Purrfect Love (Darcy x Natasha SM AU)
A/N: Kicking off my contributions to the Darcyland Autumn Revival with Part One of a story I conceived and wrote MANY moons ago. Will post part two this afternoon and part three tomorrow at the latest (still polishing).
Darcy wasn’t entirely sure how she felt about this whole moving-into-Stark-Tower thing. She could understand Thor’s reasoning: with Loki having escaped Asgard (again) it was best for Jane and co. to be close to some sort of protection. On the other hand, Stark Tower had a history of being ground zero for battles and/or attacks. Darcy had seen this movie before, she was pretty sure it was of the ‘plucky sidekick sacrifices self for heroine’ stripe and while, yeah, Jane was pretty awesome and, to be honest, she probably would throw herself between the scientist and any psychos, she’d really rather not be put in that situation.
“I still don’t see why we couldn’t have hung out on the Bus,” she told Jane a few days into their stay.
“The Bus. At least, I think that’s what I heard Thor call it. That one agent, that guy who stole all your stuff? He’s trying to rebuild SHIELD without Hydra, and he’s got some sort of flying base-of-operations.”
Jane paused in her inventory of their machines to shoot her s skeptical look, “Are you sure this was an actual conversation and not the product of weird late-night snacks and bad TV?”
“I maintain that cheesecake and tacos are a fantastic combination,” she replied loftily.
“Oh, come on, it was one time, Jane!”
“You woke up screaming about blue aliens, Parks and Rec, and cherry bombs,” the scientist said evenly, “it left an impression.”
“Fine, I allow that the Tower is probably a good choice right now,” Darcy muttered.
“Good, because…I was thinking that maybe we should stay. Even after they catch Loki again.”
The Great Base Debate was put on hold when Thor comm’d them via JARVIS to let them know that he was returning with his friends. Loki was ‘not yet defeated,’ but he had been ‘struck a grievous blow.’ Darcy was impressed with JARVIS’s ability to imitate Thor’s speech cadence all while maintaining his trademark dry, verging-on-bored tone of voice. She wasn’t sure if it was a programmed or a learned skill, but she definitely wanted to cultivate it.
She hung back in the lab finishing what was left of the inventory, which was apparently a much more urgent task than she’d realized since Jane was considering converting this trial run to a more permanent move. Darcy knew that by the time she finished, Jane and Thor would have reunited and headed off to the nearest appropriate quarters for a more horizontal post-battle reunion. Since she’d been allocated a bedroom that adjoined Jane’s suite, Darcy thought it would be a good idea to avoid her room for a bit, just in case. Thor was surprisingly quiet, it was Jane that was the screamer.
Chalk that up as Reason #8 that most people don’t live with their bosses. There are just some things you don’t want to know about the person you collate for.
Darcy finished up, shut the lights off – asked JARVIS to shut the lights off, really – then took the elevator up to the area Ms. Potts had told them was ‘for everyone, really, I mean that.’ The ‘everyone’ area included a kitchen, small library, and TV room. Darcy planned to avail herself of the first two, not entirely because Jane might have had a point about late-night snacks and bad TV.
She was about 90% certain that Stark would have channels she’d never even heard of.
The kitchen was…not as deserted as she’d expected. There was a cat sitting on the counter next to the fridge. It was a really pretty cat, big and fluffy, its fur an interesting combination of what looked like every shade from black to white, making it look almost like a living shadow. As she got closer, she could see that its eyes were a brilliant green and that it was watching her every bit as closely as she was watching it.
She slowly offered her closed fist for a sniff, voice falling into the saccharine coo of cat lovers everywhere as she murmured, “What a pretty puss! Bet you purr awful sweet…”
The cat’s ears flicked back as she started speaking, but it held still while she reached out towards it. Darcy stopped when her hand was about two inches away from the cat’s nose, letting it decide what it wanted to do. It looked at her face for a moment before leaning in and rubbing its cheek across her knuckles.
A muffled sound behind her had Darcy jerking back and spinning to find a strange man standing on the opposite side of the kitchen island, one hand pressed to his mouth while he stifled…laughter? He had a bow on his back, so that made him Hawkeye, or Clint Barton. Darcy had yet to meet any of the Avengers (not counting Thor), they’d already headed out by the time Thor arranged for transport to the Tower.
