"We'd be good, we'd be great together." - Imogen Heap
XIV.
The race back to Brooklyn was faster than Darcy expected.
Her train was on time. She walked pretty fast.
She stopped by a little boutique at the last second and slipped inside.
The woman by the register gave Darcy a quick glance.
"Ma'am, we're closing in five minutes."
Darcy worked in retail before and she usually hated customers that showed up at the last second, so she tried to be as polite as possible.
"I'm sorry, I'll be quick. I just need one thing."
She arrived at the apartment building and Travis was there, meaning it was past 6 o'clock. He gave Darcy a little smile as she approached, out of breath.
"Has Steve come by?"
"Not yet. Would I be right in guessing he's back tonight from his trip?"
Darcy licked her lips, sighing. "Yeah, I hope so."
She walked up to her hallway and sat on the carpet outside her door, jogging one leg.
She waited an hour. She only knew that because she kept checking her phone over and over, in case there was some bad news.
It felt a lot longer, especially with how she kept fiddling and looking around.
She shut her eyes to will herself to stop obsessing, and she knew it was a hopeless task.
She heard footsteps.
She jumped up at the sight of Steve coming through the stairwell carrying his pack in one hand, his suit still on.
His mask was stashed away with his hair mussed.
He looked dirty all over, and Darcy's breath caught in her throat when he spotted her.
She bolted, before she could convince herself not to, and collided with him, his spare arm wrapped around her as she hugged him.
"Hey," he breathed. His throat bobbed.
"Hey," she replied, and she felt the tears spring in her eyes. She smiled, before noticing a mark on his forehead. "Baby – you're hurt."
The word slipped out, and it seemed to throw Steve for a second. She had only ever called him by his first name.
Her hand reached his forehead and she rubbed the dried blood away with her thumb.
"I'm okay, it's nothing. I heal fast."
Her hand fell back down, and Steve just looked at her mouth and then back up at her eyes.
"I need a shower. But – could you wait for me? I want to talk."
Darcy felt a spike of anxiety and she half expected to have a panic attack right there in the hallway, but she just nodded, and then they reached Steve's door.
He unlocked it, and threw his bag on the floor with a loud thud, and Darcy followed him in, throwing down her own bags and kicked off her shoes.
She looked around, and then walked over to the living room couch and sat down.
Steve pulled off his boots, and looked over at her where she sat.
"Just please wait there," he said.
He disappeared, and Darcy curled her arms around herself, drawing her knees up.
She looked down at their bags on the floor and cursed herself for not just kissing him the second she saw him.
She blamed her nervousness, which had to be obvious to Steve.
Stupid, stupid, stupid, she thought, wishing she had the guts to do what she really wanted.
Her heart was still hammering, and her hands had gone numb, an equally bad sign. She sighed, hoping she could just push past it.
She was glad that she hadn't actually started crying just then when she saw him – the tears had thankfully stuck in her eyes and she blinked them away.
"Hey."
He was back again, in a white t-shirt and grey sweatpants with bare feet.
Butterflies, stomach flips, everything. Darcy felt everything.
He came over to her, but remained standing. Darcy didn't think that was a good thing. She half thought he was going to ask her to leave, but then he started talking.
"I had a while – uh, weeks, I guess – to think about everything," he said.
Darcy nodded, and Steve took a deep breath before letting it go.
"You said a while ago, when I said Andrea didn't want another date – that everyone deserved to be happy."
Darcy nodded again, but otherwise felt frozen in place.
That was months ago. She still remembered it clear as day.
"I said I was happy," Steve added. His gaze fell to hers, and Darcy saw how important this was for her to understand. "I wasn't lying. But I was lonely."
"Oh," Darcy said. Words failed her.
"When I woke up from the ice, I thought maybe it just wasn't for me – that typical family life. Maybe relationships weren't meant to be something I had."
"But the makeover. You let me do that," Darcy said, because she couldn't help herself.
"Right," Steve said. He bit his lip for a second. "Because I wanted to be your friend."
Friend, Darcy thought and she closed her eyes.
"Right," she murmured. She opened her eyes again to see Steve was still staring down at her intently but she felt a disappointment creeping over her.
"Except I knew that was a lie," Steve added. "Because I only wanted you."
