#shock machine

“You-” Darcy began, then stopped, drawing herself up dramatically. “I will have my revenge, Stark,” she declared solemnly. 

Tony chuckled even as Rhodey came to stand at her shoulder.

“Need any help?” he asked. “I have a few ideas I haven't been able to try at MIT.”

“I'll let you know,” Darcy said, stomach doing backflips. “I'm just gonna get some stuff from the car.” Of course, Rhodey followed her, helping her grab the rest of the supplies out of her Jeep and helping her stow them, chatting amiably about anything and everything.

---

Of course, Darcy had managed to forget about the whole ‘bed-sharing’ situation until people started talking about sleep. She was two beers and three rounds of Cards Against Humanity in, and feeling happily relaxed. Until Pepper, Tony’a newest squeeze, mentioned feeling tired. 

Unlike most of Tony’s girlfriends, who clearly meant all mentions of tiredness as euphemisms for sex, this Pepper didn't. She’d been leaning on her hand for at least a half hour, clearly exhausted. 

Tony, sitting next to her, jumped into action. That was new too. Maybe she'll be good for him, Darcy thought idly, as Hurricane Tony started to spin up. 

“Tired?” Tony asked Pepper. “Of course you are - weren't you working night shift, and then you didn't sleep in the car - come on, everybody, bed!”

“Tony,” Pepper said, which, amusingly, stopped Tony in his tracks. Or at least, Darcy thought it was amusing. 

“He's been trying to impress her for the last two years,” Rhodey said into Darcy’s ear. 

“What, really?” Darcy hoped her surprise at the news covered her surprise at Rhodey whispering in her ear. She'd been able to feel his breath on her ear, for crap’s sake!

And what we up with him sitting next to her, anyway? He usually sat with his and Tony’a friends, but this time he was here, chatting with the people Darcy had invited, her best friend Jane, Jane’s boyfriend Thor, and Wanda and Pietro Maximoff. He'd inserted himself into her group easily, trading science with Jane, sports with Thor and Pietro, and even speaking a token amount of Russian to compare it to Sokovian for Wanda.

If she didn't know better, Darcy would have said Rhodey was trying to impress her. But he wasn't interested in her, right? 

Then she remembered the air mattress. 

Shit. 

“Everyone else stay up,” Pepper was saying. “I'll find someplace to sleep, Tony. It's fine.”

Darcy took pity on her brother. “Tones, go with Pepper.” They were taking her parent’s bedroom, Jane and Thor taking hers, Tony’s friends Steve and Natasha taking Tony’s bed. Wanda and Pietro had the guest bedroom, which left … Darcy and Rhodey. 

How had Darcy stumbled into a couple’s weekend and not realised it? Even though Wanda and Pietro were siblings. 

Tony just looked at her a second, then grinned. “Yeah. Thanks, Darce.”

Darcy realised she was tacitly approving of his relationship with Pepper. Which, she supposed, she did. He’s definitely dated worse.

Tony and Pepper disappeared, but that was the beginning of the end of the night. At the end of the next round of CAH, Jane and Thor begged off, Steve and Natasha joining them. 

Wanda, who had been eyeing Darcy and Rhodey all evening, whispered something to Pietro, who gave Darcy a positively evil grin before they, too retired to bed. 

“Guess it's just us,” Darcy said, gathering the game and beginning to pack it up. She wondered whether she could get away with pulling an all-nighter watching Netflix. 

Except then she'd be tired or sleeping all day tomorrow, and she did want to actually spend some time outside. 

Face it, Stark, she told herself. It's only awkward if you make it awkward. 

She looked up at Rhodey to find him looking down at her. She waited a second or two, but he didn't say anything. 

“Cat got your tongue?” she asked, pushing up from the floor, game in hand.  

Rhodey shook his head, blinking once or twice like he was emerging from a pool. “Sorry - tired, I guess.”

At his words, Darcy yawned. “Yeah,” she said, leaving the game out on the kitchen counter. They'd play it again before the weekend was over. “Me too.”

