Darcy was telling Aria about hoards in the lab and why you had them when the agents came back. "What's up, Agents?" She looked at her daughter. "It's traditional that next year I buy you something to start yours with, something that some day you'll share with a real mate. So you have to help me pick out something pretty to put in there."
"Like a shiny headband?" she asked, eyes wide, touching her current headband.
"Or something more like jewelry," she agreed, patting her on the head. "My own hoard has very few jewelry pieces but I collected some statues and art I liked. I lost some of it when my last mate left, but that happens. A real mate contract, or more preferably a consort, wouldn't want to steal from you but that's how a lot of dragons up their own hoards. It's cheating but they're assholes anyway."
Aria pouted. "Why would you date someone like that?"
"I didn't know he was like that when we dated. We had decided to go to mate status before making a real commitment. And then he got jealous and nasty and hateful until someone slapped him with some reality, then he just decided he couldn't handle it." She grimaced. "I hope you get better taste, dear."
"Me too. I don't need some asshole that way. There's enough dumb bunnies anyway in this world." She pouted at the agents, who all grinned at her. "Are you guys that way?"
"Most of the dragons who don't go with the confederation councils don't believe in mate contracts. They only believe in consorts."
"Yeah but the divorces are messier," Darcy said. "I always considered the mate contract to be like an engagement."
Rumlow nodded. "I know a few who saw it that way. Like you, they're more about the oldest of old ways." She grinned. "Is she okay?"
"So far. We've only seen one snake today and we're not sure if it was leftover or fresh. It fell into the lab next door and ate a few lab mice."
"We heard because they yelled a lot," Aria said. "Auntie Jane had to apologize too." She looked at her mother. "Can I look up pretty things?"
"Yup, you can start doing that. That's why I'm teaching you about them." Darcy grinned. "You'll give me some ideas."
"Are they in a bank?"
"Mine's mostly in Grandma's attic. Like I said, I like art."
Aria considered it, hugging her stuffed wolf Mr. Turtle. "Will I like art?"
Darcy shrugged. "No clue, sweetie. That's all up to you."
Aria grinned and nodded. "I might like that. I'll look at catalogs. I like catalogs." She went to find her usual stash of them in the lab, she looked through them often. "Mommy, can we put a toaster in there?"
"No, toasters are too common," she said. "So are coffee makers, even though Jane's hoard contains two."
"Coffee is important," Aria said, very serious when she looked at the agents, who all nodded. "Do you guys have one?"
"Hoards are personal stuff we don't usually talk about," Darcy said patiently. "It's like bragging about new stuff or family heirlooms."
"Oh, sorry. I don't mean to be rude." She went back to her catalogs, staring at one picture she tapped. "Ooh. Mom, am I old enough to get my ears pierced?"
"Eight," she reminded her. "So you can take care of them properly."
"Shoot. Those are pretty." She brought the catalog over to show her. "Those are pretty?"
She looked and nodded. "Those are a great pretty thing for your hoard, dear." She smiled and kissed her on the cheek. "We can look around after your birthday to see if we can find a pretty pair." Aria beamed and went back to her seat to look through things, putting little post it notes on top of the pictures she liked. Darcy stood up, looking at the agents. "Bad news?"
"Checking in," Rumlow said, staring at her. "Are you two okay? Things have been quiet."
"Jane's working with Dr. Banner up the hall. We've been fixing all the data entry stuff Ian did wrong most of today." She grimaced. "The paper form and the computer form are a bit different in format." Rumlow winced but nodded once. "Yeah, so he straight entered instead." She waved a hand lazily in the air. "Otherwise, not much of a problem. Oh, the magic person upstairs?"
"Wanda," one of the agents said. "She said she felt someone down here earlier. The kid?"
She looked at Aria, who stared back then she looked at him. "There's a non magical gift there."
Rumlow stared at her. "Your family's?"
She stared back. "Read great-grandma's biography?" she guessed.
"Her husband. I did a major paper on him in high school."
"Ah." She nodded. "Something closer to his. The Growlies she sees and senses," she said quietly.
"Spirits," he said. She nodded. "That could come in handy. Can you?"
"No, I can't talk to them. I haven't been able to since I was seven. I lost it during my first full change."
"You changed fully at seven?" one of the other two asked, looking horrified. "I was fourteen."
"I apparently decided napping that way was better. Mom came in and found me changed when she tried to get me up." She shrugged but grinned. "No one said I'm the standard girl. I'm a lot more self aware than some." She smiled at the man walking in. "Mr. Stark, you didn't have to bring us stuff for her to look at."
He stared at her. "This was delivered for you. By an ex?" He held it out.
She took it to put onto a table then carefully opened it in case it held another snake. It held a pretty nightgown. She looked at the card, holding it up. "Him. Again."
"Isn't he in jail?" Rumlow demanded.
"The US complained and got him out of the jail in England. So he's here but stuck in the states." She boxed it back up. "Let me send that back with a note saying I don't want him anywhere near my family." Stark took it back to do that. "Stark, don't get too involved. He could try to attack you for being a human," she warned quietly. "Some dragons are like that and pure asshole about it."
He smirked at her. "I've seen worse. I dated one of you when I was a teenager and had to drop her suddenly. Talk about pissy bitches." He walked off to send that back.
Darcy clapped her hands. Then used some hand sanitizer. "So. Anyway." Rumlow nodded. "You guys need more intel?"
"Can we talk about some of the ones you've talked to or who may show up to help you?" the other of the two lesser agents asked. "That way we can maybe slip them a word?"
"I've sent everyone a warning I was going to war over this. Two I haven't heard from. One of my mentors ordered me to calm down. Said I was being a panicky mother and girl sort. When I sent him pictures of the snakes, he got a bit pissed off and went to talk to my mother."
"Does that mean Grandma's coming?" Aria asked.
"Not sure yet, sweetie. She'll try to visit soon but she's not sure when." She looked at the guys again. "The agent near her is really nice she said. Said she even likes tea."
Rumlow nodded. "Carter can be that way." He shifted his weight, getting out of Jane's way. "Can we talk about who else may show up? That way we're not shocked into not moving?"
"I guess. Did you want a dating history? I doubt many of them would pop up that way. None were more than casual dating. If it had happened when we were dating they'd be there but most have moved on to other relationships."
"Didn't one just lose his mate?" Jane asked, sitting down.
"Yup, Brandon did. His consort died in a car crash when someone jumped the median while half asleep." She looked at them. "My mother had such hopes that I'd like him enough to take him in. We dated back in high school. We're still on friendly terms but he was a bit horrified that I kept Aria. Now he'll send her a generic birthday card."
Rumlow nodded. "That's good to know. Any of them that would probably come to help you or would help hide you if necessary?"
"If I need to, I can bum the old family nesting cave," she offered. "We still own the land around it."
"You'd have to be able to fly to get there?" Jane guessed.
"Or rock climb up quartz heavy cliffs," Darcy agreed with a nod. She looked at Brock. "Different great-grandma than Russie before you ask about hers. Hers is in Brunswick."
"I saw when your uncle was being an idiot. I was a junior member of the team that went to grab him."
She grinned. "He was so damn high," she said quietly. "Testing his own shit."
Brock winced. "We heard."
Darcy nodded. "Great-grandma heard too. Which is why he died."
Brock grinned. "Sometimes mothers can be that way."
"Yes I am, because I learned at her knee. Hers and Grandma's."
"Like I learn from my grandma?" Aria asked, looking up.
"Not quite, dear. My mom worked all the time so I sat around with my dad's mom a lot. She did a lot of my babysitting."
"Oh. So no daycare?"
"Not in that area then."
"Huh." She went back to looking.
Jane sighed. "You're using all my post it notes, Aria."
Aria looked at her. "Mom told me about hoards today and how next year we have to pick something pretty for it. I'm picking out pretty things then you can have them back?"
"I'll get more," Darcy promised with a sigh at the end. She stared at Aria, who pouted. "I know you're trying. Stick with those for now and weed them down, putting the post its back together." Aria nodded, going back through her choices to weed them down like she did with her holiday list. She looked at the guys, shrugging. "She's smart. Most of the time."
"Most people are," Jane agreed with a nod.
Rumlow sniffed and turned to look then at Darcy. "That lawyer."
"He can stay in the hallway," Jane ordered. "I found a snake in my bed last night trying to get warm under my blanket."
Darcy looked at her. "Why didn't you tell me? I would've come killed it and helped you change the sheets."
"Thor was over last night." Jane grinned. "He can do it easier with one hand."
"True, he does have strong hands." Darcy stared at the lawyer, who was looking nervous. "What? Speak now or run away." It was the official way of offering a negotiation during a war. Rumlow stiffened at that phrase.
"My employer wanted to make peace. It will look like an annulment contract." He handed it to the lesser agents.
Darcy took it to look over, then picked up a pen to write through multiple places. She handed it back to him. "He still needs to pay for those deaths. Before they try to force another one as one was announced earlier in the news. Facebook, yay."
The lawyer winced. "I was not aware of that."
"I wasn't either," Rumlow admitted. Darcy pulled it up to show him. "Shit, he did. She's barely eighteen." He showed it to one of the lesser agents, who went to put an agent to watch over her just in case she died. "We'll make sure this one doesn't disappear," he told the lawyer.
