna share your haul when you come home from trick-or-treating?" Tony says. "With Petey and Wandy?"

"Fuck off," Darcy snaps, but she lacks bite.

It's the oldest running joke that since she, Wanda and Peter are the youngest they must be actual babies.

She stuffs a donut in her mouth, middle finger up as she departs with the rest of her food. She only hears Tony's chuckle as she leaves.

She puts on her headphones to listen to her spooky playlist instead of subjecting Jane to it for once. She welcomes the distraction of Bruce entering the lab with a file. Under her excitement, Darcy's nervous and she doesn't want to think about the party too much.

"Hey, wassup, Doc?" she says, and he smiles briefly.

"I can hear your music from outside."

"You exaggerate," she replies, taking the file from him. "You coming tonight?"

"Uh, sure," he says dryly. "I'm coming as Social Anxiety."

"No problem, Doc," Darcy says, smiling up at him.

Bruce's eyes flicker to Jane in the background who's typing something on her computer, a pen behind her ear.

"What's she going as?"

"Witch," Jane calls, without looking up.

"Hmm," Bruce says. "Can we at least get drunk?"

Darcy is surprised at this. "Uh, hell yeah. Where has this side of you been hiding this whole time?"

Bruce's eyes dart back to Darcy.

"Last year I was on that sabbatical to Nepal, so… figured I'd stick around this time, see the year out."

Darcy looks down at the file. "You need me to type this up? You have terrible penmanship."

She says the same thing every time, and every time Bruce gives her a sheepish smile.

"You're good at that," Bruce says, and Darcy blinks. "At looking after us, I mean."

"It's my job," Darcy says.

Bruce lowers his voice. "I don't mean Jane."

Darcy knows the point he's trying to make and she blushes.

"We all need… someone," he adds, and Darcy just nods because she can't think of what to say. "And I don't just mean Bucky needs Steve, he needs –"

"Gross," Darcy mutters, and Bruce laughs.

"Yeah, I figured you'd deflect," he says.

Darcy looks over her shoulder at Jane in the background and she turns back to Bruce.

"I take care of him because he asks."

"But he stays to watch all that stuff with you," Bruce counters. "I always see you guys sitting together. He's never watching something by himself."

Darcy sets the file down and crosses her arms.

"She put you up to this?" she asks.

"Who?" Bruce says.

Darcy tilts her head slightly in Jane's general direction.

"That one."

"No, actually," Bruce says. "Just thought I'd be honest."

"Bullshit," Darcy says immediately, and Jane chuckles.

Darcy circles the punch table with her toy dog still in the basket on her arm. She's aiming for authenticity, and she's not about to take away Toto when she's only been at the party for half an hour.

There's no sign of Bucky yet and Darcy hates that her heart sunk a little when she went looking for him before and didn't find him.

Jane's witch outfit makes Wanda laugh, because they're more or less dressed exactly the same. Natasha is dressed as Shego from Kim Possible, which Darcy thinks is hardly a stretch but she does appreciate Natasha's dedication. The spy wears black lipstick only on her upper lip and her skin is ghostly white.

A skinnier, smaller T'Challa races by and Darcy pauses pouring her punch as the figure skids past her, nearly knocking her.

"HeyDarcysorryI'monmywayoutwowyoulookreallycool!" Peter says all this in one breath, pulling the Black Panther mask off his face, panting. He turns his heel and speeds off down the hall. "Loveyouseeya!"

"You better be taking an Uber, not swinging across the city!" Darcy yells after him, but she's sure he'll be off his feet the second he reaches the roof, her plea forgotten.

She lets out a sigh, looking down at her cup of punch.

"How does that kid talk so fast?" comes a voice, and Darcy starts.

She turns to see Bucky standing behind her. He's wrapped in a trench coat, and his eyes dip to Darcy's body.

"You look nice," he says.

His compliment barely registers as Darcy takes his image in.

