Darcy/Bruce
Darcy balanced her armful of stuff to reach out and punch in the super secret code so she could push open the glass door to Bruce's lab. He was sitting at one of his tables, his elbow on the table, forehead in his hand, looking... Vexed? Vexed was a good word. He looked up as the door opened.
She gave him a bright wave as she moved into his space. “Sorry to intrude on you, but they've decided that now would be the perfect time to renovate Jane's lab while she's away, which means my office space, of course.” She could have gone to Tony's lab, of course, but chances were pretty good they would have ended up arguing over music or whatever. And that was the only reason. Right.
“No, it's fine.” He didn't quite sound like it was fine, but she chose to pay attention to his words rather than his tone. Jane got snappy sometimes when she was balls-deep in science, too.
“You'll hardly notice I'm here, I promise.” She moved over to the other table, the one over by the wall, and deposited her stuff on it. Laptop, phone, iPod, tablet. “I carry too much shit,” she muttered to herself, hands on her hips as she looked down at it all. Well, she had a case for the laptop that everything would fit quite nicely in, but of course that was locked away in Jane's lab behind construction plastic and hard-hat wearing people who gave her dirty looks.
Her iPod-holder was supposed to be for running, but fuck running altogether. It was a great place to stick it so that she could move around the lab without bothering Jane with her music. Or Bruce in this case. She tucked the earbuds into her ears and put it on shuffle as she headed over to the side of the room where the coffee pot was... empty. Well, no wonder Bruce looked less-than-pleased.
Darcy dumped the old grounds and was rinsing out the filter basket when a particularly dancey song filled her ears. And, okay, she knew better than to hum in labspace, and she was definitely no Jane, but she had a pretty decent sense of rhythm. She let her hips sway back and forth as she cleaned out the coffee pot and added fresh water to the percolator.
Bruce looked up as she made her way over to his table, and she gave him a grin as she picked up his long-empty cup and took it back to the sink to clean it out.
The coffee was ready soon enough, and she filled a cup for Bruce, doctoring it from the little tray next to the coffee maker before turning to make her way back to him.
His eyes lifted from... Had he been staring at her ass? His gaze met hers, though, and he immediately pulled off his glasses and scrubbed his hand across his eyes. He was saying something, but she couldn't hear him past her music.
She reached up and yanked the earbuds out, eyebrows raising in question.
He shook his head, eyes closing for a long moment, a sort of a pained expression coming over his face. “I was just apologizing for staring.”
“Oh.” Darcy shrugged, leaning down to set the mug on the table. “I didn't take it personally, you just sort of fix your eyes on things and let your mind go.” Even though she kinda wished she could take it personally. “Jane does it all the time, and I know she's more partial to lean ex-Air Force guys than my slammin' curves.”
He let out a long sigh, pinching the bridge of his nose. He really did need that coffee. She left it for him, putting her earbuds back in as she went back over to the coffee pot to get herself a cup.
Work happened. Just because Jane was off on a lecture-followed-by-romantic-weekend with said ex-Air Force guy, didn't mean there wasn't stuff to do. There was always stuff to do. And Bruce's lab was surprisingly quieter than Jane's was.
Eventually, though, she felt a gentle touch on her shoulder. She pulled her earbuds out and turned to see Bruce standing behind her, glasses off, coat on. His hand fell away as she turned and there was almost an apologetic look on his face. “Hey. I'm stuck. I was thinking about getting some dinner, did you want to get something to eat?”
“Yeah, totally. Just let me...” Darcy turned back to her computer and saved her file. “There.” She took the iPod holder off her arm and dropped it on the desk before closing the laptop and grabbing her phone. Her stuff would be safe enough in Bruce's lab while they stepped out for dinner. “Shit. It's cold outside, isn't it?” Not a big deal, she had coats or whatever, but if she went up to her apartment to grab one, chances were pretty good that she'd run into someone who would be all, “Dinner sounds awesome!” and then it would turn into a thing. She wasn't really sure she was up for a thing.
“I have an extra coat down here you can use, if you want.”
Her eyes widened a little and she smiled. “That would be awesome, actually, yeah.” She pushed back the chair and got to her feet as he walked over to one of the floor-to-ceiling cabinets that was along the wall near the door. He opened it and grabbed a coat for her, and brought it back over.
And it smelled like him, like chai tea and red ink, and she totally didn't take in a deep breath just to smell it as she put it on. Nope. “Hey, it's nice that you're a little more Darcy-sized.”
“What?” His eyebrows went up in surprise as he looked at her.
“I borrowed Clint's coat once, I could hardly walk. Of course...” She pulled it closed around herself. “My hips are bigger than yours.”
He gestured towards the door, and she preceded him out of his lab. The hall was quiet as they walked along. She hadn't checked the time, but all of the normal 9-5y people had probably gone home already. Her phone was in her pocket...
Tony was coming out of his lab as well. His eyes moved over them, one eyebrow arching. “Where are we off to?”
Darcy rolled her eyes. This. “We're off to dinner. Most people like to do this thing called eating. I know it's weird, but just go with it.”
“Hey, you finally said something, Bruce? That's great! You're way too old to be pining.” He dropped his hand over Bruce's shoulder as he continued past them down the hall.
Darcy looked over to see a pained expression on Bruce's face again. “Uh... Said something about what?”