He says.
He says like he can understand the concept of missing someone, like he has the capacity to care, to recognize the space someone else takes up in his life and realize the hole left in their absence.
Darcyâs knuckles tighten, her fingers more firmly wrapping around the grocery cart handle bar and thereâs that weird feeling of rage and longing all wrapped up together and she doesnât know if she can ever separate the two of them, if sheâll ever be able to look at the mutant and only feel one without the other.
If maybe theyâll always be intertwined, two completely different emotions codependent on eachother (a little like the two of them, awkwardly standing in a grocery store, the display of condoms still within sight in the corner of her eye).
At that moment, to free her from the confliction, sheâd be willing to sacrifice the rage, be willing to accept the hurt in Clintâs eyes, if only she could stop feeling herself be torn in two.
âThey know about you now.â As if she could put a quantification on they.Â
âWe canât be caught together.â
Like teenagers sneaking out in the middle of the night.
(But wasnât that the plan all along?)
His smile, which spread across his face like the rising sun on the most brilliantly clear of mornings, was genuine. It was rare for him to experience such a feeling, and still triggered a release of adrenaline just in case someone hit him for showing it. Childhood conditioning had never been kind, but it had been thorough.
âI understand, but Iâm very good at not being caught, Darcy. I wouldnât for the world endanger your career.â He meant it, which surprised him. It perhaps shouldnât have; her independence and intelligence were two of the things he most enjoyed about her. To endanger those would be to destroy the ideal of her.Â
âIâve moved back into the penthouse, if youâd like to stop by. SHIELD never knew about that, or they would have arrested me before now.â