June 22 - Victor Creed/ Darcy Lewis. If it could be a soulmate fic, where they meet for the first time during a mission where they’re in opposite teams. For @skyfoxfire
Written by @backwardsandinhighheels
“It’s just a fact-finding mission, Darcy. We’ll be with you every step of the way, Darcy. You’ll be perfectly safe.” Darcy jiggled the door handle again. “Why do I let myself get suckered into these things?”
It had sounded simple enough, when they asked her. Dress up, attend a fancy party, get lost, and drop tiny listening devices anywhere she possibly could. She’d had her doubts, but they’d been quietened by Tony’s silver tongue and Steve’s endless reassurances. More fool her, because the creep of the week was being backed by the Brotherhood of Mutants.
Magneto had found the bugs, someone had pointed her out as the socialite last seen in the area, and Darcy had run. She was now somewhere inside the old European castle the creep was using as a base and hopelessly lost for real.
Darcy shoved at the door and was rewarded with a faint click and the handle turning easily. She stepped through and took a moment to reassess. Her earpiece had fallen silent several twists and turns ago, which couldn’t be a good sign. The beautiful shoes Nat had forced on her had been abandoned a while ago and her feet were stinging. She still had her clutch, but all it held was a phone without signal and a tube of lipstick. She missed her taser desperately, but Clint was right - it would’ve been confiscated at the door.
Muttering imprecations under her breath, she ventured deeper into the castle.
“She must’ve been one of the X-Men,” Toad insisted. “We have to get out of here!”
Victor didn’t bother to restrain his eye roll, but stayed silent.
“If she was a mutant, why did she run?” Mystique pointed out. “I think she’s human.”
“Charles would never put a human in harm’s way,” Magneto insisted. “And the complexity of these devices -” he gestured to the flattened remains of several bugs “- suggest she’s with Stark.”
“Tony Stark?” their patron - Victor didn’t bother to remember this one’s name - gasped. “We have to get out of here!”
“We need to find the girl. The Avengers are notoriously soft-hearted - they won’t dare touch us if one of their own is at risk.” Magneto flicked his gaze to Victor. “Sabretooth, find her. Toad, make sure our host doesn’t leave. Mystique, you’re with me.”
Victor grinned. “And here I was thinking this party would be boring.” He grabbed one of their host’s security staff, enjoyed the fear in the other man’s eyes. “Show me which way she went.”
~~~
It was lighter up ahead.
Darcy switched off her phone torch and waited for her eyes to adjust. The darkness in front of her was not as thick as the darkness behind her. A few steps and two corners later, and she found herself in what looked like an old cellar. Giant empty barrels lined the walls and stood in rows, dust motes swirling in the light from what she assumed was the exit.
Her earpiece crackled to life. “Darcy? Are you there? Your signal’s come back online.”
“Yeah, I’m here,” she said, fingering the pendant that held her microphone. “Don’t know where here is but you lot better have a plan for getting me out.”
“One of the bugs made its way to the server room and we have all the evidence we need. We’re coming in. If you can’t get to the main courtyard to meet us, just sit tight.”
“Okay.” Darcy perched herself on one of the smaller barrels and waited. A scuff, a footstep, caught her ear. “I think someone’s coming,” she whispered, shoving herself off the barrel and ducking behind it. Spying a loose plank nearby, she curled one hand around it.
~~~
It was dusty in here. Victor hated dust. It tickled his nose and deadened his sense of smell. He glanced around, taking in the cellar and the undisturbed dust on the stairs to the other exit. There had been no offshoots from the tunnel for some time; his prey was in this room. He stilled, half-closed his eyes and listened for her breathing.
Confident of her location, he crossed the room in easy strides and leaned over the barrel. “Are these yours?” he asked silkily, holding up the strappy stilettos he’d found further back.
He’d been prepared for terror, for frozen paralysis. He wasn’t prepared for the socialite to swing a plank into his face like a baseball bat and take off running, mostly dodging a swipe that caught her necklace. He certainly wasn’t prepared to see her stumble to a halt, clutching at her shoulder, and twist to face him
“Did I just break my soulmate’s nose?” she demanded.
Victor froze, his own shoulder rippling with sudden pain that vanished as suddenly as it had began. He prodded at his nose. “I don’t think it’s broken.”
“But the soulmate thing? Did I just imagine that, or-”
Victor took a step towards her and she took a matching one away. “I want to see.”
He pushed his jacket, then his shirt, off his shoulder, revealing looping script. His soulmate came closer, raised one hand to trace the words. “May I?”
At his nod, she ran a delicate finger along his mark before pushing the strap off her own shoulder, exposing creamy skin and his own rough scrawl. “I’m Darcy,”
“Victor,” he replied. “You with the Avengers?”
She smiled, a crooked little thing that seemed out of place on her expressive mouth. “Sort of. I think this is going to be a one-off, to be honest.” She tilted her head up at him. “Is that going to be a problem? I’m guessing you’re with Magneto’s Brotherhood.”
Victor shrugged. “Easy come, easy go. Even Magneto won’t argue with soulmates, if I keep my head down. Your lot going to have a problem with me?”
Darcy scowled. There was something adorable about it. “They better not,” she said mulishly, then looked back into the cellar. “Also, yes, those were my shoes. Could I have them back?”
Snorting back a laugh, he fetched the impractical shoes and watched with interest as she fastened them. “Do you know the way out?”
“Nope.” She slipped her arm in his. “But if you can get us to the main courtyard, I’ll get us out of the country.”
“It’s a deal,” he rumbled, “but first -” he lifted her chin with one finger and leaned down to kiss her.
~~~
Clint shielded his eyes against the setting sun and hoped Darcy was okay. It has been too long since her microphone had fallen silent, but Tony reported that her earpiece was moving, and in their direction.
An old door in a nearby wall fell open with a crash and Darcy stumbled out, closely followed by Sabretooth. Her hair was a mess, her lipstick was smudged, and half her dress was coming off. Clint nocked an arrow and pointed it at the other man, who halted.
Darcy stopped too, and only then did Clint notice they were holding hands - and the words on Darcy’s shoulder. “He followed me home,” she informed him cheerfully. “Can we keep him?”
