It was the kind of heat that stifled your lungs and necessitated a second shower exactly two minutes after stepping outside. Darcy groaned and held her (formerly) iced coffee to her forehead. Spending her summer break visiting Jane in New York had sounded like a good plan a month ago. Hanging out on rooftops and hitting every tourist spot with one of her best friends? Amazing.

Well, it was until Jane made some kind of breakthrough and now Darcy hadn't seen her in three days, leaving the former intern to wander the city in search of entertainment. And she would have been happy to look around by herself in normal circumstances. But this humidity? It tortured her sanity and hair.

Darcy pulled the now-also-hot coffee cup from her head and tried to angrily throw it in the garbage next to her, but she lacked the energy to even do that properly and the cup bounced off the edge of the bin. She groaned again and started to peel herself from the park bench she had been melting on for the past half hour.

Just as she reached the cup, which had stopped rolling in the middle of the path a couple feet in front of her bench, a jogger stomped down on it and sent her caramel coffee spraying all over.

"Holy shit," she yelped. "Hot! Sticky! Jesus!" Coffee covered her shirt and dripped off her glasses.

The runner stopped and ran back to her side, with a look of despair on his face and coffee on his white Nikes.

"I am so sorry, ma'am," he said, moving his hands around like he wanted to help her up but didn't know how.

Darcy stood and punted the coffee cup towards the trash can.

"It's okay." She tried to clean her glasses with her shirt, but settled for the back of her shorts and it was the only part of her clothing not completely drenched. "I wasn't sure if I could possibly be more uncomfortable, but now I know."

She put her glasses back on and looked at the jogger. He was frowning but adorable. Darcy knew he'd be straight-up hot with a smile. She grinned and felt a blush creep up. Hopefully coffee covered part of it. His frown slowly turned into a grin as well. Well, I was definitely right, she thought.

"I'd offer to buy you another coffee," he said. "But I get the sense that you didn't want that one anyway?"

"Um, yeah. It's way too obnoxiously hot for that anyway. Plus, I look atrocious right now," she said and gestured to her shirt.

He shook his head and smirked. "I wouldn't say that... but I'll agree on the heat. Ice cream instead?"

"Ice cream is never a question." Darcy could feel the sticky caramel coffee drying on her skin. "If I can stop and change on the way, that is." She stuck her hand out towards him. "Darcy, by the way."

"Sam," he said, taking her hand and shaking it. His skin was hot too, but she didn't mind.

They walked the four blocks back to the tower and talked about what Darcy had done in NYC so far and the rest of her to-do list. Sam was also new to the city and helped her with his own recommendations.

Darcy stopped in front of the tower and motioned toward the front doors.

"I'll just change and clean up real quick. Security here is a bitch, though, so you can wait here if you'd like." She didn't know the guy anyway and inviting him up would not be a great idea. Hiding from Tony Stark in her current state would be hard enough as it was.

"Wait," Sam said. He looked at the tower, confused, and back at Darcy. "You're staying here?"

"Well… yeah…," Darcy squinted at him. "I'm staying with a friend who lives here."

"Lives here?" He pointed at the tower and then placed his hands on his hips. "Lives here in this tower?" She nodded.

"Yes, Sam." Darcy, still squinting, looked at the tower again to make sure she wasn't hallucinating in the heat and had gone to the wrong place. "Is that… bad?"

"Bad? No," Sam replied, chuckling. "Funny, though, because I live here."

Darcy gave him the side-eye. "You live here? You live in this tower?"

Sam covered his face with his hands and was now laughing loudly.

"Well, I'm going to go inside while you recover. And then we'll sort this out over ice cream. My brain is too fried to figure out what the hell is going on right now." Darcy left the giggling Sam outside and quickly walked inside. The lobby was wonderfully cool and Darcy attempted to stand directly below an air vent while she waited for an elevator.

"Sorry about that," Sam said, appearing at her side. "This is just pure gold. Though, I'm not going to wait outside my own building while you change. Might as well go up myself."

The elevator doors opened and the two stepped inside. Darcy wondered if now might be the time to check if Sam was legit or some creepo murderer. She moved towards the floor buttons and innocently asked, "Which floor?"

"What's up, Jarvis?" Sam said, looking directly at Darcy.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Wilson," Jarvis replied. Darcy's jaw dropped. "Would you like to go home?"

"Yes, please."

"Me too, Jarvis," Darcy said, not taking her eyes off Sam.

"Of course, Miss Lewis." The elevator started its ascent and Darcy leaned back against the wall.

"Seriously though? You gotta be fucking joking," she said, raking a hand through her hair. "What's your thing? Super soldier, spy, suit, science?"

Sam leaned against the opposite wall. "None, technically. I work with Cap. You?"

"None. I'm visiting Jane." Sam nodded and seemed to be holding back a grin. "Go ahead, say it."

"You're the one who tased Thor, then?"

Darcy looked down at her stained shoes. "It's a good thing I'm proud of that since I'll be hearing about it for the rest of my life."

The elevator dinged and the doors opened to the common room on her - their - level. Darcy started towards her temporary room, then stopped and turned back to look at Sam. "I'm going to change and - if it's not too weird at this point - we can eat ice cream here? If Thor didn't inhale it already, that is."

Sam stepped towards her and if he were anyone else she would have punched him out of her personal space, but she quickly decided that she liked him being near. "Definitely not weird. Better, actually, since I wanted to meet taser girl anyway." He winked and walked backwards away from her, towards where she knew the Captain's residence was. "And I'll bring my popsicle stash since I kind of owe you anyway." He turned and disappeared around a corner.

Darcy stared after him, ruminating over her luck and chewing on her bottom lip.

The elevator dinged again and Jane rushed out. "Darcy! I'm the worst ever! I'm going to make it up to you, I sw-" Darcy put her hand over Jane's mouth.

"Jane." Darcy slowly lowered her hand. "Go back to the lab." Jane looked at Darcy with a mixture of disbelief and relief.

"Are you sure? I mean, if you're sure." Darcy narrowed her eyes and pointed to the elevator. "If you say so. Okay, bye!" Jane laughed maniacally and grabbed a box of pop tarts from nearby kitchen counter before rushing back inside the elevator. "You said it and you can't take it back," she yelled as the doors closed again.

"Wouldn't dream of it, Janey," Darcy said as she walked back to Jane's rooms, suddenly very grateful for New York in the summer.