8429/Memories of Kairos

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Memories of Kairos
Date of Scene: 21 July 2019
Location: Villa Kairos, Greece
Synopsis: Elektra and Matt run away to Kairos to find one another again, and talk about the circumstances that brought them here.
Cast of Characters: Elektra, Daredevil




Elektra has posed:
It was nearly this time a year ago, Elektra and Matt were playing a game of pretend. Pretending he wasn't earnest lawyer by day, vigilante by night. And she pretending that Elektra Natchios, spoiled socialite wasn't also Elektra the Assassin, and the Fist that Rules the Hand.

It was on this beach she and Matt had fought, each refusing to take a win against the other. It was in this villa that they had made love for the last time, knowing what she had set in motion and could no longer stop. It was in this dojo, built with love by her father, that Elektra took her last breath, in Matt's arms, and denied a prophecy. It was on a nearby hill, where the daffodils come early in spring, that she was buried and Matthew walked away a broken man.

It was also where they had found themselves. Come to an understanding of who and what they could be. It was these understandings that had freed them, ultimately, to be themselves. A freedom that left Elektra able to break what the Hand made of her, and return to Matthew.

It was also where she'd brought him this weekend, making a show of blindfolding him, laughingly telling him it was no fair cheating, knowing he couldn't help himself, but also knowing he would play along. He'd know long before the boat pulled up to the dock that this was where they were. But then again, he would have known the moment they boarded the plane. There were few places Elektra called home, and fewer still she cared to come to when she needed a break from the world.

Waves lapping at the sands, under a full moon, she removes the blindfold and breathes, with a soft laugh, "You can open your eyes now."

Daredevil has posed:
Matt went along with it easily. Frankly he needed the break, riding in the plane and then the boat with his eyes covered until he was told to open them.

"Where are we?" he wonders aloud as he pulls on his shades. "I was really flying blind there for a moment."

There's a fond but cheeky grin on his face when he turns and kisses Elektra, saying as their lips part, "This is a wonderful surprise" he says and means it. Not in that he didn't know where he was being taken but that he was being taken there at all. He knew what time of year it was, and what had happened. It had changed everything, for the worst at first and now, perhaps for the better.

"This place always feels so peaceful," he remarks after taking a moment to drink it all in. "I'm starting to love it."

Elektra has posed:
Elektra gives a soft laugh as Matt plays along, and then kisses her. The kiss is a soft, lingering thing. Something she doesn't indulge in often. There are never enough moments where letting her guard down completely is safe.

"I always wonder if I should grab you up and take you on a whirlwind tour of Europe. Lavish gifts upon you, let you buy everything your heart desires on the Riviera... and then I remember how little I like shopping and that the only place I really want to run away to is here. And the only person I truly want to spend my time here with is you.."

She brushes her hand, palm to his cheek, along the stubble there, and brushes her thumb along his cheekbone. "If you ever want to come, Matthew, I can have a jet at your disposal. What good is my money if you can't enjoy it."

It's clear she's pleased he finds it peaceful here. That he's come to, dare she consider it, think of this as home as well?

Daredevil has posed:
Matt takes time to linger in that kiss, his hand sliding around to press against the small of her back to prolong the moment.

He leaves the hand there when he breaks from the kiss. "Well, we're of the same mind about shopping, besides if I start rolling into work with a bunch of fancy stuff on my wrist most of my clients will think I've sold out," he says only half joking. "And sightseeing isn't my thing, so," he grins. "This is the perfect getaway as far as I'm concerned."

"Thanks," Matt says sincerely. "Just don't be offended if it takes me a while to take you up on that, fighting a lot of catholic upbringing not to be guilty about enjoying myself."

Elektra has posed:
"Tell your Catholic guilt you're visiting the grave of a friend. That she has no other family and you promised," Elektra says softly, not quite amused, but certainly not macabre either. "Kairos deserves to be enjoyed. And I have more money than I could rightly spend in a lifetime. My needs are not all that great, nor grand. Most of my reputation was cultivated and has no basis in fact, but these things have lives of their own."

That and she'd diligently worked on making sure she'd been seen in the right places at the right times for maximum exposure with the least amount of effort.

"There should be a meal waiting for us on the deck. If you're hungry, that is? Perhaps a walk on the beach later. A trip to the dojo.. No agenda."

