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Darcy Lewis, Girl Scout Troop Leader.
When Darcy Lewis was going through her goth phase in middle school, she scoffed in the face of Girl Scouts. So cheerful. So resourceful. So sugary sweet. As a thirteen-year-old, Darcy was kind of a judgemental asshole. Thankfully that phase didn’t last much past the age of fourteen.
But still, if someone had told her then that she would be a Girl Scout Troop leader at the age of twenty-seven, she’d have laughed in their faces. If someone had told her that fun fact at the age of twenty-five she would have laughed so hard she might have peed a little.
Funny what being arrested at a peaceful protest at the age of twenty-six would do to a person. Honestly, that ignorant asshole shouldn’t have brought Bucky Barnes into the conversation. Darcy had a soft spot for the former Winter Soldier. And the other super soldier. Maybe she just had a thing for soldiers, because honestly, she spoiled Rhodey and Wilson too.
She wasn’t trying to make eyes at Rhodey (he had property of Pepper and Tony written on his behind), and she was pretty sure that Natasha might be mildly annoyed if Darcy tried to woo Sam.
Maybe she was trying to make eyes at the super soldiers. They were hot and stinking adorable. Thirteen-year-old Darcy would have judged herself hardcore, but Darcy at twenty-seven knew that love was love was love, and yeah, she kind of loved those beautiful antiques.
When she went to her hearing regarding her disturbing the peace and slightly physically assaulting the bigot who claimed Bucky should be waterboarded and then hung for services rendered to Russia, the judge had gone easy on her with community service. Darcy wasn’t about to complain but maybe the judge was kind of kooky because she had given Darcy community service with children .
When the ten-year-old Girl Scouts asked her why she’d become their troop leader, Darcy would always casually answer,
“It was either you little monsters or the slammer, and I chose the slammer. Too bad it was full so you’re stuck with me.”
Darcy loved being a troop leader. Those little girls in Brooklyn’s Troop #4278 were kick ass little ladies who were smart and funny and adorable. Every week they did awesome crafts, ate delicious snacks, worked on important charity projects and plotted fun field trips. But the winter holiday charity and festivities were now done, and the dreaded January 15th start date for cookie selling was about to start.
She didn’t want her girls to stand outside in the cold, or walk door to door in their dangerous neighborhood in order to sell four dollars worth of cookies. Most of the girls’ parents all worked for NY Transit, so it would be difficult to sell there as well, seeing as most of the other employees had girls who were selling as well.
She just didn’t want Manhattan Troop #587 to beat them. Again. Apparently for the fifth year running. This was her first year selling cookies and she desperately wanted the girls to do well so they could feel good about themselves, so they could hold that win high above their heads and really feel accomplished.
And Darcy really hated that awful, snobby, obnoxious classist who ran Manhattan troop #587 like a dictator.
So instead of setting up shop in front of a grocery store and attempting to guilt trip people out of four dollars for cookies they could get cheaper in the store, Darcy decided to think outside of the box. Technically, they couldn’t sell their sugary wares in the public parts of Manhattan. But it was a good thing that sections of Avengers Towers were deemed private spaces. So she and four little girls assembled a folding table right outside of the very large multi-purpose room that Stark Industries security and the Avengers themselves used.
“MISS DARCY! MISS DARCY! I sold eight boxes!” Kayla, the tallest ten-year-old in the history of ten-year-olds ran up to Darcy (who was shorter than Kayla by two whole inches) with her hand extended for a high five.
“That’s my girl!” Darcy slapped her hand enthusiastically. “Now, a new recruit class is coming out soon, and they just had a conditioning class with Director Maria Hill, so listen to me girls---”
Kayla was joined by the rest of Darcy’s girl scouts, Amber, Lola and Elise. The quartet of ten-year-olds looked to Darcy for impending wisdom. It was a bit of a heady feeling having a gang of pre-teens eager to do her bidding, but it was one Darcy tried not to let go to her head. She certainly hadn’t had a crown commissioned that was engraved with Queen of the Midgets . She just had the slogan put on a t-shirt and she totally planned on wearing it to the next troop leader meeting.
