Line of Fire

2x18; the frenemy of my enemy

"I hate this," Mara grumbled into her latte.

Across the wrought metal table, Aiden gave a curt, mirthless chuckle. "Aren't we through this?" He asked, only for Mara to shake her head.

"Not the plan; my outfit," She replied, gesturing to the maxi-dress and leather jacket combo she'd acquired for the mission. There was a wide-brimmed hat on her head and a pair of glasses obscuring her face that could've come straight out of the sixties.

"Considering the alternative?" Aiden quirked an eyebrow. He needed to stop that, it was incredibly distracting. Particularly when they were supposed to be keeping a lookout for Aiden's Hydra contacts. "Besides," He continued, bringing Mara back to the present. "It's not a bad look on you."

"I look like a damn hipster," Mara hissed, glaring Aiden down.

It took all of five seconds before Aiden's composure broke and he burst into a fit of laughter. Mara wasn't far behind, though her laughter was more the silent, shoulder-huffing kind in comparison to Aiden's actual giggles.

"You know, I really missed this," Aiden said when he finally managed to calm down. "Just joking around with each other like we used to when we were partners. You're one of the only people I've met that can make me comfortable enough to laugh like this on a mission." When he looked at her next, he was still smiling, but there was a strange intensity in his eyes that Mara found she couldn't return. "Come on, you can't tell me you don't feel the same."

And it's not so much that Aiden was wrong, it's that she found herself agreeing with him. He was well on his way to making up for lost time and supposed betrayals, but Mara was just too stubborn to go say so yet.

Before she could draft some kind of ambivalent response, Mara's train of thought was halted immediately. She couldn't be quite sure, but there were two men in suits across the street that looked quite a lot like the pictures of top Hydra agents Aiden had showed her. Intuition sent the first cold shock of adrenaline pumping through her veins.

"Two men across the street at eleven and two," Mara dropped her voice so that Aiden was her sole audience. "Are they...?"

"Rooke and Janvier, yeah," Aiden muttered. He stood up, signing as he pulled enough from his wallet to cover their tab and tips. "And I was really looking forward to dessert."

Mara just shrugged as she finished off the rest of her drink. "If you like it so much, I'm sure there'll be time afterwards," She told him, collecting her things. "We can come back once we're finished here."

We. Both Aiden and Mara caught it as soon as the words came out of her mouth. When their gazes met across the table this time, Aiden's smile was a lot easier to return.

"Well, I certainly don't mind the sound of that," Aiden's grin was contagious, and Mara struggle to suppress the one threatening to creep across her face.

She narrowed her eyebrows sternly. Or tried to, at least. "The mission comes first."

It did nothing to the smile that was beginning to take up permanent residence on Aiden's face. "Of course, of course," He returned. There was something in the way he said it that made Mara look up. No, this wasn't the same jovial expression Aiden was wearing earlier. This was the look he reserved for missions. One that promised destruction, and maybe even a little pain, but never for her. Looking his way now, Mara felt just as comfortable as she had when they were laughing together earlier. "Let's go ruin Hydra's day."

~x~

Finding a covert Hydra meeting in the middle of Wisconsin's largest city was a lot easier than it should've been. Or maybe it had something to do with the fact that Aiden was Hydra-trained now, and he already knew all their protocols. Whichever the case, it meant Mara could finally shed her ridiculous disguise.