Prompt: You greeted me in the strangest way this morning when I was getting my mail and we've been neighbors for like 3 years and this is the first time you've ever spoken to me I have no idea what is going on AU
Characters: Darcy Lewis/Bucky Barnes, Steve Rogers, Wanda Maximoff, Luis (Ant-Man), mentions Other Avengers
Tags: Pre-Relationship, Humor, Friendship, Post - Civil War, Awkward Introduction, Bucky Has a Crush
When Avenger turned against Avenger, Darcy suddenly found herself the owner of an apartment building in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. The building itself was four stories tall and housed only eight apartments, the structure having fire escapes on both the front and rear of the building. And given that there was a mystery benefactor paying the taxes on the building, she decided to just go with the flow since she knew who had left the building in her care along with it's two other tenants and Pizza Dog.
Stark had soon seen the error of his ways by trusting General Ross when the arrogant man went after Dr. Foster and Darcy herself, he doing his best to protect the women when they put their foot down and refused to have anything to do with the Sokovia Accords. And then when Jane and Darcy started to warm back up to Stark, and even managed to get him and Pepper back on speaking terms, Stark did his best to clear his friends' names who were still hiding out in Wakanda. He even petitioned to have Barnes' name cleared, but refused to let the man anywhere within five hundred feet of his Tower.
Throughout this all, Darcy remained the owner and landlord of the apartment building. She was happy to see that Clint hardly charged the two single mothers anything to stay in the building, but everything came to a head when the plumbing started to act wonky. Not being handy with tools whatsoever, Darcy soon found herself at a crossroads. She nearly threw in the towel, but three men showed up out of the blue calling themselves the Three Wombats and that a little birdy said they could stay rent-free if they helped out with the building's issues.
Though Luis talked her ear off, Darcy had never been more grateful for him, Dave and Kurt moving in.
Steve, Clint, Scott, Natasha and Wanda are soon free to return to the States without any repercussions. Bucky is free, too, but everyone who was close to the Avengers inner circle knew that Barnes was back in cryo until the Scientists in Wakanda could come up with a way to disable any lingering triggers in his mind.
Jane now comfortably works with Stark, Darcy works for Pepper on and off, Clint and Scott had left to spend time with their families, and Steve and Wanda are Darcy's two new tenants since the wounds with Stark are still too fresh.
A whole six months pass before Steve and Natasha are jetting back to Wakanda, the two of them coming back with a healthy Bucky in tow. He, too, is thrust under Darcy's roof, but she doesn't seem to mind especially since the only civilians living in the building (the two single mothers and their children) decided to move out a few weeks before.
"Stevie, who's the dame that Wanda's always heading to the roof with?"
Pausing mid-sketch, Steve looks to Bucky who's sitting in the opened doorway of their shared apartment. Since they knew everyone who lived in the building, Steve noticed that Bucky like to sit halfway in the hall and just watch as people went about their day. "Darce? You've never met Darce before?" Bucky shakes his head in a negative answer. "She's, uh, Pepper's assistant at SI." Still his friend has no idea what he's talking about. "Buck, she's our landlord," Steve chuckles. "How have you not met her before?"
"Kind of been stuck in my head since comin' home, punk. Didn't really think I was in the right mind set just yet to talk to a beautiful dame like her."
Steve smirks at his friend's back. "You think she's swell, huh?"
He shrugs. "She looks like she's got moxy."
"Oh yeah," Steve laughs. "She's got moxy all right. When you work up the nerve to finally talk to her, ask her about when she tased a Norse God."
Weeks turn into months and months turn into years. The Avengers knit themselves back together after the Accords are dissolved, but still things are tense between Tony, Steve and Bucky. Tony and Steve learn to set aside their personal feelings when on mission, but afterwards it's an awkward dance around each other once more.
