Work Text:
“UGH”
The words reached those gathered in the common room seconds before the doors swept open to reveal a frazzled Darcy Lewis. With basically the whole team on base Darcy was sure that she would find a lap to curl up in. If she were being honest with herself, she would prefer Clint’s lap, and that’s why she headed for the common room instead of Jane’s lab.
Her blue eyes caught Clint’s, who sat on the couch next to Sam and Bucky. She vaguely remembered that she hadn’t actually met Bucky yet. Since most of the Avengers agreed that her moxie just wasn’t a good mix when it came to a former brainwashed assassin, who was still recovering.
Without much warning she flung herself across their laps, and nestled her head in Clint’s thigh, crossing her arms in a huff. Bucky’s eyes widened, and Steve stiffened alongside Natasha, as they both watched him look down in confusion at the Avengers theme socked feet that had materialised on his lap. They relaxed when he shrugged and put his arms on top of them, following Sam’s lead. Sam had chuckled deep in his chest, shifted underneath her, so she wasn’t pressing against his hip bone, and now rested his book on her thigh as he watched her.
“My life has reached a whole new level of ironic, Biceps.” She lamented into his plaid shirt, as a finger played with a button. Clint smiled gently, as he started stroking his fingers through her dark curls.
“What happened this time, Darce?” He asked, glaring at Natasha who smirked at him from the corner, as Steve tried very hard – meaning not at all - to hide the fact that the whole situation was tickling his funny bone.
“I am too flirtatious for a flirting simulator! Apparently a program designed to deal with flirtatious lines cannot deal with me.” She grumbled, glaring at his shirt, as she continued to finger at the button. The silence in the room grew less tense, now that Darcy wasn’t in any actual danger.
“There is no way you out flirted a flirting simulator, Darce,” Clint was saying, as his fingers carded through her hair and rested on her shoulder. Clint was afraid to admit it, but Darcy was home to him. He was fairly certain she saw him as nothing more than an older brother, but not even that could stop him from getting seriously attached to the girl who put Tony in a time out corner, twice.
Darcy pushed away from him, her face posed in a comically correct expression of shock as her eyes gleamed with hurt.
“What? What the hell was that supposed to mean, Barton? That I am not desirable?”
Clint flinched at her words. Sam sighed as she once again pressed into his hip bone. Darcy, however, shifted further away and sat in Bucky’s lap, pulling his metal arm around her impatiently when he was too slow, and leaned against his chest. Bucky, for his part, reacted relatively well for the feet being traded for a curvy girl, with a smart mouth and thick lips. He could smell the vanilla on her, almost like cupcakes, and he wasn’t surprised when he later discovered that she baked, a lot. But what really got to him, was that she was hurting and she was angry, and she sought him out for comfort, like he had been Steve, or Sam. She didn’t know him, just knew of him, and still came to him to make her feel better and give her strength. He drew her closer to him on instinct, and watched Natasha take it in.
“No, Darce, I am just saying that you have never flirted with me. I mean with anyone here.” Clint tried to explain around the foot he had stuck in his mouth.
Darcy made to stand up, and Bucky let her, she smiled down at him and winked, “Oh darling,” her voice dropping into a seductive lilt as she turned and walked towards the door, stopping she turned around and looked back at Clint, her bright blue eyes meeting his and glistening with mischief, “that’s because you have never made it worth my while.”
A slow smile spread across her face as she held his gaze, then with a quick bite of her lower lip she disappeared.
“Barton, you have the game of a fat chicken, who is stuck in a kettle.” Natasha stated, as she slapped him across the back of his head.
“Well, that’s a side of Darcy I have never seen before. Have you been training her, Nat?” Steve asked, amused at what he has deemed the “after Darcy routine”.
“Nope, Rogers, that was all her.” Nat answered, flicking Clint’s ear as she watched Bucky. He sat still, looking at his lap and smiling privately to himself.
Sam nudged Bucky gently with his elbow: “That was Darcy Lewis, she is our resident hurricane, and you don’t really get used to it. Also, she has a lot of moxie, and no self-preservation skills. She is best friends with the Hulk, not Bruce, the Hulk. Also, if you touch her, I will drag your ass back Wakanda myself and lock you in a chamber.’
“I could never hurt her.” Bucky smiled at Sam. Sam understood, because he too had been sitting on this couch, traumatised from what he had witnessed, when she had fallen gracefully into the seat next to him with ice cream. She tucked her feet into his lap, whilst offering him a spoon and started telling him about her day.
“Natasha, stop hitting me. I get it, I fucked up.” Clint screamed beside them, falling over the couch in an attempt to get away from the red head, who punched him in the shoulder.
“I get one hit for each percent I think you fucked up, so that gives me 97 more to go.” She stated, smiling at Clint’s distress.
“That was not a 100% failure.” Clint squeaked as he ran out of the room.
“It kinda was Barton,” Sam called after him, as Bucky chuckled next to him.