I'd learned that some things are best kept secret.

Darcy was miserable; like it was hard to breath with the tightness in her chest and the lump in her throat, miserable.

Not that she let it show, of course, she kept bigger things to herself than how an archer with a propensity for purple and practical jokes had thoroughly decimated her heart. (Hello Thor and your creepy Shakespearian family drama, thanks for the ability to compartmentalise like a fucking pro.)

Plus, all the shit she heard being head scientist herder in charge and living in Avengers Tower, with the freaking Avengers, she knew how to keep her mouth shut around people who weren't in the know about all of the top secret, beyond classified, jibber jabber she was subjected to on the daily.

Seriously between Stark, Banner and Jane, Darcy was pretty encyclopaedic when it came to how to end the world using science! Not that she would ever put it to use, of course, well, not unless Tony motherfucking Stark kept signing the documents she gave him with names of rock Gods, that is; because of cause Axl Rose requisitioned a particle accelerator; ass.

Though now she was attempting to distract herself from the hellscape that encompassed her personal life, she was glad for the distractions her three favourite nerds provided from her morose sadness. Between mediating Tony and Jane smackdowns, when Stark attempts to mess with one of Jane's homemade toaster/blender contraptions that could quite literally defy physics, (well, astrophysics, whatevs, Darcy's all about the soft sciences, at least she used to b-oh, no, rabbit hole, now is so not the time to be falling down you) before protective Norse Gods and iron suits are called; and if she may say so herself, she can talk down any arguments between the scientists because she figured out pretty quick that if you treat them like children and bring it down the most of base of problems, (i.e.: don't touch Jane's shit, Tony. Or no, Tony, it's not nice to hide Bruce's glasses, give them back) you have some happy and adjusted worker bee's sciencing in harmony, at least until Tony tries to touch Jane's stuff again.

To making sure that not only does Bruce have everything he needs work wise; usually some semblance of peace and quiet (No Tony, you can't go into Bruce's lab so you can stick him with thumb tacks –again- just to see if he'll turn emerald in the eyes; nor can you use sound waves to see if you can draw out The Other Guy, like how the whales communicate, I thought you cut back on your day drinking) and his calming teas that to Darcy smell and look like skeazy pond water in the midday sun, but whatevs, she drinks Jaeger on its lonesome when she's on her lonesome and that has no therapeutic benefits other than it helps her suppress super shitty memories of stupidly attractive archers; so she really can't judge.

But she also makes sure that he gets a little physical contact that's not Tony with something (Read: thumbtacks or other stabby objects) to goad a green reaction or a random medic poking and prodding him after he's come down from Hulking out and is sore and irritable, because, really you try having a super ragey growth spurt and then having to shrink back down to being a normal, fluffy doctor; that shit has gotta hurt. It's usually just an arm or shoulder squeeze, but on his not so good days Darcy extends it to leaning her head against his shoulder, her side pressed to his whilst tracing concentric circles on his back as if trying to leech his stress from him and into her. Or she'll smooth greying hair from his temples with the tips of her fingers when it starts to resemble fluffy antlers after one too many tugs of frustration; just something small to lessen his burden. And she likes those small moments, where she feels when he melts into relaxation against her and Bruce will gift her with a soft thank you and an even softer smile.

That's why it always surprised her when people used to comment on how strange they found their friendship, (no one more than Bruce who try as he might, couldn't fight Darcy's perseverance of wanting a friendship with the lonely Doctor), how someone so loud, sarcastic and cheery manages to calm and soothe a man who is none of those things (except sarcastic, because one of the things Darcy loves about her best boy bud is his surprisingly sarcastic mouth) but she just pointed out that if he can deal with Tony freaking Stark and his surprise sneak attacks to get a glimpse of green, he can more than deal with her and her smiles and small touches. And after over a year of best friendship with no negative hulking incidents in her presence, nobody really finds it strange anymore.

