Prompt, if you want it: I've always envisioned Clint/Sam having met Darcy at some point during her childhood, and then taking awhile to recognize her as an adult? (or maybe she recognizes him but he doesn't remember her at first but eventually, but by then they've both spent just long enough pretending they've just met for it to be awkward to tell the truth)
I don’t even remember how old this prompt is, SORRY.
So with this one, I figure Clint and Darcy met when she was about 10 and he was 17ish, and still a carnie. Now, without further ado….
It had been six months, ten days, and five hours since Darcy met Clint Barton for the second time in her life. In the moment, she’d been too surprised to find out that the carnie sharpshooter she’d followed around the summer she was 10 and far too unsupervised had gone government lackey and then superhero. She’d meant to say something, but then her mulish preteen self caught up and she once again felt like she didn’t owe the wiseass with the stupidly pretty face an explanation. Most especially when the dork just kept tilting his head and squinting at her instead of actually asking why she seemed familiar.
After a while it just became too much fun. Jane, however, figured out something was up within a few days of them moving into the tower. She was quick like that and no above asking questions.
“How do you know that hawk guy?”
“Agent Barton?” Darcy clarified all innocence.
Jane waved her hand dismissively. “I’m avoiding all mentions of his former line of work to limit my annoyance over New Mexico and my desire to stab all involved. So hawk guy he shall be. But, I know you know something about him. You’ve got your shit-stirring smile on whenever he’s around and we haven’t been here long enough for you to get your mischief network established.”
Not bothering to hide it, Darcy leaned forward, said shit-stirring smile in place. “I knew him one summer when I was a kid and am waiting to see how long it takes him to remember.”
“Why not just tell him?”
“Because this way is more fun. Especially when he awkwardly lingers trying to place me. He may be just as much of a dork as I remember but the view has only improved with age.”
And he did linger, more and more. At first it was just him hanging around her conversations with others, tilting his good ear towards her to try and catch any details she’d let slip. But bit by bit he’d actually started talking to her himself, chatting about seemingly innocuous topics that were clearly unsubtle attempts to get her backstory while he lounged against her workspace in the lab or draped himself over the back of the couch she was sitting on. Jane rolled her eyes and muttered while she worked, but Darcy enjoyed every bit of it. Clint was just as funny and smart as she remembered, but while kid Darcy had just wanted a friend to hang out with when she was bored and stuck at her aunt’s for the summer, adult Darcy recognized how time had made him a bit more tempered. He was still an idiot and reckless as hell, sporting a fair share of bruises and butterfly bandages every time he was hanging around, but there was something more solid about him, a stronger core that made it so very obvious he was the honest goods and she’d be in trouble if he stuck around too much longer. But she wasn’t exactly shooing him or his amazing biceps any time soon.
But here she was, six months later, far too invested in a guy who was supposedly a top government agent but had yet to admit that he knew who she was. She was pretty sure he’d figured if out six weeks earlier, but he still hadn’t said anything. So, she’d had her mom ship out her old trinket box and had started wearing the gold arrowhead he’d put on a leather lanyard and given her. Admittedly, it was always tucked in her shirt, but it was still there, waiting for him to notice and mention.
“Are you trying to get him to check out your boobs?” Jane asked, once again, not about getting the answers to what was bothering her. “They’re amazing and all, but this seems like a rather roundabout way to either A) remind him who you are or B) get him to scope you out and do something more than keep finding excuses to talk to you.”
Darcy stopped fidgeting with her new jewelry to put it back under her shirt with ba shrug. “You already know I love things that are long and involved. Not to mention convoluted.”
“Just as long as you two finally figure out what long and involved things you like together and stop contaminating my lab with all this mooning and flirting.”
Darcy was half impressed Jane had actually said that with a straight face after what she’d caught the fair scientist up to with Thor on the lab bench the night before. She laughed and pointed at the piece of furniture in question while waggling her brows at Jane. “Pot calling kettle black much?”
Pleased with the blush she got, Darcy went back to her notes with a smile and began planning on how to speed things up a bit. She did love long and involved, but patience was becoming sorely overrated.
Two nights later, Clint walked into the communal kitchen right on schedule. The corn on the cob was piping hot, her playlist of hits from that summer 15 years earlier was on, the candy was in a bowl on the table, and she was ready to tease him into finally admitting he remembered her.
“Hey, Hawkeye. You have an amazing day today?”
He narrowed his eyes at the joke.
She’d thought it was hilarious when she was ten and had repeated it every time she saw him as a kid.
But he still didn’t bite.
“Hey, Darce. No more than usual.”
She hummed and grabbed the plate she’d piled the corn on and set it on the counter next to him.
“Corn?” When he narrowed his eyes even more, she just smiled.
Ever the cliche Iowa boy, he couldn’t turn down fresh, delicious corn, though. So he grabbed an ear, dressed it up as he wanted, and tucked in. She chose innocuous topics while he ate, easing him back into a comfortable back and forth before she offered his other favorite carnival snack from back in the day. “I also have some saltwater taffy if you want.”
This time he set down the now finished corn ear and folded his arms, leaning back against the counter with a small frown. “What’re you doing?”
She leaned against the opposite counter with a grin.”What do you mean?”
“The corn, the taffy, the music, the necklace. All of it.”
She couldn’t help her pleased smile. “So you did notice.”
“Of course I noticed,” He said with a grunt before he sighed and sagged more fully against the counter. “I knew it had to be you, but it just didn’t make sense. You were Darcy and grew up in Virginia. I knew a Dee in the middle of nowhere Ohio.”
“My family calls me Dee and I spent that summer at my aunt’s while my mom was taking care of my grandma.”
He nodded as her information slid into place and then didn’t say anything else, just stared at her, mulishly silent.
But she was already in it, knowing where she wanted things to go, so she continued on. “If you’d already figured it out, why not say anything? Were you that interested in my ranking of Star Trek captains as drinking buddies?”
He huffed out a laugh, finally letting his sulking expression crack. “While yes, I agree that Kirk would be the worst because you’d always be the one taking care of him, that wasn’t it. I just. Dammit, you’re funny and and smart and I always wanted to hear what you had to say, see you smile, just be around you.”
She felt a small blush starting in her cheeks but staunchly ignored it. She was on a mission. “Okay, those are very nice things for you to say, but you still didn’t answer my question. Why didn’t you just tell me you remembered me?”
He finally uncrossed his arms to gesture dramatically. “I didn’t want it to be creepy! You were just a kid and like a little sibling and what I’ve been thinking lately is not brotherly.”
“Yeah?” Her voice was soft as she pushed off the counter and walked towards him. “What have you been thinking?”
His hands dropped to his sides and his eyes tracked her movements. “That I want kiss that all along that stupid necklace I made you, following it under every single thing you’re wearing.”
He froze, obviously not having meant to say that out loud.
Darcy laughed low and soft, immediately setting out to ease his discomfort as she stepped into his space, placing both hands on his chest and biting her lip with a smile. “Is that just a thought or a promise?”
He visibly swallowed, eyes focusing on her mouth as his hands came up to her waist. “It’s whatever you want it to be.”
