Darcy/Rhodey 2
Darcy leaned over the bathroom counter, staring at her hair in the mirror while she kinda poked at it. Normally she was pretty live-and-let-live with her hair, one of the agreements she had with it when she realized how curly it was, in exchange to ever, ever take a brush to it, but James seemed to like her with her hair pulled back, and she was making an effort for him. So it was pulled back. And, like, more than just a going-for-a-run ponytail, she’d actually put time into her hair.
Her dress was perfect, though, black and slinky with just the right amount of cleavage. Her makeup game was pretty fierce, too. She was pretty much as ready as she was going to get.
Now she was just stalling.
James had some sort of Air Force thing, and his actual date had bailed at the last minute because of strep throat. He’d complained to Tony, who’d said he would take care of it, and then had capitalized on Darcy’s not-so-secret crush on one Colonel James Rhodes and told her she was going.
So James was waiting upstairs on the launchpad, probably in his uniform. And she had one shot at this.
Darcy took a deep breath and drew herself up to her full height, grabbing her clutch from the kitchen counter on the way out of the apartment. It was tempting to check through the contents again in the name of making sure everything was in there, but she’d already checked four times, and to do it again would just be procrastinating.
Tony was practically bouncing with excitement when she came out of her apartment. He grinned, eyes moving over her with a spark of appreciation in them. “Very nice. Although if he doesn’t go for it, you could come back here and…”
Jane stepped on his foot until he winced. “You look good, Darce.”
“Thank you.” Darcy pointedly focused on Jane. She’d already thanked Tony for setting the whole thing up, and now he was just kinda being an ass. “Wish me luck.”
“You won’t need it,” Jane said with a grin.
Making a face, Darcy set off down the hall for the elevator, which was conveniently waiting there for her. Probably had something to do with Tony. The ride down up to the roof take even longer than normal, her pulse racing in her throat the entire way.
James was wearing his uniform, she discovered as she stepped out. Which… Yeah. She couldn’t stop her smile as she moved across the roof, heels clicking on the cement.
He’d been looking at the quinjet like he’d been expecting her to come from there, but turned towards her at the noise. His eyes widened appreciatively. “Darcy?”
Her mind started moving about a mile a minute. This is a mistake, just turn around and go back upstairs, make something up, you’re going out for drinks with Pepper or something- “Tony told me you needed a date. I kinda… volunteered.” Well, that wasn’t entirely accurate, but…
“Wow.” He was smiling. That was a good wow. That was a confirmation of the right decision wow. He held out his arm, and she moved towards him, slipping her hand into the crook of his elbow.
She looked up at him as they walked towards the small, black aircraft. Clint was going to fly them because he was… bored? Whatever. “Just so you know, this is the kind of date I’m hoping I’ll get a kiss at the end of.”
The look in his eyes suggested she might get a lot more than that, and she almost stumbled in her heels at the thought.