Prompt: Lost

From: avengers-tables .livejournal under 50-word prompt (yes, I do intent to use all 50 words)

Pairings: Clint/Darcy

The noise was nearly defining. Between the huge cluster of excited graduates and the crowd, Darcy could barely hear. As it was, her skin was almost crawling from the high levels of concentrated energy. Even her own excitement couldn't alleviate that discomfort. Still, she wanted to to be there, even if it was nearly unbearable. She'd done it; she'd finished her degree. And today, she got to walk out in front of her friends and family to accept said degree. Today, she got to proclaim to the world that she'd succeeded.

All around her, students jostled and shouted, anxious to get moving. To finish the ceremony and head out to party. Darcy was anxious to get out herself, just for a very different reason. She just hoped her father was going to make it. When she came off the stage, she wanted to be able to run up and throw her arms around him. To hug him and share this milestone in her life.

Of course, if she could have had Clint and her dad there, she would have been ecstatic. But her dad would never come if Clint was going to be present- he couldn't. So she'd carefully avoided talking with Clint about her graduation ceremony, to her great displeasure. Now, she just hoped her dad really did show up. Otherwise, she would have avoided having Clint there with her for nothing.

An announcement came on over-head, telling students to take their seats and prompting everyone to quiet down. It took a few minutes, but the large auditorium finally fell silent just as the Dean of the University stepped forward to the podium.

"Hello, and welcome to everyone who's here today to watch this fine group of students graduate," welcomed the Dean before he began to delve into his long-winded speech. Darcy barely avoided rolling her eyes as he began rambling, instead closing her eyes and reaching out into the crowd in search of her father. There were so many people around, it was hard to tell anyone apart, particularly when the copious amounts of energy in the room were beginning to blend. Still, Darcy knew how to pinpoint someone individually.

Closing her eyes, she tuned out the drone of the Dean and focused on the energy around her. She scanned the group slowly, trying to locate her father's specific energy signature. He felt different from everyone else, obviously. There was something about him that was unique. Nothing jumped out at her as she scanned the people. No one even felt remotely like her father. Of course, that didn't mean he wasn't there- the sheer number of people could just be blocking her sense of where he was. It wouldn't be the first time.

"Darcy!" The whispered explanation from Nancy, her former roommate and classmate who was seated beside her, snapped Darcy back to reality right before applause filled the room. Apparently, it was time to start moving. Damn.

Standing, Darcy followed the line as they snaked around the chairs, her eyes all the while searching for her father. Sometimes when there were too many people around, she could find him visually as opposed to energetically. Again though, there were too many people. And knowing her father, he was hiding along the back wall somewhere, out of sight. Again, she reminded herself that just because she couldn't see or feel him didn't mean he wasn't there.

Smiling as best she could, Darcy collected her diploma from her dean, shook all the hands she had to as quickly as she could, and nearly darted off the stage. Why had she wanted to walk again? What had made her think this was a good idea?

Because it's a milestone I should relish. It's something normal that everyone else does and damnit, I should be able to do one normal thing.

Well, she did plenty of normal things, she just tended to do them in an abnormal way. Like finding a boyfriend or completing her physics credits. Or meeting a god. Yeah, there really wasn't much that qualified as 'normal' about her life. Sadly.

Settling back into her seat from before, she waited as patiently as she could for the rest of the students to collect their diplomas and retake their seats. Her second sight continued to scan the crowd as she waited, looking for any sign of her father. Anything at all.

Something familiar in the crowd caught her attention, a hint of an energy signature that matched her father's perfectly. However, jostling around her broke her focus before she could tell more, the students around her rising with their hats in hand as the dean spoke. She scrambled to follow, throwing her hat in the air with the other students just in time. Then the true chaos began.

The students half rushed out of the auditorium, the teachers attempting to encourage them to file out in an organized fashion. It half worked, though not nearly as much as they'd likely hoped. As it was, Darcy still got jostled by those around her in a most uncomfortable way.

As soon as the group burst into sunlight, Darcy broke away. The breeze passing over the surrounding area was a blessing after the cramped air of the building. She nearly collapsed under a tree in relief, basking in the sun's warm glow. She'd need to look for her father of course, probably should text him to tell him where she was, but it could wait a minute. It wasn't like her father couldn't figure out where to look for her. He knew her as well as she knew herself.

