what they wouldn't do | DAREDEVIL

thirty

               IT HAD BEEN FOUR DAYS since Matt had last heard Stick's phantom heartbeat echoing nearby, but he was still on high alert. He could admit that hearing it once could have been a fluke; his senses were strong but far from perfect. But he'd heard it for a second time when walking with Sarah: clear as a bell and unmistakably Stick's. It was only there for a second or two, and then it was gone. How was that possible? He was certain Stick knew countless tricks that he'd never gotten around to teaching Matt, and he wouldn't put it past him to be able to cloak his heartbeat somehow. But why would he be hanging around without confronting him?

Matt had to wonder if he was imagining it, if his subconscious was inserting danger and complication where there was none. As a child, when Stick first left, Matt's mind had tricked him more than once into thinking he sensed the older man's presence, imagining the heartbeat that he had so desperately wanted to hear again. Now, of course, the thought that Stick was close by just brought Matt frustration and paranoia—especially given that he'd had Sarah with him when he'd heard it.

He knew that Stick vehemently disapproved of his decision to maintain personal relationships, but he didn't think that the old man would actually hurt someone Matt cared about. Then again, he hadn't thought that Stick would actually murder that child in the shipping container, so how well did he really know his old mentor?

So on the chance that he wasn't imagining it, he'd been trying his hardest over the last few days to limit his contact with Sarah—at least until he could be sure. And it was difficult. He'd carefully sidestepped her questions about his sudden and unexplained exit after the church, providing some vague excuse about having heard a mugging nearby. She clearly hadn't believed him, and his distance the last few days surely hadn't helped. All of their conversations since had been over the phone—a vain attempt on Matt's part to avoid being around her in person, in the hopes that it would make it easier to keep away.

But tonight he'd had a long night, and the night before as well. And before he'd even really thought about it, his feet had begun to follow a familiar path across the rooftops of Hell's Kitchen until they landed on Sarah's fire escape.

On the other side of the window he could hear Sarah moving from her kitchen over to the table, where her laptop was open and streaming a video of what sounded like a news segment. Matt cocked his head when he heard a familiar name being spoken on the video.

"...but for whatever reason we give Daredevil a pass, and for what reason? Because he wears a fun costume? People need to..."

He knocked on the windowpane, and the video immediately paused.

When Sarah opened the window, her body language seemed slightly off, like she'd been caught off guard. It was probably because of whatever video she'd been watching, he assumed.

"Hey. I didn't think you'd be coming over tonight," she said. Her voice sounded slightly odd, like she was speaking around something in her mouth. There was a sharp, sterile scent floating around her, and Matt struggled to place it. It wasn't alcohol, though it smelled similar.

Matt pulled his mask off, cocking his head suspicious. "What's...up with your voice?"

"Hmm? Nothing," she said, her innocent tone betrayed by the way her hand automatically came up to cover her mouth. At his raised eyebrows, she let out an exhale of annoyance. "It's—they're teeth whitening strips. You're not supposed to talk when you have them in."

That explained the strange smell, at least; it was peroxide, not alcohol.

After hours of dealing with the darkest corners of Hell's Kitchen, standing now in Sarah's small apartment and hearing her talk about something as normal and boring as teeth whitening strips was a sharp contrast. It lent him an odd sense of relief, as though he had stumbled into some world completely separate from the dangerous, vicious one on the other side of the glass. He grinned, halfway hoping they would just keep talking about mundane things and never have to stray to topics like Orion.