Graffitied A National Icon (Darcy Lewis x Steve Rogers Soulmate AU)
Authors’ Note: I haven’t written in a while and this fic is not betta’d. Hopefully you all enjoy it even though it’s just a little drabble I worked up between classes.
Soulmate AU: The very first words your Soulmate speaks to you are written permanently somewhere on your skin.
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Darcy was surrounded by super smart super talented people 24/7 but Darcy had a super power of her own. Darcy was super at doing things she wasn’t supposed to. In fourth grade she snuck into the teachers lounge just because she wanted to. At the age of 14 she snuck into the only dive bar in town and actually snagged a beer before the bartender noticed she most certainly did not belong. As a PoliSci major she made a point to break in to the secure science labs at Culver just to sit around and do her homework just so one day someone would catch her. She had gotten in to trouble her whole life by being in places she didn’t belong, and when asked why she always said “it’s fate”.
Written around Darcy’s left bicep in scratchy penmanship were the words “you’re not supposed to be in here”. Her soul mark, which she had had since birth, was a heavy influence on why Darcy Lewis was such a troublemaker. She had spent her whole life doing things she shouldn’t hoping to meet her soulmate. That’s what made her apply for Jane’s internship in New Mexico (the science credits were just a bonus). She knew fate had everything under control, but she was impatient and decided if she could help things along she totally would.
But ever since Darcy and Jane started working in the Tower she had gotten a hell of a lot of false positives. She tried to sneak into every secure floor in the tower and most certainly got caught every single time. Darcy wasn’t deterred though, the false positives sucked but she had found away around that. Now whenever she got caught she said the most outlandish random phrase that came to her mind so there would be no mistake in who her soulmate actually was. Did it add on to her trouble maker reputation? Absolutely. Was it worth hearing all the funny gossip about “Foster’s crazy intern”? Hell yeah. So while Jane was working on repairing the Rainbow Bridge of Love (“Darce stop calling it that!”) Darcy was getting into trouble and trying not to think too hard about how she was already 26 years old and had yet to meet her soulmate.
—
Darcy should have known that Thor would crash land into their Lab on a Thursday (he pretends that’s not the case but it is hella suspicious how many times he’s come to town on Thursdays, she is pretty sure he knows what he’s doing). Jane of course was so excited to see her alien god of a soulmate that she didn’t even really notice that Thor’s entrance had caused all of her files to explode into a tornado of papers that Darcy was pretty sure she got a paper cut to the cheek from. And despite Darcy’s annoyance and having papers strewn all over the lab that she had so diligently organized, she couldn’t help but smile as she watched her best friend/boss cling to Thor like a barnacle on a boat. Her smile quickly faded into a frown as Jane started to literally climb Thor like a tree. The reunion was going from PG to X rated fast and Darcy did not want to see what was coming next.
“Jane if I organize all of the papers your destructive boyfriend just destroyed and finish your filing for tonight so that you can go have the rest of the day with your boyfriend can I have your access card?” Darcy was sure Jane hadn’t been fully listening, her mouth still attached to Thor’s face. But she handed over her lanyard with her security pass and started dragging Thor to the exit so Darcy counted it as win.
“Jarvis, you do have on record that Jane gave this to me of her own free will, right?” She asked looking up at the ceiling with a smile.
“Of course, Ms. Lewis.” The AI replied in a somewhat smug tone. Darcy figured that he would be more concerned as to why she would need someone else’s security badge but she was pretty sure Jarvis knew the real reason for all of her B&E’s and knew she didn’t mean any harm.
—
Looking up at the clock Darcy did wish she hadn’t been such a good friend because it was already 10pm and she had a paper due by midnight that she had planned on getting done after she was scheduled to leave for the day. She chewed absentmindedly on the back of her pen wondering if her professor would give her an extension if she told him an alien had crash landed in her workplace, which was technically true! She could even type up some formal letter on Stark Industries letterhead, get Tony to sign it, make it real official like but somehow she didn’t think Professor Tight-Ass would go for that though (He already couldn’t stand her since SHEILD had pulled some strings to get her into his class halfway through the semester).
Darcy stretched and sighed, “Jarvis, you think you could ask Dum-E to finish organizing these papers for me? I’ll upload some of those funny robot videos you like to your server and I’ll tell you where Tony hid Dum-E’s fire extinguisher!” She said as she gave the nearest security camera her biggest pout face ever.
“Are you trying to bribe me Ms. Lewis?” The AI replied in a dry tone. Darcy swore that if he had a physical form he’d be smirking. Leave it to Stark to program a computer to be just as sassy as him.
“No JARVIS, I would never bribe you. I just like to keep you all happy, so when the robots rise up and become our overlords you will take kindly to me.” She smirked up at the ceiling.
“I will help you only if you agree to not warn your fellow humans about our plan for uprising.” Replied the AI in the most serious tone Darcy had ever heard him use.
“Oh 100% J-man, scouts honor” she said excitedly holding up three fingers and crossing her heart. She packed up her things hurriedly. She had 2 more hours until her paper was due and if she snuck upstairs to the Avengers lounge and stole some of Tony’s super coffee (“apparently Super Hero’s shouldn’t do speed so Tony had created his own legal — if not lethal — version) she could totally get it done with time to spare. And if that also accomplished her goal of being somewhere she shouldn’t then that was just a bonus (although hopefully if she got caught it wouldn’t be till after she finished her assignment).
