Darcy woke up to someone sprawled half on top of her.

She groaned, one hand flailing out, searching for her glasses.

"Steve," She slurred, fumbling for the nightstand next to the bed.

"What's happening'?" Steve muttered into her neck.

"Can't find my glasses." Darcy mumbled back, half asleep. "Too early…"

"wha — Darcy?" Steve shifted on top on her, trying to get back onto his side of the bed.

Sometime in the night, they must have rolled, Darcy on her back and Steve somehow sprawled on top on her. Darcy was too tired to feel embarrassed.

"Do you see my glasses?" She asked Steve, who had managed to get the blankets off of them both and was getting out of bed. "Fuck, it's cold."

Steve shivered, but glanced around, trying to find her glasses, too.

"Found them!" He bent down, reaching underneath the nightstand. "They must have gotten knocked off during the night or something." His face flushed. Apparently, it wasn't too early for him to feel embarrassed about the way they had woken up.

"Tired," Darcy muttered, yanking the blankets back over her body. "Come back to bed, Steve."

Steve's face got even more red, and he glanced away from her.

"It's cold, Steve. Let's go back to sleep."

"Uh…" Steve set Darcy's glasses carefully on the nightstand. "All right… I'll be right back."

He quickly left the bedroom, darting for the bathroom.

Darcy closed her eyes, wishing she was back asleep already.

She felt the bed shifting slightly as Steve climbed back into it, pulling the blankets up to cover himself as well as her.

"G'Night," Darcy muttered to him, falling back asleep quickly.

The next time she woke up, it was to the smell of food cooking.

The place where Steve had slept next to her — had wrapped himself around her in the night — was empty, the blankets drawn back over her body.

Steve must have gotten up to make breakfast...

Darcy rolled out of bed, missing the warmth of the blankets as soon as her feet hit the floor. She got her clothes she was going to wear out of her suitcase — she and Steve hadn't unpacked yet — and went to the bathroom to change and get ready for the day.

When she got downstairs and into the kitchen, Steve was just taking something off the stove.

"good morning, Darcy." He said to her, turning to smile at her. "You were still sleeping when I woke up, and I didn't wanna wake you, so I figured I'd come down here and see if there was any food in the fridge and pantry." He gestured to the pan he had just taken off the stove. "We have fresh looking eggs, there's some oat meal in the pantry and some cereal. We should head into town after breakfast, buy some more food."

"Sounds like a plan, Steve." Darcy smiled, sitting at the table. "No milk or juice?"

"No, there wasn't much in the fridge."

"We should write a list of everything we'll have to buy at the store." Darcy told him, and Steve nodded in agreement.

The only sound as they ate was the sound of forks on plates.

After breakfast, Darcy and Steve got into the car, Steve holding the map. Darcy would drive to the store and Steve would drive back to the house. They had written a list of things they would need to get, which Steve also held.

"What should we do after we're done at the store and back here?" Darcy asked, yawning.

"We'll figure out something to do." Steve told her.

The two of them were still tired, but Steve insisted they not sleep all day; they would never be able to sleep that night if they did.

"I need so much coffee…" Darcy muttered.

"It's on the list, Darcy." Steve smiled. "We can make some when we get back."

Darcy focused on driving, remind herself that there would be coffee soon.

"Uh, so, Steve?" Darcy asked, frowning.

"Yeah?"

"You brought the medication you'll need, right? Like, will we have to stop and grab refills or something?"

Darcy knew his medication was a soar spot for Steve; he didn't like talking about it, didn't like thinking about it, either, from what Darcy could tell.

"I took care of it." Steve replied, frowning down at the map.

"Okay." Darcy tried to smiled for him, but conversations like this always put Steve in a melancholy mood.

"Turn here," Steve pointed to the right turn Darcy was supposed to take.

"Thanks," Darcy smiled more easily now.

The car was silent except for the radio, which was fading in and out, thick with static.

"I brought some movies we both like." Darcy finally broke the silence, mentioning something she'd forgotten to tell Steve yesterday.

Steve glanced at her, then back down at the map. "Thanks, Darcy. I'm sure we'll have plenty of time to watch them."

"We can also see if we can find a bookstore, if you want." She offered, trying to think of things Steve liked to do.

Steve only nodded, still frowning. He looked like he was thinking about something, but since he hadn't mentioned it, Darcy couldn't begin to guess what it might be.

"We can look around, if you want, when we get back. Check out the property." She suggested, and this seemed to perk his curiosity.

They'd been to tired last night to check out what surrounded the house, wanting to get their things inside and get to bed as quickly ask possible.

"Yeah, that sounds like it could be interesting." He agreed, looking a bit more enthusiastic than he had a minute ago.

"Great. Now all we have to do is get this shopping over with." She muttered.

Darcy liked shopping — when it was for electronics. She knew which clothes went together with what, and she did like clothes shopping, she just didn't like to do it very often. Money had been tight for a while, and she'd gotten used to budgeting what little money she earned. Now, with Tony paying her more money than she knew what to do with, she wasn't used to having so much money in her bank account. She was saving some, of course; you never knew when you'd have an emergency and need some cash.

"The town is just up ahead." Steve interrupted her thoughts.

