Disclaimer is in chapter one

A/N It's my Birthday today! Please leave a comment or two to cheer me up from my impending old age. Thank you and please:)

The Decision

Darcy was conflicted. Like a lot. It hadn't exactly gotten easier when Tony had gotten kidnapped right in front of her, and all of Darcy's insides had screamed for her to never let him go.

Apparently, the eccentric man had wormed his way into her heart a lot more than she'd anticipated and that was not good. Being too close meant that Darcy would eventually (maybe she was already) too content to stay in one place and just push aside her Plan for now. That wasn't good, 'cause the Plan was the only thing that had given her strength to keep going before she'd met Pepper on that fateful (glorious!) day.

But…Darcy sighed as she slowly made her way down to the communal area where the rest of Tony's teammates tended to gather with the billionaire this time of day on weekends. I love him and don't want to leave him.

Eventually, even her tiny and reluctant steps weren't enough to keep Darcy from reaching her destination and she slowly poked her head through the door to see who was around.

Over in the corner of the ginormous room sat the beautiful red-haired woman that Darcy hadn't really talked to yet other than the day when she'd shown up and picked Tony and her up after their escape. She didn't seem all that nice, but there was something about her that told Darcy that it wasn't something she'd done, but rather the fact that the woman didn't really know how to talk to kids her age. The woman, whose name was Natasha was talking quietly with the Birdman.

At least that was Tony's name for him and being loyal as she was no amount of correction from said birdman could make Darcy use his real name as long as Tony didn't. He was nice and had even showed her a cool card trick the night before when Darcy had sat on Tony's lap watching cartoons.

In the other end of the room sat Steve. He still barely looked at her and whenever he did, Darcy recognized the guilt and sadness in his eyes that made her want to forget her fear of him and hug it out of him. Of course, she never really dared 'cause she was still a little bit scared of him. He was really big. Next to Steve sat Bruce and he was staring tiredly down into his cup of tea, which told the girl that he had probably spent most of the night down in the labs with Tony working on something she didn't understand and found really boring.

Since Tony's self-proclaimed 'Science Bro' was here that had to mean that Tony himself wasn't far behind. Just as the thought crossed Darcy's mind, Tony walked in and immediately broke into a smile at the sight of her. "I was just upstairs looking for you," he told her and picked her up like she weighed nothing and Darcy loved it. "JARVIS said you were sneaking around down here. What's up, Buttercup?"

Darcy grinned. "I was just looking for you, Tony Pony."

Birdman chuckled behind them, but Darcy pretended she didn't hear and it was worth it for the look Tony sent her. He looked like he couldn't care less about her teasing him as long as they were together, and Darcy was still getting used to that.

"Well, here I am," Tony nodded firmly and placed her down on the counter in the kitchen area. Darcy glanced around at the people trying to act as if they weren't listening and failing. All except Natasha, of course, she always looked totally cool.

"We need to talk." Darcy frowned a little with confusion when Tony actually looked like her words made him nervous. The weirdness was creeping back in and she was mentally debating whether or not to confront him about it or focus on her original reason for seeking him out when Tony nodded seriously.

"Yeah, Baby-Girl, you're right. We really need to talk."

0o0o0

TBC…