rory’s hands were held up but they lowered slowly when he tossed the cuffs towards her. rory knelt down carefully to pick them up, turn them in her hands to make sure they were what she’d thought they were - police issued. rory looked up at the young man again, her jaw screwed tight as she watched him draw closer to her - right now he was just standing in her way, and he was affiliated with malcolm merlyn. somehow all those factors adding up together just told her that she couldn’t trust him.
rory held her arm forward as she barreled into him to push him against the wall and out of her way, using the cuffs to encircle his wrist and chain him to the nearest pipe. “you’re why i’m in this mess to begin with.” rory seethed between her teeth once she made sure the cuffs where secure before she finally looked back at him, her lips falling slack immediately when she realized she recognized who it was under the street light. “matt?” rory whispered, her arms falling off him almost immediately
“what…what the hell are doing?” rory breathed out, hurt in her tone beyond her control as she looked back to the cuffs she’d just used to incapacitate him. “how did you get those? how - why are you doing this?” rory pulled her hood down as she shook her head, “your father is malcolm merlyn?”
Matt kept his arms raised as he inched closer, wondering if the girl would trust him. She had every reason not to, considering the situation they were in, but he hoped. He should have expected her move but he was, at heart, still just a kid. When she slammed him into the wall and cuffed him to the pipe he yelped, his body tensing as he tried to force away the urge to slip back into that soldier persona. His father had raised him to never be the flight in a fight or flight situation and though he hated everything his father stood for it was engraved pretty deeply.
He heard her say his name and it was then that he allowed himself to look at her, her face all too familiar. “Rory?” He could feel the wind knock out of him as he looked into the eyes of the nurse he worked with a few times a week. He would consider her a friend, though she probably had people who were much closer, but this... This would ruin everything.
He gaped at her, trying to find the words as he looked back down the alleyway, worried his father would come running at any time. “I- No, he-- Murtaugh. Our last name is Murtaugh. But that is my dad, I--” He shook his head, as if that would change what he was just caught doing. “He expects me to follow in his footsteps, to hunt,” (the word flew off his tongue like poison, his hatred for the term so clear) “people like... well, like you. But, but I don’t want to, I swear. I just want to be a normal college kid.”