Elektra
Elektra followed Matt home from the office.
He knew someone was tailing him, and on multiple occasions he actually pretended to get lost and turned completely the wrong direction, trying to see if he would continue to be followed. Getting sick of walking in circles, Matt ducks into an alleyway behind a bodega.
The heartbeat following him from the rooftop also stops, and Matt tilts his head towards the sound. Now that it’s not muffled by hundred other heartbeats in the street, Matt recognises it instantly.
“Elektra,” Matt calls to the rooftop.
She laughs and drops down beside him. Her arm immediately snakes around Matt’s, harkening back to a time where they were this close.
“Oh Matthew, I have missed you,” Elektra purrs into his ear.
Matt smiles but shakes his head. “What do you want, Elektra? I know you don’t turn up for no reason.”
“Can I not visit an old flame?”
“No,” Matt responds sternly. “If you’re here for Stick, I don’t want to hear it. And I do not care about your great war or whatever it is that you’re doing now.”
Elektra grips his arm tighter, and she whispers into his ear with venom on her lips, “I have nothing to do with Stick now. I am pure of heart, Matthew, or have you forgotten?”
Matt rolls his eyes. “Says the assassin.”
Elektra scoffs, “Pot, kettle, black, Matthew. You have no right to judge my extracurricular activities, not while you’re out wearing that fetish suit of yours and skipping around town.”
“It’s not a…anyway, what are you here for?”
“I want to discuss an investment with you. I’m looking to purchase a large section of land in Hell’s Kitchen, and wanted you to read over the legal documents before I ask my own team to look into it.”
“I’m not a property lawyer, Elektra.”
He can hear the smile on her voice. “Yes, but this was an excuse to see you, Matthew. Now, do you care to take a girl out for a drink?”
He freezes. He hadn’t thought about going out with Elektra, and instead simply wanted to retreat to his cosy apartment, where he could snuggle beneath is silk sheets between Karen and Foggy. But that wasn’t like the Matthew Elektra knew, and it would be suspicious if he didn’t go along with her partying for the evening.
“I have to call Foggy first, we were planning on getting takeout later,” he tells her, already unwinding his arm from hers and pulling his phone from his jacket.
“Honestly, it is an entirely too co-dependent situation,” mutters Elektra to herself, but she steps away to let Matt make his call.
Foggy isn’t happy when he hears that Elektra is back in town, but he agrees that Matt needs to act as normal as possible around her, otherwise it might arouse suspicion. They had all agreed to keep the pregnancy a secret for as long as possible, lest the wrong people (namely Stick or Wilson Fisk) find out about it and use it against him. He tells Foggy that he loves him, and then sets off with Elektra, arm in arm as she guides him to wherever she wants to go.
“Oh, I have missed this, Matthew,” Elektra says, leaning against him as they walk the busy streets. “I’ve missed you.”
He shakes his head. “Are you certain you’ve missed me, or just the idea of me? Because we’re not good together, in case you never noticed.”
She laughs at this. “I wasn’t proposing we rekindle our old flame, Matthew. That ship sailed many a moon ago, I would say about the time you started taking testosterone and growing facial hair. We were never supposed to be together – I couldn’t love the real you.”
He remembers coming out to Elektra all those years ago. How she’d cried in his dormroom and insisted that she could get over it. He knew she couldn’t – she’s a woman that only loves women, and Matt couldn’t keep lying and pretending he was someone she could be with. Of course, it was much later on when he knew that Stick had sent her to seduce him, but looking back now he can see that Elektra and he shared real feelings. They had loved each other, as much as either of them could.
“Ooh, this place looks interesting!” declares Elektra as she stop in front of a bar that smells like marijuana, cigarette smoke, and sweat. She pushes open the door, guiding Matt further into the establishment. She pulls out a stool at the bar for him, and he shrugs off his jacket.
“It’s a little chilly in here, do you mind?” Elektra asks, gesturing towards his jacket. Matt tilts his head in acknowledgement and she wraps herself in it, and Matt is aware he’ll have to wash it multiple times to get her scent out of it. She leans up against the counter, tapping her long nails onto the wood, and waits for service.
“What are you after tonight, darlin’?” the bartender asks, and Matt can practically hear his eyes ogling Elektra’s body.
“Hmm, a gin and tonic for me, and a beer for my companion,” Elektra responds, unzipping what Matt assumes is her purse. He’s not even going to bother offering to pay, considering Elektra is a millionaire, and sits back and waits for his beer. He’s going to take a couple of sips, and then feign feeling unwell to get out of here.
“There you go,” Elektra says, placing the glass in front of him. She wraps her warm fingers around his own and guides it towards the cool glass, keeping up appearances of helping the blind guy find his drink. She places her glass down next to his, and leans over to whisper in his ear, “Watch the drinks while I go to the ladies’ room, will you?”
“I’m probably not going to be very good at watching,” quips Matt, and he hears Elektra let out a chuckle as she struts away.
