6213/Black Sky: About Elektra...

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Black Sky: About Elektra...
Date of Scene: 18 January 2019
Location: New York City
Synopsis: The fake couple breaks up! Matt puts his foot in his mouth! Matt's life is a mess and Kate's love life is DOA! ... so basically another night in Hell's Kitchen.
Cast of Characters: Daredevil, Hawkeye (Bishop)
Tinyplot: Black Sky


Daredevil has posed:
Elektra was back... or was close to it. Either way the meeting with her in his place gave him hope that someday, on her own terms she would reclaim who she was, or, at the very least she'd throw off engulfing fog of whatever the Hand had done to her. Though, like she'd said, that was her battle to fight, her choice to make.

Though it also left Matt with choices of his own to make. The first had been about the money, as far as he was concerned Elektra wasn't dead and that made the will void, it was her money, not his, he'd suspended all his spending except for the expenses of keeping Fogwell's in power and heat and a small stipend to pay the rent on his place. The rest he left as it was, for Elektra to reclaim, or not, when the time came.

The second choice had been about Kate.

There was no certaintly that Elektra would choose to come back to him. She'd been through so much, more than Matt could likely ever understand, so where her head and heart would be when she came through it was impossible to guess, though, if she chose to come back, chose him, he wanted to be ready for that, which meant, relationships even fake ones were out of the question.

Not that it was that simple. The kiss of weeks before had shown them their lack of chemistry, still, Matt felt a pull towards Kate, she did make his life brighter and feel grounded... So he'd procrastinated, until finally, he had the nerve to send a text to invite her over:

Matt >> Good to come to my place tonight? Got beer and pizza.

He felt silly about it all, Foggy teased him about how 'practiced' Matt was at letting girls go, and those had been real relationships, this one was fake but it was still hard. Text sent, Matt sits down on his couch and waits for a reply.

Hawkeye (Bishop) has posed:
Okay. Kate wasn't stupid. She'd heard the rumours. Heck, you didn't need to be but a few feet from Stick to have heard more than rumours. And it wasn't like the lot of them hadn't been meeting off and on for training and practice sessions.

What Kate wasn't good at - for all she was the consumate chameleon when it was necessary - was how to bring this whole matter up.. and break it off. Witness her non-relationship with Clint Barton. She'd carried a torch for him for so long even a blind man could tell she had it bad for the man (sorry, Matt) - and Clint /still/ hadn't figure it out. Heck, she'd even tried telling him in her own way... only to find out he'd already shacked up with a girl, who, by all accounts Kate would probably like if she met her. Only..

Well, Kate wasn't sure she was ready for that sort of heartbreak yet, even though she'd come to grips with the fact that it just wasn't going to happen between her and Clint. She'd had enough signs, but that kiss from Matt had told her all she needed to know: there was nothing there. And she remembered it clearly, how midway through the kiss with Matt she found herself analyzing it. Warm. Not too moist. Not too pushy. As far as kisses went, it wasn't so bad. If she were interested..

And *bam* it had hit her, in the middle of this otherwise great kiss as far as kisses went, there she was, anazlying it.

That was when she realized there was never going to be anything between her and Clint... or her and Matt.

So why was breaking it off with him so hard? She'd heard about Elektra being - well, nobody was really quite sure what she was, but 'almost alive' was the consensus. And while that didn't spell out a reunion between Matt and Elektra, it did make things awkward. The kind of awkward where she knew it was only a matter of time before their pretend relationship was going to be visibly pretend to anyone and everyone who saw it. Kate might be a chameleon. Matt? Was a very bad liar.

So when his text came inviting her over for beer and pizza, Kate made up her mind she was going to break it off with him. In fact, she was rehearsing stories right up to the point she knocked on his apartment door. She still didn't know which one she was going to use, and her resolve was fading fast, but somebody had to do something about this before the papers got wind of it.

Daredevil has posed:
Matt had spent the intervening time meditating. Something he knew Stick would have snorted at followed by something mocking and caustic., 'I taught you that so you could focus your mind, not get over your girl problems' or something in that vein.

Though when he heard Kate's heartbeat in the hallway, he opened his eyes and left the couch to go to the kitchen for some beers.

"It's open,"he calls trusting Kate to hear him as he gets and cracks those beers.

He still had no idea what he was going to say, but he figured beer would help both of them however it went.

Hawkeye (Bishop) has posed:
Kate heard. Or thought she heard. She figured if she knocked she'd be invited in. He was expecting her after all. And Matt being who he was, it wasn't like someone else was going to sneak up on him, now was it? The door was unlocked, so he was clearly expecting her (d'uh, he'd texted her to come over, after all!), and she carefully closed it behind her, careful to throw the bolt. Habit.

"Hey. So, what's this hot date you've got planned for us?" Her lips smiled, but her voice didn't - though most would have missed that. Most had learned to take what they saw ane what they heard and make an amalgamation that fit the story they wanted to tell. Most would expect Kate would be teasing and chipper about this 'date' of theirs, even if they both knew it wasn't a date, and would take her smile at face value, tucking her words into that smile and carrying on without question.

