Author's Notes:

So…this is not the first website I uploaded this story to, but in case you think I'm plagiarising someone else, I'm not. I'm also Mistakes_and_Experiment somewhere else on t3h int3rw3bz.

Also technically speaking, the story is set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and a good chunk of the set is in Avengers (Stark Tower). Unfortunately, FFNet doesn't have that category. At the suggestion of one of my readers (thanks, Emblazed), I'm experimenting with placing it under Avengers for now (as opposed to the old category Thor that I used all this time).

'-

Summary (Longer Version):

Darcy Lewis' current life consists of risking her breakable, non-superpowered life and limb against weird physics crap. She still doesn't know much about quantum mechanics, but she valued her friendships by their weight in gold so she stays as Jane's assistant. The astrophysicist was only too glad for Darcy's ability to see through possible political ramifications of her scientific findings and Darcy was happy to stay.

Oddly enough, Darcy's fine with this life.

Yet even those shenanigans were nothing compared to the power plays and political chess she was driven to read and learn—there was nothing in her life of that calibre. Even if she didn't want to admit it, she craved for something more.

Enter one Loki of Asgard, captive of the Avengers. With his magic bound, the most harm he could do was shredding someone's ego with his sharp tongue. Darcy is up to the challenge and he'll soon find out there's more to her than meets the eye. Behind all this, dark plans laid against the earth unfolds. Jane and Darcy hunts for the truth with the power of SCIENCE!

Let the games begin.

'-

Introduction:

(Read only if you're that curious to know what drove me to write this. If you want a shorter overview of my idea for the story, check the 'ingredients'. Or you could just press Ctrl+F and search for "Salad Days" [without the quotations] to get straight to the story).

This began as a random musing on the oh-so-normal Darcy Lewis. I don't even expect her to have anything world-breaking, just awesome in the mundane way that normal people could be (and also for that political science interest of hers to mean something). Somehow, my favourite (crack) ship from the 'verse got caught in it as well. I should also have realised at some point that I've never managed to write anything without building a world for it, so pretty geeky and nerdy stuffs got incorporated. It turned into a Katamari ball of what I want to read from a story and everything went downhill from there.

The final push came from a reread of 'Machiavelli's Favorite Son' —It had the concept I was always looking for—of Darcy being shown as not stupid, just a fish out of her own waters. It also reminded me that I liked Machiavelli's 'The Prince' when I read it and I think it's underappreciated. Since that story seems to be on a hiatus for the time being, I thought I might as well put in my best effort at plugging the gap than whine, yeah? So I put down the story I'd been thinking about all this time. Further introspection has also reminded me that Yavannie's 'Shine Without Fear' (it's on AO3 - Archive of Our Own) had stayed with me on the sheer strength of and agency of the female characters there. And so, I wonder, why aren't there more stories like that?

I know, I know. I have no real excuses. I don't know how this will end either, or if I can finish it, but I know the journey's going to be interesting.

PS: Don't mind me and my Commonwealth spelling.

'-

Ingredients (Most of them, at least):

- Awesome Darcy Lewis
- Conversations (lots and lots)
- Nerdy conversations (lots)
- Occasional geeky references
- For SCIENCE!
- Friendships and camaraderie
- Action may be on the slow side
- Female characters living their life and being awesome
- Female friendships
- World building
- Plot, stacked with schemes
- Seriously, everyone has something up their sleeves
- Friends-with-benefits
- I'm not familiar with the comic 'verse, prefers the myth-verse better.
- Comic 'verse characters that are based on mythology and haven't come up in MCU will not exist: I'll simply reinterpret the myth into characters of my own. Will definitely not stick into it too literally either. Consider this your last and only warning on this matter.

Does not contain:
- Angst (I would definitely throw obstacles to the main characters, I just wouldn't use lots of angst)
- Victim!Darcy, or any other Victim!Character for that matter. I don't tend to hand my characters the idiot ball and I always leave them with enough initiative. I don't read about people getting their will broken, I don't write about it either. If I want to write how people get broken down, I'd write a psychological torture or social/psychological conditioning manual.

