Bright. It was really, really bright. It was the first thing that she registered; before she even opened her eyes. Sure enough; as she cautiously winced them open the room was bright. The walls and sheets were white and the amount of sun hitting the wall told her that the curtains weren't drawn.
It wouldn't be the first time Darcy had woken up in an unfamiliar room and she had to admit this was one of the nicest. It smelt nice and fresh and clean at least. If she had to guess she would say it was a hotel room but it certainly wasn't the hotel room she had been staying in. She cringed as she heard a noise from next to her. Great... She dreaded the awkwardness that would undoubtedly be having to get dressed and escape the unknown room. She tried to recall something useful from the night before but she certainly didn't remember kissing anyone or going to a hotel with anyone. Taking a deep breath she shifted to try and take a peek at her bed partner.
"Please at least be hot..." She breathed to herself. Her breath got stuck in her throat as she took in the sleeping form next to her; she ended up choking on air as she sucked in another breath.
'Way to go, lets make loads of noise and wake up the sleeping scientist to make this even more awkward.' She mentally chastised herself. Her stomach protested violently to the movement her coughing fit had caused and knowing what would follow; she ignored the stabbing pain in her head and made a dash to what she presumed was the bathroom.
"Hello?" A familiar voice called from the other room, as she began to throw up in the toilet. "Are you alright?"
"Yeah...I'm alright." Darcy called back once she had caught her breath. She quickly wiped her mouth and flushed the evidence away, before diving for the toothbrushes and travel sized toothpaste at the sink. Grateful to the heavens that the hotel provided such things. As she scrubbed her teeth she took in her surroundings a bit more. The bathroom was rather large for a what had to be a hotel room, it was all shiny black and white tile. Definitely a fancier hotel than she had booked. There was a huge tub which might even me a jacuzzi and a large shower; not to mention all the little bottles of lotions and soaps along the mirror. A flash caught her eye and she froze, staring at her reflection in horror.
In that moment she didn't even notice that she now had toothpaste dribbling from her mouth and down her chin, all she saw was the pair of glittering rings on her finger.
"Shit!" She hissed, dropping the toothbrush and quickly spitting the toothpaste in the sink. "Oh no...no way!"
Darcy tried to think backwards, what was the last thing she remembered? Tony and Pepper; they got married in Vegas...he had wanted to make it official before she had a chance to back out. It had been huge for a Vegas wedding. They did lots of drinking afterwards and the last thing she remembered was laughing with Jane about something.
"Do you remember what happened?" Darcy spun around to find Dr Bruce Banner stood sheepishly in the bathroom doorway in a pair of black dress pants and an open white shirt. "Like...how we got here?"
"I think we have bigger problems than how we got here." She blurted out, glancing down at the robe which she had grabbed on her dash to the bathroom to hide her nakedness.
"Nothing happened." He said quickly.
"You remember?" She asked, her eyes widening.
"Well, no." He admitted. "But I can't...the other guy gets triggered by adrenaline, any kind of adrenaline. I can't...um..."
"Ouch, dude that sucks." She cringed.
"Yeah anyway, so there's no damage to anything, nothing torn, broken or even knocked over." He explained. "There's just no way the other guy could've made an appearance in this room without there being some sign of it. So we didn't..." He trailed off and gestured behind him to the bed.
Looking at him so disheveled, his shirt open allowing her eyes to follow the mass of dark hair down towards his pants, Darcy honestly couldn't say whether that was a good thing or not. Up until now he had been this sweet, dorky scientist that she occasionally took tea and snacks to. She was technically Jane's assistant but since the other lab assistants were all into actual science; she soon realised that they deemed it below them to fetch tea and coffee and started occasionally adding Bruce and Tony into her snack runs. Bruce was always shy and polite, he occasionally showed his sense of humour, when she managed to draw conversation out of him and he was relatively good looking for someone at least ten years older than her. Now...relatively good looking was a huge understatement. If he hadn't just told her in a roundabout way that he couldn't have sex without becoming the Hulk, she would probably be pushing him straight back towards that bed right now.
"You've got toothpaste..." He pointed to her face and she realised that she hadn't finished wiping the toothpaste from her lips. Well...that was embarrassing. There he was looking all sleepy and hot and there she was having thrown up then leaving toothpaste all around her mouth.
"Sorry. I was distracted by the bling now on my finger." She told him, waving her left hand in front of his face while using her right hand to wipe her mouth.
"You're married?" He blinked in surprise.
"I might be now." She retorted. "I don't remember."
"As in...you and...me?" He gulped. "I don't...surely we wouldn't have."
"Wait a minute, I thought you didn't drink!" Darcy spoke up suddenly.