After a moment, he recovered enough to offer her a smiley, “Hello!”
“Uh, hi?” she said. “Is she yours?” she stepped to one side, gesturing… which she realized belatedly was entirely unnecessary as there probably weren’t multiple cats wandering around the Tower. At least, she thought there probably weren’t? On the other hand, she’d been surprised to find this one, so who knew? Maybe Stark had a whole menagerie.
“In a manner of speaking,” he said, eyeing Darcy with a twinkle in his eyes.
The cat let out a low hiss.
Clint rolled his eyes. “That,” he pointed at the cat, “is Natasha Romanov. She’d introduce herself, but she’s kind of…incapable at the moment.”
Darcy opened her mouth, shut it, and then attempted a reasonable response: “Are you serious?”
He nodded, “Yep. She’s why we broke off the attack on Loki: he zapped her just as Thor was about to go in for the takedown.”
Darcy turned so she could see both the cat and the man at the same time. The cat, which may or may not have been the Black Widow, was giving Clint a very unimpressed look, but that was normal cat behavior and not really an indicator of secretly-a-person-ness. She rubbed her temples with her fingers. “This is some Prisoner of Azkaban type shit. Is it always like this?”
He paused, obviously thinking it over. “This is the first time somebody’s been turned into a cat,” he offered, “but there was a de-aging incident last week and an interdimensional doppelganger the month before.”
Darcy stared at him. “I can’t tell if you’re screwing with me or not.”
He rolled his eyes, “Relax, I only fuck with people I know. Speaking of which, you are…?”
“Darcy Lewis: lab assistant to Jane, friend of Thor. He wants us here for our own safety while Loki is running amok…but it might become a more permanent thing, I guess,” she grimaced. “Assuming I can’t talk Jane out of it, I mean.”
Clint took a step forward and hooked one of the stools out from beneath the lip of the island, seating himself on it. He had an oddly intent look on his face, like he was measuring her, or something, but he was some sort of secret agent. That sort of behavior probably came with the territory. “So you’re Darcy. Thor speaks very highly of you,” Clint told her, “and I know he’s been talking about discussing a move with Jane for a while. You don’t want to live here? With all the superheroes and cool gadgets – “
“And weird magic and alien invasions?” Since it looked like he was settling in, she grabbed a seat too, snagging an apple from the bowl between them in the middle of the island. “I mean, I was there for the New Mexico thing, and the London thing, and the Saskatchewan thing, so magic and aliens and sentient tree-things aren’t exactly new,” she explained, picking at the stem and studiously avoiding his eyes, “but they’re not really normal either, and I’m just not sure I want them to become my new ‘normal.’”
He nodded in understanding, “I get it, I do. Have you looked for other work?”
She shrugged, then tried not to jump when the cat – Natasha(?) – was suddenly at her elbow, sitting not six inches away. “I have,” she said slowly, side-eyeing the cat, “but not seriously. I don’t actually want to leave Jane. I like working with her, it’s fun and it’s interesting, and she’s doing good work that matters, you know?”
“I know,” Clint said solemnly, and, well of course he did. He was an Avenger.
“Anyways,” Darcy shrugged, “It’s not set in stone yet. I’m gonna work on talking Jane out of it. I’ve got till you guys catch Loki, right?”
“Right,” he said, nodding slowly.
The cat stood, the tip of her tail twitching back and forth, and crossed over to him. The duo engaged in a brief stare down, and then the cat was climbing onto Clint’s shoulder, settling down with a satisfied-sounding, “Mrrr.”
“So,” Clint said, turning his focus back to Darcy, “that means we’ve got just as long to convince you to stay.”
He got up, one hand lifting to brace the cat in case she lost her balance (highly unlikely since 1) she was a cat, and 2) she was Natasha Romanov). “We’ll try and show you the normal, not-crazy side of the Tower so that, even if you can’t convince Jane to change her mind, you won’t have so many reservations about living here.”
Darcy stared at him. “You and the recently-a-human feline,” she said slowly, “are going to convince me that this place isn’t crazy?”
“Why?” Darcy asked, suspicious. “I mean… no, I really just mean the ‘why.’”
He smiled amiably, “Maybe we just need something constructive to do while we wait for the magic to wear off.” With that, he turned and left the kitchen.
She stared after them. “This place is so weird.”