It was part of the art of chameleon after all.

Matt, however, was blind. Her smile didn't work on him.

"Lucky would like you to know he's missing prime other dog butt sniffing time for having had his walk a half hour earlier than normal and I've been instructed to bring the crusts home as recompense. He might forgive me."

That, of course, came with a natural and unforced lilt of amusement that matched her body language. An ease that spoke of the fondness she had for her dog. And.. likely a small bit of teasing connected to the fact that not only was she generally broke, but here she was, telling Matt her dog was demanding she bring back a doggy bag.

There she was, Kate Bishop, the other, better Hawkeye: Straight man for a dog.

Daredevil has posed:
Matt could hear the flatness in Kate's tone as he brought the beers and greeted her in the entry way. Did she suspect? He figured she'd had to have heard the rumours. Everyone knew, damn it, what did that mean for what he should say, for now though he settles on: "Well I thought we'd start with a beer and see where the nigth takes us," he says leaning in to kiss her cheek as he handed her a bottle.

"Pizza is on it's way, got our usual," he says. "I'll even chip in my crusts for Lucky," he says with wry smile, the humour was a relief, and he was happy to pounce on it for even a few seconds of delay.

"How is he doing anyhow? Glad I'm not spending more nights over in his house?" he asks, before taking a sip of his beer. He swore Lucky had spent the whole first night staring at him while he slept on that futon.

Hawkeye (Bishop) has posed:
"Oooo, the usual," Kate says taking her beer and leaning her cheek towards the kiss. "Big spender."

Not that she was complaining. She liked Gino's pizza. She'd liked it before Gino had taken a shine to her and offered her the 'regular' discount. She did feel a bit guilty every now and then for that, though. After all, she *technically* wasnt this broke living from paycheque to paycheque girl like everyone thought she was. It was all complicated, of course, by the fact that she was trying not to live off of her trust fund, and to prove her father wrong.. but when push came to shove, while she really was flat broke if that (and the rest of the perks of being a Bishop) weren't at her disposal... Kate Bishop was in no way, shape, or form, a poor person.

"Lucky? Oh, he keeps sniffing the futon. I think he misses you now. I used to have to fight him for the blankets, but lately he's decided maybe that's his bed and I can keep the other."

She sips her beer, and frowns at Matt. "How come that is, anyway? I mean, the sleeping over." She knew, of course, or at least could put it together now: he'd stopped, probably about the time he'd found out Elektra was.. well, whatever flavour of dead, living, or undead she was. Kate wasn't sure what Elektra was, but she was willing to bet that was about when it happened.

If she were a kinder, gentler Kate, she'd let him off the hook for it all, but something perverse made her push and pretend like she didn't know the answer already.

Daredevil has posed:
Matt might not have understood Kate's hesitance about the regular discount before Elektra's 'death' but he understood it now. The money changed a lot, even, he found when you weren't spending it.

He shakes his head and has a swallow of beer, just look at the the two of them, piles of money and neither of them spending a dime, albiet for different reasons.

"It's my Hell's Kitchen roots, still spending like I'll miss it," he teases back.

Oddly, the bit about Lucky missing him went right to Matt's heart. He was never really a dog person, he liked them well enough, but something about an innocent creature looking for him wondering why he was gone, made his heart ache a little.

"Glad he's taken it over anyhow," Matt says of the futon before her question comes. He knew it would be coming in some form or another, and he'd prepared but he still felt like he did when he stood at the edge of a building, ready to leap, that moment of no-return.

Did he want to say what he planned to say, if not, then now was the time to lie, back away, or play it off with a joke about the 'looks' he got from people at Sunday services with all this public shacking up. In the end, he chooses the truth: "Elektra's back, Kate. Or some version of her. I am not sure what is happening there, it's on her now, but, I don't think our arrangement is going to work anymore."

He'd made the jump, now it was time to see if he swung to safety or hit the alley floor.

Hawkeye (Bishop) has posed:
She'd forgotten - about 'his' money. There's an almost immediate apologetic response from Kate. "I didn't mean.. I mean, I guess I meant.. oh you know what I mean. I was just joking. I totally forgot about that." Because she had. And because, well, before this meeting here, it wasn't something she coudl joke about, right? Bringing up all sorts of painful memories for him - like why he had that money to burn.

She understood, though, even without the baggage his inheritance from Elektra brought, why he'd still be frugal. There was just something about the man, and his life's philosophy that smacked of considering spending money wastefully just because you could as something of an improper act. If not an outright sin. And being Catholic, with that very big "C", Matt likely did find it a sin.

She was so caught up in that, that she missed his twinge over Lucky. Or his comment about the dog taking over the futon. At least until he brought up the other.

And there it was, lain out between them. *boom* Without preamble or warning.

It wasn't like she didn't know already, so Kate really couldn't say why his voicing it hit her so hard, but it did. Other than, maybe, even being dumped by your fake boyfriend hurt.

