Chapter 20
“Shouldn’t we be outside for this?” Jane asked from her perch on the couch in the common area, watching as Darcy directed Thor and Bucky with their luggage.
“So that we can go viral on grainy cell phone footage? No, thank you,” Darcy huffed as she double checked that they had all of their bags. As pretty as those Asgardian dresses had been, Darcy wasn’t signing up for a corset again. Tony and Bruce were on the observatory deck above, Tony having wanted to watch and Bruce wary of getting close to Jane and Darcy again after narrowly avoiding a Hulk out the last time. Steve was up there, too, and Darcy had caught Bucky giving him a terse nod.
“That’s fine with me,” Jane yawned and stretched to lean back on her arms, “As long as Tony’s cool with a Bifrost mark forever burned into the floor and a hole ripped in his ceiling.”
Darcy ignored Tony’s squawk, grabbing Bucky and placing him where she wanted him around the huddled bags.
“We’re not going through the Rainbow-tube, boss!” she said, excitedly dragging Thor to stand next to Bucky and then making her way over to get Jane, “I’m taking us myself!”
Jane pushed up off the couch and skirted around the coffee table, outside of Darcy’s reach. “No. Absolutely not.”
“Come on,” Darcy smiled beguilingly, but Jane was not having it, keeping the table between them as they circled, “I did it before, and that place was way farther than Asgard!”
“No!” Jane plucked a couch cushion and waved it threateningly, “That was just you and me! This is four people and luggage!”
“How will I ever get better if I don’t practice, Janie?” Darcy cried.
Tony was chanting “Pillow fight!” up until Steve elbowed him hard in the ribs. Then it was a lot of gasping and leaning over the railings.
“How about you practice on Thor? He won’t break as easily as me!” Jane swatted Darcy as she moved close.
Darcy wasn’t terribly concerned because she had a trump card.
“If we go my way, you can actually see everything in space. No bright lights obscuring your view.”
Jane stopped trying to smack her, narrowed her eyes, and muttered, “You win.”
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“I did not wish to bring this up while still on Midgard, for I feared it would cause the Captain more stress, but have we considered that my father might not be inclined to help Bucky?” Thor said as Jane nearly threw out her neck trying to take everything in on the journey.
As a comet flew by, she squealed so loudly that even Bucky winced. They were all in a circle, arms linked and at least one hand on each bag, hurtling through space at incredible speed. After making sure that everyone knew they had to be touching each other at all times for this to work, Darcy had been unsuccessfully trying to get them to sing campfire songs since they’d left New York.
It was fun, actually, letting loose with her power. The ends of the Universe were her limits, and that was a heady thought.
“Is there gonna be a problem with that, you think?” Bucky asked, furrowing his brow, “I don’t want to get Darcy in trouble.”
“Chill, Buck, I’ve got it covered.” Darcy wasn’t worried. She took a deep draw of the icy air, letting it fill her lungs.
God, it was nice.
“Darcy, the All-Father holds you in great esteem, do not mistake me. He has offered you sanctuary which is a rare thing, but that does not mean he will extend it to anyone,” Thor warned, using a leg to pull Jane back from where she was leaning, bending backwards trying to get a better view of a shiny rock as they zoomed by.
“Look, if it’s a problem, I’ve already got a way to work around it. I think you guys are really underestimating how bored I got in MSS. I thought of everything, promise.”
Bucky smiled at her, a small indulgent expression that he’d been shooting at her more and more since she woke up. “Care to share with the class, doll?”
“Yeah,” she licked her lips, enjoying the way his smile twitched at the motion, “You guys should probably be in on it. Don’t want you guys to blow our cover if it comes to that. Jane!” she barked at her friend, making sure she’d gotten her attention before continuing, “If Odin makes a fuss, I’ll just tell him Bucky’s my consort. No biggie.”
Jane’s nostrils flared.
Bucky actually blushed all the way down his neck.
Thor nodded thoughtfully.
“Yes, that should do it. Clever plan, Darcy,” he said.
Jane’s nostrils flared some more.
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“So,” came Tony’s voice, suddenly right over his shoulder, startling Bruce still, “I’ve been thinking.”
Bruce inhaled deep, letting the motion center him. He wasn’t close to a Code Green, but he was more on edge since nearly being overcome by the Other Guy yesterday. Even with being incident free since the Battle of New York despite living with Tony Stark and his madness, it had only taken fifteen minutes with Darcy and Jane for all of his hard won control to be for naught.
