Workouts, Wine, and Women
As the afternoon progressed into evening and they sat down to a quick dinner, Bucky could feel an anxiousness simmering under his skin. The thought of spending time in her home without her was...unsettling, for some reason that he wasn’t particularly keen to name. He tried to expend the restless energy thrumming through him by disassembling, cleaning, and reassembling his portable arsenal. It was enough to keep his mind engaged and away from any uncomfortable topics, but his body wasn’t cooperating. After his third trip of uneasy pacing around her living room, Darcy waved a hand at him to get his attention.
“Hey Scowly Face, you doing ok over there? You’re gonna wear holes in my carpet with all that pacing.”
Bucky looked away from her, shamefaced. “Yeah, I’m fine. Just...keyed up, I guess,” he said with a shrug.
“Oh,” Darcy responded. “Do you need to go running or lift weights or something? That’s a thing you and Steve do a lot, right? Because of all the supersoldierness?” She flapped her hands, the gesture encompassing the width and breadth of him in one go.
That’s not a bad idea actually, Bucky thought to himself, and told Darcy as much. Darcy dug an electronic key card from a pile of miscellaneous odds and ends sitting in a bowl on her entryway table. “Here. If you take this to the top floor, there’s a pretty extensive gym up there for residents. I’ve never personally used it, but it looked ultra fancy when the sales lady was giving me the grand tour.”
Bucky took the card she handed him and tucked it into his back pocket. “Thanks, Darce. I’m sure that’s why I’m so twitchy. Me and Steve are usually at the gym at least once a day. The serum seems to have made us antsy unless we’re regularly beating the crap out of something or someone. Go figure.”
Darcy squinted her eyes in an assessing gaze. “You’re sure that’s the only reason? Would you rather I not go see Jane tonight?”
Nervousness clenched in his gut at her words, for whatever reason. “Nope. I’m fine. You enjoy yourself at Jane’s.”
Darcy gave a soft hum and then went over to her extensive collection of DVDs, plucking one carefully from a haphazard stack, before shoving it into her purse. “Alright,” she said, grabbing her coat and scarf. “I’m headed out then. I’m not sure when I’ll be back, probably after midnight, but I’ll try to come in quietly so I don’t wake you up. Spare key’s hanging by the light switch in the kitchen if you end up going to the gym. I’ll, uh, see you later.”
“Later, doll. Have a good time.” Bucky leaned against her open front door, waiting to shut and lock it behind her.
She gave a nod and absently blew him a kiss over her shoulder before making her way down to the elevator, already mentally cataloging all the things she wanted to talk to Jane about. Bucky shut the door with a quiet click and turned to face her empty apartment. It was odd not having her there. It felt...quieter, but that wasn’t quite the right word. They hadn’t really talked all that much over the weekend, but just having her there, bright lips and eyes, colorful and often clashing outfits, made the quiet recede. Now that she was gone, the charm and warmth of her home quickly evaporated.
Right, he thought, enough of this mopey bullshit. He went to his room and dug out clothes he could work out in. He briefly considered wearing a long sleeved shirt and glove to hide his prosthetic, but decided against it, figuring her gym would likely be empty at this time of night. From what he had seen of the other residents, they appeared to be mostly pasty, accountant types anyway. A far cry from gym rats.
He dressed quickly and booked it upstairs, eager to work off whatever it was that was making him so restless. Hopefully he wouldn’t end up breaking any of the gym equipment.
***
“Janie!” Darcy threw her arms around the slight woman as soon as she had the door open enough for her to barrel through. “How the heck are you??”
“Oh god, I’m so miserable it’s pathetic,” Jane said with fervor, hugging her back fiercely. “Thor is gone and is going to be gone for ages but I’m not allowed to know the exact amount of time because apparently that knowledge is above my clearance level. Excuse me, but what the hell? My boyfriend is a thousand year old alien demigod. I think that affords me some pretty fricking high clearance.”
“I see you’ve started in on the wine without me,” Darcy dryly commented.
Jane took no notice of Darcy’s interjection and carried on with her tirade. “And, on top of all that, I can’t even distract myself with work at the moment! All my projects are in observational stages, which is normally fine because, hey, I love observing and collecting data. But! Stupid Stark with all his stupid money hired me these really great interns who actually know what the crap I’m talking about, no offense Darce—”
“None taken—”
“So!” Jane continued without pause, “they keep doing all the minor stuff that I normally handle and now I’m left waiting around and bored as hell and, just...ugh! This is all Tony’s fault. He flew off with my boyfriend and left me with a bunch of really helpful helpers.”