May contain traces of nuts. (Who am I kidding? It probably has lots of nuts).

'-

~ o ~

Part 1 – Salad Days

~ o ~

'-

I. Just another Day at the Beach

Jane would deny being a workaholic until the end of the world, but the dictionary definition had her picture on it. Darcy can't stand being bored and because of that is content enough to keep working with Jane—also, Darcy always took care of her friends.

'-

"I knew I said we need fresh air Boss-Lady, but I'm pretty sure this isn't the answer," Darcy raised her voice a little against the wind.

She stared at the dark and dense clouds at the horizon, spread up in grand arcs above. Layers upon layers piled up in an awe-inspiring work of nature's cathedral. The ominous rumble of thunder was as easily heard through her ribcage as well as her ears. Weird-coloured flashes of light lit the grand swirling cloud from the inside like Wonka's x-ray. She would've appreciated the celestial view it made even more if, you know, she was at the safety of her living room couch and watching it live on TV and not trying to come toe-to-toe with it.

Even as she thought of this, her steps did not falter. She checked the two-thirds of Jane's equipment in the same order she always did by force of habit. These were ones the astrophysicist deemed to be not important enough to manage personally, so they were Darcy's responsibility. Hardware wasn't usually her thing, but these babies she knew very well already. She was glad that Jane had agreed when she insisted that they put the generator farther away from where they are, or any conversation would be impossible.

She could accept reckless endangerment from her job—she just wasn't going to take boredom on top of it too.

"You did say you wanted a holiday," Jane shot back, managing to sound just as wry in her half-shout. She stopped monitoring several of her devices at once and spread her arms wide. "Tada! Beach holiday!"

She rolled her eyes. "I'd like a tropical beach, thanks! Not the set of Twister!"

"I don't see you complaining about the hazard pay you negotiated from Stark." Jane pointed out. She had tied her hair in a bun, as had Darcy, because the wind had been whipping in their faces since they've arrived. Both were wearing rain coats even if it was nothing but a light drizzle—the rain hadn't been predictable.

Darcy shrugged. "Eeh, still waiting for that complete dental coverage by-the-way, instead of partway. The health insurance sure is great otherwise, though."

That was an understatement. It was completely worth writing home about. The health insurance certainly made her job look completely impressive and adult-worthy on paper. Like, you know, a functioning and productive member of society. Heck, it made her mother proud and Ms. Lewis who'd spent half her life waitressing would not stop talking about it to anyone who asked about what her daughter was doing, working for Stark Industries' Research and Development as a Researcher (on paper, it was Assistant Researcher) in its New York HQ. It was definitely far from where Darcy grew up in Bumfuck Nowhere. Darcy was too embarrassed to tell her she's only a lowly peon among many (not that she wanted her mother to stop glowing so much about it, no. It was… well, it was complicated).

"Holy shit, are those boats?"

Jane whipped her head back in the direction that Darcy was staring. True to her words, a semi-transparent vortex had formed above the water. White flecked bits and bigger grey blobs were sucked up into it from the surface of the sea, and in some cases, dashed into so many flotsam and jetsam in the process. They were no more substantial than toothpicks in the face of the storm.

"I think they're ships," Jane said, wide-eyed. They had both stopped their current activity in favour of staring at the morbid view. How many people are on each—no, don't think about it Darcy. Not right now. We don't need a freak out now.

"We put out a warning, you know," Jane said faintly, as if she had been thinking the exact same thing as Darcy. "I heard evacuations had been underway since this morning."

The assistant only nodded at that as they stood side-by-side, at loss for words. She knew they'd done their best, because Jane had warned them of a potential anomaly from half a week ago. Jane had returned to her monitoring and note taking, though for some reason she'd outstretched her left hand, as if waiting for something.

Jane wiggled her fingers and Darcy burst into laughter.

