Steve woke up feeling warm, and safe. He stretched his back to popping, hands curling further into the covers. He was feeling heavy headed and lazy - he had slept deeply, and well, nose full of a scent he didn't know the name of. It was coconut and cinnamon, worn t-shirt and clean skin.
At first, when he opened his eyes, he couldn't figure out why he was in the living room. He remembered infomercials, of Darcy falling asleep on his shoulder, snoring slightly with congestion. He'd played with her hair, twisted it around his fingers, pretended in the darkness that she was his girl... And then he had passed out decidedly not cold.
But where had the blanket come from? Why was the TV off?
He looked up at her, slowly raising from his position on her chest, letting her arms fall from his shoulders. He caught her hands before they could just uselessly flop onto her stomach, maybe wake her up. She was breathing easier, but looked pale, still unwell. He pressed the back of his hand to her forehead and felt for a fever, taking precarious seconds to brush away loose strands on her face.
He twined her fingers with his now to rectify the mistake of letting her wrist go, smiling softly down at her. Her mouth all pouty, soft looking... He'd only wanted to pretend the night before she was his, but he had, and it had felt so right. Her on his arm, all cuddled up. He had almost forgotten Jessica completely, only remembering her when he'd pressed a kiss on the top of her head, and hadn't smelt the sour note of singed hair. Darcy let hers dry out into natural curls, but Jessica straightened hers religiously.
He found himself hovering, hand cupping the side of her face. His eyes had focused on her mouth, the easy rise of her chest. He wasn't really going to kiss a sleeping girl...?
"She can be pretty angelic, when she's sleeping." Bucky murmured, and Steve nearly fell off the couch. He wrenched his hand away from her and held it to his chest like he had been burnt. "Is she runnin' hot?"
Steve shook his head. He realized then that her t-shirt rode high on her belly, that her underwear were on show, and promptly pulled the covers off his shoulders to protect her, in some small sense. He looked up at Bucky from under his lashes, noticed that he looked sleep worn - his hair at all angles - as if he'd just woken.
"Did you sleep there?" he asked lowly.
"Darcy asked me to." he shrugged his shoulder. "You were unconscious. What was I gonna do?"
"Coulda woke me up." he mumbled, and rubbed the back of his neck.
"Tried. You were out like a light."
Steve made a low noise.
"Can't believe you'd let me sleep all over your girl, like that."
"She ain't my girl." he was told, with a particular twist to his mouth. "I'm her fella. Seems to make her happier, that way. All I want is to make her happy."
Steve didn't know what that had to do with anything.
"...But I... I'd never let you do that to my girl."
"I wouldn't want your girl. It's just Darcy." he cocked a brow. "She isn't able to be contained to just me."
"So what, you'd let, say, Tony Stark-"
"If Tony Stark tried to touch her, it'd be the last time Tony Stark had hands." the eyebrow came down. He settled back into the couch. "It's just you, Steve."
The blonde ducked his head, looked down at her, how she'd turned her face away from the noise of them talking. Her chest was rising and falling gently, her hands abandoned on her abdomen, looking lonely. Her hair was chaotic around her head, all thick barrel curls twined into an elegant mess - her lashes fluttered with the movement of her eyes underneath. Steve wanted to know what she was dreaming.
"About... the other day." he said in a murmur. "We can't... Do that."
"What day?"
"We, uh... You know."
"I don't."
"We...kissed."
"Yeah." Bucky's grin was raunchy, cracking across his face like lightning. "Want a repeat, Steve?"
"We can't."
"I like how you don't bother denying it." he teased lightly. But Steve kept his head down, looking guilty, almost to the point of nausea. Bucky sighed. "Why not?"
Steve shot him a dark look.
"I'm not going to hurt Darcy like that." he said firmly. "That's why not."
"You should hear what Darcy has to say on the subject."
"You told her?" Steve breathed, mortified, but also quite relieved. His heart was banging loudly against his sternum, and he found his mouth had popped open. "Why would you do that? What did she say?"
"I didn't say we did it. I asked her what she'd think if I told her I had some feelings toward you I don't have toward other men." he shrugged one shoulder. "She thought it was obvious... it was part of the reason we had such a big fight, she called me out on it. Didn't care."
"You should tell her what we did."