Her hand seeks out his, twining fingers with his, turning to lead where he choses. "And, because we still are who we are, some hours tomorrow to tend to business. But only a few. I'd like to go snorkelling if you'd like to try it. The light in the water at sunset is spectacular. The waves settle into this nearly smooth murmur up to the shore. Just gentle ripples that invite the beach to pay attention to the coming evening. The water, sun warmed like a caress.. I wish you could see it. See the way the light plays on the rocks. The fish."

Daredevil has posed:
Matt chuckles softly taking Elektra's words how she meant them, "That might work," he says leaning in to kiss her again. "Though still going to take a bit of time to get used to. Money, just feels weird." There was no judgement there on those who have it just a statement on Matt and how so many years of poverty had left its mark on him.

He nods to remarks about reputation. "Must be tiring," Matt says even though he played a version of that game himself. Being seen in Hell's Kitchen, making sure he never really flaunted his new found... well wealth wasn't the word, but money so his clients saw him as one of them, an ally, not just a rich suit here to make a buck off their suffering.

"Yes," Matt answers grinning to all three of those options and links his hand with hers. "Sounds beautiful, I know I can do so much more with my senses than I could when I had my sight, but I do miss it sometimes, not often but I do. That said, if you don't mind leading me when we go, I'd love to give snorkling a shot, water plays hell with my senses, but then they don't call me Daredevil for nothing."

Elektra has posed:
"Tiring is a good word," Elektra agrees. "People have expectations of you that have nothing to do with who or what you are. It really was simpler to create the image they wanted to believe than to try and prove otherwise."

She shrugs easily over the matter.

And she understood the fine line Matt rode with regards to money. It was one of the reasons she didn't push more on him, or make any other motions to provide for him. To raise him up out of his Hell's Kitchen life. For one, she didn't find him unworthy because of his lack of money, but for another, she understood that he was who he was and she didn't have the right to take that away from him. And part of that was the life he'd built there. She could pave the way to a certain ease, but more than that? No.

"Do you think your clients would mind if they knew about me? That I'm rich, I mean."

When he agrees to try snorkelling she smilese, "We'll keep to easy waters, and the beauty it's best done where the water is shallow, so very little danger other than if you forget to breathe through your mouthpiece. Sometimes the fish come up to you and brush up against you if you're still."

Daredevil has posed:
"I bet," Matt says. "It's the same with the blind thing, I mean, part of the reason I kept what I could do underwraps is trying to get people to believe it," he shrugs. "Better to let people believe what they want and just know that you know the truth."

Matt shakes his head, "Nah. They'd tease me about it, but I think they'd be happy for me. Local boy does good, and all that. It's a weird line between me having money and me dating someone with money, but somehow it matters to them. But anyhow I think they'd like you."

As for the snorkling, shallow waters and fish brushing against him, it sounded nice. "You know this is the first beach I've been too where I actually wanted to swim in the water, back home?" he wrinkles his nose. "The senses don't really help."

Here though the water smelled clean, safe, inviting. "I'd like that," he says of the fish brushing against him, he could still feel that in the water. "Maybe I could just sit in the water a bit too. Most of the time I'm in deeper water it's because I fell in as Daredevil, but I dunno, there's something appealing of just sitting in it and /feeling/ the ocean around me."

Elektra has posed:
"And you, Matt? Does it bother you that I have more money than god?" They'd never really talked about that before. They'd both admitted she had money. That money had its benefits. But they'd never really talked about whether or not it bothered him to be dating someone with that much money when he had none.

She smiles when he speaks of wanting to enjoy the beach. "I wouldn't advise snorkelling in the dark. The waters can be very deceptive at night." And she doesn't mean just by sight. "Perhaps when you've had practice. But there is a beach along this strand that has a long stretch of shallow water that is fairly calm that we can swim in if you wish."

Daredevil has posed:
"No," Matt says without hesitation. "I've always known you had money, so I guess, that's just part of the overall picture of Elektra in my mind," he says. "Even though it doesn't really define you... It's weird, it's part of who you are, but if you didn't have it, I don't think it would change anything either, does that make sense?"

Matt chuckles warmly at the suggestion of swimming, "Is this the part where I point out we don't have swm suits?" he asks with a grin.

Elektra has posed:
"I think I understand," Elektra agrees. "I don't know what it would be like not to have it, but I don't think it's defined all of me. It certainly afforded me many luxuries and.. well, I was able to not worry about so many things because of it. Get away with many things because of it. Deflect. Define.. I don't know what I'd miss of it if I didn't have it, though." she gives a soft chuckle, "I'd prefer not to lose it, though. I'm not that curious to see what different it would make."