"So it'll take us about half an hour to get to town, then." Darcy replied.

"It seems so."

"Hey, I just thought of something we can do," Darcy excitedly told Steve. "Do you want to pick up some board games? Some cards, too?"

Steve's lips quirked up into smile. "That's a bit old fashioned, isn't it?" He teased.

"No way, dude. I played this stuff all the time when I was growing up."

"Sounds like a plan, then." He replied.

Darcy spotted a grocery store, which she turned the car into, narrowly missing hitting a curb. She'd gotten better at driving, sort of, but she still had the occasional almost-accident.

"We can ask a cashier or something if they have anything else around here." Darcy suggested, glancing at Steve as they made their way into the store.

"That sounds like a good idea." Steve still held the shopping list in one hand, reading it again quickly. "We need milk, some lunch meat, other met like chicken or steak."

"Let's head to the meat section first," Darcy suggested, grabbing a shopping cart.

"We could split up, get things faster." Steve offered, rechecking the list that he had to have memorized at this point.

"If you want to do that, we can, I guess." Darcy replied. "We can take our time, Steve. We're not in any rush."

"I thought it might be easier, is all."

Darcy stifled a sigh. she didn't feel like arguing with Steve — not that she ever felt like arguing with him. He was still in a bit of a bad mood.

"Let's just grab the things we need from the deli, then go down the list. It shouldn't take too long." Darcy compromised.

Steve just nodded, staying silent.

They went through the list fairly quickly, they had grouped what they'd thought would be nearby together, to speed up the grocery shopping.

They also bought ingredients to make home maid hot chocolate, and some teas and coffee. There was already a water filter at the house, so they didn't need to buy bottled water.

When they got to the cash register, the cashier was happy to tell them where the nearest drug store was. The town was too small to have anything like a Walmart.

They loaded the groceries into the backseat of the car and headed over to the drug store.

They'd gotten a deck of cards, along with Scrabble and Monopoly. Darcy liked Scrabble, and Steve had been up for anything.

They returned to the house and decided to make lunch, then played a few games of Scrabble.

After that, they played a few card games. It was nice to do something new together.

"Do you want to play another game of cards?" Darcy asked, glancing at Steve. "We could watch a movie, or look up some recipes online to try and cook. Tony somehow got internet out here, don't ask me how."

"We could make some soup or stew since it'll end up getting colder out." Steve suggested, frowning. "I don't know why Tony had to send us to a place where it'd only gets colder as a month passed."

"Everywhere is going to get colder." Darcy pointed out.

"We're in the mountains now. It gets colder in the mountains, and we'll get snow before everyone else, too." Steve winced a bit.

"Damn." Darcy muttered.

Steve nodded in agreement. "Let's start making something, and we can play another game of cards while we wait for it to be done."

"Sounds good."

The stew they ended up making was delicious. They would have leftovers for a week, too.

They'd put some of the things that could be frozen in the little freezer that was underneath the fridge. They hadn't been able to buy much, because they didn't have the space to put it all. They'd just bought a little of everything on their list. There would have to be several trips to the grocery store in the time they would be spending here.

After a little more exploring, they'd discovered a door in another corner of the kitchen which lead down to a basement. To their relief, there was another refrigerator and freezer.

They spent a few days watching movies and playing different games.

They had gone to the back of the property, but there hadn't been much of interest. There were some trees that they could have used for firewood if either of them could cut one down.

The mountains were cold and only getting colder. They had heat and blankets, and Darcy had finally convinced Steve to go shopping for warm clothes. He had a collection of warm sweaters, sweatshirts and jackets, along with several pairs of warm pants.

"This is pretty fun, right?" Darcy asked, sitting next to Steve on the couch. "No work, no obligations, no deadlines…"

"It is. I haven't had a vacation in… since before the war." Steve kept his eyes on her as he answered the question. "It's very relaxing. The company's great, too."

Darcy felt her face flush with the compliment. "You're not bad yourself, Steve." She grinned. "I haven't had a vacation since before Thor, before I interned with Jane. College was pretty stressful."

Steve's face got as red as Darcy was sure hers was.

"Thank you, Darcy." He smiled. "It… really means a lot to me that you still… that we're still as close as we were before this —" he gestured at his body. "— happened. Women before… they didn't… they weren't — didn't really notice me, or want anything to do with me, other than — other than Peggy."

Darcy swallowed at Steve's words. "I think anyone would be lucky to know you, Steve. You're a really great man. Your personality — your sense of morality — your kindness. They're very… attractive." Darcy's face felt like it was on fire after her confession.

She'd just told Steve she thought he was attractive. Her stomach twisted painfully with nerves. Oh, God.

Steve was silent, his eyes wide. "You… you do?"

Darcy's throat was tight, so she only nodded.

Steve was still quiet, just staring at her. Had she messed up everything between them? She'd just said the truth, after all. Steve was very attractive; it didn't matter that he wasn't in his post-serum body.

"I… have to think about some things, Darcy." Steve got to his feet quickly, walking quickly through the kitchen and up the stairs.

Darcy stared at him, her eyes burning painfully with tears.

She'd made a terrible mistake.