[for ellen]

[manwithoutfear]

I've come to look forward to these moments, the aftermath often as enjoyable as the deed itself. Ellen's pulse flutters under my lips as I press a slow, sucking kiss to her throat, and though I've spent the past however long mapping her body through touch and taste, there remains all these little surprises just waiting to be discovered. My own limbs are loose and warm and so, so heavy, the best kind of exhaustion pulling me closer and closer towards sleep, but that doesn't stop me from taking my time in getting settled beside her, leaving a trail of wet kisses in my wake, fingers caressing her every curve.

(Perhaps I have my reputation for a reason.)

Practically humming out a sigh, I finally lay back onto the bed, pillowing my head with my arm as I stretch out my legs, toes curling. I really can't think of any better way to celebrate a year's enforced vacation; after all, I might as well enjoy it while it lasts.

Comments

[shewaswarned]

She'd wanted to ask, wanted to know, but like other things, she figured it was just something he might share with her in his own time. The way she'd shared David with him, but had left out some of the details of the bigger picture. In a sense, she's still putting those pieces together herself.

"And afterwards, is that when you - ?"

[manwithoutfear]

"My other senses were heightened. I could hear a pin drop from a block over... Read a book just by feeling the impressions left in the paper from the ink..."

I could elaborate for hours, but less is more in this instance. She's from a world where the impossible is just that, whereas my reality has played fast and loose with the laws of physics for decades.

"But it took years to get to that point. I was just a kid when it happened, overwhelmed by a twist of fate. I woke up different, not a hero. That part came much later."

[shewaswarned]

If anything, it explains his ability to recognize when she's switched her perfume, when she's using a different kind of shampoo. She'd initially chalked it up to his body making up for its lack of sight with other senses, but she'd underestimated the degree to which his other senses are overcompensating.

"And you can do all of those things now - or can't you?" she asks, pulling her hand back from his temple - although it still rests on his shoulder, light and constant. She's heard of the island taking away, but she's never had any abilities to lose personally.

[manwithoutfear]

"No."

It's not a properly formed word so much as an explosion of air, a frustrated sigh. The gist is the same. Suddenly, I feel the need to stand. I sit up, groping through the tangle of sheets to find my pants.

"When I showed up here, everything was..." I search for the right word and it's so obvious I don't know why it didn't come to me immediately. "Quiet. Bland."

[shewaswarned]

She rises similarly, but doesn't move to dress right away, absently clutching the bedsheet against her front as she pushes her other hand through her hair, running fingers through the mussed strands.

"You know, the things you can do are - impressive," she confesses, watching the slope of his shoulders. "The man I know is anything but bland."

[manwithoutfear]

A smile touches my lips, but I don't abandon my search for something to wear.

"No, I'm charming, exciting, debonair... All while being the kind of man a mother wouldn't mind her daughter bringing home," I reply, arrogance oozing through my every syllable. Swinging my feet over the edge of the bed, I bend down, my fingers finally finding purchase around worn denim.

"It's just my perception that's changed." Shoving my feet into the right pant legs, I stand and get dressed. "Not to mention what I do with my time."

[shewaswarned]

She grins, somehow ending up in a resting position on her stomach, tangled up in sheets, her chin propped up in her hand as she watches him stand.

"My mother wouldn't have much to protest against - although I'm not so sure how she'd feel about a fellow lawyer," she says, musing out loud. She's chuckling before she finishes, only stopping to add: "She had enough to worry about when I was engaged to a doctor, for God's sake."

[manwithoutfear]

"You're taking this remarkably well," I note, stretching my arms above my head. My limbs are still heavy from before, practically useless, but I feel the need to offer some proof for my claims. (An old habit -- and arguably a bad one.)

"Though I will thank you for not questioning my sanity."

She's probably the closest person to me who hasn't.

[shewaswarned]

She frowns at that, a small shrug of both shoulders preceding her next words as she attempts to find a way to phrase it as non-offensively as possible. Something tells her he won't react negatively, but she's been surprised at least once so far today. (Twice, actually, if she counts that thing he'd done in bed earlier - and she's distracting herself.)

"I hate to be one of those 'I'll believe it when I see it' types, but - " She trails off, her frown becoming more apologetic than thoughtful.

"I know you can't really offer me much in the way of proof here."

[manwithoutfear]

"Under the bed, three slats from the right-handed side of the headboard."

I pause from talking long enough to remember where the hell I dropped my cane earlier, though it's my foot that ends up finding it by chance. Crouching down to retrieve it, I execute a very casual one-armed cartwheel to straighten myself out, using the slow pull and burn of muscle as a sort of wake-up call.

"There's a wooden box I keep my costume in." I smile. "I'm told it's red."

