Chapter Text
It wasn’t until after they had successfully escaped that Darcy realized they had a problem.
“What’s wrong?” Steve asked when she cursed.
“I flew here,” she explained. “I was so focused on getting here as fast as I could, I didn’t even think about how we would get back.” At the extremely disapproving look she was getting, she scowled. “You needed help, I was the closest person, and my other Soulmates were too busy being overprotective to actually be helpful. I’m sorry I messed up on this part, but ‘secret agent’ isn’t actually part of my job description.”
The sound of an approaching aircraft reminded them all where they were. Steve looked from her to Barnes and back again, then said, “Right. Give the wings to Bucky; he can carry you, and I—”
“No way,” she said as she pulled off the wings. “I mean, you’re right, he should use the wings, but I’m staying with you.” She handed the pack to Barnes and wiggled her fingers at him in a parting wave.
“You—”
“Will slow him down. Also, I don’t trust a first-time flier to both carry me and keep us in the air.”
Steve looked like he wanted to argue, but Barnes shook his head. “She’s right, and you know it.”
He sighed. “Fine. Go, before that airplane—”
He was interrupted by a beeping sound, which was coming from one of the pouches on her belt. Darcy held up a finger, telling them to wait, and pulled out… the com she’d grabbed at the Tower and then promptly forgotten about. Whoops.
She stuck it in her ear and answered the call.
“Tell Buckaroo not to leave just yet,” Tony said. “Oh, and you may want to step back.”
“Tony? How did—is that one of your jets I’m hearing? I thought you said you couldn’t get here before they sent that chair-thing!”
“We couldn’t. Neither could you. They’d have beaten you here by a good twenty minutes if we hadn’t asked the X-Men to stop them en route. Which you’d have known about if you hadn’t interrupted before we actually started planning. Or if you hadn’t hung up. Or if you’d just turned on your com before you left.”
“…Oh. Um. Oops? Uh, can we… focus on the part where I successfully rescued the princesses from the evil Nazis’ lair?”
The princesses in question looked amused, but Tony continued to mutter darkly as he landed what appeared to be one of his private jets.
Upon boarding the jet, Darcy was confronted with an unhappy-looking Clint.
“I’m not happy with you,” he informed her.
“I know.”
“You went off without any backup, and you weren’t wearing your com.”
“I know.”
“We’re going to have a long talk about this later.”
She pulled him into a hug and squeezed. “I know.” He squeezed her back. After a moment, she spoke again. “Clint?”
“Yeah?”
“Please tell me you brought normal clothes with you.”
He let out a laugh, released her, and jerked his thumb at a row of bags as Tony got his fancy plane back in the air. “What kind of Soulmate do you think I am?”
“Well, obviously you’re the awesome kind,” she said, then grabbed the bag meant for her and headed for the jet’s bathroom.
A few minutes later she returned, feeling more like herself in jeans and a sweater with Elizabeth the Dinosaur—Lizzy’s un-Starkified twin—tucked under her arm. (Seriously, Clint was the best Soulmate ever.) She plopped into the ridiculously comfortable seat next to a less-patriotic Steve, handed over Elizabeth without explanation, and smiled at her newest Soulmate. “So, you want to do that Platonic Poke-Test™ now?”
He frowned down at the dinosaur for a moment, then set it aside. “I’m… not sure I understand. Platonic…?”
“Platonic Poke-Test™,” she said with a nod, then rolled up her sleeve and showed him her unusual Soulmark. Steve and Barnes both leaned closer to look. “All of my Soulmates have the same first Words. Apparently fate decided it would be more efficient to just give me one weird Soulmark, rather than a bunch of Soulmarks that all say—”
Barnes interrupted, one eyebrow raised as he incredulously read, “‘Why are you holding an inflatable dinosaur?’”
“Yupperdoodles,” she confirmed.
Barnes drew in a sharp breath, and one of his hands jumped to his ribs. “That’s…”
She put two and two together, and snorted. “No way! You do not have ‘yupperdoodles’ written on you.”
“He does,” Steve informed her.
“I do,” the Winter Soldier (well, the former Winter Soldier) confirmed.
She grinned. “That is the best thing I’ve ever heard,” she said, then offered her arm to him. “Do you want to do the Platonic Poke-Test™ first?”
“What is a Platonic Poke-Test™?”
“If you’re one of her Platonics, your writing will show up when you touch her Soulmark,” Clint chimed in. Darcy smiled back at the archer, and was surprised to find an intent look upon his face.
Clint had many looks that could be described as ‘intent’ or ‘anticipatory.’ There was ‘someone’s about to set off a prank.’ There was ‘someone’s about to say something stupid to Natasha.’
This particular look was his ‘I’ve got money riding on this’ face.
Darcy raised an eyebrow. He smirked and shook his head.
“Oh.” At the sound of his voice, Darcy turned her attention back to Barnes in time to see him glance at Steve, then reach out and lay one flesh-and-blood finger on her arm. As she’d expected, silver cursive was immediately obscured by the golden handwriting of her newest Platonic Soulmate.
“See? Platonic Poke-Test™. Okay, your turn now,” she said, offering her arm to Steve.
The look on his face was… odd. She wasn’t sure what it was, but he held her eyes as he reached out and laid his hand on her arm.
Her Soulmark didn’t change the way she expected it to. In fact, it barely changed at all; the only difference was that the golden outline around her Words had disappeared.
