DARKNESS IN THE LIGHT

Bittersweet

You? Why are you here?

I think you know better than me, darling.

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Natasha could not believe her eyes. She was staring at the person in front of her, frozen in place. He cocked an eyebrow and pushed his glasses higher up his nose before running a hand through his chocolate hair. He seemed to be waiting for her to respond. At her silence, he sighed and extended a hand to her.

"Hello. I am Adrian Hunter. Nice to meet you. Again." He flashed her a wide smile. She stared back with a stony expression.

"Why are you here?" 

"I'd have thought you'd be happy to see me." He looked at her with a fake hurt expression. She could see right through it to the malicious smirk.

"Why the hell are you here after everything you did?" She tried to keep her voice low. Oh, I so badly want to punch him.

His smile vanished. "Is there somewhere private we can talk?"

Rolling her eyes, Natasha grabbed his wrist, pushing his sleeve up. He hissed at the contact, but she pulled him along. She knew he wouldn't say anything unless he got what he wanted. But that didn't mean she had to give it to him nicely.

"Natasha, my dear! Isn't it early for you to be out here?" An old woman called from the porch of a house. That was Gertrude, one of the people Natasha helped out often. She smiled at her.

"Just showing my friend around town, Gertrude," she replied. "Isn't it cold for you? I'll get you a shawl." She let go of Adrian for a moment and darted up the stairs. Gertrude let her breeze past before fixing Adrian with a sharp glance.

"Who are you, boy?"

"I'm Adrian. I'm an old friend of Natasha's." He smiled at her, but she didn't soften.

"Why has she never mentioned you? What are you here for?"

He felt a little hounded by the old lady's questions. " I'm just here to meet her."

"Hmph." Gertrude settled herself more comfortably in her chair. "You be careful with that darling, you hear me? You mess up and you'll have me to deal with." Natasha emerged from the house with a thick woollen shawl in her arms. She looked from Gertrude's pinched face to Adrian's uncomfortably polite expression.

"Did I miss something?" She asked, wrapping the shawl around Gertrude. She smiled up at her.

"Just having a talk with your handsome new friend, darling. Will I see you this evening?" Natasha patted her shoulder and nodded, before waving goodbye. She grabbed Adrian by the arm and led him towards a tiny cafe.

"Keep your mouth shut till I tell you," she hissed at him, before greeting the teen at the counter with a huge smile. "Hey Stacy! How are you?"

Stacy Hart was Natasha's first and only friend in town. The curvy brunette had been the only person to decide that Natasha needed to meet everyone in town and had gotten her her first job at the cafe.

"Better now that you brought the eye candy, Nat. Where have you been hiding this magnificent being?" Stacy was drooling over Adrian who had taken a seat in a corner booth. Nat rolled her eyes before pulling Stacy closer.

"You'd want to stay away from this one, Stacy. He's the one I was telling you about."

"Boo! Heartbreaker?" Stacy's hands were as fast as her mouth. She had tipped toast and toppings onto two plates and was filling a second glass with orange juice. "But you can't deny those strong shoulders and arms, that chocolaty hair which I bet has 3 shades of brown, and those beautiful eyes like more chocolate." She sighed and handed a plate to Natasha. "I get why you fell for him the first time."

Natasha took a deep breath and let it out. She gave a forced laugh. "I think you have chocolate on your brain, Stace." It is not her fault, she told herself. She does not know what he's doing. 

Stacy shrugged. "What can I say? It's chocolate!"

She took the plates and headed to their corner booth. "Breakfast." She dropped a plate before him along with a glass of cold orange juice.

He looked up at her and then down at the juice, before glaring at her as she took a seat opposite him. "You know I can't take this."

She lifted her eyebrows in mock horror. "Oh, it completely slipped my mind."

"You did this on purpose, didn't you?" His hands tightened on the table edge.

"Now why would I do that?" She began to cut her toast into strips, taking sips of her juice. Every time she flicked her fingers, he flinched back, almost as if he expected to be hit.

"Be serious, Nat."

"I am serious," she said through a mouthful of bread. "Technically you have to be the one talking." She swallowed. "Let me warn you - you are in my territory now. So don't even bother trying to lie."

He took a deep breath. "They sent me to kill you."

If he expected the words to shock her, he was sorely let down. She was occupied in holding her hand above the condensation on the table, her face screwed up in concentration. 

Ugh! Why is she still so perfect?

"Nat. Did you hear me?"

The droplets of water rolled themselves up into tiny balls. With a flick of her fingers, she sent one rocketing at him. It hissed against his skin and he jerked back.

"Stop it! You know-"

"I know. Doesn't mean I shouldn't. You deserve it. You know that, don't you?" Her tone was light and conversational even as she sent more water at him. Finally, he reached over and clasped her hand in his, even though it hurt him.

"What if someone saw?" He whispered, in a hoarse voice. She looked up at his face. The skin around his eyes and lips were drawn with pain. She wished she could feel bad for making him feel that way, but she simply couldn't.

"Let go unless you want to pass out. If you want to, be my guest. Stacy'll be glad. You will too, don't you? You've been enchanting her this whole while.  Aren't you ashamed that you still use those tricks, Adrian? At least I let people like me because they want to. Not because they have to. And because I refused to change for him, you're going to kill me." 

Adrian sat back, nursing his red hands. He looked at her with a look of pleading. "Natasha, don't you understand? You've always been the strongest. With you gone, they think they have the chance to keep everything together. That's why they sent me here."

"And you've just been their lap dog all this while, Adrian. I'm disgusted. I thought you were better than this." There was only sadness in her voice as she stood up. "Very well. Try to do your job. But remember. If you fail, I will not."

She smiled at Stacy and said something before she left, but Adrian was still frozen in his seat. A curious sort of ringing filled his ears. He remembered Natasha's job. I have to do it, he thought. Everything depends on it now.