Chapter Text
Steve and Bucky were out for their regular morning jog around the Avengers Facility in Upstate New York. The two of them ran in sync, rather fast through the wooded trail. Steve loved the earthy smell of the forest on the property. It was his favorite place to jog. It reminded him a bit of being back during the war when he and the Howling Commandos would hide and wait to ambush the Hydra Nazi’s. This time however was different. It was more relaxed, Steve himself was more relaxed. He didn’t have to worry about anyone coming out to attack.
The leaves crunched beneath their steady feet as they set an easy run; the warmth of the day causing the two men to break out into a mild sweat. Every once and a while on their jogs, they would run into some wildlife; deer mainly. Steve loved to see family of deer together, with both parents and a few babies. But it always made him feel a bit empty inside; made him feel like he was missing something.
It was no surprise the two best friends were doing everything together. They were in fact, the only two single Avengers left. Tony had Pepper, Thor had Jane, Vision and Wanda were together, Bruce and Natasha, Clint had a wife and kids, Sam was dating Darcy and Maria and Rhodey were together.
Tony was always teasing them in his own fashion; yet Tony just wanted to see them each find a girl and settle down together. Everyone else was happy, and he could see in Steve’s eyes that there was something missing in his life. That was when he put his plan into place.
“What the hell?” Bucky remarked as he and Steve came upon a large clearing a few miles away from the Avengers Facility. “When did this get here?” Standing in front of them was a rather very large house. It was modern house with large windows and sharp edges. The house was dark grey on the outside and as the two super soldiers continued to inspect the house, they found a pool and hot tub on the other side.
“Is this Tony’s new house or something?” Steve asked with confusion, his hands on his slim hips. “I mean this is still his property line.”
Bucky shrugged next to him, eyeing the hot tub. “Not sure. He never mentioned to us he was building a new house. But that hot tub looks mighty fine right about now.”
Steve couldn’t help but chuckle at his best friend, giving him a slight punch to the shoulder. “Punk,” he quipped, shaking his head. An alert on Steve’s phone had him grabbing it from his pocket. “Tony wants to see his back at the facility.”
“Race ya?” Bucky smirked, giving Steve a soft slap on his head before racing off into the woods; Steve hot on his trail.
In no time the two soldiers were back in front of the facility, barely even out breath. “Cheater,” Steve remarked as he walked through the door and up the stairs.
Tony was sitting at his desk in his office, door wide open. “Ah. You’re here. Take a seat fellas,” Tony said as he got up to shut the door behind him.
Steve and Bucky each took a seat opposite of Tony; both wary of what he was up to as Tony seemed a bit chipper this morning. And Tony was never chipper in the morning.
“We found a house on your property, a few miles down,” Steve spoke.
“Well as it just so happens, THAT is what I was going to talk to you about,” Tony stated, taking his seat across from the soldiers with a grin on his face.
Bucky looked to Steve, then back to Tony with furrowed brows. “Do you want us to move in there or something?”
Tony scoffed, rolling his eyes. “Of course not. Well, actually I do. Just hear me out for a minute. You two are both single and I think you are damn well ready to mingle if you catch my drift. Whenever we have our big ‘family’ dinners here, it seems like even though you two have each other, as friends of course, that you are missing that one special spark in your life. So, I’ve created a sort of, personal, ad for the two of you.”
Steve blew out a deep breath. “What the hell do you mean ‘personal’ ad Tony?”
“What I mean Cap, is that with extensive background checks, surveys and questionnaires, 12 lucky women will be living with you and Barnes in that house. Six vying for a chance at love with you, and six for Bucky.”
“That sounds fucking awesome!” Bucky cheered with a large smile on his face; Steve grimaced at him.
“Are you kidding me Stark? That sounds like some damn dating show!”
“It is! But it’s not,” Tony replied. “It will take place like a game show, with little challenges for you and the women and each challenge, you get to choose a woman to go on a date
with. And every couple of days, you will be in charge of sending one of the women home. Maybe someone you didn’t feel any connection with. And the best part of this all? It
will be top secret. It won’t be filmed, the women will have no idea that it will be you two they are vying for until they meet you at the house and I won’t even have F.R.I.D.A.Y attached if you don’t want it. It will be completely private from all media.”
Steve hung his head low, knowing this wasn’t a good idea. But he knew Bucky was ecstatic about it. Steve wanted nothing but the best for his friend, and he wanted to see him happy.