But more than that she enjoys the quiet comfort of not having to be all those things that people expect and want from her. Being the only non genius, super soldier, God, rage machine or highly trained Agent; can be exhausting, but they need her to be the normal civilian (if she can even be called that now she's fairly certain she has a security clearance above most top spooks in the business) so that they can experience some of said normality from the periphery, so they know why they do the crazy shit they do. And hell, of course she'll keep being that beacon of normality, or whatever, for them, because she loves her little super hero family. Darcy especially likes the comfort now that she finds that she is quite incapable of getting herself out of her post break up funk, which she's usually very good at but then she never really loved someone like she did him (no, bad thoughts, back to kittens and bunnies and dogs that can open doors). And she knows that Bruce enjoys not being side eyed like he's about to hulk out at any little thing; so that if he drops a beaker on the floor it won't have her running for the closest Hulk proof room, she'll just smile, give a falsely exasperated sigh, call him a butterfingers and go get a dustpan and brush sometimes with a hazmat suit just for jokes.

So if Darcy finds she has relocated from herself from her own office and into Bruce's lab to do her paperwork (for real, Freddie Mercury wants two dozen blow torches? Damnit Tony) or just to sit quietly, since her relationship implosion with a certain SHIELD Agent two weeks previously, no one says anything because it's not actually all that unusual for her to spend so much time on her own with him.

People also don't say anything because they weren't even aware that a certain ex circus performer had gotten Darcy to fall madly in love with him and they had something as close to perfection that Darcy had ever experienced, bar the whole secrecy part, yeah that part kind of sucked, let alone that it had ended in a pretty devastating manner, for her at least. At the beginning of her attachment to the archer, it surprised her slightly that they managed to keep it so under wraps, but then again he wasn't one of SHIELDS best for no damn reason. He was stealth to the Nth degree (ha, science term, or maybe math, whatevs, her nerds would be proud) and having been flirty and tactile with each other since they first met, that when they privately escalated the level of their intimacy to boyfriend and girlfriend nobody was any the wiser; well, except Natasha, but that super spy knew everything and she was Barton's partner and had a soft spot for Darcy, so she kept their secret with barely there smiles, twitches of immaculate eyebrows and very convincing reasons for why the secret couple weren't around, so not too bad odds really.

That's not to say that she didn't get funny little looks off of her constantly fighting pair of scientists who had gotten used to a freakishly happy, in an amazing relationship Darcy that they had grown accustomed to over the past nine months she was in said secret relationship, she did, especially when she didn't have a snappy comeback for Tony's latest comment on her rack or when how she wouldn't laugh and take a picture of the latest bizarre place Jane had found to sleep like some sort of cat (behind a filing cabinet, butt in the air like a baby, yeah that made a good tower wide wallpaper, that would never not be funny Janie) it was just as long as Tony had his ear-splitting music, is reminded to eat and sleep and occasionally shower by her or in the most extreme of cases Pepper (seriously after that infamous forty six hour bender of only Red Bull and scotch, ew, that lead to him making a virtual pet for JARVIS just in case he got lonely when the Avengers were off on mission, which only proved Darcy's theory: that not only could you, in fact, piss of an artificial intelligence but she also needed the power to drag her boss out of his workshop by his ear like the naughty little super hero he was, which she now did, thanks Pepper) has the minimal amount of documents to sign, which thanks to Darcy's famously bad ass filing systems, he did; and is told of any imminent Pepper arrivals so he can at least appear to be a functioning adult, he's happy and not really cognizant of the world around him, and what with him being a man-child at the best of times he's not likely to bring up any sort of uncomfortable emotion or situation if it isn't being a distraction.

The same could be said for Jane, except she required pop tart replenishment and a call to a certain Asgardian fellow when it became necessitous for her to shower, sleep or eat something with more nutritional value than a breakfast pastry and maybe get some sun once in a while, (because who knew that vitamin D was a good thing Mrs Scientist lady, jeez.) Oh, and alien God sexin', mustn't forget the alien God sexin'. Very important to a well rounded existence in Darcy's opinion. But Jane tended to notice when Darcy was in a funk, after so much time and life threatening experiences spent together you tend to be able to sense when something was wrong, but she had been nose deep in new equations for the past three weeks and when Jane was occupied with the stars sometimes even Thor couldn't drag her away, even with all his cute puppy dog faces, so she didn't take it personally and again no one knew about the relationship that was no more, so how could they know that she found it difficult to just exist at times (and, ugh, oh my Thor, if she starts sounding more like a douchey, sparkly vampire lover, she was seriously considering asking whether Coulson had an MIB mind wipe device, because, no she would not lower herself to Bella levels of self absorbency).

