Felix stood across from Tigerclaw, his shoulders squared, his bright green eyes locked with Tigerclaw's pale amber ones.

Both were waiting for the other to make the first move.

Felix's heart beat rapidly in his chest, and he was fully aware that he was standing across one of the most skilled fighters of all the four Clans. They were alone — Tigerclaw could kill him, theoretically, and nobody would ever know.

But because they were alone, Felix could say anything and it would never be heard by anyone else, unless either of them spoke of it to others.

Secrecy guaranteed.

Slowly, Felix began to move to his left, and the two cats circles each other. The look in Tigerclaw's eyes proved that the warrior had little doubt of his victory. Felix suppressed a smile — overconfidence was a weakness that many people suffered from, and apparently cats were no different.

You're no different either, Laufeysonarson.

That's... creative... naming. Explain later.

There's not much need for explaining, actually. You see, sonarson is norse for —

I said later.

Tigerclaw jerked his paw forwards suddenly, and Felix leapt backwards. It was only when he landed back on all fours that he realized that it'd been a simple diversion, a test of his reflexes, and Tigerclaw seemed surer than ever that this was going to be a short fight.

It certainly wasn't a good moment to get lost in thought.

Felix shook his head, rolled his shoulders loose, and lowered himself into a fighting stance.

Their eyes locked once more for a few seconds, and then Felix swiped forwards, Tigerclaw barely ducking out of the way. The brown tabby countered with a leap over Felix's head, attacking from behind. But years of training with Natasha, Loki and Bucky has sharpened Felix's reflexes to the very limit. He spun around, delivering Tigerclaw a blow to the nose, but receiving a scratch over his chest himself.

"Not bad," Tigerclaw hissed, his voice laced with amusement, "with some proper training, you could be a great warrior."

Felix rolled his eyes.

"What, you wanna train me? Extra tips are always welcome, I suppose. A true warrior is never too old to learn."

Tigerclaw snorted with something of disgust.

"You sound just like Lionheart when you say that."

"Lionheart, he's the one with the thick golden fur, right? I gather you're not exactly friends?"

Felix ducked under a swipe from Tigerclaw, before delivering a counter-blow that Tigerclaw avoided almost effortlessly.

"Friends?" Tigerclaw repeated, "no, we're not friends. I don't mind him though."

He seemed to force the words out of his throat, and Felix raised an eyebrow.

"You don't sound very convinced by your own statement," he noted, and Tigerclaw paused hesitantly, "you hate him, don't you?"

Felix took advantage of Tigerclaw's distraction to charge towards him, pressing him to the ground. He wondered what the best moment to say what he wanted to say would be — would it be better to address Tigerclaw when the ThunderClan warrior was at an advantage, or at a disadvantage? If he, Felix, spoke while Tigerclaw was pinning him down, his words could come across as a plea, which was definitely not what he meant. 

Tigerclaw pushed him off adroitly, and Felix growled at himself for allowing distractions to distract him.

"Tigerclaw," he spoke, making sure he wasn't panting, as they circled one another once more.

"Frostbite," Tigerclaw replied evenly, but a form of curiosity radiated from his eyes.

"I know."

If he had been expecting anything radical from Tigerclaw, he was mistaken. The brown cat only raised an eyebrow.

"You know what?"

"I know what you've done."

"You mean that I've saved the ThunderClan multiple times? Of course you know, everyone does."

Is he that dumb or that good?

"No Tigerclaw. I know about Redtail."

"What about her?"

"Stop denying it for Jotunheim's sake!" Felix exploded, "there's no point to it anyway!"

"No point to what?"

"TO DENYING THAT YOU KILLED REDTAIL!"

At that Tigerclaw finally paused, taking a step backwards out of the fight.

"Who told you?" he hissed.

"Can't say," Felix explained.

"It was one of Ravenpaws, wasn't it?" he blazed, "I knew I should've just slaughtered that pathetic kit when I first had the chance!"

"It wasn't Ravenpaw or Razorpaw," Felix reassured him.

"Then who was it? Who else knows?"

"Those that know won't tell," Felix promised.

There was a silence, and Felix stepped towards the big cat, who took up an aggressive stance.

"Tigerclaw," Felix whispered, "I just... you don't have to do this. You don't have to be this evil."

"Why would you care?" Tigerclaw hissed back, "you'll be leaving soon enough, you probably won't even witness the rest of my plans."

"Tigerclaw," Felix went on, "think of your descendants. They'll forever be known as 'Tigerclaw's kids'. Would you want that?"

"No," Tigerclaw hissed, "if it's up to me, they'll be known as Tigerstar's kits."

"But they'll be hated and mistrusted because of you!"

"No, they'll be admired because of me, because I will be the sole leader of these woods, the leader of the TigerClan."

"This is getting out of hand," Felix muttered.

"What would you know about these kinds of things anyway?"

"My dad was a villain," Felix replied, "and it almost ruined my future. Now it've sort of made it my mission to go around and try to convince villains everywhere I go that they're doing the wrong thing. Smaug, Krogan, and I would've done Vader if I'd come across him. And now you. Becoming a villain is never the answer. Villains don't get the girl. They never win. It's how it goes."

"Tell me one thing," Tigerclaw began in a quiet voice, much like Thranduil's and with an equal undertone of menace, "did any of those listen to you?"

Felix broke eye contact, looking away, his voice barely audible.

"No."

A debatably evil and certainly pitying grin spread over Tigerclaw's face.

"Exactly. So why would I?"

Felix lifted his head fiercely.

"Because I thought you'd be smarter than them. I don't know much about you, Tigerclaw, but I know you're an excellent warrior and have excellent potential."

"And I'm using that potential to it's fullest capacity," Tigerclaw answered calmly, "I suppose we'll have to agree to disagree."

Felix didn't want to give up, but Tigerclaw seemed impossible to convince.

"Am I wrong when I say that you're not from anywhere near here?" Tigerclaw enquired, sitting down as if he was completely relaxed, while Felix could still clearly see his muscles tensed for action, "either you're not a cat, or you're from extremely far away, because your customs are completely different from ours."

"What makes you think that?" Felix asked lightly.

"Easy," Tigerclaw smiled, "tell me about the Thunderpath."

"The Th-thunderpath..." Felix repeated carefully, realising he had no idea what Tigerclaw was talking about, "w-we don't have any of th-those..."

"See?" Tigerclaw pointed out, "you have no clue."

"Alright, so I'm not from here," Felix countered, "is there anything wrong with that?"

Tigerclaw shrugged.

"It's just another reason for you to keep yourself out of other cats's business."

Felix sighed.

"If you like," Tigerclaw suggested casually, as if he didn't really care about Felix's answer, "I could teach you a few moves."

"Maybe I could teach you a few back," Felix grinned, "but under one condition."

"What?"

"Show me the Thunderpath."

"It's a deal."