“You know I’m down for this. It’s tough dating women, especially because the only reason they want to date us is because we are a part of the Avengers. Come on Steve, what do you say? You know I wouldn’t do this without you.”
Steve rested his elbows on his knees, placing his face in his hands. He wasn’t the type of guy to date multiple women at once, and he also wasn’t the type of guy to send home women and break their hearts. But Bucky had a good point. Steve found it increasingly difficult to not only find a women who was interested in him, not him being an Avenger,
but also to find a women who he was interested in. He found most of the women out there to be nowhere near what he found interesting.
Sure Steve had plenty of dates with very beautiful women over the last few years, but he never connected with any of them. While they were gorgeous, it was their personality that he didn’t vibe with. He noticed almost all of the women he went on dates with were more attached to their phones and social media. And the conversation? It always seemed forced and that they had nothing to talk about.
“What if we don’t find anything we like about these women?” Steve asked Tony.
Tony shook his head. “Not possible. With the algorithm I cooked up for this, we will pick only six women for each of you and they will be perfectly matched and tailored to what you are looking for. That I can promise you.”
Steve sat back in his chair, arms folded across his large chest as he chewed on his bottom lip. This idea was starting to sound more intriguing by the minute. Steve still didn’t want to send any women home and break their hearts, but at the same time, he wanted to find love.
“Alright. I’ll do it.”
~~~
“Abso-fucking-lutely not,” Harlow barked out, rapidly shaking her head and waving her hands around in front of her face. Her two best friends, and roommates, Jenna and Blair stared at her; mouths hanging wide open.
“Did you just fucking swear?” Blair demanded. “Jenna, Harlow just swore! Harlow you NEVER swear, and when you do, it’s certainly not THAT word.”
Harlow rolled her eyes before scanning the document in front of her yet again. “I can’t believe you two did this without my permission.” She was looking at a document she printed out from her email, saying she was chosen as a ‘contestant’ to be on what appeared to be some sort of non-televised dating challenge.
“Oh come on Low,” Jenna whined, using their nickname for her. “You’ve had the worst luck in men for how long now? No offense to you hun, but you don’t exactly pick Mr. Right when you decide to date someone.”
Harlow set the piece of paper down, folding her arms across her chest as she let out an exaggerated huff of annoyance. “They weren’t ALL that bad. What about Luke?”
“Once you finally gave him some ass, he ditched you,” Jenna commented.
“Brian?”
“Cheated on you,” Blair remarked.
“Chad?”
Both girls whipped their head in Harlow’s direction. “Low, that guy was a fucking maniac. He slapped you in the face….more than once!! Not only did he physically abuse you, he mentally and emotionally abused you too.”
Harlow winced, remembering the times her ex-boyfriend had hit her. “I don’t think he meant it. I was kind of being a bitch.”
Both of her friends came to her aid, sitting on either side of her on the couch. “Sweetie, you didn’t deserve what he did to you. You are such a beautiful woman with an old soul. You deserve a true gentleman that will treat you right,” Blair said as she gripped Harlow’s hand.
“And how do you know this isn’t some sort of scam huh? How do you know the second I get to wherever the hell this place is that I won’t be kidnapped and killed?”
Blair squeezed her hands around Harlow, shaking her head. “Because I may have done some hacking and I know this is legit.” Harlow gave her a confused look. “Ok, well I don’t want to be 100 sure about this, but Tony Stark’s logo was all over it. So either he is behind this entire thing, or they at least used his algorithm to see who is most likely a match. Either way, it’s a win win situation. Tony Stark wouldn’t work for somebody without a full background check of his own.”
“I just,” Harlow began to say before blowing out a puff of breath, “I need to think about this.” Harlow got up from the couch and made her way into her bedroom.
As she shut the door, she went to take a seat on her bed, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. She knew her friends were doing this for all the right reasons, but Harlow couldn’t help but feel betrayed as they did this behind her back.
The three of them had known each other since high school and lived together all throughout college as well. They all had different personalities and looks, yet they all remained best friends for years. Jenna was tall, skinny and blonde. She loved working out and being fit. Blair on the other hand was the complete opposite; wearing nothing but dark clothing and being glued to the computer, usually hacking her way into things. She was on the shorter side, standing at 5’1” and had short jet black hair. Harlow, well, she didn’t really seem to fit into one particular crowd. Harlow was average in height at 5’5” and also average in weight. She wasn’t on the skinny side. She had a descent size chest and a bubble butt as well, with no thigh gap. Harlow was more of an introvert and extremely shy, mainly around big groups of people. She had long wavy brown hair and a round face that easily turned red with blushing. And her friends were right, she was an old soul. She liked the simple things in life and in a relationship; someone to open doors for her, to take her on romantic candlelit dates.
