After his unusual proposition, the cab drive was long and quiet. Nika mulled over the idea of staying with him, the pros and cons, remembering the first, inadvertently shared night there that caused her slight discomfort. They were strangers and had fought on the two different sides of the law, jumbled together by fate and ridiculous circumstances. She´d helped him and in return, he´d helped her but did that justify moving in there? Nika´s thoughts turned in her head. It wasn´t right, still, where else could she go, stripped of any money or opportunity to fall back on? For now, she´d just follow him back to his place and consider further. She´d check out the place once more, maybe talk with Matt some more and then, decide.
Inside his apartment, Nika moved tentatively. Now in broad daylight she took everything in, the minimalistic interior, the brash neon sign by the window, the generous grey on his walls. While he washed the blood off his hands she walked in deeper, now noticing the crumpled blanket on the couch he´d used the night before, a faint smile appearing on her features. “No, they probably won´t,” she agreed, turning to him and wondering if he needed some patching up with those battered hands. “And I will be honest, I got no place to stay unless I can scrape up some cash, somehow… which I wouldn’t know how, since everyone I know either lives by that apartment of mine or on another continent.” She´d burnt all bridges to her former work colleagues as well so in fact, landlady and a few neighbours aside, Nika was alone. “The thing is, we don´t know how long´s that gonna take. Could be days, could be months. You really want me to stay that long? They are a well organised team with spies all across the city. What if, God forbid, they sniffed me out here? Am I supposed to stay inside, all da long?” Nika sighed as her shoulders slouched, then she slowly set into motion to walk over to him, carefully taking one of his hands into hers. “You need any help with that?” It might have been wrong to touch someone without their explicit permission but somehow, what she´d done for him had formed a bond between them. At least that was how Nika felt about it.
Matt looked up and in her general direction, the look on his face dark and unreadable. “Not like you have any other choice,” he pointed out. The longer it would take him to get these guys off the streets of New York, the more dangerous would her life become anywhere. If they came to his place, however, he’d at least save some time looking for them - not that he actually wanted them to know where he lived. “If they have their people all across the city, it shouldn’t matter where you stay. You’re a fair game now.” He shrugged. When he thought he’d rinsed all blood from his hands, he turned the tap off and dried his hands on a dish towel.
He blinked as he felt her approach and cocked his head ever so slightly, curiously waiting for what she was about to do. Nika reached for his hand and took it in hers gently. “Yeah,” he mouth quietly to her question, lowering his empty eyes down on their hands. It wasn’t like he needed her help, but he welcomed it.
With the first aid kid still lying at the couch, they went over to it, and while Nika was looking for antiseptics and cotton pads, Matt sat back on the couch carefully. Now that they were home and save, he could pay little more attention to his injuries, despite Nika’s help of numbing his pain. No need to make it worse than it already was. “The police is probably gonna look for you now,” he mused out loud, concern written all over his face. “Possible that they think you’re in danger.” Matt didn’t flinch when Nika started cleaning his bruised knuckles with the disinfection solution. He hold his hands out for her, not complaining once.
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