"Jane, you know that we've lost Interns 1 and 2 again, don't you?"

Jane looked up, still with a half-glazed look of someone lost to 'Science!' "Huh?"

"Interns 1 and 2," Darcy said easily. She didn't make that much of an effort to remember their names anymore before they've passed the one-month limit. "They've requested a transfer or whatever it says on paper after we dragged them on that portal survey? You remember? The one on the Appalachians?"

Jane frowned in recollection. "Anomaly Number Six? What? That wasn't even as bad as Anomaly Number Two! The boundary was rapidly collapsing on that one until Dr. Strange arrived!"

Darcy nodded as she got caught up in the same memory. "Yeah, I had to drag you all the way to the car. We're not getting sphagettified on my watch, Boss-Lady."

"It wasn't really that bad, the event horizon had been progressing at a predictable rate," Jane insisted. Darcy rolled her eyes. I repeat; we're not getting sphagettified on my watch.

"Would you argue with Dr. Strange on what you've got?" Darcy asked. Jane shot her a dirty look and she only smiled her best, gullible-looking expression of 'who, me? I'm just the intern' that worked wonders in getting her wandering unnoticed around at the Avengers' tower.

"That was a low blow, Lewis."

"The only kind of blow worth getting," Darcy let out a satisfied sigh and a waggle of her eyebrows. "The lower the better."

It spoke of the unhealthy amount work and more work they'd spent together that the scientist could actually chuckle at that instead of staring at her oddly without comprehension (that was what Jane used to be, too far up on the higher brain activity end).

"You want me to make us some coffee?" Darcy finally asked. She eyed the field tent behind them.

Jane sighed and lowered her report. "It's not supposed to be your job anymore—"

"Don't worry, I don't mind," and she truly didn't. Jane was more friend than superior now, due to all the crap they've gone through together. She knew Jane didn't mean anything by it. She was also quite aware that her coffee-making skills were on the top 5% in the whole Stark Tower.

Not that she hacked any database to find out about that, no Sir.

"This is the third pair of interns we've lost, isn't it?"

"They're the fifth." Darcy corrected.

"No, that's not possible—"

Darcy let out a fond sigh after she jumped over several cables and boxes. Jane never really did keep all that 'extraneous information' (to her) at the top of her head—and not that she needed to, most of the time. Darcy was the one who dealt with the administrative side on a regular basis. It usually took a while until Jane remembered things that weren't science related, and her friend was prepared to just let her mull over it as usual. Now where was that coffee machine? I'm pretty sure it's one of the first things I've plugged in.

Ten minutes later, the latest batch of information that needed to be taken down had been recorded completely, and the two of them were sitting in cheap plastic chairs with coffee in hand staring at the roiling storm clouds spread out in the vista in front of them. The weather was bracing and her cheeks were going to get numb if she didn't occasionally rub it, but in her opinion it was still better than the heat of New Mexico. Plus, the view was beautiful. She was sure some composer could write several arias just staring at it.

That was one thing Jane would never disappoint—she always took Darcy to the most exotic places.

"Are you sure they're not the fourth pair of interns?" Jane asked, absently sipping her cup of liquid ambrosia.

"Nope. I had to actually approve them, so I remember it pretty well." Because Jane would sooner dance naked in the rain than touch non-scientific paperwork, Darcy thought.

"Why do we keep losing them?"

Darcy shrugged and enjoyed her drink. She wasn't sure if Jane was seriously asking or was only poking at it because she had nothing else to do now and she was bad at waiting. If she had a scab she'd pick on it. "Dunno. I mean, the hazard pay was really good."

"And the research is certainly important for world safety," Jane added.

"Uh-huh," Darcy nodded with a content sigh, still stuck on that hazard pay issue. She knew there were probably municipal fire-fighters who received less than she did. And the insurance coverage has got to be seen to be believed. Her brother was in the army and she was pretty sure he'd be jealous if he knew. Damn, when was the last time you wrote to him, Darce?

"We saved the world at least twice already!"

