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Darcy was so glad to be back in New Mexico. Not that Trosmø wasn’t a nice little vacation, but her and Janey’s relaxing trip was kinda ruined by aliens attacks and giant black holes and a particularly buff blonde god not bothering to call. But despite the fact that she was a bit annoyed with Thor for the whole coming back to Earth and not saying “hi” thing, Darcy couldn’t help but jump all over The Avengers bandwagon. Darcy would proudly admit to owning various Avengers Merch, her closet was full of t-shirts and novelty socks, and would openly have long discussions about all the awesome-ness that made up The Avengers. She would brag about how she mastered the God of Thunder with his own element.
“He went down like a box of rocks. And believe me, those muscles are nice to look at but it was not easy lugging him into our van. Also now that I’m saying this out loud it sounds creepy, tasing a strange dude and throwing him in your van. I’m not a creeper, I swear.”
She would rave about how brave Hawkeye was.“He’s literally fighting extra terrestrials with a medieval bow and arrow, the balls on that man! Also he is a total DILF.” She could go on for days about how badass the Black Widow was and how she was the next feminist icon.
“She could dismantle the patriarchy with just one of her death glares, have you seen that eyebrow raise she does? Talk about intimidating.”
She would preach about how admirable Captain America was.
“If he’s leading the troops sign me up for the next war. That hunk the best thing since sliced bread! Or did he come before sliced bread? Jane remind me to google that.”
She would defend Tony Stark to anyone who doubted that he was anything less than virtuous. Even though Tony Stark acted like a jerk, he secretly had a sweet gooey marshmallow center.
“He donates to tons of charities, two of those being the Miracle Foundation and a Hedgehog Rescue group. Orphans and Hedgehogs, Jane!”
And while Darcy loved all of the Avengers, she loved one more than all the others. Darcy was the biggest Bruce Banner stan. She had a hulk sized crush on the dude, how could she not? That man decided to save the world day in and day out, even after being through hell and back multiple times. Bruce Banner was the definition of a hero, and Darcy would tell it to anyone who would listen. Darcy took a Buzzfeed quiz once titled “Which Avenger Is Your Soulmate?” (she was totally supposed to be working on editing a spreadsheet for Eric but those are boring and her ADHD was being particularly annoying that day) and got Bruce Banner as her match (Jane sweared up and down that Darcy had been biased, but Jane was just cranky that she got Tony Stark instead of Thor). Needless to say Darcy had been on cloud nine for rest of the week, and would catch herself glancing down at the soulmark on the inside of her elbow and daydreaming about what it would be like is Bruce Banner was actually her soulmate.A couple of weeks after said quiz, Jane dropped the bombshell that they would be shipping their never ending science party to New York, Stark Tower to be exact, and Darcy almost had a heart attack. The racing heart could have been from the Red Bulls she had been steadily consuming since Jane didn’t understand the concept of sleep, but Darcy was pretty sure it was the shocking news of moving in with superheroes. It also didn’t help Darcy’s heart palpitations that Jane forgot that she was supposed to mention the fact that they were moving two weeks ago, and that they only had forty eight hours to pack up all their stuff. So for the next two days Darcy (and Jane but mostly Darcy) ran around bubble wrapping, boxing up, and labeling everything in the lab. She had no time to really take a break and think about how freaking sweet it was going to be living in New York, in Avengers Tower, with THE Avengers, so of course on the plane ride from New Mexico to New York she had a full blown meltdown. “Jane oh my god! I can’t go to New York. I’m not a super hero, or super smart, or super anything! Turn the plane around!” Jane quickly handed Darcy a paper bag which Darcy took readily and began breathing into. “Now you listen to me Darcy Anne Lewis, you are super! Who ran around when The Destroyer attacked and saved all those animals?” Jane seemed to actually be wanting an answer, and with the look on her face Darcy was frightened not to give the tiny scientist what she wanted. “Me.” Darcy wheezed between breaths.“And who helped save the world from Dark Elves?” Jane was waving her hands around excitedly now.“Me.” “And who, just last week, noticed the settings for the Magellanic Spectrometer were incorrect and saved us from death by explosion?” “Me.” Darcy spoke back firmer, her breathing had returned to being somewhat normal.