Chapter 14
“Darce, I don’t know if I can do this.” Steve groaned.
“Is it the costume? Cause I kinda like the stars and stripes.” Darcy teased, swinging her bag over her shoulder.
Steve snorted. “Not the costume. I’ve just never done anything in front of a crowd before.”
“You’re gonna do fine, Steve.” She encouraged. “You got through basic training, I think you can do this.”
“I guess I just thought with this new body and these abilities that I would be able to do something for the war.” Steve sighed. One more look into the dressing room mirror had him grimacing.
“You are doing something important. War can’t fund itself.” Each word was a battle for Darcy to tell him the truth. All she wanted to say was ‘You end up being a war hero and dying because of it!’ “Would it made you feel better for me to be with you during your first show?”
He hesitated. “Do you have class?”
“I was going to grab breakfast before going. I should have enough time to watch.”
“What would I do without you, doll?” He teased.
Probably have a normal life, she thought bitterly but smiled nonetheless. She began her walk towards the cafeteria just as they were calling Steve out. She could almost feel him vibrating with nerves.
“Have fun, sweetie. Don’t be nervous.” She muttered.
Ignoring the entrance to the cafeteria, she settled down on a bench and waited for Steve’s entrance. The girl’s tune was catchy, and perhaps she may have been a bad girlfriend when she saw that Steve had written his words on the back of the fake shield. And she only winced once, so maybe that made up for it. Darcy belatedly realized she was going to be late for class and decided to end the connection. Steve was going to do just fine without her.
“What do you think of Captain America?” Darcy asked Lily as they sat down for lunch.
“What about him?” Lily scrunched her nose.
“What do you think of him?”
“I think,” Lily said slowly. “He kinda drew the lucky straw, you know?”
“Lucky,” Darcy echoed hollowly.
“Yeah, I mean he was the only one to get the serum. Don’t get me wrong,” Lily said around a mouth full of burger. “Guy did some really awesome things.”
“He wasn’t lucky, Lily. He had to fight just to get to become Captain America. Do you know how many times he was denied entrance into the army? And look, he’s one of the biggest national icons there is!” Darcy argued.
Lily’s eyes grew wide. “Geez Darce, okay. You’re right, you’re right. Are you sure you’re okay? You’ve been acting so weird this whole semester.”
“Yeah, I’m fine.” Darcy muttered as she poked at her fries.
“What brought this on?”
“I was just,” Darcy formed a lie on her tongue. “I just read about him in an article for a paper. Just curious on what you thought.”
“It’s all kind of sad, really.” Lily mused. “Poor guy even lost his best friend.”
Darcy’s eyes widened. Oh fuck, what was she going to do about that? She still had some time to figure it out, he was just now touring with the USO. Maybe she could find a way to save Bucky and not change the future.
Darcy snuggled in her bed taking in the comfort that Steve was sighing into his. She knew this whole dancing for people routine was getting to him. She looked over her shoulder, Diane knocked out on her bed with an open bag of chips. Darcy snorted at the picture.
“How was punching Hitler today?” Darcy teased.
Steve chuckled. “Great, I think I bruised my hand though.”
Darcy rolled her eyes. “Well, my day wasn’t much better. Got a paper back and turns out I completely bombed it. The only thing I got right was citing.”
Steve paused as he removed his boots. “I’m not distracting you, am I?”
“No, I just can’t focus period.” She was lying, it was obvious to both of them.
“Darcy,”
“Yes, Steve?”
“You knew about me becoming Captain America.”
Hearing him call himself that bothered Darcy. He had never been Captain America to Darcy, he had been just Steve. Her sweet, heroic Steve.
“Yeah,” she said softly.
“How does the future know about a guy who dances for warbonds?” Steve is smarter than people give him credit for, this Darcy knew. She also knew that he could tell she was hiding something.
“Steve, we agreed from the beginning that we had to keep this limited on your knowledge of the future.”
“But you’re hiding something important from me, I can tell.” Steve said frustrated.
