Pound of Flesh

DJ bolts through the house, nearly knocking Pepper over in her haste. She dodges Clint who absent mindedly attempts to trip her and jogs right through the sealed door to Tony’s workshop. There’s a small twinge of pain in her skull, but she ignores it and plasters on a grin. “You said it’s finished?”

“It was finished a week ago,” Tony complained as his fingers danced around holographic images of his armor. “But it’s been modified for an ungrateful diva that has rolled around in the sack with a chain of superheroes but won’t flash her ass for the greater good, if that’s what you mean.”

“That’s exactly what I mean.”

Tony brushes past her, sparing her a quick glance. “Don’t you flutter those lashes at me. You’ll have to answer to Pepper, you harlot. And I’m not changing the design again. I went on the record saying that. Didn’t I, JARVIS? Tell her.”

“Indeed, Sir. You announced as much rather frequently.”

“Okay, okay,” DJ flapped her hands impatiently. “Let’s see it then.”

He jerked the tarp away with the same flourish as the first time, but the difference was that this time DJ was incredibly pleased with the result. It was beautiful- sleek and powerful looking. Mostly practical, and yes, sexy.

“It’s mostly leather,” Tony told her as he ran a finger over the top almost lovingly. “Lined with Kevlar.”

The top was practically a bustier, stopping just below her ribs with a line of buckles down each side. It was a soft periwinkle color with a sharp charcoal accent. The pants matched, tight and low on her hips, but full-length. She had a thick dark gray jacket with plenty of compartments, and a belt with holsters at the side, just in case. And the boots- knee-high, decked in buckles, heavy.

“Steel-toed,” Tony informs her proudly. “To give your kicks that extra zest.”

“How thoughtful,” she beams as she slides them on, bouncing around to test the weight. “It’s great unless someone decides to drive a shiv into my stomach.”

Tony cuts her a disapproving look. “Just don’t go to the state penitentiary and you should be fine. And you’re intangible in the face of danger- your costume is more for branding purposes.”

“That and you have to show some skin in case Clint has to skewer me,” DJ says nonchalantly, hopping up on the edge of a work table. “Don’t give me that face. I get it.”

“Yeah, well, Bruce tells me that the arrow might be a moot point if you keep up with the tricks you’re pulling.” He straightens out the lapels of her jacket. “If you were planning on going on a suicide mission it would have been nice to tell me that before I wasted my time and resources.”

DJ ruffles his hair affectionately, earning herself a glare. “That’s Tony speak for you’re concerned about me. But I’ve been getting this shit from everyone; I don’t need it from a man who let his high-tech pacemaker poison him.”

“And we don’t need two Tony Starks.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” she starts with mock seriousness. “I’m not nearly rich enough to be you. Brilliant? Yeah. Charming? Irrefutably. I’ll even accept arrogant and reckless, but my bank account is all me, baby.”

“You forgot the romantically inadequate similarities we tend to share.”

She groans, letting her head fall forward onto his shoulder. “Is this the portion of the evening where you attempt to talk to me about Steve?”

“That’s apparently what friends do. So I hear. Sounds kind of agonizing to me, but I do try to follow social norms occasionally.”

“Well this is one norm that you do not have to abide by. Seriously. Don’t.”

“Thank God,” he sighs, pushing her away to get another look at her suit. “How’s it fit? Breathes enough? Not too tight?”

She scoots down to her feet and does a little twirl. “It fits impeccably. Everywhere. Which leaves me uneasy that you know the shape and size of my boobs so perfectly.”

“I have a good eye. Especially for good-“

“While I’m sure that the next words out of your mouth were going to be an incredibly classy compliment, I wouldn’t want to have to test out these steel-toed boots on the weaker parts of your anatomy.”
_____________________________________________

“Maybe try not throwing villains at me next time,” Clint grumbled over the comm as he struggled against a fussy sorceress.

DJ laughed as she dodged an enchanted shrub. “I’ll aim for one of the other four men who have much more impressive arm strength.”

“I, for one, vote not throwing villains in general,” Tony offered, knocking the shrub out with a repulsor blast. “Too much pressure to catch them, it’s kind of a liability, and it just pisses them off and makes them turn the vegetation sentient.”

Hulk roars and tosses the sorceress’s counterpart- a young, lanky sorcerer- at Thor.

“Or we could develop a points system,” Natasha presented as an alternative.

“Ten points to Revenant for finesse, fifteen to Hulk for distance. And four to Thor for actually catching him.” Steve hurls his shield at a tree that snarls and uproots itself.

Grinning, DJ steps aside as the tree hits the ground with a crash. “Thor Odinson. Four for you Thor Odinson. You go Thor Odinson.”