Harlow laid back on her plush comforter, debating on what to do about this situation. Without a doubt, her friends were right about her dating life. She had horrible taste in men and her relationships never lasted long; except for Chad. Chad and her had dated for nearly two years; things going bad about halfway through their relationship. At first he was picture perfect in her eyes, but then the verbal and emotional abuse started, followed by physical abuse. It never escalated passed anything other than a slap to her face or head, but she was grateful her friends were there to pull her free from that disaster.
It’s not like Harlow had to worry about being fired from a job for being away too long; she was a freelance artist after all and sold her work on Etsy, making quite a profit. She loved what she did and couldn’t be happier with it. But there was still that special someone missing from her life.
She looked around her room, decorated in neutral tones and paint splatters. She, luckily, got the largest room because of her artist job and the fact that she worked from home. The three of them lived in a rented house in Vermont, just on the border of Upstate New York. Harlow grew up in this area and absolutely loved it.
As she laid her head on the pillow, she closed her eyes, hoping her decision would come to her when she woke up.
+++++
Harlow woke up with a yawn, stretching her stiff limbs from a surprisingly well rested night. Looking at the clock she saw it was nearly 9 in the morning. She wrapped herself in her robe and slipped on her slippers before opening the door and making her way sluggishly into the kitchen.
There, she saw Jenna and Blair already at the kitchen island counter sipping on coffee. Jenna smiled at her and pointed to the coffee pot, letting her know there was still some left for her.
Harlow got her favorite mug down from the cabinet. It was decorated in paint splatter with the word ‘Artist’ on it; a gift from Blair one year for Christmas. After filling up the mug, she took a greedy sip before placing it down on the counter; both her friends looking at her anxiously.
She let out a deep breath before smiling. “Alright. I’ll do it.”
Cheers erupted from Jenna and Blair as they got off their stools and came to hug Harlow.
“Oh my god we have so much to do! We need to get the itinerary to see what you need to pack. Can we make all this work? It’s only two days away before you need to be there. Where’s the paperwork, we need to read through it again!” Jenna’s words tumbled from her mouth in what seemed to be one long breath as both Harlow and Blair began to laugh.
They sat down on the couch and read through everything they needed. Harlow needed to be dropped off at the airport, yet she wouldn’t be getting on a plane. Instead, a car would be picking her up. Looking through the paperwork, they read what was recommended to bring. Regular clothing of course, but also one or two evening gowns, along with some fancier dresses for dates should the situation arise.
“We need to go shopping!” Jenna squealed as she wiggled in her seat. “You don’t have any evening gowns and you are very much lacking in the fancy dress department. Go get
dressed and I’ll take you!”
Three Hours Later
Harlow was exhausted by the time she and Jenna got back to the house after their shopping trip. Jenna tried, yet failed, to get Harlow to agree on getting her nails done; it just wasn’t for her. If anything, Harlow would paint her nails a simple color from time to time, but that was about it.
To say the shopping trip was a success would be an understatement. Jenna sure knew how to shop, and knew where to find the best deals. By the end of the day, Harlow had two evening gowns and a handful of gorgeous dresses that would suffice for dates. She also had another handful of more simple everyday dresses that could be used as date dresses. All in all, it was a good trip.
By the end of the evening, Harlow began to grow anxious thinking about it all. There was an excitement about it, knowing that based off her personality alone that she was picked. Today, all guys usually cared about were if you were pretty or not first, and then they would get to know you. But not this time. This time around she was picked solely on her personality and it made her relax a little bit.
She thought back to what Blair had said; saying that Tony Stark must somehow be involved in this. She didn’t want to think too hard into it however and get her hopes up. Harlow of course knew that Tony Stark was part of the Avengers, but she couldn’t imagine that he would have gotten one of the Avengers to sign up to do something this radical.
As Harlow got into her bed that night, she pulled out her notebook and began to write down a list of everything she needed to pack as she didn’t want to forget anything. There wasn’t a limit on how many suit cases she needed to bring but she definitely didn’t want to overdo it.
Harlow shut off the lamp next to her bed and laid her head on the pillow; a smile gracing her lips as she hoped this extreme idea would finally help her meet ‘the one’.