“You know, Darcy,” Rhodey said, and Darcy turned to face him. He was putting away wine glasses in the dishwasher. “I can sleep on the floor-“

And there was the reason she was sleeping on the air mattress. Right there. 

“Don’t be stupid,” she said, blasé as could be. “We’re adults, right? Nothing saying we can’t share a mattress.” 

It’s only weird if you let it be, she repeated to herself. 

“I’ll grab it and get it set up,” she called over her shoulder, headed for the linen closet. 

Rhodey padded in as Darcy was finishing putting on the fitted sheet. “Blankets are in the closet,” she said, and Heaven help her, Rhodey looked absolutely snugglable in sweats and a MIT t-shirt. “I’m gonna go change.”

She tried resolutely not to think as she shrugged into her own sweats and t-shirt. Everything was going to be fine. 

Sure.

------

Rhodey was already lying on the air mattress when she got back, two blankets and a pillow lying on her side of the bed waiting for her. 

“You are a saint,” Darcy said, suddenly realising exactly how tired she was. Rhodey chuckled as Darcy eased herself onto the mattress, only then noticing she’d left the light on.

“Shit.” 

“Stay where you are,” Rhodey said, and before she could move a muscle, he was off the bed and headed for the light switch.

“Like I said,” Darcy said, wrapping her blanket around her, “Saint.”

“Just get some sleep, ok?” Rhodey said. 

“Ok,” Darcy said. I’ll try, anyway.

And, despite her nerves, despite how the mattress shifted as Rhodey lay back down and rolled over, Darcy fell asleep between one breath and the next.

-----

Darcy was comfortable. 

She was warm, she was… lying on the floor? Her hip was definitely on something cold and not as yielding as her mattress.

Everything came flooding back, and Darcy froze. She’d spent last night on the crappy air mattress. With Rhodey. 

Slowly, she began to catalogue her position. If she moved too fast, her neck would seize, and then pain.

Lying on her side, check. One arm, going numb beneath her, check. Other arm, cold and out of the covers, check. Third - what? 

Darcy practically levitated in her surprise. She looked over at her bed-partner, who was blinking at her muzzily as he woke up. 

That’s the cutest thing I’ve ever seen. 

Shit. Were we spooning?! 

Darcy looked at Rhodey, at his arm beneath her pillow, then realised she could move her head. She could move it without feeling like there were two metal rods either side of her head. 

“Oh my god, you are the magic man,” she blurted.

“Rhodey?” Tony padded past the door. “What did you do with my sister?”

Rhodey sat up next to Darcy, shoulder brushing hers, thighs touching. Yup, they’d been spooning. Darcy avoided meeting Tony’s eyes. 

“Tony, if you make me tell Pepper what happened in Mallorca last Spring Break,” he warned.

“Mallorca?” Pepper came into view past Tony’s shoulder, still wrapped in a blanket. “Tony?”

“Morning,” Darcy said, trying to get the morning’s awkwardness over with in one fell swoop. “Coffee?”

-----

She was in the middle of making the second pot of coffee, her own cup sitting next to the machine, when Tony joined her. 

“So the air mattress was ok?” he asked, concerned. “How’s your neck?”

“I can move it!” Darcy said, rotating her head from side to side. “And it doesn’t hurt!” She looked down. “I ended up using Rhodey’s arm as a pillow - must have helped.”

“He’ll be glad to know that,” Tony said gently, and Darcy looked up at him, shocked. He booped her nose with the hand not holding his own cup of coffee. “Short Stack, you know he’s been gone on you for years, right?”

“What?” Darcy’s half-shout had everyone looking at them. Darcy lowered her voice. “You’re kidding me.”

Tony shook his head. “He told me the start of this year. Said he was gonna go for it, and it was only polite to tell a guy when you’re in love with his sister.”

“In …” Darcy said, looking around for Rhodey. He was sitting with Jane and Thor, but looked up as if he could feel her gaze, smiling back at her. “Huh.”

“Go on,” Tony bumped her with his hip. “I’ll finish the coffee.”

In a daze, Darcy picked up her coffee and went to join the others. She sat next to Rhodey, who scooted slightly to make room for her.