"Wow." Kate shakes her head, and sips her beer. Several sips, even. "So there it is. Come over for beer and pizza Kate. How's Lucky, does he miss me, Kate. And then the sucker punch of so my dead girlfriend is skirting about town as a zombie and I really think we shouldnt see each other anymore In Case She Wants Me Back."

Okay, by the end there, Kate was nearly yelling, because as she said the words it occured to her that's kinda what had just happened. She'd just been dumped for a dead person. And they weren't even really seeing one another. Like how bad did your life have to be for that to happen?

On a scale of one to ten, Kate figured she shouldn't ever buy a lottery ticket.

Daredevil has posed:
Matt raised his beerless hand in a staying motion. "Kate, don't worry about it," he says. "It was a joke, I know what those are," he says with one of those wry Matt Murdock smiles.

She was right of course, even when he felt the money was legally his, he barely spent it, it did feel wrong, like it was a waste, especially when everyone else around him was so poor. So, he'd sat on it for the most part, helping neither himself or the poor around him. He was sure Claire would declare that solution 'very you'.

The 'wow' tells him he's fucked up. Went too direct when a little delicacy might have gone down better. "Listen..." he begins before her words roll on by, he'd been embarassed at first, but when it came to the zombie girlfriend, it brought some anger into the mix, so when he replied he was nearly yelling too:

"Dumped you from our fake relationship," Matt points out. "Fake," he repeats the word for emphasis, regretting that almost at once. It hadn't been a real relationship but it wasn't without feeling. "Or hhowmance, or whatever," he'd heard the term once when he briefly dated someone from Broadway, it was those relationships cooked up by PR firms to drum up press about their clients. "We knew this wasn't forever that sooner or later, we'd have to break it off. And sure, I didn't exactly do things smoothly, but would you prefer I lied all night then broke it off before sending you home?"

Hawkeye (Bishop) has posed:
By the time Matt is mostly yelling at her, Kate has already decided if it's going to be this, it's going to be this. And that she doesn't care right this very second to let him off the hook lightly - a thing she'd actually been about to do once her own words had flown out of her mouth. After all, hadn't she been practising a breakup story of her own? But this?

"You have some nerve, Matt Murdock. You bet I'm angry. Fine, it was a stupid *Pretend* relationship - that was as helpful to you as it was to me. Maybe more for you. You didn't just get someone to keep the fawning money grabbing females off of you, you got someone who sat there and actually cared about the fact that you were hurting and didn't ask anything of you in return."

Okay, he'd had to come to that holiday dinner at her parents. She might give him that one if he wanted to get nitpicky about her statement, and being a lawyer, he just might want to.

"But you don't get to stand there and yell at me because you're dumping me over a dead girl. She'd DEAD Matt. You're actually dumping me because you somehow think whatever it is she is is going to come back to you and be saved by your love. How pathetic is that? Do you even listen to yourself?"

Oh god, Kate thought. I'm channelling my inner Claire. Claire would totally appreciate this.

"You really are something, you know that? You pretend you're better than everyone else, but when it comes right down to it, you're selfish, Matt Murdock. You like feeling sorry for yourself. You like punishing yourself. And you like it when you fuck up - and yes, I did just say that. You know something? I think you like that you can't have her. That she's never going to be what you want of her. Because then you can keep on feeling sorry for yourself instead of taking responsibility for you. You ask me, you deserve one another. Because if there's one thing a man who's dead inside deserves, it's a woman who is *actually* dead."

Daredevil has posed:
"Right, it's all about me. You came up with this idea, sweetheart," Matt says the term of endearment dripping with sarcasm. "To help get daddy off your back about marrying some guy with a bank account and nothing else to recommend him. So, don't pretend this is all about me."

The words tumbled out without a fllter, he was mad like he got it the suit, but instead of punches he threw words even if a part of him knew that all of this was not at all what he'd planned.

"Oh, I don't know, just about as pathetic as throwing yourself at a man, to have him completely miss the fact you exist outside of a buddy to shoot arrows with," he counters. The bit about Elektra hit a nerve. It wasn't as though he didn't have those same thoughts every night and having them thrown at him now hurt.

Not that it was the end of it.

"Does Claire know you're borrowing her script?" he says of the last parts of Kate's rant. "So what if I do like things this way, what does that change? Were we going to keep doing this forever, Kate? Pretend date, then pretend get married and have pretend kids, this thing with us, it had an experation date stampted on it from the start, I thought we both understood that. So, what does it matter why it's over?" he demands. "We knew it would happen sometime."

Hawkeye (Bishop) has posed:
Kate quivers with rage the entire time Matt speaks. It's a testament to her upbringing, and her abilties that she is both silent, and makes no moves other than those angry quivers - quivers that many would miss for the breadth and depth of the anger behind them.

"What does it matter?" Kate manages finally. "I can't believe you just sat there and turned this back on me, like I wasn't the only person who stood with you after she died. The only person who didn't make like her dying wasn't the best damned thing that happened to you. You tell me what matters, Matt Murdock."

