Don't own.


A/N would appreciate reviews to cheer me up while sick...just saying...


The Hobo And The Naming Of Said Hobo

Darcy was actually kinda embarrassed to admit it, even if it was just to herself, but she loved her new school. It blew the old one right out of the water and the half friendships she'd managed to form there was already wiped out of her mind because for the first time in her life, Darcy had actual friends that were the same age as her. It was awesome.

It didn't make it any less cool that her friends were mutants and had abilities that were super amazeballs as well.

The Professor's hard work on Darcy's mental state had slowly changed her mind on her own mutation. The groundwork that her father had managed to lay had grown into a firm belief that she was actually a great girl and her mom's gifts lived on in her, which was a great way to remember the woman who'd carried her under her heart for nine months.

The curriculum was also very much suited for Darcy's fluctuating attention span. She was a genius like the Starks before her, but due to her life's experiences she was unable to concentrate on the same thing for too long. She'd never before spent time in a school setting after all. Her old school had thought she was inattentive and rude whenever they addressed it with her, but Darcy now knew differently and thrived on the freedom to choose her own scholastic path.

The teachers at Xavier's were absolutely fantastic. There was the stiff, but sarcastically funny Mr. Summers, whose eyes could practically shoot lasers. Darcy had watched him demonstrate it a few times during their classes when one or two kids were slacking off too much. It was a great way to regain people's attention; she'd have to give it to the man.

His fiancée, Miss Grey was also pretty cool, but Darcy wasn't too fond of being alone with her as she too had some kind of mindreading ability coupled with her telekinetic abilities. Darcy didn't trust anyone other than the Professor to go roaming around inside her mind and it didn't help that Miss Grey couldn't quite control that aspect of her powers and sometimes froze to stare at Darcy with this horrifyingly look of pity and disgust that made the girl feel like she needed a shower.

Dr. McCoy was pretty awesome too, but it may just have been because Darcy likened him to Sully from Monsters Inc. He was just so cute and blue and furry. He had nothing on Dr. Hulk though. Darcy had grown exceedingly fond of her father's friend.

Logan was…Well, he was a bit like the Sergeant, her dad before his first cup of coffee and something purely feral all at the same time. Darcy recognized him as a kindred spirit in the whole 'complicated life-story- part' and mostly left him alone outside of PE. He seemed to appreciate it by never giving her extra work in class.

Miss Monroe was epic though. Darcy liked her weather controlling mutation; it was as close to her own ability as she'd seen in anyone outside of Thor. It wasn't a bad thing either that Miss Monroe was very funny in that dry kind of way that Darcy had grown to love after reentering her father's life.

So in conclusion, Darcy loved the Professor's school, the people in it and him for taking her in when she was convinced that she was doomed to a freakish life for all eternity. Of course, all of those pros weren't even the best part of enrolling at Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters.

No, the best part was the fact that on her second day there, Darcy had been in a counselling session with the Professor where he'd informed her that a friend had settled down in the small forest on the grounds. It was the Sergeant and he'd allowed her to catch a glimpse of him every morning before she entered the doors.

Knowing that he was nearby somehow calmed the last bit of nerves Darcy had had lingering beneath her skin – no one could harm her when both her Dad and the Sergeant was around. Of that the girl had no doubt whatsoever. Also, it was a bit of a relief to actually have proof that the former World War Two soldier and the friendship they'd grown into were real and not a figment of her overactive imagination.

The only thing though…Darcy hesitated one early morning just after her dad had left her as she entered the school. She really wanted to meet him soon. Indecisively, Darcy stood just inside the main hall, wondering if the Sergeant even wanted to talk to her or if he was just going to be weird about her trying for further contact.

Darcy would probably have stood immobile, drawing confused looks from her schoolmates as they tiredly lumbered past for their first class of the day all day. Then a familiar, warm voice suddenly sounded inside her head and Darcy only had time to mentally curse once before being overwhelmed with gratitude that she'd gotten to know such awesome people as the Professor.

'Your Sergeant will not act too weird if you were to go to him now, Child. As you know my gift isn't completely able to grasp him, but it is clear just how dedicated he is to keeping you safe. Go to him, I shall inform Mr. Summers that you will be absent for this morning's classes.'

Before anything could happen to derail her plans, Darcy spun around and ran back outside as fast as she could. She knew that the Sergeant had to know she was coming, her movements and noise level wasn't exactly in the subtle zone. Trusting the Professor, Darcy just ran faster to give the man in the woods less time to think.

"HI!" Darcy yelled a moment later, skidding inelegantly to a stop just inside a bunch of trees where she'd spotted the Sergeant every morning. It took an embarrassing amount of time for the teenager to realize that no one was there but her.

It didn't deter her one bit, in fact it only spurred her on to know she'd have to coax him out from his hiding place. She was a Stark and if anything, they knew how to annoy people into doing their bidding.

Fifteen minutes later though, Darcy felt the first inklings of doubt as the trees, shrubbery and genuine nature of it all remained completely silent. The silence was only broken every now and again by birds and other small animals.

Darcy shoved the negative feelings down and unceremoniously sat down on the ground, heedless of the expensive clothes she was wearing. She knew that her dad wouldn't care one iota about her dirtying them anyway.

'Professor?' Darcy mentally asked, eyeing her surroundings with a feeling of gratitude that it was morning and the sun was out. It would've been a lot creepier if she was sitting in the dark.