"I didn't. I only started having the occasional drink when I moved into the tower. I would only drink in the green room to start with until I worked out how much I could have without impairing my judgement." He frowned. "I only had two drinks. I shouldn't have been drunk."
"Depends on the drink." She snorted. "OK, I vote we find out A: If we really did get married last night and B: If not you, did I marry someone else last night and C: Undo it."
"Good plan, we can get right on that when the world stops spinning." He winced.
"You're standing and talking and haven't thrown up, you're doing better than me." She shrugged, pulling herself together and heading back towards the bedroom. "Also...before I leave this room I am definitely taking advantage of that huge and lovely looking shower."
"As much as I hate to say it, we need to get hold of Tony or Pepper. This has potential news scandal written all over it and Pepper doesn't jump through legal hoops, she flies through them." He said. "Tony is going to have a field day."
Two hours later Darcy answered the door to an immaculately dressed Pepper Potts, or rather Stark.
"Oh my God, clothes! You are a Goddess!" Darcy exclaimed gratefully, taking the offered bags of clothing. Unfortunately her dress from the previous night appeared to have had drink spilt on it.
"I'm so sorry about this, you should be enjoying a honeymoon." Bruce spoke, as he stood to greet her.
"Don't worry, our flight doesn't leave until tonight." She waved him off. "When you two went off with Jane and Thor, we never imagined this would happen."
"I don't remember that, I don't remember anything." Darcy sighed. "Actually that's a lie, I remember seeing Thor doing karaoke at some point but...it was just something that I remembered about twenty minutes ago."
"That didn't happen before you left us." Pepper nodded. "So the rest or most of it will probably come back in pieces. I've left a message for Jane to contact you when she wakes up, hopefully she can fill in the blanks. Do you have the certificate?"
Bruce handed her a folded up piece of paper and then shoved his hands awkwardly into his pockets. He had found it on the floor his side of the bed when they had looked for a leaflet or room service menu to find out the hotel name.
"Alright, this is a start. It looks pretty real but I won't know until I check with the chapel or on the system. It may not have been processed yet, sometimes it takes a few days." She explained, looking over the paper. "Once it has been processed, we can look into the annulment process if that's what you want. It shouldn't take long to all be sorted, the main concern is keeping it from the press."
"I can't believe Jane would let me do this." Darcy huffed, then her eyes narrowed in realisation and anger. "Hey Bruce, you certain about those two drinks?"
"Er...yes, I only had two drinks before my memory is pretty much gone, why?" He frowned.
"Do you happen to remember who gave you those drinks?" She asked.
"Thor and Tony, why?" He replied automatically.
"Not for mortal men and aged for a thousand years." She muttered. "I think Tony and Thor deliberately got the Hulk drunk."
"I'd like to think Tony wouldn't be that stupid but...I've learned to never discount anything where he is concerned." Pepper commented.
"But Thor wouldn't...he wouldn't deliberately do something that reckless." Bruce frowned.
"But if Tony convinced him that like Steve the Hulk can't get drunk?" Darcy asked. "Let's face it you're in considerably better shape than me. I've thrown up twice and feel like if I stand up for more than two minutes I'm going to pass out. You felt pretty rough when you first woke up but then bam you were fine."
"That's true, I guess it could affect me differently." He conceded. A few seconds later a sinking feeling made itself known in his insides. "Oh God, I could have killed half of Vegas last night and have no idea."
"But you didn't." Pepper assured him. "I haven't checked up on all the news yet but I skimmed and if the Hulk had made an appearance, then it would have been on nearly every station."
"I need a shower." Darcy groaned, standing from the bed again. "Thank you for the clothes."
"No problem." Pepper assured her. "I'll leave you two to get freshened up and dressed. Try to stay here for now, I'm going to look into this and check up on the news some more and then come and fill you in on what I've found."
They both repeated their thanks as the woman left the room, leaving them once again alone in their hotel room.
"If you hear a thud in a minute, I've passed out in the shower and need dragging out of it before you become a widower on your first day as a married man." She told Bruce heading to the bathroom.
Bruce was relieved that Dr Foster's young assistant didn't fall or pass out in the shower. She did however make such loud sighs and moans of contentment, that he found himself rather uncomfortable being in the next room. He was pretty sure she wasn't doing what it sounded like but the occasional groan she let out sounded enough like it to be embarrassing. When she returned to the main room in a large white towel a short time later, he found himself unable to look at her.
Darcy flopped herself back on the bed in her towel with a sigh.
"That shower is amazing. I want to marry that shower. Can Tony build a shower like that into my room of the tower?" She babbled. She stopped talking and looked up at him, noticing that he was just looking at her strangely. "Go, shower. Then you will know exactly what I mean."