In which Starks and a particular Banner- to say nothing of a young Mr. Rhodes- stick together.

When they were ten, James Rhodes and Tony Stark met Bruce Banner. Two years older and just as smart as Tony, the older boy was a moderating influence on their shenanigans. Because of Bruce, Rhodey has always respected nerds.

They diverged, for awhile, letters and phonecalls all that connected their triumvirate world. When Tony and Rhodey were eighteen, though, everything changed in jagged leaps. Tony got a girl pregnant, and then his parents died and the girl died giving birth. Tony was barely upright, grief and exhaustion warring with the guilt of the girl dying.

It takes three days for him to look at Darcy.

It takes seven for him to realize that with Rhodey taking care of him, and Bruce taking care of the baby, he wasn't the first important person his kid saw.

Bruce was, then Rhodey, the youngest of their triumvirate sending Bruce to rest while Tony slept fitfully.

It takes another week to realize what good friends he has. His baby girl is always being held, sleeping through Bruce's mutterings and Rhodey's modulated dialogue.

When Darcy is two weeks old, Tony holds her for the first time, and falls as firmly in love with the baby as his two best pals. That night, he has a talk with Bruce and Rhodey. He wants the very best for his daughter. With their help, he plots and plans.

The house in Malibu is purchased almost immediately, modified to Rhodey's specs. He's already headed to the Army, reluctantly agrees to take Darcy to base as his adopted niece. Bruce, on leave from school for the summer, offers to stay in Malibu until he has to return to university, and then Darcy will be shuttled between Bruce and Rhodey. That way no one knows she's Tony's.

The years pass in this fashion, Darcy attending school on base as 'Darcy Lewis' and just being Darcy when she vacations with Bruce. Darcy knows the truth, knows her father and Rhodey and Bruce adore her.

When Tony finds Pepper, and decides to trust her, seven year old Darcy hides behind Bruce, distrusting the woman because the only people who have mattered to her to date are Daddy, Rhodey and Bruce.

As Darcy grows, Tony knows she's going to be a hellion. His first clue is the tantrum she throws over the phone when Bruce agrees to do some dangerous testing. Tony personally suspects her initial distrust of Pepper and dislike of Bruce's recent focus-shift have to do more with having to share the men she views as 'hers'. Especially since Bruce seems smitten with Betty Ross.

Thankfully, when Bruce has to run, Darcy is already back on base, sulky but seemingly otherwise alright. Rhodey is absently concerned that Darcy's turned her anger at the injustice done to Bruce (a sentiment shared by Tony and Rhodey) to learning an alarming variety of topics.

When Darcy is fourteen, while the base is on summer break, she slips away to the airport, backpack in tow. Her woman's intuition, always scarily accurate for her age, is warning her that Bruce needs her. She left a letter for Rhodey and Dad, and scrambles her trail to dust when she produces the first of a long line of carefully purchased tickets. She's already laid alternate routes, from different airports, putting her hacking skills to hefty use.

She arrives in India with a temporarily hired bodyguard, paid to slip away at her signal.

It amuses her that she can still slip silently into Bruce's bed and he'll just turn over and mumble

"What is it, Darce?" This time, however, he jerks awake, gasping

"Darcy? What-" Sighing, Darcy slid down his side, burrowing her face into his hip like she did as a kid, though her boobs press into his thigh. On his own irritated sigh, she crawls back up and lays on his chest, surprised at the muscle that she doesn't remember.

For a while, the arrangement is alright. Tony, once knowing his kid is completely anonymous, protected by one of the strongest beings on the planet, relents about her returning to Rhodey and base. Bruce reluctantly educates her on science, math, what medicine he can, a few dead drops by Tony arranging for a way to keep track of it in a U.S. system.

Darcy, meanwhile, learns everything she can about the languages, culture and customs of India, joining Bruce in yoga and meditation. She enjoys three years of complete anonymity, assisting Bruce when not studying or doing housework.

However, Darcy is quite simply a tactile person, and once Bruce realizes it is something she needs, Bruce provides her what touch is appropriate. A hand on her waist or the small of her back, an arm around her shoulders- or her waist as her height comes closer to his- and when she is truly, deeply upset, he allows her to seat herself in his lap if that's what she wants. He doesn't allow it as often as she'd like, but he does end up pulling her across his chest most nights, as they still share the one bed.

