Work Text:
About a month after Steve woke up in a fake infirmary listening to a baseball game that he'd been present at himself what he thought was only a couple years earlier, they let him go out in the world.
He'd found an apartment in Brooklyn he liked, and was moved into it in short order. Fury started sending him over information, all that he could dig up on the people that he'd known. It had taken him the better part of a week to get up enough courage to open the files. And it had left him feeling rather depressed. All dead. Except for Peggy Carter, and he just couldn't bring himself to call her.
And so, he found himself wandering the city, exploring, ending up in a small park off the beaten path somewhere near to his apartment. It was a quiet little place, and he took up residence on a bench in a little clearing, to think. Not that his thoughts led him anywhere good.
Fortunately, he found himself shortly distracted.
A girl ambled into the clearing and caught sight of him on the bench. She was pretty, around his age, not counting the 70 years spent on ice. When she saw that he was looking back at her, she grinned at him and sat down on the other end of the bench.
"Hey. You don't mind splitting the bench, do you? Only I like to read here, and I'm not selfless enough to give up my life's pleasures, just because someone else got to my bench first."
"It's no problem, ma'am." He said, offering her a smile.
"Ma'am? Wow. I don't think I've ever been called ma'am before."
"Er...sorry?"
"Nah, it's good. Makes me feel all, I dunno, dominatrix-y."
Steve was not familiar with the term, but he nodded again anyway.
She settled into the bench at an angle, and pulled out a dog eared book that was missing it's dust cover. She slipped her feet out of her shoes and tucked her legs up under her on the bench.
Steve's fingers itched, and he found himself glancing at her. So much so, that she did eventually notice.
"What? Have I got something on me? Is it a bee? Tell me it' s not a bee!"
"No! No, no, it's not...there's no bee. You just...well...I like to draw, and you look very pretty sitting there. Would you....can I draw you?"
She blinked slowly at him.
"Uh....okay, I guess. You think I'm pretty?"
Steve nodded, and she blushed pink.
"Wow. That's the nicest thing anyone's said to me in like, forever. Of course you can draw me, what should I do?"
Steve pulled out his sketchbook and dug his pencil from his bag.
"Just, keep reading. Act normal, like I'm not here."
And he got to work, sketching out the rough lines of her form quickly.
It became apparent that she was not a great artist's model. She kept bursting into fits of giggles, apologizing and trying to look nonchalant in a cycle, or she would look sideways at him. He did like the look of the side glancing eyes, and penciled them in, but it was obvious that she needed distracting from what she was doing or she'd never make it through.
"Do you come here a lot?"
"Yeah, I live like, a stone's throw away from here. I like to come after work and bask in the sunshine with a book. I'm re-reading Lord of the Rings. I'm halfway through the Fellowship."
Steve smiled. He knew about Lord of the Rings, even though he hadn't gotten the chance to read it.
"Sounds like a great way to spend time.
"I like it. What about you?"
"This is the first time I've ever been in here. I found it by accident. I don't live far either, actually. I uh...just came back after a long time away, I'm not used to the city anymore, I was exploring."
"Exploring's awesome. It's how stuff gets discovered, you know?"
"I guess so."
He worked on the folds of her clothes.
"Where were you? That you've been gone so long?"
"Uh...well, I travelled for a while. And then I was sent overseas." He said. It was the simplest way to explain it. He had a feeling that trying to explain how he was a relic from what to her was probably ancient history wouldn't go over well. She was nodding though, like he'd just spoken in some kind of code that she deciphered.
"Is it good to be back?" She asked, an eyebrow arched. He decided he liked that too.
"In some ways, yes. In others..."
"Not so much?"
"You could put it like that."
"Real life can be kind of a bitch. I'm sorry."
"It's just that...I lost a lot between leaving and coming back. Friends, family really...everything."
"Dude...all your friends are gone? That's really shitty."
She'd pegged it exactly. It was really shitty.
"Yeah, it is. Most of my friends died later, managed to live a little, you know...but it's hard. And I had a girl I was supposed to take dancing once everything was all done..."
"Dude. Again, shitty. I'm really sorry, you seem like a nice guy, it sucks to have such rotten luck."
He wouldn't mention how it really was lucky that the plane crash didn't kill him, that he'd managed to survive in the ice for 70 years, As much as it had saved his life, he still hadn't catalogued all the things that it had taken from him.
"Well, this probably won't make you feel any better, like, at all, but we're sharing so...I'm new in town too. Half the time I have no idea where I am, I came up here last month from New Mexico. Never go there, most boring scenery ever."
"Why the move?"
"Work. Despite my awesome bohemian chic style here, I am actually a respectable personal assistant in a fancy lab."
"Oh? You're right, you don't look the science type."
"Yeah, I'm not. But to get my science credit and graduate, I did an internship with the most adorkable of lady scientists. Smarter than Einstein probably, but completely forgets to feed herself and can't decipher her own hand writing. After that ended, I kinda got headhunted."