"Holy shit, you shaved your beard," she says, eyes bulging. "And you cut your hair?!"

He looks more or less like the photos she's seen of him at museums and in books. He looks so different, and she can see him so much better without all the long hair in his face.

She blushes.

"Bucky…"

"Did I do a good job?" he murmurs, a small smile forming. He licks his lips and Darcy stares.

"Uh, yeah, you bet."

He's got the same kind of hat, the trench coat. She glances at his left arm to see it's more less part of the outfit.

"Go, go Gadget arm," she murmurs, and Bucky let out a chuckle.

"You look nice," he says again, and Darcy glances up to meet his gaze.

"Yeah, I – I tried really hard."

"It's perfect," he says, and he says it so easily that Darcy bites her lip.

Fuuuuuuck.

He keeps looking at her and Darcy feels hot all over. She takes a gulp of punch and they move away from the table, back toward the people dancing around the common room.

"What did you come as, Rogers?" she says to Steve.

He grins at her, long plastic incisors showing. He would otherwise be wearing his regular clothes.

"You're the worst," she says. Steve just shrugs.

After sipping her punch and watching other people dance, she feels Bucky's flesh fingers touch her bare elbow.

"Wanna dance?"

She glances at him, then Steve.

"I'll look after Toto," Steve offers, hand outstretched.

She pushes the basket into his hand and lets Bucky steer her toward the improvised dancefloor. She tries to ignore the way her stomach is flipping, tries to not think too much about dancing like an idiot.

Bucky's seen her do clumsy, stupid things over and over, but it's different now. She knew he was handsome, but it was kind of a hidden, understated version of him she saw every day. With a clean-shaven face and shorter hair probably combed back under that hat –

"Take off the stupid hat, Buck," she mutters, and he blinks at her.

"Okay."

He obliges, throwing it aside on the floor, and then he touches her waist to pull her closer.

Darcy realizes her mistake the second the song changes to something slower and she swallows, going wide-eyed for a second before she can contain herself.

"You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm so cool," Darcy replies, clearing her throat.

Their hips are touching and she can't stop feeling flustered. It's ridiculous. The guy shaves and she's suddenly a mess.

She lays her hands on his chest and they move together in slow circles, and then Bucky leans down and he's resting against her.

Darcy tenses and he probably senses it, because he murmurs in her hair:

"Can we… go somewhere else?"

"Yeah," she manages to reply.

Desire sits low in her gut, and she pulls away to cross the dancefloor. She takes back Toto from Steve and makes some excuse, some stupid joke about the Lollypop Guild.

"You know, Dorothy's shoes were silver in book," Steve says, and Darcy snorts.

"Of course you would say that, you fucking nerd," she says fondly, touching one of his cheeks briefly. "I'll come back."

She glances at Bucky who's joined them.

"You better not," Steve fires back, and Bucky all but glares at him.

"Punk, I swear to God –"

Darcy smiles, moving out of the room toward the hall with the elevators. She presses the button and feels Bucky join her, and they're quiet together as they wait.

Darcy bites her lip. Her heart is racing. She likes him. She likes him so much – well, she loves him. But she loves a lot of people. Bucky's different.

The elevator finally dings and the doors open.

She walks in, hand hovering above the buttons.

"Where to?"

"My place," Bucky replies softly. It makes her stomach flip again.

They reach his floor and he lets them in, and Darcy can smell him everywhere. The last time she was here he asked her what dabbing was and she would usually smile at the memory but all she's thinking about is why she's there, why he wanted to leave the party with her.

She puts Toto in her basket on his kitchen counter and she looks around, and then feels Bucky's hand reach hers, fingers threading together.

She lets him pull her toward him, and then he's tilting his head toward hers. Their noses brush and Darcy closes her eyes, waiting.

"I'm gonna kiss you," he murmurs, and she swallows.

"Okay."