“The people about to come out of that door are vulnerable. Physically? They’ve been decimated,” Darcy stated plainly,winking at Lola, the little bookworm that was taking notes. “These people are questioning their life choices. They’re questioning their ability to survive the next year of their lives. They need carbs. They need fat.”
“They need peanut butter patties,” Amber said wisely.
“That’s my girl,” Darcy shook her head with pride. “Now, this is gonna go quick. Elise, have the square reader ready for credit purchases. And if they say they don’t have cash?”
“We accept checks and credit cards!” the girls shouted in unison.
“I couldn’t be prouder if you had sprung from my own loins,” Darcy grinned.
The doors to the small gym opened and Darcy’s girls attacked . The quartet of little ladies were smiling and friendly and polite, but they absolutely attacked the poor, sore, emotional fools that Maria Hill had released. She was watching over the girls carefully, making sure that they were making the correct change and charging the right charges. She didn’t even notice that the big gym had opened its doors, releasing the Avengers behind them.
“Stevie, look at this,” Bucky said with no small amount of wonder. “They look just like what Becka used to sell when she was a tiny terror.”
“Hey!” Lola spun around, pointing a finger at Bucky Barnes, who was holding a whole case of shortbreads up to show Steve Rogers. “If you break it you bought it!”
“Lola,” Elise whispered, she whispered something in Spanish and then automatically translated it to English, something all the girls had a habit of doing more often than not. “That’s Mr. Bucky Barnes.”
“I don’t care who he is!” Lola countered. “We can’t sell no broken cookies. Hands off the merchandise, Mister!”
“I love my girls,” Darcy grinned as Bucky put the cookies down, throwing her a dangerous and delectable smirk. “You guys interested in some sweets?”
Bucky’s smirk turned wolf-like and thank goodness Steve was there to smack him upside the head and mutter something about children being present, because court appointed troop leader or not, Darcy was about to jump the man and take Steve down with them for good measure. Steve looked down at the cookies that Bucky had wanted to show him and he shook his head in amazement, because they were indeed the same cookies that Rebecca Barnes sold for her Girl Scout trips to the Poconos.
“We’ll take ‘em,” Steve grinned at Darcy.
While Bucky had that whole walking sex on a stick look and had a smirk that could melt her panties off, there was something about the way Steve beamed at her that made Darcy want to melt into a puddle at his feet. He was just so damned handsome and good and when he smiled at her it was like he thought she was the most amazing person on the face of the planet. Darcy was kind of zoning out on that smile and how wonderful it made her feel and she only sort of half noticed Steve handing his credit card to Elise.
“What?” Darcy blinked herself out of her dreamy, warm haze as Elise ran the transaction and the rest of the girls began pushing entire cases of cookies towards Bucky and Steve. “What happened? I blacked out due to handsomeness.”
“We’re buying them all, sweetheart,” Steve smiled. “You should have told us beforehand, we coulda put in a bigger order.”
Bucky had already opened one of the cases of Thin Mints and handed a sleeve of them off to Natasha, who had arrived at the table while Darcy was drooling over Steve. The redhead opened the sleeve of cookies with a knife that she had pulled out of nowhere and immediately popped three in her mouth.
“When can you bring more?” Sam wondered as he reached for a box of samoas, only to have Bucky move them further away from him.
“Tomorrow,” Lola answered. “We can bring loads more tomorrow.”
“That’d be great!” Steve bent over and picked up a five case stack of cookies. “Maybe tomorrow your troop leader can bring you up to the common room and we’ll all have pizza and cookies.”
“Miss Darcy?” Kayla stage whispered.
“Yes, Kayla?” Darcy stage whispered back.
“You should marry that buff guy,” Kayla stage whispered back. She pointed to Bucky, who was still trying to smirk murder Darcy’s underwear. “And that one with the hair.”
“CHILL,” Darcy whispered back at her. “I’m trying, but you’re gonna murder my game.”