Seventeen Years Old

Darcy was in trouble. Well, not Trouble that would require Iron Man and Co. to come dashing to her rescue, but trouble none the less.

It all started because she'd decided to cheer up her best girlfriend (her only female friend, but she'd still consider Roque her bestie regardless).

Rogue had slowly but steadily become Darcy's best friend her own age, and, since the day they'd connected in detention, neither of them had gone back to their old circles. At Xavier's school it was now impossible to see one girl without the other and they'd told each other their deepest secrets and desires.

That was the reason that Darcy knew that she needed to cheer up her friend.

Well, that and the fact that she too needed to let off some steam.

Rogue had barreled into the library where Darcy was finishing up a grueling essay about some long-forgotten historic event that ultimately didn't change a thing in the world and announced that she loathed Logan.

Darcy, knowing from many girl-time sessions just how much Rogue didn't in fact loathe the grumpy Wolverine, merely raised a brow at the drama.

Rolling her eyes, the older mutant had gone on to explain that she'd overheard Logan telling Miss Monroe that he couldn't take on his usual night time watch as he was expected in some bar to meet up with some woman he'd met and wanted to get to know better.

"Which means in Logan speak that he's gonna try and sex her up," Rogue then finished angrily, a hint of hurt on her face that she'd only let Darcy see. Then it had transformed into pure determination. "I don't even care," she continued, "'cause I've gotten us invites to 'nother thing instead that's gonna blow your mind."

And, so, later that night, Darcy somehow managed to find herself at a college frat party.

The two young women had used all of their combined smarts and cunning to convince Tony that Darcy wanted to have a sleep-over with her friend; that she needed to feel normal for once. Jamie had been convinced to leave them be at the school until the next day. Tony had unknowingly helped them with that by asking Jamie to spend his unexpected free time by getting a much needed tune up on his arm.

Darcy had swallowed the guilt for lying to her closest friend when she'd waved him off that afternoon when he driven back to the tower.

0o0o0

Some odd hours later, the young Stark kinda wished the men in her life hadn't trusted her quite so much as she'd really like to be anywhere but at the stupid party.

It hadn't taken long for the excitement of a new experience to die down. The loud booming music and gyrating bodies awash with enough alcohol to fill the Grand Canyon coupled with the obnoxious attempts at flirting the males threw in the two younger girls' direction without any encouragement helped it die rather swiftly.

The Stark heiress just wanted to leave and try to salvage whatever was left of her night, but there were two pretty big problems with that desire. One, she'd lied to her father and Jamie. She'd broken their trust and knew that if she was ever found out she'd need a miracle to regain it.

The second, and admittedly larger problem, was the fact that Rogue wasn't feeling disappointed by the party at all. She'd jumped into it as soon as they'd arrived and was already more than a little tipsy, spending most of her time near the crowded area where the booze was set up.

"Okay Stark," Darcy whispered determinedly as she finally decided to try getting her friend to leave with her, "this is not the worst thing you've ever done. Just get moving."

With one last fortifying breath, the brunette teenager made her way into the small crowd of people where in the middle she could find her friend.

Rogue's eyes lit up when she spotted her and Darcy had to fake a smile at the cheerful welcome she received. "Hiya Bestie! I was gonna come look for ya, but then these nice hunks offered me some beer and well…I didn't. Hehehe."

"I noticed," said Darcy, eyeing the small group of males that was crowding her friend and making no secret of their intentions to get the girl drunk enough for them to touch.

Well, bully for them, Darcy thought, one touch and it's bye bye for them and hello headache for Rogue. It's only when she really concentrates that she's able to control her powers and with that much alcohol in her system, I doubt she can even try to focus on not being poisonous.

"Rogue, I wanna go home. Come on."

The slightly older mutant rolled her eyes, and emptied her red plastic cup before turning fully to face Darcy. When she spoke, her voice was a blend of mockery and genuine curiosity. "Why are you so eager to leave? I mean, it's not like your prison guard will ever know what's going on tonight. He's too busy getting updated by Tony effing Stark, right? He needs time off too and I bet he's gonna enjoy the rest of his night by going out and spending time with a woman who's not underage."

The words pulled up a picture inside of Darcy's mind that she never liked to see. Jamie dressed to the nines and going out. Once they'd argued ferociously about him having sex and Darcy had never quite put a name to the feelings she had because of her friend getting laid. She only knew that to this day, she vehemently disliked the idea.

Her already low mood soured further and Rogue continued as if pressing an invisible advantage only she could see.

"Come on, Stark. Don't be such a goody two-shoes. Don't act like such a stuck up snob just because your paid bodyguard acts like he likes you unlike mine does. We're here to have fun! Right, boys?"

Rogue turned to face her new "friends", who were already holding out fresh cups of beer.

For one brief second, Darcy was nearly overwhelmed by the hurt that Rogue's words caused. Never, not once since they'd grown a friendship during detention had Rogue talked to her as if her behavior and overall life was anything but acceptable.