"Yep. You also had a near-death experience just as often, and almost died at least once."

She felt compelled to point out what it looks like from the perspective of the interns, of having this freaking scary job with the fearless danger-chasing boss, because she had once been an intern too. Also, she was sure that not every intern was as awesome as Darcy Lewis. It stands to reason, really. There was only one of her in this world, and they would just have to accept the less-awesome interns as a fact-of-life.

"But it's nothing compared to the progress we make and the things we find out!" Jane added.

"Uh-huh."

"Not to mention the advances in basic science that we can contribute to."

The two of them were still mesmerized by the water being sucked up into the twister… and was it supposed to be generating lightning too? Darcy didn't know much about physics beyond gravity attracts stuff to each other and rocks fall because of it, but she'd bet her iPod (new, no thanks to Coulson) that a tornado isn't supposed to look like that.

It was still uncommonly pretty. Darcy took more shots on her iPhone just to be safe.

"Uncovering the truth is worth a lot, isn't it?" Jane continued. "What else do we live for, anyway?"

"I don't think you should be asking me about that Jane. I'm the one sitting right next to you for near death experiences and completely okay with it now. My first reflex in seeing a fireball now is to take a picture." She answered with an easy shrug. It was true. That was just how her life was nowadays.

"Back then? I'm more used to running away from stuff like these too. Most people are probably like that, they're not naturally wired for this."

Jane deflated, rubbing her forehead in silence. Darcy felt a bit bad about it. It was almost like telling a kindergartener that Santa Claus is a lie.

"Well, on a brighter note, this anomaly is sure a pretty light show compared to some of the earlier ones. We could get a decent enough measurement far, and I mean far away from its boundaries, right? Unlike Anomaly Two?" Darcy rushed. Jane visibly perked up again.

"Yeah, based on the amount of radiation I can detect this is a higher-energy one, so it's more visible at larger distances. Its growth should progress at a predictable rate. I might be extrapolating the upper end of its radiance a bit using the Cauchy-Lorentz distribution when it comes to—"

Darcy blinked, tried to follow Jane for a moment and realised that three sentences in, she was grasping at straws already. The less said about how much she understood when Jane was one paragraph in, the better.

"—but the salience of this unconventional use has actually been borne out by the last four anomalies we observed—"

"Errrr, okay." Nod and smile, Lewis! Nod and smile!

She kept telling Jane not to get too technical in her theoretical explanations, but the scientist had never seemed to take it into account. She probably did not meet like minds in her (small and very specialised) field too often.

"…so unless it has merged with another anomaly that can increase its size, it would remain on the same energy level."

"Okay," she answered, even firmer than before, hoping that somehow Jane got the hint. Of course, that was expecting a bit much. Fortunately, it seems she was a sentence away from the end.

"We're pretty safe actually," Jane stated. Darcy only nodded along because she sure as hell couldn't re-run all the calculations Jane had done—and if she had been too worried about her continued presence in the plane of the living, she would have quit being Jane's assistant ages ago.

"Right."

There were streaks of movement above them, superheroes flying in, she'd guess. There was probably some über-cool aerial battle in place right there and not for the first time she wished someone had a drone she could hack. And because life just loves to mess with them that way, she was pretty sure that a large ball of lightning some people (heroes, supervillains, she didn't keep track) had been tossing back and forth had just been swallowed by that vortex. Darcy took a deep breath.

"You were talking," she said carefully, "about the Twister McTwisty getting bigger after it ate something like that?"

Jane paled. "I think… we should get moving?"

They dashed up, unfolding in frantic movements as Darcy picked up the reports and occasional data hard copy Jane had scattered while the astrophysicist dealt with the more critical hardware. Darcy would probably need to pick up the peripheral machines later.

Darcy stared at her boss with disbelief. "Of course we should move! Why does that even sound like a question?"

"We could move three miles inwards and set up everything again and—"

"Jane!"

Jane threw her hands in the air, "It was just a suggestion!"