"Are you a shifter?" he asked impatiently.
Rumlow let out a few scales on his arms. "Ya think?"
The man backed up, staring at him. Then at Darcy, who grinned. "He's supposed to be an excellent agent. The rumors state he's never lost a mission. Having him guard my little girl is making me relax a lot. Or else I'd still be scaled up." The lawyer nodded and left. He didn't quite pee up the hallway but he was walking awkwardly like he might have had a bit of a leaking problem. She sighed, looking at him. "How did you learn to just highlight the tattoos? I can usually only scale up my full arms that way. Or just my legs to treat new bruises from running into Jane's coffee table."
"I don't know," he admitted. "I've always done it that way. Changing just one arm I can't do though." She showed off hers. He noticed something. "You have some chipping."
She looked and sighed. "We'll spa together tonight. Aria does great with those sort of brushes."
"They don't hurt my hair, Mom."
"Point." She grinned. "Let me narrow down her choices of first hoard presents."
"Still need a contact list?" he suggested.
She handed over her phone. He scanned through them, then moaned at a few names. She looked and grinned. "Godmother. Really upset over this but they told her to calm down. I was just one woman." She smirked. "They're going to be a smoking wreck soon."
He handed the phone back with a nod. "We'll make sure if any of them show up to help you that they get to you." He looked at Aria then at her. "You two are safe up here?"
"Hopefully." She glanced at Jane then grinned at him. "We'll probably be just fine since they've been scared off again."
"Okay." He left with the lesser agent, who hovered up the hall to guard the lab area. He went up to Fury, staring at him until he looked up. "Her godmother is Sephora."
Fury blinked a few times. "She's got a few godchildren."
"She's mad."
"I've heard they were fighting in DC."
"The other one listed as godmother has no name but a few Chinese symbols."
"We don't have contacts in the dragons there," he admitted. "Or in my own breed's council."
"Hmm. You need to look up what traditionalist means." He walked off. "There's two meanings."
Fury looked that up, staring at the list of what made up a traditionalist way of life. Lewis wasn't one of those freaky old ways people. But she did hold a lot of the same views apparently. The other one talked about the original dragons who had ...introduced their genes to humanity. He didn't think she fit that one. That one talked about magic and multiple forms from the first generation kids.
So he'd have to wait and see but he'd bet on the first. He hoped anyway. Thor had never mentioned she had magic.
Though he did look up what she did in New Mexico during Loki's attack. She had rescued the animals and then went to bigger dragon form to stare him down with Jane behind her leg to protect her.
***
Rumlow showed up that night, late that night, after the kid was down. He got let in by Darcy. "I need to ask a tactical question," he said quietly, staring down at her. "I've heard you mention a lesser form. Did you mean your size change?"
She grinned. "I'll probably tell you yes if I wanted to talk about such things."
"Your grandmother, she could change sizes."
"She could," she agreed with a nod. "She died when I was like four but she showed me how."
He licked his lips. "Is that what you meant though?"
She tipped her head to the side. "Things like that are often more hidden than we do about our hoards. Do your family talk about any family gifts?"
"No. My family doesn't have any."
"Outside the extended stamina and strength?" she guessed.
He tipped his head but smiled. "I was given a serum when I was undercover to take down HYDRA, Lewis. That's not a family thing."
"Oh, sorry. I just assumed." She shifted her weight. "Did his biography note that he married an original line daughter?"
"No," he said slowly and clearly. "You are?"
"She was."
"Does that hold true for your mother?"
"No. It didn't."
"Did you test it with training?"
"Some. I took what I could with my mentors. Dr. Howard was very good to train me since he hated I was a girl." She leaned against the back of the couch. "Aria can see sprits. The Growlies she talks about are spirits," she said quietly.
"Which you could originally do."
She nodded. "There's a block there. I can't do it any more. She may lose it when she reaches her first full change like I did." She shrugged. "I've had to get past it once, and that was in London with the dark elves. It's not on camera thankfully but I made myself hella sick doing that. At that time I breathed plasma."
He winced. "That's good to know. It was probably excused as a near-death event."
She nodded. "It kinda was."
"So nothing you could possibly just call up."
"Not without a lot of pain."
"Do you have more than one form? Not the size changing."
She grinned. "I'll probably only share that with a mate."
He nodded. "That's a good idea. Some people are idiots about that sort of traditionalist." He gave her a pointed look. She grinned back. "Have a good night, Lewis." He went back to his own rooms to think about things. She did smell good.
***
Darcy met with the lawyer again, at his request at his office. She walked in and stared at him. "What now?"
"I wish a detente," he said calmly, staring at her. "No guards today?"
"They're guarding my daughter. She's more vulnerable." She stared at him. "Why would I want to talk about the man who needs to be punished for killing at least six women out of the ten the local council forced to go to him as mates? Though the one from yesterday is already missing. Nor will I bend on him coming near myself or my daughter, especially with all the snakes that appeared suddenly in our lives."
"He wishes to make reparation."
"I think he's got at least six women's family in front of me," she said dryly.
"He did already pay them for their losses. Or so he's said."
"Uh-huh. He bought them through the local Council," she said dryly. "The mating ceremony here uses a stone to record things." He flinched. She smirked a tiny bit. "Any outside that aren't considered mated if you're confederation aligned."
"I... I have a consort so I was not aware."
"You would've said your vow in front of it anyway. The thing with the wine or tea."
"Mine was done out of the States and it may have but I didn't notice." He stared at her. "It's said that you're usually a babbling, nervous wreck during conflict."
"Not really. When I'm nervous, yes. When you threaten me or my daughter? Nope."
"I see."
"I doubt it." She smirked. "Thankfully they didn't catch me on film in London when the Dark Elves showed up."
"I've heard about that from their local council. They got a personality file from your home council."
"Which means my mother made me seem nicer, more polite, and a lot more geeky than I am. I was at eighteen. A decade later..." She waved a hand sideways in the air. "After two battles and a lot of threats due to my work with Jane? I'm not eighteen anymore. I have a daughter to protect."
"I'm sure you're very fierce in her defense. Will she be able to change?"
"Yeah. She's already scaled up." She smirked. He slumped, that meant she was protected by some of the oldest laws. She pulled out her phone to prove it. "So yes, he needs to pay for what he's done to them and to never come near me and mine again. Anything else to talk about today?"
"No," he said quietly. "I will let him know that you will let him be handled by those other families' needs first."
Darcy tipped her head. "Thank you for that. Don't send another snake related thing to my daughter. The necklace was tacky and I don't let her open things without me being there." She dropped it onto the desk before walking off.
The lawyer picked up the snake necklace to look at then tucked it into a drawer. He had no doubt she had taped that talk as well. His client was in a bad place, and so were the Council that had helped him.
***
Darcy came back to the tower after having a shaking fit in the park's safe area. Now she was calm again and her daughter was in the lobby for some reason. "Why are you down here?"
"I got onto the wrong elevator and it won't let me up," she pouted. Darcy sighed, taking her hand to sign them in and go upstairs. The elevator wouldn't work for them either. She looked at the staring guards, using her pass on the sensor. It turned green and the doors didn't open. "Mommy, did they take Auntie Jane from us?" she begged.
"No, sweetie. It's probably a malfunction somewhere." She kissed her on the head. "The pass sensor goes green so the passes still work. I hope someone can fix it." She glared a guard, who stared at the floor. "Okay, let's ...." She considered it. "You know what, let's go for a walk, kiddo. Let me text Jane." She sent her one, getting a confused one back from Thor, who she repeated the message for. She walked off carrying Aria.
She got them to a nearby public space that was higher up. She sighed, looking at her daughter. "I'm going to change and we're going to fly over. You have to hold on *really* tight when I'm carrying you. Got it?" She nodded. Darcy changed to her smaller form and picked up Aria, then leapt off the building's roof to change to her bigger one in flight.
A few people were taking pictures but she landed on the roof of the tower, putting Aria down against an antenna tower. "Hold on to that until I change down." She went to her smaller size and took Aria back to help her down the stairs. Once they got into the staircase she went to human and winked at her girl, who was giggling at that. "Now we only have six flights to walk down to the lab."
"That's a lot easier than fifty up," Stark said from a doorway. "Showoff!"
Darcy grinned. "The elevator wouldn't let us on even though the sensor went green. We just problem solved." She walked past him with Aria waving. "We're going back to the lab. Why does Thor have Jane's phone?"
"No clue but he's in the infirmary." She stared at him. "He got hit on the head. He's confused and thinks he's in New Mexico again."
"Ah," she sighed, nodding slightly. "Let me know if we can help." She and Aria hummed as they went down the stairs. She had to carry Aria the last flight but she was still too young to walk all those stairs by herself. She stopped at the vending machines to get them all a snack then went to the lab. Jane looked confused when they walked in but did take her snack bars. "How did she get onto the elevator?"
"The ceiling guy told me to go visit Uncle Thor," Aria said.
"It was not me," JARVIS said patiently. "That was someone in the security sensor."
"JARVIS, please don't let my daughter wander that way," Darcy said. "There's still probably a threat to her."
"I tried not to. She was allowed in the elevator."
"She's three, JARVIS. She's not allowed anywhere without an adult. Can you modify that outside of emergencies?"