Then the words registered fully and Darcy realized that her friend was right. She'd spent most of her time with Jamie since he entered her life. It wasn't healthy and despite what she pretended sometimes, Jamie did receive a salary for sticking around her all the time. He wasn't hovering on the outskirts of her life like Wolverine did to Rogue, all on his own merit.

The thought did something to Darcy's insides and instead of slapping Rogue back to her senses like she halfway wanted to, she stole the fresh cup of beer out of her hands and downed it in seconds.

Things turned a little blurry after that.

Darcy laughed, danced and on one occasion even grinded a bit with Rogue on the crowded floor. The music was still deafening and the smell of all the people in such a smallish space was also getting less attractive by the minute, but after alcohol had entered the equation, the Stark teenager didn't care all that much anymore.

She was having fun!

A couple of hours later, or more, Darcy didn't know or care to find out, she was in the middle of dancing rather provocatively with some goofy-looking dude and sandwiching him with the help of a rather dizzy-looking Rogue. Suddenly, the music cut out and Darcy quickly realized it wasn't a power outage when she felt the electricity in the house still brimming with life.

The crowd had turned deadly silent, and Darcy blinked out of checking the house and slowly turned to follow her no longer goofy-looking dance partner's pale stare.

Holy shit…

Darcy's thought was echoed by a meek-sounding Rogue behind her, whispered quietly in the icy silence as Jamie's unexpected arrival registered.

The silence of the people around her made perfect sense as her drunken gaze lingered on the new arrival, standing immobile in the doorway, emanating a mix between rage and danger. For once, Jamie completely encompassed his more public name. He wasn't Jamie right now, dressed in a tight black shirt and pants that left his arms bared, showing off the left one that the man barely let anyone but her see these days.

The people automatically gave the silent alpha male a wide berth, slowly backing away as the man in question stood in the doorway, his dark eyes burning their ways into what felt like Darcy's soul as he kept staring intensely at her.

Finally, after what felt like eons, Jamie opened his mouth and Darcy flinched.

"We're going home. Take Rogue before she pukes on the boy behind you and let's go. Now."

For once, not even a spark of defiance at the brusque order entered Darcy's mind. Instead, she did as commanded and grabbed a green hued Rogue's shaking hand and dragged her with her toward the still unmoving Winter Soldier.

As they made their way past him, Darcy heard him address the remaining party goers with a growl-like tone in his voice. "Party's over kids."

It spoke of Jamie's charisma and aura in that moment that no one even dared to protest. Darcy didn't feel the least bit proud of his calm authority as she usually would have because in the next moment, her attention flew to Rogue, who suddenly whimpered and bent forward to throw up.

In between her heaving breaths for air, Rogue mumbled something that Darcy thought vaguely familiar, but it wasn't until Jamie came up to them and spoke that she realized what had set off her friend.

"Yup, Logan's here too, but judging from the look of horror in your eyes, I guess you've already noticed him."

Darcy frowned, feeling rather put out that her drunkenness hadn't abated enough for her to scan and process her surroundings fully. Her training in observational awareness was apparently useless when her system was compromised by liquor.

"Oh," Darcy sighed tiredly, with a hint of worry, when she finally spotted Logan across the street, standing next to the black truck he always fiddled with whenever Darcy and Rogue visited him during free periods at school. His eyes were locked on Rogue's bent form and Darcy knew with a small sense of petty vindictiveness that at least she wasn't the only one in the doghouse.

Jamie's sudden grip on her upper arm distracted Darcy from her thoughts and pulled her back to the reality wherein her own troubles had only just begun and she meekly let herself be led toward the familiar car parked behind Logan's truck.

As they came closer, Darcy mutely watched Logan take her place next to Rogue. He looked like he didn't know whether to growl at her or rub her back as she continued trying to upend her stomach with miserable sounding groans.

Before Darcy could look any further, Jamie's grip turned into a slight push and next thing she knew, Darcy was inside the vehicle and on her way home to the Tower.

The Tower immediately brought her dad to the forefront of her mind and Darcy winced. The tension in the car was higher than anything she'd ever experienced between her and Jamie before, and the slight dizziness that stubbornly remained in her system didn't make her interest in speaking any bigger, but she really needed one question answered before they arrived home.

"So," the Stark heiress began, taking great care to enunciate her words and not letting her slurring voice betray her, "from a scale to one to one hundred; how mad is Dad?"

Jamie's hands clenched on the steering wheel. The left hand left a dent and the right one was white knuckled, showing off his state of mind. Darcy swallowed a lump of nerves and tried building up the courage to ask again when at last the man replied, his tone gruff and nowhere near as fond as it usually was.

"Count yourself lucky that Pepper of all people called for some emergency meeting five minutes after FRIDAY revealed how you'd lied to him. Someone from the UN or something needed to talk to him and no amount of deflection could get him out of it so he sent me to deal with you."

Some part of Darcy wanted to ask more about Pepper, whom she had basically had no contact with after the older woman broke things off with her father. The former girlfriend of Tony Stark seldom made contact these days; she'd finally stopped trying with Darcy except for special occasions.

It took a little effort, especially since the alcohol made thinking pretty difficult to be honest, but Darcy decided to focus on the more important thing that Jamie had said.