[shewaswarned]

"Your - " She cuts herself off before actually repeating the word, pauses. There's no sign that he's going to break out into a grin and admit to having pulled one over on her here. She does take another pause, but only to slip on the closest thing her hand touches - his shirt - so she isn't conducting this search without a single stitch on.

And then she's looking, reaching down under the bed and feeling along, counting to three until her fingers touch the right slat and bump. She pulls the box out slowly, settling it on her lap, looking up to his face. When she cracks open the lid, all she can see is red before her eyes make out the shapes - the cowl resting on top, with its lenses, and two distinct -

"Horns," she breathes, glancing up at him. "Those would be horns."

[manwithoutfear]

"The kids at school used to call me Daredevil as a joke," I explain as my hands go through the familiar motions of turning my prop of a cane into a weapon: a billy club.

"My dad was a boxer, but he didn't want me following in his footsteps, so I was forbidden to fight, to defend myself from their taunts. All they saw was a bookworm -- practically an endangered species in Hell's Kitchen -- when in truth, I could've wiped the floor with every last one of them... I just wanted to keep my promise."

And all the while I broke it every night to train in secret. The wryness in my voice tugs at the corners of my mouth.

"I imagine this seems ridiculous to you."

[shewaswarned]

She finds herself smiling, that gradual shift in expression occurring almost by natural reflex as he shares those memories with her - only to have it falter slightly as she watches the cane in his hands shift into something that looks like it could do a little more damage.

Her fingertips trace the initials, the twin D's embroidered into the fabric. It's a lot to take in, certainly, but not overwhelmingly so.

"No, nothing like that," is her promise as she gently sets the box to one side, rising and moving to stand in front of him. Her hand finds a scar she'd been pointed to only moments before.

"But you didn't get these hiding behind a book."

[manwithoutfear]

The right information in the wrong hands can be as deadly as any gun or knife. Back home, what little I've told her could go for a hefty price, and I'm no stranger to being sold out. That danger doesn't exist here.

The rush of adrenaline thinks otherwise.

"I also didn't get them in a schoolyard."

[shewaswarned]

"Different kind of playground." The only difference is that it sounds like he'd stood up to them in those particular instances, even if he's walking around with the evidence of it not having been an easy fight.

She can relate. Someone had been sent to kill her, but he'd ended up with a knife in his chest for his troubles - and besides, she'd learned the truth about who was really responsible, in the end.

"The bullies just get bigger."

[manwithoutfear]

I laugh. Loudly. I haven't even said a word about Wilson Fisk yet, and he's undoubtedly been the biggest bully of them all -- in more ways than one.

"You have no idea."

[shewaswarned]

She steps in, tipping her head back to preserve that line of sight, her hands challengingly braced on her own hips. It's in her best lawyer voice, soft and low and meant to impress a point. Make them come to you, Patty'd always said.

"Try me."

[manwithoutfear]

"Six foot seven, 450 lbs of muscle, and too clever by half. His name was Wilson Fisk, but they called him the Kingpin."

Until I won the name, that is, but that's a story for a different day, if I tell it at all. I match Ellen's step forward, getting in close enough that I can feel her breath against my skin.

"A bit bigger than your average grade schooler."

[shewaswarned]

She pushes out a breath, soft between pursed lips, a line of thought forming between her brows.

"You weren't kidding." He hasn't been kidding about any of this, anyway, so there's no reason to suspect that will change any time soon. Her hand closes over his, over the one that clutches the hidden weapon within his cane.

"Thank you," she whispers. "For telling me. I know you didn't have to."

[manwithoutfear]

"It doesn't mean anything here."

None of it does. The work I put in, the bridges I burned, the sacrifices I made... As long as I'm here on this island outside of space and time and reason -- Matt Murdock or Daredevil -- it doesn't mean a damned thing... But of course I had to tell her. There are other stories that don't need revisiting, parts of my past I don't need to share, but that part felt different.

I clear my throat. "But I trust I have attorney-client privileges?"

[shewaswarned]

"Maybe not, but - you didn't have to say anything at all, if that's the case." But this had been his life, at least before the island, and he's sharing it with her, the same way she had with him months before, when he was only an open ear and a trustworthy friend then.

Her eyes light up with the next few words out of his mouth, and she slowly winds her arms around his middle, tipping her head back to look up at him. "My lips are sealed."

[manwithoutfear]

I trust her. Maybe because she trusted me first. It's not something that's come easily to me these past few years, and some part of me thinks I'm being naïve for believing this is real. It's a part that's easy to ignore with her arms around me.

I tip my chin down, and press a kiss to those sealed lips of hers. An extra lock.