"As for swim suits, we're on Kairos, Matthew, what need do we have of swim suits?" She's known every inch of him and thensome, and he her. There were no secrets here.

Daredevil has posed:
Matt nods, "Yeah, it's one of those things, would I be the same if I wasn't poor, or hadn't been poor? Probably not, but it's hard to say, having money and not having it has just been part of who we are for so long that it's hard to say what would be different."

"For what it's worth, I'd prefer you not lose it either," he says.

As for swimming, Matt smiles, "Then lead the way."

Elektra has posed:
"Well, you're in luck. I'm not likely to lose my money. Even if the worst happened to the corporation, I've enough of my own personal money that I'd be comfortable for the rest of my life."

She leads along the beach. It's not terribly far away, but it is far enough, and around a bend, so that the docks can't be seen. Even the lights of it are swallowed by the night.

When they get to the place she knows, she lets go his hand and starts to disrobe. "The water is shallow for about 100 feet. You'll know you've hit the edge of the shallows when you hit the sanbar. If you go past that, the drop off is rather steep. I wouldn't advise it, personally."

Daredevil has posed:
Matt laughs, "Good to know, means I can get used to private jets and private islands," he says. "Oh, and Foggy hates us both by the way," he adds good naturedly enough to be sure that it was hyberbole. "I believe he said, 'it's not fair, that he's neck deep in legal briefs and empanadas, and we're out on sandy beaches."

He shakes his head. "He'll live," Matt says as he shucks his clothing. "I'll keep it in mind," he says as he leans in to kiss her before wading into the water.

Elektra has posed:
The kiss is returned, "Foggy is a good man. He'll find someone."

She watches him wade out, and follows after. Her eyes, adjusted to the light as they have, and her senses otherwise compensating, she enjoys the figure he cuts in the water. "Matthew, have you ever thought about us. Now, I mean. The future. We never talked about it before."

They both knew why. But now? That desperation they'd lived under prior had gone. Even if she was finding that with recent happenings and a drive to find new purpose, that she was beginning to feel the stirrings of intensity she once had. This time, though, without the certain fatalistic feel she'd always had before.

Daredevil has posed:
Matt makes his way out until the water is lapping at the front of his thighs then sits down, enjoying the feel of the water surrounding him. Even at this hour it was still warmer than he'd expected, definitely warmer than the Hudson.

"The future?" Matt shakes his head. "Not really, I've always just taken us one day at a time, probably out of habit."

He turns his head her way, "Our lives are sort of hard to predict sometimes." Though by his tone he's not adverse to the discussion.

Elektra has posed:
Elektra comes to stand behind him. Near enough he can sense her, but not so close that she touches. Almost, but not quite.

"We never talked about us. There was always the spectre of what I was between us. I didn't bring you here to talk about this, but I think we should."

She sounds calm, and though she has no heartbeat, there is a sense that if she had one, it would be calm and steady as well.

"I know you are not the type to seek another. I have always known that. That your heart is given and.. well, I don't know if you knew it wouldn't have hurt me. I have never sought to keep you past anything you were willing to offer. And.. I have never sought to hurt you by being with another. I realize that isn't in you either. I have made that choice freely."

She makes a softly amused noise, "You know, others define us more than we have. I'm your girlfriend - said with derision most often. Your lover. Much the same. So many things other people say of us. I think, though, that maybe we should acknowledge those unspoken things."

"I haven't sought the arms of another since I returned to New York. I would like to promise you that will never change. Not without your knowledge."

Daredevil has posed:
Matt nods, he can tell by the tone of her voice she was telling the truth, this wasn't why they came but now that the topic was raised, he too felt now was the time to discuss it.

He listens to what she has to say still and calm, and while his eyes are turned towards the ocean, there is a sense his attention is fixed behind him, on Elektra.

Despite being traditional in other ways Matt shared Elektra's derision for those terms. They didn't seem to fit them, no title really did. They were just them and they would always at some level be together.

"Thank you, Elektra," Matt replies. "And I offer you the same. Not that I am likely to take up with another, like you said, but I promise if I did it won't be without telling you first."

Elektra has posed:
"You will grow old," she says simply. "One day you will die and I will bring you back here. I don't imagine there will be another who understands me as well as you do. Stick, perhaps, though he would deny it."