The words hit her, but Darcy failed to know exactly how to respond. Her lips parted in shock, but Steve kept going, not wanting to lose his nerve.
"I knew about you having a boyfriend because Natasha told me. And I knew I'd never try to pry you apart, no matter how much Natasha tried," he said, giving a short laugh. "So I stayed away, but it kept coming back. I didn't want to let you go."
"Steve," Darcy began, but he pressed on.
"I wish all my motivations were selfless, I wish that I wanted you to be happy with him, but that's all a lie, too. I was selfish. I wanted you so badly."
Darcy felt the tears coming back, her throat thick with emotion.
Steve's throat bobbed. "Don't you realize what you've done? I was fine with being alone until I met you. You've ruined it forever now."
His voice shook as he said, "I'm in love with you. So I want to know if –"
Darcy cut him off, jumping up from the couch and going to her bag on the floor. She rummaged through it.
She walked back, revealing the charcoal silk tie in her hand, holding it up for Steve to see.
"I got this today. I said I'd get you a tie."
Steve just blinked at it, before looking back at Darcy.
He walked right up to her, and took her face in his hands and kissed her. His lips pressed against hers as Darcy arched into him, closing her eyes.
The tie fell to the floor, and Darcy gave a sharp, raw gasp as the tip of Steve's tongue pressed against the seam of her lips, coaxing her open.
She obliged, and his tongue swept inside, hot and devastating. Darcy fisted his t-shirt as he kept kissing her, making her dizzy, making her forget every nervous part of herself.
He pulled away finally, with slow kisses on her lips, his eyes darker than before.
"I love you."
"I love you, too," Darcy breathed, and Steve looked down at her body pressed up against him.
"You're trembling."
"I know," she said, and ducked her head. "I'm nervous. Can I stay here tonight?"
Steve let out a huff of a laugh and kissed her lips lightly, nodding.
He let go of her face and his hands fell to her waist, before lifting her with ease.
He carried her to his bedroom, letting them inside with a nudge of his foot.
Darcy knew she was still shaking, and being put on his bed made reality set in, had his words become true – he loved her and she loved him.
They sat side by side, and Darcy was still lost in her thoughts despite how he looked at her.
She never told someone she loved them before she slept with them. The concept of having feelings come first and sex second made her afraid.
She was scared because it meant the world to her. Having something that important be a relationship meant lot of risks.
Except she knew in her marrow that Steve was the one she would risk it for. And if she was being completely honest, she'd known that for a long time.
"What are you thinking?" he asked, and Darcy's eyes travelled over his face, his eyes and then his mouth.
"I don't want this to be a letdown," she admitted.
"We don't have to do anything – "
He was just too cute she couldn't resist, and she kissed him with more force than before, her tongue slipping into his mouth. She pushed against him so that he fell back against the mattress, his hard body beneath hers.
His hands fell to her waist where her dress was riding up.
She broke their kiss to stare into his eyes, wanting to savor each moment. Her hands went to the bottom of his t-shirt, stroking the hard muscle of his stomach.
She pushed the shirt up, until Steve reached down and tugged it off and threw it aside.
She was back on him in a second, hands gliding up and down, kisses growing filthier.
His groan against her lips had a hot arousal course through her so suddenly Darcy canted her hips, and she was sure Steve noticed, with the way his eyes flashed with something darker than before, his fingers going to her shoulder straps and pulling them down.
He leaned forward and kissed her neck, and Darcy sighed, distracted by his touch. His hand went to the back of her head, angling her so her neck was a long line for him to nip at, his other hand still gripping at her waist.
He pressed a kiss to her pulse point and Darcy moaned, sounding more wanton that she expected.
"Oh, my God."
Her fingers went to the buttons at the back of her dress, and she moved back onto her knees to pull the fabric away, her eyes still on shirtless Steve lying before her.
She felt her mouth go dry as she noticed the unmistakeable erection pressing up against the material of his sweatpants.
She shoved the dress off of her and onto the floor, and clambered back over, Steve's warm arms wrapping around her.
She wore her underwear but was vaguely self-conscious. Steve on the other hand kissed her with the kind of enthusiasm that made everything scramble and her troubles fall away.
He rolled them, and he was crowding her into the mattress, his arms bracketing her head.
"This okay?" he asked, and she nodded, close to frantic.
