[✔️] 𝑇𝐻𝐼𝑁𝐾 𝐹𝐴𝑆𝑇 | 𝐃𝐈𝐄𝐆𝐎 𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐆𝐑𝐄𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐒

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐄𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍

𝐑𝐄𝐅𝐑𝐀𝐈𝐍𝐄𝐃
"𝐴 𝑓𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑑 𝑖𝑠 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑤ℎ𝑜 𝑘𝑛𝑜𝑤𝑠 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑎𝑏𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑙𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑠 𝑦𝑜𝑢."
—𝐸𝑙𝑏𝑒𝑟𝑡 𝐻𝑢𝑏𝑏𝑎𝑟𝑑

𝐈
— 𝑀𝑎𝑟𝑎 —

"𝐀𝐇, 𝐒𝐇𝐈𝐓."

Mara folded her arms as she leaned against Diego's doorframe, shaking her head. Her eyebrows raised as she watched Diego fail to tie his shoelace, his foot propped onto the seat of a wooden chair as he bent down and used the hand that was protruding from the sling to help.

"Hey," she called irritatedly. "Idiot."

Diego's fingers paused, tightly clutching the ends of his shoelaces as he looked up at her while she stepped inside the room. "Who, me?"

"You can't even tie your own shoelace and you think you can go kill two trained assassins?" she scoffed.

He lifted his eyebrows as he straightened up, his foot still up on top of the chair. "You think I can't?"

"I thought that I implied that." She shrugged, glancing over at the full-body mirror that rested beside her. "I'll be more clear: Yeah, I don't think you can."

"Well," he sighed, "I could use your help."

"With tying your shoelace or killing those people?" she questioned with raised eyebrows before letting out a scoff. "Because I'm not doing either."

"I was gonna say both, but you can't even tie my shoe for me?" he asked incredulously, raising his eyebrows.

"You're a strong, independent man, aren't you?" she teased as she took a step closer to him, pretending to flex her (non-existent) muscles to mock him. "Big and tough, right?"

"Yeah," Diego scoffed, "except I got shot in the arm."

"Hm. Unfortunate." She folded her arms before raising a finger and offering, "Listen, I'll tie your shoe on one condition."

"And what is that?" He narrowed his eyes suspiciously at her as he waited for her to elaborate, his eyebrows knitting together tightly.

She stared at him for a moment before telling him, "You don't go after Hazel and Cha-Cha."

Diego rolled his eyes, shaking his head as he leaned back. "You think that's worth losing just so you can tie my shoe?"

Mara shrugged. "Yes."

"Look," he exhaled as he gestured towards his shoelaces that were waiting to be tied together, "you gonna tie my shoe or not?"

She raised her eyebrows. "I gave you my condition."

"Yeah," he scoffed, "I'm not agreeing to that."

"Fine." She turned around to head out the door, giving him a small shrug as she called over her shoulder, "Trip over yourself, then."

"Mara."

"What?" She spun on her heel to look at him just before she reached the door, her eyebrows lifted as she faced his glare.

His face twisted into a scowl as he firmly said, "I hate you."

Mara quirked an eyebrow, an amused smile tugging at the corner of her lips. "Do you?"

"I do," Diego insisted, his eyebrows furrowed and his eyes narrowed as he tried to maintain the scowl on his face.

Mara walked back over to him, her eyes narrowed. She came to a stop right in front of him, and she heard his breath hitch as she leaned closer to him, their lips now only an inch apart as she placed her hands on his shoulders and whispered, "Do you really?"