"What you did. I was just gonna punch you in the face. Don't get me wrong, though, I liked your version way better." he took a pause, smirk only slightly fading. "Is that why you won't look at me? You wanna kiss me?"
"S'not the point." Steve mumbled, and became very self conscious of the fact he was minus a shirt. "You need to tell her."
"And I will." he agreed, and laced his fingers together on his chest. "Do you wanna know what I think?"
"Not really."
"I think our girl is gonna be peaches 'n' cream about it." he relaxed further into the armchair. "I think she's gonna be a little jealous that she weren't there."
"Why'd you say that? Our girl?"
"That's just how it is. Turn it down, Rogers, you'll wake her up." Bucky nodded to her, the frown marring her naturally red mouth. The fact she was sleeping at all was a good thing; she'd been lethargic but unable to obtain sleep from headaches and sore throats that had woken her up during the night. Bucky had been growing steadily more and more worried about her, but didn't want to suggest a doctor.
The thing he had quickly learned about Darcy Lewis was that she did not need anyone to take care of her. Or, that's what she thought, vehemently.
"She's not my girl, Buck." Steve flushed. "I-...She made it clear, a couple times now, she doesn't want me."
"Has she?"
"Yes." Steve said flatly. "She has."
"Sensing a story there, buddy."
"Not going to share it. Darcy doesn't want me. Said it flat out, end of story. So whatever you've got in your head-"
"Maybe she doesn't want what you 'n'... what's her name?"
"Her name is Jessica."
"Yeah, her." Bucky put both hands behind his head and arched his spine, yawning widely. Steve tried very hard to ignore the pull of muscle in his arms, or the cut of his ribcage against the fabric of his grey t-shirt. Bucky, of course, decided he was comfortable like that, and kept his arms where they were, a smirk winding on his mouth.
"I don't know what you're trying, Bucky." Steve murmured, his eyes focused on his knees. "But I want you to stop. Someone's gonna get hurt."
"No, they won't."
"It'll be me, or it'll be her." he glared at the sergeant. "It'll never be you. So you're not concerned, you don't see it. I'll be fine - I'm used to getting cast off to the side. If you hurt Darcy..."
He'd walked in on something worse than them making love on the couch the other day - her confiding in him, speaking to him in conspiratorial whisper. Bucky's face had been intense, straight mouthed, listening closely to what she had to say. Their hands were together on her lap; his thumb smoothed over her palm. She focused on that, looking sincerely worried, and very ill, the timbre of her voice filling the room with nervous effort.
When Steve had walked in, Bucky'd shot him a look, alerting Darcy to his presence. She stiffened across the shoulders and smiled at him, brightly asking him how he was, but he'd interrupted something, and whatever it was had upset Bucky, who put his arms around her waist and his head to her shoulder, keeping silent the entire time Steve was there.
Darcy had made every effort to keep Steve in the loop since meeting him, going out of her way on several occasions to inform him on what SHIELD neglected to. The only reason they would talk so privately was if they were talking about him, and it made him feel like dirt. Still, he'd protect her, because leaving behind all the people he knew in the forties just might have been worth it if he got her, whatever part of her she wanted him to have.
He'd gladly take her friendship, but would still defend her heart. The fact that Darcy was so quiet, so near and nervous with Bucky; it spoke volumes to Steve. She was imparting something that weighed on her - weighing on them both - and it meant that he was under her skin. She had always turned first to Steve, citing him as her best friend, first confidant.
But just like the old days, Steve was being left out.
"You'll what?" Bucky's eyebrow shot up. "You keep makin' all this noise, Captain, but you never quite follow through. You wouldn't be able to do a damn thing, if I hurt Darcy. You're not involved in this relationship, you don't have a say. That, of course, could be fixed, if you got rid of Skeletor." he felt that were Darcy conscious, she'd be very excited about the pop culture reference. He tried to remember to tell her.
Steve's eyes nearly fell out of his skull.
"What?"
"You heard me. If you joined in this little shindig, I'd take what you said more seriously."
"And... how exactly would that work?" Steve got to his feet. Darcy's hand flopped in the space he'd occupied.
"You're smart, Captain. You'll figure it out."
"You can't just - propose that to me! You haven't even spoken to Darcy about it!"