"Yes, I believe I can," he admitted. The bracelet beeped. "That will fix that and I'll alert others who were in the control room when that message was sent. And who rigged the elevator."
"Cool. Thanks." She smiled at Aria, putting her down. "Go sit and snack." She settled into her usual seat in the corner to nibble while talking to Jane about what her stars were doing today.
Darcy sat at her desk to eat, ignoring her email. Her mother's got a look so she answered her that it was necessary to get them back to their lab and then the apartment. Then she ignored the video call request. Her favorite aunt wrote and she read it then sighed and marked it as spam. Her aunt needed an enema to the brain apparently. She put a note on her facebook, which her mother and aunt both lurked on.
She put on there the whole situation, including that the idiot had gotten one while still harassing her and she hadn't been spotted since the hand over, and that they had tried to kill her and her daughter. If her relatives were that sort perhaps she had fewer actual relations than she had thought. Then she left it there until she saw the notification that her aunt had copied it and her mother had read it.
Then she erased it for a less specific note about how the local and London councils had been engaging in selling mates. Which violated all the charters. She listed all the violations she knew of and put out a call to remake the councils so they were the way they were supposed to have been when they were created. Though she did note that the horrible behavior had made her withdraw her daughter from the confederation council's lists for her own safety and well being, before someone tried to sell her off. Someone on Facebook reported her for hate speech but she could defend it all by police reports. They had to let it go when she uploaded those official copies of the documents.
Her last statement of the day said 'we should not be the evil in the fairytale, we should be above needing to have an evil or a fairytale in these modern times. If not, we have failed our bloodlines and futures completely'. She left it there and got back to work. She noticed it trending on twitter and sighed. A whole lot of bigots on twitter. But they'd deal.
***
Darcy looked up as the door was knocked on that night, going to check the spy hole then answered the door with the chain on. "Yes?"
"Miss Lewis, Director Fury would like to see you."
"I doubt that since I saw him an hour ago."
The man glared. "Who're you to...."
Darcy slammed the door in his face and sighed. The guy kicked it but someone hit him for it. "Thank you," she called. "Let me know later what his problem was."
"He's an anti changer bigot," a male voice called. "Has always been and got fired from SHIELD for that."
"Okay, have fun with him then." She went back to the table. Aria was staring at her. "Don't be rude like I can be unless you have to, okay?"
"I'll try, Mom. I'm very much your little girl according to Uncle Thor."
"Yeah, you are. Sometimes that's a bit more rude than the average person needs though."
"I'll try." She dug into her casserole with squash. "Mom, why are there yellow and green and white things?"
"Because squash can be that way?"
"Eww. Isn't squash what I did when I sat on the donut?"
"Same name, different reason. Eat up." She noticed her daughter ate the yellow squash and the green squash but the white squash she ignored totally. She heard a bang and looked at the hallway then at her daughter. "Let's go somewhere for tonight. We can sleepover."
Her daughter sighed but knew not to argue. Even if she did wander off complaining about dumb bunnies pretending to be human. She packed her own bag and made sure she had some important things, like shampoo, soap, her phone and tablet and charger, and her wallet.
She had to help Aria pack so she got more than a few t-shirts and one pair of socks, but that was usual. She checked the hall and snuck off with Aria trudging behind her. They snuck around one of the three dragon agents downstairs because he was busy sneering at the bigot. Darcy put her backpack on and picked up Aria to carry her. "Let's go...rent a car." Aria looked at her oddly. "Maybe we'll go visit Grandma."
Aria sighed. "She'll complain because we didn't warn her."
"Maybe. She'll be too happy to complain for a day." She got them onto a bus to the airport and managed to make it to the airport without a problem. Then one agent stepped in front of her.
"Where are you two going?" Rumlow asked calmly and quietly.
"To visit Grandma so she has to complain," Aria quipped with a smile. "It's like a sneak attack."
Rumlow nodded, looking at Darcy, who grinned and nodded. "They have a few agents."
"That's why I was going to rent a car."
"That would take longer to track," he decided. "We can fly you down there. Or hide you in the city."
"We had a bigot show up."
"I saw both facebook posts and moaned a lot." He walked them out of the way. "We can hide you in the city. There's a lot of us who aren't council aligned in the city."
"I was maybe going to make it to Maryland. I have a few friends there I could overnight with."
"Go toward the Catskills?" he suggested. "Or the Poconos?"
"I don't know many people that way. I don't want to depend on SHIELD either. They've been bitchy about me working with Jane and tried to kidnap us in the past. That's why she has an ankle problem." She looked at the car rental desk, which was closed, and winced. He held up a set of keys. "I can't ask you to take me somewhere safer."
"I'm not going to take no for an answer." Darcy glared. "She's more important than that. Those sort of the bigots know not to come near me." He walked her off, hand on her lower back. "I know you're not used to trusting SHIELD, they made sure of it actually, but in this case the community is more important. There's a whole lot of us that hate the CC's."
"I understand why. I was taught to fix it from the inside. I'm not into the public life that my mother and grandmother were."
"Good. It makes you safer if you're not." He looked at her. "You probably tried to get help and they decided it would look bad. Now it's going to look very bad when it all comes out. A lot of us are only looking for a reason to challenge them."
"Did they hear about the ones he got? Including that the new one's missing?"
"Yup, I told them myself."
"Is there some other form of council I didn't hear about?"
"No. Not really. There's more a tribal council sort. A lot of warriors who scowl at the rest of us for not being into their sort of ideas." He grimaced. "The real traditionalists hate them anyway."
"I try to stay out of that and keep a lower profile."
He looked at her. "I can see why. It's important to hide you both."
"I don't have the things that people might expect, Rumlow."
He paused her to stare at her. "I realize that. Do they?"
She shook her head. "No. Most of them don't think I have anything at all. My mother doesn't."
"So they think it's latent and they can't force it out so you're expendable now."
She shook her head. "My father's a founding line," she said quietly. He winced but nodded. "He's not anywhere near here and he doesn't admit I'm his, but yeah, I'm his. He liked Savilla's ideas too. Until they got people attacked. He showed up to talk about how she died and recognized me, went totally pale, and then nearly ran away from me. And my mom when she got there." She grimaced. "He still doesn't admit I exist."
"That's a later problem if they bring it up." He walked her off again, looking at the kid. "She's out."
"Bus rides do it to her. So does being bored."
"I think that's most kids but I have no idea." He got her into the car and drove her off to a more protected safe house. It was nearer to his usual area of the city so he was calmer here. Aria got put down on a bed and Darcy went to look outside. "It's safer here. The council people would never come."
She looked at him. "I'd hope not but I still have a panicky, bad feeling about that." She went to check on her daughter. She was at least happily dreaming of nice things with the way she was licking her stuffed wolf's ear. She came out when she heard Brock walk past. "Are you going to nag that my last boyfriend was a wolf changer too?"
"It's not my thing but it was probably safe enough for you. He couldn't bite you and change you by accident. If he got a bit rough you could get away. Do you get hell for that?"
"Yup, even from my mother at one point." She nodded. "Then I point out that Varena married a human and had four powerful, strong dragons."
He smirked a tiny bit. "Are you looking for one of those?"
"The dragons I've seen socially were uptight assholes who decided they could make decisions for everyone. Including one that wasn't aligned to any council in the area but he followed their rules."
"They have a lot of that. Most of us are just more of a leave us alone sorts."
"I'm all for that. The confederation councils should have been war stoppers and our version of the UN. And then they used it to go right back to the bad things."
He nodded. "That's the nature of sentient beings on this plane. Is it like that on Asgard?"
"No idea. I've only been there for about ten minutes by following Jane." She shrugged. "I about petted Heimdall, but otherwise no clue." He grinned, going to check the back door. Darcy went to look in her bag. She had packed a small bag of things for her daughter. She looked at the bag then at her. Brock came to the doorway. She held it up. "It's hers if I fall."
He took it to look inside and nodded. It went back into her bag. "I'll make sure of that. Wouldn't they come for her though?"
"Yup. They still consider her not one of them." She looked up. "She's not the only one they do that to. They still think women are weaker than we are. We should still be matrilineal."
"That got stopped when?"
"Around the first time they started to take human wives because dragon ones were too strong." She grimaced but looked at him. "I'm not like this when I'm not in danger. Or she's not in danger," she said quietly. "I'm usually a happy enough person, a loving mom who sings and dances with her daughter. This is changing me more than Loki or elves did."
He nodded. "Battles do it to all of us." He looked toward the doorway, frowning. "They can't have found us." Darcy put the baby under the bed and covered her completely, making sure she had her wolf and the bags. She came to the door, her knife in her hand. Her tazer wouldn't help her this time. Someone broke in the door and fired on them. Brock stopped them, glancing at her. "I know you can't. Go guard her."
"She'll be fine." Darcy changed to her smaller form, getting a nod. She was harder to kill this way. More people tried to attack and Brock growled at a few who apparently weren't usually with the confederation council sorts. She bit a few, making them run away. Someone broke the wall of the bedroom and Darcy snapped to her bigger size to guard her daughter and kill that idiot. He died with a scream and a curse but she spit out his parts, then grimaced at his taste. "Foul in multiple ways. Huh." One made it to the door and her tail batted him into a wall. Brock shot him for that. Darcy stared at one, who she knew and who knew her. "Don't you even come near my daughter," she warned.