He presses his lips to hers. It's slow and gentle, and Darcy opens her eyes a second later, feeling her cheeks burn.

"This better not be… like a joke or something," she whispers. "'Cause I swear if it is, I'll kick you off the balcony, I don't care how strong you are."

He lets out a breath of a laugh against her cheek.

"I swear it's not, doll," he murmurs. "I mean it."

His hands come up to clutch at her face and their mouths slant together and Darcy sighs once he plies her mouth open with his tongue. He moans, and Darcy feels the sound go straight through her.

They back up toward the couch and they fall down together, Darcy beneath him. She can feel he's hard against her and she begins to unbutton his coat, never breaking their kiss.

"Are you -?" Bucky pulls back, and his mouth is wet and his hair is mussed. His eyes are blown and darker. His throat bobs. "Are you sure, Darce?"

"Yes," she whispers.

As they undress, Darcy feels as if his eyes are burning into her skin. He watches her with all-consuming focus. If she wasn't slick between her thighs before from the kissing, his eyes would have done it for her.

She could have worn nicer underwear, something cute, but Bucky just dips his head to kiss her everywhere, pulling down bra straps and nuzzling into her skin. Darcy grips the arm of the couch as he pushes down the cup of her bra, latching onto her nipple and sucking.

She can't quite believe this is happening. She half expects to wake up with her face on her desk and a throb between her legs but he's murmuring into her skin and he pinches her other nipple and she has to be awake.

They're soon naked together and Darcy reaches for him, wrapping her hand around his shaft. He growls, which Darcy doesn't expect, and he presses into her grasp. She tingles all over, she wants him so much.

He licks his lip, taking hold of his cock between them, lining them up.

Darcy nods at him.

"Darcy," he says suddenly, and her eyes meet his.

"What?"

"I love you," he says, and then he pushes inside to the hilt and Darcy gasps, overcome by the sensation, overcome by his confession.

"Bucky, Bucky, Bucky, Bucky!" is all she manages to reply, because she's trying desperately hard to hold on.

Her nails dig into his arms and Bucky's eyelashes brush her cheek as she collects herself.

"You love me?" she asks, and he nods.

"I wanted to… make it good for you, I'm worried I'd be a letdown," he murmurs, and Darcy grabs his face, forcing him to look her in the eye.

"Are you kidding me?" she hisses, and he swallows again, his eyes wider. "I love you so much. I had no idea."

"Really?"

"Yeah," she says, and she kisses him. It's tender but turns charged, and Bucky begins to move his hips as Darcy's ankles cross just above his ass.

"Doll, I didn't want – I didn't want to disappoint you, I was scared."

"It's okay."

"Baby," he whispers, and Darcy just about melts at that, because he sounds so earnest.

They rock together, slow at first but it hardly lasts, and soon Bucky is driving into her over and over, murmuring into her neck. His teeth drag against her skin and Darcy grips his hair.

He laughs a little, and she loves the sound. She loves him, and he loves her. She's so happy, so overwhelmed by it all.

"You gonna come?" he murmurs, and Darcy moans, nodding. He asks it in such a way that he sounds just as overwhelmed. "Let me, let me…"

His fingers brush her clit and Darcy gasps. He watches her face while she feels the rush of warmth, the way her inner muscles constrict. She clamps down on his cock as he presses her clit with his thumb and he smiles at her.

She feels sweat on her brow. She's light-headed and Bucky stills, only to have her push up against him to prompt his thrusts and he chuckles.

He's never looked so happy and she's giddy beneath him.

He doesn't last much longer, holding her flush against him as he chases his release. He presses a kiss to her mouth at the last moment.

"Mmph," he grunts, and he comes, tensing all over.

"Fuck," Darcy murmurs, as Bucky pants while softening inside her.

They curl up together with a blanket wrapped around their naked bodies, watching The Wizard of Oz. Bucky presses a kiss to Darcy's temple as she begins to drift off.