“Yeah,” Darcy drawled, “what an asshole.”
Jane glared at her friend, sticking out her tongue with all the grace and maturity afforded by her thirty years of life. Darcy just laughed and smacked a kiss to her cheek before pulling her over to sit next to her on Jane’s loveseat.
Jane had an open bottle of wine resting on the coffee table in front of them, surrounded by packets of various junk foods ranging from salty to sweet. They knew how to keep their girls' nights very, very classy.
Jane poured them each a glass while Darcy picked out a snack cake to munch on. “So,” Jane started, “enough about my woeful existence. What’s new with you?”
Darcy mentally parsed her words as she chewed, knowing that Jane’s reaction to her harboring a reformed assassin might be met with reluctant acceptance. Or completely disproportionate violence. Jane had a deep protective streak that, when coupled with her infamously short temper, could prove quite volatile. Riiight, best not start with that.
“Not a whole lot at the moment. Especially with the Avengers out of town. I was prepping for a big press conference for later this week. The media have been beating down my door for info on that big showdown with Mister Sinister last month, which, by the way, who the hell comes up with these villain names? That one’s almost as bad as Doctor Doom,” Darcy said with a roll of her eyes. “Anyway, with all of them gone now, I'm going to have to cancel all of it without: 1. Being able to give a replacement date and 2. Giving away the fact that ALL the Avengers are gone indefinitely and leaving the city vulnerable.”
Darcy paused as she considered what she’d just said. “Never mind, I lied. I have a shit ton going on at the moment. Hurray!” She sunk her head into her hands and mumbled into her lap, “Tomorrow is gonna be a fucking nightmare trying to sort this all out.”
Jane clicked her tongue and patted her sympathetically on the back. She picked up Darcy’s glass, shoving it into her hands. “Here,” she said. “You deserve a drink.”
“Why yes I do.” Darcy followed up the statement with an inelegant slug of wine.
The two women continued to snack and chat, reveling in sharing the little aspects of their lives that so often got left out of phone calls and quick lunch breaks at work. The longer they talked, the more settled Darcy felt. She'd never really had any female friends until she met Jane. She'd been pleasantly surprised to discover just how centering friendships between women could be when cattiness and ego were set aside. Trust and support flowed between the two women like electricity through a live wire, lighting them both up from the inside out. When they were both mildly buzzed on wine and pleasant conversation, Darcy decided it was time to broach the topic of her houseguest.
“So,” she started, clearing her throat. “I have some of that hot gossip that I promised.”
“Ooh do tell!” Jane leaned forward in earnest.
Darcy let out a nervous titter. “Heh, well you see, I may or may not have temporarily taken in a friend of Steve’s as a roommate. Temporarily.”
“Oh?” Jane flicked an eyebrow up. “Is he good looking? I bet he's good looking, all of Steve's friends are.”
“Ok yes, he's a total babe, but he's got...you know...some serious baggage.” Darcy winced at the look in Jane’s suddenly alert eyes.
“Who exactly is this friend-of-Steve, Darcy?” Suspicion colored Jane’s voice. Damn her superior intellect.
“Ummmm,” Darcy trailed off, avoiding eye contact.
Jane gave a semi threatening, “Darcy.”
“James Barnes,” she replied in a pinched voice.
Jane’s mouth popped open in uncharacteristic shock. “JAMES BARNES,” she cried. “You mean James Buchanan Barnes, he of the metal arm and outrageously high kill count!?”
This was met with a sigh from Darcy. “One and the same, Jane.” Darcy braced herself for a tirade from the other woman as the tone of the conversation was definitely tipping into the “violent” side of Jane's emotional scale.
“Have you lost your mind? Do you want to be murdered in your sleep by an unstable psychopath!?”
A spark of offense on Bucky’s behalf shot through Darcy's gut. “Hey! He is not a psychopath! Have you not watched any of the interviews I've been doing for the last 8 months?” She met Jane’s eyes with a pronounced scowl. “He is a good man! The hell that he’s gone through, how hard he’s fought to crawl out of it and rebuild his own mind from the mush that Hydra turned it into? He does not deserve your ire or your name calling, Jane Foster.” Darcy ended her statement by crossing her arms across her chest and glaring a hole through Jane's forehead. If she’d been a little more sober she probably would have recognized the hypocrisy of what she was saying, considering her own near identical reaction when Steve had initially brought Bucky over.