She puts her half drank beer down on his counter, and turns and walks towards the door. "You're right. I was pathetic. Thank-you for pointing that out to me. It was the piece I was missing in all of this." She's lying. She knew full well how pathetic she'd been. Hadn't she sat on Matt's couch and cried into his arms saying that very same thing?

"You know what's funny? I came over here thinking, how do I do this? How do I let him off the hook easy? How do I back away, knowing she's out there. And that for some reason I'd convinced myself that maybe you had a hope in hell with her. I mean, how pathetic is that? She's dead. Was dead. Something. But there I was, trying to figure out how to make it easy for you. And then this."

Kate throws the deadbolt and opens his door. "You tell me why it matters, Matt. You figure it out, and you tell me. Right now, though, I've got a dog to walk and a book to read. We're done here. Don't worry. I won't let the door hit me in the ass as I let myself out."

Daredevil has posed:
/Damn it/

He hadn't meant it to go this way, he'd just wanted to tell her, then let her know that he was still her friend and he hoped they could hangout together, without the whole fake relationship thing over their heads but instead it turned into this.

Matt turns and follows Kate to the door, saying: "Kate, wait."

When she demands an answer from him, he says, "Your friendship matters, Kate. Not the pretend relationship, not your parents plans for your future, or hiding me away from society gold diggers, but your friendship. The rest is all bullshit," he says getting right down to the nub of it past the anger that still burned, but not as hot. Those parting words had be a dose of cold water, enough to let him see clearly.

"Anyhow, I don't know how you see things, but that's what mattered to me, and what I was trying to say when I said the ending didn't matter, why should it, when we still have the best part of all of this, us, our friendship."

Hawkeye (Bishop) has posed:
"You don't get it, do you," Kate asks him quietly, hand still on the doorknob. "All we ever had was the friendship. That fake thing? That was for cameras and my parents. Here? In your place, or mine? All we ever had was us. Just Kate and Matt, friends."

Again, she shakes her head. "That's why it mattered. That's why. That's what you messed up there, Matt. You treated me like I was some obligation you had to get rid of instead of like the friend I was."

She turns the handle. "For what it's worth, I knew. I knew before I came over. I was just stupid enough to think it wouldn't be this way. For a fake relationship, you sure dumped me like it was real. Right on up to the we can still be friends. I think your pizza is here. I gotta go."

Daredevil has posed:
Matt lets out a sigh. "You're right I don't get it, Kate."

"All I said was that our arragement wasn't going to work now that Elektra was back, I never said I wanted you out of my life. I don't, for the record," he says. "Your friendship means a lot to me. But then you were on about me dumping you for a dead woman, I wasn't dumping anything but the act, so yeah, I don't get it."

He could smell the pizza, hear the delivery guy's footsteps. "You're right, it's here, you're welcome to stay and talk, but if you want to go, not going to stop you."

Hawkeye (Bishop) has posed:
Kate sighs. The timing of the pizza delivery was really, really awkward.

"I don't know. It was how you did it. Or something," she complains, trying to recall what exactly it was that had struck such an off chord in her. "You didn't even wait for the pizza. We didn't even get to sit down and talk. Or you bring things up, or even include me in the fact that she was around, or whatever it is that's going on. Or treat me like.. and then it was all, this isn't going to work, Kate. What wasn't going to work? We don't have anything, Matt. You dumped me like you were trying to get rid of a difficult girlfriend instead of bringing me in like your friend. You think I'd have sat there and made you keep on with the charade?"

She turns, still at the door, to face him. "You didn't even trust me to talk about it. And you did dump me. If we were just dumping the act, you'd have talked to me. We'd have done this together. Had a discussion. Not *the* discussion. That really hurt."

Daredevil has posed:
Matt raises a hand. "Hold on," he moves to the door and intercepts the pizza guy fishing in his pocket for his wallet. He gives the guy a fifty and sends him on his way closing the door behind him and putting the pizza on the table beside it.

"Okay, good point," he says. "I should have brought you in, told you what was going on and why I was doing what I was doing, hell it had been what I'd been planning to do, but when you asked about why I wasn't sleeping over I just... reacted. I don't know what I thought you'd do to be honest."

He sighs, the noise aimed at himself. "Anyhow, I fucked this up, but, you are my friend Kate and I'm sorry I hurt you."

Hawkeye (Bishop) has posed:
Kate patiently waits until the pizza guy is paid and sent on his way - said pizza guy terribly pleased and wide-eyed at a tip that's more than double what the pizza cost.

"So typical. I mean, I can't even have a fake boyfriend not dump me. You know how mortifying that is? And I was supposed to be the one who dumped you. That was always the plan."

Okay, they'd never made that part of the plan clear, and in some versions of it in her head he did dump her, but today the version she'd carried she was the dumper, not the dumpee. And it stung.

"And what's my asking about why you didn't sleep over anymore mean you couldn't sit me down and talk to me like a person? Instead you blurt all that crap out like you couldn't wait, or like I was some unreasonable person. I'm supposed to be your friend, Matt. Remember me? Literally the only person who didn't dump on you for mourning her? What you did was.."

She shrugs and heaves a sigh. "That better be double cheese, double pep, or seriously I'm out that door."