Then his hand was on the small of her back, the other tracing the side of her bra. Soon he found the clasp at the back and undid it, and Darcy lifted off to pull her bra off and toss it.
It was a fun game, taking off pieces of clothes with Steve. He kissed each newly revealed part of her, and with her lying topless beneath him, he went for her neck again.
It was a direct line to her pussy when Steve's lips wrapped around her nipple, while he kneaded her other breast with his hand.
"Fuck, Steve," she gasped, her hips canting again.
Her nipples lay wet and hard while he kissed all over her chest, eventually resting his head at the valley of her breasts, wrapping his arms around her middle.
Darcy played with his hair, conscious of the fact that her panties had to be wet enough to be seen soaked through if he looked down.
"Steve," she murmured, and he tilted his head, just looking back at her.
"I wanted this for a long time," he whispered.
Darcy knew he meant the topless cuddle, and she did too, because of the intense embrace they shared the night Peggy died.
She nodded, and soon Steve kissed her chest again, moving toward the waistband of her panties.
Darcy sucked in a breath when his tongue ran across the top of the panties, slipping a little underneath the waistband. She began to shake again once his fingers curled over the material and began to pull them down.
Darcy lifted her hips for him, and soon she lay completely naked under him, her heart racing.
Steve shuffled further down the mattress, and lay on his stomach, pushing Darcy's legs apart with his shoulders to expose herself further.
His eyes flitted from hers down to her sex, and then he spread her lips apart with his fingers.
The feel of his mouth on her was almost too much.
Darcy gasped as he sucked on her clit lazily, his tongue flicking slowly between her folds.
One of her hands fell to Steve's hair as the other lay beside her gripping the covers.
He was quick to show his enthusiasm for eating pussy, groaning more than once against her labia with his eyes closed, his tongue probing her as his nose grazed her clit.
"Steve," she gasped. "Fuck, you feel so good."
Her heels dug into the mattress, trying to gain purchase.
She knew she was doomed once he sped up, never taking a break. He lapped at her core as a finger pumped in and out, and Darcy could feel he was making her wetter than she'd ever been with another person eating her out.
She blamed the fact that he seemed to enjoy it as much as her, and once he looked right at her with his tongue deep inside Darcy clenched around his fingers, her hips lifting off the bed along with Steve.
She shuddered, her orgasm like the most beautiful wave she never wished to stop riding, but she came down, Steve still kissing the lips of her pussy, licking her down from the great height, making her whimper weakly as she fell back down on the mattress, staring at the ceiling.
She was crying.
He moved back up the mattress, wiping his mouth on his shoulder, and then he noticed her face.
"Hey, hey, hey," Steve whispered, sounding alarmed. "Doll."
Darcy covered her face with her arm, embarrassed. She hated that she was ruining the best feeling another person had ever given her.
"You're so good to me," she whispered.
Steve moved her arm out of the way, kissing her mouth.
"I'm really selfish deep down," he said. "I wanted to do that forever, too."
"Shut up," Darcy said, grabbing his hair again and pulling him into a deeper kiss, and she felt his hard-on pressing up against her naked sex and shivered.
They made out for a while, until Darcy couldn't take it anymore, pulling away from Steve's mouth and looking deep into his eyes.
"Do you want to fuck me?" she whispered.
Just when she thought Steve couldn't get any cuter, he gulped, with his lips wet and pink and his hair mussed from her busy hands.
"Please, can I?" he asked, and they began laughing together.
Darcy nodded, one hand going down his back to find the waistband of his sweatpants and began pulling them down, before Steve's hands left her and he pulled them down past his thighs along with his boxers.
She stared between his legs, at his hard uncut cock that shined at its tip. He was larger than what she gauged from her brief glance at its outline before.
His hand fell to his cock, lining himself up with her, and Darcy brought him down to another kiss, thinking the anticipation might ruin her.
He sunk into her, before Darcy changed the angle of her hips to accommodate him, and he slid home.
"Fuck," she gasped beneath him.
She felt so full, bordering on a burning hurt but it turned delicious once he began to move.
He dragged across her clit each time, and soon she was trembling again.
She tilted her head, inviting another kiss, and Steve slanted his mouth over hers.
He bucked a little harder, and Darcy's eyes rolled back as she broke their kiss.
