12263/A Challenging Night

A Challenging Night
Date of Scene:	29 September 2020
Location:	Apartment 4C, Instrata
Synopsis:	Matt and Claire have a long talk.
Cast of Characters:	Claire Temple, Daredevil

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Claire Temple has posed:
While Matt probably went out fighting, Claire finished her entire goal for the night. Therefore, she returned back home, off duty until tomorrow from the hospital but also not tired. Sneaking around like that was enough to wake up a good bit of adrenaline and now she's worried. Worried about Matt. Worried about those kids. Worried in general.

A shower is often some attempt at relaxing, so she's turned on the water as physically hot as possible and grabbed a beer from the fridge to bake herself against he cold drink. Her door is locked but, well, the Devil has his ways of getting in...

Daredevil has posed:
It's not long after Claire arrived at her home that Matt turns up. Still in his armor and not wanting to draw much attention to himself or their apartment building, Matt makes his way down the fire escape from the roof. Making sure no one is paying him any attention, he sneaks down until he is outside of her window. He lifts it open and steps in, closing it behind him and making sure it's latched. The heat and humidity from the shower hits him immediately.

Stepping out of her room and into the hallway, he glances down towards the bathroom, "I'm here, Claire. I don't want to frighten you." He pauses. A voice suddenly calling out when she's getting into the shower is already enough to scare the hell out of her. Shit. "I'll be out here." He shakes his head at himself and walks towards her living room, pulling the mask from his head, his hair a slight mess.

Claire Temple has posed:
While she's a touch startled, by the second word out of his mouth, she knows his voice. It's a ton forever imprinted in her mind, after this last year. "Be right out. Beer is in the fridge." She's either not that mad, or so mad she's flipped around to neutral, because she sounds fairly calm calling over the pour of the shower around her. Maybe he got lucky this time and he's not quite ignited her temper?

Sure enough, she showers like someone in the military. Always another crisis, never time to enjoy it. She's out from under the water less than five minutes later, carrying that half drank beer with her. She bothers wrapping up in a towel, though it seems often unnecessary with him. She's still somehow a touch modest with him. She crosses out of the bathroom, standing there in nothing but that towel as she looks him over, "...Didn't even change? Planning on going back out there?"

Daredevil has posed:
Sitting on her couch by the time she gets out, Matt glances up as she approaches. He takes a moment to appreciate the woman in her towel but doesn't comment on it. Instead, he smiles at her with that tilt of his head, his eyes vaguely unfocused on her. "I wasn't planning on going back out," he says as he rises from the couch and motions his thumb over his shoulder towards the door, "but I could if you'd prefer."

The grin on his face suggests he's joking. His mask is on the couch next to where he was previously sat, and instead of heading for the door he approaches her. "I just wanted to see you, that's all." He couldn't wait to, either, considering he didn't stop to change or at least grab a change of clothes. He pauses for a moment as he stands before her and looks down at himself, "Although I am regretting not changing now."

He lifts his head again to look at her, "How was the shower beer?"

Claire Temple has posed:
Silence lingers from her for a few heartbeats. Of course, Matt's world is never truly silent. The screaming of cars outside, the quiet patter of her own breath and pulse. Dripping of a sink in the next room. Claire is debating between anger or not. How she actually feels, having been tailed, but the temper isn't quite there. She finally just sighs, "I think I still have some of your sweat pants here. I KNOW I have a few of your shirts." Ones she's stolen over the weeks, when things are good between them. "Shower beer... sorta helped. But fuck, those... Those were just kids back there, weren't they? Some very, very deranged...Kids."

She then disappears back into her room, drying off quickly and pulling into sleep shorts, her own t-shirt, before she gathers up some more comfortable clothing for him. Even if his old t-shirt smells like her, she's worn it more than once over the last few days. She carries everything back into the front room, "And... were you following me? I mean...I would have been fine, you know?"