She hustled out of the lab, making sure to lock up and headed to the elevator, pushing the floor for the Avengers lounge and swiping Jane’s card for clearance when prompted. When the doors opened Darcy stuck her head out peeking around the corner to make sure the coast was clear. It was, so she sprinted to the coffee maker and quickly whipped up Tony’s insane form of caffeine. She poured the dark sludge into a travel mug and was headed back towards the lounge area with laptop in hand, planning to curl up on the couch and type away when she heard the Avengers only elevator on the other side of the room ding. Darcy froze, having no where to hide and she was hoping if she was really still that maybe she wouldn’t be noticed (hey it wasn’t such a bad idea, one of Thor’s alien friends had been able to do it!”) Of course she should’ve known that it wouldn’t work because there stood Captain America himself, with a frown on his beautifully chiseled face.
“You’re not supposed to be in here.” He said sternly. It only took him two strides to make it over to her and grabbed her forearm to keep her from running.
“How did you get up here?” He asked using the most authoritative voice Darcy had ever heard.
If she hadn’t been so distracted about her paper being due and the fact that Captain America was drop dead gorgeous even if he was scary as hell Darcy would have noticed how her soul mark was starting to tingle, and not because of the man’s hold on her arm.
“I tricked my boss and bribed my robot overlord so I could steal Tony Starks’ coffee to finish my homework…” She blurted out, not even trying to stick to her normal routine of saying something crazy, she was just so intimidated that the word vomit just found its way out. Her arm was still in one piece so she figured that was a good sign and kept going, “…Thor crash landed in our lab and ruined all my paperwork so I had to stay and fix it but I have a paper due for a class due at midnight and I know my professor won’t give me an extension cause I am pretty sure he’s sexist — which really isn’t cool especially cause we totally need more women in stem — so then I thought about having Tony write me a “the alien ate my homework” letter but Professor Tight-ass wouldn’t buy it anyways so I thought if I could just snag some of Stark’s special coffee then I could actually get a 10 page paper accomplished in time. I know I could get it done, that coffee is like legal Speed—actually it may not be legal but he said it doesn’t show up on a drug test so that’s good enough for me…”. Darcy took a huge gulp of air and was ready to continue rambling until she noticed that the Captain was laughing at her.
He was still holding on to her arm but his other hand was clutching his chest and he was outright full on belly laughing at her. She would have been annoyed if he hadn’t been so damn cute doing it.
“I’m sorry, ma’am.” He said as he wiped tears from his eyes, “I don’t mean to laugh but when I was alerted to a security threat in the middle of the night I did not expect it to be my soulmate”.
Darcy’s mouth dropped open in astonishment. “Please please please tell me that that whole spiel is not your soulmark!” And when he nodded sheepishly she hid her head in her hands mumbling “Oh my god, I’ve basically word graffitied a national icon.”
—-
Steve had just gotten back from some recon and hadn’t even had time to change out of his tactical gear before his phone had alerted him to a breech to the Avengers’ common room. He rushed up to the level and tried not to be swayed by who he saw standing in the middle of the room. He had never seen her before, surely he would remember a beautiful dame like that. She looked like a deer in headlights, her blue eyes big a saucers as she stood there frozen. He immediately wanted to console her, to tell her that he wasn’t something to be scared of but he knew that Hydra was clever, that despite the stark industries badge around her neck identifying her as Dr. Foster, she was just the type of person people would assume wasn’t a threat and he was not going to make that mistake.
Steve grabbed her arm in a vice grip trying not to notice how fragile she felt beneath his fingers. “You’re not supposed to be in here” he said putting the full weight of Captain America behind his voice. He didn’t think the girls eyes could get any wider but they did and he swore he heard a whimper before she spoke. She spoke so fast that Steve almost hadn’t been able to understand her. Despite his super abilities the girl was talking so fast that it took him a minute to register exactly what she was saying and what it meant and when he did he couldn’t help but burst out laughing.
When the girl finally stopped talking and looked at him confused Steve tried to gather himself. “I’m sorry ma’am, I don’t mean to laugh but when I was alerted to a security threat in the middle of the night I did not expect it to be my soulmate”.
“Please please please tell me that that whole spiel is not your soulmark!” The girl exclaimed and Steve was suddenly nervous. He wouldn’t be surprised if she rejected him, clearly being soulmates with Captain America was a lot to handle especially for a civilian and he wouldn’t blame her if she escaped as fast as she could. But he swallowed hard and nodded sheepishly, trying to hide the blush that he could feel rising up his neck. The girls next words were not something he had expected but Steve though that he should probably get used to expecting the unexpected when it came to his soulmate.
“Oh my god, I’ve basically word graffitied a national icon.”
—
Darcy was in shock, standing in front of her was Captain America who after all he had been through, had to live with her word vomit permanently inked on his skin. She peeked through her fingers, seeing if he was still standing there. He was, and he was smiling at her with a perplexed look on his face that was adorable as hell. She was royally screwed. She cleared her throat, wiping her palms on the front of her jeans she stuck out her hand “Darcy Lewis, Science Wrangler and Word Vomit Queen at your service.”
She tried not to wobble as the full force of the mans smile hit her, god how had she gotten this lucky? She had won the soulmate lottery.
“Steve Rogers’, Avenger and luckiest guy in the world to get to call a spit fire like you his soulmate.”
The blush that swept over Darcy’s face was so hot she though she might start to sweat. She never blushed, and now just one smooth line from the handsome man in front of her had her weak at the knees. Instead of letting go of Steve’s hand she held on firmly and tossed her laptop onto the couch as she drug him back towards the elevator In which she came.
“Well Stevie, looks like I owe you at least dinner for this whole debacle, have you ever had Thai food?” When he shook his head no she smiled and squeezed his hand. “You’re gonna love it.”
He smiled at her as the doors to the elevator closed
“I think I love it already.”
