Darcy/Pietro 3
Darcy looked at the files spread across her desk and sighed. “I need a fucking raise,” she muttered to herself.There wasn’t enough money in the world for all the shit she had to deal with, simply because Fury had decided that it was under her purview.
She’d started out as the Avengers’ PR Manager, and now she was just… Their manager. And it was just so much.
And this shit…
She rested her elbows on top of the cluttered desk, eyes closed as she rubbed circles on both of her temples. “I need a fucking raise,” she said again.
There was a knock at the door. Well, at least he wasn’t late. That was something. “Come in,” she called, and the door opened.
Pietro stepped into her office. He was one of the new guys. To be fair, most of the Avengers team was new, but she’d met most of them already. Rhodey was Tony’s BFF, Sam was Nat’s uncomplicated fuck, Vision was not-JARVIS, Bucky was Steve’s will-you-just-fuck-already. But Pietro and Wanda were new.
“You wanted to see me?” Yeah, the accent was nice. He was looking at her expectantly, eyes wide and a small smile on his face.
“Hey. Yeah, have a seat.” She gestured to the padded chair across from her, and he settled himself into it. She folded her hands on top of the files and leaned forward a little to look at him. “Some of the base staff have been complaining about how much dust you stir up when you zoom around the base like the road-runner.” A grin lit up his face at that. And thank god for pop culture nights. Seriously. Something else Darcy organized, not that she was complaining. “Yeah. That tells me that the custodial staff needs to get their shit together more than that you need to change anything, but apparently this was important enough to bring up to you…” She sighed, fighting the urge to rub her temples again. “I don’t even know if there’s anything you can do about it, other than move more slower…” She shook her head. “Which seems like total bullshit to me. It’s been suggested that you…” Darcy made a face, glancing at the paper under her hands as if to confirm that she had actually read it correctly. “That you attach feather dusters to your feet…”
The grin broadened at that. Pietro didn’t laugh a whole lot, but this seemed to amuse the fuck out of him. Which, to be fair, was a perfectly reasonable reaction. “That would be awkward.”
“I know. Honestly…” She shook her head again, letting out another sigh. “Honestly, I wouldn’t even worry about it. Seriously. But now I get to tell Fury I talked to you about it, and if he asks you, you can tell him that we had a meeting. Because bureaucracy.”
“It is important to waste our time?” He looked genuinely puzzled at that.
“Welcome to corporate America.” She watched him for a second. He looked better than he had when he’d first come in. You know, recovered from the bullet wounds and everything, but also happier, like he was just in a better place. A lot of the tension had eased from his shoulders. “Hey, while you’re here, how are you settling in? Is there anything you want or need that I can get for you?”
“There is something you can do for me.”
“Sure. Let me…” She shifted everything around until she came up with the pad of paper she used for writing everything down on. “What do you need?” Another quick search yielded her purple pen, and she clicked it, hovering over the paper, ready to write.
“A date.”
She frowned at the paper, trying to work out what he meant. English wasn’t his first language, but he was really proficient with it. Still, sometimes things got a little lost in translation. “Like… Today’s date, or…”
A large hand came into her field of vision, plucking the pen from her grip and resting it on the desk beside the paper before curling around hers. “A date. With you.”
Oh. Oh. She looked up to see him looking at her, eyebrows raised a little. “Um, yeah,” she blurted out, followed by a wince. Smooth. “I mean… Yes. I’d love to.”