She comes close enough now, to lay a hand on his shoulder.

"If I were to ever want to marry someone, it would be you, Matthew. I don't think it would change anything, though. " It isn't a proposal. Merely an observation. "I used to think that was what you wanted. Maybe that's why Foggy disliked me so when we first met - for changing you. They're just words, though. The same promises we just gave one another. You've made my life richer. Thank-you for that."

Daredevil has posed:
Matt had forgotten that, or more truthfully he'd pushed it out of his mind, something to think about later, when it mattered more. For now though, he simply nods. "I'd like that," he admits before he jokes to break the tension, "But you assume I'll live long enough to get old."

Though he goes fond and more serious as she lays that hand on his shoulder,"If I was going to marry somone, it'd be you too, Elektra, but at the same time it doesn't feel like us, that our promises here, right now, mean more."

He places his hand on hers, "And you're welcome, you've my life fuller, made me realize how much more I could do. For all we've been through, you've made me better."

Elektra has posed:
"You'd better live long enough. I'd feel I'd failed you otherwise," she teases him. But she has thought about it. She'd died. And come back. He'd lost her, but now, her life would be a continual string of lost loves, should she chose to love again. That, or to find the secret to her own death and accept the inevitable. Either way, Matthew would die, mostly likely before her.

"Well, it would be a media circus. Mostly likely better spent on raising money for one of those charities you're so fond of. Besides, if these promises aren't enough to keep us together, then what would a ceremony do?"

"You're a good man, Matthew. I know we've fought about our ethics before. We may yet again. I'd like to believe we've moved past our youths where we thought those were irreconcilable differences. I.. haven't, you know. Not since. But I may again. I will not promise that I won't. I need to know if you would prefer to be kept in the dark about that, or if it would be better to be transparent."

Daredevil has posed:
Matt nods, "I'll do my best," he promises of staying alive. "But if it happens, I know there are ways to bring someone back, but don't not with me, I'd rather just have the time I'm given," he says knowing it likely didn't need to be said. That Elektra knew him well enough to simply assume that was what he wanted.

"True," he admits of their wedding. "And not a lot."

As to the other Matt considers it for a moment, "Tell me," he says. "I'd rather know and let us deal with it together than turn a blind eye."

He stands then, rising from the water to turn, "What would you prefer?"

Elektra has posed:
"I'd prefer not to have to hide." She's worked too hard and sacrificed too much for that. "But I promise I won't drop it on you without any warning."

Her fingers find his in the darkness. "I will bury you here, and should I ever feel the need to pass myself, I will ask that I be buried beside you. You will remain where my heart is, always. But I will not seek to bring you back. I will not condemn you to that."

Daredevil has posed:
Matt nods, he'd figured she'd feel the same. He takes her hands in his as he nods again. "Thank you, Elektra," he says of letting him die of burying him here when it was all over.

"What is it like? Being the Black Sky? Being back?" It was something he had never asked her until now.

Elektra has posed:
"At first it was nothing. Being dead, I mean." She sounds thoughtful. "When I returned to life, I don't recall much. It was a lot of sensations more than anything else. I felt like I should know more things than I remembered. I didn't have speech. Or memories. But I remember picking up the wakizachi and using them like they were part of me. But everything I did.. it was like flashes of light. I could see bits and pieces. They made no sense for a very long time.

"I felt odd. Disconnected. Until I chose for you, to not be what Gao would have made of me, it felt like part of me was missing. That felt right. That single decision resonated within me. The way the blades had."

She smiles softly and sighs. "I'm not sure what I'm supposed to feel. Sometimes I only feel like I am the woman you always knew. Other times I feel like I stretch on forever both forwards and back. But I don't feel lost anymore."

Daredevil has posed:
Matt nods quietly as he listens to Elektra recount the experience of dying and returning as something else... He couldn't fathom it and deep down in his Catholic soul it felt wrong. Returning the dead to life was God's province, and Gao and the Hand sure as hell weren't god. Though as much as the thought of the process filled him with revulsion, Elektra didn't. She, as she said she felt, still seemed the woman he always known, and while her condition might have been a touch disconcerting at first, he'd come to embrace it. It was who Elektra was now, and that was all he needed to know.

"You don't seem lost anymore. I mean, you were always self-possessed but now, I don't know, you seem more grounded, more sure of who and what you are."