"Haven't I?" his smirk was ever-present, but the glitter in his eyes was not.
Steve thought back to them talking so seriously, what Bucky was alluding to. What he'd heard of that was Darcy telling Bucky something, not the other way around - he knew from the way Bucky had reacted, so clingy, that it wasn't what they were talking about. The way she'd held the back of his head was not to console him about not agreeing to a threesome. It had been more intense.
"You weren't talking about - that - the other day." Steve told him. "You weren't."
"No, we weren't. We were talking about how Darcy might be pregnant."
Steve had to sit down again. Bucky cleared his throat, shifted in his seat. There was a prolonged pause, in which Steve, for the first time in days, couldn't take his eyes off Bucky, and Bucky couldn't make himself look up.
"Have-...Have you two been..." Steve swallowed. "Safe?"
"She's on the pill. But then Jane got preggers with Thor and she's on some super safe contraption thing in her arm. Darcy thinks my DNA might be stronger than average protection... which is why, aside from her bein' deathly ill, we haven't been... at it." he untucked his hands from his head, folded them in his lap. "I don't think she's takin' it very well. I tried to tell her that I wasn't gonna leave if she had my baby but... She said somethin' about a ball and chain. She ain't ready. And I'm scared she's gonna get rid of it."
"It's only a maybe at this stage, right?" Steve ventured. "She hasn't done a test or anything?"
"She's more'n' a couple days off the monthly visit."
"That doesn't mean she's pregnant. It could be - it could be 'cuz she's sick, or- stressed? I think?" Steve didn't know a damn thing about women and their lady time, but he'd heard casual conversations here and there since his awakening in the future, and had pieced together that little bit of information. That, and the insatiable need for candy. "She might just be stressed, Bucky."
"But what if she is pregnant? What if I've got a kid in there, somewhere?" Bucky bit into the inside of his mouth - he hadn't wanted to break it to Steve like this, but now everything was pouring out of him. Darcy had told him she'd handle telling Steve, but she'd been honestly waiting for blood to show before that happened. He happened to think she was ashamed, scared of it, where he was so nervously excited.
He wanted six kids, he had to start somewhere.
"Well, if she is, we'll figure it out." Steve nodded. "You know that. There's time to plan, time to organise. Time to figure out what to do, to make changes, allowances."
"But what if she got rid of my kid, Steve?" he took in a suspiciously shaky breath. "I-... I say there's nothin' she could do to make me hate her, but... If she killed my kid...?"
"Buck." Steve said. "Listen to me. That's her decision, unless Stark comes up with a way to put her baby makin' bits into you."
Bucky blinked at him, frowning slightly.
"Not to mention who we are, Bucky. You just can't have babies and not worry about people who might target them. Darcy's handy with a taser, but she can't taze everybody she thinks might hurt her. You can't just, expect her, to grow a baby in her and not be a little apprehensive about it. You aren't married. You've been together a week - not even. So just-... Take a breath. Cool off."
"Easy for you to say." Bucky mumbled, and folded tighter arms over his chest. "You haven't got a kid on the line."
"You don't know that. And even if I did, I wouldn't be actin' like you are, that's for damn sure." Steve frowned at him. "You think she's pregnant and you've been lettin' her stay this sick?"
"She won't go to a doctor. I nearly tossed her over my shoulder the other day and took her anyway. She won't go."
"I heard." the resulting fight had been one of the biggest. Steve hadn't realized why it had been so intense - Darcy didn't like hospitals, neither did Bucky - but if Bucky was feeling particularly paternal about his baby... "I will take her."
"She ain't gonna go just because you bat your eyelashes at her." Bucky scoffed.
"Wanna bet?" Steve had forgot that Bucky liked to gamble. When he'd first come out of the ice, and someone had said: 'Wanna bet?' he'd actually pulled out his wallet to put money down. It had been a phrase that gotten up his nose, the stupid challenge that wasn't really a challenge as much as something to say to undermine a friend.
"You're on." his grin was back, but in comparison to his norm, it was faded. "Stakes?"
"Ten bucks says I can get her to go." Steve looked around for his wallet. It was in his room, on his bedside table, beside his phone.
"Nothin' underhanded, Steve. You can't tell her 'ice-cream' and take her to a doctor."