They don't realize it until one of Bruce's patients mentions it, but they come across as married. Darcy wants to beat that patient to a pulp. Bruce has withdrawn, started bringing up school again. And Darcy hates every moment. She was, quite simply, always aware of men, and the last few years have given her the opinion that she would, at the very least, like to fuck Bruce, just once, even if he doesn't love her.

Except he does love her, just not the way she wants. The night she realizes that he's trying to protect her from herself, she turns over.

"Promise me something." he looks at her with tired eyes, raising a brow.

"Say I go back to the States, get my degree, will you revisit the idea of me moving here permanently?" When he looks ready to protest, Darcy doesn't think. She reacts, straddling his waist and laying a deep kiss on him. Even as he says

"Darcy…" she can feel the erection tenting his sleep pants. His arms are around her waist, and determined to win this game he's playing, she rolls her hips back. He chokes on her name, back arching when she slides back enough to ground her clothed pussy against his erection, another hip roll has Bruce's eyes rolling back even as he comes.

When Bruce gathers his faculties, he realizes he came so hard that some of it slipped through the waistband of his pants and onto his stomach. Darcy looks at him, purring slyly

"Oh, Bruce, darling, you shouldn't have!" Before bending down to lap up his cum with her warm, pink little tongue.

"Stay…" He barely remembers rasping out before surrendering to Darcy.

They don't actually fuck that night, but he knows it's coming.

The next time Darcy broaches whether or not she's leaving India, she has a better proposition. She knows her own mind, her own heart.

Surprisingly, when she proposes marriage, he agrees, though conditions that fucking has to wait until then. And they have to wait until Tony and Rhodey can be there, of course. Darcy fumes, knowing that she'll be eighteen by the time anything happens.

Although Tony and Rhodey are a little surprised at the timing, they aren't so much at the event. After all, Darcy hadn't dragged Bruce close to home, yet, and he hasn't kicked her ass back to the States.

After a midnight wedding at an old world cathedral in Berlin, they have a few months of domestic bliss before it looks like Bruce has to run again. Under protest, Darcy returns to the States, starts at Culver, and doesn't see her husband again until aliens invade Manhattan.

Shawarma

Darcy doesn't fucking care that she's not supposed to know where Dad and Bruce are. She glares at Fury, Pepper and Jane and agents standing around.

"Nicholas Fury, you have five minutes to locate Colonel James Rhodes, and ten to give me a full damn sitrep on my husband and my father, before I hack your system and dismantle the fucking military network!" Fury raised a brow at her, slightly confused, so she filled in the blanks.

"I was born Darcy Stark Lewis, married Bruce Banner five years ago and never bothered to change my name, and I changed my mind. I want a location and a car, now. Never mind waiting for Rhodey to escort me."

The agents started skittering nervously, Fury eying a few of the paperwork drones.

"How did I not know any of this?" The quiet question soothes a teeny, tiny fraction of Darcy's ire. She smirked before explaining

"Dad was going through a lot the year I was born. Bruce and Rhodey took care of me until Dad wised up, then I got shuttled between Malibu and whatever base Rhodey was on until I was fourteen, when I tracked down Bruce in time to foil his first and last suicide attempt."

Fury decided to give in gracefully, issuing a top caliber agent and a car to drive the women to the Shawarma restaurant that another handful of agents was guarding.

0_0

Which is why a furious Darcy stormed into the Shawarma restaurant, smacking the back of Tony's head before seating herself in Bruce's lap to kiss the ever loving shit out of him.

Rearing back, turning her head to include Tony, she spoke with icy-cold intent.

"I am so fucking pissed at both of you!" Turning to completely face Tony, she snarled

"Falling from the sky?! If he hadn't caught you, you'd be dead, Father! You are so restocking my ice cream freezer." She whipped around to catch Bruce's half smile.

"And you! Making me panic! You are overdue like, ten body rubs, mister!"

An entirely repentant Bruce spends over a week, lavishing his wife with love before she deems he has properly repaid her her panic.

It surprises the team, when she explains the relationships in the Stark family, but she turns away before catching Steve's frown.

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