Hoard

Another day, another battle. Except this one isn’t going in the Avenger’s favor. Steve gets trapped - cornered by too many enemies. Darcy can see the way his skin starts to glow and curses. They’re still in the middle of the city - he’ll never forgive himself for the casualties if he loses control.

Jane tears her eyes from the screen long enough to glance at Darcy. “Darce?”

Darcy ignores her and activates the comm Tony gave her. “Steve, can you hear me?”

“Darcy?” Clint’s voice answers.

“Not now, Hawkass,” Darcy fires back as she stands and kicks her shoes off. “Steve, angelo, are you with me?”

“Darce?” Bucky’s voice is strained.

Darcy flinches and curses. “Bucky, tesoro, Steve’s losing control.” She’s answered by an impressive stream of curses. “I’m at the Tower, I don’t know if I can get to him in time.”

“Where is he?”

Darcy glances up at the screens again. “From you? Two blocks north, one block east.”

Her heart breaks at the dawning realization she sees on his face through the screen. “I’m gonna have to-”

Darcy opens the balcony door. “I’m fifteen blocks away, so yeah, probably.”

Another stream of curses, and Bucky starts to blur around the edges.

Darcy shifts her gaze back to Steve and curses. The heat is rolling off him in waves. “I’m on my way, angelo, just hold it together.” Darcy has an errant thought that at the rate he’s heating up, his comm unit is probably melted, then leaps off the balcony, ignoring Jane’s cry of protest behind her. 

She shifts partially mid-air, just enough to get over the buildings and shift fully. She ignores the screams from below and cants her body toward Bucky and Steve. She hovers over them within the space of just a couple minutes, but she’s not quite fast enough. Even from above the buildings, she can feel the heat off of Steve, sees it incinerate several of the creatures attacking him before a roiling mass of shadow envelopes him. Even through the Wraith smoke, she can see Steve’s glow. She roars and dives, wrapping the whole of her massive body around the shifting mass of shadow and light, absorbs the heat as Steve loses the last of his control.

Until now, she’s avoided using her abilities to their full extent, but now… she can’t let Steve take on the kind of guilt she knows he would if they can’t get him calmed down. She can hear Bucky’s voice - shifting and wavering, like the shadows of his current form, muttering soothing nonsense. And she can feel the heat still rolling off Steve.

“Darce,” Bucky’s voice rolls through the space, “Somethin’ is wrong, doll. It ain’t workin’... he ain’t… he’s still heatin’ up and I can’t hold him.”

Darcy huffs and curls tighter around the pair, so she can blink one massive eye at them. She can’t talk in this form, but… well, a Dragon as old as her has tricks. Telepathy being one of the neater ones, under the right circumstances. She pushes her thoughts out, enveloping all three of them in the connection, and ignoring the mosquito-bite sting of the creature's weapons hitting her back. Steve, angelo, I need you to breathe. You’re gonna hurt someone if you can’t regain control, and we don’t want that.

“D-D-Darcy?” Steve’s voice  stutters out.

It’s me. You with me?

Steve nods.

Can you reign it in?

He shakes his head. “Too far gone. Too hot.”

Darcy curls tighter around them. Okay, then let it go.

“Darce-”

Darcy rolls her eye at him. Dragon, angelo, I can take it. It won’t hurt me.

He nods shakily. “Buck, you need to go.”

“No way in hell, punk,” Bucky growls.

“Bucky, it hurts you,” Steve whines.

Bucky, Darcy placates gently, I’ve got him.

Bucky’s form shudders, but he goes, smoke filtering through the gaps where Darcy is curled around them.

As soon as Bucky is clear, Darcy curls tighter, leaving no gaps for the heat to escape to the outside world. Let it go, angelo, I can take it.

Steve shudders as the heat bursts from his entire being, crashing into Darcy like a physical blow. Her body absorbs it effortlessly, leaving her feeling high like no fire she’s ever experienced before. Steve collapses with the release.

Darcy whines in the back of her throat.

Steve doesn’t respond.

Bucky?

“I’m here, doll!” Bucky’s voice comes from near her head.

She pauses. Are you on my back?

“Yup,” he says smugly.

She rolls her eyes. Steve usually pass out after a release?

Bucky snorts.

Darcy groans. Get your mind out of the gutter.

“Yeah, he usually passes out.”

Darcy heaves a sigh.

Bucky curses. “Gonna make me lose my footing, doll.”

Darcy snorts. You’d deserve it. Clear out the little monsters so we can get Steve outta here?

“Already done,” Bucky heaves a dramatic sigh. “So little faith.”

Get off my back so I can shift enough to get Steve out of here without knocking a building down.

“Darce… there’s cameras now. Someone’ll see you shift… see Stevie passed out.”

Darcy curses. 

Bucky chuckles. “Some of those languages are dead, doll.”

Can you cause a distraction?

“Nah, but Stark might be able to.”

Ask him.

“Stark, can you hear me? Yeah, Darce needs a distraction. No, she’s not in the Tower. Steve got pinned down. She, uh, intervened. Yeah. No, she needs to get herself and Steve outta here, but we got cameras on us. Yeah.”

A couple minutes later, Darcy hears an explosion. Did he just blow something up?

Bucky snorts. “Yeah, and I’m scared to ask what, but it worked, only a couple of the cameras are still here.”

Do something about them?

“Like what?”

I don’t know, shoot the cameras.

“I’ve got a better idea. Nat, Clint, where you guys at?”

Darcy wishes her head was at an angle where she could see what was going on, but a few minutes later, Bucky gives her the all clear.

Darcy takes a deep breath and unwinds herself from around Steve, shifting as quickly as she can, taking a mostly humanoid form, but leaving her wings almost their full size. She bends and lifts Steve’s limp form in her arms before turning and nodding in thanks to Nat and Clint, standing over the unconscious cameramen. Natasha snorts and produces a phone from somewhere, snapping a quick picture. Darcy winks and launches herself into the air, Bucky dissipating into smoke and following her. She briefly considers heading back to the Tower, but knows there’s too many cameras between here and there, so she goes high and follows the coastline instead, holding Steve close to her chest.

“Darce?” Bucky asks, swirling around her legs.

Too many cameras back to the Tower. I have a safe house outside of New Haven, Connecticut.

They keep high, right along the coastline, until they reach Darcy’s little cabin in the woods. She carries Steve in the backdoor, mindful of her wings, and deposits him on the old leather sofa before fully shifting back.

Bucky clears his throat. “Uh, doll?”

She turns her gaze to him over her shoulder.

“Not that I’m complaining, but you’re very naked.”

Darcy blushes, more embarrassed that she forgot than by her actual nudity. “Right. Uh… side effect of a full shift. Kinda tends to burn my clothes off.”

Bucky smirks. “Like, I said, not complaining.” He settles into an armchair near the fireplace. “My two favorite people in their birthday suits… what the hell is there to complain about?”

Darcy’s head whips back toward Steve, noticing that he is, in fact, just as naked as she is. She turns back to Bucky with a raised brow.

Bucky shrugs. “Same issue as you. Too much heat.”

Darcy leans forward and tugs the blanket over the back of the sofa over Steve, and flicks her fingers toward the fireplace, lighting the stacked logs. She gestures toward the stairs that lead up to the loft. “I’m gonna grab some clothes.”

Bucky sprawls loosely and smirks. “Don’t bother on my account.”

Darcy flips him the bird over her shoulder. She quickly steps into a pair of underwear and snaps a bra on before tugging an oversized sweater dress on.

“He’s wakin’ up, Darce,” Bucky calls.

Darcy takes a deep breath. Time to face the music.

“What music?” Bucky calls.