"That's you, not me." Steve assured him. "I'm sure she'll see reason when I explain my concerns. I'll tell her upfront."
Bucky considered, tapping his lower lip in thought.
"I want another kiss, and you're on."
Steve could feel his face flood with heat. He believed he could get Darcy to see a doctor, but the stakes were too high. He couldn't do that to Darcy - she was innocent, in the grand scheme of things. He didn't want to hurt her, or hurt their chances of having a relationship.
"Not a big one." Bucky corrected. "Not like the other day. No, just a little one. An itty bitty kiss. That's what I want."
"But Darcy..."
"Darcy will want to film it." he shrugged, and cocked his brow. "Do you even know her, Steve?"
"Better'n you think you do." he said tightly. "You're on. She'll go if I ask."
"Whatever you say, Captain. Speaking of the devil..." his eyes flicked down to where Darcy was stirring, her forearm over her eyes. She made a grumpy moaning noise, lowered her arm, and opened one eye, just a slit.
"Good morning, Darcy." Steve said warmly. He tucked down the side of her blanket to better see her face - she hummed low, snuggling into the covers, murmuring her sleepy salutations in return. "How do you feel?"
"Heaps better. You made a potion and now I'm well. Gonna burn you for witchcraft." she teased, voice thick with sleep. He touched her head again, frowning at the warmth. "Also, you're mostly naked. That's a good sight to wake up to. Makes a girl all tingly."
He blushed, glanced at Bucky. She arched her neck, looking at him upside down. He winked at her, and she stuck her tongue out at him.
"Good thing you're feeling better." Bucky mused. "Steve wants to take you to a doctor."
"Psh, whatever. Some more of that magic, I'll be fine." she squirmed, yawning behind her hand. "What do you even put in that?"
"S'far as I can tell, everything but the kitchen sink." Bucky supplied. "He'd been makin' it for years. I haven't figured it out yet. He won't tell you, either. But that's like he won't tell you that as you lay sleeping, he wanted to plant a kiss on you."
"Bucky!" Steve gaped, wide eyed at him, then looked down to Darcy. "I- I didn't-! Darce, I wouldn't-"
"Geeze, don't gotta be all defensive about it. You'll hurt my feelings if you protest any harder." she said, cheeks slightly pink. His stutter dwindled into an embarrassed: "I didn't..."
"I would." she teased him.
"So would I." Bucky mused. "In fact, I already did. Did it the other day. He's a better kisser than you are."
"How dare you!" she sat bolt upright, hair flopping in her eyes, and spun so fast, and hard, her spine cracked. Steve knew she wasn't going to take it as well as his stupid sergeant suggested she would, knew it was a bad idea to goad her like that. When he'd told Bucky to tell Darcy, he'd meant in private, and gently. He put his hands up, tried to wind the situation down, but she charged on:
"Like hell he's a better kisser than I am! I have years of mouth-to-mouth experience on him!"
"He's pretty rough about it. Like a drowning man for air."
She narrowed her eyes at him.
"Have you been reading my romance novels again?"
"Chyeah, romance my ass. They're gettin' worse, Lewis, all smutty like that. I musn't be hittin' the right notes, if you're reading them still."
"I read them because they're romantic." She sniffed self importantly, trying in vain to smooth out the nest on her head. She lifted her chin at him, but was smiling slightly. "Buy me flowers."
"You don't like flowers. You'd have to look after them and they'd just wilt and die and you'd get all upset about it."
"I like the sentiment. You're supposed to be old world, why haven't you bought me flowers yet?"
"You told me you hated flowers, and then gave me reasons why!" he was exasperated, tossing his hands up at her. "Woman, you told me you would toss 'em in my face if I tried to give you any!"
"Jesus, Bucky," Steve mused, still hot-faced over Bucky being so brash about his near-miss-kiss. "You're a horrible fella. I'll buy you some flowers, Darcy, don't worry."
"She doesn't even like them!"
"So?" she shot at him, though she was grinning, her whole face brighter, cheekier, than it had been in days. "I told you, I like the idea of them. That's what you do when you're in a relationship."
"No, that's what you do if you're in a dirty novel and you want sex."
"Well, shit, Barnes, hit the nail on the head there, didn't you?" both her brows wiggled at him.