That's to say her nerds didn't mention anything until it was announced that Barton and Romanov were returning from whatever assignment SHIELD had sent them on just a couple of hours after Clint had said that he 'wished he'd never started their relationship' that it had been a 'mistake', 'she'd been a mistake' and that 'they were done'. So, yeah, Darcy may have froze for a moment too long in replying to Tony's proclamation of 'family dinner' at Avengers Tower for the 'Wonder Twins imminent return home'.

"Hey, Booberella? Family dinner? Celebrating the non deaths of our friends, teammates and mortal enemies on any given game night. You're going to make your kick ass stew right? You know how the Widow loves it and a happy ex Russian spy is a happy house." Tony says clicking his fingers in her face. Darcy flinches out of her thoughts and slaps his fingers away, eliciting an extremely feminine yelp from Tony, with an exclamation of "careful, Lewis, a lot of people have an awful lot invested in these beauties." He says wiggling his grime covered digits in her face, which she slaps away, again. "Seriously, Pep is extremely attached and will have plenty to say if any damage befalls them." Darcy makes a face at the implication and the lascivious look she's being subjected to, and with another undignified noise he barely gets out of reach in time of a third slap.

"Yes, Tony, the company would suffer greatly and that is the only reason Pepper would be perturbed by my well justified slapping. Because she has no other need for those stubby, greasy, little lumps." Darcy retorts as she reaches to slap him again but he just dances out of swinging range with a disgruntled noise of indignation at her slight of his infamous sexual prowess; But he recovers quickly, seemingly pleased with the resurgence of snarky!Darcy.

"So, I should tell JARV to get enough supplies for the appetites of a God, a super soldier, a part time rage machine," he lists with a nod towards Bruce who's sitting at Tony's work table rolling a screwdriver between his fingers and receives a head tilt, sigh and eye roll in return, "two hardworking scientists, my extremely well satisfied, thank you very much, Pep, of course yourself and two assassins who probably haven't eaten properly in like a month."

"Fifteen days, sixteen by the time they get back." Darcy says absently still trying to gather herself. Bruce and Tony both give her quizzical looks which she steadfastly ignores. "And no. Sorry. Busy." Darcy says as she turns to leave with a small shrug as she tries to calm the Mothra sized butterflies making her feel all to vomitous.

"Hey," Tony calls after her as she passes Bruce with a pat on his shoulder. "You have never been too busy for a family dinner before, especially not one that involves welcoming an Avenger back from a mission to your very ample bosom." Tony says gesturing his hands out in front of his chest and bringing them back in with a squeezing motion. Darcy is about to respond when Tony doubles over from a screwdriver to the crotch, courtesy of Bruce. Darcy laughs as Tony doubles over, spluttering for breath, tipping his red face up at Bruce who just shrugs in response.

"I told you not to do that with me around. Being disrespectful gets you nutshotted." Bruce reminds him as Tony gets his breath back and the water in his eyes recedes. Darcy is still laughing when she leans over and places a kiss on the side of Bruce's head.

"Thank you, Bruce, but he's harmless. Expecting sexual harassment from Tony Stark was actually in my orientation on how to deal with him. Pepper has JARVIS keep track of them all and I get a very nice bonus at the end of every month." Darcy says as she looks at Tony with narrowed eyes to see if she should be concerned or not. But Bruce shakes his head.

