Darcy packed with the kind of joy she hadn't felt in forever.

Not since she and Jane decided they were going to move to the compound had she felt like this, actually.

She bought a hat. The only hats Darcy ever wore were her beanies, and she'd kind of grown out of those over the years.

She found her contact lenses and got used to wearing those more, anticipating the ocean exploring she'd do, with absolutely zero blurriness.

She bought three different bikinis.

She tried ignoring her patches of cellulite. Those fuckers usually got her down, the way they made her legs look like sausage meat stuffed in a cheesecloth in the wrong light.

She kept checking herself when she had her doubts with Bruce.

Did he actually hate her and not want her around?

So what?

She kept her physical distance from him but was always attentive, making him feel as relaxed as possible in their lab.

Hawaii became the thing she thought about most.

"You excited? Two weeks to go!"

She gave Bruce an exaggerated thumbs up, and he chuckled softly.

"I dunno. There's crowds."

"Not if you go to the right places," Darcy said, opting to point at him instead with her index finger, winking.

"That's true," Bruce said.

They were having a tea break and he sipped from Darcy's Garfield mug, one she had from before college.

She liked sharing things with the people around her, and so slowly Bruce was adopting a lot of her things without complaint.

"I hid around Hawaii for a while," Bruce added, and Darcy stared at him.

"Oh."

"So you're right, there's plenty of privacy there, too."

Darcy dropped that line of conversation, tapping her ring on her own mug, a rainbow one she bought last month for Pride.

"You're going, though, right? Because if you don't go, I can't either. Unless you're going to get a temp."

"No," Bruce said, slightly louder than necessary. "I don't want a whole new person here while you're gone. I want to go, anyway."

"That's good!"

Darcy nodded at him encouragingly.

There was a beat.

"Are you going to see Natasha while you're there?"

"There it is," Bruce muttered, and he looked up at the ceiling for a second.

Darcy started laughing and then didn't think she could stop.

It was still a sensitive topic, and since Darcy wanted Bruce to be happy since her job partly depended on his satisfaction, meddling may have been interest of hers for the past few weeks since Jane left.

"It is a romantic place."

"It's a total cliché, Darcy," Bruce retorted.

There was another beat.

"So you and I will be going there for strictly business?" Darcy said, one eyebrow raised. "Sure, boss."

"Don't call me that," Bruce said automatically. "You know it makes me uncomfortable."

"Some things are worth being uncomfortable for," Darcy replied, winking again. "Like a moonlit swim with Black Widow."

Bruce shot her a look. "You've never actually met her, have you?"

"What's to know?" Darcy took another sip of her tea. "I heard you were the one with the commitment issues, anyway."

"Crossing into a really personal territory, Darcy," Bruce said.

There was no hint of grumpiness or warning but Darcy knew she was nudging him too much.

"I care if that aspect of your life is neglected," Darcy said, shrugging a little. "If you're shitty because of sexual frustration, I'd like to fix that."

Bruce went pink in the face, and put down his mug and looked away.

"Not like that, Bruce. Jesus," Darcy added hastily, knowing how she sounded.

She could imagine a jealous Black Widow chasing after her if she ever found about them hooking up.

But now that she thought about it, she had no idea how Natasha Romanoff would react.

"Actually. Not the worst idea."

She said it aloud without realizing.

"Darcy, that's flattering. You're a beautiful woman –"

"No!" Darcy yelled. "I don't mean literally. Get on my wavelength, my man. Natasha just needs to think we're hooking up. In Hawaii. And then she'll pounce on you."

Bruce surprised her by retorting, "What makes you think I'm incapable of pouncing on her?"

Darcy paused, gaping. "Okay. I'll stop prying."

Clearly she had nothing to worry about.

An hour later, Bruce acted like they were still having the same conversation.

He sidled up to her desk, looking over a tiny plastic palm tree she'd stuck to her stapler.

It wasn't practical, but she saw it at the store the other day and it felt right.

"What about you?"

"Huh?"

Darcy looked up from her paperwork.

"Your – sexual frustration?"

Bruce hesitated, and then his eyes widened a little, realizing they weren't on the same page.

"I sound like Tony."

Darcy burst out laughing, Tony Stark's reputation something no-one could avoid hearing about. At least, it was his reputation before he married Pepper Potts.

There was an awkward silence once Darcy stopped laughing, but she decided to sidestep it and shrugged.

"Uh. Am I frustrated? Sure. But it's not – it's not a big deal."

She didn't look Bruce in the eye though, and he probably noticed that.

He had called her beautiful before. And that felt nice, but she didn't have a line of men out the door after her, either.

She did this to herself. She didn't usually date even when she lived in Puente Antiguo, and her thirst probably showed too much when Thor showed up.

She and Bruce pretty much dropped the sex talk after that.

Darcy just focused on trying to save as much money as possible for the trip. She wasn't paying for her room and most of her food, but if she wanted to sightsee and buy stuff in Hawaii, that was coming out of her wallet.

The night before, she could barely sleep. The excitement was so overwhelming that she FaceTimed Jane, who fortunately had the same shoddy sleep schedule as when she worked with Darcy.

The pixelated face that greeted her was distracted, probably in the middle of writing something when Darcy called.

"Jane? Are you there?"

"Partway."

There was a clatter, probably a pen falling off Jane's desk and she cursed under her breath.

Jane's face changed to pleasant.

"I'm okay. Just busy."

"You like busy."

"Yeah, it's my –" Jane punctuated the words with pointed keystrokes. " – thing. Are you packed for tomorrow?"

"I packed last week."

"Seriously?"

"What? I was excited."

"I'm happy for you," Jane said, but it didn't sound right.

Darcy frowned. "Uh, okay."

"What?"

"You could have come to Hawaii. But you wanted to be in London right now. Even though you have an amazing reputation in your field and anybody would be dying to hire you."

Darcy knew this conversation was going to go one of maybe two different ways. She waited for Jane to speak.

"You could've –"

"What?" Darcy snapped.

"You could've come with me. To London. You're my assistant."

"Was."

Darcy saw Jane's jaw tick. She was holding back.

Jane looked away.

"I should get going. Go to bed."

She never said things like that, and Darcy knew Jane was going to shut her out for a while. She wasn't sure how she was meant to deal with that without crying or lashing out.

"Jane, I wanted to stay. I want to help people."

"Help people by getting Bruce Banner tea and organize his desk?"

That was a low blow, and completely untrue, and they both knew it.

Darcy was so much more than that when she was Jane's assistant.

And Darcy had shared with Jane her woes about job insecurity.

"See you, Jane."

Darcy shut off her phone, tossing it aside on her bed, harrumphing.