What were the chances that people who knew Betty, hell that friends of Betty, found their way to the Avengers’ inner sanctum?
With Bruce’s luck, apparently pretty good.
“You’re always thinking, Tony,” Bruce sighed, finishing a sentence in his notes with a flourish before looking up at his friend.
“Point, but this is about something new; something to address some concerns I have after learning that, oh, you know, along with Norse gods and aliens, the devil is apparently real, too. Don’t you think that revelation is worth a little consideration?” Tony propped his hip against Bruce’s desk, arms crossed. The posture caused him to look down on Bruce from where he was seated, a position Bruce doubted was accidental.
“No,” Bruce said and turned back to his notes.
“You don’t even know what I was going to say!” Tony spun his chair around so they were again face to face.
“I don’t need to,” Bruce said, trying to rotate his chair back but struggling against the grip Tony had on the back of it, “I know that face. Pepper warned me about that face! She made me promise I would say no to that face, no matter what.”
“What? Since when do you and Pepper talk?” Tony didn’t look like he was straining at all while Bruce’s shoes slipped on the smooth glass floor, not getting enough traction to force his chair back towards the desk.
“I live here, Tony. Obviously, Pepper and I talk,” Bruce gave up and flopped bonelessly back into his seat, “We have tea every Sunday morning, after yoga.”
Tony frowned, eyes drooping. “Why am I not invited?”
Bruce closed his eyes, hoping that if he didn’t see Tony, then Tony would go away.
“You’re always asleep on Sunday morning, do you really want us to wake you up for oolong? You don’t even like tea; you called it dirty leaf juice the last time I offered you some.”
“I could have still been invited. I mean, you guys were just being rude. Regular Mean Girls,” Tony finally released his chair and straightened up, “But no worries. I know how you can make it up to me. I have this great idea, even have a super cool name and everything!”
Pepper forgive him, he was too tired to argue with Tony. “Super cool name, huh? What is it?”
Tony clapped his hands triumphantly, and exclaimed, “U.L.T.R.O.N.”
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While he could not say that he had ever pondered what mate that the heir to Hell would take, Odin could say with every certainty that he would not have picked a Midgardian.
Then again, he never would have assumed the heir herself to be of Midgard, so perhaps he should not be in the business of making bets.
“Your consort?” he asked, levelling his eye on the man in question and being pleasantly surprised that his look was met head on, “I suppose congratulations are in order.”
The headstrong princess smiled and cooed, “Yuppers!” wrapping an arm around her chosen one’s waist and laying a particularly vulgar and smacking kiss to his cheek, leaving a smudge of red on the skin there. Soon, the paint from her lips blended into the blush crossing the man’s face.
Whoever this James Buchanan Barnes was, it seemed that even he was not immune to Princess Darcy’s spontaneity. Noting the scowl that his own son’s lover wore, Odin moved to greet Thor and Jane.
Jane did not spare him a look even as he kissed her hand, not tearing her eyes from Sir Barnes.
Oddly, Odin found it endearing, heartening, that Jane was as fierce in her protective nature as Thor was in battle. After the events with the Dark Elves, he’d been forced to confront the reality that Thor was no longer just his heir; just his son that needed constant lessons. Thor had grown and matured into a man that Odin…
A man that Odin was proud to call his son, yes, but also a man to whom Odin must now recognize had wisdom of his own.
Wisdom that knew the right partner.
“Tis lovely to see you, Dr. Jane Foster of Midgard, healthy and well,” Odin said, pointedly ignoring the delighted smile blooming on his son’s face.
Jane whipped her head back to stare up at him, glancing down to where he held her hand like she had only just noticed.
“Um,” she said, pumping his hand fervently up and down, perhaps in some Midgardian custom? “Thank you. For saying that. And for having us. Yes.”
“Yeah, we really appreciate it,” Princess Darcy cut in, still huddled close to her consort, his metal hand clutching loosely at her hip, “You know how Midgard is with technology. Such a drag. Asgardian tech is the way to go.”
“Our technology you compliment,” Odin gestured to their parcels they had brought with them, “But not our garments, then?”
The rest of her party paled, but not the princess.
Just like he knew she wouldn’t.
“All-Father, if you had to carry two boulders around on your chest, you’d hate Asgardian clothes, too, my man.”
