Author's Note: Still loving this pairing, hoping to make this a sort of... multiple one-shot story thing?
Disclaimer: Wouldn't be here if I owned it.
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When Darcy meets Bruce, it's entirely accidental, very embarrassing, and the reason she first takes an interest. She's at Stark Tower because of Jane, and because of the whole, 'Thor's a real god here's a Destroyer Mew Mew makes it go boom' incident. After the Battle of Manhattan, Jane's offered a lab there, and she accepts, on the condition all of her equipment and her assistant come with her.
Darcy kind of figures she would have managed to insert herself in there somehow anyways, but she thanks Jane because figuring out how to sneak in to the newly rebuilt Avengers Tower would probably have killed her.
So now she's here, and alone, and exploring. The place is amazing, which she totally should have expected from Tony Stark, and she also should have expected him to make interesting patterns on the ceiling to distract innocent Darcys so they'll run into people. Like now.
When she turns on her heel she slams hard into a warm body, arms automatically coming up and around her as they fall, and sprawl across the floor. She doesn't even have time to apologize before she's off the floor and the warm somebody, and all the air is being squeezed from her body.
"Lady Darcy! It is most joyous to see you again! Friend Bruce, are you injured?" Thor asks as Darcy struggles to breath, but she managed to latch onto the name.
"No, I'm fine, Thor. Thank you, though." Bruce replied as he stands, adjusting his glasses so they are no longer askew on his face.
"Are you... angered?" Thor asks in a conspiratorial whisper, setting Darcy to her feet finally.
"Why on earth would it matter if he was—oh." Darcy turned, blinking with wide eyes at the scientist whose gaze has dropped and whose hands come together, wringing nervously.
"I'm... fine, Thor." Bruce repeats, frowning a bit to himself, and Darcy realizes she's probably just made a total ass out of herself.
"No! Oh, crap. No no, I didn't mean it like that, Bruce. Dr. Banner. Whatever the hell you like to be called. It's just... you're my favorite." she blurted, before clapping her hands to her mouth, Bruce looking confused and embarrassed, and Thor's face falling dramatically.
"God, damn. No, Thor, sorry. You can't be my favorite, though. You're Jane's favorite, and we can't have the same favorite." Darcy assured him quickly, and Thor nodded with a grave expression, as if it was a serious matter.
"I understand, Lady Darcy." he replied, clapping a hand to his heart.
"I... er, the... Other Guy is your favorite?" Bruce asks with a quiet interest. "Can I ask... why?" he added after a moment.
"Well I like you, too, I guess. But... why? I dunno... because I like the idea of something so powerful being able to come from just a regular guy, I guess." she replies with a slight shrug and a shuffle of her feet. And then, because Darcy never does anything half ass, she smiles widely.
"I gotta go, boys. See you at dinner." she finished, tugging Thor down to kiss his cheek, and then leaning over to press a kiss to Bruce's as well, before he can protest and run away and hide. And Darcy walks off, smiling proudly to herself at an embarrassing situation well handled.
Bruce stands with Thor for a while, before looking up at him finally.
"Isn't she wondrous? A truly magnificent maiden." Thor smiles expectantly, and Bruce knows disagreeing would mean a broken tower and an unhappy god.
"Sure." Bruce manages finally, before shuffling off to his lab in silence.
He can't get why Tony's laughing at him until he catches his reflection on the screen, and sees the bright red of Darcy's lipstick on his cheek.
He hurries to get rid of it.
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Please feed the author...
