"Could Be Worse"

Darcy was picking up coffee (for herself) and snacks (for her baby scientists) when Doom decided it'd be a fun time to attack. Still in the same city as the Fantastic Four, but closer to Stark Tower than the Baxter. Much closer. Pulling pigtails, indeed.

With a sigh, mourning the loss of the coffee – now all over the floor – and the pastries – also on the floor – Darcy sank behind an upturned table to make sure her taser was loaded. She had an actual setting on it for rogue robots. Such was her life that she needed a setting other than 'stun' or 'kill'. Not that she'd asked for any fancy upgrades to her things; it was just a cool side effect of living in the same place as Tony Stark, and being an honorary Avenger.

Actually, she hadn't met him at all, not said even a word to him. She knew that it was Bad to interrupt Science!, so she did her silent intern thing where she bought stuff, distributed it at the regular feeding time she'd established, and trusted JARVIS to let her know when things were about to go tits-up. (She loved that expression ever since she heard it in London, and used it whenever she could, sometimes with her own variation 'boobs-up'.)

"Everyone, just get down behind stuff and stay where you are!" she hollered over the screams of the customers. While they either obeyed or didn't – those who ignored her advice were better out of the gene pool, anyway – she pulled out her cell phone. No way JARVIS wouldn't have detected Doom's attack by now, and alerted the Avengers, but she wanted to make sure. "Yo, J!"

"Assistance is on its way, Miss Lewis."

"You're the best, bro. Darcy out."

She hung up, resting her head back against the table for a few moments to compose herself, and then turned around. Sure enough, attracted by all the shouting, there were three robots headed their way. The few clear-headed people in the room who were armed pulled out their weapons and fired, but the bullets just dinged off the metal of Doom's latest efforts. Darcy smugly extended her hand over the top of the table and fired her taser at the leading robot. With a great burst of static, it blew up, and Darcy went to reload.

"If anyone else has got tasers, use them!" she said. This time people seemed more willing to listen, and a couple of women began digging through their handbags. "And keep down, okay? The Avengers are on their way, and we're close to Stark Tower. It shouldn't be long before—"

A cloaked figure landed, riding on the back of a couple more robots, with a metal mask concealing his face. No guesses.

"Hey," Darcy said. "Victor von Doom, right?"

"You should be less regular in your habits, Darcy Lewis," he replied.

…Oh shit. Yeah, Natasha may've mentioned that once. But this'd been Darcy's routine for months! Why strike now, when her guard was down…? Oh yeah. Good point. She winced, shrugged, and fired at one of the robots holding Doom up. He fell to the ground with a clatter, and Darcy snickered, reloading. She'd have to ask Iron Man (through JARVIS) to make her taser fire more rounds without having to reload, since that seemed way more important than any other functions.

"Here!" a woman called. Darcy looked up, slightly distracted by Doom struggling to his feet, and a stranger slid her taser across the room to Darcy. True, she had a better view than most people, and clearly needed more help since this seemed personal.

"Thanks!" she said. She aimed and struck the other Doombot beside its creator, throwing him off his feet again, then slid the taser back across to its owner.

Then help arrived!

"Friggin' finally," she muttered as Iron Man blew up the two remaining robots, then landed beside Doom. He raised his gauntlets.

"Give me a reason not to blast the hell out of you," he said. Doom sneered.

"Such fuss over a coffee girl?" he asked. "Her soulmate must be very important if she's living with the Avengers."

"Haven't met my soulmate yet, asshole," Darcy piped up. Doom and Stark looked at her, and then turned back to each other.

"She's the official scientist handler, actually," Stark said, and Darcy felt something glowing in her chest. Pride? "She keeps the brains of the operation alive. I don't know what we'd do without her, and I have no idea how either Bruce or I survived this long without her care." Okay, so maybe he shouldn't have been revealing all of this where anyone could hear it, because Darcy was pretty sure the risk to her life just tripled at least. But whatever. It sounded like he respected her, which was totally worth the danger. "In other words, Doom, by going after her you're making a big mistake. I don't think Asgard would take it well if Thor's friend was threatened. Could be bye-bye, Latveria. So why don't you surrender like a good little despot, and maybe Thor won't fry your brains when he gets here in t-minus five seconds."

There was a huge crack of thunder, making Darcy wonder how the hell Stark timed things so well. Probably over the comms, but the magic of Stark was equally likely.

Thor arrived, and very nearly strangled Doom before flying him away. Stark waved as they took off, and then walked towards Darcy's table.

"He came here for you?" a customer said. Darcy grimaced, and glanced over her shoulder at the café's owner.

"I'm so sorry about this," she said. "I'll pay for the damages, I promise. Or hack Doom's bank account and make him pay for it."

"I can do that," Stark told the owner. His face-plate retracted, and Darcy relaxed.

"It's things like that which make me question my life choices," she said. Stark froze mid-step, and looked her over.

"Huh," he said. "Okay, well, I expected much worse."

"…Excuse me?"

"In my defence, I thought I'd be speaking first." Darcy looked at him blankly, reeling at the revelation that Tony Freakin' Stark was her soulmate! "Think about it. Your first words to me were you questioning your life choices? Not exactly getting positive vibes."

She snorted, gathering her feet under her and slipping her taser back into her purse.

"And your first words to me were saying that you 'expected much worse'," she said, "so I'm pretty sure we're even."

His right gauntlet flew off as he strode forward. "I can't believe we haven't met until now. You really haven't said anything when you've left food on the desk in my workshop?"

"I thought it'd be rude to interrupt," she said, accepting his helping hand. "Hi. I'm Darcy Lewis."

"Tony Stark," he said, keeping hold of her hand. "Let's get you back to the tower. Bruce will want to make sure you're okay."

