pip-pip-piper:
Conviction. He spoke with such conviction when he said it. He may have stumbled over his words before, been keen to talk about silly human things and even shake her hand as if they were in some other century Piper had already lived through but when he spoke to her now- when it most mattered- it was with conviction. That was a leader. That was potential. She looked him over with crafted caution and genuine curiosity. Who was he exactly? Not your typical hunter, holding his hand out to a vampire he knew nothing about. Not even a McReid would have been so careless, or maybe it was kindness. Either struck her, made her feel something she couldn’t quite put a name to.
Piper offered kindness. She offered a hand to hold when lost vampires were running and running and running from death, long before they’d realise they had nothing to fear from it. She pressed her lips together, closing her eyes as if to find some composure. Her part was that lost vampire. New. Formerly human. Scared and alone, looking desperately for help; for a hand to hold. In fact, she didn’t even have to act much, just…remember.
“You sound like you really mean that.” With one last moment of hesitation, she reached out and took his hand. “That it matters, that you want me to trust you. Even that you think I wouldn’t remember your name… Murdock. Matt Murdock,” she even smiled a little then, an unplanned yet genuine slip. Her grip on his hand tightened so slightly. He wanted so badly to help her. “Okay. I’ll- I’ll come with you. I’ll trust you.”
Matt could feel his entire body relax when her hand accepted his and for just a split moment, he offered her a kind smile. It was a cheap offering, in all sense of the word, but he hoped it’d be enough to help her feel comfortable with her decision to trust him. He almost worried that she would remember his name, as the name Murdock was almost as popular as the name McReid. Almost, being the key word there. But as a newer vampire, she probably wouldn’t recognize the name and that’s what he was hoping for right then.
“I do mean it,” he started, taking a moment to let her feel comfortable enough with him before he started leading her towards his go-to haunt. He hated that this was a thing he had to do, hated that he was constantly at war with his own morality as well as his family. How was he supposed to rationalize hurting someone else? Wouldn’t that put his own humanity as risk? And yet, from a young age he had been told that these “monsters” deserved to be put down. He had been told he’d be doing them a favor, ending their lives.
“There’s a studio a couple blocks from here, they’ll recognize me there and we’ll clean you up. Just-” He turned back to look at her, taking note of how much blood was truly visible. Neither of them would want someone asking questions, which meant they would need to hide those wounds before entering the building. “We’ll have to cover you up a bit, hang on.” He pulled her around the corner before letting go of her hand long enough to shrug off his oversized hoodie, offering it up to Piper. “Wear this.”
