Happy Birthday,multi-fandom-girl2
November 24-Darcy/Remy/Brock with a side of redemption and a hint of soulmates for @multi-fandom-girl2
Written by @ozhawkauthor
A divergence from my usual First Words soulmates ‘verse, this is a First Touch ‘verse. Skin contact is required.
“So Agent Rumlow will be completing the security assessment and taking over management of all security aspects for the lab,” Fury concluded.Jane shrugged, not caring one way or the other. Darcy scowled.
“Is he going to be as dumb as the last one? Because trying to tell Jane that the lab can only be open at certain hours is a short trip to me getting on the phone and chewing your ear out again.”
“Trust me, Miss Lewis,” Fury said, bone-dry, “Agent Rumlow knows his business. Part of his job description is keeping you out of my ear.”
Darcy grinned at Fury’s tone. “Fair enough. I’ll give him a shot. Is he at least better looking than the last dude? I could do with some eye candy around here.”
Fury was, for once, shocked into silence. Darcy laughed and ended the skype call before swiveling on her lab chair. Jane had already returned to muttering over some equations, and Darcy, hearing a vehicle outside, got up and headed to the door to look. A black SUV had just pulled up in the parking lot, pretty much screaming government issued vehicle.
“Looks like a dead bore already,” Darcy muttered, and then had to lean against the door to hold herself up when the man driving the car got out. Medium height, there was absolutely nothing else average about him, from the spectacularly carved cheekbones to the incredible physique doing very nice things inside a tight black T-shirt. “Well, hubba hubba!”
Muscled, Dark and Lickable swung a hefty-looking kit bag onto his shoulder and headed for the door, and Darcy suddenly realized she was standing right there staring at him. She didn’t have time to hurry away and pretend to be doing something else, so she decided to just brazen it out; she wasn’t going to pretend she hadn’t seen him coming.
“Afternoon, ma’am,” he said as the door swung closed behind him and he saw her standing there. “Agent Brock Rumlow.” Instead of offering a hand to shake, he held out a leather ID folder; Darcy had been reaching for the handshake and quickly adjusted into taking the folder from his hand instead, flipping it open to check the picture inside.
“Thank you,” she handed him back. “Darcy Lewis. I’m Dr. Foster’s assistant…”
“Lab manager, is the job description in your file.” Rumlow arched a black brow.
“Call it whatever you want, up to and including babysitter. I’m the one who makes sure Jane has whatever she needs to get her research done, including food and sleep. You’re here to keep her safe.”
“And you.” He plucked his ID folder from her fingers, stuffed it back in a pocket. “Operationally, you’re almost as good a target as Dr. Foster, because you’re of value to her.”
“Wow, that’s cold,” Darcy said when she got her breath back.
Rumlow smiled, but there was no warmth behind it. “I’m not here for warm and fuzzies, Ms. Lewis. I’m here to keep Dr. Foster and her work safe. Part of my job is thinking like the bad guys. What would I do if I wanted to disrupt the situation? What’s the easiest way in? Who’s the softest target?” He shrugged. “No offence, but Dr. Foster rarely leaves the lab. You’re the one who goes wandering off to coffee shops whenever the urge strikes.”
He was right, and worse, he’d obviously been surveilling her for at least a couple days before turning up to start work. Darcy wanted to smack the smirk off his face. Instead, she bit on the inside of her cheek, lifted her chin, and said “Then tell me what I need to do. I’m not about to jeopardize everything Jane’s worked for by being careless.”
His eyes warmed, just slightly, and he held out his hand to shake. “Good. I’m glad you’re willing to listen.”
She didn’t like what he was saying at all, but he was right, damn him, so she took his hand with a nod. And gasped, because the powerful zing of electricity shooting up her arm was way, way too powerful to be just static.
“Holy shit,” she gasped.
Rumlow’s hand tightened around hers. He blew out his cheeks, shook his head, and finally laughed ruefully. “Well. This changes everything, huh?”
My soulmate. This infuriatingly cocky, overly handsome man is my soulmate? Darcy found a smile in response, just as stunned as he seemed to be. “Yes,” she agreed, though it wasn’t until more than a year later she’d discover just how much that simple touch of hands had changed, when Rumlow finally admitted who he used to work for. “Yes… this changes everything.”
