Double Trouble

Steve/Jane Foster

AstroCaptain? CaptainPhysicist?

Theme song:

Pink – Trouble

So this one came from the following prompt on Tumblr by widowbitesandhearingaids;

can you imagine steve and jane foster being bestest bros though? I mean, Jane literally throws herself into harms way for science and for Thor (and for literally everyone else her self-preservation instinct is zero) and steve sees so much of who he was back in the 40s in her

so they hang out all the time, swapping stories and Jane helps him acclimate to the future. (steve's no astrophysicist but he can work a computer i dunno why people love thinking that he can't figure out anything modern)

and then all the shit with ca:ws happens and when Bucky is finally found, steve introduces them thinking that bucky will like jane as much as Steve does. but bucky is flat-out horrified. because somehow 70 years later there is another fucking skinny steve rodgers walking around only this one is a girl and doesn't just like to pick fights with bullies, no, this one likes to pick fights with shady government agencies, throwing caution to the fucking wind, and he nearly has an aneurism when he finds out that she broke into a facility to get Mjölnir back

I read it and went OMG YES ALL OF THIS I MUST WRITE THIS.

We'll just gently pretend that there's no romantic relationship between Thor and Jane though, mmkay? They're just good friends. Such good friends, in fact, that Thor delights in telling his new friends about her…

"She did what?" Steve fell about laughing as Thor finished the story.

"She hit me with her vehicular conveyance," Thor repeated, grinning. "Twice. And then my other friend Lady Darcy smote me down with her weapon of lightning."

"They both sound like trouble," Bucky said with a small smile, "but hey, they did a decent job of making sure you wouldn't be a threat to them."

"That is true, but Lady Jane in particular is most heedless of threats to her safety. Hitting me with her vehicular conveyance was an accident, both times. I am glad she has Lady Darcy to see to her safety. As for the Aether, well," Thor shook his head, "Lady Jane confessed that she was simply drawn to it out of curiosity."

Steve was laughing even harder. "Oh, she sounds like a hoot, Thor. I gotta meet this dame."

Bucky rolled his eyes and shook his head. "Of course you want to meet her. This is the woman trying to punch wormholes through space. You prob'ly wanna volunteer to jump through to see what's on the other side."

"That would be a noble and courageous act," Thor nodded.

"For fuck's sake, don't encourage him!"

xoxoxoxoxoxoxox

Jane Foster turned out to be a petite, almost frail-looking, but very beautiful woman with long brown hair and soft brown eyes. She had a merry laugh, which sounded out as Thor picked her up and swung her around.

"You're crushing my ribs, big guy!"

"My apologies, Lady Jane," he set her down gently, patted her shoulder affectionately – which almost sent her to her knees, Bucky noticed – and turned his attentions to the slightly taller and sturdier brunette who'd followed her in. "Lady Darcy!" Darcy got the exact same hug treatment, but returned it with much more enthusiasm.

"Dr Foster," Tony stepped forward, smiling. "Delighted to meet you."

"Mr Stark, likewise," Jane returned his handshake with a smile. "I've been after Thor to introduce us for ages. I want to talk to you about using an arc reactor to power the…"

"Let's leave the sciencing until after the introductions," Pepper cut in gently, reaching to shake Jane's hand too.

"Oh," Jane had the good grace to flush. "Sorry, Ms. Potts…"

"Please call me Pepper," she said charmingly, "and let me say how glad we are to have you and Darcy come to the Tower. Natasha, Maria and I have been feeling very much outnumbered."

Jane smiled at that, looking around. Natasha and Maria weren't even there, busy elsewhere at that time, and the room did seem to be full of large males. Including Dr Bruce Banner, and she barely managed to politely disengage from Pepper before darting over and grabbing his hand to shake enthusiastically.

"Typical scientist," Bucky muttered to Steve as Jane once again lost herself in science-speak, not in the least discouraged by Bruce, who joined in enthusiastically.

"Stunning, though," Steve said appreciatively.

She was, Bucky couldn't disagree, willowy and slender. Her friend Darcy was rather more to his taste though, with curves for days and a mouth made for sin. Thor had called her Jane's intern, but Bucky thought wrangler was probably more the correct term, as Darcy gently cut off Jane's conversation with Bruce and turned her towards Clint. Jane promptly started talking about wind speed and trajectory at him, which made Clint's eyes glaze over and Bucky grin. He had no idea how the archer pulled off his shots without doing the appropriate calculations, but Clint's math was pretty much grade school level.

Realising she'd lost Clint and he was utterly blanking at her, Jane sighed and disengaged politely, turning towards the two tall men standing together. The blond was Captain America, of course, wearing a plaid shirt and jeans almost identical to Jane's current attire. She'd resisted Darcy's every effort to get her to wear something nice, insisting that they were moving and she'd be carrying boxes and fixing her machines shortly, and she needed to be comfortable for that.

The sharply-dressed dark-haired man stepped forward to greet her first, and Jane realised this must be the Winter Soldier, Bucky Barnes. She smiled and took his offered hand, her eyes drawn inevitably to his left arm.

"That is an amazing piece of machinery," she said, wondering if he'd let her take a look at its workings.

"The only thing HYDRA gave me worth having," Bucky said dryly, "though Stark's been busy designing improvements."

"Really? I'd love to take a look," Jane said enthusiastically.

Steve snickered a laugh beside them, and she gave him a reproving glance. "Don't laugh, it's about quality of life."

Both Steve and Bucky started back, eyes widening. Steve flushed rosy red and seemed to have swallowed his tongue, so Bucky nudged him sharply. "Go on, punk, you need to say something!"

"Why?" Jane looked blank for a moment, and then suddenly caught on to the possibility. "No," she said disbelievingly. "You can't possibly be. Captain America?"

"That's me," Steve managed finally.

"You idiot, what a dumbass soulmark to have…" Bucky said, but trailed off as he saw Jane's eyes light up. "Well, I guess she's used to it," he mumbled under his breath. Sighed as Jane stepped forward and Steve reached for her hands, gazing down into her eyes. They were still gazing at each other in starry-eyed silence a couple of minutes later, Bucky watching them with his arms folded, having awful premonitions of having to pull both of them out of unwinnable fights by the scruff of their necks, when Darcy came up to him.

"Hey tall dark and dangerous, what's up with my boss lady and Captain Studly?" she said cheerfully.

"What?" Bucky wheeled around to face her. It was only after she spoke again that he realised she had an even stupider soulmark than Jane's. Because she had to be, there was surely no-one else who would say those words to him…

"I said, what's up with… what?" Darcy actually took a couple of steps back, because the former assassin's (at least, she hoped he was a former assassin) blue eyes were unnervingly intense as he stared at her.

"Does your soulmark say 'what'?" he asked.

"Yes, why?" Darcy's brain then caught up. "Oooh, really?" She looked Bucky up and down and actually licked her lips. "Yum. Lucky me."

"Lucky me," Bucky disagreed, "though you're going to have to help me wrangle those two," he gestured at Steve and Jane without taking his eyes off Darcy. "From what Thor's been tellin' me, your boss has the self-preservation instincts of a depressed lemming. And Steve is no better, though at least he's not a skinny little weakling any more."

Darcy smiled up at him. "Well. At least it means double dates won't be awkward!"

Couldn't resist a side of Bucky/Darcy there, I do love those two as a couple! And I can just imagine them frantically trying to keep Steve and Jane out of trouble, only every now and then they get, ahem, distracted, and turn around to find the lab on fire or the pair of them disappeared through a wormhole.