Daredevil has posed:
"Wait your plan was to dump me? And you're giving me this kind of hell?" Matt asks incredulous and amused. The latter part fades as Kate goes on.

He puts a hand on her arm. "I am sorry if you felt betrayed Kate, it wasn't what I wanted. As for why I did things the way I did, it's a bit fresh for me to dive deep into my motivations, but if I was going to guess, habit? It felt like a break up, even if I knew it wasn't."

He let's a breath out through his nose. "For someone who plays a part all day, you'd think I'd be better at this, anyhow, I am sorry I hurt you Kate, honestly. It's the last thing I wanted to do tonight."

There is a faint smile for the latter. "Of course, wouldn't be pizza with you if we didn't both run the risk of a heart attack," he says lightly.

Hawkeye (Bishop) has posed:
"Not so much dump you as.. like I can lie to you. You'd have known anyway. I mean the whole way here I'm rehearsing a story and it hits me you'd know. More like sit you down and ask you what the heck is up. And why you didn't talk to me sooner. And what are you going to do about all this. And how are you feeling about all this? And oh my god, does Claire know? She is going to blow a gasket."

She peers at him in concern until the effect of the pizza on their health is mentioned, which has her chuckling. "That's us. Heart attack washed down with cirrhosis of the liver. We live dangerously."

Daredevil has posed:
Matt grabs the pizza off the little table and with a jerk of his head leads the way inside. "Ah," Matt says at Kate's description of dumping him. "That was something like I was thinking before I stuck my foot in my mouth."

He wanders over to the living room, setting down the pizza box and grabbing his traditional seat across from the couch.

There's a snort for Kate's joke. "More fun than letting the bad guys take us out," he says, then taking a breath and settling back he circles back to what she'd said before.

"God no, I have no idea what Claire would do if I told her, your boss knows though, remember that night at Fogwells with Dragon and Jess came in with that stab wound. Three guesses who gave it to her," he says with a frown. "Anyhow, yeah, it's a real mess."

He shakes his head, letting out another breath. "No clue how I feel about any of it, I haven't given myself time to process, just moving from one thing to the next, trying to keep ahead of all the stuff in my life, I don't want to have to deal with."

Hawkeye (Bishop) has posed:
There's a long moment of silence from Kate before she gives a jaunty shrug of shoulders and admits, "Okay, so I messed up too. I mean, I'm still mad at you, but I'll forgive you. Besides, I'm hungry, and that pizza smells awesome."

She's laughing at her own joke as she takes a perch on his couch, complete with her beer in hand.

"I didn't figure Claire knew. She'd be spitting fire and making herself a one woman army to take down the Hand if she did... wait.. THAT'S how Jessica got hurt? Elektra did that?"

Matt is given a frowny look. "You sure about all this, Matt? I mean, fine, you and me, we work better as friends. It's time, yada. yada - though I have to say you owe me and I wouldn't mind being set up, because I have to tell you my love life is lousy, and you know how it's gone the past couple guys I almost and didn't date." Another joke. "But.. Okay. Enough me. You. You got my ear, at least till the beer and pizza is gone, so spill. What's up?"

Daredevil has posed:
"Thanks," Matt says when Kate let's him off the hook. She didn't have to do it, he'd screwed up enough to earn a lot more yelling but he was glad she relented. It reminded why he liked her so much in ther first place, she didn't make him feel like shit.

/Too bad you didn't return the favour/ a treasonous part of his brain supplied.

Matt frowned and took a sip of his beer, before nodding about Jessica's wound. "Yeah, it was Elektra, she was there, and Frank Castle, it was a mess, she stabbed Jess before I could stop her, that was before we really had a chance to talk, when she was just running on whatever instincts they put into her." Or at least, he hoped they were ones the Hand had put in her, not that her own instincts were any less lethal.

When she asks about him being sure, Matt shakes his head. "Depends on which this you're talking about? When to break off our public thing?" Which was a better term for it than 'fake relationship'. "Now seemed right, but if you think it needs a bit more time, I'm willing to hear that out, if you mean Elektra, no clue. All of that is just too weird, I dunno, I think I'll miss the normal of what we were doing a bit," he says wryly before he chuckles about setting her up, "Well I can put in a good word with Green Arrow," he teases lightly though his thoughts do stray over a few people he knew who might be a good fit. Then comes the big question, what's up with him?

"Just trying to hold onto things with both hands, Stick's people have let me know they've got a lead on some big Hand gathering in Chinatown, I am trying to run that down, other than that I've been poking my head in at the office and trying not to think about Elektra. I've run into her a few times, one of them was right here, and I don't know, she seemed more like herself, the last time she basically told me to stay out of it, and let her make her own choices, so, I am respecting that, while at the same time doing all I can to take down the Hand in the meantime."

Hawkeye (Bishop) has posed:
"Really?" Kate quirks a brow at Matt. "You're asking me which this I'm talking about. Matt Murdock, you are an idiot. Of course I mean about her. Us? Enh, it ran its course. A little longer might have been better, but I think we just gave the pizza guy an earful of Love on the Rocks. It'll be fine."