"FRIDAY told you?" She asked and added with a frown, "How'd that even ping on her radar?"

Jamie scoffed, his anger seemingly turning up a notch at the question.

"Apparently, you need to make sure your "friends", the word practically dripped with scorn, "don't have access to their social media, 'cause someone's Instagram was suddenly full of pictures of you engaging in underage drinking and sex on the dancefloor. According to FRIDAY, Perez and TMZ have already made sure it's been viewed by a boatload of people."

Darcy wanted to scream, knowing from experience with her father's paparazzi followers that nothing good came from such media attention, but the alcohol in her system was finally beginning to wear her down and she simply sighed heavily and rested her head on the dashboard in front of her in an attempt to quell the continuing dizziness.

Jamie didn't speak again until they'd parked the car and entered the private elevator in the Tower, his grip on her firm yet gentle when it became clear that she didn't handle getting back out into the cold air very well. Her wooziness had evolved into a stumble that made it hard for Darcy to walk properly.

FRIDAY silently opened any door in the duo's path and Darcy spared a thought for JARVIS, knowing that his silence, unlike his successor, would've screamed with disapproval and disappointment over her evening's life choices. The thought of her A.I. brother sent a jolt of sorrow and determination through Darcy when she momentarily remembered what she'd spent so many hours on lately when not in school or spending time with her dad. It didn't last long before Darcy's current state made it impossible to think complicated thoughts and she was forced to use all her concentration on walking in a straight line instead.

Eventually, they reached Darcy's room and Jamie led her to the bathroom. He gestured mutely toward the bathtub, but elaborated when her intoxicated mind didn't quite catch his meaning immediately.

"Go wash tonight off of you, you stink of booze and vomit. Don't want Stark to smell that tomorrow when he comes home to berate you himself."

Cringing, Darcy hurried to do as ordered. In her haste to comply coupled with her inebriation, the young woman failed to realize she'd begun undressing in front of her very male friend. Jamie immediately turned and left the bedroom with something akin to a squeak leaving his lips and a blush painting his cheeks red.

Darcy didn't notice and finished her bath quickly, scrubbing her skin thoroughly and tried fighting off the increasing sleepiness that she was feeling with each passing minute.

0o0o0

Fifteen minutes later, Darcy was in her very comfortable bed and Jamie had rejoined her as she struggled inelegantly to beat her fluffy pillow into submission.

At long last, she deemed it good enough and lay down fully, while Jamie just watched on quietly with a mixture of amusement and annoyance in his eyes.

Feeling like she needed to apologize to him for having basically ruined his evening, and with Rogue's earlier words still ringing rather spectacularly in her foggy mind, Darcy opened her mouth to do just that.

"Uhm, I'm sorry I'm so difficult," she murmured sleepily, snuggling down into her covers with a sigh before she continued, "it's not fair of me to expect you to spend your rare free time on me. I didn't plan for things to get so out of hand. I'm sorry I'm such a bother, Jamie…"

The expression that flashed across her friend's face was odd and in her current state, Darcy couldn't muster up enough brain cells to decipher it.

Then he spoke and all thoughts of even trying to puzzle it out flew from the brunette's mind.

"Darcy Maria Lewis-Stark, you could never be a bother to me."

Darcy bit her lip with a sense of bashfulness that she'd rarely experienced in her life. Then her natural bluntness took over and she felt the need to point something important out.

"You were so mad though. It didn't seem at all like you weren't bothered by having to come and fetch me."

Jamie sighed and ran his metallic hand through his loose hair. He clearly didn't feel comfortable talking about feelings or anything of that nature and Darcy felt a stab of guilt for making him do so. Not enough to stop though.

"Darce," Jamie finally said in his quiet hoarse voice, "I was more worried than anything else. Frat parties aren't a place for two young girls to be. And…Well, don't you know I'll always come for you when you need me, no matter what?"

The way Jamie's words made her emotions soar, caused Darcy to react before she really thought things through. So full of gratitude and adoration for her solemn friend was the young heiress that she'd abruptly sat up and enveloped him in her arms before she'd even considered what to do.

"I'll always come for you too, James Buchanan Barnes." Darcy whispered in his ear, vaguely noticing that a shudder ran through his strong frame at her words. She added softly, pulling back a little to look into his widened eyes. "Aside from my dad, Jamie, you're the most important person in my life. I don't even care that you're getting paid to spend time with me, I'm just happy you're always by my side, you know…"

Darcy didn't give the frozen man time to react before her natural impulsiveness once again reared its head. She licked her lips once and then leaned forward and placed her lips on top of Jamie's. She had just enough mental capacity left to marvel over the softness of his usually so chapped-looking lips before the alcohol in her body finally overcame her and she fell back into bed, dead to the world and the man staring wide-eyed down at her.

Unbeknownst to the near comatose Stark, her best friend and bodyguard spent the rest of the night staring down at her with a slowly dawning realization mixed with pure horror on his face that she'd probably have kicked herself for missing.

0o0o0

TBC…

0o0o0

A/N Thanks for reading! I hope you're all staying safe in these trying times with Corona Virus' and public terror!