Caught in the Cat's Web

Chapter 6

Nueva York, Earth-838

Felicia woke up the next morning with a throbbing headache. The dull pain throbbed behind her eyes as she blinked and tried to regain her bearings.

"Good morning, sleepy head," a voice, soft yet unexpected, startled the poor woman. Felicia's eyes darted toward the source, and there stood LYLA with a mischievous smirk on her digital face.

"Fuck! How long have you been here?" Felicia asked, her heartbeat still racing from the sudden surprise.

"Miguel asked me to watch over you. Your vitals are great, no concussion, thankfully. You're just gonna be sore." Lyla's figure flickered as she glitched around Felicia, her artificial eyes inspecting her wounds with a concerned gaze.

"O-Oh." Felicia looked around the room, remembering how the night ended yesterday. "Is Miguel here?"

"On his way back, actually. Want me to alert him?"

Felicia shook her head, her hand instinctively moving to her temple, massaging the throbbing headache that seemed to intensify with each movement. She winced, trying to fight off the persistent discomfort before speaking. "No, no, that's alright," she murmured. "I should sneak out."

"Sneak out?" Miguel questioned as he opened the door. "That's not very polite."

"You eavesdrop, now?"

Miguel rolls his eyes, "Super hearing plus thin walls makes it easy to hear your loud ass voice." He says as he strides over to the side of the bed. "Here." He says' holding out a cup for Felicia.

"What's this?" She hesitantly takes the drink.

"You always get an iced latte with oat milk" He shrugs.

"What did you do to it?" She asks, taking off the lid and giving it a sniff.

"Be grateful, you brat." Miguel crosses his arms. Felicia smirks at the remark, she slowly takes a careful sip, humming at how the flavor runs down her throat. Miguel sits on the bed next, facing Felicia. "May I?" He gestures to the bandages.

Felicia nods, watching Miguel as he slowly and meticulously removes her bandages. He reaches to the bedside table where he left an extra towel from last night, using it to wipe the leftover healing gel from Felicia's skin.

"How's it looking, doc?"

"No more gashes, just faint scratches your makeup can easily cover," Miguel says as his thumb slowly runs over each faint cut.

"My hero." Felica purrs teasingly but stops in her tracks as Miguel's thumb runs along the cut below her bottom lip.

Felicia's trance is broken as Miguel stands from the bed. "LYLA's making the final adjustments on your suit to make it withstand more power, so it should be ready before we go to work today." He says as he walks out of the bedroom and into the kitchen, Felicia following.

"Well in that case I can't wait. Not to say that this very oversized t-shirt and boxer shorts aren't the look." She teases.

Miguel looks at her with a dark look on his face, a slight smile forms from her witty response as he walks down the stairs towards the kitchen.

Felicia sits down at the kitchen counter on the barstool, Miguel across from her leaning over the counter so he stands at her level. Her body language changes drastically from sass to insecurity, her hands tentatively holding onto her coffee cup.

She decides to be the first one to talk. "Look um- about last night-"

"Felicia..." Miguel cuts her off. His hands on the counter slowly move closer to hers the more they speak. "I know I don't seem like the most approachable in these kinds of things, but um- you can always come to me. I don't want you to feel like you can't call for backup or that you're alone."