Daredevil has posed:
Matt can hear her tension. He knows she's bordering on anger. He knows why and knows that it isn't warranted, in this case at least. When she starts talking about the two.. mutants maybe? Matt's face stiffens and he nods. "They're two of the most unusual people I've met," he says. And he's met a few unusual people in his line of work. "They seem to have their hearts mostly in the right place, but there's something about them that worries me." In the same way that Frank Castle worries him.

When she disappears into her room to finish changing and then returns with some of his clothes, he takes them from her and starts to walk towards her room so he can change. He's a bit modest around her, too. Then he stops just short of her door. "I wasn't following you. I was already there when you showed up." He turns to look at her over his shoulder. "It scared the shit out of me when I heard you." He knows he has no place to make her feel bad when he is constantly worrying her so he doesn't press it. He just wants her to know that it goes both ways.

He steps into her room so he can get out of his armored suit and change into the clothes that smell like her. When he emerges, he heads back into the living room, "I know you would've been fine, Claire. Once you went inside, I had to be sure though."

Claire Temple has posed:
As he comments about her having scared the shit out of him, Claire just *stares* at him for a long moment. The incredulousness hangs in the air, smirk on her lips. "... Hell, Murdock, are you *listening* to yourself? Now maybe you get how I feel every single *night* you go out there. I wasn't picking fights with the Russians or the Dragon, though. I was checking in on some homeless kids who got a bug up their ass... or maybe some very catholic brainwashing, about saving other kids in this city. Mm... I wonder where they got the idea that Hell's Kitchen is suitable for vigilantes?" She states pointedly, staring hard at his back as he disappears into her bedroom.

The woman goes quiet then, letting him change and letting her own edges of temper be swallowed down with what little is left of her beer. She sinks down into her couch with a flop of a breath, most of the adrenaline of the night now leaving her. When he joins her again, she's a little less sharp around the edges. "Well... we're both fine. That went... fine. I'm more worried about that pair than anything. They felt... young. Off. They need a good therapist, not a gang war."

Daredevil has posed:
The sharpness of Claire's words hit him a little more than he expected them to as he changes. Now, in the living room, he lingers for a moment, standing just inside the room. He feels like he might need that beer she offered after all. He turns and heads to the fridge and grabs a beer, tearing the cap off and taking a long pull with one hand resting against the counter. With a sigh, he wipes a drop of beer from his lip and then heads back out into the living room.

"They want to go after the Dragons again. And they want my help. And Frank Castle's." Matt remains standing between the couch and the kitchen, staring off into the distance. At nothing in particular. He's just thinking about that. "I met Frank Castle, by the way." He laughs in the form of a heavy sigh and takes another drink. "I know what you think about what I do, Claire, but these people..." he trails off as he takes a few steps, starting to pace. The Punisher is borderline insane. These two new people, Cloak and Dagger, they're young but there's something damn near insane about them too. He stops and looks to the woman on the couch. The woman that he loves. Who might love him. "I'm not like them." Is he?

Claire Temple has posed:
His last comment is met with silence. Too long silence. Claire cannot, it good conscience, affirm the words he only half asked. She reaches one hand up, instead, and grasps gently at his calloused palms. She pulls him a little closer even as that uncomfortable silence reigns. "I... wouldn't say you are exactly like them. No. You all have your own traumas, own reasons for... hiding your faces, dressing up in strange uniforms, and risking your lives every night. But... you're not that different, either. It takes some real damage to do... do the things you're doing. And I know. And I care. And I want to help, just... as I always have. But it's..." She breathes in slowly, "It's not healthy, no. Not normal." Also probably not going to stop.

She pulls him down onto the couch with her. Or, at least, she tries. He still has her out classed when it comes to strength, by far. If he doesn't want to sit after that, she can't make him. "I... met the Punisher too. He pulled me in to help patch some things up... a few weeks ago now. We're both going to be a part of this, and that's just a danger we both have to expect. If you want to help them? I'm not going to stop you. I'm not going to let you do it alone, either."