"Nope, not around me and if I didn't do it now it tends to manifest in the Big Guy. Last time there was a Tony sized dent in the side of a Gap after fighting some Doombots." Bruce says with a hint of satisfaction that makes Darcy's lips curve up. The Big Guy has quite the protective streak when it comes to Darcy as was realised at the very beginning of her and Bruce's friendship just a few months in to her residency at the Tower, when he scooped her up onto his shoulder and ran through SHIELD HQ during a fight against some of Magneto's mutants and placed her in a panic room with a grunt of 'Darcy safe' a light tap on the shoulder, reminiscent of what Darcy does to Bruce when he's stressed, with a large green finger and then he ran back out to fight side by side with Wolverine. Ten months later and it seems that the Big Guy still won't accept Starks bullshit when it concerns Darcy. Good boy. Which just so happens to be another reason she says nothing about her break up with Clint, his teammate, if The Hulk would throw Iron Man into buildings for a few lewd remarks on her appearance she dreaded to think what The Other Guy would do to Hawkeye, who didn't have the protection of metal armour, for hurting someone The Other Guy seemed to truly care about.

"Yes, well, at least then I have an iron suit, Bruce, you dick." Tony rasps as he straightens up and shakes his leg to the side slightly with a grimace. "Expect more thumb tacks, Banner," he says with squinted eyes and pursed lips. "Many, many more." He looks back to Darcy who has only just managed to pull her giggling back. "Anyway, why no scrumptious yummies for the enhanced and friends?" he asks with an arched brow and expectant head tilt.

Darcy sighs and gives Bruce a look of 'really? I have to tell him again?' Bruce just smirks and gives her a little pat on the hand. Darcy's found he's been doing that a lot since her secret break up, giving her little touches on the shoulder or holding her hand on the tabletop when they do paperwork, as if he knows she's heartbroken but doesn't, or in this case, can't talk about it. Its Bruce's little way of letting her know he's there when she's ready. And, hell, after ten months of being best friends with a guy who is very sensitive to the moods of those around him, she isn't surprised he noticed. And if Darcy is completely honest with herself, she has taken to touching Bruce more and it in no way has anything to do with comforting him, rather she has been seeking silent comfort for an issue he has no idea the cause of and he doesn't seem to mind since he's reciprocating. "Because Tony, as you well know, as I've told you four times this week and once this morning, I'm moving into my new apartment tonight and tomorrow. The dynamic duo won't even notice I'm not here." 'Or will be glad that I'm not here' Darcy thinks with a twist of her gut that she hopes doesn't translate to her face.

It makes her genuinely sad that she wouldn't be able to see Natasha, or Tasha as she'd been gifted with a few months previously during a night of pampering, Darcy had forced on the formidable female after she had returned from a particularly gruelling mission; and had noticed that Natasha was struggling to remove the varnish from her toenails, whilst sitting in one of the lesser used common rooms. Darcy had silently gotten her mani/pedi kits, Jacuzzi footbath (courtesy of Pepper who knew how much walking wrangling her scientists involved) hand oils and head massager from her room. She had returned and presented the assassin with her offerings with a tilt of her head and had received a small nod of acceptance.

Darcy then proceeded to pamper her like a mother fucking pro, because in her mind the usually uncommunicative redhead deserved it, receiving small sighs of contentment when she had finished removing the varnish and placed her dainty feet into the heated water, which caused a quirk of Darcy's lips knowing that she was doing something good for her. She seemed to surprise Natasha at how she could know her upper extremities were causing her discomfort, when she opened the oils and started to massage her hands up to her elbows, Darcy just smiled slightly in return and carried on until Natasha seemingly melted into the sofa. When the foot bath had done all the good it could do Darcy removed them from the bath and into her towel covered lap where she dried and lightly massaged away any lingering aches and tenderness, she could feel Natasha watching her but Darcy just continued unperturbed.

When her feet were done and the oil had been absorbed into the skin of her hands, Darcy presented Natasha with a myriad of colours for her fingernails to choose from, entirely unsurprised when the Assassin had chosen a deep red. Darcy went through the routine of cuticle removal, nail strengthener and base coats and whilst waiting for them to dry went and did the same to her toes. Again, reaching for the varnish but was stopped when Natasha asked for the 'sparkly silver one you wore last Tuesday,' because she liked it. Darcy looked up to see a look on her face that on anyone else she would have said to be sheepish and smiled with a nod. She painted Natasha's fingernails with long practiced precision and concentration glad to note the varnish lived up to the 'one coat' promise. She repeated the actions on her toes noting the slight twitch the toe separators caused, realising The Black Widow had just revealed a slight vulnerability, raising her eyes to Natasha's face she was given a slight smile of acknowledgement, that yes she was vaguely ticklish.