Elektra has posed:
"Come, let's head back to the villa." She helps him back to shore, even if he doesn't rightly need the help. Her hand twined through his. "I think I have nothing left to lose by being myself," she tells him.

"I gave up my life for this. I was everything that Stick or Gao ever wanted. And then I became me. Somewhere up at that dias, being told to strike that blow and finish the ritual, things changed. I don't nkow that I realized how much control I had at that moment, but I realized I could end it all and be myself."

"I thought dying would do that. I thought giving up my life would free me. And I suppose in a way it did. I gave up all the expectations others had of me. Even the ones I had of myself. I looked out over the floor of that warehouse and saw you all, and saw Gao and the Hand beside me. The lives being sacrificed to raise power. None of it meant anything anymore. All I had to do, I realized, was say no."

She ducks her head, smiles, and sighs.

"I had to lose everything to find me. And then I found you."

Daredevil has posed:
Matt slips his hand into hers, "Sounds good," he says with slight shiver as the water on his skin begins to dry in the wind.

"That makes sense," Matt says following her through the shallow water, revelling at the feel of the sand between his toes, he really didn't get out to the beach that often.

It really did make sense, he thought Stick once mentioned something by Shan Yu, saying to truly know a person you needed to take them to the volcano's edge, to strip away everything and meet the real them. Or maybe it was Danny. Either what Elektra had said made sense.

"Is it wrong I'm almost envious?" he asks her as they step from the water onto the dryer sand of the beach. "Of the clarity, not the dying part. Making that choice must have felt amazing."

Not that Matt struggled too deeply with what others thought about him, oddly Elektra had taught him to let go of that when they were together the first time, but, still the idea of that clarity appealed.

Elektra has posed:
"To be honest? It was terrifying." Which is not a thing Elektra has ever admitted before, nor likely will ever again. "Everything depended upon that single moment. I had no idea what you, or the others, would do. I didn't even know if making that choice would break whatever magic it was that held me together and made me live. All I knew was I couldn't be what they wanted."

"I couldn't be what Stick wanted."

She pauses at the waters edge, the waves a tickling lap as they bubble up and foam over the shore. "Maybe it was even the choice I was supposed to make. All the parts of the Prophecy never spoke of what came next. Only that I would come. All I know is I am at peace now. What I do is of my own volition."

There's a soft laugh that comes with that. "And that, Matthew, is equally terrifying. I've never been myself before."

Daredevil has posed:
Indeed. Matt can't think of a time when Elektra ever admitted she was afraid. He could tell she was as she died, but the words were never spoken.

"I bet," Matt agreed of that crucial moment. "Wasn't sure what any of us would do then either, but, if it was part of the prophecy, whoever wrote it needed to be a hell of a lot clearer."

Though that wasn't true, if that was how things had been meant to play out it wouldn't have worked if it had been written. Ugh. Prophecy made his brain hurt.

He smiles, "I bet," he says. "Life can be terrifying when you realize you're face to face with your true self."

There's a slight upward curl to the right corner of his lip as he adds: "Or so I hear."

Elektra has posed:
There's a soft, amused sound from Elektra, deep in the back of her throat. Not unlike a witheld laugh. "I think we'll work on your true self next," she teases, then laughs outright. "But what of you, Matthew? It's been so long since we've talked. And never really of this. How have things changed for you?"

Again she starts walking back towards the dock, and from there to the villa.

"Prophecies have to include all the outcomes. We are but the tools of the thing. Our folly is believing we understand them. That we know the ending. Until the moment I stood there and said no, all things were possible. Each and every outcome there was, was in that moment, just waiting."

"If I'd chosen differently, would I know any different? I don't know. Maybe a part of me would always lament something it didn't understand, only knowing that something was missing. It does seem strange, though, to have to lose your life to find it."

Daredevil has posed:
"Sounds less like prohecy at that point and more a moment of choice," Matt opines as he walks with Elektra. "But then if I wanted pre-destination, I would have been a Calvinist instead of a Catholic," he says like his religion was a choice, it was bred into his bones even before he'd gone to live at St. Agnes.

"Hmm, I am not sure I'm ready to meet my true self yet," Matt says. He knew there was a darkness in him and he wasn't sure that wasn't the real him and everything else he did, the good in his life, wasn't done in denial of that nature.

"Changed how? Since you've been back?" he asks her before continuing on anyhow. "I don't know, I guess I've been more at peace now that we're not torturing ourselves, now that, this," he gestures between the two of them. "Us, is actually working out."

