The Silent Shadow || marvel

11- kiss of worry and lies

Svetlana opened her large blue eyes at 10:30 am to the sound of her father cursing under his breath.

She could tell he was attempting to be as quiet as possible but they both had enhanced hearing so there was no point in his efforts.

Svetlana groaned as she awoke completely. She stretched her arms out above her head and let out a large yawn.

"What's wrong Papa?" She questioned as she crawled from her splayed-out position to look over the front seats so she could observe what he was doing.

When Svetlana finished rubbing the sleep from her eyes they focused on the problem James had cursed about. On the middle console was a pile of what must've been all the money they had to their names.

"Oh," Lana said upon the realization of their predicament.

"It's nothing Sunshine we'll be fine," James said as he placed a good morning kiss on her forehead.

To Svetlana, it was just a kiss good morning, as normal. But to James, it was much more. It kept him sane, it was a kiss of worry. His hands were shaky and he held his place on her forehead for a bit longer than usual.

He was worried beyond belief- terrified even if he was willing to admit it. He honestly didn't know what he was going to do. They had a total of 79 dollars and 63 cents from HYDRA.

They needed clothes, food, and entertainment for Svet, and their gas tank was running dangerously low. Still, he needed to push aside his worries for Svet. His girl, his rock, his will to keep going. She didn't deserve to live like this.

"How much is there?" Svet asked as she craned her head to get a better look despite not knowing much about American currency.

"You don't need to worry about that," James replied with a reassuring smile that took everything in him to muster up.

"But I worry if you worry."

"I'm not worried."

Svetlana gave James a blank stare that had "Really?" written all over it.

"I'm not!" James defended himself with his hands up in surrender.

Svetlana didn't feed into the disagreement. "I can steal some for us, I'm a good stealer." She suggested.

"The word's thief Sunshine," James winked before her scooped up the money and stuffed it into his shirt pocket. " And no, I'll handle it." He assured Svetlana by scuffing the already wild hair on her head.

Svet rolled her eyes in annoyance. She knew that he had no real way of "handling it" and she didn't understand why he wouldn't just let her help.

Just as Svet suspected, James had no clue how he was going to handle it. He wanted to take her up on her stealing offer because truthfully, she was a better thief than he was. With her agile movements and small body, she was quick when she picked the pockets of unsuspecting individuals on the streets or an unattended cash register of a desolate store. Not to mention she was a nine-year-old girl, no one ever suspected her, and if they did James could pull the "I told her to put that back" card.

But he didn't want her to think they had to steal to live, even though they did. He wanted her to get away from the actions she did regularly in the past. But truly he didn't know what he was going to do. He couldn't get a job because what would he do with Svetlana? She surely couldn't stay in the car for hours and hours every single day. Not to mention the publicity of the situation that had just gone down in D.C. most definitely hadn't calmed down. It was still on the news when they drove past a store with many TVs in their storefront window.