When her toes were done and she had top coated both lots of varnishes, Darcy stood up from the table she was perching on, told The Widow not to go anywhere and went to wash her hands; when she returned she was glad to see that Natasha hadn't left but was instead admiring her freshly painted nails and flexing her toes on the edge of the table. Darcy stood by the table picked up the head massager and shook it in askance, and received a nod of approval. Darcy grinned and skipped behind the sofa of where Natasha sat and carefully removed the band from her hair and ran her fingers through the slightly curled hair until it flowed down her back and shoulders. Deciding to completely ignore the massaging tool she continued a traditional hand massage of her scalp, temples, behind her ears and down the back and sides of her neck all the way to her shoulders and upper back, going in small and firmly soft circles. She only stopped the press of her fingers after a good thirty minutes, when Natasha sighed long and deep in contentment and circled Darcy's wrists, lightly, with her fingers and gave a soft squeeze. Darcy removed her hands from her scalp and Natasha stood gracefully from the seat, looking more relaxed than ever before, she walked silently around the sofa to Darcy gave her a smile, kiss on the temple and a quiet 'thank you' before she turned to leave the room with the parting words 'if you would like, you can call me Tasha' Darcy smiled wide and replied with 'I would very much like that, thank you, Tasha' just before Natasha could leave Darcy called out and said 'if you ever want me to do that again' motioning to the assortment of pamper tools, 'all you need do is ask, it would be my pleasure' Natasha smiled and left to what Darcy assumed was for her room.

It wasn't until the next morning that Darcy had realised that she had made a friend of Tasha, and what a small group that was, which was further proven when she came down to breakfast and Natasha presented her with a stack of pancakes and cup of her favourite coffee with a 'good morning Darcy' a squeeze to her shoulder and a smile. Darcy returned the greeting with a 'thank you, for the breakfast Tasha, it looks delicious.' That had Steve raise his eyebrows at the endearment coming from Darcy and Tony spluttering one of his gross shakes down himself, telling Darcy he 'can get her out of the country and someplace safe away from The Widow' for the perceived slight. Darcy had just smiled in response and said that 'no such place existed' which made Natasha laugh as she took her leave for a day of training with Barton who was just looking pleased that the two women closest to him in his life were getting along. Darcy heard Clint say 'nice nails, Tash' and the response of 'thank you, a friend did them for me' that had Darcy smiling like a fool for the rest of the day.

Clint had later told Darcy that he had asked what Tasha thought of her during training and she had simply said 'I like her' which had Clint asking what had she done to 'earn the friendship of The Widow' and Darcy said she hadn't, but before he could object, she barrelled on and said she had 'earned the friendship of Natasha which to her meant a lot more' when he reiterated the how, she had told him of the pampering and small conversation after, but Barton was stuck on one part: 'she let you behind her and allowed you to touch her neck?' Darcy nodded the affirmative and asked 'what' when he looked stunned, he shook his head slightly smiled and said 'she doesn't just like you, she trusts you, she let herself into an extremely vulnerable position with you' with that he swooped in, kissed her soundly and said 'thank you' and that 'Tasha needed more than just him and how glad he was that she and Darcy had each other'. Thus began the unlikely friendship of master assassin and assistant extraordinaire made of quiet nights of relaxation, shared meals and pampering after bad missions or science weeks.

"You're serious about that? I thought you were just trying to get the day off." Tony says with a frown.

"How would that even be successful as a plan: to play hooky if I live in the place I work? You'd see me." Darcy asked her nose scrunched in confusion of Stark logic as she tried to shake her thoughts of not just losing Clint but also a woman who had truly become a good friend even though they weren't friends because of Clint, Tasha was still his partner and she didn't want any awkwardness, though Darcy imagined Natasha wouldn't take kindly to a man coming between a friendship she rarely gave.

"I never said it was a good plan." Tony huffed. "Why would you want to leave a badass Tower filled badass superheroes? Not to mention rent and utility free. You make no sense, this makes no sense, Bruce tell her she makes no sense." Tony orders as he crosses his arms over his chest and lifts his chin in the air.

