Okay, i'm not gonna go into some huge rant about the ending of Age of Ultron. Not even going to think about it. This was written before i saw the movie, so i was just guessing at Pietro and Wanda's personality. Anyway, ENJOY!
In hindsight, she thinks yeah, how the hell did she not see it?
She guesses all the teasing from Clint and Stark should have at least made her suspicious. But no. She was too focused on getting Jane to eat something, turn her eyes away from the screen and get some sleep. She didn't have time to think of Speedy Gonzales with a mouthwatering accent. Well, she had some time.
She gets she probably made it obvious when she had been speechless (Darcy Lewis! Speechless! Tony had crowded afterward) when the second one of the newest members of the Avengers team sped into the lab, ruffling Darcy's hair like some absurd hair advertisement.
It was similar to some ridiculous moment from a cheesy romance novel when the nerdy girl who has braces and pimples the size of volcanoes, gets sight of the hot jock working out on the football field. Darcy is dead serious. She's pretty sure she could hear angels singing when he looked her way.
Of course, it was only for a second. Then he was talking to Thor (who had been following Jane's around like a lost puppy because there was no army of aliens invading or emo brother sending giant homicidal robots) about something or rather in hushed tones. Thor, who whispering was a joke around, laughed at something Speedy said, and turned to face Darcy, who only just realized she was staring like a love-struck fool.
"Pietro, my friend, come meet Lady Darcy."
She heard Tony scoff something about Darcy being a lady and crumpled up a post-it note on her desk and threw it his way. She felt slightly smug when there was a surprised squeal.
"Suck it, Tony." She muttered under her breath.
"Lady Darcy, meet our newest friend. This is Pietro." Thor said with a big, golden smile.
Pietro was . . . wow. Long, lean and hot. She can just imagine feeling his muscles up, leaning across the desk and nope. No way. She is not doing that right now. She is a professional.
Sort of.
He says something to her and by god she has no idea what is was but his voice. She's definitely sure that sort of accent should be illegal.
He's looking at her and oh my god he's waiting for a reply. "Um, sorry, what?" she tried to not babble and blush like an idiot.
"Never mind." He says with a smile, and dammit it's as attractive as the rest of him, if not a little smug.
Darcy's met Wanda, Clint's new girlfriend and 'mission' buddy, and thought she was super cool and beautiful, so it's no surprise that her brother is too.
Suddenly, with another ruffle of her hair, Pietro was gone again.
Darcy glanced over at Jane, who was looking at her knowingly.
It becomes their thing she guesses. Him running so close to her that her hair ruffles every time he goes past. She gets a good whiff of him too, creepy she knows. She doesn't tell anyone about how her heart beats so loud afterwards and she always takes a second to calm herself down. They haven't spoken since the day Thor introduced them and sometimes Darcy's not sure if he's just mucking around with her.
She's lazing around on the sofa in the community lounge with, she's telling the truth swear to god, Natasha, AKA the Black Widow AKA the coolest person Darcy has ever met, when her hair ruffles and her glasses (which she had stupidly left in Jane's lab) are dropped in her lap. Natasha raises a perfect eyebrow and Darcy shrugs and hides her face with her hair, looking back to the book she had been trying (and failing) to read.
Five minutes pass before Natasha speaks. "Forest Gump, huh?"
Darcy spluttered, not knowing what to say. Which usually was the case whenever someone brought up Pietro.
"I don't know what you mean." She quickly composed herself, and Natasha sat up on the sofa. Darcy was a little worried. Word from Steve was the redhead could be a bit of a matchmaker. Even more so after Bucky returned and it was revealed that they had some whole tragic star-crossed backstory where they were in love and couldn't be together. Of course, it wasn't that simple. With the whole "incident" and Natasha disappearing for two weeks. The assassin was much happier now, even bubbly (strange sight to see) when she was around her James. Bucky was too, around his Natalia. Not that Darcy would ever tell her that, for fear of death. Or worse.
"You know what I mean." Natasha had a smug smile on her face, like she knew something Darcy didn't. The younger girl didn't doubt it for a second.
"I believe Miss Romanoff is referring to the mutual attraction shared between you, Miss Lewis, and Mr. Maximoff." Stark's AI put in.
"JARVIS! You traitor!" Darcy yelled, glaring up at the ceiling.
"Apologies, Miss Lewis." JARVIS sounded completely unapologetic and a little bit cheeky.
