This is Our Song
Part Two
"Ah, yes. Hawkeye. Table eight, sitting between Director Fury and Doctor Banner." Not that Darcy couldn't have guessed. The warm hand she'd just shaken felt like it was made up of a million tiny calluses and it wasn't as if there were a horde of archers in The Avengers. "Just don't tell the director that I skipped the mundane names on the place cards. It's not going to be every wedding that I get to use my epic calligraphy skills to write out things like 'Captain America' and 'Black Widow'."
Clint lifted his hand in a mock salute. "As the bridesmaid requests."
"Good. Glad we've established the chain of command so easily," Darcy replied, folding her arms under her chest and giving an approving nod. A nod which was also a careful cover so she could give Hawkeye another look over. When did a handshake become sexy? flickered through her mind as Darcy took in the broad shoulders, arms that seemed ready to test the durability of his jacket's seams and... Darcy gave her head a shake. Bad Darcy, she admonished herself. Don't be the bridesmaid that gets caught having sex in the laundry room.
If Clint had noticed Darcy eyeing him up, he seemed particularly unbothered. He'd returned to surveying the room, his gaze making regular sweeps back and forth. Darcy forced herself to avoid being a drooling Avengers fangirl and shifted in her seat to see how the rest of the party was faring. As if on cue, a well-dressed waiter glided by with a tray of champagne and Darcy was quick to snag a flute. Of course, Clint passed with a short shake of his head, not even pausing a moment to see what was on offer. Taking a sip of what she assumed to be very expensive alcohol, Darcy waved her free hand wildly until the waiter brought the tray back. Plucking up another thin stemmed glass and getting to her feet, Darcy leaned precariously across the table and placed the champagne firmly in front of Clint.
"It's a wedding. A wedding with probably the entire National Guard plus every able bodied man from Blackwater working security. I know this cool, calm and focused thing is probably your default setting, but you are actually allowed to relax and have some fun." When Clint didn't take the champagne, Darcy nudged the glass a couple of inches closer with her fingertip. "C'mon... if I drink alone, I'll be borderline alcoholic."
That did at least raise a smile. "I'm not a big drinker."
Darcy frowned up at him before taking back his full glass. She looked at it, then back at her own. Placing her drink back on the table, Darcy waited for the bubbles to settle before lifting Clint's untouched flute and very, very carefully she began to pour his champagne into her own. When her glass was about to overflow, she tipped his glass back upright and made a slight show of checking the amount of sparking champagne remaining. Nodding to herself in approval, she leaned over once more and positioned the now half-empty glass firmly on the table directly in front of Clint. "There," she said cheerfully. "Now you don't have a big drink to worry about."
Clint stared at his drink and then at Darcy, who eyed him back with her own implacable-steel-face expression. He slowly picked it up and inclined it forwards in preparation for a toast. Holding the champagne flute perfectly steady, he waited while Darcy hurriedly sipped her own near-overflowing drink until she was able to lift it and clink the glass against his.
"To the happy couple," said Clint, before withdrawing his champagne and knocking it back in one gulp.
"To the happy couple," Darcy echoed, lowering herself again into the chair and indulging just the briefest of smug smiles. Seriously, she wanted to ply the guy with booze all night just to see the ripple of muscles moving under his jacket when he lifted a glass. And not like he wasn't getting the absolute best view of her cleavage each time she bent herself across that big old table. About to gesture for another waiter, her Machiavellian plans were interrupted when Pepper and Tony, hand in hand, approached the table.
"Mind if we join you?" asked Pepper graciously. Tony however had launched himself in a chair next to Darcy and wrapped a friendly arm around her shoulder in greeting before Pepper had even finished her sentence.
"Of course they don't mind. And if they do... well, wedding rest breaks need to be carefully timed otherwise the party spirit might depart and neither of these guys wants to be the first to call it a night. Right Miss Lewis?"