He opened his mouth, closed it, opened it again. No sound came out.
Steve hid his laughter, very badly, behind his hand. Darcy sniggered with him, proud of the red tint in Bucky's cheeks.
"Shut up, Rogers."
"Geeze, Buck, buy your dame some flowers, would you?" he could barely get the words out without laughing. He couldn't stop grinning, though the nature of the conversation had colored his face.
"Is this the new fondue?" Darcy wondered, and Steve outrightly barked a laugh, agreeing with a nod, not quite able to look at her as he did so.
"Oh, yeah, very funny." Bucky's eyebrows pitched. "You offered to buy her some flowers just now. Gonna follow through on that?"
Steve abruptly remembered he had somewhere he needed to be, and left the room.
"Smooth, Buck."
"What can I say? Smooth is what I'm all about." he sat beside her, lifting the blanket to put his hands on her legs, digging his thumbs into her calves. "How are you feelin', baby doll?"
"Better. Steve gave me a potion last night. Have no idea what was in it."
"Oh, that." Bucky stretched his neck, looked at the pot that was still on the stove. "Yeah, that'll do it. Worked like a charm, when I was able to get sick. Listen, before Steve gets back, I really did kiss him."
She bit her lip, looked slightly bashful.
"How was it?"
He shrugged a shoulder, looked at his hands moving under the covers.
"Had to throw out the shirt I was wearing. Looked like I'd Hulked out in it."
"Intense?"
"Threw me onto the counter and all. Woulda had some decent bruises if I could keep any."
"Jesus." she thought about that a moment, finding his fingers under the blanket, squeezing them gently. "Did you kiss him?"
"Nope." he grinned, squeezed her fingers back. "That's the best part. I was pissed at him, had him pinned up on the wall, gonna hit him, and then he kissed me. Just about fell over myself."
"I bet you did. I'm glad I'm sitting now." she reached up to touch his face, her fingers ghosting over the rough stubble on his jaw. "If you wanted to... Uh, pursue Steve -"
"I want you, too."
"Greedy bastard, aren't you?"
"Very much, ma'am. I think the three of us could be pretty happy together."
"Probably." she glanced over his shoulder to double check Steve hadn't snuck in to listen to their conversation. "What about Jessica?"
"What about her? Called her Skeletor, before. That's right, isn't it?"
"Oh yeah it is. Bad guy made outta skeleton. Nice work." she high fived the effort, beaming. "But, you're serious, about all of us?"
"Yeah, doll, I am. I think... I think we'd work well. Even out the kinks we have. He understands things about the past you can't. I need honesty, a total babe to come home to, I get you. He needs to let loose a little, he can with me. He wants romance, all that crap, and you can't get it from him."
"Got it all figured out, huh?" she pressed her lips together, watched him survey her expression. "Steve's not gonna go for it."
"I'm workin' on Steve. But you could work on him too. That's permission, Lewis. Provided you share the details."
"Uh huh. Well..." she swallowed, nervous. "I don't know. I don't want to start anything complex and then..." she motioned at her stomach.
"If it happens," he soothed. "It happens. It's a miracle and I'd marry you in a second, if that's what you wanted."
"I don't." she blinked at him.
"Then I won't. But if you needed me to be... stable, I could do that too. I want a family, a big one."
"You should see the Lewis household." she mumbled.
"Maybe I will, some day." he smiled, and leaned in for a kiss.
She didn't particularly want to mention that she had sworn off having kids. She had thought about them previously, but as it stood, as one of four other Lewis siblings, she didn't want another extension to her family. Her family life was - complicated. There was a reason she had been in the middle of nowhere to get her credits, why she was the only applicant to a shitty job that had nothing to do with her degree.
"Darce, Jane just texted." Steve said from the hall. He cleared his throat as Bucky ducked his head to her throat and continued to lavish attention on her, his hands climbing north of her kneecaps with no shame - until her phone bounced off the back of his head and Darcy caught it with a giggle.
From: JaneyJ
S.O.S
A.S.A.P
She was up and dressed and gone within five minutes, practically dragging Steve out to drive her there. Bucky was left behind bewildered, uninformed, saluting them as they walked out the door with a loud:
"Make sure you look after her this time!"
