Notes:

So, we've made it to the end of the first story in the series. We still have a long journey ahead, but as things are going to be changing, most likely a great deal, for our friends at the farm, I thought this was a good place to take a breath and end the first bit. This chapter is a bit of a tease for the beginning of the next story, which I should be starting very soon.

Enjoy.

Everything Has Changed

Chapter 28: Credit Teaser

Darcy lay in bed watching the ceiling fan making its slow orbit around the light fixture and listening to her lovers sleep. The house felt unsettled without her constant rainstorm, Clint had only been gone a few days, and it was nice having the house just to the three of them, but she missed her brother. She pushed herself out from under the covers and scooted to the end of the mattress, climbing over Steve's feet, the two mend rolled together to fill the space she'd vacated, and a small smile flitted over her face as they snuggled in together.

She slipped down the stairs on nearly silent feet, avoiding the steps that squeaked the most, and across the kitchen floor. Darcy took a deep breath of the stillness around her, searing deep within her own soul, trying to remember if she'd ever felt the coming and goings of her family as keenly as she had the past year, since that night in the bar, since Bucky Barnes crash landed in her life. It had never been like this empty ache, not when her parents died or Jane left her as Shield feel; sure they'd both hurt like a hole in her chest, but this was different. Clint wasn't gone, he just wasn't at the farm, and something inside her couldn't stop reaching for the constant that was absent.

Steam curled up out of her chipped ceramic mug, the one Bucky'd dropped one too many times while doing dishes, but she liked, big enough to almost qualify as a bowl with a handle, just big enough for that first cup of coffee in the morning. Darcy cradled her tea between her fingers, the bright peppermint scent warming her as she rocked slowly on the porch swing, swaddled in the heavy down quilt Laura had made her for Christmas. She searched the heavens for the dippers and Cassiopeia and Draco, all the constellations she used to find on long nights in the dessert with Jane, in front of their little fire pit on the roof of the old car dealership. Now she watched shooting stars from her swing, between the branches of the old sycamore tree, with the gentle rush of the ocean and silent fall of snow against the backdrop of her thoughts. Her lovers' minds soft and pliant in sleep. She took a slow sip of tea and longed for the rhythmic thrum of rain to help lull her to sleep.

Her tea was long gone when the swing stopped rocking, Bucky's weight causing the old wooden seat to rock erratically for a moment before finding a new rhythm.

"Heavy thoughts, doll?" he asked, pulling her under his arm, fitting her snuggly to his chest as he rested his chin in her hair.

"Couldn't sleep," she rubbed her face into the thin cotton of his t-shirt and breathed in the sleepy smell of snow. "I miss our Hawk." Bucky hummed. "It's the rain, I don't know, it's like the taste and smell of his is a void now that he's away for a long time, like a hole sucking in everything around it. I reach out for the memory, and I can remember how it felt to taste him, but I can't remember the taste? I guess."

"Does it hurt?" he asked, running his fingers through her sleep tousled mess of curls.

Darcy felt around where her rainstorm should be, her big brother. Did it hurt? Not really, not in those kinds of words, it was an empty spot where Clint had carved his spot, just like Bucky and Steve had their spots, like Laura and Mike and the kids had been making their little pieces that made Darcy whole. "No," she let her head fall back on his shoulder, her eyes slipping shut. "I just miss him."

"He'll be home soon," Bucky lifted her into his arms, quilted blanket and all. "Now it's time to come back to bed."

"Did I wake Steve, too?" Darcy mumbled, a yawn cracking her jaw as her soldier carried her back into the house, her mug forgotten on the porch.

"Nope," Bucky whispered as he navigated the steps up to their room. "He's still in dreamland, doll."

"That's good," they paused in the doorway, Darcy still wrapped tight in her dark lovers arms, admiring their light. Steve lay on his back, mouth slightly open as he snored lightly, taking up the entire middle of the bed. "We might have to move him a bit." Bucky just chuckled softly.

Notes:

I want to thank everyone who has been reading this story, whether you've been reading for the last year, or you read it all in one go, I can't tell you how much your reading, commenting and leaving kudos has meant to me, and continues to mean. Thank you so much for reading, and I hope to see you all soon when the second story of Rebuilding begins.