"Damn right Mr Stark. I do have a reputation to maintain," Darcy retorted back. She fell easily into the casual banter they'd established during the several visits to the Stark estate while wedding plans and diagrams were being mapped out. Though with his arm still draped around her, she could only assume the alcohol was encouraging Iron Man to be a little more affectionate than usual. Pepper didn't seem to mind, taking her own seat on the other side of Tony and spending a few moments to compliment Darcy on how beautiful she looked and how lovely the wedding was. Tony indulged Pepper her girlie talk for about ninety seconds before setting his attention on Clint.
"Hawk, get down off your perch and come be sociable on the fun side of the table." To emphasise his point, Tony slung his arms around Darcy and Pepper's waists and drew them both to his sides. "Or don't. More pretty girls for me then." Darcy didn't need to look to know Tony had his showman smile plastered on his face. Still wasn't sure when they'd become public-hugging type friends... but Tony's hand was firmly placed in a non-erogenous spot somewhere near her kidney so she was happy enough to play along.
"I think what Tony meant to say," Pepper added, having smoothly moved herself into a more dignified position, "was that we were incredibly rude leaving you sitting on your own." She gestured towards the empty chair next to Darcy. "Please come join us." Somewhere in her brain, Darcy registered that the wonderful Pepper was encouraging Clint to come nudge the edge of her personal space. The rest of Darcy's brain was unfortunately also momentarily distracted by a comment Tony has whispered into her ear, though Pepper didn't miss the slight twitch of Clint's jaw when Darcy burst into giggles at whatever Stark had said.
"That... sure. Thank you," said Clint before he uncurled himself from the chair with a grace that snapped Darcy's focus back in that direction. It was only a few steps and he was suddenly sitting beside her, but she'd tracked his every movement with almost dizzying attention. It was like seeing the genetically engineered love child of a dancer from So You Think You Can Dance and one of those ripped MMA fighter. Darcy was able to enjoy eye candy with the best of them but this... Tony had already disengaged his casual hug and Darcy was making silent prayers to any higher being paying attention for that calloused archer's hand to make it's way onto her waist... or thigh... or anywhere with nerve endings. Instead she was left with a slight stab of disappointment when Clint folded his arms firmly over his chest.
Laundry. Sex. Skanky bridesmaid. Oh my god Darcy, stop drooling over the poor guy. Mental self-slapping over.
"Soooooo," started Darcy. "I hear there's going to be a limited edition Avengers iPod range? True or false?" Completely untrue, she already knew... even if it was a good idea. But it started the conversation and soon there was a plan for Stark industries to design its own music player with exclusive Avengers merchandising rights. Clint interjected when Darcy tried to come up with a colour theme to distinguish the Hawkeye model and succinctly nixed any use of purple or its variants. Darcy tried to argue that violet highlights would not make the music coming out any less manly but when Clint asked Tony if Black Sabbath ever had 'purple highlights' on their album covers, Darcy found Tony suddenly on the opposite side of her argument. But the next few minutes spent forcing Tony to justify his love of 80s metal made up for it until Pepper decided to rescue her boyfriend and start drawing Clint out on his taste in music. When Darcy learnt that Clint hadn't even gotten his own iTunes account, she couldn't believe anyone was living in such a deprived state of existence and immediately started mentally planning her next download session around creating a playlist for him.
Her internal musing about the best song for track 18 was derailed when Clint and Tony simultaneously stopped mid conversation. It was only when both men tapped their ears that Darcy noticed they wore the same camouflaged earpieces Natasha had on earlier. Obviously, none of the Avengers, apart from Thor, had completely turned off work mode for this wedding. Pepper had a look of concern that Darcy figured mirrored her own expression, though Darcy knew she was fidgeting a lot more at Tony's sharp responses of "How many?"- "Location"- "No, we'll handle it. Just get on the wire if the 100 yard perimeter is breached." And with a swift tap, Tony deactivated the voice transmitter on his earpiece. He was reaching for a top up of champagne when Pepper moved the glass out of his reach. "Oh, that?" Tony shrugged and diverted his nimble fingers to grasp the bottle of whiskey a waiter had been ordered to deposit shortly before. "Guards picked up a breach. JARVIS is fairly sure it's just some lone paparazzi who thinks sneaking into a god's wedding is a good idea. But since none of us would be shocked if Loki had actually found a way to disrupt his brother's wedding, I thought it best if one of us hardier types went and checked it out."