"As much as I'll miss her, she's an adult who can make her own decisions on where to live or not." Bruce says as he gets off his seat and stands besides Darcy. "Plus I get Pizza for the trouble of helping her move." He adds with a small shrug and smirk.

"Only if you wrestle it off Thor." Jane says around a pop tart between her teeth, as she walks into Tony's workshop jotting in a notebook.

"You!" Tony exclaims pointing a finger in Jane's direction that makes her look up in surprise and has her pop tart falling to her papers which causes a pout. "You're the supposed best friend; talk her out of this madness." Darcy smiles softly, the big iron idiot is going to miss her.

"Hey!" Jane shouts back, "What the hell do you mean by 'supposed'?" she levels a withering glare at Tony and advances with purpose, which considering the relationship the two geniuses have is a daily occurrence.

"It's yours and big greens job to talk her out of stupid decisions and since Romanov isn't here to scare her straight and Barton can't flirt some sense into her," Darcy winces and really hopes no one noticed. "You've both obviously failed, since she's moving out of a fortress like tower filled with friends and people who like having her around where they know she's safe. I mean I don't care, but you know Steve and others do." Tony argues, losing some steam at the end. Darcy winces again, she knows how Tony secretly worries about the people he cares about hence his insistence of having his people close to him in the Tower. But she knows that he knows that Pepper helped to pick her out the safest apartment building closest to work and that it had added security put in by SHIELD and Stark industries (with JARVIS being installed as an added precaution and for what Darcy sees as the biggest upside: some good company, because he's totes her brother from another artificial mother, which she supposes is Tony aaaand she's just creeped herself out.), which is why she isn't already moved in before Clint came back like she hoped, security takes time. So whilst she is fully protected, it's just not by him and his team and not in immediate response distance in case of another incursion of baddies. She just wished all of his worries could assuage the sick feeling she gets when she thinks of living in the same space as Clint, working in it is bad enough, at least he rarely ever comes down to the labs unless there's a new prototype of arrow for him or if it was to see her on the sly. Now he only has the arrows and she can make herself scarce then, but living with him wouldn't give her the space needed to try and fix herself.

"I did try, I tried when she told me two weeks ago and every day since, including this morning, but she's determined. Not that she'll tell me why." Jane says as she turns her glare on Darcy. Seriously for such a little woman she is stupidly intimidating. Darcy angled herself so she could look at both Jane and Tony whilst having her shoulder braced against Bruce's chest; that little bit of contact settling her. Thank Thor, she was glad she had a best friend like him, granted he turned into a giant green rage machine, but, you know, take the good with the Hulk smash (which, in her opinion, was pretty damn good).

"I did tell you, this is the first time I've been able to afford to live on my own as an adult, so why not try it? I can always come back to the Tower if things don't work out or my safety is in question." She adds with a glance to Tony to see him look slightly mollified by the mention of her safety. Although she did know the threat would have to be great to have her again living in a place that would have her stomach twisting every time the elevator went off, just in case Clint walked off of it. And that was a sure fire way to let everyone know what had happened, because really, the Avengers were such gossips. Give them the hint of something juicy and they went balls to the proverbial wall until it was drained dry. Poor Steve will never mention having another date again unless he wants to be inundated with questions from Gods with no sense of privacy and, well, Tony who makes it his sole purpose in life to irritate the unfortunate Captain.

"Um, no, this isn't a hotel, you can't just move in and out on a whim, Lewis. So now you have to stay if you ever want to come back." Tony said as if it made perfect sense. Darcy frowned before she turned her eyes up thoughtfully, counting back how long he's been awake and grimaced. Going on twenty seven hours by her estimate. She smiled softly and approached him slowly, his eyes tracking her every move wildly. As she reached him he narrowed his eyes at her face and opened his mouth to say something, but Darcy stopped him with her palm covering his mouth.