She frowned. “What? I don’t...”
Steve lifted one side of his shirt and twisted slightly, so she could see.
That was her handwriting, and those were the first words she’d said to him.
But they were written in silver.
She stared for a moment, not comprehending until… “Oh. Oh! So this is… You’re my… I mean, we’re, uh… Romantics?” She tore her eyes from the silver words and met his inscrutable gaze.
He nodded slightly and released his shirt. “I am. But, we don’t have to… I mean, if you don’t want—”
“If I don’t want to be with you?” She laughed. “I mean, I don’t really know you yet, and that’s a super-important part of things, but if we’re going on pure attraction, then, yeah, I definitely want.”
He blushed, but relaxed. “Oh. Good,” he said, then smiled.
Darcy smiled back.
“Tony, you owe everyone money!” Clint called, interrupting their Moment.
Darcy blinked, shook her head slightly, and turned her attention to the archer, who was smirking triumphantly. “Clint? Why does Tony owe everyone money?”
He shrugged. “He was the only one dumb enough to bet that Cap wasn’t your Romantic.”
“Wha—?”
“Darce, we’ve all seen your ‘Mark. That’s his handwriting, and it's in silver. It wasn’t hard to put together.”
Darcy gaped at him. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
He shrugged. “Natasha,” he explained.
Steve groaned. “She’s seen my ‘Mark.”
“I think she’s seen everyone’s ‘Mark,” Barnes grumbled.
“Wait, what does it say?” Tony asked as he emerged from the cockpit.
“‘Lizzy is my partner in crime. My sidekick, if you will. I always bring her with me when I’m breaking people out of Nazi hideouts,’” Steve recited.
Darcy grinned, and Tony snorted. “Well, that explains a few things.”
“Like what?”
“Well, why Natasha trained you in more than defending yourself and escaping from kidnappers, for one. Why she asked me to make Lizzy, for another. But mostly it explains why she insisted that we let you break Capsicle out of a Nazi hideout.”
Darcy blinked. There wasn’t much she could say to that.
But there was, apparently, a lot that Steve could say to that.
Darcy wasn’t sure if she was flattered that her Romantic Soulmate was willing to yell at the Black Widow on her behalf, or disappointed that her Romantic Soulmate was stupid enough to yell at the Black Widow.
Since she was not yet able to communicate via eyebrows and barely visible gestures, she took the more direct route. “Do you want me to dump water on his head, or have you got this?” she asked Natasha.
Steve started spluttering as if she had dumped water on his head.
“She’s my teacher,” Darcy told him bluntly. “She knows what I can and can’t do; the only thing you’ve really seen me do is open locked doors and sneak around. She’s also one of my Platonics—and, unlike you, we’ve known each other for a few years, so she has reasons other than ‘fate has declared it so’ to care about me.”
“Darcy,” Natasha said, a note of warning in her voice.
She shrugged, but backed down. “That’s a no on the water, then?”
The other woman smiled. “Yes, it’s a no.”
“Okay.” Darcy gave Natasha a hug, then walked around Steve and out of the room.
“Darcy, wait!”
It was a super-soldier who had chased after her, but not the one she might have expected.
“What is it, B—uh. Hm. What do you want me to call you?”
He shrugged. “You can call me whatever you want, doll.”
She smiled. “Just don’t call you late to dinner?” He rolled his eyes, but said nothing. The smile turned into a smirk. “Okay. LTD it is. So, LTD, what did you want?”
He looked somewhere between amused and horrified. Apparently deciding that if he ignored the nickname, it would go away, he answered her question. “Just… don’t be too hard on Steve.”
She shook her head. “Don’t worry about it. I’m not going to not call him out on his crap, but I’m not going to hold any grudges, either. Not my style.”
He nodded and relaxed. “Good. He needs someone like that.”
She laughed. “I think everyone does, really, but some people need it more than others.”
“Stark, for example.”
She grinned, and hooked her arm through his. “LTD, I think we’re going to get along just fine. Now, come on. I’ve got something for you.”
Darcy returned from her bedroom holding a new dinosaur. She was surprised to find that the number of super-soldiers in her apartment had doubled.
Well, ‘in’ might be an exaggeration; Steve was either hovering uncertainly or auditioning for the role of ‘door to the hall.’
“How many of those things do you have?” he asked incredulously, gesturing with his own dinosaur.
She shrugged. “A few dozen, I think? I give them out to people who say my Words, so I like to keep spares. Yours is named ‘Elizabeth,’ by the way.” She turned her attention to his friend. ”This one’s for you. Her name is Charlotte.”
“Charlotte,” LTD echoed, his voice flat.
“Yupperdoodles,” she replied cheerfully.
“Elizabeth’s best friend.”
“That’s the one. But do us all a favor and hold out for someone better than Mr. Collins. You’re a strong, independent woman who don’t need no man.”
“Damn straight,” Sam called as he walked past her apartment towards his own.
“Wait… what?” Steve asked.
Darcy laughed. “Steve, you make a terrible door. Come in, sit down, and close the actual door behind you.”
“Oh, I was just—”
“Steve. Come in. Sit down. Close the door behind you.”
He smiled. “Yes, ma’am.”
“Call me ‘ma’am’ again and I’ll tase you.”
“Yes, dear.”
Darcy blushed.