Pepper deftly moved to stopper the top of the whiskey bottle with her palm before Tony could take a swig. "And you said you were going to take care of it..?" her voice trailed off, even as one of her eyebrow rose expectantly.
"Actually, no. I said we. Which really meant them," Tony jerked his head towards Darcy and Clint before laying a kiss on the back of Pepper's hand. Which didn't dislodge her palm from the whiskey but she did compromise and slide the champagne back across the table to him.
"Us?" Darcy's voice held firm, though she knew a stammer had been threatening to break through. It was late, she was a little buzzed on champagne and while tracking down a faux-tographer didn't faze her so much, the prospect of running into Loki or one of his minions was maybe just a tiny bit nerve wracking. Or maybe it was the sudden possibility of being in the vast Stark gardens with just Clint that was causing the sudden churning in her stomach. Fear... lust... sometimes a little hard to distinguish between.
Clint however didn't hesitate. With barely any exertion, he reached beneath the linen tablecloth and drew out his black compressed bow and a quiver of arrows. Shrugging out of his jacket, Clint slung the quiver over his left shoulder and stood in one fluid motion. "I'll go solo. If there's a chance it's something hostile out there, we shouldn't take unnecessary risks." He avoided looking at Darcy directly, who wasn't sure if she was thrilled about his concern or offended that she was being labelled as 'unnecessary'.
Busy working his kisses up Pepper's arm in apparently pursuit of the whiskey's release, Tony paused at Clint's comments. "You're a big boy Barton. I'm sure you can defeat the bad guy and keep Miss Lewis safe at the same time. I'm actually more worried it is just some remarkably dumb TMZ wannabe that inevitably would be dumb enough to try something with you and the time-consuming lawsuit that happens after. At least if Miss Lewis is along, we'll have a witness that can swear the camera impaled itself on the arrow."
There was a slight pause while Clint was drawing his breath to argue. In that briefest of moments, Darcy took in the clenching of his fingers around the hard bow, the tense set of his jaw and the slight crease in his brow while he clearly got ready to deliver another reason that she should stay here in safety. And suddenly, he was suddenly just a soldier, about to leave the party to go waste time chasing down some random tabloid douchebag. Darcy pictured Clint sitting alone on his chair before she'd joined him and with that image in mind, she knew more than anything she didn't want him to spend any second tonight stuck on his lonesome. So she stood up, stopping Clint from whatever he was about to say.
"Well, then... let's get this ninja squad on the road." Darcy straightened her spine and placed her hands on her hips, figuring a hero pose would help divert any further arguments. There was at least a few seconds of drawn out silence while Darcy, Tony and Pepper's focus was entirely on Clint, waiting for his response.
Clint simply propped his bow against the table, reached for his jacket and held it open towards Darcy. "In case you get cold. Or need something with some Kevlar lining." As Darcy was beginning to learn was normal, his tone gave nothing away on his current emotional state, so she wasn't entirely sure how thrilled or not-thrilled he was about her volunteering to tag along. But he didn't say no outright... good sign? Slightly self-conscious, she rotated one arm and then another into the still-warm sleeves of Clint's wedding jacket but before the weight of the garment had settled onto her shoulders, Darcy felt the lightest of touches brush her skin as Clint carefully lifted her errant curls of hair off her neck. When the jacket was in place, he lowered his hand to drape the dark locks gently over the collar. Poker face still on, Clint retrieved his bow, giving Darcy's heart a chance to recover from the several beats it had just skipped.
"Don't worry," said Tony, blithely interrupting the moment. "We'll hold the fort here."
"Good luck," added Pepper. Darcy could only nod as she slipped her feet back into her pretty-but-pinch-y shoes, Clint waiting calmly by her side. After Darcy was ready, Clint extended the bow with one flick of his wrist before he guided them away from Pepper, Tony and the wedding celebrations towards the vast forest estate in search of the impolite party crasher... who really did have no idea just what was about to hit him.