"I'm going to miss living here with you guys too. And I promise if my safety becomes to be too much of a concern we will talk about me returning to the Tower, but I'm going to try this." Darcy told Tony as he rolled his eyes and she could feel the purse of his lips under her hand which she took for acquiescence. "And that threat won't work with me because Pepper will just let me live in her percent of the tower." She said with a small smile. She then let out a yelp similar to the one Tony let out earlier when she felt his tongue drag across her palm. Darcy jumped back and wiped her hand vigorously on her jean leg. Jane made a disgusted noise whilst Bruce grimaced and muttered something like 'the Other Guy isn't going to be letting that go' Darcy turned back to back to stare at Tony incredulously, waving her hand in askance, all the while knowing he did it to escape a possibly emotionally wrought conversation. He just smirked slightly and lightly bounced on the spot.

"I wonder how big your bonus is going to be this month" Tony asked as he tapped his chin thoughtfully.

"Probably enough for my first three months rent, you ass." Darcy replied holding her hand from her body lest it tried to infect the rest of her.

"Hm, probably." Tony said as he typed on his Stark phone that seemed to appear out of thin air. "Well, seems as you're abandoning all of those who care about you, not me, of course, I could care less what you do, but everyone else," he says with a wave of one hand whilst he types with the other, "will. So you know what that means?" he said with a devilish grin that she usually enjoyed the consequences of because it was never aimed at her, she was just along for the insanity that resulted from said expression.

"No, oh, no, we are not having a-"

"PARTY!" Tony shouted over Darcy's protest. He looked up from his phone and smiled again. "Movers will be here in an hour to move your stuff, so that will give you time to grab what you need for overnight, tomorrows work clothes and whatever party dress best accentuates the girls." Tony listed as he motioned her chest.

"That's two Stark." Bruce warned, to which Tony just shrugged in a 'worth it' manner.

"So, tomorrow night shall be 'Hello leather twins, laters Lewis' party." Tony says with a decisive nod as he tucks his phone into his back pocket.

Bruce looks at Tony, perplexed. "So, during that little exchange you organised movers and a joint celebration party?" Bruce carried on not needing the answer as he knows it'll just be a variation of 'duh' and continues "I am legitimately glad you haven't devolved and don't have the attention span to try and take over the world, because I don't think we could stop you." Bruce mused as he walked toward Darcy with an antiseptic wipe from one of the many open first aid kits dotted around Tony's workshop as he is an accident prone part time robot. He takes her loosely by the wrist and proceeds to wipe her hand down that she still holds from herself, knowing full well she wouldn't use it again until all traces of Tony were gone. Not that he could blame her; because ew.

"I really don't want a party, Tony." Darcy managed to get out as her thoughts returned from all the scenarios of what seeing Clint again could produce. They ranged from drunken yelling, to tearful karaoke renditions of Adele into a near empty bottle of Jaeger, because ladies and gentleman, Darcy Lewis is full of class.

"Since when? you are a party machine, Lewis, first in last out and always guaranteed to elevate the levels of fun." he said with a raised brow and scoff, but before she could come up with a reason to stop this crazy train that destination will surely be to Darcy making some kind of ass out of herself, Tony ploughs through, "Well, tough, Lewis, think of it in terms of a funeral; it's not really for the dead bastard it's for all the people the door nail bailed on." Tony said with a sniff.

'Oh, fun, guilt trip.' Darcy thought.

"Tony, I'll still work here, I just won't live here. So what? you won't see me wearing my pjs in the common room on a Saturday morning to watch cartoons on your ridiculously huge 3D TV, seriously, Tom & Jerry is nowhere as good on normal TVs. And I won't be here for meals, but I'll still be around nagging you all not to die from a science! Overdose." Darcy said with an exaggerated fist pump. She heard Bruce make a small noise and she turned to face him her eyes wide in question.

"You won't be here for meals?" he asked with a small frown crinkling his eyes behind his glasses.

"I mean, some, sure, you know like a few a month." Darcy clarified but his frown only deepened and she felt bad, she did, but Clint never missed a meal and she would be the size of Jane by the end of a week, what with the constant churning of her stomach that made eating in his presence impossible and Damnit, Darcy actually enjoyed food.