"You should've given in, Darcy."
Darcy growled and concentrated then changed fully to her full form, her other colored form, and got him for it. He died with a scream and a blast of magic but it was stopped by her shoulder. "No getting near the sprout. You know that."
Brock stared. "Fuck."
She glared at him. "Right now? Really? Is this the time for that?"
"Mom, quit making Growlies," Aria called.
"Shut up, kiddo, and hide."
"Yes, Mom. Was that Uncle Mortimer?"
"Yup. Pity. Someone will take his place."
"There's always six," Brock said, staring at her. "That's the myth."
Darcy grinned at him. "Yes, there are. And I'm not one." She pointed at the bed. "She is if it isn't blocked like mine was."
"Blocked by someone?"
"Blocked by someone snatching me to get my mother." She changed back into a human, staring at him. "I'm a teaching handmaiden here, Rumlow. Not one of the six mythical poles that we all swear are problems." She smiled at him. "So we're about to have a sixth born apparently since Mortima died."
She felt the spell coming and made him duck down next to the bed. "What the..." he started and then the spell hit the house. "Which one was that?"
"That was Mortima's son. Hubert's not happy." She winced. "No, Aria! You stay there!"
Rumlow locked her in a closet. "Stay in there before they hurt you!" She pounded on the door. He looked at Darcy, backing away from her. She was glowing and clearly someone was attacking her. That looked painful and the kid didn't need to see that. And then she changed, fully red now. Fully enraged. Fully the queen that some matriarchs could be. And she went to find the idiot and stop him by any means she needed to use. He followed, changing to his black/green self.
"Guard my daughter," she ordered.
He backed away from her, going to guard the kid. She was talking to someone but there wasn't a phone so maybe she was talking to spirits. "Don't summon things, they can hurt you," he told her quietly.
"Shut up!"
"Hey!"
"They're after me and my mother." She muttered at the Growlies she could see and they went to help her mother. Who could summon them once, long ago. Darcy called the others in the neighborhood to join them and attack the idiots trying her daughter. Aria shrieked and covered her ears and head with the blanket. Brock reached in and knocked her out. It'd save her mind.
Darcy unleashed the hell her daughter had started to call for her. And then her own. That block on her? Gone. Her mentor was there staring at her, not being hurt. She stared at him. "I asked your ass for help too. Don't even get judgy that you made me protect us both this way. If I have to destroy everything my family helped build, so damn well be it."
Dr. Howard stared at her. "I thought they would've stopped it when the law intervened, Darcy."
"Well, they didn't! All this is because of the local council idiots." She waved a paw. A police car came closer and she glared. "Don't even get out. They threatened my daughter. I've already declared a war and you're vulnerable." He sped off. She looked at her mentor again then at her scowling mother. "Not talking to you either! Oh, you need to be more mannerly, Darcy. They'd not do this if you weren't rude," she mimicked, making her mother wince. "Fuck that shit." She looked at the man stomping her way. "Oh, now it's you." She blasted him with a curse on his line, making him scream and dissolve.
"Are you in heat?" her mother complained.
"Mom, shut the hell up!"
"Well!" She changed. "I am your mother!"
"And you fucked up greatly trying to make me play nicer with the ones who threatened all of the rest of the family. So I don't wanna hear it, Mom. If you were the mother I am, then you would've already went to war over this shit starting in London. You didn't so I had to." She looked at Howard, who had changed to his dragon form. "You won't stop me either."
"I'm not here for that. I'm here to guard your daughter, who apparently called the dead. She's got to have a huge headache."
"She's fine where she is before we leave. After I stomp some people." She glared at the people stomping their way and changing. "You weren't invited to help me rescue my daughter. Thank you anyway for the assistance."
They stopped to stare at her. "We're the Knights, Lady."
She grinned. "I'm Darcy Lewis DeAnders." They backed up further. "They tried to force bond me and tried to kill my daughter." She waved a paw. "I'm a bit pissed off."
"We can help you guard your egg."
"She scowled at me for calling her that," Darcy complained. They grinned, going to check on the kid. Rumlow got in their way. "They want to help guard the sprout."
"They're a street gang, Darcy."
She looked at him. "Right about now, I'd even accept HYDRA help, Rumlow. If they're not going to hurt her or me? I'm not going to bitch."
"Point. SHIELD is on the way."
She nodded. "Yay. And I believe that since they would've shown up before the police usually. They're probably nagging my boss to dump me because I'm overly emotional and dangerous." She snorted smoke at someone walking toward them. "Yes, ma'am?" she asked patiently.
She looked up at her. "Why are you red?"
"I was born this way." She smiled. "Always have been." She faded to her usual color. "Better?"
The woman stared. "Most of us can't do that."
"Yeah, but mine's a lifeline gift of sorts." Her mother growled. "Shut up, Mother." She sighed but smiled at the woman again. "My mother wanted me to play nicely with those sort."
She snorted, looking at the older mother then at her. "I wouldn't." She walked off. "Try not to destroy any other buildings, young lady. They're all old and weak around here."
"I'm trying not to. My daughter's here right now and I don't want her to see that." The older woman smiled and patted her on the leg before going home. Darcy laid down, her tail tip swishing. Her mother glared at her. She stared back. "Don't care. You made your choice to hold up the faulty, broken things instead. While your council might not be doing that, and I doubt it with how close and tied we are with DC's council, it doesn't mean I don't have to protect my baby from the rest of them."
"The DC council was disbanded earlier," her mentor said, sounding pleased. "Sephora found out and went off on them."
"Good!" Darcy purred, smiling at him. One more attack was tried and Darcy burned them before they could do more than fire a few shots. "The neighbors are probably trying to sleep," she said facetiously. "You're making that impossible by being so loud." She watched them die. "Bye now." She waved her tail. Then she huffed and laid back down to stare at the street.
Brock looked at the awed punks. "Before the males got tired of not being in control and took humans so they could act more like the Romans they were looking up to, that's what all dragon women were like. There's a reason they call them queens." They nodded and left to let him handle it. He listened. Aria was crying but awake. "Darcy?" She looked back at him. "She's crying." She changed back and came to soothe her little one. He looked at their other two guests, staring at the one who wasn't female. "Dr. Howard Abelsome."
He changed back with a grin. "Yes I am. I was young Darcy's mentor after she got blocked. I made sure she wouldn't hurt herself. Which she probably did tonight. And Aria as well. May I check them?"
"Darcy?" he called. "Can your mentor check you both?"
"Please. She has a reaction headache."
"Of course she does. You did the same thing when you did that same act on someone trying to kidnap you at six. Then again when you got blocked." He went in to check the child first. Darcy would insist on it. "Shh. It's just an overuse headache, Aria," he soothed, easing it with a bit of magic. She sniffled up at him. "It's all right. Your mother can and did protect you. Is that a wolf?"
"This is Turtle. Mr. Paul gave me to him," she said quietly, holding him up. "Are we okay?"
"You are now." He patted her on the cheek. "It's good you can get along with other changers, dear. It's an important skill." He eased another spell into her, making her nap. "Just to ease the headache, Darcy."
"I know you wouldn't hurt me. Wouldn't help us but won't hurt us."
"I thought they would give up, as your mother did."
"I don't actually believe that."
He hummed and nodded. "I realize that." He checked her over. "That blockage was broken, young lady, and you're in heat because of it." She looked at her arm, then groaned and took off the patch. It was empty anyway. "You need to go into heat hiding."
"I can't really do that. I haven't had one since she was born. I don't have one set up."
"Then I'd go find a cave."
She sighed but nodded. "Yeah, I can do that. The family has a few." She looked at the ruined wall. The bags were still whole so she grabbed them and Aria. "Let's go." He nodded, walking her out. She stopped to stare at Rumlow. "It sent me into heat. We're going to go hide." He nodded, grinning some. "Oh, don't tell me I'm already going over."
"Not a bit of scent."
"Thank you for you protecting her." She patted him on the arm. "Tell Jane I'll write tomorrow. I have my phone." She walked off and let her mentor take her off. When they got to the family land the next morning she changed and flew off with her daughter and the bags to a nesting cave. Aria woke up in a nest and scowled. "Don't start," Darcy said, stuck in her dragon form. "I'm in heat, dear."
"You told me that sometimes heats happen and you had to do what you had to do." She pouted. "Where are we?"
"Safer than we were last night. There's all sorts of cave drawings you can study for the next few days to tell Thor about." She nodded, going to look at them. Darcy started a small fire for her. "There's some stuff stored in the back. I'll make breakfast in a few minutes."
"Mom, you can't do that with paws."
"Like hell. I learned how to make bread with claws." She went to check the traditional supplies. "No oatmeal of course." She sighed but made her daughter some cornmeal mush instead. Aria grimaced but did eat it. Darcy went to sit on the ledge and concentrate on not going into a full heat. She did not need to go into rut where her daughter could see. Aria had already seen that men leave, like Thor did and her dates had, and that relationships were icky, her words about bad dates. She smelled another female flying nearby and let out a loud growl, making her daughter squeak. "Just another female, dear."
