Chapter 2
They try to make conversation with him in the car for a while before eventually taking the hint from his one-word answers that Matt doesn’t want to talk. He honestly never even considered adoption for himself until Father Lantom had spoken to him a couple of weeks ago and had tried his best to persuade Matt to at least give it a go. Father Lantom saw it as an ‘opportunity to start anew’. Matt saw it as an opportunity to get away from the noise of the orphanage.
He loved Hell’s Kitchen, but the orphanage was sometimes too much when he had to listen to children crying across the building during the night. Anyway, he’d promised Father Lantom that he would give it a go. Clint and Laura seemed nice enough but also slightly…weird. He wasn’t sure how to describe it, but both their bodies were constantly alert as if suspecting danger. Both smelt so much different from the city-it was simultaneously refreshing and uncomfortable. Clint also had a faint buzzing constantly coming from his ears due to his hearing aids.
By Matt’s estimation, the drive lasted around 2 hours, but it could have easily been longer as he’d gotten lost in thought for quite a while. So distracted Matty, Stick’s voice echoed in his head. Ignoring it, he stepped out the car as Clint opened the door for him. It smelt so much different to the city, mainly cleaner. What struck Matt most, though was the sound, or lack thereof. Of course, there was still sound, just in comparison the Hall’s Kitchen, it felt as if there was nothing. It was refreshing. Cars were replaced with wildlife and the masses of people were just gone, leaving Clint, Laura and Matt alone for at least a mile surrounding them.
“Do you want me to lead you up to the house?” Laura asked, holding out her arm.
“Okay, thank you,” Matt agreed.
He really didn’t need it, but he also didn’t really want to let these people know that he had weird, enhanced senses after having known them for barely any time at all. In all honesty, Matt didn’t plan on telling them ever since he expected to be back at the orphanage in a couple of weeks. So, Matt let Laura lead him up the path to the house as she described their surroundings.
The main thing Matt realized from Laura’s description of the place was how much of the surroundings was either owned by the Bartons or public land. There was just so much space. Fields and trees stretched beyond his senses, filled with a distinct lack of voices or sirens.
“Okay,” Laura was saying, “we’re at the front door, are you okay without me leading inside?”
“Yes, I’ll be fine.”
It was a very nice house with a large kitchen/diner area, slightly smaller living room downstairs and a room containing what Matt was pretty sure was a washing machine and some other electronics. Stairs led to the next floor with multiple rooms dividing up the space. Even compared to the orphanage, size-wise this house was not small.
Clint and Laura gave him a tour of the downstairs, asking if he enjoyed movies and trying to make other bits of conversation as they went. Apparently, they’d researched where to get movies audio-descriptions. The gesture surprised Matt. Eventually they went upstairs where Matt was shown to his room and was then left alone to “settle himself in”.
At the center of the room was a bed about double the size of what he was used to. Opposite it sat a desk with a simple chair and, next to that, a wardrobe devoid of clothes. He noted that there weren’t any lamps in the room but there was a small bookcase, though it was sadly empty like the wardrobe. Clint had handed him back his backpack before going downstairs so Matt set about unpacking his few belongings. He placed some clothes in the wardrobe and the one book he’d brought on the bookshelf, running his fingers over the braille title as he set it down: To Kill A Mockingbird. He’d had to read it for class but ended up really enjoying it.
After finishing that task, Matt sat on his bed. As usual, the material was uncomfortable, but it wasn’t anything he hadn’t experienced before. Taking a breathe, he let his senses expand across the house.
“-think it’s going?” Laura was asking.
“Honestly? I’m not sure. He’s hard to read but I don’t think it’s going terribly.”
“Yeah, I was picking up on that too. Also, very reassuring Clint, thanks,” her voiced dripped with sarcasm for the last sentence.
“You’re welcome. Aren’t we supposed to be good at reading people?”
“Clearly we’re out of practice. I’ve been retired for years, and you’ve been busy.”
“Still. Maybe Nat would do better than us,” Clint suggests.
At that, Matt stops listening as he was already confused. At least he had more information on what their jobs had been…reading people? He was pretty happy they hadn’t managed to read him though, focusing on Stick’s whole ‘mind controls the body’ shit. Stick wouldn’t be happy with anything else he’d done. Agreeing to live with the Bartons definitely would have come under his ‘no attachments’ rule.
Lost in thought, Matt hadn’t realized someone was approaching until they knocked at his door.
“Hey Matt, we have lunch ready. Just sandwiches if that’s okay,” Clint said.
“Okay,” Matt called back, grabbing his cane that he’d discarded by the door, and walking downstairs with Clint trailing him.
Whilst eating lunch, Matt was told that the plan was to go shopping and get him everything he would need clothes wise or for the new school he had been enrolled in.
That evening, Matt lay on his bed, wardrobe and bookshelf full and unable to hear any sirens for the first night in years. Oddly, this made it harder for him to get any sleep as the quiet became uncomfortable very quickly. Clint and Laura had fallen asleep a little while before, their rhythmic breathing signaling that to him.
Aiming to tire himself out, Matt spent some time doing press ups, crunchies and any other exercises that came to mind in the moment. He’d never stopped training his body since Stick had left despite now being adamant that he wouldn’t be a part of his stupid war. Now it was a force of habit. It also had the added benefits of releasing stress and gaining him muscle. Combat training had been much harder. Fighting others at the orphanage was great at getting out his anger but none of them could fight and practicing alone in his room at night could only help him with techniques. Then again, he didn’t know why he was worried since he wasn’t going to join the war and being a lawyer required very little hand-to-hand combat.
After a while, Matt climbed back into the bed, breathing heavily and attempted, again, to fall asleep.