Elektra has posed:
"What do you think Prophecy is, Matthew? It's a future that depends on a moment of choice. Until that moment, all possibility exists. Even your Christ, if he had not chosen to die for you, his fortelling would still be there, waiting. The folly is believing you know the outcome."

She takes a deep breath, and sighs. "The truth is, I think, there were never only two Prophecies. I am the third."

Because to be any of the things that Stick or the Hand had believed, there also had to be that which was not their answer. They had been so focused on their own truths that they had failed to understand, or expect, that there could be another.

She's able to nod when he admits he's not ready to meet himself yet. Some day, she thinks. "It is much nicer, isn't it? I think we understand ourselves better. You may not be ready for the darkness within you." Yes, she knew of that. She'd tried to coax it out of him in the past. "But I think you now admit it's there. I don't wish you to be other than what you are. I know I tried. I think, though, it may be enough that you recognize it within you. I don't know. All I know is we've stopped demanding the other be something they are not."

Daredevil has posed:
"I suppose I've always seen at something more sold, more sure, that such and such is /going/ to happen," Matt answers. "Though that's always troubled me because it speaks to the future being imutable. I like there being choice."

He nods to her statement about being the third option, that the Black Sky would choose itself over either the Chaste or the Hand.

"I do," he says of his darkness. "I am more aware of it now, I know I need it in a way, as Daredevil, to do what I do, but at the same time it still feels like something outside myself, 'the Devil' like my grandmother used to say." He'd spoken often about letting the devil out, and Elektra had seen it as well, those moments he rode close to the edge, where his need to make his enemies suffer almost overtakes his better angels. However as close as it came to taking him to dark places he feared to tred there was no denying it made him a terrifying fighter.

He nods to Elektra about what had changed in them, "You're right, I think that's a lot of that peace I was talking about, we're finally okay with each other as we are."

Elektra has posed:
"I think," Elektra says slowly, carefully, "As long as we've afraid of a thing, it owns us. At that moment I was terrified. But once I'd chosen, there was nothing left to fear."

Another of those sighs, this one oddly content.

"After that.. I was free. I don't think it changed me much. I still am the woman I was. I would still kill. I still see argument against your faith that there is redemption in all things. But the fear that drove me is gone. Now it's a choice. It's not a need."

Daredevil has posed:
"It's true," Matt says. "Fear will own you if you give it half a chance, but I know a little of what you felt, I think," his expression grows thoughtful. "The first time I put on a mask and used what Stick taught me. Or at least, as an adult." He'd made tentative stabs at what would become Daredevil in his youth, mostly born of boredom and opportunity, stumbling across a crime in progress and dispensing some justice. It wasn't until he was older, until he could hear that man 'visiting' his daughter night after night, that he moved past the fear and chose to be something more than just a lawyer with powers and take action against the people the law couldn't touch.

Though he suspected what Elektra faced in that critical moment had been magnitudes more challenging.

"I'm glad you're free Elektra, not even because it's easier between it, but for you. Honestly, you've never felt as happy as you have these past months."

Elektra has posed:
Wisely, Elektra doesn't point out that she was speaking of Matthew with that observation. She knows, from her own lifetime of avoiding any such decisions or confrontations, that you can't force it upon anyone. They will or will not come to if of their own accord. Until then, she is content.

"If I could wish a thing, Matthew?" Her gaze falls upon him. "I would wish the same for you."

Simply said, her words have barely time to be swallowed by the darkness before she leads him up the stone steps to the villa. "Come. Dinner will be cold." Not that she sounds like she regrets this.

Daredevil has posed:
No. One can never be forced to make those kinds of decisions. Especially Matthew Murdock, he has made stubbornness into an art form.

Though there's a smile for her wish and he leans up the steps to give Elektra a kiss, "Thanks," he says of her hope he finds the same freedom. He hoped he would too.

Matt follows up the steps then, smiling, "Well, if dinner's already cold maybe it can wait a little longer," he says with a hint of a grin.

Elektra has posed:
"Oh? Now, whatever might you be suggesting is important enough to let dinner get colder over?"

Oh, she knows. The seductive drawl of her voice says she very well knows, but wants to hear him say it. To make him make a move. To recapture - or create - the passion between them.

After all, wasn't that what this weekend was for? Dinner, as it happens, could wait.