"Okay. Tell me if I have to hide, Mom." A new head leaned down to stare at her. "Hi." She smiled and waved before eating more of her mush.
Darcy nudged the head. She knew that head and the dragon attached to it. It was one of her older friends. "I went into fucking heat," she complained.
"We can watch Aria for you, Darcy," the other dragon said.
"No thanks. Not after last night."
"It was on all the news. Human and not. Is she okay?"
"She's fine. She was knocked out for part of it by someone nice." She looked at her daughter then at her buddy. "Even Mom told me to try to play nicer."
"That was caught on film too. And they showed you breathing plasma in London."
"I thought they missed that." She scowled. "Jane's going to be pissed off. Hey, Aria, call Auntie Jane please?"
"I did when I woke up, Mom. She's mad that you didn't stomp them all and you'd better tell her where we are."
Darcy shrugged. "It'll take about a week to get out of heat probably. If I have to I'll send you to Jane for some babysitting time when it's safer."
"Okay." She sent that to her aunt, who she called again. "Mom, your battery's nearly dead."
"There's not many plugs in a cave, Aria," Darcy quipped, cracking up her friend. "So don't take too long." She sighed but waved and hung up. The phone went back into the bag. "Thanks." She looked at her friend.
"I'll take it to get it charged. She need anything?"
"She adores oatmeal for some reason. Plain, regular instant oatmeal." Her friend giggled but took the phone and charger to recharge it and get the kid some oatmeal. Darcy went to show Aria the hiding areas for her to use. Then she went back to meditating. She still had a headache. Her body ached from the heat starting. Her daughter was trying to act like normal when she was probably headachy and traumatized too. Yeah, it was going to be a horrible week.
***
Rumlow walked into SHIELD the next morning, nodding at Fury when he walked into his office. "She's in real hiding. Last night sent her into heat."
"Can she do that with the kid there?"
"Yeah. We can hold that off," he admitted. "Sometimes."
"Is she alive?"
"Yeah, I'm assuming so. Her phone's being charged. I have it tapped for location."
"So she's somewhere in Virginia?"
"Nope." He smirked. "Not near her mother's house."
"Shit."
"Yup, but her mother made a major misstep and Darcy got onto her about it."
"I saw that on the news. And what happened in London."
Rumlow shrugged. "We did what we had to do. The kid and mother are safe. The ones who tried it aren't."
"Uh-huh. What was that other color?"
"It means she's nearly mythical. If only because she nags Foster about eating." He walked off. Fury complained but oh well. He went to talk to Foster. "She's fine. I have her phone tapped for location." Jane stared at him around Thor's arm. "She's fine."
"I got called by Aria."
"She's in heat, Foster."
"Eww. I saw her have what she called a mini one when her suppressants were late."
"She's full blown enough she can't put on another one and her old one ran out last night."
"Crap. So a week?"
"Probably. With the kid there I'm not sure how she'd handle it but likely."
"She handles it on her own," Thor said.
Brock stared at him then shook his head. "Not a full heat you can't. There's no sex toys that'll work for that, Thor." Thor scowled. "That'd be like you going into heat and desperate for skin touch. Would a toy work?"
"No," he admitted. "It would not." He huffed. "Would her former boyfriend help?"
"If she could get into her human form? Probably. I'm not sure she can get into her human form. If so, ask her when she gets her phone back from her friend that's charging it." Jane rolled his eyes. "Me doing it means that no one else can and that way we can make sure where the kid is at least."
"They've in a cave," Jane said.
Brock nodded. "That's how it's done traditionally, Foster. The same as the flying is." Thor shivered. "I doubt she'd catch if she did ease it that way but that's the easiest way."
Thor nodded. "She is not in the mental place for a mate right now and she would insist on that before becoming a consort."
"She mentioned that." He shrugged. "Not my ways so not my need to say anything."
Thor nodded, patting him on the shoulder. "Keep us informed of her needs."
"I can do that. Or maybe work to get the kid back to you two?"
Jane shook her head. "I'm good for a few hours but anything over twelve and I'm going to ignore her for science, Commander. I know myself too well for that and I've done it when she was younger."
"Okay. We'll keep that in mind if we have to go save her." He went to his desk to make an ongoing report. He got a few odd looks but grinned. "They wanted to remodel that safehouse anyway." That made the odd looks go away but they'd come back later he was sure. They usually did.
***
Two weeks later, Jane stomped up to Rumlow when she found him getting coffee after a meeting. "Where is she?"
"Still in her cave." He sipped his coffee. "We can arrange for you to quietly get there, Foster."
"Please. I'm sure that they're having problems."
"Mostly it's probably only a showering problem. Most caves were set up to be lived in full time so there's sanitary needs taken care of in even some of the oldest caves." He finished his coffee. "Let me check the location and check out a car."
"Not a plane or flying to the closest city and driving over?"
"A car there is less noticeable. It'll mean no one can track us." She sighed but nodded. "It'll take about a day though. If not just over."
"Did you plan that already?"
"No. But I drove down to DC a few times from up here and it takes most of a day if you don't make many stops for more than gas."
"Give me directions and I can drive myself down."
"You don't have a legal license, Doctor Foster." He stared at her. "And Thor flying you down there would chill you too much." He walked off. "Let me check on her phone." He got into his desk computer to look at that location file. "Still there. She's probably stuck." He got what he needed and turned off everything, leading her to the SHIELD carpool area. "You have stuff you'll need? Like a change of clothes and things?"
She ran off to get it while he waited against the trunk of his car. Foster came back with a heavy looking bag and he just mentally sighed. Some women weren't that practical and the more degrees they had the worst that problem seemed to become. He let her put the bag in the trunk and he got in to drive. She got in and buckled up, then tipped the seat back to sleep. That was actually very nice of her. It let him drive without complaining. He'd heard her nag more than one person.
***
Darcy looked down the cliff as someone walked up to the high area. "Hi, Jane. I'm stuck."
"Rumlow said you would be." She stared at her. "Get me up there?" Darcy flew down and grabbed her to bring her back up. She hugged her around the neck. "Are you okay?"
"I'm good. Just ...stuck." She nodded toward the back. "There she is. I know you're worried."
"She didn't answer my text, Darcy."
"I'm out of minutes, Jane."
"Oh." She went to look at the tiny kid. "You need a bath."
"We had one last night," Darcy complained. She rolled her eyes at the dragon landing above them, staring up at him. "Thank you for bringing Jane to nag her."
He nodded. "I tracked your phone so I'd know if anyone else did." He settled into a sunny patch. "You good?"
"Bit stuck."
He nodded. "There's not many ways around that."
"I'm nearly out of heat. It should only be a few days more." She looked back at the nagging Jane. "She took a shower last night, Jane. Quit nagging about her hair looking gross. You know she hates to brush that stuff. That's all that is."
"Fine!" She stared at Aria. "Did you eat?"
The girl nodded. "Mom's friend brought me oatmeal. Auntie Jane, when did you turn into a grandma?"
Jane snorted. "I haven't yet. I came to make sure you're both okay."
"I'm okay. Mom's cranky with her girl stuff that I don't need to know about for years."
"I brought her box of patches," Jane said, looking at Darcy.
"Unfortunately won't work until I'm out of all this," Darcy said dryly, waving her tail around. "Which should be within a few days I hope. I can feel it easing." She looked up at Brock. "Not offering for you, before you jump to conclusions."
"Didn't think you were. Women who want things like that ask or show their interest. You haven't." He got comfortable in the sun. "I'm just a driver, Lewis."
"Thanks." She went to her smaller form, going to nag Jane back for all the nagging she was doing. "She was learning tiny words earlier. We've went over all the cave drawings."
"There's one about the Thor bridge," Aria said with a happy smile. "I get to tell Uncle Thor about that." Jane looked at Darcy.
"There's a landing sigil about thirty miles away that's mostly worn off the rocks," she said with a paw point. "Real old."
"Great." She let Aria show her that marking and ran a thumb over it. "How old are these?" She used her phone to light up the area.
"Closer to early Native American times," Darcy said. "This is an ancient cave."
Jane looked at her. "Why pick this one?"
"It's damn hard to get to?"
"Yes it was," Jane agreed. She sighed, looking at the drawing again then at Aria. "I can bring her home so you get a bit of privacy to cure that."
"Jane, until the heat chemicals stop even a toy won't help." Jane grimaced. "It shouldn't be more than a few more days. I sent an email."
"I saw. Earlier today actually." She hugged the kid. "Are you chilly?"
"Little bit." Darcy went to relight the fire. "Thanks, Mom."
"Welcome, kiddo." She laid back down. "Jane, can you babysit for a few? I want to stretch my wings."
"Sure, go for it. She can tell me about the cave's paintings." Darcy stretched as she got up and went outside to fly around. "Let's see 'em, Aria, and I'll try to work some of the knots out."
"Can't we just cut it already? Grandma won't nag too much."
"I don't have scissors."
"Shoot!" She took her to see the other cave drawings, telling her the stories she had worked out.
Darcy breezed down, staring at the staring dragon. "Just stretching my wings. It feels nice."
"It should. Have you never done a fly when you're in heat?"
"No. I didn't quite make it off the ground the last time." She flew off again.
He sighed. "Someone really has to teach her about a lot of the other traditions." He settled in to guard them. Darcy was happily drifting around and getting a good fly in.
