End Of Beginning

Peter

Peter is on the phone with Deadpool when he hears a knock at the door.

“What was that?” Deadpool asks through the phone.

“Someone knocked on my door. Did you send me another pizza? I only gave you my new apartment location for emergencies.” Peter said, throwing on a sweatshirt and walking towards the door, phone tucked between his cheek and shoulder.

“Webs, surprise pizza deliveries are an emergency, you need to eat.” Peter looks through the peephole and sees Karen, once again dressed in business attire.

“It’s my neighbor, I’ll call you back later.” He hung up before Deadpool could say anything and unlocked the door, opening it.

“Hey Ms. Page, what's up?”

Karen smiled warmly.

“Are you busy right now?” She asks. Peter looks back into his apartment at the laptop on his bed that he had started to take apart for entertainment. He looks back at her.

“Nope, did you need help with something?”

“Yeah, I guess you could say that. I made some dinner for Matt and I and made a little too much. Would you like to come over for dinner?” Peter could feel himself salivate at the thought of a good homemade meal, something he had not eaten in the past week. He was really enjoying cereal for every meal right now.

But there was also a small nagging doubt that settled in his stomach. A doubt that arose whenever he was presented with the opportunity to get close to anyone. He wanted to say no, but he could practically smell the food Karen made stuck to her clothes.

“Yeah, sure.” Peter grabbed his keys off the counter, slid on his worn-down Converse, and exited his apartment, locking the door behind him.

Key in, twist, twist, push, pull.

“Hey, it worked!” Karen observes, walking next door to Matt’s apartment.

“Yeah, the trick Mr. Murdock taught me works really well.” Karen smiles and opens the door. Peter was hit with a waft of warm, delicious air. He sighs, the doubt suddenly dissipating, replaced with hunger.

“It smells amazing Ms. Page,” Peter said, following Karen into the apartment. Karen laughs, embarrassed at the praise.

“It’s nothing much, I was trying to recreate a dish that Matt and I really like from this one Thai place.” She said pulling a chair out next to Matt for Peter to sit in. The table was set as if they had expected him to show up.

“Hello, Peter,” Matt said, smiling politely at him as he sat down.

“Hi Mr. Murdock, thank you for inviting me over for dinner.”

“Please, Matt is fine.”

The three ate in silence, Peter too busy trying not to scarf down his food to notice Matt and Karen looking at each other. Matt raises his eyebrow and Karen shrugs, finally looking over to Peter.

“So, Peter, where did you live before this?” She asks, taking another bite of food. Peter swallows before replying.

“I lived near Rockefeller Center for about 3 years, but before that, I was born and raised in Queens.”

“That’s nice, I wish I could have been born and raised here. I lived in Vermont up until I moved here.” Karen replies.

“I’m the opposite, I wish I could go live somewhere quieter. I love the city, but it can all be so much sometimes.”

Matt nods, smirking slightly at how similarly he sometimes felt about the city.

“I agree, sometimes I would like to find somewhere quiet to live, but Hell's Kitchen is my home, I don’t think I would ever leave it.” Matt inputs. “How come you chose to move to Manhattan, Peter?” Matt questions and Peter is reminded suddenly of the way Matt used to question him as his lawyer during the whole Mysterio debacle.

“Well after my aunt passed away I decided to try and find somewhere new to start, Queens just held too many bittersweet memories.”

“I’m sorry to hear that Peter. I also left Vermont after my brother had passed.” Karen responded. Both of them choose to not expand on the darker reasons for their need to leave.

“I didn’t know you lived in Vermont,” Matt said, eyebrows furrowed.

Karen shrugs.

“I don’t really talk about my life before New York much, I could have sworn I would have mentioned it to you though.” Matt shakes his head.

“I guess we’re all learning something about each other tonight,” Peter said, smiling.

“Matt hasn’t really said much about himself,” Karen said, kicking him gently under the table.

“I don’t really know what to say, you’re welcome to ask questions though Peter.”

“Okay, um, how long have you two been dating?” Peter asked, looking between the two. Karen's cheeks reddened, and she looked down, her hair falling from behind her ear and hiding her face. Matt laughed awkwardly.

“We’re just co-workers.” He said, and it was Peter's turn to awkwardly laugh.

