The Wolverine & The Black Cat

40 // Why The Smile

C H A P T E R   40 :   W H Y   T H E   S M I L E

"Your body is broken but you're trying to fight this
Your arms are weary but you're trying to hide this

I'm bringing you home
It's been so long
We're finding the road
Back to where we belong

You lost it all and then you're been left open
And you were starting to heal
But you've been tearing the punctures"

Felicia's POV

Present time

James and I spent the entire afternoon planning our attack carefully and studying the HYDRA's base plan he had gotten. We discussed the diversions we would create to get in and out, selected the best points of entry and exit and singled out where the security cameras and most of the guards would be so we could take them down efficiently. To move inside the building and get to the storage to erase our files without being detected, we decided we would go undercover as the thing both of us hated most: HYDRA agents.

If you want to beat your enemy, be your enemy, right?

Then, once the files were destroyed, we'd try to cause maximum damage to the base, disabling HYDRA to a point where they wouldn't be able to search for us anymore, and if the plan went well, they wouldn't even know who to search for in the first place. But in order for that to work, I had to get me a uniform that could pass for a HYDRA one, and after a quick research, we found a warehouse that had military uniforms not too far away from us.

"Did you do it?" James asked when I arrived at the wooden house at night after a short drive to the industrial park and an easy, quick burglary to the warehouse. I thought going back to stealing would be testing, but instead it was like slithering into a second skin, because for some reason, I loved getting my hands on things that weren't mine.

"Yes. Luckily they had uniforms my size, but we'll have to hand stitch the HYDRA logo onto it." I said, placing the carton boxes on the living room's table, in front of the fireplace we couldn't use because the house had to look abandoned. Fortunately, given my improved system and James' past experiences with ice, we were both pretty resistant to cold.

"I'll do it." He said, opening the boxes with his metal hand easily and taking out the clothes to evaluate their quality and authenticity. "If there isn't a thorough inspection, they'll pass for HYDRA uniforms. Good job."

I shrugged. "Compared to some of the thefts I've done in the past, it was a cakewalk."

James tilted his head to the side slightly, catching me off guard with his question. "Why did you do it, in the past? Stealing?"

I hesitated, wondering if I should open up to him. But I guessed, when it came to James, I didn't have to, because nothing was closed. It was like seeing me in his rearview mirror. I couldn't unsee me in him, and I guessed it was the same for him.

"I like to say it's for the thrill of it, you know?" I ended up saying. "For the adventure, the chase, the possibility of getting caught, the breaking the otherwise boring routine. But deep down, I know it was more than that. I think it was my way of emotionally compensating for what was once stolen from me – my mother, my father... myself."

He stared at me, and suddenly he was a two-way mirror and I could touch my own reflection in his eyes. Sometimes, we could see ourselves better through someone else, because they filtered the things we couldn't look at on our own. And James was like that, the filter to my picture. "I'm sorry. You shouldn't have had to suffer any of that. And I'm sorry you had to steal again."