#clarcy

The thing was, this wasn’t all his fault. Don’t get her wrong, ‘cause it was partly his fault, but it was hers too. She was just crap at expressing herself sometimes and when he gave her that blank agent face she seriously felt like shoving him out of a window. Fly, Hawk, fly. So they needed to work on their communication and she needed to recognize her short fuse and he needed to stop treating her like Jane Citizen and instead remember that she was his girlfriend. Is his girlfriend. Might be. Could be. Depending on whether or not they worked out their latest issue.

If she ever managed to find her way back to Stark Tower, anyway.

One would think finding a giant tower with a huge A on it would be easy. But New York was big and she’d apparently wandered pretty far, without paying any attention, and she now had no idea where the hell she was. Of course, she was also too proud to call anybody, even though she knew Tony would send a town car, or show up in his shiny suit. Steve would break out his motorcycle. The weather was perfect for Thor to go hammer-style and fly out and pick her up. Who was going to be surprised by thunder when it was raining like this? Jane was a no-go. She probably knew less about New York than Darcy did. Bruce she knew would contact one of the others, likely Clint, because he still wasn’t comfortable being out into the public.

But instead of calling any of them, most of whom would be good about it and just bring her home, no questions asked, she didn’t. Because pride. Which probably got her into this mess in the first place, but whatevs. She was here now; she might as well roll with it.

It would take her another hour to finally get back, and that was after finding a crumpled twenty in her jeans and flagging down a cab.

By the time she got up to her room, her arms and legs felt heavy, like her skin was ice, making her movements sluggish and painful. She was trying and failing to pull her shirt over her head, her long hair sopping against her back, when she felt his hands grip the end of her shirt and pull it up, his knuckles dragging against her bare skin. The wet fabric landed on the ground with a splat and his arms looped around her waist, so warm against her chilled skin that she shivered. His fingers undid the button and lowered the zipper on her jeans. She shimmied her hips to help him as he stripped them down and she climbed out of them; they joined her shirt.

“Long walk,” he said, voice low and deep, breath skittering against her ear.

“Got lost,” she admitted.

His fingers flicked open the clasp on her bra.

She shrugged her shoulders and it slid down her arms, catching on her fingers.

His thumbs looped into the sides of her underwear and pulled them down, quick and fast. And then his hand was in hers, pulling her along.

He brought her into the bathroom and leaned over the bathtub to turn on the water; he helped her climb in, sitting on the edge as she sunk into the almost too hot water, clouds of steam coming off it. She slowly leaned back against the tub, sinking up to her neck, and looked up at him.

“I was a jerk,” she said.

His lips twitched. “So was I.” He raised an eyebrow. “I’m not sure how hypothermia shows me, but points for originality.”

She snorted, raising a hand to flick water at him.

He grinned. “Feel better?”

“Worked off most of my bad mood on the walk… When it started raining, I was mostly just pissed that I was lost…” She shrugged. “Forgot my phone too, so no GPS.”

“We should get out more,” he said, nodding. “I’ll show you the city, so next time you won’t get lost.”

“Hawkeye, doing personal tours, I bet that’ll sell well,” she teased.

He rolled his eyes, but pursed his lips. “I was worried… Usually you take off for an hour, two tops… Four was pushing it.”

“I’m surprised you didn’t have a helicopter circling the city,” she said, snorting.

He looked back at her.

“No way!” Her eyes widened. “Coulson wouldn’t sign off on that.”

He shrugged. “He would if he trusted my judgement.”

She winced. “So next time I get lost, I’ll call…”

He sighed, moving to kneel next to the tub, resting his forearms on the edge and balancing his chin on his stacked hands. “Sometimes I get overprotective…” He licked his lips. “I shouldn’t’ve bugged your iPod with a tracking device… I was worried and my first instinct was to make sure I always knew where you were so if anything happened…” He trailed off, his jaw ticking.

“And I get that,” she said, nodding. “But you didn’t have to do it without telling me…” Her eyes widened. “I might not always act like it, but I am an adult… If you just said you were worried, you wanted a back-up plan, I’d get it…”

He nodded. “I know. And it was stupid. I’m just… not used to worrying about anyone…” He ground his teeth. “I don’t want to lose you, Darcy. And that’s the only reason I did it. I didn’t think about what it meant not to tell you…” His brow furrowed. “I’m still figuring this out. And I’m trying, but I’m gonna mess up. It’s inevitable.”

“I don’t expect you to be perfect.” She snorted, raising an eyebrow. “Unrealistic expectations, meet poli-sci student who fetches coffee for a living.”

He reached for her, tucking her hair behind her ear, tracing her cheek with his thumb. “You talked to Coulson about going back to school yet?”

Her nose wrinkled. “No… And I bet he’s not going to be too excited after all that wasted helicopter fuel spent looking for me.”

“Wasn’t wasted,” he said, shaking his head.

She covered his hand. “This water’s not warm enough.”

Clint was about to retract his hand so he could adjust the taps, but she smirked up at him. “Lose the clothes, Barton. I need my personal body-heater.”

His mouth curved up on one side and he stood from the floor, reaching down to strip off his shirt.

Darcy bit her lip and watched in appreciation as he stripped down to nothing.

She slid up the tub for him to climb in behind her and then sighed as she leaned back into him, his arms wrapping around her.

He kissed the top of her head. “Hmm, you smell like rain.”

She turned her head and looked up at him. “In some cultures, rain was supposed to be a new beginning, washing away all the bad for something better…”

He smiled down and her and kissed her forehead, and then between her brows, the tip of her nose, the corner of her lips, before finally his mouth hovered over hers.

“You know we’re eventually going to fight again, right?” he murmured, lips brushing hers as he spoke.

“Yeah, but it makes for awesome make-up sex,” she returned.

They were laughing as they kissed. Outside, the rain faded to a drizzle.