The two women eyed each other silently for a moment until Jane let out the breath she'd been holding. “Ok, Darcy. I'm sorry I upset you, I wasn't trying to. It was kind of a shocking revelation though?” She peered at her friend with tender eyes. “I love you Darce. I worry about you and I would be devastated if anything bad ever happened to you.”
“I know Janie, I love you too.” Darcy uncrossed her arms to pull the other woman into a tight hug. “Just give the guy some grace, okay?”
Jane hummed and nodded, stroking her fingers lightly through Darcy’s hair a moment before asking, “So, have you snuck a peek at him naked yet, because he’s pretty easy on the eyes for a nonagenarian.”
Darcy jerked back from her friend, smacking her lightly on the arm. “Jane! He is a guest in my home! I'm not going to invade his privacy and ogle his goods whenever he's not looking!”
Darcy paused, a sly grin creeping up her face before continuing, “I did, however, get Steve to strip naked for me before he left on his super secret evil fighting trip.”
Jane gasped, soft brown eyes going wide with shock. “You what? Why didn't you start this evening with that?!”
Darcy dissolved into gasping giggles before sobering and telling the other woman the whole, frankly brilliant, tale of Steve's desperate plea and subsequent nude repayment.
“Darcy, you are a fucking genius.”
“That's what I said!” Darcy crowed with glee.
“What did Barnes think of that whole...thing,” Jane asked.
“Oh Janie, that was the best part! He thought it was hilarious! I've never seen a man lose it as hard as he did. At first, I thought he was choking or something, it was painfully obvious that it had been a super duper long time since he'd laughed like that. Which is kind of heartbreaking,” Darcy ended on a melancholy sigh.
“Yeah, it is,” Jane replied softly. Then, with mild urgency, “Where is Barnes now?”
“At my apartment, I assume.”
“By himself?” Jane asked, slightly appalled.
“Yes, by himself. He's a grown ass man, he can take care of himself for a couple of hours,” Darcy huffed with a roll of her eyes.
“Yes, but you’re the only friend he has right now. Stateside anyway. What if he gets lonely?” Jane looked at her with those big, brown doe eyes.
“I...” Darcy faltered. She really didn't have an answer for that.
“Call a cab,” Jane said with sudden certainty, corking their wine and scooping up glasses.
“What? Why?” Darcy asked Jane’s retreating back as she moved the glasses to her kitchen, a distinct wobble to her stride. When she came back around the corner, Jane was stowing a fresh bottle of wine into her tote.
“Because,” she drawled, scooping the remaining snacks into the overly large bag as well, “we’re going back to your place.” This statement was accompanied by a firm nod.
“Again, I ask, what? Why?” Darcy’s brows drew together in confusion.
“Because we’re having girls night with Bucky, that's why. For godssake, you just told me the man hasn't laughed properly in 70 years. If anyone could use a night of fun, it's him.”
Darcy smiled up at her friend, delighted in this turn of events. “Janie, are you adopting Bucky into our Circle of Friendship?”
“Yes. I am.”
“God, I love you.”
“Yes, yes, I know,” Jane huffed impatiently. “Call a cab.”
Darcy plucked her phone from her pocket and both women and Jane's large goody bag were clambering into a taxi within the next twenty minutes. A speculative look crossed Jane's face.
“Does Bucky still have his long hair?” she asked as the cab carried them down the street.
“No, he's cut it recently. It looks a bit like his style from his Howling Commando days, but a little longer in the front.”
Jane pursed her lips in mild displeasure. “Hmm, that's too bad, you know how I feel about long hair on men.”
“Yes. I do. The things you have said about that are things that my virgin ears will never be able to unhear.”
Jane gave a snort of laughter. “Yeah, yeah, I know. I was just hoping we'd be able to braid his hair for girls night, really get into the spirit of things, you know?”
“Yeah...we can still ply him with wine and have a pillow fight in our nighties, though."
Jane gave a bark of laughter. “If by nightie you mean my old flannel pajama pants from grad school, then yes. Definitely.”
“Alright!” Darcy pumped her fist in the air in triumph. “I was mostly considering Barnes in a nightie, but whatever.” At that, both women lost their composure, letting off a cascade of slightly buzzed giggles. Okay, very buzzed giggles.
Darcy was so pleased that Jane had decided to plant herself firmly on Team Bucky. The man could use more friends, and between the two women...well, he wouldn't know what hit him.