“Oh sorry.” He looked down at his watch, noting that he had already been here for almost twenty minutes. He would need time to put his laptop back together before patrolling or else he would be too tired when he got back.

“Thank you so much for the dinner and hospitality, I should really get going but I definitely owe you guys dinner. I’ll treat you two sometime to that Thai place you mentioned earlier, though I’m sure it isn’t as good as what you made Ms. Page.” Peter rambles as he stands up and pushes in his chair.

Karen stands up as well.

“Oh, Peter, you’re too kind.” Peter shook Matt’s hand before walking to the door, Karen following behind. She pulls him in for a hug, surprising Peter. He pauses for a second before hugging her back.

“Don’t be afraid to reach out if you need us okay? Matt is always next door, and here.” She pulls away and reaches into her back pocket, pulling out a sleek, off-white business card. It looks exactly like the one Peter currently has in his wallet from when Matt was his lawyer.

Peter ran his fingers over the braille of the new card, the texture smooth under his fingers.

“The second number for everyone are personal numbers, please reach out to me if needed.” Peter smiled at her, lips wobbling. He found himself blinking rapidly in order to stop the tears that pricked his eyes. He clears his throat.

“Thank you, Ms. Page,” Peter replies, pulling out his wallet to slide the card into for safekeeping. Clumsily, he drops it as it gets caught in the corner of his pocket. It flips open on the floor, scattering cards everywhere. They move across the wood floor as if it were ice.

“Shoot, sorry.” Peter smiles timidly, bending over to pick up the cards. Karen joins him, tucking her skirt between her legs as she crouches. The cards, which are usually hard to pick up from where they lay flat on the floor, are not a struggle to grab for Peter, as he uses his sticky fingers to pick them up with ease.

Karen, despite not having sticky fingers, seems to be picking them up fairly easily as well, using her long, painted, nails to flip them up.

The two stand in sync, helping to put the cards back into Peter’s wallet.

“I hope you didn’t have those organized, they’re pretty out of order now.”

He did, but he could organize them sometime during the late nights when he struggles to find sleep.

“Thank you, again, Ms. Page.” Karen nods and opens the door for Peter.

“No problem Peter.” He begins to exit, but Karen chooses to speak again. “And Peter, you know you can call me Karen, right?”

Peter nods, and fully exits the apartment.

“Thank you, Karen.” He finally replies, emphasizing Karen’s name. Karen smiles at him one last time before closing the door.

She turns around and lets out a little yelp. Matt was standing right behind her, a white card in his hand.

“Jeez Matt, warn a girl next time.”

“He forgot a card,” Matt says, instead of apologizing. Karen furrows her brows and takes the card from Matt. She grows more confused once she sees that it is a Nelson, Murdock, and Page card.

“No, I saw him put this into his -” She stops talking once she really looks at the card.

The most noticeable thing on the card was the small doodles on the front. Tiny stars and swirls were scribbled into the thick cardstock. Matt’s name and contacts were circled, and upon further inspection, Karen noticed that the location of their office was different on this card.

It was the location of their last office.

She frowns and looks up at Matt who simply raises an eyebrow.

“Do you think this is his?” She asks, shoving it into the pocket of her dress skirt. Matt shrugs, moving towards the kitchen.

