Part Three – There And Back Again

Of course, after they got back to New York Darcy didn't see Barton for weeks. He disappeared into debriefings with Coulson and then took off with Natasha. To assassinate HYDRA members, Coulson told her quite bluntly when she asked one day. Where Natasha was. Not HawtGuy. She didn't give a shit about him.

Except – before he left, he'd apparently told Pietro and Wanda that they could trust her, because they clung to her like she was their mom, even though she had only just a decade on them. They both gave everyone else wide, terrified eyes, and Wanda wouldn't even speak in the presence of anyone else but Darcy and Pietro. Darcy tried to ask them why they trusted her but no one else, but the only answer she got was five muttered words from Pietro.

"Hawkeye said to trust you."

That was it. Wanda said nothing and just gazed at her with wide, troubled eyes if she asked, so Darcy eventually gave up and concentrated on looking after the two traumatised teenagers. Tony gave her a larger apartment to accommodate the three of them and she became their full-time minder.

It was almost a month after the twins had moved in with Darcy when Wanda started using her powers again, floating the remote control for the TV over to Darcy's hand when they were all snuggled on the couch and couldn't be bothered to reach for it. Darcy tried hard not to react, but couldn't resist a quiet "Thank you."

Wanda was startled to be thanked, instead of reprimanded or worse, for using her powers. But from that day, she began using them more and more, and Pietro slowly lost his terrified, haunted look and became more confident and less clingy.

Storm asked the twins to move to the Xavier Institute. They were X-gene positive, after all, and under eighteen. They both flatly refused. Even when Darcy offered to go with them.

"Our place is here," Wanda said finally when they pressed, and the way she looked at Ororo silenced the white-haired woman. "With the Avengers."

Darcy absolutely hated the way these people all seemed to talk with some weird subtext. Because Ororo simply inclined her head gracefully and never raised the topic again. And a few days later Pietro actually approached Steve and asked to spar with him.

Steve's eyebrows nearly hit his hairline, but he agreed at once. Quicksilver's speed was such that Steve could barely see him most of the time, but the kid didn't have the strength to get big hits in, so generally he just whizzed around Steve annoying him like a gnat. Darcy tried not to giggle at the look on Steve's face. It was less funny when Steve got a lucky swing in, catching Pietro in just the wrong spot and sending him flying across the gym.

A moment later it was Steve flying across the gym, hitting the wall with a thump as Wanda surged to her feet.

"No!" Darcy shouted, flinging herself in front of the Scarlet Witch's upraised hands, only realising just how recklessly stupid a move that had been when someone else hit her from the side and flung her out of the way, rolling them both across the floor and shielding her under heavy muscles.

The muscles at first made Darcy think it was Bucky who'd thrown her clear. And indeed, when her head cleared enough for her to focus, it was blue eyes staring into hers from a range of about two inches. But they weren't the pale, icy blue of the Winter Soldier. They were a deeper, greyish-blue, a colour she'd only ever seen on one man, piercing into what felt like her soul.

"Darcy," Hawkeye breathed softly against her lips – she could actually feel his breath on her mouth.

"What. The. Fuck," she choked out. "Get. Off!"

Barton actually had the gall to look surprised. But he climbed off, and fuck, she could breathe again. The man was heavy.

A moment later he was swarmed under by Wanda and Pietro, both of whom literally flung themselves on him and started hugging him tightly. He laughed, hugging them both back, but his eyes never left where Darcy was levering herself up from the floor.

"Okay," Darcy said, finally regaining her feet, and finally losing her temper. "What the fuck is it that you all know, that you're not telling me?" She was shouting by the time she reached the end of the question.

Clint looked at Wanda in surprise. "You didn't tell her?"

And Wanda actually smiled, a cheeky, secretive little smile. "Don't be lazy, Clint. Good things are worth putting in the effort for." And she linked her arm with her brother's and led him out of the gym, cooing over the bump on his head. Steve followed them, apologising and being apologised to in turn. Darcy's eyes opened wide. It was the first time Wanda had directly spoken to Captain America, to her knowledge. She rarely spoke in the presence of any of the men at all.

"They look better," Clint said quietly in her ear. "You've been doing an amazing job with them."

Darcy turned on him, put her hands on her hips, changed her mind and poked him in the chest with one finger. Trying not to notice how very firm he was. And why didn't any of his shirts have sleeves? No, Lewis, no, keep your eyes on his.