Aria looked out after an hour, making Brock push her back into the cave. "Hey!"
"You almost fell. Your mother would kill me," he said patiently. "Go back inside."
"Fine!" She stomped back to talk to Jane, which distracted her from taking pictures of the drawings. "I did not nearly fall!"
Jane looked at her. "Uh-huh." She pulled her closer to let her help tape the pictures for a few other geeks.
Darcy landed and stared at her daughter. "There's no baby gates here, be more careful!"
"Yes, Mom," she pouted.
"Do your ankle exercises." She shook herself, rattling all her scales before laying back down in the sun again.
Brock looked down. "Change to your real form," he said quietly. "Not like we don't know." Darcy scowled. "It was on the news, Lewis. Everything was on the news." She groaned but changed into her red form, settling in to nap. He sighed. "Did your mother never tell you how heats are supposed to actually go? Or were you just taught that polite, on the ground, basically human copulation?"
"I heard rumors about that but most of us don't do that anymore. The same as we have human style pregnancies instead of laying in a nest. The ones I heard about having actual eggs were complained about and pitied."
"Yeah, that's another problem that council nastiness caused. For a traditionalist..." She glared again. "You should let yourself be a real traditionalist."
"Most of them want weak women and would be more than happy to date humans who want dragon dicks."
"True, but there's whole lots of traditionalists like you are. They tend to call themselves originalists."
"I've seen," she said, grimacing enough that her snout screwed up. "Most of them want to go restart the bloodlines and theirs aren't good enough to do that."
"Not that group. Your doctor mentor was one of the one I'm talking about."
"I don't fit in with them. They all want us to study magic and the like." She sighed. "I wish I did fit in more with them but I don't. Half of their ideology sucks. Women there are only for offering purposes and nothing else. They don't allow consorts or mates. They're a lot of baby daddies basically."
He nodded. "I thought about that but I'm too traditional for that." He shifted, leaning his head down so he could be more quiet. "The true form of being one of us is actually being a dragon. Not a human who can shift. The humans who shift are like most of the wolf ones. Your last boyfriend wasn't but most of them. The same as the confederation council sorts were that same short of shifter. True dragons, we're dragons who can occasionally look human. Do you even let yourself sleep in your form?"
"I sleep in the living room and I sleep too deeply so I'd never hear when she needed me. I used to in college."
"You need to get back in touch with that version of you. This you is human. You think like a human, you act like a human. Real traditionalists are *dragons*. All dragons."
"Then you get back into tribal problems and weak women."
He nodded. "Sometimes. There's no perfect group. Even if you form your own tribe with your own rules, people will nag or make fun of it." He shifted some. "I can't believe they didn't teach you any of that."
"We barely had sex ed in my high school. The dragon education packs mentioned *stories* of all that but it wasn't a good mention."
"You went to a human high school?"
"There wasn't a changer school anywhere near me. All of us went to a regular high school. Most of the ones in the US go to regular schools. There's only four changer only private schools in the US."
"Wow. We had a separate small school for all of us." He frowned. "When did that happen?"
"Regan."
"Oh, him. That explains a lot. We all got told to be more uptight and less seventies party boys." She giggled. "You're not that old, are you?"
"No. I'm twenty-eight. I'm an older millennial. Sorry."
He grumbled. "That blows. You guys missed out on a lot of things." He patted her on the head. "Go back to those meditations that only work half the time."
"Don't tell me that! It'll sabotage it and I don't want another kid."
He leaned closer. "There's ways around that too, Lewis."
"They don't work on me. Hell, the dragon IUD doesn't work on me."
"Oooh. Sorry." He grinned. "Go fly some more. I'll keep the kid from falling off the cliffs."
Darcy was staring in the distance. "I have no idea who that is. Daphne is light green and her husband is a horse changer," she said quietly.
He looked. "They're blue. Want me to shoo them off if they're male?"
"It's one of two if they're one I know. One's an uncle and he's an uptight ass. Or there's an ex who's about ten miles into Maryland. Not sure which." The blue dragon flew closer. "Nope, that's my uncle. Jane, Uncle Hilly is here."
"I'm staying in here before I pop him one again," Jane called back. "Are the drawings considered sacred?"
"Not really," Darcy said. "And they're family owned so I gave you permission."
Her uncle landed nearby, staring at her. "The rest of us own them, Darcy."
"Bullshit. The land's in my daughter's name and we pay the taxes on it." She stared at him. "So you can fuck the hell off like my mother can."
"She didn't like you here?" he sneered.
"No, she tried to get me to go along with the ones who tried to force bond me to some idiot who killed at least six of the last ten that confederation council forced to go to him. Anything else since defending ourselves meant I went into heat and I *really* don't want you to be near me during it?"
"Not like I'd bother. You're a weak...." Darcy changed and glared. He blinked, falling onto his tail. "When did that happen!" he demanded.
"The first time I changed. Thankfully, Grandma Rosie taught me how to handle that dual form." She stared at him. "Now, I'm in here, and I'm considering you a threat to my daughter. Do you really want to stay here?"
"She should be with the humans," he sneered.
"Why? She's already scaled up." She smirked. "She's a better shade of blue that looks prettier on her than yours does."
Aria wiggled out to stare at him. "Are you one of those bigoted assholes Mom complains about who think their poop smells like roses?"
"Hey!" Darcy warned. "Language, young lady!"
"Yay. Dumb bunnies don't deserve nice language, Mom." She went back inside. "Auntie Jane, we need to make a better family. Grandma tried to get Mom killed, and me probably. Uncle Hilly just tried to say I was a human. They're so damn dumb bunnies."
Jane hugged her. "No swearing. Even at dumb bunnies. That puts you down on their level. Also, that's an adult thing and you need to let your mother or me handle it." She noticed Darcy get up and pounce her uncle, making him scream as he broke a bit. "See, your mom can handle it."
Aria went to look but Brock shoved her back inside so he could climb down and prevent her from seeing that. "No, you don't need to see that. Go back to Jane, Aria."
"Fine!"
"Thank you." He looked down there. "Nice pounce."
Darcy grinned. "Thanks!" She went to her full size and jumped up into the air, then grabbed her uncle's badly dented form, carrying him off to hand to her aunt. She dropped him, making him moan. "Thought my daughter was weak and so was I. Pity about his idiocy. My daughter was right when she called him a dumb bunny. I nearly hunted his ass down." She flew off again. "Later, Aunt Elise."
"Oh, Darcy," Aunt Elise sighed. "Did you have to do that?"
"Yup. It's nice I left him alive." She flew faster with a sigh.
Aunt Elise called the local healer for changers. "Our niece was in heat and Hilly tried to say something mean to her so she stomped him. Hilbert, can you change?" He just moaned. "He's just moaning, Doctor Abelsome. Yes, Darcy," she sighed. "She flew him back. Thank you." She hung up and went to check on her mate, who was grumbling about her niece. "Then next time don't be mean to a mother in heat. The doctor's coming, Hilbert." She settled down to watch over him. "Don't worry, if you die, we'll put you in your family's plot. Your mother told me she had saved a plot just for you." He groaned again.
***
Darcy landed and let down a small deer's body. "I hunted on the way back."
"Will the owner mind?" Brock asked.
"I don't know. Aria, I brought down a deer. Do you mind?"
"No, Mom."
Darcy grinned at him. "It's almost a family tradition to switch to the youngest one's name to make sure the lands stay in the family. They're supposed to be paying taxes and half haven't." She looked smug. "So we have dinner." She looked at it. "I didn't do more than blood it. Let me go gut it."
"You can actually do that?"
"I learned how." He moved it with her to help her when she got stuck.
Jane came to the cave's landing, looking at that. "Eww."
"Fresh meat," Brock told her. "It's good for her. Her being in heat needs fresh meat."
"Still weird. I can understand cows..."
"Cows are owned, deer aren't," Darcy said.
"I guess." She went back inside.
"Thor made you deer tacos," Darcy called after her. "Even if it was commercially raised deer."
Brock snickered. "It's sometimes handy to find." Darcy nodded and they finished stripping the carcass. The bones got shoved into a dip beside the hill. It was used as the cave's trash pit anyway. They settled in to smoke the meat and make sure it'd last for a few days. Brock heard another one and went to stand guard. "Do we know you?" he asked.
"Boy, why are you stealing family lands?" he demanded.
Darcy walked out, staring at him. "Shut the hell up!" He flinched back. "For that matter, it's my daughter's lands because you and yours didn't pay your taxes yet again. We've been paying them all along for the last two years. That means I can make you move." She walked off again. "Aria, let's teach you how to smoke meat."
"Okay, Mom." She came over to learn.
Brock shrugged. "I'm guarding her and her daughter, and Doctor Foster."
"She brought a healer? Is she having an egg?" the man sneered.
"She's not that sort of doctor," Brock said. "She's the makes great things happen that can destroy humanity sort." The other dragon flew off with a huff. "Lewis, was that actually one of your relatives?"
"Stepfather's family," she admitted. "I don't know why my mother had that sort of taste," she muttered. "And ignore that, Aria."
"Fine."
"Thank you." She hugged her. "Just a few more days and we can go back to the lab."