The brunette glanced at Natasha, who was grinning like the Cheshire Cat.
"What is this I here about a mutual attraction?" A voice asked, and Darcy turned in her seat to see Bucky wandering into the room. He was eyeing Natasha, a sly smirk on his face when he glanced at Darcy. Like he also knew something.
"That's definitely my queue to leave." Darcy stated, grabbing her book and hurrying out the door, smiling when she heard Natasha speaking Russian excitedly.
Seems like she would have to relocate to Bruce's lab for some quiet to read her book.
Darcy likes Bruce. He's cool, calm, collected. Neat. Unlike other 'scientists' she knows. Also, he doesn't speak often when he's working, unlike Jane, who babbles on as if Darcy actually had any idea what she was talking about. It's a nice change. Allows her to read her book in quiet.
Except for one thing. Stark is here. And he doesn't shut up.
"Can it, bolts." Darcy interrupts the jabbering billionaire. Bruce sends her a both amused and helpless look. How he pulls it off, she will never know.
"Lewis, what an unpleasant surprise!" Darcy wasn't hurt. This was how they had a conversation. "A mutual attraction Lewis? Care to share?"
Bruce sent her a confused look.
"How?" Darcy deadpanned.
A wicked smirk appeared on Tony's face. "JARVIS."
Darcy let out a growl, flailing her arms around and cursing to the heavens. Or Asgard.
"I swear your AI wants to hook me up with somebody."
"Somebody in particular?" Stark implied, leaning in his swivel chair a cocking a brow. The curvy brunette looks to Bruce for help, but he just gives her a shrug and returns to his tinkering and science-ing. Betrayer.
"JARVIS, what has Tony asked you to do about my romantic life?"
"Or lack off!" Stark quips. Darcy throws a screw at him.
"Sir has asked me to drop subtle hints of your brewing romance with Mr. Maximoff, Miss Lewis."
"'Subtle'?" Darcy demands, then turns to Tony. "'Brewing romance'?"
Stark just shrugs. "What can I say? I'm a matchmaker in the making."
"Well, your matchmaking skills are lacking."
"So you don't like Zoom Zoom?"
Damn her body for blushing. "No."
"JARVIS, please check if Lewis is ly-"
"Alright! Alright! I get it. Jeez." Darcy exclaimed, hunching her shoulders.
She could Tony was going to say something, but Bruce beat him to it, piping up "You're talking about Pietro right? Quicksilver? He likes you, Darce."
"See?" Tony point a screwdriver at Bruce, spins around on his chair to face her again. "We're scientists. We're always right."
"Uh huh."
"Clint."
Silence.
Darcy flings a pen at the air vent. Hard. She ain't mucking around anymore.
There's a little metallic bang when the pen hits the vent, before a much louder one that Darcy is sure is a human body. Bingo.
"Fucking Christ Darcy." Clint's voice is playful as the guard is moved and replaced by his grinning face.
Darcy grins back. This is only the second time she's caught him sneaking up on her. The interruption was welcomed too. She'd been overthinking what everybody had been saying about Pietro.
"You've been through worse at my hands." Darcy closes her book (which she hadn't read a word of since this morning) and watches as Clint lowers himself down, dropping and landing almost without a sound. He had found her in one of the little alcoves that were her hidden oasis. Steve had shown her this one.
"What's up with you being a ninja today? Wanda finally got sick of you? Took her awhile."
"You wish." Darcy gave him a look. "I'm here on official business. Classified only. Top-secret stuff. Things only for certain ears to hear and certain eyes to-"
"Get to the point, Legolas."
"Do you like Flash?"
Darcy scowled. This was getting tiring. "Are you serious? You stalked me to ask that? Who gave you this top-secret mission? Was it Tony? Bruce? Damn scientists! Wait! I bet it was Natasha. Or Bucky. Or Both!"
"Whoa whoa whoa! Calm down Darce, it was just a question." Clint had his hands up in mock surrender, his face all innocent looking. Darcy could see the smile behind it though.
"Do you know how many people have teased me about him? More than I can count on one hand!" that wasn't true, but she wasn't about to tell him that.
"Alright. I get where you're coming from. Just think about- yeah never mind." Clint was shot down with Darcy's look. He threw himself down on the couch Darcy had inhabited before going on her little rant, placing his hands behind his head and squirming around.
"Comfy there?"
"Completely." Clint replied with a grin.