Settling back against the tree's trunk, she again closed her eyes and reached out for her father. Almost immediately, she latched onto the energy source she'd recognized before once more. It was no where to be found though, having disappeared again in the chaos of the crowds. Which probably meant she'd imagined his energy. It would have hurt that he wasn't there if she didn't know an emergency had most likely been the reason.

Against her thigh, her phone vibrated. Without much thought, she pulled out the device and flipped it open. Sure enough, a text message from her father was splayed across the screen. [Congratulations, sweetheart. I'm proud of you.]

She tried to restrain her frustrated sigh, quickly typing back a response. [Thanks dad. Be careful doing whatever you're doing.]

"Darcy! There you are!"

A familiar voice, one she immediately recognized as Jane, had Darcy's head snapping up in shock. What was Jane doing there? Did that mean Thor was around? Geez, if he was, no wonder her father hadn't showed up. Or maybe he had but he hadn't been able to approach her because Jane was there. The thought made Darcy momentarily hate the scientist. Especially after she'd gone through so much effort to avoid talking with Clint about it. She loved her former boss, but she could have had both Jane and Clint there. It was her father who couldn't, wouldn't, come if they did.

The appearance of her former boss a few feet away wiped that irritation away though, her more rational side reminding her that it wasn't Jane's fault they had to keep her family a secret. Pushing back to her feet, she waved at the other woman and prepared for a hug or some other show of affection. Depending on Jane's mood, the scientist could be more...physically affectionate than Darcy was really comfortable with. "Hey boss-lady."

"Congratulations Darcy," stated Jane, pulling the former intern into a hug.

Darcy did her best not to show any discomfort as Jane hugged her- it was rare but she'd known it might be coming given the whole 'graduation is a big deal' thing. "Thanks. What're you doing here though?"

"Graduating is a big deal, Darcy," reminded Jane, pulling back to meet Darcy's eyes. "Plus, I wanted to come personally to bring you back to New York."

Right, New York. Jane had offered her a position as her assistant until she found a job in her field and Darcy hadn't wanted to turn the opportunity down. Besides, knowing the people she did, she'd probably end up in SHIELD anyway and, hey, this way it wouldn't be as suspicious. Not that she wasn't expecting a job offer from Fury pretty much as soon as he heard she was done, if he hadn't already. Her dad was probably still negotiating the term or something. It was the kind of thing he'd do.

"Jane, did you find her?" Two more women appeared then, to Darcy's great surprise. Both red-heads cut through the crowd with surprising ease given the amount of jostling that was going on. They managed to make it through though, both coming to a stop behind Jane.

The shorter woman on the left Darcy recognized after a second as none other that Pepper Potts, the assistant to Tony Stark and one-time CEO of Stark Industries. The former assistant, now girlfriend to the powerful man, offered them both a relieved look, holding out her hand towards Darcy with a smile. "You must be Darcy. I'm Pepper Potts."

"Hey," greeted Darcy, blinking up at Pepper in surprise as she carefully took the other woman's hand. The usual surge of images assaulted her mind as their skin momentarily touched, memories of people she knew and people she didn't flashing through her skull for a second before she released the CEO's hand. The flood immediately died back, though it didn't stop immediately. It would take a bit for the images to quit assaulting her like they were.

The darker haired red-head stepped forward next, offering Darcy her hand as well, though it was a far more deliberate gesture than Pepper's had been- less automatic and more calculated. "Natasha."

A red-head named Natasha? Immediately, her father's passing mention of a former Russian spy who'd been recruited by SHIELD crossed her mind. The girl had been named Natasha and had really red hair just like the woman before her. Huh.

"Hey," repeated Darcy, carefully taking the woman's hand and quickly releasing it. The woman's energy almost made her nauseous in it's intensity. She definitely wouldn't be touching Natasha again any time soon.

Natasha gave her a raised eyebrow but said nothing, dropping her hand to her waist almost casually as she gave Darcy a once-over. It made Darcy more than a little uneasy. Definitely had to be the same Natasha her father had talked about. There was no way there were two scary-ass redheads in SHIELD that could make someone's skin crawl like that.

"So, where's the god-o-thunder?" asked Darcy as casually as she could, wondering who else would appear out of nowhere. Part of her hoped Clint would make an appearance; if her dad wasn't going to show, she'd at least like her boyfriend there. The fact he hadn't appeared yet made her doubtful though.

"Thor is back in New York with the rest of the Avengers," explained Jane, her voice almost a touch giddy, as if the fact he was back was still some new and exciting thing. She clapped her hand over her mouth a second later though, eyes widening. "Oh god, I wasn't supposed to say that."