"That'll be nice. It's less boring." She helped her aunt make some stewed deer leg and that was nice. They were out of oatmeal anyway.
Darcy looked at Brock, who was grinning but shaking his head. When a female came back, Darcy went to greet her. "Aunt Lisa."
"Darcy?"
"Yup."
"Why are you here?"
"I'm in heat thanks to having to defend myself and my daughter. I didn't need to go into full heat in New York City, did I?"
"No, that's probably not a good thing with what happened the last time. You made Hank huff. Again."
"Yeah, he tried to sneer at me. I pointed out all this was in Aria's name and we've been the one paying the taxes and if he pissed me off I'd suggest he move."
Aunt Lisa sighed. "Darcy, dear, your temper is really high. I mean, we saw the news, but you should be able to calm down by now."
"I've been in heat since that night! My suppressant was worn out when I changed and went to battle mode."
Lisa blinked and landed on a tree, staring at her. "Why haven't you fixed that?"
"With my daughter here? I've been handling it but I'm a bit stuck until I can get mostly of it out."
Aria came out to look at her aunt. "I have pictures of you but I don't think I've ever met you. I'm Aria."
"I'm your mom's Aunt Lisa, sweetie." She smiled. "Your grandma married into our family."
"I heard about that." She smiled and waved. "We're making deer."
"It's not hunting season," she said, staring at Darcy.
"I'm still in heat. After two weeks I'm still in heat," she said firmly.
"That's a good reason then." She sighed. "Can you at least nag him more politely?"
"Nope! I'm tired of polite. Polite nearly got me killed and her killed a few times. Fuck polite. And your husband's attitude problem when he sneered at me."
Lisa nodded. "I can understand that fully. He was a problem when you got attacked too." She sighed again. "All right. I'm going to call together the family and yell at the lot of them. Is she okay?"
"She had a shower last night with the rain water. She hates brushes though."
"Ah. Yeah, that can happen sometimes. My own daughters hated them for a while too." She smiled. "Let me go yell at Hank and others. They should know better than to come near a woman in heat at the very least. Especially one that has an anger issue because she had to protect her baby." She leapt up and flew off. "Have fun, dear. It might help ease that heat some."
"I can't do that in this form," Darcy complained quietly. "And until I can master the meditation to get back to my human form it won't happen." She laid down with a huff. "If it's my mother tell her I'm a Growlie and she can pray I don't haunt her."
"I can do that," Brock agreed patiently. "Go for another fly?" She shook her head. "Tired?" She nodded, putting her head down. "Rest, Darcy. You'll probably be up most of the night." She nodded, laying down in the sun again. He settled in to guard them again. Hopefully there weren't any more relatives.
***
Aunt Lisa landed and changed back, staring at the gathered family. "Well, Darcy's right. None of us have kept up our family obligations toward the lands we put into her daughter's name. She has every right to kick us all out since we didn't help her protect her daughter."
"Her daughter isn't one of us," one of the uncles complained.
"She's three," Lisa reminded him. "Did you have a full change by then?" He slumped but shaking his head. "Then lay off! She's a sweet little girl! And none of us have stood up for Darcy! Even though she was attacked. Not a damn one of you helped that girl when she was raped." A few of the men flinched but the women nodded. "It's no wonder she's stuck in her dragon form for the last two weeks of being in heat! Especially since she was in a battle before then!"
"How did she change color?" one of the old uncles asked.
Lisa looked at him. "She's always done that. We who knew just hid it. I saw it at nine when she broke her knee that time. She scaled up due to the injury and they were mixed then. Her mother told those of us who saw." He sulked. "There's probably a reason someone like Doc Abelsome *mentored* her. We all know he's one of those originalists."
They sighed but nodded. "Her mother did try to hide her from the rest of us," another aunt noted.
"Her mother is presently not in Darcy's good graces. I don't know that full story but I know enough that they tried to force her to mate with someone. She said no and they tried to force it. So she declared war as only a mother could."
Another uncle shook his head. "Her facebook said that and that the guy had killed at least six of the ten he had been given by their council. And that London's council had tried the same for that same guy." He looked around. "She is exactly like her great-grandma was until she died. Grandma Rose too."
A few nodded and the guys mostly shuddered. Rose had been an iron scaled old battleaxe who had an iron fist when needed. "If we don't support Darcy then she'll turn on us like she did her mother." He looked around. "It also sucks that you made her pay your taxes. That means she really owns your properties." He looked at Lisa. "Which cave?"
"The older one with the drawings. Aria looked a bit greasy but Darcy said she took a shower but hated hairbrushes." She shrugged. "There's a male there, but he seemed more like a bodyguard sort than her mate. I smelled a human too."
"The one Darcy works with probably," a male said as he walked up to them. "Peace, people. I'm one of the agents in the local confederation council and I have a peace treaty for Darcy." He held it up. "I know the one who lives here is a relative and could probably find her."
Lisa took it to look over, grimacing. She handed it to that nicer uncle, who grimaced at it. "Darcy will turn that into charcoal," he said, staring at him. "We'll talk to her mother about this insulting clause in the first paragraph and any others. She should've called."
"She's been locked out of all that because they're related."
"Darcy was sure she'd be withdrawing from all the councils," that uncle said. Then he smirked. "The judges there tried to hold off making a decision. Darcy pointed out that all the councils who had done that had broken their charters." The agent winced but nodded once. "She was right too, her great-grandmother would've been appalled."
"Was she alive during this?"
"Died four years ago. Darcy's daughter would've been named after her but Russie said not to. She died right after Darcy got attacked. She held her when she did the pregnancy test next to her death bed."
"Damn. We didn't know that." He took the scroll back. "I'll let them know that and that she's still very mad."
"She's in heat," Lisa said smugly. "A battle will do that to most females."
He nodded. "I've seen that happen. Thank you and have a better day, people." He went back to the council to tell them that. Her mother laughed loudly about them trying to sweet talk her and make her do anything.
***
Darcy woke up late that night, sighing at the stars. Jane was napping with Aria. Brock was napping up above. She carefully got up and stretched, walking out to stare outside. There were a few dragons flying around but they were pretty far off.
Brock leaned down to nudge her with his snout. "They're males if you wanted to go tempt them," he said quietly.
"I'm not into that as far as I know."
He nudged her again. "Your instincts are talking, Lewis. Listen to them." She glared at him. "They are. This is what dragons do."
She sighed again. "I feel like flying but...not that."
He nodded. "That's up to you. If they try to force it, bite 'em back."
"Most seem to think that's a come on."
"Only if they weren't trained right." She scowled but pouted at the end. "Go for a fly this way instead of their way. With your luck one's an uncle. Yell if you need help." She nodded, taking off to go for a quiet fly around. The air was calling for her. She avoided one of the other dragons, shaking her head. "Not into that."
"Sorry. Thought I smelled you, dear."
"You could be but I'm not into that. I'm controlling it." The male shot her a dirty look. She glared back. "I just wanted to fly around. I'm nearly out."
"Fine. We'll leave you alone. Go back to the north?" She nodded, going that way. "That's south!" She turned to go the other direction. He went to warn the others. "She's not interested, she's just relieving heat stress." They nodded. They could avoid her. They were all married anyway.
Brock heard something and stood up to scan around, finding Darcy arguing with a young dragon. He flew off, staring at it. "You're too young to want to flirt with her."
"She's cute!"
"She's an adult! You're not! Go home!" He hissed and the kid fled from him. He looked at Darcy, who was shaking her head from her spot on a tree. "You okay?"
"Yeah, I'm good. Thanks." She took off again, going back to gliding. She spotted the kid coming back with his mother. "I warned him to go home," she called. "I'm at the end of my heat cycle and I didn't want him to get too close."
The mother sighed but nodded, nudging her son with her head. "I'm sorry. Ma said I was rude," the boy said. He looked at Brock. "Are you her boyfriend?"
"Guard."
"Oh." He looked at his mother then looked at Darcy again. "I'm sorry I was tryin' to be pushy, miss."
"It's something all guys learn eventually. At least you learned younger than some guys who still have that problem at forty." The mother snorted but smiled at that. "You guys have a better night. I'm going to turn in too." They nodded and flew home. Darcy went back to the cave with Brock following. He landed first up on top of the cave again. She looked up as she landed. "Aren't you bored?"
"Sometimes," he agreed. "That's guard duty though."
"Do we think it's not safe anymore?"
"I'd hope it was. My morning email from my team said that they thought it was. The other two senior dragons in SHIELD are *sure* that the stupid has stopped. One of them said he stopped it trying to restart so we're pretty sure it's done with."
"My job probably is too," she sighed. "Not even there a week and drama came from me."
He leaned down to look at her. "It wasn't your drama. You were fighting the drama. And Stark, he lives for drama at times. No one was giving Foster any side eye for it. You're probably okay. Just lay a bit low when we get back."
"I guess I can do that." She settled in to nap around Jane and Aria. "Thanks, Rumlow."
"Welcome, Lewis. You rest. You need more rest to get through this." He settled in again, watching the ones flying around. One was sniffing the air and flying their way so he lifted his head. That one decided to go the other direction. So at least that one had some sense.