"You're an astrophysicist, not a meteorologist!"

"It's not my fault the storm followed the anomaly! I don't understand enough of the magic bullcrap yet and how it has ionizing properties even when it doesn't have any ionizing radiation I can detect! Also, I'll have you know, no one has come up with a consistent name for the study of microcosmic space-time folds, which incidentally, began with the study of distortions on the macrocosmic scale in outer space!"

"Jane!"

"I'm moving, I'm moving!"

'-

Darcy wasn't complaining about Jane's madcap driving right then, not if it was helping them eat miles from where a crazy twister decided to get an upsize. The silence had been tense for the first two miles or so—her efforts at turning on the radio lead them to channels talking about a disease outbreak in Colorado, another channel change and she was provided with more of the same.

"What's that?" Jane asked.

"They're shutting off flights to Denver," the words came out of her mouth in a rush. What she didn't have to say was, it's still as bad. They'd been hearing about the outbreak on and off in the last several days, anyway.

"…the mortality rate has reached 341—"

Darcy winced and quickly pressed on. Nope, not catching up with that now.

The remaining channels were cheesy country music and bland pop that she didn't like, so Darcy gave up and turned the radio back off.

"You know, if we didn't catch this anomaly in time and alert the Avengers, there's a chance that an unnatural hurricane could develop," Jane said.

"So it's not just some weird-ass portal?"

"'weird-ass' portals always ended up spitting out something bad," Jane said with surprising vehemence. "They're never just portals."

Darcy grinned. "Awww, Jane, you're trying to cheer me up? You don't need to, but thanks all the same."

Jane blushed, "No, nonono. I'm just trying to tell you that what we're doing is important in its own right…"

She wondered when Jane was going to figure out that the reason Darcy teased her so much was because she was too serious for her own good, but it seems that Project Mellow Out Jane Foster was still going to be on for a while.

They'd passed unharmed after a while and there was nothing too extraordinary (there was the occasional ball lightning that Darcy certainly didn't forget to capture). It was so going on her Facebook. And Instagram. All those well-connected daddy's girls who somehow managed to get desk jobs and internships as aides in DC in a tanking economy are going to go green with envy about all the travelling she gets from hers. Take that Rita Saunders!

Other than that, no emergency happened. Darcy was beginning to get bored. Well, there was always the coffee she'd transferred into a tumbler, but she wasn't enthusiastic about being forced to find a toilet in the next half hour or so if she didn't measure the amount of liquids she drank carefully.

"Did you tell Thor that we're going to go storm-chasing today?" She asked.

"He's aware that I'm not going to give up my work for anything." Jane replied.

Hello non-answer. "Uh huh, and you've told him about the latest bunch of anomalies you're investigating, right?"

"Well, whose job would it be if it wasn't ours?"

In any other condition, Darcy would be happy that Jane wasn't taking her eyes off the road, but right now it only worried her. Far be it from her to get between a woman and her denial… Jane would've met Thor sooner than later, right? And there was no way he wouldn't find out what his girlfriend was up to while he was off fighting the big bads. Still, she had to do her duty as a friend to say something.

"You haven't told him, haven't you?"

The stubborn set of Jane's jaw told Darcy everything.

'-

It wasn't long before they hit the nearest town that SHIELD had somehow appropriated as a temporary base here. The men-in-blacks also set up a roadblock of sort in the direction they came from to keep civilians out of the way. It also didn't surprise either of them that as soon as they sat down in the nearest diner, they were greeted by none other than Coulson. Where the man had hidden himself to avoid her notice when she first stepped through the door, Darcy had no idea.

"Dr. Foster, Ms. Lewis. Everything had gone smoothly, I expect?"

(Actually if all his ambush meetings were accompanied by fresh pancakes along with that enigmatic smile, she didn't think she'd mind his appearances that much. It was the ones in the middle of the night due to emergencies that were a pain).

"Agent Coulson," Jane replied briskly.