Clint, along with the help of Scott and his Wombats secure the building like it's never been secured before. The top two apartments are where Steve, Bucky, and Darcy reside, and Cap's apartment becomes a little home base for Bucky to keep an eye on Ops from the comfort of his home thanks to a secret fund that Tony set aside to keep the building up and running when Darcy's mysterious funds started to run low.
Darcy stops in every now and then to see how things are going, but Bucky seems to curl in on himself whenever Darcy is around. She smiles shyly at him in greeting, no words are ever exchanged, and Steve just snorts whenever he catches the lingering looks from both oblivious parties.
.xXx.
Darcy's standing at the wall of mailboxes as she decides what mail she needs to keep and what's junk mail that she can toss. The front door opens and Wanda rushes in with Pizza Dog in tow, she hip-checking the curvaceous brunette on her way towards the stairs.
"Get in all the doggie cuddles you can, Maximoff," Darcy grins. "Clint's taking him to the farm for the weekend. I heard Thing One and Thing Two miss their pet."
"Then I will go with," Wanda retorts over her shoulder. "I miss little Nate."
"I'm sure you do." As Wanda disappears upstairs, Darcy finishes ripping up the pieces of mail that she's going to trash. Then locking up her mailbox, she places everything in her messenger bag hanging off of one shoulder and heads for the stairs. Though before her foot can even hit the first step, a throat clearing behind her stalls her.
As Darcy turns around, she's met with the sight of Bucky- Bucky whose hair is tied back in a messy knot, dressed in a dark gray henley with it's sleeves pushed up to his elbows and jeans that hug his thighs almost illegally, and a tray of iced coffees in one hand and a brown paper bag in the other. "Miss Lewis," he greets her, his voice oddly cracking, "how are you this fine afternoon?"
Darcy raises her eyebrows at him and mentally chuckles as he winces after realizing his attempt at small talk was rather lame. "Barnes," she drawls, lips twitching in amusement though in the next moment her eyes are narrowing suspiciously. "We've been neighbors for like three years, dude, and this is the first time you've ever spoken to me. What's wrong?"
"I, uh, nothing!" He stammers, eyes wide. "Nothing. I just-"
"Yo, Dave!" A voice above them shouts, and both Darcy and Bucky glance up to see Luis leaning on the second floor railing as he looks at someone over his shoulder. The man really needed to work on his observation skills. "Mr. Roboto is finally talking to the bodacious beauty. Come check it out!"
Darcy's eyes quickly flicker towards Bucky to see him scowling upward and she snorts. Redirecting her attention back on Luis, she says, "Yo, Wombat!" His head quickly snaps down towards her and Dave appears next to him, looking down as well. "Keep being nosy like you are right now and I'll make you start paying rent."
His mouth drops open in shock. "You wouldn't!"
"I totally would," she smirks. "Find someone else to test out your eavesdropping skills on. Pronto, Señor."
Luis blinks at her before grinning flirtatiously. "Aye, aye, mamacita!" Both Luis and Dave salute Darcy before scrambling back into their apartment with a laugh, Darcy and Bucky only looking back at one another when they hear the Wombat's apartment door slam shut.
"So.."
"I got you coffee!" He blurts. "And pigs in a blanket..?" He says, nose wrinkling as if he's never had one before. "Stevie said you liked them."
Darcy blinks owlishly at him and then notices the subtle gulp as his adam's apple bobs nervously. His grip on the paper bag flexes and he shifts from foot to foot as he awaits whatever is about to come out of her mouth next. "You got me pigs in the blanket?" She asks, a smile slowly forming.
His head tilts in a rather curious manner. "Yes?"
"You.. are my favorite person ever!" She beams at him while reaching forward and grasping him by the wrist. His metal wrist. "Now come on. Let's go listen in on Comms and see which country Clint gets banned from today. He still won't tell me what happened in Budapest."
Bucky can only follow as the beautiful dame drags him up several flights of stairs, eyes twinkling and the corner of his mouth quirking up in amusement as they pass the Wombat's apartment and Luis opens the door to flash him a thumb's up.