“Exactly!” Jane said poking Darcy with a boney finger. “So don’t you dare go on saying that you’re not super. You are super in every sense of the word.” Darcy blinked away the tears in her eyes, and reached over the arm rest and gave Jane the biggest side hug she could in the limited amount of space afforded to her. “Thank you boss lady.” Jane smiled and patted Darcy’s shoulder. “You’re welcome, now have you seen my notebook?” Darcy smiled and rummaged through her carry on for one of Jane’s many notebooks.——Darcy was so tired she couldn’t think straight. After the four hour flight, they had to wait around the airport another three hours to wrangle all of Jane’s science equipment and Jane refused to leave until she had checked over every single piece to make sure it hadn’t been damaged during the trip. Then she and Jane had to load up all of the boxes by themselves into the rental van, and then had to brave the insanity that was New York traffic. Darcy didn’t think of complaining about how long it took for them to arrive at the tower, she was just glad they had made it in one piece, which was a miracle with the way New Yorkers drove. And by the time they had lugged everything up to their lab on the 63rd floor, Darcy was delirious and quite irritated. “Jane remind me again why we couldn’t ask one or all of the many super heroes with super strength to help us with this?” Darcy complained, nudging the last box she had carried up with her shoe in disgust. “Because Darcy, they would break it or mess up the calibrations or put everything in the wrong place. It’s just easier to do it ourselves.” Jane snapped. “And you’re sure this has nothing to do with the fact that they would tell Thor we’re here?” Darcy questioned, knowing that organization was not the reason Jane wanted to arrive on the DL. Jane just hummed in annoyance and continued to unload boxes but Darcy couldn’t help but notice how her shoulders had slumped at the mention of Thor.“Alright my Science Queen, I will put a pin in that for later, we’re going to unload and organize everything to your liking, and then we are going to go to sleep. And I swear to Odin, Jane. If you don’t get a minimum of eight hours of sleep after we’re done here, I will personally drag Thor to your apartment.” Jane spun, her mouth open in indignation. “You wouldn’t!” Darcy smirked at her “I would. And you know I would. So I better not catch you in here doing science after we’re done.” Jane glared at Darcy, but Darcy knew she didn’t mean it. “Fine, Darcy. Now help me set up the telescope.” ——Darcy woke with a start. She looked around wildly until she remembered exactly where she was. She picked up her phone, saw the time, and let out a string of curses. She swore it had only been five minutes since she had sat down in the break room on the lab floor. She had just planed to grab an Orange Soda for her and a secretly Decaf Coffee for Jane. While grabbing said drinks she noticed a comfy looking love seat in the corner and she swore to herself she was just going to rest her eyes while the coffee was brewing. But clearly her rest had turned into a full blown two hour nap. She rushed back to Jane’s lab, leaving the now warm soda and cold coffee behind. She burst through the doors and zeroed in on Jane. “Stop science-ing right now or I swear—“ Darcy quickly shut her mouth once she saw who else had been occupying Jane’s lab. Darcy was pretty sure her eyes were bugging and she was freaking out Jane’s guest but she couldn’t help it. The man standing front of her was none other than Dr. Bruce Banner. Jane cleared her throat, “Umm Darcy, this is Dr. Bruce Banner. He just stopped by to introduce himself. Dr. Banner, this is my lab assistant Darcy Lewis.” Darcy’s sleep deprived brain was reeling. And what she said next was probably the weirdest thing she could have said. “Hi. I took a Which Avenger is Your Soulmate quiz once and I got you so I’m pretty sure we’re gonna get along great.”Darcy could see Jane waving her hands back and forth in a “Omg, no! Stop talking!” motion but she couldn’t stop the words from coming out. Once she had finished the terribly awkward introduction, all she could do was smile at Bruce. It had already gone too far so she might as well roll with it. “Well I’d say don’t believe everything you read on the internet but it seems like in this case, it’s true.” Bruce smiled shyly at Darcy with a slight redness to his cheeks. Darcy reflexively reached to touch her soulmark, which had begun to tingle. “Hey wait a second, isn’t that—“ “My soulmark. Yes Jane it is.” Darcy interjected. “So this means you’re going to leave and go to bed. And Dr. Banner and I are going to stay here and talk, or make out, it’s up in the air at this point.”Bruce was definitely blushing now “Call me Bruce, please.” Darcy smiled at him brightly “Oh I’ll call you whatever you want me to, handsome.” At that comment Jane made a face of disgust as she saw herself out of the lab (the other two people in the room barely noticed her departure).Bruce was smirking at Darcy now, actively ignoring how badly he was blushing. “Good to know. I’ll file that away for later.” Darcy couldn’t control the laugh that escaped her lips. Buzzfeed had totally been right, Bruce Banner was with out a doubt, Darcy’s soulmate.