He's given an even further look of 'duh' when he says he'll miss the normal of things. "You think she's the kind who'll stab me for hanging out with you? I mean, you haven't even got her back yet - which, I have to say is weird enough to think about. Just what do you think is changing between us. We aren't sleeping together. We hardly kissed. We like to hang out with one another. Whatev's Nothing really changing other than the scowl my father is going to give me.."

And then he jokes about Green Arrow.

"You will do no such thing." Her tones are clipped and icy, leaving no doubt as to how far he'd pushed her buttons. The normally cool as a cucumber, laugh it off Kate gone, leaving this behind.

She's still an icy bit of bristling as he carries on, informing about the word going down on the street. "Yeah. I heard some similar stuff. That, and there are a few more missing people than normal this time of year. Could just be the cold and they've gone under deep cover or something, but the food truck lines are missing a couple regulars. It worries me. Not sure they're related."

She tilts her head, and adds, "I don't have a lot of good advice here, other than if a girl tells you she needs time, give her some. Wouldn't say leave her hanging for weeks, but then again, she does seem her own kind of girl. And you can't make her mind up for her." Then she shakes her head. "Nope. Still back on undead girl. This is still weird. You know that, right?"

Daredevil has posed:
"Just being clear," Matt assures her about his question. "Not on my game tonight," he says with a self-depricating smile. "And yeah, not sure one of Gino's guys is going to go running to the press, but we can make sure the story gets out. Should go well with the one where Elektra comes back from the dead and I'm broke again," he says sounding not too worried about the money part of that.

"And no, Elektra isn't, or well, wasn't the type to stab you for all of this. She'd probably think it was funny, or pathetic, either way she'd roll her eyes. As for what changes," Matt thinks on it, for a moment taking another long pull from his beer bottle. "I guess I liked pretending to be living a semi-normal life, gave me something to think about other than how messed up my life really is. Anyhow, I'll live. Sooner or later this war will be over and I can get back to my old, messed up life instead of my current one."

He raises his hands at the sudden change when Green Arrow is brought up. "I was joking, no way I'd set you up with that asshole, Kate," he says earnestly. "If you really want names, I know a couple of guys from law school that might be good," he says. "Depends on what you're looking for."

As for the word from the street Matt nods, "These days I've stopped beleiving in coincidence. Don't suppose any of these folks went missing in the same area?" he asks looking for leads.

"And yeah, going to let her make up her own mind and come to me if she wants to talk, she knows where I live, and I am not going to push things." The mention of the undead thing earns a grimace from Matt. "I know. I don't know what I think about all of that, I really haven't gotten past Elektra still being alive, or well, whatever she is right now."

Hawkeye (Bishop) has posed:
A mouthful of pizza is chewed upon thoughtfully as Matt speaks. "I think I'm a bit worried that I followed that whole old vs new messed up life talk. And I don't know. Your old life wasn't all that messed up. Not really." A pause. "What do you mean about being broke again? I don't follow?"

He manages to avoid being told any further about Green Arrow, by virtue of his apology. "What was with that guy anyway? I mean, he acted like we were in the 19th century or something and I was your property. Did your archer need help with her kit. What the heck was that anyway?"

Heck, not hell. It seems old, less potty mouthed Kate was back.

"Seriously not cool. Besides, I know a much better archer than him if I do need help with my kit." Not that Kate did. Sure, Clint might have a edge on the arrows front, but she gadgets and gizmos SHIELD didn't put into their standard field kit, and she'd put her gear up against his in a fight any day. Not that she and Clint did much of anything that looked like mutual missions. Though they did occassionally do target practice for a slice. She reminded herself it had been too long since the last time...

"Ah, I wouldn't worry too much about what I'm looking for. I'm not even sure I'm looking. Mostly it's a thing you say, you know?" She's thoughtful, though, settling back as he asks about where the folks went missing. "Three of them from around the bridge area. Two from another spot. At least a couple were long time regulars. Enough I got told. I didn't even have to notice. And yeah, it does seem a little too much for co-incidence." She hadn't been on a couple of the other runs, but she was willing to bet they'd have similar stories.

"So. You're not sure what you're going to do about her. I guess that's fair. Funny thing? I can pciture her laughing at the thought of being jealous. Even if I didn't know you, and how gone you are, she looked the type." Then again, Kate knew a lot about facades. All those society pictures of Elektra could have been telling their own lies.

Daredevil has posed:
Matt offers a small smile, "It's definitely not a good sign," he says of being able to follow what he'd said about his messed up lives. "Well, it is to a certain value of messed up, the whole double life thing, the lying..." he shakes his head it weighed on him, but he'd made his bed, if word got out now he was Daredevil it'd put a lot of people in danger and likely see himself and Foggy disbarred. So, it was something he lived with, all the bizzare complications included. He surfaces from his thoughts to answer about the money. "Elektra's money's not mine any more, she's alive, more or less, it puts the whole thing on questionable ground, so I assume, eventually I'll have to give it back. I've already stopped spending it."