"It's alright, Jane," chuckled Natasha, eying Darcy with a look that was made her want to squirm. "She would have found out about the Avengers as soon as we were headed back to New York. I planned to debrief her on the plane."

Something in Natasha's voice told Darcy that the red-head had never intended to debrief her. In fact, it almost felt like Natasha somehow knew that she already knew about the Avengers. Except that was impossible, unless Darcy was giving something away with her micro expressions, which she knew she wasn't. Her dad had trained her out of that.

"Avengers?" asked Darcy, cocking an eyebrow curiously and feigning confusion. "What, like a band? Thor could play a wicked drum solo I bet, assuming he didn't pummel the drums to pieces."

"I think giving Thor any musical instrument might be a bad idea," remarked Pepper, her face scrunching up at some apparent memory or thought. Or maybe she was just imagining the noise Thor would create. Darcy could see him just wailing on the drums with no sense of rhythm or beat. It would probably sound pretty bad, too.

"Thor isn't Tony," pointed out Jane, apparently a bit insulted by Pepper's remark. "He probably wouldn't build something to make it play by itself or anything."

"Playing by itself wouldn't be the only use Tony would find for it," sighed Pepper, shaking her head a bit and turning towards Darcy. "Are you packed and ready to go already?"

Darcy's head kinda spun a little by the sudden change in topic, though it really shouldn't surprise her. Her dad had warned her that Pepper could sometimes change topics rapidly- apparently a side-effect from too much time with Tony. He didn't care because, well, he'd been around Darcy her whole life and she was the queen of random non-sequiturs. "Uh, like my apartment? Yeah, everything's already on its way home except, you know, what I'm carrying back."

"Already?" asked Jane in surprise, her eyebrow rising. "How did you know where to send your things?"

"They're going to my dad's," replied Darcy with a shrug as she stood fully and picked up her hat. They needed to get moving, otherwise this was going to get awkward. She tried not to mention her dad but, well, she obviously came from somewhere, right? It wasn't like she could avoid mentioning ever that she had parents. "He'll stash it until I come get it."

"Well, I suppose that saves us the trouble of helping you pack then," remarked Pepper with a soft smile, though how the woman had intended to help Darcy pack in what looked like they were probably $300 Louie Vattons, she wasn't sure. "We already booked a hotel for the night, so what do you say we all go to the spa and relax? This is a girl's weekend after all."

It is? Would have been nice if she'd known that. Still, Darcy wasn't going to turn down time in a spa so long as massages were out. Those weren't something she ever agreed to unless she really knew the person. Clint, she'd probably let massage her. That could be fun, actually. Not that she had any doubts that it would turn into sex pretty fast- it seemed like they could hardly be in the same room without stripping off each others' clothes. Not that she was complaining or anything. Who would complain about sharing a bed with someone like Clint?

"Darcy?" Jane's voice along with her hand on Darcy's shoulder brought Darcy's focus sharply back on the three women in front of her. "Spa day? Yes or not? It is your graduation after all."

She didn't give it much more than half a thought before nodding. "Sure, sounds fun."

Smiling, Pepper nodded and gestured for the group to follow her towards a limo that was waiting on the street nearby. Darcy's jaw might have dropped if she hadn't been expecting it. Pepper was the girlfriend of Tony Stark, after all.

A glint caught Darcy's eye as they passed by the group of parents and students still crowded around the doors to the auditorium. The chatter and excitement was plainly evident in the air, just like it should be. What caught her attention though was the man standing near by in a Captain America tee-shirt and jeans with standard SHIELD-issue sunglasses covering his eyes. Even the baseball cap couldn't hide the fact that the man watching her was none other than her father, Phil Coulson.

She slowed a little, catching his eye as she did. All he did in return though was nod and offer her a proud smile. It wasn't the hug she'd wanted that day, but it was something. He was there and he'd watched her graduate. That much she knew just by the way he was smiling. It made her smile in return, the disappointment from before fading as a shout from Jane reminded her what she was doing.

Turning her focus back onto the other three women, Darcy hurried to catch up with them at the limo and practically dove into the back seat. It was a distraction to make sure none of them noticed the guy in his forties dressed in Captain America garb that was hanging out near the door to the auditorium. Even if her father didn't need the cover, Darcy was happy to provide it anyway. After all, he'd come to her graduation even though he probably knew some people pretty closely associated with the Avengers would be there, if not the Avengers themselves. It wasn't everything she could want, but for now, it was enough.