"Start talking. Because something really fucking weird has been going on from day dot with those two kids and you and for some reason me, and I think you all know about it and I don't, and I don't fucking well like it!"

Clint sighed, scrubbed both hands through his short dark blond hair, and then sighed again. "Fuck. Wanda was right. I've been lazy." He looked down at the floor, then looked back up at Darcy through long eyelashes. "I'm no good with talking to women."

"You could have fooled me," Darcy retorted, laughing slightly as she recalled the first time she'd heard him speak.

"No, really, I …" he sighed again. "Can I buy you a coffee?"

"Not until you've spilled the word." She folded her arms across her chest, then unfolded them to poke him in the chest again as his eyes dropped. "And no looking at the goods. Eyes up here, Barton."

"Fine," he lifted his eyes back to hers. "Wanda's not just telekinetic. She knows stuff. Sorta like clairvoyancy. The day you guys arrived to break us out, she snapped upright out of sleep, looked right at me and said "she's coming, Hawkeye."

"The one for you. She's coming. She'll be here soon."

"What the hell do you mean?" Clint stared at the teenage girl. He'd befriended them both slowly, when left on night guard duty. No one had talked to the poor kids as anything other than lab rats in the whole two years – two years! – the children had been here. He'd turned on the intercoms and started talking to them the first night he'd been left alone in the observation room on guard. It turned out they hadn't even known the other was present. Pietro had cried. He'd thought his sister was dead.

"The one for you. You're gonna marry her. And we're gonna get little brothers and a little sister one day." Wanda's glazed expression was spooky. He'd already promised to adopt both the kids when he got them out of here. When, not if. He refused to think about the possibilities of if.

"Do I know her?" he half-begged, wondering if Wanda could possibly be right. He'd given up – after Tasha and Bobbi – on finding a woman he could love and respect who would actually feel the same way about him.

"You've seen her but never spoken. She's so pretty. Oh, I can't wait!" Wanda clapped her hands together, actually smiling for the first time he'd seen. "One look in those blue eyes and you're a goner, Hawkeye!"

Darcy actually gaped. She literally couldn't think of a thing to say. For once.

"Once I realised who was along on the mission, I realised it had to be you. Even before I saw you. I knew all the others well, but you I'd only ever seen at a distance, in New Mexico. And then I looked in those big blue eyes and Wanda was right." His already husky, sultry voice dropped even lower, making her shiver, and he stepped a little closer, invading her personal space, lifting a big hand to caress her cheek. "I was a goner."

Still nothing. Except she was gonna fucking kill Wanda for not tipping her off to this. For letting this gorgeous man have such a disgracefully unfair advantage over her. What happened to female solidarity?

"It wasn't fair, was it, Darcy?" Clint murmured. "I knew as soon as I heard your voice over the comm. That we're gonna get married and have kids one day. All I could think when I saw you was that I'm the luckiest guy alive because you're so fucking beautiful every time I'm near you I can't breathe."

His thumb was tracing over her lower lip now. And finally Darcy found her voice. "YOU can't breathe?"

"Nup," one corner of his mouth kicked up in a smile. "Will you adopt Wanda and Pietro with me?"

"Yes?" Her brain was totally short-circuited by his closeness. Her breasts were actually touching his chest, and she was quite sure that he must be able to feel her nipples, hard as acorns inside her bra.

"And give them little brothers and a sister?"

"Can we talk about that at a future date? Like – after you actually get around to kissing me?"

His thumb pressed lightly against her jaw, parting her lips gently. "Any time you like, sweetheart." And he finally bent his head and slanted his mouth over hers.

Upstairs, ensconced on the sofa in Darcy's apartment, Wanda smiled and leant her head against her brother's shoulder. Her family was coming together at last. "What do you think we should convince Mom and Dad to name our siblings, Pietro?"

So – yeah. Dunno where that came from. I was having writer's block on A Shattered Reflection and surfing google images for Age of Ultron, and I was just thinking about how very young Witch and Quicksilver look in the CA:TWS end credits scene. And this popped up in my head. I was tired, and I write Darcy quite well when I'm tired because she's very much a slightly random stream of consciousness (in my headcanon, anyway).

Comments always welcome and I hope you enjoyed!