As for Green Arrow, "No clue, and I'd always heard Canadians were progressive. But yeah, definitely got the vibe the only people he gave a shit about had dicks," he says, swearing for the both of them.

"True, and one with a super-secret spy agency behind him too, not to mention Tony Stark, doesn't sound like kit is one of your worries. Though I hear he and I used the same guy for our costumes," he says of Clint.

Matt nods, he knew, he'd said the same sorts of things to friends, mostly because it was expected, single twenty-something lawyer, if he didn't at least seem like he was into dating, people would ask questions about what he did with his nights, and he doubted people would buy he watched TV. As for the missing people, he nods about them as well, "Think they'll hit any of the same spots again?" he asks.

"Yeah, past experience didn't really prepare me for this situation," he says of not being sure what to do. "And yeah, she was definitely that type, like jealousy was beneith her, that'd she knew she'd win anyhow." Which was probably right.

Hawkeye (Bishop) has posed:
"Hey," Kate says of messed up lives, "Nobody would believe I go home at night to walk my dog and curl up with a book. I'm sure everyone things I lead some exciting socialite life or something." A dog, she noted mentally, she'd won by default, even if she'd argue she hadn't cheated to get him. But the rest.. Sure, she tossed it up every now and then with things like her charity balls, or the food truck runs, but essentially, Kate was a homebody with a penchant for late night vigilanteism. It wasn't going to get her a partner anytime soon. Maybe her father was right to despair.

"Why is it the ones without any to speak of are always the ones wanting to have measuring contests," Kate asks of men with dicks who are dicks. "Is he still hanging about, or did you manage to help him out with what he wanted?" Or was it he was helping them. Kate admitting she couldn't recall. She'd been pretty ticked off that evening and hadn't been paying a lot of attention to what it was the other archer wanted.

"I hae no clue if they'll hit the same areas. I don't even know if they're related, all the missing folks. Some really might be the weather." That, and they always did lose a few to death this time of year. Always. "Still, I can keep an eye out. But why would they be related to your gang stuff anyway? Usually it's the kids they try to recruit. The ones who've made their lives the street don't really have a lot to offer. They're comfortable with how things are." Sad, but true. A lot of the street people were happy with that life, for whatever reason.

He does get a chuckle over his description of Elektra. "I never met her. But she always looked like that in her pictures. Like she was either bored and it was all beneath her, or like she knew something the rest of us didn't. I think if I were going to have stayed in that life I might have wanted to be like that."

Kate tries to effect an Elektra look and fails miserably.

Daredevil has posed:
"You mean you don't?" Matt teases lighty about Kate living some exciting life of balls and parties. He'd learned that it was very much not the case except for when they'd wanted to be seen. "So, how do you explain the injuries?" he asks, curious. "For me that's the hardest part, I mean the blind thing gives me the chance to say oh, hey, I walked into a door, but got to figure you don't get many scrapes at fancy parties, or at least not the ones we attended," he says with a smile. It was vigilante shop talk now. How did one explain away the evidence of their double life.

"Envy?" Matt offers. "And yeah, he's still around. Or at least that's what I understand. Might need to call him if I pin down what the Hand's been up to."

"Yeah if you can that'd be great," Matt says of keeping an eye out. "As for why it might be related, heard the Hand gathering was some sort of ceremony, and the Hand is the sort of crazy to want to have a few victims on hand for the celebration. Anyhow it's just a hunch, maybe they hopped trains down south to get out of the cold." He hoped so anyhow. "Still, worth checking out in case it's something else."

Matt misses the attempt at an Elektra expression but given the context clues he figures out what she was doing, "How'd it look?" he asks her. "And yeah, that was Elektra, all the money in the world, and didn't give a shit about any of it or the lifestyle, it was just a mask she wore, a thing she did to maintain the family business and as a cover for all the other things she did out of the public eye, nobody expects the bored socialite to be a secret ninja." He shakes his head at that thought. "And yeah? Seems like a lonely way to live unless it's a cover for something else."

Hawkeye (Bishop) has posed:
"How'd I cover up the injuries?" Kate laughs, and swigs her beer. Totally at odds with the socialite she's supposed to be. "Private Eye, remember? And I'm not exactly a secret vigilante. Half my archery equipment lived in my office. I didn't exactly explain anything." Which might explain further her father's exasperation with her. Girl just wasn't living up to family expectations /and/ she was getting herself beat up on the regular where anyone might see and want to pull him aside to have a talk about how that was making them all look bad.

"I doubt they've jumped a train to go south for the winter. Those ones leave just after the holidays. Some before, but most stay to get the sympathy and guilt handouts, and then go live off of that where it's warmer. No, these were die hards." She doesn't look pleased when he mentions celebration ceremony. "You mean like we kill someone and dance around all happy like because of it? I thought that crap was just stuff Wu made up for his movies. They don't really do that, do they? Sacrifice people?"

