Steve Rogers was frustrated.
He honestly didn't think he was that bad at talking to women.
Sure, it had taken him a long while to manage to sneak flirting into his interactions with Darcy, but she seemed oblivious to it and he wasn't sure it was his fault. What made him the most angry though was that he thought he knew why.
He was Captain America.
Sure she could pass it off like she was worried about him being her boss, but deep down they both knew she held the real power. Or at least he knew that. With a frown he stood where Natasha had left him and mentally played back, using his perfect memory, all his interactions with Darcy. And one common theme stuck out- self-deprecating jokes.
He used them as a defense mechanism himself because he had a difficult time remembering that he wasn't still the 5' 4" guy who couldn't pass for a hundred pounds soaking wet and who all the dames ignored. In short, they came from a place inside him that still felt like he was undesirable.
Now Darcy was beautiful, but he thought it just might be possible that her jokes came from a similar place. That she somehow didn't realize how attractive and perfect for him she was to the point where she just flat out didn't recognize his interest as anything more than friendly. And it definitely was much more than that.
"Fuck it," he muttered and spun on his heel quickly making his way back onto the elevator.
Subtle flirting clearly didn't work, so he was going to have to be more obvious.
Stalking back up to Darcy's open office door, he gave the door frame a quick, perfunctory knock before stepping into the room and shutting the door behind him much more forcefully than he had intended.
Darcy looked up, startled by the noise, and her expression quickly changed from fear to confusion.
"Honestly? You've been gone for like two minutes! What else could possibly have gone wrong already?!" She practically shrieked throwing her hands in the air. Steve stopped just in front of her as she continued, "I swear, if it was Clint I am going to take one of his exploding arrows and I am going to shove it-"
Steve didn't get to hear where she was doing to put the arrow, but he had a really good idea. And obviously he didn't care to confirm that suspicion because he cut Darcy off by bending down, bracing a hand on either arm of her chair, spinning her to face him, and pressing his lips to hers.
For a moment, he had the crushing sense of rejection and fear that he had read the entire situation wrong because Darcy froze up beneath him. Just as he started to pull back to apologize, Darcy let out a small sigh, awkwardly brought her arms up to wrap around his neck and pulled him closer. She softened into him, yielding to his kiss.
Throwing caution to the wind once more, Steve lightly brushed his tongue along her lips, sending up a mental prayer of thanks when they parted and allowed him access.
Needing to catch her breath after a few minutes of increasingly heated kissing, Darcy pulled back again. Steve watched as her eyes slowly opened and met his. Panting she opened her mouth, shut it again, and swallowed. He couldn't help but grin at her, adoring the way it made her eyes narrow as she snapped back into herself.
"You moved my seat," she accused, poking a finger at Steve's chest.
Steve looked down at where his hands were still on the armrest, flushing a little when he noticed that he had damaged them when he'd tightened his grip to keep his hands from wandering onto Darcy. In response he said, "I thought our first kiss would be less awkward if we were facing each other. You know, fewer possible angle issues."
He rubbed the back of his neck, uncomfortably aware of the fact that he'd turned bright red under Darcy's gaze.
Darcy waved her hand dismissively and said, "no, not that. Downstairs. I was only at the party for a hot minute, but it was long enough to see that someone had moved my seat."
"I was looking forward to seeing you," Steve explained, emphasizing the last two words. "I could not care less about some fancy ass party."
"You… Wait what? Steve please don't ever repeat that-"
"To anyone but you, got it," Steve told her. "I promise."
"Wait what?" Darcy repeated herself as realization slowly dawned in her eyes. "Were you trying to date me?!"
"Still am, Darce," Steve replied using the affectionate nickname he usually saved for casual encounters outside of work.
"Oh," Darcy let out a breath. "I didn't get that."
It was Steve's turn to sigh as he stood all the way up then dropped his gaze back down to the feet. "Yeah. I think I may have been a little too subtle all those times we were flirting?"
"We were flirting?" Darcy's voice turned into a high pitched squeak again, and she was looking like she was going to start overthinking it. So Steve quickly resumed his previous position and kissed any confusion about his intentions and self-doubt out of her once and for all.
As best as she could tell when she came back into awareness, Darcy had gone full on barnacle at some point during the kiss and latched herself onto Steve. Thankfully she was pretty sure Steve hadn't minded if the hands he had on her ass holding her tight to his front were any indication.
Darcy cleared her throat and offered, "if you'd wanted to make your desire to date clear, you probably should have, you know, asked." After a moment of thought she tilted her head a little and added, "and maybe chosen something other than an event I had to help organize on a day where I'd had pretty much no sleep."
"Noted," Steve said crisply with a nod of his head, still easily holding her up. "I'll do better next time."
Darcy's hands slid from where they were resting on his shoulders along his neck then up to dig into his hair.
"Kissing me seems like a good tactic too though. Very direct."
"Results do seem favorable so far," Steve agreed leaning ever so slightly toward hers once more.
"Can't hurt to check again," Darcy reasoned before tugging his face into hers once more.
A/N: That's really all for this fic now!