'Yes, Darcy?'

The Professor's voice in her head brought Darcy fully back out of spawning fantasies of creepy monsters and zombies emerging from the soil. With not a little bit of relief, she quickly asked before the man could tell her the answers she wanted. 'Is he nearby? And is he mad at me for breaking this little stalemate of his since he won't talk to me?'

There was a brief pause before the Professor's voice sounded calmly inside her again. 'He is approximately ten feet away from you, hiding behind a tree. I regret that I cannot give an answer regarding his mindset as I seem to be hitting that blank wall that props up inside of him from time to time.

At the end of the Professor's reply there was a tiny hint of frustration that Darcy politely didn't comment on. Instead she thanked him and refocused her efforts on finding the elusive Sergeant.

"Dude," she said toward a tree that was about as far away as the Professor's number. "I'm not leaving until you come out here. That means sitting here all night, getting frostbite or worse…Worrying my dad, who's definitely gonna come out here and then he'll be the one you'll have to talk to. He's a lot more stubborn than I am."

"Somehow I doubt that," A gravelly voice suddenly sounded right from behind her and as the man's breath grazed the back of her neck, Darcy cried out with unexpected fear and the smell of ozone rose quickly in the air.

"Whoa, Kid, it's just me."

Darcy's mind didn't acknowledge the words for a long while, her heartbeat pounding and not even the Professor's soothing inside her head could calm her. A lightning strike suddenly cracked a tree not three feet away from them and then Darcy felt those familiar arms around her, crowding her back into reality. One warm and fleshy and the other cool and metallic.

The Sergeant.

"Ah dammit," Darcy groaned when she had fully regained her senses. "Being a trauma victim sucks. The flashbacks alone have set my dad back quite a few windows already…"

A rough chuckle in her ear calmed the last bit of nerves and Darcy slowly pulled away to look into the Sergeant's eyes. "Hey you."

The Sergeant nodded with a barely there smile and Darcy decided to be her usual diplomatic self.

"I know you used to be Bucky Barnes. The Captain figured it out and he got really eager to meet you, a bit too eager as I completely freaked out on him when he shook me and in the process I found out I was a mutant, so yay. So what do I call you now? In my head you're still 'The Sergeant', but should I call you Bucky so you get used to that again since it must have been like a gazillion years ago that you used that. What about James? Jamie? Jimmy? Jim? Barnes? Barney? Hobo? I'm particularly fond of that last one seeing as I can clearly see you haven't exactly made an effort to blend in with civilized people. Dude, a haircut is very much needed or you'll have to go the David Beckham route and topknot it…Is that even still a thing? Is that cool? Why am I even asking you that? You don't know about this or obviously it wouldn't be an issue as you'd know how much like a hobo you look like. I mean when we met, I gave you money because you looked like a hobo. Hobo it is then. Anyway—"

The Sergeant's metallic hand suddenly landed on Darcy's babbling mouth and she finally took a deep breath and allowed the man a chance to speak.

"Hey back. Call me whatever you want aside from Hobo...and Bucky…That's not me anymore…at least not fully. I'm touched you thought so much about my grooming habits. I'm glad you're a mutant. They will teach you to protect yourself. Tell what happened with S-Steve."

Darcy didn't dare skip out on any details, the dark look that the Sergeant…James (?) was wearing warned her not to and when she finished by telling her that her dad had kicked everyone out of his tower in a fit of rage, he actually cracked a smirk that did weird things to Darcy's belly.

"Good for Stark. Stevie can be such a punk sometimes." was all Jimmy (?)said.

The two stood in front of each other, Darcy still loosely enveloped by her friend's human arm. She eventually sighed and stepped back a few steps and leaving the embrace. A look around her showed no signs of where he'd slept and he must have interpreted her question by her movement because a casual shrug was all the reply she got.

"Wanna go home with me?"

Barney (?) froze and Darcy hurried to explain.

"I mean not like in a total creeptastic kind of way. I'm too young to bring guys home and with my history I think if I ever try when I'm way way older, Dad's gonna freak them out so much they'll end up joining a monastery to recuperate and thank God for escaping with their lives. I meant that you can get a real place to live. A non-Hydra infected place where the only danger is my freak-outs and DUMY's so called smoothies."

Jamie (?)…yeah, Jamie sounded nice and Darcy quickly decided to go with that from now on as he responded to her offer.

"I'm not a good person, Darcy."

"Who cares?" Darcy looked around with a charming smile, "I'm not really into decent people. I don't know how to act around them. Just be yourself and we'll take one step at a time. I'm sure my dad will help out. He's pretty awesome. He'll love that you seem to want to protect me for some odd reason and...Well, I hope you'll end up friends since neither of you have that many in your lives."

There was a heavy pause before Jamie finally nodded with determination. "I'll try as long as I get to choose who I want to meet. I'm not ready for Steve or Natalia."

Darcy frowned, not having one clue who the last one was, but wrote it off as his fractured mind playing tricks on him and pulled out her phone to call her dad.

"He's gonna freak out a little, so don't mind me. You can go get your stuff from whatever hiding place you've got and then I'm sure the Professor will excuse me from classes today."

Jamie nodded and vanished into the bushes to do her bidding and Darcy broke into a beaming grin when her dad picked up on the second ring.

"Hey Dad, I really need you to keep an open mind when I bring my friend over today…"

0o0o0

TBC