The Setup.
Darcy Lewis scared Steve Rogers. She brought about the same sort of fear in him that Peggy had, back before alien gods wearing capes was reality and not the stuff of pulp fiction. She made him giddy in a way that mimicked the sugar rushes he would get as a child, on the rare occasions that he and Buck had gotten their hands on some candy.
It was for that reason Steve had decided to stay away from her. The last time he had allowed himself to get close to a woman, he had left her out in the cold. Sure Peg had moved on, married and had kids, hell she had even started SHIELD. But Steve would never be able to forgive himself for breaking his date, he would always remember breaking that promise. Steve refused to do that to another person. So instead of admitting his love, he forced himself into the friendzone (whatever the hell that was), and watched as Darcy went about her life. Things were great, he got to keep her in his life, if a bit painfully, until he realised that in his absence he left the field wide open for other suitors to come upon her. Yes, Steve still knew nothing about women.
Steve Rogers scared Darcy Lewis. Aesthetically he resembled a dorito in all the best sort of ways, and sure that does great things for a girl, but it was his mind that Darcy wanted to dive into. Okay, the imagery of taking a dip into someone else's head isn’t the most romantic, but Steve Rogers had a lovely mind, sue her. Darcy had never met anyone as caring or sympathetic, when she spoke to him she felt as if for once someone was really listening. But given that Darcy, being a grad student (with the debt to back it up) who considered a workout to be dancing around her kitchen while making dinner, could never hope to compete with the other girls vying for his attention, she instead contented herself with friendship. She most certainly did not notice the way he blushed when she snuck glances at his drawings. Nor did she salivate over his muscles that one time he helped set up her new sofa. Things were great, until Darcy was asked out by the god of mischief himself, Loki Laufeyson. This was strange on many fronts, the biggest being that up until that point Loki had made his feelings towards her rather clear (what with them being of the familial variety), something which wildly conflicted with the hypersexual way he had asked her out (recreating the famous V-Day kiss). But who was Darcy to say no to a quasi reformed, Avenger in training?
Loki Laufeyson just wanted to watch the world burn. Sadly, given that the result of his last attempt at initiating some form of planetary destruction was a banishment from Asgard as well as rehabilitation by joining the Avengers, Loki was disinclined to try anything else of a similar level. That did not mean that he was above making other people squirm. His targets this week were Darcy Lewis and The Captain. They were obviously infatuated with each other, and with his fondness for the young woman in question, (she was the sister he never had) he hoped that The Captain might finally do something about his feelings. They just needed a little push, something that Loki was all too happy to provide.