Odin threw his head back and laughed.
“I had not thought of that,” he said, wiping under his eye, “In that case, let us get your things to your rooms post-haste. Come, you must be weary. You all will rest tonight, and tomorrow, you may consult the healers about your consort’s mind.”
With that, he motioned to the guards to carry the bags and swept out of the throne room. Just as he passed through the doorway, he heard the Princess whispering, “Ow, stop it, Jane! I think that went really well! Stop!”, followed by Thor’s chuckling.
It was good to hear at least one of his sons’ happiness in his home again.
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“Did you know,” Darcy drawled from where she was spread out on the bed. The bed. Singular. “That apparently a perk of being a demon princess is a shit ton of furs? I shudder to think what kind of alien beastie produces a ten foot long hide, but I really hope that I never find out.”
Bucky was frozen next to the fire pit, metal arm gleaming orange.
“Thor talks about bilgesnipes a lot, but I think those are lizards with antlers. Hey, do you think you’d win against a giant lizard with antlers, Buckaroo?”
He hadn’t really thought through this whole pretending to be together thing. When she’d mentioned it, she’d been smiling so wide that her blackened eyes crinkled in the corners, basking in the starlight and skin giving off a slight red glow from the patterns dancing over her skin.
Bucky hadn’t really put thought into much else besides watching her enjoy letting her powers flow.
Now, facing the one bed and with his cheek still waxy from her lipstick, he was beginning to see some flaws in their plan.
“Bucky? Hey, where’d you go?” Darcy was asking him, sitting up from concern.
“There’s only one bed,” he choked out, wondering if he’d blushed this much back when he’d just been Bucky and not the Winter Soldier.
Darcy looked down, smoothing her hands over the furs she’d been rolling around on like a cat.
“Yes,” she responded, clearly not getting what he was caught up on.
“There’s only one bed and two of us,” he clarified, hating how lost he sounded.
Hearing his uncertainty, Darcy perked up even more. She shimmied to the edge so she could hop off and joined him where he was standing. She raised a hand to grasp one of his, pulling it up between them. He focused on that, on how small her fingers felt in his, how soft.
“It’s a big bed, and we have to keep up appearances,” she stroked over and between his knuckles, lulling his heart rate back to a more reasonable range as she continued, “We’ve slept together before.”
“Doll, if we’d slept together, you’d remember it,” came out of his mouth before he’d even registered what she said, some forgotten instinct coming to the forefront. His heart went into double time again, panic flooding his system.
She giggled, but her eyes were sad as she looked up at him from half lidded eyes. She quirked her mouth at him, then brought his hand up to lay a kiss on it.
“We’re nowhere near that, soldier, and we both know it. You don’t know who you are. Not yet.”
Bucky used his free hand to pull her in closer, terrified of the truth she was preaching but still wanting the comfort he found when she was in his arms. She kept their clasped hands between them, sighing as his forehead came to rest on hers.
“It’s why I’m not worried about it being only one bed, not right now. We’re not there yet, but we…” she inhaled deep, “There’s something there. It’s why I helped you…”
“Trust,” he whispered, rocking them slightly, in a pale echo of a dance, feet feeling the pull to move, but not knowing where.
Darcy followed him where he moved, small swaying motions, nothing to really change them.
“Yeah, trust. And something else. Something about you, even back in New Mexico. I took off your mask,” she pulled their heads apart so there was a modicum of space between them, “I saw your eyes, and… There was something about them. Something of the… man underneath. Something in me…”
“Recognized something in me,” Bucky finished.
She smiled, nodding, before burrowing back into him.
They stood there holding each other, slowly whirling in the firelight.
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Thor slipped out from bed, careful not to wake Jane from where she was snoring underneath the covers.
Throwing on a shirt from his armoire, he let a small smile grace his face as he gazed upon the lump that was his beloved. He dropped a kiss to her brow, watching as her nose twitched in annoyance and letting the love he felt for her wash over him, warm him, before he faced this night’s task.
The smile stayed on his face through all of the hallways, only fading when faced with the door holding his quest.
Taking a fortifying breath, he pushed through the door.
Unsurprised to find his father already sitting vigil at his mother’s sick bed, Thor was quiet in his approach. Taking the seat next to the All-Father, he clasped a steady hand on Odin’s hunched shoulder before addressing the comatose woman before him.
“Hello, mother.”