She couldn't make sense of what she was blabbering while his fucking became relentless, with no second for her to gather herself.
"I'm gonna come, Darcy," he gasped, and Darcy's eyes fell to his, and she nodded.
His thumb pressed her clit without warning and Darcy started swearing again, writhing beneath him.
She came on a sob, and Steve kissed her mouth, and she was vaguely aware of him close to crushing her into the mattress while he chased his own release.
He came hard, with three distinct thrusts and his face buried in her neck.
Darcy knew she couldn't live with Steve inside her, but she wanted to try it as long as she could, and after a few minutes of him softening inside her once he came, she knew she had to move out from under him and clean up.
Steve watched her go, lying on his back.
They had dinner together that night and fell asleep beside one another. As much as Darcy wanted another round, she wanted there to be just one night just for their first time. She wanted this night to be distinct.
The next day Darcy walked into work with Steve, and kept glancing over at him with secret smiles.
When she walked into the labs alone, Jane looked up from her desk.
"So, what happened?"
Darcy blushed and Jane broke into a smile.
"I'm so happy for you."
Darcy remembered when Jane slept with Thor for the first time. She practically shoved them together and then left the place to them for the night, hoping to keep Erik occupied at the bar. Jane had been as bashful as she was now.
"Yeah, well. You're the first to know."
"Really?" Jane said, eyes widening. "Not even Annie? She'll kill you when she finds out she wasn't the first."
"Well, Annie can – I dunno. I just know she'll be happy, too."
She messaged Annie later that day: Steve and I happened.
Annie's reply was just a series of exclamation points.
That weekend Darcy visited her mom.
Telling her she and Steve had started dating made Rachel's eyes nearly pop out of her head.
"Oh! That's great, honey," she said, and she pulled Darcy into a hug.
"No wonder you look so happy."
They sat on the couch with their coffee and cake, and Darcy glanced at her mother's profile when they broke apart.
"Mom."
"Yeah?"
She bit her lip. "I want to know what made you sure Dad and you should be together."
Rachel seemed surprised by the question. She set down her cup, frowning.
"You mean when I first met him?"
Darcy nodded.
"He was very handsome and very nice to me."
Darcy rolled her eyes. "No, Mom. Like, I real answer."
"Why do you need to know?" Rachel asked. "What are you thinking about to ask something like that - when I haven't seen your father in nearly twenty years?"
"I saw him once," Darcy murmured.
"What?"
"I saw him, in Manhattan three years ago. I was here after London. He got out of a cab and saw me, and then he ran off."
"You sure he knew it was you?" Rachel asked, and Darcy sucked in a breath.
She didn't need her mom invalidating her feelings.
"He knew, Mom. He looked like he saw a ghost."
Darcy put down her own cup. "I just wanted to know what made you sure things would work out. Before they didn't work out, I guess."
She wondered because sometimes she looked at Steve and wondered what the catch was. She knew she met him during relative peacetime so maybe she was especially lucky. He otherwise would have died young without her.
He might die young with her, too. The thought made her frightened.
"He made me feel safe," Rachel said, and Darcy nodded.
It was the answer she expected all along.
Steve was home late that night. The only reason he couldn't go with Darcy to visit Rachel was another training session with the elite team.
When he returned, he was sweaty but Darcy was turned-on, and Steve soon had her bent over the couch, their pants just down to their ankles.
All Darcy could hear was the sound of Steve's hips hitting against her bare ass and their panting, and she loved it, loved him buried so deep inside her while she touched herself, Steve's own hand joining hers between her legs to bring her off.
She clamped down on him as she came, and he groaned, never slowing.
"I'm close, doll, I'm close," he panted, and Darcy turned her head slightly to watch his face.
She licked her lips, revelling in every drag of his cock.
"Can I come inside you again?" he asked, and she nodded, closing her eyes.
He quickly pulled her off the couch and turning her around.
They fumbled, and he pushed inside her once more as he held her in his arms, kissing her breathless as her legs wrapped around his waist.
She could hear the sound of how wet she was around him, and soon Steve shuddered, his eyes squeezed shut as he came.
"I love you," she breathed.
"I love you," he whispered back, coming back to Earth.
She never wanted this to end. She never wanted any of this to ever end.