***
Darcy snuck in with Jane about a week later. Their apartments were fine when they slipped into them first. Darcy got Aria into a shower and bath, then into bed with clean pajamas. She washed Aria's clothes, shaking her head because most of hers were still clean. "Didn't need them when I'm scaled up," she muttered as she started the washer. Someone knocked and she flinched but went to see who it was, letting in Stark and Pepper. "Hey."
"Are you all right?" Pepper demanded.
"The battle sent me into heat." Pepper winced. "I spent the last two weeks in heat, Miss Potts. But we're okay at the moment. Aria's napping."
"That's good for someone her age," Tony said. He stared at her. "The only one that started anything was one of the bigoted asses. So tomorrow, you can come in wearing a flower crown and a cute outfit."
She frowned. "Why would I wear a flower crown? They're signs that I'm looking for a mate. Like third or fourth date before sex."
He raised an eyebrow. "It is?"
"Yeah. It was with the one I was raised around." She frowned. "Did someone suggest I wear one?"
He nodded. "Yeah. Your insta had you wearing one as a filter choice."
"Yeah, that was a spring planting festival wear a flower crown thing. The last time I wore one I was trotted out for what equates to our version of a debutante ball. We sponsored a few younger girls into it that couldn't afford to go so I had to go too."
"That's interesting. Was the focus on community service and then later good marriages still there?" Pepper asked.
Darcy nodded. "It was kind of announcing we're of technical adult age and ready to be courted but all of us did community service anyway. Our high school demanded."
"Did you go to one of the private ones?" Stark asked.
"Nope. My whole state had us in regular schools. We had an after school club but otherwise not anything different to what the normal humans had." She waved at the couch. "Go ahead and sit. I didn't mean to be rude. I may have something drinkable."
"Don't worry about that," Pepper said, smiling at her. "Is Aria all right with what happened?"
"She's too young to think much of it beyond thinking a lot of people are dumb bunnies as she calls them." She shrugged. "It's the benefit of her being three." She flopped down, looking toward the bedroom then at them again. "She's snoring. She won't wake up for hours, if not daylight."
"That's another benefit of her being little," Tony said with a grin. "Do you think you'll need some more security?"
"I was told all the idiots were gone. I'm hoping so. If not, I can probably handle most things, Mr. Stark."
"It's Tony, Lewis, and you shouldn't have to. There's security to handle that and they can do more than stop reporters."
"Mostly it'll be snotty attitude." She smiled. "But thank you."
"Not a problem. I have no idea about stuff so I'm going to ask. Are you automatically registered with the council?"
"No. The births are noted for most everyone, unless they're paranoid. You can't be entered into the confederation's files until you're an adult. Of the three I sponsored, two registered after they married someone who was part of the group. The other one didn't but it made her contacts and she did marry one of the paranoid assholes who think we're going to take everything from them. They're homesteading somewhere off the grid the last I heard."
"So it's a separate thing."
"In Aria's case, her birth was noted specially due to what happened. With her father not wanting to claim her, which I totally told him he did not have to, she was noted as a special circumstance. We have our share of baby daddy, but they keep track of that." She grinned. "His new wife knows about her and what happened.
"She showed up when we were in New Mexico to bluntly ask. I told her about the whole thing and how that bitch who took my suppressant died from the next victim stomping on her until she was a greasy spot the officers couldn't save. His dad tried to get custody of Aria due to bloodline things, but his grandmother made his dad shoot himself in the courtroom for embarrassing the family."
She grimaced but then grinned. "Her father was sitting in the back going 'dad, we agreed since it was an attack situation'. The judges agreed that it was the right way to handle that for all parties involved. They asked me and I said I had forgiven all that since he didn't have a choice. Her action had basically rendered us both incapable of consent.
"The judges agreed and said that Aria was fine. She was snoring through everything, her health check had gone well. Grandad's wife got to get some cooing in. So they all know about her but they know I'm not pushing for her to be included. They asked that I tell their lawyer any big milestones so they can have pictures and I've done that."
"Did he say something during all this?"
"Nope. He's in Hartford and they're exclusionary. They were one of the first formed. They don't stare down their noses at me, because of my mother's position, but I'm not suitable to marry into their little clique. They look at New York's version of the council like they're dog turds who have no class."
"I'm pretty sure they proved it," Tony quipped. "Are you going to make her sign up?"
"Nope. I wasn't going to but then Grandmother Russie said that I should because of the legacy and all that." She flapped a hand. "Aria knows it's up to her when she's an adult. I'm not making her do the ball or anything. Even if she sponsors the rules are different now."
"What about schools? There's an exclusive changer one up here and she may be safer."
Darcy shook her head. "I want her to exposed to real people. She'll have to deal with real people all her life. Not just dragons. There's not many of us who can just deal with other changers. I did a regular high school and she can too unless she has massive problems. I might think of a private because if we're here in New York the public schools are rotten. I'll start looking next year if we stay here. I'm not sure what Jane has planned." She heard another yell from next door and listened. "Oh, they're having a yelling match." She sighed. "I hate when they do that."
"Do we think they'll split?" Tony asked.
Darcy nodded. "Possibly. He doesn't understand her drive for knowledge and she doesn't understand warrior things."
"That blows," Tony said. "They seem happy most of the time."
"Sometimes. That depends on how willing he is to deal with other ideas that might involve Jane's science." Thor pounded on the wall. "Oh, shut up," she called. "Wake up the kid and read her multiple stories all night, Thor!" He quit. She sighed but smiled at them. "He's done that before. Totally woke her up when she was teething." She smiled. "So he got to help her go back to sleep." She watched Aria stomp up to the doorway between the apartments, then opened it and stomped over there.
"I'm trying to sleep!" she shouted. "We don't want me to be cranky tomorrow! Or either of you. So go sleep and deal with it like big people tomorrow!" She stomped back to her room, slamming the door.
Darcy grinned at Pepper. "She's so my adult years clone sometimes." Pepper giggled.
Jane leaned through the door. "Sorry to have woken the kid, Darcy."
She nodded. "Seen it happen before. Is this 'thou art sciencing when I want you to girlfriend' or 'I wish you would speak of me instead of the numbers'?"
"The second," she complained. She closed the door, staring at Thor. "Women are more than accessories. We have a full life and full being and full rights without a man on our arm. I listen to you tell stories of your battles all the time, nearly every single night."
Thor grimaced. "I do not."
"Do you want me to ask the AI?"
"No." He frowned. "Perhaps we should not speak for a bit."
"That's up to you, Thor. I'm mostly happy with what's going on in my life. Outside the threats to the kid over there. Then I'm going to build something to destroy them."
He stared at her. "You cannot do that, Jane."
"Bullshit. I already have two done. Both accidents for creating portals." Thor shuddered. She grinned. "I've had a lot of people who discounted what I could do and how smart I was because I'm a woman. But if you want to go be with Sif, then go be with Sif. I adore the lady and she deserves some happiness. If you two get together for real, you have my blessing.
"I may love you but your life is going to drive me nuts. I'm not sure I could ever be a true consort to a king. They need a queen who can sit there and listen to things, or to handle emergencies. I can handle emergencies but I'd start to think about my current experiment instead of listening to someone vapid who had to complain about the style of pinching underwear."
Thor slumped, staring at her. She stared back. "We both need people who understand our lives. Yours with battles. Mine with the lab. I doubt I'll date Darcy but I need the male version of her who wants to be my helpmate, not make me bend to their own needs most of the time. I need someone who wants me, science and all. The same as you need someone who likes you even though you're a prince. Because that's really a drawback to dating."
Thor nodded. "That is true." He stood up with a sigh. "I do not want to become enemies with you, Jane."
"Then don't, Thor. We can still have a friendship. We're good at being friends. Even if we suck at being together, we're good at friendship." He nodded, kissing her on the cheek before leaving. She sighed, flopping down. She went to Darcy's apartment, shaking her head. "I told him he should go flirt with Sif." She sat in the other chair. "So we'll try to remain friends."
Darcy nodded. "I figured it'd get to you. Being a queen means you have everyone in your business and staring at you." Jane nodded with a grimace. "Plus you'd have to wear clothes without holes."
"Good point." She looked at Pepper. "Sorry you guys had to hear that. We hate that drama happens around us, especially since we've only been here for a few weeks."
"I got an email from Ian." Darcy pulled it up to show her.
"You're not mean!"
"No, but he thinks I'll stomp on him for simple things." She shrugged. "Sorry, Jane."
"It's not your fault men are like that." She frowned at Pepper.
"I wear delicate yet pointy toed and heeled shoes for men like that," Pepper said fondly.
Tony nodded. "They hurt too." He stood up. "I'll see you two in the lab tomorrow. Have a better night, ladies." They left them to bitch about men together.
Darcy looked at Jane. "At least Ian never flirted with you to get a higher spot in a lab."
"True." She got comfortable. "She's not snoring."
Darcy listened, shaking her head. "She's reading pictures. Sleep, Aria," she called quietly. They both smiled at the sound of a book falling. Darcy looked at Jane. "They said that there shouldn't be many problems."
"Good." She got up. "Let me go get some coffee. We'll figure out the week's schedule. Is she coming in again?"
"I'm going to wait a few days to get her back to daycare, just in case."
"That would be safer and let others calm down," Jane agreed, going to get coffee and come back to plan for the week's schedule.
***
Changing Your Life.