She's in the kitchen (which is usually abandoned because the most the Avengers eat is takeout) cooking some vanilla cupcakes (they help her when she's stressed, okay?) when Steve wanders in and takes a stool by where she's working.
"Please, not you too." Darcy begs, letting her head thunk against the granite bench.
"What have they done now?" Steve tiredly asks, his I'm-always-out-of-the-loop-and-sometimes-I'm-thankful-for-it smile on his face.
"They keep badgering me about Lightning." Darcy answered, taking a tray of little goodies and putting another batch in. When Darcy bakes, she bakes in bulk. Which is a good thing when you live in the Avengers Tower.
"Pietro?"
"Yeah. Him."
"Oh." Steve looks down at his large hands, then back up at her with his big blue eyes and Darcy thinks 'damn, if Pietro hadn't sped off with my heart Rogers would be next in line."
There's a bubble of laughter coming from their left and there's blush covering Steve's cheeks and Darcy's blushing too and asking "Oh shit, I said that out loud, didn't I?"
"Yes you did." Sam chuckles, striding into the room and taking a seat beside the Cap. Darcy smacks his hand away when he tries to take a fresh cupcake.
"You have to wait!" Darcy chastises, "I haven't made the icing yet."
Steve's chuckling and Sam's giving Darcy a salute and a 'yes ma'am" before deliberately placing his hands flat on the bench, far away from Darcy's masterpieces.
"Damn straight." The brunette mutters, turning to the pantry to get icing sugar (a lot) and other things needed. When she makes her way out again, both men sitting at the bench are staring at her expectantly, eyebrows raised.
"What?" Darcy inquires, ignoring the cold finger running down her back.
The stare at her for another moment before Sam opens his mouth. "So Darcy, someone 'sped off' with your heart? Finally!"
Darcy glared "Shut it, Bird boy."
"Shutting it, ma'am." He affirmed.
Steve was shaking his head, smiling brightly and Darcy thinks maybe he is always overlooked. It's sad. She distracted herself from that thought by measuring out her ingredients for icing.
Spending the next hour talking with Sam and Steve about random stuff was great. Alien invasions were discussed. Violent robots. Gossiping about the Avengers not present. Halfway through, Sam went off (humming 'The Flash' theme dammit), saying something about being slaughtered by Natasha, leaving Steve and Darcy alone.
She was about half done the icing (she wanted to make it perfect!) when the timer beeped and Steve volunteered to ice while she got them out. After putting the third, and last, batch in she returned to see Steve doing a better job than she was.
When asked, he explained that he used to be artist, and with a blush admitted he rather liked it.
Darcy asked him if he wanted to continue and, with gaining a hesitant confirmation, left him to his own decorating devices to go take a nap (in other words, surf the internet).
"JARVIS? Can you let me know just before the timer beeps?" Darcy asked, stepping into the elevator and pressing her floor. She still couldn't believe Stark gave her and Jane a whole floor.
"Of course Miss Lewis."
"Thanks buddy, and please call me Darcy."
"Darce, come on! Darcy? Darcy?"
The brunette sat up straight in her bed, surprised she had actually gone to sleep, and rueful she was woken up so soon. She searched around for the person who had disturbed her from a lovely dream starring a man with a lovely accent.
"Darcy? Darcy? Oh! There you are! It feels like I've been searching for hours through these blankets. How many have you got?"
Jane. It's Jane who woke her up. Cursed scientists.
"Not enough." Darcy replied, snuggling in deeper into her mountain of warm blankets.
"Come on Darcy! I found something new."
Something new turned out to be an equation that did something Darcy couldn't pronounce, but jeez did it have Tony's knickers in a twist. Even Bruce got all excited.
She checked the time and cursed loudly. Her cupcakes! The three scientists didn't even glance as she bolted out the door.
"JARVIS?" she yelled, even though she didn't need to and she was alone in the elevator, pressing the button repeatedly. "What happened to the cup-"
The elevator doors opened with a ping, and Darcy gasped. There was mess . . . everywhere.
On the walls, across the kitchen, on the floor, on the table and oh look on the roof too.
The Avengers were all there too, minus three nutty scientists. Covered in splattered cupcakes.
They all stopped moving when they saw her, and her eyes skimmed the mashed cupcake in Clint's hand aimed at Bucky and Wanda, a spotless Natasha dumping icing into Thor's hair, passed Pietro squashing half a small goody into Sam's face to find Steve, who was standing over a whole tray overturned and looking guilty.