Matt sighs and rubs his thumb in circles on the glass. The condensation sends a shiver down his spine, and he wonders how long he’ll be able to keep pretending like this isn’t happening. He’s about two months along now, if his math can be trusted, and he’s already feeling the effects of this pregnancy. Most days he wakes up with morning sickness, he’s tired all the time, and he has to pee much more than normal. It’s frankly exhausting.
Matt doesn’t know if he can take seven more months of this.
A couple of minutes later, Matt hears Elektra coming back from the bathroom. He grabs his beer and puts it to his lips, taking the tiniest sips of beer before putting it back on the countertop.
Elektra grabs her purse from where it was unceremoniously dumped under the barstool, and pulls out what sounds like papers. She places them in front of him.
“Um, Elektra, you know I can’t see this,” Matt says, cautiously picking up one of the pages. That’s when he feels the braille, and he smiles at his old companion. “You got your legal documents written up in braille for me?”
“Of course – I’m not going to waste my time reading it to you, Matthew,” replies Elektra as she takes a sip from her glass and leans against the bar instead of taking a seat. “What do you think about it? Does it seem fair to you?”
He frowns and moves his fingers across the letters. “As far as I can see, it looks like a pretty standard contract. But I’m not a property lawyer, so I really have no idea what I’m talking about. If you let me keep them, I can look into it more and research at home.”
“It doesn’t matter,” she replies, collecting the papers from in front of him. “I just wanted your opinion.”
“Of course, you’re going to discuss this with your own lawyers before proceeding?”
She scoffs. “I’m not an idiot, Matthew. We did go to college together, remember?”
“Unfortunately,” Matt responds with a laugh. Unconsciously, he goes to take a swig from his beer, but stops himself at the last second and only takes the smallest sip from it. He wishes he’d been able to order himself a soda water, but he unfortunately did not think to while Elektra was in the bathroom.
“How have you been, anyway, Matthew?” Elektra asks him, her arm sliding down his own. He wants to pull away from her touch, but the familiarity of it allows for him to forget his own situation for a minute. “How are your lovers?”
“Foggy and Karen are fine,” Matt replies with a shrug. “We’re all living together at my place now, and it’s nice. It’s hard work, juggling my jobs and two partners, but we make it work.”
“Do they both know now?”
Matt nods. “Yep. They have done for a while. Of course, they don’t condone what I do, but it’s nice knowing that someone is out there thinking about you.”
“Lovely,” replies Elektra with a sadness tinging her voice.
“And you? Any new girlfriends?”
Elektra chuckles and takes another drink. “My bed is like a carousel. There’s a different woman in it every night, if I wish.”
“But is there anyone you care about?”
She’s silent. Matt probes further, “Not even a girlfriend. A crush? A friend?”
“I don’t need friends, Matthew,” Elektra responds, choosing her words carefully. “I have an incredibly dangerous and lonely job, and all the people I need are in Chaste.”
“Of course, because that sounds healthy,” Matt says dryly.
“Says the Catholic who dresses like the Devil,” replies Elektra with a notable smirk in her voice. “Anyway, it does not matter what is happening in my love life. I am simply far too busy to bother with relationships. After all, the Hand have decided to join teams with Hydra, so I’m rather preoccupied.”
And there it is.
What she wanted this entire time. To talk about Chaste and the Hand, and her goddamn war. To get Matt involved with something he had washed his hands of many years ago. He his hand over and grips her hand in his, she leans close so she can hear him other the thrumming music of the bar, “I want nothing to do with this, Elektra. I am done fighting this war.”
“Well, Matthew, I am not done,” she says, snatching her hand from his. Her other hand remains on his arm, but now it is tighter. So tight it might leave a bruise. “You were raised to be a solider, and you are ignoring your purpose. The Hand and Hydra are dangerous, and they are trying to create super soldiers to raise an army for The Beast.”
“The Beast is a fairy tale.”
“And I was dead, Matthew. I was dead and buried, and they brought me back to life. They want to turn this world into a wasteland for their god, and I am not going to sit back and let it happen.”
It was then that Matt heard a familiar heartbeat outside. He straightens on his chair and strains to hear what’s going on.
“Matt, we’re here,” Clint Barton says, before the woman with him begins moaning about her shoe being broken and insisting on going home. Matt frowns at the overall situation, but then takes a moment to register the secondary heartbeat as Natasha. She’s simply using an accent.
Confused, Matt goes to pull out his phone to see if there was something he has missed, but Elektra lets out a laugh. “Judging from the look on your face, they’re here.”
Fury rips through Matt and he contemplates throttling her right here at the bar. “What the hell, Elektra? How did you get them here?”
Elektra twirls on the spot, gesturing to Matt’s jacket swamping her body as if she’s at a fashion show. “Thanks for the jacket.”
“You called the Avengers?!”
Elektra shakes her head. “I texted as you. Said I was in trouble, and I heard about your new bromance with Clint Barton so assumed he would come running to save you.”
“Elektra, you had no right.”
“I knew you were not going to help me fight the Hand, so I had to call in the big guns,” she replies simply. Matt can hear Natasha and Clint entering the building, and senses that they’re making their way over to them.
When they get close enough, Matt starts, “Clint. Nat. Sorry for the worrying message.”