“And none for Hawkeye. Bye,” Tony snickers through the comm.

Steve catches his shield as it comes back to him and gives DJ a confused look. “What?”

“Twenty-first century pop culture thing,” she shrugs. “Don’t even try to understand it.”

Clint grunts from his spot on the roof, clutching his stomach where the sorceress elbowed him. “A little help here?” He throws his body weight at her, pinning her down. “She’s trying to animate the entire park.”

“Environmentalists,” Tony comments with disdain, swooping down to scoop up the sorceress and soar back into the sky. “They never know when to quit.”

Steve watches the trees that were inching out of the ground sink back to their original position as the sorceress wails at her sudden height. “Thor! Take Houdini up with Iron Man, get him out of range. Hawkeye, get into contact with SHIELD and have them send over some agents with cuffs. Black Widow’s on crowd control. Me and Revenant can wrangle the big guy.”

The Hulk grunts and lifts a Taxi over his head, coiling his muscles in preparation for smashing.

“Hulk! No!” Steve picks up his shield, scolding him like a dog.

The car floats gently out of his hands and settles back on the street, no worse for wear. Hulk grumbles in surprise but does no more retaliation than a mutinous pout.

“Where are your manners, Steve?” DJ teases as the Captain sags with relief. “Even rage monsters like it when you say please.”

Steve gives her a smile that crumbles when her knees give out under her. He catches her with an arm around her waist, holding her against his chest. “You alright?”

“I’m fine,” she breathes squirming away from him, too hot at his touch. “I guess my heart hasn’t caught up with my brain. Your smile still makes me weak at the knees.”

“Sure.” He gives her a stern look. “Try taking it easy. No more juggling cars until Bruce gives you the all clear.”

She rolls her eyes and climbs over a pile of shredded shrubs on her way over to Hulk. “I think what you meant to say was ‘Good job minimizing damage to the city, DJ. Fury will sure be pleased with all the swell work you’re doing. Golly gee!’”

“What was with that little voice? I don’t sound like that.”

“Of course not,” she assures half-heartedly reaching a hand out to Hulk. “Come on, buddy. Let’s go for a walk before you change and traumatize some children with your nudity.”
_____________________________________________

Steve doesn’t think anyone notices. He knows for sure that she doesn’t. The way he watches her- gliding across the room, laughing, teasing, sparring, wrapped up in that sad, distant look- it’s constant. It’s always been like that, though. Impossible to look away from her.

When he met her his life was up in the air. He was out of place, just floating along, almost ceasing to exist when the world wasn’t in danger. And Bruce had Tony and Tony had him and Pepper most of the time, then there was Clint and Natasha who were a solid unit, and even Thor had Jane and Darcy to help him acclimate. Steve was just displaced.

DJ was a whirlwind and a disaster even before he knew she had that extra special something. But she was his anchor. She was that thing that Steve could call his. That person that he could talk to, that he knew would listen. That would look at him with a soft smile and open arms and teasing words that were sweet instead of mean.

She stayed when he barely knew how to string an acceptable sentence together around her. And when being with him meant having strangers wave guns in her face. And when he ached so terribly from missing his past that his lips wouldn’t stop flapping.

It takes a hell of a woman to hold a man while he cries about how much he loves somebody else. But Daisy did. And she shut him up when he fumbled for words. And she laughed down the barrel of a pistol.

Bucky had explained to him what it felt like to fall in love, because Bucky had fallen in love plenty of times. He said it’s like the snap of your fingers, or the flash of a camera, or a strike of lightning. It’s one moment where a girl says something, or does something, or looks at you a certain way and suddenly you can’t breathe because everything that she is just hits you. And you’re in love. And that’s what it was like with Peggy.

Daisy was different.

She came to him in increments. Every move she made was a drop in a pool, and eventually Steve was standing in the middle of this body of water as it rose over his head and pulled him under and drowned him. She filled his lungs until all he could breathe was her. And that was love, too.

And then she started to crack and fall apart and there was nothing Steve could do to stop it because she was the only one who knew how. He sees the spots of blood on her clothes. Her trembling fingers. Her buckling knees.

And he sees her crying sometimes, silently. But he doesn’t know if it’s because she has a broken heart, or if it’s because she’s dying.

And it’s not that he doesn’t love her. Because he does. He’s still lost at sea without a life jacket.

It’s that he can’t bear to lose anyone else. Because she stays when people need her and she leaves when they don’t. And that’s what will kill her in the end. Her choice to keep on loving even when she has no reason to.

But he is losing her.

He doesn’t know how to stop it.