"Yo, Son of Coul," Darcy nodded back. She pretended she didn't notice the extra seconds' worth of look she got. She grinned. "Thanks a lot for the food."

Coulson had focused his attention back on Jane at this point.

"What can we expect from the anomaly?"

As Darcy dug in, Jane gave him a brief rundown of what she'd found out. Darcy tried not to think that it meant she'd had to finish the written report by the end of the day and just gave her attention to the more deserving pancakes. They had been working with SHIELD all this time, just not for SHIELD. As a poli-sci major, she had loudly informed Jane that giving more knowledge (and power) to a government organization with questionable oversight was not a good idea. Sure, Stark wasn't a saint either, but Jane could certainly claim her rights over her work better (it wouldn't disappear into the darkness of some government vault, never to see the light of day until the Powers That Be wish it). Stark was also nowhere near SHIELD level in power and influence. Jane had reluctantly agreed and Darcy did a victory dance in SHIELD's office at the time.

The fact that it gave Coulson the occasional tic in his left eye was just a bonus.

Even through the windows of the diner, she could hear the incoming whoosh of a pair of rockets. Darcy saw the familiar red-and-gold streak that was Ironman. People were starting to stare up at the sky and the occasional town citizens had even been walking to see where he would land.

Tony Stark just had to land and shifted his suit back into suitcase form in front of an amazed crowd. (Darcy went out at this point. Between staying put for Jane debriefing Coulson on freaky dimensional shit and the Avengers landing, it was no contest). Thor followed not long after, a far off sonic boom a few moments before the only hint of his impending arrival. He landed on a crouch, generating a mild wave of air in front of him that was felt by the audience. That got more 'oohs' and 'aahs' from the crowd than Iron Man's landing.

"Oh come on! That is so not fair," Stark groused. Thor was too busy smiling at the people around him to notice. Darcy was too busy staring at the glowy thing at the centre of Tony Stark's chest.

The arc reactor. It wasn't the first time she saw it but she was far from used to its unearthly light. She thought that it cast a little halo of its own, reminding her of pictures of medieval sainted kings.

Hawkeye joined them from somewhere between the ranks of the men-in-blacks. One moment he wasn't there and then he was. SHIELD must give their agents ninja training.

"I don't know what you're complaining about. Some of us can't even fly without getting a lift."

"Yeah, yeah," Tony mumbled with a hand wave.

He either didn't notice Barton's long-suffering look, or his ego was so big that anything smaller was below his detection threshold. As in, the only thing he considered worth noticing then was himself.

"But you haven't been trying to fly for as long as you remember. You'll live."

"And you won't?" He asked, dryly.

"I'm positively devastated right now and tearing up inside. Really." Stark insisted. "SHIELD is going to have to pay me to fix my emotional trauma."

"You know that feeding trolls only make them worse, don't you?" Darcy pointed out to Barton, trying to act all cool and casual instead of skipping with glee that she was talking to the Avengers instead of just getting a nod or a brief look acknowledgement when they pass her down the halls. She was sure they knew her by face already, if not name.

"Hey, I'm grieving over here!"

"If you keep giving him attention he'd be even more of a pain in the ass to you." She continued as if Tony hadn't said anything.

Hawkeye spared Stark one last side glance. "Thanks for the heads up." Patted her on the shoulder, and walked right into the diner without as much as a goodbye to Tony. The billionaire pouted. It really is not fair that a grown up man could act like a four year old and still look attractive, Darcy thought. He could certainly dial up the intensity of his smoulder and his perfectly messy bedhead. She knew of his engagement with Pepper Potts, CEO, but she was a hot-blooded woman with eyes, dammit.

"Why do you have to go and ruin that for? Oh, hello sexy librarian."

"Common human decency?" Darcy replied, not too amused by the direction that his eyes wandered at. Surprisingly, it didn't actually last long and it wasn't half as lecherous as his reputation implied it would be. She suspected it was his version of a quick assessment and partly to keep up said reputation. Not that he wasn't interested at all—her breasts were awesome, and she was a connoisseur to the many types of gazes that they collect. Yet Tony Stark had more layers than an onion.