"Look Darcy, I left for a sec-" he started.
"Don't worry Steve. Doesn't matter." Darcy said with a smile that felt fake even to her. "No harm done."
"But-" he was interrupted by the elevator doors closing.
Darcy stepped back until her back hit the cool metal, sighing and sliding down to sit on her ass.
"Miss Lewis I apol-"
"Doesn't matter!" Darcy singsongs with fake bravo.
"Of course, Darcy."
She doesn't even smile when JARVIS uses her given name.
She arrives at her floor quickly and makes her way to the shower, putting on some warm, baggy clothes and grabbing the ice cream before plunking on the couch with some blankets to watch cheesy soap operas. Jane comes in sometime and Darcy's only half aware of her turning off the TV and draping another blanket over her before wandering off. The next time she's conscious, it's about two in the morning and she is starving. Darcy's a big girl, and she eats big. She's also only eaten ice cream and cupcake mix in the last twelve hours. Therefore, time for a trip to the kitchen.
Darcy ties her hair up in a messy ponytail, forgoing changing because only Stark would be up at this hour. Oh, how she was wrong.
It was the second time today elevator doors had opened and she gasped.
It was a sight to see. Really. Definitely not what you witness everyday.
"Fuck!" Pietro cursed, wiping his hands on the pink apron Darcy owned, smudging absurd amounts flour across it. His hands flittered so fast Darcy couldn't even see them as he stirred a huge bowl of baking mix. Was that butter in his hair? Darcy petted her back pocket, smirking when she felt the outline of her trusty IPod. She tried not to move quickly as she lifted it up, taking a photo and flinching when there was the classic noise of a camera shutter.
Oh shit.
Darcy glanced up from her iPod, cursing her blush she was sure was obvious. Pietro was looking up at her, looking thoroughly startled and absolutely gorgeous. He was frozen in the act of spooning out mixture into flower printed baking cups. He opened his mouth a couple times. Closes it. Gapes again like a fish. In a flash, he was gone, the wooden spoon (Darcy would have a fit if she wasn't so surprised that he was using a wooden spoon to pour) clattering on the bench.
Darcy took a couple hesitant steps forward. "Ah, Pietro? Where have you gone?"
There was a scuffle and a muffled curse from behind the bench.
"Pietro? Oh my god, are you behind the counter?" Darcy giggled, inching closer and closer. She was just about to peak over when she saw the mess on the bench. "Oh. My. God. What have you done?" there was flour everywhere, measuring cups spread out all across the counter, a cooking book almost ripped in half (he'd definitely get a mouthful for that later) and was that a crack in the bowl?
Darcy flinched back when he appeared in front of her. "Cooking." He provided, rubbing the back of his neck and wincing. How did his accent make the dreariest of words exciting?
"Cooking?" Darcy repeated, glancing around the kitchen.
"Yes."
"Cupcakes?"
"Yes."
"Vanilla?"
"Trying to."
"Allright."
They stared at each other for a moment, then glanced away quickly in sync. Darcy stared at the mess that would make old Grandmother Lewis turn in the grave. She made up her mind.
"I'm pretty sure we're gonna have to scrap this entire batch, but lucky for us, Stark loves to hoard. That includes baking things."
"Us?" Pietro asked and Darcy smothered (unsuccessfully) a smile at the piece of egg shell on his forehead.
"Us."
BONUS.
"Oh my god, look at them!" Tony squealed excitedly, clapping his hands quickly as Darcy and Pietro set about the kitchen. Well, mostly Darcy. Pietro was just used as an electric mixture. Except quicker.
"Pietro will be a great match for Lady Darcy indeed." Thor commented, looking half asleep. Next to him, Bruce was already dead to the world.
"Oh look! She's picking butter out of his hair!" Natasha exclaimed.
"How cute." Bucky replied, staring at Natasha with those eyes.
"Ew! You two please, no scary assassin sex in here." Clint cried, looking over at the affectionate pair from his seat by Wanda, whom was half asleep leaning into his side.
Natasha and Bucky stood from their seats in the lab and left intimately close, though Natasha had time to call out to Tony to send her the recording.
"Will do." Tony called back, eyes focused as he watched Darcy hold out the bowl for Pietro to taste. Steve rose from his chair, smiling and calling it a night also.
Wanda smuggling deeper into Clint side, murmuring sleepily about how her brother would be lost without her.