She takes another bite of pizza and sets the crust aside for Lucky. "I don't do a very good Elektra. At least not without the right circumstances. I'm sure I've smiled and make it seem I was happy to be there often enough, but she was classy in a way not many of us are." Nodding as he describes her. "Like that. Yeah."

Daredevil has posed:
Matt breathes a 'heh', "Sadly the law doesn't give me as good a cover, lots of people want to beat the crap out of lawyers but they rarely follow through," he jokes. "Glad it's a little easier for you, it's a real pain in the ass for me," he says with good humour. "Has the family figured out the vigilante part or are they just fixated on the private eye thing?"

Matt scowls faintly when it seems the missing people didn't just skip town. It would have been nice. "Makes sense," he says of their migratory patterns. "The best handouts are always around the holidays," he says. As for the Hand, Matt's lips pull into a line, "Stick tells me the Hand gets up to all sorts of heinous shit, so, I haven't seen it, but I wouldn't put it past them, or anything else for that matter. Anyhow, let's hope these die hards are just being hard to find right now, while we keep an eye out for what's going on."

Matt nods, "Yeah she was good like that," he says about the level of class. Even blind, he could tell Elektra stood out in that department, he could always feel heads turn and people take note when she walked into a room, it was more than just looks, but the way she carried herself, it commanded attention. Or at least she did, he didn't know what to expect from this new Elektra and if anything he'd come to love about the woman he knew would carry over when all was said and done. "And maybe again, or at least, I hope."

Hawkeye (Bishop) has posed:
"I think my mother has guessed," Kate says carefully. "I don't know. We don't exactly have heart to hearts. I think if she doesn't know for sure, she doesn't have to tell my father. I don't think he's guessed. Maybe because it's easier to believe it's just the P.I. thing. I think he'd be making my life more difficult about my trust fund and everything if he knew the truth."

In truth, Kate didn't know. For all she knew, he did know and /that/ was his reason for pushing her to leave the P.I. life behind. Maybe he just didn't have the words to express the other, the life she led opening doors he didn't understand what to do with once opened, life simpler if he concentrated on easy to define thing that everyone could agree weren't appropriate for someone of Kate's social stature to be involved in.

While they still might frown upon the hero set, folks like Tony Stark did cast a more favourable light upon those who fought crime.

"I'll keep my eyes and ears open. We're in for a cold snap this weekend. A nasty one blowing down from Canada. We usually see bigger crowds then at the pickup and dropoff spots. I can see if I hear anything and let you know."

She smiles as he talks about Elektra. It was beyond easy to see just how far gone he was over the woman. "You know, I can't believe I just got dumped for a dead woman. You're lucky I like you, Matt Murdock. I really hope things work out for you. And say, you going to eat those crusts, or can I take them for Lucky." She grins. "I did kinda promise them to him. He says he wouldn't eat my shoes if I did."

Daredevil has posed:
Matt nods, flinching a little at the idea of her mother having potentially guessed the truth. It made him wonder what his father would have thought about Matt's own activities. He suspected he'd be disapointed, he never wanted Matt to work with his fists. Brains were better, he'd been told that over and over again. As for his mother, he never really knew her to judge.

"Sounds like it's just the PI thing," he opines of Kate's father. "He definitely seems like the sort to say, 'no daughter of mine is going around fighting thugs in tights' if he knew."

"Thanks," he says of Kate keeping her eyes and ears open. "I'll hit up my own contacts and see if I can drum up more details and give you a call if I hear anything."

Matt chuckles, "Well, she's lively for a dead woman if that makes it any better," he says making a bit of a face about the dead woman part, he'd kept that out of his head for the most part, it was definitely one of those things he'd yet to really process about the situation. One of many things really. "And thanks, I know I am," he says of her liking him and he was, she'd been his rock of support through these past months. "And the crusts? Sure, knock yourself out, wouldn't want your shoes to suffer due to a breach of contract." he throws his crust into the box for her.

"I'm glad you're my friend, Kate. Seriously."

Hawkeye (Bishop) has posed:
"Trust a lawyer to bring up breach of contract," Kate grins, and gathers up the remains of their dinner. "I'll let you know what I hear. And uh.. hey, you hitting the streets? If you wanted company sometime, I wouldn't mind. Sometimes the solo gig sucks."

Daredevil has posed:
Matt grins back, "Hey, got to make the most of that education when I can, it cost enough," he says about the legal terms. He pops up to his feet, helping Kate gather the crusts before taking the beer bottles back to the kitchen. "Yeah, was thinking about it for later tonight, if you're game, we could meet up across from the Crysler Building like last time?" he offers as he comes back from the kitchen.

Hawkeye (Bishop) has posed:
Kate finishes her beer, sets the bottle on his coffeetable, and snags up the pizza box. "Consider it a date. You know, the platonic kind. Figure elevenish?" She was just ballparking it, but figured it would give her time to get home, walk the dog, dress for the occassion, and make it to the meetup spot.

Daredevil has posed:
"Elevenish works," Matt says with an easy nod. "It'll give me time to hit up Turk and get a line on something for us to do," he says. The small time crook/snitch was always good for a tip or two. "So, yeah, consider it a 'date'."