"Alright, you're forgiven for that. You're forgiven for a lot of things in advance," Tony clapped his hands, "if you'd only accompany me for a meal. Whaddya say?"

She grinned. She loved working at Stark Tower. She'd already met Captain America and Hawkeye in the gyms now, and she could add Iron Man on that list.

"I'd love to take you up on that, Tony, but I probably need to play peacekeeper for Janey and the golden god for a bit."

She considered the right to call him Tony as fair payment for staring at her boobs.

"You need to what?" he asked.

Tony followed Darcy's hand and sure enough, there was a worried Asgardian in a tense conversation with a stubborn petite scientist. That wiped the smirk out of his face.

"Uh, great! Have fun being third wheel."

He disappeared faster than a supermodel's panties at a Stark party. It would've amused Darcy on any other time, but she was more concerned with her friends and she walked in their direction. A thick blanket of cloud still covered the town, but this far from the coast, there was barely any rain. The conversation between the Thor and Jane might've been a bit more heated than usual, but for a guy who solves his problems with a magic hammer, Thor listened a lot to Jane.

"My apologies, Jane, but I cannot bear the thought of you in danger."

Damn, Thor was giving his girlfriend a look of extreme sadness; it reminded Darcy of a retriever who wasn't allowed to go play outside. How did Jane ever hold out against the puppy sadface?

Jane was distressed. "I don't want to think of you getting smashed by supervillains every day you're out there, but I know you have to do it Thor, and I've never said anything about it. Can't you see that I can't abandon my life's work either?"

Ah, that was how. 'For Science!' Of course Jane wouldn't forget her first love that easily.

"The vortex rained mighty destruction on great ships spanning several longboats, Jane! I cannot help but imagine what would happen to you if it landed on the coast." He sounded forlorn.

"But it didn't land!" Jane insisted, "I was completely fine."

Right, there goes her cue to nudge a little.

"We were fine, big guy," Darcy stepped in by Jane's side. "Jane's work showed how far the twister's going to mambo, and we keep off the dance floor. Isn't that right, Jane? You were never going to put us in danger like that when you could do your calculations and know better, right?"

Darcy wasn't above a little guilt trip to get her point across, and colour rose on Jane's face satisfactorily. The physicist certainly couldn't complain about her friend's support, though. Jane laid a hand on Thor's forearm. The lines on Thor's forehead softened, and her friends were caught in each other's gazes once more.

"I know I can't promise you to stay away from danger, because I can't live like that. I'm sorry for worrying you, though. I promise I'd always be careful, Thor."

Hopefully, she'd use a larger safety margin from now on, Darcy thought.

The brunette couldn't stop the soft smile from rising on her face, before she gently stepped away and left them to it. Jane and Thor could handle most of it on their own; they just needed to get off the part where they try to outstubborn each other. Now, if she was lucky, Tony hadn't finished eating yet and she might enjoy his company for lunch. How many assistants could say they were invited to lunch by Tony Stark? She intended to have the maximum amount of fun possible for as long a she stayed at Avengers HQ.

Anyways, it's just lunch. She wasn't delusional about where his heart is—she only wanted some eye candy when she can get 'em. As Darcy made her way through the throngs of agents now filling the diner, she could see Tony eating alone despite the place being almost filled to capacity now. He hadn't seen her yet since his attention was either on his StarkPad or his burger. She guessed he'd annoyed Hawkeye enough that the agent stayed away from him.

She'd never thought that Tony Stark ate like a slob when he's not in front of the cameras. He still managed to make it look endearing than messy. It's so unfair, she thought with a sigh.

Darcy stopped next to his table, all casual-like.

"Is this seat taken? Because I'm not going back to my boss' table and get dragged into a lunch meeting. I actually need to eat."

Tony grinned. "Go ahead and take a seat, Velma."

'-

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