"You're obviously good at it."
"I am. Herding scientists is an art form. And apparently, forgetfulness and illegible handwriting are common traits in the science community. What are you going to do now that you're back to civilian life?"
"Uh....I suppose you could say I got headhunted too. I consult."
"Consulting's good if you can do it. I can't. I have nothing to consult about. But at least you have something to keep yourself together for. The best way to move on from shitty stuff is to forge ahead and make new memories."
That made a certain kind of sense.
"You're right. I guess wallowing isn't really going to change anything, is it?"
She shook her head.
"Nope. And your friends, would they really want you to go through your life stuck in the past with them?"
He thought of Bucky, and how hard he would slap him upside the head if he ever caught him feeling this sorry for himself.
"No. No, they wouldn't. Thank you...I think that may have helped. A lot."
"No problem. Seems I also moonlight as a therapist. How's it coming over there?"
"Good, almost done I think."
"Awesome."
It took him less than ten minutes to finish the sketch while she rattled off all the good shops and places to eat that she'd found in the month that she'd been in the city. When he finally turned it around to show her, she was quiet. She reached out to take the book from him and he let her have it, watching her face carefully.
"This is....this is gorgeous. Is that how I really look?"
"It's how you look to me."
"I take it back, now I'm flattered. No one has seen me this way in a long time. They all say it, but none of them mean it, y'know?"
She ran her fingers over it and then shifted closer to hand the book back. That done, she reached herself up and pressed a kiss to his cheek.
"Thank you." She whispered against his skin. He smiled at her, and damned if he could explain why he did what he did next.
He kissed her, a gentle press of his mouth against hers, innocent, like the one he'd stolen with Peggy, but...more, somehow. Tomorrow would still come for them.
And then it changed, as she opened under his lips, and the kiss deepened into not so innocent territory.
When she pulled back from him, it was only to look into his eyes for a second before climbing into his lap and kissing him even more fervently, teeth clacking together and her tongue tangling with his.
When they pulled apart the second time, oxygen becoming something of a necessity, her hands were tangled in his hair and his were cupping her face.
"Okay, wow." She whispered.
"Yeah." He agreed.
"I'm between cell phones right now, or I'd totally give you my number. Do you have a phone?"
He shook his head.
"I do...but it's new, I don't remember the number."
"Okay. Here's what we're going to do. I'm travelling with my scientist, like, tomorrow, but a consult job like this one should only last maybe a week, tops. I come here all the time at the same time of day, start looking for me after a week, yeah?"
"Yeah."
"Awesome. My name is Darcy by the way."
"Steve."
"It's been really nice to meet you, Steve." She giggled.
* * * * *
Two days later, Loki happened. And their park, along with a lot of the city was collateral damage.
* * * * *
Steve was walking through the lab floors in Stark's tower. Tony had told him to come and meet the latest additions to his staff, some people named Foster and Lewis. Foster, apparently, was Thor's paramour, and Tony had lured her away from SHIELD with, his words, "good benefits and shiny toys."
He was looking for the man, on arriving, JARVIS had informed him that Tony was in the labs, but of course, the labs took up something like, ten floors, and he wasn't in his own lab.
He wasn't sure at first if he'd heard it right or his mind was playing tricks on him, because he'd heard her giggle in his head ever since they'd parted ways what now felt like a lifetime ago.
When he heard it a second time, he followed it down a hall to a door with the name 'Foster' written in what he recognized as Tony's handwriting on a piece of paper tacked outside of it. This must be the Foster that Tony had been on about.
Peering in, he found two small brunette women laughing as they tossed things around the room, obviously setting the place up. And one of them was definitely his Darcy. He watched her for a moment, taking her in the same way he'd done that day in the park.
He must have made some kind of noise though, because abruptly they stopped what they were doing and turned to look at him in the doorway, the woman he didn't recognize raising a questioning eyebrow at him, but he was focused on Darcy. Her eyes widened as she paled, like she'd seen a ghost, and her hand came up to cover her gasp.
"Steve?" She asked, and he nodded, staring dumbstruck at her.
"Darcy?"
And then she was flying across the room at him, sending chairs flying and papers scattering as she leapt at him, arms and legs winding around him as he caught her, holding tight, as if she was afraid that he'd disappear if she let go. Dimly, he registered the other woman
"Ohmigod, I thought you were dead! The park was destroyed, and my apartment building is gone, and I didn't know where yours was...and..." She was crying into his shoulder.
"I know. It's okay...I tried to go back too, but..."
Then she was kissing him again, and it felt very much like coming home.
Tony Stark walked into Foster’s lab, on JARVIS’ report that that’s where Captain Rogers was currently situated. He walked back out, blinked, peered at the door again, and walked back in.
No, he was not hallucinating. This was definitely Foster’s lab. And Steve Rogers was in the midst of some serious face-sucking with Foster’s lab monkey, while Foster herself looked all misty eyed.
“Okay. So, I'm guessing he's already met Lewis."