"Only a few a month?!" Jane exclaimed, really not happy with this turn of events. "So, I'll only see you when you remind me to be a human and all the other times will be all 'Darcy? Who's Darcy? I can barely remember her because I never see her anymore.' you know how I get Darce, all science all the time in the lab, the only times we get exclusive Jane/Darcy time together is up in the Tower. No, not fair." Jane said with a stomp of her foot as she slammed her notebook down on the work bench and pop tart pieces went flying, which had Tony mumbling something about 'do you want ants? Because that's how you get ants.'

"Whoa, ok, Jane." Darcy soothed like she was talking to a skittish horse and not a super genius astrophysicist. "We'll sort things like that out as they happen. Day by day, Janie." Then she turned to Bruce with a 'you cool' chin thrust. He smiled small in response, glad for the compromise which made her feel better about her selfish need to be as far away as she could get from a certain Avenger who was on their way home and could practically make her melt on the spot with a few well placed kisses and calloused fingertips, and no, she wasn't thinking about Tasha, although Darcy was sure that she was more than capable. (No, dirty thoughts are not allowed right now.)

"Fine, Day by day, but we are totally having this party Darcy. Tequila is our best friend in this shitstorm." Jane said with a sad little pout that continued to show her displeasure of the situation. Darcy could feel herself giving in and she really just wanted to start with the tequila right now, this shit was getting stressful. Seriously, she could deal with alien incursions with little more than some swearing and sweating but give her anything remotely personal related to her and she fell back on one of her worst vices. If she did start her drinking now, though, it would make her meeting with Fury and Coulson after lunch all the more interesting.

Although maybe drinking isn't the best long term plan, especially seems as it loosens her tongue far too much; as attested when the Lady Sif and the Warriors three last visited and she was nearly successful in hooking up Sif with Phil by just announcing their mutual desire to screw like bunnies. Damn Silver Surfer, seriously, not only is he lame but he totally cock blocked some crazy hot Alien/Super Agent sex, with all his bullshit flying over New York. So maybe drinking would be out and she could use the faculties she saved from not Jaeger bombing every ten minutes to playing the avoidance game. Yeah and then just sneakily saying her goodbyes and hightailing it out of there to the sanctuary of her new home. But God does she wish she could have a little help from Tony's top shelf friends to get her through the night, because it is going to suck some major balls.

So drinking was out as she couldn't guarantee that she could keep the cat in the bag; and she really didn't want everyone knowing her personal shit. She may talk a lot, but it was always about other people and that's the way she liked it; her shit was hers and hers alone. Which funnily enough was one of the things she and Clint agreed on, we all had stuff, we don't need to broadcast it, except to one another. Especially seems as this shit could potentially cause a rift in the team; she's not big headed enough to think that it would be the end of the Avengers because that's stupid, but it could cause enough of a problem that it would mess with their dynamics in the house and that would be a shame because they truly are a family and that is something that they all need as they each only have each other and maybe one or two others.

Especially Clint, and whilst he may have stomped on her heart in his SHIELD issued combat boots, she still loves him and she wants him to have a family, this family, so if that means her leaving it for a period of time or maybe for good after some stealthiness on her part of distancing herself from the Tower and its inhabitants over a period of weeks, although she hopes not, then so be it. He deserves to be happy.

So with a sigh and accepting the inevitable of what is sure to be one of the worst parties she's ever been to (and she is absolutely including the time that the donkey died in front of her at the petting zoo she had at her 7th birthday, that shit was scarring, who knew a donkey could make a death call like that?) Darcy folds. Her only true hope is that Clint begs off early claiming mission fatigue or she can stick to her plan of sneaking off to her new home. Not that she was really looking forward to living alone, she wasn't, she was going to miss everyone but it was Clint's home first and she wanted him to feel comfortable in the space he lived between missions, something he never really had before, and besides she still had JARVIS. (Screw anyone who said it was weird for her to have in-depth convos with an AI; he gave spectacular advice)

"Fine, partaaay." Darcy cheered with all the enthusiasm of someone finding out they had Jury duty on their birthday. With some parting nods and a pat on her shoulder from Bruce, Darcy was sent to her apartment up in the Tower to retrieve what she would need and to take them to a guest quarters, all the while lamenting how her life was really not in her control right now but vowing that after the next clusterfuck of days Darcy Lewis would be back in charge. She hoped.