“I’m too tired to worry about it tonight, all I care about is hopefully getting a good night's sleep.” He looks over his shoulder at Karen and smiles. “Let’s hope your anti-anxiety plan worked.”

~~~~~~

Matt and Karen stand in the kitchen, the lights dim. Karen scrubs at the dishes that had been placed in the sink, handing clean ones over to Matt to dry. He leans against the counter, his hip holding him up.

“I should have Peter over more often if it means you’d come over and make such good meals.” He says, smiling at her. Karen blushes, handing him a slippery, wet plate to dry.

“I’ll make dinner for you whenever you want Matt.”

“I don’t think I could ever make food as good as you do. I am, however, pretty good at making breakfast.” Karen pauses her washing, eyes drifting over to Matt. His suit jacket and tie had come off at some point during the night, and the sleeves of his button-up were rolled up, showing off his muscular forearms. Karen’s eyes drifted up to find that his eyes were hidden behind his glasses.

Karen wipes her hands on her skirt, reaching up and gently grabbing the sides of his glasses, pulling them off of his face. She folds them up and hooks them on the collar of her button-up. The arm of the glasses tucked inside of her shirt is warm against her bare skin.

She averts her gaze back down to the plate she had previously been scrubbing. It was clean and had been clean for a while, but Karen found comfort in having her hands occupied with something as repetitive as washing the dish.

“Are you… are you inviting me to stay the night?” She asked shyly, scrubbing harder at the clean dish. Matt grabs her arm, stopping her scrubbing. She gasps slightly, and he takes the dish to dry it. Karen looks back up at his face and is pleased to be met with his eyes this time. Matt smiles.

“I’m sure I would sleep much better listening to your heart than listening to Peter’s” Matt replies. Karen bites her lip, feeling her cheeks warm.

“And you wouldn’t go out?” She prompts. Matt nods.

“Didn’t you hear, Spider-Man is out for my job.” Karen laughs.

“I thought you guys would work together.” Matt shrugs.

“I’m helping protect him from some guys that are coming after him, but other than that I’ve seen him maybe three times this week.” Karen nods and the two move to Matt’s couch. He grabs two beers from the fridge on the way, twisting the top off of both and handing one to Karen before sitting down next to her. She tucks her legs up under herself, her knees resting gently against Matt’s thighs.

“He seems so lonely,” Karen says quietly.

“Who, Spider-Man?”

“No, Peter.”

Matt nods, sipping his beer. Karen follows, also taking a sip.

“He practically started to cry when I hugged him and gave him our card. I think he misses his aunt more than he lets on.”

“Something wasn’t right when he was talking about her. He was telling the truth about Queens, but there was something in his voice, in his heart, when he said he wanted to find somewhere new after his aunt died.”

“You think he was lying about his aunt?”

Matt shakes his head, taking another sip of his beer.

“He wasn’t really lying about anything, I just don’t think he was telling the full truth.”

Karen takes a deep breath and sighs.

“Could you tell I also wasn’t telling the full truth when I said I left Vermont after my brother died?” Matt smiles sadly at Karen, moving his head closer to hers.

“Yes. Although, truthfully, I almost didn’t catch it, I was mostly listening to Peter’s heart.”

“Are you still?”

Matt shakes his head.

“Just yours. Only yours.”

Karen moves slightly closer as well.

“What’s it saying?”

Matt smirks.

“You know that’s not how it works.”

Karen places her beer down on the coffee table and rests her head on Matt’s boney shoulder.

“There are a lot of full truths that I want to tell you but don’t know how. That’s what it’s saying.” She whispers.

“Why don’t we just start with why you left Vermont?” Matt pushes. Karen nods.

“I killed my brother.” Her lip quivers, expecting Matt to push her away. Instead he shakes his head.

“You’re lying.”

“I was stupid Matt. Really fucking stupid.” She laughs wettly, and Matt can hear the slight changes in her voice as her throat grows thick with emotion.

“I was high. Drunk. I crashed a car with my brother in it. He died because of me… I should have been arrested, been tried for murder, but the sheriff let me go. My dad kicked me out. He won’t even talk to me anymore.” By the time she finishes, her voice is a whisper.

She wipes away a tear on her cheek with her palm. Matt grabs her hand as she lowers it back to her lap, moving it towards his instead, holding onto it firmly. His thumb rubs soothingly over the back of it

“It wasn’t your fault.”

“You don’t know that.”

“I do. It’s what your heart is saying.” Karen smiles, turning to hide her face in Matt’s neck, embarrassed. He almost flinches, her hair tickles his skin, the wetness from her tears soaking into the skin on his neck. His senses are overridden by everying Karen. The way she feels, smells, tastes.

Later on, when they are both lying in his bed, Matt continues to try tuning out the rest of the people in his apartment. He ignores the cat on the lower floor screeching for food, the teenagers rooting through the dumpster outside of his building, and the thwip of Spider-Man’s webs as he flies by.

All he wants to pay attention to is Karen’s heart pumping and her lungs expanding and contracting.

They face each other in bed, and Matt can feel Karen’s eyes on his face. She looks at his own eyes, his nose, briefly his lips, before travelling back up to his eyes.

They had given up on sleeping on separate surfaces after the tenth time Karen had stayed over to make sure Matt wouldn’t bleed out or tear a stitch in his sleep.

For the first time in a week, Matt found himself falling asleep with no problem.