Who: Matt Murdock and Elektra Natchios Where: A coffee shop near Nelson & Murdock When: April 27th 2012, a little over lunch time What: A meeting between ‘friends’ Rating: Low
The busy cafe around the corner of Nelson and Murdock wasn't Matt's first choice for lunch and usually he would have eaten whatever Karen had brought back for him while she had her lunch. Today, she had had Indian and though she could not be faulted, the scent of the exotic spices on her breath had him cringing. He had quickly retreated to his current location after hastily making up an excuse about being late for a lunch date.
Matt choice a spot in the back of the restaurant where the smells from the sewers and roads were overshadowed by the smells of coffee brewing and started reading the --Braille-- documents he had brought with him from the office. Of late, he had found it hard to balance his life as both a lawyer and as Daredevil and the dark circles under his eyes were evidence of what little sleep he actually managed to squeeze in between both roles.
His finger glided over the embossed points that made up the document but as he reached the end of the page, Matt noticed something. Eyes narrowed, he tuned in on the sound and shut off the sounds around him, focusing on that one particular heartbeat that he would know anywhere.
"--Elektra." he muttered under his breath, staring directly at the woman.
She grinned and slid into the opposite seat. “Someday, Matt, you’re going to tell me how you do that.” She looked around. “I didn’t just take Foggy’s seat, did I?”
Someday, Matt repeated in his mind. He didn’t know when someday was or if it existed at all. Elektra was with SHIELD now and they were quite clear on their opinions about costumed heroes. Outwardly, he laughed it away like he did when he had no good answer and diverted the attention away.
“Don’t believe the ‘you’re different’ line?” he asked, and shook his head, “No, he’s having Indian today.”
“Good for him. It beats the fast food.” She folded her hands, lacing her fingers together, and tapping on the table. “Working on Saturdays, again...” She smiled softly. “I just knew you’d be here. I didn’t even have to use spy satellites,” she joked.
Elektra knew that something about her working at SHIELD didn’t sit well with him. Maybe because he kept on taking the underdog cases... cases that paid little or nothing, and running a firm didn’t come cheap. It was why he always seemed to be working. She’d even found him sleeping in his office a few times when she last visited to check up on him. “You look exhausted, Matt. Even the glasses don’t hide it. I worry about you.” She unfolded her hands and reached for his, which still rested on braille documents.
Matt raised an eyebrow behind his glasses at the mention of spy satellites. Call him paranoid but the idea of someone spying on him, even if it was Elektra, did not appeal to him at all. He didn’t say anything, less he start another fight that he could not end, and especially not in public like this.
He mirrored her hands, slipping his fingers through her. They felt right together like that. He wanted to say that he missed her but she would just laugh at him if he did. “I’m a lawyer.” he replied instead, as if that explained the circles under his eyes.
She knew what that meant. It was something she’d always admired about Matt. Knowing he was always busy made it a little harder to ask more of him, but there was a very short list of men she’d ask this of, and his name was at the top of that list. Also, at the bottom of that list. Okay, maybe you couldn’t call it a list until you had more than one thing on it. “I have a favor to ask of you, Mr. Murdock.”
“Mr. Murdock? We’re down to last name only now?” Matt joked, trying to ignore the ominous sentence. He wasn’t going to overthink this, not before knowing what she was asking exactly.
She laughed, squeezing his hands before pulling back. “There are two ways to ask this. One makes you believe I have ulterior motives. The other ensures I get a lawyer’s measured response. Sue me.” She winced. “Strike that from the record, bailiff.” Folding her arms guardedly, Elektra tilted her head and looked at him with her dark, searching eyes. “I need a date. To a formal occasion... which my father will be hosting, a little over a month from now.”
Matt put his papers away. He wasn’t going to get anything done now but the distraction was a good one and he had a whole afternoon of paperwork he wasn’t looking forward to. “You need a date and you’re asking me. Is this your way of subtly saying we should start over?” It was neither a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’. Murdock stalling technique no. 1 right there in action.
“I’d rather start in the middle,” she admitted, for once not jumping on him for avoiding giving her a direct answer. Elektra owed him that much, since last time she made it clear her choices were not up to a debate, or even a discussion. What was done was done. They probably would butt heads again - many times - but not today.
They would learn to respect each other’s decisions. His to stay in Hell’s Kitchen, denying himself a future of success he was more than capable of. Hers to leave, to join SHIELD, to hold onto a personal strength that had empowered her and allowed her to put the pieces of her broken childhood together, questions of constitutionality be damned. If they did not find a way to accept the other’s choices, then life would move on. That alternative was not something she wished to consider.
If Matt wanted an out, she would give him one. She unfolded her arms and rested them on the table, leaning forward. “We can also go as friends... if you’d like.”
Matt didn’t say that he had no idea what or where ‘middle’ was. Whatever you wanted to call them, complicated had always been the first word that came to mind when it came down to the two of them.
At the moment however, Matt didn’t want to go into the particulars. “When and where, ‘lektra ?”
“Greece is making overtures to help Latveria... modernize... as a first step toward entering the European Union. My father insists my presence would help immensely, and has convinced them to hold a costume ball as simply an overture to more friendly relations.” She paused. “I realize you wouldn’t just have a costume laying around...”
Elektra didn’t know how wrong she was about ‘having a costume lying around’. Matt did have a costume -- two actually if you counted his old one -- in the closet in the basement. It wasn’t a secret he was willing to share for obvious reasons that started with a capital ‘S’. The only person who did know about his nightly adventures was Foggy and...Batman. Matt had always got the impression that Batman knew about his identity but the suspicion had never been confirmed.
“I’m sure I can find something in a store somewhere. Just don’t expect to be on the arm of Mr. Best Dressed for the evening.” Matt joked, smiling.
“As long as it’s not tweed,” she replied, smiling deviously, “I’ll be the happiest woman there.” She stood up, then leaned in to kiss him on the cheek. It was a prolonged kiss, gentle and soft, a promise that all the old bridges had not been burned. An apology as well. “Get some sleep, Matt,” she slid her hand under his chin and whispered near his ear. “And call me when you’re done here. I’m free all weekend.”
Matt wasn’t expecting the kiss. He never knew what to expect with Elektra and it was one of the things he missed about her. The...not knowing and the mystery that seemed to follow her everywhere. He turned his head so that the kiss was just barely on his lips and closed his eyes He breathed in her scent. He had never forgotten it either, he realized.
“And I’ll be the luckiest man there.” he whispered back, fully meaning what he said. For a brief moment, he didn’t know why they broke up before the more sensible part of him asked the million dollar question: did he want to go down this road again?