* * *
Two Years Later
Remy LeBeau whistled under his breath as he walked quietly up to the lab’s front doors. At three in the morning, the building was dark and silent, and for once, he was absolutely certain neither Dr. Foster nor any of her small team of brilliant boffins were working late, because every last one of them was in Sweden, and would be watching the doctor accept her Nobel Prize for Physics later that day.
And while they were gone, Remy would slip into the lab, copy onto a specially made hard drive all the data from their network-isolated server, and be gone again with nobody the wiser and research worth a cool hundred million dollars in his pocket.
The electronic door yielded easily to the swipe card he’d lifted from one of the science boffins’ apartments an hour earlier. He’d even put the card back exactly where he’d found it when he was done. This whole heist depended on nobody knowing he’d ever been there.
And it all came spectacularly undone when he padded silently into the server room and found a couple having extremely enthusiastic sex on a desk.
The woman, an attractive brunette, saw him first over the man’s shoulder. Blue eyes widened and she shrieked. “Brock!”
Remy had to give the man credit; he was both fast and completely unconcerned about his nudity. He spun away from the desk - and the woman on it, who was distractingly beautiful enough to slow Remy down at least a little while he got an eyeful - and whipped a keyboard at Remy’s head. Remy snapped an arm up to block and very nearly missed the foot coming for his groin at the same moment.
For a few minutes, Remy had his hands full, respect quickly dawning for the guy who was doing his level best against a superhuman, naked and unarmed to boot. It was never going to be an equal fight, though, and Remy was absolutely there to cheat, flicking a playing card into his opponent’s face in a blaze of energy and sweeping his legs out from under him while the guy was distracted.
The mission was shot to shit; the best thing he could do now was knock the guy unconscious, do the same for his lover, and steal the data anyway. Hopefully it would still have value even though the burglary itself was compromised.
The two pins slamming into his chest interrupted his plan to go down and choke the guy out, and he gasped and shuddered as the Taser emptied 50,000 volts into him. The woman was staring at him, eyes narrowed, Taser in one hand and a gun in the other, obviously both grabbed from pockets of the clothes strewn around on the floor.
Shouldn’t have underestimated her, Remy thought, and then he thought again. A Taser didn’t have the same effect on him as on normal folks due to his ability to absorb energy, but a bullet… that would hurt. A lot. At this range, she could hardly miss.
As the shock cut off, Remy shut his eyes and let himself drop limply to the floor.
“Brock, you all right?” the woman asked.
“Yeah.” Brock pulled himself up off the floor, cursing under his breath. “Who the fuck is that guy? The only person who ever got the drop on me like that was Cap himself. Something ain’t right about him, Darcy.”
“Yeah, well, this Taser took down Thor, and it got him too.” Darcy sounded smug, and Remy had to bite on his lip to hide his smile. He liked her, dammit. But he was still gonna snatch that gun out of her hand the second he got the chance. She was coming closer, bending over him… he prepared without letting muscles tense, keeping his breathing slow, focussing on the precise moves he’d need to make…
Soft fingers grazed his neck, and a bolt of energy far greater than the Taser’s 50,000 volts sent a convulsion through him. Eyes snapping wide open, he sat bolt upright, forgetting all about the gun, and stared into his soulmate’s blue eyes.
His soulmate, who he’d just found banging another man…
… not a great start.
“What the hell!” Brock snatched the gun from Darcy’s hand, aimed it at Remy’s head with rock-steady hands.
“That was a soulmate shock,” Darcy whispered, utterly stunned. “Brock. That was a soulmate shock.”
“Sorry,” Remy offered, aware it was inadequate. “You two look like you’re, uh, yeah. Sorry.”
“You don’t get it.” Darcy smiled. “We’re soulmates, Brock and I. You must be the third we didn’t know we were missing.”
“I’m just trying to wrap my mind around the idea of one soulmate,” Remy confessed after a moment of stunned silence.
Brock chuckled a little roughly. “Join the club. I’m still gettin’ used to it, two years in.” He offered a hand, to help Remy up.
Remy hesitated, and then stripped off his leather gloves. No point worrying now about his fingerprints on the place. He spared a wistful regret for the loss of his 20% commission before grasping Brock’s hand and letting the electricity sear him to his soul for the second time.