"I'm fine—"

"And I want to get you in private as soon as possible after that." He leered, and Darcy rolled her eyes. She stepped around the table, swapping hands with him so they could walk side by side.

"I think we'll need to skip coffee today," she said.

"That's alright," he said. "We're going to spend the rest of the day going over how to upgrade your security. I'm assigning you a bodyguard for when I'm not around. Maybe I'll clone Happy? No! I'll make you a suit. Body armour."

"I can be Iron Woman?"

"If so, I'll need your measurements. All of your measurements." Tony took his hand back and cocked his fingers, summoning the gauntlet. Then he tugged Darcy against the suit. "How would you like to fly home?"

She hooked her hands behind the neck of the Iron Man suit. "I'd love to."

"…Shit. I just realised that I'm going to get the shovel talk from Thor about not hurting his Sister in Lightning."

"You think you've got it bad? I'm gonna have Pepper Potts threatening me!"

"Elopement is sounding better and better."

"Why, Mr. Stark, are you proposing to me?"

Instead of answering, he took off into the air, and Darcy yelped, tightening her hold on him. He surprised her with a kiss, the best distraction in the world, and Darcy sighed through her nose. She had no idea how high they were, and didn't want to know. She spent the rest of the ride looking into her soulmate's eyes, occasionally pecking him on the lips, and kept it cleaner than she wanted to. Better to be safe than sorry when she was who knew how high up.

"We're here," Tony said, and they settled on a balcony. Darcy looked around, and felt the tension bleeding out of her. She wrapped her arms around him and settled against the metal body, wishing the suit wasn't between them but relieved to be home.

"Thank you for rescuing me," she said. "I don't know how long I could've handled the situation, especially when it became clear I was the target."

"I thought my soulmate was going to be disappointed in me," he confessed. "You're better than I deserve, but damned if I'm losing you."

"Got it right there, buddy."

He led her inside and straight to the elevator. While she stayed on the medical level, with a promise to see Bruce, Tony continued down to the workshop to get out of the suit. Darcy hopped up onto the examination table, opening her mouth to protest the mother hen routine, but a look from the doctor shut her up.

"Talk me through what happened," he said.

"A bunch of robots, a dictator, and a superhero land outside a café," she began. "Stop me if you're heard this one before."

"Something about a scientist wrangler being targeted by a supervillain. I believe that's how the story goes? What happened to the wrangler? Is there any cut glass involved? Splinters? Stubbed toes or bumped elbows? Concussion?"

"Soulmate," Darcy said. That made him pause.

"You met your soulmate," he said.

"It's Tony. We were never introduced, and he saved my life."

"Who spoke first?"

"…You know his words, don't you?" she said. He nodded jerkily. "I did. I was referring to Doom targeting me. My words have always been just as much of a blow to the self-esteem."

"I hoped there'd be another meaning to them," he said. "For Tony's sake."

Darcy's swung her legs back and forth while Bruce set up the blood pressure monitor.

"I thought the person I had to fear the most was Pepper Potts, but I'm kinda scared about the Hulk's idea of a shovel talk."

"The Other Guy would give both of you the talk, about each other."

"Aw. You're melting my heart here, doc."

"You're our handler, Darcy. Of course we care about you. We all do, not just Jane, Thor, and Selvig. We should say it more often, I know, but at least half of us are emotionally constipated, and half the remainder are putting on an act."

Darcy quietly considered this while Bruce continued his examination, giving short answers to his questions. She perked up when Tony joined them, perching on the opposite bed and watching Bruce like a hawk.

"I think we'll have to have our first date in tonight," he finally said. "I don't want to take you out before we've established a proper security detail for you."

"Seriously, I'll be fine," she said.

"You haven't been on social media since you got down here, have you, Darcy?"

"Nope."

"Because our interaction is already making the rounds."

"…Oh."

"Now that it's out there, we don't have to worry about how to break it to the world," he said. "That we're soulmates. And I definitely want to get to know you. But you have to decide whether you want a relationship with me. People will already be speculating, so if you want out… tell me now, so we can squash any rumours before people accept them as fact. You'll be in danger anyway, but if people believe we're not together then it'll avert at least some of the bitchiness headed your way."

"Hey, I've had plenty of bitchiness from kids at school about developing early," Darcy said. "Do… you not want me?"

Tony stood up and took her hands, looking her right in the eyes.

"I've always believed that my soulmate would take one look at me and decide that I'm not worth it," he told her. "So I've always been prepared for rejection, especially considering the age difference between us."

"I'm not gonna reject you, Tony," she said. "Ever. You're the other half of my soul, not to mention that you're super hot and a genius to boot. And a superhero. I expected a jerk for a soulmate—"

"And you got one."

"No. Your words were totally justified, now that I understand. I'm not abandoning you, not ever." She squeezed his hands. "You're stuck with me for as long as you can put up with all of this."

Tony's smile was the most genuine one she'd ever seen, so happy that it nearly bowled her over. She saw him swallow, and he took a few breaths.

"Thank you," he said softly.

"Y'know, Doom was right about one thing," she said, and his eyebrows scrunched together. "My soulmate is someone pretty damn important."

He rested his forehead against hers, still beaming. "So is mine."

Another shorter chapter for a single ship, but I don't care, and I hope you don't mind, dear readers.

Now I'm going to make what I hope isn't a terribly unreasonable request: please don't submit any more pairing requests, not even as we get more new characters in 'Agents of SHIELD' and MCU in general. I've had heaps of suggestions, and come up with ideas of my own, so I really don't need more things to be keeping track of. Thank you for all previous suggestions, and I might resume asking for requests when I feel less overwhelmed. Also, please double-check that I haven't already written a pairing before requesting it.

Please review!