“Doesn’t mean I want to, Steve. I don’t know what I can and cannot tell you.” At the sound of his sigh, she broke a little. “Let me just say this, you are going to end up doing greater things than just dancing for people.”
“Really?” Steve asked skeptically.
“You need to start working on trusting me, Steve.” She snarked.
“I do, Darce. I just wish you could see my side of this. The woman I love is in the future, a future that doesn’t include me. She knows my future though and is obviously keeping things from me. So, what am I supposed to do?”
“Trust that I have not just your interest at heart, but the interest for the future.” She said softly.
“I don’t wanna fight.” He muttered.
“We’re not fighting.” She smirked. “When we have another fight, you’ll know. Just because it would look weird for me to start yelling at myself doesn’t mean I won’t.”
“You wouldn’t yell at me,” he teased.
“I have before and I probably will in the future. You can be stubborn sometimes.” She said dryly.
“But you love me,” It was more of a statement for himself than for her.
“Darn right.” Darcy grinned. “Now, I have to read for my English class. You want to join me?”
“Sure,” Steve settled against his pillows. “What’s it called?”
“The House of the Seven Gables by…”
“Hawthorne!” Steve grinned. “I’ve read it!”
“Great, give me the Sparknotes version.” She begged.
“What’s Sparknotes?”
“It’s kinda this thing that summarizes important literature and poems and stuff for people to understand so they don’t have to actually read this stuff.”
Steve snorted. “That’s cheating. It’s a good book, just give it a try.”
Darcy rolled her eyes. “Great, classic lit hasn’t changed much. Alright, you ready?”
“You gonna read aloud?” Steve smiled softly.
Darcy huffed but she was still smiling. “Okay. ‘Halfway down a bystreet of one of our New England towns stands a rusty wooden house…’”
“Have you ever notice the way they look at you?” Darcy remarked as Steve made his way back to his dressing room.
“The way who looks at me?” He asked, shaking his head out of the cowl.
“The girls, the singers.” Darcy replied sourly. She was trying to focus on a study guide for midterms but was failing.
“What do you mean?”
Darcy rolled her eyes at her boyfriend. “Okay, I know you’re stupid or blind. Or do you really not see it?”
“Darcy, I can honestly say I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“They look at you as if they wanna take a bite out of you!” Darcy huffed.
It finally clicked what she was saying to Steve. “Oh. I don’t really notice what they’re doing unless we’re rehearsing or something.”
“Steve, you’re surrounded by a bunch of beautiful half-naked women, you can be honest with me.” She grouched.
Steve smiled, reaching in his pocket. He looked down at the paper so she could see what he was looking at. “Now why would I be thinkin about any of them when I have someone that looks like this?”
Darcy tried not to smile but failed. “Okay, okay.”
“Better?”
“Yeah,” She said softly. “Where are you guys heading to next?”
“Chicago.” Steve gave a small grin. “Gotta say though, all this traveling is kind of nice. Not that I really get to see much between the films and the shows.”
Darcy giggled at the mention of the war films. “Those things are…”
“Yeah, yeah, yuck it up.” Steve rolled his eyes.
“Seriously though, you’re still taking part of the war, just a different part.” Darcy watched as he looked at himself in the mirror, frowning at his own reflection.
“I don’t feel like I’m doing anything important, though Darce. These guys…the senator is…”
“Is an asshole who is using you, yeah I know.” Darcy sighed. “But you’re also becoming an icon. During times like this, people need something to look up to that gives them that bit of hope. You’re that hope, Steve.”
“Hope for song and dance?” He replied bitterly.
“Hope that we could all do better, that we can all be strong. That sometimes we need a little guy to take a stand.”
Steve took a calming breath. “That sounds like something Dr. Erskine said to me.”
“He was a very smart man.” Darcy gave a slight smile.
“I just wanna help people and I still feel like there’s more that I could be doing.”
Darcy bit her lip. She knew want it all was going to cost him and couldn’t help but to wonder if she would just have to sit by and watch it all happen.