Darcy/Johnny
Darcy liked going to the X-Mansion. She had friends there, it wasn’t a big deal if she got stuck overnight, and everyone was generally pretty awesome.
The Avengers Tower was home, of course, so that wasn’t a problem.
The Baxter Building, however… Okay. Sue was awesome. Ben was, like, tits on toast. Gigantic guys with big hearts was kind of her bag, and she and Ben got on like a house on fire. (She was totally introducing him to Volstagg the next time the Warriors Three came for a visit). But. Reed was kinda stuffy and had a tendency to think he was superior to everyone (especially people whose degrees were in squishy science), and Johnny… Well, he was Johnny. And usually she ended up leaving the Baxter Building with the urge to strangle someone. Sometimes two someones.
But she had to. She got to put her squishy science degree to good use and liaise between all of them- and SHIELD which totally didn’t exist anymore, of course, and therefore couldn’t be the biggest pain in the ass to get to because it was all the way out in Virginia when the other two places were, like, super close.
Today… Today was no exception. “I’m going to need some fucking kitten therapy,” she muttered to herself as she viciously jabbed the down arrow on the elevator.
It couldn’t come fast enough. But then when it did, she kinda… Wished it hadn’t. Because standing in the middle of the elevator with a smirk spreading across his face was none other than Johnny Storm. “You gonna go down with me?”
It was almost tempting to wait for the next one, but she really just wanted to get home and have a large margarita while bitching to Tony. Tony wouldalways indulge her in a good bitchfest about Reed.
Taking a deep breath for patience, she got onto the elevator and resolutely turned away from him. The button for the lobby was all lit up. At least there were only 35 floors instead of, you know, over a hundred. That was a good thing, right?
“No? Wait, are you… Are you actually ignoring me?” His voice was coming closer, he was ignoring her. “That hurts, you know. I have feelings.”
She just concentrated on the digital numbers over the door and kept her mouth shut.
The elevator just kinda stopped. And, like, creaked. Loudly. “Uh…” So this wasn’t good. And then the lights went out. Better and better.
Johnny snapped his fingers and there was suddenly an orange glow illuminating everything. “Romantic firelight?”
“Ugh! After dealing with fucking Reed, now I’m… Seriously? Like, of all the people I could get stuck in an elevator with, it had to be you?” Darcy knew she was pretty close to sounding like she was whining, but after dealing with fucking Reed, she was just so done. “And if I’m stuck in here because he just, like, doesn’t give a fuck about keeping on his maintenance, I am going tokill him.” She turned around to face Johnny. “Slowly.”
Was that a flicker of hurt on his face? Whatever it was, it was gone behind another one of his ready smirks. “You want help?”
“Only if it will get the elevator fixed.” She eased her phone out of her pocket and called Sue, who promised she would call Jane if they couldn’t figure out a way to get them out. Now there was nothing to do but wait. She sank to the floor, letting out a long sigh.
There was an unexpected side effect of being stuck in an enclosed space with Johnny. Johnny was hot. And not like that (okay, a little bit like that, not that she’d noticed), but pretty soon she was pulling her hair up off her neck into a makeshift ponytail and fanning herself with her hand.
“Sorry.” She looked up at him to see if there was a punchline, but he actually looked serious for once. “You’re probably not too comfortable.”
Darcy nodded.“As long as they can get us out of here before you turn this into a sauna, we’ll be good.”
“If it comes to that, I’ll melt a wall, get us out of here. I don’t want to, ‘cause… Then I’d have to replace it, but it’s better that than you melting.”
“Thanks. Wow. You know…” She looked up at him for a second. “You’re not so bad when your mouth isn’t making it worse.”
“Oh, my mouth doesn’t make things worse.” And there it was. Still, she couldn’t help but smile at least a little.