a bit of tarnish

[crimtastic]

A small conversation where Darcy needs to know something but Bucky’s a bit of a brat.

Words: 1024, Chapters 1/1, Language: English
Series: if only
Rating: T
Relationships: James “Bucky” Barnes & Darcy Lewis, Darcy/Steve (background)
Characters: Darcy Lewis, James “Bucky” Barnes, Steve Rogers (mentioned), Natasha Romanoff (mentioned), Sam Wilson (mentioned)

This is my missing moment from the 'if only' series that is between 'if only you realize' and 'if only you love me'. Brought it over from tumblr due to shenaninaninanigans.

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“Hey Buckster, how it’s it going?” Darcy drops into a seat next to Bucky, eyeing his coffee.

 

“No, Darcy. No. Go get your own,” his metal hand grips the cup tighter. Darcy looks scandalized.

 

“Who do you think I am, stealing an old man’s coffee?” she demands, sniffing the air in disdain. Bucky sends her an unimpressed look.

 

“I actually needed you for something other than caffeine intake. You’ve known Steve awhile, right?” she sticks her tongue between her teeth, squinting at Bucky thoughtfully. Bucky snorts.

 

“Yeah, only a small amount of time,” he replies sarcastically. “This isn’t about his birthday, is it?”

 

“No. I don’t think his birthday is for a couple months, right? No, I just wanted to know what you guys did back in the day to unwind. I mean, you probably had limited options, considering the circumstances of the US back in the day… then came the war…” Darcy trails off, looking at Bucky in concern, not certain if this conversation breaks the ‘don’t trigger the ex-assassin’ rules.

 

Fortunately, Bucky’s lips twist into the biggest shit eating grin she thinks she’s ever seen.

 

“Oh ho, you’re fishing today?”

 

Darcy pinches her nose. “Bucky-”

 

“I really have to ask… why me? Why not Natasha? She probably knows all sort of shit just from SHIELD alone,” he interrupts her before taking a sip of his coffee.

 

“Eh. She does. But that’s a laundry list of what SHIELD thought he did. That doesn’t necessarily have a basis in fact. The only thing it got right on my file was ‘underachiever’ and ‘suspiciously compliant’. Do I look like the type to enter a crocheting competition?” Darcy looks up with a frown and then shakes her head. “Don’t answer that.”

 

Bucky gives her a look with raised eyebrows, and Darcy shrugs.

 

“Whatever, they got three things right. My point is that SHIELD wasn’t really around back then, so that information would be guesswork at best,” she replies. “You had to do something in the downtime. So are you going to answer me or what?”

 

“There were two specific things that Stevie did with his free time,” Bucky begins, holding up two fingers. “One, get the shit beat out of himself on the regular.”

 

“What,” Darcy says flatly.

 

“Don’t get me wrong, he gave just as much as he got, but there was more than one occasion I was wading in to help him out. He just couldn’t let an injustice go by,” he replies with a faraway look. “Not much has changed, really.”

 

She remains silent, letting Bucky sort through whatever twist of his mind. His expression shutters suddenly and Darcy coughs, knowing better than to touch him if he falls down one of those mental potholes. Knocked out of the thought, Bucky startles and blinks at her a moment.

 

“Anyways. The other thing he did to bring in a bit of money without straining himself was-” Bucky stops suddenly, looking entirely too pleased with himself at the way Darcy lifts herself up in interest.

 

“Nawww.”

 

“The Frigga fuck, Buckster, just tell me already,” Darcy grumbles. She’s tempted to flick his nose. He never fails to bring out the worst in her, she’s certain.

 

Bucky laughs and she sighs.

 

“Fine, I’ll just have to ask Steve’s real best friend,” she declares, standing up. “I’m pretty sure Sam is in the-”

 

“Whoa, whoa, those are fighting words!” he grumbles, leaning back in his chair. “He did art stuff.”

 

Darcy blinks. “Art?”

 

“Yeah, he used to make dimes off of his posters and sketches. People would pay him pretty good for his work. Especially after he started the Howlies up. They used to sell his stuff under a pen name to other GI’s, so it wouldn’t ‘tarnish’ the good reputation of ‘the Captain’,” Bucky snickers a moment.

 

Darcy gets a confused look on her face.

 

“What kind of drawings were the Howlies selling?” Darcy asks. Bucky raises his eyebrows with a salacious grin and her mouth gapes open. “No!”

 

“Uh-huh,” he begins to laugh silently.

 

“You’re telling me that my Match not only punched Nazi’s and danced a couple jigs with some magic rocks, but he also drew porn?” Darcy leans over to hiss under her breath. Bucky’s laughter starts to make him wheeze, him trying to contain it from the other onlookers in the cafeteria they’re sitting in, but he nods fervently.

 

“I wouldn’t be surprised if the Howlie grandkids had some of his old stuff, if they knew to look for it. Steve never said a word about the work, being commissions, but there were some pretty personal requests, like colors, hair styles, and pose. All of it.”

 

Darcy sits back down in her chair, looking dazed. Her mind is working a mile a minute. It’s not that she can’t believe Steve would do something, well, naughty, since the guy had a history of defying rules. However, they’d been pretty tame with their ardor, and he was such a gentleman the entire time she struggled picturing it. That ‘aw shucks’ look apparently masked a lot of curious misdeeds she’s suddenly eager to explore.

 

These were conversations she honestly would have brought up sooner if she had been with anyone else, but she was always so wrapped up with him in the moment. He didn’t manage to find much time to himself - with a constant looming threat and all - that they usually just skipped silly things like words and went down more pleasurable avenues of communication. Darcy gets a bit of a glazed look as she remember just how well he adored her the last time they had such a moment.

 

She wasn’t sure if there’d be another one, so why bog it down with details?

 

“Darcy?” Bucky’s laughter finally ceases, and a concerned look takes over instead at Darcy’s stunned state. She shakes herself awake, realizing that he might mistake her for having another one of those pesky seizures and closes her mouth.

 

“Well, this opens up quite a few possibilities,” she mutters, waving off Bucky’s concern. She stands up to pat Bucky’s metal shoulder.

 

“Possibilities?” Bucky asks, raising an eyebrow.

 

“I’m off, much to do, thanks Bucky!” she dashes away before he can stop her, around the corner in a hurry.

 

She needs to find an art store, pronto.